15. But if any one is moved by this, that some of those who are baptized in sickness are still tempted by unclean spirits, let him know that the obstinate wickedness of the devil prevails even up to the saving water, but that in baptism it loses all the poison of his wickedness. An instance of this we see in the king Pharaoh, who, having struggled long, and delayed in his perfidy, could resist and prevail until he came to the water; but when he had come thither, he was both conquered and destroyed. And that that sea was a sacrament of baptism, the blessed Apostle Paul declares, saying, "Brethren, I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea;" and he added, saying, "Now all these things were our examples." [3000] And this also is done in the present day, in that the devil is scourged, and burned, and tortured by exorcists, by the human voice, and by divine power; [3001] and although he often says that he is going out, and will leave the men of God, yet in that which he says he deceives, and puts in practice what was before done by Pharaoh with the same obstinate and fraudulent deceit. When, however, they come to the water of salvation and to the sanctification of baptism, we ought to know and to trust that there the devil is beaten down, and the man, dedicated to God, is set free by the divine mercy. For as scorpions and serpents, which prevail on the dry ground, when cast into water, cannot prevail nor retain their venom; so also the wicked spirits, which are called scorpions and serpents, and yet are trodden under foot by us, by the power given by the Lord, cannot remain any longer in the body of a man in whom, baptized and sanctified, the Holy Spirit is beginning to dwell.
16. This, finally, in very fact also we experience, that those who are baptized by urgent necessity in sickness, and obtain grace, are free from the unclean spirit wherewith they were previously moved, and live in the Church in praise and honour, and day by day make more and more advance in the increase of heavenly grace by the growth of their faith. And, on the other hand, some of those who are baptized in health, if subsequently they begin to sin, are shaken by the return of the unclean spirit, so that it is manifest that the devil is driven out in baptism by the faith of the believer, and returns if the faith afterwards shall fail. Unless, indeed, it seems just to some, that they who, outside the Church among adversaries and antichrists, are polluted with profane water, should be judged to be baptized; while they who are baptized in the Church are thought to have attained less of divine mercy and grace; and so great consideration be had for heretics, that they who come from heresy are not interrogated whether they are washed or sprinkled, whether they be clinics or peripatetics; but among us the sound truth of faith is disparaged, and in ecclesiastical baptism its majesty and sanctity suffer derogation. [3002]
17. I have replied, dearest son, to your letter, so far as my poor ability prevailed; and I have shown, as far as I could, what I think; prescribing to no one, so as to prevent any prelate from determining what he thinks right, as he shall give an account of his own doings to the Lord, according to what the blessed Apostle Paul in his Epistle to the Romans writes and says: "Every one of us shall give account for himself: let us not therefore judge one another." [3003] I bid you, dearest son, ever heartily farewell.
[2967] Oxford ed.: Ep. lxix. a.d. 255.
[2968] Luke xi. 23. [Bacon wished to see this reconciled with that other text Luke ix. 50.]
[2969] 1 John ii. 18, 19.
[2970] Matt. xviii. 17.
[2971] Cant. vi. 9.
[2972] Cant. iv. 12.
[2973] 1 Pet. iii. 20, 21.
[2974] Eph. v. 25, 26.
[2975] [A dilemma which should be borne in mind in studying the subsequent history of the Roman See and its rival popes.]
[2976] Ex. xii. 46.
[2977] Josh. ii. 18, 19.
[2978] John x. 30.
[2979] "Grex."
[2980] John x. 16.
[2981] Ps. lxviii. 6. [Vulgate and Anglican Psalter.]
[2982] [See p. 362, supra, and Augus., tom. v. p. 1246, ed. Migne.]
[2983] [This hinges unity for the individual, according to Cyprian; the individual must be in communion with his lawful bishop, and the bishop with the universal episcopate. It never enters his head that any one See is the test of unity. Vol. i. 415 and 460.]
[2984] 2 Kings xvii. 20, 21.
[2985] Matt. x. 5.
[2986] Num. xvii. 5 [and Jude 11.]
[2987] [What would Cyprian have said to Boniface III., a.d. 607, and to Nicholas, a.d. 858? The former attempted to set up a universal throne: the latter founded the papacy on the forged Decretals.]
[2988] Num. xvi. 26.
[2989] Hos. ix. 4.
[2990] "Within the very barriers of the Church;" v. l.
[2991] John xx. 21-23.
[2992] [Here comes into view the question of clinic baptism and of the exceptional mode of sprinkling or affusion. On which let the extreme modesty of our author be a check to me. Elucidation XX.]
[2993] Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26.
[2994] Num. xix. 8, 12, 13.
[2995] Num. viii. 5-7.
[2996] Num. xix. 9.
[2997] The Oxford translator has given this name as "Socrates" here, but, as it appears, by an oversight only; for the original text has "Soranus," who is described as "of Ephesus, under Trajan and Adrian, a well-instructed author in methodical medicine," just as the translator describes Socrates. [Elucidation XX.]
[2998] The exact meaning of this sentence is very doubtful.
[2999] [We may think this fanciful in argument: but this absorption of all Scripture, by primitive believers, into the analogy of faith, is not to be despised. See St. Paul's example, Gal. iv. 21.]
[3000] 1 Cor. x. 1, 2, 6.
[3001] [Acts xvi. 16 and xix. 15. We must not overlook such Scriptures in judging the exorcisms of the primitive Church.]
[3002] [Clinics, nevertheless, were treated by canonical law as less fit for Holy Orders. See Canon XII., Neo-Cæsarea. Thomassin.]
[3003] Rom. xiv. 12, 13.