Chapter 14.—16. Accordingly we find the apostles using the expressions, "My glorying,"1502
though it was certainly in the
Lord; and "Mine
office,"
1503
and "My
knowledge,"
1504
and "My
gospel,"
1505
although it was confessedly bestowed and given by the
Lord; but no one of them ever once said, "My
baptism." For neither is the glorying of all of them equal, nor do they all
minister with equal powers, nor are they all endowed with equal
knowledge, and in
preaching the
gospel one works more forcibly than another, and so one may be said to be more
learned than another in the
doctrine of
salvation itself; but one cannot be said to be more or less
baptized than another,
whether he be
baptized by a greater or a less worthy
minister. So when "the works of the
flesh are manifest, which are these,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousnness,
idolatry, witchcraft,
hatred, variance, emulations,
strife,
seditions,
heresies, envyings,
drunkenness,
revellings, and such like;"
1506
if it be
strange that it should be said, "Men were
baptized after John, and are not
baptized after
heretics," why is it not equally
strange that it should be said, "Men were
baptized after John, and are not
baptized after the envious," seeing that Cyprian himself bears witness in his
epistle concerning
envy and
malignity that the covetous are of the party of the
devil, and Cyprian himself makes it manifest from the words of the
Apostle Paul, as we have shown above, that in
the time of the
apostles themselves there were envious persons in the Church of Christ among the very preachers of the name of Christ?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
