convert, and enduing the convert of Baptism with strength for instant martyrdom. God can vindicate His ordinances, by making them all-powerful either to save or to destroy. But when there is no such signal end to be attained, one would fear that they would be pernicious to the profane recipient. St. Augustine[1] argues thus: "What! although the Lord himself say of His body and blood, the only sacrifice for our salvation, 'unless a man eat My flesh and drink My blood, he hath no life in him,' doth not the same Apostle teach that this also becomes hurtful to those who abuse it, for he says, 'Whosoever eateth the bread and drinketh the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.' See then Divine and Holy things are pernicious to those who abuse them; why not then Baptism?" And again[2]: "The Church bore Simon Magus by Baptism, to whom however it was said, that he had no part in the inheritance of Christ. Was Baptism, was the Gospel, were the Sacraments, wanting to him? But since love was wanting, he was born in vain, and perhaps it had been better for him not to have been born:" and[3] "God sanctifies His Sacrament, so that it may avail to a man who should be truly converted to Him whether before Baptism, or while being baptized, or afterwards; as unless he were converted it would avail to his destruction:" and again he appeals to the Donatists[4]: "Ye yourselves have virtually pronounced your judgment that Baptism depends not on their merits, by whom, nor upon theirs, to whom, it is administered, but upon its own holiness and verity, for His sake by whom it was instituted, to the destruction of those who use it amiss, to salvation to those who use it rightly."
One portion, however, of the ancient Church (the African) seems to have held decisively, not only that this sin of receiving Baptism unworthily would be forgiven upon repentance, but that it did not hinder repentance. St. Augustine namely uses this case[5] as an argument against the Donatists, why the Church did not re-baptize those who sought to be restored to her out of a
