{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030733.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030733.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030733.htm","text":"Chapter XI.\u2014Answer to the Objection that \u201cThe Lord Did Not Baptize.\u201d\n\u201cBut behold, \u201csay some, \u201cthe Lord came, and baptized not; for we read, \u2018And yet He used not to baptize, but His disciples!\u2019\u201d 8654 As if, in truth, John had preached that He would baptize with His own hands! Of course, his words are not so to be understood, but as simply spoken after an ordinary manner; just as, for instance, we say, \u201cThe emperor set forth an edict,\u201d or, \u201cThe prefect cudgelled him.\u201d Pray does the emperor in person set forth, or the prefect in person cudgel? One whose ministers do a thing is always said to do it. 8655 So \u201cHe will baptize you\u201d will have to be understood as standing for, \u201cThrough Him,\u201d or \u201cInto Him,\u201d \u201cyou will be baptized.\u201d But let not (the fact) that \u201cHe Himself baptized not\u201d trouble any. For into whom should He baptize? Into repentance? Of what use, then, do you make His forerunner? Into remission of sins, which He used to give by a word? Into Himself, whom by humility He was concealing? Into the Holy Spirit, who had not yet descended from the Father? Into the Church, which His apostles had not yet founded? And thus it was with the selfsame \u201cbaptism of John\u201d that His disciples used to baptize, as ministers, with which John before had baptized as forerunner. Let none think it was with some other, because no other exists, except that of Christ subsequently; which at that time, of course, could not be given by His disciples, inasmuch as the glory of the Lord had not yet been fully attained, 8656 nor the efficacy of the font 8657 established through the passion and the resurrection; because neither can our death see dissolution except by the Lord\u2019s passion, nor our life be restored without His resurrection.\nFor instances of this, compare Matt. 8:5, Luke 7:3, 7, Mark 10:35, Matt. 20:20.\n674:8656\nCf. 1 Pet. i. 11, ad fin.\n674:8657","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part III: Answe...","type":"page"}