Annotation XI

”John the Baptist came, preaching and saying: Do penance,” etc. — Matthew 3:1–2

Whether John's baptism conferred grace.

John Calvin, in chapter 17 of his Institutes, accuses Chrysostom — [in] homily 10 on Matthew, explaining these words — because, treating of John’s baptism, he affirmed that it did not confer the remission of sins, against the authority of Luke, who writes that John preached a baptism of penance for the remission of sins. But it is truly strange why this rash man does not [likewise] charge with the same crime also Paul the Apostle, and John the Baptist himself, who plainly preached the very same things that Chrysostom taught from their opinion and from the Catholic Church’s sanctions. For Paul, when at Ephesus he ordered those to be rebaptized who had received John’s baptism, showed that that washing had not brought the grace of the Holy Spirit, but had been preparatory to obtaining the grace to be obtained in the baptism of Christ. And on that account, meeting those who thought John’s baptism, once received, sufficed for them, he said: “In what, then, were you baptized?” John baptized the people with a baptism of penance, saying [they should believe] “in him who was to come” — as if he had said: John’s baptism was nothing but a certain preparation, leading the penitent to the baptism of Christ; and therefore you must be baptized again in the name of Christ. And the Baptist himself, recognizing this, cried out: “I indeed baptize in water unto penance; but he who is to come after me is mightier than I: he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire” — that is, I baptize not with a life-giving spirit that affords health and remission of sins, but in water; namely, that by this symbol of washing I may admonish you that, having taken the road of penance, you may hasten to the baptism of Christ, who — cleansing you by the water of his grace and purifying you by the fire of his Spirit — will carry you up to eternal happiness. Therefore, just as it is impious to think that Paul and John disagree with Luke’s judgment, so it is of the utmost impudence to affirm that Chrysostom opposes the same Evangelist — [Chrysostom] who, in that very passage which Calvin condemns, showing in what sense Luke declared that John preached a baptism of penance for the remission of sins, says that this is to be understood not of a present remission of crimes granted in John’s baptism, but of a future forgiveness of offenses to be obtained in the baptism of Christ. By which words Chrysostom plainly showed that neither does Luke disagree with Paul and John, nor does he himself (as Calvin wickedly lies) contend with Luke, but thinks and teaches things consonant with both.