Annotation XII

”I indeed baptize you in water, but he shall baptize you in the Spirit.” — Matthew 3:11

Whether the Holy Spirit is conferred in baptism.

The author of the Opus imperfectum, homily 3 — enumerating four kinds of baptism (that is, of the Word, of Water, of the Spirit, and of Temptation [trial/martyrdom]) — asserts that in the baptism of water

past sins are washed away and remitted to the penitent, but that their soul is neither sanctified nor receives the Holy Spirit. His words run thus: “The baptism of water avails, because it does wash away the sins which have already gone forth into act — and this, if [the man] has repented; but it does not sanctify the soul, nor does it forestall the concupiscences of the heart or evil thoughts, nor repel them, nor even restrain the carnal concupiscences. Whoever, then, has not been so baptized as [that one should reckon] him to receive the Holy Spirit, is indeed baptized in body, and his sins are pardoned, but in soul he is [still] a catechumen. For thus it is written: ‘Because whoever has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his’ — on account of which his flesh will afterward sprout worse sins for him, since he has not in himself the Holy Spirit to preserve him, but the house of his body is empty. Therefore that [unclean] spirit, finding the house empty and swept clean of the doctrines of faith (as if with brooms), enters and dwells there sevenfold.” This [is from] the fourth homily; concerning which the fifth homily too, not far from its beginning, makes mention.