Dist. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/2/q/bon-sent-IV-d2-littera
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### DISTINCTION II.

### Chap. I. *On the Sacraments of the new law.*

Let us now come to the Sacraments of the new law, which are baptism, confirmation, the bread of blessing, that is, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, order, marriage; of which some afford a remedy against sin and confer helping grace, as baptism; others are for a remedy only, as marriage; others sustain us with grace and virtue, as the eucharist and order.

But if it is asked why these Sacraments were not instituted soon after the fall of man, since in them there is justice and salvation; we say that the Sacraments of grace were not to be given before the coming of Christ, who brought grace, and which obtained their power from his death and passion. But Christ did not will to come before man was convicted, by the natural and the written law, that neither could help.

Nevertheless marriage was instituted before sin, «not indeed for the sake of a remedy, but unto a Sacrament and unto a duty»; but after sin it was for a remedy against the corruption of carnal concupiscence; concerning which we shall treat in its proper place.

### Chap. II. *On baptism.*

But now let us look at the Sacrament of baptism, «which is the first among the Sacraments of the new grace. John foretold the baptism of Christ by his own baptism, who is recorded to have baptized first, but in water, not in the Spirit, as he himself says: *I baptize you in water unto penance.* For he washed bodies only, but did not cleanse from sins».

### Chap. III. *On the difference between the baptism of John and of Christ.*

The baptism of John was unto penance, not unto remission; but the baptism of Christ unto remission; because John, baptizing men, called them to penance, and taught those whom he baptized to repent, according to that: *They came to John at the Jordan, confessing their sins*. But in the baptism of John there was not given the remission of sins, which was given in the baptism of Christ.

### Chap. IV. *What usefulness the baptism of John had.*

«For what then was the baptism of John useful? Because by the practice of baptizing it prepared men for the baptism of Christ». — But it is asked why it was called the baptism of John, as the Truth says: *The baptism of John, whence is it?* Because there the working of John was visible only, of one washing outwardly, not the invisible grace of God working inwardly. Yet that working of John also was from God, and that baptism was from God, not from man; but it was called man's, because nothing was done there which man did not do.

### Chap. V. *Whether that baptism was a Sacrament.*

But if it is asked whether it was a Sacrament; it can well enough be granted in that sense in which the legal signs are called Sacraments. For the baptism of John signified a sacred thing, namely the baptism of Christ, which is not only of penance, but also of the remission of sins.

### Chap. VI. *On the form of the baptism of John.*

Here it must be considered whether those baptized by John were baptized again with the baptism of Christ, and what form of words John used. Those who were baptized by John, not knowing that there is a Holy Spirit, and placing their hope in his baptism, were afterwards baptized with the baptism of Christ. — Now the baptism of John was handed down in the name of him who was to come. Hence Jerome on Joel: «He who says that he believes in Christ, and does not believe in the Holy Spirit, has not yet clear eyes. Whence those baptized by John in the name of him who was to come, that is, of the Lord Jesus, because they said: *But we have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Spirit,* were baptized again, nay rather they received true baptism». But those who did not place their hope in the baptism of John, and believed both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit

believed — were not baptized afterwards, but received the Holy Spirit by the imposition of hands made over them by the Apostles. But others, who did not so believe, were baptized with the baptism of Christ, as was said before. Hence Jerome: «Those who knew not the Holy Spirit, when they received baptism from John, were baptized again», lest anyone of the Jews or the Gentiles should think that water without the Holy Spirit could suffice for salvation. On this also Ambrose in the first book *On the Holy Spirit*: «Some denied that they knew the Holy Spirit, when they said they had been baptized with John's baptism, who baptized in the name of the coming Jesus, not in his own. These therefore, because they had been baptized neither in the name of Christ nor with faith in the Holy Spirit, could not receive the Sacrament of baptism; they were baptized therefore in the name of Christ, nor was baptism repeated in them, but renewed».

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