Dist. 4, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 1
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/4/q/bon-sent-IV-d4-p2-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the sanctification of adults apart from baptism.*
### Question I. *Whether baptism of the Spirit without baptism of water suffices for salvation.*

Concerning the first one proceeds thus, and it is asked whether baptism of the Spirit [*flaminis*] without baptism of water [*fluminis*] suffices for salvation. And that it does not seems [so]:

1. *First*, by the authority of the Lord in John, third [chapter]: *Unless one be born again* etc.; but no one is thus reborn unless he be baptized with the baptism of water: therefore no one enters into the kingdom of heaven without the baptism of water: therefore baptism of the Spirit, that is, of the Spirit [*flaminis sive Spiritus*], does not suffice.

2. Likewise, this very thing is proved by example, because in Acts, tenth [chapter], it is said that Cornelius and those who were with him first received the Holy Spirit, and afterwards were baptized with the baptism of water: therefore it seems that those baptized with the baptism of the Spirit are bound to the baptism of water: therefore without this there is no salvation.

3. Likewise, if anyone could be saved without the baptism of water, this seems [to be true] most of all of a little child, who ought the sooner, out of God's mercy, to be helped; but a little child who is not reborn by water is damned, as Augustine says in the book *On Faith, to Peter*, and it is had in the text [of the Master]: «Most firmly hold» etc.: therefore no other, however otherwise baptized, can be saved without the baptism of water.

4. Likewise, if someone can be saved otherwise than through the baptism of water, then the baptism of water is not the Sacrament of necessity: therefore those who refuse to be baptized do not sin; but this is manifestly false: therefore without the baptism of water there is no salvation: therefore no other suffices without this.

**On the contrary:**
1. John, eleventh [chapter]: *Everyone who lives and believes in me shall not die forever*; but the just believe and are faithful before they are baptized: therefore if they die in such faith, they do not die forever.

2. Likewise, Ambrose says, and it is had in the text: «He whom I was about to regenerate did not lose the grace which he sought»: therefore he who had died not regenerated was saved without the baptism of water: therefore the baptism of penance, without that [of water], gives salvation.

3. Likewise, sanctifying grace [*gratia gratum faciens*] is a disposition sufficient for salvation; but the disposition for grace is to return to God with the whole heart and to withdraw from error, and all this can be through God's grace without the baptism of water [*fluminis*]: therefore someone can be saved by the baptism of the Holy Spirit alone.

4. Likewise, «that on account of which a thing [is such], that thing [is so] more»; but the baptism of water, that is, of water, does not sanctify except through the Spirit: therefore the Spirit sanctifies more and makes [one] worthy of eternal life. If therefore someone has the baptism of the Spirit, he has sanctification; and he who has this has what suffices for salvation: therefore etc. *If you say* that no one can have the baptism of the Spirit unless he be first baptized with the baptism of water; it is shown to be false: first, because «God obliges no one to the impossible»; and again, He denies Himself to none who seek Him: if therefore someone, who cannot be baptized, turns to God, God turns to him. But this is only through the conferral of the Holy Spirit, and this is to be baptized with the baptism of the Spirit: therefore that [baptism] can be had without the other.

> **Conclusion.** The baptisms of water and of the Spirit are necessary, the former only by the necessity of precept; but when impossibility impedes, the baptism of the Spirit suffices.

**I respond:** It must be said that the baptism of the Spirit and the baptism of water are each necessary for salvation. But the first is necessary, not because it is under precept, but because without it no one is freed from sin. And since we are all born sinners, and no one can be saved unless he be freed from sin: therefore no one, neither small nor great, can be saved without the baptism of the Spirit. — But the baptism of water, that is, of water, is necessary because God instituted it and because He instituted it *under precept*; and since the things which are prescribed are necessary for salvation, therefore such a baptism is necessary for salvation. — But since «God obliges no one to the impossible by His precept», as Jerome says; and again, that which one cannot do, if he wills to do it, is reckoned to him as done, as the Gloss says on that [verse] of the Psalm: *For in your heart you work iniquities* etc.: «What you cannot do, and will [to do], God reckons as done»: therefore the baptism of water is not necessary in such a way that, if the will be present and the possibility be lacking, someone is not saved without it.

It must therefore be granted that the baptism of the Spirit without the baptism of water suffices, provided nonetheless that the man have the will and be impeded, so that before death he does not receive [it], necessity impeding, as the last arguments show. It must nonetheless be granted that no one can be saved without this, if he be able and neglect to be baptized. And this is what Augustine says, that «one can be saved without having received the Sacrament of baptism, but he cannot [be saved] if the Sacrament be contemned». But he contemns [it] when he can be baptized, and place and time offer themselves, and he neglects [it]; and then also he is deprived of the baptism of the Spirit, because he falls from grace.

**To the arguments for the affirmative part:**

*To 1, 2.* To that which is objected concerning the Lord's mandate, and to that concerning Cornelius, the response is already clear: because each is understood of him who has the opportunity and is not impeded by necessity. For that Cornelius had place and time, and the Lord's *affirmative* mandate obliged him who was able.

*To 3.* To that which is objected concerning the little child, that then most of all an unbaptized little child could be saved; it must be said that the *little child*, if he had the baptism of the Spirit without the baptism of water, would never be damned. That [a child] therefore is damned, this is because, deprived of the baptism of water, he lacks the grace of the Holy Spirit; for otherwise he cannot be disposed to grace, as far as concerns common law, unless God act by a special privilege, as in those sanctified in the womb. — But an *adult*, by the common opinion, can be disposed to grace through faith and sorrow for sins, according to that [word] of Ezekiel: *In whatever hour the sinner shall groan, he shall live in life* etc. Hence the case is not the same, because for each one his own faith avails more than another's; and so for an adult his own will [avails more] than for a little child another's will. Nor is the little child damned on account of the transgression of a precept, but on account of the fault of original [sin], which remains undeleted.

*To 4.* What is objected last is already solved, because it is called the Sacrament of necessity, not because without it a man cannot be saved, but because he is bound to it, if he is able, and this being neglected, he cannot be saved.