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As [the heretic Novatian] seemed about to die, he received baptism in the bed where he lay, by pouring. . . .

Letter to Fabius of Antioch 6:43 [A.D. 251]

[l]t behooves those to be baptized . . . so that they are prepared, in the lawful and true and only baptism of the holy Church, by divine regeneration, for the kingdom of God . . . because it is written "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God".

Epistles 72 [73]: 21 [A.D. 252]

As to what pertains to the case of infants: You [Fidus] said that they ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth, that the old law of circumcision must be taken into consideration, and that you did not think that one should be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day after his birth. In our council it seemed to us far otherwise. No one agreed to the course which you thought should be taken. Rather, we all judge that the mercy and grace of God ought to be denied to no man born".

Letters 64:2 [A.D. 253]

In the saving sacraments, when necessity compels and when God bestows his pardon, divine benefits are bestowed fully upon believers, nor ought anyone be disturbed because the sick are poured upon or sprinkled when they receive the Lord's grace".

Letter to a Certain Magnus 69(76):12 [A.D. 254]

"When he (Constantine) was persuaded that the end of his life was near, he considered that it was now time for the cleansing away of whatsoever sins he had committed; being confident, that all whatsoever it had happened to him, as a mortal man, to transgress in, would be purged away from his soul by the power of the ineffable words, and the saving laver."

De Vita Constant. l. iv. c. 61.
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"He hath brought me up, on the water of rest. {Psalm 22) When the whole burden of sins has been laid aside by means of the laver of regeneration, and of the renewal of the Holy Ghost, one may say, "He hath brought me up on the water of rest." For that is truly the water of rest, by means of which one has cast aside the heavy and laborious load of iniquities which weighs upon the soul, and has purged away every spot of filth and stain, and undone the complicated fetters; and, filled with joy at all this, he exclaims, "Thou hast brought me up, on the water of refreshment" (Psalm 22:2)

Comm. in Ps. xxii. t. i. p. 87, Nov. Collect.
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"He that says, when I am dying, I will be baptized, lest I may sin, and defile my baptism, such a one knows not God, and is forgetful of His nature.

Delay not to be converted to the Lord, for thou doesn't know what the next day will bring forth. But baptize your little children, and nourish them in the discipline and correction of God; for He says, "Let the little children come unto me, and forbid them not."

L. vi. c. xv.
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Explaining Isaiah 1:16,18:

16 Wash yourselves, be clean, take away the evil of your devices from my eyes: cease to do perversely, . . . 18 And then come, and accuse me, saith the Lord: if your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made as white as snow: and if they be red as crimson, they shall be white as wool.

"How shall they be cleansed, unless they be washed in the waters of the laver of baptism, and receive the body and blood of Christ? Blood is expiated with blood; the body is cleansed by the body; and sins are washed away by water."

Serm. iv. De Orat.; Galland. t. v. p. xxxii.
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"Grieve not the Holy Spirit, wherein ye were baptized in the day of expiation." (Ephesians 4); in that in baptism we receive the Holy Spirit; for at once, when the priests invoke the Spirit, He opens the heavens, and descends, and is borne upon the waters; and they who are baptized are clothed with the Spirit. For from human generation the Spirit is far aloof; but when men come to the generation by water, then do they receive the Spirit. In the first generation there is begotten and established within man a natural spirit, and hence mortality; but in the second generation of baptism, men receive the Holy Spirit from the divinity itself, and there is then no mortality: for when man dies, he is buried together with what he received from nature, and all feeling is taken from him, but the heavenly Spirit which he has received departs to its origin, even Christ."

Serm. vi. De Devotis, p. xlix. 1.
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4 For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost.

"The words of the Epistle to the Hebrews (6:4) do not exclude sinners from repentance, but demonstrate that there is but one, and no second, baptism in the Catholic Church. . . . Neither does he say, "It is impossible to repent", but, "It is impossible for us to be renewed by means of penitence," which is a very different thing. For he who repents ceases indeed from sinning, but he still has on him the scars of his wounds; whereas he who is baptized, puts off the old man, being born again by the grace of the Spirit."

Ep. iv. ad Serap. n. 13, t. i. part ii. p. 563.
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"He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 3:2) This signifies that He will cleanse you; seeing that the baptism of John cannot do this; but this, the baptism of Christ can, who also [through His priesthood] has power to remit sins."

Comm. in Matthew t. ii. p. 27, Nova Collect. Patr. Graec.
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"I know that the multitude of His mercies surpasses the multitude of my transgressions. I know that He, when amongst us, showed mercy to all; and I confess that He has vouchsafed, in baptism, remission of sins; for I also have partaken of this grace; but I still stand in need of a cure for sins after baptism. But He that raised the dead is not without power to heal me. I have become blind, but He cured one that was born blind. ... I have been put out as a leper, but if He wish I shall be made clean. I know that I have sinned after knowledge, but I have holy David interceding for me."

T. i. Gr.-Lat. p. 137; Reprehensio sui ipsius.
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"Then, ye beloved of Christ, is examined each one's seal of Christianity, which he received in the holy and Catholic Church by means of baptism."

T. ii. Gr. De Char, et Eleemos. p. 254.
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"But if He (Christ) alone conquered, what conferred He on others? Hear briefly. The sin of Adam had passed unto the whole race, "By one man, says the Apostle, sin entered, and by sin death, and so {death) passed upon all men." {Romans 5) Therefore, the justice of Christ also must needs pass unto the (human) race. . . . Christ begets in the Church by means of His priests, as says the same Apostle, "In Christ have I begotten you." (1 Corinthians 4) . . . These things cannot be otherwise fulfilled than by the sacrament of the laver, and of the chrism, and of the bishop. For by the laver sins are cleansed away; by the chrism the Holy Spirit is poured upon us; but both these we obtain at the hand and mouth of the bishop; and thus the whole man is born again and is renewed in Christ."

Serm. de Baptism, n. 5, 6, Galland, t. vii. pp. 274-275.
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"When, therefore, we are renewed in the laver of baptism through the power of the word, we are freed from the sins of our origin . . . and putting off the old man with his sins and faithlessness, and renewed by the Spirit in soul and body, we must hate the habits of an inborn and long-formed conduct."

Comm. in Matt. c. x. n, 24, t. i. p. 719.
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"Haste ye, brethren, who are about to be washed. The living water, tempered by the Holy Spirit, and the pleasant fire, with soothing murmur, now invites you. Already does the girded bather await you. . . you will be plunged naked into the fountain, but soon rise thence clothed in an ethereal robe, and in your white garment — that which those who defile, shall not possess the heavenly kingdom.

L. ii. Trac. 35, Invit. 6, ad Font.; Galland, t. i. p. 149.
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"Let no one then suppose that baptism is only the grace of the remission of sins, and also that of adoption, such as John's baptism, which produced the remission of sins only; but we know full well, that as it purges our sins, and conveys the grace of the Holy Spirit, so also it is an antitype (counterpart) of Christ's sufferings."

Catech. Mystag. 2, n. 6, p. 312; Alib. Catech. 20.
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"Baptism (illumination) is the soul's brightness; life's amendment; the questioning of the soul towards God. Baptism is our weakness' aid; the laying aside of the flesh; the attainment of the spirit; the participation of the word; the rectification of the creature; sin's deluge; the communication of light; the dispersion of darkness. Baptism is a chariot (to bear us) to God; a pilgrimage with Christ; faith's support; the mind's perfection; the key to Heaven's kingdom; life's change; freedom from bondage; the unloosing of chains; the transformation of our substance into a better [one]. Baptism, -- but what need of further enumeration? -- is of God's gifts the fairest and most excellent."

T. i. Or. xl. p. 638.
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"Hast thou a child? Let not evil have an opportunity. Let the child be sanctified from its infancy; let it be consecrated to the spirit from its earliest days. Thou fearest the seal on account of the weakness of nature; oh mother of mean spirit and of little faith. Ann, before Samuel was born, promised him to God, and, when born, instantly consecrated him
to Him."

T. i. Orat. xl. p. 648.
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"Baptism is to the captive the price of his liberty; of debts the remission; the death of sin, the regeneration of the soul; a robe of light; a seal which cannot be broken; a chariot for Heaven ; the procurer of a kingdom; the gift of adoption as sons."

T. ii. P. i. Hom, in Sonet. Bapt. n. 5, p. 164.
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"Under the old law was the circumcision of the flesh in use until that great circumcision, — baptism, which removes sins from us, and seals us in the name of God."

Adv. Hæres. t. i. Lib. i. (Hæres. 5), p. 19.
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"And as we proclaim that the sacred reverence due to Easter (as the time for public baptism) is no way to be trenched upon, so is it our wish, that this help be granted, with all possible speed, in the case of infants, who are too young to speak, and also of those who are in some urgent need of the sacred waters of baptism: lest it tend to the ruin of our own souls, if from our refusing the saving font to those that seek it, any of them depart this life and lose the kingdom and (eternal) life. . . . Let it suffice that faults have been committed in this matter; and now let the above-named rule be observed by all priests, who wish not to be rent from that solid Apostolic rock, upon which Christ constituted the universal Church."

Galland. t. vii. Ep. i. ad Himer, n. 3, p. 534.
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"Baptism is the cleansing away of sins; the remission of transgressions; the cause of renovation and regeneration."

T. iii. In Baptism. Christi, p. 368.
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"And should any one, again doubting and debating, raise difficulties, immediately ask me, how water regenerates, and as to the mystic initiation effected by it, I shall say to him with just reason: Show me the way in which we are born according to the flesh, and I will explain to thee the power of that second birth which is according to the spirit."

T. iii. In Baptism. Christi, p. 371.
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The Church was redeemed at the price of Christ's blood. Jew or Greek, it makes no difference; but if he has believed, he must circumcise himself from his sins [in baptism (Colossians 2:11-12)] so that he can be saved . . . for no one ascends into the kingdom of Heaven except through the sacrament of baptism.... "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God".

On Abraham 2:11:79-84 [A.D. 387]

"It is water in which the flesh is dipped, that every carnal sin may be washed away. Every crime is buried there.""

T. ii. De Mysteriis, c. iii. n. ii. p. 328.
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"Tell me why infants are baptized? That their sins may be forgiven them in baptism."

T. ii. Contr. Pelag. n. 18, col. 789.
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"Though one have all the wickedness to be found in men, he comes forth from being plunged into that pool of waters, from the divine stream, purer than the sun's rays. . . . Yea, our discourse has proved even more than this, viz., that such a one has become not merely pure, but holy and just; for the Apostle does not merely say: "Ye are washed", but also, "ye are sanctified,, and ye are justified". What more wonderful than this, that, without toil or effort, or good works, righteousness should be given birth to? . . . You will ask, "Wherefore is it that if the laver remit all our sins, it is not called the laver of purification, but the laver of regeneration?" For this reason, that it does not simply remit our sins, nor simply take away our transgressions, but this it does so as if we were born again,"

T. i. Catech. i. ad lUumin. n. 3, p. 270.
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"Whosoever receives baptism, receives it unto the destruction of sin. For we are buried with Him, as the Apostle says, unto death, that He may destroy the body of death."

Orat. xxv. n. 3, Galland. t. vii. p. 308.
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