Again: “It is written: ‘The oil of the sinner shall not anoint my head’: hence it follows it is not the will of God, that an open sinner shall baptize.”
Again: “In view of this passage, can anything more absurd be said, than that one polluted person should purify another? that one impure person should wash another? that one unclean person should cleanse another? or that a blasphemer should make any one innocent?”
Again: “You, our gainsayers, do not distinguish between a believer and an unbeliever.”
Again: “If it were wrong [what we confess], and baptism may not be annulled [or re-administered], no matter who has administered it, then the apostles would not have baptized those who had been baptized by John; but the contrary is seen,” Acts 19:5.
Again: “In Acts 2:38, Peter commands every Jew to be baptized upon (or in) the name of Christ, though their forefathers had been baptized in the Red Sea (1 Cor. 10:2); hence, the previous baptism (that is, the one which has not been administered rightly), may justly be annulled or changed.”
These are the words, or, at least, the meaning, of Cresconius and his companions, as described by Augustine, and quoted in the History of Holy Baptism; from which it may be seen that also at that time but one baptism was recognized, which must be administered in the true church, by blameless teachers, and upon true faith, as stated elsewhere. Leaving this, we proceed to others, who at that time, and afterwards, confessed the same faith, or, at least, as far as we know, did not oppose it.
A. D. 429.—It is recorded that at this time there flourished Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, who, writing, among other things, on baptism, has left some sound testimony concerning it.
In Bapt. Hist., page 443, the Centuriatores Magdeburgenses have made some extracts from Cyril of Alexandria, page 613, where they say that he taught as follows, book 6, on John 14: “Through the water of the flood, the sins of the whole world were reconciled (or brought to an end), and those who were concealed in the ark, were preserved through the water (of the flood). This was a type of baptism, by which the impurity of all sin is put off, and the old life taken away.”
Again: “A catechumen is anointed (that is, instructed with the word of God), that he may be taught; for the Greek word catechumenos means, in Latin, one that is being instructed; and he is baptized, that he may know the true light, and receive the remission of all sins; therefore, the virtue or significance of baptism ought not to be esteemed lightly, since it dispels the darkness of the soul, and imparts the light of heaven.”
Page 463, Vicecomes, lib. 2, cap. 24, Cyril of Alexandria (lib. 7, Contra Julianum) writes: “When we have put off the darkness of our mind, repelled the legions of Satan, and wisely cast off all their pomp and service, we confess the faith in God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and are baptized thereupon.”