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Sermons for the Different Sundays, and Principal Festivals of the Year, Selected and Arranged by J. Lingard (v. 1)
Sermons for the Different Sundays and Principal Festivals of the Year Selected and Arranged by J Lingard - v. 1 Author:Thomas White Volume: v. 1 General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1828 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than ... more »a million books for free. Excerpt: SERMON IV. FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT. ON THE PREACHING OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST. He came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins. Luke iii. 3. Again, my brethren, is the precursor of the Messiah presented to us, in the spirit and power of Elias, announcing to the children of Jacob, the coming of the Redeemer, the Mighty God, the Prince of Peace, and preaching to them the baptism of penance for the remission of sins. This baptism of John was not remissive of sin in virtue of its institution, and of similar efficacy with the Christian sacrament. No : it only led to the forgiveness of sin, by exciting sentiments of sorrow, and producing worthy fruits of repentance. It is therefore distinguished by the Baptist himself, from the baptism to be institutedby Jesus Christ, as being a baptism of penance; a baptism in water only; whereas that of Christ was to be a baptism of the Holy Ghost, by virtue of which a man was to be born again, by a spiritual birth, and without which, as our Lord himself expressly declared, a man cannot see the kingdom of God. (John, iii. 3.) Hence we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that they who had been baptized in the baptism of John, were re-baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus; hence St. Augustin terms the baptism of John, the remission of sins in hope ; hence the illustrious Origen says, that those who had been baptized by John, were again baptized by St. Paul, because the regeneration of the soul, or the birth of the spirit, was not from John, but from Christ, by the ministry of his apostles; and hence the...« less