420 A TREATISE ON RE-BAPTISM. previousconversation,or feeling,or dignity,equallyas they themselveshave dared to do away with Christ,that is,their own salvation,they are condemned by the shortsentence of thiskind,becauseitwas manifestlysaidby theLord, "Whoso evershalldeny me beforemen, I alsowilldeny him beforemy Father which isin heaven." As thisword wliosoever,alsoin the sentenceof confession,most fullyshows us thatno condi tionof the confessorhimself can standin the way, although he may have been beforea denier,or a heretic,or a hearer, or one who isbeginningto hear,who has not yet been bap tizedor converted from heresyto the truthof the faith,or one who has departed from the church and has afterwards returned,and then when he returned,before the bishop's hands couldbe laidupon him, being apprehended,should be compelledto confessChrist before men, even as to one who againdeniesChrist,no specialancientdignitycan be effectual to him forsalvation. 13. For any one of us willhold itnecessary,that whatever isthe lastthingto be found in a man in thisrespect,isthat whereby he must be judged,allthosethingswhich he has pre viouslydone being wiped away and obliterated.And there fore,although in martyrdom there is so great a change of thingsina moment oftime,thatin a veryrapidcaseallthings may be changed ; letnobody flatterhimselfwho has lostthe occasionof a glorioussalvation,ifby chance he has excluded himselftherefrom by his own fault; even as that wife of Lot's,who in a similarmanner in time of troubleonly,con traryto the angel'scommand, lookedbehind her,and she be came a pillarof salt. On which principlealso,that heretic who, by confessingChrist'sname, isput to death,can subse quentlycorrectnothing,if he shouldhave thought anything erroneouslyof God or of Christ,although by believingon anotherGod or on anotherChristhe has deceivedhimself: he isnot a confessorof Christ,but in the name only of Christ; sincealsothe apostlegoes on to say," And ifI shallgive up my body so thatI may be burnt up with fire,but have not love,I profitnothing."1 Because by thisdeed he profits 1 1 Cor.xiii.3.