Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament

¹⁶ So again when we hear, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved;” we do not of course understand it of one who believes in such a way “as the devils believe and tremble;” nor of those who receive baptism in such sort as Simon Magus, who though he could be baptized, could not be saved. As then when He said, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved,” He had not in his view all who believe and are baptized, but some only; those, to wit, who are settled in that faith, which, according to the Apostle's distinction, “works by love:” so when he said, “He that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost has never forgiveness,” he did not intend every kind, but a specific sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, by which whosoever shall be bound, he shall never by any remission be loosed.