258 Dimensions of Baptism
the Church's discipline, and for some this was too much. John borrows a
powerful image from boxing or wrestling matches:' [u]p to now', he says,
'you have been in a school for training and exercise' where failures were
winked at and forgiven. 'But from today on, the arena stands open, the
contest is at hand, the spectators have taken their seats...' (3.8; the same
image is repeated elsewhere, e.g. 9.28-29). He goes on to offer great
encouragement: 'In the Olympic combats the judge stands impartially
aloof from the combatants, favoring neither the one nor the other... But in
our combat with the devil, Christ does not stand aloof but is wholly on our
side... He anointed us as we went into the combat, but He fettered the
devil...' (3.9). Clearly, John believed that there was nothing to be feared
from the conflict with the devil which began at baptism, and he went on to
emphasize this point, describing all God's gifts to the Christian, and par-ticularly the benefits of the eucharist ('a food which is more powerful than
any armour... If you show him [the devil] a tongue stained with the
precious blood, he will not be able to make a stand; if you show him your
rtiouth all crimsoned and ruddy, cowardly beast that he is, he will run
away', 3.12). Nonetheless, even John acknowledged that the demands
made upon the baptized were real, borrowing Jesus' words about the easy
yoke and the light burden to protest that, though a burden, it is not onerous
(9-4).
As a result of this perceived burden, the practice of delaying baptism
arose. (We might draw a comparison with the class of 'hearers' in many
early Baptist churches, who were a part of the congregation but did not
feel able to enter into membership, and with it the church's discipline.)Baptism, however, was seen to be necessary to salvation, and so those who
had delayed being baptized and were then taken seriously ill would seek
emergency, or clinical, baptism before they died. John was most scathing
about this practice, arguing that everything about it opposes the sacrament:
what should take place in 'the bosom of the common mother of us all, the
Church', takes place in a bed, accompanied not by rejoicing and gladness
but by tears and groans (9.5). Finally, the appearance of the priest is the
confirmation of impending death, and so 'he who is an argument for
eternal life is seen as a symbol of death' (9.8). Despite all of this, John
nonetheless recognized this as a valid baptism ('the grace is the same for
you as for those who are initiated on their deathbeds', 9.5). Importantly for
what follows, it remains a valid baptism even if the candidate is uncon-
scious and unable to make the appropriate commitments, renouncing Satan
and confessing Christ (9.9).