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for we were plotted against by the evildoer, but we are saved with the care of the Creator. And the wicked and envious one, innovating sin against our race, found the serpent as a worthy covering for his own mind, the impure one having entered into one like him, the earthy and chthonic one having inhabited the reptile in his purpose, but Christ, who corrects that one's wickedness, assumes the complete man 9.224 and saves man and becomes for all of us a type and a character, so that he might sanctify the first-fruits of every action and leave behind an indubitable zeal for the tradition to his servants. Baptism, therefore, is a cleansing of sins, a remission of offenses, a cause of renewal and regeneration, but understand regeneration as something perceived by the mind, not seen by the eyes; for we do not really, according to the Hebrew Nicodemus and his rather dull mind, change the old man into a child, nor will we refashion the wrinkled and grey-haired one into a tender and new one, or bring the man back again into his mother's womb, but by royal grace we bring back the one who has been stained by sins and grown old in evil practices to the innocence of an infant. For just as the newly-born child is free from accusations and punishments, so also the child of regeneration has nothing for which he will be called to account, having been released from liabilities by a royal gift. But the water does not bestow this benefit (for it would then be higher than all of creation), but God's command and the visitation of the Spirit, coming mystically for our freedom, while water serves for the indication of the cleansing. For since we are accustomed to make the body, when defiled by filth and mire, clean by washing it with water, for this reason in the mystical act we also use it, signifying the incorporeal brightness by the perceptible matter. But rather, if you please, let us attend more closely to the inquiry concerning the washing, beginning as it were from a certain source of the scriptural command: Unless one is born, it says, of water and the Spirit, he cannot 9.225 enter into the kingdom of God. Why the two, and why was not the Spirit alone deemed sufficient for the completion of baptism? Man is composite and not simple, as we know precisely, and for this reason to the double and conjoined being kindred and similar remedies were assigned for healing, to the visible body, perceptible water, and to the invisible soul, the unseen Spirit, called for by faith, arriving ineffably. For the Spirit blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. It blesses the body being baptized and the water that baptizes.

∆Therefore, do not despise the divine washing nor cheapen it as something common because of the use of water; for that which is at work is great, and from it wonderful things are accomplished. Since even this holy altar, at which we stand, is by nature a common stone, differing in nothing from the other slabs which adorn our walls and beautify the floors, but since it has been dedicated to the service of God and has received the blessing, it is a holy table, an undefiled altar, no longer touched by all but only by the priests, and these reverently. The bread is again, for a time, common bread; but when the mystery consecrates it, it is both called and becomes the Body of Christ. Thus the mystical oil, thus the wine, being of little value before the blessing, after the sanctification from the Spirit each of them works differently. And the same power of the word also makes the priest venerable and 9.226 honorable, separated by the newness of the blessing from his commonality with the many; for yesterday and the day before, being one of the many and of the people, he is suddenly shown to be a leader, a president, a teacher of piety, an initiator into hidden mysteries; and he does these things having been changed in neither body nor form, but being, according to what is visible, that man who he was, but by some invisible

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γὰρ τῆς τοῦ κακουργοῦντος ἐπεβουλεύθημεν, μετὰ φροντίδος δὲ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ σῳζόμεθα. καὶ ὁ μὲν μοχθηρὸς καὶ βάσκανος κατὰ τοῦ γένους ἡμῶν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν καινοτομῶν ἄξιον τῆς ἑαυτοῦ γνώμης προκάλυμμα τὸν ὄφιν εὕρατο ὁ ἀκάθαρτος τῷ ὁμοίῳ ἐπεισελθών, ὁ γήινος καὶ χθόνιος τὴν προαίρεσιν ἐνοικήσας τῷ ἑρπετῷ, Χριστὸς δὲ ὁ τὴν ἐκείνου πονηρίαν ἐπανορθῶν τέλειον ἀναλαμβάνει τὸν ἄνθρωπον 9.224 καὶ σῴζει τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ γίνεται πάντων ἡμῶν τύπος καὶ χαρακτήρ, ἵν' ἑκάστης πράξεως ἁγιάσῃ τὴν ἀπαρχὴν καὶ τὸν ζῆλον τῆς παραδόσεως ἀναμφίβολον καταλίπῃ τοῖς δούλοις. βάπτισμα τοίνυν ἐστὶν ἁμαρτιῶν κάθαρσις, ἄφεσις πλημμελημάτων, ἀνακαινισμοῦ καὶ ἀναγεννήσεως αἰτία, ἀναγέννησιν δὲ νόησον ἐννοίᾳ θεωρουμένην, ὀφθαλμοῖς οὐ βλεπομένην· οὐ γὰρ ὄντως κατὰ τὸν Ἑβραῖον Νικόδημον καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου παχυτέραν διάνοιαν τὸν πρεσβύτην ἐναλλάξο μεν εἰς παιδίον οὔτε τὸν ῥυσὸν πεπολιωμένον εἰς ἁπαλὸν καὶ νέον μετασκευάσομεν ἢ πάλιν εἰς τὴν γαστέρα τῆς μητρὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐπανάξομεν, ἀλλὰ τὸν κατεστιγμένον ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις καὶ κακοῖς ἐπιτηδεύμασιν ἐμπαλαιωθέντα χάριτι βασιλικῇ ἐπανάγομεν εἰς τὸ τοῦ βρέφους ἀνεύθυνον. ὡς γὰρ τὸ εὐθύτοκον παιδίον ἐλεύθερόν ἐστιν ἐγκλημάτων καὶ τιμωριῶν, οὕτως καὶ ὁ τῆς ἀναγεννήσεως παῖς οὐκ ἔχει περὶ τίνος ἀπολογήσεται βασιλικῇ δωρεᾷ τῶν εὐθυνῶν ἀφεθείς. ταύτην δὲ τὴν εὐεργεσίαν οὐ τὸ ὕδωρ χαρίζεται (ἦν γὰρ ἂν πάσης τῆς κτίσεως ὑψηλότερον), ἀλλὰ θεοῦ πρόσταγμα καὶ ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐπιφοίτησις μυστικῶς ἐρχομένη πρὸς τὴν ἡμετέραν ἐλευθερίαν, ὕδωρ δὲ ὑπηρετεῖ πρὸς ἔνδειξιν τῆς καθάρσεως. ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἰώθαμεν ῥύπῳ καὶ βορβόρῳ τὸ σῶμα καθυβρισθὲν ὕδατι νίπτοντες καθαρὸν ἀποφαίνειν, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς μυστικῆς πράξεως αὐτὸ προσλαμβάνομεν τῷ αἰσθητῷ πράγματι τὴν ἀσώματον δηλοῦντες λαμπρότητα. μᾶλλον δὲ, εἰ δοκεῖ, καὶ λεπτότερον προσκαρτερήσωμεν τῇ περὶ τοῦ λουτροῦ ζητήσει οἷον ἐκ πηγῆς τινος ἀρξάμενοι τοῦ γραφικοῦ παραγγέλματος· Ἐὰν μή τις γεννηθῇ, φησίν, ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος, οὐ δύναται 9.225 εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν βασιλείαν τοῦ θεοῦ. διὰ τί τὰ δύο καὶ οὐχὶ μόνον τὸ πνεῦμα αὔταρκες ἐνομίσθη πρὸς τὴν συμπλήρωσιν τοῦ βαπτίσματος; σύνθετος ὁ ἄνθρωπος καὶ οὐχ ἁπλοῦς, ὡς ἀκριβῶς ἐπιστάμεθα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῷ διπλῷ καὶ συνεζευγμένῳ τὰ συγγενῆ καὶ ὅμοια φάρμακα πρὸς θεραπείαν ἀπεκληρώθη, σώματι μὲν τῷ φαινομένῳ ὕδωρ τὸ αἰσθητόν, ψυχῇ δὲ τῇ ἀοράτῳ πνεῦμα τὸ ἀφανὲς πίστει καλούμενον, ἀρρήτως παραγινόμενον. Τὸ γὰρ πνεῦμα ὅπου θέλει πνεῖ, καὶ τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ ἀκούεις, ἀλλ' οὐκ οἶδας πόθεν ἔρχεται καὶ ποῦ ὑπάγει. εὐλογεῖ τὸ σῶμα τὸ βαπτιζόμενον καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ βαπτίζον.

∆ιὸ μὴ καταφρονήσῃς τοῦ θείου λουτροῦ μηδὲ ὡς κοινὸν αὐτὸ ἐξευτελίσῃς διὰ τὴν χρῆσιν τοῦ ὕδατος· τὸ γὰρ ἐνεργοῦν μέγα καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνου θαυμαστὰ γίνεται τὰ τελούμενα. ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον τοῦτο τὸ ἅγιον, ᾧ παρεστήκαμεν, λίθος ἐστὶ κατὰ τὴν φύσιν κοινὸς οὐδὲν διαφέρων τῶν ἄλλων πλακῶν, αἳ τοὺς τοίχους ἡμῶν ἐπικο σμοῦσι καὶ καλλωπίζουσι τὰ ἐδάφη, ἐπειδὴ δὲ καθιερώθη τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ θεραπείᾳ καὶ τὴν εὐλογίαν ἐδέξατο, ἔστι τράπεξα ἁγία, θυσιαστήριον ἄχραντον οὐκέτι παρὰ πάντων ψηλαφώ μενον ἀλλὰ μόνων τῶν ἱερέων καὶ τούτων εὐλαβουμένων. ὁ ἄρτος πάλιν ἄρτος ἐστὶ τέως κοινός, ἀλλ' ὅταν αὐτὸν τὸ μυστήριον ἱερουργήσῃ, σῶμα Χριστοῦ λέγεταί τε καὶ γίνεται. οὕτως τὸ μυστικὸν ἔλαιον, οὕτως ὁ οἶνος, ὀλίγου τινὸς ἄξια ὄντα πρὸ τῆς εὐλογίας μετὰ τὸν ἁγιασμὸν τὸν παρὰ τοῦ πνεύματος ἑκάτερον αὐτῶν ἐνεργεῖ διαφόρως. ἡ αὐτὴ δὲ τοῦ λόγου δύναμις καὶ τὸν ἱερέα ποιεῖ σεμνὸν καὶ 9.226 τίμιον τῇ καινότητι τῆς εὐλογίας τῆς πρὸς τοὺς πολλοὺς κοινότητος χωριζόμενον· χθὲς γὰρ καὶ πρώην εἷς ὑπάρχων τῶν πολλῶν καὶ τοῦ δήμου ἀθρόον ἀποδείκνυται καθηγεμών, πρόεδρος, διδάσκαλος εὐσεβείας, μυστηρίων λανθανόντων μυσταγωγός· καὶ ταῦτα ποιεῖ μηδὲν τοῦ σώματος ἢ τῆς μορφῆς ἀμειφθείς, ἀλλ' ὑπάρχων κατὰ τὸ φαινόμενον ἐκεῖνος ὃς ἦν, ἀοράτῳ δέ τινι