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surpassing the mind of men 9.234 of the Tishbite, the old man, what else does it practically foretell than the faith and redemption in the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit? For since the entire people of the Hebrews, having trodden upon their ancestral piety, fell away into polytheistic error, and King Ahab was deluded by idolatry, having as a wicked partner in life and an all-abominable teacher of impiety the ill-named Jezebel, the prophet, filled with spiritual grace, came to a meeting with Ahab, and with the king and all the people as witnesses, he stood against the priests of Baal for a wondrous and extraordinary contest. And proposing to them to sacrifice the bull without fire, he showed them to be ridiculous and wretched, praying in vain and crying out to gods that are not. Finally, he himself, calling upon his own and true God, with greater excesses and additions, wondrously completed the proposed contest; for not simply by praying did he bring fire from heaven upon the wood, which was dry, but by commanding his servants and ordering them to bring much water, and pouring the jars a third time over the logs, by prayer he kindled the fire from water, so that from the natural opposition of the elements, from their paradoxical coming together into friendship and cooperation, with great excess he might demonstrate the power of his own God.

These things Elijah clearly proclaimed beforehand to us through that wondrous 9.235 sacrifice, the mystagogy of baptism which was to be accomplished later; for the fire was kindled by water poured out three times, so that it might be shown that where there is the mystical water, there also is the Spirit that enkindles, that is warm, that is fire-like, burning the impious and enlightening the faithful. But not only this, but also his disciple Elisha, when Naaman the Syrian, who was sick with leprosy, came to him as a suppliant, cleansed the sick man by washing him in the Jordan, clearly foreshadowing what was to come, both by the general use of water and by the specific baptism of the river. For the Jordan alone among rivers, having received in itself the first-fruits of sanctification and blessing, as from some spring of its own type, channeled the grace of baptism to the whole world. These, then, are active and practical messages of the regeneration through the bath. Let us now consider the prophecies through words and voices. Isaiah therefore cries out, saying: Wash yourselves, be clean; remove your wickednesses from your souls. And David: Come to him and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed. And Ezekiel, writing more clearly and plainly than the two, makes the good promise: And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and 9.236 a new spirit I will give you, and I will take away the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you. And Zechariah most clearly prophesies of Jesus, clothed in a filthy garment, our servile flesh, and stripping him of the gloomy clothing, he adorns him with a clean and shining robe, teaching us through this figurative example that indeed in the baptism of Jesus we all, stripping off our sins like a poor and much-patched tunic, put on the holy and most beautiful one of regeneration. And where shall we place that saying of Isaiah crying to the wilderness: Be glad, thirsty wilderness; let the wilderness rejoice and blossom as a lily, and the desolate places of the Jordan shall blossom and rejoice. For it is manifest that he does not announce gladness to lifeless and insensible places, but he speaks figuratively of the parched and unadorned soul through the wilderness, just as David also when he says: My soul is to you as a waterless land, and again: My soul has thirsted for God, the strong, the living. And again in

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νοῦν ἀνθρώπων 9.234 ὑπερβαίνουσα τοῦ Θεσβίτου τοῦ γέροντος τί ποτε ἄλλο ἢ πρακτικῶς προμηνύει τὴν εἰς πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα πίστιν καὶ ἀπολύρτωσιν; ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἅπας ὁ τῶν Ἑβραίων λαὸς τὴν πατρῴαν πατήσας εὐσέβειαν εἰς τὴν πολύθεον πλάνην ἐξέπεσε καὶ ὁ βασιλεὺς Ἀχαὰβ παρὰ τῆς εἰδωλολατρίας ἐπαίζετο κακὴν τοῦ βίου κοινωνὸν καὶ παμμίαρον τῆς ἀσεβείας ἔχων διδάσκαλον τὴν δυσώνυμον Ἰεζάβελ, πλησθεὶς ὁ προφήτης τῆς πνευματικῆς χάριτος ἐλθὼν δὲ εἰς συντυχίαν τῷ Ἀχαὰβ ὑπὸ μάρτυρι τῷ βασιλεῖ καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ τοῖς τῆς Βάαλ ἱερεῦσιν ἀντικατέστη πρὸς ἀγῶνα θαυμαστὸν καὶ ἐξαίσιον· καὶ προβαλλόμενος αὐτοῖς τὸ χωρὶς πυρὸς ἱερουργῆσαι τὸν βοῦν καταγελάστους ἔδειξε καὶ ἀθλίους μάτην εὐχομένους καὶ κράζοντας τοῖς οὐκ οὖσι θεοῖς. τέλος ἐπικαλεσάμενος αὐτὸς τὸν ἴδιον καὶ ἀληθινὸν θεὸν ὑπερβολαῖς πλείοσι καὶ προσθήκαις θαυμαστῶς ἐξετέ λεσε τὸ προβληθὲν ἀγώνισμα· οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς εὐξάμενος ἤγαγε τὸ πῦρ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κατὰ τῶν ξύλων ξηρῶν ὑπαρχόντων, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ὑπηρέταις ἐγκελευσάμενος καὶ προστάξας ὕδωρ κομίσαι πολύ, τρίτον δὲ τῶν σχιδάκων καταχέας τοὺς ἀμφορίσκους εὐχῇ τὸ πῦρ ἀνῆψεν ἐξ ὕδατος, ἵνα ἐκ τῆς φυσικῆς τῶν στοιχείων ἐναντιότητος ἐκ τοῦ παραδόξου συνδραμόντων εἰς φιλίαν καὶ συνεργίαν μετὰ πολλῆς ὑπερ βολῆς τοῦ ἰδίου θεοῦ τὴν δύναμιν ἐπιδείξηται.

Ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Ἠλίας σαφῶς τὴν ἐς ὕστερον μέλλουσαν τελεῖσθαι τοῦ βαπτίσματος μυσταγωγίαν διὰ τῆς θαυμαστῆς 9.235 ἐκείνης ἱερουργίας ἡμῖν προανεφώνησεν· ὕδατι γὰρ ἀνήφθη τὸ πῦρ τρίτον ἐπαντληθέντι ὥστε δηλοῦσθαι ὅτι, ὅπου ὕδωρ τὸ μυστικόν, ἐκεῖ καὶ πνεῦμα τὸ ζωπυροῦν τὸ θερμόν, τὸ πυροειδές, τὸ τοὺς ἀσεβεῖς καῖον καὶ τοὺς πιστοὺς φωτίζον. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ ὁ τούτου μαθητὴς Ἐλισαῖος ἐλθόντος πρὸς αὐτὸν ἱκέτου Ναιμὰν τοῦ Σύρου τοῦ τὴν λέπραν νοσήσαντος λούσας ἐν τῷ Ἰορδάνῃ καθαίρει τὸν ἄρρωστον καὶ τῇ γενικῇ χρήσει τοῦ ὕδατος καὶ τῷ ἰδικῷ τοῦ ποταμοῦ βαπτίσματι σαφῶς προϋποφαίνων τὸ μέλλον· μόνος γὰρ Ἰορδάνης ποταμῶν ἐν ἑαυτῷ δεξάμενος τοῦ ἁγιασμοῦ καὶ τῆς εὐλογίας τὴν ἀπαρχὴν ὥσπερ ἔκ τινος πηγῆς τοῦ ἰδίου τύπου τῷ κόσμῳ παντὶ τὴν τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἐπωχέτευσε χάριν. ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐνεργὰ καὶ πρακτικὰ μηνύματα τῆς διὰ τοῦ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας. Κατίδωμεν δὲ λοιπὸν τὰς διὰ λόγων καὶ φωνῶν προφητείας. ὁ μὲν οὖν Ἠσαΐας κέκραγε λέγων· Λούσασθε, καθαροὶ γένεσθε, ἀφέλετε τὰς πονηρίας ἀπὸ τῶν ψυχῶν ὑμῶν. ὁ δὲ ∆αβίδ· Προσέλθετε πρὸς αὐτὸν καὶ φωτίσθητε καὶ τὰ πρόσω πα ὑμῶν οὐ μὴ καταισχυνθῇ. Ἰεζεκιὴλ δὲ τῶν δύο σαφέστερον καὶ λευκότερον γράφων ὑπισχνεῖται τὴν καλὴν ἐπαγγελίαν· Καὶ ῥανῶ ἐφ' ὑμᾶς καθαρὸν ὕδωρ καὶ καθαρισθήσεσθε ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἀκαθαρσιῶν ὑμῶν καὶ ἀπὸ πάντων τῶν εἰδώλων ὑμῶν καθαριῶ ὑμᾶς καὶ δώσω ὑμῖν καρδίαν καινὴν καὶ 9.236 πνεῦμα καινὸν δώσω ὑμῖν καὶ ἀφελῶ τὴν καρδίαν τὴν λιθίνην ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς ὑμῶν καὶ δώσω ὑμῖν καρδίαν σαρκίνην καὶ τὸ πνεῦμά μου δώσω ἐν ὑμῖν. ἐναργέστατα δὲ καὶ ὁ Ζαχαρίας τόν τε Ἰησοῦν προφητεύει τὸν ἐνδεδυμένον τὸ ῥυπαρὸν ἱμάτιον τὴν δουλικὴν καὶ ἡμετέραν σάρκα, ἐκδύων δὲ αὐτὸν τῆς σκυθρωπῆς ἐσθῆτος κοσμεῖ τῇ καθαρᾷ καὶ λαμπούσῃ στολῇ διδάσκων ἡμᾶς διὰ τοῦ εἰκονικοῦ ὑποδείγματος, ὅτι δὴ ἐν τῷ βαπτίσματι τοῦ Ἰησοῦ πάντες ἡμεῖς ἐκδυόμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας ὡς χιτῶνα πτωχικόν τε καὶ πολυκόλλητον τὸν ἱερὸν καὶ κάλλιστον τὸν τῆς παλιγγενεσίας μετενδυόμεθα. ποῦ δὲ θήσομεν κἀκεῖνο τοῦ Ἠσαΐου τὸ λόγιον τὸ πρὸς τὴν ἔρημον κράζον· Εὐφράνθητι ἔρημος διψῶσα, ἀγαλλιάσθω ἔρημος καὶ ἀνθείτω ὡς κρίνον, καὶ ἐξανθήσει καὶ ἀγαλλιάσεται τὰ ἔρημα τοῦ Ἰορδάνου. πρόδηλον γὰρ ὡς οὐ τόποις ἀψύχοις καὶ ἀναισθήτοις τὴν εὐφροσύνην εὐαγγελίζεται, ἀλλὰ τροπο λογεῖ διὰ τῆς ἐρήμου τὴν αὐχμώδη ψυχὴν καὶ ἀκόσμητον, ὥσπερ δὴ καὶ ὁ ∆αβὶδ ὅταν λέγῃ· Ἡ ψυχή μου ὡς γῆ ἄνυδρός σοι, καὶ πάλιν· Ἐδίψησεν ἡ ψυχή μου πρὸς τὸν θεὸν τὸν ἰσχυρὸν τὸν ζῶντα. καὶ αὖθις ἐν