On the Baptism of Christ.

 The time, then, has come, and bears in its course the remembrance of holy mysteries, purifying man,—mysteries which purge out from soul and body even

 Christ, then, was born as it were a few days ago—He Whose generation was before all things, sensible and intellectual. To-day He is baptized by John t

 Let us then leave the task of searching into what is beyond human power, and seek rather that which shows signs of being partly within our comprehensi

 As, however, examples always render an argument more vivid to the hearers, I propose to instruct the mind of the blasphemers by an illustration, expla

 I find that not only do the Gospels, written after the Crucifixion, proclaim the grace of Baptism, but, even before the Incarnation of our Lord, the a

 Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians ), being sent forth from her master’s house by the ange

 Again, at a later time, Isaac—the same for whose sake Ishmael was driven with his mother from his father’s home—was to be wedded. Abraham’s servant is

 According to the same force of the text, Jacob also, hastening to seek a bride, met Rachel unexpectedly at the well. And a great stone lay upon the we

 Again, the great Moses, when he was a goodly child, and yet at the breast, falling under the general and cruel decree which the hard-hearted Pharaoh m

 Even these instances might be enough to confirm our present position but the lover of good thoughts must yet not neglect what follows. The people of

 Now herein, by that wondrous sacrifice, Elijah clearly proclaimed to us the sacramental rite of Baptism that should afterwards be instituted. For the

 Let us for the rest consider the prophecies of it in words and language. Isaiah cried saying, “Wash you, make you clean, put away evil from your souls

 But do ye all, as many as are made glad, by the gift of regeneration, and make your boast of that saving renewal, show me, after the sacramental grace

 Therefore, also, it is that after the dignity of adoption the devil plots more vehemently against us, pining away with envious glance, when he beholds

 And now we have spoken sufficiently for the holy subject of the day, which the circling year brings to us at appointed periods. We shall do well in wh

 For all these things then let us sing to God that hymn of joy, which lips touched by the Spirit long ago sang loudly: “Let my soul be joyful in the Lo

Again, at a later time, Isaac—the same for whose sake Ishmael was driven with his mother from his father’s home—was to be wedded. Abraham’s servant is sent to make the match, so as to secure a bride for his master, and finds Rebekah at the well: and a marriage that was to produce the race of Christ had its beginning and its first covenant in water16    See Gen. xxiv. Yes, and Isaac himself also, when he was ruling his flocks, digged wells at all parts of the desert, which the aliens stopped and filled up17    See Gen. xxvi. 15, sqq., for a type of all those impious men of later days who hindered the grace of Baptism, and talked loudly in their struggle against the truth. Yet the martyrs and the priests overcame them by digging the wells, and the gift of Baptism over-flowed the whole world.

Χρόνοις δὲ ὕστερον πάλιν γάμοις ἔδει καταζευχθῆναι τὸν Ἰσαάκ, δι' ὃν καὶ ὁ Ἰσμαὴλ σὺν τῇ μητρὶ τῆς πατρικῆς ἑστίας ἠλάθη. ἀποσταλεὶς δὲ ὁ οἰκέτης τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ προμνήστωρ ὥστε τῷ κυρίῳ νυμφεύσασθαι εὑρίσκει τὴν Ῥεβέκκαν ἐπὶ τοῦ φρέατος, καὶ γάμος ὁ μέλλων ποιεῖν τὸ γένος Χριστοῦ ἐφ' ὕδατος ἔλαβε τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ τὴν πρώτην συνθήκην. οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Ἰσαάκ, ἡνίκα ταῖς ἀγέλαις ἐφεστήκει, πανταχοῦ τῆς ἐρημίας ὤρυσσε φρέατα, ἅπερ ἐνέφραττον καὶ κατεχώννυον οἱ ἀλλόφυλοι εἰς τύπον τῶν εἰς ὕστερον ἀσεβῶν, ὅσοι τὴν τοῦ βαπτίσματος χάριν ἐκώλυον καὶ ἀνεστόμουν ζυγομαχοῦντες πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν: ἀλλ' ὅμως οἱ μάρτυρες καὶ οἱ ἱερεῖς φρεωρυχοῦντες ἐνίκησαν καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν οἰκουμένην τὸ τοῦ βαπτίσματος δῶρον ἐπέκλυσεν.