The Discourse on the Holy Theophany.

 1. Good, yea, very good, are all the works of our God and Saviour—all of them that eye seeth and mind perceiveth, all that reason interprets and hand

 2. Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity of the water. But there is also that which is more honourable than all—the fact that Christ, the

 3. But we, who know the economy, adore His mercy, because He hath come to save and not to judge the world.  Wherefore John, the forerunner of the Lord

 4. As John says these things to the multitude, and as the people watch in eager expectation of seeing some strange spectacle with their bodily eyes, a

 5. And what saith the Lord to him?  “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” “Suffer it to be so now,” John tho

 6. Do you see, beloved, how many and how great blessings we would have lost, if the Lord had yielded to the exhortation of John, and declined baptism?

 7. The beloved generates love, and the light immaterial the light inaccessible. “This is my beloved Son,” He who, being manifested on earth and yet un

 8. But give me now your best attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life, and to view the fountain that gushes with healing.

 9. This is the Spirit that at the beginning “moved upon the face of the waters ” by whom the world moves by whom creation consists, and all things ha

 10. Come then, be begotten again, O man, into the adoption of God. And how? says one. If thou practisest adultery no more, and committest not murder,

8. But give me now your best attention, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the fountain of life, and to view the fountain that gushes with healing. The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, who came to man in order to wash him with water and the Spirit; and He, begetting us again to incorruption of soul and body, breathed into us the breath (spirit) of life, and endued us with an incorruptible panoply. If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God.42    ἔσται καὶ Θεός, referring probably to 2 Pet. i. 4, ἵνα διὰ τούτων γένησθε θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως, “that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.” [See vol. iii. p. 317, note 11. Tertullian anticipates the language of the “Athanasian Confession,”—“taking the manhood into God;” applicable, through Christ, to our redeemed humanity. Eph. ii. 6; Rev. iii. 21.] And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver43    κολυμβήθρας. he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ44    Rom. viii. 17. after the resurrection from the dead. Wherefore I preach to this effect: Come, all ye kindreds of the nations, to the immortality of the baptism. I bring good tidings of life to you who tarry in the darkness of ignorance. Come into liberty from slavery, into a kingdom from tyranny, into incorruption from corruption. And how, saith one, shall we come? How? By water and the Holy Ghost. This is the water in conjunction with the Spirit, by which paradise is watered, by which the earth is enriched, by which plants grow, by which animals multiply, and (to sum up the whole in a single word) by which man is begotten again and endued with life, in which also Christ was baptized, and in which the Spirit descended in the form of a dove.

[8] ἀλλὰ συντείνατέ μοι τὸν νοῦν, παρακαλῶ, μετὰ ἀκριβείας: βούλομαι γὰρ ἐπὶ τὴν πηγὴν τῆς ζωῆς ἀναδραμεῖν καὶ θεάσασθαι τὴν πηγὴν τῶν ἰαμάτων πηγάζουσαν. ὁ τῆς ἀθανασίας πατὴρ τὸν ἀθάνατον υἱὸν καὶ λόγον ἀπέστειλεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, ὃς ἀφικόμενος εἰς τὸν ἄνθρωπον λούσασθαι ὕδατι καὶ πνεύματι, καὶ ἀναγεννήσας πρὸς ἀφθαρσίαν ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος, ἐνεφύσησεν ἡμῖν πνεῦμα ζωῆς, περιαμφιάσας ἡμᾶς ἀφθάρτῳ πανοπλίᾳ. εἰ οὖν ἀθάνατος γέγονεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἔσται καὶ θεός. εἰ δὲ θεὸς δι' ὕδατος καὶ πνεύματος ἁγίου μετὰ τὴν τῆς κολυμβήθρας ἀναγέννησιν γίνεται, εὑρίσκεται καὶ συγκληρονόμος Χριστοῦ μετὰ τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν ἀνάστασιν. διὸ κηρύσσω λέγων Δεῦτε πᾶσαι αἱ πατριαὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἀθανασίαν: ζωὴν ὑμῖν εὐαγγελίζομαι τοῖς ἐν τῷ ζόφῳ τῆς ἀγνωσίας ἐνδιατρίβουσιν: δεῦτε εἰς ἐλευθερίαν ἐκ δουλείας, εἰς βασιλείαν ἐκ τυραννίδος, εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν ἐκ τῆς φθορᾶς. καὶ πῶς, φησίν, ἐλευσόμεθα; πῶς; δι' ὕδατος καὶ ἁγίου πνεύματος. τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ τῷ πνεύματι κοινωνοῦν, δι' οὗ παράδεισος ποτίζεται, δι' οὗ ἡ γῆ πιαίνεται, δι' οὗ φυτὸν αὔξει, δι' οὗ ζῷα τεκνογονεῖ καὶ, ἵνα πάντα συνελὼν εἴπω, δι' οὗ ἀναγεννώμενος ζῳογονεῖται ἄνθρωπος, ἐν ᾧ καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἐβαπτίσατο, ἐν ᾧ καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα κατήρχετο ἐν εἴδει περιστερᾶς.