32. What then? Because they were typically baptized unto Moses, is the grace of baptism therefore small? Were it so, and if we were in each case to prejudice the dignity of our privileges by comparing them with their types, not even one of these privileges could be reckoned great; then not the love of God, who gave His only begotten Son for our sins, would be great and extraordinary, because Abraham did not spare his own son;  14  cf. Rom. viii. 32. then even the passion of the Lord would not be glorious, because a sheep typified the offering instead of Isaac; then the descent into hell was not fearful, because Jonah had previously typified the death in three days and three nights. The same prejudicial comparison is made also in the case of baptism by all who judge of the reality by the shadow, and, comparing the typified with the type, attempt by means of Moses and the sea to disparage at once the whole dispensation of the Gospel. What remission of sins, what renewal of life, is there in the sea? What spiritual gift is there through Moses? What dying  15  νέκρωσις. A.V. in 2 Cor. iv. 10, “dying,” Rom. iv. 19, “deadness.” of sins is there? Those men did not die with Christ; wherefore they were not raised with Him.  16  cf. Rom. vi. 8. They did not “bear the image of the heavenly;”  17  1 Cor. xv. 49. they did “bear about in the body the dying of Jesus;”  18  2 Cor. iv. 10. they did not “put off the old man;” they did not “put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created him.”  19  Col. iii. 9, 10. Why then do you compare baptisms which have only the name in common, while the distinction between the things themselves is as great as might be that of dream and reality, that of shadow and figures with substantial existence?

[32] Τί οὖν; ἐπειδὴ τυπικῶς εἰς Μωϋσῆν ἐβαπτίσθησαν, διὰ τοῦτο μικρὰ ἡ τοῦ βαπτίσματος χάρις; Οὕτω μὲν οὖν οὐδ' ἂν ἄλλο τι μέγα εἴη τῶν ἡμετέρων, εἴπερ τὸ ἐν ἑκάστῳ σεμνὸν τοῖς τύποις προδιαβάλλοιμεν. Οὔτε γὰρ ἡ εἰς ἀνθρώπους τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγάπη μέγα τι καὶ ὑπερφυές, ὃς τὸν μονογενῆ Υἱὸν ἔδωκεν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν: ἐπειδὴ καὶ Ἀβραὰμ τοῦ ἰδίου υἱοῦ οὐκ ἐφείσατο. Οὐδὲ τὸ πάθος τοῦ Κυρίου ἔνδοξον: ἐπειδὴ πρόβατον ἀντὶ Ἰσαὰκ τὸν τύπον ἐπλήρου τῆς προσφορᾶς. Οὔτε ἡ εἰς ᾅδου φοβερὰ κάθοδος: ἐπειδὴ Ἰωνᾶς ἐν τρισὶν ἡμέραις καὶ τοσαύταις νυξὶ τοῦ θανάτου τὸν τύπον προεξεπλήρου. Ταὐτὸν τοίνυν ποιεῖ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ὁ τῇ σκιᾷ συγκρίνων τὴν ἀλήθειαν, καὶ τοῖς τύποις παραβάλλων τὰ παρ' αὐτῶν σημαινόμενα, καὶ διὰ Μωϋσέως καὶ τῆς θαλάσσης πᾶσαν ὁμοῦ διασύρειν τὴν εὐαγγελικὴν οἰκονομίαν ἐπιχειρῶν. Ποία γὰρ ἄφεσις παραπτωμάτων; ποία ζωῆς ἀνανέωσις ἐν θαλάσσῃ; ποῖον χάρισμα πνευματικὸν διὰ Μωϋσέως; ποία νέκρωσις ἁμαρτημάτων ἐκεῖ; Οὐ συναπέθανον ἐκεῖνοι Χριστῷ: διόπερ οὐδὲ συνηγέρθησαν. Οὐκ ἐφόρεσαν τὴν εἰκόνα τοῦ ἐπουρανίου, οὐ τὴν νέκρωσιν τοῦ Ἰησοῦ ἐν τῷ σώματι περιήνεγκαν, οὐκ ἀπεδύσαντο τὸν παλαιὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὐκ ἐνεδύσαντο τὸν νέον, τὸν ἀνακαινούμενον εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν κατ' εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν. Τί οὖν συγκρίνεις τὰ βαπτίσματα, ὧν ἡ προσηγορία μόνη κοινή, ἡ δὲ τῶν πραγμάτων διαφορὰ τοσαύτη, ὅση ἂν γένοιτο ὀνείρου πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν καὶ σκιᾶς καὶ εἰκόνων πρὸς τὰ κατ' οὐσίαν ὑφεστηκότα;