36. Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all “fulness of blessing,”  21  Rom. xv. 29. both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment? Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. “I indeed,” he says, “baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”  22  Matt. iii. 11. Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, “The fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is.”  23  1 Cor. iii. 13. And again, “The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire.”  24  id. And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ’s sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood.  25  On the martyrs’ baptism of blood, cf. Eus. vi. 4, on the martyrdom of the Catechumen Herais. So St. Cyril, of Jerusalem (Cat. Lect. iii. 10), “If a man receive not baptism, he has not salvation; excepting only the martyrs, even who without the water receive the kingdom. For when the Saviour was ransoming the world through the cross, and was pierced in the side, He gave forth blood and water, that some in times of peace should be baptized in water; others in time of persecution, in their own blood.” So Tertullian (In Valentin. ii.) of the Holy Innocents, “baptized in blood for Jesus’ sake” (Keble), “testimonium Christi sanguine litavere.” Thus I write not to disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments  26  Τοὺς λογισμοὺς καθαιρῶν. cf. 2 Cor. x. 4. of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and compare those which admit of no comparison.

[36] Διὰ Πνεύματος ἁγίου ἡ εἰς παράδεισον ἀποκατάστασις: ἡ εἰς βασιλείαν οὐρανῶν ἄνοδος: ἡ εἰς υἱοθεσίαν ἐπάνοδος: ἡ παρρησία τοῦ καλεῖν ἑαυτῶν Πατέρα τὸν Θεόν, κοινωνὸν γενέσθαι τῆς χάριτος τοῦ Χριστοῦ, τέκνον φωτὸς χρηματίζειν, δόξης ἀϊδίου μετέχειν, καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ἐν παντὶ πληρώματι εὐλογίας γενέσθαι, ἔν τε τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι: τῶν ἐν ἐπαγγελίαις ἀποκειμένων ἡμῖν ἀγαθῶν, ὧν διὰ πίστεως ἀπεκδεχόμεθα τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν, ὡς ἤδη παρόντων, τὴν χάριν ἐνοπτριζόμενοι. Εἰ γὰρ ὁ ἀρραβὼν τοιοῦτος, ἡλίκον τὸ τέλειον; καὶ εἰ ἡ ἀπαρχὴ τοσαύτη, τίς ἡ τοῦ ὅλου πλήρωσις; Ἔτι κἀκεῖθεν τῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ Πνεύματος χάριτος πρὸς τὸ ἐν ὕδατι βάπτισμα, γνώριμον τὸ διάφορον: ὅτι Ἰωάννης μὲν ἐβάπτισεν ἐν ὕδατι: ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἐν τῷ Πνεύματι τῷ ἁγίῳ. «Ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ ὑμᾶς, φησί, βαπτίζω ἐν ὕδατι εἰς μετάνοιαν: ὁ δὲ ὀπίσω μου ἐρχόμενος ἰσχυρότερός μου ἐστίν: οὗ οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς τὰ ὑποδήματα βαστάσαι: αὐτὸς ὑμᾶς βαπτίσει ἐν Πνεύματι ἁγίῳ καὶ πυρί»: τὸ τοῦ πυρὸς βάπτισμα τὴν ἐν τῇ κρίσει δοκιμασίαν λέγων, καθά φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος: «Ἑκάστου τὸ ἔργον ὁποῖόν ἐστι, τὸ πῦρ δοκιμάσει.» Καὶ πάλιν: «Ἡ γὰρ ἡμέρα δηλώσει, ὅτι ἐν πυρὶ ἀποκαλύπτεται.» Ἤδη δέ τινες ἐν τοῖς ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας ἀγῶσιν, ἀληθείᾳ καὶ οὐ μιμήσει τὸν ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ θάνατον ὑποστάντες, οὐδὲν τῶν ἐκ τοῦ ὕδατος συμβόλων εἰς τὴν σωτηρίαν ἐπεδεήθησαν, ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ αἵματι βαπτισθέντες. Καὶ οὐκ ἀθετῶν τὸ ἐν τῷ ὕδατι βάπτισμα, ταῦτα λέγω: ἀλλὰ τοὺς λογισμοὺς καθαιρῶν τῶν ἐπαιρομένων κατὰ τοῦ Πνεύματος, καὶ μιγνύντων τὰ ἄμικτα, καὶ παρισαζόντων τὰ ἀσυνείκαστα.