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.