Chapter III.

St. Ambrose points out that we must consider the divine presence and working in the water and the sacred ministers, and then brings forward many Old Testament figures of baptism.

8. What did you see? Water, certainly, but not water alone; you saw the deacons ministering there, and the bishop asking questions and hallowing. First of all, the Apostle taught you that those things are not to be considered “which we see, but the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”5    1 Cor. v. 18. For you read elsewhere: “That the invisible things of God, since the creation of the world, are understood through those things which have been made; His eternal power also and Godhead are estimated by His works.”6    Rom. i. 20. Wherefore also the Lord Himself says: “If ye believe not Me, believe at least the works.”7    S. John x. 38. Believe, then, that the presence of the Godhead is there. Do you believe the working, and not believe the presence? Whence should the working proceed unless the presence went before?

9. Consider, however, how ancient is the mystery prefigured even in the origin of the world itself. In the very beginning, when God made the heaven and the earth, “the Spirit,” it is said, “moved upon the waters.”8    Gen. i. 2. He Who was moving upon the waters, was He not working upon the waters? But why should I say, “working”? As regards His presence He was moving. Was He not working Who was moving? Recognize that He was working in that making of the world, when the prophet says: “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all their strength by the spirit of His mouth.”9    Ps. xxxiii. [xxxii.] 6. Each statement rests upon the testimony of the prophet, both that He was moving and that He was working. Moses says that He was moving, David testifies that he was working.

10. Take another testimony. All flesh was corrupt by its iniquities. “My Spirit,” says God, “shall not remain among men, because they are flesh.”10    Gen. vi. 3. Whereby God shows that the grace of the Spirit is turned away by carnal impurity and the pollution of grave sin. Upon which, God, willing to restore what was lacking, sent the flood and bade just Noah go up into the ark. And he, after having, as the flood was passing off, sent forth first a raven which did not return, sent forth a dove which is said to have returned with an olive twig.11    Gen. vii. 1 ff. You see the water, you see the wood [of the ark], you see the dove, and do you hesitate as to the mystery?

11. The water, then, is that in which the flesh is dipped, that all carnal sin may be washed away. All wickedness is there buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened when He suffered for us. The dove is that in the form of which the Holy Spirit descended, as you have read in the New Testament, Who inspires in you peace of soul and tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which goes forth and does not return, if, in you, too, inwardly and outwardly righteousness be preserved.

12. There is also a third testimony, as the Apostle teaches us: “For all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized to Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”12    1 Cor. x. 1, 2. And further, Moses himself says in his song: “Thou sentest Thy Spirit, and the sea covered them.”13    Ex. xv. 10. You observe that even then holy baptism was prefigured in that passage of the Hebrews, wherein the Egyptian perished, the Hebrew escaped. For what else are we daily taught in this sacrament but that guilt is swallowed up and error done away, but that virtue and innocence remain unharmed?

13. You hear that our fathers were under the cloud, and that a kindly cloud, which cooled the heat of carnal passions. That kindly cloud overshadows those whom the Holy Spirit visits. At last it came upon the Virgin Mary, and the Power of the Highest overshadowed her,14    S. Luke i. 35. when she conceived Redemption for the race of men. And that miracle was wrought in a figure through Moses. If, then, the Spirit was in the figure, is He not present in the reality, since Scripture says to us: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”15    S. John i. 17.

14. Marah was a fountain of most bitter water: Moses cast wood into it and it became sweet.16    Ex. xv. 23 ff. For water without the preaching of the Cross of the Lord is of no avail for future salvation, but, after it has been consecrated by the mystery of the saving cross, it is made suitable for the use of the spiritual laver and of the cup of salvation. As, then, Moses, that is, the prophet, cast wood into that fountain, so, too, the priest utters over this font the proclamation of the Lord’s cross, and the water is made sweet for the purpose of grace.

15. You must not trust, then, wholly to your bodily eyes; that which is not seen is more really seen, for the object of sight is temporal, but that other eternal, which is not apprehended by the eye, but is discerned by the mind and spirit.

16. Lastly, let the lessons lately gone through from the Kings teach you. Naaman was a Syrian, and suffered from leprosy, nor could he be cleansed by any. Then a maiden from among the captives said that there was a prophet in Israel, who could cleanse him from the defilement of the leprosy. And it is said that, having taken silver and gold, he went to the king of Israel. And he, when he heard the cause of his coming, rent his clothes, saying, that occasion was rather being sought against him, since things were asked of him which pertained not to the power of kings. Elisha, however, sent word to the king, that he should send the Syrian to him, that he might know there was a God in Israel. And when he had come, he bade him dip himself seven times in the river Jordan.

17. Then he began to reason with himself that he had better waters in his own country, in which he had often bathed and never been cleansed of his leprosy; and so remembering this, he did not obey the command of the prophet, yet on the advice and persuasion of his servants he yielded and dipped himself. And being forthwith cleansed, he understood that it is not of the waters but of grace that a man is cleansed.17    2 [4] Kings v. 1 ff.

18. Understand now who is that young maid among the captives. She is the congregation gathered out of the Gentiles, that is, the Church of God held down of old by the captivity of sin, when as yet it possessed not the liberty of grace, by whose counsel that foolish people of the Gentiles heard the word of prophecy as to which it had before been in doubt. Afterwards, however, when they believed that it ought to be obeyed, they were washed from every defilement of sin. And he indeed doubted before he was healed; you are already healed, and therefore ought not to doubt.

CAPUT III.

In aqua et sacris ministris praesentiam atque operationem divinitatis considerandam esse, pluribus figuris quibus baptisma jam inde a mundi creatione ac postea praenuntiatum est, docet.

8. Quid vidisti? Aquas utique, sed non solas: levitas illic ministrantes, summum sacerdotem interrogantem et consecrantem. Primo omnium docuit te Apostolus non ea contemplanda nobis quae videntur, sed quae non videntur, quoniam quae videntur, temporalia sunt: quae autem non videntur, 0391C aeterna (II Cor. IV, 18). Nam et alibi habes: Quia invisibilia Dei a creatura mundi per ea quae facta sunt comprehenduntur: sempiterna quoque virtus ejus ac divinitas operibus aestimatur (Rom. I, 20). Unde et ipse Dominus ait: Si mihi non creditis, vel operibus credite (Joan. X, 38). Crede ergo divinitatis illic adesse praesentiam. Operationem credis, non credis praesentiam? Unde sequeretur operatio, nisi praecederet ante praesentia?

9. Considera autem quam vetus mysterium sit, 0392A in ipsius mundi praefiguratum origine. In principio ipso, quando fecit Deus coelum et terram, Spiritus, inquit, superferebatur super aquas (Gen. I, 2). Qui superferebatur super aquas, non operabatur super aquas? Sed quid dicam operabatur? quod ad praesentiam spectat, superferebatur. Non operabatur, qui superferebatur? Cognosce quia operabatur in illa mundi fabrica, quando tibi dicit Propheta: Verbo Domini coeli firmati sunt, et Spiritu oris ejus omnis virtus eorum (Psal. XXXII, 6). Utrumque prophetico subnixum est testimonio, et quia superferebatur et quia operabatur. Quia superferebatur, Moyses dicit: quia operabatur, David testificatur.

10. Accipe aliud testimonium. Corrupta erat caro omnis ab iniquitatibus suis. Non permanebit, inquit 0392B Deus, Spiritus meus in hominibus, quia carnes sunt (Gen. VI, 3.) Quo ostendit Deus quia carnali immunditia, et gravioris labe peccati gratia spiritalis avertitur. Unde volens Deus reparare quod deerat, dilnvium fecit, et justum Noe in arcam jussit ascendere (Gen. VII, 1 et seq.) Qui dum, decedente diluvio, corvum dimisisset prius, qui non revertit; dimisit columbam, quae cum ramo 328 oleae legitur revertisse (Gen. VIII, 7, 8). Vides aquam, vides lignum, columbam aspicis, et dubitas de mysterio?

11. Aqua est ergo qua caro mergitur, ut omne abluatur carnale peccatum. Sepelitur illic omne flagitium. Lignum est in quo suffixus est Dominus Jesus, cum pateretur pro nobis. Columba est in 0392C cujus specie descendit Spiritus sanctus, sicut didicisti in novo Testamento (Matth. III, 16), qui tibi pacem animae, tranquillitatem mentis inspirat. Corvus est figura peccati, quod exit, et non revertitur; si in te quoque justi custodia et forma servetur.

12. Tertium quoque testimonium est, sicut te Apostolus docet: Quoniam patres nostri omnes sub nube fuerunt, et omnes mare transierunt, et omnes in Moyse baptizati sunt, in nube et in mari (I Cor. X, 0393A 1, 2). Denique et ipse Moyses dicit in Cantico: Misisti Spiritum tuum, et operuit eos mare (Exod. XV, 10). Advertis quod in illo Hebraeorum transitu jam tunc sacri baptismatis figura praecesserit, in quo Aegyptius interiit et Hebraeus evasit. Quid enim aliud in hoc quotidie sacramento docemur, nisi quia culpa mergitur, et error aboletur: pietas autem et innocentia tuta permansit?

13. Audis quia sub nube fuerunt patres nostri, et bona nube, quae carnalium refrigeravit incendia passionum. Bona nubes obumbrat quos revisit Spiritus sanctus. Denique supervenit in Mariam virginem, et virtus Altissimi obumbravit ei (Luc. I, 75); quando redemptionem genti genuit humanae. Et illud miraculum per Moysen in figura factum est 0393B (Exod. XIV, 21 et seq.). Si ergo in figura adfuit Spiritus, non adest in veritate, cum Scriptura tibi dicat: Quia lex per Moysen data est, gratia autem et veritas per Jesum Christum facta est (Joan. I, 17).

14. Merrha fons amarissimus erat: misit in eum Moyses lignum, et dulcis est factus (Exod. XV, 23 et seq.). Aqua enim sine praedicatione Domini caecrucis ad nullos usus futurae salutis est: cum vero salutaris fuerit crucis mysterio consecrata, tunc ad usum spiritalis lavacri et salutaris poculi temperatur. Sicut ergo in illum fontem Moyses misit lignum, hoc est propheta; ita et in hunc fontem sacerdos praedicationem Dominicae crucis mittit, et aqua fit dulcis ad gratiam.

15. Non ergo solis corporis tui credas oculis: magis videtur quod non videtur; quia istud temporale, 0393C illud aeternum aspicitur, quod oculis non comprehenditur, animo autem ac mente cernitur.

16. Denique doceat te decursa Regnorum lectio. (IV Reg. V, 1 et seq.). Naaman Syrus erat, et lepram habebat, nec ab ullo mundari poterat. Tunc ait puella 329 ex captivis, quoniam esset propheta in Israel, qui posset eum a leprae contagione mundare. Sumpto, inquit, auro et argento, perrexit ad regem Israel. Qui cognita adventus ejus causa, scidit vestimenta sua, dicens quod tentaretur magis, cum de se ea quae non essent potestatis regiae, poscerentur: Elisaeus autem regi intimavit ut ad se dirigeret Syrum, quo cognosceret quod esset Deus in Israel. Et cum venisset, mandavit ei ut septies mergeretur in Jordane fluvio.

0393D 17. Tunc ille secum tractare coepit quod meliores aquas haberet patriae suae, in quibus se saepe mersisset, 0394A et numquam a lepra esset ablutus; eoque revocatus non obediebat mandatis prophetae: sed et admonitu et persuasionibus servulorum acquievit, ac mersit. Mundatusque illico intellexit non aquarum esse quod unusquisque mundatur, sed gratiae.

18. Cognosce nunc quae sit illa puella ex captivis junior, scilicet ex gentibus congregatio, id est, Ecclesia Domini depressa ante captivitate peccati, quando libertatem adhuc gratiae non habebat; cujus consilio vanus ille populus nationum verbum audivit propheticum, de quo ante diu dubitavit; postea tamen ubi credidit exsequendum, ablutus est ab omni contagione vitiorum. Et ille quidem dubitavit, antequam sanaretur: tu jam sanatus es, et ideo dubitare non debes.