On the Baptism of Christ.

 The time, then, has come, and bears in its course the remembrance of holy mysteries, purifying man,—mysteries which purge out from soul and body even

 Christ, then, was born as it were a few days ago—He Whose generation was before all things, sensible and intellectual. To-day He is baptized by John t

 Let us then leave the task of searching into what is beyond human power, and seek rather that which shows signs of being partly within our comprehensi

 As, however, examples always render an argument more vivid to the hearers, I propose to instruct the mind of the blasphemers by an illustration, expla

 I find that not only do the Gospels, written after the Crucifixion, proclaim the grace of Baptism, but, even before the Incarnation of our Lord, the a

 Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians ), being sent forth from her master’s house by the ange

 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

 According to the same force of the text, Jacob also, hastening to seek a bride, met Rachel unexpectedly at the well. And a great stone lay upon the we

 Again, the great Moses, when he was a goodly child, and yet at the breast, falling under the general and cruel decree which the hard-hearted Pharaoh m

 Even these instances might be enough to confirm our present position but the lover of good thoughts must yet not neglect what follows. The people of

 Now herein, by that wondrous sacrifice, Elijah clearly proclaimed to us the sacramental rite of Baptism that should afterwards be instituted. For the

 Let us for the rest consider the prophecies of it in words and language. Isaiah cried saying, “Wash you, make you clean, put away evil from your souls

 But do ye all, as many as are made glad, by the gift of regeneration, and make your boast of that saving renewal, show me, after the sacramental grace

 Therefore, also, it is that after the dignity of adoption the devil plots more vehemently against us, pining away with envious glance, when he beholds

 And now we have spoken sufficiently for the holy subject of the day, which the circling year brings to us at appointed periods. We shall do well in wh

 For all these things then let us sing to God that hymn of joy, which lips touched by the Spirit long ago sang loudly: “Let my soul be joyful in the Lo

Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham (whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians15    Cf. Gal. iv. 22, &c. See Gen. xxi), being sent forth from her master’s house by the anger of Sarah—for a servant suspected in regard to her master is a hard thing for lawful wives to bear—was wandering in desolation to a desolate land with her babe Ishmael at her breast. And when she was in straits for the needs of life, and was herself nigh unto death, and her child yet more sore for the water in the skin was spent (since it was not possible that the Synagogue, she who once dwelt among the figures of the perennial Fountain, should have all that was needed to support life), an angel unexpectedly appears, and shows her a well of living water, and drawing thence, she saves Ishmael. Behold, then, a sacramental type: how from the very first it is by the means of living water that salvation comes to him that was perishing—water that was not before, but was given as a boon by an angel’s means.

Ἡ Ἄγαρ ἡ παιδίσκη τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ, ἣν καὶ Παῦλος ἀλληγορεῖ πρὸς Γαλάτας διαλεγόμενος, ἐκπεμφθεῖσα τῆς οἰκίας τοῦ κυρίου διὰ τὴν ὀργὴν τῆς Σάρρας (χαλεπὸν γὰρ ταῖς νομίμοις γυναιξὶν ὑποπτευομένη δούλη πρὸς τὸν δεσπότην) ἔρημος ἐφέρετο πρὸς ἔρημον γῆν ὑπομάζιον ἔχουσα βρέφος τὸν Ἰσμαήλ. ἐπειδὴ δὲ ἐν ἀπορίᾳ τῶν ἀναγκαίων γέγονεν αὐτή τε ἐγγὺς ἦλθε θανάτου καὶ πρό γε αὐτῆς τὸ παιδίον (τὸ γὰρ ὂν ἐν τῷ ἀσκῷ ὕδωρ ἐδαπανήθη, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ οἷόν τε τὴν συναγωγὴν αὐτάρκειαν ἔχειν ζωῆς τὴν τέως ἐν τοῖς τύποις διάγουσαν τῆς ἀενάου πηγῆς), ἄγγελος ἐκ τοῦ παραδόξου φαίνεται καὶ δείκνυσιν αὐτῇ φρέαρ ὕδατος ζῶντος, κἀκεῖθεν ὑδρευσαμένη σῴζει τὸν Ἰσμαήλ. ὅρα τοίνυν τύπον μυστικόν, ὅπως εὐθὺς ἐξ ἀρχῆς δι' ὕδατος ζῶντος τῷ ἀπολλυμένῳ ἡ σωτηρία οὐ πρότερον ὄντος, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀγγέλου κατὰ χάριν δοθέντος.