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| On the Baptism of Christ.
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On the
Baptism of Christ.
————————————
A Sermon for the Day of the
Lights.2114
| 2114 That
is, for the Festival of the Epiphany or Theophany, when the Eastern
Church commemorates especially the Baptism of our Lord. |
Now I
recognize my own flock: to-day I behold the wonted figure of the
Church, when, turning with aversion from the occupation even of the
cares of the flesh, you come together in your undiminished numbers for
the service of God—when the people crowds the house, coming
within the sacred sanctuary, and when the multitude that can find no
place within fills the space outside in the precincts like bees. For of
them some are at their labours within, while others outside hum around
the hive. So do, my children: and never abandon this zeal. For I
confess that I feel a shepherd’s affections, and I wish, when I
am set upon this watch-tower, to see the flock gathered round about the
mountain’s foot: and when it so happens to me, I am filled with
wonderful earnestness, and work with pleasure at my sermon, as the
shepherds do at their rustic strains. But when things are otherwise,
and you are straying in distant wanderings, as you did but lately, the
last Lord’s Day, I am much troubled, and glad to be silent; and I
consider the question of flight from hence, and seek for the Carmel of
the prophet Elijah, or for some rock without inhabitant; for men in
depression naturally choose loneliness and solitude. But now, when I
see you thronging here with all your families, I am reminded of the
prophetic saying, which Isaiah proclaimed from afar off, addressing by
anticipation the Church with her fair and numerous
children:—“Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as doves
with their young to me2115
”? Yes, and he
adds moreover this also, “The place is too strait for me; give
place that I may dwell2116
.” For these
predictions the power of the Spirit made with reference to the populous
Church of God, which was afterwards to fill the whole world from end to
end of the earth.
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 that sin
which is hard to cleanse away, and which bring us back to that fairness
of our first estate which God, the best of artificers, impressed upon
us. Therefore it is that you, the initiated people, are gathered
together; and you bring also that people who have not made trial of
them, leading, like good fathers, by careful guidance, the uninitiated
to the perfect reception of the faith. I for my part rejoice over
both;—over you that are initiated, because you are enriched with
a great gift: over you that are uninitiated, because you have a fair
expectation of hope—remission of what is to be accounted for,
release from bondage, close relation to God, free boldness of speech,
and in place of servile subjection equality with the angels. For these
things, and all that follow from them, the grace of Baptism secures and
conveys to us. Therefore let us leave the other matters of the
Scriptures for other occasions, and abide by the topic set before us,
offering, as far as we may, the gifts that are proper and fitting for
the feast: for each festival demands its own treatment. So we welcome a
marriage with wedding songs; for mourning we bring the due offering
with funeral strains; in times of business we speak seriously, at times
of festivity we relax the concentration and strain of our minds; but
each time we keep free from disturbance by things that are alien to its
character.
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 that He might
cleanse him who was defiled, that He might bring the Spirit from above,
and exalt man to heaven, that he who had fallen might be raised up and
he who had cast him down might be put to shame. And marvel not if God
showed so great earnestness in our cause: for it was with care on the
part of him who did us wrong that the plot was laid against us; it is
with forethought on the part of our Maker that we are saved. And he, that
evil charmer, framing his new device of sin against our race, drew
along his serpent train, a disguise worthy of his own intent, entering
in his impurity into what was like himself,—dwelling, earthly and
mundane as he was in will, in that creeping thing. But Christ, the
repairer of his evil-doing, assumes manhood in its fulness, and saves
man, and becomes the type and figure of us all, to sanctify the
first-fruits of every action, and leave to His servants no doubt in
their zeal for the tradition. Baptism, then, is a purification from
sins, a remission of trespasses, a cause of renovation and
regeneration. By regeneration, understand regeneration conceived in
thought, not discerned by bodily sight. For we shall not, according to
the Jew Nicodemus and his somewhat dull intelligence, change the old
man into a child, nor shall we form anew him who is wrinkled and
gray-headed to tenderness and youth, if we bring back the man again
into his mother’s womb: but we do bring back, by royal grace, him
who bears the scars of sin, and has grown old in evil habits, to the
innocence of the babe. For as the child new-born is free from
accusations and from penalties, so too the child of regeneration has
nothing for which to answer, being released by royal bounty from
accountability2117
| 2117 The
language of this passage, if strictly taken, seems to imply a denial of
original sin; but it is perhaps not intended to be so
understood. | . And this gift it
is not the water that bestows (for in that case it were a thing more
exalted than all creation), but the command of God, and the visitation
of the Spirit that comes sacramentally to set us free. But water serves
to express the cleansing. For since we are wont by washing in water to
render our body clean when it is soiled by dirt or mud, we therefore
apply it also in the sacramental action, and display the spiritual
brightness by that which is subject to our senses. Let us however, if
it seems well, persevere in enquiring more fully and more minutely
concerning Baptism, starting, as from the fountain-head, from the
Scriptural declaration, “Except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God2118
.” Why are both named, and why is not
the Spirit alone accounted sufficient for the completion of Baptism?
Man, as we know full well, is compound, not simple: and therefore the
cognate and similar medicines are assigned for healing to him who is
twofold and conglomerate:—for his visible body, water, the
sensible element,—for his soul, which we cannot see, the Spirit
invisible, invoked by faith, present unspeakably. For “the Spirit
breathes where He wills, and thou hearest His voice, but canst not tell
whence He cometh or whither He goeth2119
.” He
blesses the body that is baptized, and the water that baptizes. Despise
not, therefore, the Divine laver, nor think lightly of it, as a common
thing, on account of the use of water. For the power that operates is
mighty, and wonderful are the things that are wrought thereby. For this
holy altar, too, by which I stand, is stone, ordinary in its nature,
nowise different from the other slabs of stone that build our houses
and adorn our pavements; but seeing that it was consecrated to the
service of God, and received the benediction, it is a holy table, an
altar undefiled, no longer touched by the hands of all, but of the
priests alone, and that with reverence. The bread again is at first2120
| 2120 Or
“up to a certain point of time.” | common bread, but when the sacramental
action consecrates it, it is called, and becomes, the Body of Christ.
So with the sacramental oil; so with the wine: though before the
benediction they are of little value, each of them, after the
sanctification bestowed by the Spirit, has its several operation. The
same power of the word, again, also makes the priest venerable and
honourable, separated, by the new blessing bestowed upon him, from his
community with the mass of men. While but yesterday he was one of the
mass, one of the people, he is suddenly rendered a guide, a president,
a teacher of righteousness, an instructor in hidden mysteries; and this
he does2121
| 2121 That
is, “these functions he fulfils.” | without being at all changed in body
or in form; but, while continuing to be in all appearance the man he
was before, being, by some unseen power and grace, transformed in
respect of his unseen soul to the higher condition. And so there are
many things, which if you consider you will see that their appearance
is contemptible, but the things they accomplish are mighty: and this is
especially the case when you collect from the ancient history2122
| 2122 i.e.from the Old Testament
Scriptures. | instances cognate and similar to the subject
of our inquiry. The rod of Moses was a hazel wand. And what is that,
but common wood that every hand cuts and carries, and fashions to what
use it chooses, and casts as it will into the fire? But when God was
pleased to accomplish by that rod those wonders, lofty, and passing the
power of language to express, the wood was changed into a serpent. And
again, at another time, he smote the waters, and now made the water
blood, now made to issue forth a countless brood of frogs: and again he
divided the sea, severed to its depths without flowing together again.
Likewise the mantle of one of the prophets, though it was but a
goat’s skin, made Elisha renowned in the whole world. And the
wood of the Cross is of saving efficacy2123
| 2123 The
reference appears to be not to the Cross as the instrument of that
Death which was of saving efficacy, but to miraculous cures, real or
reputed, effected by means of the actual wood of the Cross. The
argument seems to require that we should understand the Cross
itself, and not only the sacrifice offered upon it, to be the means of
producing wondrous effects: and the grammatical construction favours
this view. S. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions the extensive distribution of
fragments of the Cross (Cat. x. 19), but this is probably one of the
earliest references to miracles worked by their means. | for all men, though it is, as I am informed,
a piece of a poor tree, less valuable than most trees are. So a bramble
bush showed to Moses the manifestation of the presence of God: so the
remains of Elisha raised a dead man to life; so clay gave sight to him
that was blind from the womb. And all these things, though they were
matter without soul or sense, were made the means for the performance
of the great marvels wrought by them, when they received the power of
God. Now by a similar train of reasoning, water also, though it is
nothing else than water, renews the man to spiritual regeneration2124
, when the grace from above hallows it. And
if any one answers me again by raising a difficulty, with his questions
and doubts, continually asking and inquiring how water and the
sacramental act that is performed therein regenerate, I most justly
reply to him, “Show me the mode of that generation which is after
the flesh, and I will explain to you the power of regeneration in the
soul.” You will say perhaps, by way of giving an account of the
matter, “It is the cause of the seed which makes the man.”
Learn then from us in return, that hallowed water cleanses and
illuminates the man. And if you again object to me your
“How?” I shall more vehemently cry in answer, “How
does the fluid and formless substance become a man?” and so the
argument as it advances will be exercised on everything through all
creation. How does heaven exist? how earth? how sea? how every single
thing? For everywhere men’s reasoning, perplexed in the attempt
at discovery, falls back upon this syllable “how,” as those
who cannot walk fall back upon a seat. To speak concisely, everywhere
the power of God and His operation are incomprehensible and incapable
of being reduced to rule, easily producing whatever He wills, while
concealing from us the minute knowledge of His operation. Hence also
the blessed David, applying his mind to the magnificence of creation,
and filled with perplexed wonder in his soul, spake that verse which is
sung by all, “O Lord, how manifold are Thy works: in wisdom hast
Thou made them all2125
| 2125 Ps. civ. 24. The Psalm is the
prefatory Psalm at Vespers in the present service of the Eastern
Church. S. Gregory seems to indicate some such daily use in his own
time. | .” The wisdom
he perceived: but the art of the wisdom he could not discover. 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
comprehension:—what is the reason why the cleansing is effected
by water? and to what purpose are the three immersions received? That
which the fathers taught, and which our mind has received and assented
to, is as follows:—We recognize four elements, of which the world
is composed, which every one knows even if their names are not spoken;
but if it is well, for the sake of the more simple, to tell you their
names, they are fire and air, earth and water. Now our God and Saviour,
in fulfilling the Dispensation for our sakes, went beneath the fourth
of these, the earth, that He might raise up life from thence. And we in
receiving Baptism, in imitation of our Lord and Teacher and Guide, are
not indeed buried in the earth (for this is the shelter of the body
that is entirely dead, covering the infirmity and decay of our nature),
but coming to the element akin to earth, to water, we conceal ourselves
in that as the Saviour did in the earth: and by doing this thrice we
represent for ourselves that grace of the Resurrection which was
wrought in three days: and this we do, not receiving the sacrament in
silence, but while there are spoken over us the Names of the Three
Sacred Persons on Whom we believed, in Whom we also hope, from Whom
comes to us both the fact of our present and the fact of our future
existence. It may be thou art offended, thou who contendest boldly
against the glory of the Spirit, and that thou grudgest to the Spirit
that veneration wherewith He is reverenced by the godly. Leave off
contending with me: resist, if thou canst, those words of the Lord
which gave to men the rule of the Baptismal invocation. What says the
Lord’s command? “Baptizing them in the Name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost2126
.” How in
the Name of the Father? Because He is the primal cause of all things.
How in the Name of the Son? Because He is the Maker of the Creation.
How in the Name of the Holy Ghost? Because He is the power perfecting
all. We bow ourselves therefore before the Father, that we may be
sanctified: before the Son also we bow, that the same end may be
fulfilled: we bow also before the Holy Ghost, that we may be made what
He is in fact and in Name. There is not a distinction in the
sanctification, in the sense that the Father sanctifies more, the Son
less, the Holy Spirit in a less degree than the other Two. Why then
dost thou divide the Three Persons into fragments of different natures,
and make Three Gods, unlike one to another, whilst from all thou dost
receive one and the same grace?
As, however, examples always render an argument more vivid to the
hearers, I propose to instruct the mind of the blasphemers by an
illustration, explaining, by means of earthly and lowly matters, those
matters which are great, and invisible to the senses. If it befel thee
to be enduring the misfortune of captivity among enemies, to be in
bondage and in misery, to be groaning for that ancient freedom which
thou once hadst—and if all at once three men, who were notable
men and citizens in the country of thy tyrannical masters, set thee
free from the constraint that lay upon thee, giving thy ransom equally,
and dividing the charges of the money in equal shares among themselves,
wouldst thou not then, meeting with this favour, look upon the three
alike as benefactors, and make repayment of the ransom to them in equal
shares, as the trouble and the cost on thy behalf was common to them
all—if, that is, thou wert a fair judge of the benefit done to
thee? This we may see, so far as illustration goes2127
| 2127 The
meaning of this clause may be, either that Gregory does not propose to
follow this point out, as the subject of his discourse is Baptism, not
the doctrine of the Trinity; or, that the example he has given is not
to be so pressed as to imply tritheism, being merely an illustration of
moral obligation, not a parallel from which anything is to be inferred
as to the exact relation between the Three Persons. | , for our aim at present is not to render a
strict account of the Faith. Let us return to the present season, and
to the subject it sets before us.
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 ancient Scripture
everywhere prefigured the likeness of our regeneration; not clearly
manifesting its form, but fore-showing, in dark sayings, the love of
God to man. And as the Lamb was proclaimed by anticipation, and the
Cross was foretold by anticipation, so, too, was Baptism shown forth by
action and by word. Let us recall its types to those who love good
thoughts—for the festival season of necessity demands their
recollection.
Hagar, the handmaid of Abraham
(whom Paul treats allegorically in reasoning with the Galatians2128
), 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.
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 water2129
. 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 up2130
, 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. 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 well, which a multitude of shepherds were wont
to roll away when they came together, and then gave water to themselves
and to their flocks. But Jacob alone rolls away the stone, and waters
the flocks of his spouse2131
. The thing is, I
think, a dark saying, a shadow of what should come. For what is the
stone that is laid but Christ Himself? for of Him Isaiah says,
“And I will lay in the foundations of Sion a costly stone,
precious, elect2132
:” and Daniel
likewise, “A stone was cut out without hands2133
,” that is, Christ was born without a
man. For as it is a new and marvellous thing that a stone should be cut
out of the rock without a hewer or stone-cutting tools, so it is a
thing beyond all wonder that an offspring should appear from an
unwedded Virgin. There was lying, then, upon the well the spiritual2134
stone, Christ, concealing in the deep and in
mystery the laver of regeneration which needed much time—as it
were a long rope—to bring it to light. And none rolled away the
stone save Israel, who is mind seeing God. But he both draws up the
water and gives drink to the sheep of Rachel; that is, he reveals the
hidden mystery, and gives living water to the flock of the Church. Add
to this also the history of the three rods of Jacob2135
. For from the time when the three rods were
laid by the well, Laban the polytheist thenceforth became poor, and
Jacob became rich and wealthy in herds. Now let Laban be
interpreted of the devil, and Jacob of Christ. For after the
institution of Baptism Christ took away all the flock of Satan and
Himself grew rich. 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 made against the men-children, was exposed on
the banks of the river—not naked, but laid in an ark, for it was
fitting that the Law should typically be enclosed in a coffer2136
. And he was laid near the water; for the
Law, and those daily sprinklings of the Hebrews which were a little
later to be made plain in the perfect and marvellous Baptism, are near
to grace. Again, according to the view of the inspired Paul2137
, the people itself, by passing through the
Red Sea, proclaimed the good tidings of salvation by water. The people
passed over, and the Egyptian king with his host was engulfed, and by
these actions this Sacrament was foretold. For even now, whensoever the
people is in the water of regeneration, fleeing from Egypt, from the
burden of sin, it is set free and saved; but the devil with his own
servants (I mean, of course, the spirits of evil), is choked with
grief, and perishes, deeming the salvation of men to be his own
misfortune.
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 the Hebrews, as we
learn, after many sufferings, and after accomplishing their weary
course in the desert, did not enter the land of promise until it had
first been brought, with Joshua for its guide and the pilot of its
life, to the passage of the Jordan2138
. But it is
clear that Joshua also, who set up the twelve stones in the stream2139
, was anticipating the coming of the twelve
disciples, the ministers of Baptism. Again, that marvellous sacrifice
of the old Tishbite2140
, that passes all
human understanding, what else does it do but prefigure in action the
Faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and redemption? For
when all the people of the Hebrews had trodden underfoot the religion
of their fathers, and fallen into the error of polytheism, and their
king Ahab was deluded by idolatry, with Jezebel, of ill-omened name, as
the wicked partner of his life, and the vile prompter of his impiety,
the prophet, filled with the grace of the Spirit, coming to a meeting
with Ahab, withstood the priests of Baal in a marvellous and wondrous
contest in the sight of the king and all the people; and by proposing
to them the task of sacrificing the bullock without fire, he displayed
them in a ridiculous and wretched plight, vainly praying and crying
aloud to gods that were not. At last, himself invoking his own and the
true God, he accomplished the test proposed with further exaggerations
and additions. For he did not simply by prayer bring down the fire from
heaven upon the wood when it was dry, but exhorted and enjoined the
attendants to bring abundance of water. And when he had thrice poured
out the barrels upon the cleft wood, he kindled at his prayer the fire
from out of the water, that by the contrariety of the elements, so
concurring in friendly cooperation, he might show with superabundant
force the power of his own God. Now herein, by that wondrous sacrifice,
Elijah clearly proclaimed to us the sacramental rite of Baptism that
should afterwards be instituted. For the fire was kindled by water
thrice poured upon it, so that it is clearly shown that where the
mystic water is, there is the kindling, warm, and fiery Spirit, that
burns up the ungodly, and illuminates the faithful. Yes, and yet again
his disciple Elisha, when Naaman the Syrian, who was diseased with
leprosy, had come to him as a suppliant, cleanses the sick man by
washing him in Jordan2141
, clearly indicating
what should come, both by the use of water generally, and by the
dipping in the river in particular. For Jordan alone of rivers,
receiving in itself the first-fruits of sanctification and benediction,
conveyed in its channel to the whole world, as it were from some fount
in the type afforded by itself, the grace of Baptism. These then are
indications in deed and act of regeneration by Baptism. 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
souls2142
;” and David, “Draw nigh to Him
and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be ashamed2143
.” And Ezekiel, writing more clearly
and plainly than them both, says, “And I will sprinkle clean
water upon you, and ye shall be cleansed: from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give
you, and a new spirit will I give you: and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh, and my
Spirit will I put within you2144
.” Most
manifestly also does Zechariah prophesy of Joshua2145
| 2145 Cf. Zech. iii. 3. It is to be remembered, of course, that the form of the
name in the Septuagint is not Joshua but Jesus. | , who was clothed with the filthy garment (to
wit, the flesh of a servant, even ours), and stripping him of his
ill-favoured raiment adorns him with the clean and fair apparel;
teaching us by the figurative illustration that verily in the Baptism of Jesus2146
| 2146 If
“the Baptism of Jesus” here means (as seems most likely)
the Baptism of our Lord by S. John, not the Baptism instituted by our
Lord, then we are apparently intended to understand that our Lord,
summing up humanity in Himself, represented by His Baptism that of all
who should thereafter be baptized. | all we, putting off our sins like some poor
and patched garment, are clothed in the holy and most fair garment of
regeneration. And where shall we place that oracle of Isaiah, which
cries to the wilderness, “Be glad, O thirsty wilderness: let the
desert rejoice and blossom as a lily: and the desolate places of Jordan
shall blossom and shall rejoice2147
”? For it
is clear that it is not to places without soul or sense that he
proclaims the good tidings of joy: but he speaks, by the figure of the
desert, of the soul that is parched and unadorned, even as David also,
when he says, “My soul is unto Thee as a thirsty land2148
,” and, “My soul is athirst for
the mighty, for the living God2149
.” So again
the Lord says in the Gospels, “If any man thirst, let him come
unto Me and drink2150
;” and to the
woman of Samaria, “Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst2151
.” And “the excellency of
Carmel”2152
is given to the
soul that bears the likeness to the desert, that is, the grace bestowed
through the Spirit. For since Elijah dwelt in Carmel, and the mountain
became famous and renowned by the virtue of him who dwelt there, and
since moreover John the Baptist, illustrious in the spirit of Elijah,
sanctified the Jordan, therefore the prophet foretold that “the
excellency of Carmel” should be given to the river. And
“the glory of Lebanon2153
,” from the
similitude of its lofty trees, he transfers to the river. For as great
Lebanon presents a sufficient cause of wonder in the very trees which
it brings forth and nourishes, so is the Jordan glorified by
regenerating men and planting them in the Paradise of God: and of them,
as the words of the Psalmist say, ever blooming and bearing the foliage
of virtues, “the leaf shall not wither2154
,” and God shall be glad, receiving
their fruit in due season, rejoicing, like a good planter, in his own
works. And the inspired David, foretelling also the voice which the
Father uttered from heaven upon the Son at His Baptism, that He might
lead the hearers, who till then had looked upon that low estate of His
Humanity which was perceptible by their senses, to the dignity of
nature that belongs to the Godhead, wrote in his book that passage,
“The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the voice of the Lord
in majesty2155
.” But here we must make an end
of the testimonies from the Divine Scriptures: for the discourse would
extend to an infinite length if one should seek to select every passage
in detail, and set them forth in a single book.
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, the change in
your ways that should follow it, and make known by the purity of your
conversation the difference effected by your transformation for the
better. For of those things which are before our eyes nothing is
altered: the characteristics of the body remain unchanged, and the
mould of the visible nature is nowise different. But there is certainly
need of some manifest proof, by which we may recognize the new-born
man, discerning by clear tokens the new from the old. And these I think
are to be found in the intentional motions of the soul, whereby it
separates itself from its old customary life, and enters on a newer way
of conversation, and will clearly teach those acquainted with it that
it has become something different from its former self, bearing in it
no token by which the old self was recognized. This, if you be
persuaded by me, and keep my words as a law, is the mode of the
transformation. The man that was before Baptism was wanton, covetous,
grasping at the goods of others, a reviler, a liar, a slanderer, and
all that is kindred with these things, and consequent from them. Let
him now become orderly, sober, content with his own possessions, and
imparting from them to those in poverty, truthful, courteous,
affable—in a word, following every laudable course of conduct.
For as darkness is dispelled by light, and black disappears as
whiteness is spread over it, so the old man also disappears when
adorned with the works of righteousness. Thou seest how Zacchæus
also by the change of his life slew the publican, making fourfold
restitution to those whom he had unjustly damaged, and the rest he
divided with the poor—the treasure which he had before got by ill
means from the poor whom he oppressed. The Evangelist Matthew, another
publican, of the same business with Zacchæus, at once after his
call changed his life as if it had been a mask. Paul was a persecutor,
but after the grace bestowed on him an Apostle, bearing the weight of
his fetters for Christ’s sake, as an act of amends and repentance
for those unjust bonds which he once received from the Law, and bore
for use against the Gospel. Such ought you to be in your regeneration:
so ought you to blot out your habits that tend to sin; so ought the
sons of God to have their conversation: for after the grace bestowed we
are called His children. And therefore we ought narrowly to
scrutinize our Father’s characteristics, that by fashioning and framing
ourselves to the likeness of our Father, we may appear true children of
Him Who calls us to the adoption according to grace. For the bastard
and the supposititious son, who belies his father’s nobility in
his deeds, is a sad reproach. Therefore also, methinks, it is that the
Lord Himself, laying down for us in the Gospels the rules of our life,
uses these words to His disciples, “Do good to them that hate
you, pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye
may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh
His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the
just and on the unjust2156
.” For then He
says they are sons when in their own modes of thought they are
fashioned in loving kindness towards their kindred, after the likeness
of the Father’s goodness.
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 the beauty of the
new-born man, earnestly tending towards that heavenly city, from which
he fell: and he raises up against us fiery temptations, seeking
earnestly to despoil us of that second adornment, as he did of our
former array. But when we are aware of his attacks, we ought to repeat
to ourselves the apostolic words, “As many of us as were baptized
into Christ were baptized into His death2157
.” Now if we have been conformed to His
death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced through by the
javelin of Baptism, as that fornicator was thrust through by the
zealous Phinehas2158
. Flee therefore
from us, ill-omened one! for it is a corpse thou seekest to despoil,
one long ago joined to thee, one who long since lost his senses for
pleasures. A corpse is not enamoured of bodies, a corpse is not
captivated by wealth, a corpse slanders not, a corpse lies not,
snatches not at what is not its own, reviles not those who encounter
it. My way of living is regulated for another life: I have learnt to
despise the things that are in the world, to pass by the things of
earth, to hasten to the things of heaven, even as Paul expressly
testifies, that the world is crucified to him, and he to the world2159
. These are the words of a soul truly
regenerated: these are the utterances of the newly-baptized man, who
remembers his own profession, which he made to God when the sacrament
was administered to him, promising that he would despise for the sake
of love towards Him all torment and all pleasure alike.
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 what remains to
end our discourse by turning it to the loving Giver of so great a boon,
offering to Him a few words as the requital of great things. For Thou
verily, O Lord, art the pure and eternal fount of goodness, Who didst
justly turn away from us, and in loving kindness didst have mercy upon
us. Thou didst hate, and wert reconciled; Thou didst curse, and didst
bless; Thou didst banish us from Paradise, and didst recall us; Thou
didst strip off the fig-tree leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon
us a costly garment; Thou didst open the prison, and didst release the
condemned; Thou didst sprinkle us with clean water, and cleanse us from
our filthiness. No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee,
nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket
of Paradise. Nor shall the flaming sword encircle Paradise around, and
make the entrance inaccessible to those that draw near; but all is
turned to joy for us that were the heirs of sin: Paradise, yea, heaven
itself may be trodden by man: and the creation, in the world and above
the world, that once was at variance with itself, is knit together in
friendship: and we men are made to join in the angels’ song,
offering the worship of their praise to God. 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 Lord: for He
hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and hath put upon me a
robe of gladness: as on a bridegroom He hath set a mitre upon me, and
as a bride hath He adorned me with fair array2160
.” And verily the Adorner of the bride
is Christ, Who is, and was, and shall be, blessed now and for evermore.
Amen.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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