Chapter XVIII.
In the narration of that event already mentioned, and
especially of the sacrifice offered by Nehemiah, is typified the Holy
Spirit and Christian baptism. The sacrifice of Moses and Elijah
and the history of Noah are also referred to the same.
102. We form the
congregation of the Lord. We recognize the propitiation of our
Lord God, which our Propitiator wrought in His passion. I think,
too, we cannot leave out of sight that fire when we read that the Lord
Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit and with fire,718
as John said in his Gospel.
Rightly was the sacrifice consumed, for it was for sin. But that
fire was a type of the Holy Spirit Who was to come down after the
Lord’s ascension, and forgive the sins of all, and Who like fire
inflames the mind and faithful heart. Wherefore Jeremiah, after
receiving the Spirit, says: “It became in my heart as a
burning fire flaming in my bones, and I am vile and cannot bear
it.”719
In the Acts
of the Apostles, also, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles
and those others who were waiting for the Promise of the Father, we
read that tongues as of fire were distributed among them.720
The soul of each one was so uplifted
by His influence that they were supposed to be full of new
wine,721
who instead had received the gift of a
diversity of tongues.
103. What else can this mean—namely,
that fire became water and water called forth fire—but that
spiritual grace burns out our sins through fire, and through water
cleanses them? For sin is washed away and it is burnt away.
Wherefore the Apostle says: “The fire shall try every
man’s work of what sort it is.”722
And further on: “If any
man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he
himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”723
104. This, then, we have stated, so as to prove
that sins are burnt out by means of fire. We know now that this
is in truth the sacred fire which then, as a type of the future
remission of sins, came down upon the sacrifice.
105. This fire is hidden in the time of captivity,
during which sin reigns, but in the time of liberty it is brought
forth. And though it is changed into the appearance of water, yet
it preserves its nature as fire so as to consume the sacrifice.
Do not wonder when thou readest that God the Father
said: “I am a consuming
fire.”724
And
again: “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living
water.”725
The Lord
Jesus, too, like a fire inflamed the hearts of those who heard Him, and
like a fount of waters cooled them. For He Himself said in His
Gospel that He came to send fire on the earth726
and to supply a draught of living waters to those who thirst.727
106. In the time of Elijah, also, fire came
down when he challenged the prophets of the heathen to light up the
altar without fire. When they could not do so, he poured water
thrice over his victim, so that the water ran round about the altar;
then he cried out and the fire fell from the Lord from heaven and
consumed the burnt-offering.728
107. Thou art that victim. Contemplate
in silence each single point. The breath of the Holy Spirit
descends on thee, He seems to burn thee when He consumes thy
sins. The sacrifice which was consumed in the time of Moses was a
sacrifice for sin, wherefore Moses said, as is written in the book of
the Maccabees: “Because the sacrifice for sin was not to be
eaten, it was consumed.”729
Does it not
seem to be consumed for thee when in the sacrament of baptism the whole
outer man perishes? “Our old man is
crucified,”730
the Apostle
exclaims. Herein, as the example of the fathers teaches us, the
Egyptian is swallowed up—the Hebrew arises renewed by the Holy
Spirit, as he also crossed the Red Sea dryshod—where our fathers
were baptized in the cloud and in the sea.731
108. In the flood, too, in Noah’s time
all flesh died, though just Noah was preserved together with his
family.732
Is not a man consumed when all
that is mortal is cut off from life? The outer man is destroyed,
but the inner is renewed. Not in baptism alone but also in
repentance does this destruction of the flesh tend to the growth of the
spirit, as we are taught on the Apostle’s authority, when holy
Paul says: “I have judged as though I were present him that
hath so done this deed, to deliver him unto Satan for the destruction
of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus
Christ.”733
109. We seem to have made a somewhat lengthy
digression for the sake of regarding this wonderful mystery, in
desiring to unfold more fully this sacrament which has been revealed to
us, and which, indeed, is as full of virtue as it is full of religious
awe.
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