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| Chapter IV. That water does not cleanse without the Spirit is shown by the witness of John and by the very form of the administration of the sacrament. And this is also declared to be signified by the pool in the Gospel and the man who was there healed. In the same passage, too, is shown that the Holy Spirit truly descended on Christ at His baptism, and the meaning of this mystery is explained.
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Chapter IV.
That water does not cleanse without the Spirit is shown
by the witness of John and by the very form of the administration of
the sacrament. And this is also declared to be signified by the
pool in the Gospel and the man who was there healed. In the same
passage, too, is shown that the Holy Spirit truly descended on Christ
at His baptism, and the meaning of this mystery is explained.
19. The reason why
you were told before not to believe only what you saw was that you
might not say perchance, This is that great mystery “which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of
man.”2847
I see
water, which I have been used to see every day. Is that water to
cleanse me now in which I have so often bathed without ever being
cleansed? By this you may recognize that water does not cleanse
without the Spirit.
20. Therefore read that the three witnesses
in baptism, the water, the blood, and the Spirit,2848
are one, for if you take away one of
these, the Sacrament of Baptism does not exist. For what is water
without the cross of Christ? A common element, without any
sacramental effect. Nor, again, is there the Sacrament of
Regeneration without water: “For except a man be born again
of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God.”2849
Now,
even the catechumen believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, wherewith
he too is signed; but unless he be baptized in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot receive remission of
sins nor gain the gift of spiritual grace.
21. So that Syrian dipped himself seven
times2850
under the law, but you were baptized in
the Name of the Trinity, you confessed the Father. Call to mind
what you did: you confessed the Son, you confessed the Holy
Spirit. Mark well the order of things in this faith: you
died to the world,
and rose
again to God. And as though buried to the world in that element,
being dead to sin, you rose again to eternal life. Believe,
therefore, that these waters are not void of power.
22. Therefore it is said: “An
angel of the Lord went down according to the season into the pool, and
the water was troubled; and he who first after the troubling of the
water went down into the pool was healed of whatsoever disease he was
holden.”2851
This pool
was at Jerusalem, in which one was healed every year, but no one was
healed before the angel had descended. Because of those who
believed not the water was troubled as a sign that the angel had
descended. They had a sign, you have faith; for them an angel
descended, for you the Holy Spirit; for them the creature was troubled,
for you Christ Himself, the Lord of the creature, works.
23. Then one was healed, now all are made
whole; or more exactly, the Christian people alone, for in some even
the water is deceitful.2852
The
baptism of unbelievers heals not but pollutes. The Jew washes
pots and cups, as though things without sense were capable of guilt or
grace. But do you wash this living cup of yours, that in it your
good works may shine and the glory of your grace be bright. For
that pool was as a type, that you might believe that the power of God
descends upon this font.
24. Lastly, that paralytic was waiting for a
man. And what man save the Lord Jesus, born of the Virgin, at
Whose coming no longer the shadow should heal men one by one, but the
truth should heal the whole. He it is, then, Whose coming down
was being waited for, of Whom the Father said to John the
Baptist: “Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and abiding upon Him, this is He Who baptizeth with the Holy
Spirit.”2853
And
John bare witness of Him, and said: “I saw the Spirit
descending from heaven like a dove and abiding upon
Him.”2854
And why
did the Spirit descend like a dove, but in order that you might see,
that you might acknowledge, that that dove also which just Noah sent
forth from the ark was a likeness of this dove, that you might
recognize the type of the sacrament?
25. Perhaps you may object: Since that
was a real dove which was sent forth, and the Spirit descended like a
dove, how is it that we say that the likeness was there and the reality
here, whereas in the Greek it is written that the Spirit descended in
the likeness of a dove? But what is so real as the Godhead which
abides for ever? Now the creature cannot be the reality, but only
a likeness, which is easily destroyed and changed. So, again,
because the simplicity of those who are baptized ought to be not in
appearance but in reality, and the Lord says: “Be ye wise
as serpents and simple as doves.”2855
Rightly, then, did He descend like
a dove, in order to admonish us that we ought to have the simplicity of
the dove. And further we read of the likeness being put for the
reality, both as regards Christ: “And was found in likeness
as a man;”2856
and as regards
God the Father: “Nor have ye seen His
likeness.”2857
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