LECTURE XX.

(ON THE MYSTERIES. II.)

ON THE RITE OF BAPTISM.

ROM. vi. 3-14.

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death? &c. ... for ye are not under the Law, but under grace.

1. THESE introductions into the Mysteries day by day, and these new instructions, which are the announcements of new truths, are profitable to us; and most of all to you, who have been renewed from oldness to newness. Therefore, as is necessary, I will lay before you the sequel of yesterday's Lecture, that ye may learn of what those things, which were done by you in the inner chamber, were the emblems.

2. As soon, therefore, as ye entered in, ye put off your (2.) garment; and this was an image of putting off the old man Col. 3,9. with his deeds. Having stripped yourselves, ye were naked; in this also imitating Christ, who hung naked on the Cross, and by His nakedness spoiled principalities and powers, and Col. 2, openly triumphed over them on the tree. For since the 15. powers of the enemy made their lair in your members, ye may no longer wear that old vestment; I do not at all mean this visible one, but that old man, which is corrupt according aisontor. to the deceitful lusts. May no soul which has once put him Eph. 4, off, again put him on, but say with the Spouse of Christ in the Song of Songs, I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? Cant. 5, O wondrous thing! ye were naked in the sight of all, and 3. were not ashamed; for truly ye bore the likeness of the firstformed Adam, who was naked in the garden, and was not ashamed.

22.

3. Then, when ye were stripped, ye were anointed with (3.) exorcised oil, from the very hairs of your head, to your feet,

XX.

Myst. 2.

Lect.ix.

(4.)

264 The candidates undressed, anointed, baptized thrice. LECT, and were made partakers of the good olive-tree, Jesus Christ. For ye were cut off from the wild olive-tree, and grafted into the good one, and were made to share the fatness of the true olive-tree. The exorcised oil therefore was a symbol of the participation of the fatness of Christ, the charm to drive away every trace of hostile influence. For as the breathing of the Introd. saints, and the invocation of the Name of God, like fiercest flame, scorch and drive out evil spirits, so also this exorcised oil receives such virtue by the invocation of God and by prayer, as not only to burn and cleanse away the traces of sins, but also to chase away all the invisible powers of the evil one. 4. After these things, ye were led to the holy pool of Divine Baptism, as Christ was carried from the Cross to the Sepulchre which is before our eyes. And each of you was asked, whether he believed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and ye made that saving confession, and descended three times into the water, and ascended again; here also covertly pointing by a figure at the three-days burial of Christ. For as our Saviour passed three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, so you also in your first ascent out of the water, represented the first day of Christ in the earth, and by your descent, the night; for as he who is in the night, sees no more, but he who is in the day, remains in the light, so in descending, ye saw nothing as in the night, but in ascending again, ye were as in the day. And at the self-same moment, ye died and were born; and that Water of salvation was at once your grave and your mother. And what Solomon spoke of others will suit you also; for he Eccles. said, There is a time to bear and a time to die; but to you, on 3, 2. the contrary, the time to die is also the time to be born; and one and the same season brings about both of these, and your birth went hand in hand with your death.

(5) 5. O strange and inconceivable thing! we did not really die, we were not really buried, we were not really crucified and raised again; but our imitation was but in a figure, while our salvation is in reality. Christ was actually crucified, and actually buried, and truly rose again; and all these things have been vouchsafed to us, that we, by imitation commu

a This was the ancient practice, vid. Tertull. in Prax. 26. de Cor. Mil. 3.

Can. Apost. 42. Bingham gives the history of it, Antiqu. xi. 11. §. 6—8.

Baptism, forgiveness, adoption, fellowship with Christ's sufferings.265 nicating in His sufferings, might gain salvation in reality. O surpassing loving-kindness! Christ received the nails in His undefiled hands and feet, and endured anguish; while to me without suffering or toil, by the fellowship of His pain He vouchsafes salvation.

iii. 7.

Hebr. 9,

6. Let no one then suppose that Baptism is merely the grace vid. sup. of remission of sins, or further, that of adoption; as John's baptism bestowed only the remission of sins. Nay we know full well, that as it purges our sins, and conveys to us the gift govor. of the Holy Ghost, so also it is the counterpart of Christ's artítosufferings. For for this cause Paul, just now read, cries aloud. vid. and says, Know ye not that as many of us as were baptized 24. into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His death? Therefore 3. we are buried with Him by baptism into death. These words he spake to them who had settled with themselves that Baptism ministers to us the remission of sins, and adoption, but not that further it has communion also in representation with Christ's true sufferings.

Rom. 6,

5.

7. In order therefore that we may learn, that whatsoever (6.) things Christ endured, He suffered them for us and our salvation, and that, in reality and not in appearance, we also are made partakers of His sufferings. Paul cried with all exactness of truth, For if we have been planted together in Rom. 6, the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness ofɔ̃. His resurrection. Well has he said, planted together. For since the true Vine was planted in this place, we also by partaking in the Baptism of death, have been planted together with Him. And fix thy mind with much attention on the words of the Apostle. He has not said, " For if we have been planted together in His death," but, in the likeness of His death. For upon Christ death came in reality, for His soul was truly separated from His body; and His burial was true, for His holy body was wrapt in pure linen; and every thing happened to Him truly; but in your case only the likeness of death and sufferings, whereas of salvation, not the likeness, but the reality.

8. Of these things then having been sufficiently instructed, keep them, I beseech you, in your remembrance; that I also, unworthy though I be, may say of you, Now I love you, 1 Cor. brethren, because ye remember me in all things, and keep the ἀγαπῶ,

11, 2.

Cyr.

XX.

266

Baptism the likeness of Christ's death.

LECT. ordinances, as I delivered them unto you. And God, who has Myst. 2. presented you as it were alive from the dead, is able to grant ira, unto you to walk in newness of life; because His is the praise, glory and the power, now and for ever. Amen.

rec.text.

LECTURE XXI.

(ON THE MYSTERIES. III.)

ON THE HOLY CHRISM.

1 JOHN ii. 20-28.

But ye have an unction from the Holy One, &c. . . . . that, when He shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

27.

Phil. 3,

Heb. 3,

14.

ἀντίτυ

1. HAVING been baptized into Christ, and put on Christ, ye Gal. 3, have been made conformable to the Son of God; for God having predestinated us to the adoption of sons, made us share the Eph.1,5. fashion of Christ's glorious body. Being therefore made par- 21. takers of Christ, ye are properly called Christs, and of you le God said, Touch not My Christs, or anointed. Now ye were ps. 105, made Christs, by receiving the emblem of the Holy Ghost; 15. and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because ye xv. are figures of Christ. He also bathed Himself in the river Jordan, and having imparted of the fragrance of His Godhead to the waters, He came up from them; and the Holy Ghost in substance lighted on Him, like resting upon like. In the same manner to you also, after you had come up from the pool of the sacred streams, was given the Unction, the emblem viru of that wherewith Christ was anointed; and this is the Holy Ghost; of whom also the blessed Esaias, in his prophecy respecting Him, says in the person of the Lord, The Spirit of the Is.61,7. Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach glad tidings to the poor.

ουσιώδης

ἐπιφοίτη

TOY.

2. For Christ was not anointed by men with oil or material (2.) ointment, but the Father having appointed Him to be the Saviour of the whole world, anointed Him with the Holy Ghost, as Peter says, Jesus of Nazareth, whom God anointed Acts to,