Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending
all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after. How then do we achieve the descent
into hell? By imitating, through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized
are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of
the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, ye were “circumcised with the circumcision made
without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;
buried with him in baptism.” 1011 And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the
filth 1012 that has grown on it from the carnal mind, 1013 as it is written, “Thou shalt wash
me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” 1014 On this account we do not, as is the fashion of
the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvation 1015 to be
one. 1016 For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the
dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life,
gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the
image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer
to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit 1017 is clear: the reason is because
in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, 1018
that it may never bear fruit unto death; 1019 on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit, 1020
and having our fruit in holiness; 1021 the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death,
while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of
sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit,
the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the
Spirit. In three immersions, 1022 then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of
1011 Col. ii. 11, 12.
1012 cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21.
1013 τὸ σαρκικὸν φρόνημα. cf. the φρόνημα τῆς σαρκός of Rom. viii. 6. cf. Article ix.
1014 Ps. li. 9.
1015 cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21.
1016 cf. Eph. iv. 5.
1017 cf. John iii. 5.
1018 cf. Rom. vi. 6.
1019 cf. Rom. vii. 5.
1020 cf. Gal. v. 25.
1021 cf. Rom. vi. 22.
Reply to the suggested objection that we are baptized “into water.” Also…
1022 Trine immersion was the universal rule of the Catholic Church. cf. Greg. Nyss. The Great Catechism,
p. 502 of this edition. So Tertull. de Cor. Mil. c iii., Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub
antistitis manu contestamur, nos renuntiare diabolo et pompæ et angelis ejus. Dehinc ter mergitamur. Sozomen
(vi. 26) says that Eunomius was alleged to be the first to maintain that baptism ought to be performed in one
immersion and to corrupt in this manner the tradition of the apostles, and Theodoret (Hæret. fab. iv. 3) describes
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