O John, who saw the Spirit that abode on the head of the Son to show how the Head of the Highest went down and was baptised and came up to be Head on earth! Children of the Spirit have ye thus become, and Christ hath become for you the Head: ye also have become His members.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Consider and see how exalted ye are; how instead of the river Jordan ye haveglorious Baptism, wherein is peace, spreading her wings to shade your bodies. In the wilderness John baptised: in Her pure flood of Baptism, purely are ye baptised therein.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Infants think when they see itsglory that by its pomp its might is enhanced. But it is the same, and within itself is not divided. But the might which never waxes less or greater in us is little or again great, and he in whom is great understanding, great in him is Baptism.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
A man’s knowledge, if it be exalted exalted also is his degree above his brethren; and he whosefaith is great, so also is his promise and as is his wisdom, so also his crowning. As is the light, which though it be all goodly and equal all of it with itself, yet goodlier is one eye than another.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Jesus mingled His might in the water: put Him on my brethren as discerning men! For there are those that in the water merely perceive that they are washed. With our body be oursoul washed! Let the body perceive the manifest water and the soul the secret might, that ye may be made like unto both the manifest and to the secret!
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
How beautiful is Baptism in the eye of the heart; come, let us gaze on it! Like as by a seal ye have been moulded; receive its image that nought may be lacking to us of our image! For the sheep that are white of heart gaze on the glory that is in the water: in your souls reflect it!
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Water is by nature as a mirror for one who in it examines himself. Stir up yoursoul, ye that discern and be like it! For it, in its midst, reflects your image from it, on it, find an example; in it, gaze upon Baptism and put on the beauty that is hidden therein!
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
What profits it him that hears a voice andknowsnot its significance? Whoever hears a voice and is devoid of the understanding, thereof his ear is filled but his soul is empty. Lo! since the gift is abundant, with discernment receive it.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Baptism that is with understanding is the conjunction of two lights and rich are the fountains of its rays. And the darkness that is on the mind departs and the soul beholds Him in beauty, the hidden Christ of glory, and grieves when the glory fails.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Baptism without understanding is a treasure full yet empty, since he that receives it is poor in it, for he understands not how great are its riches into which he enters and dwells. For great is the gift within it, though the mean man perceives not that he is exalted even as it.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Open wide your minds and see, my brethren the secret column in the air, whose base is fixed from the midst of the water unto the door of the Highest Place, like the ladder that Jacob saw. Lo! By it came down the light unto Baptism, and by it the soul goes up to Heaven that in one love we may be mingled.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Our Lord, when he wasbaptisedby John, sent forth twelve fountains and they issued forth and cleansed by their streams the defilement of the peoples. His worshippers are made white like His garments, the garments in Tabor and the body in the water. Instead of the garments the peoples are made white and have become for Him a clothing of glory.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
From your garments learn, my brethren how your members should be kept. For if the garment, which ever so many times may be made clean is duly kept for the sake of its comeliness, the body which has but one baptism, manifold more exceeding is the care of its keeping, for manifold are its dangers.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!
Again the sun in a house that is narrow is narrowed therein, though he be great: but in a house that is goodly and large when he rises thereon far and wide, in it he spreads his rays and though the sun is one and the same in his nature, in various houses he undergoes changes: Even so our Lord in various men.
Blessed is He Who came down, and sanctified water for the remission of the sins of the children of Adam!