^ PRINCETON, N. J. '^' 
 
 Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Agneiu Coll. on Baptism, No. 
 
 
Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive 
 
 in 2011 witii funding from 
 
 Princeton Tlieological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.arclnive.org/details/fivesermonsonsomOOwrot 
 
FIVE SERMONS 
 
 ox SOME OF 
 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT TYPES 
 
 HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 REV. WAEWICK R. WROTH, B.A., 
 
 INCUMBENT OF S. PHILIP'S, CLERKEXWELL. 
 
 TYPES SHOW FORTH THE MAJESTY OF BAPTISM." — LrTHEli. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOSEPH MASTEES, ALDERSQATE STREET, 
 
 AND NEW BOND STREET. 
 
 MDCCCIX. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 JOSEPH MASTERS AND CO., PEINTEES, 
 
 ALDEKSGATE STREET. 
 
NOTICE. 
 
 The following Sermons have never been preached ex- 
 actly in their present form. They were originally 
 printed in " The Gospel Messenger -," and are now re- 
 published in compliance with the wishes of some, who 
 thought they might be useful if collected in a small 
 volume. 
 
 I have derived much assistance in composing them 
 from " Scriptural Views on Holy Baptism.'^ 
 
>>^^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF GOD BEOODING ON THE PACE OF THE WATEES. 
 
 PAGK 
 
 " And the Spieit of God moyed upon the face of the waters." — 
 Genesis i. 2 3 
 
 n. 
 
 THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZINa THE EARTH. 
 
 " Once the long-siiffermg of God waited in the days of Noah 
 while the Ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls 
 were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth 
 also now save us." — 1 S. Peter iii. 20, 21 19 
 
 III. 
 
 THE RED SEA. 
 
 " Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, 
 how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and aU passed 
 through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud 
 and in the sea." — 1 Cor. x. 1 37 
 
 IV. 
 
 NAAMAN. 
 
 " Wash and be clean." — 2 Kings v. 13 . . . . .53 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 THE POOL OF BETHESDA A TYPE OF HOIT BAPTISM. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, 
 and troubled the water : whosoever then first, after the troubling of 
 the water, stepped in, was made whole o£ whatsoever disease he 
 had."— S. John V. 4. ......... 73 
 
THE SPIEIT OP GOD BROODING ON THE 
 WATERS. 
 
 Genesis i. 2. 
 " And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the 'watees." 
 
" Should any one be anxious to know why the gift is given through 
 water, and not through any other of the elements, if he take up the 
 Holy Scriptures he will discover. For a great thing is water, and of the 
 four visible elements of the world the most beautiful." S. Cyril. Cat. 
 Leet. iii. 5. 
 
^*^^-. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF GOD BROODING ON THE 
 WATERS. 
 
 G-ENESIS I. 2. 
 
 " Ajm THE SpntiT OP God moved upon the face op the watees." 
 
 A MIGHTY depth is Holy Scripture^ and never may we 
 hope to fathom it to the bottom. The self-conceited stu- 
 dent "will never see beyond its surface^ and miss its hid- 
 den mysteries. With extreme reverence and humility 
 should we ever open the Holy Volume, and approach it 
 with the sole desire to know and do the truth. Mere 
 cleverness cannot judge of the deep things of God's 
 holy law. '^ The natural man receiveth not the things 
 of the Spirit of God : for they are foolishness unto him, 
 neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
 discerned."^ Eaith and humility recognised Jesus in 
 the flesh as the Son of God : pride and self-righteousness 
 knew Him not. So in God's Word : faith and humility 
 see Christ there and everywhere -j"^ pride and mere learn- 
 ing see Him not. Mere cleverness criticises and distorts 
 the Word of God to its own will. Faith is always urged 
 
 1 1 Cor. ii. 14. 
 
 ^ S. Augustine, commenting on the " six water-pots," (S. John ii. 6,) 
 says, " Ii is lawful for us to seek Christ evert/where, and to drink wine 
 from all water-pots." In Johan. Tract, ix. 10. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 to exclaim witli lowly adoration and awe, " Surely the 
 Lord is in this place, and T knew it not."^ 
 
 When we read Holy Scripture, we should never be 
 contented with looking at the letter only, but try to 
 pierce into the hidden meaning.^ When the alabaster 
 box of ointment is broken, then do we perceive the pre- 
 ciousness of its contents ; so, when God's words are 
 broken by meditation, do we find what precious truths 
 they contain. Many a mystery is lying enshrined in 
 type and figure ; and through these we may often gain 
 the truest knowledge of the realities of the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 Again, we should remember that, as God is one, so 
 is His Word : one part can never contradict the other ; 
 but must, rightly understood, explain it. The New 
 Testament is the development of the Old.^ The Gospel 
 is the Law fulfilled ; the Law the Gospel veiled. The 
 Bible from beginning to end is full of Christ and His 
 kingdom. 
 
 And as, too, the great kingdom of nature has the 
 same Author as the kingdom of grace, so doubtless the 
 natural world is full of analogies to the spiritual. The 
 seed which lies in the ground and rots, and in due time 
 
 1 Gen. xxviii. 16. 
 
 2 " Quid credendum est de tot factis, quse nullo naturali usu, nulla 
 negotii necessitate facta sunt ? Nihilne significant ? . . . Omnia cum 
 considerantur, et quasi superilua necessariis contexta inveniuntur, ad- 
 monent humanum animum, id est animum rationalem, prius aliquid 
 
 .significare, deinde quid significent qucBrere" S. Aug. contra Faust, c. 
 37, 38. 
 
 3 " In the Old Testament the New is shadowed forth. For what is 
 the Old Testament but the TeUing of the New ? And what is the New 
 Testament but the re-veaUng of the Old ?" S. Aug. De Ciy. Dei, 
 xvi. 26. . 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODING ON THE WATERS. 5 
 
 springs up again^ is^ we know from S. Paul, the emblem 
 of our death and resurrection. And we are bold to say 
 that this is no chance resemblance, but that the seed 
 was so organised in order that it might be a visible figure 
 of these things. " The works of the Lord are great, 
 sought out of all them that have pleasure therein." ^ 
 But never does their sublime greatness, never does the 
 pleasure derived from them, so affect us, as when we can 
 discern in them the typical representations of the mys- 
 teries of our higher being. 
 
 As, then, the Lord of the Old Creation is one with 
 the Lord of the New, we should at the very outset ex- 
 pect to find some intimate connection between them. 
 And so it is. The commencement of S. John^s Gospel, 
 for instance, cannot fail to turn our thoughts to the 
 commencement of the Book of G-enesis. '^ In the begin- 
 ning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
 the Word was God. The Same was in the beginning 
 with God. All things were made by Him.""^ "In the 
 beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Gen. 
 i. 1.) And thus, too, our Blessed Lord is called the 
 " true Light,"^ evidently referring to that light in the 
 natural creation which was " the figure of the true."^ 
 And S. Paul remarkably connects the two creations. 
 " Who is the First-born of every creature : for by Him 
 were all things created that are in heaven, and that are 
 in earth. . . . All things were created by Him and for 
 Him. . . . And He is the Head of the Body, the 
 Church, Who is the beginning, the First-born from the 
 dead."5 
 
 1 Ps. cxi. 2. 2 S. John i. 1, 2. 3 S. John i. 9. 
 
 * Heb. ix. 24. « Col. i. 15, sqq. 
 
6 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 Since, then_, it is plain tliat we are justified in tracing 
 a resemblance between tbe two creations, let us reve- 
 rently attempt to do tbis witb reference to tbe text, and 
 see wbether it be not true in each case that God " layeth 
 the beams of His chambers in the waters''^ — that in the 
 spiritual no less than in the natural creation '^ the Spirit 
 moves upon the face of the waters/' and so " the waters 
 bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath 
 life."^ 
 
 Before the mysterious incubation of the Holy Ghost, 
 we read that " the earth was without form and void, 
 and darkness was upon the face of the deep."^ How 
 true an image is this of man's fallen state ! By the 
 Fall the whole of his being was perverted. Darkness 
 settled down upon his whole nature. The grace he had 
 received from without was forfeited. Alienated from 
 God, he was alienated from the Light, and his " foolish 
 heart was darkened." The wonderful harmony which 
 before existed in his will, his understanding, his lower 
 appetites, was destroyed. He " was without form and 
 void," full of disorder and confasion, yea, '^dead in 
 trespasses and sins." 
 
 When, therefore, the first creation had thus fallen in 
 the first Adam, the Eternal Father, out of the love He 
 bore to the world, sent His only-begotten Son to take 
 our nature upon Him in the womb of the Blessed 
 Virgin,* " The Holy Ghost coming upon her, and the 
 
 » Ps. civ. 3. 2 Gen. i. 20. 3 Gen. i. 2. 
 
 ■* " If the Holt Ghost coming upon the Virgin -wrought that she 
 should conceive, and completed the work of generation, surely we ought 
 not to doubt that, coming upon the Pont, or on the baptized, He works 
 true regeneration." S. Ambrose De Mysteriis, 59. 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODING ON THE WATERS. 7 
 
 power of the Highest overshadowing her/^^ so that 
 "two whole and perfect Natures, that is to say, the 
 Godhead and Manhood_, were joined together in One 
 Person, never to be divided/^ The Son of God Incar- 
 nate became the New Head of the human race — the 
 second Adam. And "forasmuch as the children are 
 partakers of flesh and blood. He also Himself likewise 
 took part of the same, that through death "2 jjg might 
 redeem us from death, purge us from our sins by His 
 precious Blood, and " open a channel to the whole 
 human family through regeneration and grace, for com- 
 munion with GoD.^' 
 
 But here it is to be noticed that at our natural birth 
 we are in the first Adam, " shapen in iniquity and con- 
 ceived in sin,^^ with the wrath of God abiding on us ; it 
 is necessary, therefore, that we should in some way be 
 united to the second Adam, so that as we were dead in 
 the first Adam, we might in Christ, the second Adam 
 be made alive. To effect this marvellous incorporation, 
 the Sacrament of Holy Baptism has specially been or- 
 dained by Christ Himself. By it we are "made mem- 
 bers of Christ." " By one Spirit we are all baptized 
 into one body,''^^ ^nd are " made partakers of the Divine 
 nature."^ " In Him we again live and move and have 
 our being."^ " In Him is life, and His life is the Light 
 of men."^ " He that hath the Son hath life, and he 
 that hath not the Son hath not life."7 (^ if any man 
 be in Christ, he is a new creatm'e : old things are 
 passed away ; behold, all things are become new."^ 
 
 1 S. Luke i. 35. 2 Heb. ii. 14. ^ 1 Cor. xii. 13. 
 
 * 2 S. Pet. i. 4. 5 Acts xvii. 28. « S. John i. 4. 
 
 7 S. John V. 12. ■ 8 2 Cor. v. 17. 
 
8 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 The Body of Christ into wliicli we are thus baptized 
 is sometimes called His Church, as says the Apostle ; 
 " And gave Him to be the Head over all things to the 
 Church, which is His Body,"^ and sometimes His king- 
 dom, as our Lord Himself says, " Except a man " (any 
 one) '' be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot 
 enter into the kingdom of God/^^ These latter words 
 at once connect our regeneration or new birth with the 
 text. We begin to perceive the true meaning of this 
 portion of the work of creation. Very mysterious is 
 the way in which water is first mentioned. " So inte- 
 grally," says one, " is it connected with the handiwork 
 of God, that it is nowhere said to have been made. . . . 
 It is even antecedent to the light."^ Very mysterious, 
 too, is the brooding of the Third Person of the Co-equal 
 and Co-eternal Trinity over the face of the waters. 
 But the eye of faith may catch a glimpse into the intent 
 of the mystery, as it beholds the same Spirit brooding 
 over the baptismal waters as really and truly, though 
 invisibly, as then. In the beginning of the natural 
 creation " the Spirit moved on the face of the waters." 
 At the Baptism of Him Who is "the Beginning of the 
 creation of God,'^^ the " Spirit moved on the face of 
 the waters."^ In the beginning of the spiritual life of 
 each Christian ^"the Spirit stiU moves on the face of 
 
 1 Eph. i. 22, 23. 2 g, joi^ yi. 5. 
 
 3 Bp. Forbes' " Te Demn." * Eev. iii. 14. 
 
 * " When lie says that ' the Spirit of God moved upon the face of 
 the waters,' this is a type that the Holt Spieit, in the form of a dove, 
 should descend upon Cheist coming up from the baptismal water." 
 Bede, In Pent. com. Gen, c. 1. 
 
 ^ S. Augustine, in an Easter-day sermon to those who had been bap- 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODINa ON THE WATERS. 9 
 
 the waters/^ and consecrates them to be a " Laver of 
 Regeneration/^ or new birth. ^ 
 
 And thus we are led on to notice the result of the 
 operation of the Holy Ghost in each case. At the 
 firstj as we have seen, there was a rude and unarranged 
 heap_, shapeless and empty ; but when the Spirit of God 
 had brooded over the waters,^ and vivified their nature 
 so as to prepare them for generation, then light ap- 
 peared, and order and harmony took the place of con- 
 fusion and discord. In the eloquent words of S. Jerome, 
 3 "The waste world, visited neither by the brightness of 
 the sun, nor the pale light of the moon, nor gleaming 
 
 tized, as was customary, on Easter-eve, says, " Yesterday ' the Spirit of 
 God moved here upon the face of the water,' and ' darkness was upon 
 the face of the deep,' while these children of God (infantes) were still 
 bearing their sins. But when their sins were blotted out by the Spirit 
 of God, then God said. Let there be hght, and there was hght." Serm. 
 226. " Qui paulo ante vocabantur competentes, modo vocantur in- 
 /antes. Competentes dicebantur, quoniam materna viscera, ut nasce- 
 rentur, petendo pulsabant : infantes dicimtur, quia modo nati sunt 
 Christo, qui prius nati fuerant seculo." S. Aug. Serm. 228. 
 
 1 Titus iii. 5. 
 
 "Consider how ancient is the mystery prefigured in the origin of 
 the very world. In the very beginning, when God made heaven and 
 earth, ' the Spirit moved upon the face of the waters.' Did not He, 
 Who moved upon the face of the waters, work upon the waters /" S. 
 Ambrose, De iis qui mys. initiantur, § . 3. 
 
 2 Kari r^v ilKdva TrjS eTrcoaf oucttjs opviQos, Kai JVoti/c^j' nva ^vvafxiv evi- 
 flaris To7s inrodaK-Koixevois. S. Basil. Horn. ii. in Hexaem. 6. Conf. S. 
 Jerome in Qusest. Hebraicis. " Instead of the word ferebatiir, ' was 
 borne upon,' which we have in our copies, the Hebrew is merachepheth, 
 which we may translate brooded upon, like a bird vivifying her eggs by 
 her heat. "Whence we understand that it is not said of the Spirit of the 
 world, as some think, but of the Holy Spieit, Who also Himself is 
 called the Vivifier of aU things from the beginning." 
 
 3 Ad Ocean. Ep. 69. 
 
 B 3 
 
10 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OE HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 of the stars, was a formless and viewless matter, vast 
 abysses covered with fearful darkness. The Spirit of 
 God alone was seated and borne over the waters, guid- 
 ing and controlling them,^ and with a likeness to bap- 
 tism in its birth gave life to the world .^^ And Tertnl- 
 lian in a well-known passage : '' Thou hast to reverence 
 the dignity of the waters, since as the seat of the Spirit 
 of God water was more favoured than the other ele- 
 ments. For as yet all was darkness, shapeless, un- 
 decked with stars ; a gloomy abyss, an unprepared 
 earth, an unformed sky ; water alone, as an ever per- 
 fect matter, cheerfid, simple, pure of its own nature, 
 yielded itself as an appropriate chariot to God. . . . 
 Herein is also recognised that first notice of Baptism ; 
 for by this very position was it foreshown as a figure of 
 Baptism, that ^the Spirit of God,^ which ''in the be- 
 ginning was borne above the waters,^ should abide upon 
 them as the Baptizer.^^2 ^j^j through this means the 
 baptized emerge from the font enlightened, and whereas 
 all before was disturbed and chaotic, now a principle of 
 order and concord prevails. No longer is the will en- 
 slaved, the understanding obscured, and the whole 
 moral being confused and disorganised; for though 
 " the infection of nature doth still remain,^^ so that evil 
 passions, impure desires, carnal appetites, continue to 
 tempt, yet we may overcome them, if we wiU. 
 
 Again, take notice how we are specially told, that 
 '' the waters brought forth abundantly the moving crea- 
 
 1 In Aui'igse modmn. S. Cyril. Jems. Horn, in Paralyt. ix. calls our 
 LOED, from His walking on the waters and controlling them, o ruiv 
 vBdruiv 7}vioxos' 
 
 - Tert. De Bapt. §. 3, 4. 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODING ON THE WATERS. 11 
 
 ture that hath life."'^ The Spirit is^ as we confess in 
 our Creedj "the Lord and Giver of life/' of life spiritual 
 as well as of life natural. The child of Adam descends 
 into the water dead in sin ; he comes forth from it^ 
 dead to sin, freed from its guilt ^ and its power. ^ As the 
 Apostle S. Peter told the Jews on that first day of Pen- 
 tecost, he is " baptized for the remission of his sins ;" 
 he is " buried with Christ in Baptism/' wherein also 
 he is " risen with Him/' " quickened together with 
 Him/' and endued with new spiritual life. " The 
 Spirit of God/' says an early writer, "^ was borne above 
 the waters, as the Creator, by virtue of His power hold- 
 ing together the creature, thence to produce everything 
 living, and to impart the genial influence of fire to the 
 unformed elements ; and that even the mystery of Bap- 
 tism gleaming through, the nature of that fluid might 
 receive the power of sanctification, and first of all bring 
 forth animate bodies to life.'"^ 
 
 " The waters bring forth the moving creature that hath 
 life." Before we can move a step, God must give us 
 life and the power of motion, and yet, as we have free- 
 will, we must yield our will to His will, and our spirit 
 to be led by His Spirit, or else, though ''born again," 
 we shall die. " We are His workmanship, created in 
 Christ Jesus unto good works."^ After our natural 
 birth we require to be sustained by food, and our limbs 
 made strong and vigorous by exercise ; and thus after 
 our spiritual birth, if the life within be not sustained by 
 " daily bread," and our whole being exercised by the 
 performance of those '' good works," for which we were 
 
 ' Verse 20. 2 ^^ts ii. 38. ^ Rom. vi. 14. 
 
 ■* See apud " Scripture Views," p. 359, note. " Eph. ii. 10. 
 
12 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 " purified" and made " a peculiar people/^ doubtless it 
 will be gradually numbed and paralyzed : it will droop^ 
 dwindle away, and die. 
 
 And the life that each regenerate man is to live, is 
 not according to the flesh, but a high and holy and 
 heavenly life. " Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
 the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly 
 above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.'''^ Turn 
 we, by way of illustration, to one of our Lord's para- 
 bles. " The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a grain 
 of mustard-seed, which when it is sown it groweth up 
 and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out 
 great branches : so that the fowls of the air may lodge 
 under the shadow of it.^'^ ^^(j go again we read in 
 the Prophet Ezekiel regarding the Cedar, typical of 
 Christ's Church, or " the kingdom of heaven ;" " In 
 the mountain of the house of Israel will I plant it : and 
 it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a 
 goodly cedar, and under it shall diw^ all fowl of every 
 wing.'^^ " The fowls of the air " flying '' above the earth 
 in the open firmament of heaven," are surely the just in 
 " the kingdom of heaven," — God's kingdom of grace, — 
 who mind not earthly things, who " set their affections 
 on things above, not on things on the earth," who 
 " mount up with wings as eagles."* In this kingdom of 
 
 1 G-en. i. 20. ' S. Mark iv. 32. 
 
 3 Ezek. xvii. 23. Oonf. Dan. iv. 12. 
 
 ■* So S. Cyril. Alex, in S. Luke, Smith's Trans, ffom Syriae version, 
 pt. ii., p. 550, says that the " eagles " are " those who fly aloft, and rise 
 superior to earthly and worldly tilings." 
 
 Observe that the fowl to " fly above the earth in the open firmament 
 of heaven," were created on tbe fifth day, the day of our Loed's Ascen- 
 sion into heaven. 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODING ON THE WATERS. 13 
 
 heaven, " all fowl of every wing " may find shelter and 
 safety. " Born again of water and the Spirit," here 
 may all Christians find a covert from the storm, and a 
 refage from the tempest. Here the young and imma- 
 ture disciple, as well as the stronger and more perfect, 
 may find all that he can desire. Here may he '' go on 
 from strength to strength," tUl he " come to the mea- 
 sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." The 
 regenerate man cannot be satisfied with the pleasures 
 and delights of the earth. He must as a winged fowl 
 soar above it. His " citizenship is in heaven." There 
 is his Treasure, his Hope, his Love, his Joy, — his God. 
 There must his heart be also. 
 
 But, further, remark how the oflBpring of the waters 
 received a blessing from God. " And God blessed them, 
 saying. Be fruitftJ, &c." (verse 22,) that " even this 
 might be a sign," (says an ancient Bishop,) " that man 
 should receive repentance and remission of sins through 
 water, and the washing of regeneration; aU, namely, 
 who come to the truth and are reborn, and receive bless- 
 ing from GoD."i 
 
 And observe the result of this blessing. Admire the 
 power, wisdom, and goodness of God as seen in the pro- 
 lific productions of the waters. Who can number the 
 birds and feathered fowls, the fishes of the ocean, and 
 the countless broods of animals, that are generated from 
 the seas and rivers of the earth ? Who but is lost in 
 astonishment, as he thus ponders on God's " wonders in 
 the deep ?" But may we not still more regard this as 
 typical of those multitudes, who are *' born again of 
 
 1 S. Theoph. ad Autol. lib. ii. n. 16. 
 
14 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 water and tlie Spirit ?" For verily, if " the waters 
 have brought forth abundantly, and the fowl have multi- 
 plied on the earth/^ so has " the oath which He sware 
 to our forefather Abraham/^ that " He would bless him, 
 and multiply his seed as the stars of heaven," been ful- 
 filled in the spiritual seed innumerable who have " re- 
 ceived the promise of the Spirit through faith.^^ 
 
 Such are some of the analogies that are seen to exist 
 between the Creation of the world, and the re-creation 
 of man. They cannot fail to commend themselves to 
 every thoughtful Christian. Holy men from the first 
 delighted to dwell on them. Looking on Creation with 
 a Christian eye they saw in it additional cause for glo- 
 rifying God, fresh marks of His Everlasting Love. 
 Beautifally sings the sweetest living poet of our Holy 
 Church : — 
 
 " Who may the wondrous birth declare 
 Of earth and heaven so vast and fair ? 
 Yet whensoe'er to love's pure spring 
 A helpless httle one they bring, 
 Those wonders o'er again we see 
 
 In saving mystery. 
 All in the unregenerate child 
 Is void and formless, dark and wild, 
 Till the life-giving holy Dove 
 Upon the waters gently move, 
 And power impart, soft brooding there. 
 Celestial fruit to bear. 
 
 {Lyra Innocentium.) 
 
 Strange that the Catholic doctrine regarding Holy 
 Baptism should now be to any an offence and stum- 
 bling-block ! Strange that any should ask, " What 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 14. 
 
THE SPIRIT BROODING ON THE WATERS. 15 
 
 good can a little water do ?"^ when from the beginning 
 water was the element from which by the power of the 
 Holy Ghost all things sprung. " On the brooding of 
 the Spirit/^ (says a Father^.^) '' water became in a 
 manner a plastic instrument to order the world to God- 
 ward. Water first yielded what had life, lest it should be a 
 strange thing thai in baptism water should impart lifeP^ 
 Surely on reading the expression of the text^ we cannot 
 but agree with S. Augustine, that "it sounds as if it 
 had a prophetic signification, and prefigures the mystery 
 of the future Baptism of the people to be born of water 
 and the Holy Spirit.^^^ See we to it that we make not 
 light of our new birth, lest we be unawares making 
 light of the Holy Spirit of God. See we to it, also, 
 that our Baptism witness for us and not against us at 
 the Great Day. As water is the prime channel of life, 
 so, we shall see in other types, is it of destruction. 
 " Baptism approves the soldier, it convicts the deserter," 
 
 ^ Conf. S. Cyril. Jerus. Int. Lect. c. 16. " If thou find any one saying 
 to thee, ' And art thou going to the water to be baptized in it ? What, 
 hath not the city baths of late ?' Be svire that it is 'the dragon of the 
 sea ' that is plotting this against thee : give no heed to the lips of him 
 that speaketh, but to God that worketh." 
 
 2 TertuUian De Baptismo § 3, apud " Scripture Views." 
 
 ^ " God commanded the water first to bring forth the HTing creature, 
 since it was His intent, through water and the Holt Spieit, Which was 
 borne in the beginning upon the waters, to renew man, as the great 
 Basil saith." S. Joh. Damascene, Lib. ii. Orth. Fid. c. 9. 
 
 " Before aU the six days' fashioning of creation, ' the Spieit of God 
 was borne above the water.' Water was the beginning of the world. 
 Jordan was the beginning of the Gospel preaching." S. Cyril. Jerus. 
 Cat. Lect. iii. c. v. 
 
 Cf. S. Ambrose De Spir. Sanct. Lib. ii. Prol. n. 1. 
 
 ^ De Div. Qusest. ad Simphc, Lib. ii. Quoest. i. 5. 
 
16 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 " Let none of you then be found a deserter. Let Bap- 
 tism remain as arms ; faith as an helmet j charity as a 
 spear ; patience as your whole armour." ^ " Whosoever is 
 born of God sinneth not." (1 S. John v. 18.) If we sin, 
 it is in downright opposition to our new Birth. So far as 
 we live a regenerate life, we sin not. " I have put off 
 my coat : how shall I put it on ?"^ 
 
 ^ S. Ignatius ad Polycarp. § 6. 
 
 2 Canticles v. 3. S. Cyril Jerus. Cat. Lect, iii. 7, applies this text to 
 the " putting off the old man with his deeds " in Baptism. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 
 
 1 S. Peteb III. 20, 21. 
 
 "Once the iiONG-suFFEEiNa of God waited in the days of 
 Noah, while the Abk was a peepaeino-, wheeein few, that is, 
 
 EIG-HT SOULS WEEE SATED BY WATEE. ThE LIKE FIGUEE WHEREUNTO 
 EVEN BAPTISM DOTH ALSO NOW SAVE US." 
 
"Thou seest the Water; thou seest the Wood ; thou beholdest the 
 Dove, and doubtest thou of the mystery ?" S. Ambrose De Mysteriis, 
 c. iii. 10. 
 
 " Noah, being found faithful, preached through his ministry regene- 
 ration to the world. And the Lord saved through him the hving crea- 
 tures that entered in concord into the Ark." S. Clement. Ep. I. ad Cor. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 
 
 1 S. Petee III. 20, 21. 
 " Once the lONa-suFFEEiNG of G-od waited in the days of Noah 
 
 WHILE THE AeK WAS A PEEPAEING-, WHEEEIN FEW, THAT IS, 
 EIGHT SOULS WEEE SATED BY WATEE. ThE LIKE FIGITEE WHEEE- 
 TJNTO EVEN BAPTISM DOTH ALSO NOW SAVE ITS." 
 
 That the destruction of the old world by the Flood and 
 the saving of Noah and his family in the ark from 
 perishing by means of the water which buoyed it up, — 
 forms a type of Holy Baptism^ is expressly stated by S. 
 Peter : and therefore in reading the narrative we ought 
 not only to endeavour to draw forth the instruction it 
 affords as an historical record^ but also to examine the 
 mysteries regarding the Sacrament of Christ which lie 
 hidden beneath it. 
 
 The words translated in our Bible, " the like figure 
 whereunto, &c.^' would be more literally and correctly 
 rendered, " The Antitype whereunto, even Baptism, doth 
 also now save us.^^ The salvation of the few, even eight 
 souls, in the ark by means of water was the type : the 
 salvation of Christians in the Church of Christ, by 
 means of the Baptismal waters is the Antitype — the ful- 
 
 ^ & avrirvirov. 
 
20 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 filment of that which the Ark and the Flood pre-figured. 
 The Deluge, the Ark, the Dove, were the shadows; 
 the Baptism of water and the Spirit, and the Church of 
 Christ, are the realities and the substance. The Chris- 
 tian Sacraments are not mere outward forms and re- 
 presentative ordinances ; they are also full of spirit and 
 of truth. 
 
 Now in this type there are two portions to be con- 
 sidered. First, the water, and Secondly, the ark. The 
 ark would have been useless without the waters on which 
 it might ride in safety, and was constructed with special 
 reference to them. Thus we must not suffer any ap- 
 parent difficulty, as to water being here a destructive, 
 rather than a saving element, to cause us to lay less 
 stress upon this part of the type than S. Peter does in 
 the text. 
 
 The old world at the time of Noah had fallen into a 
 grievous state of sin and wickedness. " The earth was 
 corrupt before God ; .... for all flesh had corrupted 
 his way upon the earth."i After a long period of pa- 
 tience and forbearance, the Lord determined that His 
 Spirit should no longer strive with man, and at length 
 in the fulness of time His wrath was manifested against 
 the carnality and violence which prevailed. The win- 
 dows of heaven were opened. The fountains of the 
 great deep were broken up, and " the world that then 
 was, being overflowed with water, perished.^'^ gut that 
 which was a cause of destruction to the many, was a 
 means of safety to the few. Noah and his family, in all 
 eight souls, were exempted from the universal ruin. 
 Having entered into the ark, built by Noah at God^s 
 1 Gen. vi. 11, 12. 2 2 S. Peter iii. 6. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 21 
 
 command, they rode safely on the surface of the waters, 
 and were carried out of the old world into a new. All 
 the taints of sin and corruption which defiled the former 
 world were washed away, and it emerged from the Bap- 
 tism of the waters, expiated, cleansed, and restored. It 
 was baptized, and thus not only were iniquity and its 
 authors abolished, but it sprung forth into new being. 
 The overflowing waters thoroughly purified it from the 
 corruption it had contracted, since God pronounced it 
 " very good." It was cleansed with such a cleansing as 
 it will not again have, until it is finally cleansed with 
 fire; and thus Avas made "a, new earth. '^^ Buried be- 
 neath the Baptismal waters of the flood, its defilement 
 perished; and, if we may so say, it was born again to 
 fresh life. It was baptized, and thus regenerated. 
 
 Here we observed that water is a source both of de- 
 struction and of preservation. It destroyed all that was 
 evil in the world : it preserved what was good. Those 
 few who were saved, came forth to a world no longer 
 steeped in corruption and " filled with violence," but to 
 a world entirely clad in a renovated garment, on which 
 its inhabitants had, as it were, a new beginning, and 
 were enabled in a purer and holier atmosphere to live 
 a purer and holier life. 
 
 Now let us turn to the Antitype. By nature men 
 were " corrupt before God," subject to condemnation 
 for their iniquity, the wrath of God abiding on them. 
 To redeem us from this sad condition, the Word took 
 our flesh, and instituted the Sacrament of Baptism, as a 
 means of communicating to us the benefits, which by 
 His life of obedience and His precious Blood-shedding 
 ^ 2 S. Peter iii. 10—13. 
 
22 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 He purchased for us. In this Sacrament there is both 
 " a death unto sin, and a new-birth unto righteousness." 
 While that which is sinful and carnal is destroyed and 
 washed out in the baptized person, by his being " buried 
 with Christ in baptism," he is at the same time also 
 "risen with Christ in baptism," renewed, restored, re- 
 generated. Thus is baptism not only the means of de- 
 struction, but also the means of new life and salvation.^ 
 In the same way as " Noah and his family were by the 
 great mercy of God saved in the ark from perishing — 
 by water," (see Collect at the beginning of Baptismal 
 Service) " saved," that is, by means of water : — so also is 
 the baptized " delivered from God's wrath, received 
 into the ark of Christ's Church," being "washed and 
 sanctified with the Holy Ghost." Or in the words of 
 an older Collect^ — " Almighty God, washing away the 
 sins of the world by water, did in the very outpourings 
 of the Deluge stamp a figure of regeneration, so that 
 through the mystery of one and the same element, there 
 was both an end put to sins, and a source of excellences." 
 And S.Ambrose (?) writes: "What is the Deluge but that 
 
 1 " We are buried in tliat element of water, that renewed tlirough the 
 Spirit we may rise again. For in the water is the image of death ; in 
 the Spirit the pledge of life ; that through water, which incloses the 
 body as in a tomb, the body of sin may die ; and by the power of the 
 Spirit we may be renewed from the death of sin, bom again in GoD- 
 And on this account these three witnesses, the Spirit, and the water, and 
 the blood, are one, as S. John saith, (1 S. John v. 8), one in mystery, 
 not in nature. The water therefore is the witness of biirial ; the 
 blood, the witness of death ; the Spirit, the witness of hfe. Whateyer 
 grace then is in the water, is not from the nature of the water, but 
 from the presence of the Holy Ghost." — S. Ambrose De Spir. Sane. 
 Lib. i. 6. 
 
 2 Apud Scripture Views. P. 302, note. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 23 
 
 wherein the righteous is preserved for a stock of righ- 
 teousnessj and sin dies. Therefore the Lord^ when He 
 saw the ofiPences of man multiply^ preserved only the 
 righteous man with his offspring, and bade the waters 
 go forth above the mountains; and therefore, in that 
 Deluge all the corruption of flesh perished : the stock 
 and pattern of the righteous man alone remained. Is 
 not the Deluge the same as Baptism, whereby all sins 
 are washed away, and the righteous mind and grace alone 
 are brought back to life ?"^ "The Lord sitteth upon the 
 riood/^ says the Psalmist. Now, " a Flood is an over- 
 flow of water, covering all beneath it, and purging all 
 former uncleanness. Hence the Prophet calls the grace 
 of Baptism a Flood, whereby the soul, washed from its 
 sins, and purged from the old man, is henceforth made 
 meet ' for an habitation of God through the Spirit.' '"^ 
 
 Again, the Ark,^ built by Noah, that just man, who 
 was " perfect in his generations,^' and who alone " found 
 grace in the eyes of the Lord," " to the saving of his 
 house,'''* is a type of the Church, built by our Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ for the saving of the elect. 
 Those who listened to " the preacher of righteousness,"^ 
 repented of their sins, and believed, entered with him 
 into the ark, and floated, unharmed, while death and 
 destruction were on every side of them. So all who 
 believe in Christ, and heartily repent of their sins, are 
 led by faith to the ark of salvation, even the Church, 
 the door of entrance into which is Holy Baptism. 
 
 The ancient Fathers were never weary of regarding 
 
 1 De Sacramentis, iv. 1. - S. Basil in Ps, xxviii. 10. 
 
 3 Gen, vi. 8, 9. * Heb. xi. 7. 
 
 6 2 S. Peter u. 5. 
 
24 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 the ark in tMs typical light. They believed that all 
 about it was significant — that " the facts related were, 
 if any understood them, dl^o prophecies/'^ ^^some things 
 referring to Christ, some to His Church, and thus the 
 whole to Christ.^ ^2 ^^^ jf from time to time we find 
 in their writings what appear to us fanciful resemblances, 
 yet without following them in these, it is surely better, 
 that we should, like them, seek to see Christ every- 
 where — ever watching for the tokens of His Presence, 
 than that we should look no lower than the surface, and 
 thus lose all those confirmations of our faith, which 
 careful meditation on the types of Holy Scripture is so 
 weU calculated to afibrd. 
 
 Now, first, in the wood of the ark, they saw a symbol 
 of the Cross. " K& Noah with his,^^ says S. Augustine,^ 
 " were delivered by water and wood, so is the household 
 of Christ signed by Baptism with the Passion of the 
 Cross." And S. Justin Martyr : " Christ, the First- 
 Begotten of all Creation, became again the beginning of 
 another race, born again by Him through water and 
 faith and that wood, which contains the mystery of the 
 Cross. In like manner as Noah was saved in the ark, 
 upborne with his, upon the water ."^ " When, therefore, 
 we read of there being salvation in the Church only, it 
 is not in the Church," says a deeply thoughtful and 
 
 ' S. Aug. Contra Adv. Legis et Proph. Lib. i. cap. xxi. § 45. 
 Where he also says that " the counsel of GoD in the Deluge was deeper 
 than the heart of imbehevers knows or conceives." 
 
 2 S. Aug. Contra Faust. Man. Lib. xii. 39. " Quia prsedictum est, 
 ' Erunt duo in came una' (Gen. ii. 24,) propterea et iu area qusedam ibi 
 ad Christum, qusedam vero ad Ecclesiam referuntur, quod totum 
 Christus est." 
 
 s Contra Faust. Lib. xii. c. 14. ■» Dial. c. Tryph. § 138. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 25 
 
 reverent writer,^ "as a mere outward body^ but in 
 the Churcli as Christ's institution, upborne by His 
 Cross.'^ "The preaching of the Cross"^ must include 
 the setting forth of the Church of Christ : and if there 
 be no salvation apart from the Cross, so neither apart 
 from the Church. " The Lord added the saved to the 
 Church daily.^^3 When S. Philip is said to have 
 " preached Jesus^^^ unto the Ethiopian, it is plain that 
 he preached to him of that Sacrament, whereby he 
 was to be brought into communion with Jesus, for he 
 immediately afterwards asked — " See, here is water, 
 what doth hinder me to be baptized ?" And thus if we 
 would "preach Jbsus,^^ we must preach of Baptism; we 
 must preach of the Cross ; we must preach of the Church; 
 and when we set forth the danger of despising or neg- 
 lecting Holy Baptism, or of undervaluing the blessings 
 of the Church, we do so, because to despise and under- 
 value these things is in reality to despise and under- 
 value Christ, and " make the Cross of Christ of none 
 effect.'^s 
 
 Again, it is remarkably noticed in the history — "The 
 door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof."^ 
 
 1 Scripture Views, p. 306. Cf. S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, Lib. xt. c. 26, 
 " Without doubt tlie ark (containing Noah and liis family) is a type cf 
 the city of GrOD, sojourning in tliis world, that is, of the Church, which 
 is saved by the wood whereon hung the Mediator between God and 
 man, the Man Chbist Jesus." (1 Tim. ii. 5.) 
 
 "^ 1 Cor. i. 18. " Every deed of Cheist," says S. Cyril of Jerusalem, 
 (Lect. xiii. c. 1,) is a boast of the Catholic Church ; but the boast of 
 boasts is the Cross." He elsewhere (Lect. iv. c. 13) calls the sign of 
 the Cross " that princely sign" (jh arifxeTov rh fia(n\iK6v), at the sight of 
 which " the devils flee away trembUug." 
 
 3 Acts ii. 47. * Acts viii. 35, 36. 
 
 5 1 Cor. i. 17. •= Gen. vi. 16. 
 
 C 
 
26 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM, 
 
 Why was the entrance thus specially commanded to be 
 by the side ? Let S. Angnstine reply : — "The entrance 
 was made at the side^ because no one enters the Church 
 unless by the Sacrament of the remission of sins. But 
 this flowed from the opened side of Christ/^i Even as 
 when Adam slept a deep sleep, one of his ribs was taken 
 from him,2 that Eve might beformed, — so when Christ 
 slept that deep sleep upon the cross, a soldier pierced 
 His side, that out of it might flow blood and water, the 
 Sacraments from which the Church is formed.^ And 
 the same writer just quoted,"* forcibly shows how impos- 
 sible it is to gain any reasonable sense from the types of 
 the Old Testament without regarding their reference to 
 Christ, by the instance of the very learned Alexandrian 
 Jew, Philo, who though by his acumen he was able to 
 elicit a true explanation of the mystery of the ark, so 
 long as what he explained of the human race might be 
 equally applied to Christ, yet when he came to the 
 door in the side of the ark, then the guesses of human 
 ingenuity failed. And "no wonder (says S. Aug.) if, 
 when he had not found the door, he so erred. But if he 
 had turned to Christ the veil would have been taken 
 away (2 Cor. iii. 16) and he would have seen the Sacra- 
 ments of the Church flowing from the side of that Man." 
 In the ark were to be found animals " of every sort," 
 both clean and unclean. So in the Church are men of 
 all nations.^ And these both good and bad. " The ark 
 
 1 Contra Faust, lib. xii. 16. 2 gj-en. ii. 21. 
 
 3 See S. Aug. in Johan. Evang. Tract, ix. 10. 
 * Contra Paust. lib. xii. 39. 
 
 5 Acts X. 9, &c. See S. Chrys. Horn. 65, " As the Ark in the midst 
 of the oeean preserved those who were in it, so also the Chui'ch preserves 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 27 
 
 of Noah," says S. Jerome/ "is a type of the Church : — 
 as in that were all kinds of animals, so in this are men 
 of all nations and characters. As there were pard and 
 kids, wolf and lambs, so also here righteous and sinners, 
 that is, vessels of gold and silver abide together with 
 those of wood and clay." Thus too were there gathered 
 together in the net in the parable every kind of fishes, 
 both bad and good.^ The barn-floor contained both 
 wheat and chaff". Of the ten virgins, five were foolish. 
 In the field tares were mingled with the wheat. In the 
 sheep-fold were both sheep and goats. While the 
 Church is still in the midst of this naughty world, we 
 must not expect all in it to be holy and righteous. " It 
 must needs be that offences come, but woe to that man 
 by whom the offence cometh."^ However much we may 
 mourn over the wicked lives of so many baptized Chris- 
 tians, we must not stagger through unbelief. We were 
 forewarned that it would be so. We must wait patiently, 
 and in due time the Church will be '^ presented unto 
 God holy and without blemish,"* and " there shall in no 
 wise enter into it anything that defileth."^ 
 
 all those who err. But the Ark received irrational animals, and saved 
 them as irrational animals. The Chiirch receives irrational men, and 
 not only saves them, but also changes them. The Ark received a raven, 
 and sent forth a raven. The Chiu-ch receives a raven, and sends forth 
 a dove. She receives a wolf, and sends him forth a sheep. For when 
 there has entered into the Church a rapacious and avaricious man, and 
 he hears the teaching of the Divine Oracles, he changes his mind, and 
 from a wolf becomes a sheep." 
 
 ' Dial. adv. Lucifer. Cf. S. Aiig. in Johan. Tract, ix. 11, " Wiij were 
 all animals shut iuto the ark, vmless to signify all nations ?" 
 
 2 S. Matt. xiii. 47, 50. 3 S. Matt, xviii. 7. 
 
 * Eph. V. 27. 5 Rev. xxi. 27. 
 
 c2 
 
28 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 Further : we notice tliat the ark contained three 
 stories. " With, lower^ second^ and third stories shalt 
 thou make it."^ This^ surely, is not without its mean- 
 ing.2 All the men and animals^ who entered by the 
 door into the ark, were placed in safety, but all did not 
 occupy the same chambers. Some were in the lower, 
 some in the second, some in the third stories. So all 
 who enter into the Church by Baptism are '' saved,'^ 
 placed, that is, in a state of salvation, but they do not 
 all make the like use of the gifts given them. Some 
 make greater progress, continually " growing in grace," 
 and " daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of 
 living.^^ These are they who occupy the uppermost 
 story. Others make progress indeed, but more tardily 
 and less steadily. These are they, who occupy the 
 second story. Others scarcely advance at all — nay 
 rather fall back, and are in much danger of being 
 thrust out altogether. So long as they are in the Church 
 they have all " One Lord, one faith, one Baptism,'^ but 
 inasmuch as they differ in degrees of holiness and 
 virtue, different mansions in the one ark of Christ are 
 appointed them. And this too doubtless will be so in 
 the Church triumphant. Though all who are counted 
 worthy to enter therein are so saved, that they cannot 
 go out any more, yet places there will be assigned thein 
 
 ^ Gen. yi. 16. 
 
 2 S. Augustine, after alluding to the probability that the Ark was 
 three-storied, " because all nations were renewed after the Deluge fi'om 
 the three sons of Noah," adds, " But let any one give any other interpre- 
 tation, provided it be not antagonistic to the rule of faith." S. Aug. 
 De Civ. Dei, Lib. xv. 26. Conf. S. Jerome, "MultipUces latent iateUi- 
 gentise." 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 29 
 
 according to the various degrees of holiness to which 
 they have attained in this life. " In My Father^s 
 house/^ saith our Lord^ '' are many mansions •/' and 
 S. Augustine has this commentary^ "the many mansions 
 signify the diverse dignities of merits in the one eternal 
 life."^ To those who '' abound in the work of the 
 Lord/^2 a^ entrance shall be ministered abundantly into 
 the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, 
 Jesus Christ.^^^ 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that the ark was to be finished 
 in one cubit above. "In a cubit shalt thou finish it 
 above.^^* What is this? S. Augustine says, "It is 
 finished in one cubit above, because the Church, the 
 Body of Christ, gathered into unity, is (in Him) ele- 
 vated and perfected."^ And S. Gregory, " The ark is 
 finished in one cubit, because there is one Author and 
 Redeemer of Holy Church without sin, to Whom all 
 come, who are convinced that they are sinners."^ " God 
 hath given Christ to be the Head over all things to the 
 Church, which is His Body, the fulness of Him, That 
 filleth all in all."^ The whole Church, wheresoever 
 spread through the world, is one in Him. However 
 
 ^ He is commenting on the fact that the denarius in the parable of the 
 labourers in the vineyard was given alike to aU. (S. Matt. xx. 9.) 
 " Because eternal hfe will be given to all the saints, the denarius is given 
 alike to all, but because even in eternal life the Hght of merits will shine 
 diversely, there ' are many mansions in the Fathee's house.' (S.John 
 liv. 2.) Therefore in the denarius given alike to aU is expressed, that 
 one has no longer life than another, but in the ' many mansions ' is 
 expressed that the dignity of one exceeds that of another." De Sancta 
 Virg. Lib. i. c. 26. 
 
 2 1 Cor. XV. 58. 3 2 S. Pet. i. 11. 
 
 * Gen. vi. 16. » Contra Faust, xii. 16. 
 
 6 Hom. X. in Ezekiel. 7 Eph. ii. 22, 23. 
 
30 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 one brancli be separated from another, so tliat the 
 stream of life no longer flows without impediment from 
 one to another, — however, to the grievous injury of all, 
 there is a severance of one portion from another, so 
 that no longer to outward eye is there that " fervent 
 charity " represented by the pitch, which is " the most 
 burning and vehement cement, signifying the ardour of 
 love, and through its strong force ' endureth all things,' 
 to hold together the spiritual community/'^ Yet is the 
 Church "pitched within and without with pitch,^'^ — 
 " Having its planks anointed with the Holy Spirit,''-'* 
 — One by its coherence and conjunction with Christ. 
 
 " At the end of forty days Noah sent forth a raven, 
 which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried 
 up from oflP the earth," but " the dove found no rest for 
 the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the 
 ark ;" and, when sent forth a second time, " the dove 
 came in to him in the evening, and lo ! in her mouth 
 was an olive leaf plucked off."* Doubtless there is here 
 some mystical signification. The raven is a type of those 
 who, while there is no rest in the whole world out- 
 side the Church, yet, flitting "to and fro," hither 
 and thither, amid the vanities and emptinesses of the 
 world, will not return unto the only place where they 
 could " find rest for their souls." " The raven," says 
 S. Augustine,^ "returned not, either intercepted by the 
 waters or allured by some floating corpse; signifying 
 that men polluted by the uncleanness of lust, and so 
 too intent on the things without in this world, are either 
 
 ' S. Aug. contra Faust. Man. xii. 14. ^ Gen. vi. 14. 
 
 3 S. Chrys. Horn. v. De Laud. Ap. Paul, apud " Scripture "Views." 
 
 4 G-en. vii. 6 sqq. ^ C. Faust, xii. 20. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 31 
 
 rebaptized^ or are seduced and held by those whom 
 without the Ark, (that is, without the Church,) baptism 
 slays/^ How different was it with the dove ! She 
 could rest nowhere out of her home, and thus is an 
 apt emblem of all those who would leave behind the 
 enticements and distractions of the world, and '^ fly as 
 the doves to the windows '^ of the Church. " O that I 
 had wings like a dove," says the Psalmist, " for then 
 would I flee away and be at rest. ... I would hasten 
 my escape from the stormy wind and tempest."^ 
 "Many," in these last days, "run to and fro," like 
 the raven, and are ever disturbed and unquiet, seeking 
 first one excitement and then another ; never happy, 
 never peaceful, and yet they will not return to Christ, 
 the true Noah, the true Rest, though He is ever inviting 
 them with earnest accents — " Come unto Me, and 1 
 will give you rest." How few in comparison are they 
 who learn this wise lesson — " Thou hast made us, Lordj 
 for Thee, and our heart is restless tiU it rest in Thee :" 
 — that there is no resting-place amid " the waves of this 
 troublesome world," but in the Church there is quiet 
 and safety, until we come at last to " the haven where 
 we would be."2 
 
 In a higher sense the Dove has been taken for the 
 Holy Spirit, and the Raven for the evil one.^ " When 
 the world was purged by the deluge, the Dove of the 
 Holy Spirit," says S. Jerome,* " (that foul bird being 
 
 1 Pa. Iv. 8. 2 Ps. cvu. 30. 
 
 3 S. Ambrose (De Myst. Lib. iii. 11) takes " the raven to be a figure 
 of sin, wliicli goes forth and returns not, if thou preservest the watch- 
 fulness and pattern of the 'just man' in thyself." 
 
 * Ep. 69 ad Ocean. Cf. S. Cyril Jerus. Oat, Lect. xvii. 10. " Of 
 
32 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 first removed) flies down to Noah, as to Christ in 
 Jordan,, and with the branch of refreshment and of 
 light announces peace to the world." When the Devil 
 is expelled from the baptized person, then comes the 
 Holy Ghost, and takes np His abode in him, bearing 
 the symbol of reconciliation and peace with God. But 
 both cannot dwell in the heart together. If we would 
 have the Holy Spirit abiding within us, we must 
 utterly cast out Satan. These are irreconcileable foes, 
 and no concord can there ever be between them. The 
 fruits of Satan and the fruits of the Holy Spirit can- 
 not co-exist : — " Can the fig-tree, my brethren, bear 
 olive-berries? either a vine figs?" "Bitter envyings 
 and strife," and all impurity, are " not from above, but 
 are earthly, sensual, devilish.'"'^ Purity, peaceableness, 
 gentleness, mercy, love, and such like are from the 
 Holy Spirit. " If we live, then, in the Spirit, let us 
 also walk in the Spirit."^ 
 
 One more mystery must be mentioned as connected 
 
 tliis Dove (the Dove who lighted on our Loed at His Baptism) the 
 Dove of JSToe, according to some, was in part a figure. For as in his 
 time, by means of wood and of water salvation came to men, and the 
 beginning of a new creation, and the dove returned to him towards 
 evening with an ohve branch, thus, say they, the Hoix Ghost also de- 
 scended upon the true IVoe, the author of the second birth, who draws 
 together into one the wills of aU nations, of whom the various sorts of 
 animals in the Ark were a figtire : Him at Whose Presence the spiritual 
 wolves feed with the lambs, m Whose Church the calf, the Hon, and the 
 
 ox feed in the same pasture The spiritual dove, therefore, as 
 
 some interpret, came down at the season of His Baptism, that He might 
 show that it is He Who by the wood of the Cross saves them who 
 believe, Who shoxdd at eventide through His Death vouchsafe to them 
 salvation." 
 1 S. James iii. 12. ^ Gal. v. 25. 
 
THE WATER-FLOOD BAPTIZING THE EARTH. 33 
 
 with the Dove, and with this^ omitting many things/ 
 we must end. " Noah stayed yet other seven days, and 
 sent forth the Dove ; which returned not again unto him 
 any more."^ Let S. Augustine interpret.^ This " sig- 
 nifies the end of the world, when will be the rest of the 
 saints, no longer in the sacrament of hope by which in 
 the present time the Church is joined together, as long 
 as that is drunk which flowed from the Side of Christ, 
 but in the actual perfection of eternal salvation, ' when 
 the kingdom shall be delivered up to God and the 
 Father,' (1 Cor. xv. 24), and we shall, in the open 
 contemplation of immutable truth, need no corporeal 
 mysteries.'' Then all types, and figures, and shadows 
 and outward signs for the conveyance of inward spiri- 
 tual grace, will no longer be required. There shall 
 be " no more sea :"■* no more need of sacramental 
 
 1 As, for instance, the mensuration and other details of the construc- 
 tion of the ark, regarding which, S. Aug. (De Civ. Dei, Lib. iv. cap. 24.) 
 says " ecclesiasticarum signa sunt rerum." And the interpretation of 
 numbers, e. g. the eight souls who were saved, " Baptism doth now 
 save us by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ." (1 S. Pet. iii. 20, 21.) " He 
 adds the words, ' by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,'' that we may 
 understand the eighth day, which was signified by the nimiber of per- 
 sons in the ark ; for on the eighth day, i.e. the day after the seventh, the 
 LoED rose." (S. Aug. contra Adv. Leg. et Proph. lib. i. cap. 21.) 
 
 2 Gen. viiL. 12. 
 
 3 Contra Faust, xii. 20. 
 
 * Eev. xxi. 1. Cf. S. Aug. Ep. xxiii. 4th ed. Migne, "As the first 
 Advent of the Lokd took away circumcision, so will the second Advent 
 take away Baptism. For as now, when the freedom of faith has come, 
 and the yoke of slavery has been removed, no Christian is circumcised 
 in the flesh : so then, when the righteous reign with the Loed, and the 
 wicked are condemned, no one will be baptized, but that which tliese 
 Sacraments prefigured, viz., circumcision of the heart, and pm'ity of the 
 conscience, wiU abide for ever." 
 
 c3 
 
34 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 cleansing and washing ; for then will there be the final 
 Regeneration of all things in the last great baptism of 
 fire/ and there will emerge from that purification " new 
 heavens and a new earthy wherein dwelleth righteons- 
 ness/'2 
 
 1 See S. Matt. xix. 28, and 2 S. Pet. iii. 
 
 2 S. Cyril. Cat. Lect. xt. 3, says that the earth and heavens mil not 
 be destroyed, but " made new." " He shaU roU up the heavens, not to 
 destroy them, but to raise them up again more beautiful.'^ He quotes 
 Isa. XXX. 4 ; Ps. cii. 25 sqq. ; and Heb. i. 10. 
 
THE EED SEA. 
 
 1 COE. X. 1. 
 
 "moeeovee, beetheen, i "w0t7ld is'ot that ye should be ig- 
 noeant, how that all otte eathees weee ijndee the cloud, 
 and all passed theough the sea ; and weee all baptized unto 
 Moses in the cloud and in the sea." 
 
" Turn from the ancient to the recent, from the figure to the reaUty. 
 There we have Moses sent by God to Egypt : here, Cheist sent by 
 His Father into the world ; there, that Moses might lead forth an 
 oppressed people out of Egypt ; here, that Cheist might rescue man- 
 kind, who are whelmed under sins : there the blood of a lamb was the 
 speU against the destroyer : here, the blood of the unblemished Lamb, 
 Jesus Cheist, is made the charm to scare evil spirits : there, the tyrant 
 pursued even to the sea that ancient people ; and in like manner this 
 dai-ing and shameless spirit, the author of evil, followed thee, even to 
 the very streams of salvation. The tyrant of old was drowned in the 
 sea, and this present one disappears in the salutary water." S. Cyril. 
 Jerus. Cat. Lect. xix. 3. 
 
THE RED SEA. 
 
 1 COE, X. 1. 
 
 "MOEEOVEE, BEETHEEN, I WOTJID NOT THAT TE SHOTTID BE IGKO' 
 EANT, HOW THAT ALL OTJE PATHEE3 WEEE UNDEE THE CLOUD, ASD 
 ALL PASSED THEOTJGH THE SEA; AND WEEE ALL BAPTIZED ■PNTO 
 MOSES IN THE CLOUD AND IN THE SEA." 
 
 The Apostle S. Paul is our witness that the passage of 
 the Israelites through the Red Sea was a type of the 
 passage of the faithful through the waters of Holy Bap- 
 tism. And our Baptismal Service makes express allu- 
 sion to this^ saying in one of the prayers^ " And also 
 didst safely lead the children of Israel Thy people 
 through the Red Sea, figuring therehy Thy Holy Bap- 
 tism/^ Thus, as in the former type of the Deluge, we 
 may proceed to examine it with greater confidence, 
 assured that we start with the warrant of Holy Scrip- 
 ture. 
 
 The children of Israel, having gone down from the 
 land of Canaan, where they first dwelt, fell into the 
 hands of Pharaoh, a most cruel tyrant and task-master. 
 Being utterly unable to deliver themselves from this 
 wretched state, they groaned by reason of their bond- 
 age. God, of His tender mercy and goodness, taking 
 
38 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 compassion on them, sent Moses to deliver them out of 
 their sad condition. He led them out of Egypt towards 
 the promised land, but Pharaoh and the Egyptians fol- 
 lowed close upon them till they reached the Red Sea. 
 By the Almighty power the waters opened for them of 
 their own accord, and the Israelites passed through in 
 perfect safety to the other side ; whereas the Egyptians, 
 assaying to do the same, were overwhelmed, and " sank 
 as lead in the mighty waters."^ 
 
 Thus runs the history ; and it is easy to trace the 
 fulfilment of its typical import. Men were not origin- 
 ally in the state they now are by nature. They, as it 
 were, went down into the house of bondage and sin 
 after the Fall, and were unable to restore themselves to 
 their former condition. The devil and his angels, like 
 Pharaoh and his hosts, exercised tyrannical dominion 
 over them, and their '' punishment was greater than, 
 they could bear.^^ Of His unutterable mercy and com- 
 passion, God sent His beloved Son, the "Prophet like 
 unto Moses,^^2 ^o rescue them and place them again in 
 safety. This He did by the Sacrament of Holy Bap- 
 tism. Up to this point the sins press hard on them, 
 and threaten them with hourly destruction ; but in and 
 by the baptismal waters, touched as it were by the rod 
 of the Cross,^ the sins themselves, as well as the author 
 of sin, are destroyed and perish. The baptized are freed 
 
 1 Exod. XT. 10. 2 Deut. xviii. 15. 
 
 3 " The passage through the sea is Baptism. But because Baptism — 
 that is, the water of salvation — is not the water of salvation, unless con- 
 secrated by the Naine of Cheist, Who shed His Blood for us, the water 
 is signed with His Cross. That the former might signify the latter, it 
 was the Red Sea." S. Aug. Serm. 352, 3. 
 
THE EED SEA. 39 
 
 from the tyranny of Satan, and placed in a state of sal- 
 vation. "Who is wise/^ says S. Basil^^ "and he shall 
 understand this; how the sea, typically Baptism, se- 
 vered from Pharaoh, as this laver does from the tyranny 
 of the devil. The sea slew in himself the enemy ; and 
 here also our enmity to God dies. The people went 
 forth from it unharmed ; and we ascend from the water, 
 as alive from the dead, saved by the grace of Him Who 
 called us. But the cloud shadows forth the gift of the 
 Spirit, which cools the flame of our passions by the 
 mortification of our members.^^ 
 
 We see here, then, as we saw in the last type, that 
 water is a means of salvation, and also a means of de- 
 struction. The Israelites were completely saved. " He 
 saved them for His Name's sake.^^^ " jje rebuked the 
 Red Sea, and it was dried up. . . . And He saved them 
 from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed 
 them from the hand of the enemy." But the destruction 
 of the Egyptians was effected by the same element, and 
 was simultaneous with the salvation of the Israelites. 
 " The waters covered their enemies ; there was not one 
 of them left." " And the waters returned, and covered 
 the chariots, and the horsemen, and all the host of 
 Pharaoh that came into the sea after them : there re- 
 mained not so much as one of them. But the children 
 of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea ; 
 and the waters were a wall unto them on the right hand 
 and on the left. Thus the Lord saved Israel that day 
 out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the 
 Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore."3 The like thing 
 
 * De Spiritu Sancto, c. 4. ^ pg_ ^^^ 3, sqq. 
 
 3 Exod. xiv. 28—30. 
 
40 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 occurs in Baptism. The destruction of our sins is as 
 real as the destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts. " So 
 sure/^ says Bishop Taylor/ "as the Egyptians were 
 drowned in the Bed Sea^ so sure are our sins washed in 
 this holy flood ; for this is a Red Sea too : these waters 
 signify the Blood of Christ. ' These are they that have 
 washed their robes and made them white in the Blood 
 of the Lamb.^ " And S. Gregory -."^ " Let him who says 
 that sins are not entirely washed away in Baptism^ say 
 that the Egyptians did not truly die in the Bed Sea." 
 " Arise and be baptized^ and wash away thy sins/^^ was 
 the command addressed to the converted Saul. " Bepent 
 and be baptized for the remission of sins/^* were the 
 words of S. Peter. "I believe in one Baptism for the 
 remission of sins/^ has ever been the creed of the 
 Church. " The passage through the sea/^ says S. 
 Augustine/ "signified nothing but the Sacrament of 
 the baptized. The Egyptians pursuing, nothing but 
 the abundance of past sins. Mark here most evident 
 mysteries. The Egyptians press on, urge : so the sins 
 follow close — but only to the water. Why then dost 
 thou, who hast not already done so, fear to come to the 
 Baptism of Christ, to pass through the Bed Sea? 
 What is the Bed Sea ? That consecrated by the Blood 
 
 1 Life of Cheist, p. 236. Cf. S. Cyril Jems. Cat. Lect. iii. 5. 
 
 2 Morals, Lib. xi. " Eescue from Pharaoli came to Israel through 
 the sea ; rescue from sins to the world through the laver of water by 
 the Word of God. Eph. v. 26." 
 
 3 Acts xxii. 16. •* Acts ii. 38. 
 
 ^ In Ps. Isxx. 6. Theodoret (apud Com. a Lap. ia loco) says : 
 " ' These were our figures ;' for the sea represented the laver ; the cloud, 
 the grace of the Spirit ; Moses, the Priest ; the Eod, the Cross ; Israel, the 
 baptized ; Pharaoh and the pursuing Egyptians, the dcTil and his host." 
 
THE RED SEA. 41 
 
 of the Lord. Why fearest thou to come? The con- 
 sciousness_, perhaps^ of some enormous offences goads 
 and torments thy mind, and says to thee that thine 
 iniquity is so great, that thou mayest despair of its 
 being forgiven. If any of the Egyptians lived, then 
 fear lest any sins remain in thee." The Prophet Micah, 
 also, makes a striking allusion to the destruction of sin 
 in Baptism ; for after he has spoken of '' the days of the 
 coming out of the land of Egypt,^^ ^ it is said, " Thou 
 wilt cast all their iniquities into the depths of the sea .-"^ 
 that is, " Thou wilt bury all their sins in the waters of 
 Baptism, as Thou didst bury Pharaoh and his hosts in 
 the depths of the sea." The mention of the Exodus 
 from Egypt^ is the right key to the true meaning ; and 
 comparing it with S. Paul's teaching that the passage 
 tlirough the Bed Sea was a type of Holy Baptism, we 
 need not hesitate to believe with S. Jerome, that " Micah 
 prophesied of the grace of Baptism."* 
 
 But, as the full, entire, and real destruction of sin, 
 both original and actual, is typified in the entire and 
 real destruction of Pharaoh and his hosts, so also (as 
 was said) is the real state of safety in which the Israelites 
 were placed after their deliverance from their enemies, 
 a type of the real state of safety in which the baptized 
 are placed, so soon as they come forth from the water. 
 The Israelites were saved by means of the water. They 
 were rescued from the bondage in Egypt, from the 
 working in the brick-kiln, and the galling tyranny of a 
 despot's yoke. By means of water at a special time 
 
 ' Micah vii. 15. ^ Verse 19. ^ Verse 15. 
 
 •" Jerome ad Ocean, Ep. 69. See this interpretation drawn out by 
 S. Aug. in Ps. cxiii. 4. Cf. also S. Basil in Ps. xxyiii. c. 8. 
 
43 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 they were really saved. No less real^ therefore^ is tlie 
 salvation accomplished in holy Baptism. The type cer- 
 tainly cannot have more reality than the antitype. If 
 the safety of the Israelites^ who " all passed through the 
 sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in 
 the sea^^^ was real, so also must be the safety of those 
 who are baptized by water and the Spirit, of which the 
 sea and the cloud were emblematical.^ And this is true 
 of all. S. Paul specially insists, that " all our fathers 
 were under the cloud, and were all baptized unto Moses 
 in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same 
 spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual 
 drink.^^ All the Israelites, men, women, and children, 
 were " redeemed out of the hand of the enemy ;" and 
 so, also, all the Corinthian Christians to whom S. Paul 
 wrote, were delivered from the state of bondage in 
 which they had previously been. The comparison is 
 between the whole of the Corinthian Christians and the 
 whole of the Israelites. If the whole body of the latter 
 were saved by the passage through the Red Sea, so the 
 whole body of the former, by being baptized into Christ 
 in the waters of the font. To suppose that some are 
 saved in Baptism, and others not, is to destroy all ana- 
 logy between the two cases. " Ye are all the children 
 
 ^ " The Cloud is a figure of the Spieit : the Sea of the Water." 
 S. John Damascene, lib. iv. Orthod. fid. c. 10. 
 
 " The Sea foreshadowed the Water ; the Cloud, the Spebit ; the 
 Manna, the Bread of Life; the Drihk, the Cup of God." Greg. Nazian. 
 Orat. xxxix. Cf. S. Ambrose De Myst. c. 3. 
 
 " Bona nubes quse camahum refrigeravit incendia passionmn. Bona 
 nubes obumbrat, quos revisit Spiritus Sanctus : denique supervenit in 
 Mariam Virgiuem et Virtus Altissimi obumbravit ei, quoniam redemp. 
 tionem genti genuit humanse." 
 
THE RED SEA. 43 
 
 of God by faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you 
 as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ."^ 
 And as all were formed into one body under Moses^, 
 called ^Hhe Church in the wilderness/'^ so all baptized 
 Christians are formed into one Body of Christ_, the 
 Church, of which He is the Head. ^' The Lord added 
 the saved to the Church.''^ « old things have passed 
 away, all things are become new.''* Old sins are 
 washed out and forgiven, the tyrannical dominion of 
 old foes destroyed, and a new life, new hopes, new 
 motives of action, new promises, are ours.^ 
 
 Moreover, as, after the passage of the Red Sea, the 
 Israelites were fed by manna from heaven; so, after 
 Baptism, has the spiritual food of the Lord's Body and 
 Blood been prepared for Christians. If the passage of 
 the Hed Sea was a type of Baptism, so no less was 
 the manna a type of the mysteries. '^ As this was a 
 symbol of the ront,^ so that of the Holy Table. For 
 as thou eatest the Lord's Body, so they the manna ; 
 and as thou drinkest the Blood, so they water from the 
 rock." 
 
 Before they had passed the Red Sea, the Israelites 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 26, 27. 2 Acts vii. 38. 
 
 3 Acts ii. 47. ^ 2 Cor. v. 17. 
 
 5 " Since there are two ends proposed in Baptism, namely, to destroy 
 the body of sin, so that we should no longer bring forth fi-uit mito 
 death, and to Hve in the Spirit, and have fruit imto holiness ; the 
 water contains the image of death, receiring the body as it were in a 
 tomb. But the Spirit sends forth a life-giving power, renewing our 
 souls from the death of sin unto the life which was in the beginning. 
 This, then, is to be bom of water and the Spirit. The death is accom- 
 plished in the water, but hfe in us is wrought by the Spirit." S. Basil 
 De Spir. Sancto. c. 15. 
 
 6 S. Chrys. Hom. 23 iu 1 Cor. x. 23. 
 
44 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 could not partake of the manna. The water conducted 
 to the mannaj so before Baptism none can receive " the 
 Bread from heaven ;" but afterwards " a table is pre- 
 pared"^ for them in the wilderness of the world. And 
 " as in Baptism our enemies that pursued us behind, 
 namely, owe past sins, were destroyed ; so after Baptism 
 in the journey of this life, when we eat spiritual food, 
 and drink spiritual drink, we overcome all things that 
 are against us,^'^ ^nd receive power to ''^go on from 
 strength to strength till unto the God of gods appear- 
 eth every one in Zion.^^^ 
 
 But here comes in the necessity for a voice of solemn 
 warning. All of the Israelites were once saved — all 
 placed, that is, in a state of salvation ; but " with the 
 many of them God was not well pleased, for they were 
 overthrown in the wilderness.'^* " Now these things," 
 says the Apostle, ^'were our examples, and they are 
 written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the 
 world," (the Christian dispensation) " are come. Where- 
 fore let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest 
 he fall." In the preceding chapter S. Paul had been 
 enforcing the duty of temperance, straightforwardness, 
 earnestness, discipline, in our Christian struggle after 
 " an incorruptible crown," and showing how he himself 
 "kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, 
 lest that by any means, when he had preached to others, 
 he himself should be a castaway ."^ And next, lest any 
 should rest in imagined security on the strength of their 
 Christian privileges, he solemnly warns them, how all 
 the Israelites had received the typical gifts of which 
 
 1 Ps. xxiii. 2 g. Aug. Serm. 363, 3. s pg. ixxsiv. 7. 
 
 * 1 Cor. s. 56. 5 1 oor. k. 27. 
 
THE RED SEA. 45 
 
 these were the fulfilment^ but that the greater number 
 of them had ultimately perished. His argument is the 
 same as S. Jude's: — "I will therefore put you in re- 
 membrance^ though ye once knew this, how that the 
 Lord having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, 
 afterwards destroyed them that believed not."i If the 
 Israelites after their typical Baptism, and their partici- 
 pation in that spiritual food, lost after all the land of 
 promise through their sins, and out of six hundred 
 thousand, Joshua and Caleb alone entered in ; — take 
 heed, O ye Christians, lest after your Baptism, nay after 
 your participation in the Body and Blood of Christ, 
 you should by means of a life opposed to your Baptism 
 and the faith, be, like them, shut out from that heavenly 
 kingdom of which Canaan was the type. Of the num- 
 bers, who pass through the Baptismal waters, so sadly 
 few live a life at all corresponding to their Baptismal 
 vows — so few use and cherish the grace then bestowed 
 on them — that many " stagger through unbelief, ^^ and 
 are led to deny that in these cases grace can ever have 
 been given — that these people were ever " saved,'' seeing 
 that " the most are overthrown in the wilderness " of 
 this world. But we may apply to this subject the words 
 of our Lord. "These things have I told you, that 
 when the time shall come, ye may remember that I 
 told you of them.^^2 ^// y^ere saved at the Red Sea, 
 but the most finally perished ; and if " these things 
 were our figures,^^ we may not wonder, though we may 
 deeply sorrow, that though all are saved in Holy Bap- 
 tism, yet the most finally perish, and never reach the 
 promised land. After the passage of the Red Sea the 
 
 ' S. Jude, ver. 5. - S. John xvi. 4. 
 
46 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 Israelites were not at once in tlie land of Canaan. A 
 wide desert tract lay between^ " wherein were fiery ser- 
 pents^ and scorpions." 1 Thongli they had escaped from 
 the might of the king of Egypt, yet the Lord led them 
 forty years in the wilderness, "to humble them and to 
 prove them, to know what was in their heart, whether 
 they would keep His commandments or no."^ Before 
 they could reach the promised land there was to be a 
 time of trial and probation. And in this the majority 
 of them succumbed, some in one way, some by another. 
 " Some had fallen," says a holy writer,^ " by one sin, 
 some by another ; some had been spared for a while, 
 some taken ; some had reached almost the borders of 
 the promised land, and then, ' at the last hour had fallen 
 from' Him. (Burial Service.) All had been saved, yet, 
 at last, in despite of every past and present mercy, the 
 deliverance from Egypt, the sea, the cloud, the manna, 
 the spiritual meat, the spiritual rock, and God's long 
 forbearance, the most, one after the other, perished." 
 And the Antitype exactly corresponds with this. When 
 we come forth from the waters of Baptism, we are placed 
 in safety ; but between us and our heavenly inheritance 
 lies a wilderness of temptation.* " Then," (that is, after 
 our Baptism,) " we," like our Adorable Head, " are led 
 up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the 
 devil."^ Trials of manifold kinds assail us. And alas ! 
 
 1 Deut. viii. 15. " Deut. viii. 2. 
 
 3 Scriptural Yiews, p. 313. 
 
 •* "ITbi magnitudo gratiee, ibi magnitudo discriminis," S. Jerome ad 
 Fab. Ep. 78. 
 
 6 S. Matt. iv. 1. Cf. S. Jerome ad Fabiolam, Ep. 78, De xlii. Mansio- 
 nibus, Mansio ii. Marah, " Be not dismayed, if after victory thou comest 
 to bitterness : for they who keep the true Passover eat unleavened bread 
 
THE RED SEA. 47 
 
 too many fall under them. Some succumb under the 
 weight of heavy affliction and the pressure of adversity, 
 and murmur at it, as the Israelites also murmured. ^ 
 They come to Marah, and they cannot drink of the 
 waters of Marah, for they are bitter; and they know 
 not how soon when Christ has cast His Cross into the 
 waters, they will be made sweet. Others yield to those 
 '^ fleshly lusts which war against the soul^^^ — ^j^g flesh- 
 pots of Egypt, — and in this way many strong men lie 
 wounded, and die eternally. Some, perhaps, hold out 
 almost till the last, and then the devil makes a final, 
 vigorous, open assault upon them, and though they have 
 long resisted, they yield in the end, and perish even at 
 the very borders of their eternal inheritance. " Many 
 are called, but few are chosen .^^^ Without pressing too 
 closely this portion of the type, there surely is an awful 
 warning in the fact, that Joshua and Caleb alone en- 
 tered the promised land out of all that multitude who 
 were saved by the waters of the Red Sea ! And may 
 we not fear that as our gifts are greater, so will our 
 punishment be, if we fall ? Theirs was the bodily de- 
 liverance, the manna, and the water unexpectedly gush- 
 ing from the stricken rock. Ours, the spiritual deliver- 
 ance, the Body and. Blood of Christ, the Water and 
 the Blood miraculously streaming from the pierced side 
 of the Lord. '''And all this is for thee,^^ says S. Chry- 
 sostom,* ^^for, as the gifts were types, so also were the 
 punishments types, and as Baptism and the Table were 
 
 with bitter herbs, and tribulation worketh experience, and experience 
 hope, and hope bi-ingeth forth salyation." Eom. v. 
 
 1 Exod. XV. 23—25. ^ i g. petei- ii. H. 3 g. ]y[att. xx. 16. 
 
 * Horn. xiii. 1 Cor. x. apud Script. Views. 
 
48 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 foreshadowed ; so also by what subsequently happened, 
 was it for our sakes proclaimed, that they who are un- 
 worthy of this gift shall be punished ; that we may by 
 those examples be brought to a better mind. For, as in 
 the benefits, the types preceded, the truth followed ; so 
 also shall it follow in the vengeance. See, how he 
 shows that not only shall they be punished, but even 
 more than those former ; for if the one be the type, the 
 other the reality, it must needs be that the vengeance 
 shall greatly exceed, as well as the gifts.^^ 
 
 There are, then, two great lessons taught us in this 
 type. First, that the remembrance of our Baptism 
 should call out our praises and thanksgivings to God 
 for having " freed us from the devil and his angels, who 
 like Pharaoh and the Egyptians wore us down, bound 
 to the mire of the flesh as to the works in brick,^^^ and 
 brought us out from the land of the enemy by the in- 
 visible exercise of His power. ^^Sing we, therefore, 
 unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously." 
 The devil and his host " hath He cast into the sea. His 
 chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.^^^ 
 " Thou didst divide the sea by Thy strength. Thou 
 brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.''^ " Sing 
 
 1 S. Aug. Serm. 363, 2. He says a little below, "These things were all 
 submerged in the Eed Sea, because we are buried by Baptism into death 
 (Eom. vi. 4,) with Him, Who was scoui'ged, dishonoured, and slain for 
 us. Thus He covered all enemies in the Eed Sea, Who by a bloody 
 death by which He put away our sins, consecrated Baptism." 
 
 2 Exod. XV. 4. 
 
 3 Psalm Ixxiv. 13. " S. Aug. (in Psalm 148) Hieron. (in Hilarion) 
 Isidorus (Etym. xii. 4,) Ambros. (Hexa. iii. 9,) ' Capita draconum' tropo- 
 logice exphcant capitaha vitia, eorumque prima initia, et suggestores 
 dmmones, qui conterantur et confrhigantur in aquis baptismi, vel lachry- 
 marum."- — Lorinus in loco. Cf. Eev. xii. 9, " The great Dragon, that 
 old serpent, called the devil." 
 
THE RED SEA. 49 
 
 praises to God, sing praises ; sing praises unto our God, 
 sing praises." 
 
 And the next lesson we are taught is that of the need 
 of continual watchfulness, in the receiving and after we 
 have received, those inestimable gifts of His goodness, 
 which God mercifully bestows upon us in His Church. 
 To touch, taste, and handle holy things, unless it be 
 done with devout reverence, is to place ourselves in ex- 
 treme danger of becoming hardened. Great is the peril 
 of tempting God by sin, after receiving Baptism and 
 the Holy Communion of our Lord^s Body and Blood. 
 Those things, which should have been for our wealth, 
 may become an occasion of falling. " To-day if ye will 
 hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the pro- 
 vocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilder- 
 ness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and 
 saw My works." ^ The higher conceptions we have of 
 our Christian privileges, the more shall we see how 
 awful it will be to fall away. The greater the height to 
 which we are raised, the more fearful the fall. Terrible, 
 indeed, must be the destruction of such as cast them- 
 selves down from " the holy city," and " a pinnacle of 
 the temple." The carcases of the Israelites stretched 
 in the desert, and the agonies of the victims to the ser- 
 pents' bite, do indeed speak to us with an unutterable 
 power. Once they had been " baptized unto Moses in 
 the cloud and in the sea :" — once, they had been safe 
 from the tyranny of the destroyer. But alas ! " they 
 thought scorn of that pleasant land, and gave no cre- 
 dence to His word."2 And thus is it that men fall now : 
 — -fall, in spite of mercies, warnings, calls, chastisements : 
 1 Psalm xcv. 7, 8. " Psalm cvi. 2-1. 
 
 D 
 
50 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 — -fall, after they have once turned their backs on sin^ as 
 the Israelites turned their backs on Egypt : — -fall, after 
 they have in safety emerged from the waters of Bap- 
 tism^ as the Israelites from the E-ed Sea : — fall, after 
 they have eaten and drunk the Body and Blood of 
 Christ, as the Israelites, after they had been fed with 
 " Angels^ food," and " drank of the rock which followed 
 them '.'' — -fall, not because they have not received mercy, 
 but because they wilfully rejected it : — fall, it may be, 
 in the visry sight of the promised land, with heaven 
 almost within their grasp ; fall, and so enter into eternal 
 misery at the moment when they might be entering into 
 eternal rest. " Let him that thinketh he standeth, take 
 heed lest he fall." 
 
NAAMAN. 
 
 2 Kings v. 13. 
 "Wash aitd be clean." 
 
 d2 
 
" Scripture, recounting in order the kings, their deeds, and the events 
 of their lives, appears solely occupied in relating facts, as it were with 
 the care of the historian ; yet, nevertheless, if pondered on by the aid of 
 the Spieit of God, it will be found to be even more, or certainly not 
 less, intent on foretelling things future, than on telling things past." 
 S. Aug. De Civ. Dei, Lib. xvii. c. 1. 
 
N A A M A N. 
 
 2 Kings v. 13. 
 "Wash and be clean." 
 
 It is a well-known remark of S, Augustine tliat "the 
 Old Testament, rightly understood, is a prophecy of the 
 New ;" and this is true, not only regarding the strictly 
 prophetic portions of the sacred volume, but also in its 
 various historical personages and transactions. " The 
 relations sustained by the more public characters, — the 
 parts they were appointed to act in their day and gene- 
 ration, — the deliverances that were wrought for them, 
 and by them, and the chastisements they were from 
 time to time given to experience, — did not begin and 
 terminate by themselves. They were parts of an un- 
 finished and progressive plan, which finds its destined 
 completion in the Person and Kingdom of Christ ; and 
 only when seen in this prospective reference do they 
 appear in their proper magnitude and full signifi- 
 cance." 1 
 
 We purpose to apply the principle thus enunciated to 
 the history of Naaman, and show how his miraculous 
 ' Fail-bairn's Typology, p. 89. 
 
54 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 cleansing from the leprosy in the waters of Jordan is a 
 type of our cleansing in the waters of Holy Baptism 
 from the disease of sin. This type was one on which 
 the ancients delighted to dwell; and S. Ambrose makes 
 mention that in his time the history of Naaman was 
 read as a Baptismal lesson in the Church of Milan. ^ 
 
 Naaman (as we read 2 Kings v.) was captain of the 
 host of Benhadad, King of Syria^ a great man with his 
 master^ and honourable^ because by him the Lord had 
 given deliverance unto Syria ; but he was a leper. Now 
 there was in the house of Naaman a little maid_, an 
 Israelitish captive^ who said to her mistress that there 
 was a prophet of Samaria who would recover him of his 
 leprosy. When this was told to Naaman^ he obtained 
 permission from Benhadad to go to Samaria, and took 
 from him a letter to Jehoram, King of Israel. On re- 
 ceiving the letter, Jehoram, probably mistaking its im- 
 port in imagining that Benhadad bade him recover his 
 captain of the leprosy, rent his clothes, and said, " Am 
 I God, to kill and make alive ?" Now it was so, that 
 when Elisha heard that the king had rent his clothes, 
 that he sent to the king, saying, " Let him come now 
 to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in 
 Israel.^^ Naaman came, therefore, with his chariot 
 and horses, and stood at the door of Elisha's house; 
 and Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, " Go, and 
 wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come 
 again to thee, and thou shalt be clean." Indignant at 
 this proposed mode of cure and at the conduct of the 
 prophet, Naaman was wroth, and went away in a rage, 
 
 1 De Myst. s. 16. "Denique doceat te decursa Eegnorum Lectio 
 (2 Kings V. 1, sqq.) Naaman Syrus erat, &c." 
 
NAAMAN. 55 
 
 exclaiming^ "Behold, I thought, he will surely come 
 out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord 
 his GrOD, and strike his hand over the place, and re- 
 cover the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of 
 Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May 
 I not wash in them and be clean? But his servants 
 came near, and spake unto him, and said. If the prophet 
 had bid thee do some great thing, wouldst thou not 
 have done it ? how much rather, then, when he saith to 
 thee. Wash, and be clean. Then he went, and dipped 
 himself seven times in Jordan, and his flesh came again 
 like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." 
 
 Such is the history, and in considering its typical 
 significance we must first observe the disease with which 
 Naaman was so grievously afflicted. 
 
 The leprosy was a plague of the most loathsome and 
 detestable character. Appearing at first in the form of 
 a single bright spot in the skin of the flesh, its ravages 
 soon began to spread. The spots assumed a white, 
 scaly appearance, and little by little, by a slow, but 
 sure and stealthy progress, the disease covered the 
 whole body. The terrible nature of the malady may 
 be understood by the mournful cry, " Unclean, un- 
 clean," whereby the Jewish leper testified his woe, and 
 by the prayer of Aaron regarding the leprous Miriam, 
 " Let her not be as one dead, of whom the flesh is half 
 consumed when he cometh out of his mother^s womb."^ 
 And the hopelessness of its cure by any human means 
 may be learnt by the despairing question of Jehoram in 
 this place, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that 
 this man doth send imto me to recover a man of his 
 1 Numb. xii. 12. 
 
56 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES 0¥ HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 leprosy?"^ A leper was^ as it were^ in a state of death, 
 and to effect his recovery was to make him alive from 
 the dead. 
 
 Now why may we suppose that this disease was 
 chosen out above all others to be thus terrible ? why 
 was it so insidious in its spread;, so deadly and incurable 
 in its nature, so awful in its punishment ? why for it 
 alone was there to be exclusion from all society, the 
 trappings of mourning, the covering of the face, the 
 heart-rending cry, " Unclean, unclean ?" why should 
 leprosy be stigmatised as the sickness of sicknesses, and 
 the leprous as emphatically " the smitten ?" The an- 
 swer is manifest. It was intended to be typical of sin; 
 to show, as it were, parabolically, the awfulness of sin, 
 the stealthiness of its progress, the wretchedness it pro- 
 duces, its deadly character, the shame arising from it, 
 compelling the sin-stricken to hide his face, and utter 
 an exceeding bitter cry, testifying that he was an aban- 
 doned outcast.2 The leprous man was an outward and 
 visible representation of the sinner ; the leprosy figured 
 the fatal disease of sin. 
 
 And if we are thus to see in leprosy a type of sin, so 
 in the history of Naaman may we read the mode of 
 cure which God has graciously provided ; a typical fore- 
 showing of the washing away of sin in the healing waters 
 of Holy Baptism. 
 
 First, then, observe that Naaman was commanded to 
 perform an outward act, to the due performance of which 
 the promise of perfect cleansing was attached, " Go and 
 wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come 
 again to thee, and thou shalt be clean,"^ It was only 
 1 Verse 7. ^ 2 Chron. ix. 21. ^ ygrse 10. 
 
NAAMAN. 57 
 
 by doing this outward act faithfully aud obediently that 
 he could possibly be cleansed. The outward act was 
 necessary for his healing. While he refused to use 
 this appointed means^ the leprosy still clave to his skin ; 
 and it was only when^ at the advice of his servants, he 
 returned to a better mind, and went aud did what the 
 prophet of the Lord commanded, " dipped himself seven 
 times in Jordan/^ that " his flesh came again like unto 
 the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." ^ The 
 healing was mysteriously connected with the outward 
 washing. Though the washing in Jordan could not 
 cleanse the leper, from any natural properties residing 
 in the water itself, yet when God had, with a deep 
 sacramental signification, joined the virtue of cleansing 
 to the outward application of water, then was the leper, 
 washing in it, entirely cleansed. 
 
 Further, observe the simplicity of the outward sign. 
 So simple was it, indeed, that we read Naaman was 
 offended at it. " Behold, I thought," said he, " he will 
 surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the Name 
 of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the 
 place, and recover the leper."^ He expected the act of 
 healing to be accompanied by more striking manifesta- 
 tions of power ; for example, a waving of the hand 
 backward and forward over the ailing part. And even 
 if the cure was to be effected by washing in water, he 
 could not see why Jordan was to be chosen out as a 
 laver of cleansing ? why not Abana and Pharpar, rivers 
 of Damascus ? Might he not wash in them, and be 
 clean? And yet, though at first offended at the sim- 
 plicity of the outward means, he was afterwards led by 
 ' Verse 14. 2 Yerse 11. 
 
 D 3 
 
58 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 this very simplicity to see the hand of God in these 
 means. If the prophet had used any of the extraor- 
 dinary means Naaman had expected^ there would have 
 been great danger of the cure being ascribed to him 
 rather than to the true Miracle- worker. If the prophet 
 had " done some great things" he would have been 
 likely to have attributed it to this, and not to God. 
 But when he was cleansed by means in themselves so 
 manifestly inadequate, he was forced to confess the 
 power of God ; " Behold, now I know, that there is no 
 God in all the earth but in Israel.^' ^ Now, in the lan- 
 guage of a Father, " having been cleansed, he forthwith 
 understood that the cleansing of any is not of the water, 
 but of grace.^^2 
 
 These, then, are two leading lessons we learn from 
 the typical history of Naaman. First, the necessity of 
 outward washing in the waters of Baptism for the in- 
 Avard washing away of sin. And next, that the sim- 
 plicity of the outward and visible sign is no cause what- 
 ever for disbelieving that God should make it the 
 channel for the conveyance of inward and spiritual 
 grace. 
 
 I. There is something apparently humble in the ar- 
 gument with which some dispense with the necessity of 
 Sacraments. '^Spiritual healing," they say, "must 
 come from God, and not from man, or water, or any 
 human means. We must go direct to God. "We want 
 nothing between us and God. We cannot put Sacra- 
 ments instead of Christ." But the fallacy of this ar- 
 gument is of course patent ; for if God has appointed 
 
 ^ Verse 15. 
 
 - S. Ambrose De Myst. Lib. i. c. 3, in finem. 
 
NAAMAN. 59 
 
 certain ways in which He wills us to come to Himj 
 humility is shown in seeking Him in those ways, and 
 not in the Abanas and Pharpars of our own choosing. 
 True faith consists in the unquestioning acceptance of 
 those truths God is pleased to reveal, and acting on 
 them without reserve. Naaraan would never have been 
 cleansed if he had not washed in Jordan. His general 
 faith in the healing power of God, which led him to 
 take a long journey and put himself to much expense to 
 find the prophet of the Lord, would not alone have 
 sufficed. He needed, moreover, faith in the means which 
 God had appointed for the conveyance of His healing 
 power. And so not only must we have a general faith 
 in the power and goodness of God, but, as I may say, 
 that particular faith, whereby we " steadfastly believe 
 the promises of God made to us in that Sacrament/' which 
 He has ordained. If we are bidden " Repent and be 
 baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ 
 for the remission of sins,^^^ we have no right to suppose 
 that we can have " remission of sins " without Baptism. 
 If it is said, " Baptism doth also now save us,"^ we have 
 no right to expect salvation without Baptism. When 
 S. Paul received the command, ^^ Arise, and be bap- 
 tized, and wash away thy sins,"^ his faith in God was 
 shown in his immediate obedience. Baptism was as 
 necessary for his inward cleansing, as washing in Jordan 
 for the outward cleansing of Naaman. ^' The Blood of 
 Jesus Christ " indeed " cleanseth us from all sin,""* 
 but that Blood must be applied to us in Holy Baptism. 
 The Blood cleanseth us inwardly, as Naaman was 
 
 1 Acts ii. 38. 2 1 s. pet. iii. 21. 
 
 3 Acts xxii. 16. ^ 1 S. John i. 7. 
 
60 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 cleansed outwardly, but only on the selfsame condi- 
 tion, " Wash, and be clean." 
 
 II. The simplicity of the outward visible sign or 
 form in Baptism is no ground for disbelief that God 
 should make it the channel for the conveyance of in- 
 ward and spiritual grace. And yet the stumbling- 
 block of Naaman has been that of thousands in the 
 Church of Christ from the beginning. Thus it was 
 that, when " He came unto His own, His own received 
 Him not.^^i Thus '^'^they were offended in Him,^^^ 
 saying, " Is not this the carpenter^s Son ?" Thus too, 
 now-a-days, people disbelieve the healing virtue of the 
 Sacraments, because they, like their Divine Author, 
 have " no form nor comeliness, and when men see them 
 they have no beauty that we should desire them ; they 
 are despised and rejected of men, despised and esteemed 
 not.^^3 "Nothing,^^ says TertuUian,* in the second 
 century, writing against a woman who denied the ne- 
 cessity of water in Baptism, '' so hardeneth the minds 
 of men as the simplicity of the Divine operations in 
 their outward act, and the mighty graces, which are 
 promised as their inward effect. When with the ut- 
 most simplicity, with no pomp or show or expense, a 
 man goes down into the water and is baptized, while a 
 few words are pronounced over him, and rises up again, 
 not at all or very little cleaner, his having acquired 
 eternal salvation is deemed incredible. Alas ! wretched 
 unbelief, which deniest to God His peculiar attributes, 
 simplicity and power." And God's attributes may we 
 truly call simplicity joined to power. Man, for the 
 carrying out of any great work, is compelled by defect 
 
 1 S, John i. 11. 2 s. Matt. xiii. 57. 
 
 3 Isa. liii. 2. ■* De Baptismo, ii. 
 
NAAMAN. 61 
 
 of power to employ manifold and complicated machinery ; 
 but God displays His infinite power in the use of the 
 simplest means. Man rears a noble mansion by the hands 
 of a multitude of builders, and by the employment of 
 piles of massive materials ; but God rears this fabric of 
 the universe by a word out of nothing. Man heals the 
 sick by many medicines, and oftener finds himself ut- 
 terly baffled; but God cleanses the leprous with two 
 words, "I will, be thou clean ;^^^ him who was blind 
 from his birth by unction with spittle and washing in 
 the pool of Siloamj^ S. Peter's wife's mother^ and the 
 two blind men* by the simple touch of His holy Flesh ; 
 the palsied servant of the centurion and the daughter 
 of the woman of Canaan,^ when absent ;^ and the 
 daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, by taking her 
 by the hand and bidding her arise." ^ In all these 
 cases the means were utterly disproportionate to the 
 effect ; but in this very way we are led, as Naaman, to 
 confess that the excellency of the power is of God. 
 For God " hath chosen the foolish things of the world 
 to confound the wise ; and God hath chosen the weak 
 things of the world to confound the things which are 
 mighty ; and base things of the world, and things which 
 are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which 
 are not, to bring to nought things that are ; that no 
 flesh should glory in His Presence.''^ 
 
 ' S. Matt. viii. 3, fle'Aw, KudaplcrdriTt. - S. John ix. 
 
 •■' S. Matt. ix. 15. ■» S. Matt. xx. 34. 
 
 5 S. Matt. XV. 21. 6 g. Matt. viii. 5, 13. 
 
 7 S. Matt. vi. 4. 
 
 8 1 Cor. i. 27. After alluding to Naaman, the writer of a treatise 
 among the works of S. Ambrose (De Sacr. Lib. i. c. 3) says : " Thou 
 hast entered ; thou hast seen the water ; thou hast seen the priest : 
 thoii hast seen the deacon (Levitam). Perhaps some one may say, 
 
63 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 But once more. Notice the river in whicli Naaman 
 washed and was cleansed — the Jordan. Naturally, I 
 suppose, the rivers of Damascus were better than all the 
 waters of Jordan. There was no absurdity in Naaman's 
 argument. As worldly men would say, he spoke like a 
 sensible man, using his own judgment, and not suflPer- 
 ing himself to be beguiled by any prophet. But never- 
 theless we know, that not in the noisy and rapid rivers 
 of Abana and Pharpar, (for the word Abana means 
 " most swift," and was given to the river owing to the 
 rapidity of its course,) but in the more silent stream of 
 Jordan was he to be healed. And what truth have we 
 here ? First, perhaps, an intimation that not in the 
 noisy agitation of the world, but in the quiet working 
 of God's Church, are we to seek all good ; not in con- 
 vulsive exciting efforts, but in the quiet and faithful use 
 of the means of grace, are we to be " made meet to be 
 partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light ;"i 
 not in the wind, the fire, or the earthquake, but in the 
 still small voice uttered in the sacraments, the absolu- 
 tions, and other ordinances of Christ's Church, is God 
 to be sought and found. In these " His word is with 
 power ;"2 in these His " power is present to heal."^ 
 
 ' Is this all ?' Yes, it is all : verily all, where there is all innocence, 
 all godliness, all grace, all sanctification. Thou hast seen what thou 
 couldest see with thy bodily eyes and human vision ; thou hast not 
 seen the things which are wrought, because they are not seen. The 
 things wliich are not seen are much more important than the things 
 which are seen ; ' for the things which are seen are temporal, but the 
 things which are not seen are eternal.' (2 Cor. iv. 18.)" 
 
 1 Col. i. 12. 2 g, jj^Q iy. 32. 
 
 3 S. Luke V. 17. Cf. Amb. De Myst. 397. "Where His own mys- 
 teries are, there He deigneth to impart His own Presence." 
 
NAAMAN, 63 
 
 And next, there is surely another reason for the choice 
 of Jordan above all other rivers. Jordan was after- 
 wards to be the place of our Lord^s Baptism^ by which 
 '^the element of water was sanctified to the mystical 
 washing away of sin/^^ And in accordance with the 
 ordinary method of God's dealing, it was fitting that 
 there should be types, announcing beforehand this event 
 in our Lord's history, and that the wonders wrought in 
 Jordan should prepare the way for this greater wonder 
 still. "As signs were these things set forth/' saith S. 
 Augustine elsewhere, " and by this sort of significant 
 instruction were the realities ushered in." ^^When 
 Naaman had washed in Jordan," says S. Gregory Nys- 
 sene,2 " he was cleansed of his disease : thus by the use 
 of water in general, and baptism in this river in par- 
 ticular, clearly pre-signifying what was to be. For 
 Jordan alone of rivers having received in itself the first 
 fruits of sanctification and blessing, became the channel, 
 as it were, to convey in figure from the fountain the 
 grace of Baptism to the whole world." Thus again was 
 " Baptism to save us," and " make us inheritors of the 
 kingdom of heaven?" It was prefigured by the en- 
 trance of the Israelites into the Promised Land by the 
 river Jordan. Thus, was our Lord to be publicly ma- 
 
 ^ Baptismal Service. " Christ also batlied Himself in tlie river Jordan, 
 and having imparted of the fragrance of the Godhead to the waters, He 
 came up from them." (S. Cyril Jerus. Lect. xsi. 1.) He elsewhere 
 says to the candidates for Baptism, "May you enjoy the fragrant waters 
 which contain Christ." Procat. 15. {i^dToiv awoXavarrjTe XpiarocpSpwu 
 ex^vTcov evccSlav) : viz., the waters rendered fragrant by the touch of 
 His Flesh vdth that spiritual fragrance which He imparted to them from 
 His Divinity. 
 
 2 In Bapt. Christ, torn. iii. 376, apud Script. Views, p. 345. 
 
64 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 nifested at His Baptism in Jordan, and from thence to 
 begin His ministry ? So in Jordan did God begin to 
 "magnify Josbua (Jesus) in the sight of all Israel j^-*! 
 and He commenced to govern the people ; and " it is 
 plain/^ says the Father just quoted, " that Jesus depo- 
 siting the twelve stones in the stream foreordained the 
 twelve disciples, the ministers in Baptism/^ Or lastly, 
 was Baptism to separate Christians from the unbe- 
 lievers ? So it was also fore-ordained that, even in its 
 natural situation, the river Jordan should sever the 
 country of the Israelites from that of the Gentiles.^ 
 
 But, once more. Naaman was commanded to " wash 
 in Jordan seven times.^^^ Here again there is mystery. 
 Seven was a number symbolical of rest and sanctification. 
 Seven days, for example, was the leper to be shut out of 
 the camp. Seven times was the leper to be sprinkled 
 for the cleansing of his leprosy.* Seven times was the 
 
 1 Josh. iii. 7. 
 
 2 cf. S. Cyril Jems. Cat. Lect. iii. 5 : " Elias is receiyed up, but not 
 without water ; for first he crosses Jordan, then horses carry him to 
 heaven." 
 
 3 Verse 10. 
 
 * Levit. xiv. 7. S. Cyril Alex, (in S. Luke, E. P. Smith's Trans, from 
 Syriac, pt. i. 76,) has a striking commentary on the two birds and the 
 running water, &c., used in cleansing the leper. " The bu'ds (he says) 
 are two in number, both without staiu, that is, clean, and hable to no 
 fault on the part of the law : and the one of them is slain over hving 
 water, but the other being saved from slaughter and further baptized 
 in the blood of that which died, is let loose." " Though there were 
 two birds, yet was He, "Who was represented in both, but One, as suf- 
 fering, and free from suffering ; as dying and superior to death, and 
 mounting up to heaven, as a sort of second first-fruits of human nature 
 renewed unto incorruption. For He has made a new pathway for us 
 into that which is above, and we in due time shall foUow Him. That 
 the one bird then was slain, and that the other was baptized indeed in 
 
NAAMAN. 65 
 
 blood of the sacrifice to be sprinkled on the mercy-seat. 
 The seventh day was a day of rest, the seventh year a 
 year of rest and release. Have we not, then, in the 
 washing of Naaman seven times in Jordan a type, first, 
 of the sanctifying power of holy baptism, when we 
 '' were washed, justified, and sanctified in the name of 
 the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God ;"i and next, 
 of that blessed rest which follows on the perfect remis- 
 sion of our sins, both original and actual, and our re- 
 storation again to the favour of a reconciled God ? Or, 
 seeing that the gifts of the Spirit were sevenfold, we 
 may perhaps find here an intimation that not all water, 
 but water consecrated by the Holy Spirit, regenerates 
 and saves. '' The element is one thing," says one,^ 
 " the consecration and operation another. The element 
 is water, the operation is of the Holy Ghost. The 
 water cures not unless the Holy Ghost hath descended 
 and consecrated the water." " Whatever grace," says 
 another) " there is in the water, is not from the nature 
 of the water, but from the presence of the Spirit."^ 
 
 And all this is the more important for us, because 
 Naaman was not a Jew, but like ourselves a Gentile, and 
 
 its blood, while itself exempt from slaughter, typified what was really 
 to happen, for Cheist died in our stead, and we who have been bap- 
 tized into His Death, He has saved by His own Blood." 
 
 1 1 Cor. vi. 11. 
 
 "^ De Sacr. lib. i. 15, n. 15, inter opera S. Ambrosii. 
 
 ^ S. Basil, De Spu'itu Saneto, cap. xv. n. 35. Cf. S. Cyril Jerus. Cat. 
 Lect. iii. c. 3 : " Eegard not the Laver as simple (Atrw) water, but re- 
 gard rather the grace of the Spieit given with the water. For just as 
 the things offered on the idol altars, being by nature simple {Kira,) be- 
 come polluted by the invocation of the idols ; so, contrariwise, the 
 simple water having received the invocation of the Holy Spieit, and 
 Cheist, and the Fathee, acquires a power of sanctification," 
 
66 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 his cleansing was a type of ours. For as Elijali and 
 Elisha were types and precursors of our Blessed Lord, 
 so was Naaman a type of the Gentile worlds to whom 
 ChrisTj leaving the Jews on account of their unbelief, 
 transferred through His Apostles His Church and 
 grace. Our Lord makes allusion to this in His first 
 sermon at Nazareth : " Many lepers were in Israel/^ 
 He says, " in the time of Eliseus the prophet, and none 
 of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian." ^ In 
 the fulness of time, when Christ came in the flesh, 
 Jews as well as Gentiles were encompassed by the le- 
 prosy of sin. But while the Jews from their unbelief 
 were left in their misery, the Gentiles believing were 
 cured of their spiritual disease. " Deservedly, there- 
 fore," says S. Ambrose,^ '^ was Naaman, ^a great man 
 with his master,^ and ' admirable in countenance,' (see 
 margin of the Bible, 2 Kings v. 1) '^ since in him is 
 typically declared the future salvation of the Gentiles." 
 "Naaman," says Bede,^ "that Syrian whose name is 
 by interpretation ' beauty,' denotes the Gentile people, 
 formerly spotted with the leprosy of deceit and wicked- 
 ness, but by the sacrament of baptism purged from all 
 filthiness of the flesh and mind." 
 
 And who was that "little maid" who had been 
 " brought away captive out of the land of Israel ?"* It 
 may seem fanciful to say with Bede,^ that she represents 
 the grace of heavenly inspiration, which the Gentiles 
 took by violence when the Jews were unable to keep it.^ 
 
 ^ S. Liike iv. 27. ^ Expos. Evan. sec. Luc. lib. iv. 50. 
 
 3 In Luc. Evang. Expos. ■* Verse 2. " Ubi supra. 
 
 " Cf. S. Aug. in Serm. 108, De tempore : " Naaman attended to the 
 little maid, and came to Elisha ; the Gentile people attended to Pro- 
 
NAAMAN. 07 
 
 But at any rate her example teaches that even they who 
 occupy the lowest stations may be the means of leading 
 others to the truths and guiding such as are afflicted 
 with the leprosy of sin to the " Fountain open for sin 
 and for uncleanness/^^ 
 
 And so, further, even the temporary error of Naaman 
 is not without its lesson. When " Naaman was wroth/'^ 
 he could not receive the truth of God. " He turned 
 and went away in a rage," and could not discern the 
 Divine will. It was only when he came to himself, and 
 listened humbly and teachably to advice, that he under- 
 stood the deep things of the Almighty. Anger and 
 clamour and strife, as S. Ambrose remarks,^ cannot un- 
 derstand mysteries ; this privilege is reserved for faith. 
 Men blinded by party spirit, and angered by all that 
 opposes their preconceived notions, can hardly penetrate 
 into the inner signification .of Holy Writ. Mysteries 
 are revealed to the meek, to the humble inquirer listen- 
 ing patiently to the doctors, or kneeling lovingly at the 
 feet of Jesus, saying, " Lord, open Thou mine eyes 
 that I may see the wondrous things of Thy Law."* 
 These are such as He shall guide in judgment. To 
 such as these He draws near, and opens their under- 
 standing that they may understand the Scriptures. 
 
 Nor is the subsequent conduct of Naaman without 
 its instruction. No sooner was he cleansed than he 
 
 phecy, and came to Cheist. Naaman coming to Elisha is cured from 
 his leprosy, and the GentUe people coming to Cheist is cleansed from 
 all the leprosy of sin." 
 
 1 Zech. xiii. 1. * Verses 11 and 12. 
 
 ^ Nescit ira mysterimn, fides novit. S. Amb. Expos. S. Luke, Kb. 
 iv, 27. 
 
 ■» Ps. cxix. 18. 
 
68 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 solemnly testified^ tliat "he would henceforth offer 
 neither burnt-offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, 
 but unto the Lord."i And so in baptism we so- 
 lemnly "^ renounce the devil and all his works/^ and 
 promise to serve the living God only. Cleansed from 
 our sins_, united to Christ, the Great High Priest, 
 Christians in their degree become " an holy priest- 
 hood/' sanctified "to offer up spiritual sacrifices, ac- 
 ceptable to God by Jesus Christ/'^ ^^^ though 
 we may not in the desire of Naaman to take away 
 with him a portion of the Holy Land, '^^two mules' 
 burden of earth,^' see, with Bede, an intimation that 
 the " baptized ought to be strengthened by the parti- 
 cipation of the Lord's Body;" yet, if we adopt the 
 general interpretation, that he desired the earth in 
 order to form an altar to the Lord,^ our thoughts may 
 well be turned to that Christian altar* whereon " we do 
 show the Lord's death till He come,"^ and offer up the 
 Unbloody Sacrifice as a memorial before God. And 
 if, further, the first thought of Naaman's heart was to 
 show his gratitude by offering of his substance ; " Now, 
 therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant ;" 
 so should it also be ours. " To do good and to commu- 
 nicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well 
 pleased."^ 
 
 " And having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter 
 into the holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and 
 living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through 
 the veil, that is to say. His Flesh " (to which we are 
 
 1 Verse 17. ^ 1 S. Pet. ij. 5. 
 
 3 " An Altar of earth shalt thou make tuito Me." Exod. xx. 24. 
 ■» Heb. xiii. 10. ^ 1 Cor. xi. 26. ^ ^eb. xiii. 16. 
 
NAAMAN. 69 
 
 united by baptism) ^ " and having an Higb Priest over 
 
 the house of God^ let us draw near with a true heart in 
 
 full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from 
 
 an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure 
 
 WATER. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith 
 
 without wavering, (for He is faithful that promised) and 
 
 let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to 
 
 good works ; not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
 
 together as the manner of some is ; but exhorting one 
 
 another, and so much the more as ye see the Day ap- 
 proaching/^2 
 
 1 Cf. Bede in S. Luc. : " Eightly is the ilesh of Naaman after his 
 baptism (sc. in Jordan) said to have appeared ' like unto the flesh of a 
 little child,' either because grace as a mother brings forth all the bap- 
 tized in Christ into one infancy ; or rather we are to understand that 
 Child of Whom it is written, ' Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Sos^ 
 is given,' (Isa. ix.) to Whose Body the whole femUy of the Paithful 
 are united by Baptism." 
 
 - Heb. X. 19 sqq. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA A TYPE OF HOLY 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 S. John t. 4. 
 "Foe an angel went down at a ceetain season into the 
 
 POOL, AND TEOTJBLED THE WATEE : WHOSOEVEE THEN FIEST, AFTEE 
 THE TEOUBLING OP THE WATEE, STEPPED IN, WAS MADE WHOLE OF 
 WHATSOEVEE DISEASE HE HAD." 
 
■ Types travail with the tnith." 
 
 S. CyrH Alex. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA A TYPE OF HOLY 
 BAPTISM. 
 
 S. John t. 4. 
 "For an ANaEL went down at a certain season into the 
 
 POOL, AND TROITBLED THE WATER : WHOSOETER THEN FIRST, AFTER 
 THE TROUBIING- OF THE WATER, STEPPED IN, WAS MADE WHOLE 
 OF WHATSOETER DISEASE HE HAD." 
 
 " As in gold mines, one skilful in what relates to them 
 would not endure to overlook even the smallest vein as 
 producing much wealth, so in the Holy Scriptures it is 
 impossible without loss to pass by one jot or one tittle. 
 We must search into all. For they all are uttered by 
 the Holy Spirit, and nothing useless is written in 
 them." 
 
 Such is the reverent manner in which S. Chrysos- 
 tom^ prefaces his excellent commentary on this miracle, 
 knowing well that " these things were not written care- 
 lessly or without a purpose, but as by a figure and type 
 they show in outline things to come." 
 
 It is in the same spirit we would desire to examine 
 the same miracle, searching in it for another type of the 
 
 1 Horn. 36, Oxford Ti-ans. 
 
74 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 healing power of Holy Baptism. Nor is it unreason- 
 able that we should expect to find the clearest indica- 
 tions of the Sacrament of Christ in a miracle wrought 
 even in the time of our Blessed Lord. If the great 
 realities of the Gospel had burst upon men all at once^ 
 they might not have been able to bear them. Their 
 faith might have been harmed by the unexpected reve- 
 lation of "the wondrous things of God^s law/^ and 
 hence in mercy God prepared the way for the realities^ 
 by types and figures^ the meaning of which they would 
 afterwards understand. But as these realities drew 
 nigh^ it was natural that the types should be more lumi- 
 nous and significant ; and that as guards (to use an 
 illustration of a Father) ^ near the person of the prince 
 are more splendid than those afar off, so should it also 
 be with the types ; that as the fulness of time ap- 
 proached the typical foreshowings of Christ and His 
 kingdom should be more pregnant with instruction. 
 " A baptism was about to be given^ possessing much 
 power and a mighty giftj a baptism purging all sins, and 
 making men alive from the dead."^ jt would be strange, 
 therefore, if the betokenings of this were not richer in 
 meaning as the day approached when '^'^the Sun of 
 righteousness rose with healing in His wings.^'^ 
 
 With still greater confidence, too, do we look in the 
 pool of Bethesda for a type of what S. Cyril calls " the 
 holy pool of Divine Baptism,^'* because it was ever so 
 regarded in the early days of the Church. The very 
 name which the primitive Christians gave to their Bap- 
 
 ' S. Clirys. in loco. ^ Ubi supra. ' Mai. iv. 2. 
 
 * Cat. Myst. xx. 4. Mera ravrtx enri r)]v ayiav tov deiov 0aiTTi(TfjLaros 
 iXetpaycoyelade KoKvfiPiidpay. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 70 
 
 tisteries was the same as tlie word translated "pool" 
 both here and at S. John ix. 7. So natural was it to 
 them to consider "the pool of Bethesda/' and "the 
 pool of Siloam/^ as types of Holy Baptism^ that they 
 found no fitter appellation for the place where it was 
 wont to be administered. In the light of this narrative 
 there is peculiar beauty in Christians being called (as 
 by S, Basil) 1 "children of the spiritual pool/' and the 
 Baptistery itself being designated (as by S. Chrysos- 
 tom)2 "the terrible and desirable pool."^ 
 
 In the first place^ then, the name of the pool arrests our 
 attention.'* The names of the principal places in the 
 Gospel seem to shadow forth great truths in Christ's 
 
 ^ Orat. xxyii. 149, apud Suicer, Ko\v/M^r]6pa. 
 
 2 Horn. 90, torn. t. 714. 
 
 ^ Cf. Q.uaest. 137 ad Orthod. inter opp. Just. Mart. 
 
 ■* The following interesting note regarding the names of places in our 
 Lord's history is taken from Dr. Wordsworth's Edit, of the Greek 
 Test, in S. Matt. xxvi. 36. " Christ -was born at Bethlehem. The 
 Bread of life was given to the world at Bethlehem, the House of Bread 
 (S. Matt. ii. 1). The Man Whose Name is Netser, the Branch, grew up 
 at Nazareth, whose name, derived from its branching shrubs and ti'ees, 
 may have shadowed forth this cfrcumstance in His life. He chose His 
 Apostles to be fishers of men from Beth-saida, the House of fishing (xi. 
 21). He dwelt at Capernaum, (iv. 18,) the totvn of Consolation. He 
 healed the impotent man at Beth-esda the House of mercy (S. John v. 1,) 
 Bethany, the place of palm-dates speaks of the palms and hosannas of 
 His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Pahn Sunday and of the Victory 
 and triumphal gloiy of His Ascension. In Beth-phage the House of 
 Figs, we may see a memento of the waruiag that He gave to Jerusalem 
 and the world by the withering of the barren Fig-tree. And now in 
 Geth-semane the Press of Oil is witness of His Agony in wliich it pleased 
 God to bruise Him for our sakes (Isa. liii. 10,) that Oil might flow from 
 His wounds to heal our souls. At Golgotha He rolled away our shame. 
 And on the Mount of Olives Christ went up to heaven, whence He holds 
 forth the Olive branch of Peace between God and man." 
 
 E 2 
 
76 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 history : and the fact that occasionally interpretations 
 are given by the Evangelists, makes us look for some 
 hidden teaching even in a name. Not without reason, 
 therefore_, was this pool here, where the water healed 
 the diseases of those who washed in it, called Bethesda, 
 whether we take it as " house of mercy ^^ or " house of 
 washing." For thus the very name seems to call our 
 attention to that "washing of regeneration/ '^ whereby 
 God according to His mercy saves us ; to that pool of 
 grace, where poor, lame, blind creatures such as we are, 
 may upon the moving of God's Holy Spirit, step down 
 and be healed of whatever disease we have. 
 
 " Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep-market a 
 pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, 
 having five porches'"^ Wherever they read of the num- 
 ber five, the thoughts of early writers spontaneously 
 turned to the five books of the law. Thus S. Isidore 
 of Seville^ understood by the Samaritan woman who 
 had had five husbands, the synagogue bound to the five 
 books of the law in their carnal acceptation as unto five 
 husbands, whom the Lord mercifully disposed to draw 
 the living water, that is, to receive the grace of the bath, 
 or the hidden and spiritual meaning of the law; and S. 
 Augustine considers the five porches to represent " the 
 people of the Jews shut up in the five books of Moses. 
 But these books disclosed the ailing, not healed them. 
 The law convicted sinners, not absolved them. Therefore, 
 
 > Titus iii. 5. ^ S. John v. 2. 
 
 3 Allegorije quEedam Scripturse sacrse, 235. So S. Aug. though, he 
 prefers another interpretation, mentions this also, " Quinque viros, quin- 
 que libros, qui per Moysen ministrati sunt, nonnuUi accipiunt," — De 
 diversis queest. in Simphc. Lit. i. 6. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 77 
 
 the letter without grace brought men in guilty^ whom 
 on confession grace delivered. For thus saith the Apos- 
 tle, ' If there had been a law given which could have 
 given life, verily righteousness should have been by the 
 law. But the Scripture hath shut up all together under 
 sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be 
 given to them that believe.' "^ The porches served to 
 display the "wounds and bruises and putrefying sores"^ 
 of the sufferers, but they could not cure them. This 
 could only be effected by " the pool situated by the gate 
 of victims, which typifies the Church wherein the waters 
 of Holy Baptism, and those of the tears of repentance 
 cure all sorts of spiritual diseases, by virtue of the 
 Blood of the true Victim, with which they are, as it 
 were, tinged and dyed.^'^ 
 
 Water, therefore, here, as in so many other places of 
 Holy Scripture is made the instrument of healing. Yet 
 it must be remarked that it is not water simply, but 
 water endowed with power from above which healed. " For 
 an angel (we read) went down at a certain season into 
 the pool and troubled the water.''* In all probability 
 the angel was invisible to mortal eye, and men only 
 became aware of his approach by the perturbation of 
 the water.5 Yet though not visible, the ministry of the 
 angel was not the less real. The Bible contains the 
 revelation of God, and here of His mercy He re-veals, 
 draws back the veil from spiritual things, and shows us 
 one of the Angelic host (some Raphael, Medicina Dei) 
 
 I Gal. iii. 21, 23. ^ igaiah i/e. 
 
 3 Quesnel. ^ S. John v. 4. 
 
 5 " Men saw only the water ; but from the motion of the troubled 
 water, they recognized the presence of the angel." — S. Aug. Serm. 125. 
 
78 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 descending into the pool^ troubling the water^ and de- 
 positing in it a power to heal. The carnal eye saw but 
 the ripple on the surface ; the Bible shows to the eye of 
 faith ^^the angel of the waters/' ^ ^'^ doing wondrously/'^ 
 and communicating properties^ medicinal to him, who 
 first stepped down, of all disease and infirmity. 
 
 And what, then, is the teaching of this as respects 
 Holy Baptism ? Is it not this — that it is not water in 
 itself, but water consecrated hy the Holy Ghost which 
 heals ? When the Holy Ghost moves the water by the 
 Blood of Christ the Victim, then it becomes a laver of 
 regeneration. "This angel,'' says S. Ambrose, "an- 
 nounced the descent of the Holy Ghost, Which invoked 
 by the prayers of the priest, consecrates the waters /'^ 
 
 1 Kev. xxi. 4, 5. ^ Judges xiii. 19. 
 
 3 S. Ambrose De Spir. Sancto, i. 7. There is frequent allusion to the 
 angel of Bethesda (or Bethsaida according to another reading) ia ancient 
 Baptismal Offices. See, for example, the following for the blessing of 
 the water in " The ancient Liturgies of the GaUican Church," ed. 
 Gr. H. Forbes, Burntisland, part i. p. 95, " O God, Who didst sanctify the 
 river Jordan for the salvation of souls ; May the angel of Thy blessing 
 descend upon these waters, that bathed in them Thy servants may re- 
 ceive remission of sins ; and born agaia of water and the Holy Spu'it, 
 devotedly serve Thee for ever ; through Jesus Cheist oiu* Lobd. — It 
 is meet and right ; O Holy Loed, Almighty Fathee, eternal God, . . . 
 Wlio before the riches of the world didst bestow on the sustaining waters 
 Thy Holy Spirit ; Who didst prepare the waters of Bethsaida by the 
 liealing of an angel (Angelo medicante) ; Who, through the condescen- 
 sion of Cheist Thy Son, didst sanctify the river Jordan ; look, O Loed, 
 upon these waters, which have been prepared to wash out the sins of 
 men. Grant that the angel of Thy mercy may be present to these holy 
 waters. May he wash oiF the stains of former hfe, and sanctify for Thee 
 a httle dwelling place, that the bowels of those to be regenerated may 
 flourish for ever, and the newness of Baptism may truly be restored. 
 Bless, O Loed our God, this creature of water, and may Thy power de- 
 scend upon it. Pour forth from above Thy Holy Spirit the Comforter, 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 79 
 
 ^^for them the angel descended; for thee the Holy 
 Spirit. For them the creature was moved ; for thee 
 Christ Himself, the Lord of the creature^ worketh."* 
 It is true, that now we see not any motion of the. bap- 
 tismal water, because ^' signs are for the unbelieving, 
 faith for the believing."^ Yet, as Hooker^ well ob- 
 serves, sacraments are " heavenly ceremonies which God 
 hath sanctified and ordained to be administered in His 
 Church, first as marks whereby to know when God doth 
 impart the vital or saving grace of Christ unto all that 
 are capable thereof ; and secondly, as means conditional, 
 which God requireth in them unto whom He imparteth 
 grace. For, since God in Himself is invisible and can- 
 not by us be discerned working ; therefore when it seem- 
 eth good in the eyes of His heavenly wisdom that men 
 for some special intent and purpose should take notice 
 of His glorious presence. He giveth them some plain 
 and sensible token whereby to know what they cannot 
 see. For Moses to see God and live was impossible, 
 yet Moses by fire knew where the glory of God extra- 
 ordinarily was present. The angel by whom God en- 
 dued the waters of the pool called Bethesda with super- 
 natural virtue to heal, was not seen of any ; yet the 
 time of the angel's presence known by the troubled 
 
 the Angel of truth. Sancti^^', Lord, the waters of this strean), as Thou 
 didst sanctify the waters of Jordan, that they who go down into this 
 font, m the name of the Fathee, the Son, and the HoLr Ghost, may be 
 meet to receive remission of sins, and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit ; 
 through Jestts Cheist our Loed, Who with the Father and the 
 Holt Spieit is blessed for ever and ever. 
 
 1 De Mysteriis. 
 
 2 De Sacr. Lib. ii. c- 2, n. 4, inter opera S. Ambrosii. 
 
 3 Ecc. Pol. Lib. V. 67,8.3. 
 
80 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 motions of the waters themselves. The Apostles by 
 fiery tongues which they saw^ were admonished when 
 the Spirit, Which they could not behold^ was upon 
 them. In like manner it is with us. Christ and His 
 Holy Spirit with all Their blessed effects, though en- 
 tering into the soul of man, we are not able to express 
 or apprehend how, do notwithstanding give notice of 
 the time when They use to make Their access, because 
 it pleaseth God to communicate by sensible means those 
 blessings which are incomprehensible." 
 
 Next, mark the greatness of the power of healing. 
 " Whosoever then first, after the troubling of the water, 
 stepped in, was made whole of whatsoever disease he 
 had." There was no disease so grievous as not to be 
 cured in this pool of mercy ; and this may be weU taken 
 to foresignify that there is no sin which Baptism does 
 not cure ; and as the nature and forms of sin are mani- 
 fold and various, so, as a vivid representation of these, 
 there lay " a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, 
 halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water '" 
 and the cure of these bodily diseases in water prevented 
 it seeming strange that diseases of the soul should be 
 cured in the same element. 
 
 And, as has been said, this type exceeded other types 
 in manifesting by anticipation the power of Holy Bap- 
 tism. The Levitical washings purged various unreal 
 impurities and defilements, as from touching a dead 
 body, or a leprosy ; but this cured real bodily diseases. 
 The waters of Jordan had received the power of healing 
 single individuals, as Naaman ; but this pool possesses 
 a power which, though still limited, was continually re- 
 curring. This type of Baptism, then, being nearer to 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 81 
 
 the truth of the things typified, set forth a greater ma- 
 nifestation of might. And yet, in comparison with the 
 reality, it was sadly stinted.^ The waters of the pool 
 healed only at intervals ; the Baptismal waters in the 
 Church heal at all times and all seasons. The angel went 
 down into the pool and troubled the water, and one was 
 healed ; but now the Lord of angels, having gone down 
 into the stream of Jordan, has sanctified the element of 
 water to the mystical washing away of the sins of the 
 whole world. " At Bethesda,'^ says S. Chrysostom,^ 
 " he who descended the second was not healed ; but 
 now, after the first a second, after the second a third, 
 after the third a fourth — nay, were you to cast into 
 these spiritual fountains ten, twenty, a thousand, tens 
 of thousands, yea, the whole world, the grace would not 
 be worn out, nor the gift expended, nor the fountains 
 defiled.^' The laver of regeneration never faileth. 
 When the Name of the Triune God is duly invoked 
 upon the waters, they cure all persons, at all times, and 
 in all places, of all spiritual diseases, whatsoever they 
 may have. Then for a time the Almighty " withheld 
 the waters ;" but now, since the first Pentecostal out- 
 pouring of the Holy Ghost in the fulness of the Church, 
 " He sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth."^ 
 But what shall we suppose to have been the reason 
 why one only was cured? S. Augustine* answers that 
 it is to signify unity ; and S.Ambrose says,^ "Then, 
 
 ^ See Trench on this Parable, infinem. 
 
 2 Woi-ks, vol. iii. p. 756, Ben. Ed. 
 
 3 Job xii. 15. ■* Tract, xvii. 1. in Johan. Cf. in Ps. cii. 7. 
 
 * De Mysteriis, 23. S. Cyril Alex, in loco says that " the cure was 
 limited to one man, as a sign that the benefits of the Law were limited 
 to the Jewish nation alone, and had never passed beyond." 
 
82 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 one was cured ; now, all ; or rather, only tlie one Chris- 
 tian people." It might seem little in itself, that He 
 Who possessed all power in heaven and in earth should 
 cure one only of a multitude ; but the Almighty, now 
 as always, consulted more for the souls than for the 
 perishing bodies of men, and teaching the need of unity. 
 He chose but one as the recipient of His gift. " The 
 Church is only one throughout the world. Unity is 
 saved. Depart not, then, from unity, if thou wouldst 
 not be without part in the saving cure.^^ "There is 
 one Lord, one faith, one baptism," says Bede,^ "^^and 
 he who is imbued with the mysteries in Catholic unity 
 is made whole of whatsoever disease he has ; but who- 
 soever departs from unity cannot obtain the salvation 
 which is from One." 
 
 "Whosoever, then, first, after the troubling of the 
 water, stepped in, was made whole."^ The lesson we 
 seem to be taught here is an important one, viz., that 
 even in the reception of the Divine gifts which are be- 
 stowed without any merit on our parts, diligence is of 
 much avail. Grace is given to them who seek and 
 strive after it, and use the appointed means of grace. 
 " They that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the 
 prize."* " Cleanse thy vessel, that thou mayest receive 
 the gift more abundant ; for remission of sins is given 
 equally to all, but the communication of the Holy 
 Ghost is bestowed according to each man^s faith. If 
 thou hast laboured little, thou shalt receive little ; but 
 if thou hast wrought much, ample is the hire."^ And 
 herein also do we learn the spirit with which we are to 
 
 ' S. Aug. Serm. cxxv. 6. - In loco. ^ Verse 4. 
 
 ■» 1 Cor. is. 24. ^ S. Cvril Jems. Cat. Lect. ii. 9. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 83 
 
 draw near to tlie fountain of healing. " Exalt not thy- 
 self. If thou wilt be cured^ go down."^ He that first 
 " stepped down " was healed. There is no cure without 
 humility. 
 
 But now let us turn to the sick man whom the Lord 
 singled out from the crowd. " And a certain man was 
 there which had an infirmity thi7'ty and eight years.'"^ 
 Why is the time of his infirmity noted ? First^ doubt- 
 less^ to magnify the miracle^ which would appear greater 
 in proportion to the deep-seated nature of the ailment to 
 be overcome. Thus, as the power of Christ was specially 
 shown forth in the cure of the woman which had a spirit of 
 infirmity eighteen years^^ — in that of the woman ha^^dng 
 an issue of blood twelve years/ — in the raising of La- 
 zarus when he had already been four days dead ; so 
 here, the length of time this poor creature had been 
 suffering — thirty-eight years — doubtless tended to show 
 forth the miraculous power of the Physician Who could 
 overcome so inveterate a disorder. But perhaps we may 
 consider that the number thirty-eight was not men- 
 tioned without another reason. Thn-ty and eight years 
 was the duration of the afiliction of the children of 
 Israel in the wilderness ;^ and we may well see in this 
 man, who had been undergoing chastisement for the 
 same number of years, a type of Israel after the flesh, 
 who, coming in humility to the fountain opened to the 
 house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for 
 sin and for uncleanness, should receive remission of 
 
 ' S. Aug. Serm. cxxiv. Cf. Scrm. oxxv. 6 : " Quomodo cm-atur ? Si 
 descendat. . . . Quia Passio Domini humilem quserit." 
 ' Verse 5. ^ S. Luke xiii. 11. 
 
 ■* S. Luke viii. i3. s x>eut. ii. 14. 
 
84 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OP HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 sins, and be " made whole of whatsoever disease they 
 had." 
 
 '^When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had 
 been now a long time in that case. He saith unto him. 
 Wilt thou be made whole ? The impotent man answered 
 Him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, 
 to put me into the pool."^ From out of the depths of 
 misery this poor sufferer spake a great truth. He 
 wanted a man to help, but there was " no man." He 
 wanted a man, but that Man Who was also God, God 
 and Man.2 What a striking image is here of human 
 nature, lying prostrate in every attitude of wretched- 
 ness and impotency, unable to help itself, and having 
 " no man " to afford relief. Till the Advent of the Me- 
 diator between God and man, there was, indeed, '^no 
 man." Human nature lay helpless, like the paralytic 
 on his couch of unrest, or like this poor impotent one 
 pent up in the porches of the law, till He came, bap- 
 tized into Whose Body we attain salvation and a per- 
 fect cure. 
 
 From the case also of this " certain man" who needed 
 another to put him in, we may, perhaps, derive some 
 instruction as to the baptism of infants. These, by 
 reason of their tender age, are unable of themselves to 
 approach the healing waters. They need some one to 
 " put them into the pool," into the font, to be cured of 
 original sin. This is a great mystery, that we should 
 thus depend upon each other for spiritual blessings; 
 
 * Verse 7. 
 
 2 Cf. S. Cyril Alex. Horn, in Paralyt. c. vi. " Be not out of heart, O 
 man, because thou hast no man. Thou hast God standing by, both GoD 
 and Man." Cf. S. Aug. Tract, in Jol^an, xvii. 7. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 85 
 
 but SO has it been ordained of God^ and is true not 
 only in our infancy^ but more or less all our life through. 
 And however mysterious it may be, it is an exact ana- 
 logy with our depend ance on each other as to our bodily 
 wants. If the halt and the lame had, like the impotent 
 man, no one to " put them into the pool/' they would 
 have remained in their infirmity. If the little childi^en 
 (S. Mark x. 13) had not had friends to bring them to 
 Christ, they would have lost the inestimable privilege 
 of His heavenly blessing. And need we, therefore, 
 doubt, that when our little children now are brought to 
 the font, Christ in like wise suffers them to come to 
 Him, takes them np in His arms, and blesses them, and 
 makes them whole of the disease they all have. " Thus 
 saith the Lord God, I will lift up Mine hand to the 
 Gentiles, and set up My standard to the people ; and 
 they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daugh- 
 ters shall be carried, upon their shoulders."^ 
 
 " Jesus saith unto him. Rise, take up thy bed and 
 walk. And immediately the man was made whole."^ 
 The cure was wrought by Jesus, and not in the water, 
 to show that He was the true Healer ; that this was 
 He That baptizeth in the Holy Ghost; that all who 
 had been previously healed in the pool of their bodily 
 infirmities, had really been healed by Him, and that all 
 who thereafter should be healed of their spiritual infir- 
 mities in the font would be likewise healed by Him. 
 And perhaps further it may be intended that we should 
 see here, that though it is ordinarily God's will to give 
 spiritual life and health through the instrumentality of 
 sacraments, yet that He is not tied to these means, and 
 1 Isa. xlix. 22. ^ Verses 8 and 9. 
 
86 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 that where there is a hearty desire to receive them and 
 they cannot be had/ God may of His mercy work in 
 other ways. But^ at the same time^ it surely is the 
 height of folly to expect that this will be the case, while 
 we wilfully neglect to use the means of Christ^s ap- 
 pointment. There was in this impotent man a hearty 
 desire to be made whole. He had shown his patience 
 and perseverance by waiting a long time, hoping against 
 hope ; and therefore in his healing there would be no 
 excuse to be found for such as expect to be saved out 
 of due time, and who are continually looking for a mi- 
 raculous interposition of Providence in their behalf. 
 Though God is not tied to sacraments, we are. 
 
 " Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and 
 walk." Exactly the same command as that given to 
 the paralytic. (S. Mark ii. 9.) And its object was, 
 doubtless, first, to show the reality of the cure. The 
 perfectness of his cure could not be questioned, when 
 he whom his neighbours had seen grievously afflicted for 
 thirty-eight years, and unable to move without aid, 
 rose from' his place, and not only rose but took up his 
 bed, and not only took up his bed but walked. Thus 
 it was the custom of our blessed Lord, after working 
 any miracle, to require some work to be done for the 
 manifestation of the miracle. So, when He had satis- 
 fied many thousands vrith a few loaves and fishes. He 
 ordered the fragments to be gathered up.^ When He 
 
 1 " Eldad and Medad (Numb. xi. 26 sqq.) were not present. Therefore, 
 that it might be shown that it was not Moses that bestowed the gift, but the 
 Spirit that wrought, Eldad and Medad, who had been called, but had not 
 yet presented themselves, prophesy." — S. Cyril Jerus. Cat. Lect. xvi. c.25. 
 
 2 S. John Ti. 12. 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 87 
 
 cured the lepei% He said^ " Oo, sliow thyself to the 
 priest."^ When He changed water into wine. He bade 
 the servants bear to the governor of the feast. ^ 
 
 But the repetition of this command here and in the 
 case of the paralytic seems to compel us to look for 
 some deeper meaning. May we not see an injunction 
 to the performance of good works after Baptism, where 
 we are " created in Christ Jesus unto good works ?^'3 
 "Else/' says our Lord, "take up thy bed and walk." 
 Here three things are commanded, " Rise." Mark the 
 operation of the cure, a communication of the power to 
 rise, as well as the command to do so. " Take up thy 
 bed." "What is meant," asks S. Gregory the Great,* 
 " by what our Lord said in the gospel to a certain 
 man, who was healed, 'Arise, take up thy bed, &c.' 
 (S. Matt. ix. 6) except that bodily pleasure is signified 
 by bed ? And he is specially commanded, when re- 
 stored to health, to carry that on which he had lain 
 when sick, since every one who still delights in sin lies 
 overpowered with fleshly pleasures.' Or, to use the 
 words of Leighton,^ " Wheresoever He pardons sin. He 
 also makes the soul able and nimble to ' run in the way 
 of His commandments,^ to carry its bed that before 
 carried it, to command and wield at pleasure those low 
 things whereon before it had rested." Or, according to 
 S. Augustine, "Take up thy bed" signifies. Love 
 
 1 S. Matt. viii. 4. 2 g. John ii. 8. ^ Eph. ii. 10. 
 
 ■• Morals in Job xxxiii. 19. Cf. S. Aug. in Ps. ri. 6 : " I will wash 
 each night my couch." That is here called a couch where the sick and 
 weak mind rests, that is, in bodily pleasure and in every loorldly delight. 
 Wliich dehght he who endeavours to withdraw himself from, waslies 
 with his tears." 
 
 ^ Apud Burgon ia loco. 
 
88 OLD TESTAMENT TyPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 your neighboiir^ " Bear ye one anotlier^s burdens, and 
 so fulfil the law of Christ." ^ 
 
 But this is not all. Love to our neighbour must not 
 be without love to God. Hence it is added_, " Walk" 
 In loving our neighbour we must be having a view to 
 GoD^s commands, walking heavenward. "Carry him, 
 therefore, with whom ye walk, that you may come to 
 Him with Whom ye desire to remain." ^ « Walk," says 
 Bede,3 " by looking for the blessed hope and appearing 
 of the glory of God. Leave your old sins, assist the 
 needs of your neighbours, and in all that you do, see 
 that you fix not your thoughts on the world, but hasten 
 to behold the face of your Redeemer." 
 
 "Afterward Jesus findeth him in the Temple."* The 
 place where the impotent man was found by Jesus is 
 the place where the baptized should often be also.^ It 
 cannot be doubted that he hastened thither to pour 
 forth his gratitude and praise. Not into the market- 
 place, not to the public haunts of luxury and ease, went 
 the restored man, but to the Temple. Yes, to the 
 Temple, though about to endure a violent attack from 
 the enemies of Jesus. Nothing would keep him from 
 the House of prayer, the place of sacrifice. There Jesus 
 found him, there he gained strength to confess Christ 
 before men. 
 
 " The man departed and told the Jews, that it was 
 
 1 Tract, in Johan. xvii. 8 and 9. ^ TJbi supra. 
 
 3 In loco. ■* Verse 14. 
 
 * S. Cyril. Jerus. Cat. Lect. i. 6, gives the following practical advice 
 to the candidates for Baptism : " Attend diligently at church, not only 
 now when thy attendance is required by the Ministers, but also after 
 thoti hast received the gift ; for if before, it was good to do it, surely it 
 must be good after the bestowal." 
 
THE POOL OF BETHESDA. 89 
 
 Jesus Which had made him whole." ^ So with the bap- 
 tized. In the Temple must they pour forth daily their 
 strains of thanksgiving and praise. In the Temple 
 must they seek Jesus. There will they find Him. 
 There will He find them. In the Temple, too, will they 
 gain strength to fulfil their baptismal vow, and " not to 
 be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, but 
 manfully to fight under His banner against sin, the 
 world, and the devil, and to continue Christ^s faithful 
 soldiers and servants unto their lives' end." 
 
 " To continue" ! For we must conclude this miracle 
 with the solemn typical warning the words of our Lord 
 give to those who have once been made whole in the 
 spiritual pool of holy Baptism : " Behold, thou art made 
 whole : sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee."^ 
 Thirty and eight dreary and weary years had the malady 
 lasted. The ruthless might of the disease had withered 
 up his limbs, and hope deferred had made his heart sick. 
 Year after year had he crept to the porches of the pool 
 to await the coming of the angel, and as often in bitter 
 disappointment had he seen another step down before 
 him. What could be worse than this? Thirty and 
 eight years of a wretched, unfriended life, powerless in 
 body and sick in soul.. And yet our Lord speaks of 
 some '*■ worse thing." What an awful idea does this 
 give us of the terrible punishment which sin draws on 
 its victims ! What a solemn warning to beware of sin 
 after Baptism ! What teaching does it not give us as 
 to its heinousness ! What a trumpet-tongued call to 
 watchfulness and prayer and holiness of life and con- 
 versation ! Once we have had " our hearts sprinkled 
 1 Yerse 15. 2 Verse 14. 
 
 F 
 
90 OLD TESTAMENT TYPES OF HOLY BAPTISM. 
 
 from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure 
 water;" but if we "bold-" not "fast tbe profession of 
 our faith without wavering ;" if we neglect the perform- 
 ance of good works ; if " we forsake the assembling of 
 ourselves together j" if we " sin wilfully after that we 
 have received the knowledge of the truth ;" what can 
 we expect ? Alas ! says the Apostle, " there remaineth 
 no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking 
 for of judgment and fiery indignation. He that de- 
 spised Moses^ law died without mercy under two or 
 three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, sup- 
 pose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden 
 under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood 
 of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy 
 thing, and hath done despite to the Spirit of Grace ?"^ 
 
 1 Heb. X. 22 sqq. 
 
 JOSEPH MASTERS AND CO., PEINTEES, ALDEESGATE STEEET.