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De baptismo

VIII

[1] Dehinc manus imponitur per benedictionem advocans et invitans spiritum sanctum. sane humano ingenio licebit spiritum in aquam arcessere et concorporationem eorum accommodatis desuper manibus alio spiritu tantae claritatis animare, deo autem in suo organo non licebit per manus sanctas sublimitatem modulari spiritalem? [2] sed est hoc quoque de veteri sacramento quo nepotes suos ex Ioseph, Ephrem et Manassem, Iacob [capitibus] impositis et intermutatis manibus benedixit, et quidem ita transversim obliquatis in se ut Christum deformantes iam tunc portenderent benedictionem in Christo futuram. [3] tunc ille sanctissimus spiritus super emundata et benedicta corpora libens a patre descendit superque baptismi aquas tanquam pristinam sedem recognoscens conquiescit: columbae figura delapsus in dominum ut natura spiritus sancti declararetur per animal simplicitatis et innocentiae, quod etiam corporaliter ipso felle careat columba. [4] ideoque Estote, inquit, simplices ut columbae: ne hoc quidem sine argumento praecedentis figurae : quemadmodum enim post aquas diluvii quibus iniquitas antiqua purgata est, post baptismum ut ita dixerim mundi, pacem caelestis irae praeco columba terris adnuntiavit dimissa ex arca et cum olea reversa - quod signum etiam ad nationes pacis praetenditur eadem dispositione spiritalis effectus terrae, id est carni nostrae, emergenti de lavacro post vetera delicta columba sancti spiritus advolat pacem dei adferens, emissa de caelis ubi ecclesia est arcae figura. [5] 'sed mundus rursus deliquit, quo male comparetur baptismus diluvio.' itaque igni destinatur, sicut et homo cum post baptismum delicta restaurat: ut hoc quoque in signum admonitionis nostrae debeat accipi.

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On Baptism

Chapter VIII.--Of the Imposition of Hands. Types of the Deluge and the Dove.

In the next place the hand is laid on us, invoking and inviting the Holy Spirit through benediction. ¹ Shall it be granted possible for human ingenuity to summon a spirit into water, and, by the application of hands from above, to animate their union into one body ² with another spirit of so clear sound; ³ and shall it not be possible for God, in the case of His own organ, ⁴ to produce, by means of "holy hands," ⁵ a sublime spiritual modulation? But this, as well as the former, is derived from the old sacramental rite in which Jacob blessed his grandsons, born of Joseph, Ephrem ⁶ and Manasses; with his hands laid on them and interchanged, and indeed so transversely slanted one over the other, that, by delineating Christ, they even portended the future benediction into Christ. ⁷ Then, over our cleansed and blessed bodies willingly descends from the Father that Holiest Spirit. Over the waters of baptism, recognising as it were His primeval seat, ⁸ He reposes: (He who) glided down on the Lord "in the shape of a dove," ⁹ in order that the nature of the Holy Spirit might be declared by means of the creature (the emblem) of simplicity and innocence, because even in her bodily structure the dove is without literal ¹⁰ gall. And accordingly He says, "Be ye simple as doves." ¹¹ Even this is not without the supporting evidence ¹² of a preceding figure. For just as, after the waters of the deluge, by which the old iniquity was purged--after the baptism, so to say, of the world--a dove was the herald which announced to the earth the assuagement ¹³ of celestial wrath, when she had been sent her way out of the ark, and had returned with the olive-branch, a sign which even among the nations is the fore-token of peace; ¹⁴ so by the self-same law ¹⁵ of heavenly effect, to earth--that is, to our flesh ¹⁶ --as it emerges from the font, ¹⁷ after its old sins flies the dove of the Holy Spirit, bringing us the peace of God, sent out from the heavens where is the Church, the typified ark. ¹⁸ But the world returned unto sin; in which point baptism would ill be compared to the deluge. And so it is destined to fire; just as the man too is, who after baptism renews his sins: ¹⁹ so that this also ought to be accepted as a sign for our admonition.