Therefore, also, it is that after the dignity of adoption the devil plots more vehemently against us, pining away with envious glance, when he beholds the beauty of the new-born man, earnestly tending towards that heavenly city, from which he fell: and he raises up against us fiery temptations, seeking earnestly to despoil us of that second adornment, as he did of our former array. But when we are aware of his attacks, we ought to repeat to ourselves the apostolic words, "As many of us as were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death [2157] ." Now if we have been conformed to His death, sin henceforth in us is surely a corpse, pierced through by the javelin of Baptism, as that fornicator was thrust through by the zealous Phinehas [2158] . Flee therefore from us, ill-omened one! for it is a corpse thou seekest to despoil, one long ago joined to thee, one who long since lost his senses for pleasures. A corpse is not enamoured of bodies, a corpse is not captivated by wealth, a corpse slanders not, a corpse lies not, snatches not at what is not its own, reviles not those who encounter it. My way of living is regulated for another life: I have learnt to despise the things that are in the world, to pass by the things of earth, to hasten to the things of heaven, even as Paul expressly testifies, that the world is crucified to him, and he to the world [2159] . These are the words of a soul truly regenerated: these are the utterances of the newly-baptized man, who remembers his own profession, which he made to God when the sacrament was administered to him, promising that he would despise for the sake of love towards Him all torment and all pleasure alike.
And now we have spoken sufficiently for the holy subject of the day, which the circling year brings to us at appointed periods. We shall do well in what remains to end our discourse by turning it to the loving Giver of so great a boon, offering to Him a few words as the requital of great things. For Thou verily, O Lord, art the pure and eternal fount of goodness, Who didst justly turn away from us, and in loving kindness didst have mercy upon us. Thou didst hate, and wert reconciled; Thou didst curse, and didst bless; Thou didst banish us from Paradise, and didst recall us; Thou didst strip off the fig-tree leaves, an unseemly covering, and put upon us a costly garment; Thou didst open the prison, and didst release the condemned; Thou didst sprinkle us with clean water, and cleanse us from our filthiness. No longer shall Adam be confounded when called by Thee, nor hide himself, convicted by his conscience, cowering in the thicket of Paradise. Nor shall the flaming sword encircle Paradise around, and make the entrance inaccessible to those that draw near; but all is turned to joy for us that were the heirs of sin: Paradise, yea, heaven itself may be trodden by man: and the creation, in the world and above the world, that once was at variance with itself, is knit together in friendship: and we men are made to join in the angels' song, offering the worship of their praise to God. For all these things then let us sing to God that hymn of joy, which lips touched by the Spirit long ago sang loudly: "Let my soul be joyful in the Lord: for He hath clothed me with a garment of salvation, and hath put upon me a robe of gladness: as on a bridegroom He hath set a mitre upon me, and as a bride hath He adorned me with fair array [2160] ." And verily the Adorner of the bride is Christ, Who is, and was, and shall be, blessed now and for evermore. Amen.
[2114] That is, for the Festival of the Epiphany or Theophany, when the Eastern Church commemorates especially the Baptism of our Lord.
[2115] Is. lx. 8 (LXX.).
[2116] Is. xlix. 20.
[2117] The language of this passage, if strictly taken, seems to imply a denial of original sin; but it is perhaps not intended to be so understood.
[2118] S. John iii. 3
[2119] S. John iii. 8
[2120] Or "up to a certain point of time."
[2121] That is, "these functions he fulfils."
[2122] i.e.from the Old Testament Scriptures.
[2123] The reference appears to be not to the Cross as the instrument of that Death which was of saving efficacy, but to miraculous cures, real or reputed, effected by means of the actual wood of the Cross. The argument seems to require that we should understand the Cross itself, and not only the sacrifice offered upon it, to be the means of producing wondrous effects: and the grammatical construction favours this view. S. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions the extensive distribution of fragments of the Cross (Cat. x. 19), but this is probably one of the earliest references to miracles worked by their means.
[2124] i.e.regeneration perceived by the mind (noeten) as distinct from any regeneration of which the senses could take cognizance.
[2125] Ps. civ. 24. The Psalm is the prefatory Psalm at Vespers in the present service of the Eastern Church. S. Gregory seems to indicate some such daily use in his own time.
[2126] S. Matt. xxviii. 19.
[2127] The meaning of this clause may be, either that Gregory does not propose to follow this point out, as the subject of his discourse is Baptism, not the doctrine of the Trinity; or, that the example he has given is not to be so pressed as to imply tritheism, being merely an illustration of moral obligation, not a parallel from which anything is to be inferred as to the exact relation between the Three Persons.
[2128] Cf. Gal. iv. 22, &c. See Gen. xxi
[2129] See Gen. xxiv
[2130] See Gen. xxvi. 15, sqq.
[2131] See Gen. xxix
[2132] Is. xxviii. 16 (not exactly from LXX.).
[2133] Cf. Dan. ii. 45
[2134] noetos.
[2135] Cf. Gen. xxx. 37, sqq.
[2136] Cf. Ex. ii
[2137] Cf. 1 Cor. x. 1, 2; and see Ex. xiv
[2138] See Josh. iii
[2139] See Josh. iv
[2140] See 1 Kings xviii.
[2141] See 2 Kings v
[2142] Is. i. 16 (LXX.).
[2143] Ps. xxxiv. 5 (LXX.).
[2144] Ez. xxxvi. 25-27 (not exactly as LXX.).
[2145] Cf. Zech. iii. 3. It is to be remembered, of course, that the form of the name in the Septuagint is not Joshua but Jesus.
[2146] If "the Baptism of Jesus" here means (as seems most likely) the Baptism of our Lord by S. John, not the Baptism instituted by our Lord, then we are apparently intended to understand that our Lord, summing up humanity in Himself, represented by His Baptism that of all who should thereafter be baptized.
[2147] Is. xxxv. 1, 2 (LXX.).
[2148] Ps. cxliii. 6 (LXX.).
[2149] Ps. xlii. 2 (not as LXX.).
[2150] S. John vii. 37
[2151] S. John iv. 13, 14.
[2152] Is. xxxv. 2.
[2153] Is. xxxv. 2.
[2154] Ps. i. 4.
[2155] Ps. xxix. 3, 4 (LXX.).
[2156] S. Matt. v. 44
[2157] Rom. vi. 3.
[2158] Num. xxv. 7, 8.
[2159] Cf. Gal. vi. 14
[2160] Is. lxi. 10 (not exactly from LXX.).
VI.--Letters.