and is sufficient to establish both what seems contemptible, and what seems impossible. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound its wisdom; and what is of surpassing difficulty with men, is easy with Him." … Mindful of this announcement, as a principle to guide us, let us consider the so-called foolishness and impossibility of the doctrine, that we are new made by water.…
It is said, "in the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." My first reason, then, O man, for reverencing water, is its antiquity; next, the honour put upon it, inasmuch as it was the abode of the Divine Spirit, and thus had more of grace in it than the other elements then existing. For as yet the darkness was unrelieved by the embellishment of the stars; there was the dreary abyss, the unfashioned earth, the untempered heavens; only water, a substance ever perfect, bright, uncompounded, pure in itself, a worthy receptacle of the presence of God. Moreover, when the world was to be brought into form, it was by means of water, as the harmonizing principle, that God effected it. He suspended the firmament of the heavens, by dividing the waters; and the firm land by separating them; and next, when the world was duly-shaped, and inhabitants were to be given it, it was first commanded the waters, to bring forth living things, water was the first substance to give out the breath of life; no wonder, then, that, in baptism, it has the gift of quickening.…
The angel came in the midst, and moved the pool of Bethesda; those who felt their sickliness, waited for his coming… That figure of bodily healing intimated the healing of the soul, in the way in which visible things go first, as the symbol of things spiritual; so, when the grace of God was accorded to men, more came to them than mere water and an angel. Man receives that Spirit of God which he had once received from His breathing on him, but afterwards had lost by transgression. Not that we obtain the Holy Spirit in the water; but, by being cleansed in the water from sin and guilt, we are prepared by the angel for the Holy Spirit.… Next, on coming out of the water, we are anointed over with the consecrated ointment according to the
