On Baptism

On Baptism Memra Twenty-Two On Baptism A Hymn Blessed is the spring of dew upon the Jordan: and Adam and Eve drank from it, their thirst. My brothers, let us go to the font, that it may wash away the debt, to set right the whole. For it came in its love to give birth to spiritual man. Small is the mouth and the depth that confesses with us the power of the Creator who renews our image and changes our form. As a firstborn, he imprints his image in baptism and again makes us his work of spiritual gold. Spiritually he desires to form us without blemish, so that the beauty of our image may not again be corrupted by mortality. O Painter who paints images on the surface of waters, and his art is not hindered from the opposite. O Artist who breathes spirit without hands and sows undying life in mortality. O Command that makes all difficulties easy and gives strength to the weak by his great power. O Will that precedes his sign to his action, and the creature sees him in his knowledge of what he creates. He saw his sign, this Will that shows itself to them, and in it the creature looked at the beginning of creation. Before his ordinance, the image of our renewal was drawn before him, and with his essence he was in his heart for this deed. With wisdom he performs it as is fitting for the knower of all, and wisely he fulfills his will and shows his power.

The creation of the sign made the creation of the wild thing in the beginning, and it pressed from it the ancient fountains of death. The filth of iniquity desired to wipe away from the dead, and it gave the seal of its sign, the sponge of the Spirit, into the hand of the flesh. He placed the desire of the love of his heart toward the body, and to our authority he made his wisdoms rulers. From him he made treasuries of his mysteries, and from him he set up apostles to give life. He chose some like mediators between him and the people, and sent them on an embassy toward man. To them he gave the great seal of his divinity, that they might seal with it the renewal of all. To them he turned the wealth of the Spirit that is not exhausted, that they might distribute it lovingly according to his greatness. He taught them spiritual practices, that they might form the image of life in the likeness of water. O bodies that form the Spirit without hands, O dead that purify the living through death. O priesthood, how it was raised above all, and took hold of height and depth by the power that chose it. O wonder, whose greatness is greater than the history of death, that it might live according to its own will. O desire that lowers itself toward its ordinances, and places its wealth in the hand of the flesh that it might be enriched.

The creator of the sign was anxious in his creation, and he held the vessel to the work of the hands that he had fashioned. He did not become turbid in the greatness of the love of his sweetness, that he might make again a creation in his likeness. He did not confess his nullity before the race that exalts the lowly with his being that is incomprehensible. To the clay he gave authority with his renewal, that it might become a new creation of immortals. The power of life breathed into the body that begets pains, and began to interpret spiritual things that are invisible to him. The depth of his creation shows itself, and the power of the creature is like the creator. By the word from his mouth he forms a sign in the depth of the waters, and composes it spiritually without hands. This is the opportunity that raised his scrutiny from history, and the hidden will is able to reveal it as it is. By the clarity of the soul the thought that is examined in it is able, and instead of eyes it sees his glory in the air. His nature is heavy and cannot be spoken of in a bodily way, and lofty in time and incomprehensible in an earthly way. Spiritually he composes the nature of the renewal of the image, and otherwise the mouth cannot interpret his natures by spirit. In a heavenly way he prepares a remedy for the pain of iniquity, and if the air does not ascend to the height, it does not see him.

To the great of the greats, the sign of salvation of the meditation of the living ones was prepared, and it is not like an image that teaches without being understood. Come, disciples of the great Messiah, behold the true order in the spiritual writings of baptism. Come, heirs of the covenant, written in blood, see the courses of your inheritances in the eye of the spirit. Come, be established in the affection of the love of your courses, and praise and honor the enricher of humanity from the treasures. Come, equally in the waters of the baptismal font, form the daughter of the voice that cries out in the waters and calls forth power. Come, be established distinctly in the hand of flesh, which buries bodies and warms them lightly. Be prepared, see the wonder in the temple of truth, and the powers of height that reveal the mystery of salvation to him. Behold, the church that follows the order from the spectators, establish every gaze of his vision in its spoken likenesses. Behold, the priest is prepared to enter the holy of holies, to open the door of the kingdom of height before the entrants. Behold, he approaches the face of the door of the house of the kingdom, to receive power for the completion of the mysteries that are in his hand. Behold, the king of height stretches out the hand of the spirit, and places in his hand the seal of his name to seal his sheep. Behold, he puts on the stole of glory of the immortals, with which he covers the shame of humanity that was darkened and scattered.

Behold, he makes the sign of the cross over the water of the font that was prepared for him, and he raises his voice and calls his sheep by their names. Behold, the sheep and lambs and kids are assembled, and he casts upon them the sign of life of the word of his Lord. Behold, he brings them in as into a fold by their names, and from them follows one confession of the name of the Creator. In the likeness of a staff he takes the sign spiritually, and he writes the body and soul in the book of life. As with a rod he pursues from them by the word of his mouth the darkness of the error of those who are blind from the covenant. He raises the daughter of his voice and says, "I deny the Evil One and his power, and his angels and his service and his error." They deny before the lordship of the Evil One who enslaved them, and they confess the power of the Creator who freed them. The second says, "Whoever approaches the mysteries of the Church, denies the Evil One and affirms faith in the Creator." He denies the Evil One and his angels, crying out with a voice, "I have no fellowship with him, nor even in word." As a mediator the priest stands and asks him, "Whose servant do you wish to be from now on and forever?" From him he learns that he wishes to be called the Lord's, and he writes him among the number of the firstborn of the height. From Satan and his angels he turns his face, and he imprints the image of the reality upon the house of his eyes.

He repents of evil as one who is evil in his nature, and his angels are like the snares of the word of truth. The evil one is deceived by the word of truth and by his own members, and he is enraged against the one who loves truth, that he might be saved. "I have labored for your snares, O Lord," he says, and he has mingled with the son of man, and from him he seeks the entrance of the hairs of the name of the Creator. He has a battle with the one who approaches baptism, with Satan and with his angels and with his service. His angels, moreover, are the evil ones who are clothed in zeal, who serve him with the garments of the fullness of wickedness. One of his angels is the wolf clothed in sheep's clothing, who is clothed in the likeness of lambs of the flock and leads the flock astray. Another of his angels is Valentinus, who perverts the truth, who hides the life of the dead in his falsehood. His angel is also Arius, who is drunk in thought, who casts into the pain of inequality the evil one who is like a lion. His angel is also Eunomius, the crooked serpent, who by his blasphemies destroys the soul of his hearers. Among his angels is the foolish Apollinaris, who seeks zeal in the investigation of truth and is not ashamed. Among his angels is Paul, the confused in thought, who kindles in the pit against the power of the word of the Father. Among his angels are also Eutyches, the one who is silent, who is silent in the compassion of the passion of the impassible one.

The fall of the head of the heresy of the head of the mixture of every speech, the living one in the pains of the body. His wickedness is greater than the wickedness of the demons, and he helps the slanderer more than his companions. In these he makes the snare of man to err for the wicked, and in that he casts the whole bitterness of his thought into the mind of man. They complete the services of the deceits, and they also increase the snares of the falsehoods. Her service is that service which is performed in her, and her own mysteries are spoken in her, not those of the truth. The heretics are confounded in every form, and in their errors they err and cause to err in their hours. It is right, therefore, to flee from them as from the polluted, and not to be mixed in the deceits of their actions. Polluted and evil ones, call them evil, and turn your face from their mysteries full of wickedness. Wickedness fills the snare of the evil one and his listeners, and the pains of the iniquitous are hidden in it in the error of his heresy. Her snare is the circus, the stadium, the theater, and the confused sounds of the pipes that he rides and writes. His errors are the divinations and lots of every form, the winking of eyes, the shaking of hands, the encounter of the way. In these the disciple denies the truth when he is taught, and then he approaches the confession of faith.

The truth of his self is revealed in a perceptible voice, that he did not drink from the side of the evil one toward the Creator. He shames the demons by means of the daughter of the voice of the word of his mouth. Listen, O guides, I have no partnership with you. He makes the high priests rejoice with the sounds of his faith. Come, O spirits, rejoice with me, for I have lived from destruction. Your honor is with me, and the son of the service of your deeds. And to that lord of the ministers, your sign is drawn, I come to serve. The son of the service of the high kingdom covers himself. The erring one who seeks to be clothed in the king of kings. To the heads of the houses of the holy Church he first persuades: that they bring him near to the gate of the king who speaks his words. The heads of the houses, the priests, come, ministers of the mysteries, that they may open for you the treasure of the spirit. Toward one of them the erring one, the son of exile, approaches, that he may free them from the servitude of the evil one who captured them. Like a naked man he stands without covering, and shows his poverty and his labor of the house of his captors. In your midst, O king, the captive cries out to the servants of the king: "Approach the king and appease him on my behalf, that he may open for me." They entered and said to him that one of your servants seeks from captivity, and behold he is eager to see your face humbly. "It is possible, I will go to the servant who rebelled from your lordship; free my life from his servitude, that he may not fall upon me.

Your servant I am, O good Lord, and the son of your handmaid. Why should I serve the evil servant who is bitter against you? He served his service wickedly to the whole world. Deliver me from him, that I may be yours, for I am yours. These words the erring one composes on the day of his deliverance, in that same pattern of the story of the Prodigal Son. Because of him, wonders occur through the economy, and it was fitting for him to speak his words according to the scriptures. He was written as erring, and he went out and wasted, and came, and the day of his going out and his return is recorded in the Gospel. On this day that which is written becomes true, and abundant mercies flow forth to meet him on his way. At his return, the pains of the heavens are healed, and he is cleansed as one dead who is restored to life. The accuser makes accusation only concerning his deliverance, that he might save his captives, break his snares, leave him, and flee. From the bitterness of his service, the sinner fled, and took refuge in the good Lord whose love is sweet. From his exile, the fugitive returned to his Lord, and behold, he is eager to enter and see the face of the King. The accuser acts through his petition with his accuser, and prosecutes him from the divine law. To the servants of the King he gives the edge of the word of his mouth, and they write and present it before the judge.

The priest stands in the sanctuary of the mysteries like a servant, and he asks for mercy from the Judge on behalf of sinners. The sinner also stands like a wretched one who is oppressed, and he entreats and appeases, that the Judge may have compassion on him. Nakedly he stands, and the envoy before the Judge, that through his smallness he may stir up compassion for his nakedness. Without shame he speaks his case with his accuser, that the king may see and quickly judge his case. He bows his knees and inclines his head from his pride, ashamed that he looked to the heights before the Judge. He eats ashes and approaches to ask for mercy, while he remembers his service to the Evil One. Two things he suffers in the kneeling that he performs in the sanctuary of the mysteries: one is his fall, and the other is that he pays as one guilty. That fall of which he now reminds in Paradise, and with the serpent who deceived his father, he speaks his case. From him he cuts off, concerning this, his face is cast down to the ground until he hears the voice of absolution and is comforted. The priest waits that his words may enter before the Judge, and he presents to him the document of freedom in oil and water. And also the guarantor takes him with him to the house of the laws, that he may enter and testify concerning the goodness of the mercy of his soul.

By the mercy of the self he appeases the just, and by the mercy of truth he enters into the fellowship of him who is true, that he is in the confession of his self. Like a guide he becomes to his words and his actions, and he shows him the way of spiritual life. In his name he calls and presents him before the guardians, whose names are heir and son and of the kingdom. In the writings the priest follows the name of the one who is to come, and he brings in and places within the house of archives of the books of the king. As a lamb he sets him at the door of the fold of the flock, and he marks his body and mixes him with the flock. The mark of the oil he takes in his hand before the beholders, and by the revelations he proclaims the power of the mysteries. And as a type he shows to the eyes of the senses of the body the hidden power that is concealed in the visible sign. O earth that marks the flock with the sign of its Lord, and seals the name of his concealment with a revealed sign. O earth that holds the spirit at the tip of its tongue, and cuts off the evil of the self and the body by the word of its mouth. O dead one who has fixed in his mouth a great request, and gives life that does not die to the sons of his race. O poor one, son of the poor, who has become rich from my poverty, and has begun to distribute the wealth of the spirit that has no father. O earth whose earth witnesses to his humility, that he receives the power of the one who created for him a new creation.

A new creation the good one taught to the sons of his house, that by its renewal he might bring to completion the works of his creator. The wickedness of man concealed the height of what his hands had made, and gave authority to the sons of man that they might again corrupt his image. He saw his works that had grown old and worn out in mortality, and he spread out for himself a dispensation of life not mortal. He saw that the foundations of his house were shaken in frailty, and he set his foundations in the depth of the water and established his sign. In weak water he wished to establish weak bodies, and by the power of the spirit he strengthens the wavering motions that are tossed about. The furnace of water fixes its sign mysteriously, and instead of fire it kindles it with the spirit of the power of his will. To the servant he made a sign upon his seal, that he might place a mark in the furnace of water and the boiling of the spirit. Come, see the wonder in mortality: a dead one and a living one in the midst of the activity of its course. Come, be amazed at the mystery of death that is in the water, and see the wonder that is ministered mysteriously. Come, approach the treasuries of the cutters of the Church, and hear from them how they give life in the water. Enter with them into the holy of holies of the mystery, and learn from them the interpretation of the mysteries of death and life. Death and life are the mysteries of baptism, and both are accomplished in one in a single priesthood.

Through the priesthood the Creator desired to reveal his power. And he did not delay the great wealth of his goodness. He established apostles over the courses of his priests, so that, like true ones, they might distribute the wealth to the sons of his house. He gave them the seal of the name of his being, which is not to be perceived, so that they might seal the sons of the people with the name of holiness. The seal whose name exalts every man over his flock, and in a threefold manner it sets the people over the sons of the people. The iron of the oil the priest takes at the tips of his fingers, and marks the body and the senses of the soul with its sharpness. The oil anoints the sons of mortals with the fullness of his mouth, and sharpens him like iron to cut iniquity. Three names enter into the order, one after another, and in a threefold manner they complete and perfect the mystery of salvation. O weak one, how great is the wonder that is ministered through you, and how small the mouth that says what its power of testing is! O lowly one, how much your humility was exalted, and it was not possible for it to ascend with you to where you reach! O man, to the priest you said these things that you said, how much you were empowered that you have the ability to give life! Life the priest gives to his companions through his ministry, and he seeks the way of his steps toward the future. The order of the mouth speaks to the limbs and members, and on behalf of every man it interprets the voices of the forgiveness of iniquity.

Oil and water he places as foundations, and by his words he completes the mystery of the name of the Trinity. With oil he begins, and with flowing water he anoints the body, and instead of dust he changes it and makes pure gold. He is not ashamed of the power of the lowly matter, for it becomes rich from the gift that is incomprehensible. Like a treasurer the priest stands at the gate of holiness, and he casts the keys of the word of his mouth and opens life. Three names he casts upon the oil and sanctifies it, so that it may sanctify the impurity of the flesh by its holiness. In the name of his mystery he signs the visible body, and the power of its seal enters as far as the soul. O the wonder that the flesh works through its own hand, that it signs bodies that are washed and feels within. In the order of a physician he also works for the sake of the limbs, for he heals the external and reaches the pain of the internal. To the body and the soul he offers the medicines of his art, and the revealed and the hidden he heals with divine power. Divinely he mixes the drug that heals in his hands, and all pains he heals with his power and is not diminished. Like a physician he opened the door of the temple of holiness, and he works cures and binds the wounds of his people. By the external sign he heals the hidden pains within, and he places the medicine of the spirit in the sign of the water.

With a clear voice he proclaims the power of his mysteries, and by his tongue he distributes spiritual wealth. He makes sounds heard in the ears of the people while he signs her, and she listens with love to the three names as they are proclaimed. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Spirit he seals his words, and he confirms the sign for the one who is baptized in their names. The three names he imprints on his face in the form of a seal, that the one who sees the image of the Trinity may be stamped on the head of the human. The shame of demons is the cause of the sign that is made in the house of the eyes, when it is imprinted on the head of the human and they flee from him. For this reason are the mysteries of oil and water, which are a weapon against the line of their wickedness. Oil is the armor with which the earthly are anointed, so that they may not be joined with spirits in the hidden world. It is the great seal with which kings are sealed, who serve in the spiritual arena. In the house of their eyes they receive the spiritual seal, which becomes light for the eye of angels and humans. Like diligent workers they stand at the door of the king, and the priest at their head like a commander at the head of his flock. As for the line, he sets up their ranks at the time of the mysteries, that they may shoot sharp arrows at the enemy. Arrows of words he composes and places within their mouths, that they may be sweet against the evil one who would enslave them.

He sets the sign straight before their eyes of those who are baptized in him, and like a painter he extends words in their tongue. The priest enters at the beginning of the mystery of the preparation for him, while he is chosen by the confession of their minds. Like a true one the priest stands at the head of their ranks, and shows them the sign of the truth of their beautiful life. He denies the evil one, his power, and his angels, and sets the sign of the king in the house of their eyes. He denies and confesses the two in one without division: denial of the evil one and confession of the heart in the name of being. He establishes a covenant by the priesthood against being, so that they will not again turn towards the tempter in their actions. To the chalice he gives the confession of the words of their minds, and introduces the reader to the side of the divine will. The door of the register of the house of the kingdom is held in his hands, and he has authority to write a sign by the one who issues forth. He calls their names and establishes the servants of the king, and passes them one by one and stamps on his face the stamp of oil. With the voice of his words he proclaims the power hidden in his words, that they become like the name of the one who is stamped in him. He is the servant who rules over the kings above and below, and in his name he stamps so that he may work according to his will.

He sets the sign of the Trinity with his hand upon the oil, and he signs and says "Father" and "Son" and "Holy Spirit." He is signed, he says, by the three names of equality, in which there is no distinction of elder and younger between one and the other. It is not the priest who signs and says, but he is signed, for it is not his own seal that he impresses but his Lord's. He is the mediator who chooses by grace for the ministry, and with the water that is his he pursues iniquity and gives the Spirit. With the revealed name he shows the power that is in the names, so that he can establish the weakness of man by the revealed water. The three names are immersed in the oil over the whole man, so that his body may not be harmed by evil demons and violent afflictions. It is not by the oil that the man is protected from afflictions; it is the power of the Trinity that gives strength to weakness. The oil is the sign that proclaims divine power, and in the fonts it establishes the servant who is in the mysteries. By its own power, the power of the body and soul stands, and it no longer falls from the afflictions of mortality. Like athletes they descend and stand in the stadium, and they take up the contest with the loose girdles that are in it. Behold, the oil of anointing gives power; it is not oil but the Spirit that strengthens it. The Spirit strengthens the anointing of the oil that is poured, and it becomes a girdle by the action of the one who uses it.

By his power he seals the body and the movements of the soul, and spiritually he plants the foundations against the evil one. The sign of his name the demons see upon the man, and they tremble from him because they see in his name a weighty name. The name of essence is impressed from the name that is in the house of the eyes, and the eyes of the pure mysteries that are revealed in him. The sun of the cross shines from the height upon the head of the man, and with its rays it drives away the errors of darkness of the cross. Come, O man, praise and offer honor to your glorifier, who makes your body a sun of the cross by his gift. Come, O guilty one, render thanks to your liberator, who saves you and frees you from the slavery of the evil one and death. Come, O mortal, give praise to the power of essence, which gives in you your power to sow life in mortality. Be silent, all the tongues of the race of earthly Adam, before him who raised you from the dust to his greatness.