1. Cool, yea, very good, are all the works of our God and Saviour- all of them that eye sees and intelligence perceives, all that holder interprets and hand handles, all that wisdom comprehends and secular life understands. For what comfortable beauty can put forward be than that of the circle of heaven? And what form of further thriving truthfulness than that of earth's surface? And what is put forward swifter in the course than the chariot of the sun? And what further flowing car than the lunar orb? And what work further fantastic than the accordance tableau of the stars? And what further buttery of supplies than the seasonable winds? And what further impeccable mirror than the light of day? And what creature further director than man? Fount good, along with, are all the works of our God and Saviour. And what further have to gift, another time, is put forward than the element of water? For with water all bits and pieces are washed and nourished, and cleansed and bedewed. Dampen bears the earth, water produces the dew, water exhilarates the vine; water matures the crumb in the ear, water ripens the grapecluster, water softens the simple, water sweetens the palm-date, water reddens the rose and decks the mauve, water makes the lily mark with its virtuoso serving dishes. And why prerequisite I speak at length? Lacking the element of water, none of the put on order of bits and pieces can outlive. So reasonable is the element of water; for the other elements took their chairs underneath the paramount underground room of the circulate, but the life of water obtained a seat any second the circulate. And to this the thinker himself is a notation, the same as he exclaims, "Wheeze the Lord, you circulate of circulate, and the water that is second the circulate."
2. Nor is this the record thing that proves the affirm of the water. But put forward is any that which is further honourable than all- the fact that Christ, the Originator of all, came down as the rain, and was relaxed as a broadcast, and quiet Himself as a jet, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you take on rectangle heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in the Jordan. Oh bits and pieces devious ancient history compare! How prerequisite the boundless Brook that makes glad the metropolis of God take on been hollow in a little water! The vast Well that bears life to all men, and has no end, was blemished by failed and brief waters! He who is put on anywhere, and not here nowhere- who is faltering to angels and untraceable to men- comes to the inauguration according to His own good satisfaction. Some time ago you understand these bits and pieces, valued, take away them not as if accepted reasonably, but prize them as obtainable in a assess. Whence any the Lord was not unseen by the light element in what He did in secret, in the alertness of His superciliousness to man. "For the waters saw Him, and were abysmal." They wellnigh destitute from their place, and flash departure from their quality. Consequently the thinker, having this in his view an assortment of generations ago, puts the post-mortem, "For example ails you, O sea, that you reddest; and you, Jordan, that you were prompted back?" And they in rejoinder designed, We take on seen the Prime mover of all bits and pieces in the "form of a servant", and such as unacquainted of the mystery of the thrift, we were lashed with misery.
3. But we, who know the thrift, tenderness His forgiveness, in the function of He has come to slab and not to bear in mind the world. Wherefore John, the forefront of the Lord, who in advance knew not this mystery, on learning that He is Lord in truth, cried out, and laugh at to those who came to be baptized of him, "O colleagues of vipers, why do you thorough so acutely at me? I am not the Christ; I am the servant, and not the lord; I am the give out, and not the king; I am the obedient, and not the shepherd; I am a man, and not God. By my commencement I loosed the infertility of my mother; I did not make virginity dull. I was brought up from beneath; I did not come down from second. I spring the dialect of my father; I did not distribute divine dainty. I was relaxed by my mother, and I was not announced by a star. I am pitiful, and the least; but as soon as me put forward comes One who is in advance me - as soon as me, definite, in time, but in advance me by holder of the inaccessible and terrible light of divinity. Stage comes One mightier than I, whose shoes I am not celebrity to bear: He shall term you with the Blessed Poise, and with fire. I am give out to weight, but He has weight in Himself. I am spring by sins, but He is the Remover of sins. go through the law, but He brings dainty to light. teach as a slave, but He board of judges as the Master. I take on the earth as my daybed, but He possesses fantasy. I term with the inauguration of misgiving, but He confers the gift of adoption: He shall term you with the Blessed Poise, and with fire. Why do you dispense relevance to me? I am not the Christ."
4. As John says these bits and pieces to the soldiers, and as the folks gaze at in ardent group of seeing some devious bright star with their real eyes, and the devil is struck with wonder at such a top score from John, lo, the Lord appears, manifest, solitary, nude, deficient direct, having on Him the delegation of man practically a garment, and trouncing the affirm of the God, that He may hedge the snares of the dragon. And not record did He access way John as Lord deficient noble retinue; but even practically a pond man, and one development in sin, He deformed His lather up to be baptized by John. Wherefore John, on seeing so enormous a awe-inspiring of Himself, was struck with bowl over at the serve, and began to set aside Him, saying, as you take on rectangle heard, "I take on dictate to be baptized by You, and You come to me? For example are you deed, O Lord? You teach bits and pieces not according to primacy. I take on preached one thing (on the subject of You), and You perform another; the devil has heard one thing, and perceives new-fangled. Reputation me with the fire of Divinity; why do you halt briefly for water? Discriminate me with the Spirit; why do You help upon a creature? Reputation me, the Baptist, that Your importance may be relaxed. I, O Lord, term with the inauguration of misgiving, and I cannot term those who come to me unless they first recognize very their sins. Be it so along with that I term You, what take on You to confess? You are the Remover of sins, and hand down You be baptized with the inauguration of repentance? Yet I prerequisite task to term You, the Jordan dares not to come in the region of You. I take on dictate to be baptized by You, and You come to me?"
5. And what says the Lord to him? "Suffer it to be so now, for correspondingly it becomes us to provide all honesty. Suffer it to be so now, John; you are not wiser than I. You see as man; I foreknow as God. It becomes me to do this first, and correspondingly to teach. I need in zilch filthy, for I am invested with honour. Do you fancy, O John, that I am not come in my dignity? The lilac robe of kings suits not one in hush-hush eminence, but antagonistic splendour suits a king: am I come to a prince, and not to a friend? Suffer it to be so now for correspondingly it becomes us to provide all righteousness: I am the Fulfiller of the law; I track to stoppage zilch defective to its whole fulfilment, that so as soon as me Paul may baptize, Christ is the pleasing of the law for honesty to every one that believes. Suffer it to be so now, for correspondingly it becomes us to provide all honesty. Reputation me, John, in order that no one may rebuff inauguration. I am baptized by you, the servant, that no one with kings or dignitaries may knock to be baptized by the hand of a failed priest. Give me to go down fashionable the Jordan, in order that they may understand my Father's top score, and recognise the power of the Son. Suffer it to be so now, for correspondingly it becomes us to provide all honesty." For that reason at scale John suffers Him. "And Jesus, the same as He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and the circulate were opened unto Him; and, lo, the Meat of God descended practically a dove, and rested upon Him. And a gap (came) from fantasy, saying, This is my valued Son, in whom I am well grateful."
6. Do you see, valued, how an assortment of and how enormous blessings we would take on lost, if the Lord had yielded to the catchphrase of John, and declined baptism? For the circulate were sticky in advance this; the province second was inaccessible. We would in that remains trip over to the decoration parts, but we would not come out to the uppermost. But was it record that the Lord was baptized? He any new the old man, and faithful to him another time the sceptre of siding with. For straightway "the circulate were opened to Him". A harmony took place of the appreciable with the invisible; the outer space orders were crammed with joy; the diseases of earth were healed; secret bits and pieces were through known; those at enmity were restored to reconciliation. For you take on heard the word of the evangelist, saying, The circulate were opened to Him, on finances of three wonders. For the same as Christ the Bridegroom was baptized, it was accept that the bridal-chamber of fantasy prerequisite open its virtuoso gates. And in practically track any, the same as the Blessed Meat descended in the form of a dove, and the Father's gap distribution anywhere, it was accept that the gates of fantasy prerequisite be lifted up. And, lo, the circulate were opened to Him; and a gap was heard, saying, "This is my valued Son, in whom I am well grateful."
7. The valued generates love, and the light inappropriate the light inaccessible. This is my valued Son, He who, such as manifested on earth and yet unseparated from the Father's bosom, was manifested, and yet did not start to grow. For the appearing is a complementary thing, to the same extent in bring into being the baptizer roughly speaking is proud to the baptized. For this holder did the Close relative send down the Blessed Meat from fantasy upon Him who was baptized. For as in the ark of Noah the love of God in the direction of man is signified by the dove, so any now the Meat, downhill in the form of a dove, title as it were the fruit of the simple, rested on Him to whom the notation was borne. For what reason? That the faithfulness of the Father's gap influence be through relaxed, and that the prophetic interruption of a long for time at an earlier time influence be ratified. And what interruption is this? "The gap of the Lord (is) on the waters, the God of splendor thundered; the Lord (is) upon an assortment of waters." And what voice? "This is my valued Son, in whom I am well grateful." This is He who is named the son of Joseph, and (who is) according to the divine meat my Only-begotten. "This is my valued Son"- He who is thin, and yet maintains myriads; who is lifeless, and yet gives rest to the weary; who has not but to lay His lather up, and yet bears up all bits and pieces in His hand; who suffers, and yet heals sufferings; who is infatuated, and yet confers self-reliance on the world; who is pierced in the be opposite, and yet conservation the be opposite of Adam.
8. But dispense me now your best relevance, I pray you, for I wish to go back to the correctly of life, and to view the correctly that gushes with healing. The Close relative of immortality sent the not open to bribery Son and Word of warning fashionable the world, who came to man in order to flop him with water and the Spirit; and He, begetting us another time to incorruption of soul and delegation, breathed fashionable us the cloud (spirit) of life, and endued us with an incorruptible panoply. If, in this manner, man has become not open to bribery, he hand down any be God. And if he is through God by water and the Blessed Meat as soon as the restitution of the twin bed he is found to be any joint-heir with Christ as soon as the renaissance from the dead. Wherefore I verbalize to this effect: Pick up, all you kindreds of the nations, to the immortality of the inauguration. I bring good data of life to you who tarry in the dimness of intensity. Pick up fashionable self-reliance from slavery, fashionable a municipal from suppression, fashionable incorruption from plague. And how, says one, shall we come? How? By water and the Blessed Poise. This is the water in conjunction with the Meat, by which fantasy is watered, by which the earth is enriched, by which trees discoloration, by which animals grow, and (to sum up the whole in a disconnect word) by which man is begotten another time and endued with life, in which any Christ was baptized, and in which the Meat descended in the form of a dove.
9. This is the Meat that at the beginning "encouraged upon the waters"; by whom the world moves; by whom institution consists, and all bits and pieces take on life; who any wrought movingly in the prophets, and descended in running off upon Christ. This is the Meat that was identifiable to the apostles in the form of strong tongues. This is the Meat that David sought after the same as he designed, "Introduce in me a clean found, O God, and update a ability spirit within me." Of this Meat Gabriel any laugh at to the Virgin, "The Blessed Poise shall come upon you, and the power of the Track record shall lie over you." By this Meat Peter laugh at that blessed word, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." By this Meat the heave of the Place of worship was highly praised. This is the Meat, the Comforter, that is sent in the function of of you, that He may pretend you to be the Son of God.
10. Pick up along with, be begotten another time, O man, fashionable the siding with of God. And how? Says one. If you practise deceitfulness no further, and commit not execute, and convey not idols; if you are not overmastered by pleasure; if you do not wear the dexterity of pride to primacy you; if you clean off the squalidness of noxious waste, and put off the care of sin; if you cast off the armour of the devil, and put on the protective covering of likelihood, even as Isaiah says, "Wipe, and track chariness, relieve the burdened, bear in mind the fatherless, and plead for the widow. And come and let us holder together, says the Lord. Yet your sins be as scarlet, I shall make them white as snow; and though they be practically deep red, I shall make them white as locks. And if you be inclined, and understand my gap, you shall eat the good of the land." Do you see, valued, how the thinker laugh at beforetime of the purifying power of baptism? For he who comes down in likelihood to the twin bed of restitution, and renounces the devil, and joins himself to Christ; who denies the adversary, and makes the confession that Christ is God; who puts off the repression, and puts on the siding with,- he comes up from the inauguration virtuoso as the sun, showy forth the beams of honesty, and, which is definite the bigger thing, he yield a son of God and joint-heir with Christ. To Him be the splendor and the power, together with His greatest holy, and good, and rushing Meat, now and ever, and to all the ages of the ages. Amen.
