Exhortation to Martyrdom 30

Let us remember also the sins we have committed, and that it is not possible to receive forgiveness of sins without baptism, and that according to the laws of the gospel it is not possible to be baptized again with water and the Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and that the baptism of martyrdom is given to us. For so it has been named, as is clear from the fact that “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?” is followed by “or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” And elsewhere it is said: “But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!” And consider whether the baptism of martyrdom, just as the Savior's became a cleansing for the world, also itself serves for the healing of many who are cleansed. For just as those who attended the altar according to the law of Moses seemed to minister forgiveness of sins to the people through the blood “of goats and bulls,” so the souls “of those beheaded” for the testimony of Jesus, not attending in vain at the altar in heaven, minister forgiveness of sins to those who pray. At the same time we know also that, just as the high priest Jesus Christ offered himself as a sacrifice, so the priests, of whom he is high priest, offer themselves as a sacrifice; on account of which they are seen at the altar as in their proper place. But of the priests, some were without blemish and, offering unblemished sacrifices, served the Deity, while those with blemishes, which Moses recorded in Leviticus, were banished from the altar. And who is the unblemished priest offering an unblemished victim, if not the one who holds fast to his confession and fulfills every requirement that the account of martyrdom demands, of which we have spoken above?