Tractates 2.18.1–2.35.1

While we commit to the annals, to be celebrated in triumph, the deeds of the blessed martyr Arcadius, Christian ardour is always roused to the contest for immortal praise. There will be a twofold exchange of religion, when the people are kindled to the heavenly reward and the martyr's merits are not passed over in silence. But who could set out in fitting speech the crown of an illustrious martyrdom, bearing the palm with its trophies, when in one body there seem to be as many martyrdoms as members? The devil, the ancient champion of an old hatred, had armed his satellites against the Lord's people, and was troubling the whole household of the Lord with the rampage of unfed ferocity. He had declared war on God in man, and with the tomb of an ill-omened superstition he had rekindled a funeral pyre, conscious of wickedness, for the whole world. The public crime swarmed through the tops of the roofs, nor was there any place in which there was not sacrilege for religion. The people of Christ were compelled to take part in vain superstitions, and for the worship of the unspeakable either to pour out libations impurely, or to drag victims adorned with garlands, or to light incense heavy with fumes, or amid smoking fires to offer favourable sacrifice with pale fat and deadly blood, so that by the administration of this notorious service God might be driven out of Christian minds.

But while the war of this hard contest was being waged, and the Lord's household was being tested with heaven looking on, Arcadius, most blessed martyr, struck with horror at this unexpected sacrilege, put off the fight a little, though already destined for the crown. For when he learned that the city was being thrown into confusion by a deadly assembly, and that each person was being dragged to that deadly spectacle, despising all his possessions, the roots of the world cut away, he hid himself and entrusted himself to the shelter of withdrawal, showing, I would say, the Christian's way in both respects, so that he should not seem too far from the battle and, by withdrawing, should be encouraged by the example of the Gospel's command. See, the band of raging satellites rushes headlong into his lodging as into an enemy's spoil: it hastens to catch the servant of God; and a relative of the blessed martyr, who happened to be living in his dwelling, kept crying out that he was absent. Him, as he declared this, the agents of a guilty mind seized for that unspeakable custody, and the most cruel governor orders him, when brought before him, to be held under sharp watch. As a testimony to future glory, the blessed Arcadius had in a way set aside this pledge of his due martyrdom, in which he would abandon neither Christ nor his relative. At once the blessed martyr would not allow himself to stay hidden; offering himself of his own accord to the judge, he voluntarily excused his delay before the proceedings. When the governor of the province promised him pardon for his earlier flight on the condition that he should, even late, join in the unspeakable superstitions, the most holy martyr leapt out against him with such words: 'What,' he said, 'most vain of all judges? Do you think that the household of God can be frightened either by unfitting interest on this light or by the sudden losses of an untimely death, when we know it is written by apostolic faith: For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain? Devise heavier torments with whatever punishments you can; kindle yourself with greater goads of fury; however great the mass of torture you apply, you cannot overcome us for all that.'

At once the judge, stirred with the gall of viper's venom, orders the executioners to rage against the martyr's limbs, not with the usual infliction of punishments nor by the usual law for the accused. The claws became cheap, the blows of the leaded whips seemed useless, the rack stood despised, the frequent showers of clubs were neglected in contemplation of a greater penalty. A new and astounding punishment is devised, by which he believed he could conquer God in a man. 'Let his hands be cut off at the joints,' he said, 'his feet at the legs; let him see himself a living corpse.' To him the blessed Arcadius said: 'O most insane of men! Your fury has cheated you: there was still something in the Lord's victim that you could offer. You did not know to order the tongue to be cut off, which in the wrestling of martyrdom is accustomed to confess the Lord first.' At length the blessed Arcadius was led to the place longed for in his righteous prayers, and, looking to heaven, he stood secure with God looking on. He had stretched out his neck ready for the coming blows; he had bared his throat to the coming swords; he had thought he would satisfy the judge's deadly madness by the lot of a swift death; when suddenly he is ordered to stretch out his hands and, thrown naked face down on the turf, to bare the extremities of his feet. See, even amid the punishments he is not allowed to be idle, but through the executioner's tortures he meditates, as in prayer. The mad executioner had raised the axe and, marking with his eyes the line for the wounds, was poising the deadly blow with constant gaze. The martyr's fearless hands clung with the glue of his confession; nor did his fingers twitch or throb at the destruction of coming death. So great was the constancy in the martyr's devotion that he came to glory ready in his whole body.

Soon, when the executioner saw the devoted body, at once the blow of the falling axe loosened the connections of the sinews, and, the framework shattered, broke all the joints of the body. The severed hands leapt out, and the stream of blood, rushing back into itself for a little in the stupor of the veins. Then, with the hams and calves stretched out, the boundary of the soles is cut off from nature's sisterly union by the sword of the savage brigand, and the martyr's body is widowed of the service of the feet. Let those count the martyrdoms who can count the punishments; and in one body let it be recognised that the Lord triumphed as much as the devil was shown publicly to rage. But amid these things the martyr's spirit endures, and, preserved by the many delays, he stays alive, already buried in part of his body. O worthy end of a glorious departure! About to ascend to the height of heaven, he sends ahead the hindrances of his body, and himself goes before his own funeral. To what is this confession to be compared? It is to be joined to the number of the Maccabees: it is to be made equal to the purpose of Eleazar, compared with his counsel. Arcadius, most blessed martyr, still lingers in the world, and is already read out as a martyr in heaven.

Nothing, dearest brothers, is above all so necessary and fitting for a man who fears God as to know himself: for it is a kind of madness that one who cannot give an account of his own life should search out the reason of nature's secret; for the substance of nature can in no way be grasped by human opinions, which no one knows except he alone who made it. So, as for what belongs especially to our part, let us see what it means that God says: 'Let us make man in our image and likeness.' 'And God made,' it says, 'man in the image and likeness of God'; and in another place he says: 'I am who am, and I do not change.' Since this is so, how does man bear the image of God? Man, whose face is passible, subject to every change, altered at every moment by toil, age, sickness, anger, joy, sorrow, and puts on as many faces as there are movements of the mind; and there is no day at all on which he seems continually like himself. Since things are not otherwise, do we then not have the image of God? We plainly have it, and indeed manifest, from the very fact that it is not known to us who bear it. For the image of the incomprehensible God must be invisible. In short, it is not subject to the eyes of the flesh. For neither when it enters our body, nor when it leaves the body, can it be detected by anyone; and it has so much power that, while it is held within the enclosure of its dwelling, it yet illuminates whatever it wishes at every moment. So we must not take this fleshly dwelling as the image of God, but the spiritual image of the heavenly man, which the Lord bestows from the loving fountain of his fullness on those who believe in him, renewed by a heavenly birth, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Nothing, dearest brothers, is above all so necessary and fitting for a man as to know himself: for it is a kind of madness that one who cannot give an account of his own life should search out the reason of nature's secret: for the elements cannot be asserted more beautifully or truly by human words than they were made by God, or are seen. So, as for what concerns us, let us see what it means that God says: 'Let us make man in our image and likeness.' 'And God made,' it says, 'man in the image and likeness of God'; and in another place he says: 'I am who am; and I do not change.' Since this is so, how does man bear the image of God? Man, whose face, subject to every change, is altered at every moment by toil, age, sickness, joy, sorrow; now ugly with leanness, now with enormous fat; so uncertain that the same is not found in two people in the whole world. Since these things do not befall God, do we then not have the image of God? Far from it, brothers. We plainly have it, and indeed manifest, from the very fact that it is not known to those who bear it: for the image of the incomprehensible God must be invisible. In short, it is not subject to mortal eyes; for neither when it enters the body, nor when it leaves the body, can it be seen by anyone; and it has so much power that, while it is held within the enclosure of its dwelling, it yet illuminates whatever it wishes at every moment. So we must not take this fleshly clothing as the image of God, but the spiritual image of the heavenly man, which he bestows on us from the loving fountain of his fullness. Paul plainly set out this reasoning, saying: 'As we have borne the image of him who is of clay, let us bear also the image of him who is from heaven': and those who have borne it holily, like the apostles and all the just, will bear not only the image but God himself too, as it is written: 'You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you.'

Negligent cultivators of the sacred law are often entangled in great error when they either do not understand sayings according to their places, or do not inquire at all into the reasons of what is said. So, since in the present psalm the prophet says, 'I will sing to you of mercy and judgment, Lord,' how does the Lord say in the Gospel: 'He who believes in me is not judged; but he who does not believe has already been judged'? By saying this he exempts the faithful from judgment and does not admit the unfaithful to judgment. But if both parties are free of judgment, how will each be given a reward for his own deeds? For the just man will seem to labour for nothing unless the unjust receives according to the deeds he has done. So it must not be taken as the imprudent suppose. But the very propriety of the words explains with what weight and for what reason the Lord's saying was uttered: 'He who believes in me,' he says, 'is not judged.' Rightly: for what need is there to judge a believer? For judgment arises from doubtful matters; when the doubt is removed, an examination by judgment is not wanted. From which it follows that unbelievers need not be judged either, because they have already been condemned by their own unbelief; for who does not carry from this life with him either a crown or a punishment? This reasoning David expressed in the first psalm in these words: 'The ungodly,' he says, 'do not rise in the judgment, nor sinners in the council of the just.' Step by step according to merits, as if with certain titles, in very few words he designated the judgment of the whole human race: for as much difference as there is between the ungodly and the sinner, so much is there between the sinner and the just. In short, he does not leave judgment to the ungodly, because they are already prejudged by their own impiety; nor did he think sinners, who are to be judged, worthy of the council of the just, who will not be judged.

Now we must know (since the just are destined for everlasting life and the ungodly for eternal punishment, and no further trial awaits them) who are the sinners for whom judgment is prepared: and from whom should we know it but from the Lord himself, who continues his saying: 'This is the judgment, that light has come into this world, and men loved darkness rather than light'? He surely designated ambiguous and slippery Christians, who are midway between the devout and the ungodly, holding neither side fully, while they do not stop holding both. They are not faithful, because they have something of unfaithfulness inserted in them. They are not unfaithful, because they have the image of faith, serving God by profession and the world by deeds. They want to know the law; they do not want to keep its precepts. They venerate the saving sign, and yet do not withdraw from the mysteries of demons. For fear of God holds many in the church, but worldly pleasure draws them to itself. They do not remain ungodly, because God's name is in honour with them. They are not devout, because they wound the Father who is to be revered with depraved conduct. They pray because they fear; they sin because they want to. Hence the guilt is not absolved where judgment is demanded on the comparison of love between two parties contrary to each other; for unless the ambiguity has been examined, it cannot rightly merit a sentence. And who are these whom ambiguity has reserved for judgment? Surely those, as the Apostle too says, who, having known God, did not honour him as Lord, nor give him thanks, but their thoughts were led away by vain persuasions, and their heart was covered with darkness, so that they loved darkness rather than light, the creature rather than the creator.

So there must be three judgments. One of the just, who not only, as has been said, will not be judged, but will judge this world, as the Apostle says: 'Do you not know that the saints will judge this world?' Another of the ungodly, who are not to be judged, because they have already been judged, but are to perish, as Scripture says: 'The way of the ungodly will perish.' The third of sinners, the secrets of whose crooked and doubtful life must necessarily be examined, as the Apostle sets out both: for 'those who have sinned without the law,' he says, 'will perish without the law. But those who have sinned in the law will be judged by the law.' Do you see, brothers, that there is a great difference between one condemned and one to be judged? This form of judgment even humanity itself, unjust though it is, keeps. For no householder judges his slave who offers him the honest gains of his fidelity, but honours him like a son. The other, whom he has caught grinding poisons, in adultery, in murder, in forgery, in sorcery, he at once hands over to the executioner, not to be heard but to be tortured with fitting punishments. The third too, whom he has noticed to be fraudulent, excusing his thefts with coloured accounts, he reserves for examination, so that, the losses weighed and the property saved, a sentence may rightly be pronounced on him according to how he stands as a debtor. So it will be that a crown is given to the just, indulgence to sinners either excused or amended, but eternal punishment to the ungodly. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed with the Holy Spirit for eternal ages of ages.

'Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have despised me.' The opening of this book speaks out the great offence of the Jewish nation, and shows the anger of divine indignation, by which he exhorts other persons, so that the word of God may be heard rather by them: for it is no small crime that the divine word, always uttered among them, should now be seen to be pressed upon others. Hence the rejection of the Jews is the election of other persons; because when others are told that they ought to hear the word of God, Israel is thus found reprobate; and when the prophet cries, 'Hear, heaven and earth,' he signifies that they have scorned to hear.

'Hear,' he says, 'O heaven, and give ear, O earth.' Did the prophet call heaven and earth to witness as if complaining about something? Or, when he says, 'Hear, heaven and earth,' as if heaven or earth had never heard, when both heaven and earth obey God's command, since heaven does not refuse rains, nor earth crops? But because this prophecy was to be fulfilled in the last times, at the coming of the Lord and Saviour, who was not to be heard by the peoples of the Jews, because the apostles and men from the Gentiles were to hear him, therefore he says: 'Hear, heaven and earth.' That the heavens are the apostles he affirms by the clear testimony of truth, for he says thus: 'And I will see the heavens, the works of your fingers.' Here he is surely not speaking of these heavens, which he had always seen, but of the apostles, whom he longed to see. And again: 'His power covered the heavens'; because the Holy Spirit overshadowed and covered the apostles to do wonderful works. And again: 'The heavens,' he says, 'tell the glory of God.' And here he surely does not say that these heavens speak, which no one has heard speaking, but he means the apostles, by whose preaching the glory of the Lord has been announced through all the spaces of the earth. That men are to be understood as the earth the frequent assertion of the prophets has shown: 'Shout for joy,' he says, 'all the earth.' And elsewhere: 'Hear, earth,' he says, 'from my mouth'; by which word he undoubtedly includes the Gentile men, in whom there were still earthly works. This, then, is what he says, 'Hear, heaven and earth': that, while the Jews did not hear, Christ the Lord was to be heard by the apostles and the Gentiles.

'I have begotten and exalted sons,' he says. This is the Lord's voice, because already then through the prophet he was rebuking the unbelieving Jews and warning them of what was to come before it happened. For it is proper to God to know the past and to know the future. 'I have begotten and exalted sons,' he says. The Jews by their unbelief have earned infinite hatred before our Lord, because as great as the grace of love was, so great will be the vengeance for their offence: for it is certain that a son whom his father loved with great affection is punished more gravely after he has sinned; and as much tenderness as a loving father showed to a beloved son, so much vengeance, when wounded, he exacts, because when the beloved son has not returned the favour to his father, he receives, disinherited, a worthy sentence: for whose impiety does not return equal gratitude to a father's affection, how great his crime is cannot be told, not to have loved God the Father, when it is a sin not to have loved a man. Hence the Jews are unhappy and wretched, who rejected God the Father, by whom they were begotten, forgetful of so great an honour, ignorant of so great a dignity. For what is more blessed than that God should deign to regard men with a father's honour, and that such great sublimity should hold human mediocrity dear or beloved? 'I have begotten sons,' he says. How sweet that the Lord said this of men! How shameful to have wounded such a father! 'I have begotten and exalted sons.' Surely the Lord begot the sons of Israel, who chose Abraham, from whom they should be born. He begot them in Egypt, where, though few men went in, a countless multitude came out, and the Lord led them to the wilderness with a strong hand and an uplifted arm. Israel was exalted when for three days darkness and gloom surrounded all Egypt. Israel was exalted when, amid so many and so great torments of the Egyptians, he alone either feared or felt nothing. What of the fact that he led them on dry ground through the middle of the sea? What of manna from heaven daily in the wilderness, drink from the rock, sweet water made from bitter through wood, which we were to drink through the wood of the cross, the bitterness of Gentile life excluded? The sons of Israel were exalted when he came safely from Horeb to the Jordan. What of the daily conversations with God? 'But they despised me'; for they brought to the cross the one through whom they escaped Pharaoh; but again the daughter of Zion will be left.

As the song of most blessed Isaiah shows, God is angry with the Jewish people, and, lest perhaps it should not repent, he confutes it with public rebuke. To one with human feelings, to be traded in disgrace is worse than to be punished. In short, he calls them sons, so that disinheritance may be feared; exalted, so that their fall may be a terror; despisers, so that they may know they are bringing the penalty of punishment upon themselves. Flee this example bravely, brothers; and at the same time rejoice that you learn God's discipline from another's stripes, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a vehement agitation, brothers, when he complains of his injury who can very easily avenge himself. But because among the wise and honourable it is heavier to be put to shame by some mark of disgrace than to die, God confutes with public rebuke the Jewish people, corrupted by the overflowing heat of luxury: he calls heaven and earth as witnesses, to heighten the crime; he calls them sons, so that disinheritance may be feared; exalted, so that their fall may be feared; despisers of himself, to show them ungodly. Unhappy is the fault, brothers, in which an excuse of any kind finds no place. Detestable surely is the son whom a loving father, whom a father condemns unwillingly.

Human speech fails regarding the impiety of the Jewish people, which overcame God's patience by the impatience of its obstinate heart; for its crime is not light, when he complains of it who could also have punished it at once. But because among unbelievers in the future death is thought a shortcut of punishment, and what is not publicly shamed is held almost as not done, he decided to mark them with heaven and earth as witnesses, so that they might be subject to fitting judgment for an inexcusable deed. In short, the thing was fulfilled in the Lord's passion: heaven lost the day at midday, the earth its firmness through excessive trembling. From this one may judge what is reserved for them, in whose case nature bore the punishment of funeral mourning.

That the whole Jewish people has abandoned the protection of its salvation the text of the divine song shows. In it, venerable brothers, it is not severity that condemns it before all, but tenderness; for no one can deserve well of one whom a most patient and most merciful father has disinherited, and that convicted not by accusation but by proof. In short, he calls heaven and earth as witnesses of his injury: earth, on which all things are done; heaven, under which they are done. He calls them sons, to heighten the crime; exalted, to show them ungrateful. He puts the ox and the ass before them, so that, if they come to their senses, they may be tormented more heavily by the comparison than by the punishment.

That what the prophet asked for the old vine, which the Lord had planted in Egypt, has profited the new one in time, the very inscription of the title of the psalm read declares; for it runs thus: 'To the end, for those who will be changed.' For the Jewish people, which was first called the Lord's vine, flowered indeed, but, its flower unhappily shaken off, could bear no fruit. In short, instead of fruits it produced thorns, instead of grapes wild grapes. Abhorring its unhappiness, the Lord of the estate planted another for himself, that is, of our people, according to his will, into which all the prophetic fruit has flowed. Here, most blessed husbandmen, forgive me, your rustic, if my sluggishness has taken anything away from your skill in giving an account of the vine.

So, as you often recall excellently, the measure being kept, the shoot is cut to a slip, the slip is sent down into a trench, so that, quickened there, the generative moisture may be nourished, its substance always remaining with it: of necessity a supporting stake is joined to it, by whose protection it may lift itself up. But when it has grown into a full vine and reached the trellis, all its luxuriant locks are shorn with the pruning hook; the pure wood is brought up onto the cross-frames, it is bound with knots, lest it be separated by some force from the wood by which it is carried, or by whose prop or guidance it is drawn out further, invited, into rich fruit. Then, weeping solemnly, it gently bedews with its own shower, and announces with happy tears the streams of new wine it has conceived. At once, its eyes opened, radiant leaves come forth, under which, commending themselves, the following fruits smile, which the heat of the sun, rains and winds bring on by exercising them and lead to maturity. But when the time of vintage has come, its beauty scattered, the grape is pulled off everywhere, and, put into the winepress, is trodden by the workers' feet, pressed by the press, and vehemently squeezed by two boards, until all its sweetness is wrung out to the marrow. And so the precious stream is both drunk by its treaders and brought into the householder's wine cellars, to become better by ageing.

As far as our mediocrity can conjecture spiritually, the shoot computed to measure is understood as the fit candidate, examined in the lawful number by examination. By the trench we must take the sacred font, which by a true sacrament receives men dead and, breathed into by heavenly water, soon makes them alive. The supporting stake, by which it is stretched or carried, is the sign of the Lord's cross, without which the Christian can by no means live and lay hold of immortality. In that it is brought up onto the cross-frames, the height of the heavenly way and life is shown. It is bound with ties when, renouncing the world, having made a promise, he is spiritually bound by the questions of the sacrament. The luxuriant locks are shorn with the hook, that is, absolutely all sins are cut away by baptism and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The vine happily weeps, its wood purged; from the washed man more happily flow the divine streams of heavenly doctrine, his eyes burst open, that is, spiritually opened. The fruit follows, commending itself, after the leaves go before. Likewise the Christian, by obeying the divine admonitions that go before, in which is the fruit of eternal life, is both defended and nourished. He reaches the trellis when, having bestowed all his property on the poor, carrying his cross, all justice fulfilled, he follows Christ more unencumbered. By the force of storm, sun and rain it is driven to maturity; and the just man is led to the crown by frequent, great and various temptations. But when the time of vintage has come, that is, the day of persecution, the grapes are snatched everywhere, that is, violent hands are laid indiscriminately on all the saints. They are carried to the winepress, that is, they are led to the place of punishment. There they are trampled by the workers, that is, mocked with the greatest insult by the persecutors, they are slain. The juice of them is dried out by the last weight of the press and the two boards. Likewise on the day of judgment vengeance for the blood of the confessors is exacted by Christ according to the tablets of the law to the last farthing. The treaders drink of the same new wine; and persecutors, often believing in Christ, taste, and some even drink, the precious cup which a little before they had poured out by treading. The new wine is stored in the householder's cellar, to be made more precious by transfer; and the martyr is taken up into the hidden places of the Lord's dwelling, so that there, transferred from man into angel, he may glory in the blessedness of eternal life.

As the sound of the reading indicates, brothers, the Jewish people is indeed accused of impiety, but the Christian is likewise warned not to turn out such. In short, so that this one may fear more, that one is terrified; that one is beaten so that this one may profit. It is a short kind of happiness to learn from another's danger what you ought to avoid. Hence, brothers, in such a matter it is not talk that must be offered but care, which receive in a few words. Whoever wishes to escape the wrath of God, who threatens generally, must serve him blamelessly. The discussion of the vine mentioned, dearest brothers, has boundaries spread far and wide, which the weight of the pressing sacraments does not allow us to traverse in fitting speech. Yet, lest the solemnity cease altogether, taste his speech devoutly in a few words. The first vine of God was indeed the synagogue, cheap with the woody locks of straying shoots; and when it spread itself everywhere wantonly with its foliage through pleasure-loving and profane places, it produced thorns instead of fruits, wild grapes instead of grapes. Moved by the indignity of this, the Lord, leaving it, planted another for himself according to his will, that is, Mother Church, which, cultivating it with priestly duties and making it fruitful with loving watering, hung on the happy wood, he taught to bear a most abundant vintage. Hence it is that today new vines from your number, brought to the trellis, seething with the sweet stream of gushing new wine, have filled the Lord's wine cellar with common joy. That this may happen to you too, as your faith grows, God the almighty Father will grant through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever.

Christ entered the world secretly, so that the devil should not seem wise to himself. He who had deceived man by a plan is conquered by a plan, so that, as man in paradise had not recognised the devil, so the devil in the world should not easily recognise Christ.

Rejoice, brothers, in Christ, and, flying together with all desire, receive the heavenly gifts. Already the saving warmth of the everlasting font invites you. Already our mother adopts so as to give birth: but not by the law by which your mothers bore you, who, themselves groaning with the pain of childbirth, brought you into this world weeping, dirty, bound in dirty swaddling clothes, surrendered to it; but she will nourish you, happy and rejoicing, heavenly, free, absolved of all sins, not in stinking cradles, but within the sweetly fragrant rails of the sacred altar: through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, now, quicker than speech, brothers, enter the heavenly gates; and, plunging into the generative bed of the eternal flood, do not think that any grace works here according to persons. You are born by your own judgment, knowing that whoever has believed more will make himself nobler. So constantly and faithfully cast off this old man of yours with his stinking rags, all of you new, all of you clothed in white, all of you soon to come forth rich with the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Come, why do you stand still, brothers, you whom the generative wave conceived through faith and now brings to birth through the sacraments? Hasten as quickly as possible to what you have desired. See, the solemn hymn is already being sung: see, the voice of infants and their sweet crying is heard: see, a most brilliant crowd comes forth from one womb of her who gives birth. A new thing, that each should be born by spiritual right. Run on to the mother, who does not labour even if she cannot count those she bears. Enter, then, enter, happy ones, all at once soon to be sucklings.

Why do you stand, differing in race, age, sex and condition, soon to be one? Fly together to the sweet womb of the virgin mother, the font; and there make yourselves noble by your own faith, knowing that as much as each has believed, so much blessedness he will have. O admirable and truly divine, most holy condescension! In which she who gives birth does not groan; he who is reborn does not know how to cry. This is renewal, this resurrection, this eternal life, this is the mother of all, who makes us, united and gathered from every race and nation, afterwards into one body.

Rejoice, brothers, whom your own faith brings to birth, who, fleeing the snares of this world, guilt, wounds and death, have implored the help of the Father's majesty; fly together to the flood of the holy font, with all speed not of feet but of mind. Plunge in constantly, your state of salvation kept safe, to live by the happy death of your old man.

Hasten, hasten, brothers, to be well washed. The living water, tempered with the Holy Spirit and most sweet fire, already invites you with a gentle murmur. Already the bath attendant, girded, waits, ready to provide what is needed for anointing and for drying, and also a golden denarius stamped with the union of a threefold coin. So rejoice. You will indeed be plunged naked into the font, but you will rise from it clothed in a heavenly garment, soon clothed in white; and whoever does not defile it will possess the heavenly kingdom: through the Lord Jesus Christ.