Exhortation to Holy Baptism

2Take care that you are not making promises that reach beyond your life. You do not know what the coming day will bring (Proverbs 27:1); do not promise what is not yours. We are calling you to life, my friend—why do you flee from the call? We are calling you to a share in good things—why do you pass over the gift? The kingdom of heaven stands open; the One who calls does not lie; the road is easy, with no need of time, expense, or trouble. Why do you delay? Why do you shrink back? Why do you fear the yoke like a heifer unaccustomed to the yoke? It is good, it is light; it does not chafe the neck but gives it glory. For the yoke-strap is not bound around the neck; it seeks the one who draws it of his own free will. Do you see how Ephraim is accused as a heifer driven to frenzy, because she wanders in disorder, dishonoring the yoke of the law? Put your untamed neck under it; become a beast of burden for Christ, so that, loosed from the yoke and living without restraint, you may not be easy prey for wild beasts. “Taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). How can I announce the sweetness of honey to those who do not know it? Taste and see. Experience is clearer than any word for making a proof. The Jew does not postpone circumcision because of the threat: “Every soul that is not circumcised on the eighth day shall be cut off from its people” (Genesis 17:14). But you put off the circumcision not made by hands, which is brought to completion in baptism, in the stripping off of the flesh—even though you have heard the Lord Himself say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). There, there is pain and a wound; here, there is dew for the soul and healing for the wound of the heart. Do you worship the One who died for you? Then accept being buried with Him through baptism. If you are not united with the likeness of His death, how will you share in His resurrection (Romans 6:5)? That Israel was baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Corinthians 10:2), handing down to you the types and marking out the truth that would be shown in the last times. But you altogether shun baptism—not one prefigured in the sea, but one brought to completion in truth; not in the cloud, but in the Spirit; not into Moses, your fellow servant, but into Christ, the Maker. If Israel had not passed through the sea, they would not have been separated from Pharaoh; and you, if you do not pass through the water, will not be separated from the bitter tyranny of the devil. They would not have drunk from the spiritual rock if they had not been baptized in type (1 Corinthians 10:4); and no one will give you the true drink unless you are truly baptized. They ate the bread of angels after baptism (Psalm 78:25); how will you eat the living bread unless you first receive baptism? They entered the land of promise through baptism; how will you return to paradise unless you are sealed with baptism? Or do you not know that a flaming sword has been set to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:24)—fearsome and blazing for the faithless, but for those who have believed, approachable and shining with lovely light? And the Master made it turn: when it sees a believer, it gives its back; but when it sees one of the unsealed, it meets him face to face.

3Elijah was not terrified when a chariot of fire and horses of fire came to him; he longed for the journey upward, and so he dared those fearful things. With great joy he mounted the flaming vehicle while still living in the flesh. But you are not about to mount a chariot of fire; you are about to ascend to heaven through water and the Spirit—and you do not run to the call? Elijah showed the power of baptism at the altar of whole burnt offerings, when he consumed the sacrifice not with fire but with water. By nature fire and water are at war with each other, but when the water was mystically poured over the altar a third time, it became the starting point for the fire and kindled the flame as if it were oil. “Take jars,” he says, “and pour water on the whole burnt offering and on the pieces of wood.” And he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time. “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time (1 Kings 18:33-34). The word shows that through baptism the one who comes forward is made a member of God's household, and that pure, heavenly light shines forth in the souls of those who approach through faith in the Trinity. If I were distributing gold to the church, you would not say to me, “I will come tomorrow, and tomorrow you will give it.” You would demand the distribution at once, pressing me, and you would be annoyed at any delay. But since the great giver is offering you not the fine color of matter but the purity of your soul, you invent pretexts and count up excuses when you ought to run to the gift. What a wonder! You are renewed, without being melted down; you are reshaped, without being broken; you are healed, without suffering pain—and you do not reckon the grace. If you were a slave of human beings, and freedom had been proclaimed for slaves, would you not have gone to meet the lady, hiring advocates and pleading with judges, so that by every means you might be delivered into freedom? Surely you would even have accepted a slap on the face—the last blow a slave receives—to be rid of the abuses that would follow. But now you are a slave, not of human beings, but of sin, and the herald calls you to freedom, to release you from captivity, to make you a fellow citizen with the angels, to show you as a son of God adopted through grace, and an heir of the good things of Christ—and you still say it is not yet the time for you to receive what is being given. What wicked obstacles! What shameful, endless busyness! How long will pleasures last? How long will luxuries last? We have lived a long time for the world; let us live from now on for ourselves. What is worth as much as the soul? What weighs equally with the kingdom of heaven? Who is a more trustworthy counselor to you than God? Who is wiser than the wise one? Who is more helpful than the good one? Who is closer to you than the Creator? It did not benefit Eve to obey the serpent's counsel rather than the Master's. What absurd words! “I have no leisure to be made well; do not show me the light yet; do not unite me to the King yet.” Is this not what you are saying outright? Or rather, things even more irrational than these. If your name had been written in the public debt records, and a cancellation of debts had been announced to those who owed, and then someone tried out of malice to keep you from sharing in that pardon, you would be outraged and you would cry out that he was robbing you of your portion of the common grace.

6Who has fixed the limit of your life? Who has defined the deadline of your old age? Who is such a trustworthy guarantor to you of what is to come? Do you not see infants being snatched away, those in their prime being carried off? Life has no single deadline. Why do you wait for baptism to come to you as a gift of fever—when you will not be able to utter the saving words, and perhaps will not even be permitted to hear clearly, with the sickness dwelling in your very head? You will not be able to raise your hands to heaven, or stand up on your feet, or bend the knee in worship, or be taught usefully, or confess securely, or make your covenant with God, or renounce the enemy—perhaps not even to follow the initiation with understanding, yourself uncertain whether you have perceived the grace or are insensible to what is happening. And even if you do receive the grace with awareness, then you have the talent but you bring no work to it. Imitate the eunuch. He found the one who instructed him, and he did not despise the teaching. The rich man brought the poor man up onto his chariot—the dignified and exalted man brought up the ordinary and despised man. And when he was taught the gospel of the kingdom, he received the faith in his heart, but he did not postpone the seal of the Spirit. For when they came upon water, he said, 'Look, water!' The word came from overflowing joy: 'Look—the thing I was seeking! What prevents me from being baptized?' Where the will is ready, nothing prevents. For the one who calls is loving toward humanity, the minister is prepared, the grace is abundant. Let eagerness be present, and there will be no obstacle. There is one who prevents, one who blocks our roads to salvation—let us overcome him by understanding. He produces hesitation in us; let us rise up to the work. He deceives our hearts with empty promises; let us not be ignorant of his schemes. For does he not suggest that we commit sin today, and persuade us to store up righteousness for tomorrow? This is why the Lord, dismantling his wicked counsels, says, 'Today, if you hear my voice' (Psalm 94:7 (95:7)). That one says: 'Give today to me, and tomorrow to God.' The Lord cries out in answer: 'Today, hear my voice.' Understand the enemy: he does not dare to advise abandoning God altogether—he knows that is hard for Christians to hear—but he schemes against the undertaking with deceptive arts. He is clever at doing evil. He observes that we human beings live in the present, and every action is carried out in the present moment. So by stealing our today through his scheming, he leaves us the hopes of tomorrow. Then, when tomorrow comes, the wicked divider comes again, claiming today for himself and tomorrow for the Lord. And so, always snatching away the present through pleasure and attaching the future to our hopes, he secretly leads us astray from life. I once saw such cunning in a clever bird. Since her chicks were easy to catch because of their softness, she offered herself as ready prey, turning about in the hands of the hunters. She was neither easily caught by them, nor did she make them despair of the hunt. Instead, holding them with varied hopes by keeping them occupied with herself, she won her chicks the chance to escape—and then at last she herself was caught.

7Be afraid that you too may suffer something similar, surrendering what is clear in hopes about what is uncertain. Come then, transfer your whole self to the Lord. Give your name. Be enrolled with the Church. The soldier is counted in the muster rolls; the athlete competes after being registered; the citizen, once enrolled as a citizen, is counted among his tribesmen. You are liable to all these things: as a soldier of Christ, as an athlete of godliness, as one having citizenship in the heavens. Be registered in this book, so that you may be transferred to the one above. Learn, be taught the gospel way of life: precision of the eyes, restraint of the tongue, enslavement of the body, a humble mindset, purity of thoughts, the destruction of anger. When pressed into service, add more; when robbed, do not go to court; when hated, love; when persecuted, endure; when reviled, speak kindly. Be put to death to sin; be crucified with Christ; transfer your whole love to the Lord.

But these things are hard. What good thing is easy? Who has set up a trophy while sleeping? Who has been adorned with the crowns of endurance while living in luxury and being serenaded by flutes? No one has taken the prize without running. Labors give birth to glory; toils procure crowns. “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of heaven” (Acts 14:22), I say too. But these tribulations are awaited by the blessedness in the kingdom of heaven, while the painful and gloomy toil of Gehenna awaits the toils of sin.

And yet, for one who examines carefully, not even the works of the devil come to the workers of lawlessness without toil. What are the sweats of self-control? But the fornicator is drenched in sweat, as pleasure wastes him away. Does self-control take away as much from the body as foul and raging licentiousness destroys? The nights of those who pass the night in prayers are sleepless; but far harsher are the nights of those who stay awake in injustices. For the fear of being caught and the frenzy of pleasures drive away all rest completely.

But if, fleeing the narrowness of the road that leads to salvation, you pursue the broad way of sin, I fear that, having traveled the wide road to the end, you may find the lodging that matches the road. So the treasure is hard to guard. Keep watch, brother. You have helpers, if you wish: prayer keeping the night watch, fasting staying at home, psalmody refreshing the soul. Take these along with you. Let them keep watch with you over the guarding of what is precious. What is better, tell me: for us to be rich and to strive on behalf of the guarding of what is precious, or not to have from the start what we would guard? No one pushes away good things out of fear of being deprived of them. For in that way nothing human would have been established, if we calculated the failures for each of our pursuits. For farming has barrenness lying beside it, trade has shipwrecks, marriages have widowhoods, child-rearing has childlessness. But nevertheless we set our hands to the works, leaning on the better hopes, and we entrust the outcome of what we hoped for to the God who orders our affairs.

But you praise sanctification in word, yet in deed you linger in condemned things. See to it that you never regret your evil counsels, when regret will be of no use to you. Let the example of the virgins correct you. They did not have oil in their vessels, and when they needed to enter with the bridegroom, then they perceived that they lacked what was necessary (Matthew 25:1-13).

8That is why the word called them foolish: they spent the time for using their oil on going around and trading, and without realizing it they shut themselves out of the brightness of the bridal chamber. Take care that you too, postponing year after year, month after month, day after day, and not taking the oil, the food of light, never fall into a day you do not expect, when the means of living finally fail you. Then there is helplessness on every side and grief no one can comfort: the doctors have given up, your family has given up. When you are gripped by rapid, dry gasping, while a fierce fever burns and smolders within you, you will groan from the depths of your heart and find no one to share your grief. You will utter something faint and feeble, and there will be no one to hear. Everything you say is dismissed as delirium. Who will give you baptism then? Who will remind you when you are stupefied by suffering? Your relatives are in despair; those outside the suffering think nothing of it; your friend hesitates to remind you, as it would cause distress. Perhaps the doctor deceives you too, and you do not despair of yourself because by nature you cling to life. Night, and a desert of helpers. The one who baptizes is not there. Death stands by; those who carry you off press on. Who is there to rescue you? God, whom you despised? But will he listen then? You are the one who is not listening to him now. Will he grant an extension? You made such good use of the time already given. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Sudden destruction will come upon you, and ruin will arrive like a storm. A grim angel will come, dragging you away by force and pulling your soul, bound fast by its sins, turning back again and again toward the things of this world, mourning without a voice, since the organ of lament now silenced. Oh, how you will tear at yourself! How you will groan, repenting uselessly over your deliberations, when you see the brightness of the righteous in the radiant distribution of gifts, and the gloom of sinners in the deepest darkness. What will you say then in the anguish of your heart? 'Woe is me, that I did not throw off this heavy burden of sin when laying it down was so easy, but instead dragged this heap of evils along with me. Woe is me, that I did not wash away the stains, but remained marked by my sins. Now I would have been with the angels; now I would have been delighting in the good things of heaven. Oh, wicked plans! For a temporary enjoyment of sin I am tortured forever; for the pleasure of the flesh I am handed over to the fire. God's judgment is just. I was called, and I did not obey. I was taught, and I paid no attention. They bore witness to me, and I laughed.' These things and others like them you will say, weeping over yourself, if you are snatched away before baptism. Man, either fear hell or lay claim to the kingdom. Do not dishonor the call. Do not say, 'Excuse me for this reason or that.' No excuse is sufficient for refusal. I am moved to tears when I consider that you prefer the works of shame to the great glory of God, and that because of the sweetness of self-indulgence you cling to sin so tightly that you cannot be pulled away, shutting yourself out from the good things promised, so that you never see the good things of the heavenly Jerusalem. There are myriads of angels, assemblies of the firstborn, thrones of apostles, seats of honor for prophets, scepters of patriarchs, crowns of martyrs, praises of the righteous. Long to be numbered among them, having washed yourself and been sanctified according to the gift of Christ. For to him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.