{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/208/2080044.htm","path":"chr/ecf/208/2080044.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/208/2080044.htm","text":"Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types.\n31. But even if some are baptized unto the Spirit, it is not, it is urged, on this account right for the Spirit to be ranked with God. Some \u201cwere baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.\u201d 971 And it is admitted that faith even before now has been put in men; for \u201cThe people believed God and his servant Moses.\u201d 972 Why then, it is asked, do we, on account of faith and of baptism, exalt and magnify the Holy Spirit so far above creation, when there is evidence that the same things have before now been said of men? What, then, shall we reply? Our answer is that the faith in the Spirit is the same as the faith in the Father and the Son; and in like manner, too, the baptism. But the faith in Moses and in the cloud is, as it were, in a shadow and type. The nature of the divine is very frequently represented by the rough and shadowy outlines 973 of the types; but because divine things are prefigured by small and human things, it is obvious that we must not therefore conclude the divine nature to be small. The type is an exhibition of things expected, and gives an imitative anticipation of the future. So Adam was a type of \u201cHim that was to come.\u201d 974 Typically, \u201cThat rock was Christ;\u201d 975 and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, \u201cIf any p. 20 man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.\u201d 976 The manna is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; 977 and the serpent on the standard, 978 of the passion of salvation accomplished by means of the cross, wherefore they who even looked thereon were preserved. So in like manner, the history of the exodus of Israel is recorded to shew forth those who are being saved through baptism. For the firstborn of the Israelites were preserved, like the bodies of the baptized, by the giving of grace to them that were marked with blood. For the blood of the sheep is a type of the blood of Christ; and the firstborn, a type of the first-formed. And inasmuch as the first-formed of necessity exists in us, and, in sequence of succession, is transmitted till the end, it follows that \u201cin Adam\u201d we \u201call die,\u201d 979 and that \u201cdeath reigned\u201d 980 until the fulfilling of the law and the coming of Christ. And the firstborn were preserved by God from being touched by the destroyer, to show that we who were made alive in Christ no longer die in Adam. The sea and the cloud for the time being led on through amazement to faith, but for the time to come they typically prefigured the grace to be. \u201cWho is wise and he shall understand these things?\u201d 981 \u2014how the sea is typically a baptism bringing about the departure of Pharaoh, in like manner as this washing causes the departure of the tyranny of the devil. The sea slew the enemy in itself: and in baptism too dies our enmity towards God. From the sea the people came out unharmed: we too, as it were, alive from the dead, step up from the water \u201csaved\u201d by the \u201cgrace\u201d of Him who called us. 982 And the cloud is a shadow of the gift of the Spirit, who cools the flame of our passions by the \u201cmortification\u201d of our \u201cmembers.\u201d 983\n32. What then? Because they were typically baptized unto Moses, is the grace of baptism therefore small? Were it so, and if we were in each case to prejudice the dignity of our privileges by comparing them with their types, not even one of these privileges could be reckoned great; then not the love of God, who gave His only begotten Son for our sins, would be great and extraordinary, because Abraham did not spare his own son; 984 then even the passion of the Lord would not be glorious, because a sheep typified the offering instead of Isaac; then the descent into hell was not fearful, because Jonah had previously typified the death in three days and three nights. The same prejudicial comparison is made also in the case of baptism by all who judge of the reality by the shadow, and, comparing the typified with the type, attempt by means of Moses and the sea to disparage at once the whole dispensation of the Gospel. What remission of sins, what renewal of life, is there in the sea? What spiritual gift is there through Moses? What dying 985 of sins is there? Those men did not die with Christ; wherefore they were not raised with Him. 986 They did not \u201cbear the image of the heavenly;\u201d 987 they did \u201cbear about in the body the dying of Jesus;\u201d 988 they did not \u201cput off the old man;\u201d they did not \u201cput on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created him.\u201d 989 Why then do you compare baptisms which have only the name in common, while the distinction between the things themselves is as great as might be that of dream and reality, that of shadow and figures with substantial existence?\n33. But belief in Moses not only does not show our belief in the Spirit to be worthless, but, if we adopt our opponents\u2019 line of argument, it rather weakens our confession in the God of the universe. \u201cThe people,\u201d it is written, \u201cbelieved the Lord and his servant Moses.\u201d 990 Moses then is joined with God, not with the Spirit; and he was a type not of the Spirit, but of Christ. For at that time in the ministry of the law, he by means of himself typified \u201cthe Mediator between God and men.\u201d 991 Moses, when mediating for the people in things pertaining to God, was not a minister of the Spirit; for the law was given, \u201cordained by angels in the hand of a mediator,\u201d 992 namely Moses, in accordance with the summons of the people, \u201cSpeak thou with us,\u2026but let not God speak with us.\u201d 993 Thus faith in Moses is referred to the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, who said, \u201cHad ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me.\u201d 994 Is then our faith in the Lord a trifle, because it was signified beforehand through Moses? So then, even if men were baptized unto Moses, it does not follow that the grace given of the Spirit in baptism is small. I may point out, too, that it is usual in Scripture to say Moses and the law, 995 as in the passage, \u201cThey have Moses and the prophets.\u201d 996 When therefore it is meant to speak of the baptism of the law, p. 21 the words are, \u201cThey were baptized unto Moses.\u201d 997 Why then do these calumniators of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types, endeavour to bring contempt and ridicule on the \u201crejoicing\u201d of our \u201chope,\u201d 998 and the rich gift of our God and Saviour, who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle\u2019s? 999 Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk, 1000 to be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation; inasmuch as, in accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being brought to perfection in our training for godliness, 1001 we were first taught elementary and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth. For He spares our weakness, and in the depth of the riches 1002 of His wisdom, and the inscrutable judgments of His intelligence, used this gentle treatment, fitted for our needs, gradually accustoming us to see first the shadows of objects, and to look at the sun in water, to save us from dashing against the spectacle of pure unadulterated light, and being blinded. Just so the Law, having a shadow of things to come, and the typical teaching of the prophets, which is a dark utterance of the truth, have been devised means to train the eyes of the heart, in that hence the transition to the wisdom hidden in mystery 1003 will be made easy. Enough so far concerning types; nor indeed would it be possible to linger longer on this topic, or the incidental discussion would become many times bulkier than the main argument.\nEx. xiv. 31, lxx.\n19:973\n\u03c3\u03ba\u03b9\u03b1\u03b3\u03c1\u03b1\u03c6\u03af\u03b1, or shade-painting, is illusory scene-painting. Plato (Crit. 107 c.) calls it \u201cindistinct and deceptive.\u201d cf. Ar. Eth. Nic. i. 3, 4, \u201c\u03c0\u03b1\u03c7\u03c5\u03bb\u1ff6\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u1f10\u03bd \u03c4\u03cd\u03c0\u1ff3.\u201d The \u03c4\u03cd\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2 gives the general design, not an exact anticipation.\n19:974 19:975 20:976 20:977 20:978\n\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd, as in the LXX. cf. Num. 21:9, John 3:14.\n20:979 20:980 20:981 20:982 20:983 20:984\ncf. Rom. viii. 32.\n20:985\n\u03bd\u03ad\u03ba\u03c1\u03c9\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2. A.V. in 2 Cor. iv. 10, \u201cdying,\u201d Rom. iv. 19, \u201cdeadness.\u201d\n20:986\ncf. Rom. vi. 8.\n20:987 20:988 20:989 20:990 20:991 20:992 20:993 20:994 20:995\ni.e., to mean by \u201cMoses,\u201d the law.\n20:996 21:997 21:998 21:999\ncf. Ps. ciii. 5.\n21:1000\ncf. Heb. v. 12.\n21:1001\ncf. 1 Tim. iv. 7.\n21:1002 21:1003","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VIII: De Spiritu Sancto.: Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types.","type":"page"}