Very nearly all [interpreters] advise [that] the sacred baptism, which we enter with JESUS our author and Leader, is signified by this crossing of the Jordan. Of these [things], at the beginning of homily 5, Origen says: “Of those who crossed the Red Sea, the Apostle says [that] all were baptized in Moses, in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10). But of those who cross the Jordan, we too can pronounce in like manner, [that] all were baptized in Jesus in the Jordan — so that those [things] which are related [as] done in the Jordan hold the form of the sacrament which is celebrated through baptism.” And [in] homily 4: “If you shall have come to the mystical font of baptism, and, the Sacerdotal and Levitical order standing by, shall have been initiated into those venerable and magnificent sacraments which they know to whom [it] is permitted to know [them], then also, by the ministry of the priests, the Jordan being crossed, you shall enter the land of promise — in which, after Moses, Jesus received you, and he himself is made for you the Leader of a new journey.” For just as through the Jordan [there] was a coming into a land — desired indeed, and flowing with all good things, but in which nevertheless [there] is to be fought against various and strong enemies — so through baptism we are led into the possession of the eternal inheritance; yet [into] that [possession] which is [still] exposed to various battles and combats against the flesh, the world, and the devil — adversaries not at all slow and unwarlike — as will appear in what follows: until, namely, all these being tamed and subdued, we may enjoy a peace never to be interrupted.
And just as those waters stood so marvellously not by their own motion and stillness, but by a certain higher divine power — so also the waters of baptism wash out, cleanse, [and] whiten our souls. Is there in any liquid any efficacy implanted by nature [for this]? What can body do of itself upon what is not body? Whence would a stupid and fleeting element have such great riches as the soul attributes [to it]? But the true JESUS put this power into them. He commanded his priests (Matt., last [ch.], v. 19): “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Is this not [an image of] the [priests] going before that people, and bearing the ark of the testimony before [them]? And in St. Mark (last chapter, v. 15), when our Joshua had commanded the same, the marvellous efficacy of this sacred washing is at once subjoined (v. 16): “He who believes, and is baptized, shall be saved.” And so that the Leader of our salvation might go before us not by precept only, but also by example, he willed himself to enter the Jordan, and to be baptized in it. For (Matt. 3 v. 13): “JESUS came from Galilee to the Jordan, to be baptized by him [John].” “When the Jordan is crossed,” says Origen (homily 4), “[it] is said to JESUS: ‘On this day I begin to exalt you in the sight of the people.’ For JESUS was not exalted before the mystery of baptism, but his exaltation, and [his] exaltation in the sight of the people, takes its beginning thence. For if all who are baptized are baptized into his death, but the death of JESUS is completed in the exaltation of the cross—
(col. 462)
—deservedly is JESUS then first exalted, for each of the faithful, when he has come to the mystery of baptism; because so also [it] is written, that ‘God exalted him, and gave him a name which is above every name, that in the name of JESUS every knee should bow — of things heavenly, and earthly, and infernal’ (Phil. 2).” For a crossing of this kind, to those who are about to cross by their own feet and will — that is, to the more adult — there were of old prescribed by the fathers preparations of certain days: namely, that they should sanctify themselves by abstinence from the eating of flesh, from the drinking of wine, [and] from the sight [use] of marriage; that they should give themselves to prayers, fastings, and other works of penance — as [one] may read in Cyril of Jerusalem (Catechesis 1), in Nazianzen (oration On the holy lights), in St. Augustine (in the book On Faith ch. 6), [in] the fourth Council of Carthage (canon 85), and [in] the author of the Life of St. Gregory of Armenia (vol. 6 of Lipomanus).
To the same crossing haste too is to be applied. For the ancient fathers blame that slowness of those who — that they might indulge the body more freely, and be washed from the filth of all their sins at once — thought baptism [was] to be postponed. But how much more vehemently would they have blamed those who — like the Anabaptists of the present age — should have judged [it] necessary to do so?
“Nor without a reason of mystery,” says the same Origen (in the cited place), “do I think [it] written, that part of the waters of the Jordan is plunged into the [Dead] sea, and flows out into bitterness, but part perseveres in sweetness. For if all who are baptized kept the sweetness of the received heavenly grace, and none were turned into the bitterness of sins, [it] would surely not be written that a part of the river had been immersed in the eddies of the salt sea. And therefore [it] seems to me [that], in these words, the variety of the baptized is signified — which indeed we (which I recall with grief) often see happen: that these, who obtain the second [gift, or a later] baptism, when they give themselves again to the affairs of the age, and to the enticements of lust, and with avarice drink the salt cup, are set firm in that part of the waters which flows out into the sea, and flows down among the salt waves; but that [other] part, which remains with stability, and keeps its sweetness, designates those who hold the received gift of GOD unswervingly. And rightly is [there] one part of those who are saved, because [there] is also one bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to this world; and [there] is one faith, and one baptism, and one Spirit by whom all are given drink in baptism; and one GOD, the Father of all” [Eph. 4]. Yet perhaps, by these double waters, we may rightly take a double baptism — so that the lower [waters] mark the baptism of John, but the upper [that] of CHRIST the LORD. Those [lower waters] did nothing above nature: in their wonted manner they ran down into the dead marsh; they only prepared the channel, that the way might be free and open to those about to cross. And so [did] the baptism of St. John: it had no power of itself; it washed out no stains of souls; it infused no riches of divine grace. But it invited to penance, and prepared the crossing to the true possession of the heavenly land. Far otherwise [is] the baptism of our Joshua [Jesus] — as Bellarmine accurately teaches (in the book On Baptism, from ch. 14 to 23, and bk. 1 On Penance ch. 14). But of our JESUS, John himself the Baptist said (John 3 v. 30): “He must increase, but I [must] decrease. He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth, is of the earth, and speaks of the earth—
(col. 463)
—[He who comes from heaven, is above all.” And St. Ambrose (sermon 18, on the Epiphany): “Therefore is Christ baptized — not that he may be sanctified by the waters, but that he himself may sanctify the waters, and by his own purification may purify those streams which he touches. For the consecration of Christ is the greater consecration of the element. For when the Saviour is washed, then already all the water is cleansed for our baptism, and the font is purified, that the grace of the laver may afterward be ministered to the peoples who follow. Christ therefore goes before through baptism, that the Christian peoples may confidently follow after him. Understand, then, the mystery. For so also the pillar of fire went before through the Red Sea, that the sons of Israel might follow undaunted; and it first went through the waters, that it might prepare a path of journeying for those coming after it. Which deed, as the Apostle says, was the mystery of baptism. It was plainly, in a manner, a baptism, where the cloud covered the men, [and] the wave bore [them]. But all these [things] the same Christ the Lord wrought — he who now [does them]; who, as then he went before the sons of Israel through the sea in the pillar of fire, so now goes before the Christian peoples through baptism in the pillar of his own body. It is, I say, the [same] pillar which then furnished [light] to the eyes of those following, [and] now supplies light to the hearts of believers. Then it made firm the path of the inflowing waves; now it strengthens the footsteps in the laver of faith: through which faith, whoever shall have walked undaunted, like the sons of Israel, will not fear the Egyptian persecutor.”
But we can here understand, besides, the baptism of tears and of penance — not in the way which our Novators [the Novatian innovators] feign, against whom, in the same latter place, [is] the same Bellarmine; but [the way] which holy Mother Church proposes. Of which I also take Origen (homily 4), when he speaks of a “second baptism” — although in the margin Genebrardus takes [it] for “happy and prosperous.” But since [there] are two kinds of sins, two waters likewise answer to them. For to the better-fortified [lesser] sins are owed the lower waters, which, departing nothing from the state of their nature, run down most easily. But upon the greater [sins], the lofty mountains of the upper waters must lie heavy — which a certain greater divine force rouses up. “I have laboured,” says David the Prophet (Ps. 6), “in my groaning: every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears.” Of himself St. Augustine (bk. 8 of the Confessions ch. 12): “I let loose the reins to my tears, and the rivers of my eyes burst forth, an acceptable sacrifice to thee.” St. Cyprian (in the sermon On the Lapsed, at the end): “[One] ought to pray more earnestly, and to entreat; to pass the day in mourning; to lead the nights in watchings and weepings; to occupy all one’s time with tears and lamentations.” St. Ambrose (in the preface on Ps. 37, and bk. 1 On Penance ch. 2): “He who has aggravated the fault, let him aggravate also the penalty. For greater crimes are washed away by greater weepings.”
An image of the confession of sins, too, this very advance through the midst of the open waves can be. For out of the various windings of errors, he takes himself into the blessed land who washes away with tears the stains of his past life, and crosses before the priests of the Lord who bear the ark and [its] authority — and indeed so that all may see and weigh every step and pace of those [crossing]: to them [the penitents] make God propitious, that from the deep of the river they may ascend happily onto the bank of blessedness. For this crossing of confession and penance, too, a preparation of some days is very useful, and some haste. In the former [preparation], a man takes for himself space to examine his conscience, and to reflect on all his years in the bitterness of his soul. In the latter [haste], [it] is wisely done—
(col. 464)
—[wisely is it done], [as] Ecclesiastes advises (5 v. 8 [7]): “Delay not to be converted to the Lord, and put [it] not off from day to day. For suddenly his wrath comes, and in the time of vengeance he will destroy you.” But because Origen (homily 5) connects with this crossing the fulfilment of all [the things] which the Lord has prescribed for us, let us hear him: “That [phrase] which is written,” he says, “‘And the people hastened and crossed the Jordan; and it came to pass, when all the people had passed over, the ark of the covenant of the Lord also passed’ — [it] does not seem to me idly added by the Holy Spirit, that he said, ‘because the people hastened to cross.’ Whence I too judge [that], for us too, coming to the saving baptism and receiving the sacraments of the word of God, the thing is to be done not idly, nor slothfully, but [it] must be hastened and pressed on, until we cross over all. For to cross all is to fulfil all that is commanded. Let us hasten, therefore, to cross — that is, first to fulfil what is written: ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit’ — that, all arrogance being laid aside, and the humility of Christ taken up, we may deserve to arrive at the promised blessedness. But even when we have fulfilled these, we must not stand still, nor cease, but [they] are to be crossed, and the rest that follow — that we may hunger and thirst for justice. We must cross that also which follows — that we mourn in this world. Quickly too the rest are to be crossed — that we be made meek, and that we remain peaceful, that by this we may be called sons of God. We must hasten, too, to cross the weight of persecutions by the virtue of patience. And when we seek out these several [things], which look to the glory of virtue, not slothfully nor remissly, but with all urgency and speed — this seems to me to be ‘to cross the Jordan with haste.’”