He went down into the water, not that there was anything in God that could be cleansed, but the water had to come before the oil that was to come after, thus to commence and ordain and fulfil the Mysteries of Baptism.
For when the waters went over Him, and He was held in the hands of John, the Mystery followed in due order, and the Father fulfilled that for which the Son had prayed, and the Holy Ghost had announced was to come. The Heaven was opened, as the Father anointed. Forthwith the spiritual oil descended in the likeness of a Dove, and sat upon His Head and flowed over Him. On this account He was first called Christ, when He was anointed by God the Father. And lest it might seem that the laying on of hands was lacking to Him, the Voice of God was heard, saying from the cloud:
'This is My well-beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him.'
Here, therefore, we find the meaning of that which was written:
'Let not the oil of the sinner anoint My Head.'
Learn, then, though late, my brother Parmenian, the nature of the truth, for now is the time for learning how to find it.
VIII. That heretics are children of adulterers.
And with regard to that which you have quoted from the Prophet Solomon :
'The children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and bastard slips cannot take deep roots,'
this may well be understood to have been said in a literal sense. For, if you take it figuratively, you have excused those who are actually guilty of adultery. But grant that it was said in figure. In that case it has been spoken of heretics, whose sacraments are like invalid wedlock, in whose beds is to be found iniquity, where the very seeds [of life] have been corrupted to the destruction of the Faith. |199
When Valentinus maintains that the Son of God was on earth in a phantasm, not in Flesh, he corrupted his own faith and that of his followers. The seed of [spiritual] birth has been rooted out in those who have not believed that the Son of God was born in the Flesh of Mary the Virgin, and that in the Flesh He suffered.
IX. That a certain passage in Jeremiah is to be understood of the idolatrous Jews.
Now with regard to what you mention that you have read in the Prophet Jeremiah that the people of God have done two evil things in that
'they forsook the Fountain of living water, and digged to themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water' ;
you have indeed read this, but have been unwilling to understand the real state of the case.
In your love for bringing charges, you have twisted round everything so as to abuse Catholics, and, to suit your own purposes, you have attempted to digress a great deal according to your own whims. For if you imagine that everything which has been written by the Prophets belongs to our own times, you are making excuses for the Jews, concerning whom it is certain that it was written, that they forsook the Living God, the True God, the God who had bestowed His Blessings upon them, and made for themselves idols----that is to say, broken cisterns, which can hold no water.
In God the Everlasting Majesty flows over, even |200 as, in a fountain, water freely gushes forth from its channels. But idols, unless they be made, have no being, and wells, unless they be dug, hold no water in their depth. Cisterns cannot be hollowed out without skill and tools, nor can idols be made without a craftsman. In idols there is no virtue that belongs to them, but it is given and applied to them through the mistake of man. Virtue is believed to be in an idol, which is not there of its own nature. A cistern, the making of which is a weary work, is broken with deliberation, so that neither has it water of itself, nor of itself can it hold the water that it has received. Similarly an idol is not anything of itself, and, whilst it is being worshipped, is nothing.
This is the meaning of the Word of God, that His people did two evil things, in that they abandoned the fountain of living water and made for themselves broken cisterns which they had themselves dug out. For the people of Israel had forsaken the true water, had not recognised the Divine Majesty, and had followed the evil worship of idols.
This it is over which God grieves, this it is at which He says that the Heaven has shuddered. |201
For God grieves over the same thing through the Prophet Isaiah, when in this matter He calls to witness two elements with these words:
'Hear, O Heaven, and perceive with thine ears, O Earth. I have brought up and have exalted children. But they have forsaken Me.'
How is it, my brother Parmenian, that you have had nothing to say concerning this passage? Or why is it that there is here no mention of water? It will be seen that, through your love of fault-finding, you have done such violence to the Law, that, whenever you read anything of water, you have, by some conjuring tricks, twisted it round for your purposes of hatred, and have made a sort of drag-net out of malicious arguments, and have thus drawn to yourself all things which in themselves are good.
For what intelligence have you shown with regard to this passage in Jeremy, since God cries out that He has been forsaken, and that cisterns have thus been made? His wrath is concerning Himself, not concerning something which is His, for the Baptismal Water belongs to God, but is not God Himself. And if you think that you [and your baptism] have been deserted, pray when were any of you baptised among us, so that it |202 should be true that they who deserted your [baptism] came to us?
So we have shown that what you have said about the Sacraments and sacrifice of a sinner tells not against us, but against yourselves.
[Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]