enerated. For in the name of
God, the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ
and of the Holy Spirit, they then receive the washing with water."
In the sequel Justin adds:--
"There is pronounced over him who chooses to be born again, and has
repented of his sins, the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe,
he who leads to the laver the person that is to be washed calling Him by
this name alone. For no one can utter the name of the ineffable God, and
this washing is called Illumination (Gr. [Greek: photismos]), because they
who learn these things are illuminated in their understandings. And in the
name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and in the
name of the Holy Ghost, who through the prophets foretold all things about
Jesus, he who is illuminated is washed."
In ch. xiv. of the dialogue with Trypho, Justin asserts, as against Jewish
rites of ablution, that Christian baptism alone can purify those who have
repented. "This," he says, "is the water of life. But the cisterns which
you have dug for yourselves are broken and profitless to you. For what is
the use of that baptism which cleanses the flesh and body alone? Baptize
the soul from wrath, from envy and from hatred; and, lo! the body is pure."
In ch. xliii. of the same dialogue Justin remarks that "those who have
approached God through Jesus Christ have received a circumcision, not
carnal, but spiritual, after the manner of Enoch."
In after ages baptism was regularly called illumination. Late in the 2nd
century Tertullian describes the rite of baptism in his treatise _On the
Resurrection of the Flesh_, thus:
1. The flesh is washed, that the soul may be freed from stain.
2. The flesh is anointed, that the soul may be consecrated.
3. The flesh is sealed (_i.e._ signed with the cross), that the soul also
may be protected.
4. The flesh is overshadowed with imposition of hands, that the soul also
may be illuminated by the Spirit.
5. The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ, that the soul also may
be filled and sated with God.
6. He also mentions elsewhere that the neophytes, after baptism, were given
a draught of milk and honey. (The candidate for baptism, we further learn
from his tract _On Baptism_, prepared himself by prayer, fasting and
keeping of vigils.)
Before stepping into the font, which both sexes did quite naked, the
neophytes had to renounce the devil, his pomps and angels.
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