HOMILY 5 [p.59]

HOMILIA V

Concerning the two and a half tribes that passed through the Jordan and concerning Jesus, how God exalted him in the sight of the sons of Israel and how he circumcised the people.¹

De ‘duabus semis tribubus,’ quae transierunt Iordanen, et de Iesu quomodo ‘exaltavit’ eum Dominus ‘in conspectu filiorum Istrahel’ et quomodo populum circumcidit.

CONCERNING THOSE, indeed, who passed through the Red Sea, the Apostle said, “All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.”² But concerning those who passed through the Jordan, we also can proclaim that all were baptized into Jesus in the Jordan, so that those things that are reported to have happened in the Jordan may hold the sign of the sacrament that is celebrated through baptism.

1. De his quidem, qui mare rubrum transierunt, Apostolus dixit quia: omnes in Moysen baptizati sunt in nube et in mari.  De his vero, qui Iordanen transierunt, possumus etiam nos simili modo pronuntiare quia ‘omnes’ in Iesu ‘baptizati sunt’ in Iordane, ita ut ea.  quae in Iordane gesta referuntur, formam teneant sacramenti, quod per baptismum celebratur.

But note what is written: “And the people hastened and crossed the Jordan. And it came to pass when all the people had passed through, the ark of the covenant of the Lord also crossed.”³ It seems to me the words, “the people hastened to cross” were not added idly by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, I also think that when we come to baptism for salvation and receive the sacraments of the Word of God,⁴ we should not do it idly or negligently, but we should hurriedly press on all the way until we cross over everything.

Illud vero, quod scriptum est: et festinavit populus et transivit Iordanen.  Et factum est, cum pertransisset omnis populus, transiit et arca Testamenti Domini, non mihi otiose additum videtur ab Spiritu sancto, quod dixit quia ‘festinavit populus transire.’  Unde et ego arbitror quia nobis quoque venientibus ad baptismum salutare et suscipientibus sacramenta verbi Dei non otiose nec segniter res gerenda est, sed festinandum est et perurgendum, usque quo omnia ‘transeamus.’

For to cross over everything is to accomplish all the things that are commanded. Therefore let us hasten to cross, that is, to fulfill at the beginning, what is written: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”⁵ Then, when we have set aside all arrogance and taken up the humility of Christ, we may deserve to attain the blessed promise.

‘Transire’ enim omnia implere est omnia, quae mandantur.  Festinemus ergo ‘transire,’ id est adimplere primo, quod scriptum est: beati pauperes spiritu, ut deposita omni arrogantia et Christi humilitate suscepta pervenire ad repromissam beatitudinem mereamur.

Yet even when we have accomplished this, we must not stand still or loiter, but cross over the other things that follow, so that “we may hunger and thirst after righteousness.”⁶ We must also cross over that which follows so that in this world “we may mourn.”⁷ Then we must quickly cross the remaining things so that we may be made “meek” and remain “peaceable” and thus be able to hear as “sons of God.”⁸ Also we must hasten so that we may pass through the burden of persecution with the virtue of patience. Whenever we seek earnestly and swiftly—not slowly and languidly—those individual things that pertain to the glory of virtue, this, it seems to me, is “to cross over the Jordan with haste.” But when we have crossed over and have been able to possess what we ought to possess, again we should take care to continue with diligence and caution, so that we may not slip and unexpectedly fall because we are walking negligently, just as the prophet says, “My feet have almost slipped.”⁹ Indeed our solicitude should not be more slack in preserving than in procuring the virtues.

Sed et cum hoc impleverimus, non nobis standum est neque cessandum, sed transeunda sunt et cetera, quae sequuntur, ut ‘esuriamus et sitiamus iustitiam.’  Transeundum nobis est et quod sequitur, ut in hoc mundo ‘lugeamus.’  Cito etiam reliqua transeunda sunt, ut ‘mansueti’ efficiamur et ut ‘pacifici’ maneamus et per hoc ‘filii Dei’ possimus audire.  Festinandum quoque nobis est, ut persecutionum pondus virtute patientiae transeamus.  Cum que haec singula, quae ad virtutis gloriam spectant, non segniter nec remisse, sed cum omni instantia et celeritate conquirimus, hoc mihi videtur esse cum festinatione ‘transire Iordanen.’  Cum vero transierimus et obtinere potuerimus, quae obtinere debemus, rursum nobis diligentiae et cautelae cura succedit, ne forte negligentius incedentes improviso aliquo lapsu ‘effundantur gressus nostri,’ sicut et propheta dicit: paulo minus effusi sunt gressus mei.  Nec remissior nobis sollicitudo in conservandis quam in conquirendis debet esse virtutibus.

2. Don’t you agree that these things seem to be designated by this when it is said, “Forty thousand men girded”—or “unen-cumbered”—“crossed over to the battle in the sight of the Lord,” to capture the city of Jericho? Let us ask who those persons are, whom Scripture calls “girded” or “unencumbered.”¹⁰ I myself do not dare to presume or to proclaim anything; rather, let us be instructed by the letters of the Apostle in such things. Let us learn from Paul, who explains who those “girded” ones are. Hear what he himself says: “Therefore, let your loins be girded with truth.”¹¹ You see, therefore, that Paul knew the girded ones, those who were encircled by the belt of truth. So truth also ought to be our belt, if we have preserved the sacrament of this army and belt.¹² For if truth is the belt by which we are girded for the army of Christ, then whenever we speak a falsehood and a lie proceeds from our mouth, we are ungirded from the army of Christ and loosened from the belt of truth. Therefore, if we are in the truth, we are girded; but if in the false, ungirded. Instead let us imitate those “forty thousand girded men proceeding to the war in the sight of the Lord,” and let us always be girded with truth.

2. Aut non haec tibi designari videntur in eo, cum dicitur quia: quadraginta milia virorum accincti - vel expediti - transierunt ad pugnam in conspectu Domini, ad expugnandam Hiericho civitatem?  Requiramus qui isti sunt, quos Scriptura dicit ‘accinctos’ vel ‘expeditos. Ego ex memet ipso praesumere aliquid et pronuntiare non audeo, Apostoli magis litteris doceamur in talibus.  Qui sunt isti ‘accincti,’ Paulo exponente discamus.  Audi, ipse quid dicit: estote ergo accincti lumbos vestros in veritate.  Vides ergo quia Paulus ‘accinctos’ novit eos, qui praecincti sunt cingulo ‘veritatis.’  Igitur etiam nostrum esse cingulum veritas debet, si tamen servaverimus militiae huius et cinguli sacramentum.  Si enim veritas est cingulum nostrum, quo ad Christi militiam cingimur, si quando falsum loquimur et mendacium de ore nostro procedit, discingimur a militia Christi et balteo veritatis exsolvimur.  Sumus ergo, si ‘in veritate,’ ‘cincti,’ si vero in falsitate, discincti.  Sed nos imitemur potius istos ‘quadraginta milia viros accinctos procedentes ad bellum in conspectu Domini’ et semper ‘simus in veritate succincti.’

But indeed, I do not idly disregard that which Scripture added, “Girded in the sight of the Lord.” To be sure, it is not enough for you in the sight of men to seem to preserve the truth. For certainly it is possible to deceive humans and to seem truthful. But in doing so you are not girded about “with truth,” unless also “in the sight of the Lord” you have preserved truth, that is, not only the things people hear from your voice, but also the things God examines in your heart. Let nothing false be on the tongue; let nothing counterfeit be in the heart, as the prophet says about such things, “Those who speak peace with their neighbor but have evil in their hearts.”¹³ Therefore the one who wishes to be “girded in the sight of the Lord” and to proceed to capture Jericho ought to be apart from all these things, because when we cross over the Jordan River, we cross over to battles and wars.

Sed ne illud quidem otiose praetereo, quod addidit Scriptura, quia ‘accincti in conspectu Domini.’ Non enim sufficit te apud homines videri servare veritatem.  Possibile namque est fallere homines et veracem videri, sed non ex eo ‘in veritate succinctus’ es, nisi et ‘in conspectu Domini’ servaveris veritatem, id est non solum quae voce homines audiunt, sed et ea, quae in corde perspicit Deus.  Nihil sit in lingua falsum, nihil sit in corde fucatum, secundum quod propheta dicit de talibus: qui loquuntur pacem cum proximo suo, mala autem sunt in cordibus eorum.  Absque his ergo omnibus esse debet, qui vult ‘accinctus in conspectu Domini procedere ad expugnandam Hiericho’ quia transeuntes Iordanen fluvium ad pugnas et bella transimus.

Do you wish to learn again which battles, which wars, await us after baptism? Do not learn them from me but again from the Apostle Paul, who teaches you, saying, “For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavens.”¹⁴ Those things that were written are signs and figures. For thus says the Apostle, “For all these things happened to them figuratively, but they were written for us, for whom the fulfillment of the ages has come.”¹⁵ If, therefore, they were written for us, come on! Why delay? Let us go forth to the war, so that we may subdue the chief city of this world, malice, and destroy the proud walls of sin. You look around, by chance, for the road you must take, which field of battle to seek after. Perhaps what I am about to say will seem strange to you, but nevertheless it is true: You require nothing from without, beyond your own self; within you is the battle that you are about to wage; on the inside is that evil edifice that must be overthrown; your enemy proceeds from your heart.¹⁶ This is not my voice; it is the voice of Christ. Indeed hear him saying, “For from the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, slanders.”¹⁷ You see how great and what sort of army of your enemies proceeds against you from your heart. We must cast them out with the first onslaught; we must overthrow them with the first battle line. If we should be able to demolish their walls and strike them down to utter destruction, so that we do not leave anyone to carry back word or recover,¹⁸ if none of these soon sprout up again, utterly alive in our thoughts, then through Jesus that rest will be given to us. Then “everyone may rest under his own vine and under his own fig tree since there is no longer anyone to frighten the sons of Israel.”¹⁹

Vis iterum discere, quae nos pugnae post baptismum, quae bella suscipiant?  Noli a me, sed ab ipso rursum disce Apostolo Paulo, ipse te docet dicens: non enim nobis est pugna adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principatus, adversus potestates, adversus mundi huius rectores tenebrarum, adversus spiritalia nequitiae in coelestibus.  Formae sunt et figurae, quae scripta sunt.  Ita enim dicit Apostolus: haec enim omnia in figura contingebant illis, scripta sunt autem propter nos, in quos fines saeculorum devenerunt.  Si ergo ‘propter nos scripta sunt,’ age quid cessas? Exeamus ad bellum, ut expugnetur a nobis civitas prima huius mundi malitia et peccati superba moenia destruantur.  Circumspicis forte, quo tibi itinere progrediendum sit, qui campus certaminis expetendus.  Novum tibi fortasse videbitur, quod dicturus sum, sed tamen verum est: praeter temet ipsum extrinsecus nihil requiras.  Intra te est proelium, quod gesturus es; intrinsecus est mala illa aedificatio, quae subruenda est; hostis tuus ‘de’ tuo ‘corde procedit.’  Non mea vox ista, sed Christi est; audi enim ipsum dicentem: de corde enim procedunt cogitationes malae, homicidia, adulteria, fornicationes, furta, falsa testimonia, blasphemiae.  Vides quantus et qualis exercitus hostium tuorum adversum te ‘de’ tuo ‘corde procedit?’  Isti nobis prima strage fundendi sunt, isti prima acie prosternendi.  Horum si subruere moenia ipsos que ad internitionem caedere potuerimus, ita ut ‘non relinquamus ex eis, qui’ renuntiet vel ‘respiret,’ si iam nullus ex his prorsus in nostris cogitationibus redivivus eruperit, tunc nobis per Iesum dabitur illa requies, ut ‘unusquisque requiescat sub vite sua et sub ficu sua, cum iam non sit, qui exterreat filios Istrahel.’

3. Nevertheless, “forty thousand armed soldiers girded in the sight of God for war” cross over the Jordan, and at that time Scripture says, “In that day the Lord exalted Jesus in the sight of all the descendants of the sons of Israel.”²⁰ Certainly, that exaltation of the son of Nun took place in order that the leader of those former people might be held eminent among those whom he ruled. But let us see how our Jesus my Lord, leader and ruler of this latter people, is “exalted” in the sight of all the descendants of the sons of Israel. I myself think that he was always exalted and elevated in the presence of the Father. But it is necessary that God exalt him in our sight. He is exalted in my sight when the sublimity and loftiness of his divinity is disclosed to me. When, therefore, is his lofty divinity revealed to me? At that time, assuredly, when I crossed over the Jordan and was equipped with the various defenses of the sacraments for the future battle.²¹ 

3. Verum tamen ‘transeunt’ Iordanen ‘quadraginta milia armatorum accincti in conspectu Domini ad bellum,’ et tunc dicit Scriptura quia: in die illa exaltavit Dominus Iesum in conspectu totius generis filiorum Istrahel. Fuerit quidem ista exaltatio filio Nave, ut dux populi illius apud eos, quos regebat, magnificus haberetur; noster vero Iesus Dominus meus, dux et rector populi huius, quomodo ‘exaltatur in conspectu omnis generis filiorum Istrahel,’ videamus.  Ego arbitror quia ipse semper apud patrem ‘exaltatus est’ et excelsus.  Sed hoc opus est, ut ‘in conspectu’ nostro ‘exaltet’ illum ‘Deus’.  ‘Exaltatur’ autem ‘in conspectu’ meo, cum mihi sublimitas et celsitudo divinitatis eius aperitur.  Quando ergo mihi excelsa eius divinitas revelata est?  Tunc profecto, cum ‘Iordanen transirem’ et variis sacramentorum munimentis futura armarer ad proelia.

4. Scripture says, “And they revered Jesus, just as they had revered Moses.”²² Every one who is under the Law reveres Moses. But when one crosses over to the gospel from the Law, by the changed observance the reverence is also changed. It is just as the Apostle says, “For I through the Law have died to the Law so that I may live for God; I was crucified with Christ, but now I live; not I, but Christ lives in me.”²³

4. Et timuerunt inquit Iesum, sicut timuerant Moysen. Omnis, qui sub lege est, ‘timet Moysen;’ cum vero ad evangelium ex lege transierit, mutata observantia mutatur et timor, sicut et Apostolus dicit: ego autem per legem legi mortuus sum, ut Deo vivam; cum Christo concrucifixus sum. Vivo autem iam non ego, vivit vero Christus in me.

Second Circumcision through Rock that is Christ

Evag.  KG 5.83;   KG 6.66

5. After this, the son of Nun is commanded “to make knives out of rock and, tarrying, to circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.”²⁴ I may wish in this place to inquire of the Jews how anyone is able to be circumcised a second time with the circumcision of the flesh. For once anyone is circumcised, he does not have anything more to be removed a second time. But see how fittingly and consistently those things may be resolved by us, to whom it is said, “The Law is spiritual.”²⁵ For we say that that person who was skilled in the Law and taught by Moses cast off the errors of idolatry and put aside the superstition and worship of images. This is the first circumcision through the Law. But if he comes from the Law and the Prophets to the gospel faith, then he also receives the second circumcision through “the rock, who is Christ,”²⁶ and what the Lord said to Jesus is accomplished: “Today I have taken away the reproach of Egypt from the sons of Israel.”²⁷

5. Post haec iubetur filius Nave ‘facere cultros ex petra et sedens circumcidere filios Istrahel secundo.’ Velim ego in hoc loco percontari a Iudaeis, quomodo potest quis ‘secundo circumcidi’ circumcisione carnali. Semel enim circumcisus quis ultra non habet, quod secundo possit auferri. A nobis vero, quibus dicitur quia ‘lex spiritalis est,’ vide quam digne et convenienter ista solvantur. Dicimus enim quia ille, qui in lege eruditus est et per Moysen edoctus, abiecit idolatriae errores, simulacrorum superstitionem cultum que deposuit. Haec est circumcisio prima per legem. Si vero is veniat a lege et prophetis ad evangelicam fidem, tunc accipit etiam secundam circumcisionem per ‘petram, qui est Christus,’ et completur hoc, quod dixit Dominus ad Iesum: hodie abstuli opprobrium Aegypti a filiis Istrahel.

Just as the Apostle said, “They drank from the spiritual rock following them, but that rock was Christ,”²⁸ so also we are able to say aptly in this place that they were circumcised “from the spiritual rock following them, but the rock was Christ.” For if anyone has not been cleansed through the gospel by a second circumcision, he is not able to put aside the reproach of Egypt, that is, the allurement of fleshly vices.

Sicut autem dixit Apostolus: bibebant autem de spiritali sequenti petra; petra vero erat Christus, ita etiam nos in hoc loco competenter possumus dicere: circumcisi sunt autem ‘de spiritali sequenti petra; petra vero erat Christus.’ Nisi enim quis fuerit per evangelium secunda circumcisione purgatus, non potest ‘opprobrium Aegypti,’ id est illecebras corporalium deponere vitiorum.

6. Nevertheless, let us see what sort of thing this is of which it is said, “Today I have taken away the reproach from the sons of Israel.”

6. Videamus tamen quale sit hoc ipsum, quod dicitur quia: hodie abstuli opprobrium a filiis Istrahel.

All persons, even if they come from the Law, even if they have learned through Moses, still have the reproach of Egypt in them, the reproach of sins. Who will be like Paul even according to the observance of the Law? Just hear him saying, “According to the righteousness based upon the Law, I lived without blame.”²⁹ Nevertheless, he himself publicly announces and says, “For we were even ourselves at some time foolish, unbelieving, wandering, enslaved to desires and various forms of pleasure, in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”³⁰ Do these things not seem to you to be reproaches, even the reproaches of Egypt? But since Christ came and gave to us the second circumcision through “the baptism of regeneration”³¹ and purified our souls, we have cast away all these things and in exchange for them we have received the affirming of a good conscience toward God. At that time, through the second circumcision, the reproaches of Egypt were taken away from us, and the blemishes of sins were purified. No one, therefore, fears the reproaches of past transgressions, if he has been wholly converted and has repented from the heart, and, by faith, has parted the waters of the Jordan and been purified through the second circumcision of the gospel. You hear that, “Today, I have taken the reproach of Egypt away from you.”

Omnes homines, etiamsi ex lege veniant, etiamsi per Moysen eruditi sint, habent tamen ‘opprobrium Aegypti’ in semet ipsis, ‘opprobrium’ peccatorum. Quis erit similis Paulo etiam secundum legis observantiam? Audi denique ipsum dicentem: secundum iustitiam, quae in lege est, conversatus sine querela. Ipse tamen pronuntiat et dicit: fuimus enim et nos aliquando insipientes, increduli, errantes, servientes desideriis et voluptatibus variis, in malitia et invidia, odibiles, odientes invicem. Non tibi videntur haec ‘opprobria’ esse et ‘opprobria Aegypti?’ Sed ex quo venit Christus et dedit nobis secundam circumcisionem ‘per baptismum regenerationis’ et purgavit animas nostras, abiecimus haec omnia et pro his assumpsimus conscientiae bonae adstipulationem in Deum. Tunc per secundam circumcisionem ablata a nobis sunt ‘opprobria Aegypti’ et purgata sunt vitia peccatorum. Nemo ergo, si integre conversus est, si ex corde poenituit, si fideliter Iordanis fluenta digressus est, si secunda per evangelium circumcisione purgatus est, praeteritorum metuat ‘opprobria’ delictorum. Audis quia hodie abstuli a te opprobrium Aegypti.

The Lord also signifies this in the Gospel when he says, “Your sins are forgiven you,”³² but “sin no longer, so nothing worse may happen to you.”³³ For if, after the remission of sins you no longer sin, truly the reproach of Egypt has been taken away from you. But if you sin again, the old reproaches return again to you, and so much the more because it is a much greater charge “to tread underfoot the Son of God and to consider the blood of the covenant defiled”³⁴ than to neglect the Law of Moses. For indeed, the person who commits fornication after the gospel merits a much greater reproach than the one still under the Law, because that one, “taking away the members of Christ, makes them the members of a prostitute.”³⁵ You see, therefore, that more serious and more abundant reproaches are returned to you if you have neglected them. Then, indeed, no one proves you responsible for defilement, but condemns you for the crime of sacrilege, because it is said to you, “Do you not know that your body is the temple of God?”³⁶ “If anyone dishonors the temple of God, God will destroy that per-son.”³⁷

Hoc et in evangeliis significat Dominus, cum dicit: remissa sunt tibi peccata tua, sed iam noli peccare, ne quid tibi deterius accidat. Si enim post remissionem peccatorum ultra non pecces, vere ‘ablatum est a te opprobrium Aegypti.’ Si vero iterum peccaveris, iterum in te vetera revolvuntur opprobria, eo magis, quo multo maioris criminis est ‘filium Dei conculcare et sanguinem testamenti pollutum ducere’ quam legem Moysei negligere. Multo etenim maioris opprobrii est, qui post evangelium, quam ille, qui sub lege positus fornicatur, quia iste tollens ‘membra Christi facit ea membra meretricis.’ Vides ergo quam graviora et cumulatiora in te opprobria, si neglexeris, revolvantur. Denique iam nemo te reum stupri arguit, sed sacrilegii scelere condemnat, quia dicitur ad te: an nescitis, quia corpora vestra templum Dei est?, quis autem templum Dei violaverit, disperdet illum Deus.

Even if you did not know these things previously, nevertheless now, since those words are spoken in your ears and this kind of instruction is deposited in your heart, be assured that when you have heard these things you have already been made “a temple of God” and “a member of Christ.” See how much you have progressed! From a weak being of earth, you have advanced without doubt into a temple of God, where God ought to dwell, and you who were flesh and blood have progressed so that you are “a member of Christ.”

Haec etiamsi prius ignorabas, nunc tamen ex quo in auribus tuis ista verba dicuntur et in cor tuum huiuscemodi doctrina transfunditur, scito te his auditis ‘templum Dei’ et ‘membrum Christi’ esse iam factum. Vide quantum profeceris ex homunculo terreno: in ‘templum Dei’ progressus es sine dubio, in quo habitare debeat Deus, et qui caro et sanguis eras, profecisti, ut ‘membrum Christi’ sis.

But just as this progress is great, so also is the forsaking terrible and the fall incurable. For now you are no longer permitted to make use of the temple of God except in holiness, nor to call the members of Christ to an unworthy affair. And therefore, if at any time the charm of some evil desire agitates you, remember these things that you hear now. Run to meet that enemy that proceeds from you, that is, “from your heart,”³⁸ and resist him with these sorts of words, saying, “I am not mine, ‘for I have been purchased by the precious blood of Christ’³⁹ and have been made a member of him; I am not permitted ‘to take away a member of Christ and make it a member of a prostitute.’” Say to him, “I have been made a temple of God; I am not permitted to bring anything unclean into that place nor is it lawful for me ‘to dishonor the temple of God.’” Add that also, because “the one who commits fornication sins against his own body,”⁴⁰ not only that body that was made a “temple of God,” but also that of which it is said that the whole “Church is the body of Christ.”⁴¹ Whoever defiles his own body seems to transgress against the whole Church because through one member a stain is spread upon the entire body.

Sed sicut magnus est iste profectus, ita et discessus terribilis atque irremediabilis lapsus. Iam tibi enim non licet ‘templum Dei’ uti nisi in sanctitate nec ‘membra Christi’ ad indignum revocare negotium. Et ideo, si quando te malae alicuiuis concupiscentiae pulsat illecebra, memor horum, quae nunc audis, occurre hosti illi, qui de te ipso, hoc est ‘de tuo corde procedit,’ et resiste ei in talibus verbis, dic quia: ‘non sum meus, emptus enim sum pretio sanguinis Christi,’ et ‘membrum’ ipsius effectus sum, - non mihi licet ‘tollere membrum Christi et facere membrum meretricis.’ Dic ei quia ‘templum Dei’ effectus sum - non mihi licet immundum aliquid illuc inducere nec fas mihi est violare ‘templum Dei.’ Sed et illud adde quoniam qui fornicatur, in corpus suum peccat, non istud corpus solum, quod ‘templum Dei’ effectum est, sed et illud, quod dicitur quia omnis ‘ecclesia corpus Christi est,’ et in omnem ecclesiam videtur delinquere, qui corpus suum maculaverit, quia per unum membrum macula in omne corpus diffunditur.

And moreover, even after the crossing of the Jordan and after the second circumcision of baptism, there is that reproach of Egypt that, if you neglect it, is prompted by the blight of an old habit to pay attention to auguries, to inquire of the course of the stars and to pry into future events through them, to heed omens, and to be entangled by other superstitions of the same kind.⁴² For the mother of idolatry is Egypt, from where it is certain that reproaches of this kind spread. If you take these up after you have crossed the Jordan, and entangle yourself again with these snares, without doubt you drag along the reproaches of Egypt after you. But if at any time this kind of curiosity disturbs you and an enemy of this sort bursts forth from your heart, say to it, “I follow Jesus, the leader, in whose power are those things that are about to be. Why should I have knowledge of future things since those future things are whatever Jesus wants?”

Est et illud ‘opprobrium Aegypti,’ quod, si neglexeris, etiam post Iordanis transitum et post baptismi secundam circumcisionem vetustae consuetudinis inustione suggeritur, observare auguria, requirere stellarum cursus et eventus ex his futurorum rimari, servare omina ceteris que huiusmodi superstitionibus implicari. Idolatriae namque mater est Aegyptus, ex qua certum est huiusmodi opprobria’ pullulare; quae si transito iam Iordane susceperis et his te rursus laqueis illigaveris, te cum sine dubio ‘opprobria Aegypti’ trahis. Sed si quando te talis curiositas interpellat et ‘de corde’ tuo huiusmodi hostis erumpit, dic ei quia Iesum ducem sequor, in cuius potestate sunt, quae futura sunt. Quid mihi scire, quae futura sunt, cum, quae ille vult, haec futura sint?

On that account, therefore, in order that a second circumcision may be truly accomplished in us, through which we may lay aside the old reproaches of Egypt, we ought to be utterly separated from all these things. Then, with body and heart purified, we may even lift up “pure hands” to God,⁴³ and also with a pure mouth and cleansed lips and sincere mind, with prayer and with deeds, we may glorify God in Christ Jesus our Lord, “of whom is the power and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”⁴⁴

Ideo ergo, ut in nobis vere secunda circumcisio compleatur, per quam vetera ‘Aegypti opprobria’ deponamus, ab his omnibus segregati prorsus esse debemus, ut purificati corpore et corde ‘puras’ etiam ‘manus levemus’ ad Deum, puro quoque ore et purgatis labiis ac mente sincera, prece et actibus glorificemus Deum in Christo Iesu Domino nostro, ‘cuius est potestas et imperium in saecula saeculorum. Amen.’