(15) And consider attentively, I pray, with what appropriateness the holy symbols are presented. For since death is with us not an annihilation of being, as others surmise, but the separating of things united, leading to that which is invisible to us, the soul indeed becoming invisible through deprivation of the body, and the body, through being buried in earth in consequence of one of its bodily changes, becoming invisible to human ken, appropriately, the whole covering by water would be taken as an image of death, and the invisible tomb. The symbolical teaching, then, reveals in mystery that the man baptized according to religious rites, imitates, so far as Divine imitation is attainable to men, by the three immersions in the water, the supremely Divine death of the Life-giving Jesus, Who spent three days and three nights in the tomb, in Whom, according to the mystical and secret teaching of the sacred text, the Prince of the world found nothing.

(37) Now says Reason, How is the Baptism then? I perceive nothing but Water, and Words. I answer; Hearken beloved Reason, thy outward Body is in this World only, and therefore outward Water is requisite. But as the hidden Man Christ, with his pure Element, holds the Out-Birth of this World (viz. the four Elements, wherein our Body consists) and as all is his, so he holds also the outward Water, and baptizes with the inward Water of his Element, with the Water of eternal Life, [coming] out of his Body. For the Holy Ghost in the Covenant baptizes with the inward Water, and the Minister baptizes with the outward; the outward [Man] receives the earthly elementary Water, and the Soul [receives] the Water of the Washing in the Regeneration.

(28) Christ begun the Use of the Baptism by John, who was his Fore-runner, and John was born into this World before Christ, which has its Signification, therefore open thy Eyes. As the Water is in the Originality, and a Cause and Beginning of the Life, and [then] in the Water (by the Tincture) the Sulphur is first generated, wherein the Life becomes stirring, and the a Tincture generates again the Sulphur and the Water, wherein afterwards the Blood in the Tincture comes to be; thus now, as the Beginning of the Life is, so must also the Order in the Regeneration be, that the poor Soul first receives the Water of eternal Life, and be baptized therein, and then God gives it the Grain of Mustard-Seed of the Pearl, that so, if it receive the same, it may become a new Fruit in God.

(84) But now Baptism was not instituted in respect of the earthly corruptible [Man,] which belongs to the Earth, nor for the heavenly [Man's] Sake, which was pure and spotless without that, but for the poor Soul's Sake. Seeing the heavenly Man in Christ took our natural Soul (in the Body of the Virgin Mary) to his heavenly Man, and that also the earthly Man hung to the Soul, therefore the holy Trinity [by the Hand of Man] took the Water of the eternal Life in the pure Element, and dipt the Soul therein, as I may so speak.

(3) "O Shem, they are deceived by manifold demons, thinking that through baptism with the uncleanness of water, which is dark, feeble, idle, and disturbing, the water will take away sins. And they do not know that from the water to the water there is bondage, error, unchastity, envy, murder, adultery, false witness, heresies, robberies, lusts, babblings, wrath, bitterness. . . . Therefore, there are many deaths that burden their thoughts. For I foretell it to those who have understanding. They will refrain from the impure baptism. And those who have understanding from the light of the spirit will not have dealings with the impure rubbing. And their heart will not grow faint, nor will they curse, nor will they give honor to the water. Where the curse is, there is the deficiency. And the blindness is where the honor is. For if they mix with the evil ones, they become empty in the dark water. Where the water has been mentioned, there is nature, and the oath, and the lie, and the loss. For only in the unconceived spirit, where the exalted light rested, has the water not been mentioned, nor can it be mentioned.

(24) Understand it thus, that Water is the Water of the eternal Life in the mLimbus of God in the Holy Ternary; and that is the Water which baptizes the Soul, when we keep the Use of his As by an Example. Testament, for the Soul in his Covenant is dipped and washed in that Water, it is rightly the Bath [or Laver] of Regeneration, for by its dipping in the holy Water, it is received and quickened by the holy Water, and comes (in the Covenant of Christ) into the Soul of Christ; indeed not fully into his Soul, but into his Body, and becomes the Brother of the Soul of Christ; for Christ's Soul is a Creature, (as our Souls are,) and is in the Body of the Mercifulness in the Trinity, being surrounded therewith, and has the same in it for Food and Strength [or Refreshment.] So also our Souls in the Covenant, if they be faithful and continue in God, they are the Brethren of Christ's Soul.

(163) Therefore has Christ ordained or instituted the Baptism or New Birth or Regeneration of the Holy Ghost, in the water, because the birth of the light riseth up in the sweet water in the heart.

(3) But the Son of Man came forth from Imperishability, being alien to defilement. He came to the world by the Jordan river, and immediately the Jordan turned back. And John bore witness to the descent of Jesus. For it is he who saw the power which came down upon the Jordan river; for he knew that the dominion of carnal procreation had come to an end. The Jordan river is the power of the body, that is, the senses of pleasures. The water of the Jordan is the desire for sexual intercourse. John is the archon of the womb.

(23) Therefore, my beloved Soul, be lively, and see what thy noble Bridegroom has left thee in his Testaments for a Legacy; as namely, in the Baptism, the Water of his Covenant, flowing from his holy original Body. Whereas we in this World, viz. in the external Birth of his Body, do acknowledge four Things, namely, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth, wherein our earthly Body consists; so likewise in the heavenly Body there are four such Things. The Fire is the Enkindling of the divine Desire. The Water is that which the Fire desires, whence it becomes meek, and a Light. The Air is the joyful Spirit which blows up the Fire, and makes in the Water the Motion. And the Earth is the true Essence which is born in the three Elements, and is rightly called Ternarius Sanctus [the Sacred Ternary,] in which the Tincture is brought forth in the Light of the Meekness; and therein also is born the holy Blood out of the Water, being an Oil of the Water, in which the Light shines, and the Spirit of Life consists.

(32) There are some, who upon entering the faith, receive a baptism on the ground that they have it as a hope of salvation, which they call the "seal", not knowing that the fathers of the world are manifest (in) that place. But he himself knows that he is sealed. For the Son of Man did not baptize any of his disciples. But [...], if those who are baptized were headed for life, the world would become empty. And the fathers of baptism were defiled.

(38) For that water, at or in the kindling of the wrath, was not apprehended by death, but subsisteth from eternity to eternity, and reacheth to all the ends and parts of or in this world, and is the water of life, which breaketh through death, out of which is built the new body of God in this world.

(98) The meaning is not that the water dieth quite; no, that cannot be, but the astringent spirit taketh captive in its cold fire the sweetness or the unctuosity and fatness of the water, and qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth therewith, and makes use thereof for its spirit: Its own spirit being wholly benumbed, and in death, therefore it makes use of the water for its life, and draweth out the water's unctuosity or fatness to itself, and bereaveth the water of its power.

(86) Now when the poor Soul was thus bathed in the Water of eternal Life (out of the pure Element) which is in the Holy Ternary, that it not only enjoyed the same outwardly, but was also filled [or impregnated] therewith, as the Holy Ghost impregnated Mary in the Holy Ternary; then it stood [inclined] forward, viz. right forward towards God, and into God, as a new half generated and washed Creature, and behind it was the Anger of the Darkness in the Kingdom of this World still fast bound to it, so that it could not be wholly freed from it, except it entered into Death, and quite broke off the Kingdom of this World. Of the Temptation of Christ.

(6) Jesus,--that is Aberamenthō,--said unto his disciples: "Amēn, I say unto you: I have brought nothing into the world when I came, save this fire, this water, this wine and this blood. I have brought the water and the fire out of the region of the Light of the lights of the Treasury of the Light; and I have brought the wine and the blood out of the region of Barbēlō. And after a little while my father sent me the holy spirit in the type of a dove. "And the fire, the water and the wine are for the purification of all the sins of the world. The blood on the other hand was for a sign unto me because of the human body which I received in the region of Barbēlō, the great power of the invisible god. The breath on the other hand advanceth towards all souls and leadeth them unto the region of the Light.

(17) In God the quality of water is not of such a running and qualifying condition or manner as it is in this world, but is a spirit, very bright, clear and thin, wherein the Holy Ghost riseth up, a mere power.

(8) The baptism which we previously mentioned is called "garment of those who do not strip themselves of it," for those who will put it on and those who have received redemption wear it. It is also called "the confirmation of the truth which has no fall." In an unwavering and immovable way it grasps those who have received the restoration while they grasp it. (Baptism) is called "silence" because of the quiet and the tranquility. It is also called "bridal chamber" because of the agreement and the indivisible state of those who know they have known him. It is also called "the light which does not set and is without flame," since it does not give light, but those who have worn it are made into light. They are the ones whom he wore. (Baptism) is also called "the eternal life," which is immortality; and it is called "that which is, entirely, simply, in the proper sense, what is pleasing, inseparably and irremovably and faultlessly and imperturbably, for the one who exists for those who have received a beginning." For, what else is there to name it apart from "God," since it is the Totalities, that is, even if it is given numberless names, they are spoken simply as a reference to it. Just as he transcends every word, and he transcends every voice, and he transcends every mind, and he transcends everything, and he transcends every silence, so it is Dittography with those who are that which he is. This is that which they find it to be, ineffably and inconceivably in (its) visage, for the coming into being in those who know, through him whom they have comprehended, who is the one to whom they gave glory.

(85) See, thou beloved Soul, thou wast gone out from God; but his Love caught hold of thee again, and P fastened thee (with the Promise) to his Thread; and then came the Fulfilling of the Promise, and put another new Body on to thee; but thou canst not have another Soul, for thy Soul was out of the Eternity. Therefore now as the Holy Ghost overshadowed and filled [or impregnated] Mary, so the Water out of the Heavenly Matrix (which has its Beginning out of the Trinity) in the Baptism of Christ (and in all baptized Christians) overshadowed and filled the Soul of Christ in the Baptism in Jordan, and also the Souls of all Christians, and so renewed the earthly Water (of the Out-Birth) in the Soul, and washed it clean, that it is rin itself a pure Angel, which of itself may eat of the heavenly Fruit; and that is the Cause of the Baptism. O Man consider thyself.

(30) Behold the water in the deep above the earth, which qualifieth, mixeth or uniteth with the elementary air and fire, that is the water of the astral birth or geniture, wherein stands the astral life, and wherein especially the Holy Ghost moveth, and through which the third and innermost birth does generate incomprehensibly as to the wrath of God therein: That water to our eyes seemeth like the air.

(132) And this now is the water of life, which is generated in the light of God out of the hard death. And thus the light of God in the sweet water of heaven brake through the astringent and hard, dark death; and thus the heaven is made out of the midst or centre of the water.

(7) So also the water of life was separated from the water of death, yet in that manner as that, in this time of the world, they hang the one to the other, as body and soul, and yet neither of them comprehendeth the other. The heaven which was made out of the midst or centre of the water is the cleft between them, so that the comprehensible or palpable water is a death, and the incomprehensible or impalpable is the life.