Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] So then, how many patronages of nature, how many privileges of grace, how many solemn rites of discipline — how many prefiguring figures, how many proclamations — have set in order the religion of water! First of all: when the people, set free from Egypt, cross through the water and escape the might of the king of Egypt, that same water snuffs out the king himself along with all his forces. What figure is plainer than this for the sacrament of baptism? The nations are freed from the world through water, precisely, and leave the devil, their former master, drowned behind them in the water. [2] Likewise, water sick with bitterness is remedied for its own benefit, into sweetness, by the wood of Moses. That wood was Christ, healing from himself the poisoned and once-bitter veins of nature into the most wholesome water — the water, that is, of baptism. [3] This is the water that flowed for the people from the rock that traveled with them: for if the rock was Christ, then without doubt we see baptism blessed in the water that is in Christ. How great is the grace of water before God and his Christ, for the establishing of baptism! [4] Christ is never without water: he himself, indeed, is baptized in water; called to a wedding, he inaugurates the very first display of his power with water; when he preaches, he invites the thirsty to his own everlasting water; when he teaches about love-feasts, he approves, among the works of love, even the cup of water offered to the least; at the well he regains his strength; he walks upon the water; he crosses over the sea gladly; he serves water to his disciples. The testimony of baptism holds firm right up to the passion: when he is handed over to the cross, water steps in — Pilate's hands know it; when he is wounded, water bursts out from his side — the soldier's spear knows it.