THE SACRAMENTS: II Chapter 1 (1) Yesterday we began to discuss that in the flood, also, a figure of baptism had preceded. What is the flood except where the just is reserved for the sc;minary of justice, and where sin dies? So the Lord, seeing that the sins of men were flourishing, reserved the just man alone with his progeny, but ordered the water to go out even above the mountains. And thus in that flood all corruption of the flesh perished; only die stock and the kind of the just remained. Is not this a flood, which baptism is, in which all sins are washed away, only the mind and grace of the just are raised up again? (2) The Apostle1 proclaims many kinds of baptism, but one baptism. Why? There are the baptisms of the Gentiles, but they are not baptism. They are baths, but they cannot be baptisms. The flesh is bathed; fault is not washed away; rather, in that bath fault is contracted. There were baptisms among the Jews, some superfluous, others in figure. And the 1 Eph. 4.5. 279 280 SAINT AMBROSE figure itself was of benefit to us, since it is an indication of the truth.2 Chapter 2 (3) What was read yesterday? It said: