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The Church tells the excellency of Baptism, and its effects, by the wonderful things done for the Israelites: the Pillar of Fire, which shined before them in the Night, and the Cloud, which sheltered them from the heat of the Sun in the Day,
represented the Holy Ghost, and the graces which he poureth out upon us. The passage through the Red Sea, under Moses his Conduct, was a figure of Baptism; which we receive by the Priest, in the Sacramental Water, sanctified by Christ's Bloud. Pharao re∣presented the Devil, and the Egyptians, our sins. The sudden return of the Waters, drowning the Egyptians, signifie, that our sins are ingulfed in the Waters of Baptism; and that coming out of the Font, we ought to look upon them, as the Children of Israel (after they had passed the Red Sea) did upon the Egyptians, dead on all sides upon the Sands, and as they sate upon their Chariots, sunk to the Ground.
IN those days, when the morning-watch was come, behold, our Lord, looking upon the Egyptians camp, through the pillar of the fire and the cloud, slew their army, and overthrew the wheels of their chariots; and they were born in the depth. The Egyptians therefore said, Let us fly from Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them, against us. And our Lord said to Moses, Stretch forth thy hand upon the sea, that the waters may return to the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen. And when Moses had stretched forth his hand against the sea, it returned, in the first break of day, to the former place, and the Egyptians flying away, the waters came upon them, and our Lord en∣wrapt them in the midst of the waves. And the waters returned and overwhelmed the chariots and the horsemen of all Pharo's army, who following were entred into the sea: nei∣ther did there so much as one of them remain. But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the dry sea: and the waters were
unto them as instead of a wall, on the right hand and on the left. And our Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hand of the Egyp∣tians. And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore; and the mighty hand, that our Lord had exercised against them. And the people feared our Lord, and they believed our Lord, and Moses his servant. Then sang Moses, and the children of Israel, this song to our Lord, and said,
The TRACT, taken out of the Eighteenth Chapter of Exodus.
The Church representing to the Catechumens, the Obligation they have (being by Baptism freed from the Tyranny of the Devil, and Slavery of Sin) to sing Canticles of Praise and Thanksgiving to our Lord, with much more joy than the Israel∣ites did, when they were led out of the Egyptian Servitude, and from the Persecution of their Enemies.
LEt us sing unto the Lord, for he triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider hath he cast into the sea. He is made a helper and protector to me for salvation.
V. He is my God, and I will honour him: my fathers God, and I will exalt him.
V. The Lord is a destroyer of war: the Lord is his Name.
Let us Pray.
The Church, considering that the People of Israel's delivery from the Egyptians Bondage; and the promises which God made
them, was a figure of those Graces, which they shall receive, who imitating the Faith of Abraham, shall become his Children, or true Israelites, by the Regeneration of Baptism, beseeches God that all People may be Regenerated, and have the grace of Faith, that so they may receive the effects of his Promises.
Let us bow our knees.
R. Lift up your selves.
O God, who makest us see, even in our days, the miracles wrought by thee in past ages; that what thou didst in the delivery of one people from the power of Egypt, thou wroughtest for the salvation of the Gentiles, through the water of regeneration; grant, that all the nations of this world may become true children of Abraham, and enter into the dignity of being children of Israel. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.