159 instructions to catechumens. ———————————— first instruction. To those about to be illuminated;492 and for what reason the laver is said to be of regen- eration and not of remission of sins; and that it is a dangerous thing not only to forswear oneself, but also to take an oath, even though we swear truly. 1. How delightful and lovable is our band of young brethren! For brethren I call you, even now before you have been brought forth, and before your birth I welcome this relation- ship with you: For I know, I know clearly, to how great an honour you are about to be led, and to how great a dignity; and those who are about to receive dignity, all are wont to honor, even before the dignity is conferred, laying up for themselves beforehand by their attention good will for the future. And this also I myself now do. For ye are not about to be led to an empty dignity, but to an actual kingdom: and not simply to a kingdom, but to the kingdom of the Heavens itself. Wherefore I beseech and entreat you that you remember me when you come into that kingdom, and as Joseph said to the chief butler “Remember me when it shall be well with thee,”493 this also I say now to you, do ye remember me when it is well with you. I do not ask this in return for interpreting your dreams, as he; for I have not come to interpret dreams for you, but to discourse of matters celestial, and to convey to you glad tidings of such good things as “eye hath not seen, and ear hath not heard and which have entered not into the heart of man, such are the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”494 Now Joseph indeed said to that chief butler, “yet three days and Pharaoh will restore thee to thy chief butlership.” But I do not say, yet three days and ye shall be set to pour out the wine of a tyrant, but yet thirty days, and not Pharaoh but the king of Heaven shall restore you to the country which is on high, Jerusalem, which is free—to the city which is in the heavens; and he said indeed, “Thou shalt give the cup into the hands of Pharaoh.” But I say not that you shall give the cup into the hands of the king, but that the king shall give the cup into your hand—that dread cup, full of much power, and more precious than any created thing. The initiated know the virtue of this cup, and you yourselves shall know 492 I.e., to be baptized. A common name for Baptism was “illumination,” partly with reference to the instruc- tions which preceded it, as Justin Martyr says; “The laver is called illumination because the minds of those who learn these things are enlightened:” partly also (perhaps rather) because baptism was regarded as a translation from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, the recipient becoming a child of God, and as such entitled to the grace of the illuminating Spirit. Catechumens were divided into four classes according to the stages of their preparation. It is to those who were in the final stage, the competentes or elect as they were called, that the following instructions are addressed. 493 Gen. xl. 14. 494 1 Cor. ii. 9, 10. First Instruction. 218 First Instruction.