II.  The Word recognizes three Births for us; namely, the natural birth, that of Baptism, and that of the Resurrection.  Of these the first is by night, and is servile, and involves passion; but the second is by day, and is destructive of passion, cutting off all the veil This Veil is Original Sin, by which the soul is darkened and as it were covered. that is derived from birth, and leading on to the higher life; and the third is more terrible and shorter, bringing together in a moment all mankind, All Mankind (πᾶν τὸ πλάσμα).  πλάσμα would not be correctly rendered by Creation.  It is a word belonging solely to Man, who was formed by the Hand of God, and who, alone among creatures, has to give an account of his past life to his Creator at the Last Day.  (Edd. Bened.) to stand before its Creator, and to give an account of its service and conversation here; whether it has followed the flesh, or whether it has mounted up with the spirit, and worshipped the grace of its new creation.  My Lord Jesus Christ has showed that He honoured all these births in His own Person; the first, by that first and quickening Inbreathing; Gen. ii. 7. the second by His Incarnation and the Baptism wherewith He Himself was baptized; and the third by the Resurrection of which He was the Firstfruits; condescending, as He became the Firstborn Rom. viii. 29. among many brethren, so also to become the Firstborn from the dead. Col. i. 18.