Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenæus

“And⁴⁸⁵⁴ dipped himself,” says [the Scripture], “seven times in Jordan.”(2 Kings v. 14) It was not for nothing that Naaman of old, when suffering from leprosy, was purified upon his being baptized, but [it served] as an indication to us. For as we are lepers in sin, we are made clean, by means of the sacred water and the invocation of the Lord, from our old transgressions; being spiritually regenerated as new-born babes, even as the Lord has declared: “Except a man be born again through water and the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”(John iii. 5)