ion to the subject of
temptation in general, so that we learn to despise dangers and be
hopeful even where no hope seems to remain. When death or any other
danger is imminent, we should rise to meet it, saying: Behold, here is
my Red Sea; here is my flood, my baptism and my death. Here my
life--as the philosopher said of the sea-farers--is removed from death
barely by a hand's breadth. But fear not; this danger is as a handful
of water opposed to the flood of grace which is mine through the Word.
Therefore death will not destroy me, but will lift me and bear me to
life. Death is so utterly incapable of destroying the Christian, that
it constitutes the very escape from death. For bodily death ushers in
the emancipation of the spirit and the resurrection of the flesh.
Thus, Noah in the flood was not borne by the earth, nor by trees, nor
by mountains, but by the very flood which destroyed the total
remainder of the human race.

89. Well may the prophets often extol those wonderful works of
God--the passage through the Red Sea, the exodus from Egypt, and the
like. For the sea, which by its nature can only devour and destroy, is
forced to part and rise and protect the Israelites, lest they be
overwhelmed by its tides. That which in its very nature is wrath,
becomes grace to the believer; that which in reality is death, becomes
life. Therefore, whatever calamity comes--and this life has it in
infinite measure--to threaten our property and our lives, it will all
become salvation and joy if we only are in the ark; that is, if by
faith we lay hold of the promise made in Christ. Then even death, by
which we are removed, must be turned into life, and the hell, which
swallows us, into a way to heaven.

90. Therefore Peter says (1 Pet 3, 21) that we are saved by the water
in baptism, which was prefigured by the flood. The water which streams
about us, or the plunge into it, is death, and yet from this death or
plunge, life results by virtue of the ark of safety--the Word of
promise to which we cling. The inspired Scriptures set forth this
allegory, which is not only free from weaknesses but of service in
every way, and worthy of our careful attention, since it offers
wonderful consolation even in the utmost perils.

91. The fathers have added another allegory taken from the form and
dimensions of the ark. The human body, measured from the top of the
head to the sole of the foot, is six times as long as it is wide. Now,
the ark,