Of the Unction

After this, when we have issued from the font,⁸⁵⁹³ we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction,—(a practice derived) from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses.⁸⁵⁹⁴ Whence Aaron is called "Christ,"⁸⁵⁹⁵ from the "chrism," which is "the unction;" which, when made spiritual, furnished an appropriate name to the Lord, because He was "anointed" with the Spirit by God the Father; as written in the Acts: "For truly they were gathered together in this city⁸⁵⁹⁶ against Thy Holy Son whom Thou hast anointed."⁸⁵⁹⁷ Thus, too, in our case, the unction runs carnally, (i.e. on the body,) but profits spiritually; in the same way as the act of baptism itself too is carnal, in that we are plunged in water, but the effect spiritual, in that we are freed from sins.