Collected Works 1

He promises that, to the discourses on moral conduct which he had previously delivered, he will append an exposition of the mysteries. Then, having declared why he had not disclosed these things earlier, he approaches the mystical unfolding, which he shows to have been celebrated long ago by Christ Himself. 1. Concerning moral matters we held a daily discourse, when either the deeds of the Patriarchs or the precepts of Proverbs were read; that, informed and instructed by these, you might grow accustomed to enter the ways of the fathers, and to take up their path, and to obey the divine oracles: so that, renewed through baptism, you might hold to the practice of that life which befits those who have been washed. 2. Now the time admonishes us to speak of the mysteries, and to set forth the very rationale of the sacraments:

which, if we had thought it should be imparted before baptism to those not yet initiated, we should be judged to have betrayed rather than to have set it forth. Then, because the light of the mysteries imparts itself better to those who do not anticipate it, than if some discourse had run before it. 3. Open, therefore, your ears, and breathe in the good fragrance of eternal life inhaled into you by the gift of the sacraments: which we signified to you when, celebrating the mystery of opening, we said: Ephphatha, which is, Be opened (Mark 7:34); that everyone coming to grace might know what he was asked, and ought to remember what he answered. 4. This mystery Christ celebrated in the Gospel, as we read, when He healed the dumb and deaf man. But He touched his mouth;

because He was healing one who was both dumb and a man: in the one case, that He might open his mouth by the sound of the voice poured in; in the other, because this touching befitted a man, but did not befit a woman. What those entering the Church to be initiated promised, and before what witnesses, and why they turned to the east. 5. After this the holy of holies were unbarred to you; you entered the sanctuary of regeneration: recall what you were asked, recognize what you answered. You renounced the devil and his works, the world and its luxury and pleasures. Your word is held, not in the tomb of the dead, but in the book of the living. 6. There you saw the Levite, you saw the priest, you saw the high priest. Do not consider the forms of the bodies, but the grace of the mysteries.

In the presence of angels you spoke, as it is written: For the lips of the priest keep knowledge, and they seek the law from his mouth; for he is the angel of the Lord almighty (Mal. 2:7). There is no deceiving, no denying: he is the angel who announces the kingdom of Christ and eternal life. He is to be esteemed by you not by his appearance, but by his office. Consider what he delivered, weigh its use, and recognize its standing. 7. You entered, therefore, that you might behold your adversary, whom you thought you must renounce to his face: you turn to the east; for he who renounces the devil turns to Christ, beholds Him with direct gaze.

That in the water and in the sacred ministers the presence and operation of the divinity is to be considered, he teaches by the many figures in which baptism was foretold from the very creation of the world and afterward. 8. What did you see? Waters indeed, but not these alone: Levites ministering there, the high priest questioning and consecrating. First of all the Apostle taught you that not those things which are seen are to be contemplated by us, but those which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). For elsewhere too you have: That the invisible things of God are understood by the creation of the world through the things that are made: His everlasting power also and divinity are estimated by His works (Rom. 1:20). Whence the Lord Himself also says:

If you do not believe me, at least believe the works (John 10:38). Believe, therefore, that the presence of the divinity is there. Do you believe the operation, and not believe the presence? Whence would the operation follow, unless the presence preceded before it? 9. Consider, moreover, how ancient a mystery it is, prefigured in the very origin of the world. In the very beginning, when God made heaven and earth, the Spirit, it says, was borne over the waters (Gen. 1:2). He who was borne over the waters—was He not working over the waters? But why do I say 'was working'? As pertains to His presence, He was borne over. Was He not working, who was borne over? Recognize that He was working in that fabric of the world, when the Prophet says to you:

By the word of the Lord the heavens were established, and by the Spirit of His mouth all their power (Ps. 32:6). Both are supported by prophetic testimony, both that He was borne over and that He was working. That He was borne over, Moses says; that He was working, David testifies. 10. Receive another testimony. All flesh was corrupted by its iniquities. My Spirit, says God, shall not remain in men, for they are flesh (Gen. 6:3). By which God showed that by carnal uncleanness, and by the stain of more grievous sin, spiritual grace is turned away. Whence God, willing to restore what was lacking, made the flood, and commanded just Noah to ascend into the ark (Gen. 7:1ff.).

Who, while the flood was receding, first sent out a raven, which did not return; he sent out a dove, which is recorded to have returned with an olive branch (Gen. 8:7-8). You see the water, you see the wood, you behold the dove, and do you doubt concerning the mystery? 11. The water, then, is that in which the flesh is plunged, that every carnal sin may be washed away. There every transgression is buried. The wood is that on which the Lord Jesus was fastened, when He suffered for us. The dove is that in whose form the Holy Spirit descended, as you learned in the New Testament (Matt. 3:16), who breathes into you peace of soul, tranquillity of mind. The raven is the figure of sin, which goes out and does not return; if in you too the guardianship and form of the righteous be preserved. 12.

There is also a third testimony, as the Apostle teaches you: For all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. 10:1-2). Lastly, Moses himself says in the Song: You sent Your Spirit, and the sea covered them (Exod. 15:10). You note that in that passage of the Hebrews the figure of holy baptism already then went before, in which the Egyptian perished and the Hebrew escaped. For what else are we taught daily in this sacrament, except that guilt is drowned and error abolished, but piety and innocence remain safe? 13. You hear that our fathers were under the cloud, and a good cloud, which cooled the burnings of carnal passions.

A good cloud overshadows those whom the Holy Spirit revisits. Lastly, He came upon the Virgin Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her (Luke 1:35); when she gave birth to redemption for the human race. And that miracle was wrought in figure through Moses (Exod. 14:21ff.). If, then, the Spirit was present in figure, is He not present in truth, when Scripture says to you: That the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17). 14. Marah was a most bitter spring: Moses cast wood into it, and it was made sweet (Exod. 15:23ff.). For water without the proclamation of the Lord's cross is of no use for future salvation:

but when it has been consecrated by the mystery of the saving cross, then it is tempered for the use of the spiritual laver and of the saving cup. As, therefore, Moses cast wood into that spring, that is, a prophet; so also into this spring the priest casts the proclamation of the Lord's cross, and the water is made sweet unto grace. 15. Do not, therefore, trust only the eyes of your body: that is more truly seen which is not seen; because the former is temporal, the latter eternal—which is beheld, which is not comprehended by the eyes, but is discerned by the soul and mind. 16. Lastly, let the reading of Kings that has been gone through teach you (2 Kings 5:1ff.). Naaman was a Syrian, and he had leprosy, and could be cleansed by no one.

Then a maiden from among the captives said that there was a prophet in Israel who could cleanse him from the contagion of leprosy. Having taken, it says, gold and silver, he proceeded to the king of Israel. Who, learning the cause of his coming, rent his garments, saying that he was rather being put to the test, since things were demanded of him which were not within the royal power: but Elisha intimated to the king that he should direct the Syrian to him, that he might learn that there was a God in Israel. And when he had come, he commanded him to plunge seven times in the river Jordan. 17. Then he began to reason with himself that his own country had better waters, in which he had often plunged himself, and had never been washed from leprosy; and recalled by this, he did not obey the prophet's commands:

but at the admonition and persuasions of his servants he acquiesced, and plunged. And being cleansed forthwith, he understood that it is not of the waters that each one is cleansed, but of grace. 18. Recognize now who is that younger maiden from among the captives, namely the congregation gathered from the Gentiles, that is, the Church of the Lord, oppressed before by the captivity of sin, when she did not yet have the liberty of grace; by whose counsel that vain people of the nations heard the prophetic word, concerning which it had long before doubted; yet afterward, when it believed it must be carried out, it was washed from every contagion of vices. And he indeed doubted before he was healed: you are already healed, and therefore you ought not to doubt.

That water does not cleanse without the Spirit is declared by the testimony of John and by the very words with which the same sacrament is administered. This is also asserted to be signified by the evangelical pool, and the paralytic healed there by the Lord: in which passage the Holy Spirit is shown truly to have descended in the baptism of that same Christ, and what is to be understood in this mystery? 19. Therefore it was foretold to you beforehand, that you should not believe this alone which you saw; lest perhaps you too should say: Is this that great mystery, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9)? I see waters, which I saw daily: are these to cleanse me, into which I have often descended, and have never been cleansed?

From this recognize that water does not cleanse without the Spirit. 20. And therefore you have read that the three witnesses in baptism are one: water, blood, and Spirit (1 John 5:7); because if you take away one of these, the sacrament of baptism does not stand. For what is water without the cross of Christ? A common element, without any effect of the sacrament. Nor again, without water, is there the mystery of regeneration: For unless one be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God (John 3:5). Now even the catechumen believes in the cross of the Lord Jesus, with which he too is signed: but unless he be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, he cannot receive remission of sins, nor draw the gift of spiritual grace. 21.

Therefore that Syrian plunged seven times under the Law (2 Kings 5:14): but you were baptized in the name of the Trinity, you confessed the Father—remember what you did; you confessed the Son, you confessed the Holy Spirit. Keep the order of things in this faith: you died to the world, and rose again to God. And as though buried together in that element of the world, dead to sin, you were raised up to life eternal. Believe, therefore, that the waters are not empty. 22. Therefore it was said to you: That an angel of the Lord descended at a certain season into the pool, and the water was stirred; and whoever descended first into the pool after the stirring of the water, was made whole of whatever infirmity he was held by (John 5:4). This pool was in Jerusalem, in which one a year was healed:

but no one was healed before the angel had descended. That there might be a token that the angel had descended, the water was stirred for the sake of the unbelieving. To them a sign, to you faith: to them the angel descended, to you the Holy Spirit: to them the creature was stirred, for you Christ works, the very Lord of the creature. 23. Then one was cured, now all are healed: or at least one single Christian people; for in some there is also a deceitful water (Jer. 15:18). The baptism of the faithless does not heal (1, q. 1, c. Non sanat), does not cleanse, but pollutes. The Jew baptizes pitchers and cups (Mark 7:4), as though insensible things could receive either guilt or grace.

You, baptize this your sentient cup, in which your good works may shine, in which the splendor of your grace may gleam. Therefore that pool too was in figure; that you might believe that into this spring the divine power descends. 24. Lastly, that paralytic was waiting for a man (John 5:7). Who but the Lord Jesus, born of the Virgin: by whose coming no longer the shadow should heal individuals, but the truth should heal all? This, then, is He who was awaited to descend, of whom God the Father said to John the Baptist: Upon whom you shall see the Spirit descending from heaven, and remaining upon Him, this is He who baptizes in the Holy Spirit (John 1:33). Of whom John testified, saying:

That I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remaining upon Him (John 1:32). And here why did the Spirit descend like a dove, except that you might see, except that you might recognize that even that dove which just Noah sent forth from the ark was a figure of this dove, that you might recognize the type of the sacrament (Gen. 8:8)? 25. And perhaps you may say: Since that dove which was sent forth was a true dove, but here He descended like a dove: how do we say that there was a figure, but here truth; when according to the Greeks it is written that the Spirit descended in the form of a dove (Luke 3:12)? But what is so true as the divinity, which abides forever? But a creature cannot be truth, but a form, which is easily dissolved and changed.

At the same time, because in those who are baptized there ought not to be a mere appearance, but true simplicity. Whence the Lord also says: Be wise as serpents, and simple as doves (Matt. 10:16). Rightly, therefore, He descended like a dove, that He might admonish us that we ought to have the simplicity of a dove. But we read that 'form' is also to be taken for truth, both of Christ: And in form found as a man (Phil. 2:7); and of God the Father: Neither have you seen His form (John 5:37). It is confirmed that Christ is present in baptism, and indeed that His ministers are not to be regarded. Finally, the confession of the Trinity customarily uttered by the baptized is weighed in a few words. 26. Is there still something you ought to doubt, when the Father plainly cries out to you in the Gospel, who says:

This is My Son in whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:17); when the Son cries out, over whom the Holy Spirit showed Himself like a dove; when the Holy Spirit also cries out, who descended like a dove; when David cries out: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters, the God of majesty has thundered: the Lord is upon many waters (Ps. 28:3); when Scripture testifies to you that at the prayers of Jerubbaal fire descended from heaven (Judg. 6:21), and again, at Elijah's prayer, fire was sent which consecrated the sacrifice (1 Kings 18:38)? 27. Do not consider the merits of persons, but the offices of the priests. And if you do regard merits;

as you consider Elijah, look also to the merits of Peter, or of Paul, who delivered to us this mystery received from the Lord Jesus. To them visible fire was sent, that they might believe: for us the invisible works, who believe: for them as a figure, for us as a reminder. Believe, therefore, that the Lord Jesus is present when invoked by the prayers of the priests, who says: Where there are two or three, there am I also (Matt. 18:20); how much more, where the Church is, where His mysteries are, there He deigns to impart His presence! 28. You descended, therefore; recall what you answered, that you believe in the Father, you believe in the Son, you believe in the Holy Spirit. You do not have there: I believe in the greater and the lesser and the last:

but you are bound by the same caution of your own voice, that you should believe in the Son in like manner as you believe in the Father: that you should believe in the Holy Spirit in like manner as you believe in the Son; with this one exception, that you confess you must believe in the cross of the Lord Jesus alone. Why an anointing is made on the head of those who have come up from the font of baptism; why also the washing of feet after baptism; and what sins are remitted to each. 29. After this you certainly went up to the priest: consider what followed. Was it not that which David says: Like the ointment upon the head, which ran down upon the beard, the beard of Aaron (Ps. 133:2)? This is the ointment, of which Solomon also says:

Your name is as ointment poured out, therefore the maidens have loved You, and have drawn You (Song 1:2). How many souls renewed today have loved You, Lord Jesus, saying: Draw us after You, we run in the fragrance of Your garments (Song 1:3), that they might draw in the fragrance of the resurrection! 30. Understand why this is done, because the eyes of the wise man are in his head (Eccl. 2:14). Therefore it flows down upon the beard, that is, upon the grace of youth; therefore upon the beard of Aaron, that you may become a chosen race, a priestly, a precious one; for we are all anointed into the kingdom of God and into the priesthood by spiritual grace. 31. You went up from the font, remember the evangelical reading. For our Lord Jesus in the Gospel washed the feet of His disciples.

When He came to Simon Peter, Peter said: You shall never wash my feet (John 13:8); he did not perceive the mystery, and therefore refused the service; because he believed the Lord's humility would be burdened, if he patiently allowed the master's act of service toward himself. To whom the Lord replied: If I do not wash your feet, you shall have no part with Me. Hearing this, Peter said: Lord, not only my feet, but also my hands and head. The Lord answered: He who has been washed needs only to wash his feet; but he is wholly clean (John 13:9). 32. Peter was clean, but he had to wash the sole of his foot; for he had the sin of the first man by succession: when the serpent supplanted him, and persuaded him to error (Gen. 3:6).

Therefore his sole is washed, that hereditary sins may be taken away; for our own are relaxed through baptism. 33. At the same time, recognize that the mystery consists in the very service of humility; for He says: If I, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet; how much more ought you also to wash one another's feet (John 13:14)! For since the very Author of salvation has redeemed us through obedience; how much more ought we, His little servants, to render the service of humility and obedience! That by white garments the washing away of sins is indicated: by which it was brought about that the Church should call herself black and yet comely. That the angels marveled at her brightness as also at the Lord's flesh;

nay rather, that Christ Himself, under various figures, commended to His Bride the beauty of her form: in which their mutual affections are described. 34. After this you received white garments (De Consec. dist. 4, c. Accepisti), that it might be a token that you have put off the wrapping of sins, and put on the chaste veils of innocence, of which the Prophet said: You shall sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be cleansed: You shall wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow (Ps. 51:7). For he who is baptized is seen to be cleansed both according to the Law and according to the Gospel: according to the Law, because Moses sprinkled the blood of the lamb with a bunch of hyssop (Exod. 12:22); according to the Gospel, because Christ's garments were white as snow, when in the Gospel He displayed the glory of His resurrection (Matt.

17:2). He, therefore, is made whiter than snow, to whom guilt is forgiven. Whence the Lord also says through Isaiah: If your sins be as scarlet, I shall make them white as snow (Isa. 1:18). 35. The Church, having these garments, taken up through the laver of regeneration, says in the Song of Songs: I am black and comely, O daughters of Jerusalem (Song 1:5). Black through the frailty of the human condition, comely through grace: black, because of sinners; comely by the sacrament of faith. Seeing these garments, the daughters of Jerusalem are astonished and say: Who is this that comes up made white (Song 8:5)? She was black, whence is she now suddenly made white! 36.

The angels too doubted when Christ rose again; the Powers of the heavens doubted, seeing that flesh ascended into heaven. Lastly they said: Who is this King of glory? And when some said: Lift up the gates of your Prince, and be lifted up, you everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in; others doubted, saying: Who is this King of glory (Ps. 24:7-8)? In Isaiah too you have the virtues of the heavens doubting and saying: Who is this who comes up from Edom, the redness of His garments from Bozrah, beautiful in a white robe (Isa. 63:1)? 37. But Christ, seeing His Church in white garments, for which He Himself, as you have in the book of the prophet Zechariah (Zech.

3:3), He had taken upon Himself sordid garments for her sake; or the soul made clean and washed by the laver of regeneration, says: Behold, you are fair, My neighbor, behold, you are fair, your eyes are as doves (Song 4:1); in whose form the Holy Spirit descended from heaven (Luke 3:22). The eyes are fair like doves, because in its form the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. 38. And further below: Your teeth are like a flock of the shorn, which came up from the washing, which all bear twins, and there is none barren among them; your lips are like a scarlet thread (Song 4:2-3). This is no slight praise. First, by the sweet comparison of the shorn; for we know that goats both feed in high places without danger, and take their food in safety on the steep crags:

Then, when they are shorn, they are relieved of what is superfluous. To the flock of these sheep the Church is compared, possessing within herself many virtues of souls, who through the laver lay aside their superfluous sins, who bring to Christ a mystical faith and a moral grace, who proclaim the cross of the Lord Jesus. 39. In these the Church is beautiful. Hence God the Word says to her: 'Thou art altogether beautiful, my neighbor, and there is no reproof in thee, for the fault has been submerged. Come hither from Lebanon, O Bride, come hither from Lebanon: thou shalt pass over, and thou shalt pass through from the beginning of faith' (cf. Song 4:7-8); because, renouncing the world, she has passed beyond this present age, and has passed over to Christ. And again God the Word says to her: 'How beautiful and sweet hast thou become, O love, in thy delights!'

'Thy stature is become like a palm tree, and thy breasts like clusters of grapes' (Song 7:7-8). 40. To whom the Church replies: 'Who shall give thee to me, my brother, suckling at the breasts of my mother? Finding thee outside, I will kiss thee, and indeed they shall not despise me. I will take thee, and lead thee into the house of my mother, and into the chamber of her that conceived me. Thou shalt teach me' (Song 8:1-2). You see how, delighting in the gift of graces, she longs to attain the inner mysteries, and to consecrate all her senses to Christ? Still she seeks, still she stirs up love, and demands that it be stirred up in her by the daughters of Jerusalem, by whose grace—that is, by the souls of the faithful—she desires the Bridegroom to be provoked to a more abundant love of her. 41.

Whence the Lord Jesus Himself, invited by the zeal of so great a love, by the beauty of her comeliness and grace, since no faults now defiled those who had been washed, says to the Church: 'Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a signet upon thine arm' (Song 8:6); that is: 'Thou art comely, my neighbor, thou art altogether beautiful, nothing is lacking to thee. Set me as a seal upon thy heart, that thy faith may shine forth with the full sacrament. Let thy works also shine, and display the image of God, in whose image thou wast made. Let thy love be diminished by no persecution, which many waters cannot quench, nor floods overwhelm' (cf. Song 8:7). 42.

Wherefore recall that you have received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, the spirit of holy fear (Isa. 11:2): and keep what you have received. God the Father has sealed you, Christ the Lord has confirmed you, and has given the pledge of the Spirit in your hearts, as you have learned from the apostolic reading (cf. 2 Cor. 1:22; 5:5). Concerning the mystical banquet of the Lord's altar: lest anyone esteem it of less value, it is shown to be more ancient than the rites of the Synagogue, since it was prefigured in the sacrifice of Melchizedek; yet it is far more excellent than the manna itself, since it is the body of Christ; and between the two a most elegant comparison is set up. 43.

Washed by these, the people, rich in such tokens, hastens to the altars of Christ, saying: 'And I will go in to the altar of God, to God who gladdens my youth' (Ps. 43:4); for having laid aside the slough of inveterate error, renewed in the youth of the eagle, it hastens to approach that heavenly banquet. It comes, therefore, and seeing the sacrosanct altar prepared, it cries out and says: 'Thou hast prepared a table in my sight.' David brings in this people speaking, saying: 'The Lord shepherds me, and I shall lack nothing: in a place of pasture, there has He set me. By the water of refreshment He has nourished me' (Ps. 23:1-2). And further on: 'For even though I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils; for Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me.'

'Thou hast prepared a table in my sight against those who afflict me. Thou hast anointed my head with oil, and Thy intoxicating cup, how excellent it is!' 44. Now let us consider this, lest perchance someone, seeing the visible things (since the things that are invisible are not seen, nor can be grasped by human eyes), should perhaps say: 'For the Jews God rained down manna, He rained down quails (Exod. 16:13): but for that beloved Church these are the things which He has prepared, of which it is said: That which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love Him' (1 Cor. 2:9).

Therefore, lest anyone say this, we desire with the utmost zeal to prove that the sacraments of the Church are both more ancient than those of the Synagogue, and more excellent than the manna. 45. The reading from Genesis which has been read through teaches that they are more ancient (Gen. 14:18); for the Synagogue took its beginning from the law of Moses (Exod. 34:1ff.): but Abraham was far earlier, who, when his enemies had been conquered and his own nephew recovered, as he was enjoying the victory, then Melchizedek met him and brought forth those things which Abraham reverently received. It was not Abraham who brought them forth, but Melchizedek; who is presented as without father, without mother, having neither beginning of days nor end, but made like the Son of God: of whom Paul says to the Hebrews: 'Because he abides a priest forever' (Heb.

7:1ff.); who in the Latin rendering is called king of righteousness, king of peace. 46. Do you not recognize who this is? Can a man be king of righteousness, when he himself is scarcely righteous? Can he be king of peace, when he can scarcely be peaceable? Without mother according to His divinity, because He was begotten of God the Father, of one substance with the Father: without father according to the incarnation, He who was born of a Virgin: having neither beginning nor end, because He Himself is the beginning and end of all things, the first and the last. Therefore the sacrament which you have received is not of a human, but of a divine gift, brought forth by Him who blessed Abraham, the father of faith, whose grace and deeds you admire. 47. It has been proved that the sacraments of the Church are more ancient; now learn that they are also more excellent.

Truly it is marvelous that God rained down manna for the fathers, and that they were fed with daily nourishment from heaven. Whence it is said: 'Man ate the bread of angels' (Ps. 78:25). But nevertheless all those who ate that bread died in the desert: whereas this food which you receive, this living bread which came down from heaven, supplies the substance of eternal life; and whoever eats this shall not die forever: and it is the body of Christ. 48. Consider now whether the bread of angels is more excellent, or the flesh of Christ, which assuredly is the body of life. That manna was from heaven, this is above heaven; that was of heaven, this is of the Lord of the heavens:

that was liable to corruption, if it were kept for a second day; this is free from all corruption, so that whoever has tasted it reverently will not be able to feel corruption. For them water flowed from the rock (Exod. 17:6), for you blood from Christ (cf. John 6:55ff.): water satisfied them for an hour, the blood washes you forever. The Jew drank, and thirsts: when you have drunk, you shall not be able to thirst: and that was in shadow, this in truth. 49. If that which you admire is a shadow, how great is this, whose very shadow you admire! Hear that it is a shadow which was made among the fathers: 'They drank,' he says, 'of the rock which followed them: and the rock was Christ. But God was not well pleased with the most of them; for they were laid low in the desert' (1 Cor.

10:4-5). 'Now these things were done as a figure of us.' You have come to know the more excellent things; for light is mightier than shadow, truth than figure, the body of the Author than the manna from heaven. Lest anyone, struck by the outward appearance, should waver in faith, very many examples—in which it is established that nature was changed or overcome—being brought forward, it is proved that from bread the true flesh of Christ is made. Finally, with some things being set forth figuratively which pertain to its effects, the dispositions of those who partake, and the like, he brings the treatise to a close. 50. Perhaps you may say: 'I see something else; how do you assert to me that I receive the body of Christ?' And this still remains for us to prove. With how many examples, then, do we make use!

Let us prove that this is not what nature formed, but what the blessing consecrated: and that the power of the blessing is greater than that of nature; because by the blessing even nature itself is changed. 51. Moses held a rod, he cast it down, and it became a serpent (Exod. 4:3-4). Again he seized the serpent's tail, and it returned to the nature of a rod. You see, then, that by prophetic grace the nature both of the serpent and of the rod was twice changed? The rivers of Egypt were flowing with a pure stream of waters; suddenly from the veins of the springs blood began to burst forth; and there was no drink in the rivers (Exod. 7:20ff.). Again, at the prophet's prayer, the gore of the rivers ceased, and the nature of the waters returned.

The people of the Hebrews was hemmed in on every side, on this side walled in by the Egyptians, on that side closed in by the sea: Moses raised his rod, the water divided itself, and congealed in the likeness of walls, and between the waves a path on foot appeared (Exod. 14:21ff.). The Jordan, turned backward against nature, returned to the source of its own spring (Josh. 3:16). Is it not clear that the nature either of the sea's waves or of the river's course was changed? The people of the fathers was thirsting, Moses touched the rock, and water flowed from the rock. Did not grace work beyond nature, that the rock should pour out water which by nature it did not have? Marah was a most bitter river, so that the thirsting people could not drink.

Moses cast a piece of wood into the water, and the nature of the waters laid aside its bitterness (Exod. 15:23ff.), which the grace suddenly infused tempered. Under the prophet Elisha, the iron was struck off from the axe of one of the sons of the prophets, and at once it sank. He who had lost the iron besought Elisha: Elisha also cast a piece of wood into the water, and the iron floated (2 Kings 6:6). Surely we recognize that this too was done beyond nature; for the substance of iron is heavier than the liquid of waters. 52. We perceive, then, that grace is of greater power than nature, and yet do we still reckon only the grace of prophetic blessing? But if a human blessing prevailed so far as to change nature (1 Kings 18:38);

what shall we say of the divine consecration itself, where the very words of the Lord the Savior operate? For this sacrament which you receive is effected by the word of Christ. But if the word of Elijah had power enough to bring down fire from heaven, shall not the word of Christ have power to change the species of the elements? You have read concerning the works of the whole world: 'Because He spoke, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created' (Ps. 148:5). The word of Christ, then, which was able to make out of nothing that which was not, can it not change things which are into that which they were not? For it is no less to give new natures to things than to change them. 53. But why do we use arguments?

Let us use His own examples, and from the example of the incarnation let us establish the truth of the mystery. Did the course of nature precede, when the Lord Jesus was born of Mary? If we seek the order, a woman joined to a man is wont to bring forth. It is clear, therefore, that beyond the order of nature the Virgin gave birth. And this body which we confect is from the Virgin: why do you here seek the order of nature in the body of Christ, when the Lord Jesus Himself was, beyond nature, born of a Virgin? Surely true is the flesh of Christ, which was crucified, which was buried: truly therefore it is the sacrament of that flesh. 54. The Lord Jesus Himself cries out: 'This is my body' (Matt. 26:26).

Before the blessing of the heavenly words another species is named; after the consecration the body is signified. He Himself speaks of His blood. Before the consecration it is called another thing; after the consecration it is named blood. And you say: 'Amen,' that is, 'It is true.' What the mouth speaks, let the inner mind confess: what the word sounds, let the affection feel. 55. With these sacraments, then, Christ feeds His Church, by which the substance of the soul is strengthened: and rightly, seeing her advance which holds fast His grace, He says to her: 'How comely have thy breasts become, my sister, my bride! How comely have they become through wine, and the odor of thy garments above all aromatic spices!'

'Thy lips, O bride, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under thy tongue, and the odor of thy garments is like the odor of Lebanon. A garden enclosed, my sister, my bride, a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed' (Song 4:10ff.). By which He signifies that the mystery ought to remain sealed with you, lest it be violated by the works of an evil life, and by the adultery of chastity, lest it be divulged to those to whom it is not fitting, lest it be scattered among the faithless by garrulous loquacity. Good, therefore, ought to be the guarding of your faith, that the undefiled integrity of life and of silence may persevere. 56. Whence also the Church, preserving the loftiness of the heavenly mysteries, repels from herself the more violent storms of wind, and invites the sweetness of the burgeoning grace of spring:

and knowing that her garden cannot displease Christ, she calls to the Bridegroom Himself, saying: 'Arise, O north wind, and come, O south: blow through my garden, and let my perfumes flow forth' (Song 4:16). 'Let my brother come down into his garden, and eat the fruit of his fruit-bearing trees' (Song 5:1). For she has good and fruitful trees, which have steeped their roots in the watering of the sacred font, and have sprouted into good fruits with the bud of new fecundity; so that they are no longer cut down by the prophetic axe, but are made fruitful with evangelical abundance (cf. Matt. 3:10). 57. Finally, the Lord too, delighted by their fruitfulness, replies: 'I have entered into my garden, my sister, my Bride:'

I have gathered my myrrh with my perfumes, I have eaten my food with my honey, I have drunk my drink with my milk' (Song 5:1). Why He spoke of food and drink, understand, O faithful one. But this is not in doubt, that He Himself eats and drinks in us, as you have read in us, because He says that He is in prison (Matt. 25:36). 58. Whence also the Church, seeing so great a grace, exhorts her sons, exhorts her neighbors, that they may run together to the sacraments, saying: 'Eat, my neighbors, and drink, and be inebriated, my brethren' (Song 5:1). What we should eat, what we should drink, the Holy Spirit has expressed to you elsewhere through the Prophet, saying: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet: blessed is the man who hopes in Him' (Ps. 34:8).

In that sacrament Christ is present; because it is the body of Christ: it is therefore not bodily food, but spiritual. Whence also the Apostle says of its type: 'Because our fathers ate spiritual food, and drank spiritual drink' (1 Cor. 10:3); for the body of God is a spiritual body: the body of Christ is the body of the divine Spirit; because Christ is Spirit, as we read: 'The Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord' (Lam. 4:20). And in the Epistle of Peter we have: 'Christ died for us' (1 Pet. 2:21). Finally, this food strengthens our heart, and this drink gladdens the heart of man, as the Prophet has recorded (Ps. 104:15). 59.

Whence, having obtained all things, let us know that we have been regenerated: nor let us say, 'How have we been regenerated? Have we entered into the womb of our mother, and been born again?' I do not recognize the use of nature. But here there is no order of nature, where there is the excellence of grace. Finally, the use of nature does not always effect generation: we confess that Christ the Lord was generated from a Virgin, and we deny the order of nature. For Mary did not conceive from a man: but she received in her womb of the Holy Spirit, as Matthew says: 'Because she was found with child of the Holy Spirit' (Matt. 1:18). If, therefore, the Holy Spirit coming upon the Virgin worked the conception, and fulfilled the office of generation:

it is assuredly not to be doubted that, coming upon the font, or upon those who receive baptism, He works the truth of regeneration.