Concerning the Sacraments · Part 12

remain, therefore thou receivest the sacrament in a simili- tude, but truly obtainest the grace and virtue of the

nature.1

4. / am, says he, the living bread which came down from heaven.2 But flesh did not come down from heaven, that is to say, he took flesh of the Virgin on earth. How then did bread come down from heaven, and that, too, living bread? Because our Lord Jesus Christ is alike a sharer both in divinity and body. And thou who receivest his flesh partakest of his divine essence in that food.

CHAPTER II

The sacraments show the operation of the Trinity and the equality of the Three Persons. Refutation of Arian teaching.

5. Therefore thou hast been taught about3 the sacraments, thou hast learnt all things most fully, because thou hast been baptized in the name of the Trinity. In all that we have done the mystery of the Trinity has been preserved. Everywhere Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, one operation, one sanctification, though certain things seem to be as it were special.4

1 The meaning is that, though the communicant receives the body of Christ " in a similitude " (z. e. under the forms of bread and wine), yet he no less truly receives the virtue of the reality, i. e. the body of Christ. The outward appearance of the bread is a "symbol," or "similitude," but it is a symbol of a "grace" and "virtue" which are truly received. The author, who has hitherto expressed himself in such realistic terms as to the conversion of the elements into the Body and Blood of Christ, here falls back upon the earlier language current in East and West and represented in the prayers of the Canon quoted by him in iv. 5. 21 ("the figure (fgura) of the body and blood of Christ"). See Introd. pp. xviii, xxxvii.

2 Jn. vi. 51. Cf. de Myst. viii. 47.

3 accepistis de. Another rendering is "thou hast received of" the sacraments. But the more natural phrase in that case would have been accepistis sacramenta.

4 i. e. to the different Persons of the Trinity.

6. How? It is God who anointed thee, and the Lord signed thee, and put the Holy Spirit in thy heart.1 Thou

hast therefore received the Holy Spirit in thy heart. Hear another truth, that as the Holy Spirit is in the heart, so also is Christ in the heart. How? Thou hast Christ saying this to his Church in the Song of Songs: Set me as a seal in thy heart, as a seal upon thy arms.2,

7. Therefore God anointed thee, Christ signed thee. How? Because thou wast signed with the image of the cross itself unto his passion, thou receivedst a seal unto his likeness, that thou mayest rise unto his image, and live after His pattern, who was crucified to sin and liveih to God? And thy old man plunged into the font was crucified to sin, but rose again unto God.4

8. Then thou hast elsewhere a special work that, while God called thee, in baptism thou art as it were specially crucified with Christ.5 Then (as an instance of special operation) when thou receivest the spiritual seal, note that there is a distinction of persons, but that the whole mystery of the Trinity is bound up together.

9. Then what said the Apostle to thee, as was read the day before yesterday? Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are diversities of minis- tries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of opera- tions, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. All, says he, God worketh. These words, too, were read of the Spirit of God: one and the same Spirit dividing to each as He wills.7 Hearken to the Scripture saying that the Spirit divides according to His own will, not in

1 2 Cor. i. 21, 22.

* Cant. viii. 6. Cf. de Myst. vii. 41, 42 for this and the following section.

3 Rom. vi. 10. 4 Rom. vi. 6. 6 Cf. Gal. ii. 19.

• I Cor. xii. 4-6. Some MSS. read mysteriorum for minis- teriorum. But the latter, which is an Old Latin reading, is found in the quotations of the passage by most of the Latin Fathers.

7 1 Cor. xii. 11.

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obedience to others. So then the Spirit divides to you grace as He wills, not as He is bidden, and chiefly so because He is the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. And hold fast this, that He is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit the Paraclete.

10. The Arians think that they derogate from the Holy Spirit, if they speak of Him as the Spirit the Para- clete. What does Paraclete mean but consoler? As though we did not read of the Father that He himself is the God of consolation.1 Thou seest then that they think that an attribute, which pious affection proclaims, as showing the power of the eternal Father, must be derogatory to the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER III

How and where Christians ought to pray.

1 1. Now learn how we should pray. Many are the excellences of prayer. Where we should pray is no small matter, no small subject of inquiry. The Apostle says: / desire that men should pray in every -place, lifting up pure hands without wrath and disputing? And the Lord says in the Gospel: But thou, when thou pray est, enter into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy father? Does not there seem to be a contra- diction between the words of the Apostle, Pray in every place, and those of the Lord, Enter into thy chamber and pray? But there is no contradiction. Let us then clear up this point. Then, how thou shouldst begin prayer, under what system order its various parts, what subjoin,

1 2 Cor. i. 3.

2 1 Tim. ii. 8. Origen deals with the same passage in de Or at. 31.

3 Mt. vi. 6.

what state as petition,1 how close the prayer, then for whom thou shouldst pray — all these we may discuss.

12. First, where thou shouldst pray. Paul seems to say one thing and the Lord another. Was it possible that Paul could teach anything contrary to the precepts of Christ? Surely not. Why? Because he is not the opponent, but the interpreter of Christ. Be ye imitators, he says, of me, as I also of Christ.2 What then? Thou canst pray everywhere, and yet always pray in thy chamber. Everywhere thou hast thy chamber. Though thou be amidst the nations, amidst the Jews, thou hast everywhere thy secret place. Thy mind is thy chamber. Though thou be set in a multitude, yet in the inner man thou possessest thy place of secrecy and retirement.3

13. But thou when thou pray est enter into thy chamber. Well does he say enter; that thou mayest not pray like the Jew, to whom it is said: This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me* Let not then thy prayer proceed only from thy lips. Let the whole intention of thy mind be fixed, enter into the recess of thy heart, enter it with thy whole self. Let not him, whom thou wishest to please, see thee to be careless.5 Let him see that thou prayest from the heart, that when thou prayest from the heart he may deign to hear thee.

14. But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber. In another place thou hast this too: Go, my people, enter into thy secret places, shut thy door, hide thyself for a little, until the anger of the Lord be overpast* This the

1 quo ordine distinguere, quid sublexere, quid allegare. This is explained below, §§ 22-25. Sublexere ("subjoin") seems to cor- respond to the obsecratio or "supplication" in §22; allegare to the postulatio ("petition"); see note -on § 22. The question " for whom we should pray" is, however, never dealt with.

* I Cor. xi. I. 3 Cf. de Inst. Virg. i. 7.

4 Mt. xv. 8; Mk. vii. 6. 6 perfunctorium.

6 Is. xxvi. 20.

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Lord spake by the prophet, but in the Gospel he said: But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy chamber, and, when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father.

15. What is meant by "shutting the door"? Hear what door thou hast, which thou shouldest shut, when thou prayest. Would that the women would listen to this! * Thou hast heard it already. Holy David taught thee when he said: Lord, set a guard upon my mouth and a door round about my lips.2 Elsewhere there is the door, which the Apostle Paul speaks of, when he says: That the door of the word may be opened for me, to speak the mystery of Christ.3 That is, when thou prayest, do not shout aloud, nor let thy prayer go forth abroad, nor noise it among the people. In thy privacy pray, sure that he can hear thee in private, who sees all things, hears all things. And pray in secrecy to thy Father, who hears thy secret prayers.