Concerning the Sacraments · Part 7

5 Cant. viii. 5. Cf. de Myst. vii. 35. Like Ambrose the author reads dealbata ("made white"), following LXX. The words "from the wilderness" are found in Heb. and Vulg., but not in LXX.

see;1 and again, What eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, the things which God hath -prepared for them that love him.2

6. Then recall what thou hast received. Holy David the prophet saw this grace in a figure, and desired it. Wilt thou know that he desired it? Again hear him saying, Thou shalt sprinkle me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; thou shalt wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.3 Why? Because snow, although it is white, quickly turns black with any dirt, and is spoilt; this grace which thou hast received, if thou hold fast that which thou hast received, will be lasting and eternal.

7. Thou earnest thus with desire to the altar, since thou hadst seen such grace. Thou earnest with desire to the altar, to receive the sacrament; let thy soul say, And I will go unto the altar of my God, unto God who tnaketk glad my youth* Thou hast put off the old age of sins, thou hast taken the youth of grace; this the heavenly sacraments bestowed on thee. Therefore, again hear David saying, Thy youth shall be renewed as the eagle's.5 Thou beginnest to be a good eagle, seeking heaven, scorning earthly things. Good eagles are about the altar; for where the body is, there also are the eagles. 6 The altar is a type of the body,7 and the body

1 1 Pet. i. 12. The writer, by a slip of memory, attributes the words to St. Paul.

2 1 Cor. ii. 9. Cf. de Myst. viii. 44, note.

3 Ps. Ii. 7 (1. 9, Vulg.). Cf. de Myst. vii. 34.

4 Ps. xliii. (xlii. Vulg.), 4. Cf. de Myst. viii. 43, where the psalm is similarly quoted in connexion with the approach to the altar. But the use of this psalm, as part of the preparation in the Roman Mass, is of late date, and its appearance in some editions of the Ambrosian Missal is due to borrowing from the Roman rite (see Ceriani, Notitia Lit. ambros. p. 24).

6 Ps. ciii. (cii. Vulg.), 5.

5 Mt. xxiv. 28; Lk. xvii. 37. Cf. i. 2. 6.

7 The sense of this expression is illustrated by the following passage from the Glossa Ordinaria (Migne, P.L., cl. 405). The Body of Christ "is called an altar in other places of the divine

of Christ is on the altar; ye are eagles, renewed by the washing away of sin.

CHAPTER III

Comparison of the Jewish and Christian sacraments. Melchizedek

a type of Christ.

8. Thou earnest to the altar, thou sawest the sacra- ments laid upon the altar, and thou didst wonder at those creatures; x yet they are ordinary and familiar.

9. Perhaps some one will say: " To the Jews God granted such grace, he rained down manna upon them 2 from heaven; what more has he given to his faithful, what more has he bestowed on those to whom he pro- mised more?"

10. Hear what things I say, namely, that the mysteries of the Christians are older than those of the Jews,3 and the sacraments of the Christians are more divine than those of the Jews. How? Hear. When did the Jews begin? At the earliest, with Judah, the great-grandson of Abraham; or, if thou preferrest to take this view, with the Law, that is, when the Jews were deemed worthy to receive the Law. Therefore, they were called Jews from the great-grandson of Abraham, or since the time of holy Moses. And if God rained down manna from heaven then upon the murmuring Jews, still there

Scriptures also, because on it, that is, on faith in it, as on an altar, our offered prayers and works become acceptable" (quoted by Westcott on Heb. xiii. 10). (T.)

1 crcaturam. Cf. Book of Common Prayer, "these thy creatures of bread and wine." The writer is thinking of the placing of the elements upon the altar. From Ambrose (in Ps. cxviii. prol. 2) it appears that at Milan, as elsewhere in the West, the people made their offerings of bread and wine for the Eucharist, but the newly-baptized did not partake in this "offering" before the octave of Easter.

2 Ps. lxxviii. (lxxvii. Vulg.) 24. Cf. de Myst. viii. 44.

3 With this section cf. de Myst. viii. 45, 46.

was for thee a yet earlier figure of these sacraments, when Abraham was alive, when he gathered the men born in his house, three hundred and eighteen, and then pursued the adversaries, delivering his nephew out of captivity; then he came in triumph; Melchizedek the ■priest met him, and offered him bread and wine} Who had the bread and wine? Abraham had not. But who had? Melchizedek. He, then, is the author of the sacraments. Who is Melchizedek? He who is indi- cated as King of righteousness, King of peace.2 Who is the King of righteousness? Can any man be King of righteousness? Who then is the King of righteousness, but the Righteousness of God, he who is the Peace of God, the Wisdom [of God 1 3 He who could say, My peace I give unto you, my peace I leave with you.4"

ii. Therefore, first understand that these sacraments which thou receivest are older than are the sacraments of Moses, whatever they are that the Jews say they have; and that the Christian people began before the people of the Jews — we, however, as predetermined, while they actually bore the name.

12. Melchizedek, therefore, offered bread and wine. Who is Melchizedek? Without father, it says, without mother, without order of generation, having neither begin- ning of days nor end of life; this is in the Epistle to the Hebrews.5 He is without father, it says, and without mother. Like unto whom? The Son of God. The Son of God was born without mother in his heavenly genera- tion, because he was born of God the Father only. And

1 Gen. xiv. 14 f. 2 Heb. vii. 2.

3 Eph. ii. 14; 1 Cor. i. 24.

4 Jn. xiv. 27. The variation in the order of the clauses is found in some Old Latin and Vulgate MSS.

8 Heb. vii. 3. The reading generationis ordine is apparently peculiar to the writer; but generationis enumeratione is found in Ambrose, Ep. lxiv. 49.

again, he was born without father, when he was born of the Virgin; for he was not generated of the seed of a man, but born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,1 brought forth from a virgin womb, in all things like to the Son of God.2 Melchizedek was also a priest; since Christ too is a priest to whom it is said, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek?

CHAPTER IV

The bread and wine of the Eucharist become Christ's body and blood in virtue of the words of consecration, which are Christ's own words. Illustrations from the Virgin birth and miracles of O. T.

13. Who then is the author of the sacraments but the Lord Jesus? From heaven those sacraments came; for all counsel is from heaven. But it was truly a great and divine miracle that God rained down manna from heaven, and the people ate without toiling.

14. Thou sayest perhaps, "My bread is4 of the usual kind." But that bread is bread before the words of the sacraments; when consecration has been added, from bread it becomes the flesh of Christ. Let us therefore prove this. How can that which is bread be the body of Christ? By consecration. But in what words and in whose language is the consecration? Those of the Lord Jesus. For all the other things which are said in the

1 The old Roman Creed, quoted by Rufinus, similarly has the words qui natus est de spiritu sancto et Maria virgine; the words in the text may be an echo of this (T.).

a Heb. vii. 3.

3 Heb. vii. 17. Cf. Ps. ex. (cix. Vulg.) 4.

4 Some see in this a reference to the offering of bread and wine by the people. But at Milan (see note on iv. 3. 8) the newly- baptized did not ''offer" before the octave of Easter. PossiMy the meaning is quite general: "the bread which I see is ordinary bread." With this section cf, de Myst. ix. 50.

no THE TREATISE

earlier parts of the service are said by the priest — praises are offered to God, prayer is asked for the people, for kings, and the rest; 1 when it comes to the consecra- tion of the venerable sacrament, the priest no longer uses his own language, but he uses the language of Christ. Therefore, the word of Christ consecrates this sacrament.2 15. What is the word of Christ? That, to be sure, whereby all things are made. The Lord commanded, and the heaven was made; the Lord commanded, and the earth was made; the Lord commanded, and the seas were made; the Lord commanded, and every creature was produced. Thou seest, therefore, how effective is the word of Christ. If, therefore, there is such power in the word of the Lord Jesus, that the things which were not began to be, how much more is it effective, that things previously existing should, without ceasing to exist, be changed into something else?3 The heaven