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: