Since this holy altar, at which we stand, is in its nature only a common stone, differing nothing from those other flat tablets, which are built into our walls or which ornament our pavements; but, when it has been dedicated to the service of God and has received the benediction, it is a holy table, an unpolluted altar, no longer indiscriminately handled by all, but touched only by the priests and even by them with pious caution: and, again, since the bread is originally mere common bread; but, when the mystery shall have wrought its sanctification, it is both called and is the body of Christ: THUS the mystic oil, THUS the wine, though of small value before the benediction, respectively operate with mighty power after sanctification by the Spirit. The SAME potency of the word, moreover, effects a venerable and honourable priest: when, through the newness of the benediction, the individual is separated from common fellowship with the many. For, only yesterday and the day before, he was nothing more than one out of the many, nothing more than one of the laity: but now he is set forth, as a leader, as a precessor, as a teacher of piety, as a heirophant of the hidden mysteries. And these things he does, not at all changed in body or in form: but he does them; being, in outward appearance, the same person that he was before; though, in his invisible soul, through a certain invisible power and grace, being transmuted into a better condition. {17a} 8. Cyril of Jerusalem lived in the fourth century. (1.) While eating, the communicants are commanded to eat, not bread and wine, but the ANTITYPE of the body and blood of Christ. {17b} (2.) As ALSO the bread of the Eucharist, after the invocation of the Holy Spirit, is no longer bare bread, but the body of Christ: so LIKEWISE, after the invocation, this holy ointment (the ointment or chrism formerly used in the rite of Confirmation) is no longer mere ointment, nor as one may say common ointment. {17c} 9. Augustine flourished in the fourth and fifth centuries. (1.) The Lord, when he gave the SIGN of his body, did not doubt to say: _This is my body_. {18a} (2.) These are sacraments, in which, not _what they are_, but _what they shew forth_, is the point to be always attended to: far THEY ARE THE SIGNS OF THINGS, BEING ONE THING, AND SIGNIFYING ANOTHER THING. {18b} (3.) Christ instructed them, and said unto them: _It is the spirit that quickeneth_; _the flesh profiteth nothing_. _The words_, _which I speak unto you_, _are spirit and life_. As if he had said: Understand SPIRITUALLY what I have spoken. You are NOT about to eat this identical body, which you see; and you are NOT about to drink this identical blood, which they who crucify me will pour out. I have commended unto you a certain sacrament: which, if SPIRITUALLY understood, will vivify you. Though it must be celebrated visibly, it must be understood invisibly. {18c}