45. And note that the name of chalice is derived from the Old Testament: whence Jeremiah, 'Babylon is a golden chalice that maketh drunk the nations.' [Footnote 335] And David: 'In the hand of the Lord is a chalice, and the wine thereof is red': [Footnote 336] and in another place, 'I will receive the chalice of salvation, and will call on the name of the Lord.' [Footnote 337] Again, in the Gospel: 'Are ye able to drink the chalice that I shall drink?' [Footnote 338] And again, 'When He had taken the chalice He gave thanks.' [Footnote 339] A golden chalice signifieth the 'treasures of wisdom that be hid in Christ.' [Footnote 340] A silver chalice denoteth purity from sin. A chalice of tin denoteth the similitude of sin and punishment. For tin is as it were halfway between silver and lead: and the Humanity of Christ, albeit it were not lead, that is, sinful, yet was it like to sinful flesh. And therefore not silver: and although impassible for His own sin, passible He was for ours: since 'He thus took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.' [Footnote 341] Concerning the Chalice and the Paten we shall speak hereafter. [Footnote 335: Jeremiah li, 7.] [Footnote 336: Psalm lxxv (_Confitebimur_), 8.] [Footnote 337: Psalm cxvi (_Dilexi_), 13.] [Footnote 338: S. Matthew x, 22.] [Footnote 339: S. Matthew xxvi, 27. ] [Footnote 340: Coloss. ii, 3.] [Footnote 341: S. Matthew viii, 17.] {69} 46. But if anyone, through cause of his little religion, should say that the Lord commanded Moses to make all the vessels of the Tabernacle for every use and ceremony whatever, of brass, as it is written in the eight and twentieth chapter of Exodus, and that precious vessels of this sort, 'could be sold for much, and given to the poor,' [Footnote 342] he is like Judas, and acteth contrarywise to the woman which brought the alabaster box of ointment. This we reply to him: not that God is better pleased with gold than brazen ornaments: but that when men offer to God that which they value, by the worship of the Almighty they vanquish their own avarice. Moreover, these offices of divine piety be moral, and significative of future glory. Whence also under the old law the priest's garments were to be made of gold, and jacinth, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and woven linen, and other precious things: that thereby might be made manifest with how great diversity of virtues the priest ought to shine: and it was also commanded that the altar, and the mercy-seat, and the candlestick, and the other vessels and ornaments of the altar should be made of gold and silver. The Tabernacle also was to be made of divers precious materials, as is said in our section concerning the Church. Also the high priest under the Law used divers precious ornaments, as we have both noted, and shall hereafter note. [Footnote 342: S. Matthew xxvi, 9.]