...hidden. For Baptism is a sign of rebirth original: "regenerationis", which is present at the moment when the body is ritually washed; similarly, the "tongues of fire" and the "dove" signified that the Holy Spirit was present. It is sufficient, therefore, in the Venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist, for the thing which is signified—whether it be the substance of Christ or His grace—to be hidden.

CHAPTER TWO.

Principles regarding the Excellence of the Venerable Sacrament.

6. The supreme dignity of the Eucharist.

I. Principle. The merciful and compassionate Lord has made a memorial of His wonders; He has given food to those who fear Him. Psalm 110, verse 4. In modern Protestant Bibles, this is Psalm 111:4-5. The author refers to David as the "royal Prophet." In this psalm, the royal Prophet praises God. He begins by praising all His works in general: that they are great, perfect in their kind, and "exquisite according to all His wills" original: "exquisita in omnes voluntates eius"—that is, they are ready for every use that pleases God, and that God may do with them whatever He wishes, according to that phrase in Psalm 118: For all things serve Him. Psalm 119:91 in modern numbering. Then, the Prophet moves down to a specific work of divine Weighty-Beneficence; for God not only nourished His chosen people in the Old Testament with heavenly bread manna|The "bread from heaven" provided to the Israelites in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt and left a jar full of it as a memorial of the miracles He had performed in the desert, as described in Exodus 16; but in the New Testament, He also instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist as spiritual food and as a memorial of the wonders which the Son of God performed on earth after He descended from heaven. This memorial is as much more noble than the old one as a body is more excellent than its shadow, or as any reality is superior to the figure that represents it.

7. It is a memorial of all the works of the Lord.

II. Principle. The Holy Eucharist is not only a Sacrament, but it is also a memorial of all miracles, and a kind of compendium of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. This reasoning is drawn both from the scriptural words already cited and from these: Do this in remembrance of me. Luke 22, verse 19 and 1 Corinthians 11, verse 24. And first, indeed, it is a memorial of His divinity itself, in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, as the Apostle says to the Colossians, chapter 2, verse 9. Secondly, it is also a memorial of the wonderful works which Christ performed during the institution of the Sacrament itself: by miraculously converting the substance of bread and wine into His own body and blood, and by carrying Himself in His own hands, as Saint Augu- The text cuts off; the catchword indicates the author is about to quote St. Augustine.