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]
(4.) In the interpretation of figurative passages, let the following canon be observed.—
If the passage be preceptive, either forbidding some flagitious deed and some heinous crime, or commanding something useful and beneficent: then such passage is NOT FIGURATIVE. But, if the passage seems, either to command some flagitious deed and some heinous crime, or to forbid something useful and beneficent: then such passage is FIGURATIVE.
Thus, for example, Christ says: Unless ye shall eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye shall have no life in you.
Now, in these words, he seems to command a heinous crime or a flagitious deed. Therefore this passage is a figure. [18d]
10. Theodoret lived in the fifth century.
(1.) Our Saviour interchanged the names: for to his body be gave the name of the SYMBOL, while to the SYMBOL he gave the name of his body; and, having called himself A VINE, he applied the appellation of his blood to the SYMBOL.—Our Lord required: that they, who partake of the divine mysteries, should not attend to the nature of the things which they see; but that, in the change of names, they should believe that change which is wrought by grace: inasmuch as he, who called his own natural body wheat and bread, and who further bestowed upon himself the appellation of a vine, honoured also the viable SYMBOLS with the name of his body and blood; NOT CHANGING THEIR NATURE, BUT ADDING GRACE TO NATURE. [19a]