passage to a glorious life, had something forthwith suited to a glorious life. Comp. 1 Tim. iii. 16, note. Hence the annuncia tion (" showing forth") of the Lord's death comprises His whole history, even that of His burial and resurrection (with which latter the burial is closely connected, 1 Cor. xv. 4), that of His ascension, that of His sitting at the right hand of God until He come : 1 Cor. xi. 26. The great Shepherd of the sheep was brought from the dead, but the covenant, in the blood of which He was brought, is eternal, ch. xiii. 20. From this it is plain, that John has described with great propriety the Lamb, seen by him in His life and glory, as slain.
§ 7. This same fact was acknowledged by the ancient Doctors of the Church.
The fathers generally agreed, that the body of the Lord is now bloodless, nay, even aerial: see Magnif. Pfaffii diss. c. Roger, p. 50; and from this point some have descended even to too great subtlety. The author of the questions among the works of Athanasius, T. ii., f. 433, qu. 128, says, " The men of old themselves, and the ancient prophets, were baptized with that blood and water which flowed from the side of Christ. And how ? Listen : Since the human body consists of four elements, it is again resolved into the same after death. So it happened also with Christ : because His holy side gave forth its blood and water, they were resolved, as those of the prophets were resolved, namely, into elements; and He thus baptized these (the elements of the prophets, etc.) when found, etc. Theodorus Abucaras has furnished a paraphrase to this philosophic observation, to whom alone Ittigius ascribes it in the Exercitation, in which he both publishes and refutes the little w7ork of Abucaras. To be resolved into elements, — what is that, but to be subjected to corrup tion ? But away with any thought of this kind concerning the blood of the Lord. These writers would not have fallen into this mistake, if they had learned from older authors, that the blood was put into His body when He rose from the dead. I know not whether this restoration of the blood was even acknow ledged by the fathers (the proof [onus probandi] lies with him who maintains the acknowledgment), or at least that it is to be found brought forward before that communion in one kind (at length in the 13th and 14th cent.) began to prevail ; to the de-