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"I confess two sacraments in the holy
Church,—one the sacrament of Baptism, and the other the sacrament of the Body
and Blood. The foundation of these two is laid in the flesh of our Lord, and it
is fit that I should explain this for the edification of the sons of the Church.
Peter the Apostle wrote this account, and I am therefore bound to record it
without any alteration. When our Saviour was baptized of John in the river
Jordan, John beheld His greatness, i.e., His Divinity and humanity, and
understood that He did not submit to be baptized on His own account, but in
order to set us an example that we should be baptized even as He was. And this
blessed John was graciously inspired to take from Christ's baptism a little
leaven for our baptism. So when our Lord went up out of the water whilst the
water was yet dripping from His body, John approached our Lord and collected
these drops in a phial; and when the day of his martyrdom arrived he committed
it to his disciple, and commanded him to preserve it with great care until the
time should come when it would be required. This disciple was John the son of
Zebedee, who he knew would become our Lord's steward. Accordingly, after His
baptism, our Lord called John, and made him His beloved disciple; and when He
was about to close His dispensation, and His passion and death drew nigh, on the
evening preceding the Friday He committed His passover to His disciples in the
bread and wine, as it is written, and gave to each a loaf; but to John He gave
two loaves, and put it into his heart to eat one and to preserve the other, that
it might serve as leaven to be retained in the Church for perpetual
commemoration. After this, when our Lord was seized by the Jews, and the
disciples through fear hid themselves, John was the only one who remained. And
when they crucified the Lord in much ignominy with the thieves, John alone was
present, determined to see what would become of Him. Then the chief priests
ordered that the crucified ones should be taken down from the cross, and that
their legs should be broken, in order that if yet alive they might die outright.
The soldiers did this to the thieves, but when they came to our Lord and found
that He was dead already, they brake not His legs, but one of them with a spear
pierced His side, and straightway there came out blood and water, of which John
was witness. Now this blood is a token of the sacrament of the Body and Blood in
the Church, and the water is a token of the new birth in believers. John was the
only one who perceived this sepa-rateness of the water and the blood, and he
bare true witness thereof, as he says, that we might believe. He declares that
he saw them unmixed, and that he did not take of them together, but of each
separately. He took of the blood upon the loaf which he had reserved from the
paschal feast, and he took of the water in that same vessel which had been
committed to him by John the Baptist. The very blood of His body, therefore,
mixed with the bread which He had called His body, and the water from His side
mingled with the water of His baptism. After He rose from the grave and ascended
up in glory to His Father, and sent the grace of His Spirit upon His disciples
to endow them with wisdom, He commanded His apostles to ordain in His Church
that same leaven which they had taken from His body to be for the sacrament of
His Body, and also for the sacrament of Baptism. And when the disciples went
forth to convert the nations, they divided this leaven amongst themselves, and
they took oil of unction and mixed it with the water which was kept in the
vessel, and they divided this also amongst themselves to be a leaven for
Baptism. The loaf which John had, and which was mixed with the blood which
flowed from His side, they bruised into powder, then mixed it with flour and
salt, and divided it among them, each portion being put into a separate vessel
to serve as leaven for the Body and Blood of Christ in the Church. This is the
account which I have read, which bore the sign of Peter, and I have written it
as I found it for the benefit of such as may read this our Epistle. The
presbyter Rabban Shimoon, who first related the narrative to me, and then
afterwards showed me the written account, can witness to the truth." |
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