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On the Sacraments
St Ambrose of Milan, tr. Thompson, 1919
Book 1, In the Baptismal Rite There Was More Than Appeared to the Outward Eye
Then thou drewest near;1 thou sawest the font, thou sawest also the priest above the font. Nor can I doubt, that this may have occurred to your mind, which occurred to the Syrian Naaman; for, although he was cleansed, yet he doubted previously. Why? I will tell; listen.
Thou didst enter, thou sawest the water, thou sawest the priest, thou sawest a levite. Let not some one haply say, “Is this all?” Yes, it is all. It is truly all,2 where all is innocency, all is godliness, all is grace, all is sanctification. Thou hast seen all that thou couldst see with the eyes of thy body and with human vision. Thou hast not seen the things which are effected, because they cannot be seen. The things which are not seen are far greater than those which are seen; since the things which are seen are temporal, the things which are not seen are eternal.3
Notes
- With this and the following section cf. de Myst. iii. 8.
- Mr. Colson suggests that, as the author in what follows contends that what is visible to the eye is not all that is involved in baptism, a negative answer is required. By removing the full stop after Immo est totum we get the sense, “No, the whole, the true whole, is where all is innocency.”
- 2 Cor. iv. 18. For the quotation cf. de Myst. iii. 8.