st. john of damascus (676-749 - Cristo Raul

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128 ST. JOHN OF DAMASCUS
of God, and from wine into the blood of God
(c. xxxv.). 1
His closing words are an exhortation to watchful
ness, enforced by the parable of the Ten Virgins.
So watching,"
he ends, with our lamps brightly
burning, we shall go forth in bright array to meet the
vanquisher of death, the immortal Bridegroom and
;
we shall be welcomed in the bridechamber undefiled,
and with face unveiled shall look upon the glory of
the Lord, and luxuriate in His beauty ;
with whom
to the Father and the Holy Spirit be glory, honour,
adoration, and majesty, now, henceforth, and for ever.
Amen."
After analysing so minutely the first four homilies,
there is the less need to notice the others in detail.
The next two in order are on the Annunciation. 2
1
What inferences can be drawn from Damascenus s use of
the word "changed" (^fra7roioj;jUvoi ) in this connection is
a question
that has been partly discussed above, p. 83 n.
Petrie, commenting on the parallel passage in the De Fide"
(c. xiv) quotes him as saying, "By invocation, and by working
of the Holy Ghost, the Bread and Wine and Water are supernaturally
changed into the Body and Blood of "
The
Christ."
Papishes," adds the old Scotsman, "make use of this testimony
for their Transubstantiation but there is also a
; supernatural
change of the Water in Baptism, and yet no Transubstantia
tion ;
neither do the Greeks believe it to this day, but only a
mystical change in regard of the use and " effect." Compendious
History of the Catholick Church," 1662, part i., p. 88.
8
The first of these bears no number in Migne s edition, the
next counting as the fifth of the series. For greater precision,
I have reckoned them as the fifth and sixth, making fourteen in
all.