om the same things of which we are
made, but they do not come to us in the same way; for those out of
which we are made come to us through generation, while the same, as
nourishing us, come to us through being eaten. Hence, as we are
new-born in Christ through Baptism, so through the Eucharist we eat
Christ.

Reply Obj. 2: The Eucharist is the perfect sacrament of our Lord's
Passion, as containing Christ crucified; consequently it could not be
instituted before the Incarnation; but then there was room for only
such sacraments as were prefigurative of the Lord's Passion.

Reply Obj. 3: This sacrament was instituted during the supper, so as
in the future to be a memorial of our Lord's Passion as accomplished.
Hence He said expressively: "As often as ye shall do these things"
[*Cf. Canon of the Mass], speaking of the future.

Reply Obj. 4: The institution responds to the order of intention. But
the sacrament of the Eucharist, although after Baptism in the
receiving, is yet previous to it in intention; and therefore it
behooved to be instituted first. Or else it can be said that Baptism
was already instituted in Christ's Baptism; hence some were already
baptized with Christ's Baptism, as we read in John 3:22.
_______________________

SIXTH ARTICLE [III, Q. 73, Art. 6]

Whether the Paschal Lamb Was the Chief Figure of This Sacrament?

Objection 1: It seems that the Paschal Lamb was not the chief figure
of this sacrament, because (Ps. 109:4) Christ is called "a priest
according to the order of Melchisedech," since Melchisedech bore the
figure of Christ's sacrifice, in offering bread and wine. But the
expression of likeness causes one thing to be named from another.
Therefore, it seems that Melchisedech's offering was the _principal_
figure of this sacrament.

Obj. 2: Further, the passage of the Red Sea was a figure of Baptism,
according to 1 Cor. 10:2: "All . . . were baptized in the cloud and
in the sea." But the immolation of the Paschal Lamb was previous to
the passage of the Red Sea, and the Manna came after it, just as the
Eucharist follows Baptism. Therefore the Manna is a more expressive
figure of this sacrament than the Paschal Lamb.

Obj. 3: Further, the principal power of this sacrament is that it
brings us into the kingdom of heaven, being a kind of "viaticum." But
this was chiefly prefigured in the sacrament of expiation when the
"high-priest entered once a year into the Holy of Holies with blood,"
as t