Chapter VII.—Of the Unction.

After this, when we have issued from the font,52    Lavacro. we are thoroughly anointed with a blessed unction,—(a practice derived) from the old discipline, wherein on entering the priesthood, men were wont to be anointed with oil from a horn, ever since Aaron was anointed by Moses.53    See Ex. xxix. 7; Lev. viii. 12; Ps. cxxxiii. 2. Whence Aaron is called “Christ,”54    i.e. “Anointed.” Aaron, or at least the priest, is actually so called in the LXX., in Lev. iv. 5, 16, ὁ ἱερεὺς ὁ Χριστός: as in the Hebrew it is the word whence Messiah is derived which is used. from the “chrism,” which is “the unction;” which, when made spiritual, furnished an appropriate name to the Lord, because He was “anointed” with the Spirit by God the Father; as written in the Acts: “For truly they were gathered together in this city55    Civitate. against Thy Holy Son whom Thou hast anointed.”56    Acts iv. 27. “In this city” (ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ) is omitted in the English version; and the name ᾽Ιησοῦν, “Jesus,” is omitted by Tertullian. Compare Acts x. 38 and Lev. iv. 18 with Isa. lxi. 1 in the LXX. Thus, too, in our case, the unction runs carnally, (i.e. on the body,) but profits spiritually; in the same way as the act of baptism itself too is carnal, in that we are plunged in water, but the effect spiritual, in that we are freed from sins.

CAPUT 7. Exinde egressi de lavacro perungimur beriedicta unctione de pristina disciplina qua ungui oleo de cornu in sacerdotium solebant, ex quo Aaron a Moyse unctus est. unde christus dicitur a chrismate quod est unctio, quae [et] domino nomen accommodavit, facta spiritalis quia spiritu unctus est a deo patre: sicut in Actis, Collecti sunt enim vero in ista civitate adversus sanctum filium tuum quem unxisti. sic et in nobis carnaliter currit unctio sed spiritaliter proficit, quomodo et ipsius baptismi carnalis actus quod in aqua mergimur, spiritalis effectus quod delictis liberamur.