For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
Read Chapter 12
Ambrose of Milan
AD 397
There is one work because there is one mystery, there is one baptism because there was one death for the world. There is a unity of outlook which cannot be separated. .
And again he writes in another place: "For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free, and we have all drunk of one cup."
You are all one in Christ Jesus. It is not that some are enlightened gnostics and others less perfect spirituals. Everyone, putting aside all carnal desires, is equal and spiritual before the Lord. .
For by one Spirit are we all baptized. He proves that Christ is one body with many members from baptism, for by baptism we were regenerate, and incorporated into the one body of the Church, and therefore into Christ. In that body we live by the same Spirit, the Spirit of Christ; and on the same food, the Eucharist, we are fed, whether we are Jews or Gentiles, bond or free. Notice the phrase "into one body:" this body is the Church, and consequently we are baptized into Christ, who, as I have said, is in a sense the body of the Church.
And have been all made to drink into one Spirit. In the Eucharistic chalice we have quaffed, together with Christ"s blood, His Spirit. Hence some Greek copies read, "We have all drunk of one draught." Cf. Clemens Alex. Pdag. lib. i. c6. The meaning is that from it we all partake of one and the same Spirit of Christ, who, by abiding in all, quickens every member, and makes it perform duly its function. In other words, not only were we born and incorporate...
Now his meaning is this: that which established us to become one body and regenerated us, is one Spirit: for not in one Spirit was one baptized, and another another. And not only is that which has baptized us one, but also that unto which He baptized us, i.e., for which He baptized us, is one. For we were baptized not that so many several bodies might be formed, but that we might all preserve one with another the perfect nature of one body: i.e., that we might all be one body, into the same were we baptized.
So that both He who formed it is one, and that into which He formed it is one. And he said not, that we might all come to be of the same body; but, that we might all be one body. For he ever strives to use the more expressive phrases. And well said he, we all, adding also himself. For not even I, the Apostle, have any more than thou in this respect, says he. For you are the body even as I, and I even as thou, and we have all the same Head and have passed through the same birth-p...
