Those who are experts in such matters say that the virtues are not separate from each other and that it is not possible to grasp one of the virtues properly without attaining to the rest of them, but where one of the virtues is present the others will necessarily follow.
i.e., We have come to the same initiation, we enjoy the same Table. And why said he not, we are nourished by the same body and drink the same blood? Because by saying Spirit, he declared them both, as well the flesh as the blood. For through both are we made to drink of the Spirit.
But to me he appears now to speak of that visitation of the Spirit which takes place in us after Baptism and before the Mysteries. And he said, We were made to drink, because this metaphorical speech suited him extremely well for his proposed subject: as if he had said respecting plants and a garden, that by the same fountain all the trees are watered, or by the same water; so also here, we all drank the same Spirit, we enjoyed the same grace, says he.
If now one Spirit both formed us and gathered us all together into one body; for this is the meaning of, we were baptized into one body: and vouchsafed us one table, and gave us all the same watering, (for this is the meaning of, we were made to drink in...
Paul says this in order not to overlook the humbler members of the church. For even if someone is lesser by nature, he still belongs to the body of the church. .
