“For the spiritual power of a sacrament is like light in this way: it is both received pure by those to be enlightened, and if it passes through the impure it is not defiled.”

— Aurelius Augustinus

Tractates on the Gospel of John; tractate V on John 1:33, §15; translation by R. Willems <br class="br">Compare: <br class="br">The sun, too, shines into cesspools and is not polluted. <br class="br">Diogenes Laërtius, Lib. vi. section 63 <br class="br">A very weighty argument is this — namely, that neither does the light which descends from thence, chiefly upon the world, mix itself with anything, nor admit of dirtiness or pollution, but remains entirely, and in all things that are, free from defilement, admixture, and suffering. <br class="br">Julian, in Upon the Sovereign Sun http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/julian_apostate_1_sun.htm, (c. December 362), as translated by C. W. King in Julian the Emperor (1888) - Full text online http://www.archive.org/details/julianemperorco00juligoog <br class="br">The sun, which passeth through pollutions and itself remains as pure as before. <br class="br">Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning, Book II (1605)

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Aurelius Augustinus183

early Christian theologian and philosopher 354–430

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