which suffered for our sins, and which the father by his goodness resuscitated. Rejecting, therefore, this gift of God, they die in their disputes." Ep. ad. Smyrn. p. 36. T. ii. PP. Apost. Amstelodami, 1724.-" I take no delight in food that perishes, nor in the pleasures of this life. What I desire is the bread of God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ the son of God,(d) who was born of the seed of David; and I desire the drink of God, his blood, which is charity incorruptible, and eternal life." Ep. ad. Rom. p. 29. • CENT. II. S. JUSTIN,(e) L. C. "OUR prayers being finished, we embrace one another with the kiss of peace. Then to him who presides over the brethren, is presented bread, and wine tempered with water; having received which, he gives glory to the father of all things, in the name of the Son and the Holy Ghost, and returns thanks, in many prayers, that he has (4) ὃς ἐστι σαρξ Ιησε Χριστο. (e) A Christian philosopher, by birth a Greek, who suffered martyrdom at Rome, about the year 166, having, a few years before, addressed two apologies, in favour of the Christians, to the emperor Antoninus Pius and to the Roman senate. In these is contained much curious matter on the doctrine, the manners, and the religious ceremonies of the early Christians. Justin is also author of other works, particularly of a Dialogue with the Jew, named Tryphon... been deemed worthy of these gifts. These offices being duly performed, the whole assembly, in acclamation, answers, Amen; when the ministers, whom we call deacons, distribute to each one present a portion of the blessed bread, and the wine and water. Some is also taken to the absent. This food we call the Eucharist, of which they alone are allowed to partake, who believe the doctrines taught by us, and have been regenerated by water for the remission of sin, and who live as Christ ordained. Nor do we take these gifts, as common bread and common drink; but as Jesus Christ, our Saviour, made man by the word of God, took flesh and blood for our salvation; in the same manner, we have been taught, that the food which has been blessed by the prayer of the words which he spoke. and by which our blood and flesh, in the change, are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus incarnate.(9) The apostles, in the commentaries written by them, which are called Gospels, have delivered, that Jesus so commanded, when taking bread, having given thanks, he said: Do this in remembrance of me: This is my body. In like manner, taking the cup, and giving thanks, he said: This is my blood: and that he distributed both to them only." Apol. I. p. 95, 96, 97. Edit. Londini, an. 1722. S. IRENEUS,(^) L. C. "It is our duty to make an offering to God, and with a (1) οὐ γαρ ὡς κοινον άρτον, οὐδε κοινον πομα. (g) εκείνο το σαρκοποιηθεντος Ιησε και σαρκα και αιμα ἐδιδαχθημεν ειναι. (h) St. Irenæus, though by birth a Greek, was bishop of Lyons in the second century; and in his youth had lived with St. Poly pure heart, a sincere faith, a firm hope, and a fervent charity, to present to the maker of all things the first fruits of his creatures. But this pure oblation the church alone makes. The Jews make it not, for their hands are stained with blood; and they received not the word that is offered to God. Nor do the assemblies of heretics make it: for how can these prove that the bread over which the words of thanksgiving have been pronounced, is the body of their Lord, and the cup his blood," while they do not admit that he is the Son, that is, the Word of the Creator of the world? Or how, again, do they maintain that the flesh turns to corruption and partakes not of life, which is nourished with the body and blood of the Lord? Wherefore let them either give up their opinion, or cease from making that offering. But our sentiment accords with the nature of the eucharist, and the eucharist again confirms our sentiment. The bread that we receive is no longer common bread, but the eucharist, consisting of two things, terrestrial and celestial."(*) Adv. Hær. Lib. iv. c. xxxiv. p. 326, carp, bishop of Smyrna, the disciple of St. John the Evangelist: this brings him near to the apostolic times. In what year he died is not ascertained; probably about the close of the century. He left behind him a Treatise against the Heresies of the Age, in five books. Of this work, which contains much that is highly valuable, and which was written in Greek, a Latin version of great antiquity, but harsh and often obscure, alone remains, some passages excepted, which have been preserved in their original language. Some fragments also are extant. (i) Corpus esse Domini sui, et calicem sanguinis sui. (*) ούκετι κοινος ἀρτος ἐστιν, ἀλλ' ἐυχαριστια, ἐκ δυο πραγματων συνεστηκυία, ἐπιγειου τε και οὐρανίου. The heretics against whom he writes, maintaining that Christ was not the word in the lan 327." They are truly vain (these heretics) who contemn the whole divine system, and denying the salvation and regeneration of the flesh, maintain that it is not susceptible of incorruption. According to this, then, the Lord did not redeem us by his blood; nor is the cup of the eucharist the participation of his blood; nor the bread which we break, the participation of his body. When, therefore, the mingled chalice and the broken bread receive the word of God, they become the eucharist of the body and blood of Christ, by which the substance of our flesh is increased and strengthened: how then can they pretend that this flesh is not susceptible of eternal life? And as a section of the vine laid in the earth produces fruit in due season, and as, in like manner, the grain of corn is multiplied by the blessing of God, which afterwards are used for the benefit of man, and receiving on them the word of God, become the eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ;" so our bodies nourished by that eucharist, and then laid in the earth and dissolved in it, shall in due time rise again." Ibid. L. v. c. 11. p. 395, 397, 399. guage of St. John, by whom the world was made, and that the material things of the world were adverse to Christ-was it consistent in them, he says, to say that Christ by his ordinance, changed the bread and wine into his body and blood, hostile as they were to his nature-which, however, they professed to believe-and that the eucharist thus formed was the offering most acceptable to God? (1) ὁπερ ἐστι σωμα και αιμα του Κριστου. APPENDIX. TERTULLIAN, (m) L. C. UNITY CALIFORNIA Having shewn, in many instances, how anxious our Saviour was to accomplish all that the prophets had foretold concerning him, he adds:-"Professing his ardent desire to eat the pasch as his own, he took the bread, and distributing it to his disciples, he made it his body, saying: This is my body, that is, the figure of my body.(") But it would not have been this figure, had not his body been real; for a thing void of reality, as is a phantom, cannot be represented by a figure and if they say that Christ formed to himself a body of the bread, not having a real body, it was then this bread he was going to sacrifice for us. How stupid is Marcion not to understand that bread was the ancient figure of the body of Jesus Christ, spoken by Jeremiah: They have devised devices against me, saying; Come, let us put wood into his bread,(0) that is, the cross upon his body. Thus Christ, illustrating the ancient figures, sufficiently declared by calling (m) Tertullian was a native and citizen of Carthage, contemporary with St. Irenæus, whom he survived. The zeal and talents with which he defended the Christian cause, and vindicated its faith and discipline, have immortalized his name, which, however, suffered by his defection to the errors of the Montanists. His genuine works are not few, written with great erudition; but of which the style, resembling the asperity of his mind, is inelegant, rude, and often intricate, though always nervous and impressive. (n) Corpus suum illum fecit, Hoc est corpus meum dicendo, id est, figura corporis mei. (0) The reading of the Latin vulgate-Mittamus lignum in panem ejus. |