TERTULLIAN insists no less on the continuity and unity of the Church as a guarantee of true doctrine.

In the book, to which he gave the legal title of Præscriptio Hæreticorum, he objects (præscribit) against all heretics, that they are, by their own showing, innovators, breaking the continuity of the tradition of doctrine, and therefore not to be listened to.

To their new-fangled notions he opposes the constancy and continuity of the Church's tradition of doctrine :

The Apostles, having estab lished the faith in Jesus Christ, and founded churches throughout Judea, travelled thence into all the world, preaching the same doctrines of the same creed to all

Cap. xx. Apostoli . . . primo per Judæam contestatâ fide in Jesum Christum et ecclesiis institutis, dehinc in orbem profecti eandem doctrinam ejusdem fidei nationibus promulgaverunt. Et perinde ecclesias apud unam- nations. They founded churches quamque civitatem condiderunt, in every city, and from these a quibus traducem fidei et semina doctrinæ cæteræ exinde ecclesiæ mutuatæ sunt, et quotidie mutuantur, ut ecclesiæ fiant. Ac per hoc et ipsæ apostolicæ deputabuntur ut soboles apostolicarum ecclesiarum. Omne genus ad originem suam censeatur necesse est. Itaque tot ac tantæ ecclesiæ una est illa ab apostolis prima, ex quâ omnes.

And

other churches in turn have bor-
rowed, and are daily borrowing,
offshoots of the faith and seeds of
doctrine, that they may be thus
constituted true churches.
by this process of propagation
they will be themselves deemed
Apostolic, as being the offspring
of Apostolic churches. Every
kind or genus must necessarily be
classified under its origin. There-
fore it is that all these numerous
churches are that one primitive
church dating from the Apostles,
from which they have all been
derived.

Thus clearly did the early Fathers reconcile the two ideas of independent national Churches and one Holy Catholic Church; Tertullian's rule of propagation is the key to the reconciliation. The student who wishes to prosecute the subject further must consult Cyprian De Unitate Ecclesiæ and St. Augustine's great work De Civitate Dei.

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE EUCHARIST AS SET FORTH

BY THE EARLY FATHERS.

No one who is at all conversant with the Christian literature of the first four centuries can fail to allow that the early Fathers habitually speak of the Eucharist as a Sacrifice or Oblation, and no less habitually affirm that we therein receive the Body and Blood of Christ.

Clearly it is of importance to ascertain in what sense they used this language. The following extracts may help the student to judge for himself in this matter.

The limitations of my space, and still more the limitations of my own reading, oblige me to be content with a very few extracts; but scanty though they be, they have been useful to me, and may be perhaps useful to the readers for whose benefit this book is intended. At any rate, the extracts are, I believe, honestly and fairly made.

The first extract shall be the very famous passage in the Apology of JUSTIN MARTYR (died about A.D. 164). If his language seem enigmatical, we must remember that he was addressing the Roman Emperor, and would not choose to explain to him very fully the Christian mysteries. (Apologia I. c. 65, 66.)

He is describing their form of worship on the Sunday,τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου λεγομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ—

Ἔπειτα προσφέρεται τῷ προεστῶτι τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἄρτος καὶ ποτήριον ὕδατος καὶ κράματος, καὶ οὗτος λαβὼν, αἶνον καὶ δόξαν τῷ πατρὶ τῶν ὅλων διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ υἱοῦ καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου ἀναπέμπει, καὶ εὐχαριστίαν ὑπὲρ τοῦ

Next there is brought to him who presides over the brethren, bread and a cup of water and wine ; and the president, after receiving it, offers up praise and glory to the Father of all through the name of the Son and of the

τὰς εὐχὰς καὶ τὴν εὐχαριστίαν, πᾶς ὁ παρὼν λαὸς ἐπευφημεῖ λέγων· ̓Αμήν. Τὸ δὲ ἀμὴν τῇ Εβραΐδι φωνῇ τὸ γένοιτο σημαίνει. Εὐχαριστήσαντος δὲ τοῦ προεστῶτος καὶ ἐπευφημήσαντος παντὸς τοῦ λαοῦ οἱ καλούμενοι παρ' ἡμῖν διάκονοι διδόασιν ἑκάστῳ τῶν παρόντων με ταλαβεῖν ἀπὸ τοῦ εὐχαριστηθέντος ἄρτου καὶ οἴνου καὶ ὕδατος, καὶ τοῖς οὐ παροῦσιν ἀποφέρουσι.

κατηξιῶσθαι τούτων παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ Holy Ghost, and makes a lengthπολὺ ποιεῖται· οὗ συντελέσαντος ened thanksgiving to God for having vouchsafed to bestow these fruits of the earth upon us. And when he has concluded the prayers and thanksgiving, all the people present assent, saying Amen. (Amen in Hebrew means “So be it.”) So when the president has offered thanks, and all the people have thus assented, those whom we call deacons give to every one present a share of the bread so sanctified by thanksgiving, and of the wine and water, and they carry away some of it for those who are not present.

Καὶ ἡ τροφὴ αὕτη καλεῖται παρ' ἡμῖν εὐχαριστία, τῆς οὐδενὶ ἄλλῳ μετασχεῖν ἐξόν ἐστιν ἢ τῷ πιστεύοντι ἀληθῆ εἶναι τὰ δεδιδαγμένα ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν, καὶ λουσαμένῳ τὸ ὑπὲρ ἀφέσεως ἁμαρτιῶν καὶ εἰς ἀναγέννησιν λουτρόν, καὶ οὕτως βιοῦντι ὡς ὁ Χριστὸς παρέδωκεν. Οὐ γὰρ ὡς κοινὸν ἄρτον οὐδὲ κοινὸν πόμα ταῦτα λαμβάνομεν· ἀλλ ̓ ὃν τρόπον διὰ λόγου Θεοῦ σαρκοποιηθεὶς Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν καὶ σάρκα καὶ αἷμα ὑπὲρ σωτηρίας ἡμῶν ἔσχεν, οὕτως καὶ τὴν δ ̓ εὐχῆς λόγου τοῦ παρ ̓ αὐτοῦ εὐχαριστηθεί σαν τροφήν, ἐξ ἧς αἷμα καὶ σάρκες κατὰ μεταβολὴν τρέφονται ἡμῶν, ἐκείνου τοῦ σαρκοποιηθέντος Ἰησοῦ καὶ σάρκα καὶ αἷμα ἐδιδάχθημεν εἶναι.

And this food is called among us a Eucharist. No one may partake of it unless he believe in the truth of our doctrines, and have been washed in baptism for the remission of sins and for regeneration, and be living according to Christ's commandments.

For we do not receive these as common bread or common beverage.

But as [by assimilating food] through the operation of the Word of God, our Saviour Jesus Christ, after His incarnation, acquired flesh and blood for our salvation, even so also the food which has received the benediction of that same Word of His in prayer, and which is converted by a like process of assimilation into our flesh and blood, we have learned to regard as the flesh and blood of Him the incarnate Jesus.

In this most interesting passage we have to notice, first, that in the early half of the second century, within a few years of the death of the last Apostle, the Eucharist is clearly spoken of as the central act of Christian worship every Lord's Day; and next, the idea that these early Christians regarded it as a merely commemorative feast is absolutely precluded by this very careful and almost laboured enunciation of its doctrinal import. But what is the doctrine? Clearly the writer had no belief in any transubstantiation of the bread and wine: had he believed in their transubstantiation, he would not have said-" We do not receive them as common bread or common wine ;" but rather "we do not receive them as being bread and wine at all." Further, the phrase, “We have learned to regard them as the Body and Blood of the incarnate Jesus," is immediately explained to mean whatever the words of Institution meant, neither more nor less. The idea which those words of Christ conveyed to Justin's mind seems to have been this: that as Christ's human body on earth was nourished by bread and wine, and as our human bodies are nourished by bread and wine, so Christ consecrated bread and wine to be a connecting link between Himself and us, and that the power of His divine Word effects this. Further than this the passage goes not. But there

are other allusions to the Eucharist in Justin which help to show how utterly foreign to his mind was that notion which, in the ninth century, came to be called transubstantiation. In the Dialogue with Trypho (p. 296, or cap. 70), after quoting some words of Isaiah (xxxiii. 16), he says—

ὅτι μὲν οὖν καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ προφητείᾳ περὶ τοῦ ἄρτου, ὃν παρέδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ ἡμέτερος Χριστὸς ποιεῖν εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τοῦ τε σωματοποιήσασ θαι αὐτόν διὰ τοὺς πιστεύοντας εἰς αὐτόν, δι οὓς καὶ παθητὸς γέγονε, καὶ περὶ τοῦ ποτηρίου, δ εἰς ἀνάμνησιν τοῦ αἵματος αὐτοῦ παρέδωκεν εὐχαριστοῦντας ποιεῖν, φαίνεται.

It is clear that in this prophecy there is a reference to the Bread which our Christ enjoined us to consecrate in remembrance of the Body He had assumed on behalf of the believers for whom He suffered, and to the Cup which He enjoined us to consecrate with thanksgiving in remembrance of His blood.

Here Justin takes up our Lord's words" Do this in remembrance of Me," and uses them as meaning " Consecrate bread in remembrance of My Body; consecrate wine in remembrance of My Blood.” In this passage, therefore, we see clearly in what sense he understood our Lord's words— "This is My Body."

In an earlier passage of the same Dialogue (p. 26o, cap. 41), after quoting Malachi i. 11-" In every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering" (a passage which the Fathers always refer to the Eucharist), Justin speaks of the Eucharist as a sacrifice (θυσία) offered (προσφερομένη) to God :

:

περὶ δὲ τῶν ἐν παντὶ τόπῳ ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν τῶν ἐθνῶν προσφερομένων αὐτῷ θυσιῶν, τουτέστι τοῦ ἄρτου τῆς εὐχαριστίας καὶ τοῦ ποτηρίου ὁμοίως τῆς εὐχαριστίας, προλέγει.

Scripture is here speaking beforehand of those sacrifices which are now being offered by us Gentiles in every place unto God, that is, the bread of the Eucharist, and the cup of the Eucharist.

But in what sense does Justin call it a sacrifice and oblation? Only a few lines before we find words which seem to