served in his Church until his second advent is plain, (1.) From his express command given in Luke xxii. 19, and repeated by the Apostle in 1 Corinthians xi. 24. (2.) The design of the ordinance which is declared to be the commemoration of Christ ; the con- stantly repeated proclamation of his expiatory death in the ears of men ; and the communication of the benefits of that death to his people, necessarily assumes that it is to be observed so long as Christ, in the visible manifestation of his person, is absent from his Church. (3.) That the Apostles so understood the command of Christ is plain from their continuing to observe this ordinance to which such frequent reference is made in their writings, under the designations, "breaking of bread," "the Lord's Supper," and " The Lord's table." (4.) The uniform practice of the Church on this subject admits of no other solution, than the appointment of Christ and the authority of the Apostles.
The names given to this sacrament in the early Church were very various. It was called, (1.) EvxapurrLa, not only by the Greeks but also by the Latins, because as Chrysostom says, ttoW&v «mv evepyc- •ny/xarov dva/xvT/o-is.1 It is a solemn thanksgiving for the blessings of redemption. This designation being so appropriate, all Eng- lish speaking Christians are fond of calling it the eucharist. (2.) EvXoyta, for the same reason. The words euxapio-reco and tvXoyeu are interchanged. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other u used for the same act, and hence cu^p"""^ and evXoyia are used in the same sense. In 1 Corinthians x. 16, St. Paul calls the sacra- mental cup to TTonrfipiov -njs cvXoyta?, "the cup of blessing," in allusion to the nD"i2n Dis drunk at the paschal supper. (3.) Ilpoo-.fopd, " offering," because of the gifts or offerings for the poor and for the service of the Church made when the Lord's Supper was cel- ebrated. (4.) ©vo-ta, " sacrifice." Properly, the act of sacrific- ing ; metonymically, the thing sacrificed or the victim ; tropically of anything offered to God, as obedience or praise. In Philip- pians ii. 17, Paul speaks of " the sacrifice and service of faith ; " and in iv. 18, he says that the contributions of the saints were " an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God." And in Hebrews xiii. 15 we read of a Ova-Ca alve<reo)<;, " a sacrifice of praise." The praise was the sacrifice or offering made to God. The Lord's Supper in this sense was at first called a sacrifice, both because it was itself a thank-offering to God and because attended by alms which were regarded as tokens of gratitude to
1 In Mattheum Homilia xxv. [xxvi.] 3 ; Works, edit. Montfaucon, Pans, 1836, yol. vii. p. 352 [310. d].
614 PART IH. Ch. XX. — THE MEANS OF GRACE.
Christ for the benefits of his redemption. Afterwards, it was so called, because it was a commemoration of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross; and finally because it came to be regarded by Romanists as itself an expiatory sacrifice. For this reason the consecrated wafer is by them called " hostia," the host, or victim, because it was assumed to be the true body of Christ offered to God in expiation of the sins of the faithful. (5.) Mwrrrjpuw, something secret, or having a sacred or secret import. As the Lord's Supper was a significant memorial of the greatest of all mysteries, the death of the Son of God upon the cross, it was ap- propriately designated fxva-rrjpiov. This word, however, is applied in its general sense to both sacraments and even to other sacred rites. Another reason may be assigned for this designation. The Lord's Supper was celebrated in secret ; in so far that the pro- miscuous body of attendants on Christian worship was dismissed before the sacrament was administered. (6.) 2uva£is, "the assem- bly," because from the nature of the service it implied the coming together of believers. (7.) " Sacramentum," in the general sense of fivarrjpiovj by way of eminence applied to the Lord's Supper as " the " sacrament. It was also after the idea of the sacrificial character of the eucharist became prevalent, called "sacramen- tum altaris," the sacrament of the altar. This designation sur- vived the doctrine on which it was founded, as it was retained by Luther, who earnestly repudiated the idea that the Lord's Supper is a sacrifice. (8.) " Missa," or mass. This word has been variously explained ; but it is almost universally, at the present time, assumed to come from the words used in dismission of the congregation. " Ite, missa est," " Go, the congregation is dis- missed." First the unconverted hearers were dismissed, and then the catechumens, the baptized faithful only remaining for the communion service. Hence there was in the early Church a "missa infidelium," a "missa catechumenorum," and finally a " missa fidelium." There seems to have been a different service adapted to these several classes of hearers. Hence the word " missa " came to be used in the sense of the Greek word XtiTovpyia or service. As under the Old Testament the offering of sacrifices was the main part of the temple service, so in the Christian Church, when the Lord's Supper was regarded as an expiatory offering, it became the middle point in public worship and was called emphatically the service, or mass. Since the Reformation this has become universal as the designation of the eucharist as celebrated in the Church of Rome.