§ 96. THE SACEIFICE OF THE EUCHARIST, 507
gy of St. James : " We offer to Thee, O Lord, tliis awful and iinblcody sacrifice." Tlie more surprising is it that the people should have been indifferent to so solemn an act, and that Chrysostom should lament : " In vain is the daily sacrifice, in vain stand we at the altar ; there is no one to take part." *
2. It is not a new sacrifice added to that of the cross, but a daily, unbloody repetition and perpetual application of that one only sacrifice. Augustine represents it, on the one hand, a? a sacramentum memoi'ice, a symbolical commemoration of the sacrificial death of Christ ; to which of course there is no objection.'' But, on the other hand, he calls the celebration of the communion verissimum sacrificiuin, of the body of Christ. The church, he says, offers {iTnmolat) to God the sacrifice oi thanks in the body of Christ, from the days of the apostles through the sure succession of the bishops down to our time. But the church at the same time offers, with Christ, herself, as the body of Christ, to God. As all are one body, so also all are together the same sacrifice.^ According to Chrysostom the same Christ, and the whole Christ, is everywhere offered. It is not a different sacrifice from that which the High Priest formerly offered, but w^e offer always the same sacrifice, or rather, we perform a memorial of this sacrifice.'' This last clause would decidedly favor a symbolical conception, if Chrysostom
* Horn. iii. in Ep. ad Ephes, (new Par. Bened. ed. torn. xi. p. 26) : EiVj) Stvaia Ka^VfiepivT], (Ik'p irapecTTriKafj.ev rco dvirtaaTT/jplco, ouSels 6 fierixo'V, i. e., Frustra est quotidianum sacrificiuin, frustra adstamus altari : nemo est qui participet.
* CoDtr. Faust. Manich. 1. xx. 18: "Unde jam Ghnsiiimx, peracti ejusdem sacrificii memoriam celebrant, sacrosancta oblatione et participatione corporis et sanguinis Christi." Comp. 1. xx. 21. This agrees with Augustine's symbolical conception of the consecrated elements as signa, imagines, similitudines corporis et sanguinia Christi. Steitz, L c. p. 379, would make him altogether a symbolist, but does not succeed; comp. the preceding section, and Neander, Dogmengesch. i. p. 432.
' De civit. Dei, x. 20: "Per hoc [homo Jesus Christus] et sacerdos est ipse offerens, ipse et oblatio. Cujus rei sacramentum quotidianum esse voluit ecclesiae Bacrificium, quae cum Ipsius capitis corpus sit, se ipsam per ipsum offere discit." And the faithful in heaven form with us one sacrifice, since they with us are one civitas Dei.
* Horn. xvii. in Ep, ad Hebr. torn. xii. pp. 241 and 242: Tovro yhp ttoiuti. (tT/crlr, ils TTiv Ifxriv avifAVtiffiv. Ohtc &\K7\v ^valf.v, Ka^dirfp b apxup^vi Tore, a\Xi
508 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
in other places had not used such strong expressions as this '• "When thou seest the Lord slain, and lying there, and the priest standing at the sacrifice," or : " Christ lies slain upon the altar." '
3. Tlie sacrifice is the anti-type of the Mosaic sacrifice, and Is related to it as substance to typical shadows. It is also especiall}" foreshadowed by Melchizedek's unbloody offering of bread and wine. The sacrifice of Melchizedek is therefore made of great account by Hilary, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom, and other church fathers, on the strength of the wellknown parallel in tlie seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.
4. The subject of the sacrifice is the body of Jesus Christ, which is as truly present on the altar of the church, as it once was on the altar of the cross, and which now offers itself to God through his priest. Hence the frequent language of the liturgies: "Thou art he who offerest, and who art offered, O Christ, our God." Augustine, however, connects with this, as we have already said, the true and important moral idea of the self-sacrifice of the whole redeemed churcli to God. The prayers of the liturgies do the same.^
5. The offering of the sacrifice is the exclusive prerogative of the Christian priest. Later Roman divines take the words : "This do {TroietTe) in remembrance of me," as equivalent to: "This qfer,''^ and limit this command to the apostles and their successors in ofiice, whereas it is evidently an exhortation to all
' De sacerd. iii. c. 4 (torn. i. 467): "Orav ISris rhv Kvptov tf^vfxivov Kai Kfl^ufvoi', Kai rhi/ Ifpia i(pe<TTc!>Ta tw dv/Mari, koI iTrevx6fJLiV0V, K.T.A.. Homil. XV. ad Popul. Antioch. c. 5 (torn. ii. p. 187): "Ei/Sa & Xpiirrhs Kilrai rt^vfifvos. Comp. Horn, in torn. ii. p. 394, where it is said of the sacrifice of the Eucharist : Qvaia irpofffpxv ippiKTii Kol ayid ' iatpayixevos irpoKfirai 6 KpiarSi.
' Freeman regards this as the main thing in the old liturgies. " In all liturgies," Bays he, 1. c. p. 190, "the Church has manifestly two distinct though closely connected objects in view. The first is, to offer herself in Christ to God ; or leather, it strictness and as the highest conception of her aim, to procure that she may be offered by Christ Himself, and as in Christ, to the Father. And the second object, as the crowning and completing feature of the rite, and woven up with the other in one unbroken chain of service, is to obtain communion through Christ with God ; or, more precisely again, that Christ may Himself give Iier, through Himvlf, s^ich com munion.''^