III

It may be convenient to end this chapter with a brief summary of the doctrinal teaching about the Eucharist found in the writers of the ante-Nicene Church.

1. On the subject of the presence and gift contained in and conveyed by the Eucharist three kinds of language were used as the writers of the Church tried to present to their own minds and in their teaching the ideas conveyed by the doctrine which they had received. In these different groups the phraseology is vague and indefinite about the nature of the spiritual gift which is received, or describes the elements as the figure or symbol of the body and blood of Christ, or identifies them with His body and blood. In some cases instances of more than one of these methods of phraseology, or of all of them, are found in the same writer. In these instances it is most natural and reasonable to understand the less definite language in the light of the more definite; and throughout the writers of the period the identification of the elements with the body and blood of Christ appears to be the ruling idea. Yet it must also be observed that parts of the teaching of Clement of Alexandria and Origen have great affinities with the later opinions of some mystics and even of the Quakers in characteristics which may have been due in some measure to ideas derived from the Greek mysteries.

2. The belief that the Eucharist is a sacrifice is found everywhere. This belief is coupled with strong repudiations of carnal sacrifices; and is saved from being Judaic by the recognition of the elements as Christ’s body and blood, of the union of the action of the Church on earth with that of Christ in heaven, and of the spiritual character of that whole priestly life and service and action of the community as the body of Christ which is a distinguishing mark of the Christian system.