But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of His body. For blood can only come from veins and flesh, and whatsoever else makes up the substance of man, such as the Word of God was actually made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His apostle declares, \u201cIn whom we have redemption through His blood, even the remission of sins.\u201d And as we are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and sends rain when He wills). He has acknowledged the cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our bodies.<\/p>\n
When, therefore, the mingled cup and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ, from which things the substance of our flesh is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member of Him?\u2014even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the Ephesians, that \u201cwe are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones.\u201d<\/p>\n
And just as a cutting from the vine planted in the ground fructifies in its season, or as a corn of wheat falling into the earth and becoming decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God, who contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God, serves for the use of men, and having received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition there, shall rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them resurrection to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to this mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption, because the strength of God is made perfect in weakness, in order that we may never become puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against God, our minds becoming ungrateful;<\/p>\n
–Against Heresies Bk. V. Ch. II.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
But vain in every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His blood, nor the bread which we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[66],"class_list":["post-405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-irenaeus","tag-eucharist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":281,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/justin-martyr-the-eucharist\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":0},"title":"Justin Martyr On The Eucharist","author":"Nemo","date":"January 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Eucharist, of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Justin Martyr"","block_context":{"text":"Justin Martyr","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/justin-martyr\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-the-eucharist\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":1},"title":"Clement Of Alexandria: The Eucharist","author":"Nemo","date":"February 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The natural, temperate, and necessary beverage, for the thirsty is water. This was the simple drink of sobriety, which, flowing from the smitten rock, was supplied by the Lord to the ancient Hebrews. For the blood of the grape\u2014that is, the Word\u2014desired to be mixed with water, as His blood\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clement of Alexandria"","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":207,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/irenaeus-against-heresies\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":2},"title":"Irenaeus: Against Heresies","author":"Nemo","date":"January 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Conscience in Sacrifice For at the beginning God had respect to the gifts of Abel, because he offered with single-mindedness and righteousness; but He had no respect unto the offering of Cain, because his heart was divided with envy and malice, which he cherished against his brother, as God says\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Irenaeus"","block_context":{"text":"Irenaeus","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/irenaeus\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":676,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/clement-of-alexandria-mystery-of-the-eucharist\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":3},"title":"Clement of Alexandria: Mystery of the Eucharist","author":"Nemo","date":"January 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The holy Apostle Paul says, preserving the prophetic and truly ancient secret from which the teachings that were good were derived by the Greeks: \u201cHowbeit we speak wisdom among them who are perfect; but not the wisdom of this world, or of the princes of this world, that come to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clement of Alexandria"","block_context":{"text":"Clement of Alexandria","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/clement-of-alexandria\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1275,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/on-the-rule-of-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":4},"title":"On the Rule of Faith","author":"Nemo","date":"October 17, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Aristides"","block_context":{"text":"Aristides","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/aristides\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21856,"url":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/the-passover-controversy\/","url_meta":{"origin":405,"position":5},"title":"The Passover Controversy","author":"Nemo","date":"January 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A question of no small importance arose at that time. For the parishes of all Asia, as from an older tradition, held that the fourteenth day of the moon, when the Jews were commanded to sacrifice the lamb, should be observed as the feast of the Saviour\u2019s passover, on which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eusebius of Caesarea"","block_context":{"text":"Eusebius of Caesarea","link":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/category\/eusebius\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peqR9l-6x","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nemoslibrary.com\/patristics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}