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 2
 
 The Church: 
 
 its Ministry and Authority 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. DARWELL STONE, M.A. 
 
 PRINCIPAL OF DORCHESTER MISSIONARY COLLEGE 
 
 R I V I N G T O N S 
 
 34 AVNG STREET, CO VENT GARDEN 
 
 LONDON 
 
 I 902
 
 PREFACE 
 
 This book is an attempt to state in a short and clear 
 form the facts and doctrine with regard to the Church 
 contained in Holy Scripture and later history. The 
 scope of it forbids any extensive citing of authorities ; 
 a few references are given in the hope that they may 
 supply a help to further study on the part of those who 
 have opportunity.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. Anticipations of the Church before the teach- 
 ing of Christ, ...... 1 
 
 II. The Church in the Gospels, .... 6 
 
 III. The Church in the Acts of the Apostles, . 17 
 IV. The Church in the Epistles and the Revela- 
 tion, 28 
 
 V. The Church in History later than the New 
 
 Testament : A visible society, ... 37 
 VI. The Church in History later than the New 
 
 Testament: Unity, 44 
 
 VII. The Church in History later than the New 
 
 Testament : Holiness, .... 56 
 VIII. The Church in History later than the New 
 
 Testament : Catholicity, .... 58 
 IX. The Church in History later than the New 
 
 Testament: Apostolicity, .... 60 
 X. Priesthood in natural religion and in the 
 
 nation of Israel, 65 
 
 XI. The High Priesthood of Christ and the 
 
 priestly character of the Christian Church, 69 
 XII. The Apostles and the Church, ... 76 
 
 XIII. The Ministry in the New Testament, . . 81 
 
 XIV. The Ministry in History later than the New 
 
 Testament, ...... 91 
 
 XV. The Authority of the Church as shown in the 
 
 New Testament, . . . . .112 
 
 XVI. The Authority of the Church in History later 
 
 than the New Testament, ... 115 
 
 Index 123
 
 THE CHURCH: ITS MINISTRY 
 AND AUTHORITY 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ANTICIPATIONS OF THE CHURCH 
 BEFORE THE TEACHING OF CHRIST 
 
 Introductory. — The description of the Church contained 
 in the New Testament is one of surpassing grandeur. It 
 is there represented as the kingdom and family and 
 household of God the Father, as the body of God the 
 Son made Man, and as the temple and home of God the 
 Holy Ghost. It would have been altogether contrary to 
 the general method of the divine working in nature and 
 in grace if so splendid and so overwhelming an idea had 
 been given to the world without any work of preparation 
 or without fitting surroundings in which it might live and 
 from which it might extend. And, as a matter of fact, 
 the preparation had lasted for many centuries ; and it 
 was amid surroundings in which this had been most fully 
 carried out that the Church was proclaimed and began 
 to be. 
 
 The Preaching- of S. John the Baptist. — As S. John the 
 Baptist was the herald and forerunner of the teaching 
 and work of our Lord generally, so also was he of the 
 Church in particular. It was part of his office to fore- 
 tell and proclaim the coming of the Saviour who as the 
 Lamb of God should redeem mankind (Luke iii. 6 ; 
 John i. 36). It was another part of it to preach and to 
 administer that baptism of repentance which supplied 
 the final stage in the preparation for the institution of 
 the Christian Sacrament of Baptism (Matt. iii. 6, 11 ;
 
 2 THE CHURCH 
 
 Mark i. 4, 5, 8 ; Luke iii. 3, 1, 16 ; John i. 33). Besides 
 this proclamation of the atoning work which was to give 
 meaning to the existence of the Church and this prepara- 
 tion for the Sacrament which was to form the means of 
 admission to it and the power which should unite its 
 members to one another and to God, S. John the Baptist 
 declared the coming of the kingdom of heaven. *^In 
 those days,' says S. Matthew, '^cometh John the Baptist, 
 preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, saying. Repent 
 ye ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ' (Matt. iii. 
 1, 2). He described Him of whom he was the fore- 
 runner as a King for whom, as for an Eastern monarch, 
 the way must be prepared. ' For this is that which was 
 spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying. The voice of one 
 crying in the wilderness. Make ye ready the way of the 
 Lord, make His paths straight' (Matt. iii. 8). He 
 depicted this King as carrying out a work of justice, as 
 One ' whose fan is in His hand, and He will throughly 
 cleanse His threshing-floor ; and He will gather His 
 wheat into the garner, but the chaff He will burn up 
 with unquenchable fire' (Matt. iii. 12). And it is to 
 be noticed that, when our Lord joined the beginning of 
 His own ministry to the close of that of S. John the 
 Baptist, it was in the preaching about the kingdom that 
 He made the link. ' From that time,' says S. Matthew, 
 ' began Jesus to preach, and to say. Repent ye ; for the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand ' (Matt. iv. 17). ' After 
 that John was delivered up,' says S. Mark, '^ Jesus came 
 into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying. 
 The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand : 
 repent ye, and believe in the gospel ' (Mark i. 14, 15). 
 
 Jewish Anticipations in the Old Testament. — The idea of 
 a divine kingdom was not new when S. John the Baptist 
 began to preach. The conception of the world which 
 the Old Testament suggests is that of a kingdom under 
 the rule of God. The purpose of creation was that God 
 might receive the service of created beings, and that in 
 this service they might themselves attain their highest 
 good. When the fulfilment of the purpose was for the 
 time interrupted by the introduction of sin in the Fall, 
 and by the subsequent growth of wickedness, the idea
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 3 
 
 of a moral kingdom was preserved by the promise of 
 redemption. The call of Abraham and the choice of the 
 nation of Israel eventually led to the establishment of 
 an earthly kingdom. This kingdom throughout had 
 a typical significance. The ideal of the ruler was of 
 one who was the instrument and representative of God, 
 w^hose rule w as based on divine ordinances and guided 
 by the divine will, of whom it could be said that God 
 was his Father (2 Sam. vii. 14). As the revelation con- 
 tained in the Old Testament was gradually developed, 
 the character of the future kingdom, of which the earthly 
 Jewish kingdom was the type, was more clearly shown. 
 It had been foretold to Abraham that the blessing granted 
 to him and to his seed should extend to all mankind 
 (Gen. xii. 8, xviii. 18, xxii. IB), and that kings should 
 be among his descendants (Gen. xvii. 6). As the picture 
 of the future kingdom grows in fulness, it is seen that 
 a deliverer and ruler, the descendant of Abraham and 
 David, who, in addition to being the servant of the 
 Lord, will also Himself be of superhuman character and 
 authority, is to rule over Gentiles as well as Jews. The 
 ' kingdom of priests,' which the ' holy nation ' of Israel 
 forjned (Ex. xix. 6), was a prophetical type of a spiritual 
 kingdom w^hich should be world-wide and include all 
 nations ; and the ideal king, the characteristics of whom 
 were found only imperfectly in the best Jewish kings, 
 was an anticipation of the spiritual monarch who should 
 be both the deliverer from sin and the ruler of those 
 whom He had redeemed. Thus, the failure of the Jewish 
 kings and people to attain to the high ideal set before 
 them gave emphasis to the anticipations of psalmists and 
 prophets that there should be a kingdom of righteous- 
 ness in which the divine purpose should be fulfilled and 
 which should last for ever {e.g. Ps. Ixxii. ; Dan. vii. 13 ; 
 Zech. vi. 13). 1 
 
 Later Jewish Anticipations : The ^ Psalms of Solomon, ' — 
 There are many indications that this idea of a divine 
 kingdom had not been lost among the Jews at the time 
 
 1 Cf. Liddon, The Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
 Christ, pp. 80-91 ; Church, Advent Sermons, pp. 29-57.
 
 4 THE CHURCH 
 
 of the birth of our Lord. The book known as the Psalms 
 of Solomon was probably written about the middle of the 
 first century before Christ. It has been supposed to 
 have been intended by devout Pharisees as a means of 
 protesting against the corruptions in Jewish thought and 
 life which were due to the influences of the Asmonsean 
 dynasty which had ruled in Palestine from b.c. 153 to 
 B. c. 37 before the reign of Herod the Great. However 
 this may have been, it is in the highest degree probable 
 that this book represents beliefs and aspirations current 
 at the time when it was written. To a large extent it 
 contains reproductions of the language and thought of 
 the Old Testament ; and among these,, some prominence 
 is given to the idea of the future kingdom in which the 
 Messiah was to bear rule. Thus, in the seventeenth of 
 these Psalms, after the writer has described with great 
 force the sad state of decay into which the Jewish nation 
 has fallen, so that ' the king was a transgressor, and the 
 judge was disobedient, and the people sinful' (xvii. 22), 
 he appeals to God to raise up the ^king,' ^the son of 
 David,' ' the Lord Messiah,' that He may reign in right- 
 eousness over a people which He has brought back to the 
 true service of God (xvii. 23-46). And, while appeal 
 is thus made for the rule of the king Messiah, the Lord 
 God is recognised as the eternal king of the nation and 
 as One whose kingdom is everlasting (xvii. 1, 51). Here, 
 then, is the same conception as that presented in the 
 Old Testament — the conception of an ideal kingdom set 
 up on earth, administered by the son of David, the 
 anointed of the Lord, realising the perfection which 
 the pre-exilic kingdom failed to reach, and in which the 
 Messianic king bears rule on behalf of God Himself. 
 
 Later Jewish Anticipations : The Targums. — The evidence 
 supplied by the Targums or Aramaic paraphrases of the 
 Old Testament is much the same as that afforded by the 
 Psalms of Solomon. The Targums, as we know them, 
 appear to be much later than the time of the birth of 
 our Lord. They probably reached their present form 
 between the first and the fourth centuries of the Christian 
 era. But it is probable that they contain very much 
 which in substance or in phraseology existed in
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 5 
 
 pre-Christian times ; and it is unlikely that the references 
 to the royalty of the Messiah, and to the kingdom in 
 which he was to bear rule, were added after the first 
 preaching of Christianity. If these references are taken 
 as indicative of the beliefs and anticipations of the ortho- 
 dox Jews before the coming of Christ, it is clear that it 
 was expected that one part of the work of the Messiah 
 would be to establish a kingdom. ' The king Messiah ' 
 is a phrase which frequently occurs ; and though the 
 words ' kingdom of heaven ' or ' kingdom of God' usually 
 denote the rule of God as eventually perfected, there 
 are instances in which they are used to describe the days 
 and work of the Messiah. The words of Isaiah (xl. 9), 
 ^Behold your God,' are paraphrased ^The kingdom of 
 your God is revealed. ' In the description of the ' Servant 
 of the Lord ' in the same prophet, it is said ^They shall 
 see the kingdom of their Messiah ' (Isa. liii. 10). The 
 prophecy of Micah (iv. 7) that Hhe Lord shall reign 
 over them in Mount Zion ' is rendered '^The kingdom of 
 the Lord shall be revealed to them on Mount Zion.' 
 
 Signs of Jewish Anticipations in the New Testament.— 
 So too, in the New Testament, S. Joseph of Arimathaea 
 is described by S. Mark (xv. 43) and S. Luke (xxiii. 51) 
 as one who was '^ looking for the kingdom of God,' a 
 phrase which appears to be equivalent to the description 
 of those who were looking forward to the coming of the 
 Messiah as '^looking for the consolation of Israel' (Luke 
 ii. 25), or for ' redemption ' (Luke ii. 88). 
 
 Conclusion. — Thus, there is good reason for thinking 
 that, when S. John the Baptist proclaimed the coming 
 in the near future of the ' kingdom of heaven,' that 
 phrase would suggest to the minds of at any rate some 
 of his hearers the approach of the Messiah in the accom- 
 plishment of whose work was to be the fulfilment of the 
 hope of the Jewish race.^ 
 
 ^ Since this book was written Dr. Robertson's Rcfinum, Dei 
 (Bampton Lectures for 1901) has been published. The present 
 writer cannot agree v/ith some details in it ; but it contains very 
 much of great value on the subject of this cliapter, and on subjects 
 treated of in other i^arts of this book.
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE GOSPELS 
 
 Introductory. — It has already been seen that one of the 
 anticipations of the work of the Messiah in Jewish 
 thought was that He would establish a divine kingdom, 
 and that the point of contact between the preaching of 
 S. John the Baptist and the work of previous Jewish 
 teachers, including the writers of the Old Testament, 
 was that he proclaimed the approach of Him of whom he 
 was the forerunner as the coming of the ' kingdom of 
 heaven.' It has, further, been pointed out that the 
 connection between the conclusion of the ministry of 
 S. John the Baptist and the beginning of that of our 
 Lord was in the proclamation of the ^kingdom of 
 heaven ' which was common to both. When our Lord's 
 work had begun, to ' preach the good tidings of the 
 kingdom of God ' was His own description of the fulfil- 
 ment of the purpose for which He was sent (Luke iv. 43; 
 cf. viii. ]). On the sending out of the apostles, the 
 proclamation they were directed to make was ' the 
 kingdom of heaven is at hand ' (Matt. x. 7) ; and an 
 object of the call of another was that he might ' publish 
 abroad the kingdom of God ' (Luke ix. 60). 
 
 The Phrases 'Kingdom of Heaven' and 'Kingdom of 
 God.' — What is variously called the ' kingdom of heaven ' 
 or the '^ kingdom of God ' fills a very prominent place in 
 the words of Christ. In S. Matthew's Gospel, except in 
 four passages (xii. 28, xix. 24, xxi. 81, 43),^ the phrase 
 'kingdom of heaven' is used. In those four passages, 
 and in the rest of the New Testament, the expression 
 
 1 According to the received text, there is a fifth passage, 
 namely vi. 33.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 7 
 
 is the '^kingdom of God.' It is not likely that any 
 difference in meaning was intended. The kingdom of 
 God is the kingdom of the Father ; and the Father is to 
 be addressed with the words ' Who art in heaven ' (Matt, 
 vi. 9, 10 ; Luke xi. 2). The rule that is divine is asso- 
 ciated with all those qualities and aims which are sug- 
 gested by the word heavenly. S. Matthew probably 
 preserves an exact translation into Greek of the Aramaic 
 phrase to denote the rule of God which our Lord 
 actually used^ while the other writers give^ not a verbal 
 transcription, but the corresponding equivalent as it 
 was natural to express it in Greek. The exceptional 
 instances in S. Matthew's Gospel have led some com- 
 petent scholars to think that both phrases were used by 
 our Lord Himself. 
 
 Spiritual Character of the ' Kingdom of Heaven. ' — At the 
 outset of His ministry, our Lord declared the spiritual 
 conditions of repentance and faith which were necessary 
 for those who were to commit themselves to His rule. 
 When He ' came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of 
 God/ after the imprisonment of S. John the Baptist had 
 begun, the message which He proclaimed was, ^The 
 kingdom of God is at hand : repent ye, and believe in 
 the gospel' (Mark i. 15). At a later time He showed 
 vividly the need of humility. When the disciples, in 
 the perplexity which appears to have arisen as their old 
 ideas of the office of the Messiah were being gradually 
 seen to be in conflict with much which the Lord taught, 
 asked Him, '^Who is greatest in the kingdom of 
 heaven?' as His answer, ^He called to Him a little 
 child, and set him in the midst of them, and said. 
 Verily I say unto you, except ye turn, and become as 
 little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the king- 
 dom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble 
 himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in 
 the kingdom of heaven ' (Matt, xviii. 1-4 ; cf. xix. 14). 
 When He was explaining to His disciples Hhe mysteries 
 of the kingdom of God,' He showed that ' an honest and 
 good heart,' perseverance and ' patience,' were needful 
 if there was to be success under His rule (Luke viii. 10, 
 15). In the Sermon on the Mount, the seeking of the
 
 8 THE CHURCH 
 
 ' kingdom ' of the Father and the seeking of ' righteous- 
 ness' were closely connected (Matt. vi. 83^ R.V.). 
 Entrance into the kingdom was promised, not to ^ every- 
 one that saith/ ^Lord, Lord,' but to him ^that doeth the 
 will of the ^Father which is in heaven' (Matt. vii. 21). 
 To enter it was declared impossible for those whose 
 ' righteousness ' did not exceed that ' of the scribes and 
 Pharisees' (Matt. v. 20), and a difficult task, only to 
 be accomplished by the use of the all-powerful grace of 
 God, for a rich man (Matt. xix. 23-26). The breaking 
 of, and the leading others to break, even the Heast 
 commandments,' would make little those who were in the 
 kingdom, while performance and teaching of them were 
 means to greatness in it (Matt. v. 19). To recognise 
 the claims of God and of fellow-men on human love was 
 to be ' not far from the kingdom of God ' (Mark xii. 34). 
 The characteristics of the citizens of the kingdom were 
 described in terms which showed that they must be 
 actuated by principles which affected the innermost 
 springs of life, since they were to be '^poor in spirit,' 
 to ^ mourn,' to be ^meek,' to '^ hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness,' to be ' merciful,' to be ' pure in heart,' 
 to be ' peacemakers,' to be willing to be ' persecuted for 
 righteousness' sake' (Matt. v. 3-10). Of the kingdom 
 itself our Lord told the Pharisees that it ^cometh not 
 with observation,' but "^is within' (Luke xvii. 20, 21). ^ 
 
 The ^Kingdom of Heaven' the Kingdom of Christ. — The 
 Christian kingdom, being the '^ kingdom of God,' is the 
 kingdom of the Father (Matt. vi. 33, R.V., xiii. 43). 
 But it is also the kingdom of our Lord Himself. His 
 first proclamation of it called on men to ' believe in the 
 gospel' (Mark i. 15), Since the full act of faith can 
 only be directed towards a Person (cf. John xiv. 1), 
 belief '^in the Gospel' must needs be a step towards 
 belief and faith in Christ. It was the faith which the 
 Gentile centurion showed in Him which led our Lord 
 to declare the future coming in of many ^from the east 
 
 1 Possibly, however, the words translated 'within you' in 
 A.V. and R.V. may mean 'among you' (A.V. margin) or 'in 
 the midst of you' (R.V. margin).
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 9 
 
 and the west' to ^sit down' Mn the kingdom of heaven' 
 (Matt. viii. 10, 11). On more than one occasion He 
 Himself described it as His kingdom (Matt. xiii. 41, 
 xvi. 28 ; cf, xxv. 34 ; John xviii. 36). The archangel 
 Gabriel foretold to the Virgin Mary of the Son whom 
 she was to bear, ' The Lord God shall give unto Him the 
 throne of His father David ; and He shall reign over 
 the house of Jacob for ever : and of His kingdom there 
 shall be no end ' (Luke i. 32, 33). 
 
 The ' Kingdom of Heaven ' Outward as well as Inward. — 
 The spiritual qualities of the citizens of the kingdom and 
 their relation of faith and obedience to Christ its King 
 do not exhaust the description of it in the Gospels. 
 Besides these inward and invisible characteristics, there 
 are also outward marks and organisation. The subjects 
 of the kingdom are men. For entrance into it the 
 Sacrament of Holy Baptism is required. Our Lord 
 taught Nicodemus, '^ Except anyone be begotten anew' 
 (or ^from above'), ^he cannot see the kingdom of God.' 
 When Nicodemus was puzzled by the saying. He said 
 further, ' Except any one be begotten of water and the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God ' (John 
 iii. 3, 5). That the reference is to the Sacrament of 
 Holy Baptism is shown by the teaching found elsewhere 
 in the New Testament as to the means and nature of 
 regeneration, the work of the Holy Ghost, and the effects 
 of Baptism, and by the continuous tradition of the 
 Christian Church. ^ The command to '^make disciples 
 of all the nations,' which formed part of our Lord's last 
 charge to His apostles before His ascension, could not, 
 consistently with the whole tenour of the Gospels, be 
 carried out without the admission of those thus referred 
 to into the ' kingdom of heaven ' ; and it is there speci- 
 fied that the method by which the apostles are to ' make 
 disciples' is by ^baptizing them into the Name of the 
 Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost' (Matt, 
 xxviii. 19). Moreover, that the '^ kingdom of heaven' 
 has an outward organisation is shown by the parables 
 
 ^ See the volume Holy Baptism, pp. 25, 228, 229, in the ' Oxford 
 Library of Practical Theology.'
 
 10 THE CHURCH 
 
 of the wheat and the tares, of the net cast into the sea, 
 and of the man who had not a wedding garment. If it 
 was inward only and existed only by reason of spiritual 
 qualities in those belonging to it, these would be exclu- 
 sively persons who, if human beings should be divided 
 into two classes, would be reckoned with the good, and 
 who were going in the direction of attaining to eternal 
 salvation. But in these parables, our Lord has taught 
 that there will be bad as well as good within the ' king- 
 dom of heaven,' and that some who have been in it will 
 be cast out into the ^furnace of fire' and the ^ outer 
 darkness.' ^The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a 
 man that sowed good seed in his field . . . the good 
 seed, these are the sons of the kingdom ; and the tares 
 are the sons of the evil one. . . . The Son of man shall 
 send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His 
 kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and them that 
 do iniquity, and shall cast them into the furnace of 
 fire ; there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth ' 
 (Matt. xiii. 24, 38, 41, 42). ^The kingdom of heaven 
 is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and 
 gathered of every kind : which, when it was filled, they 
 drew up on the beach ; and they sat down, and gathered 
 the good into vessels, but the liad they cast away. So 
 shall it be in the end of the world : the angels shall come 
 forth, and sever the wicked from among the righteous, 
 and shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall 
 be the weeping and gnashing of teeth ' (Matt. xiii. 47-50). 
 'The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king, 
 which made a marriage feast for his son. . . . When the 
 king came in to behold the guests, he saw there a man 
 which had not on a wedding garment : and He said unto 
 him. Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a 
 wedding garment .'' And he was speechless. Then the 
 king said to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and 
 cast him out into the outer darkness : there shall be the 
 weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, 
 but few chosen' (Matt. xxii. 2, 11-14). 
 
 The ' Kingdom of Heaven ' Present as well as Future. — 
 The '^ kingdom of heaven,' in its perfected state, is 
 viewed as future. In the parable of the wheat and the
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 11 
 
 tares, after ^ all things that cause stumbling and ' they 
 '^that do iniquity' have been cast out, it is said, '^Then 
 shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom 
 of their Father' (Matt. xiii. 48). It is foretold of the 
 time ^ when the Son of man shall come in His glory' 
 that there will then be an entrance by the righteous 
 into the kingdom. ^Then shall the King say unto them 
 on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the founda- 
 tion of the world' (Matt. xxv. 34). In the Sermon on 
 the Mount this entrance into the kingdom is similarly 
 regarded as future; for with evident reference to ^that 
 day,' that is the day of judgment, it is said, '^Not every 
 one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
 the kingdom of heaven ; but he that doeth the will of 
 my Father which is in heaven ' (Matt. vii. 21). It is 
 apparently at the day of judgment also that those ^from 
 the east and west, and from the north and south ' ' shall 
 come' and ^sit down in the kingdom of God' (Luke 
 xiii. 29). The supposition that the ' kingdom of God 
 was immediately to appear ' at the time of our Lord's 
 ministry was corrected as a mistake (Luke xix. 11). 
 The signs of the coming of the end of the world were 
 to be indications that ' the kingdom of God is nigh ' 
 (Luke xxi. 31). At the institution of the Holy Eucharist 
 our Lord spoke of the kingdom as something which was 
 to be after the dispensation of the present age. ^ I will 
 not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that 
 day when I drink it new with you in my Father's king- 
 dom,' or '^ until the kingdom of God shall come' (Matt, 
 xxvi. 29 ; Mark xiv. 25 ; Luke xxii. 16, 18). On the 
 same evening, He said to His disciples, apparently 
 referring to the day of judgment, and the times which 
 should follow it, ' I appoint unto you a kingdom, even 
 as My Father appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and 
 drink at My table in My kingdom ; and ye shall sit on 
 thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel' (Luke xxii. 
 29, 30; cf. Matt. xix. 28). The words ^kingdom of 
 God' are used as equivalent to the 'life' which is eternal 
 and as denoting the opposite state to ' hell ' (Mark ix. 
 47 ; cf. 43, 45). But, while there is thus a future
 
 12 THE CHURCH 
 
 aspect^ the kingdom is distinctly represented as existing 
 in the present. ' The kingdom of God is at hand ' were 
 our Lord's words in beginning His ministry (Mark i. 15). 
 ' The kingdom of God ' was to ' come with power ' before 
 some should ^ taste of death' (Mark ix. 1 ; cf. Matt. xvi. 
 28 ; Luke ix. 27). The preaching of the apostles and 
 of other disciples was a proclamation of the ' kingdom 
 of God ' as well as of the ' gospel ' (Matt. x. 7 ; Luke 
 ix. 2; cf. 60; x. 11). To follow Christ personally was 
 to have access to the ' kingdom of God ' (Luke ix. 62). 
 Instruction concerning it was part of the work of our 
 Lord's ministry (Luke ix. 11). That He ' by the Spirit 
 of God cast out demons' was a sign that Hhe kingdom 
 of God' had ^come'^ (Matt. xii. 28). The parables of 
 the wheat and the tares and of the net cast into the sea_, 
 as they show the outward character of the kingdom, 
 show also its existence in the present before the time 
 when, at the day of judgment, the bad shall be separated 
 from the good '(Matt. xiii. 24-30, 87-43, 47-50). The 
 ' kingdom of heaven ' is spoken of by our Lord as exist- 
 ing during His ministry and as the dispensation which 
 S. John the Baptist ushered in, though he did not him- 
 self reach it (Matt. xi. 11, 12). 
 
 The • Kingdom of Heaven ' a Gift from God. — The terms 
 in which the kingdom is referred to show that it is not 
 merely a human work, but that it is a divine gift. That 
 it ' comes' or ' comes nigh ' - (Matt. iii. 2, vi. 10, xii. 28 ; 
 ]\Iark ix. 1 ; Luke xi. 2, 20, xvii. 20), and is ^ given ' 
 (Matt. xxi. 43 ; Luke xii. 32), and is ' received ' (Mark 
 x. 15; Luke xviii. 17), and is ^inherited' by those for 
 whom it has been ' prepared ' (Matt. xxv. 34), and that 
 men 'enter' it (Matt. v. 20, xix. 23; John iii. 5), and 
 that it is an object of search (Matt. vi. 33, xiii. 45, 46 ; 
 Luke xii. 31), and that it is a treasure hidden, found, 
 and rightly bought at great cost and sacrifice (Matt. xiii. 
 44-46),— ^ all this means that it is not built up by the 
 labour of man, it is not a product of development from 
 below, but " of the creative activity of God." ' ^ No less 
 
 1 ecpOaaev. 2 ^p-^ecrdaL, eyyl^eiv, ^ddveiv. 
 
 3 Sanda}' in Hastings, Dictionary of the Bible, 11. 620, quoting 
 Lutgert, Eeich Gottes, p. 26.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 13 
 
 as it now exists than in its future perfection_, the king- 
 dom is His gift. 
 
 The 'Kingdom of Heaven' and the Church. — Like the 
 phrase ^kingdom of heaven,' the Greek word usually- 
 translated ' Church ' ^ was inherited from the Jews. In 
 the Greek translation of the Old Testament known as 
 the Septuagint it was used to denote the congregation 
 of the people of Israel assembled or called together. 
 It occurs twice in S. Matthew's Gospel. In the first 
 passage our Lord says to S. Peter about the founding or 
 building of the Church, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this 
 rock I will build My Church ; and the gates of Hades 
 shall not prevail against it' (Matt. xvi. 18). In the 
 second passage, the authority of the Church thus founded 
 is referred to. ' If he refuse to hear them, tell it unto 
 the Church : and if he refuse to hear the Church also, 
 let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican ' 
 (Matt, xviii. 17). In each case, the reference to the 
 Church is closely connected with allusions to the ' king- 
 dom of heaven.' In the former passage, our Lord, after 
 speaking of the foundation of the Church, immediately 
 goes on to say, ' I will give unto thee the keys of the 
 kingdom of heaven' (Matt. xvi. 19). In the latter 
 passage, our Lord's words about the action of the Church 
 with regard to the sin of one Christian against another 
 lead S. Peter to inquire, ' How oft shall my brother sin 
 against me, and I forgive him? until seven times .^' and 
 our Lord in His reply to this inquiry tells how '^the 
 kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king ' (Matt, 
 xviii. 21, 2o). From the first of these passages it may 
 be rightly inferred that the outward and visible ' king- 
 dom of God ' of this present life is to be identified with 
 the Church, which, also, when purified by the casting 
 out of all persons and things that are evil, and perfected 
 by the stablishing and completing of all that are good, 
 will be the glorious ' kingdom of heaven ' of the future. 
 
 The Nature of the Church as described in the Gospels. — 
 It was a purpose of the life and ministry of our Lord 
 that God might bestow on men the knowledge of His 
 
 ^ 1 eKKhrjaia.
 
 14 THE CHURCH 
 
 truth and the gifts of His grace. ' The Word became 
 flesh, and dwelt among us' ^fuU of grace and truth.' 
 'Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ' (John i. 14, 17). 
 That men might receive this knowledge and these gifts, 
 it was necessary that they should be in that attitude of 
 repentance and faith which the work of S. John the 
 Baptist and the ministry of our Lord Himself were 
 designed to produce (Mark i. 2-4, 15). But, as the 
 Gospels are studied attentively, it becomes clear that 
 preaching to and help of the multitudes occupied in our 
 Lord's ministry a less important place than the training 
 of the apostles ; and that the selection and instruction 
 and discipline of a chosen body of disciples was made to 
 be a primary work. It was when they had been trained 
 so that the declaration ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of 
 the living God ' had been made that the promise of the 
 building of the Church could be given. ' When Jesus 
 came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His 
 disciples, saying. Who do men say that the Son of man 
 is ? And they said. Some say John the Baptist ; some, 
 Elijah ; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. 
 He saith unto them. But who say ye that I am } And 
 Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, 
 the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and 
 said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- Jonah : for 
 flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My 
 Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto thee, 
 that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My 
 Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against 
 it. 1 will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of 
 heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall 
 be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt loose 
 on earth shall be loosed in heaven' (Matt. xvi. 13-19). 
 *The outburst of keenly perceptive faith had now at 
 last shown S. Peter, carrying with him the rest, to have 
 the prime qualification for the task which his Lord con- 
 templated for him. ' ^ That ' task ' was to be the nucleus 
 of the society which was to form the Christian Church. 
 The special characteristics of our Lord's training of His 
 
 1 Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 17.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 15 
 
 apostles become intelli^^ible when this is recognised. 
 They are ' chosen ' and ' appointed ' (John xv. 16), given 
 by the Father ' out of the world ' (John xvii. Q), made 
 to be "^not of the world' (John xvii. 16), pleaded for 
 with a special prayer (John xvii. 9), promised the gift of 
 ^the Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth,' Hhe Holy 
 Spirit' (John xiv. 16, 17, 26, xvi. 7-14), not simply for 
 their own personal good, but also that they may ' bear 
 witness ' (John xv. 27) to the truth, and be the deposi- 
 tories of the grace (John xx. 22, 23) which Christ came 
 to bring. In the training of the apostles, then, there 
 was the forecast of the Christian Church as a visible 
 society of men in which the truth and grace of God were 
 to be found. That our Lord intended His Church to be 
 such a visible society is shown, moreover, in the insti- 
 tution of the Sacraments. In appointing Baptism as the 
 method of entrance into the Church (Matt, xxviii. 19 ; 
 John iii. 5), and the Eucharist as the means of the com- 
 munion of His people with His own human life (Matt, 
 xxvi. 26-28), our Lord established outward marks by 
 which His servants were to be known. The kingdom of 
 heaven, again, in its outward aspect and its present life, 
 was a visible society.^ But this visible Church, the com- 
 munity of Christians, the assembly of those outwardly 
 known by the badges of Christian fellowship, was to be 
 the sphere in which the inner life of its members was 
 to be developed on those lines of repentance and faith 
 by which they could use the divine gifts to produce 
 moral conformity with the pattern laid down by our 
 Lord in His words and life and spiritual union between 
 the souls of men and God Himself. The kingdom of 
 heaven in its perfection is the kingdom which has yet to 
 be manifested, the ideal which is not yet realised. The 
 actual Church which now is makes progress towards that 
 ideal as its members strive to attain the completeness of 
 moral life which the Lord set forth (Matt. v. 48), They 
 are subject to the law that every good thing which they 
 received from God lays them under the obligation of in 
 
 1 See Gore, The Church and the Ministry, pp. 32-40 
 (fourth edition).
 
 16 THE CHURCH 
 
 turn communicating good to their fellovv-men (Matt, 
 xviii. 23-35). The kingdom is a sphere of work into 
 which they are summoned by the call of God (Matt. xx. 
 1-16). The rule of Christ in their souls is His kingdom 
 within them^ as the Church is His outward and visible 
 kingdom. This rule in the soul, as the Church in the 
 world, grows from small beginnings to great results, 
 like the tree which springs from the ' grain of mustard- 
 seed' (Matt. xiii. 31, 32), and is of powerful influence, 
 like the ' leaven ' ' hid in three measures of meal ' (Matt, 
 xiii. 33). It makes progress in mysterious ways known 
 only to God (Mark iv. 26-29). It, also, like the Church 
 again, is so precious that for it one who is wise ' goeth 
 and selleth all that he hath' in order to buy it, as 
 ' treasure hidden in the field ' and ' one pearl of great 
 price' (Matt. xiii. 44-46), and shrinks back from no 
 sacrifice however painful for its sake (Matt. xix. 12 ; 
 Luke xviii. 29). Great sinners who have responded to 
 opportunities of repentance will enter the perfected 
 kingdom before the externally righteous by whom like 
 opportunities have been missed (Matt. xxi. 31, 32). The 
 failure to use the privileges of the kingdom and fulfil its 
 responsibilities may lead to the loss of it (Matt. xxi. 43). 
 Within the kingdom there is need of spiritual foresight 
 and prudence and watchfulness and care (Matt. xxv. 
 1-13). Those only are fit for it who will give whole- 
 hearted service (Luke ix. 62). Our Lord summed up 
 its characteristics when He told Pilate that it ' is not of 
 this world ' (John xviii. 36) ; and the sustaining power 
 for the lives of its members is that personal presence of 
 Himself, which, no less than His commission for work. 
 He declared to be the outcome of the complete '^autho- 
 rity ' which had ' been given unto ' Him ' in heaven and 
 on earth' (Matt, xxviii. 18-20). ^ 
 
 1 See Church, Advent Sermons, pp. 67-86 ; Liddon, The 
 Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, i^p. 101-107 ; 
 Butler, Analogy of Relujion, Part ii. chap. 1. ; ^and Sermon 
 2)reached before the S.P.G.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 17 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 
 
 The 'Kingdom of God' in the Acts. — The work of our 
 Lord durinii;' the Great Forty Days, which elapsed be- 
 tween His resurrection and His ascension, is described in 
 the Acts of the Apostles as that of ' speaking the things 
 concerning the kingdom of God ' (Acts i. 8). And in 
 the history of Christian life in the years following the 
 ascension which the same book supplies, this descrip- 
 tion of the Church is prominent. When ^Philip went 
 down to the city of Samaria, and proclaimed unto them 
 the Christ,' His teaching is incidentally described as 
 'preaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God 
 and the Name of Jesus Christ' (Acts viii. 5, 12). It was 
 the ' kingdom of God ' which S. Paul taught the people 
 of Asia they '^must enter' through many tribulations ' 
 (Acts xiv. 22). The same apostle's work at Ephesus was 
 that of '^ reasoning and persuading as to the things con- 
 cerning the kingdom of God ' (Acts xix. 8 ; cf. xx. 25). 
 After he reached Rome, in his ministry both to Jews 
 and to Gentiles, he is described as '^testifying the kingdom 
 of God, and persuading them concerning Jesus,' and 
 ' preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching the things 
 concerning the Lord Jesus Christ' (Acts xxviii. 23, 31). 
 As in the Gospels, so in the Acts, the phrase has the 
 twofold aspect of denoting the actual visible Church 
 which now is, and the perfected Church which has yet to 
 be manifested. 
 
 The Church in the Acts as a Visible Society. — The history 
 of the Church recorded in the Acts is the history of a 
 visible society. There are moral and spiritual actions
 
 18 THE CHURCH 
 
 required in the adults ^ who seek admission to it. When 
 those who had heard the sermon of S. Peter on the Day 
 of Pentecost '^were pricked in their heart/ and asked, 
 ' What shall we do ? ' the answer which they received 
 included the words, ' Repent ye ' (Acts ii. 37, 38). 
 When the Philippian gaoler asked S. Paul and S. Silas, 
 ^ What must I do to be saved .^ ' he was told, ' Believe 
 on the Lord Jesus' (Acts xvi. 30, 31). But in his 
 answer to the first converts S. Peter went on to say, 
 ' And be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus 
 Christ unto the remission of your sins ' ; the historian 
 S. Luke records, ' They then that received his word were 
 baptized ' (Acts ii. 38-41) ; and in the later history. 
 Baptism is consistently represented as the means of ad- 
 mission to the life of Christians. The Samaritans and 
 the ' man of Ethiopia,' to whom S. Philip preached, 
 S. Paul after his conversion, Cornelius with his ^kins- 
 men and his near friends,' the ' seller of purple, of the 
 city of Thyatira,' ' named Lydia,' with ' her household ' 
 at Philippi, the gaoler, and ^all his' at the same place, 
 the Corinthians who ' believed ' in consequence of the 
 preaching of S. Paul, and the Ephesians who had been 
 disciples of S. John the Baptist, all received Holy 
 Baptism that they might become members of the Church 
 (Acts viii. 12, 13, 16, 36, 38, ix. 18, x. 47, 48, xvi. 14, 15, 
 83, xviii. 8, xix. 1-5). After the admission of believers 
 into the Church by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, 
 there were outward marks of that '^fellowship' of "^the 
 apostles,' in which they ' continued steadfastly' (Acts ii. 
 42). There were the prayers said in common; the use 
 for a time of services in the Temple ' with one accord ' ; 
 the laying on of hands or Confirmation; and '^the 
 breaking of bread ' or celebration of the Holy Eucharist 
 (Acts i. 14, ii. 42, 46, 47, iii. 1, iv. 23-31, Viii. 14-17, 
 xix. 6, XX. 7-11). There was a definite body of disciples, 
 to which the baptized were ^ added' or joined themselves 
 (Acts ii. 41, 47, ix. 26, 27). The Christians who lived 
 in one place, or city, or country, and those who 
 
 1 As to whether infants were baptized in the days of the 
 apostles, see pp. 19-21, 96 of the volume Holy BajJtism in the 
 ' Oxford Library of Practical Theology.'
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 19 
 
 comprised the whole Christian society, were known as 
 'the Church' (Acts v. 11, viii. 1, 3, ix. 31, xi. 22, 26, 
 xii. 1, 5, xiii. 1, xiv. 23, 27, xv. 3, 4, 22, 41, xvi. 5, 
 xviii. 22, XX. 17, 28). So much was this Church a 
 visible society that in the earliest days there was the 
 common use of worldly possessions, and it was frequent, 
 though not compulsory (Acts v. 4), to sell property and 
 place the proceeds in the hands of the apostles (Acts ii. 
 44, 45, iv, 32-37, v. 1-11). That the first preaching 
 and reception of the Christian religion were moral and 
 spiritual movements it is impossible to doubt ; it is no 
 less clear that the actual, present 'kingdom of God,' 
 the Christian Church, is a visible society, known by 
 external marks. 
 
 The Earliest Churcli Jewish and Hellenistic. — The difficul- 
 ties felt a little later as to the admission of the Gentiles 
 into the Church appear to imply that the nucleus of it at 
 the time of the ascension of our Lord consisted of Jews 
 only. The apostles were all Jews who dwelt in Palestine, 
 though the names of two of them, S. Andrew and 
 S. Philip, may denote that these were Hellenistic or Greek- 
 speaking Jews (xVIatt. X. 2, 3 ; see also John xii. 20-22). 
 It is probable that the rest of the ' hundred and twenty ' 
 who comprised ' the brethren ' ' gathered together ' 
 before the Day of Pentecost (Acts i. 15) were also Jews of 
 Palestine. It was to the ' men of Judaea ' and those who 
 were dwelling at Jerusalem (Acts ii. 14) that S. Peter 
 appealed in his first sermon after the outpouring of the 
 Holy Ghost. Though those who were present included 
 some 'from every nation under heaven,' they were 
 ' Jews, devout men,' all belonging to the Jewish religion, 
 all either Jews by race or proselytes (Acts ii. 6, 9-11). 
 For some time the preaching of the gospel was addressed 
 to Jews only, though the descent of S. Barnabas, 'a 
 man of Cyprus by race ' (Acts iv. 36), the position of 
 'the Grecian Jews' (Acts vi. 1), the Greek names of the 
 ' seven men of good report/ and the fact that one of 
 them was 'a proselyte of Antioch ' (Acts vi. 3, 5) show 
 that many of those who became Christians, while they 
 had been adherents of the Jewish religion, were not 
 Jewish in nationality.
 
 20 THE CHURCH 
 
 The Admission of the Gentiles. — The martyrdom of 
 S. Stephen formed the beg-inning of 'a great persecution 
 against the Church which was in Jerusalem.' This per- 
 secution led to the dispersion of Christians. ^ They 
 were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of 
 Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles ' (Acts viii. 1). 
 Those who were thus ' scattered abroad ' ' went about 
 preaching the word ' (Acts viii. 4). S. Philip ' pro- 
 claimed ' '^the Christ' to "^the people of Samaria' ; and 
 ^they believed' him '^ preaching good tidings concerning 
 the kingdom of God and the Name of Jesus Christ/ and 
 ' were baptized, both men and women ' (Acts viii. 5, 9, 
 12). S. Philip baptized also the '^man of Ethiopia, a 
 eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the 
 Ethiopians,' evidently a proselyte, since he ^ had come 
 to Jerusalem for to worship ' (Acts viii. 27, 38). In 
 both instances — in that of the Samaritans because of 
 their foreign descent and their hostility to the Jews, in 
 that of the Ethiopian eunuch because of a ceremonial 
 enactment of the Jewish Law (Deut. xxiii. 1) — steps 
 were taken towards the expansion of the Church. The 
 vision seen by S. Peter on the housetop at Joppa, the 
 conversion of Cornelius and his kinsmen and near 
 friends, the gift to them of the Holy Ghost, and their 
 reception of Baptism made it plain to the apostles and 
 the brethren that were in Judaea that ' to the Gentiles 
 also hath God granted repentance unto life ' (Acts x. 1- 
 xi. 18). And, though those ' that were scattered abroad 
 upon the tribulation that arose about Stephen travelled 
 as far as Phcenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking 
 the word to none save only to Jews,' yet ' there were 
 some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when 
 they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Greeks also, 
 preaching the Lord Jesus' (Acts xi. 19, 20).^ Subse- 
 quently S. Paul and S. Barnabas, after they had '^pro- 
 claimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews ' 
 at Salamis, and had preached in the Jewish synagogue 
 at Antioch of Pisidia, on the rejection of their teaching 
 by the Jews at the latter place, made the declaration, 
 
 1 It is possible, however, that the right reading is 'Grecian- 
 Jews' {'EXXrjvLcrTds), not 'Greeks' {"'EXkyvas).
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 21 
 
 ' It was necessary that the word of God should first be 
 spoken to you. Seeing ye thrust it from you^ and judge 
 yourselves unworthy of eternal life^ lo, we turn to the 
 Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, 
 I have set thee for a light of the Gentiles, that thou 
 shouldest be for salvation unto the uttermost part of the 
 earth/ with the consequence that ' As the Gentiles heard 
 this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God' 
 (Acts xiii. 5, 14, 43-48). At Iconium, a little later, ^ a 
 great multitude both of Jews and of Greeks believed ' ; 
 and on the return of S. Paul and S. Barnabas to Antioch 
 at the end of their missionary journey, "^ they rehearsed 
 all things that God had done with them, and how that 
 He had opened a door of faith unto the Gentiles' (Acts 
 xiv. 1, 27). 
 
 The Council of Jerusalem. — The exclusiveness of Jewish 
 ideas made it inevitable that questions should be raised 
 as to the position and obligations of the Gentiles in the 
 Christian Church. That it was possible for them to be- 
 come Christians does not appear to have been questioned 
 after the missionary journey of S. Paul and S. Barnabas. 
 But it was contended that a necessary step to member- 
 ship in the Church was compliance with the regulations 
 of the Jewish law, and that no Gentiles could be 
 Christians unless they were also Jewish proselytes. So 
 it came to pass at Antioch, that ' certain men came down 
 from Judcea and taught the brethren, saying. Except ye 
 be circumcised after the custom of Moses, ye cannot be 
 saved ' (Acts xv. 1). This contention met with strong 
 opposition from S. Paul and S. Barnabas, and in con- 
 sequence it was arranged that these two apostles, together 
 with ' certain other ' Christians ' should go up to Jeru- 
 salem unto the apostles and presbyters about this ques- 
 tion' (Acts XV. 2). On their way up to Jerusalem, they 
 ' passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring 
 the conversion of the Gentiles,' and '^ caused great joy 
 unto all the brethren ' (Acts xv. 3). On their arrival at 
 Jerusalem, the apostles and presbyters assembled in the 
 presence of the Christian community to consider the 
 matter, and after discussion it was determined by them, 
 together with the whole Church at Jerusalem, that a
 
 22 THE CHURCH 
 
 letter should be sent to the Gentile Christians in Antioch, 
 Syria^ and Cilicia in the name of the apostles and pres- 
 byters to declare^ ' It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, 
 and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these 
 necessary things ; that ye abstain from things sacrificed 
 to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and 
 from fornication ; from which if ye keep yourselves, it 
 shall be well with you ' (Acts xv. 4-29). The position of 
 the Gentiles in the Church was thus secured ; and while 
 the prejudices of the Jewish Christians were dealt with 
 tenderly by concessions on some minor points, the free- 
 dom of the Gentile Christians from the characteristic 
 obligation of the Jewish Law in the rite of circumcision 
 was affirmed. 
 
 Local Churches and the whole Church. — The word 
 ^ Church ' is used in the Acts to denote the Christians 
 in one city or in a particular country. Thus, we read 
 of '^the Church which was at Jerusalem,' 'the Church' 
 with reference to Antioch, and the Churches in various 
 parts of Asia Minor and Syria (Acts viii. 1, xi. 22, 26, 
 xiii. 1, xiv. 23, xv. 41, xvi. .5). It is used also to describe 
 the Christian community in one place or in general in 
 contrast with those who were not Christians (Acts v. 11, 
 viii. 3, xii. 1, .5, xiv. 27, xv. 3, 4, 22, xviii. 22, xx. Vj, 
 28) and regarded as comprising one body (Acts ix. 81). 
 By comparing the different ways in which the word is 
 used, it may be seen that all those who accepted the 
 Christian religion and were baptized and remained in 
 the doctrine and communion of the apostles were con- 
 sidered to form a single society, the Church of God, and 
 that the separate bodies of Christians in different places 
 were simply component parts of this organic whole.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE CHURCH IN THE EPISTLES AND THE REVELATION 
 
 The ' Kingdom of God ' in the Epistles and the Revelation. — 
 It has been pointed out that in the Acts of the Apostles 
 the phrase ^the kingdom of God' denotes both the 
 visible Church of the life which now is and the perfected 
 Church of the life which is to come ; and that in the 
 Gospels the ^kingdom' is represented as present and 
 future, as outward and inward, as having external 
 organisation and spiritual reality. These different 
 aspects of the ^ kingdom of God ' appear in the Epistles 
 also. S. Paul wrote to the Romans, ^The kingdom of 
 God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and 
 peace and joy in the Holy Ghost' (Rom. xiv. 17). 
 He taught the Corinthians, ' The kingdom of God is not 
 in word but in power'; ^The unrighteous shall not 
 inherit the kingdom of God ' ; ' Flesh and blood cannot 
 inherit the kingdom of God' (1 Cor. iv. 20, vi. 9, xv. 50). 
 Writing to the same body of Christians, he referred to 
 * the kingdom ' as that future perfected society of 
 redeemed souls which our Lord Jesus Christ ' shall 
 deliver up' ^to God, even the Father' at ^the end,' 
 ' when He shall have abolished all rule and authority 
 and power,' and ' put all His enemies,' including 
 ^ death,' Hhe last enemy that shall be abolished,' '^ under 
 His feet' (1 Cor. xv. 24-26). Similarly, in the Epistle 
 to the Galatians, after specifying with some detail ^the 
 works of the flesh,' S. Paul added, ^Of the which I 
 forewarn you, even as I did forewarn you, that they 
 which practise such things shall not inherit the kingdom 
 of God' (Gal. V. 21) ; in the Epistle to the Ephesians he 
 said ' that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous
 
 24 THE CHURCH 
 
 man which is an idolater^ hath any inheritance in the 
 kingdom of Christ and God ' (Eph. v. 5) ; and in the 
 Second Epistle to S. Timothy he wrote of the ^ heavenly 
 kingdom ' of ' the Lord ' unto which he hoped to be 
 saved (2 Tim. iv. 18). In two passages in the Epistles 
 to the Thessalonians^ and in one passage in the Second 
 Epistle to S. Timothy^ the idea of the ' kingdom ' seems 
 to include both its present visible aspect and its future 
 perfected state (1 Thess. ii. 12 ; 2 Thess. i. 5 ; 2 Tim. 
 iv. 1). In the Epistle to the Colossians^ in one passage 
 certainly^ and in another passage probably, '^the king- 
 dom of God' denotes the existing visible Church. 
 ''Giving thanks unto the Father,' it is said, '^who 
 delivered us out of the power of darkness, and trans- 
 lated us' (that is, in Bishop Lightfoot's words, '^when 
 they were baptized, when they accepted Christ') '^into 
 the kingdomi of the Son of His love ' ; and ' These only 
 are my fellow-workers unto the kingdom of God ' (Col. 
 i. 13, iv. 11). S. Peter in his Second Epistle uses the 
 phrase ^the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour 
 Jesus Christ ' for that which is to be hereafter (2 Pet. 
 i. 11) ; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews and 
 S. James speak of the ^ kingdom ' in a sense which 
 appears to include, like three passages in the Epistles of 
 S. Paul, the Church both in its existing and in its final 
 state (Heb. xii. 28 ; James ii. 5). In the Revelation of 
 S. John, the ' kingdom ' or ' the kingdom of God ' is 
 used in some passages for the Church in the present 
 (Rev. i. 6, 9 ; v. 10), in others for the perfected Church 
 (Rev. xi. 15, xii. 10). 
 
 Local Churches and the whole Church. — As in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, so in the Epistles of S. Paul local bodies 
 of Christians were called ' the Church ' in relation to the 
 place where they lived or worshipped. Thus, there 
 were at Rome and Ephesus ' the Church ' in the '^ house ' 
 of Prisca and Aquila (Rom. xvi. 3 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 19) ; at 
 Laodicea ^ the Church ' ' in ' the ' house ' of the brethren 
 of that place or of Nymphas (Col. iv. 15 ; see R. V. margin 
 and A. v.); in various places Hhe Churches of the Gen- 
 tiles' (Rom. xvi. 4); in Galatia ^the Churches of that 
 district (1 Cor. xvi. 1 ; cf. Gal. i. 2) ; in Asia ' the
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 25 
 
 Churches of that province (1 Cor. xvi. 19) ; ^ the Church 
 of the Laodiceans ' (Col. iv. 16) ; ' the Church of the 
 Thessaloniaiis ' (1 Thess. i. 1 ; 2 Thess. i. 1); 'the 
 Churches of Macedonia' (2 Cor. viii. 1); '^the Church 
 that is at Cenchreae ' (Rom. xvi. 1); 'the Church of 
 God which is at Corinth ' (1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 1) ; and 
 ' the Churches of God which are in Judaea in Christ 
 Jesus' (1 Thess. ii. 14). In the Revelation also the 
 body of Christians in each of the seven cities to which 
 the second and third chapters of the book are specially 
 addressed is called 'the Church in' that place (Rev. 
 i. 4, 11, 20, ii. I, 8, 12, 18, iii. 1, 7, 14). But this use 
 of the word ' Church ' does not exhaust the meaning of 
 the term in the Epistles any more than in the Acts. In 
 them also 'the Church' denotes Christians in general 
 contrasted with Jews and the heathen, and the whole 
 body of Christians as a visible society chosen and called 
 by God. Thus, in describing Christians in general 
 S. Paul wrote, ' Give no occasion of stumbling, either to 
 Jews, or to Greeks, or to the Church of God' (1 Cor. 
 X. 32) ; 'God hath set some in the Church, first apostles, 
 secondly prophets, thirdly teachers ' (1 Cor. xii. 28) ; ' I 
 am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be 
 called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of 
 God ' (1 Cor. XV. 9) ; ' Beyond measure I persecuted the 
 Church of God and made havock of it' (Gal. i. 13) ; 'As 
 touching zeal, persecuting the Church' (Phil. iii. 0). 
 And referring to the whole body of the Universal Church, 
 the same apostle in his letters to the Ephesians and the 
 Colossians spoke of the Church as that community of 
 Christians which has its distinctive character because it 
 is 'the body of Christ' (Eph. i. 22, 23, iv. 12, v. 23, 
 29, 30 ; Col. i. 18, 24). Here, as in the Acts of the 
 Apostles, the separate Churches are but parts of the one 
 organism of the Universal Church. 
 
 The Sacramental Life of the Churcli. — The Epistles supply 
 the doctrinal explanation of the facts recorded in the 
 Acts of the Apostles that admission into the Church was 
 by means of Baptism, and that part of the life of the 
 members of the Church consisted in the reception of 
 the Holy Communion.
 
 26 THE CHURCH 
 
 Baptism. — In the Acts, indeed, there is much to show 
 that Baptism was no merely ceremonial act, no mere 
 sign, no mere and arbitrarily appointed way of entrance 
 into the kingdom of heaven. Even if it were nothing 
 more, it might still have had its purpose and its use. 
 For admission into a society some act is necessary 
 whereby individuals are received and incorporated so 
 that they may have part in the privileges and responsi- 
 bilities of the body. But the book of the Acts describes 
 Baptism as the means of receiving ' the gift of the Holy 
 Ghost' and of being '^ filled with the Holy Ghost'; as 
 supplying an instrument to be used by one who wished 
 ' to be saved ' ; and as enabling a convert to Christianity 
 to ^wash away' his ^ sins' (Acts ii. 38, ix. 17, 18, xvi. 
 30, 33, xxii, 16). The teaching contained in the Acts 
 is more fully explained in the Epistles. Corresponding 
 to our Lord's reference to Holy Baptism as effecting the 
 state which He calls that of being "^ begotten anew' 
 (John iii. 3, 5) are S. Paul's description of this Sacrament 
 as '^the washing of regeneration' (Tit. iii. 5),^ and his 
 teaching that to be ' baptized into Christ ' and ' into His 
 death' is to '^put on Christ' and be joined '^into' His 
 '^one body' and thus to become ^sons of God' (Rom. 
 vi. 3, 4, v'iii. 14-19 ; 1 Cor. xii. 12, 13, 27 ; Gal. iii. 26, 
 27 ; Eph. V. 26-30). In Baptism, moreover, there is, 
 in S. Paul's words, the ^renewing of the Holy Ghost' 
 (Tit. iii. 5) ; and, according to the teaching of S. Peter, 
 the regeneration which is accomplished by Baptism leads 
 to ' an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that 
 fadeth not away, reserved in heaven' and '^doth now 
 save' (1 Pet. i. 3, 4, iii. 21).^ 
 
 The Holy Connnunion. — The book of the Acts simply 
 records the fact of the administration and reception of 
 the Holy Communion, and does not touch upon the 
 doctrine of this Sacrament. The Epistles show that to 
 be a communicant was an ordinary part of Christian 
 
 1 For the evidence that this passage refers to Holy Baptism, 
 see Pusey, Doctrine of Holy Baptisvi, pp. 53-64. 
 
 2 For a fuller treatment of these passages, see pp. 25-39 of 
 the volume Holy Baptism in the 'Oxford Library of Practical 
 Theology.'
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 27 
 
 life^ and, as in the case of Baptism, afford doctrinal 
 explanation of this fact. In his First Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, S. Paul refers to the Celebration of the 
 Holy Eucharist as customary and well known and a 
 recognised part of the worship of the Church (1 Cor. 
 X. 16-22, xi. 23-34) ; and declares it to be a means of 
 participation in the life of Christ Himself and a remem- 
 brance and pleading- of His death, since the ' cup ' is 
 the 'communion of the blood of Christ,' and the 'bread' 
 is the 'communion of the body of Christ,' and to eat 
 the bread and drink the cup is to ' proclaim the Lord's 
 death till He come ' (1 Cor. x. 16, xi. 26). 
 
 Confirmation. — The rite of Confirmation, described in 
 the Acts as administered to those who by means of 
 Baptism had been made Christians and as the means of 
 conveying the Holy Ghost (Acts viii. 14-17, xix. 6), is 
 mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews as one of ' the 
 first principles of Christ ' (Heb. vi. 1, 2) ; and it is highly 
 probable that, when S, Paul refers to the anointing and 
 sealing of Christians (2 Cor. i. 21, 22 ; Eph. i. 13, iv. 30), 
 he alludes to Confirmation. 
 
 The Churcli the Body of Christ. — It is a result of the 
 union with our Lord in which Christians are placed by 
 Baptism and fully maintained by Communion that the 
 whole Church is the body of Christ. 'We, who are 
 many,' says S. Paul, ' are one body in Christ ' ; ' We, 
 who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all 
 partake of the one bread ' ; ' As the body is one, and 
 hath many members, and all the members of the body, 
 being many, are one body ; so also is Christ. For in 
 one Spirit were we all baptized into one body ' ; 'Ye 
 are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof; 
 ' The God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory ' 
 ' gave ' ' Christ ' 'to be Head over all things to the 
 Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that 
 filleth all in all' ; ' He gave some to be apostles ; and 
 some prophets ; and some evangelists ; and some pastors 
 and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, unto the 
 work of ministering, unto the building up of the body 
 of Christ,' ' that we ' ' may grow up in all things into 
 Him, which is the Head, even Christ ; from whom all
 
 28 THE CHURCH 
 
 the body fitly framed and knit together through that 
 which every joint supplieth, according to the working 
 in due measure of each several part^ maketh the increase 
 of the body unto the building up of itself in love ' ; ' The 
 husband is the head of the wife^ as Christ also is the 
 Head of the Church, being Himself the Saviour of the 
 body'; 'We are members of His body'; ^He is the 
 Head of the body, the Church ' ; 'I rejoice in my suffer- 
 ings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which 
 is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His 
 body's sake, which is the Church ' ; '^Let no man ' '^ judge 
 you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day or 
 a new moon or a sabbath day ; which are a shadow of 
 the things to come; but the body is Christ's. Let no 
 man rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and 
 worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which 
 he hath seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and 
 not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being 
 supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, 
 increaseth with the increase of God ' (Rom. xii. 5 ; 1 Cor. 
 X. 17, xii. 12, 13, 27 ; Eph. i. 17, 19, 22, 23, iv. 11, 12, 
 15, 16, V. 23, 30 ; Col. i. 18, 24, ii. 16-19). Thus, in 
 many passages in his Epistles S. Paul insists that, as 
 truly as the several limbs of the natural body are 
 parts of that body, so truly individual Christians are 
 members of Christ, and the whole Church is the body 
 with which He is sometimes identified, and of which He 
 is sometimes represented as the Head. ^ 
 
 The Churcli the Bride of Christ.— S. Paul wrote to the 
 Corinthians, ^I am jealous over you with a godly jeal- 
 ousy : for I espoused you to one husband, that I might 
 present you as a pure virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. xi. 2). 
 At an earlier time, writing to the same community of 
 Christians, he had expressed what is fundamentally the 
 same idea in a different way, ' Know ye not that your 
 bodies are members of Christ'; 'The twain, saith He, 
 shall become one flesh. But he that is joined unto the 
 
 1 The consequences involved in S. Paul's doctrine of the 
 Church as the body of Christ and of Christ as the Head of the 
 Church cannot be thought to have been, as yet, adequately con- 
 sidered in the writings of theologians.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 29 
 
 Lord is one spirit' (1 Cor. vi. 15-17). Later, writing 
 to the Ephesians, he showed how this union of local 
 Churches and individual Christians with our Lord leads 
 up to the fact, correlative to the truth that the Church 
 is His hody, that the whole Church is the bride of 
 Christ. *The husband/ he wrote, ^is the head of the 
 wife, as Christ also is the Head of the Church, being- 
 Himself the Saviour of the body. But as the Church 
 is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their 
 husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, 
 even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself 
 up for it ; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it 
 by the washing of water with the word, that He might 
 present the Church to Himself a glorious Church, not 
 having spot or wrinkle or any such thing ; but that it 
 should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought 
 husbands also to love their own wives as their own 
 bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: 
 for no man ever hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and 
 cherisheth it, even as Christ also the Church ; because 
 we are members of His body. For this cause shall a 
 man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to 
 his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh. This 
 mystery is great : but I speak in regard of Christ and of 
 the Church ' (Eph. v. 23-82). So, in the Revelation of 
 S, John, the Church, which S. Paul represents as being 
 even in the present world the bride of Christ, is depicted 
 in her perfected glory as holding the same relation to 
 her Lord. ^ Let us rejoice,' are the words of the '^ great 
 multitude in heaven' whose voice S. John heard, ^and 
 be exceeding glad, and let us give glory unto Him ' (that 
 is, '^the Lord our God, the Almighty'), ^for the marriage 
 of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself 
 ready. And to her it was given that she should array 
 herself in fine linen, bright and pure : for the fine linen 
 is the righteous acts of the saints' ; ^I saw,' says S. John 
 himself, describing the vision of the future perfection 
 of the Church, ^the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming 
 down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride 
 adorned for her husband ' ; ' And there came one of the 
 seven angels,' "^and he spake with me, saying. Come
 
 30 THE CHURCH 
 
 hither^ I will show thee the bride, the wife of the Lamb. 
 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain 
 great and high^ and showed me the holy city Jerusalem^ 
 coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory 
 of God '(Rev. xix. 7, 8, xxi. 2, 9-11 ; cf. xxii. 17). Thus 
 the New Testament shows how the Church, in her earthly 
 life and her heavenly glory, affords the fulfilment of the 
 Psalmist's words of prophecy. 
 
 ' Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear ; 
 Forget also thine own people, and thy father's house ; 
 So sliall the king desire thy beauty : 
 For He is thy Lord ; and worship thou Him. 
 And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift ; 
 Even the rich among the people shall intreat thy favour. 
 
 The king's daughter within the palace is all glorious ; 
 
 Her clothing is inwrought with gold. 
 
 She shall be led unto the king in broidered work : 
 
 The virgins her companions that follow her 
 
 Shall be brought unto Thee. 
 
 "With gladness and rejoicing shall they be led. 
 
 They shall enter into the king's palace.' — (Ps. xlv. 10-15.) 
 
 The Church the Temple of God. — The aspect of Christian 
 life by which it is seen to be in union with our Lord leads 
 naturally to the conception of the Church as the body 
 and the bride of Christ. Similarly, the doctrine of the 
 indwelling of Christians by the Holy Ghost involves the 
 representation of the Church as the temple of God. This 
 representation was implied in the teaching of our Lord 
 Himself. In His promise of the existence and perpetuity 
 of the Church He said to S. Peter, ' Upon this rock I 
 will build My Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not 
 prevail against it' (Matt. xvi. 18). The idea which our 
 Lord suggested was more fully developed by S. Paul. 
 He referred to the work of his own ministry and the 
 ministry of others as that of a builder, and added that 
 Christians were the temple of God. ' According to the 
 grace of God which was given unto me,' he wrote to the 
 Corinthians, '^as a wise master-builder I laid a founda- 
 tion ; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man 
 take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation 
 can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 31 
 
 Christ ' ; ' Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and 
 that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?' (1 Cor. iii. 10, 
 11, 16 ; cf. 2 Cor. vi. 16). What he thus said of the 
 Christians at Corinth collectively, he said also of indi- 
 vidual Christians at the same place in the words, ' Know 
 ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost.'' ' 
 (1 Cor. vi. 19). And in the Epistle to the Ephesians 
 he expanded this thought as it applies to the Universal 
 Church, and explained the relation between the different 
 parts and the whole. ' Ye,' he said, ' are no more 
 strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with 
 the saints, and of the household of God, being built upon 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus 
 Himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom each 
 several building, fitly framed together, groweth into a 
 holy temple in the Lord ; in whom ye also are builded 
 together for a habitation of God in the Spirit' (Eph. ii. 
 19-22). 
 
 The Church in the Present and in the Future. — Through- 
 out the descriptions of the Church as the body and bride 
 of Christ and as the temple of God it is clear that the 
 thought of its future perfect state is never very far 
 away ; and this is the prominent idea in the picture of 
 the bride in the Revelation. At the same time, it is 
 no less clear that in S. Paul's writings it is the actual 
 visible Church in its present state to which reference is 
 thus made. The future realisation of the ideal condition 
 of the Church is not forgotten ; but even amid the im- 
 perfections which may now be discerned the Church is 
 described in the splendid terms which depict it as body 
 and bride and temple, since even in the present it is a 
 supernatural society, a divine institution, participating 
 in the life of God through union with Christ. 
 
 Evil mingled with Good in the Visible Church. — Magnifi- 
 cent as is the conception of the Church which is found 
 in the Epistles, that view of it which is presented in 
 our Lord's parables of the tares among the wheat and of 
 the net cast into the sea is not forgotten. The whole 
 Christian body in any place is indeed addressed as ' the 
 saints ' (Rom. i. 7 ; 1 Cor. i. 2 ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ; Eph. i. 1 ; 
 Phil. i. 1 ; Col. i. 2 ; cf. Acts. ix. 32) in virtue of the
 
 32 THE CHURCH 
 
 position of each member of it as one who in Baptism has 
 been set free from sin by his union with our Lord and 
 the operation of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. vi. 11). But 
 within the temple which is upon the foundation Jesus 
 Christ there may be building of ^ gold/ or ^ silver^' or 
 ' costly stones/ or ' wood/ or ^ hay/ or ' stubble ' (1 Cor. 
 iii. 11, 12); the '^ treasure' even of the ministry is ^in 
 earthen vessels' (2 Cor. iv. 7); in the '^ great house' of 
 the Church '^ there are not only vessels of gold and of 
 silver, but also of wood and of earth ; and some unto 
 honour, and some unto dishonour ' (2 Tim. ii. 20) ; some 
 in the society described as ' the saints ' are reproved for 
 grievous sins {e.g. 1 Cor. passim) ; and the circumstances 
 which arise when a ^man that is named a brother' is ^a 
 fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or 
 a drunkard, or an extortioner' have to be taken into 
 account (1 Cor. v. 11). 
 
 The Church One. — '^One bread, one body,' '^one body 
 in Christ,' are phrases in which S. Paul describes the 
 Church. This unity comprises more than that Christians 
 are in common members of a visible organisation. It 
 involves not only the idea expressed by our Lord when 
 He spoke of ^one flock' (John x. 16), but also that con- 
 veyed by His comparison of Himself and His people to 
 ' the vine ' and ' the branches ' (John xv. 1-8) ; and con- 
 sequently it rests upon the participation of Christians in 
 the life of Christ. This inner, hidden unity, by which 
 all who in Holy Baptism have been made members of 
 Christ and have received the indwelling of the Holy 
 Ghost have share in the one life of our Lord which is 
 the possession of His body the Church, shows itself, on 
 its outward side, in different aspects. The worship of 
 the one true God, the acceptance of the one true faith, 
 the sharing in the one Baptism by means of which 
 Christian life is bestowed and the one Communion of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ by which it may be fully 
 maintained, the possession of the one hope of eternal 
 life in the presence of God, the reception of the influ- 
 ence and the indwelling of the one Spirit, — these are 
 described by S. Paul as marks of the unity of the 
 Church. ^ There is one body, and one Spirit, even as
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 83 
 
 also ye were called in one hope of your calling ; one 
 Lord, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of 
 all' ; 'In one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, 
 whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free ; and 
 were all made to drink of one Spirit ' ; ' The cup of 
 blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the 
 blood of Christ ? The bread which we break, is it not 
 a communion of the body of Christ? seeing that we, 
 who are many, are one bread, one body : for we all 
 partake of the one bread' (Eph. iv. 4, 5 ; 1 Cor. xii. 18, 
 X. 16, 17). But all unity which proceeds from outward 
 organisation has its meaning and its value because it is 
 the sign of that union with Christ through which all 
 who are joined with Him are in Him joined together 
 with one another. 
 
 The Church Holy. — The one Church, the mystical body 
 of Christ, is regarded in the New Testament as holy in 
 spite of the presence of bad members within it. That 
 perfect holiness is the ideal and is to be the final state 
 of the Church — a truth taught by our Lord Himself in 
 His many exhortations to righteousness {e.g. Matt, v.) 
 and in His description of the casting out of evil in the 
 day of judgment (Matt. xiii. 80, 49, 50, xxiv. 50, 51, 
 XXV. 11, 12, 30) — is shown in the description of the bride 
 of Christ in the glory of the marriage feast as arrayed 
 in ' fine linen, bright and pure,' the ' fine linen ' of ' the 
 righteous acts of the saints' (Rev. xix. 8); S. Paul's 
 assertion of the purpose of Christ to 'sanctify' the 
 Church, 'having cleansed it by the washing of water 
 with the word, that He might present the Church to 
 Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle 
 or any such thing ; but that it should be holy and with- 
 out blemish ' (Eph. v. 26, 27), and to ' redeem us from all 
 iniquity, and purify unto Himself a people for His own 
 possession, zealous of good works' (Tit. ii. 14); and the 
 same apostle's aim that he 'might present' the Corinth- 
 ians 'as a pure virgin to Christ' (2 Cor. xi. 2). That 
 the Church as a whole can be regarded as holy is shown 
 by the practice already mentioned (see p. 31) of address- 
 ing the Christian society in any place as the ' saints,' and 
 such phrases as that it is ' a holy temple ' (Eph. ii. 21).
 
 34 THE CHURCH 
 
 The Universal Mission of the Church. — Though our Lord 
 for the most part confined His ministry to the Jews 
 (Matt. XV. 24), He plainly taught His apostles that their 
 mission was to be world-wide when, before His ascension. 
 He commanded them, ' Go ye therefore, and make dis- 
 ciples of all the nations' (Matt, xxviii. 19), or, in the 
 words of S. Mark's Gospel, ' Go ye into all the world, and 
 preach the gospel to the whole creation' (Mark xvi. 15), 
 or, as recorded by S. Luke, ' that repentance and remis- 
 sion of sins should be preached in His Name unto all the 
 nations, beginning from Jerusalem' (Luke xxiv. 47). 
 The admission of the Gentiles without the rite of 
 circumcision was the method in which the Church of 
 the apostles gave effect to the spirit of our Lord's com- 
 mand ; and the importance of the decision of the 
 Council of Jerusalem and the practical as distinct from 
 the doctrinal significance of the teaching of S. Paul in 
 his Epistle to the Galatians were connected with the 
 need of maintaining the universal character of the work 
 of the Church. S. Paul's Epistles generally, in their 
 insistence on the truth that '^ there cannot be Greek 
 and Jqw, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, 
 Scythian, bondman, freeman : but Christ is all and in all ' 
 (Col. iii. 11 ; cf. Acts xvii. 26), show that there cannot be 
 any narrower ideal for the Church than that it extends 
 throughout the world. The Revelation depicts as part 
 of the destined future that ^the kingdom of the world 
 is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ ' 
 (Rev. xi. lo). In this teaching the New Testament ex- 
 hibits the fulfilment of the prophecies of the Psalmists : — 
 
 ' The Lord said unto Me, Thou art My Son ; 
 This day have I begotten Thee. 
 
 Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the nations for Thine inherit- 
 ance, 
 And the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.' 
 
 'AH the ends of the earth shall remember and turn unto the 
 
 Lord: 
 And all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee. ' 
 
 ' He shall have dominion also from sea to sea, 
 And from the River unto the ends of the earth.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 85 
 
 They that dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him ; 
 
 And His enemies shall lick the dust. 
 
 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents : 
 
 The kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. 
 
 Yea, all kings shall fall down before Him : 
 
 All nations shall serve Him.' — (Ps. ii. 7, 8, xxii. 27, Ixxii. 8-11.) 
 
 The Churcli in Union with the Apostles. — It has already 
 been pointed out (p. 18) that the Christian society of 
 the time immediately following the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost ' continued ' ' in the apostles' teaching and fellow- 
 ship.' This outward union was a sign of the inward unity 
 by which the one body of Christians was held together 
 in Christ. In the outward union and in the inward unity 
 those thus knit together were necessarily linked with 
 the apostles as sharing in the one sacramental life derived 
 from Christ the Head. S. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, 
 described the actual Church of the present life as ' built 
 upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ 
 Jesus Himself being the chief cornerstone' (Eph. ii. 
 20). Of the perfected Church depicted in the Revela- 
 tion S. John said, '^The wall of the city had twelve 
 foundations, and on them twelve names of the twelve 
 apostles of the Lamb ' (Rev. xxi. 14), 
 
 The Church the Inheritor of the Promises to Israel. — In 
 the Epistle to the Galatians S. Paul refers to the Church 
 as ''the Israel of God.' ' As many as walk by this rule/ 
 he says, ^ peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the 
 Israel of God' (Gal. vi. 16). This line of thought is 
 more explicitly developed by S. Peter in his First Epistle. 
 The phraseology he uses with reference to the Church 
 is based upon the descriptions of the nation of Israel 
 in the Old Testament. In the words which the Lord 
 commanded Moses to speak unto ' the house of Jacob,' 
 ^the children of Israel,' summing up very much which 
 was said elsewhere, the Israelite nation was addressed, 
 ' Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all 
 peoples : for all the earth is Mine : and ye shall be unto 
 Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation ' (Ex. xix. 
 5, 6). With this description of Israel plainly in view, 
 S. Peter addresses the Christian Church, ' Ye,' ' as living 
 stones, are built up a spiritual house, to be a holy
 
 36 THE CHURCH 
 
 priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices_, acceptable to 
 God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in 
 Scripture,, 
 
 Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious : 
 And he that believeth on Him shall not be put to shame. 
 
 For you, therefore, that believe is the preciousness : 
 but for such as disbelieve, 
 
 and. 
 
 The stone which the builders rejected, 
 The same was made the head of the corner ; 
 
 A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence ; 
 
 for they stumble at the word, being disobedient : where- 
 unto also they were appointed. But ye are an elect race, 
 a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own 
 possession, that ye may show forth the excellences of 
 Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous 
 light : which in time past were no people, but now are 
 the people of God : which had not obtained mercy, but 
 now have obtained mercy' (1 Pet. ii. 5-10). S. Peter 
 also describes the Church as '^the house of God' and 
 'the flock of God' (1 Pet. iv. 17, v. 2), as well as 'the 
 brotherhood ' (1 Pet. ii. 17, v. 9). In his Second Epistle 
 he refers to the privilege of sacramental participation 
 in the life of God by which Christians are distinguished 
 from those who had attained to the greatest heights in 
 the nation of Israel (cf. Matt. xi. 11), by mentioning as 
 an object of God's call to Christians that 'through His 
 precious and exceeding great promises' they 'may 
 become partakers of the divine nature ' (2 Pet. i. 4).
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 37 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HISTORY LATER THAN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT : A VISIBLE SOCIETY 
 
 Introductory. — The New Testament conception of the 
 Church as a society of Christians_, known by outward 
 marks, the inheritor of the promises to Israel in the 
 Old Testament, called by God to serve Him on earth 
 in preparation for an unending life of perfect service, 
 is found throughout the whole course of later history. 
 
 The Fathers. — In the writings of the Fathers of all 
 periods, both in the East and in the West, the Church 
 is consistently regarded as a body such as is depicted in 
 the New Testament. It is but an instance of the general 
 trend of patristic thought that S. Augustine describes 
 the Church as the city of God set on a hill, not to be 
 hid, as the field of God in which till the day of judgment 
 the tares will grow together with the wheat, as formed 
 by the Sacrament of Baptism in which the baptized are 
 made members of Christ and the Sacrament of the Euchar- 
 ist in which they are preserved in spiritual life.^ To 
 quote one passage out of the full and rich teaching 
 which his writings contain : ^ There has been shown the 
 city set upon a hill, which cannot be hid, and the light 
 placed on a candlestick, which shows its brightness to 
 all who are in the house. For where does the Church 
 of Christ lie hid } where does the truth of Christ lie hid ? 
 Is He not the mountain which grew out of the least of 
 stones, and filled the whole face of the earth ? ' ^ That 
 
 1 The writings of S. Augustine against the Donatists, parti- 
 cularly De Baptismo contra Donatistos, and his treatise De 
 civitatc Dei, are full of such teaching. 
 
 2 S. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. LVII., 9.
 
 38 THE CHURCH 
 
 he sometimes distinguished the ^ interior ' Church, or 
 the ^ real ' body, from the visible society, only shows that 
 he allowed for the presence of the tares among the w^heat, 
 the bad members together with the good, and referred 
 in this special way to those persons within the visible 
 Church who were faithful to their obligations as Chris- 
 tians, and, on his view of predestination, the objects of 
 divine election, not that he set up the idea of an invisible 
 Church separate from the visible society to which he 
 unquestionably referred as the city of God and the body 
 of Christ.^ 
 
 The Middle Ages. — As in the Fathers, so throughout 
 the middle ages the idea of the Church is that of a 
 visible society. It was indeed maintained on occasion 
 that the Church has its invisible part consisting of those 
 who have attained to the glory towards which those who 
 are seen in the visible Church on earth are making their 
 way; 2 but this recognition that the Church includes 
 those who have passed within the veil as well as those 
 who are still living in this world was in no sense a dis- 
 tinction of an invisible and a visible Church in those 
 who are yet alive upon earth. 
 
 The Present Time. — At the present time it is the teach- 
 ing of all the parts of the Church that the Church is a 
 visible society. 
 
 The Church of England. — The formularies of the Church 
 of England were drawn up in full view of a distinction 
 between an invisible and a visible Church, made by 
 Wyclif, adopted by Hus, influential among the foreign 
 reformers, not without effect in some English documents 
 of the reign of Henry viii., and accepted by, among 
 others, Hooper, the Bishop of Gloucester, in the reign 
 of Edward vi.^ Throughout these formularies the re- 
 presentation of the Church is in accordance with the 
 
 1 See a valuable statement in Bright, Lessons from the Lives of 
 Three Great Fathers, pp. 280-85. 
 
 2 See, e.ff., S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III. viii. 
 4 ad 2. 
 
 3 See Kidd, The Thirty-nine Articles (in this series), pp. 164, 
 165 ; Gibson, The Thirty -nine Articles of the Church of England^ 
 p. 499.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 80 
 
 historical conception of it as a visible society. The phrases, 
 ^Thy holy Church universal' in the Litany, 'the good 
 estate of the Catholic Church ' in the Prayer for all sorts 
 and conditions of men, ' an universal Church ' and 'Thy 
 Church' in the Prayers for the Ember Weeks, 'the 
 whole state of Christ's Church militant here on earth' 
 in the Order of Holy Communion, and the language 
 used throughout the offices for the Ministration of Holy 
 Baptism, are obviously meant to denote that the Church 
 is a visible body known by outward marks ; in the nine- 
 teenth of the Articles of Religion a definition in accord- 
 ance with the historical belief is used when it is said 
 that ' the visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
 faithful men,i in the which the pure Word of God is 
 preached and the Sacraments be duly ministered accord- 
 ing to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of 
 necessity are requisite to the same ' ; and in the twenty- 
 sixth of the same Articles it is allowed that 'in the 
 visible Church the evil be ever mingled with the good,' 
 and even that ' sometime the evil have chief authority 
 in the ministration of the Word and Sacraments.' 
 
 The Churcli of Rome. — The authorised teaching of 
 the Church of Rome demands different limits for the 
 Church than those assigned in the Church of England. 
 It asserts no less clearly the visible character of the 
 Church, and that within it the evil are mingled with the 
 good. 2 
 
 The East. — The same is true of the East. The Council 
 of Bethlehem of a.d. 1672 stated: 'We believe that all 
 the faithful, and the faithful only, are members of the 
 Catholic Church, that is, those who hold and keep 
 inviolable the Faith of our Saviour Christ, delivered by 
 Christ Himself and the apostles, and the holy (Ecu- 
 menical Councils, even though some of them may be 
 guilty of all kinds of sins. For the faithful who are 
 living in sin could not be judged by the Church if they 
 were not members of the Church. But as it is, when 
 they are defiled by sin they are judged by the Church 
 
 1 i.e. professed believers : see Kidd, op. cit., p. 171 ; 
 Gibson, o?). cit., p. 502. 
 
 2 See the Catechism of tlie Council of Trent, I. x. 7.
 
 40 THE CHURCH 
 
 and exhorted to repentance, and directed to the exercise 
 of its healthful commandments ; and, so long as they 
 have not fallen into despair, and hold to the Catholic and 
 orthodox faith, they are and are recognised as members 
 of the Catholic Church. ' ^ And the Longer Catechism of 
 the Russian Church expressly says that the Church is 
 ^ visible,' and defines it as ^ a divinely instituted com- 
 munity of men, united by the orthodox faith, the law of 
 God, the hierarchy, and the Sacraments.'^ 
 
 The Invisible Side of the Visible Clmrch. — That this 
 visible society has its invisible side in those who have 
 departed this life in the faith and fear of Christ is a 
 truth which each part of the Church has preserved. It 
 is emphatically expressed in the Collect of the Church of 
 England for All Saints' Day, written for the Prayer 
 Book of 1549, in which, with evident reference to the 
 departed Saints, it is said that God has '^ knit together ' 
 His '^ elect in one communion and fellowship in the 
 mystical body of ' ^Christ our Lord.' It is implied in 
 the whole structure of the Roman Mass, in which suppli- 
 cation is made for the living and the departed, and the 
 glorified Saints are closely associated with the action of 
 the Church on earth. ^ In the East, the Longer Catechism 
 of the Russian Church contains the question, ^How can 
 the Church, which is visible, be the object of faith, 
 when faith, as the apostle says, is '^^the evidence of 
 things not seen " .'' ' and the answer, ' First, though the 
 Church be visible, the grace of God which dwells in her, 
 and in those who are sanctified in her, is not so ; and 
 this it is which properly constitutes the object of faith 
 in the Church. Secondly, the Church, though visible 
 so far as she is upon earth, and contains all orthodox 
 Christians living upon earth, still is at the same time 
 invisible, so far as she is also partially in heaven, and 
 contains all those that have departed hence in true faith 
 and holiness. ' ^ 
 
 1 Council of Bethlehem, xi. 
 
 2 See Blackmore, The Doctrine of the Russian Church, p. 75. 
 
 3 See also Catechism of the Council of Trent, I. x. 5; 
 and Addis, Arnold, and Scannell, A Catholic Dictionary, p. 185. 
 
 4 Blackmore, op. cit., pp. 75, 76.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 41 
 
 Admission to the Church by Means of Baptism. — It has 
 been continuously taught within the Church that admis- 
 sion to it is obtained by means of the Sacrament of Holy 
 Baptism. The teaching on this subject contained in the 
 Baptismal Offices of the English Church represents 
 truly the historical doctrine of the whole Church. In 
 that for the Ministration of Public Baptism of Infants 
 the priest is directed to describe in the opening exhorta- 
 tion the act of Baptism as effecting that the child may 
 be ' received into Christ's holy Churchy and be made a 
 lively member of the same ' ; to pray that he ' may be 
 received into the ark of Christ's Church ' ; and after the 
 Baptism to say, *We yield Thee hearty thanks, most 
 merciful P'ather, that it hath pleased Thee to regenerate 
 this infant with Thy holy Spirit, to receive him for Thine 
 own child by adoption, and to incorporate him into 
 Thy holy Church.' The Offices for the Private Baptism 
 of Children and the Baptism of Adults contain similar 
 teaching. 
 
 Those within the Early Church Confirmed and Communi- 
 cants. — In the early Church Baptism did not standalone. 
 With it the rite of Confirmation was closely connected. 
 In all ordinary cases those who were baptized, both 
 children and adults, were at once confirmed. Their 
 Baptism and Confirmation were immediately followed by 
 their reception of the Holy Communion. ^ To receive Bap- 
 tism and Confirmation without also receiving the Holy 
 Communion would, in any ordinary circumstances, have 
 been impossible. To continue to be a communicant was 
 a recognised part of the life of any within the Church. 
 
 The Present Time. — To some extent this aspect of 
 membership in the Church has been obscured in the 
 ^Yest by the discontinuance of the primitive practice of 
 Infant Confirmation and Infant Communion which the 
 East has retained. But, though the emphasis on a 
 valuable truth has thus been made less, both the Church 
 of Rome and the English Church insist on the necessity 
 of reception of the Holy Communion on the part of those 
 who have attained to the age of reason. The Church of 
 
 1 See ijp. 162-181 of the volume Holy Baptism in the ' Oxford 
 Library of Practical Theology.'
 
 42 THE CHURCH 
 
 Rome requires her members to communicate at least 
 once a year at the Easter season ; ^ and, though fre- 
 quently administering Communion before Confirmation, 
 yet takes pains to secure that the latter rite is received. 
 The English Church orders in the Office for the Minis- 
 tration of Public Baptism of Infants, that baptized 
 children 'be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed by 
 him so soon as they can say the Creed, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, in the vulgar 
 tongue, and be further instructed in the Church Cate- 
 chism set forth for that purpose'; in the Order of 
 Confirmation that ' none be admitted to the Holy Com- 
 munion until such time as he be confirmed, or be ready 
 and desirous to be confirmed,' implying that those who 
 have been confirmed (who according to the Prayer Book 
 rule will include all who know the Creed, the Lord's 
 Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Church Cate- 
 chism) are to be admitted to Communion ; and in the 
 Order of Holy Communion that ' every parishioner shall 
 communicate at the least three times in the year, of which 
 Easter to be one.' 
 
 Belief in the Christian Faith. — From the earliest times, 
 belief in the chief doctrines of the Christian religion has 
 been requisite for members of the Church. ^ This re- 
 quirement has been maintained in theory to the present 
 time. The Churches of the East, the Church of Rome, 
 and the English Church difi'er in some respects as to 
 what they require from their members. They agree in 
 the need of the acceptance of the central doctrines of 
 the Christian faith. In the English Church, one of the 
 conditions of Baptism is belief, on the part of the person 
 baptized, or of the sponsors, in the Apostles' Creed ; 
 candidates for Confirmation are required to 'renew the 
 solemn promise and vow that was made in ' their ' name 
 at' their 'Baptism,' which includes the act of belief, 
 before they are confirmed by the Bishop ; and the saying 
 or singing of the enlarged form of the Nicene Creed is 
 directed to form a part of every celebration of the Holy 
 Communion. 
 
 1 Lateran Council of a.i>. 1215, cap. 21. 
 
 2 See pp. 151-155, 164-168 of Holy Baptism.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 43 
 
 The Visible Church the Sphere of Covenanted Salvation. — 
 From the earliest days of Christianity, to enter the 
 visible Church by the Sacrament of Holy Baptism was 
 regarded as an act of passing out of death into life. The 
 sense of the hold which sin had on the world and of the 
 privileges of the Christian religion not unnaturally led 
 to a very dark view of the present condition and future 
 lot of those who lived and died outside the communion 
 of the Church. In the third and following centuries such 
 statements as * outside the Church no salvation,' ^ were 
 made with the meaning that those who did not become 
 members of the visible Church in this life were eternally 
 lost. Though S. Augustine, in his struggles to recognise 
 the significance of different sides of human life, admitted 
 much as to the possibilities of the heathen before the 
 coming of Christ and as to the work of grace among the 
 predestined who in Christian times were for a while 
 outside the visible communion of the Church, he does 
 not appear to have contemplated that any who were not 
 within the visible Church at death, unless indeed they 
 had been prevented from receiving Baptism by some 
 accident,^ or being members of the Church had been 
 excommunicated by an unjust sentence,^ would attain to 
 eternal salvation. The ideas about grace and merit which 
 prevailed among some of the schoolmen, gave a milder 
 aspect to their teaching. A terrible sternness marked 
 the thought of the period of the Reformation on subjects 
 of this kind.'* Of late years there has been a strong 
 tendency to lay stress on assertions of the good received 
 within the Church, and to maintain an attitude of 
 reserve as to the state of those outside it, and to inter- 
 pret the word ' salvation ' in the sentence '^ outside the 
 Church no salvation' in the sense of Hhe security of 
 the covenant.'^ 
 
 1 This phrase is first found in S. Cyprian, Ep. Ixxiii. 21. 
 
 2 S. Augustine, De Bapt. c. Don., iv. 29. 
 
 3 Idem, De vera relig., 11. 
 
 ■^ The general idea of the visible Church was maintained by 
 both Luther and Calvin, as well as in the Church of England. 
 
 5 See Gore, The Body of Christ, pp. 319, 320. On the con- 
 nected question of the state of those who die unbaptized, see 
 Holy Baptism, pp. 110-116.
 
 44 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HISTORY LATER THAN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT : UNITY 
 
 ' Notes' Of the Churcli. — In tlie additions to the Creed of 
 Nicaea which were first authorised by the Council of 
 Constantinople in a.d. 881, or the Council of Chalcedon 
 in A.D. 451,^ the words '^One, holy. Catholic, and Apos- 
 tolic Church' occur. Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and 
 Apostolicity are often described as the four ^ notes ' or 
 ^ marks ' of the Church. 
 
 The Organic Unity of the Church. — It has already been 
 seen that S. Paul describes the unity of the Church as 
 consisting in the relation of Christians to the one God, 
 the one revealed faith, the one sacramental life, the one 
 hope, and the indwelling of the one Spirit (see p. 82). 
 This conception of Christian unity has never been alto- 
 gether out of sight in the history of the Church, though 
 at times and in places there has been a tendency to dwell 
 chiefly on the visible unity of outward organisation 
 rather than on the invisible unity in M^hich the members 
 of the visible Church inhere in Christ. Thus, in the 
 writings of S. Cyprian,^ and to some extent in those of 
 S. Augustine,^ and in a still higher degree in much 
 modern Roman Catholic theology, the most prominent 
 aspect of the unity of the Church is that of external 
 organisation. But, while it is certainly true that such 
 external and visible unity as is involved in the possession 
 of the one sacramental life, the chief means of which are 
 
 1 For a statement on this subject see Eck, The Incarnation 
 ('Oxford Library of Practical Theology'), p. 266. 
 
 2 See especially his De Unitate Ecclesice. 
 
 2 See especially his treatises against the Donatists.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 45 
 
 Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist^ is necessary to 
 the unity which is a ' note ' of the Churchy there have 
 been many recog-nitions in quarters of unsuspected 
 orthodoxy of the truth that the essential unity, without 
 which the Church cannot be, is participation in the one 
 life of Christ. In a well-known passage in his book On 
 the Trinity S. Hilary of Poitiers wrote, ^The apostle 
 teaches that this unity of Christians results from the 
 nature of the Sacraments, for he addressed the Galatians, 
 "As many of you as have been baptized in Christ have 
 put on Christ. There can be no Jqw or Greek, there 
 can be no slave or free, there can be no male or female ; 
 for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. " That, in so great 
 difference of race, position, and sex, they are one, is this 
 a result of the assent of the will or of the unity of the 
 Sacrament, since to these there is one Baptism, and they 
 are all clothed in the one Christ? What, then, will 
 agreement of minds do here, since they are one in this 
 respect, that by means of the nature of the one Baptism 
 they are clad in the one Christ } ' ^ Similarly, to men- 
 tion three great names in the West widely separated in 
 point of time, S. Augustine,^ S. Thomas Aquinas,^ and 
 Pope Leo xiii. lay stress on the fact that the Church 
 has essential unity by inhering in her Head Christ. 
 'The Son of God,' wrote Leo xiii., 'decreed that the 
 Church should be His mystical body, with which He 
 should be united as the Head, after the manner of the 
 human body which He assumed, to which the natural 
 head is physiologically united.'* To add to these 
 VYestern writers the teaching of the East at the present 
 time, in the Longer Catechism of the Russian Church it is 
 said, ' Why is the Church one } ' ' Because she is one 
 spiritual body, has one Head, Christ, and is animated by 
 one Spirit of God. " There is one body and one Spirit, 
 even as ye are called in one hope of your calling ; one 
 Lord, one faith, one Baptism ; one God and Father of 
 
 1 S. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trin., viii. 8 (cf. 7). 
 
 2 See, e.g., S. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps. LVL, 1. 
 
 ■^ See, e.g., S. Thomas Aquinas, Sumnia Theologica, III. viii. 1, 6. 
 ^ Pope Leo xiii.. Encyclical Letter Satis cognitum, p. 12 (p. xiv 
 of authorised English translation).
 
 46 THE CHURCH 
 
 all."' '^ Are we still more expressly assured that Jesus 
 Christ is the one only Head of the one Church ? ' ^ The 
 apostle Paul writes, that for the Church, as " the build- 
 ing of God, other foundation can no man lay than that 
 is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Wherefore the Church, 
 as the body of Christ, can have no other head than Jesus 
 Christ. The Church being to abide through all genera- 
 tions of time needs also an ever-abiding Head ; and such 
 is Jesus Christ alone. Wherefore, also, the apostles take 
 no higher title than that of " Ministers of the Church." ' 
 ' What duty does the unity of the Church lay upon us } ' 
 ' That of " endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit 
 in the bond of peace."' ^How does it agree with the 
 unity of the Church that there are many separate and 
 independent Churches, as those of Jerusalem, Antioch, 
 Alexandria, Constantinople, Russia?' '^ These are par- 
 ticular Churches, or parts of the one Catholic Church : 
 the separateness of their visible organisation does not 
 hinder them from being all spiritually great members of 
 the one body of the Universal Church, from having one 
 Head, Christ, and one spirit of faith and grace. This 
 unity is expressed outwardly by unity of Creed, and by 
 communion in prayer and Sacraments.' '^Is there like- 
 wise unity between the Church on earth and the Church 
 in heaven ? ' ' Doubtless there is both by their common 
 relation to one Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by 
 mutual communion with one another.' ^ 
 
 Organic and Moral Unity. — In the quotation just made 
 from th.e Longer Catechism of the Russian Church it is taught 
 that the essential unity of the Church lays on us the 
 ' duty ' of ^ endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit 
 in the bond of peace.' In other terminology, the objec- 
 tive or organic unity of the Church, which consists of 
 common participation in the one life of Christ, ought to 
 involve also the subjective or moral unity of the Church; 
 which consists of peace and concord and the inter- 
 communion of Christians with one another. To questions 
 how far the objective or organic unity, a '^note' of the 
 Church and essential to being in the Church, can be 
 
 1 Blackmore, op. cit,, pp. 77| 78.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 47 
 
 maintained if the subjective or moral unity has been lost, 
 it would be difficult to obtain clear-cut and definite 
 answers in the East. In the Church of Rome, on the 
 other hand, they have been answered with great definite- 
 ness. To take as an instance the Encyclical Letter of 
 Pope Leo xiii. on the subject of unity from which a 
 quotation has already been made (see p. 45), after the 
 assertion of the need of unity by being in the body of 
 which Christ is the Head, the Pope went on to maintain 
 that the unity of the Church requires a supreme autho- 
 rity, and that a supreme authority necessitates an earthly 
 head. ^ Since,' he wrote, ' Christ willed that His king- 
 dom should be visible. He was obliged, when He ascended 
 into heaven, to designate a vicegerent on earth' ; ^ '^ Jesus 
 Christ, therefore, appointed Peter to be the head of the 
 Church : and He also determined that the authority 
 instituted in perpetuity for the salvation of all should be 
 inherited by His successors, in whom the same per- 
 manent authority of Peter himself should continue.'^ 
 And from this point of view it is commonly taught by 
 Roman Catholic theologians that, as the Church is a 
 visible society, so also the essential unity which is 
 a '^note' of the Church is visible, and one necessary part 
 of this visible unity is that external intercommunion of 
 Christians with one another which requires adhesion to 
 the appointed head of the Church on earth, the Pope of 
 Rome. 
 
 Roman Catholic Arguments. — This attitude of Roman 
 Catholic theologians has been defended on two great 
 grounds. On the ground of reason it has been main- 
 tained that the visil3le body of the Church must have a 
 visible head ; that the Church on earth being made up 
 of men must have a head in the same order of thought, 
 that is, a human head ; and that unity ceases to be 
 possible unless there is an earthly centre of unity. On 
 the ground of authority it has been urged that the words 
 
 1 Pope Leo xiir., op. ciL, pp. 32, 33 (p. xxxv of the authorised 
 English translation, from which the above quotation is taken : 
 the Latin phrase translated 'He was obliged to designate' is 
 ' designare debuit '). 
 
 2 Ibnl. p. 33 (p. xxxvi of the authorised English translation).
 
 48 THE CHURCH 
 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ and the traditional doctrine 
 and practice of the Church concur in teaching that this 
 earthly centre of unity is to be found in the successors 
 of S. Peter in the See of Rome, and that to be apart 
 from the Pope is to be severed from the Church. 
 
 The Argument from Reason. — The argument thus 
 brought forward on the ground of reason cannot be 
 regarded as weighty. It is acknowledged on all sides 
 that the visible Church on earth is only part of the 
 Church, and that, in addition to those Christians now 
 living on earth, the Church includes the departed and 
 those who have yet to live. While it can logically be 
 maintained that a body must have a head, it is not 
 required by logic that a part of a body must have a head, 
 and the Head of the whole body of the Church is our 
 Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Moreover, when it is said 
 that the Church on earth, being made up of men, must 
 have a head in the same order of thought and life, and 
 this position is used to support the argument which 
 requires external union with the Pope, it is forgotten 
 that it is in virtue of His manhood ^ that our Lord is the 
 Head of the Church, and that therefore as Man, He fills 
 the position which this line of reasoning assigns to the 
 Pope. An earthly centre of unity is necessary, as dis- 
 tinct from desirable, only on the supposition that external 
 intercommunion is requisite to complete that unity 
 which is a ^ note ' of the Church. 
 
 The Argument from Authority. — The argument based on 
 authority needs fuller consideration. 
 
 Importance attached to External Unity by the Fathers. — 
 It must be admitted that in the writings of the Fathers 
 great importance is attached to unity of external organisa- 
 tion. Attention has already been directed to this aspect 
 of the teaching of S. Cyprian and S. Augustine. To his 
 insistence on the need of the objective unity which is 
 accomplished by the sacraments, S. Cyprian, with evident 
 reference to the visible unity of intercommunion, adds 
 
 1 See, e.g., S. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, III. viii. 1. 
 But for the sense in which S. Thomas Aquinas considered that 
 the Pope is the 'head of the whole Church,' and that others are 
 ' heads ' through their relation to Christ, see ibid. III. viii. 6.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 49 
 
 such passages as that in which he says, ' Whosoever is 
 apart from the Church is joined to an adulteress, is separ- 
 ated from the promises of the Church ; nor will he who 
 leaves the Church of Christ attain to the rewards of Christ. 
 He is foreign, he is impious, he is a foe. He who has 
 not the Church for his mother has not God as his Father. 
 If any one could survive who was outside the ark of 
 Noah, then does he escape who is outside the Church.' ^ 
 And it appears to be with similar reference to external 
 unity that S. Augustine wrote, '^ Whoever assent to the 
 Holy Scriptures concerning the Head Himself, and yet 
 are not in fellowship with the unity of the Church, are 
 not in the Church ; because concerning the body of 
 Christ, which is the Church, they differ from the witness 
 of Christ Himself. . . . Whoever believe indeed that 
 Christ Jesus . . . has come in the flesh, and rose from 
 the dead in the same flesh in which He was born and 
 suffered, and that He is Himself the Son of God, God 
 with God, and One with the Father, and the unchange- 
 able Word of the Father, through whom all things were 
 made, but yet so differ from His body, which is the 
 Church, that their communion is not with the whole 
 wherever it is spread abroad, but is found in some 
 separated part, it is clear that they are not in the 
 Catholic Church. '2 
 
 Importance of the See of Rome in the Patristic Period. — 
 It must be admitted, also, that during the patristic times 
 great importance and dignity were attached to the See 
 of Rome and even to the office of the Pope. 
 
 The See of Rome not a Necessary Centre of Unity. — But, 
 when it is asked whether, either in Holy Scripture or in 
 the writings of the Fathers, the See or the Bishop of 
 Rome is represented as such a centre of unity as that to 
 be externally separated from them is to be outside the 
 Church, the answer which a fair investigation will supply 
 must be in the negative. 
 
 The 'Petrine Texts.' — It is customary with the theo- 
 logians of the Church of Rome to cite three passages in 
 the Gospels, sometimes described as the ' Petrine texts,' 
 
 1 S. Cyprian, De Unit. Eccl, 6. 
 
 2 S. Augustine, De Unit. Eccl., 7. 
 
 D
 
 50 THE CHURCH 
 
 as establishing the claims made for S. Peter^ and through 
 him for the Popes. The three passages are the follow- 
 ing : ' Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered 
 and said unto him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah : 
 for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but 
 My Father which is in heaven. And I also say unto 
 thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
 My Church ; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail 
 against it. I will give unto thee the keys of the king- 
 dom of heaven : and whatsoever thou shalt bind on 
 earth shall be bound in heaven : and whatsoever thou 
 shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven' (Matt, 
 xvi. 16-19). ^Ye are they which have continued with 
 Me in My temptations ; and I appoint unto you a king- 
 dom, even as My Father appointed unto Me, that ye 
 may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom ; and 
 ye shall sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of 
 Israel. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have 
 you, that he might sift you as wheat : but I made sup- 
 plication for thee, that thy faith fail not : and do thou, 
 when once thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren ' 
 (Luke xxii. 28-32). ' Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, 
 son of John, lovest thou Me more than these .'' He saith 
 unto him. Yea, Lord ; Thou knowest that I love Thee. 
 He saith unto him. Feed My lambs. He saith unto him 
 again a second time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou 
 Me } He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord ; Thou knowest 
 that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Tend My sheep. 
 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of John, 
 lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said 
 unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me } And he 
 said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou 
 knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him. Feed 
 My sheep' (John xxi. 15-17). It has been maintained 
 that the first of these passages shows that the Church 
 is built upon S. Peter and the keys of the Church have 
 been bestowed upon him ; that the second describes 
 S. Peter as the guarantee of truth and the support of 
 the apostles ; that the third records the gift to S. Peter 
 of jurisdiction overall the people of Christ; that these
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 51 
 
 special powers, thus belonging to S. Peter by the choice 
 and appointment of our Lord, are the inherited posses- 
 sion of the Bishops of Rome ; and that, necessarily 
 bound up with so great a position, the centre of unity 
 is in the See of Rome, so that any who are separated 
 from it are outside the unity of the Church. 
 
 Tlie Council of Trent and the Vatican Council on inter- 
 preting Holy Scripture in accordance with the Fathers. — 
 It is obvious that, as a mere matter of textual interpreta- 
 tion, a meaning of this kind cannot be attached to these 
 passages. If this is their true sense, there must be 
 something to show it in the historical treatment of the 
 words of our Lord in the Church. And it is to be 
 noticed that the Church of Rome itself lays great stress 
 on such historical treatment. The Confession of Faith 
 approved by the Council of Trent known as the Creed of 
 Pope Pius IV. contains the sentence, ' I also admit Holy 
 Scripture according to that sense which Holy Mother 
 Church has held and does hold, to whom it belongs to 
 judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy 
 Scriptures, nor will I ever take and interpret it other- 
 wise than in accordance with the unanimous consent of 
 the Fathers';^ and the Vatican Council explained this 
 statement of Trent, ' Since those declarations which the 
 holy Council of Trent soundly affirmed about the inter- 
 pretation of divine Scripture so as to restrain wayward 
 minds are badly explained by certain people, we, re- 
 enacting the same decree, declare its meaning to be 
 that, in matters of faith and morals for the building up 
 of the things which pertain to Christian doctrine, the 
 true sense of Holy Scripture is to be held to be this 
 which Holy Mother Church has held and does hold, to 
 whom it belongs to judge of the true sense and inter- 
 pretation of the Holy Scriptures ; and therefore that it 
 is lawful for no one to interpret Holy Scripture contrary 
 to this sense, or likewise, contrary to the unanimous 
 consent of the Fathers. ' ^ Thus, the Tridentine document 
 asserted that Holy Scripture must not be interpreted 
 
 1 Bulla Pii IV. super forma jur. prof, fidei. Cf. Council of 
 Trent, Sess. iv. 
 
 2 Vatican Council, Sess. iii. cajj. 2.
 
 52 THE CHURCH 
 
 ' otherwise than in accordance with the unanimous con- 
 sent of the Fathers ' ; and that of the Vatican Council, 
 somewhat lightening the words of Trent under the guise 
 of explaining them, declared that Holy Scripture must 
 not be interpreted ' contrary to the unanimous consent 
 of the Fathers.' 
 
 The Patristic Interpretations of the ^Petrine Texts.' — In 
 any ordinary sense of the words, the Roman Catholic 
 interpretation of the three ' Petrine texts ' is, ' other- 
 wise than in accordance with the unanimous consent of 
 the Fathers.' If it falls short of being '^ contrary to the 
 unanimous consent of the Fathers,' it is only because the 
 Fathers did not by any means agree as to the meaning 
 of the texts. Of no one of the three passages is there 
 a continuous and uniform tradition as to the meaning. 
 In the first of the three, there is patristic authority 
 for interpreting the ^rock' to denote our Lord, or the 
 doctrine of His Godhead, or the acknowledgment of His 
 Godhead, or the apostolate of S. Peter, or S. Peter as 
 a symbol of the Church, or S. Peter himself; and the 
 promise of the gift of the keys of the kingdom, the 
 power to bind and loose, is explained, as is natural 
 when the subsequent similar words to the other disciples 
 (Matt, xviii. 1, 18) are taken into account, as applicable 
 to all the apostles. 1 If the ^rock' denotes S. Peter, it 
 still has to be shown that the customary Roman Catholic 
 explanation, either as to S. Peter or as to the Popes, 
 holds good. It is no more possible to separate the words 
 ' upon this rock I will build My Church ' from S. Paul's 
 description of the Church as ^ built upon the foundation 
 of the apostles and prophets ' (Eph. ii. 20) than it is to 
 assign one meaning to the saying of S. Peter, ' Whatso- 
 ever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : 
 and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed 
 in heaven' (Matt. xvi. 19), and a different meaning to 
 the saying to Hhe disciples' in general, /What things 
 soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven : 
 and what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be 
 
 1 There is a list of explanations with references in the Church 
 Quarterly Review, January 1897, p. 296. See also Puller, The 
 Primitive Saints and the See of Borne, pp. 97-109 (third edition).
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 53 
 
 loosed in heaven' (Matt, xviii. 1, 18). In the face of 
 the multitude of meanings attached to the passage in 
 the Fathers^ it is very difficult to suppose that it lays 
 down a doctrine of supreme importance as to the nature 
 of the Church. The Roman Catholic interpretation of 
 the second passage is almost wholly lacking in patristic 
 support.^ Of the third passage^ it may be sufficient to 
 say that the usual explanations in the Fathers interpret 
 it either as a restoration of S. Peter after his fall or as 
 a reference to the position which he had as an apostle, 
 not to some special jurisdiction over the other apostles. ^ 
 
 Patristic Testimony in general atoout the See of Rome. — 
 The absence of patristic support^ therefore, for the in- 
 terpretations customary with Roman Catholics makes it 
 impossible to rest the claims of the Pope on the ' Petrine 
 texts.' It is no less impossible to rest them on patristic 
 testimony in general. That testimony cannot be con- 
 sidered in any detail in a work on the present scale. A 
 presentation of it, presumably as powerful a statement 
 of the case as could be made, appeared in the Encyclical 
 Letter Satis Cognitum of Pope Leo xiii. To examine 
 that presentation is to reach results which are to the 
 strongest extent condemnatory of the argument it sought 
 to maintain. For the quotations made by the Pope, 
 when they are regarded in their context and history, 
 are found to give no support to his claims. Only by 
 separating them from their historical setting can they 
 be used as the Pope used them.^ 
 
 Untenable Cliaracter of the Claim that Rome is a Neces- 
 sary Centre of Unity. — It is no exaggeration to say that 
 the claim for the See of Rome as the necessary centre 
 of the unity of the Church is unsupported in Holy 
 Scripture^ cannot be based upon patristic testimony, and 
 is contrary to the facts which show that Christians who 
 
 1 See a list of explanations with references in the present 
 writer's Outlines of Christian Dogma, p. 317. 
 
 2 See Puller, op. cit., pp. 117-128 (third edition). 
 
 3 The quotations from the Fathers in this Encyclical were 
 examined seriatim in the Church Quarterly Review, January 
 1897, pp. 297-314. See also the same periodical, April 1894, 
 pp. 27-49 ; January 1901, pp. 350-369.
 
 54 THE CHURCH 
 
 were separated from the external communion of the Pope 
 have been universally recognised as Saints of the Church.^ 
 Importance of External Unity and Dignity of the See of 
 Rome. — It does not follow from what has been said that 
 external intercommunion is unimportant or that a re- 
 stored external unity might not well centre in the 
 Bishop of Rome. The precedence of honour possessed 
 by that Bishop in the early centuries of Church history 
 — partly perhaps through association with S. Peter and 
 S. Paul, much more because of the secular greatness of 
 the City of Rome — is an acknowledged fact. When Arch- 
 bishop Bramhall wrote, ' All the twelve apostles were 
 equal in mission, equal in commission, equal in power, 
 equal in honour, equal in all things, except priority of 
 order, without which no society can well subsist,' ^ he 
 adopted the ordinary position of the great Anglican con- 
 troversialists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 
 in allowing a 'priority of order' to S. Peter. ^ That the 
 Pope had a precedence of honour and dignity in the 
 primitive Church has been admitted and maintained by 
 so vigorous antagonists of Roman Catholic teaching as 
 Dr. Salmon* and the late Dr. Bright.^ But there is no 
 process of development which is allowed by Catholic 
 theology which can justify such a change of fundamental 
 principle as would be involved in deducing the claim 
 that the Pope is the necessary centre of essential unity 
 out of a priority of order and a precedence of honour.^ 
 The stress which great teachers of the early Church 
 unquestionably laid on the need of external communion 
 with the whole Church cannot be made a reason for con- 
 victing of schism all who are outwardly separated from 
 
 1 On the whole subject, see Puller, op. cit. The third edition 
 is greatly enlarged and improved. 
 
 2 Bramhall, Just Vindication of the Church of England^ 
 chap. V. {Works, 1. pp. 152, 153 in 'Oxford Library of Anglo- 
 Catholic Theology.') 
 
 3 See some useful instances in Puller, op. cit., pp. 473-477. 
 •* See Salmon, The Infallibility of the Church, pp. 367, 368. 
 
 5 See Bright, Select Sermons of S. Leo the Great on the Incar- 
 nation, pp. 178-180 (second edition) ; The Roman See in the 
 Early Church, pp. 21, 22. 
 
 6 On the limits of development, see Puller, op. cit., pp. 424-433.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 55 
 
 Rome so long as the Church of Rome allows admission 
 to her visible body only on conditions which those who 
 are faithful to Scriptural and primitive doctrine must in 
 conscience reject. 
 
 Conclusion. — It may be said, then, that the essential 
 unity of the Church requires the participation in the 
 one life of Christ, the covenanted means of which are 
 the Sacraments ; but does not necessitate that subjective 
 or moral unity of intercommunion and concord which 
 is nevertheless part of the ideal of the Church's life, an 
 ideal approximation to which is ever to be sought by 
 earnest Christians by effort and prayer. That the unity 
 which is organic should supply a motive for the promot- 
 ing of that which is moral has been well expressed in 
 the English Collect for the feast of S. Simon and S. Jude. 
 ' O Almighty God/ it is there said, ' who hast built Thy 
 Church upon the foundation of the apostles and pro- 
 phets, Jesus Christ Himself being the head corner stone : 
 Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by 
 their doctrine, that we may be made an holy temple 
 acceptable unto Thee.' And a similar line of thought 
 is contained in a prayer which a concurrence of circum- 
 stances have made less known than its merits deserve : 
 ' O God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only 
 Saviour, the Prince of Peace ; Give us grace seriously to 
 lay to heart the great dangers we are in by our unhappy 
 divisions. Take away all hatred and prejudice, and 
 whatsoever else may hinder us from godly union and 
 concord ; that, as there is but one body, and one Spirit, 
 and one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one 
 Baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may 
 henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul, united 
 in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and charity, 
 and may with one mind and one mouth glorify Thee.' ^ 
 
 1 Prayer for unity in the Form of Prayer with Thanksgiving 
 to Almighty God for the day of the accession of the sovereign. 
 This office, which was annexed to the Book of Common Prayer 
 by royal warrant (see Frere, A Neio History of the Book of 
 Common Prayer, pp. 645-647), was revised by Convocation in 
 the closing years of the reign of Queen Victoria, and issued in a 
 revised form in 1901.
 
 66 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER VH 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HISTORY LATER THAN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT : HOLINESS 
 
 Objective and Subjective Holiness. — The objective holiness 
 which lies within the aim and system of the Church 
 corresponds to the objective unity which is an essential 
 part of the Church's life; and^ as the subjective unity 
 of intercommunion and concord is of the ideal of the 
 Church, so also is the perfection of the subjective holi- 
 ness of the lives of individual members of the Church. 
 
 Obligation of Personal Holiness. — Representative Chris- 
 tian writers have never ceased to set forth the obligation 
 of holy^ personal life. The sermons and homilies of 
 the great Fathers are full of denunciations of sin and 
 exhortations to righteousness. In their theological 
 treatises, the importance of personal holiness is rarely 
 far out of sight. It is ever an ideal that the Church 
 in the actual lives of its members may be all fair and 
 undefiled, fulfilling perfectly the prophecy which many 
 saw in the bride depicted in the Canticles {e.g. Cant. iv. 
 7 ; vi. 9). Even at times when corruption had settled 
 very deeply into many within the Church, the obligation 
 of goodness continued to be maintained in words ; and, 
 moreover, bishops, or councils, or individual Christians 
 made serious attempts to put down prevalent wickedness. 
 
 Exaggerations springing out of need of Personal Holi- 
 ness. — From time to time it has been asserted that a 
 religious body is not the Church unless all its members 
 are personally holy. It might have been thought that this 
 contention would have been prevented by the teaching 
 of our Lord and of S. Paul (see pp. 9, 10, 31, 32). On the 
 contrary, it has shown a remarkable power of reappear- 
 ing, a power probably to be explained by the fact that,
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 57 
 
 with whatever distortions, it appeals to that which is 
 noble in human thought, the appreciation of goodness. 
 In the fourth century the Douatists, who maintained 
 this position, formed a large and influential sect. In 
 the fourteenth century Wyclif's rejection of the doctrine 
 of a visible Church and identification of the Church with 
 those who shall hereafter attain to heaven carried with 
 them a repudiation of the word holy as applied to the 
 society of the baptized. In the sixteenth century similar 
 ideas formed part of the extraordinary medley of opinions 
 sometimes put together as Anabaptist. 
 
 The Visible Society Holy. — On the other hand, the 
 Church has never ceased to use the word holy to describe 
 the visible society. The teaching of a continuous tradi- 
 tion has been maintained in those actions of the Church 
 of England by which in the Creed the visible Church is 
 declared to be holy,^ and in the twenty-sixth of the 
 Articles of Religion it is said that in this visible Church 
 ^ the evil' is ' ever mingled with the good.' 
 
 Bishop Alexander Forbes on the Holiness of the Church. — 
 It would be difficult to find a better description of the 
 holiness of the Church than that which was given by 
 Bishop Alexander Forbes. 'As a whole,' he said, '^the 
 Church is holy in that it retains faithfully those means 
 of sanctification which Christ gave her, holy Sacraments, 
 holy laws, holy teaching, so that, amid whatever imper- 
 fections, her whole aim is that the tendency of her acts 
 and her teaching shall be to promote holiness and the 
 inward spiritual life. . . . An university is learned, or 
 a city rich, which abounds in learning or riches, although 
 there be many unlearned or poor, and although the 
 learned or rich may yet be short of the ideal of learning 
 or wealth.' ^ 
 
 1 The word 'holy ' is used with reference to the Church by the 
 Church of England in the Apostles' Creed at Morning and Even- 
 ing Prayer and in the Offices of Holy Baptism. It was omitted 
 in the enlarged Nicene Creed in the Order of Holy Communion 
 in the Prayer Book of 1549 and has not been restored in the 
 subsequent English Books. The omission may have been acci- 
 dental. Against this explanation, see Church Quarterly Eevieiv, 
 July 1879, pp. 372-383. 
 
 2 Forbes, A Short Explanation of the Nicene Creed, pp. 278, 279.
 
 58 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER VHI 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HISTORY LATER THAN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT : CATHOLICITY 
 
 The Word Catholic. — A prominent aspect of the Church 
 in the New Testament is the universality of its mission. 
 This is one part of what is meant by the ^note' of 
 Catholicity. The word ' Catholic ' was used at the 
 beginning of the second century by S. Ignatius to denote 
 the true Church throughout the world in communion 
 with the bishops in contrast to particular bodies of 
 Christians and also to heretical sects which were not in 
 communion with the bishops.^ In like manner^ it was 
 employed by later writers to convey both the idea of 
 universality and the idea of orthodoxy in communion 
 with the bishops. 2 In a well-known passage in the 
 Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril of Jerusalem he draws 
 out what is involved in these two ideas, and says, ' The 
 Church is called Catholic because it extends throughout 
 the whole world from one end of the earth unto the 
 other ; and because it teaches universally and completely 
 all the doctrines which ought to come to the knowledge 
 of men, concerning things both visible and invisible, 
 both heavenly and earthly ; and because it brings into 
 subjection to godliness the whole race of men, rulers 
 and ruled, learned and unlearned ; and because it 
 universally treats and heals every sort of sins which are 
 committed by soul or body, and has in it every form of 
 virtue that is named, in both deeds and words, and in 
 all kinds of spiritual gifts.' ^ 
 
 1 S. Ignatius, Ad Smi/rn., 8. 
 
 2 See a note in the present writer's Outlines of Christian 
 Dogma, pp. 307, 308. 
 
 3 S. Cyril of Jerusalem, Cat., xviii. 23.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 59 
 
 The Ideal and tlie Minimum of Catholicity. — The ideal of 
 the Catholicity of the Church thus includes extension 
 throughout the whole world, and among all classes of 
 men, the complete teaching of all the doctrines of the 
 orthodox faith, and completeness also in its dealings with 
 sin and promotion of virtue. It is obvious that the 
 perfect attainment of this ideal at any particular time 
 cannot be of the essence of the Church, since, if it were, 
 the Catholic Church would not now anywhere exist, and 
 the Church of the earliest apostolic age would not have 
 been Catholic. Here, as in the case of unity and in the 
 case of holiness, there is a minimum which the Church, 
 to remain the Church, must not lose, and an ideal 
 approximation to which ought to be its constant aim. 
 Everything which hinders or lessens the capacity of the 
 Church to be universal, everything which deprives it of 
 part of the full truth or inserts in its teaching anything 
 which does not belong to the truth, everything which 
 cramps its power of getting rid of sin and increasing 
 godliness, has a tendency to draw the Church away from 
 the ideal of its Catholic life. To become such that it 
 could not appeal to the whole world or to all classes of 
 men, to deny essential parts of the revealed faith, to 
 become in its accepted principles a necessary instrument 
 of some sins or a necessary opponent of some virtues, 
 would be, in proportion as this was wilful and deliberate 
 and fully carried out, a sinking below the minimum 
 which the ' note ' of Catholicity requires. From differ- 
 ing points of view, there are respects in which the 
 Eastern Churches, the Church of Rome, and the English 
 Church have all at certain times come perilously near 
 to loss of Catholicity ; through the providence of God 
 each of them has retained at least the minimum, each of 
 them, it may well be hoped, is doing something to strive 
 after the ideal.
 
 60 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE CHURCH IN HISTORY LATER THAN THE NEW 
 TESTAMENT I APOSTOLICITY 
 
 Introductory. — It has already been noticed that the 
 Church described in the New Testament was in union 
 with the apostles (see pp. 18, 19). This union with the 
 apostles involved that the Church had authoritative 
 mission and full sacramental life. Our Lord said to 
 His apostles, '^As My Father hath sent Me, even so 
 send I you ' (John xx. 21) ; the Church included those 
 who in turn had received a commission of an authoritative 
 kind (Acts xiv. 23 ; 1 Tim. iii. 1-12, iv. 14, v. 22 ; 2 Tim. 
 i. 6 ; Tit. i. v). The continuance in the ' fellowship ' 
 of the apostles required the reception of the Sacraments 
 of Holy Baptism and the Holy Eucharist (Acts ii. 41, 42). 
 The Historical Teaching of the Church. — The historical 
 teaching of the Church asserts apostolical descent. It 
 sees the means of this link with the apostles through 
 the ages in the ministry in which the bishops occupy the 
 chief places and which they preserve by the ordination 
 of others to various offices. It will be necessary, in 
 treating of the ministry of the Church, to deal with 
 some part of the evidence which concerns the necessity 
 and purpose of episcopacy (see pp. 81-111). It is suffi- 
 cient now to state the fact that the historical way of 
 regarding the apostolicity of the Church is that con- 
 tained in a passage in which Tertullian, writing before 
 his lapse into the heresy of Montanism, said, ^If any 
 dare to connect themselves with the apostolic age that 
 they may appear to have descended from the apostles 
 because they are under the rule of the apostles, we can 
 say, Let them then declare the origins of their Churches,
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 61 
 
 let them unfold the succession of their bishops so coming 
 down from the beginning with continuous steps that the 
 first bishop may have had as his consecrator and prede- 
 cessor one of the apostles or of apostolic men who 
 remained in the communion of the apostles. For in 
 this way the apostolic Churches bring down their 
 accounts, as the Church of the Smyrnaeans goes back 
 to Polycarp, who was appointed by John, and as the 
 Church of the Romans to Clement, who was consecrated 
 by Peter. '1 
 
 Roman Catholic View of Apostolicity. — It has been main- 
 tained by the theologians of the Church of Rome that 
 external communion with the Pope is necessary for the 
 preservation of the ^note' of apostolicity. Rome, it is 
 said, is pre-eminently the apostolic see ; and apostolic 
 mission is lost as soon as external separation from Rome 
 is eiFected. This opinion of the theologians has taken 
 different forms. According to one form of it, now little 
 held, the Pope as the successor of S. Peter is the neces- 
 sary channel of all episcopal jurisdiction, so that it is 
 through him that the bishops receive their powers. 
 According to the other form, now usually held in the 
 Church of Rome, the mission and jurisdiction of the 
 bishops are inherent in their office and their sees, are 
 received by them from our Lord Himself, and are 
 possessed by them as a matter of divine right ; but they 
 have no power to exercise what they have thus received 
 unless they are in external communion with the Pope, 
 since the episcopate is not an independent body apart 
 from the Pope, but is one body with him. 
 
 Teaching- of S. Leo. — In the first and stronger form, this 
 opinion might derive some support from the teaching of 
 S. Leo the Great, who was Bishop of Rome from a.d. 440 
 to A.D. 461. S. Leo taught that S. Peter possessed powers 
 which the other apostles did not possess, and was the 
 channel by means of which the divine gifts were com- 
 municated to them ; and he regarded himself as the 
 successor of S. Peter in such a sense that the specific 
 prerogatives of that apostle had descended to him. ^ It 
 
 1 Tertullian, De Prase. Hcer., 32. 
 
 2 S. Leo, Serm. iv. 2, v. 4 ; Ejo. x. 1.
 
 62 THE CHURCH 
 
 is true that S. Leo elsewhere maintains a view^ apparently 
 somewhat inconsistent with this position, of S. Peter 
 and S. Paul together as the ^seeds' of the Church of 
 Rome and the Hwin eye' of the body of Christ;^ and 
 his extant writings do not contain express statements 
 which amount to the modern Roman Catholic teaching 
 on this subject; but it may be allowed that^ if S. Leo's 
 assertions about the powers of S. Peter and his own 
 inheriting of those powers are rightly made^ it would 
 be difficult to resist a conclusion which did not in one 
 way or another support the claims of the See of Rome. 
 Against the rightfulness of these assertions of S. Leo 
 may be set that they are in conflict with the general 
 teaching of the early Church ; that what is recorded 
 about the appointment of S. Matthias and that of S. Paul 
 is not such as we should expect if S. Peter was the 
 channel of all apostolic authority (Acts i. 15-26 ; Gal. 
 i. 1) ; and that the records in the Gospels make it clear 
 that the powers of the other apostles were not conferred 
 on them through S. Peter (Matt x. 1 ; John xx. 21-23). 
 
 The more Moderate Form of the Roman Catholic View 
 untenable. — In the second form in which it is now usually 
 held this opinion of the Roman Catholic theologians is 
 out of harmony with the general teaching of the Fathers 
 about the Churchy and the fact that among the recognised 
 saints of the Church are Easterns and Gallicans who in 
 the fourth and fifth centuries were outside the external 
 communion of the See of Rome. ^ 
 
 Relation to the Church of Baptized Christians without an 
 Episcopal Ministry. — If, while external communion with 
 the Pope is not a necessary part of the apostolicity of 
 the Church, a ministry episcopally ordained is requisite, 
 it is needful to inquire what is the relation to the Church 
 of those Christians who have received the Sacrament of 
 Holy Baptism but do not belong to a religious body 
 which possesses episcopacy. This question is of practical 
 importance in England Ijecause of the large numbers 
 of Nonconformist Christians to whom it refers. With 
 regard to it, the present writer has elsewhere written as 
 
 1 S. Leo, Serm. Ixxxii. 6, 7. 
 
 2 On both these subjects see Puller, op. cit.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY G3 
 
 follows : ^ 111 one sense they cannot be said to be within 
 the Church because they are separated from the apostolic 
 ministry, while at the same time they have received the 
 Sacrament of Baptism, which joins them to the sacred 
 humanity of Christ and brings them within the Christian 
 operations of the Holy Ghost. All that can be said is 
 that the position of religious bodies which retain Holy 
 Baptism and are without an apostolic ministry is an 
 altogether abnormal one ; and that the persons who 
 belong to them have been placed within the Church by 
 their Baptism, but by remaining separate from the 
 apostolic ministry fail to receive the full and proper 
 life of covenanted grace. A schismatic religious body 
 which has retained Christian Baptism "is separate," 
 says S. Augustine, '' from the bond of charity and peace, 
 but joined in the one Baptism. And so there is one 
 Church which alone is called Catholic ; and whatever 
 of her own she has in communions of others separated 
 from her unity, by virtue of this which she has in them 
 of her own, it is she herself who in fact gives birth, not 
 they." Yet those thus born, he says in many places, 
 need to be reconciled to the Catholic Church, that they 
 may obtain from their real mother in their true home 
 the profit of their sonship.* ^ 
 
 Relation of Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity 
 to one another. — The Church, then, is one, holy. Catholic, 
 and apostolic. In each respect there is a minimum 
 below which there cannot be the life of the Church, and 
 there is an ideal towards which it is necessary to strive. 
 In seeking to reach the ideal in any one of them, it is 
 needful to beware of forgetting the others, and thus 
 doing harm to one or more of the rest in an eager desire 
 to promote one particular ' note.' ' The Donatists of the 
 fourth century,' it has been said, '^held to a theory con- 
 fining membership in the Church to those who conformed 
 to a certain standard of excellence, and they refused all 
 
 1 Quoted from the present writer's Outlines of Cliristian 
 Dogma, pp. 121, 122. The passage quoted from S. Augustine is 
 De Bapt. c. Don., 1. 14. Among those referred to is De Bupt. c. 
 Don., vii. 103. See also Benson, Cyprian, his Life, his Times, 
 his Work, p. 420.
 
 64 THE CHURCH 
 
 communion with those who thought or acted otherwise. 
 This was the negation of Catholicity. A similar result 
 may follow from any attempt to realise the unity of the 
 Church by unwarranted means. A sect will naturally be 
 united in exact proportion to its narrowness, and a defini- 
 tion of the Church in which expression is specially 
 sought for the note of unity may tend to sectarianism.' ^ 
 Here, as throughout Christian doctrine and practice, it 
 is disastrous to look exclusively at one aspect and ignore 
 all which should be combined with it, to concentrate 
 attention on one particular point, and to forget that this 
 one point cannot be rightly maintained except as it is 
 balanced with and proportionate to those which are akin. 
 
 1 Lacey, The Elements of Christian Doctrine, pp. 215, 216.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 65 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 PRIESTHOOD IN NATURAL RELIGION 
 AND IN THE NATION OP ISRAEL 
 
 Priesthood in Natural Religion. — The idea and office of 
 priesthood are not confined to revelation. Natural 
 religion supplies numberless instances of priests. 
 Through those instances one general idea runs. It is 
 that the office of the priest is to draw near to the deity, 
 and by means of the relation in Avhich he thus stands 
 to bring other men near also. The particular object 
 may be that of propitiation, or of worship, or of com- 
 munion. In each case it is the work of the priest to 
 remove some barrier which keeps man away from the 
 deity, or to provide some means of access to Him. In 
 the act of sacrifice the priest is in some sense a mediator, 
 one who brings man to the deity and also the deity to 
 man, one who unites man and the deity and men with 
 men.^ 
 
 The Natural Priesthood in the Old Testament. — In natural 
 religion the office of priest is sometimes connected with 
 headship of a family, or tribe, or nation, and sometimes 
 associated with a special class. In the Old Testament 
 records, the natural priesthood is referred to as having 
 been recognised by God in early days. The sacrifices 
 offered by Noah after his preservation from the Flood 
 (Gen. viii. 20, 21), Abram after he had gone up from 
 Egypt into the south of Canaan (Gen. xiii. 4), Isaac at 
 
 1 There is a very useful chapter on 'Priesthood' in Jevons, 
 Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 270-296 ; and a 
 vahiable collection of facts in Frazer, The Golden Bough, a book 
 which should be read with much caution as to suggested infer- 
 ences. The second edition is greatly- improved and enlarged. 
 E
 
 66 THE CHURCH 
 
 Beersheba (Gen. xxvi. 25), Jacob at Bethel (Gen. xxxv.)^ 
 and Job in the land of Uz (Job. i. .5) appear to have been 
 instances of the exercise of this natural priesthood. 
 With it, too, may be connected the offerings of Mel- 
 chizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) and Jethro (Ex. xviii. 12). Even 
 after the appointment of the specific priestly family, this 
 natural priesthood does not seem to have entirely dis- 
 appeared. The offering, altar, and sacrifice of Gideon 
 (Jud. vi. 19-21, 24-28), the oblation of Manoah (Jud. 
 xiii. 19), and the office of priest to which Micah '^ con- 
 secrated one of his sons' (Jud. xvii, 5; contrast xvii. 
 12, 13) are instances in which some connection appears 
 to have existed between priesthood and a judge, or head 
 of a family, or civil ruler. It is possible that a some- 
 what similar explanation applies to the sacrifices offered 
 by Samuel (1 Sam. vii. 9, 10, ix, 13) ; ^ and also to those 
 of David (2 Sam. vi. 13, xxiv. 25 ; 1 Chron. xxi. 26), 
 Solomon (1 Kings ix. 25 ; 2 Chron. viii. 12), and Ahaz 
 (2 Kings xvi. 12, 13), if it is the case that David and 
 Solomon themselves offered, and not, as is more likely, 
 that they are said to have offered because there were 
 sacrifices by their appointment, and if the action of Ahaz 
 was other than a transgression. On the other hand, the 
 attempt of king Uzziah to offer incense is spoken of in 
 terms of strong condemnation in the Book of the 
 Chronicles, and is assigned as the reason why he was 
 smitten with leprosy by God (2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21). 
 
 Tlie Priestliood of the Jewish Nation. — The Jewish 
 nation as a whole had a priestly character. To it God 
 said, ' I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto 
 Myself; ^If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep 
 My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto 
 Me from among all peoples : for all the earth is Mine : 
 and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and an 
 holy nation ' (Ex. xix. 4-6). The assertion of Korah, 
 Dathan, and Abiram, that ^all the congregation are 
 
 1 Eleazar, the son of Abinadab, whom the men of Kiriath- 
 jearim ' sanctified ' ' to keep the ark of the Lord ' (1 Sam. vii. 1), 
 may have been a Levite, and his work apparently was to guard 
 and take care of the ark, not to offer sacrifice.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 67 
 
 holy ' (Num. xvi. 3), and the apparent claim that the 
 priestliood was therefore the portion of all (Num. xvi. 10), 
 appealed to a truth, although the application of it was 
 mistaken. The nearness of access to God to which 
 Israel as a nation was called was declared when it was 
 said, ' AMiat great nation is there that hath a god so 
 nig'h unto them as the Lord our God is whensoever we 
 call upon Him } ' (Deut. iv. 7). This nearness had the 
 distinctively priestly character of heing in some sense 
 mediatorial ; for in the divine Providence the nation of 
 Israel was designed to be the instrument of communi- 
 cating the revelation of God to other nations, and the 
 people in whom, according to the flesh, the Messiah 
 should come. 
 
 Tlie Tribe of Levi. — As the Jewish nation was chosen 
 out from other nations to be the priestly people, so 
 within this nation the tribe of Levi was chosen out to 
 be the priestly tribe ; and the Levites were solemnly 
 consecrated to this office (Num. iii. 9, 12, 13, viii, 5-22). 
 
 The Family of Aaron. — Within the priestly tribe of 
 Levi, the family of Aaron was chosen to fill the priestly 
 office ; and the members of the family were set apart by 
 a solemn consecration to be in a peculiar relation to 
 God (Ex. xxix. ; Lev. viii.). Among these, again, was 
 the high priest, with a distinctive position above all the 
 rest (Ex. xxix. .5-7 ; Num. xx. 20-28). 
 
 Tlie Office of the Jewish Priests.— The duties of the 
 priestly family were manifold. They included teaching 
 {e.g. Deut. xvii. 8, 9), ministration in the sanctuary in 
 the preparation of the shewbread (Lev. xxiv. 5-8), the 
 burning of incense (Ex. xxx. 7-9), the ofi"ering of sacri- 
 fice (e.g. Lev. i. 5), and the blessing of the people (Num. 
 vi. 22-27). Thus there was a twofold relation in their 
 work. They had to give from God to man, when they 
 taught and when they blessed. They had to give from 
 man to God when they offered sacrifice. Their office 
 gave utterance to the underlying idea of all priesthood, 
 that of mediation. The high priest had duties which no 
 one else could perform, the offering of the sacrifice on 
 the Day of Atonement, the taking the blood within the 
 veil, and the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat
 
 68 THE CHURCH 
 
 in the place of the greatest nearness of God (Ex. xxx. 10 ; 
 Lev. xvi.).^ 
 
 Representation in Priesthood. — The idea of representa- 
 tion runs through all the different kinds of priesthood. 
 In the natural priesthoods, the father represents his 
 family, the chief represents his tribe, and the ruler or 
 king represents his nation. In the priesthood of special 
 revelation in the Jewish religion, the tribe of Levi is 
 representative of all the tribes for particular services, 
 the family of Aaron is representative of the tribe and the 
 nation for the sacrifices, the high priest is representative 
 of the whole people for the highest offering of all. In 
 these respects, the Levites, or priests, or high priest, 
 represent man before God. In teaching and blessing, 
 they represent God to man. 
 
 Restriction in Priesthood. — In the priesthood of revela- 
 tion, particular works are restricted to particular offices. 
 The sacrifice requires the priest ; and the Day of Atone- 
 ment needs the high priest. In revelation, "the natural 
 instinct is taken and used and moulded ; new powers 
 are bestowed ; and they are allowed within restricted 
 limits. The natural sacrifice is real, and, at some stages 
 in history, is acceptable to God. It becomes inadequate 
 when the distinctive sacrifice of revelation is known and 
 possible. 
 
 1 There is a useful note on 'prae-Christian priesthood' in 
 Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebreios, pp. 137-141.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY (50 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE HIGH PRIESTHOOD OP CHRIST AND THE PRIESTLY 
 CHARACTER OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 
 
 Introductory. — The priesthood of natural religion and 
 the priesthood of the Old Testament revelation in their 
 different ways lead up to the high priesthood of Christ. 
 The fullest treatment of this subject in the New Testa- 
 ment is contained in the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 
 Characteristics of a high priest. — After speaking of the 
 facts that Christians have '^ a great high priest, who hath 
 passed through the heavens^ Jesus the Son of God/ and 
 that He ' hath been in all points tempted like as we are^ 
 yet without sin/ and exhorting his readers to ' draw near 
 with boldness unto the throne of grace' (Heb. iv. 14-16), 
 the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews goes on to 
 explain the characteristic marks of a high priest. In 
 the first place, he says^ the high priest must be "^from 
 among men ' and ' for men,' so ' that he may offer both 
 gifts and sacrifices for sins.' Secondly, the high priest 
 must be able to sympathise with man. He is to be one 
 'who can bear gently with the ignorant and erring.' 
 And thirdly, the high priest must have received the 
 divine call. ' No man taketh the honour unto himself, 
 but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron ' (Heb. 
 V. 1-4). This description of the qualifications of a high 
 priest carries on the ideas contained in the Old Testa- 
 ment of mediation, representation, and restriction. 
 There is restriction liecause there must be the call of 
 God. There are rei)resentation And mediation in his 
 being ' from among men ' and ' for men,' and in his 
 offering 'gifts and sacrifices for sins.' The idea of
 
 70 THE CHURCH 
 
 sympathy is added ; but it springs out of the high priest 
 being truly representative. 
 
 The Characteristics of a High Priest possessed toy Christ. 
 — The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews proceeds to 
 show that our Lord possesses the marks which have been 
 mentioned as characteristic of a high priest. He had 
 received the divine call. '^ Christ also glorified not Him- 
 self to be made a high priest^ but He that spake unto 
 Him^ 
 
 Thou art My Son, 
 
 This day have I begotten Thee : 
 
 as He saith also in another place. 
 
 Thou art a priest for ever 
 After the order of Melchizedek,' 
 
 and He was ' named of God a high priest after the order 
 of Melchizedek.' By virtue of His perfect manhood He 
 was representative of man and able to sympathise with 
 man. Being at once the Son of God and completely 
 human, He could perfectly fulfil the office of a mediator 
 (Heb. V. 5-10). 
 
 The Atoiding Priesthood of Christ. — Our Lord is described 
 in Psalm ex. and in the Epistle to the Hebrews as 'a 
 priest for ever' (Ps. ex. 4; Heb. v. Q, etc.). There is 
 a sense in which He was a priest from the first moment 
 of the Incarnation, because all His human life and human 
 acts have a representative and mediatorial character. 
 There was a specific moment of priesthood in His death 
 on the cross which corresponded to the death of the 
 victim in the sacrifices of the Jewish law. The cul- 
 minating point to which He looked forward through His 
 life on earth and His atoning death was the living pre- 
 sentation of His slain manhood before the Father in 
 heaven, as the culminating point in the Jewish sacrifice 
 was the pouring out or sprinkling of the blood of the 
 slain victim by the priest. Thus in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews the priesthood of Christ is connected with the 
 propitiation which He accomplished (Heb. ii. 17), with 
 His death (Heb. ix. 26, x. 10, xiii. 12), with His entrance 
 into heaven at His ascension (Heb. vi. 20), and with His 
 abiding work "^on the right hand of the throne of the
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 71 
 
 Majesty in the heavens' (Heb. viii. 1-3). 'He,' it is 
 said, ' because He abideth for ever, hath His priesthood 
 unchangeable' (Heb. vii. 24). 
 
 Tlie Abiding Sacrifice of Christ. — It would be a natural 
 inference from a passage in the Revelation of S. John 
 that, as the priesthood of Christ is abiding, so also is 
 His sacrifice. In his vision S. John ^ saw in the midst 
 of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in 
 the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it 
 had been slain ' (Rev. v. 6). This Lamb is our Lord ; 
 for it is recorded that ^the four living creatures and 
 the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, 
 having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of in- 
 cense, which are the prayers of the saints,' and that 
 they addressed Him in the words, ' Thou wast slain and 
 didst purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every 
 tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation ' (Rev. v. 8, 9). 
 It is natural to interpret this presence in heaven of the 
 ' Lamb standing, as though it had been slain,' to denote 
 an abiding sacrificial action of our Lord whereby He 
 stands, that is, is in the attitude of sacrifice, and wherein 
 His sacrifice is that of His manhood, which has been 
 slain and is alive for evermore. That the inference thus 
 naturally derived from this passage in the Revelation is 
 not unwarranted is clearly shown by the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews. The sacrifice of Christ is there represented 
 as perpetuated in the Hrue tabernacle' which is in 
 heaven (Heb. viii. l-o) ; '^the heavenly things' are said 
 to be ' cleansed ' ' with better sacrifices than ' those of 
 the Mosaic law (Heb. ix. 28) ; and the sacrificial pre- 
 sentation of our Lord's manhood to the Father is referred 
 to in the words, ' Christ entered not into a holy place 
 made with hands, like in pattern to the true ; but into 
 heaven itself, now to appear before the ftice of God for 
 us : nor yet that He should offer Himself often ; as the 
 high priest entereth into the holy place year by year 
 with blood not his own ; else must He often have sufl^ered 
 since the foundation of the world ; but now once at the 
 end of the ages hath He been manifested to put away 
 sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Heb. ix. 24-2(5). That 
 is, there is one sacrifice of Christ which lives on in
 
 72 THE CHURCH 
 
 heaven as He abidingly appears before the Father on 
 our behalf. 
 
 The worship of the Church sacrificial. — The New Testa- 
 ment is not without indication that the worship of 
 Christians is of a sacrificial character. S. Paul used 
 language naturally applicable to a priest when he 
 described himself as '^the priest of Christ Jesus unto 
 the Gentiles^ doing the work of a priest in respect of 
 the Gospel of God that the oblation of the Gentiles 
 might be made acceptable_, being sanctified by the Holy 
 Ghost' (Rom. xv. 10). In the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 the '^ altar,' the ^sacrifice of praise,' and the '^sacrifices' 
 of the well-doing and communicating of Christians, are 
 mentioned (Heb. xiii. 10, lo, 16). S. Peter describes 
 the office of Christians as being '^to offer up spiritual 
 sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ ' (1 Pet. 
 ii. 5).i 
 
 The One Sacrifice of Christ and the Churcii. — It has been 
 pointed out that the abiding sacrifice offered by our 
 Lord is the living oblation of His manhood, which has 
 passed through death into the new life of the resur- 
 rection and the ascension (see pp. 70, 71). He has also 
 empowered the Church to offer this same sacrifice of 
 His slain yet living manhood. Deigning to use the 
 method of the Jewish law in which the partaking of 
 sacred food was closely connected with sacrifice and 
 even of the sacrificial customs of the heathen. He made 
 the Sacrament which He instituted on the night before 
 His death to be a sacrifice. In the words, ' This is My 
 body which is given for you,' '^This cup is the new 
 covenant in My blood, even tliat which is poured out 
 for you,' '^This do for a memorial of Me' (Luke xxii. 
 19, 20), He employed sacrificial language and taught 
 that the sacrifice of the Church is the oblation of His 
 body and blood. So also S. Paul says that Christians 
 ' proclaim the Lord's death ' (1 Cor. xi. 26) in a context 
 which suggests that there is in the Holy Eucharist 
 a sacrificial presentation to the Father as well as a 
 
 1 See Church Quarterhi Eeview, July 1901, p. 345. 
 Cf. Moberl)^ Ministerial Priesthood, pp. 267-272.
 
 reminder tu men. For his use of the word * memorial ' 
 in the two preceding verses (1 Cor. xi. 2-1^ 25) has intro- 
 duced the idea of sacrifice.^ '^Holy Scripture teaches,' 
 it has been said, '^that the oblation of the sacrifice of 
 Christ is not limited to heaven, but that it takes place 
 also on earth in the celebration of the Eucharist. The 
 whole account of our Lord's institution of the Eucharist 
 implies the sacrificial character of that rite. Every 
 detail is sacrificial. I notice first that our Lord taught 
 us to use at the Eucharist bread and wine. It may be 
 admitted that to an ordinary Englishman of the nine- 
 teenth century these elements may not suggest sacrificial 
 ideas. But it was surely otherwise with those who v.ere 
 gathered around our Lord in the upper room. The 
 meal-offerings consisted of preparations of fine flour. 
 The drink-offerings consisted of wine. Bread and wine 
 were also largely used in the heathen sacrifices. The 
 very word *' immolation" is derived from "^mola," the 
 sacrificial meal that was s])rinkled on the victims. Thus 
 the bread and the wine, which formed the basis of the 
 Eucharistic rite, were sacrificial things. These sacri- 
 ficial things our Lord blessed and consecrated ; and 
 having consecrated them. He identified them with His 
 own precious body and blood.' ^ In the clear language of 
 a Roman Catholic commentator, ^ There is one sacrifice 
 of Christ, the expiation^ redemption, and satisfaction 
 for all sins, namely, the sacrifice of the cross ; for in it 
 Christ paid a sufficient price for the guilt and desert of 
 all the sins whicli have ever been committed or sliall 
 afterwards be committed. The Mass is a sacrifice not 
 of redemption and satisfaction, but of the application of 
 the redemption and satisfaction accomplished by Christ 
 on the cross ; for in the ]\Iass we do not offer a new 
 price for sins, but we apply to ourselves the ancient 
 price and ransom of the cross, as we apply it to ourselves 
 also by means of Baptism, and other Sacraments, and 
 l)y means of good works. . . . The sacrifice of the Mass 
 
 1 See Church Quarterly Review, Jul.v 1901, pp. 34G, 347. 
 
 - Puller in Different Conceptions of Priesthood and Sacrifice 
 A Report of a Conference held at Oxford, December 13 and 14, 
 1899, p. 135.
 
 74 THE CHURCH 
 
 is the same as the sacrifice of the cross, firstly, in repre- 
 sentation, as an image is the same as the thing of which 
 it is the image, for the Mass represents the sacrifice of 
 the cross ; secondly, in reality, for in the Mass there is 
 the same primary priest offering as on the cross, namely 
 Christ ; and in each there is the same victim and sacri- 
 fice, namely the body of Christ, the same I mean in fact, 
 although different so far as method is concerned ; for 
 in the Mass it is unbloody, while on the cross it was 
 bloody ; but that which is unbloody in the Mass signifies 
 and represents that which was bloody on the cross.' ^ 
 So, in the Church there is in the Holy Eucharist the 
 one sacrifice which is the perpetual pleading of the life 
 which our Lord offered in surrender even unto death on 
 the cross, and continually j^resents to the Father in 
 heaven on our behalf. 
 
 The Priestly Character of the Church, — Like the Jewish 
 nation, the whole Christian society possesses a priestly 
 character. *^Ye,' wrote S. Peter, '^are an elect race, a 
 royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own 
 possession' (1 Pet. ii. 9). ^Tliou wast slain' are the 
 words addressed to '^the Lamb' by Hhe four living 
 creatures and the four and twenty elders,' '^and didst 
 purchase unto God with Thy blood men of every tribe, 
 and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to 
 be unto our God a kingdom and priests ' (Rev. v. 9, 10). 
 In Baptism and in Confirmation Christians in general 
 are anointed to be priests by God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The One Sacrifice the OflFering of the Whole Church. — In 
 the Holy Eucharist the consecrated people, the holy 
 nation of the Christian society, offers to God the Father 
 the one sacrifice of the body and blood of Christ which 
 passed through death on the cross and in the tomb, and 
 now lives in heaven. This is the explanation of the 
 plural number that is habitually used in the Liturgy of 
 the Church. The Eastern rites are full of such expres- 
 sions as ' We offer unto Thee this awful and unbloody 
 sacrifice';^ and '^We have placed before Thee of Thine 
 
 1 Cornelius a Lapide on Hebrews vii. 27. 
 
 2 Liturgy of S. James : see Briglitman, Liturgies Eastern and 
 Western, 1. 53.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 75 
 
 own g"ifts, and we pray and entreat Thee ' ' send out 
 from Thy holy place on hi^h ' ^the Paraclete, the Holy 
 Spirit of truth' 'that' ^ He may make the bread the 
 body, and the cup the blood of the new covenant of our 
 Lord and God and Saviour and King Jesus Christ.'^ 
 In the Western Missal still used by the Church of Rome 
 the plural number is no less marked. Among its phrases 
 are, ' We ask and pray that Thou wouldest accept and 
 bless these gifts, these offerings, these holy unspotted 
 sacrifices which we offer unto Thee ' ; ' We beseech. 
 Lord, that Thou mayest propitiously receive this offering 
 of our service and also of Thy whole family ' ; ' We, Thy 
 servants, and also Thy holy people,' '^ offer unto Thy 
 glorious majesty from Thy own gifts and boons a pure 
 offering, a holy offering, an unspotted offering, the holy 
 bread of eternal life and the cup of everlasting salva- 
 tion.' ^ Xhe same phraseology occurs in the Anglican 
 books. The English Book of Common Prayer has the 
 Mords, ' Hear us, O merciful Father, we humbly beseech 
 Thee ' ; and '^ Our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. ' 
 The Communion Offices of the Scottish and American 
 Churches contain the phrase, MVe Thy humble ser- 
 vants do celebrate and make' 'the memorial Thy Son 
 hath commanded us to make.' 
 
 A Ministerial Priesthood consistent with the Priestly 
 Character of the Whole Church. — It does not follow that, 
 because the whole Christian society is 'a royal priest- 
 hood,' there is no specially appointed priesthood with a 
 specific work.^ This may be seen from the parallel of 
 the nation of Israel. It was a nation of priests, chosen 
 to be near to God and the exponent of His will. But, 
 within it, by the appointment of God Himself, there was 
 the ministerial priesthood of the family of Aaron selected 
 out of the tribe of Levi. Not otherwise, it will be seen, 
 when the evidence is examined, that there is a ministerial 
 priesthood within the Christian Church. 
 
 1 Liturgy of S. Mark: see Brightman, op. cit., i. 133, 134. 
 " Canon Missiv. 
 
 ^ On this subject generally, see INIoberh', IMiaistcrial Priest- 
 It ood.
 
 76 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER XH 
 
 THE APOSTLES AND THE CHURCH 
 
 The Apostles Representative Disciples. — A large part of 
 the work of our Lord recorded in the Gospels was 
 devoted to training the Twelve. One aspect in which 
 they are to be regarded is that of representative dis- 
 ciples. They were taught by our Lord as the nucleus 
 of the whole Christian body. They received the truths 
 which were to form the Christian inheritance. In them 
 was developed the character which was to mark Christian 
 life. 
 
 The Apostles the Recipients of a Divine Commission. — 
 The teaching of the Gospels about the Twelve is not 
 exhausted when they are described as representative 
 disciples. They received from our Lord Himself an 
 authoritative commission for the government and nurture 
 of the Church. Apart from a special position conferred 
 upon thenij it would be difficult to understand the 
 marked distinction made between them and the other 
 disciples when it is said that our Lord ' called unto Him 
 His twelve disciples,' or that ' the names of the twelve 
 apostles are these/ or that ' the eleven disciples went 
 away into Galilee' (Matt. x. 1, 2, xxviii. 1(S), or that 
 ^they that were about Him with the Twelve asked of 
 Him the parables/ or that ' He took again tlie Twelve, 
 and began to tell them the things that were to happen 
 unto Him' (Mark iv. 10, x. o2), or that '^ He called His 
 disciples : and He chose from them twelve/ or that ' He 
 took unto Him the Twelve, and said unto them. Behold, 
 we go up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are 
 written through the prophets shall be accomplished unto 
 the Son of man' (Luke vi. 13, xviii. 31), or that ^ Upon
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 77 
 
 this many of His disciples went back_, and walked no 
 more with Him. Jesus said therefore unto the Twelve^ 
 "NV^ould ye also ^o away? . . . Jesus answered them. Did 
 not 1 choose you the Twelve, and one of you is a devil ? 
 Now He spake of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for 
 he it was that should betray Him, being one of the 
 Twelve' (John vi. (Hj-Zl)- The express mention of the 
 fact that our Lord ^ name<l ' the Twelve ^apostles' at 
 the time of their appointment (Luke vi. 13)^ is another 
 indiciition that they filled a special position. The use 
 of the word ' apostles ' in S. Luke's Gospel (xvii. .5, xxii. 
 14, xxiv. 10) shows that the suggestion of a distinguished 
 scholar, that ' in its original sense the term apostle was 
 not intended to describe the habitual relation of the 
 Twelve to our Lord during the days of His ministry, but 
 strictly speaking only that mission among the villages, 
 of which the beginning and the end are recorded for 
 us,'^ cannot be maintained. Our Lord's reference to 
 ' the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set 
 over his household,' spoken in answer to the question 
 of S. Peter, ^ Speakest Thou this parable ' (that is, the 
 ])arable of the lord returning from the marriage feast) 
 * unto us, or even unto all?' (Luke xii. 35-48), and the 
 promise to the same apostle, ^ I will give unto thee 
 the keys of the kingdom of heaven' (Matt. xvi. 19), 
 corroborate the inference that the Twelve had a special 
 position which was to lead them to a particular work of 
 caring for and ruling the Church. It is in harmony, 
 again, that the commission for the administration of 
 Baptism was given to the Eleven (Matt, xxviii. 16-20). 
 And although a passage in S. Luke's Gospel (xxiv. 83) 
 shows that others besides the Ten were present when our 
 Lord spoke the words, ' As the Father hath sent Me, 
 even so send I you,' ' Receive ye the Holy Ghost ' (John 
 XX. 21, 22), as well as when the two disciples returned 
 from Emmaus, the statement, 'Thomas, one of the 
 
 1 This fact is mentioned also in S. Mark iii. 14, according to 
 AVestcott and Hort's text. 
 
 ■- Hort, The Christian Ecdcsia, p. 28. Dr. Hort's argument 
 (p. 26) that the use of the word apostles in the passages referred 
 to is ' anticipatory ' cannot be regarded as satisfactory.
 
 78 THE CHURCH 
 
 Twelve, called Didymus^ was not with them when Jesus 
 came/ and the use of the word ^ disciples' in the closing 
 chapters of S. John's Gospel (John xx. 24 ; cf. xx. 25, 
 26, SO, xxi. 1), seem to imply that this gift of authority 
 and power was, in some special degree, conveyed to the 
 Eleven.^ The existence of this special position, more- 
 over, is corrohorated by the fact that the Twelve, or the 
 Eleven, were chosen by our Lord to be present at the 
 institution of the Holy Eucharist and to participate in 
 the first administration of this sacred rite (Matt. xxvi. 
 20 ; Mark xiv. 17 ; Luke xxii. 14). It can hardly be 
 doubted that in this presence and participation they 
 were representatives of the whole Christian body. But, 
 since they were selected for these privileges from other 
 disciples, who, as later events showed, were faithful 
 disciples, there is no more room for doubt that they 
 had a position which the rest of the disciples had not. 
 This conclusion is supported by the words addressed to 
 them by our Lord after the institution of the Eucharist, 
 'I appoint unto you a kingdom, even as My Father 
 appointed unto Me, that ye may eat and drink at My 
 table in My kingdom ; and ye shall sit on thrones 
 judging the twelve tribes of Israel' (Luke xxii. 29, 30). 
 If the Gospels stood by themselves, it would be the 
 natural inference from them that the apostles occupied 
 a special position and possessed a special authority. The 
 antiquity and uniformity of the tradition of the Church 
 would, without anything else, make the truth of this infer- 
 ence almost certain. When the evidence contained in the 
 Acts of the Apostles is added, it seems impossible to resist 
 the conclusion that the apostles were definitely com- 
 missioned officers, distinct from, as well as representative 
 of, the whole Christian body. In the Acts the apostles 
 are not only witnesses of our Lord and of His resurrec- 
 tion (Acts i. 8, 22). There was a definite ' office ' vacant 
 through the treachery and death of Judas which it was 
 necessary to fill ; when Matthias had been chosen and 
 '^numbered with the eleven apostles,' the men of this 
 
 ^ See also a vahiable note in Gore, The Church and the 
 Ministry, p. 210 (fourth edition).
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 70 
 
 inner circle had a position and work of their own ; the 
 Twelve possessed the authority to '^appoint' the 'seven 
 men of ^ood report' and to lay hands on theni^ and 
 to administer the rite of Confirmation to those whom 
 S. Stephen had haptized ; throughout the Book they are 
 represented as having- from the first possessed authority 
 in the Christian society (Acts i. 20-2(3^ ii. 14, oj, 42, vi. 
 2-(;, viii. 14-17).^ 
 
 Tlie Position of Representative Disciples not inconsistent 
 with tliat of Recipients of a Divine Commission. — There 
 is no inconsistency in regarding the apostles as hoth 
 memhers and leaders of the Christian society. The 
 rulers of any earthly state which is a living nation are 
 representative of the people in general as well as distinct 
 from them. AV^hatever dignity and powers the Twelve 
 possessed, they could not he apostles unless they were 
 Christians. 
 
 The Question whether the Twelve received the Divine 
 Gifts as Disciples or as Apostles. — It has been maintained 
 above (see pp. 7(3-79) that the Twelve received the com- 
 mission and gifts for the nurture and ruling of the 
 Church, and especially for the administration of the 
 Holy Eucharist, because of their distinctive position as 
 apostles. The contrary view that the Twelve were 
 addressed by our Lord in all these matters as the re- 
 presentatives of the whole Christian society, and that 
 therefore the commission and gifts were bestowed on 
 the Christian community as a whole, was urged by 
 Dr. Hort.2 While it is extremely difficult to make 
 sharp divisions between the position of the Twelve as 
 apostles and their status as disciples, it may fairly be 
 said that, for the reasons mentioned above, Dr. Ilort 
 by no means made out a good case. But it is of the 
 highest im])ortance to observe that, even if it were true 
 that the authority usually regarded as that of the 
 ministry was bestowed by our Lord on the Christian 
 society as a whole, it would not follow that there ought 
 not to be any ministry in the Church, or that the ministry 
 
 1 See Gore, op. cit., pp. 210, 384. 
 
 2 Hort, op. cit., pp. 33, 34.
 
 80 THE CHURCH 
 
 of the Church has no special functions which the other 
 members of the Church cannot exercise without or apart 
 from it- If the authority belongs to the whole body, it 
 has to be ascertained from the history of the body in 
 what way and by what means it can be used. The whole 
 Jewish nation was a priestly society ; but the study of 
 the history of the people of Israel shows that the dis- 
 tinctively priestly functions could be exercised by the 
 nation only by means of the ministerial priests who had 
 received specific authority. In the natural sphere, sight 
 and hearing are the faculties and acts of the whole man ; 
 but the study of facts shows that these functions can be 
 exercised by the man only by means of eye and ear. 
 Whatever faculties may belong to the Christian society 
 as a whole, and however true it may be that the exercise of 
 these faculties is the act of the community (see pp. 7-^, 75), 
 the study of the facts of history must declare in what 
 way and by means of what instruments this exercise can 
 take place. And, as will be seen, history makes it plain 
 that the Church has a ministry, that this ministry pos- 
 sesses specific authority, and that there are certain acts 
 which the Church can perform only by means of the 
 organ in the ministry.^ 
 
 1 See a review of Dr. Hort's The Christian Ecclcsia in the 
 Church Quarterly Rcvieio, January 1898, pp. 312-330.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 81 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE MIMSTUY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The Original Ministry. — In^tlie Church as orii>^inally con- 
 stituted on the Day of Pentecost tlie apostles comprised 
 tlie wliole niinistr}'.^ During- His life on earth our Lord 
 liad chosen and trained them for the office they were to 
 till and the work they were to do. The fall of Judas 
 had deprived them of one of the appointed numher 
 of twelve. It was necessary that the place then 
 vacant should be tilled ; and after our Lord's ascen- 
 sion^ at the instance of S. Peter^ two candidates for 
 the office^ Joseph called Barsabas, and Matthias^ were 
 selected by 'the brethren^' that is the whole company of 
 Christians^ being- in number about one hundred and 
 twenty, and one of these, Matthias, was chosen by lot, 
 and then ' numbered with the eleven apostles ' (Acts i. 
 lo-2G). Before His ascension our Lord had commis- 
 sioned the apostles to baptize, to administer the Eu- 
 charist, and to rule the Church, and had given them 
 instructions for the work which they were thus to do 
 (Matt, xxviii. 19; Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24, 25; 
 Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 17, 18 ; Acts i. 2, o). Also, on the 
 day of His resurrection, ' He breathed on them, and saith 
 unto them. Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whose soever 
 sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them ; whose 
 soever sins ye retain, they are retained ' (John xx. 22, 23). 
 Thus, before the Day of Pentecost, the ministry, con- 
 sisting as yet only of the Eleven and of S. Matthias, was 
 made ready. AYhen, on that Day, God the Holy Cihost; 
 
 1 It is here assumed that the seventy disciples sent out by our; 
 Lord (Luke x. 1) did not form a permanent part of the ministry. 
 There are useful references for a different view i;\ Oore, op. cit.^ 
 \), 'iOl, note 2. 
 
 F
 
 82 THE CHURCH 
 
 descended upon the Christian society and filled it with 
 His indwelling presence, the ministry became able to 
 make effective use of the authority which our Lord 
 Himself had bestowed. 
 
 Tlie Ministry in the Acts of the Apostles : Deacons. — The 
 first delegation of any part of the work of the apostles is 
 mentioned in the sixth chapter of the Acts. In conse- 
 quence of the complaint of the Hellenistic Jews that 
 '^ their widows were neglected in the daily ministration,' 
 '^the Twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto 
 them, and said, It is not fit that we should forsake the 
 Word of God, and serve tables. Look ye out therefore, 
 brethren, from among you seven men of good report, 
 full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint 
 over this business. But we will continue steadily in 
 prayer, and in the ministry of the Word. And the 
 saying pleased the whole multitude : and they chose 
 Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and 
 Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and 
 Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch : whom 
 they set before the apostles : and when they had prayed, 
 they laid their hands on them ' (Acts vi. 2-6). In this 
 way the ' seven men of good report ' were chosen by the 
 whole Christian society and ordained by the apostles, 
 the specified object of their appointment being that they 
 might manage the relief of the poor. It is nojt expressly 
 said in the Acts that the office to which these ^ seven 
 men ' were appointed was the same as the subsequent 
 diaconate of the Churcli. But the verb (hLaKov^lv) in the 
 phrase '^ serve tables ' is that with wliich the term deacon 
 {hiaKovos) is connected ; and the work done by S. Stephen 
 (Acts vi. 8-10) and S. Philip (Acts viii. o-ls, 2G-40) is 
 such as deacons would be likely to perform. And the 
 ^ seven men' have been regarded as deacons in the usual 
 tradition of the Church. A phrase used by S. Ignatius, 
 writing at the beginning of the second century, has been 
 thought by some to be based on this identification, 
 though he does not explicitly say that they are the 
 same ; ^ S. Irenaeus, at the end of the second century 
 
 1 S. Ignatius. Ad Trail., 2. The words are, 'They' {i.e. the 
 deacons of his time) 'are not deacons of meats and drinks.'
 
 ITS iMINISTRY AND Al^THORITY 83 
 
 calls them deacons ; ^ and, though there are exceptions 
 to the ordinary tradition in S. C'hrysostom in the iifth 
 century/- and the Council in Trullo ahout a.d. (11)2/ it 
 may be concluded, with the best modern writers/ that 
 this passage in the Acts records the institution of the 
 diaconate, thougli it is not impossible that the office of 
 the seven was afterwards divided into the two offices of 
 deacons and the 'presbyters.'^ 8. Philip, one of the 
 seven, is, in one passage in the Acts (xxi. 8), described 
 as an Evangelist, but that term apj)ears to be there used 
 rather as denoting the work which he did, than as a title 
 of an office. 
 
 The Ministry in tlie Acts ; Presbyters.*^ — The ^presbyters' 
 (npecriivTepoi.) are first mentioned in the Acts incidentally 
 and as exercising the office for which the first deacons 
 were appointed. 'The disciples, every man according 
 to his ability, determined to send relief unto the 
 brethren that d^^•elt in Judaea ; which also they did, 
 sending it to the presbyters by the hand of Barnabas and 
 Saul' (Acts xi. 29, oO). '^Presbyters' were ordained by 
 S. Paul and S, Barnabas in the Churches of Asia INlinor 
 (Acts xiv. 2o). At the Council of Jerusalem ' pres- 
 byters' are distinguished both from the apostles and 
 from the brethren ; and tliey actually took part, to- 
 gether with the apostles, in the proceedings of the 
 Council (Acts xv. 2, 4, 0, 22, 2;i ; cf. xvi. 4). ' Pres- 
 byters ' are mentioned in connection with the Church at 
 Ephesus (Acts xx. 17) ; and were present when S. Paul 
 went in to S. James at Jerusalem on his return from his 
 third niissionary journey (Acts xxi. 18). In one passage 
 
 1 S. Irenteus, C. Hcer., i. 26, and other passages. 
 - S. Chrysostom, //;, Act. A}). Horn., xiv. 3. 
 
 2 Council of Constantinople of a.d. 61)2, canon 16. 
 
 ■* See, €.(j., Lightfoot, Epistle to the Philippians, p. 188; Gore, 
 op. cit., p. 242. There is an incidental indication in Stubbs, 
 Ordination Addresses, p. 2, that the late Dishop of Oxford held 
 that the account in the Acts describes 'the historical origin of 
 the order' of deacons. 
 
 "> See Rackham, The Acts of the Aj>ostles ('Oxford Commen- 
 taries'), pp. Ixxxii, 86, for a slightly different view. 
 
 ^ Presbyter is the Latin form of the Greek word irpecr^vTepos. 
 In English it is used in the contracted form jniest.
 
 84 THE CHURCH 
 
 in the Acts they are called ' bishops ' (eniaKOTroi) (Acts 
 XX. 28). 
 
 The Ministry in the Acts : Prophets and Teachers. — In 
 four passages in the Acts reference is made to ' prophets^' 
 and in one of these passages the phrase ' prophets and 
 teachers ' is used. ' In those days there came down 
 prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. And there 
 stood up one of them named Agahus, and signified by the 
 Spirit that there should be a great famine over all the 
 world : which came to pass in the days of Claudius ' 
 (Acts xi. 27, 28). ^ There were at Antioch^ in the Church 
 that was there, prophets and teachers, Barnabas, and 
 Symeon that Mas called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, 
 and Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, 
 and Saul. And as they ministered to the Lord, and 
 fasted, the Holy Ghost said. Separate me Barnabas and 
 Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. Then, 
 when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on 
 them, they sent them away' (Acts xiii. 1-3). ^ Judas 
 and Silas, being themselves also prophets, exhorted the 
 brethren with many words' (Acts xv. 82). ^ There came 
 down from Judaea a certain prophet, named Agabus. 
 And coming to us, and taking Paul's girdle, he bound 
 his own hands, and said. Thus saitli the Holy Ghost, So 
 shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth 
 this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the 
 Gentiles' (Acts xxi. 10, 11). In the first and last of 
 these passages, the work recorded of the ' prophet ' 
 Agabus is that of foretelling the future. In the third, 
 the work of the ^prophets' Judas and Silas is to preach. 
 In the second, the ' prophets and teachers ' are repre- 
 sented as ministering to the Lord, that is performing 
 some part of divine worship, and are said to have laid 
 hands on Barnabas and Saul, whether as a recognition 
 by the Church of their apostleship, or as blessing 
 them for the particular mission which they were under- 
 taking, is not stated.^ Thus there is nothing to 
 
 ^ For the first interpretation, see Lightfoot, S. PmiVs Epistle 
 to the Galatians, p. 98 ; Rackham, op. cit., pp. 192, 193 ; for the 
 second, see Ramsay, *S'. Paul the Traveller and the Roman 
 Citizen, pp. G4-G8.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 85, 
 
 show whether the ^prophets' and '^ teachers' are an 
 order in the ministry, or whetlier these names, like 
 tlie term evang-elist, are simply descriptive of work 
 done. 
 
 The Ministry in the Acts : the Apostles. — ^The position of 
 the apostles in the Acts has heen referred to already (see 
 pp. 7H, 70). In tlieir '^teachini!: and fellowsliip/ the earliest 
 Christians 'continued steadfastly'; they appointed the 
 first deacons l)y the laying on of hands ; they laid on 
 hands, also, to impart the g'ift of Confirmation ; Barnahas 
 and Saul, wlio were ranked with the orii^inal apostles, 
 aj)pointed * preshyters ' ; the a])ostles, tog-etlier with the 
 ' presbyters,' considered and decided the questions 
 raised at tlie Council of Jerusalem (Acts ii. 42, vi. (J, 
 viii. 17, xiv. i'.*>, XV. 2, 4, (!, '12, 23), 
 
 The Ministry in the Acts : Summary. — Thus the ministry, 
 as descril)ed in the Acts, comprised the apostles, who 
 confirmed and ordained, and had authority to govern 
 the Church; the M)ishops' or '^ presbyters ' and the 
 deacons ; and those described as ' prophets ' and 
 ' teachers.' 
 
 The Ministry in the Pauline Epistles in general. — Putting- 
 aside for tlie moment tlie Pastoral Epistles, the writings 
 of S. Paul sliow but little about the ministry. What 
 they do show is in harmony with the facts recorded in 
 the Acts of the Apostles. There is a local ministry in 
 the places to which S. Paul's letters are addressed. 
 There are works of ^prophecy,' and '^ ministry,' and 
 'teaching,' and '^ exhorting' at Rome (Rom. xii. G-8) ; 
 'apostles,' 'prophets,' 'teachers,' 'workers of miracles,' 
 and })ossessors of 'gifts of healings, helps, governments, 
 divers kinds of tongues ' are referred to in the first letter 
 to Corinth (1 Cor. xii. 28-30), as are 'apostles,' 'pro- 
 phets,' 'evangelists,' 'pastors,' and 'teachers,' in the 
 letter to Ephesus (Eph. iv. 11); at Philippi tliere are 
 ' bislu)ps and deacons' (Pliil. i. 1) ; at Tliessak)nica tliere 
 are those who 'labour among' Christians in general, 
 and 'are over' them 'in tlie Lord,' and 'admonish' 
 them (1 Thess. v. 12). It is probable that none of these 
 terms, except 'apostles,' 'bishops,' and 'deacons,' denote 
 those who held a definite order. Besides these general
 
 m THE CHURCH 
 
 references to the apostolic office, S. Paul mentions as 
 characteristics of an apostle that his mission is direct 
 from Christ (1 Cor. ix. 1 ; Gal. i. 1) ; that he has 
 the work of preaching (1 Cor. i. 17, ix. 14, etc.) ; 
 that he is a ruler of the Church (1 Cor. v. 3-5, 
 xi. 10, 84, etc.); and that he has universal mission 
 (2 Cor. xi. 28). 
 
 The Ministry in the Pastoral Epistles. — In the Pastoral 
 Epistles, as in the other writings of S. Paul, reference is 
 made to a local ministry. This local ministry consists 
 of those called by the two names of ^ bishops ' and ' pres- 
 byters,' and of deacons (1 Tim. iii. 1-13, v. 17, 19 ; Tit. i. 
 0-9). In addition to it, there are those to whom the 
 letters are addressed, S. Timothy and S. Titus, who arfe 
 represented as possessing the authority of S. Paul at 
 Ephesus and Crete, who rule, and govern, and ordain in, 
 the local Churches of which they are in charge (e.g. 
 1 Tim. i. 3, ii. 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, v. 19-22 ; 2 Tim.' i. 13, 
 iv. 2; Tit. i. 5, 13, ii. 15, iii. 10, 11), of whom, while no 
 particulars are given as to the ordination of S. Titus, 
 8. Timothy was ordained ' by means of the laying on of 
 the hands of ' ^ S. Paul (2 Tim. i. 6), the testimony of 
 the presbyters to the ordination having been borne by 
 their taking part in the laying on of hands - (1 Tim. 
 iv. 14). 
 
 The Ministry in the Epistle to the Hebrews. — The Epistle 
 to the Hebrews contains little Avhich supplies direct in- 
 formation as to the state of the Christian ministry at the 
 time when the Epistle was written. The writer ap- 
 parently had some claim to speak with authority ; and 
 in three passages he refers to the existence of a ministry 
 among those to whom he writes : ' Remember them that 
 had the rule over you, which spake unto you the "Word 
 of God'; H)bey them that have the rule over you, and 
 submit to them : for they watch in behalf of your souls, 
 as they that shall give account ' ; '^Greet all that have the 
 rule over you ' (Heb. xiii. 7, 17, 24). 
 
 The Ministry in the Epistle of S. James. — S. James, Avho 
 
 ^ Aia TT]s eiTLdiaews rCou x^i-P*^^ A'oi'- 
 
 - Mera eiri.de aeojs tCjv ^f tpwi' tov irpea^vTeptov.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 87 
 
 describes himself as ' a bond-servant of God and of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ' (James i. 1), writes with evident 
 autliority. There is possibly a reference to a ministry 
 amonij: those to whom the Epistle is addressed in the 
 exhortation, ' Be not many teachers, my brethren, know- 
 ing that we shall receive heavier judgment/ and very 
 definite mention of ministers known as ' presbyters ' in 
 the command, ' Is any among- you sick ? let him call for 
 the presbyters of the Church ; and let them pray over 
 him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord : 
 and tlie ])rayer of faith shall save him tiiat is sick, and 
 the Lord shall raise him up ; and if he have committed 
 sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your 
 sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye 
 may be healed' (James iii. 1, v. 14-16). 
 
 The Ministry in the Epistles of S. Peter. — S. Peter 
 describes himself as '^ an apostle of Jesus Christ,' ^a 
 bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,' and a ' fellow- 
 presbyter ' with the ' presbyters ' whom he addresses 
 (1 Pet. i. 1, V, 1 ; 2 Pet. i. 1). In two passages he 
 refers to the work of the ministry as exercised among 
 his readers : ' According as each hath received a gift, 
 ministering it among yourselves, as good stewards of 
 the manifold grace of God ; if any man speaketh, speak- 
 ing as it were oracles of God ; if any man ministereth, 
 ministering as of the strength which God supplieth' ; 
 '^Tlie presbyters therefore among you I exhort, who am 
 a fellow-presbyter, and a witness of the sufferings of 
 Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall 
 be revealed : Tend the flock of God which is among you, 
 exercising the office of bishop, not of constraint, but 
 willingly, according unto God ; nor yet for filthy lucre, 
 but of a ready mind ; neither as lording it over the 
 charge allotted unto you, but making yourselves en- 
 samples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd ' 
 shall be manifested, ye shall receive the crown of 
 
 1 Witli this reference to our Lord as ' the Chief Shepherd ' 
 compare the descrii)tioii of Him as ' the Shepherd and Bishop 
 of 3-our souls' (1 Pet. ii. 25); the two passages together, apart 
 from the phrase, 'exercising the office of bishop,' on which
 
 88 THE CHURCH 
 
 glory that facleth not away' (1 Pet. iv. 10, 11, v. 
 i-4). 
 
 The Ministry in the Epistles of S. John, — S. John, like 
 S. Peter, calls himself Hhe presbyter' in two of his 
 Epistles (2 John 1 ; 3 John 1). Throughout he writes 
 in a tone of authority. In one passage he appears to 
 refer to a minister who, having some position of autho- 
 rity in the local Church to which Gaius, to whom the 
 Epistle is addressed, belonged, had made a bad use of it : 
 ' I wrote somewhat to the Church ; but Diotrephes, who 
 loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth 
 us not. Therefore, if I come, I will bring to remem- 
 brance his works which he doeth, prating against us 
 with wicked words : and not content therewith, neither 
 doth he himself receive the brethren, and them that 
 would he forbiddeth, and casteth them out of the Church ' 
 (3 John 9, 10). 
 
 The Ministry in the Epistle of S. Jude. — The Epistle of 
 S. Jude, who describes himself as ^a bond-servant of 
 Jesus Christ' (Jude 1), has a tone of authority similar to 
 that in the other Epistles. It is possible that the rebuke 
 in the words, ' They went in the way of Cain, and ran 
 riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished 
 in the gainsaying of Korah. These are they who are 
 hidden rocks in your love-feasts when they feast with 
 you, shepherds that without fear feed themselves ' (Jude 
 
 11, 12), may refer to those who, like Korah in the Old 
 Testament, were in opposition to an appointed ministry 
 among those addressed in the Epistle ; but this is not 
 expressed with sufficient clearness to justify any definite 
 inference from the passage. 
 
 The Ministry in the Revelation. — In the Book of the 
 Revelation ^the angels of the seven Churches' of Asia 
 Minor are referred to several times (Rev. i. 20, ii. 1, 8, 
 
 12, 18, iii. 1, 7, 14). In each case, the context requires 
 that the '^ angel' be understood to mean an individual 
 Christian in a position of authority in the particular 
 Church. The interpretations by which the * angel' is 
 
 see p. 89, suggest that, as the 'presbyters' were shepherds 
 under the Chief Shepherd, so they were bishops under the 
 Chief Bishop.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 80 
 
 explained to denote a guardian angel, or to be a per- 
 sonification of the Church do not satisfy the setting in 
 whicli the term stands.^ 
 
 ' Presbyter ' and ' Bishop ' different names for the Holders 
 of the same Office in the New Testament. — It has already 
 been mentioned that the same officers have in the New 
 Testament tlie two titles of ' presbyter ' {-rrpeafSiiTepos) 
 and ' bishop' {enLo-KOTros). It may be well to state shortly 
 the evidence on which this conclusion rests : (1) By com- 
 paring Acts XX. 17 with XX. 28, and Tit. i. 5 with i. 7, 
 it may be seen that these different names are applied to 
 the same persons ; (2) In 1 Pet. v, 1, 2, according to 
 the reading in the received text and the text of the 
 revisers, against the margin of the revisers and the text 
 of W'estcott and Hort, the phrase ' exercising the office 
 of ' ])ishop ' (eTTLCTKOTrovvTes) is used for the work of those 
 who are addressed as ^presbyters'; (3) In Phil. i. 1, and 
 1 Tim. . iii. l-lo the 'bishops' and the '^ deacons' are 
 mentioned side by side without any reference to the 
 ' presbyters ' ; and in both passages, though especially, 
 perhaps, in the latter, it is very unlikely that the '^pres- 
 byters' would iu>t have been mentioned if they were 
 different from the '^ bishops '.^ 
 
 The Ministry in the New Testament: Summary. — To put 
 together, then, the evidence about the ministry derived 
 from the different parts of the New Testament, the exist- 
 ence of the following ministers may be observed : (1) the 
 apostles ; (2) delegates of the apostles, of whom S. 
 Timothy and S. Titus are instances, acting in particular 
 places with apostolic authority ; (3) those called ' pres- 
 byters ' or ' bishops ' forming part of the local ministry, 
 ordained by the apostles or the delegates of the apostles ; 
 
 1 A contrary opinion to that expressed above has, however, 
 been advocated by Bishop Lightfoot, Ejiistle to the Philippians, 
 pp. 11)9, 200, and Bishop Gore, ojh cit., pp. 232, 233. Against 
 their view, see Puller, op. cit., \)\). 442, 443. 
 
 2 See Lightfoot, oj>. cit., pp. OO-'Jl). The 'bishops' have been 
 distinguished from the ' in-esbjters ' by, among others, "Weiz- 
 sacker, The Apostolic Af/e of the Christian Chtirch, ii. 326-331 
 (English translation). On the origin of the titles, see Gore, 
 op. cit., pp. 3G3-373.
 
 90 THE CHURCH 
 
 (4) deacons^ also forming- jjart of the local ministry, and 
 also ordained by the apostles or the delegates of the 
 apostles ; .(5) the '^ prophets' and '^teachers,' possibly the 
 holders of an office to he compared with that of the 
 delegates of the apostles, such as S. Timothy and S. Titus, 
 but possibly also not distinguished as holding a distinct 
 office but named ^prophets' and '^ teachers' from an 
 aspect of their work. The New Testament shows also 
 a rite of ordination consisting of the laying on of hands.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 91 
 
 CHAPTER Xn' 
 
 THE .MINISTRY IN HISTORY LATER THAN 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Tlie Ministry in the East: The Church at Jerusalem. — The 
 history of tlie Church at Jerusalem supplies the first 
 instance of a bishop in the usual modern sense ; that is^ 
 one not only possessed of episcopal authority^ but also 
 a localised ruler, governing a definite sphere marked out 
 as his diocese. That S. James was such a bishop there 
 can be no doubt. Of a position of this kind held by him 
 there are some indications in the New Testament itself. 
 Three passages in the Acts of the Apostles and one 
 passage in the Epistle to the Galatians suggest that, 
 though S. James was not the first among the apostles 
 generally, he took precedence among them at Jerusalem, 
 ^Vhen S. Peter was released from prison, he made special 
 mention of him in a message to the Christian com- 
 munity (Acts xii. 17). He appears to have held the 
 cliief place at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv. 13, 19).^ 
 He presided when the Church at Jerusalem received 
 S. Paul shortly before the imprisonment of the latter 
 (Acts xxi. 18). He is mentioned by S. Paul in connection 
 with affairs at Jerusalem, contrary to the usual order, 
 before S. Peter as well as before S. John (Gal. ii. 9). 
 The evidence from the writers of the Church outside 
 the New Testament, which goes back to as early a time 
 as the middle of the second century, shows that he has 
 been universally regarded as local or diocesan bishop of 
 Jerusalem. On the death of S. James, Symeon succeeded 
 
 1 The reasons for which this is denied in Hort, The Christian 
 Ecdcsia, pp. 79-81, are not convincing. See it affirmed in Light- 
 foot, op. cit., p. 197 ; Gore, 02^. cit., p. 250.
 
 92 THE CHURCH 
 
 him in a like position ; and from him a continuous series 
 of local or diocesan bishops of Jerusalem can be traced.^ 
 The Ministry in the East ; the Church in Asia Minor. — 
 There is abundant evidence from the second and third 
 centuries that local or diocesan or monarchical episcopacy 
 was established in Asia Minor liy the apostles. ' Here^' 
 wrote Bishop Lightfoot, Sve find the widest and most 
 une(iui vocal traces of episcopacy at an early date.' ^ The 
 most important parts of it are in the statements made 
 by Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian^ writing- in 
 Egypt and Africa early in the third century ; S. Irenseus^ 
 writing near the end of the second century in Gaul, 
 whither he had gone from Asia ; and S. Ignatius_, writing 
 in Asia Minor at the beginning of the second century. ^ 
 The testimony of S. Ignatius is of special importance 
 because of his early date. S. Ignatius himself was 
 Bishop of Antioch, having been appointed to that office 
 about A.D. 69. Forty years later, he was charged with 
 some offence, tried at Antioch, and condemned to the 
 death of being given to wild beasts at Rome. On his 
 way to Rome in the custody of soldiers, he journeyed 
 through Asia Minor. As he went, he received messages 
 from the Asiatic Churches, and wrote letters to them in 
 reply. Of these letters, seven have come down to our 
 time.'* In them S. Ignatius refers repeatedly to the 
 ministry of the Church. It is significant that the possi- 
 bility of a true Christian Church without a ministry of 
 bishops, presbyters, and deacons, or without an episcopal 
 rule, which is that of a single bishop governing a diocese, 
 does not appear to have entered his mind. He closely 
 links with the central truths of the Godhead and Man- 
 
 1 See Lightfoot, op. ciL, pp. 208, 209; Gore, oj-). cit, pp. 250- 
 253. The opinion expressed by Dr. M'Giffert, Niccnc and Post- 
 Niccne Fathers, i. 176 (note on J^usebius, H.E., iv. 5), that 
 'tradition' made the ' presbyters ' who ruled after 'the form of 
 the Jewish Sanhedrim' into 'successive monarchical bishojis,' is 
 against the evidence. 
 
 2 Lightfoot, op. ciL, p. 2l2. 
 
 3 See Lightfoot, op. cit., pp. 212-214; Gore, op. cit., pp. 261- 
 277. 
 
 ^ The genuineness of the seven letters has been established l)y 
 Bishop Lightfoot in his Ajwstolic Fathers, II. i. 70-414.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 98 
 
 liood of Christ teachiii"- that hy means of the Eucharist 
 there is union with Christ, so that a purpose of the 
 ministry of the Church is to unite Christians witli our 
 Lord. Thus, the hishop is, in his eyes, not simply the 
 centre of unity in discipline and ])rayer, not simply the 
 representative of God, hut also necessary to the Church 
 as supplying- the condition through which the sacra- 
 mental life of union with God may he secured. ' It is 
 therefore meet for you,' he says, '^in every way to 
 glorify Jesus Christ who g-lorified you ; that being- 
 perfectly joined together in one submission, submitting- 
 yourselves to your bishop and presbytery, ye may be 
 sanctified in all things.' ^. Jesus Christ, our inseparable 
 life, is the mind of the Father, even as the bishops that 
 are settled in the furthest parts of the earth are in the 
 mind of Jesus Christ.' ^ Your honourable presbytery, 
 which is worthy of God, is attuned to the bishop, even 
 as its strings to a lyre.' ^If any one be not within the 
 precinct of the altar, he lacketh the bread of God.' 
 ' Every one whom tiie Master of the household sendeth 
 to be steward over His own house, we ought so to 
 receive as Him that sent him. Plainly, therefore, we 
 ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself.' 
 ^ Assemble yourselves together in common, every one 
 of you severally, man by man, in grace, in one faith 
 and one Jesus Christ, who after the flesh was of the 
 race of David, who is Son of man and Son of God, to 
 the end that ye may obey the bishop and the presbytery 
 without distraction of mind ; breaking one bread, which 
 is the medicine of immortality and the antidote that we 
 should not die but live for ever in Jesus Christ.' ^ Be 
 ye zealous to do all things in godly concord, the bishop 
 ])residing after the likeness of God aiul the presbyters 
 after the likeness of the council of the apostles, with 
 the deacons also who are most dear to me, having been 
 intrusted Avith the diaconate of Jesus Christ, who was 
 with the Father before the worlds and appeared at the 
 end of time.' ^ Let all men respect the deacons as 
 Jesus Christ, even as they should respect the bishop as 
 being a type of the Father and the presbyters as the 
 council of God and as the college of apostles. Apart
 
 94 THE CHURCH 
 
 from these there is not even the name of a Church.' 
 ' He that doeth aug-ht without the bishop and the presby- 
 tery and deacons^ this man is not clean in his con- 
 science.' 'As many as are of God and of Jesus Christ, 
 they are with the bishop.' ' Be ye careful therefore 
 to observe one Eucharist (for there is one flesh of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ and one cup unto union in His blood ; 
 there is one altar^ as there is one bishop^ together with 
 the presbytery and the deacons^ my fellow-servants), 
 that^ whatsoever ye do, ye may do it after God.' '^Let 
 no man be deceived. Even the heavenly being's and the 
 glory of the angels and the rulers visible and invisible, 
 if they believe not in the blood of Christ [who is God], 
 judgment awaiteth them also. " He that receiveth let 
 him receive. " Let not office puff up any man ; for faith 
 and love are all in all, and nothing is preferred before 
 them. But mark ye those who hold strange doctrine 
 touching the grace of Jesus Christ which came to us, 
 how that they are contrary to the mind of God. They 
 have no care for love_, none for the widow, none for the 
 orphan, none for the afllicted, none for the prisoner, 
 none for the hungry or thirsty. They abstain from 
 Eucharist and prayer, because they allow not that the 
 Eucharist is the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which 
 flesh suffered for our sins, and which the Father of His 
 goodness raised up.' ' Shun divisions, as the beginning 
 of evils. Do ye all follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ 
 followed the Father, and tlie presbytery as the apostles ; 
 and to the deacons pay respect, as to God's command- 
 ment. Let no man do aught of things pertaining to the 
 Church apart from tlie bishop. Let that be held a valid 
 Eucharist which is under the bishop or one to whom he 
 shall have committed it. AV'heresoever the bishop shall 
 appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may 
 be, there is the universal Church. It is not lawful apart 
 from the bishop either to baptize or to hold a love-feast ; 
 but whatsoever he shall approve, this is well-pleasing also 
 to God ; that everything which ye do may be sure and 
 valid.' ^ These are some of the passages which make it 
 
 1 S. Ignatius, Ad Eph., 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 20; Ad Maqn., 6; Ad 
 Trail., 3, 7 ; Ad Philad., 3,i; Ad Smyrn., G, 8.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 05 
 
 clear that S. Ignatius regarded the threefold ministry of 
 bishop, priest, and deacon as a divinely appointed part 
 of the organisation of the Church of God. 
 
 The Ministry in the East : the ' Teaching of the Twelve 
 Apostles.' — A manuscript written at Jerusalem in a.d. 
 lOoG, containing the book entitled The Teaciiiiii) of the 
 Twelce Apostles, was discovered at Constantinople by 
 Philotheos Bryennios, the Patriarch of Nicomedia ; and 
 this book was published by him in 1883. Opinions as 
 to its date have varied widely from about a.d. (50 to 
 about A.D. 100; the tendency among scholars of late 
 years has been towards a date in the earlier part of this 
 period. '\Vq can with very great security/ writes 
 Bishop Gore, '^date the Didache within the hrst cen- 
 tury.'^ The place where it was written is uncertain; 
 it is usually assigned to either Egypt or Syria. ^ It is 
 a practical manual of a very incomplete and fragmentary 
 kiud,^ possibly based upon a pre-Christian Jewish book.'"^ 
 Four chapters of this little treatise deal with the officers 
 of the Church. Those mentioned are ^apostles,' 'teach- 
 ers,' 'prophets/ 'bishops,' and 'deacons.' It is directed 
 that the 'apostles' are to be received as the Lord, and 
 that they are not to remain more than two days in one 
 place. The ' prophets ' and ' teachers ' were apparently 
 not necessarily localised in any particular place, though 
 it appears that the 'prophet,' as distinct from the 
 apostle, had the right to settle in a Church which he 
 visited. The 'bishops' and 'deacons' are said to be 
 elected by the people and 'to minister the ministry (Act- 
 Tovpyoviji TTjv XeiTovpyiav) of the prophets and teachers,' 
 and it is directed that they are ' those that are honoured 
 with the prophets and teachers. ''^ The evidence supplied 
 by this book, whatever it may be worth, points to a 
 
 1 Gore, op. at., p. 380. 
 
 2 For a valuable discussion on this book, see Gore, op. cit 
 pp. 374-382. 
 
 - See a paper read by Bishop Lightfoot at the Church Congress 
 of 1884, reprinted, with additions, in the Expositor, Januarv 
 1885. ^ 
 
 4 See Salmon in Smith and "Wace's Dictionary of Christian 
 Biography, iv. 814, 815. 
 
 •'"' Teachinfj of the Twelve Apostles, 11, 12, 13, 15.
 
 96 THE CHURCH 
 
 settled ministry of ' bishops ' (this word^ as in the New 
 Testament^ denoting- the order of '^ presbyters') and 
 ^ deacons ' chosen by the people, like the first deacons 
 in the Acts of the Apostles, and possibly, like them, 
 though of this nothing is said, ordained "by the laying 
 on of hands by the higher order ; and to ' apostles,' 
 '^ prophets,' and '^ teachers,' who may possibly have been 
 apostolic delegates in some matters resembling S. 
 71mothy and S. Titus. 
 
 The Ministry in the East : in the first two Centuries : 
 Summary. — Summing up, then, the testimony from the 
 East for the first two centuries. The Teaching of the 
 Twelve Apostles seems to represent a state of the ministry 
 bearing some resemblance to that indicated by the Acts 
 of the Apostles but without the apostles themselves, 
 while the rest of the evidence agrees that Hhe chief 
 authority of government, ministry, and ordination passed 
 from the apostles and those who ranked with them to 
 the bishops of the period of Ignatius without ever having 
 belonged to the presbyters. ' ^ 
 
 The Ministry in the West: S. Clement of Rome. — The 
 Epistle of S. Clement of Rome to the Corinthian Church 
 was probably written in a.d, 95 or 9G.- The place of 
 S. Clement in the succession of the Roman bishops is 
 differently given in the difi'erent lists. Tertullian repre- 
 sents him as the successor of S. Peter. In the Liberian 
 list, which was drawn up in a.d. 354, the order, as it 
 is at present in existing copies, is S. Peter, Linus, 
 Clement. According to S. Irenseus and many others the 
 order after S. Peter is Linus, Cletus, Clement. There 
 is little doubt that the right order is that given by 
 S. Irenseus ; and there is some possibility that the same 
 order was in the original text of the Liberian list.^ In 
 the Epistle of Clement, which is written, not in his own 
 name, but in the name of the Church at Rome, the 
 ministry is regarded as a governing body which possesses 
 authority and has special functions in worship, the powers 
 
 1 Gore, op. cit., p. 278. 
 
 2 See Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, I. i. 22, 23, 26, 27, 58, 346- 
 358, ii. 7, 8. 
 
 3 See Lightfoot, op. cit.. I. i. 67, 68, 201-345.
 
 ITS iMINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 97 
 
 of which are derived from the apostles by succession. 
 Reference is made to '^deacons' and '^presbyters' and 
 "^ bishops/ and to those called "^distinguished men' or 
 •^rulers,' Of these titles^ it is obvious that 'deacon' is 
 used in its ordinary sense, and that the ' presbyters ' 
 and '^bishops' are identical, as in the New Testament; 
 the '^ rulers' or 'distinguished men' are most probably 
 equivalent to the apostolic delegates in the New Testa- 
 ment. Thus, the Epistle of !S. Clement shows at Corinth 
 a ministry greatly resembling that at Ephesus or Crete 
 in the time of 8. Paul ; and the position of IS. Clement 
 himself, by whatever name he may have been called, 
 was that of a bishop bearing rule at Rome.^ 
 
 The Ministry in the West: S. Polycarp. — S. Poly carp, 
 who died about a.d. 155, had in his youth listened to the 
 teaching of 8. John, and had been appointed Bishop of 
 Smyrna by, as Tertullian says,'^ S. John, according to 
 S. Irena^us,-' the apostles. His Epistle to the Philippians^ 
 was written in reply to a request from the Church of 
 Philippi for any letters of 8. Ignatius which he might 
 possess. In his letter he does not mention as existing at 
 Philippi any orders of the ministry other than ' pres- 
 byters ' and 'deacons.' But the inference, drawn at one 
 time from this fact by so eminent a scholar as Bishop 
 Lightfoot, that 'episcopacy did not exist at all among 
 the Philippians at this time, or existed only in an 
 elementary form, so that the bishop was a mere president 
 of the presbyteral council,'"' can hardly be maintained 
 in view of the fact that 8. Ignatius, who must have 
 known the state of Church affairs at Philippi, regarded 
 episcopacy as universal and necessary (see p. 92) ; and 
 the later ' supposition ' of the same great writer, ' either 
 that there was a vacancy in the Philippian bishopric at 
 this time, or, as seems more probable, that the ecclesi- 
 astical organisation there was not yet fully developed,' ^ 
 
 1 See Gore, op. cit., pp. 280-295. 
 - Tertullian, De Prwsc. Hcvr., 32. 
 ^ S. Irenseus, C. Har., III. ill, 4. 
 
 •^ For the evidence that this letter is genuine, see Lightfoot, 
 op. cit., II. i. 502-587. 
 
 ^ Lightfoot, Epistle to the Philippians, p. 215. 
 ^ Idem., Apostolic Fathers, I. i. 578.
 
 98 THE CHURCH 
 
 is little more satisfactory. It is far more probable that, 
 as Bishop Gore suggests, the silence of the letter as to 
 the existence of a bishop, in the sense of S. Ignatius and 
 of modern usage, at Philippi is simply due to ' no repre- 
 sentative ' of the ' superior order in the Church ' being 
 ^ yet localised in the Church at Philippi. ' ^ 
 
 * The Ministry in the West : the ' Shepherd ' of Hermas. — 
 The book entitled the Shepherd was probably written in 
 the middle of the second century by Hermas the brother 
 of Pius, the Bishop of Rome.- The references which it 
 contains to the ministry show the existence of ' apostles ' 
 and ' teachers ' of a past generation ; ' presbyters ' who 
 appear to have governed the Church ; ' deacons ' who 
 assisted the ' presbyters ' in financial matters ; ' rulers ' 
 who are probably to be identified with the ' rulers ' or 
 ' distinguished men ' of the Epistle of S. Clement ; and 
 ^bishops' whose office, except that they showed hos- 
 pitality and cared for the desolate and the widows,^ is 
 undefined. If it were possible to identify the 'rulers' 
 with the 'presbyters,' it would appear that the 'pres- 
 byters,' in the time of this treatise, were the chief 
 authorities in the Church known to the writer. As, 
 however, he distinguishes them, it is probable that his 
 book presents similar facts to those in the Epistle of 
 S. Clement, namely, that above the 'presbyters' there 
 were 'rulers' corresponding to S. Timothy at Ephesus 
 and S. Titus at Crete. ^ 
 
 The Ministry in the West in the first two Centuries : 
 Summary. — There appear to be two theories which, with 
 some degree of plausibility, may be based upon the 
 evidence as to the ministry in the West in the sub- 
 apostolic period. (1) It has been maintained that there 
 was at Rome, and possibly elsewhere in the West, a 
 college of ' presbyter-bishops ' who had all received the 
 full authority of the episcopate. These would, therefore, 
 be without superiors, and would hand on their own 
 
 1 Gore, op. cit., p. 298. 
 
 - See Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, I. i. 4, 359, 360. But see 
 Moberly, Ministerial Priesthood, pp. 214, 215. 
 3 Hermas, Shepherd, Vis., ix. 27. 
 ■» See Gore, op. cit., pp. 300-303.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 09 
 
 ministry. At later ordinations only one of the number 
 received the full episcopal authority, the rest receivings 
 only the reduced authority of the "^ presbyters ' ; and the 
 one who received the full episcopal authority became 
 the local or diocesan or monarchical bishop.^ Such a 
 theory satisfies most of the evidence well ; and it derives 
 some support from the later practice of the Church at 
 Alexandria and the teaching in which the writer known 
 as Ambrosiaster and S. Jerome exalt the office of 
 ' presbyter.' 2 it is, however, an objection of weight 
 against it that it requires the identification of the ' rulers ' 
 or ^distinguished men' mentioned by S. Clement of 
 Rome and Hernias with the ^ presbyters/ whereas both 
 writers appear to distinguish them. (2) The other view 
 is that the ''presbyters/ whatever local authority they 
 may have possessed, were never the supreme authority, 
 but that over them were men of apostolic authority who 
 were not at first localised, the ^ rulers ' or ^ men of dis- 
 tinction ' of S. CJlement and Hernias, possibly identical 
 with the ' prophets ' and ' teachers ' of the New Testa- 
 ment and the East, who occupied much the same position 
 as S. Timothy and S. Titus, who ordained to the ministry, 
 and who, in some matters, exercised the chief authority. 
 These were gradually localised ; and the title of ' bishops,' 
 which had originally denoted the '' presbyters,' came to 
 be confined to them. At first sight, this view appears 
 to satisfy some parts of the evidence less fully than that 
 previously mentioned ; and it does not fall in so well 
 with the teaching of Ambrosiaster and S. Jerome and 
 the later practice of the Church at Alexandria. There 
 is, however, nothing in the evidence inconsistent with 
 it : it allows for the distinction drawn by S. Clement and 
 Hermas between the '^ presbyters ' and the ^ rulers ' or 
 ^ distinguished men ' ; and it most easily accounts for the 
 settled position of the local or diocesan or monarchical 
 bishops at the end of the second century, and for the 
 tradition that such bishops had always been in the 
 Church.^ Theologically, the difference between these 
 
 1 See Langen, Gcschichte clcr Roinischen Kirchc, i. 95, 96. See 
 also Lightfoot, op. cit., II. i. 370, note 1. 
 
 2 See Gore, op. cit., pp. 344-348. 3 jiji^^^ pp. 394, 305.
 
 100 THE CHURCH 
 
 two theories is uot of importance. According to either 
 of them the episcopal authority always existed ; the 
 existence of it depended on succession from the apostles; 
 and episcopal ordination is necessary to a valid ministry. 
 Whatever historical or other interest there may be in 
 any discussion of them^ theologically it is a small matter 
 whether at any particular time the episcopal authority 
 was given to a number of individuals besides the one 
 who^ in the later organisation, would alone perform 
 episcopal acts, or whether the later restriction was 
 always maintained. ^ Consequently, it may, on either 
 theory, be regarded as clear that, whatever the obscurity 
 of some details, the constitution of the Church in the 
 West in the first two centuries was in principle the same 
 as in the East. 
 
 The Ministry in Later Times. — From the end of the 
 second century the threefold ministry of bishop, priest, 
 and deacon is uniformly found as part of the settled 
 constitution of the Church. There is common teaching 
 that distinctively Christian gifts are communicated in 
 the society having this ministry derived by episcopal 
 succession from the apostles. If it is the case, as S. 
 Jerome in one passage states, that '^at Alexandria the 
 presbyters used always to appoint as bishop one chosen 
 out of their number and placed on the higher grade, as 
 if an army should make a general or deacons should 
 choose one of themselves whom they knew to be diligent 
 and call him archdeacon ' ; ^ and if S. Jerome's meaning 
 is that the newly appointed bishop did not undergo any 
 ceremony of consecration by a bishop, the probability 
 is that at Alexandria there was a custom by which all 
 the ^ presbyters ' were in the position of ' presbyter- 
 bishops ' who had received the full episcopal powers at 
 their ordination as '^ presbyters'.^ Isolated instances 
 of ordination by others than bishops which have been 
 
 1 Cf . Gore, The Mission of the Church, pp. 29-32. 
 
 2 S. Jerome, Ep., cxlvi. 
 
 3 See Gore, The Church and the Ministry, pp. 122-130, 325- 
 330 (fourth edition). Some recently acquired evidence on the 
 custom at Alexandria is given and discussed in the Journal of Theo- 
 logical Studies, July 1901, pp. 612, 613; January 1902, pp. 278-282.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 101 
 
 alleged as recognised in the early Church will not bear 
 examination.^ Neither can the opinion^ sometimes put 
 forward, that the abbots of lona, though only '^ pres- 
 byters/ exercised the power of ordaining, as well as 
 considerable powers of jurisdiction, be maintained. 
 When it is said by the Venerable Bede that the abbot 
 and monks of lona ^ ordained ' S. Aidan before he set 
 out on his mission to Northumbria,^ there are sufficient 
 reasons for understanding the word ^ ordained ' in the 
 sense of '^ caused to be ordained'.^ ^ They caused him,' 
 says Mr. William Hunt, '^to be consecrated bishop'; 
 *it is quite certain,' adds the same authority, '^that 
 Aidan received bishop's orders from one or more bishops, 
 for Bede acknowledges his episcopal rank.''* The fact 
 tliat none of the few supposed exceptions in historical 
 Christianity to the rule of episcopal ordination which 
 have been brought forward will bear to be investigated 
 affords significant indication of the universality of the 
 rule. In East and West alike the Church of history 
 has required that the ministry be episcopally ordained. 
 Even S. Jerome, in the very passage in wliich he is 
 exalting the dignity of the ^presbyters,' and in which 
 he refers, as mentioned above, to the practice of the 
 Church at Alexandria, says : '' ^Vhat, with the exception 
 of ordaining, does a bishop do which a presbyter does 
 not?'^ showing plainly that he regarded ordination as 
 an episcopal act. While there may be doubts as to the 
 particular way in which the different functions were 
 distributed at some times and in some places, it is very 
 clear that, so far as the essential powers of the orders 
 are concerned, it is true that, in the words of the Preface 
 to the Anglican Ordinal, ^ from the apostles' time there 
 have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church, 
 bishops, priests, and deacons.' 
 
 The Appointment of Bishops. — According to the tradition 
 
 1 See Gore, op. cit., pp. 340-343. 2 ggde, H.E., Hi. 5. 
 
 '^ See Bright, Chapters of Early English Church History, pp. 
 154-157 (third edition). 
 
 ■* Hunt, The English Church from its Foundation to the Nor- 
 man Conquest, p. 77. 
 
 ^ S. Jerome, Ep., cxivi.
 
 102 THE CHURCH 
 
 of the Church, the whole Christian society has part 
 in the appointment of its bishops. It is the office of 
 the clergy to make the election, of the laity to assent to 
 that which the clergy do, of the bishops of the province, 
 with their metropolitan, to ratify the election and finally 
 to consecrate the new bishop. This right method of pro- 
 cedure has met with continual interference. The laity 
 have seized the initiative and made the election which 
 pertains to the clergy ; or the laity have ceased to main- 
 tain their lawful right ; or some portion of the clergy 
 has usurped that which belongs to the clergy in general ; 
 or a sovereign has by his nomination declared who the 
 bishop was to be.^ It cannot be said that, at the present 
 time, the appointment of bishops is anywhere theoreti- 
 cally satisfactory either in the East or in the West.^ 
 The method in the Church of England of the sovereign 
 issuing a conge d'elire to the chapter of the diocese and 
 sending with it the name of the person nominated is, 
 perhaps, less objectionable in practice than it is in 
 theory ; and it may be anticipated that, in the event 
 of a really bad nomination, the Chapter concerned would 
 have the courage to reject the nominee of the crown. 
 
 Apostolic Sees, Metropolitans, Patriarchs. — In the early 
 Church, all bishops were regarded as inherently equal. 
 'The episcopate,' wrote S. Cyprian, 'is one, a share of 
 which is held by each of the bishops in such a way 
 that they have a joint tenure of the whole.' ^ But in 
 connection with this must be remembered the dignity 
 assigned to the 'apostolic sees,' or sees founded by 
 apostles, which included those of Jerusalem, Rome, 
 Antioch, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Ephesus, Alex- 
 andria, and Smyrna, and the special position of the 
 patriarchs and metropolitans.^ In the first three cen- 
 turies the leading sees were reckoned to be those of 
 
 1 See a clear statement by Mr. "W. H. Frere in the Guardian, 
 January 20, 1897, p. 106. See also Mr. Rackham's Essay in 
 Essays in Aid of the Reform of the Church, pp. 46-49, 68-75. 
 
 2 Obvious instances are in Russia and France. 
 
 3 S. Cyprian, De Unit. EccL, 5. 
 
 •* See Puller, op. cit., pp. 6-11. Cf. the articles 'Metropolitan' 
 and ' Patriarch ' in Smith and Cheetham's Dictionary of Christian 
 Antiquities*
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND ArTHORITY 103 
 
 Rome, Antiocli, and Alexandria. At the Council of 
 Constantinople of a.d. 381 the See of Constantinople was 
 put in the second place ahove Antioch and Alexandria 
 because of the civil g'reatness to which it had by this 
 time attained as ^new Rome.' ^ 
 
 The Bishop of Rome. — VV^hen S. Paul wrote his Epistle 
 to the Romans (about a.d. ;-)7), it is evident that there 
 was a considerable colony of Christians at Rome (Rom. 
 i. 7, i3j xvi.). The origin of this Christian society is 
 unknown. It is not likely that S, Peter had previously 
 preached there (see Rom. i. 11^ 12, xv. 20, 21). About 
 A.D. 61 S. Paul visited Rome, and about a.d. 68 S. Peter 
 and S. Paul were martyred there. The general tradition 
 of the Church ascribed the foundation of Christianity 
 at Rome to the work of S. Peter and S. Paul. At the 
 first, the Church at Rome was a Greek colony in a Latin 
 city. By a history which cannot be traced, the language 
 and customs became Latin, the transitionary period 
 probably being late in the second century. The See of 
 Rome had a precedence of honour partly because of the 
 secular greatness of the city, and partly because of the 
 association with S. Peter and S. Paul, Rome being the 
 only apostolic see in the West (cf. pp. 49-54). Refer- 
 ence was made to it by S. Irenaeus at the end of the 
 second century as a convenient central illustration of 
 the succession and teaching of the whole Church ; and 
 he stated as the reason that ^ to this Church, on account 
 of its more influential pre-eminence, it is necessary that 
 every C'hurch should resort, that is the faithful, who are 
 from all quarters ; and in this Church the tradition, 
 which comes from the apostles, has ever been preserved 
 by those who are from all quarters.' ^ That this passage 
 does not imjdy that the Church at Rome was in itself a 
 guarantee of truth is sliown by the phrase that the apos- 
 tolic tradition is preserved in it ' by those who are from 
 all quarters,' and by the fact that S. Irenaeus goes on 
 to appeal to the witness of the apostolic Church of 
 Smyrna and the apostolic Church of Ephesus as co- 
 
 1 Council of Constantinople of a.d. 381, canon 3. 
 
 2 S. IrenKus, C. Hrer., III. iii. 1, 2.
 
 104 THE CHURCH 
 
 ordinate to that borne at Rome.^ This precedence of 
 honour made it natural that the See of Rome should 
 sometimes initiate action and sometimes declare the 
 results of the action of the Church in general ; and that 
 recourse should be had to it in difficulty- Its influence 
 was larg-ely increased by the continuous orthodoxy of 
 its teaching-, especially during the Arian controversy, 
 in which, apart from the lapse of Liberius, who was 
 Pope from a.d. 352 to a.d. 3G6, Rome remained steadily 
 Catholic. The removal of the seat of the Western 
 Empire to Milan and Ravenna in a.d. 404 tended to 
 increase the dignity of the Bishops of Rome. But, as 
 yet, no right on the part of the Bishop of Rome to 
 dictate to other Churches in matters of doctrine or 
 discipline, nor any specially defining power of this see, 
 nor any specific need of external communion with it, 
 was acknowledged. The rule of S. Leo the Great did 
 much to advance the power of the Pope (see pp. 61, 62). 
 After his time, the continual doctrinal disputes in the 
 East, which increased the influence of a see which steadily 
 held the truth, the centralisation of Catholics in con- 
 sequence of the heresy of the barbarians who overran 
 the West, and the great wealth of the Roman Church, 
 all tended towards an increased regard for the opinion 
 of the Pope, an increase in the practice of appealing to 
 Rome, and an increase also in the practice of looking 
 for the decrees of councils to be confirmed by the Pope. 
 The papacy of Gregory i. (a.d. 590-604) did much to 
 extend the power of the See and Bishop of Rome, by 
 reason of the general unsettlement of Europe and the 
 width of the Pope's interests and the enterprise and 
 strength of his rule. The heresy of Pope Honorius i. 
 (a.d. 625-638), and the weakness in secular afi^airs 
 of Pope Martin i. (a.d. 649-653), did something to 
 diminish the influence of their see. But the grovrth of 
 it soon went on again. Factions and heretical leanings 
 had made Alexandria and Antioch of little importance 
 by the end of the sixth century. The Mohammedan 
 
 1 S. Iren!s>us, C. Hcer., III. iii. 3, 4. Cf. Puller, op. ciL, 
 pp. 19-35.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 105 
 
 conquests at the end of the seventh century destroyed 
 North African Christianity, which, as being of an in- ' 
 dependent and courageous type, had been a powerful 
 restraint on any undue development of Rome. Through- 
 out the eighth century the power of the Papacy grew. 
 The Bishops of Constantinople were becoming mere 
 tools of the Emperor. Of the five great Sees of Rome, 
 Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, 
 Rome alone remained as a real spiritual power. The 
 coronation of Charles the Great as ' Emperor of the 
 Romans,' with his rule over a large part of Europe, by 
 Pope Leo iii. (a.d. 800) may perhaps have led to an 
 enlarged view in common thought of the greatness of 
 the Pope who could give such rights to the Emperor. 
 In the ninth century the practical effect of the Forged 
 Decretals, whether forged in the interests of the Pope or 
 of the bishops, was to increase the power of the Papacy. 
 The growing severance from the East tended to leave 
 Rome without any check. The iniquitous Popes of the 
 tenth and eleventh centuries did not destroy the insti- 
 tution which they disgraced. The last half of the 
 eleventh century saw a succession of reforming Popes 
 who were good men, and aimed at the good of the 
 Church; the masterly rule of Pope Gregory vii. (a.d. 
 1073-108.5), with his ideals of the sway of the earthly 
 representative of Christ in every department of life ; 
 and the quiet consolidation of Gregory's work after his 
 death. More and more appeals were made to Rome ; 
 and Rome was the one power which could redress the 
 wrongs, whether civil or ecclesiastical, which were in- 
 flicted by powerful kings. In the time of Innocent iii. 
 (a.d. 1198-1216), the vigorous foreign policy of the 
 Pope, the Crusades, the work of the Dominicans and 
 Franciscans, and the Lateran Council of a.d. 1215, all 
 increased the papal power. Pope Boniface viii. (a.d. 
 1294-1303) claimed absolute and parallel authority in 
 all matters secular and spiritual by virtue of the two 
 swords which he said were the rightful possession of 
 the successors of S. Peter. Through the greed and extor- 
 tion which marked the Popes of the fourteenth century, 
 and the scandalous immorality of those in the fifteenth
 
 106 THE CHURCH 
 
 and sixteenth centuries, the spiritual claims of the 
 Papacy continued to be upheld ; and the idea of papal 
 infallibility, already suggested by Leo iii. (a.d. 795-816) 
 and Gregory vii. (a.d. 1073-1085) gradually became 
 more common. The supreme jurisdiction of the See of 
 Rome, never acknowledged in the East, gradually con- 
 ceded throughout the West, was repudiated by the 
 Church of England in the sixteenth century. That 
 external communion with the Pope is not necessary 
 either to the reception or to the due use of episcopal 
 authority has already been shown (see pp. 61, 62). 
 
 Minor Orders. — By, at any rate, the middle of the 
 third century, besides the bishop, priest, and deacon, 
 the orders of sub-deacon, acolyte, exorcist, reader, and 
 doorkeeper had come to be recognised. The office of 
 reader is mentioned first in Tertullian, writing in Africa 
 about A.D. 199, and then in a letter of Cornelius, who 
 was Bishop of Rome from a.d. 251 to a.d. 252, in a 
 letter of S. Cyprian, who was Bishop of Carthage from 
 a.d. 248 to A.D. 258, and in the Testament of the Lord, a 
 Syrian or Cilician document which may date from the 
 middle of the third century. The sub-deacon, acolyte, 
 exorcist, and doorkeeper are mentioned first in a letter 
 of Pope Cornelius, the first three of these being referred 
 to also by S. Cyprian, and the first in the Testament of 
 the Loj'd.^ In modern times there has been a slight 
 difference between the Eastern and the Roman Catholic 
 writers as to the status of the sub-deacon. The Easterns 
 limit the sacred orders to bishop, priest, and deacon, 
 and consider all the others to be minor orders ; Roman 
 Catholic theologians, though difi"ering among themselves 
 whether the office of sub-deacon is sacramental, agree 
 that the sacred orders comprise the offices of bishop, 
 priest, deacon, and sub-deacon, reckoning the episcopate 
 and the priesthood as one order. In the Church of 
 England no one of the orders below that of deacon has 
 been retained. 
 
 Deaconesses. — In writing to the Romans, S. Paul makes 
 
 1 Tertullian, De Prcesc. Hcer., 12 ; Cornelius in Eusebius, 
 H.E., vi, 43; S. Cyprian, e.g. Ep., xxix. xxxiv. 4, Ixix. 15 ; 
 Testamentum Domini, \. 23, 33, 44, 45.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 107 
 
 mention of Phoebe a ^ deaconess of the Church that is at 
 Cenchre»' (Rom. xvi. 1);^ and in liis first letter to 
 S. Timothy, lays down regulations for the choice of 
 women holding- some such office (1 Tim. iii. 11).- In 
 the early Church, deaconesses held a recognised place in 
 the East, where they were formally set apart for their 
 office, and performed various ministrations for women in 
 Church and at home ; and there are a few instances of 
 them in the \Yest. By the end of the twelfth century 
 in the West, and perhaps a century later in the East, 
 they had ceased to exist. -^ 
 
 The Sixteenth Century. — One of the results of the con- 
 troversies and struggles of the sixteenth century, was 
 that many Christians lost the episcopal ministry of the 
 historical Church. Among some of those bodies who are 
 tlius without bishops, careful ordinations by presbyters, 
 sup])osed to be valid, have been kept up ; in other cases 
 very little regard for ordination real or supposed sur- 
 vived. At the present time the Protestant Noncon- 
 formists in England and Wales, the presbyterian and 
 other non-episcopal bodies in Scotland and Ireland, and 
 various foreign Protestants, are without a ministry 
 which includes bishops. Such ministries, while those 
 who use them in good faith may well receive much 
 spiritual blessing, cannot be said to possess the pledge 
 of sacramental life, which is afforded by the historical 
 episcopate. On the other hand, an episcopal ministry 
 has been retained by the Churches of the East, the 
 Church of Rome, and the Church of England. 
 
 1 But Dr. Hort in The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 207, 208, does 
 not think that the word Std/covos is here used in its technical 
 sense. 
 
 - Tlie grammatical construction shows that ' their wives ' 
 (A.V.) cannot be a right translation ; and the context shows that 
 the reference is to some special class of women, not women in 
 general (R.V.). The passage in 1 Tim. v. 3-16 does not refer to 
 deaconesses but to women on the list of the Church to receive 
 relief. 
 
 •' On the history of the office of deaconess, see Robinson, The 
 Ministry of Deaconesses ; and an article in the Church Quarterly 
 Revieio," Jsinwsirj 1899, pp. 302-340, entitled 'On the Early 
 History and Modern Revival of Deaconesses.'
 
 108 THE CHURCH 
 
 Anglican Orders. — In the Church of England, the in- 
 tention that the ' orders of ministers ' which ' from the 
 apostles' time there have been' ^in Christ's Church' 
 should ^be continued, and reverently used and esteemed/ 
 has been positively asserted ; ^ and care has been taken 
 to preserve the essential features of ordination and to 
 prevent the ministrations of any who had not received 
 '^ episcopal consecration or ordination. '^ j^ spite of this, 
 the validity of Anglican orders has been frequently 
 questioned or denied by Roman Catholic theologians, 
 and they have been declared wholly invalid by a Bull 
 of Pope Leo xiii. There are no good grounds for 
 doubting the facts of the consecration of Archbishop 
 Parker to whom the subsequent succession is due, and of 
 Bishop Barlow who was the princi])al consecrator of 
 Parker. The objections made to the English offices 
 because they do not provide for the '^delivery of the 
 instruments,' that is, of the paten and chalice, to one 
 being ordained priest, and do not specify the sacrificing 
 power of the priesthood, might be made equally well 
 against all the ordinals of the Church for many centuries. 
 The intention of the Church of England, not to create 
 a new ministry, but to continue the historical ministry 
 of Christ's Church, is expressly stated in the Preface to 
 the Ordinal (see above). The argument that the con- 
 secrating bishop must himself intend to make a sacrific- 
 ing ministry is not in accordance even with Roman 
 Catholic theology. In the Bull of Pope Leo xiii. all the 
 objections which have been raised against Anglican 
 Orders except those based on the alleged insufficiency of 
 the office, and the lack of intention on the part of the 
 Church of England were dropped ; and to these two, as 
 indicated above, a wholly sufficient answer may be made.^ 
 
 1 Preface to the Ordinal attached to the Book of Common 
 Prayer. 
 
 2 Ibid. Hvimanly speaking, the retention of bishoj^s in the 
 Church of England may have been due partly to alarm at Anti- 
 nomian ideas and a sense that episcopacy supplied security 
 which might, without it, be lacking, and partly to a conviction 
 that it formed part of the divinely appointed order of the 
 Church. 
 
 '^ For further details see a brief statement in the present
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 109 
 
 The Administration of Sacraments, — While Baptism ad- 
 ministered l)y a deacon or a layman or a woman is valid, 
 the proper minister is either a bishop or a priest. Con- 
 firmation was sometimes administered in the early 
 Church by priests^ probably (though of this there is no 
 proof) using oil which a bishop had blessed. In the 
 modern East it is administered by priests with oil 
 blessed by a bishop. In tlie AVest the administration of 
 it is confined to bishops. The celebration of the Holy 
 Eucharist has always been confined to bishops and 
 priests/ as has also been the giving of Absolution. The 
 oil for the last unction must be blessed by either a 
 bishop or a priest. Ordination requires a bishop as 
 minister. It is probable that^ as taught in most western 
 theology^ the ministers in Matrimony are the persons 
 contracting it, not that, as taught in the East, the 
 minister is a bishop or priest. The recognition in the 
 West of the validity of marriages contracted without the 
 presence and blessing of a priest or bishop is in harmony 
 with this, although it is highly desirable that such 
 blessing should always be obtained by members of the 
 Church ; and a decree of the Council of Trent declares 
 marriages contracted without the presence of a priest 
 and two witnesses to be invalid in those countries in 
 which the decrees of the Council are published. 
 
 Pastoral Work other than the Administration of the 
 Sacraments. — The pastoral duties of the clergy comprise 
 much more than the administration of the Sacraments. 
 Early in the second century S. Polycarp wrote, '^The 
 presbyters also must be compassionate, merciful towards 
 all men, turning back the sheep that are gone astray, 
 visiting all the infirm, not neglecting a widow or an 
 orphan or a poor man.'- This conception of priestly 
 work has always been preserved in the office books of 
 the Church. The distinctive character of the Christian 
 priest results from the gift by which he has been 
 
 writer's Outlines of Christian Dogma, i:)p. 209-211, and a very 
 full treatment in the Church Quarterly Reviexo, January 1896, 
 pp. 281-303, April 1896, pp. 24-51, January 1897, pp. 365-400. 
 
 1 See the present writer's Outlines of Christian Dogma, p. 176. 
 
 2 S. Polycarp, Ad Phil., 6.
 
 110 THE CHURCH 
 
 empowered to offer the Christian sacrifice. But it would 
 be a very imperfect description of his work to limit it 
 to the performance of functions connected with the 
 Sacraments. ^ The ' corollaries of spirit and life ' which 
 are involved in 'leadership in Eucharistic worship '^ 
 have received emphatic utterance in the Roman Pontifical 
 and in the Ordinal of the Church of England. Both 
 alike explicitly refer to the ministering of the Sacra- 
 ments and the forgiveness of sins ; ^ but they contain 
 much else. In the Roman office for the ordination of 
 a priest, the bishop is directed to pray, '^O God, the 
 author of all sanctificatiou, of whom is the true con- 
 secration and the fulness of blessing, do Thou, O Lord, 
 pour upon these Thy servants, whom we dedicate to 
 the office of presbyters, the gift of Thy blessing ; that, 
 taught by the instruction given to Titus and Timothy 
 by Paul, they may approve themselves elders by the 
 weight of their deeds and the pattern of their life ; that, 
 meditating in Thy law day and night, they may believe 
 what they read, and teach what they believe, and follow 
 what they teach ; that they may show forth in them- 
 selves and establish by their example and ratify by their 
 counsel justice, perseverance, pity, fortitude, and all 
 other virtues ; that they may preserve in unspotted 
 purity the gift of their ministry ; that, for the service 
 of Thy people, with stainless blessing they may trans- 
 form the bread and wine into the body and blood of 
 
 1 See Moberly, Ministerial Priesthood, pp. 294-297. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 261. 
 
 3 In the Roman rite, ' Receive power to offer sacrifice to God, 
 and to celebrate Masses both for the living and for the dead ' ; 
 ' Receive the Holy Ghost ; whose sins thou shalt have remitted, 
 they are remitted to them ; and whose thou shalt have retained, 
 they have been retained.' In the Anglican rite, 'Receive the 
 Holy Ghost for the oflSce and work of a priest in the Church of 
 God, now committed unto thee b}" the imposition of our hands. 
 Whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven ; and whose 
 sins thou dost retain, they are retained. And be thou a faithful 
 dispenser of the Word of God, and of His holy Sacraments.' 
 ' Take thou authority to preach the Word of God, and to minister 
 the holy Sacraments in the congregation, where thou shalt be 
 lawfull}' appointed thereunto.'
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 111 
 
 Thy Son ; and that^ filled with purity of conscience and 
 true faith and the Holy Ghost^ they may, on the day of 
 the righteous and eternal judgment of God^ rise again 
 with unbroken love unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
 of the age of the fulness of Christ.' In the Anglican 
 Form and Manner of Ordering of Priests the bishop is 
 directed to say to those who are presented to him, ' We 
 exhort you, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that 
 you have in remembrance, into how high a dignity, and 
 to how weighty an office and charge ye are called : that 
 is to say, to be messengers, watchmen, and stewards of 
 the Lord ; to teach, and to premonish, to feed and pro- 
 vide for the Lord's family ; to seek for Christ's sheep 
 that are dispersed abroad, and for His children who are 
 in the midst of this naughty world, that they may be 
 saved through Christ for ever.' And, if the Eastern 
 rites of ordination are in some respects less splendid 
 than those of the West, that for the laying on of hands 
 to make a presbyter contains prayer not only that the 
 newly ordained may stand at the altar and oifer sacrifice 
 and baptize, but also that he may declare the gospel of 
 the kingdom and minister the word of truth.
 
 112 THE CHURCH 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH 
 AS SHOWN IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 Introductory. — At the time of the Incarnation the idea 
 of a number of men possessing authority as rulers and 
 teachers was familiar to the Jews. To the great law- 
 giver Moses, and the elders who shared in the work of 
 rule, and the prophets who declared the will of God, 
 there had succeeded the Sanhedrim and the scribes. 
 When our Lord appointed His apostles to govern (Matt, 
 xvi. 19, xviii. 18) and to teach (Matt, xxviii. 20) there 
 would be nothing strange in such functions being con- 
 nected with a religious work. 
 
 The Exercise of Authority in the Acts of the Apostles. — 
 In the Book of the Acts the twofold exercise of authority, 
 to govern and to teach, by the apostles is prominent. 
 Their chief, S. Peter, points out the need of a new 
 apostle in the room of Judas (Acts i. 15-22). They bear 
 witness to our Lord and to the facts of His earthly life 
 (Acts, e.g. i. 8, 22, ii. 32, iv. S3). They declare the con- 
 ditions upon which entrance into the Church is to be 
 obtained (Acts ii. 38, xvi. 81, 33). They determine on 
 the institution of the first deacons and appoint them to 
 this office by the laying on of hands (Acts vi. 2-6). 
 While the apostles in these matters act as leaders and 
 as possessed of specific authority, they are not isolated 
 from the rest of the Church. The brethren in general 
 select the two from whom S. Matthias is chosen by lot 
 to be numbered with the Eleven (Acts i. 15, 23-26). 
 The multitude of the disciples choose the first deacons 
 and set them before the apostles for their formal appoint- 
 ment and ordination (Acts vi. 2, 5, 6). When a serious 
 question afi"ectiiig the status of the Gentiles and the 
 whole future history of the Church has to be decided.
 
 ITS MINrSTRY AND AUTHORITY 113 
 
 a council is held, of which the members are the apostles 
 and presbyters (Acts xv. 2, 6, 23, R.V.), at which dis- 
 cussion takes place in the presence of the laity (Acts 
 XV. 12), the decisions of which, while the work of the 
 apostles and presbyters, are assented to by the laity also 
 (Acts XV. 22, 23, R.V.). 
 
 The Exercise of Authority in the Epistles. — The attitude 
 of the writers of the Epistles is obviously authoritative. 
 S. Paul gives definite teaching and distinct commands. 
 He declares, for instance, that the doctrine of the resur- 
 rection of the body is an essential part of the Christian 
 faith (1 Cor. xv.). He orders the excommunication of 
 a vicious man and forbids association with Christians 
 who commit certain sins (1 Cor. v. ; cf. 1 Tim. i. 20). 
 In the Pastoral Epistles he lays down what kinds of 
 persons are to be selected as ministers, and gives direc- 
 tions as to the rule of the Church. Indeed, in the 
 Epistles the authority of the apostle is less fully shown 
 to be exercised in union with the rest of the Church 
 than it is in the Acts, Even if the instructions about 
 the choice of ministers in the Pastoral Epistles are in- 
 tended to be communicated to the laity by the apostolic 
 delegate who receives them, the action of the laity in 
 the selection of the ministers has not the prominence 
 given to it in the account of the appointment of the first 
 deacons. Yet the association of the Church in general 
 with the authority of the apostle is not altogether out 
 of sight. S. Paul refers to the action of the presbyters 
 (1 Tim. iv. 14) at the ordination of S. Timothy as well 
 as to his own (2 Tim. i. 6). In his insistence on the 
 doctrine of the resurrection of the body, he refers to 
 the reception of the gospel by the Corinthians as well 
 as to the preaching of it by himself (1 Cor. xv. 1). The 
 excommunication which he orders is to be executed by 
 the whole Christian body (1 Cor. v. 4) ; the punishment 
 in it is said to have been ' inflicted by the many ' (2 Cor. 
 ii. 6) ; and the subsequent forgiveness is described as 
 that of the Church, ratified by the apostle (2 Cor. ii. 10). 
 In connection with his own act of judgment, he appeals 
 to that exercised also by the Corinthian Church, ^Do 
 not ye judge them that are within?' (1 Cor. v. 12); and
 
 114 THE CHURCH 
 
 in deciding a point of discipline refers to the ' custom ' 
 of ^the Churches of God' (1 Cor. xi. 16). Thus, while 
 in the Epistles the action of the Christian body in 
 g-eneral is less emphasised than in the Acts, it is to some 
 extent recognised. 
 
 Divine Sanction claimed for the Authority of the Church 
 in the New Testament. — At the beginning of the Book of 
 the Acts the apostles are described as those whom our 
 Lord had chosen and whom He taught ' concerning the 
 kingdom of God' (Acts i. 2, 3). It was in the power 
 derived from the outpouring of the Holy Ghost that 
 S. Peter first asserted the claims of Christ to the men of 
 Judaea and dwellers in Jerusalem (Acts ii. 4, 14-36). 
 S. Paul declared that his apostleship was ' not from men, 
 neither through man, but through Jesus Christ and God 
 the Father'; that his Gospel was not '^ after man/ but 
 received by him ' through revelation of Jesus Christ ' 
 (Gal. i. 1, il, 12) ; that His authority was given by the 
 Lord (2 Cor. x. 8) ; and that what he did in the way of 
 discipline he did ^ in the person of Christ ' (2 Cor. ii. 10). 
 The Council of Jerusalem said of its decrees, ' It seemed 
 good to the Holy Ghost, and to us ' (Acts xv. 28). The 
 Church was described by S. Paul as 'the pillar and 
 ground of the truth ' (1 Tim. iii. 15). All this was 
 harmonious with the promises of our Lord : ' Upon this 
 rock I will build My Church ; and the gates of Hades 
 shall not prevail against it ' (Matt. xvi. 18) ; ' If he refuse 
 to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as the 
 Gentile and the publican ' (Matt, xviii. 1") ; ^ '^ I will pray 
 the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, 
 that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of 
 truth ' (John xiv. 16) ; ' The Comforter, even the Holy 
 Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He 
 shall teach you all things, and bring to your remem- 
 brance all that I said unto you ' (John xiv. 26) ; ' When 
 He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into 
 all the truth ' (John xvi. 13). 
 
 1 It is probable that our Lord here refers to the Christian 
 Church because of the previous reference in Matt. xvi. 18, and 
 because in the verses which immediately follow our Lord speaks 
 of the authority which He commits to His apostles. Against 
 this interpretation, however, see Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 
 pp. 9, 10.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 115 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH IN HISTORY 
 LATER THAN THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 The Rule of the Bishop, — The authority of the bishop to 
 instruct and g-oveni his diocese is closely connected with 
 his position as essential to the ministry of the Churcli. 
 The Epistles of S. Ignatius^ as has been seen (see p. 93), 
 lay stress on the need of episcopacy in the interests of 
 the discipline of the Church. S. Irenaeus, giving- utter- 
 ance to a belief found throughout the history of the 
 Church, makes the episcopal succession a guarantee for 
 the truth of the creed which by means of the bishops 
 has been handed down from the apostles, and is found 
 in the teaching of the Universal Church. But in neither 
 writer is the bishop viewed in isolation. S. Ignatius 
 links with him the presbyters and deacons, and is mind- 
 ful of ^a power of action in union with the bishop' ^ on 
 the part of the whole Christian body. S. Irenaeus 
 assumes that the teaching of the individual bishop will 
 be maintained and held in check by Holy Scripture, the 
 tradition from the apostles, and the common belief of 
 the whole Church.- From the primitive point of view, 
 the authority of the bishop as a teacher and as a ruler 
 is great. It is, nevertheless, restrained by his relation 
 to his own diocese, and especially the priests in it,^ and 
 to the whole Church in the present and in the past. 
 
 1 Rackham, Essay on ' The Position of the Laity in the Early 
 Church ' in Essays in Aid of the Reform of the Church, p. 41. 
 See S. Ignatius, Ad Eph., 1, 3, 9, 12, 13, 21; Ad Magn., 2, 13, 
 14 ; Ad Trail., 1, 6, 7, 11, 13; Ad Philad., 2, 4, 10; Ad Smyrn., 
 4, 10, 11. 
 
 - See S. Irenaeus, C. Hcer., I. ix. 3 — x. 1., lY. xxvi. 2, xxxiii. 7. 
 
 3 See Wood, The Regal Poioer of the Chvrch, pp. 68, 69.
 
 116 THE CHURCH 
 
 (Ecumenical Councils. — The most complete exercise of 
 the authority of the Church is in an CEcumenical Council. 
 An CEcumenical Council differs from a merely General 
 Council because while a merely General Council is in its 
 constitution representative of the whole Church, it may 
 fail to give utterance to the real and permanent mind of 
 the whole Church, whereas an (Ecumenical Council is 
 one, the decisions of which have been universally and 
 permanently accepted within the Church. The CEcu- 
 menical Councils are seven in number. They were held 
 at Nicaea in a.d. 325, Constantinople in a.d. 881, 
 Ephesus in a.d. 431, Chalcedon in a.d. 451, Constanti- 
 nople in A.D. 553 and in a.d. 680-681, and at Nicaea in 
 A.D. 787. That an CEcumenical Council derives its 
 authority from the subsequent acceptance, which shows 
 that it has rightly expressed the mind of the whole 
 Church, may be most clearly illustrated by the Council 
 of Constantinople of a.d. 881, which was summoned 
 from the East only, and at which no Western bishop 
 was present. 
 
 The (Ecumenical Councils summoned by the Emperors. — 
 It is a matter of history that the CEcumenical Councils 
 were summoned by the Emperors, the First Council of 
 Nicaea by Constantino the Great, the Council of Con- 
 stantinople of A.D. 381 by Theodosius i., the Council of 
 Ephesus by Theodosius ii. and Valentinian in., the 
 Council of Constantinople of a.d. 553 by Justinian, the 
 Council of Constantinople of a.d. 680-681 by Con- 
 stantine iv., and the Second Council of Nicaea by 
 Constantino vi. and the Empress Irene. 
 
 The Presidents of the (Ecumenical Councils. — The pre- 
 sidents of the CEcumenical Councils were as follows : 
 Of the First Council, Hosius, Bishop of Cordova ; of the 
 Second Council, Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, Gregory 
 of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople, and Nectarius, 
 Bishop of Constantinople, in succession ; of the Third 
 Council, S. Cyril of Alexandria ; of the Fourth Council, 
 in part the legates of the Pope, and in part the imperial 
 commissioners, and, at one session, the Emperor himself; 
 of the Fifth Council, Eutychius, Bishop of Constantinople ; 
 of the Sixth Council, in part the legates of the Pope, and
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 117 
 
 in part the Emperor ; and of the Seventh Council, the 
 legates of the Pope. 
 
 The Members of the (Ecumenical Councils, — The members 
 of the CEcumenical Councils were the bishops, together 
 with those priests and deacons who were the repre- 
 sentatives of absent bishops. Other priests and deacons 
 who were for any reason present were not, in these 
 Councils, members of the Councils, and had no vote. 
 
 Acceptance of the (Ecumenical Councils.— Each of the 
 CEcumenical Councils was subsequently accepted by the 
 Church at large. ^ Each of them, moreover, was ratified 
 by the Emperor ; and, with the exception of the Second, 
 and the canons of the Fourth, by the Pope.^ 
 
 Matters dealt with by the (Ecumenical Councils. — Matters 
 both of doctrine and of discipline were considered at the 
 CEcumenical Councils, Thus their work embraced sub- 
 jects of the most different kinds. The First Council 
 declared the deity of the Son of God, and dealt with the 
 attitude of prayer on Sundays and in Eastertide. 
 
 Authority of the Decisions of the (Ecumenical Councils. — 
 The decisions of the CEcumenical Councils on matters of 
 faith are permanently binding on the whole Church ; for 
 a council is not CEcumenical unless its teaching is the 
 expression of the true mind of the whole body. It is 
 impossible to suppose that doctrines declared to be obli- 
 gatory as conditions of communion in decrees made to 
 be its own by the Church at large should be changed. 
 The rightfulness of such decrees is implied in the pro- 
 mises of our Lord, For instance, the truths declared 
 to be of faith in the Nicene Creed are not subject to 
 alteration by the Church. It is obvious, also, that some 
 decisions in matters of discipline are not of permanent 
 weight. The regulation of the Council of Nicsea, by 
 which kneeling is prohibited on Sundays and throughout 
 Eastertide, is not completely observed anywhere in the 
 
 1 On the acceptance of the Second Council of Nicjea, see a 
 paper read by Mr. W. J. Birkbeck at the Church Congress of 
 1895, reported in the Guardian of October 16, 1895; and an 
 article in the Church Quarterly Review, July 1896, pp. 448-476. 
 
 2 Pope Vigilius at first dissented from the Fifth Council, but 
 afterwards accepted it.
 
 118 THE CHURCH 
 
 West at the present time. Many matters of discipline 
 are closely connected with doctrine or with life ; altera- 
 tions in them must always be serious ; in some there is 
 reason for doubt whether any change can be rightly 
 made by a part of the Church in what the whole Church 
 has done.^ 
 
 Councils other than (Ecumenical. — Councils other than 
 CEcumenical include merely General Councils, and those 
 that are provincial or diocesan. A merely General 
 Council is one that is representative of the whole Church, 
 but fails to obtain acceptance from the whole Church. 
 A council fully representative may give utterance to 
 what, as subsequently universally accepted, is the mind 
 of the Universal Church, so that its decisions have that 
 certainty which is based upon our Lord's promise to the 
 whole Church, and the council itself become an (Ecu- 
 menical Council ; or it may fail to do this and illustrate 
 the truth of the statement in the twenty-first English 
 Article of Religion that '^ General Councils' '^ may err, 
 and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining to 
 God.' 2 A General Council, like an CEcumenical Council, 
 consists of bishops, or bishops and priests and deacons 
 representing bishops. A provincial Council consists of 
 the bishops of the province, or of some of them and the 
 authorised representatives of the others. A diocesan 
 Council consists of the bishop and priests, or the bishop 
 and priests and deacons of the diocese. 
 
 The Relation of the Laity to Councils. — Attention has 
 already been called to the position of the laity in the 
 primitive Church (see pp. 112, 113). Since the judgment 
 of the Church by which a council becomes CEcumenical 
 is that of the whole society, they had their share in 
 this subsequent ratification of the acts of a council. In 
 the councils of the third century the laity had their 
 
 1 For fuller details about the CEcumenical Councils and for 
 references to authorities, see an article in the Church Quarterly 
 Eevieio, January 1901, pp. 298-324. 
 
 2 The instances of merely General Councils erring which are 
 most visually given, are those of the Councils of Ariminum and 
 Seleucia, taken together, in a.d. 359, and the Council of Ephesus 
 of A.D. 449.
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 119 
 
 regular place. At the beginning of the fourth century 
 they ceased to be represented. The presence and influ- 
 ence of the Emperors and their representatives were 
 rather those of the chief power in the State than of the 
 Christian laity^ as may be illustrated by the fact that 
 when the Emperor Constantine took a prominent part 
 at the Council of Nicsea, he had not yet been baptized. 
 On the other hand, the presence of sovereigns and 
 nobles at Western Councils of the sixth and following 
 centuries appears to have been due to their position 
 as Christian laity as well as that of authority in the 
 State. There were laymen at Western Councils in the 
 sixth and seventh centuries, notably at the Second 
 Council of Orange, in a.d. 529.^ In modern times, the 
 laity have ceased to possess in this form tlie influence 
 in the Church which was formerly theirs. In the Church 
 of England, the Houses of Parliament are no longer 
 assemblies of Churchmen. The Houses of Laymen have 
 little direct influence with the Houses of the Convoca- 
 tions of the clergy. In the Church of Rome, the laity 
 have even less recognised position, in spite of provisions 
 for their presence at synods in some official documents.'^ 
 In the Churches of the East, also, the direct influence 
 of the laity has similarly disappeared.^ 
 
 The Common Teaching of Theologians. — The decrees of 
 the Oecumenical Councils contain the whole truth which 
 members of the Church must accept if they are to remain 
 in communion with the Church. But the voice of the 
 Church is also made known by teaching uniformly given 
 by divines, sufficiently universal and permanent to be, 
 in the absence of protest, allowed by the Church. The 
 rejection of such teaching, as distinct from the rejection 
 
 ^ On this whole subject, see the Essay, by Mr. Rackham, in 
 Essays in Aid of the Reform of the Church, which, however, in 
 some places exaggerates the position of the laity in the early 
 Church. Cf. Bright, Some Aspects of Primitive Church Life, 
 pp. 51-99. See also Benson, Cyprian^ his Life, his Times, his 
 Work, pp. 426-431. 
 
 '-^ See Hefele, History of the Councils, i. 24, 25 (English trans- 
 lation). 
 
 ■' On the Christian idea of the layman, see Moberly, Ministerial 
 Priesthood, pp. 91-98.
 
 120 THE CHURCH 
 
 of doctrine which an (Ecumenical Council has imposed 
 as obligatory, does not necessitate either the excommuni- 
 cation of those by whom the rejection is made or their 
 voluntary abstention from communion. It may, how- 
 • ever, be said that those who have accepted the general 
 principle of the authority of the Universal Church will 
 recognise a claim on their belief in a traditional doctrine 
 which is both universal and permanent, even if it has 
 not been affirmed by a conciliar decree imposing excom- 
 munication on those who reject it. The reason for this 
 claim is that the lasting acquiescence on the part of the 
 Church in any teaching universally prevalent is a prac- 
 tical allowance of the truth of the doctrines so taught 
 and a consequent acceptance of them. 
 
 The Teaching of individual Bishops and Priests. — The 
 authority of any individual in the Church depends on 
 his action, whether in the way of instruction or in the 
 way of discipline, being in harmony with the teaching 
 and practice of the whole body. Yet, until appeal has 
 been made against it, the authority of an individual 
 bishop or priest is of weight for those to whom it applies. 
 The parish priest is the authorised teacher and ruler in 
 matters of religion of those who have been committed to 
 his care. The bishop is similarly authorised to teach 
 and rule his diocese. From the judgment of a parish 
 priest, an appeal is open to the bishop of the diocese. 
 From the bishop of the diocese, on whom it lies to con- 
 sult the priests who form with himself the diocesan 
 Council, there may be an appeal to the bishops of the 
 province ; and from them, again, to those of a wider 
 sphere, or of the Universal Church. Nowhere is the 
 individual, as an individual, of ultimate authority. His 
 authority depends on his faithfully reporting the teach- 
 ing, or faithfully applying the discipline, of the Universal 
 Church, and on his teaching and discipline being main- 
 tained by it. 
 
 The Background of Holy Scripture. — Since Holy Scrip- 
 ture is the revelation of God's truth and will, all the 
 teaching of the Church must be based upon it. It is 
 the office of the Church to repeat, to co-ordinate, to 
 interpret, the teaching contained in the Bible. The
 
 ITS MINISTRY AND AUTHORITY 121 
 
 moral and disciplinary law, like the dogmatic system, 
 is derived from Holy Scripture. The traditional legis- 
 lation of the Church is marked by the sense that there 
 is a revealed religion to be guarded and maintained. 
 '^ To collect the mind of the Scriptures ' ^ is the striking 
 phrase by which S. Athanasius describes the work of 
 the First CEcumenical Council. On examining the 
 proceedings of the CEcumenical Councils in general, or 
 the ordinary teaching of the divines of the Church, it 
 will be found that Holy Scripture is always represented 
 as the necessary basis. 
 
 The Background of Tradition, — The Church in Council, 
 or by means of theologians, explains the faith which has 
 been once revealed. The mind of the Church is no less 
 living and active than the mind of an individual. As 
 time goes on, the unchanging truth is seen in new 
 lights, and, if it is to be of practical value, must be 
 expressed in new ways. To be really the Church's 
 voice, this new treatment must be able to justify itself 
 by the tradition from the apostles. The essential reali- 
 ties of a faith which has been once revealed do not 
 change. Even the Church of Rome, with all its insist- 
 ence on the force of its own living voice, has declared 
 that a tradition, to be authoritative, must have been 
 ' dictated either by word of mouth by Christ or by the 
 Holy Ghost, and preserved by a continual succession in 
 the Catholic Church.' " 
 
 The Pope not infallible. — It is the doctrine of the Church 
 of Rome that the eoc cathedra decisions of the Pope in 
 matters of faith and morals are infallible. This doctrine 
 depends upon the Roman view of the unity and catho- 
 licity and apostolicity of the Church which has been 
 already shown to be without weight (see pp. 44-64). It 
 was based also by the Vatican Council of a.d. 1870 ^ on 
 the three ^ Petrine texts,' the Roman Catholic inter- 
 pretation of which cannot be maintained (see pp. 49-53). 
 Further, the Bishop of Rome was not regarded in the 
 early Church as an infallible teacher and ruler ; and it 
 
 1 S. Athanasius, De Deer. Nic. Syn., 20. 
 
 2 Council of Trent, Sess. iv. 
 
 2 Vatican Council, Sess. iv. cap. i., iv.
 
 122 THE CHURCH 
 
 has even been the case that a Pope, in teaching difficult to 
 regard as other than e.v cathedra, has fallen into heresy 
 and been condemned by Councils and later Popes. ^ 
 
 The Church of England. — The Church of England has 
 the authority of a local and national Church. Its teach- 
 ing, so far as it is the reproduction and reutterance 
 of what has been universally taught, has the authority 
 of the Universal Church. In other matters, there is 
 the tentative element which always belongs to anything 
 which is of a part or for a time. Anything which a local 
 and national Church has done is of higher authority 
 than that which is of an individual priest or bishop or 
 diocese. Like their actions, it is subject to the revision 
 of the whole. Every distinctive utterance and action 
 of the Church of England can only await the judgment 
 of the whole Church, if in the Providence of God the 
 reunion of Christendom should be brought to pass.^ 
 
 Conclusion. — The authority of the Church is neces- 
 sarily weakened by division. The power of grasping 
 and realising truth largely depends on the interaction 
 of mind on mind, and so of one part of the Church upon 
 another. The power of discipline is impaired by being in 
 some respects weakened and in other respects rendered 
 arbitrary when one part of the Church is divided from 
 others. For the restoration of a true teaching voice and 
 a true discipline. Christians must look to a recovered 
 external unity corresponding to the inner sacramental 
 union in the divinely communicated life. '^As God's 
 Holy Spirit fills the river of God, it will, in all its several 
 channels, overflow its banks, until they meet in one vast 
 sea of the knowledge and of the love of God.' ^ 
 
 1 See the present writer's Outlines of Christian Dogma, pp. 
 140-145. 
 
 2 See ibid., pp. 146-148. 
 
 3 Forbes, A Short Explanation of the Nicene Creed, p. 291.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Absolution, 109. 
 Ambrosiaster, 99. 
 Anglican Orders, 108. 
 Apostolic Sees, 102, 103. 
 Apostolicity, 35, 60-64. 
 Apostles, 35, 52, 60, 62, 76-82, 85, 
 
 86, 91, 92, 112, 114. 
 Appointment of Bishops, loi, 102. 
 Athanasius, S. , 121. 
 Augustine, S., 37, 43, 44- 45. 49. 63. 
 
 Baptism, i, 2, 9, 15, 18, 20, 24, 25, 
 26, 32, 33, 37,^41. 42, 43, 45. 
 60, 62, 63, 74, 81, 109. 
 
 Bede, the Venerable, loi. 
 
 Benson, Archbishop, 63, 119. 
 
 Bethlehem, Council of, 39, 40. 
 
 Birkbeck, W. J., 117. 
 
 Bishops, 91-111, 115, 117, 118. 
 
 Blackmore, R. W. , 40, 45, 46. 
 
 Boniface viii., 105. 
 
 Bramhall, Archbishop, 54. 
 
 Bright, Dr., 38, 54, 101, 119. 
 
 Brightman, F. E., 74, 75. 
 
 Butler, Bishop, 16. 
 
 Calvin, J., 43. 
 
 Catholicity, 34, 35, 58, 59, 63, 64. 
 
 Charles the Great, 105. 
 
 Chrysostom, S., 83. 
 
 Church, Dean, 3, 16. 
 
 Church Quarterly Revieiv, 52, 53, 
 
 57. 72, IZ^ 80, 107, 109, 117, 
 
 118. 
 Clement of Alexandria, 92. 
 Clement of Rome, S., 96,97,98, 99. 
 Confirmation, 18, 27, 41, 42, 74, 
 
 79, 85, 109. 
 Cornelius, Pope, 106, 
 Cornelius a Lapide, 73, 74. 
 Cyprian, S. , 43, 44, 48, 49, 102, 106. 
 Cyril of Jerusalem, S., 58. 
 
 Deaconesses, 106, 107. 
 Deacons, 82, 83, 85, 86, 90, 92-1 11, 
 
 112, 115, 117, 118. 
 Development, 54. 
 Donatism, 37, 44, 57, 63, 64. 
 
 ECK, H. V. S.,44. 
 
 Eucharist, 15, 18, 25, 26, 27, 32, 
 
 33, 37, 41, 42, 45, 60, 72-75, 
 
 78, 81, 93, 94, no. 
 Eusebius of Cassarea, 92, 106. 
 
 Forbes, Bishop, 57, 122. 
 Frazer, J. G., 65. 
 Frere, W. H., 55, 102. 
 
 Gibson, Dr., 38, 39. 
 
 Gore, Bishop, 15, 43, 78, 79, 81, 
 
 83, 89, 91, 92, 95, 96, 97, 98, 
 
 99, 100, lOI. 
 Greek Church, 39, 40, in. 
 Gregory i., 104. 
 Gregory vii., 105, 106. 
 
 Hefele, Bishop, 119. 
 
 Hellenistic Jews, 19. 
 
 Hernias, 98, 99. 
 
 Hilary of Poitiers, S., 45. 
 
 Holiness, 33, 56, 57, 63, 64. 
 
 Honorius i., 104. 
 
 Hooper, Bishop, 38. 
 
 Hon, Dr., 14, ']T, 'jg, 80, 91, 107, 
 
 114. 
 Hunt, W. , loi. 
 Hus, J.,38. 
 
 Ignatius, S., 58, 92-95, 115. 
 Innocent iii., 105. 
 Irenasus, S. , 83, 92, 97, 103, 104, 
 115- 
 
 Jerome, S., 99, 100, loi. 
 Jerusalem, Council of, 21,22,114. 
 123
 
 124 
 
 THE CHURCH 
 
 Jevons, F. B., 65. 
 
 John the Baptist, S., i, 2, 5. 
 
 Jotirnal of Theological Studies ^\oo. 
 
 KiDD, B. J., 38, 39. 
 Kingdom of God, Kingdom of 
 Heaven, 1-17, 23, 24. 
 
 Lacey, T. a., 63,64. 
 
 Laity, 102, 112-114, 118, 119, 
 
 Langen, Dr., 99. 
 
 Lateran Council (a.d. 1215), 42, 
 
 105. 
 Leo I., 61, 62, 104. 
 Leo III., 105, 106. 
 Leo XIII., 45, 47, 53, 108. 
 Liberius, Pope, 104. 
 Liddon, Dr., 3, 16. 
 Lightfoot, Bishop, 83, 84, 89, 91, 
 
 92, 95, 96, 98, 99. 
 Luther, M., 43. 
 
 M'GlFFERT, Dr., 92. 
 
 Martin I. , 104. 
 
 Matrimony, 109. 
 
 Metropolitans, 102, 103. 
 
 Minor Orders, 106. 
 
 Moberly, Dr., 72, 75, 98, no, 119. 
 
 Montanism, 60. 
 
 CEcumenicalCouncils,ii6-ii8. 
 ' Oxford Church Text-Books,' 38, 
 
 39- 
 ' Oxford Library of Practical 
 Theology,' 9, 18, 26, 41, 42, 43, 
 44. 
 
 Patriarchs, 102, 103. 
 Pius IV., 51. 
 
 Polycarp, S., 97, 98, 109. 
 Pontifical, Roman, no. 
 Presbyters, 83-89, 92-111, 113, 
 115, 117, 118, 120. 
 
 Priesthood, 65-75. 
 
 Psalms of Solomon, 3, 4. 
 
 Puller, F. W., 52, 53, 54, 62, 73, 
 
 89, 102, 104. 
 Pusey, Dr., 26. 
 
 Rackham, R. B., 83, 102, 115, 
 
 119. 
 Ramsay, Dr., 84. 
 Robertson, Dr. A., 5. 
 Robinson, C, 107. 
 Rome, 39, 40, 41^ 42, 47-55, 61, 
 
 62, 75, 96, 97, 102-106, 121. 
 Russian Church, 40, 45, 46, in. 
 
 Sacrifice, 65-75. 
 
 Salmon, Dr., 54, 95. 
 
 Sanday, Dr., 12. 
 
 Stone, D., 9, 18, 26, 41, 42, 43, 
 
 53, 58, 63, 109, 122. 
 Stubbs, Bishop, 83. 
 
 Targums, 4, 5. 
 
 Teaching of the Twelve Apostles, 
 
 95. 96. 
 TertuUian, 60, 92, 97, 106. 
 Testament of the Lord, 106. 
 Thomas Aquinas, S., 38, 45, 48. 
 Trent, Council of, 51, 52, 109, 121. 
 
 Unity, 32, 33, 44-55, 63, 64. 
 
 Vatican Council, 51, 52, 121. 
 Vigilius, Pope, 117. 
 Visible Society, The Church a, 15, 
 17-19, 24, 25, 31, 37-43. 
 
 Westcott, Bishop, 68. 
 Weizsacker, C. von, 89. 
 Wood, E. G., 115. 
 WycUf, J., 38, 57.
 
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