^ THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. THE Doctrine of the Church A HISTORICAL MONOGRAPH. FULL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE SUBJECT. BY JOHN J. McELHINNEY, D.D., MILNOR PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC DIVINITY IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF OHIO. 'Exx^j^ma Qi-ov ^Cjvxo^^ otv'Ko^ xai l8pai,co|ua Tr^i d'kr^Oiiai. PHILADELPHIA: CLAXTON, REMSEN & HAFFELFINGER, 819 AND 821 Market Street. 1871. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by JOHN J. McELHINNEY, D. D., in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. STEREOTYPED CY J. FAGAN & SON. PRINTED BY MOORE BROS. PREFACE T T T'HILE controversial treatises on the Church, of every * ' variety of merit and representing every shade of opinion, abound, a special History of the Doctrine of the Church has not, hitherto, it is believed, appeared in any lan- guage. In attempting to supply this deficiency, the author has recorded facts and opinions as he found them, without regard to their bearing upon controverted questions of our own time. Compiled with no polemical purpose, the pres- ent work simply aims to embrace, in a single volume of moderate size, the whole body of authority, patristic, medi- aeval, Romanist, and Protestant — Lutheran, Reformed, and particularly Anglican — touching the nature, constitution, and powers of the Christian Church. Partiality, or one-sidedness of quotation, as exemplified in numerous catense and counter-catenae of controversial writers, is a well-known standing ground of complaint, going far to render the argument from authority practically wortliless. Hence the compiler esteems it especially important to assure the reader that the following record contains all that has come to the writer's knowledge, after prolonged research, that can be considered necessary to a correct and adequate view of opinions respecting the nature and constitution of the Church, which are regarded as authoritative by the chief parties to the inquiry. vi PREFACE. Citations in the direct line of this work might, indeed, have been made on all sides to a much greater extent ; but, as the author believes, greater fulness of quotation would in no degree alter or modify the conclusion upon any one of the questions involved, to which the reader will be naturally led from what is here submitted. Absolute impartiality is indeed scarcely attainable save at the cost of absolute indifference, and the writer cannot pre- tend to be indifferent to the momentous issues involved in the controversy which, for so many ages, has divided the Church on the great question of the constitution of the body of Christ in its earthly being. He confidently trusts, however, that the following pages will be found to give evidence throughout of a painstaking endeavor to maintain the utmost fairness in the exposition of so multitudinous a body of diverse opinions and discordant theories. As a means of securing to his record the largest attainable measure of fidelity, he has made it a point to report the opinions of individual writers in their own words. The translations which occupy so considerable a por- tion of the volume, have been made, for much the greater part, directly from the originals by the compiler himself; and in every instance reference to the original is so given as to render the labor of verification as light as possible. Of the few passages which involve any disputed question of construction, \ the original text is given in the notes subjoined to the several chapters. The copious Bibliography which is added to the work as an Appendix will be found, it is hoped, a valuable aid to further and independent investigation. The numerals en- closed within brackets in the body of the work refer to cor- responding numbers prefixed, severally, to the titles of books arranged, with occasional exceptions, in chronological order, in the Appendix. PREFACE. VU *^* The inappropriateness of the term by which the Fathers of the age immediately succeeding that of the Apostles are usually designated is now generally acknowledged, and at- tempts have been made to substitute other words (sub-apos- tolic, ep-apostolic, etc.) in correction of the long-standing abuse. The author, it will be observed, has ventured to de- part from general usage in employing the term post-apostolic, as more accurately descriptive than any other yet suggested. The following passage, inadvertently omitted in its proper place, is to be added to the quotation from Cyprian, on the Headship of the Church of Ronu\ p. 54: In another letter, written shortly after, to the same Cornelius, Cyprian designates the Church of Rome tlie root and ivoinb of the Catholic CJiurch, (ecclesiae catholicae radicem at matricem,) declaring, at the same time, that the maintenance of commu- nion with the Bishop of Rome was itself the maintenance alike of the unity and the charity of the Catholic Church. Nos enim singulis navigantibus, ne cum scandalo ullo navigarent, ratio- nem reddentes scimus, nos hortatos eos esse, ut ecclesiai catholicae radicem at matricem agnoscerent ac tenerent. (As in the former letter, Cyprian here accounts for his hesitation and that of his colleagues in acknowledging the legitimacy of Cornelius's ordination.) Sed quoniam latius fusa est nostra provincia, etc. — " But since our province is wide-spread, having Numidia and Mauritania attached to it; (and fearing) lest a schism made in the city (of Rome) should confuse the minds of the absent with uncertain reports, we decided — having re- ceived through the bishops a true account of the matter, and being fully persuaded on the best authority of the lawfulness of your ordination, every scruple being thus at length re- moved from everyone's mind — that letters (acknowledging your ordination) should be sent to you by all (bishops) wher- ever placed in the whole province. This has accordingly been done, in order that all our colleagues might firmly stand by you and maintain communion with you, that is to say, (main- VUl PREFACE. tain) the unity of the Catholic Chuixh, and equally also its charity." Ut te univcrsi collcgae nostri et communicationem tuam, id est catholicae ecclesiae unitatem pariter at caritatem probarent firmiter ac tenerent. {lip. xliv. 3, ed. Migne ; Gold- Jioru, xlviii.) The references in the text to the Epistles are con- formed to the numbering in Migne's edition. The following are to be noted as exceptions : — P. 52, for Ep. Iv. 14, read Ep. liv. 14, ed. Migne, (lix. 20, edd. GoldJiorn and Oxford;) p. 53, for Ep. lii., read Ep, li. 8, ed. Migne ^ (Iv. 7, edd. Goldh. and Oxf. ;) ibid., for Ep. Ixxv., {edd. Goldh. and Oxf.,) read Ep. Ixxiv. 17, ed. Migrie ; p. 56, for Ep. Ixxiii., {Goldh. and Oxf.^ read Ixxii. 11, Migne ; ib., for Ep. Ixx., {Goldh. and C^^r/".,) read Ixix. i, Migne ; p. 382, for Ep, Ixxvi. 6, read Ixix. 2, ^^. Migne, (Ixx. 2, Goldh. and 6^;r/) CONTENTS, DIVISIONS OF THE HISTORY. pAr.R Four Main Periods — The Patristic, Papal, Mediceval, Reformed . • 17 FIRST PERIOD. FROM CLEMENT OF ROME TO LEO THE GREAT. A. D. 100-460. CHAPTER I. Early Patristic Definitions — Clement of Rome — Definition of the Church — Unity — Ministry — Threefold Order — Episcopacy — Ignatius — Defini- tion — Theory of Unity — Ministiy — Three Orders — Catholicity of the Church 19 CHAPTER 11. Irenoeus — Definition of the Church — Exclusiveness — Unity — Apostolicity — Of the Church of Rome — TertuUian — Apostolicity of the Church — Succession of Doctrine — Of the Church of Rome — Agreement with Irenx'us — The Universal Priesthood — Of the Bishop of Rome . . 30 CHAPTER III. Justin Martyr — Unity of the Church — Universal Priesthood — Church Of- ficers — Order of Sunday Service — Clement of Alexandria, Definition of the Church — Exclusiveness — Unity — Origen — Definition — Oneness — Apostolicity — Holiness — Recognitions of Clement — Episcopacy — Apos- tolical Constitutions — The Baptismal Symbol 41 CHAPTER IV. Cyprian — Of the Exclusiveness of the Church — Unity of the Church — Equality in the Episcopate — Cyprianic Theoiy — The Petri Cathedra — ix X CONTENTS. PAGE The Pre-eminence of the Church of Rome — The Primacy of Peter — The Powers of the Church — The Christian Priesthood — The Fundamental Defect of the Cyprianic Theory — The Montanist Theory of the Church — The Novatianist Theory, in conflict with the Cyprianic — Triumph of the Cyprianic — Firmilian at one with Cyprian — Apostolical Constitutions — Optatus of Milevis in Agreement with Cyprian — Lactantius — Notes . 5*^ CHAPTER V. Augustine — Of the Exclusiveness of the Church — Unity — Holiness — Donatistic View — Catholic View — Settled by Augustine — In the Church, not Of the Church — Not Two Churches — Modification of the Primitive 'View — Augustinian View of the True Church not Identical with the Pro- testant Doctrine of the Invisible Church — Theory of Tichonius — "The Communion of Saints " first inserted in the African Symbol — Lord King's Explanation 63 CHAPTER VI. Statements of Jerome in regard to the Origin of the Episcopate — Bishops Successors of the Apostles — Other Apostles besides " the Twelve "-^Ori- gin of the Episcopate — Equality of Bishops — Original Identity of Bishops and Presbyters — Jerome Interpreted (a) by the Advocates of Ministerial Parity; (b) by the Upholders of a Threefold Order — The " Testimony " of Eutychius (A. D. 933) worthless — CEcumenical Councils; Authority of ; Augustine's Theory — Vincent of Lerins — Utility of Councils — Judgment of Gregory Nazianzen — Canons and Decrees of General Councils . . 73 SECOND PERIOD. FROM LEO I. TO GREGORY VII. A. D, 460-1080. CHAPTER VII. Primacy of the Church of Rome early asserted — Primacy of the Bishop of Rtjme — Supremacy of the Roman Pontiff", first asserted by Leo I. — Law of Valentinian — Canon of the Council of Chalcedon — Repudiated by Leo — Grounds of the Claim — Peter's Relation to Christ — Relation to the other Apostles — Relation of the Roman Pontiff' to other Bishops — Relation of the Church to the State — The Papal System — Gelasius — CONTENTS. Xi PAGE His Advanced Position — Gregory the Great Repudiates the Title of Uni- versal Bishop as Profane — Isidore of Seville, of Ecclesiastical Degrees . 85 THIRD PERIOD. FROM GREGORY VII. TO THE REFORMATION. A. D. I080-153O. CHAPTER VIII. The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals — Object of the Compilation — Sample of their Teaching — Gregory VII. — Supremacy of the Church over the State — Dictates of Gregory — Leading Features of the Papal System — New Relation of the Papacy to the Church — Development of Papal Power under Innocent HI. — Pope now named Vicar of Christ — Less than God — Greater than Man — The Source of all Law — Hugo of St. Victor . 98 CHAPTER IX. Papal Infallibility — Statements of Leo IX. respecting Indefectibility of Faith in the Papal See; of Innocent HI.; of Ivo, Bishop of Chartres — Thomas Aquinas affirms the Infallibility of the Pope — Relation of the Church to the State — The Two Swords — Plenitude of Papal Power asserted by Boniface VIII. — The Bull UnamSanctam — Decree of the Council of Con- stance; of Basle — The University of Paris — The Episcopal System in the Church of Rome 108 CHAPTER X. John Gerson — Distinction between the Catholic Church, which is Infallible, and the Apostolic Church, which is Fallible — A Council superior to the Pope ; bound to restrain the Papal Usurpations, and to refonn the Church — Enormity of the Papal Claims — Account of Prevailing Theories of Church Power — Two Extreme Views — The Third Theory — The Inde- pendence of the Secular Power — Sovereignty of General Councils — Infiil- libility of General Councils defended by Gerson — Definition of the Papal Supremacy by the Council of Florence . 117 CHAPTER XI. Harbingers of the Reformation — Doctrine of Wyclifte ; of Matthias of Janow; of John Huss; of John of Goch; of John of Wcsel ; of John Wcssel . 127 Xll CONTENTS. FOURTH PERIOD. FROM THE PUBLICATION OF THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION, TO THE PUBLICATION OF THE « TRACTS FOR THE TIMES." 1 530-1 840, CHAPTER XII. PAGE Statements of the Augsburg Confession — Altered Phraseology of the Variata — The Papal Confutation fully Answered in the Apology for the Augsburg Confession — Loci Theologici — Views of Melanchthon on Church Order — The Episcopal System in the Evangelical Lutheran Church — The Ter- ritorial System — The Collegial System 136 CHAPTER Xni. Views of Luther — Harmon y of the Protestant Confession s — The Confessio Helvetica— The Confessio Saxonica — The Confessio Anglicana — The Confessio Belgica — Tli£ -Heidelberg Catechisn;i — Statements of Calvin — Belief in the Church— Two Senses of the Word — The Ministry — The Church of Rome — Grades of Ministers — Form of Ordination — Ulrich Zwingli T- . Distinction between Church Visible and Invisib le . . .147 CHAPTER XIV. The Anglican Church — Abrogation of the Papal Supremacy — Papal Ag- gressions — Independence of Rome Declared — Ground of the Declaration — The XIII. Articles of 1538— The XLIL Articles — The Ordinal of 1549-1552 — No Distinction in Order between Bishop and Presbyter — Cranmer's, etc., Declaration of the Functions, etc., of Bishops and Priests — Resolutions on the Sacrament of Orders — Cranmer's INLiture Views, as expressed in Sermon on the Power of the Keys 157 CHAPTER XV. Catena Martyrum de Ecclesia : Tyndale ; Latimer; Ridley; Bradford; Hooper; Philpot— Catechism of 1553 172 CHAPTER XVI. The XL Articles of 1559 — Jewel's Apology — Defence of the Apology — Nowell's Catechism 179 CONTENTS. XIU CHAPTER XVII. PAGB The Tridentine Doctrine of the Church — Creed of Pius IV. — Catechism of the Council — The Church Triumphant and the Church Militant De- fined — The Four Notes of the Chuixh — "The Communion of Saints " — Sacrament of Order — Order Defined — The Priesthood — Priestly Func- tions — Degrees in the Priesthood — The Minister of the Sacrament — Effects of the Sacrament i86 CHAPTER XVIII. The Greek and Greek-Russian Church — Definition of the Church — Though Visible, an Object of Faith — The Unity of the Church — Communion of Saints — Invocation of Saints — Holiness of the Church — Catholicity — Indefectibility — Exclusiveness — Peculiar Privileges of the Eastern Church — Apostolicity — The Hierarchy — Authority of CEcumenical Councils — Sacrament of Orders 196 CHAPTER XIX. Rise of the Puritan Controversy — Admonition to the Parliament — Cart- wright and Whitgift — Points in Controversy — Sir F. Knollys' Exceptions to Whitgift's Statements concerning Episcopacy — Bellarmine's Statement of the Roman Doctrine — The Church Militant — Notes of the Church — Papal Infallibility — Four Distinct Opinions — Bellarmine's Exposition — Comparative Authority of the Pope and a General Council . . . 202 CHAPTER XX. Views of the Brownists — John Raynolds : Conference with Hart — Argu- ment against Peter's Roman Episcopate — Six Conclusions on Scripture and the Church — Argument in Verse — The Church an Article of Faith — Bancroft's Sermon at Paul's Cross — Sir F. Knollys' Exceptions — Ban- croft's Answer to Exceptions — Raynolds' Review of the Sermon . .214 CHAPTER XXI. Saravia on Degrees in the Ministry — Bishops Necessary to the Church — Presbyters can Ordain, necessitate cogente — Keble's Gloss Amended — Sut- clitTe on Presbytery — Querimonia Ecclesire — Bancroft's Survey of the Pretended Holy Discipline — Lay Eldership — Beza's View — Tenure of the Office — Cartwright Corrected 226 CHAPTER XXII. l^ilson's Perpetual Government of the Church — Scope of the Work — Apos- tolic Succession through Bishops Affirmed — Hooker — Laws of Ecclesi- XIV CONTENTS. PAGE astical Polity — The Nucleus of the Controversy between the Prelatists and Puritans — Three Views — Hooker's Conduct of the Argument — His Elevated Aim — Distinction between the Church Mystical and Visible — Church and State one Society — Theory Identical with that of Locke — Episcopacy a Divine Institution — Ordination without a Bishop — Presby- terian Orders — Keble's Gloss 239 CHAPTER XXIII. Field : Of the Church — In and of the Church — Notes — Orders — Presby- terial Ordination — Convocation of Canterbury ; Proceedings in 1 604-1 606; Canons of — Bishop Overall's Convocation Book . . . . . 253 CHAPTER XXIV. John Robinson, " the Father of Congregationalism " : Baillie's Account of Him — Catechism concerning Church Government — Definition — Notes — Officers — Calderwood's Altar of Damascus — Bishop Davenant's Assertion of the Protestant Definition of the Church against Bellarmine ; of the Invisible Church ; of Degrees in the Ministry ; of Presbyterial Ordination — Lord Chancellor Bacon : " Considerations on Church Government " . 262 CHAPTER XXV. Bishop Hall's Episcopacy by Divine Right — Revised by Archbishop Laud — Laud's Exposition of Matt, xxviii. 20 — His Doctrine of Apostolical Suc- cession — Divine Right — Bishop Hall's Interpretation — Smectymnuus . 272 CHAPTER XXVI. Controversial Activity in 1641 — Mason's Validity of Presbyterial Ordination — Its Genuineness Vindicated — Ground of its Rejection — Milton's Part in the Puritan Controversy — His Exalted Hopes of the "Second Reforma- tion " — Treatise of Reformation Quoted — Origin of these Polemical Tracts — Chillingworth — Apostolical Institution of Episcopacy — Milton's Apology for Smectymnuus — Jeremy Taylor : Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy — Characterized by Bishop Heber — Adopts the Puritan Posi- tion — Recedes from that of Hooker — On the Plea of Necessity . . 281 CHAPTER XXVII. Erastianism in Westminster Assembly — John Selden its I^eading Advocate — His Exjiosition of Matt, xviii, 15-17 — The Ruling Eldership — Pro- longed Discussion — Calvin's Theory Rejected — ^Judgment of Blondel and CONTENTS. XV Vitringa — Westminster Confession of Faith — Rise of Quakerism — Bar- clay's Apology — Doctrine of the Church — Dr. Hammond — Four Disser- tations — Annotations on the New Testament — Leading the Way to the Reconstruction of the Ordinal — 1661-2 . . • 294 CHAPTER XXVIII. Stillingfleet's Irenicum — Object of the Work — The Main Question Dis- cussed — Divine Right — Four Pleas — Sermon on Mischief of Separation — RepUes of Owen and Baxter — Review by John Howe — " Unreasona- bleness of Separation " 308 CHAPTER XXIX. Rights of Convocation — Revision of the Liturgy — Alterations Proposed — Opposed by Sherlock — Advocated by Tenison — Anti-Revisionist Tri- umph — Synodal Condemnation of Burnet's Exposition — Dispute between the Upper and the Lower House — Declaration of the Latter — Address and Counter- Address — The Bishops' Reply — High Church and Low Church 317 CHAPTER XXX. Lord King's Inquiry — Its High Profession of Candor — Not Fully Borne Out — Supports Independency — Answered by Sclater — Original Draught — King's Conversion — Probability of the Tradition — Character of Scla- ter's Argument 3^3 CHAPTER XXXI. Warburton's Theory of the Relation of the Church to the State — The Alli- ance — Analysis of — Coleridge's Theory Compared — Arnold's Theory — Gladstone's — Bunsen's — Prevailing Views of Church Order in England as Represented by Leslie and Law — Emanuel Swedenborg: Church of the New Jerusalem 33^ CHAPTER XXXII. The American Episcopate — William ^\^lite — Scheme for the Organization of the American Episcopal Church — The Divine Right of Episcopacy — Moderate Views — The Question of Lay Eldership in the American Presby- terian Church — Dr. J. P. Wilson — Dr. Miller — Dr. Breckinridge — The Question in the Church of Scotland — Dr. Colin Campbell — Lay Eldership Untenable — Dr. George Campbell of Aberdeen — Lectures on Ecclesiastical History — Bishop Skinner — Defence of Episcopacy . . 345 xvi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXIII. PAGE Tracts for the Times — Distinctive Principles of Anglo-Catholicism — Apos- tolic Succession — In Connection with the Sacraments — Broad Church View of the Theory — Whately's Kingdom of Christ — Buel's Reply — Isaac Taylor -^ " Spiritual Despotism " — Testimony to Episcopacy — Bishop O'Brien's Charge — Archer Butler's Sennon — Necessity of Limita- tion — Principle of Accommodation . 357 CHAPTER XXXIV. Church Questions in Germany — Mbhler's " Unity in fhe Church" — Analysis of the Work^ — Rothe's Anfange, etc. — A Protestant Counterpart — His Theory of the Church — Based on the Hegelian Principle — Theory of the Origin of the Episcopate — Stahl's Theory of the Church — The Neo- Lutheran and the Anglo-Ca4:holic Fundamentally One — Schleiermacher's Theory — More Recent Views — Schenkel's Exposition of the Protestant View — Conclusion 367 Bibliographical Appendix : Literature of the Doctrine of the Church ; or, A Catalogue of Works relating to the Subject 385 Index 453 Index to the Bibliography 459 HISTORY OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH THE history of the doctrine of the Church may be divided into four main periods: the first extending from Clement of Rome to Leo the Great (a. d. 1(30-460); the second, from Leo the Great to Gregory VIL (460-1080); the third, from Gregory VII. to the Reformation (1080-15 30); the fourth, from the Reformation to the present time. To the reader familiar with the course of events in eccle- siastical history it will be at once apparent that these divi- sions are by no means arbitrary, or chosen with reference to the writer's convenience merely, but are determined by clearly marked epochs of transition from one phase of develop- ment in the history of the doctrine of the Church to another. Thus the Jlrst period finds its proper point of departure in the episcopate of the first of the post-apostolic Fathers, whose Epistle to the Church of Corinth ranks next in order of time, as of intrinsic value, to the apostolic writings. The patristic utterances on the subject of the constitution of the Church, during the next succeeding centuries, down to the middle of the fifth, are pervaded by the same material- istic spirit that we find already prominently developed in the writings of Ignatius. The Fathers of this period unite with one voice in emphasizing the objective and positive, to the relative depreciation of the subjective and spiritual ; thus un- consciously preparing the way for the appearance of the first Pope, properly so called, in the person of Leo L The ad- 2 17 IS THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. vanced claims set up by this energetic pontiff for the great patriarchate of the West, mark the boundary line between the period of acknowledged equality among the churches of apos- tolic descent, and that of the usurped domination of one over all others. The culmination of the papal system in the pon- tificate of HiLDEBRAND, fixcs the close of the secojtd and the beginning of the third period; and this — the period of me- diaeval darkness — finds its fitting close in the rising of the day-star of the Lutheran Reformation, an epoch signalized by the publication of the Augsburg Confession, the enduring groundwork of all the other Protestant symbols. The limits of \.\\Q fourth and last period are definitely determined by the unbroken course of development in the history of our doctrine during the last three centuries. FIRST PERIOD. FROM CLEMENT OF ROME TO LEO THE GREAT. A. D. 100-460. CHAPTER L Early Patristic Definitions — Clement of Rome — Definition of the Church — Unity — Ministry — Threefold Order — Episcopacy — Igna- tius — Definition — Theory of Unity — Ministry — Three Orders — Catholicity of the Church. THE works of the Fathers of the first two centuries that have come down to us contain no distinct treatise on the Church. The statements on the subject scattered through their writings, though by no means scanty, are for the most part of a purely practical or even devotional character. Rarely do the definitions of the Church to be found in the pages of Ignatius or Irenaeus, TertuUian or Origen, make any approach to scientific precision. Clement, bishop of Rome, describes "the Church of God" as constituted of *' the called of God through our Lord Jesus Christ — the called and sanctified by the will of God through Christ." {Ep. i. 59.) The oneness of the Church, in the sense of exclusiveness, is not obscurely taught in the fervent appeal of this first of the Fathers to the authors of sedition in the Church of Corinth : " It were better for you to be found in a lowly position and of approved standing in the flock of Christ, than in a position of eminence, to be cast out of his hope;" {ib. Ivii.) — words which clearly imply that exclusion from the one visible communion of the faithful involves the forfeiture of the hope of salvation. 19 20 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. Throughout the Epistle the unity of the Church is brought prominently forward, but it is rather the unity of a particular church, under one government, than that of the Church at large. Thus, " Let us consider those who serve under "^ ^* our generals, with what order, obedience, and sub- missiveness they perform the things commanded them. All are not prefects or commanders of a thousand . . . but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals. The great cannot subsist without the small, nor the small without the great. . . . Let us take our body for an example. The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head . . . but all work harmoni- ously together, and are under one common rule of subjection for the preservation of the whole body. Let our whole body be preserved in Christ Jesus ; and let every one be subject to his neighbor, according to the especial gift bestowed upon him. Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect to the strong. Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor," etc. {^Ib. xxxvii., xxxviii.) Clement's idea of a church is that of an assembly of indi- vidual believers, all being members of an organic whole, each member discharging the functions assigned it by the Head. The Epistle, addressed by a church to a church, makes no mention of the rulers of the church that writes, while the ministers of the church addressed are spoken of in a way that implies the right of the church itself to a share in its own government. Of the Christian ministry Clement finds a type in the Levit- ical priesthood : " His own peculiar services are inis ry. ^ggjgj^^j ^^ ^^ high-priest, and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special minis- trations devolve on the Levites ; the layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen." {lb. xl.) That three orders or grades of office are here distinguished ^^ ^ as obtaininfT in the Chrii^tian ministry, as they had Three orders. . ,., ^ --i • i i-, obtamed m the Levitical priesthood, might seem too plain for question. It is contended, however, by the CLERGY AND LAITY. 21 advocates of ministerial parity, that the reference in this pas- sage is exclusively to the Jewish priesthood, and that nothing is to be inferred from this allusion as to the constitution of the ministry in the primitive Church. But if the argument or illustration is by analogy, and this is not questioned, it would seem altogether arbitrary to exclude from the analogy the element of threefoldness. The scope of the passage is to show the necessity of due ecclesiastical subordination in a Christian community; and when the writer speaks of the economy of the Jewish Church, it is simply in the way of allusion, for the purpose of suggesting the necessary inference in regard to the Christian ministry. But if the distinction of orders in the Christian Church had not corresponded to that in the Jewish, the allusion would scarcely have been pertinent, or the infer- ence just. The distinction between the ministerial body and the laity, here broadly drawn, is repeatedly alluded to in the chapters following. Thus, " Let every one of you, brethren, give thanks to God in his own order . . . not going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him The apos- Laftv-^" ties have preached to us the gospel from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ from God. Christ, therefore, was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ. Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, . . . they went forth proclaiming that the kingdom of God was at hand. And thus preaching through countries and cities, they appointed the first fruits of their labors, having first proved them by the. Spirit, to be bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards believe. . . . And what wonder is it if those in Christ who were intrusted with such a duty by God, ap- pointed those (ministers) before mentioned, when the blessed " Moses also, ' a faithful servant in all his house,' noted down in the sacred books all the injunctions which were given him." Then, after naming the expedient adopted by Moses to sub- due the rivalry in Israel concerning the priestly dignity, he continues : " Our apostles also knew, through our Lord Jesus 22 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office (ovoAaroc, iiaiHC, title, dignity) of the episcopate. For this rea- son, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect fore- knowledge of this, they appointed those ministers already mentioned, and meanwhile gave instruction (stivom-tiv, injunction, or aftcr-cnactmcnt) that when they (the apostles) P>sco- gi^Qyjj |-^|| asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their (the apostles') ministry. We cannot think, therefore, that those may be justly dismissed from their ministry who were appointed by them (the apos- tles), or who were afterwards appointed by other eminent men (the apostles' successors), with the consent of the whole Church." (/^. xli.-xliv.)* While in these passages, as throughout the Epistle, Clement, in terms, identifies the episcopate, or office o{ oversight in gen- eral, with the presbyterate, he yet at the same time indicates the existence, in the primitive Church, of a higher office of oversight or special episcopate, as vested in the first called apostles by the Lord, and by them transmitted to their suc- cessors. According to this interpretation of the forty-fourth chapter, as above quoted, it embodies an explicit statement of the apos- tolical institution of episcopacy as a continuation of the apos- tolate. According to another interpretation, there is no refer- ence in the passage to episcopacy, properly so called ; " bishop " and ** presbyter," in the language of Clement, being strictly synonymous terms. The pronouns " they," " their," are thus naturally made to refer to the presbyters first appointed by the apostles themselves. Between these two interpretations, critical authority is per- haps about equally divided. Rothe's strenuous and able advocacy of the former is scarcely balanced by Donaldson's summary defence of the latter, even as reinforced by the suf- frage of Lightfoot. (See Rothe, Anfcinge, pp. 374-92 ; Donald- son, Hist. C/w. Lit. i. 137; Lightfoot, Philipp. p. 203; Epist. S. Clcm.^. 137.) * Note A, at the end of the chapter. I GN ATI AN THEORY. 23 Ignatius defines the Church as " the multitude or assembly that is in God ; " and " the Catholic Church " as being "wherever Jesus Christ is." [Trail, viii. ; K"^^'"^'^- Sniyr. iii. Here we note the earliest occurrence of the expression " the Catholic ChurcJi!') The unity of the Church, according to Ignatius, is repre- sented in the episcopate. In the bishop every particular church, and in the episcopate the col- lective body of the universal Church, have each its proper bond of union, and centre of unity. That this theory of Church unity claims Ignatius for its author, may appear from the following passages in his Epistles, elucidated by the aid of Rothe's ^l^^^ masterly analysis: — "Jesus Christ, our insepa- rable life, is the (manifested) will of the Father; as also bishops, settled everywhere to the utmost bounds (of the earth), are so, by the will of Jesus Christ. Wherefore it is fit- ting that ye should run together in accordance with the will of your bishop." (Eplics, iii., iv.) Here the common point of union for all Christians is designated ais, in its essence, " the will (/vwfxyj) of God," or "of Christ;" in its outward manifesta- tion, "the will of the bishop." But this will of the bishop is represented, not merely as the will of the particular bishop, and, as such, a point of union for the members of a particular church merely, but, at the same time, as the one and the same will of all bishops scattered throughout Christendom ; consequently also as a point of union for all particular churches. The episcopate is set forth as one and the same in all places where the Church is planted, and hence the union of the particular church with its particular bishop, as virtually also a union with all bishops, and consequently with all churches ; in a word, with the. Church. The "running together" of all Christians, according to the will of God, is, moreover, represented as resulting from their " running together in accordance with the will of the bishops, wIlo are settled everyivliere to the utmost bounds of the earth ;" a result described as effected through their all being in unison 24 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. with the will of Jesus Christ, and thus also with the will of God ; and as being in unison with the will of God, all the faithful are themselves bound together in a perfect pate 011^ oneness. And it is as viewed in this light, namely, as bringing particular churches into organic con- nection with the Church considered as a collective whole, that the episcopate is characterized expressly, as " the minislry ivhich pertains to the cofnmon weal!' (Phiiad. i.) Again : " Wherever the bishop shall appear, there let the multitude (of the people) also be ; even as where The Church r^^^ ^j^^j^^ • ^^^^^ -^ ^^^ Catholic Church." one in the •; ^ ... . , . , , , bishop [Sifiyr. viii.) In order to apprehend the true im- port of this passage, it is necessary not only to understand the meaning of the two clauses composing it, each by itself, but also the relation of the two to each other. As- suming, then, that the two members of this proposition stand to each other in a definite logical relation, and that the latter is the ground of the former — what, we inquire, is the import of the two, each taken separately ? And first, as to the latter, " Where Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church," the meaning plainly is, that with Christ, the head of his mystical body, all the faithful are intimately united, so as to form, in vital union with him, an external unity; that Christ cannot become the subject of our thought without our thinking, at the same time, of such a communion of his mystical members joined together in an external unity — the Catholic Church, that is to say, the Church as Catholic. The meaning of the first member is no less plain, " Wher- ever the bishop shall appear," that is to say, in his proper character ^.f ^/^/r^/, ''there let the multitude of the people also be ; " in other words, there let the particular churches, in full number, be gathered about him, the centre of unity to all the churches under his supreme pastoral oversight. Let all faith- fully adhere to him as their bond of union with one another. Now, from the two members of this passage viewed in their causal relation to each other, we deduce this proposition : As NO CHURCH WITHOUT THE BISHOP. 25 the community of the faithful in Christ is everywhere essen- tially and necessarily united to Christ so as to constitute an external orcranic whole, even so, and ]^ , "'^^'" ^ . ' the l)i:,hop. fortius reason, wherever, in a particular church, the bishop publicly appears in his official character as such, there must the Church also, in full number, be gathered together; a proposition, it is evident, which is susceptible of a coherent interpretation only on the supposition that the bishop is the representative and organ of Christ. To the same effect, Onesimus, the bishop of the Church at Ephesus, is described as " your bishop in the flesh," that is to say, your Juiman, visible, earthly bishop ; so designated, it is evident, in distinction from the divine, invisible, heavenly Bishop, Christ or God, and as that invisible Bishop's earthly repre- sentative. {Ephes. i.) Further, " For we ought to receive every one whom the master of the house sends to be over his household, as we would do him that sent him. It is manifest, therefore, that we should look upon the bishop even as we would upon the Lord himself." {Ephes. vi.) " Study to do all things with a divine harmony, while your bishop presides in the place r^jt u.-^u 1 c ^\^ The bishop of God, and your presbyters m the place of the Christ's vicar. assembly of the apostles, along with your deacons." [Magn. vi.) " It becomes you to yield him (the bishop) all reverence, having respect to the power of God the Father, . . . submitting to him, or rather, not to him, but to the Father of Jesus Christ, the Bishop of us all. It is therefore fitting that you obey (your bishop), in honor of him who has willed us so to do, since he who does not obey deceives, not the bishop that is visible, but seeks to mock him thai is invisible!' {Id. iii.) " Since ye are subject to the bishop as to Jesus Christ, ye appear to me to live, not after the man- \^^^^y^^^^^ jj^^ ner of men, but according to Jesus Christ. It is bishop. necessary that, as indeed ye do, so without the bishop ye should do nothing." {Trail, ii.) "Let all reverence the bishop as Jesus Christ, who is the Son of the Father; and 26 THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. the presbytery as the Sanhedrin of God, and assembly of the apostles. Apart from these there is no church." (/^. iii.) Now, if the bishop is Christ's representative, it follows that the external, visible society of Christians must needs sustain the same relation to him that, in virtue of an inner necessity, it sustains to Christ himself But if the visible Christian com- munity is related to Christ, essentially and necessarily, as a (visible) unity, then the particular part of that community com- mitted to the oversight of a bishop, that is, the particular church in which he exercises his office as Christ's representa- tive and organ, must also be related to its bishop as an ex- ternal, visible unity. And thus, according to Ignatius, the bishop, as Christ's representative, is also virtually the repre- sentative, at the same time, of the external unity of all the faithful in Christ — the representative of church unit\'. Not only the representative, however, the bishop is also the organ of Church unity ; that is to say, he not merely represents the external unity of all the faithful in his own person, but he actually realizes that unity, in his forming a centre of unity around which the collective body of the faithful gather in a visible union. But this holds true, according to Ignatius, not of the individual bishop, as such, but of the collective whole of all individual bishops ; in a word, not of the bishop, but of the EPISCOPATE. The bishops are the representatives and organs of the Church, in so far as they, in accordance with the specific character of the episcopate, are the immediate repre- sentatives, plenipotentiaries, and organs of Christ. In them, Christ, so to speak, is multiplied ; in them, his omnipresence, within the sphere of Christendom is rendered visible. It is He who, in reality, through the bishop as his instrument, ex- ercises in ALL churches a guiding and controlling influence. One and the same divine Being, therefore, presides over every particular church, through the medium, indeed, of different individual representatives. And thus all particular churches are bound together in the most thorough unity ; only, how- ever, under the condition of organic adhesion, on the part of each particular church, to its own bishop. This adhesion of PRIMARY IMPORT. 2/ particular churches, severally, to their bishop, virtually in- volv^es adhesion to the bishops collectively of all other par- ticular churches, (and through them also to all other particular Churches themselves,) inasmuch as all particular bishops find their common centre of being, or point of union, in one per- son — in Christ, in God.* Here, then, at the very dawn of the post-apostolic period, we trace the germinal development of that theory of church unity which, as first fully unfolded in the writings of Cyprian, is commonly known as the C}'pna?iic.'\ In the Epistle of Ignatius to the church at Smyrna, we have noted the earliest express mention of the catholicity of the Church. Those who dispute the genuineness of this epistle, (admitting that only of the Syrian recension^ find the first oc- currence of this predicate in the inscription of the circular, Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning ^ ^° ^^^ ^' the martyrdom of St. Poly carp (147-169): "The church of God sojourning at Smyrna, to the church of God sojourning at Philomelium, and to all the congregations of the Holy and Catholic Church in every place." In this, its primary application, the term Catholicity, it is obvious, is not simply equivalent, as in modern use, to uni- versality, but rather conveys the idea of organic unity — "a whole composed of various parts, which have no proper exist- ence independently of that of which they are parts ; " in a word, (according to its etymology,) an organ- ^^.^ ized totality. It was in contrast to sectarism — heresy, the principle of division — that the term Catholic, as a descriptive title, was first applied to the Church. It would thus, in primitive use, seem to have comprised the three dis- tinct notions of unity, properly so called, or the union of the members of Christ's mystical body with the head and with each other; of oneness — oneliness, or exclusiveness — as dis- tinguished from unity ; and of universality. It is in this superscription of the Smyrnaean epistle, more- over, that we find the earliest explicit mention of holiness, as * Note B. f Note C. 28 THE DOCTRINE OF THE, CHURCH. an attribute of the Church Cathohc. Thus, in a document belonging to the first half of the second century, we meet with the selfsame predicates of the Church which are contained in the Apostles' Creed: Unity, Oneness or Exclusiveness, Holi- ness, Catholicity. NOTES. A. Krtt oi (iTOffroXoi fiii