^&^' I M%ml$^ksl Mmmmg. j PRINOETQN, n'. Js Part of the ADDISON ALEXANDER LIBRARY, which was presented by Messbs. R. L. and A.-Stpart. BR 165 .B63 1856 Blunt, John J. 1794-1855 A history of the Christian church during the first A HISTORY CI)e OF Ci)nstian €\)\\xt\) THE FIEST THEEE CENTUPJKS. 1 i - y LATE MAKGABET PKOFrSSOR OF DIVIKITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 1856. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. UNDESIGNED COINCIDENCES in the WRITINGS of the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS, an Argument of their Veracity : withan Appendix, containing undesigned Coincidences between the Gospels, Acts, and Josephus. Fourth Edition, 8vo., 9s. LONDON : PEINTED BY WOODFALL AND RfNDER, ANGKL COURT, SKINNER STREET. PREFACE. A PORTION of the History of the Church during the First Three Centuries was dehvered as a Series of Lectures during the Lent Term of 1854. It was, however, written as a connected History, the Author having always con- templated publishing it, as such, at some future time, when he should have laid aside the duties of his Professor- ship, and perhaps thus be at liberty to offer to the public those results of his studies which had been hitherto con- fined to the attendants on his Lectures. The period for the fulfilment of the design seemed to have arrived. Failing health having determined him to resign an office, the duties of which he felt himself no longer able to dis- charge with that efficiency and vigour without which he could not consider himself justified in retaining it, he had resolved to employ his first leisure in the preparation for the press of his History of the Early Church. It had been his intention to add to it a chapter on the leading Heresies of the period, treated in such a manner as should present a general view of the obstacles, from false doctrine, with which the Church had, in her infancy, to contend. But he was obliged to relinquish the design ; his declining strength rendering him no longer equal to the labour and research that would be necessary in order PREFACE. to reduce so wide a subject within the limits of a popular History. He did not, on this account, lay aside his pro- ject of publishing that part of the work which was already completed. But it was not the will of God that he should, himself, carry his object into effect. Those, however, on whom has devolved the duty and privilege of fulfilhng (to the best of their ability) his purposes, feel that they are acting in accordance with his wishes, in offering the History to the public, though in an incom- plete state, and wanting that careful revision by himself which it would, under other circumstances, have received. This last disadvantage has been, in great measure, re- medied by the kind and important assistance afforded by two amongst his most valued friends ; by the Rev. J. T. Austen, of West Wickham, in the preparation of the MS. for publication,— and, more particularly, by the Rev. J. A. Jeremie, D.D., Regius Professor of Divinity, in the verification of the references, and the correction of the press ; an evidence of regard for the Author, and of affection for his memory, demanding and exciting the deepest gratitude in those who would have been quite incompetent, without their help, to effect the object they had so much at heart. They humbly trust that this History of the Early Church may, by the Blessing of God, be rendered instru- mental to the forwarding of those objects which it was the endeavour of the Author, through life, to advance,— the promotion of the Glory of God, and the edification of His Church. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. The Foundation of the Christian Church. — Unity an essential Feature. — Indications, in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, of Church Discipline and Order not to be found in the Gospels. — Our Lord instructed the Apostles after his Kesun-ection in things pertaining to the future Government of the Church CHAPTER II. Apostolical Teaching, Ecclesiastical and Theological. — Epistles of Ignatius. — Early existence of a Creed or Kule of Faith. — The several Orders of the Hierarchy. — The Fund provided for the Church.— Liturgical Services.— The Holy Commu- nion. — Marriage 15 CHAPTER III. The Apostles' Continuance at Jerusalem.— Their Proceedings. — St. Paul and St. Barnabas.— The Church at Antioch. — St. Paul's Travels. — His Imprisonment at Kome. — St. Mark. — St. John. — His Death at Ephesus. — St. James - - 43 CHAPTER IV. The Apostles' selection of Persons to superintend the Churches, Timothy, Titus, Polycarp, St. Mark, Linus, Epaphroditus, Dionysius. — The manner of Appointment —The Succession in the Churches at Jerusalem.— Antioch.— Rome. —Alexan- dria. — The early Organization of the Church CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. Elements at work in the spread of the Gospel. — The Kingdom of God springing and growing up as the Seed. — The Im- pression made on the Heathen hy the Conduct and manner of Life of the Christians. — Their Order and Sobriety amid the Excesses which prevailed. — Admiration excited by the Sufferings of the Martyrs 92 CHAPTER VI. A favourable Eeport of the Christians circulated chiefly by reason of their virtuous and blameless Lives. — Great beauty of the Precepts in St. Paul's Epistles. — Picture of the Primi- tive Christian. — Absence of Interference with the World. — The Christian Parent and Master. — Christian Benevolence and Fortitude - - - - - - - -102 CHAPTER VII. The Obstacles to the Progi^ess of the Gospel. — Hostility of the Jews. — Their Hatred of the Christians to be seen in the early Literature of the Church.— Justin Martyr.— Tertullian. — Cyprian . — Origen. — Arguments against the Jews from the Old Testament, and from the Cessation of the Ordinances of the Law by the Destruction of Jerusalem - - - 116 CHAPTER VIII. Hostility of the Gentiles to the Christians. — Excited against them by the exclusive Character of the Gospel. — The Social System of the World affected by it. — Prejudices against the Christians.— All Calamities imputed to them. — Nei-o's san- guinary Edicts. — Not repealed. — Effect of private malignity and the ferocity of the Mob. — Tests of Christianity. — Evils of Persecution not unmixed 138 CHAPTER IX. Third Obstacle to the Progress of the Gospel. — The Here- tics. — Their endeavom-s to damage the Authoi'ity of Scrip- CONTENTS. PAGE ture.^ — Closer Investigation of it by the Church.— Vigilance exercised with i-espect to the Canon of Scripture. — Extrava- gant Interpretations by the Heretics. — The Church's Decla- ration of its o^vn Expositions. — Abuse of Tradition by the Heretics. — Properuse of it by the Church. — Pretensions of the Heretics. — Their Dogmas subversive of Morality. — Alluded to by St. Jude. — Affected the Ceremonies of the Church - 163 CHAPTER X. The state of the Pioman Empire as affecting the Advance of the Gospel. — Early Spread of Christianity. — Witnesses to the Ex- tension of the Church in the first three Centuries. — Justin Martyr. — Theophilus.r— Irenseus. — Tertullian. — Minutius Fe- lix. — Hippolytus. — Origen. — Cyprian. — Unfairness of Gib- bon. — Strength of the ChurclT antecedent to the Conversion of Constantino 183 CHAPTER XI. Heathen Persecution first excited by Nero. — Eenewed by Domi- tian. — St. John and the Grandchildren of St. Jude. — Condi- tion of the Christians under Trajan. — Pliny's Letter. — Igna- tius. — His Condemnation and Journey to Rome. — His Epis- tles. — Controversy respecting their Authenticity. — Bishop Peai'son's Defence of them. — Syriac Manuscripts. — Examina- tion of Archdeacon Churton's Arguments, — Martyrdom of Ignatius - 326 CHAPTER XIL Persecutions of the Christians in the Reign of Hadrian. — The Defences of Christianity, or Apologies. — Tertullian's Apology a Specimen. — Origen the first Writer on the Evidences of Christianity - - * - - - - - -261 CHAPTER XIIT. Continued Persecutions of the Christians. — Hadrian. — Anto- ninus Pius. — M. Aurelius. — Deaths of Polycarp and Justin CONTENTS. PAGE Martyr. — Commodus. — More favourable Condition of the Christians. — Severus, a Persecutor.— LihelH. — Deaths of Leo- nidas and others. — Variable Conduct of Severus - - - 280 CHAPTER XIV. Condition of the Christians under Caracalla. — Heliogabalus. — Alexander Severus. — Maximinus. — Fierce Persecution under Decius. — Corruption of the Church described by Cy- prian. — His Epistles. — Origen. — Intei-val of Tranquillity. — Deaths of Origen and Cypi-ian. — Advance of the Gospel. — Paul of Samosata.^ Increased Prosperity of tlie Christians. — Corruption in the Church. — Diocletian Persecution. — Im- provement and advance of the Church. — Final Triumph under Constantine 308 Of '■ ^ »f w^ * HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. CHAPTER I The Foundation of the Christian Church. — Unity an essential Fea- ture.— Indications, in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, of Church Discipline and Order not to be found in the Gospels. — Our Lord instructed the Apostles after his Eesun-ection in things pertaining to the future Government of the Church. T PROPOSE to lay before my readers in the following -^ pages a History of the Church in the first three cen- turies — a Manual, perhaps, I should rather call it — which, without extending to the length such a subject naturally seems to threaten, may suffice to put them in possession of the leading features, the prominent points, the events the most weighty, because the most pregnant with conse- quences, which present themselves to our notice during that interesting period of the Church's growth. For if the rise and progress of secular empires excites our curiosity and concern; if to investigate the germ and expansion of civil constitutions that have eventually at- tained to eminence and renown, is a pleasurable task; how much rather to explore the unobtrusive advance of B 2 HISTOEY OF Chap. I. that greatest of commonwealths, the Christian, which has ah-eacly survived so many secular empires, and is destined to survive so many more, — that noblest of codes, the Gospel of Christ, which lies at the foundation of so many others, and which purifies and elevates them in proportion as they admit and appropriate its refining in- fluence. In treating such a subject, however, after the manner I have said, I shall find it necessary to suppress, or review with rapidity, incidents not in themselves cha- racteristic ; such as, if entered into in minute detail, would only divert the attention from cardinal matters, and have the effect of dissipating the impression of epochs in the annals of the Church from which the general estimate of its nature and principles ought to be determined. Indeed were an author, when about to engage in a history of the early Church, to lay down his plan for a circumstantial, unbroken, continuous narrative, he would find himself baffled in the execution of it, for want of material. The documents out of which he has to gather his knowledge are incomplete : they are a chain of authorities, but with links occasionally wanting. The writers in most cases were not contemplating a formal account of the Church : their subjects led them to a partial development of it ; but it was incidentally, and without any such express desio-n. And where the historian happens to be met with amongst them, his range is probably hmited to this lo- cality or that ; to the circumstances of the Church under this emperor or the other, according to taste or accident : and as it was meanwhile impossible for him to anticipate the kind of details we should desiderate at this distant date, so does he frequently pass them over, being things perfectly familiar to himself, and leave us to get an insight into them as best we may. Under these circum- stances, I repeat, we have abundant stores of information on some particulars, a very scanty supply on others, and Chap. I. THE CHKISTIAN CHURCH 8 the ecclesiastical author, however pains-taking and la- borious, must be content, after all, with filling up his narrative from time to time by inferences, because facts may not be always forthcoming. At the moment when our blessed Lord said to St. Peter, " Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will I build my ChuTchl' it was evidently of a future event that He spoke. The Church at that instant remained to be built ; its foundation was on the point of being laid, but it had not been laid then. Meanwhile, Jesus ascended into heaven, leaving upon earth many so far converted to the Gospel as to be designated the Brethren ; five hundred such being assembled in Galilee, to whom He showed Himself after his resurrection ; but at Jerusalem the number of the names of the disciples was together only one hundred and twenty. Then followed the mira- culous descent of the Holy Ghost, and the three thousand converts made on that occasion by St. Peter's Sermon ; and, after this, we are told by St. Luke, " there were added to the Church daily such as should be saved." The Church therefore was now no longer in futurity only, but in actual existence, called into existence then in one sense — for in another there had been a Church from the beginning — on this memorable day ; St. Peter's address, poured forth under the strong influence of the Holy Ghost, laying, as it were, the first stone of the spiritual House, and so far realising the promise made to him by his Lord. ^ It is remarkable, too, and perhaps to be regarded as a further fulfilment of that promise, that as here, where Jews only, or Jewish proselytes ^ had to be dealt with, St. Peter was the party employed to open to them the way, so when the Gentiles were to come in, the instrument of their initiation was the same. For ^ Pearson on the Creed, p. 336; I ^ Acts ii. 5, 10. Minor Theolog. Works, i. p. 318. | b2 HISTORY OF Chap. I. Cornelius was not directed by the vision to send to Jeru- salem for St. James, or to Damascus or Tarsus for St. Paul ^ — destined moreover as this latter was, to be even- tually the great teacher of the Gentiles — but to Joppa for St. Peter : a selection which St. Peter does not fail to refer to, with satisfaction, as well he might, on a future occasion, and in terms which possibly convey the notion that he considered such honourable distinction as the last instalment in discharge of Jesus' original pledge to him;'' and it was to St. Peter, and no other, that the correlative vision was accordingly vouchsafed, in order to clear up his scruples — scruples which he felt in common with all his nation — respecting the admission of the Gentiles into the Church, and to satisfy him that they too were to be received into the covenant of Baptism. Here again, therefore, it might seem, I repeat, that our Lord was manifesting his call to be true, in the fullest sense, to his word, so that whether the walls of his rising Church were to be constructed of Jews or of Gentiles, and by whatsoever hand they were afterwards to be carried up, they were still to spring, in either case, from one and the same Rock, St. Peter. It may not, perhaps, be necessary to search further for the cause of this preference, than in the circumstances which first called forth our Lord's expres- sion of it ; the early faith of the Apostle which enabled him to penetrate a great mystery, and assign to Jesus his true character, before it had dawned upon the minds of his colleagues, marking him as chosen above his fellows for this service by God Himself, and entitling him to the ^ Wliitby ; Pearson's Minor Theolog. Works,!, pp.373, 374. " Acts XV. 7, «(p'i(ME§«v a§x«t;£i- Tof^yo?, Heb. viii. ix. ; 'o x-cciy,- ■^ov^tvoq — 6 KX'vnx'^', Gal. VI. * KX?^o;, Acts i. 17. ^ nv£t)(M.aTiy.o(, Gal. vi. 1. ^ l^iiiYic, 1 Cor. xiv. 16. ' 2 Cor. X. 15, 16. Chap. I. THE CHKISTIAN CHURCH. 9 though some territorial arrangement with respect to pas- toral occupancy were now in force. We have the fol- lowers of Christ gradually designated by more and more distinctive titles ; " the Disciples," or " Believers," giving place to the more famihar phrase, " they of this way ;" that, again, narrowed by degrees into " Christians." We have the Sacraments, a new element, constantly ad- ministered, and various particulars connected Math them carefully expressed. Much more of the same kind might be added, and will actually find its place in our narrative as we proceed in it : but this may suffice to remind the readers of the New Testament (for more than a memento is not wanted to direct their attention to a fact, which, on having their thoughts turned to it, they will at once acknowledge), that a marked progress in the aspect of religion is at once perceptible after the time of which the Gospels treat has expired, and when the Acts, Epistles, and Book of Revelation take up the history. How, then, are we to account for this phenomenon ; this rapid transition of the Gospel from a state of solution, so to speak, to a state of consistency and consolidation? Doubtless the gift of the Holy Ghost had been mean- while sent down from on high, and had wrought a great change in the character and sentiments of the Apostles ; opening their minds to understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament ; unveiling to them the real nature of Christ's Kingdom ; stimulating their consciences ; in- creasing their faith ; and bringing vividly to their recol- lection all that Jesus had imparted to them, and with a deeper penetration into its meaning than had been vouch- safed to them at the time He gave utterance to it. But if it be questioned, as perhaps it may, whether it would fall within the precise province of the Comforter directly to prompt or prescribe the details of the constitution of the Church, and to quicken it thus rapidly into life, it 10 HISTORY OF Chap. I. may be open to us, perhaps, to trace the initiation of it to our Lord Himself, and to the instructions He was pleased to give during the period which more immedi- ately preceded the day of Pentecost; whilst He com- mitted it to the third Person of the blessed Trinity, here as in other departments of Revelation, to perfect the work, by reproducing in the memory of the Apostles all the suggestions of Jesus Himself, and enduing those, his ministers, with the temper and wisdom necessary for car- rying them successfully into operation. Let us then endeavour to decipher, as far as we may, the proceedings of our Lord during the mysterious inter- val which elapsed between his resurrection and final ascension ; an interval, however, within which so little is positively recorded of Him, that it becomes doubly necessary for us to examine such materials as we have with all diligence, and, whether by inference or by actual evidence, endeavour to fill up the void. St. John, no doubt, tells us, after finishing his own Gospel, that " there were also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one," he supposes, " that even the world itself could not con- tain the books that should be written." Still, I appre- hend, we must regard the Gospels as the substance of our Lord's teaching during his intercourse with the Apostles previous to his crucifixion : we must believe that, even if we had more ample records of his life during that season, such as St. John intimates might have been compiled, we should find them in character the same as those we possess; detailing conversations similar to those bequeathed to us, and not conversations totally different; actions similar to those there described, and not actions entirely foreign to them. Indeed, one or two incidents which antiquity relates of Jesus, we instinctively reject upon this very principle, that they do not har- Chap. I. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 11 monize with our notions of Him derived from these me- morials. It should seem, therefore, if we judge by the contents of the Gospels, that for some reason or other, not revealed to us, Jesus had hitherto abstained from entering with any minuteness into the mechanical means by which his Church was to be constructed, or into the peculiar functions which his disciples would have to discharge in accomplishing this great object when He should be gone away. Perhaps they were not yet pre- pared for these intricate details : the old bottles might have been burst by communications involving the prospect of such vast exertions, such endless anxieties, such perse- vering pains, such elaborate arrangements. Perhaps the eve of the outpouring of the Spirit was to be waited for till this step could be taken with safety. We perceive that after the departure of Jesus, and even after the Holy Ghost had been given, the minds of the disciples opened very gradually, and even reluctantly, to some practical truths. Still it seems scarcely reasonable to suppose, that Jesus would withdraw Himself finally and for ever, lea-ving a work so stupendous on their hands as the ecclesiastical provision for the world's wants, and not acquaint them with the plan on which He intended it to proceed, the line of operations by which they were to realize and carry into act his commission. Certainly it is remarkable, that when Moses had to be prepared for the practical office of establishing and spreading amongst the Israelites the Law, he was admitted to more intimate communion with the Deity for forty days and nights pre- viously ; and that in like manner the disciples, the heralds of the Gospel, and few or none besides, should have had the privilege of consorting with Jesus, who now walked the earth in a more mystical form than before, and hear- ing Him "give these commandments," and "speak of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God," for pre- 12 HISTORY OF Chap. I. cisely the same period before their ministerial mission. What "those commandments" might be, what "things pertaining to the kingdom of God " might comprise, we cannot positively affirm; but we may conjecture, as I have said, that on the eve of his bidding them fare- well, Jesus would be naturally disposed to instruct them in the immediate duties before them in greater detail ; the discipline they were to establish, no less than the doc- trines they were to unfold ; God having done the same by Moses in the former dispensation — a conjecture the more probable from our actually discovering, as we have seen, that the disciples, immediately after his ascension, were carrying on their work in a far more systematic manner than they had ever done before it : laying down details with a precision quite unusual with them when formerly preaching in Galilee and Judsea, and evidently possessed of a stock of principles and rules by which to guide them- selves, from whatever quarter derived, but little mani- fested as yet. Perhaps we may find some confirmation of the conjecture that it was during this interval of forty days that our Lord unfolded more minutely the instruc- tions by which they were to be governed in rearing his House, if we consider the peculiar character of the few transactions which transpire in the course of it. During that period Jesus wrought one miracle ; but the choice of that one shows that it was meant to be significant ; and so it is considered by the early Christian writers. At the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, when He sum- moned his principal disciples to attend on Him, and be- come partakers in his great work, it was by a figurative action, by the miracle of the fishes, that He called them, — a figurative action, the sense of which cannot be mistaken, since it is interpreted by our Lord Himself: " 1 will make you fishers of men." In the same spirit, after his resurrec- tion, and when now they had to be prepared for a more Chap. I. THE CHKISTIAN CHURCH. 18 enlarged and laborious mission, He encouraged them by another miracle, the only one He now wrought, of pre- cisely the same kind ; and bidding them cast their net into the sea, which hitherto they had done in vain the night through, they were not able to draw it for fishes. Nay, the very number, an hundred, fifty and three, has been thought to have its latent meaning ; and being sup- posed to comprehend all the different species in the lake^ became itself an allegory. Again, it was now that Jesus charged St. Peter, still in anticipation of the task he was on the eve of commencing, over and over again, to " Feed his sheep." It was now that He showed Himself to James alone, the future Bishop of Jerusalem itself: an interview betokening the Lord's confidence in this dis- ciple ; and a distinction which could not fail to command the attention of those who elected him to that hidi o function. It w^as now that Jesus gave the disciples their full commission, " As my Father hath sent me, so send I you," and, breathing on them, added, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost ; whose soever sins ye remit, they are re- mitted unto them ; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained ;" the fiat through which the consecration of the ministry has derived its force ever since. All these are incidents, not having respect to the personal holiness or personal edification of the parties Jesus was addressing, but to their position and office, as master-builders of that Church which henceforth it was to be their business to rear up in the world. And it seems not impossible, that a communication which our Lord is reported by Clemens Romanus to have had with his disciples actually on the very subject of Church discipline and orders, — a commu- nication not reported in the Canonical Scriptures, and which must have been imparted to Clemens by those who shared in it, or by those who received it from them — occurred during this remarkable period. " Our Apostles," 14 HISTOKY OF Chap. I. says, he, ""hiew by our Lord Jesus Christ that contention would arise on account of the Episcopate. For which cause, having perfect foreknowledge, they appointed per- sons (over t\\Q Churches), as we have already intimated, and then gave direction that on their death, other ap- proved men should succeed to their ministration." ' Cle- mens being evidently under the impression that the organization of the Church, as well as its doctrine, fell within the contemplation of our Lord, and that provision was made for it according to his suggestions. The scope of these suggestions (if such they were) will be yet more fully distinguished by the results ; by the next stage of the proceedings of the Church. And accordingly, having now endeavoured to explore the depths of its history, the crypts over which the fabric eventually arose, having attained a resting-place, and landed our subject on the level which the close of the first Whit-Sunday presents — probably the 24th of May, a.d. 33 — a date much to be remembered; for if it be a season of just rejoicing when the first stone is laid of a parish church made with hands, and if the ceremonial on that occasion is imjires- sive and solemn, how much more when the living stones of the universal Spiritual Church were first set, an Apostle himself the basement, and the Holy Ghost visibly taking possession, and consecrating the structure; — having ar- rived, I say, at this point, let us pause a moment, and then address ourselves to the progress of this new society thus introduced into the world, and destined to have such wonderful effects on it, developing, as well as we can, those passages in Scripture, and more especially in the Acts of the Apostles, which furnish for the present the chief materials for the further prosecution of our History. ^ Clemens Eom. §. 4i. Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 15 CHAPTER II. Apostolical Teaching, Ecclesiastical and Theological. — Epistles of Ignatius. — Early existence of a Creed or Rule of Faith. — The several Orders of the Hierarchy. — The Fund provided for the Church. — Liturgical Services. — The Holy Communion. — Mar- riage. The brief yet frequent account which we have of the conduct and carriage of this new society on its first esta- blishment is this — " they continued stedfastly in the doc- trine of the Apostles, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers." What state of things then does this intimation imply? What picture of the early Church does it exhibit, when held up advan- tageously to the light? 1. "They continued stedfastly in the Apostles' doctrine." One of our Lord's injunc- tions to his disciples had been, not merely to baptize their converts (Avhich in the present instance they had already done, instructing us that no efflux of the Sj^irit, even such as that at Pentecost on the parties, was a substitute for this Sacrament, which, and which alone, was ordained to place them in a new relation to God, cancelling their sins, original and actual), but also to teach them to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them.^ The compass of subject which this injunction embraces, for it is evidently wide, and the exact manner in which it was obeyed, for it is as evidently complicated, is in some degree matter for conjecture. Certainly several years ' Matt, xxviii. 20. 16 HISTORY OF Chap. II. elapsed before the Apostles, or the companions of the Apostles, published their writings according to the cano- nical form in which we now possess them. There are passages in the Gospel of St. Matthew (probably the first of the four Gospels) which bear internal evidence of this — " Wherefore the field was called the field of blood, unto this day'' (xxvii. 8), is a mode of expression which intimates a considerable period to have occurred between the incident and the record of it. " And this saying is commonly reported among the Jews unto this day'''' (xxviii. 15), is another to the same effect. Moreover the remark that "at that Feast the Governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would" (xxvii. 15), looks like a reference to a custom which had obtained some time ago, and was then obsolete.' During that interval they, the Apostles, must have inculcated the substance of these canonical writings, either orally or by documents, in some sort or in both ways. St. Paul himself, even later, speaks of traditions which he had circulated " by word or epistle ;" ^ and the portion of such communications which was conveyed by word possibly involved those ecclesiastical arrangements which the very nature of the case rendered necessary, and which, Ave have already seen, not improbably were amongst the suggestions made by our blessed Lord during his forty days' sojourn upon earth after his resurrection. Certain it is, that if we argue the character of the Apos- tles' teaching from the topics treated of in the very early but apocryphal documents which profess to report it, such ecclesiastical directions formed a part of it. The Apostolical Constitutions, which are writings of this de- scription, run in general in the names of all the Apostles ; and it is scarcely to be doubted that they embody, to a great extent, various didactic Treatises put forth under 1 Hug. ii. p. 11. . - 2 Thess. ii. 15. Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 17 the title of this or that Apostle's teaching.' Indeed, occasionally they betray this original, by adopting the phrase " I, Matthew," " I, Peter," " I, Thomas," " I, Simon the Canaanite."^ Moreover, the paragraphs by which such Treatises are connected together in them are perhaps here and there discoverable by a keen eye^ — Treatises, many of them so primitive that they or the like to them are probably alluded to by St. Luke in the preface to his Gospel, by St. Paul in his Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and again perhaps in that to the Galatians.* For though passages, in these Books of the Constitutions, constantly occur which clearly bear the stamp of times subsequent even to Constantino, yet a very large portion of them as unquestionably give token of a date the most remote, the heathen entering most largely into their several provisions : marriages with heathens, heathen festivals, outcasts of the Church join- ing themselves to the heathen, heathen tribunals, heathen evidence to courts, heathen processions, spectacles, mar- kets, obstacles to the exercise of public worship arising from the heathen, heathen proselytes,^ are all features which present themselves to us largely in the clauses of these Constitutions, not to speak of the depressed con- dition of the Christians generally betrayed in them, the smallness of their resources, the meanness of their rank;*' so that on the whole it is above dispute, that with much alloy there is much of the most venerable antiquity in these remains ; and as they represent the Apostles in the x.u\iec, KXr]i/.iinoi:, or 'lyvoniov 01' UavXov ; Vindic. Ignat. pp. 60, 61 ; Grabe, Spiceleg. i. p. 45. ^ Apostol. Constit. ii. c. 24 ; iii. c. 19; viii. c. 27. ^ Ibid. viii. c. 3, and Yindic. Ignat. i. 62. * 2 Thess. ii. 2 ; Gal. i. 6. ^ Apostol. Constit. i. c. 10; ii. c. 6, c. 21, c. 45, c. 46, c. 61, c. 62 ; viii. c. 34 ; vi. c. 5 ; vii. c. 37. ^ Ibid. iv. c. 9 ; viii. c. 23 ; iv. c. 1 ; viii. c. 32. 18 HISTORY OF Chap. II. character of ecclesiastical as well as theological teachers, it would seem to be at any rate a very primitive tradition that their instruction did actually partake of both these elements. Nor is this all the external evidence which tends to the same conclusion. If in the Epistles of Ignatius, the argument for a precise ecclesiastical con- stitution is more distinct and indisputable than in some other of the earliest Fathers, insomuch as to have excited a suspicion against the genuineness of the text, it must be ever borne in mind that the works of very few of the sub-apostolical Fathers remain to us with which to com- pare these Epistles;* that had we been in possession of them all, and had it been still found that Ignatius was singular in his mode of speaking on this question, there would have been some weight in the objection, whereas it is highly probable that had we more of these authors, some or other of them would be discovered to express themselves as he does; that Clemens Alexandrinus in- dicates as much by letting drop such a casual paragraph (for casual it is) as the following: "the ranks in the Church here upon earth, of bishops, priests, deacons, are imitations of the angelical glory, and the economy above ;"^ that certainly Cyprian, who was no great deal later in date, is not a whit less emphatic on the subject than Ignatius ; and that Tertullian gives us reason to believe, that had he not been carried into opposition to the Church by his Montanism, he would have been as posi- tive upon it (which indeed he is, but as uniformly posi- tive upon it) as Ignatius. But it may be suspected that the minds of men in these days are not duly prepared for a candid estimate of such an author as Ignatius. It is no libel on our own generation to say that it is not con- versant with the primitive ecclesiastical writings which have survived, and is unconscious of the spirit which 1 Euseb. Eccl. Hist. ill. c. 36. | ^ Stromal, vi. p. 667. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHUECH. 19 characterises them, a spirit which renders those who have studied them with care far from indisposed to accept the Epistles of Ignatius as genuine, and as con- taining nothing inconsistent with the age in which they profess to have been published. It will not do to pass at once from the Canonical Scriptures, construed perhaps according to Calvin, and a school which sets antiquity at defiance, to the Epistles of Ignatius, and perceiving there no such loose ecclesiastical principles as we had accus- tomed ourselves to hold for true, but, on the contrary, a stringent constitution for the Church, turn in heat and haste on the substance of the text, and deny its integrity. The tone of the Epistles of Ignatius does not differ from that of the Acts, the Epistles to Timothy and Titus, and the Revelation, so much as the tone of these latter differs from that of the Gospels. The authority of these writings, notwithstanding modern criticism, rests where Bishop Pearson's masterly Dissertation left it, as I shall take another opportunity of showing; but for our pre- sent purpose there is no need to aflSrm even this; we can afford to make ample concessions. Under any cir- cumstances it must be admitted, that the general cha- racter of the Epistles now in our hands is similar to that of the Epistles known to Eusebius, that is to say, that ecclesiastical as well as theological topics found a leading place in them. The language in which that historian speaks of them, and the quotations he makes from them, lead us to this result ; and yet he describes them as " the tradition of the Apostles,''' informing us that in them Ignatius exhorted the Churches " to hold fast the tradi- tion of the Apostles, the which, for its greater security, he put down with pen and ink, bearing written testimony to it ;"^ so that evidently Eusebius, a writer of the fourth century, a very diligent investigator of the documents ^ Eccles. Hist. iii. c. 36. c 2 20 HISTOEY OF Chap. II. then existing in the Church, far more in number than have come clown to our times, and a searcher into the trustworthy traditions of the Church by profession and pursuit, makes no doubt that these topics constituted a part of the Apostles' teaching ; that these topics were an ingredient in that which is designated " the teaching of the Apostles," in the important passage of the Acts we are canvassing ; and that it would be an undue limitation of the phrase to explain it of articles of faith only, theo- logical propositions and no other. The testimony of Clemens Romanus, than which nothing can be more un- exceptionable, has the same tendency ; his Epistle clearly represents the Apostles themselves as laying down rules with regard to the episcopal succession; rules which were to take effect when they should be no more/ and which actually did take effect, it being imputed to the Corinthians in that Epistle as a very blameworthy pro- ceeding, that by their factious quarrels the order of this arrangement, established on such authority, had been dis- turbed, and the clergy chased away who had been created under it. But we are far from having exhausted the subject of the apostolical doctrine or teaching, and the interpretation the phrase admits as used in the passage of the Acts to which our attention is directed. Indeed, we have as yet done little more than prove that it may be fairly considered to have comprised in general ecclesiastical as well as theo- logical instruction. To come, then, more to particulars. The Apostles appear to have promoted the stedfastness of their congregations by communicating to them some Confession of Faith, some summary of the chief articles of it, to be learned by the children, affirmed at Baptism and in the assembly, and borne constantly in mind on all occasions. We have ample evidence of such provision. ' Clemens Kom. S 44. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHURCH. 21 The heresies, which eventually, if not immediately, sprang up in the Church, were the means of putting us in posses- sion of evidence. We find the chanipions of the Church of those days appealing to a Creed, a Rule of Faith, as a standard by which those obliquities would be exposed ; the authority of which standard, according to them, was derived from its indisputable antiquity; indeed from its apostolical origin. Tertullian, after adducing the main features of such a Creed, describes it, as " a rule which had come down from the beginning of the Gospel." ^ And IrensEus, a still earlier writer, after doing the same thing, asserts, that "it had been received from the Apostles, and from their disciples," and had been " dispersed over the whole world." ^ I have said that in these extremely early notices of the existence of a Creed, it is the sub- stance of it that is given, not the very terms. It is not easy to assign with confidence a cause for the suppression of the form itself; but certain it is that a cause there must have been which suflSced, for though the references to such an instrument are, as we have seen, so numerous in the most primitive Fathers — indeed those references might be multiplied to a great extent — as to leave no manner of doubt on our minds that a Creed was actually forthcoming, and might have been produced had there been a reason for its production, yet the matter of it is all that is put on paper for several centuries : even though used in the congregation,^ it was not generally divulged in its naked form out of it ; and though we do eventually arrive at it by the time of Ruffinus and Augustin, that is, towards the end of the fourth century, yet even then the same apprehensions respecting its unre- served publication appear to have prevailed: Ruffinus Adv. Prax. § 2. p. 501. Ibid. i. c. 10, § 1. See Origen contra Cels. p. 242, and Euffinus, Expositio in Symbolum, \ 3, 22 HISTOEY OF Chap. II. comparing it to the pass-word which the officer gave his troops ; and as that, when kept a secret, enabled him to test a stranger of whom they might be suspicious, so the believer, by the exclusive possession of this Creed, might challenge and detect the infidel ; ^ and Augustin, when discussing the same formulary, directly exhorting his congregation to lodge it in their memories, but by no means commit it to writing, quoting the text of Jere- miah (xxxi. 33), " I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."^ Possibly the Church shrank from exposing the mysteries of the faith to the profane gaze of the ignorant populace. The reason which Sozomen assigns for not inserting the Nicene Creed in his History is the following, " that probably some of the unitiated might read his book " — ov yap aireiKos koI rSiv afivrjrcov rivas rfjSe ttj ^tfiXqt evrv^elv.^ Possibly, in an age when persecution of the Christians was from time to time breaking out with sanguinary activity, there was a fear amongst them of having any part of their religious services in a shape that might be produced against them as testimony; and thus always on their guard, they treasured them in their hearts, which the frequent recurrence of their seasons of wor- ship would enable them to do effectually; for it may be observed, that precisely the same mystery overhangs the origin of the primitive Liturgies in general, as envelopes that of the Creed. Unquestionable as are the evidences of the existence of a set service in the sub-apostolical Church, the earliest we possess of the existence of a written service, is in the account of the persecution of Dio- ' Ruffinus Expositio, § 2. 2 Augustin, Sermo ccxii. In Traditione Symboli, v. p. 938, Benedict. Ed. ^ Hist. Eccles. i. c. xx. The passage of which this sentence is a part, is probably corrupt ; but the general meaning of it is to the effect I have said. It is quoted by Mi\ Ne^^^nan in his History of " tlie Arians," p. 150. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHURCH. 23 cletian about the year 303, when Eusebiiis tells us he saw " sacred writings," as well as " divine," consigned to the flames.' Moreover, it is clear from Pliny's Letter, that there was a difficulty in substantiating any definite charges against the Christians ; a difficulty to which the absence of all records of their form of worship would greatly contribute. And it would appear, I think, from a hint in the Apology of Tertullian, that the Scriptures themselves seldom fell into the hands of the heathen, except by accident.^ But however this may be, the manner in which the Apostles' Creed is even now at length introduced to us, argues its extreme antiquity. We have even now, at the date I have said, both in Ruffinus and Augustin, to gather the several clauses of it, clause by clause, out of their exposition of it ; the very cast and character of the Treatises evidently implying that it was no new element of the Church's teaching which they were engaged upon, but one which had been, time out of mind, familiar to Christians even then; Ruffinus, indeed, expressly saying that the tradition re- j specting it was, that the Apostles, before their dispersion V over the world, anxious to secure the universal identity of their doctrine when conference might be no longer easy, drew up by common accord this formulary of / faith, and established it as the rule for believers.^ What- ^ ever credit we assign to this tradition, it is obvious that, put upon record as it is in the fourth century, it proves beyond a doubt, the origin of the Creed to have ever been considered most remote, lost in antiquity ; and still further tends to confirm the notions already expressed, though derived from other premises, and under the con- templation of the Apostles' teaching in another aspect of it, that it much more closely resembled that of the ' Eccl. Hist. viii. c. 2. i ^ Euffinvis, Expositio, § 2. 2 Apolog. § 3J. I 24 HISTORY OF Chap. II. Churdi when fully produced and standing in the clear light of day, than is often supposed by those who have not taken the pains to look below the surface. But there is still much more to be said on the subject of this teaching or doctrine of the Apostles, and the wide interpretation it admits, by which the early Church was held together — on the frame-work of the Church as laid down by them — the carcase of the ark. Thus the several orders of the hierarchy resolve themselves into a primary institution under the Apostles' hands, even as perceptible in those writings — even there the three ranks discover themselves. Timothy was set by St. Paul in a position of authority, even over those who had a control of their own over the flock ; for Timothy, on the one hand, was commissioned to receive an accusation against an elder, and if necessary to rebuke him ; and yet the elder, on the other hand, was commissioned on his part to bear rule;^ while the deacon, as his very name indicates, was appointed only to minister or serve, and was not to be raised to a higher grade or " good degree," till he had given proof that he was fit for it ; Timothy, meanwhile, deriving his superiority from no advantage in age, for he was so young that he is cautioned not to allow himself on that account to be despised. Titus is in the same case with respect to years, yet he, too, is commissioned " to rebuke with all authority;"^ and both the one and the other are entrusted with the power of Ordination ;^ and exclusive power, for the manner in which the exercise of it is en- joined them, shows that the character of the clergy lay in their hands by the cautious choice which they should make, and the previous examination they should insti- tute ; a provision which would be entirely defeated if the clergy in their respective dioceses might be self- 1 1 Tim. V. 1. IT. 19. 1^1 Tim. v. 22; Tit, i. 5. 2 Tit. ii. 15. Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 25 appointed or appointed by other indifferent parties : an exclusive power, too, which was not to be confined to them, but to descend in like manner to those who should succeed to their places ; for Timothy was to " keep the commandment," that is, I apprehend, the instructions he had just been receiving from St. Paul, " until the appear- ing of our Lord Jesus Christ;"^ an injunction which would imply that they were to be binding on future Bishops to the end of time. And in point of fact, the manner in which the bishop or angel of each Church is referred to in the Revelations, argues that his position was then thoroughly established ; the Epistles of Ignatius scarcely indicating this fact more conclusively. Again, the Canons respecting " Orders," reflect the language of the apostolical times and the apostolical writings, and as St. Paul, we have seen, speaks of the deacon gaining for himself by the satisfactory discharge of that office a "good degree" {^aOfibv koKov), so the early Canons of the Church speak of a bishop being rejected "from his degree," of the clergy being allowed their " several degrees," of the bishops and clergy being deposed " from their several degrees."^ Again, the Letters Commendatory {al ava-TarLKol eTrtaroXal) of which the early Canons speak, or epistles by which the bearers, "svhen leaving their own congrega- tions, are recommended to distant churches as guarantees of character,^ find the initiative still in the apostolical age and apostolical practice. " Do we begin again," says St. Paul, " to commend ourselves (awiaTavecv), or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?"* {a-va-TarcKayv eVz-o-- To\a)v) and several instances occur in the Canonical Scrip- ^ 1 Tim. vi. 14. 2 Tav ffot^^w, Concil. Ephes. knon. i. iii. vi. •^ Concil. Chalcedon, Routh, 408 ; Canon Apostol. x, xxvi. ^ 2 Cor. iii. 1. 26 HISTOKY OF Chap. II. tures of the actual use of such letters. Apollos received them from the Church of Ephesus when he was about to go to Acliaia; and St. Paul probably supplied Phcebe with such a document when she was leaving the Church of Cenchrea for Rome.^ Again, the Canons respecting behaviour in the Church which are of apostolical origin, are in character quite similar to those of a later age of it ; the women were to be in silence, according to St. Paul,^ so they were to be according to the Canon of the " Constitutions ; ^ the wor- shippers were to be provided with seats in the congrega- tion, according to St. James, the poor not to be neglected in this arrangement,^ so was it according to the same " Constitutions ; ^ the building itself, or the room at least, it may be further observed, a church in futurity; the distinction between the house and the church already seeming to be drawn in the Epistle te tho Corinthians, — " have ye not houses to eat and to drink in ? or despise ye the church of God?" (1 Cor. xi. 22) for this application of the term church can hardly be counted premature when St. John is recorded to have worn some article of dress characteristic of the priesthood*' — such chamber gradually ripening into that of which mention is made in the Philopatris, at once highly decorated and yet con- cealed from notice; the latter a fact proving that the Gospel was not yet tolerated, and the patent erection of temples to God allowed — that the chamber was a tran- sitional church. Again, the various Canons against teachers of heresy with which the Church eventually armed itself were not the inventions of a later age, but were substantially, at least, the ordinances of the apos- ^ Acts xviii. 27 ; Rom. xvi. 1, 2 1 Tim. ii. 11. •^ Apostol. Constit. iii. c. 6. ^ James ii. 2, 3, 4. ^ Apostol. Constit. iii. c. 58. ° Euseb. Eccl. Hist. iii. c. 31. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHUKCH. 27 tolical, as Scripture witnesses. " A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject,"' has all the precision of a more modern Canon on the same subject, and however briefly expressed, no doubt conveyed to the persons concerned in the execution of it an accurate knowledge of what they were to do ; indeed such phrase- ology evidently implies the existence of a society in complete organization, and would be felt to be inappro- priate under any other supposition. Again, the Canon respecting the provision to be made for the widows of the Church — one of a whole class of Canons promulgated by the Apostle — is as precise as any directed to the same object at a future period. The widow was not to be less than threescore years of age, she was to have been the wife of one man, she was to have brought up children, she was to have none of those children able to minister to her nor yet nephews, she was to be well reported of for good works.^ And, indeed, the whole fiscal apparatus of the Church, as it became developed in the lapse of time, and as we find it embodied in various Constitutions and Canons, was merely a superstructure naturally rising upon the lines laid down during the life of the Apostles themselves. Thus it was by apostolical appointment that a collection was made on the first day of the week in the churches for the wants of the community. It is expressly enjoined by St. Paul on the Corinthians and on the Galatians,^ and it was not possible that such a regulation should be long confined to any particular locality when the object was a general one ; and indeed we know of a certainty that by the time of Justin Martyr the custom was universal.* Of this exchequer the Apostles had, in the first instance, the direction, regulated no doubt, in 1 Tit. iii. 10. 2 1 Tim. V. 9, 10, and see Apostol. Constit. b. iii. c. 1, 2, 3. ^ 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2. ^ Apolog. § 67. 28 HISTORY OF Chap. II. the law of its distribution, by the territorial limits of the several communities out of which it arose/ but inviting the inspection of the Church at large to all their proceed- in o-s; certain at least it is, that St. Paul shows himself solicitous to guard against all jealousy on the part of the Corinthians as to the application of their collection for the saints of Jerusalem, by requesting them to join others with him to convey it to its destination.^ Still, whenever a remittance of this kind was made, it was to the elders of the place that it was delivered,^ the Church authori- ties being the legitimate channel through which it passed. Out of this fund the various necessities of the Church were provided for ; the clergy were paid out of it. When St. Paul waives his OM-n claim upon it, as he does in the particular case of Corinth, for peculiar reasons, he inti- mates that he was waiving a right; a right which apper- tained to the clergy generally, and of which they gene- rally availed themselves, — " or I only and Barnabas, have not we the power to forbear working?"* Nay, of some of the churches he did receive " wages," for so he calls the stipend, and not alms.^ Accordingly, care was even then to be taken, as it has been since, that the endowment of the Church should not be made a bait to tempt idle and mercenary men into the ministry; neither bishop nor deacon was to be "greedy of filthy lucre;" the caution no less requisite then than now. On the other hand, " the elders that ruled well were to be counted worthy of double honour,'' that is, of double pay ; the word (ri/i^) rendered " honour " having not unfrequently this sense ; and the reason assigned for this distinction, which imme- diately follows, namely, that we " are not to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn," seems to determine the 1 Acts iv. 34, 35. 2 1 Cor. xvi. 3, 4. 3 Acts xi. 30. ^ 1 Cor. ix. 6. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 8. Chap. IT. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 29 meaning to be appropriated to it in this case. The same regulation appears to have applied to the widows of the Church: " ^owot^r widows that are widows indeed;"^ let the allowance paid to such widows out of the treasury of the Church be large and liberal. Out of this same fund the expense of the messengers circulating amongst the Churches (and many such there were) had no doubt to be defrayed, visitations, and various ecclesiastical demands, not the less numerous, perhaps, on account of the novelty of the crisis, and the machinery having now to be created and put in motion for the first time. It was probably with a view to relieve the pressure upon this fund, inde- pendently of the merit of the virtue itself, that a spirit of hospitality is so much encouraged in Scripture, as well as in early ecclesiastical antiquity. A bishop was to be given to hospitality ; and this feature in the character of a good bishop asserted in the injunctions to Timothy, is repeated in those to Titus ;^ the widow to whom preference was to be given, was " one who had lodged strangers;"^ and the habit of doing so is further encou- raged by the suggestion, that in exercising it some have found that they have entertained angels unawares.* Clemens Romanus actually speaks of hospitality as an ingredient in the character of several persons mentioned in the Old Testament which recommended them espe- cially to God, when Scripture itself does not so express itself with respect to them, or at least does so by implica- tion only, if at all. Thus a son is said to have been given to Abraham on account of his faith and hospitality,^ and Rahab to have been saved on account of her faith and hospitality,*' and there appear to have been very early Treatises upon this duty put forth by Churchmen. How 1 1 Tim. V. 3. 2 Ibid. iii. 2 ; Titus i. 8. 3 1 Tim. V. 10. « Heb. xiii. 2. ' Clemens, § 10. « Ibid. § 12. 30 HISTOKY OF Chap. II. pressing, indeed, in the first instance, were the necessities of the Church, and what great exertions were to be made in order to furnish suppHes equal to the occasion, is mani- fest from the very large proportion of their private pro- perty which the early Christians dedicated to the wants of the society ; not that the Christians had at any time all things in common in such a sense as to retain nothing of their own, the latter supposition being inconsistent with the frequent exhortations of the Apostles in the Epistles to alms-deeds and to the right use of riches, exhortations repeated with no less emphasis from time to time by their successors. The exact amount of the stipend paid out of this exchequer to the clergy is a matter too much of detail to find a place in Scripture, though from the term " double" being employed in the Apostle's assignment of the pay to the meritorious elder, it may be suspected that even then it was a fixed sum, or at least a fixed proportion of the sum total with which the elders had to deal. Apollonius, who flourished about the end of the second century or beginning of the third, and wrote against Montanus, speaks of that heretic paying "sala- ries" (aakapia) to those who were the preachers of his doctrine ; ^ a term which would dispose us to the conclu- sion that in the Church there were stated stipends paid to ministers, from which this application of the word to the dissenters of that time took its form. Cyprian speaks of the payment made to the clergy in his day as a monthly dividend,^ and of his own share, as " the portion which belonged to him."^ The earliest approach to definite information on this point is furnished by Eusebius, who tells us incidentally that certain heretics at Rome, in the ^ Ep. 36, sua propria quan- ^ Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. e. 18. ^ Cyprian, Ep. 28, divisio men- strua. titas. Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 31 reign of Severus, about the end of the second century or the beginning of the third, persuaded one Natal ius to be their Bishop, with a salary of a hundred and fifty denarii a month, or about sixty pounds a year;^ but as the Here- tics were then probably a very small and inconsiderable body — Justin Martyr calls them on one occasion " certain persons" (nves), as contradistinguished from orthodox believers at large, who were " very many " {irXeiaToif — it may be well supposed that the sum they could afford their leader would not be a correct gauge of that which was the usual stipend of the corresponding functionary of the Church. But besides the drains upon the exchequer of the Church already enumerated, there was a further demand on it, expressed in general terms in the Acts by the phrase, " they parted it to all men as every man had need,"^ — a phrase interpreted more specifically by Justin Martyr, of orphans, widows, sick destitute persons, pri- soners, and strangers.* 1 am endeavouring, it will be remembered, to develope and pursue even to its ramifications, a system of teaching and polity laid down by the Apostles which gave sta- bility to the early Church, and in which it did in fact continue stedfast ; not conducting my inquiry arbitrarily and as fancy leads the way, but on the principle that the phraseology of the Canonical Scriptures on these points, being often very brief and succinct, does at the same time unequivocally indicate the primary lines of a system which receives its interpretation from the aspect the Church presents in its structure immediately afterwards, and of which we are in possession ; the more complete portraiture concurring, be it observed, in every particular, with the less formal one, so far as the features of the latter can be produced. ^ Euseb. Eccl. Hist. v. 6. 28. I ^ ^g|.g j^^ 45 2 Dialog. § 48. I ' 1 Apol. § 67. 32 HISTOEY OF Chap. II. But the verse in the Acts which we are evolving pro- ceeds to say, that the first converts continued stedfast "in the fellowship {Koivtovla) and the breaking of the Bread, and the Prayers." It is possible that whilst en- larging on the frequent meaning of the word " teaching," I may have already anticipated something which would have fallen better under the head " fellowship ;" that this would have been the occasion for pointing out those ecclesiastical rules and regulations which I have sup- posed the Apostles themselves to have dispersed, and even under higher authority than their own, and that the terra " fellowship " applies principally to these ; I shall take the term, however, in the sense in which Bishop Pearson understands it in this place, and consider the " fellowship " or " communion " and " the breaking of the Bread" to stand in close combination, and to indicate that another bond by which these first Christians were joined to the Apostles, to one another, and to a unity in Christ, was a collective participation in the Lord's Supper ; the same combination occurring in the Epistle to the Corinthians, — " the Bread which we break, is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ ? " — and I shall further consider "the Prayers," to mean especially, though it may not be exclusively, the primitive Liturgy according to which that Sacrament was administered. As, "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," we saw, was one of the farewell injunctions of our Lord, and was instantly adopted by the disciples and early Christians, when He was gone ; so, " This is my Body, which is given for you ; do this in remembrance of me," was the other farewell injunction, which was held no less sacred ; and accordingly the great feature of public worship in the primitive Church, the pivot of its services, at once became the partaking of the Holy Communion. A Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 33 single expression suffices to prove this ; " when the dis- ciples were met together to break Bread,'' being at once seen to be equivalent to assembling for devotion in the Church. The earliest account we have, after the Apostles' times, of the Sunday Services of the Christians, supports this assertion. The Mass, which continued to be the paramount service of the mediaeval Church, clenches the evidence. This participation in the Lord's Supper appears to have been a formal act, according to the very earliest notices we have of it, both canonical and patris- tical, an act accompanied by a solemn ceremonial. On one occasion, St. Paul, when speaking of the administra- tion of this Sacrament, uses the phrase, " The cup of blessing, which we bless,'' ^ implying a prayer of consecra- tion; and the same inference may be drawn yet more certainly from another passage in the same Epistle, the irreverence of the Corinthians leading the Apostle to touch on the subject repeatedly, and thus to afford us information on it, which but for that might have been lost — " Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned {rov l8ta>Tov) say Amen at thy giving of thanks (or at thy Eucharist, eVt tt} ay ev^apiaTia), seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest?"^ — where the Apostle contem- plates the celebration of the Eucharist in a language unknown to the congregation ; in which case, says he, how is the blessing pronounced by the minister over the Bread and the Wine to be understood by the people, and the several parts of the Liturgy to be properly recognised, so that they may themselves take their share in it ? — For in the terms, " when thou shalt bless," and, " at thy giving of thanks," there is comprised, almost beyond a doubt, a service of considerable detail. Justin Martyr, who lived so very soon after the Apostles, actually affirms as much ; » 1 Cor. X. 16. I 2 ibij, xiv. 16. 34 HISTOKY OF Chap. II. the officiating minister, according to him, offering up prayers and thanksgivings at much length.^ And St. Chrysostom evidently supposes this passage of the Apostle to have a reference to such a formulary then in use; " for," says he, in commenting on the text of the Epistle to the Corinthians, " what the Apostle means is this : if you bless in a strange language, the layman, not knowing what you are uttering, and not able to interpret it, cannot add the Amen; for, not hearing the 'world without end,' which is the conclusion (of the prayers), he does not repeat the Amen."^ And Irenseus incidentally men- tions this very same phrase as one which was used by the Church at the Eucharist, and describes the Heretics as founding an argument on it in favour of tbeir CEons, the els Tovs alcovas tcov alwvcov, construed by them to suit their own purposes.'' Moreover, the very casual manner in which the allusion to the office for the Eucharist is introduced by him, proves beyond dispute that it was one perfectly familiar to those for whom he was writing ; an established formulary of the Church, in fact, at that time, and this was the second century; nay, more, I am of opinion, though I have never seen the remark made, that the " Ter Sanctus " is glanced at as an ingredient in the Communion Service, even by Clemens Romanus, actually the contemporary of the Apostles. That Tertullian has a notice of it has been ever acknowledged,* and that has been regarded as the first ; but I suspect we have here an indication of it even prior to him — " Let us observe," writes Clemens, " the whole multitude of his Angels, how they stand by, and minister {Xecrovpyoua-Lv) unto Him — for the Scripture saith, Ten thousand times ten thousand stood beside Him, and thousand thousands mi- ^ Apol. § 87. '^ Quoted by Mr, Pahner, Orif Liturg. ii. p. 115. 3 Iren. i. c. 3, 5 4 De Orat. § 3. Chap. II. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 35 nistered (eXeirovpyovv) unto Him, and cried ' Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Hosts, all creation is full of his glory.' And accordingly let us, when assembled together with one mind in the same place (eVt to avro), conscientiously cry aloud to Him lustily as with one mouth, in order that we may be made partakers of his great and glorious promises."^ Independently even of the general impres- sion which this passage is calculated to produce, there is in it an adoption of several of the peculiar terms of the nomenclature of the Church, which is significant — atten- tion drawn to the ministration of the Angels {Xeirovpyovacv eXetrovpyovv) ; and to the assembly " in one and the same place" a phrase certainly indicating the room in which the congregation met together on Sunday, in the language of Justin Martyr.^ Those who have not been in the habit of investigating early ecclesiastical antiquity, must ever bear in mind that incidents of the kind here gathered up are not elements on which a lively imagina- tion erects an ideal superstructure, but are simply the primary evidence of an organization, an indisputable organization, which comes out more and more distinctly in the documents of each successive generation ; and the foundations of w^hich were, as I have said, laid in the very depths of the Christian sera. They must learn that nothing is more correct than Bishop Pearson's notice, that "the greatest use of ecclesiastical history is this: to mark the true origin of every opinion, and observe the rise, not merely of heresies and schisms, but of the dog- mas and rites of the Church itself " ^ They must carry along with them, that the hints which I have been developing from the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, or the Christian writings next in date to those, actually ' Clemens, § 34. 2 Jus. Mai't. 1 Apol. § 67, lit) TO uino crvie\iV(XK; yivsTwt. ^ Minor Theolog. Works, 339. 36 HISTOEY OF Chap. II. grow into positive certainty a generation or two later, when the means of research are multiplied; insomuch, that we can pick many fragments of the Primitive Li- turgy out of Justin;' out of Irena^us;^ out of Tertul- liau ;' and especially out of Cyprian, who, besides leaving on record detached passages of it,* in one place expressly mentions "the usual Prayer"' in the Eucharist,' whilst describing the case of a female fanatic who affected to consecrate the elements by a ritual of her own — and if it be contended that by the "usual Prayer" is here meant the " Lord's Prayer," which St. Jerome does not scruple to affirm was used daily at the Eucharist by the Apostles, according to their Lord's command,' still this would prove that a service there was of greater length than the injunction of our Lord with respect to the Eucharist literally construed would seem to imply, and that of such service the Lord's Prayer was an invariable part. But "the Prayers" to which reference is made in the Acts as a bond of union amongst the members of the early Church, may have a wider meaning than those of the Communion Office or Liturgy properly so called. It is equally certain that there was a public form of Bap- tism of the most primitive, even of an apostolical, date ; which was a centre of union of the utmost efficacy. And here, as before, the traces of the form are discoverable even in Scripture itself. Thus, when in the First Epistle of St. Peter it is said, " The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience '^ Justin Mart. 1 Apol. § 13 ; Dialogue, § 35. 133. ^ Irenseus, i. c. 21, § 3. =» Tertullian, Apol. § 39 ; De Orat. § 29. 4 Cyprian, Ep. 31; Ad Denie- triaram, 223. ^ Ep. 75. 6 Adv. Pelag. iii. c 15. Chaf. it. the cheistian chuech. 37 toward God,"^ the stipulation or promise made at that Sacrament is clearly al hided to in the term "answer," which conveys the idea, as Hooker himself holds,^ of the interrogatories put at Baptism even then, from the very first ; and a corresponding hint is dropped in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where mention is made in continual sequence, of the foundation of Repentance from dead works, and of Faith towards God, and of the doctrine of Baptism,^ and the ground is still further narrowed, the very subject of that "answer" or stipulation before re- ferred to transpiring, namely, an assurance given by the party before the administration of the rite, of his Re- pentance, and of his Faith ; the whole a provision very brief, as set down in these few words of Scripture, but, if we have put a right interpretation on them, pregnant with much detail; for the "Repentance" implies a re- nunciation of sin, and probably a form of renunciation ; and " the Faith" implies no less a confession of certain fundamental articles of Faith, and probably a rule of Faith embodying them in a summary, or in other words a Creed — both which formularies we can prove to have existed in an age very close to the apostolical ; and there- fore we may conjecture with great probability, under the guidance of these hints in Scripture, that both of them existed in the apostolical age itself. For here again, as before, we cannot be charged with rearing a theory with- out a base ; the superstructure positively exists, and rises upon the very lines thus traced out in Scripture, leading us to the inevitable conclusion, that more is meant in the unevolved terms of Scripture than a superficial reader of them would imagine. For what wonder that these great elements of the Church and her services should have to be carefully and patiently investigated before they can be > 1 Pet. iii. 21. I 392, Keble'sEd. "" Eccl. Pol. V. 63 ; vol. ii. p. | "" Heb. vi. 1, 2. 38 HISTORY OF Chap. II. :4 ^r^ fully« perceived and acknowledged ? How constant an element in the devotions of the early Christians must have been the " Lord's Prayer ! " So comprehensive a prayer as it was ever reputed to be — commended to the Church, as it was, by injunctions so authoritative and so touching — doubtless the worship of the most primitive age, whether in private or public, was never completed without it; yet the evidence for the use of it in the Canonical Scriptures is most indirect and evasive ; as much so as that for the use of a Creed or for interrogatories at Baptism ; or of a thanksgiving and ceremonial bene- diction over the Eucharist. We find, perhaps, an allu- sion to it in the form which an exclamation takes as recorded in the twenty-first chapter of the Acts.^ When the brethren of Csesarea besought Paul not to go up to Jerusalem, and when he would not be persuaded, the narrative continues, " we ceased," saying, " the will of the Lord be done,'' a familiar quotation of the corresponding clause in the prayer. And in the Second Epistle to Timothy,^ we have a clearer case, inasmuch as the coin- cidences between the passage and the prayer in this instance are several in number : " And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom : to whom be glory for ever and ever, Amen .'" — the resemblance, however, very much closer in the Greek than in the English. I do not think another place in the New Testament could be pointed out which would argue an acquaintance of the primitive Christians with the Lord's Prayer, or their habitual in- ■^ Acts xxi. 14. 2 2 Tim. iv. 18. K«* po-frai 7UV odmav. 'Ajj.yiv. Comp. Matt. vi. 13. 'AX^a yi So^a, I'n; Toiig uliO)ia.i;, 'Ajot^v. A strong argument, by the by, may be drawn from hence for the genuineness of the Doxology in the Lord's Prayer. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHUECH. 39 troduction of it into their ritual. But it is certain, that the brief expressions in the Canonical Scriptures which I have quoted, significant, as I have contended, of pro- mises and vows, renunciations of sin and confessions of Faith, even then made at baptism, are in full accordance, as in the former case of the office of the Eucharist, with the practice of the age immediately succeeding, when the evidence becomes clear and not to be mistaken or mis- represented : Tertullian, Origen, Hippolytus, Cyprian, all referring repeatedly to these renunciations^ the very word still retaining its place in our Catechism;^ the same or other testimony of even earlier date still equally refer- ring to these confessions of Faith i"^ Cyprian, indeed, who, on all these subjects is invaluable, from the greater pre- cision with which he is apt to speak on them, marks the orderly nature of the service according to which baptism was administered, whilst denouncing the practice of an heretical female (not the same as before mentioned) who took upon herself to baptize, "making use," says Cyprian, "of the ordinary and legitimate words of the interrogatories, for the purpose of seeming to differ in nothing from ecclesiastical rule^''^ The argument for the like early use of other offices in the Church may be less cogent ; the traces of them less distinctly apparent in the Scriptures of the New Testa- ment — perhaps, in some cases, not discoverable there at all ; nevertheless, existing in all probability in the times of the Apostles, and in several instances their existence, J Terttillian, Ad Martyr. § 3 ; De Baptismo, § 18; Origen, Ex- hortatio ad Martyr. § 12 ; Hip- polytus, Theophan. § 10 ; Cy- prian, Ep. 6 ; De Bono Patien- tiffi, p. 251. ^ Irengeus, i. c. ix. § 4; Ter- tullian, De Spectac. § 4 ; De Vir- gin. Veland. § 1 ; De Prescript. Hseret. § 21 ; Clemens Alex. Stromat. vii. § 15, p. 887. ^ Cyprian, Ep. 85. 40 HISTOEY OF Chap. II. at a period soon after, at least, matter of certainty, and admitting of demonstration. Thus that there was a form for Confirmation in the very beginning of the Chm-ch is more than credible. The imposition of hands, and prayer for the Holy Ghost, which constitute the features of this ordinance as administered by the Apostles Peter and John to the parties whom Philip the Deacon had baptized, are preserved and as- sume the aspect of a fixed rite in Cyprian, who grounds the practice of the Church in his own day on this aposto- lical precedent, and speaks of those " who had been baptized being presented to the prelates, that by their 'prayer and imposition of hands they might receive the Holy Ghost," ^ a mode of expression very consistent with an usage even then old and established. The same may be said of a service for marriage : this, too, was very pro- bably a set form even in the most primitive times — certainly in Tertullian's age it was so ; and the terms in which he mentions it indicate that it had long been so. " Who can tell," says he, " the happiness of a marriage which the Church cements and the Eucharist confirms?"^ — then, as subsequently in the mediaeval Church, the Sacra- ment of the Holy Communion accompanying it, the trace of which even yet remains in the rubric of our own Prayer Book, which aflSrms it to be convenient that the new-married persons should receive the Holy Communion at the time of the marriage, or at the first opportunity after their marriage. And when one sees in the early Liturgies, as one does ever afterwards in the mediaeval, the witnesses of the marriage represented as God, the congregation assembled, and the angels, one may suspect that this last was certainly a clause in the original and primary office, so consistent as it is, both in letter and 1 Cyprian, Ep. 73. I "" Ad Uxor. ii. c. 28. Chap. II. THE CHEISTIAN CHURCH. 41 spirit, with that passage in the Epistle to the Corinthians, which enjoins the women to wear a veil on their heads when in Church, because of the angels; an injunction which might seem to have an especial propriety on such an occasion as at their nuptials ; and that in expunging this paragraph of the service at the Reformation, as we did, we suppressed a feature of the most extreme and reverend antiquity. I will add, that a passage in Eusebius tends very much to confirm the evidence I have already given of the ex- istence of a most primitive Ritual in the Church, which descended from generation to generation ; for, having occasion to mention Philo and a book of his, in which he describes the habits of the Therapeutas — a sect in Egypt, which Eusebius seems disposed to think were, in fact, the first Christians, the name of Christian not having then reached that country — he proceeds : " This same Philo is reported to have had communication with Peter at Rome, who was preaching the Gospel to the inhabitants of that city ; and this is not improbable, for the work of his, of which I am speaking, and which he composed at a later period, clearly comprises the canons of the Church observed by us even to the present time."^ Now, as this supposed intercourse of Philo with St. Peter is represented as oc- currinof under Claudius, whose rei^n ended in a.d. 54, it may be presumed that Eusebius considered the ecclesi- astical regulations of his own day to have been in exist- ence even so early as that date, and to have been imparted to Philo by St. Peter, or, in other words, that Eusebius regarded the ordinances of the Church of his time to be apostolical. ^ Eccl. Hist ii. c. 17. 'Ette* K«*