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APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
B
APOSTOLIC ORDER
AND UNITY
ROBERT BRUCE, M.A., D.D. (T.C.D. & Oxon.)
VICAR OF S. NICHOLAS AND HON. CANON, DURHAM
LATE PROFESSOR OF PERSIAN IN UNIV. COLI,. LOND.
TRANSLATOR OF BIBLE AND BOOK OF COMMON
PRAYER INTO PERSIAN, ETC.
EDINBURGH
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET
1903
PRINTED BV
MORRISON AND OIBB LtMITLD,
FOR
T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH,
LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED.
NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER's SONR.
TO
The Right Rev.
HANDLEY C. G. MOULE, D.D.
LOKD BISHOP OF DURHAM
BY KIND PEEMISSION
THIS BOOK IS VERY RESPECTFULLY
DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR
PREFACE.
A RESIDENCE of thirty-five years (1858-1893) as
a missionary of the Church Missionary Society, in
the Punjab and Persia, has naturally taught me to
regard the differences of ecclesiastical organisation
between various Christian Churches as of trifling
importance, compared with the gulf which separates
Christendom from Heathendom.
In both those lands I found missionaries of non-
Episcopal Churches, in Great Britain and America,
doing just as great and good a work for Christ
as we were doing ; and, so far from being able to
look down on them as in any way inferior to
myself, I esteemed it a privilege to sit at the feet
of a Duff in Calcutta, a "Wilson in Bombay, a
Newton in the Punjab, and many others, and seek
to learn of them the best means to win souls for
Christ.
In those days there was no let or hindrance to
missionaries of all Protestant and Evangelical
Churches exercising the rites of hospitality towards
one another, and living on terms of perfect inter-
viii PREFACE
communion and brotherly fellowship ; and thus
manifesting to the heathen that unity of the Spirit
which our Lord prayed might exist between all
His disciples. The differences of organisation that
existed among us were therefore no stumbling-
block to the unbelievers, but rather the contrary.
During those thirty-five years a great change
had taken place in our beloved Church in the
Home Land ; doctrines were taught and ceremonies
practised which had been almost unknown in the
Eef ormed Church of England since the Eeformation ;
and that Church had become divided into two
almost hostile camps. Both camps, indeed, yearned
for unity with other Churches ; but one of them
openly professed to seek that unity (or rather
uniformity) with the foreign Churches of Greece
and Kome, while the other sought for unity of the
Spirit with their own fellow-countrymen and fellow-
Christians at home. The one party gave the pre-
eminence to what they called apostolic organisation,
the other to apostolic doctrine and practice. One
could not but perceive that by this division in our
own ranks, and by the efforts of many of our clergy
to undo the work of the Eeformation, the breach
between us and all other Eeformed Churches, in
England, Scotland, on the Continents, and in
America, was sadly widened, and that all prospects
of winning back our Nonconformist brethren to
their mother Church were rendered hopeless. The
question, which of the two camps has truth on its
side, could not be shirked.
PREFACE ix
Having failed to discover in Holy Scripture any
foundation for the novel doctrines which had caused
the division in our own Church, I determined to
study the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, and
see what they had to say on the subject. I formed
this resolution solely with a desire to enlighten my
own ignorance, and without any intention of pub-
lishing the result of my study. The pleasure and
profit I have derived from it, added to the fact
that I know of no Church history which does full
justice to this, the most important of all periods
of the history of the Church, namely, from a.d. 70
to A.D. 130, convinced me that it was my duty to
make known to others, who may not have had
leisure for the study of these Fathers, what I had
so much enjoyed for myself, and what had so
greatly strengthened my belief in the fundamental
truths of our holy faith as handed down to us,
first by the apostles, and then by our Eeformers.
I have spared no trouble to make the little book
quite exhaustive of all passages contained in the
Christian writings of the first hundred and thirty
years of our era, inspired and uninspired, which
throw any light on apostolic order as a basis for
unity between various Christian Churches. I have
tried to let facts speak for themselves, and to add
nothing of my own but what seemed to me to be
the plain deductions which any unprejudiced student
would draw from them.
I trust that the many imperfections which readers
will find in my work will only induce them to study
X PREFACE
the word of God and the writings of the Apostolic
Fathers for themselves, and I humbly and earnestly
pray that the Spirit of truth may forgive the im-
perfections of it, and vouchsafe to use it for His
own glory, and to hasten the day when " all
Christians shall be one, even as the Father and the
Son are one, that the world may believe " that
Christ is their Saviour.
ROBEET BRUCE.
St. Nicholas' Vicarage, Durham,
December 25, 1902.
CONTENTS.
PAOB
Introduction 3
I. The First Generation (of the First Century) . 8-13
Our Lord's Teaching. Two meanings of the term
Ecdesia : The New Testament Ecdesia the ful-
filment of that of the Old : Apostles : an 1
Sacraments.
II, The Second Generation 14-34
Its Duration ........ 14
The Apostles ........ 15
Strange Facts concerning the Twelve Apostles . 16
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit . . . . 18
The Temple and the Synagogue . . . . 19
Church Organisation in the Acts and the Epistles
(exclusive of " the Hebrews "and the Writings
of St. John) 24
The Vital Importance of the Question ... 28
Sacerdotalism ........ 30
III. The Third Generation 35-45
Its Duration ........ 35
The Epistle to the Hebrews 35
St. John the Divine 39
xn
CONTENTS
PAGE
Heresy aud False Doctrine 40
The Sacraments ....... 43
Unit}' or Uniformity 44
IV. Clement of Rome 46-67
The Epistle of the Church of Rome to the Church of
Corinth 46
The Personality of Clement 48
The Date and Occasion of writing the Epistle . . 51
On Love ........ 58
On Confession and Absolution . . . . 59
On Apostolic Order and Ministry .... 59
V. The Didache, ok "The Teaching of the Lord,
THEOUGH THE TWELVE ApOSTLES, TO THE
Nations" 68-89
69
70
70
71
71
The History of the Didache in the Ancient Church
The Author
The Date and Place of its Composition
Its Purpose and Scoi^e .....
Part I. §§ i.-vi. The First Christian Catechism
Part II. §§ vii.-xvi. On Rites, Ceremonies, and
Church Organisation
On Baptism .....
On Fasting and Prayer .
On the Eucharist ....
Apostles, Prophets, aud Teachers
First Apostles ....
Secondly Prophets
On the Duty of Hospitality to Apostles,
and others . . . ,
On Prophets and Teachers
The Local Ministry of Bishops and Deacons
Conclusion of the Didache .
, Prophets
72
72
73
75
78
78
80
81
81
85
CONTENTS xiii
PA8E
VI. Ignatius of Antioch 90-106
His Martyrdom 92
Heresies ........ 93
The Duty of Obedience and Submission to
Pastors 98
The Change in the Nomenclature of the Ministers . 101
VII. PoLYCARP OF Smyrna 107-119
Date of the Epistle Ill
Conclusion of the Epistle ..... 112
Fragment of Letter fi'om Irenseus, Bishop of
Lyons, to Victor, Bishop of Rome (a.d. 190-
194) 114
VIII. Some Deditctions from the Foregoing
120-123
IX. Ai'OSTOLic Succession (Audi Alteram Partem), —
" The Church and the Christian Ministry " (Gore)
124-137
Statement of the Thesis
Consequence of the Thesis
Sacerdotalism
Viri Apostolici
One Uniform Visible Church
Evolution . . . .
X. Conclusion .
Appendix A. — Legend of Martyrdom of Clement of
Rome ....
Appendix B. — Chief Priests
Appendix C, — QvaiaaTripioi/
Appendix D. — (P. 117)
Index ....
124
125
127
127
130
132
134
138
139
140
142
147
E E E A T A.
Page 35, line 10. — Bead "second and third," /or "first and
second."
Page 46, line 4. — Insert after " St. John," "Cyril's MS. being
little known in Europe till 1875."
Page 117, line 17.— Footnote, " See Ajipendix D."
PEAYER.
0 God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour,
the Prince of peace : Give us grace seriously to lay to heart the
great danger we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder us
from godly union and concord ; that, as there is but one Body
and one Spirit, and one Hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, one God and Father of us all, so we may henceforth
be all of one heart, and of one soul, united in one holy bond of
truth and peace, of faith and charity, and may with one mind and
one mouth glorify Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
Almighty and everliving God, who by Thy holy apostle hast
taught us to make prayers and supplications, and to give thanks
for all men : We most humbly beseech Thee to inspire continually
the universal Church with the spirit of truth, unity, and concord ;
and grant that all they that do confess Thy holy name may agree
in the truth of Thy holy word, and live in unity and godly love.
Grant this, 0 Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only Mediator
and Advocate. Amen.
" Quoiiiam totus Christus caput est et corpus . . . caput est
ipse Salvator iioster, passus sub Pontio Pilato, qui nunc postea
quam resurrexit a mortuis, sedit ad dexteram Patris, corpus
autem eius est Ecclesia ; non ista aut ilia, sed toto orbe diffusa ;
nee ea quae nunc est in liominibus qui presenteni vitam agunt,
sed ad earn pertinentibus etiam, his qui fuerunt ante nos et his qui
futuri sunt post nos usque in finem seculi. Tota etiam Ecclesia
constans ex omnibus fidelibus, quia fideles omnes membra sunt
Christi, habet illud caput positum in coelis quod gubernat corpus
suum ; ctsi separatum est visione, sed annectitur caritate."
St. Augustine.
APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY.
INTEODUCTION.
" The glory Thou hast given Me I have given them ;
that they may be one, even as we are one : I in them,
and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into
one ; that the world may know that Thou didst send
Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me "
(John xvii. 22, 23, K.V.).
The duty of seeking to " attain to the unity of
the faith " with all whom the Father loveth even as
He loveth the Son, is an essential part of the duty
of obeying the great command to " make disciples
of all nations." It is one of the blessed signs of the
times that, along with the revival of an interest in
missions, there has been a revival in almost all
Christian Churches of the acknowledgment of the
duty of prayer and effort that " all who call upon
Thy holy name may agree in the truth of Thy holy
word, and live in unity and godly love." But,
in addition to the duty of prayer and effort, know-
ledge is needed also, that in view of the many
4 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
churches and denominations, some of which may,
perchance, be heretical, we may know who they
are whom the Father loveth ; who those are for
whom our Lord specially prayed. There are two
things which separate various Christian bodies
from one another, namely, (1) different views re-
garding apostolic doctrine and apostolic ecclesias-
tical organisation ; and (2) the difference between
those who believe that " Holy Scripture containeth
all things necessary to salvation ; so that whatsoever
is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is
not to be required of any man, that it should be
believed as an article of the faith, or be thought
requisite or necessary to salvation," and those who
hold that the tradition and decrees of the Church
are equally binding with the commands of the
written word of God. With this latter wall of
separation the following pages will not deal.
Again there are two classes of seekers after unity
with members of denominations other than their own :
(1) those who regard ecclesiastical organisation as of
primary importance ; and (2) those who think apos-
tolic doctrine of far greater importance than outward
organisation. As a rule, it is only the former of these
two classes who find any difficulty in living in unity,
concord, and godly love with all those " who confess Thy
Holy Name." For differences of ecclesiastical organisa-
tion divide the Church far more than differences of
doctrine. It is worthy of note that all Churches lay
claim to be followers of apostolic orders of ministry,
and of the apostolic teaching as to sacraments, rites,
INTRODUCTION 5
and ceremonies. One would suppose that all searchers
after truth must agree that the question, " What is
apostolic in the ecclesiastical organisation of the
Church ? " must be decided, if not entirely by Scrip-
ture, certainly by Scripture and the writings of the
Fathers of the Church in the first century after the
ascension of the Lord, and that later developments in
Church organisation, whether beneficial or not to the
hene esse of the Church, cannot lay claim to be con-
sidered apostolic ; and that different Churches ought
to agree to differ about them, and not to allow them
to be a hindrance to godly union and concord be-
tween their members. This all-important century
(from A.D. 30 to A.D. 130) is the century of the
writings of the apostles and evangelists, and of the
" apostolic Fathers." One of the apostles, St. John
the Divine, lived through two-thirds of it, and the
Canon of Holy Scriptures was closed by him not long
before A.D. 100. There are only three names of
note among " the apostolic Fathers," and they are
the names of three great saints and martyrs whose
writings not only cast almost all the light we can
desire on the history of the ecclesiastical organisa-
tion of the Church, but are also profitable for in-
struction in righteousness ; those names are Clement
of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp of
Smyrna. Besides these there are four other writings
generally included in " the apostolic Fathers," namely,
" the Didach6," " the Epistle of Barnabas," " the
Shepherd of Hernias," and " Fragments of Papias."
Of these the Didache, though very inferior to the
6 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
writings of the three great apostolic Fathers, is well
worthy of study, as it throws considerable light, as a
historic document, on the organisation of the Churches
with which the unknown author was conversant ;
the other three throw no additional light upon the
subject, and may be passed over.
These four documents, the Epistles of Clement,
Ignatius, and Polycarp, and the Didache, can be
read in a single day, and all that is knowable in
regard to ecclesiastical organisation can be learned
from them in a very short space of time ; but it is
necessary for the earnest student first of all to lay
the foundation of a thorough knowledge of all that
is contained on the subject in the Scriptures of
truth, remembering that even in the time of the
apostles " the mystery of iniquity did already
work," and " many false prophets had gone out
into the world " ; remembering also the apostolic
injunction, " Try the spirits whether they be of
God ! "
The New Testament itself covers a century, and
naturally divides itself into three nearly equal
periods, three generations of human life, of about
thirty-three years each. One biography, that of
the God-Man, Jesus Christ, gives us the history of
the first, that of St. Paul is of paramount import-
ance in the second, and that of St. John in the
third generation. The third of these periods differs
from the former two ; for whereas we have more
perfect biographies of our Lord and St. Paul than
of any other great men of olden times, what has
INTRODUCTION 7
come down to us about St. John can hardly be
called a biography. With the martyrdoms of St.
Peter, St. Paul, and St. James the Lord's brother,
and the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70), the history of
the Church is broken off for a season ; it was said
to have passed through a tunnel, and not to have
come to light again till Ignatius and Polycarp wrote
their letters, between A.D. 110 and a.d. 120. The
lives of the other apostles were lost in oblivion, and
the writings of St. John alone remained. This is no
longer the case, as two other writings, " the Epistle
of the Church at Eome to the Church at Corinth "
by Clement, and " the Teaching of the Lord through
the Twelve Apostles to the Nations," known as
" the Didache," both written before the close of the
century, but only lately made known in Western
Christendom, now cast valuable light upon it.
If to the three generations contained in the New
Testament history we add one generation more, we
shall embrace all the writings of the apostles,
apostolic men, and apostolic Fathers. A careful
and prayerful study of these four generations should
teach every honest student of Church history all
that is knowable of what is truly apostolic in the
ecclesiastical organisation of the Church, and be a
help towards casting down the walls of separation
between various Christian Churches, or, at least, of
discerning between the limits of the city of God
defined by the Spirit of God and the walls of
separation built by man.
I.
THE FIEST GENEEATION.
Our Lord uses the term Ecdesia only twice, and on
each occasion with a different extension of the word.
In Matt. xvi. 18, "I will build My Church," He
means the Church catholic or universal ; and in
Matt, xviii. 17, "Tell it unto the Church," He
designates by the term the local body of believers
residing in one locahty. Ignatius is the first Chris-
tian writer who uses the term " Catholic Church,"
and he defines it as " wheresoever Jesus Christ is,
there is the Catholic Church." Our Lord, speaking
of the local Church says, " Where two or three are
gathered together in My name, there am I in the
midst of them" (Matt, xviii. 20). In all our efforts
to ascertain what is truly apostolic in the organisa-
tion of the Christian Church, it will be necessary
to bear in mind these two meanings of the term
Ecdesia ; for the question relates not only to orders
of ministry, rites, and ceremonies in the imiversal
Church, but also to the same in each local Church
or congregation.
Our Lord and Master (and it is with His teaching
alone that we have to do in the first generation)
THE FIRST GENERATION 9
makes it very plain that He intended all His
disciples to be joined together in one Church, one
living organisation ; organised, in the highest sense
of the term, as a living body, indwelt and
quickened by one Spirit ; a body of which He
was to be the ever-present Head, and every believer
a living member, united to Him and to one
another by one Spirit, the Lord, and the Giver
of life. This essential principle so permeates all
His teaching that we need not quote any texts to
prove it.
While He taught that the Old and the New
Testament Ecclesice were essentially one, and that
He came not to destroy the Old, but to fulfil it in
the New, He emphasised many points of difference
between them. No race or family was to have
pre-eminence in the New ; for all nations were to
be made His disciples (Matt, xxviii. 19) ; entrance
into it was to be not by natural, but by spiritual
birth, and the only condition of entrance was to be
faith in Him (John i. 12, iii. 36); as He, being
received into the heart by faith, was to be the
life of the believer, so, being fed upon by faith. He
was to be to them " the hread of life that came
down from heaven" {ibid. vi. 35). There was to
be no holy city for the true Israel {ibid. iv. 21);
no house of God except " the temple of His body "
{ibid. ii. 19-21); no priestly class were to have
any pre-eminence in it (Matt, xxiii. 8), for He
was their head, and they were all members of His
body (John xv. 1-13); and all believers were to
lo APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
receive the Holy Spirit equally only on the
condition of believing on Him (ibid. vii. 37-39).
Many other points of difference between the Old
and the New, and of the fulfilment of the former
in the latter, will be recalled to mind ; let these
suffice.
He appointed no order of ministers except the
twelve apostles, with St. Peter as their president.
Whether their ministry was to be permanent or
temporary, and whether they were to have successors
in their office or not, the history of the next century
will decide. Of rites and ceremonies He only
instituted two — (1) Holy Baptism, to be "the
outward and visible sign " of the gift of life, which
it was the great object of His mission to bestow on
all who received Him into their hearts by faith
(1 John V. 12); and the Holy Communion, or the
Supper of the Lord, the outward and visible sign
of the food which He was to be to all who should
" feed upon Him in their hearts by faith."
Perhaps there is nothing so noteworthy in our
Lord's allusions to the future ministers of His
Church as His frequent and most solemn warnings
against ecclesiastical assumptions and priestly pride.
The apostles disputed among themselves who
should be the greatest. " Jesus took a child, and
set him in the midst of them : and when He had
taken him up in His arms. He said unto them.
Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My
name, receiveth Me " (Mark ix. 36, 37) ; and, " Who-
soever, therefore, shall humble himself as this little
THE FIRST GENERATION ii
child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven "
(Matt, xviii. 4) ; and to His disciples He said, " Be
not ye called Eabbi : for one is your Teacher, even
Christ; and all ye are brethren." And "call no
man your father upon earth : for One is your Father,
which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters :
for One is your Master, even Christ. But he that is
greatest among you shall be your servant " (Matt,
xxiii. 8-11). And "Ye call Me Master and Lord:
and ye say well ; for so I am. If I then, your
Master and Lord, have washed your feet ; ye ought
also to wash one another's feet. For I have given
you an example, that ye should do as I have done
to you" (John xiii, 13—15).
The disobedience of the priests (so called) of
Christ's Church to these solemn commands and
warnings of the Master was one of the very earhest
sources from which have sprung the most anti-
Christian doctrines which have rent the body of
Christ, driven true believers into separation, and led
to acts of persecution, cruelty, and tyranny greater
than any that have stained the annals of the king-
doms of this world.
We have an instance of it in the days of St.
John in the case of Diotrephes, of whom Canon
(now Bishop) Gore writes : " We shall be inclined
to see in Diotrephes, with his ambitious self-exalta-
tion and his power ' to cast out of the Church '
brethren who had come to him from St. John, one
of these local bishops who was misusing his
authority."
12 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
The only rites or ceremonies of the Jewish
Church which were, in an altered form, perpetuated
by Christ in His Church, were the two which were
older than the Aaronic priesthood, and in the
administration of which no priest, as such, took any
part. (1) Baptism, the seal of the New Covenant,
both by its nature as a rite and by the conditions
of the recipient, symbolises its superiority over
circumcision, the seal of the Old Covenant, in this,
that " there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female ; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus " (Gal.
iii. 28). All Churches agree that in the adminis-
tration of it neither priest nor ordained minister is
essential to its efficacy. (2) The sacrament of the
Lord's Supper is the only feast of the Christian
Church that was instituted by our Lord ; and the
Passover is the only festival of the Old Dispensation
which was instituted before the institution of the
Aaronic priesthood. No priest as such, according
to God's order, took any part in its administra-
tion. It was essentially a family festival, and
the father of the family was the administrator.
The paschal lamb was not a sacrifice for sin, like
the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement, but
a memorial of finished redemption and deliver-
ance from bondage. The Holy Communion is the
perpetuation of it, and it was as a family feast
in connection with the Agap6 that it was observed
by the apostles and their disciples. " And break-
ing bread at home, they did eat their meat with
THE FIRST GENERATION 13
gladness and singleness of heart" (Acts ii. 46,
E.V.).
" Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us once
for all (irvdij), therefore let us keep continual
festival " {eoprd^iofiev, 1 Cor. v. 7).
II.
THE SECOND GENERATION.
This period is longer than either of the other two
into which the history of the first century is
divided. It extends from the date of the Crucifixion
(a.d. 29) to the date of St. Paul's last Epistle, the
Second to Timothy (a.d. 67 or 68), over a period
of nearly thirty-eight years. Whether we consider
the quality or the quantity of the portions of Holy
Scripture which were written during these years, we
may say that never did " holy men of God, moved
by the Holy Ghost," write as they did then. It
was during this period that the whole of the New
Testament, with the exception of the Epistle to
the Hebrews and the writings of St. John, was
inspired. The three Synoptic Gospels, though
written, as we think, in this period, belong, as to
their substance, to the first generation, and have
been briefly considered under it ; all the other por-
tions of Scripture relate to the foundation, growth,
and organisation of the Church during the second
generation, and belong to it.
THE SECOND GENERATION 15
The Apostles.
The twelve apostles of the cu-cumcision were, as
we have seen, chosen, called, and commissioned by
our Lord Himself in His lifetime ; He not only
called them by name, but He gave them one of His
own titles ; for He is " the Apostle and the High
Priest of our profession." They were in no sense a
sacerdotal class ; they were not representatives of
the tribe of Levi or of the family of Aaron, but of
the twelve tribes of Israel ; and as such they were
emblems of the solidarity of the Old and New
Testament Churches ; and this character they will
bear in the New Jerusalem, where they " shall sit
upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes
of Israel." " And the city hath twelve gates — and
names written thereon, which are the names of the
twelve tribes of Israel. . . . And the wall of the
city hath twelve foundations, and in them the names
of the twelve apostles of the Lamb" (Eev. xxi. 12,
14). Their special calling was to be witnesses to
Israel of the resurrection of the Christ ; and " to
stand at the head of the renewed Israel, in the same
manner as the twelve sons of Jacob did at the head
of the old Israel." ^
While the disciples waited for the descent of the
Holy Spirit, the incompleteness of their number,
caused by the fall of Judas, was a defect ; it may be
that, in the wisdom of God, the Comforter could not
come till their number was filled up. St. Peter speaks
' Baumgavten, Ajwst. Christ, i. 34.
i6 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
twice of a necessity : it was necessary, according to
the Scriptures, that Judas should fall ; and " it is
necessary," according to the same Scripture, " that
another take his office" (Acts ii. 16, 20). In
answer to the prayer of the whole assembly the
Lord showed which of the two He had chosen,
"and Matthias was numbered with the eleven
apostles." The Twelve were rather foundation
stones of the Chiu'ch than rulers over it, though for
a season they were that also. " It was built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ Himself being the chief Corner-stone."
They had no monopoly of the grace and gifts of
the Spirit ; even the higher gifts of speaking with
tongues and prophecy were bestowed on all the
members of the body (Acts ii. 4, iv. 31). Yet St.
Luke places them, in the measure and use of the
gifts, on a far higher platform than the other
disciples ; and St. Peter, whom the Lord appointed
as their president, is raised above them, not only in
the history of the Church in Jerusalem, but also as
being the one whom " God made choice of among
them to open the door of faith unto the Gentiles "
(Acts X. and xv. 7).
Strange Facts concerning the Twelve
Apostles.
The Holy Scriptures throw hardly any light
whatever upon the characters and lives of any of
the Twelve, with the exception of St. Peter and St.
THE SECOND GENERATION 17
John ; and Church history for a hundred years
after the fall of Jerusalem tells nothing about their
several spheres of labour beyond the confines of the
Holy Land. They were apostles of the circum-
cision (Gal. ii. 9), and the apostolate of St. Paul and
St. Barnabas to the Gentiles was a separate office,
instituted, as theirs had been, by the Lord Himself
(Acts ix. 15, xiii. 2). In keeping with this is the
fact that we have no authentic account of any one
of them having founded a Gentile Church, or, with
the exception of St, Peter in the house of Cornelius,
having preached a sermon to a Gentile audience.
The last mention of them as a college in the Scrip-
ture, is the statement, that when the lay Christians
were scattered abroad from Jerusalem, after the
martyrdom of Stephen, they went into the regions
of Judaea and Samaria, preaching the word, and the
apostles remained in Jerusalem. On two subsequent
occasions we read, " the apostles and brethren that
were in Judsea," and " the apostles and elders "
(Acts xi., XV., and xvi. 4) ; but on the second of
these occasions only two of the Twelve were present
in Jerusalem, and they acted rather as members of
the congregation than as rulers over it (Gal. ii. 9).
It was not an apostle, but " a disciple," who baptized
Saul of Tarsus, and who laid hands on him that he
might "receive his sight, and be filled with the
Holy Ghost" (Acts ix. 10, 17). It was a prophet,
Barnabas, not an apostle, who was sent to build up
the first Gentile Church in Antioch when it had been
founded by lay Christians.
i8 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
The Ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This belongs rather to the spiritual organisation
of the living body of Christ than to its outward
organisation, as a human society, by orders of
ministers ordained by man. The Lord Jesus, the
chosen servant of Jehovah, was anointed with the
Holy Spirit at Jordan ; in the power of the Spirit
He entered on His ministry ; He spake the words of
God, and did the works of God, because the Father
" gave Him the Spirit without measure " (John iii.
34). The twelve apostles were of the same order,
chosen and sent by Christ, and endued with power
from above. The members of the infant Church
were filled with the same Spirit, and spake with
tongues and prophesied (Acts ii. 4, iv. 31). But
though the laymen who laid the foundation of the
Church in Antioch, and, indeed, all the members
of the first Churches in Jerusalem, Samaria, and
Antioch, received the gift of prophecy, and although
St. Paul exhorts all Christians to seek it (1 Cor.
xiv. 1) ; yet there were, from the first, individuals
who received it in greater measure and retained it
more than others, so that they were designated by
various titles, corresponding to the special order of
the higher ministry of the Spirit for which each of
them received special gifts. Accordingly, we read
of " certain prophets who came from Jerusalem to
Antioch," of whom Agabus was one ; of " certain
prophets and teachers — in the Church at Antioch,"
among whom were Barnabas and Saul (Acts xiii. 1 ) ;
THE SECOND GENERATION 19
of "Judas and Silas being prophets" {ihicl. xv. 32);
and St. Paul tells us that the ascended Christ
" gave some to be apostles ; and some, prophets ;
and some, evangelists ; and some pastors and
teachers ; for the perfecting of the saints, unto the
work of ministering, unto the building of the body
of Christ" (Eph. iv. 11-13); and "God hath set
some in the Church, first apostles, secondly prophets,
thirdly teachers" (1 Cor. xii. 28). We shall find
from the study of the apostolic Fathers that these
three orders, namely, apostles, prophets, and teachers,
continued, till the end of the century at least, to
be recognised in the Church as clearly defined
orders of ministry, quite separate from the local
ministry.
The Temple and the Synagogue.
The temple was the centre of unity in the Old
Testament Ecclesia ; the synagogue gave room for the
diversities which existed between the various schools
of thought. " The sects in the Jewish common-
wealth," says Bishop Lightfoot, " were not, properly
speaking, nonconformists. They only superadded their
own special organisation to the established religion
of their country, which for the most part they were
careful to observe. The institution of the synagogue
was flexible enough to allow scope for wide diverg-
ences of creed and practice. Different races, as the
Cyrenians and Alexandrians, different classes of
society as the freedmen, perhaps also different
20 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
sects as the Sadducees or the Essenes, each had
or could have then- own special synagogue, where
they might indulge their peculiarities without
hindrance." ^
The whole institution of the temple, with its
high priest, priests, and Levites, its altar and sacri-
fices, was of Divine appointment ; the orders of
ministers in the synagogue were of human institu-
tion. In the worship of the synagogue there was
no place for priest, altar, or sacrifice ; and it was on
the pattern of the organisation of it, not on that
of the temple, that the Christian Ecdcsia was
organised.
" The Christian congregations in Palestine long
continued to be designated by the name synagogue
(Jas. ii. 2). With the synagogue itself they would
naturally, if not necessarily, adopt the normal govern-
ment of a synagogue, and a body of elders or pres-
byters would be chosen to direct the religious
worship, and partly also to watch over the temporal
well-being of the society. Hence the silence of
St. Luke. When he first mentions the presbyters,
he introduces them without preface, as though the
institution were a matter of course." ^
Offices in the Jewish Synagogue. — (1) There was a
college of elders or presbyters (Q'^i^T, Luke vii. 3).
They were also called Q^P^ia^ shepherds or pastors of
the flock (Eph. iv. 11); 7rpo€aTcor€<i, rulers (1 Tim.
v. 17); and rjjovfxepoc or leaders (Heb. xiii. 7).
^ Lightfoot, The Christian Ministry, p. 149.
- Ibid. p. 150.
THE SECOND GENERATION 21
(2) In every large synagogue there was a presi-
dent of the college of presbyters known as the Or^
or legatus. This office arose naturally out of the
former, as in every college of officers there must be
a chairman or president.
(3) There was a lower office, not so clearly de-
fined, designated as the ^''i^'^'^ or otiosi, and the
npnx~"'K33 or alms collectors, answering to the deacons
T T : •• T ~ ' o
in the Christian Churches. These last were re-
quired to be " men of good repute, of probity and
wisdom," the very qualities insisted on for the seven
in Acts vi.
It will be seen at once how closely the organisa-
tion of the synagogue was reproduced in the Chris-
tian Ecdesia^ whereas there is no shadow of an
attempt to reproduce the organisation of the temple
in it till after the end of the second century. The
orders of ministers in the synagogue were in no
sense necessary to the esse of the Old Testament
Ecclesia ; but those of the temple, the priests, the
altar, and the sacrifice were of the very essence of
it, and they were all fulfilled and done away in
Christ.
Until A.D. 70 the temple was the centre and
bond of union, not to the Jewish Ecclesia only, but
to all Christian Churches also. Not even to St.
Paul was it fully revealed, up to the time of his
last visit to Jerusalem, that all need of holy city
and house had been done away in Christ. We do
not agree with the words of a recent writer, " With
' Smith's Didioimnj of the Bible, art. "Synagogue."
22 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
the vision of a statesman and a judge he saw that
the Church must have an administrative centre, and
he was loyal to Jerusalem and to the apostles
there." Yet nothing, indeed, is more praiseworthy
in St. Paul than the manner in which he ever strove
to bring the Churches which he founded among the
heathen into the unity of the body of Christ, by
binding them, by every means in his power, to the
mother Church in the holy city. " Absolutely firm
in what he believed to be right ; absolutely con-
ciliatory and courteous wherever conciliation is
possible ; full of respect for the older apostles,
consulting them about his plans and intentions ;
full of joy when he found that they were in entire
agreement with him ; carrying help to them with an
air of deference, as of one receiving, not conferring,
aid. It is a model of behaviour in a younger and
more energetic man towards a body of authoritative
seniors." ^
And this is the more remarkable because more
than once he asserts his own entire independence
of them, and his equality with, if not superiority
over, them as " an apostle not of man nor by man,
but by the Lord Jesus Christ " ; " who laboured
more abundantly than they all ; yet not I, but the
grace of God which was in me."
This is most noteworthy in the case of St. Paul's
last missionary journey and last visit to Jerusalem.
He collects alms from the Churches of Galatia,
Macedonia, and Greece for the poor saints in Jeru-
THE SECOND GENERATION 23
salem ; brings with him six Gentile brothers as
representatives of the Churches ; treats the college
of presbyters and their president St. James in the
same conciliatory and courteous spirit as he had
treated the apostles on former visits ; and solicits
the prayers of Eoman Christians, " that my service
which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the
saints." When he arrives in Jerusalem he is ad-
vised by St. James and all the elders, as a matter
of expediency, to take a principal part with four
Christian brothers in a Jewish ceremony in which
offering a sacrifice on the altar was a part (Num. vi.
14). St. Paul does not seem to have had a thought
that doing so was inconsistent with his calling as
the Apostle of the Gentiles.
The Christian community in Judtea was not re-
garded as a separate religion ; they were only
regarded as one of the many synagogues of the
various sects into which the Ecclesia of the Jews
was divided, while all were bound together by their
reverence for the one temple. To the Christians as
well as to the Jews there was no earthly temple,
altar, priesthood, or sacrifice except those in the
holy city. An inspired writer at a later date, prob-
ably about A.D. 68, could say of our Lord Himself,
" If He were on earth He would not be a priest,
seeing that there are priests that offer gifts accord-
ing to the law " (Heb. viii. 4). Nothing can be
more evident than that there were no priests, altars,
or sacrifices in the Christian synagogues before the
fall of Jerusalem. If such were ever instituted in
24 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
the Christian Ecclesia it must have been after
A.D. 70,
Church Organisation in the Acts and Epistles
(exclusive of Hebrews and the Writings of
St. John).
Much confusion has arisen from not distinguish-
ing between the OTfjanisation of the Ecclesia as a
living body and its organisation as that of any other
body of men ; also by not differentiating between
what we call "the ministry of the Spirit" (1 Cor.
xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11, 12) and the local ministry.
On the former depended the esse of each Church ; on
the latter subsequently, owing to human weakness,
depended the hene esse of it ; and it was instituted
by the apostles under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit (Acts xx. 28).
The two representative Churches, Jewish and
Gentile, in Jerusalem and in Antioch existed and
flourished for some time, having only " the ministry
of the Spirit." In the former the twelve apostles
ruled for a time as a college, with St. Peter as their
president. The government was republican, not
monarchical ; St. Peter was in no sense monarch
over his colleagues, or over the Church, as the
bishops of Eome and of other Churches became in
after ages. This form of government was temporary,
for the apostles were not designed to become local
ministers in the Church in Jerusalem or in any
other Church.
THE SECOND GENERATION 25
The local Ministry. — The first order of local
ministers in the Church in Jerusalem was formed
after the model of the lowest order of ministers in
the Jewish synagogues. They answered to the
alms collectors, and were the beginning of what
afterwards became the order of deacons in almost
all, if not in all, churches (Acts vi.).
We next hear of a college of presbyters joined
in counsel and government with the apostles (Acts
xi. 30, XV. 2, 4, G, 22, 23, xvi. 4). On the first
of these occasions the presbyters are mentioned
alone ; the apostles were probably absent from Jeru-
salem, and the presbyters were in sole charge. In
the next stage of the history the apostles have
disappeared, and the government of the Church
is in the hands of the college of presbyters,
with St. James the Lord's brother as their pre-
sident (Acts xxi. 18). It was quite natural
that St. James' relationship to our Lord, and
his own striking personality and traditional as-
ceticism, should have raised him to a position of
authority above that of any ordinary president of
a synagogue.
The Church in Antioch. — The case of this first
Gentile Church is still more remarkable than that of
the first Jewish Church. It not only existed, but
grew into a fruit-bearing Church, sending forth the
first missionaries to the heathen, before any order of
local ministers was appointed over it. The only
ministry we hear of in it, up to the mission of
St. Paul and St. Barnabas, is " the ministry of the
26 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Spirit." It was founded by " men of Cyprus and
Gyrene, who, when they were come to Antioch,
spake unto the Greeks — preaching the Lord Jesus ;
and the hand of the Lord was with them." And
when " the report concerning them came to the ears
of the Church which was in Jerusalem," the Churcli
" sent forth Barnabas — a good man, and full of the
Holy Ghost and of faith." Not even tradition has
attempted to prove that St. Barnabas was conse-
crated Bishop of Antioch. Had St. Barnabas been
desirous to have the pre-eminence among them, he
would not have " gone to Tarsus to seek for Saul."
For a whole year " they (Barnabas and Saul) were
gathered together with the Church," And the
result of their joint government was that, for the
first time, the Christian Ecdesia is no longer re-
garded as a Jewish sect, but " the disciples were
called Christians first at Ajitioch." Antioch was
soon after visited by another prophet, Agabus of
Jerusalem ; and in consequence of his having fore-
told the approach of a famine, the disciples set on
foot the first Famine Belief Fund, and sent the
money collected by it " to the presbyters in Jeru-
salem by the hands of Barnabas and Saul " (Acts xi.
30).
As to the other Churches of the Gentiles, we read
that St. Paul and St. Barnabas on their return journey
" appointed presbyters in every Church " (Acts xiv.
23); and that St. Paul on his third missionary
journey summoned the presbyters of the Church in
Ephesus to meet him at Miletus, and exhorted them
THE SECOND GENERATION 27
to " feed (irotfiaivetv) the Chiirch of God which He
hath purchased with His own blood — over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops (eVto--
KOTTovs:)." In St. Paul's nine Epistles to the seven
Churches there is only one allusion to any order of
the " local ministry " — " Paul and Timothy, servants
of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus
which are in Philippi, with the bishops and
deacons" (Phil. i. 1). Prom this we learn that
there were in the one Church at Philippi, as in that
at Ephesus, a plurality of presbyters, who were also
designated bishops.
In the Pastoral Epistles only two orders of the
ministry are mentioned — presbyters or bishops ; the
term " bishop " being used in 1 Tim. iii. 1—7, and imme-
diately followed by " deacons " ; the term " presbyter "
being used in Tit. i. 5, and the same officer being
called " bishop " in ver. 7. St. James in his Epistle
exhorts the sick to call the presbyters of the Church
to pray over them ( Jas. v. 14); and St. Peter
exhorts the presbyters to feed (rrotfidvaTe) the flock
of God ; and he calls himself their fellow-presbyter
(o a-vfi7rp€a^vT€po<i) (1 Pet. v. 1, 4). St. John
twice styles himself "the presbyter" (2 John 1;
3 John 1). These are, we believe, all the passages
in the New Testament in which any orders of
the " local ministry " are mentioned by name.
They all agree in testifying to the fact that it vjos
the organisation of the synagogue, and not that of
the temple, that was perpetuated in the Christian
Ecclesia.
28 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
The Vital Importance of the Question.
The question, Which organisation, that of the
temple or that of the synagogue, was perpetuated
in the Christian Ecdesia ? is one of vital importance
to all who are sincerely desirous to obey our Lord's
command, and to seek to cultivate the imity of the
Spirit with all who are members of His body ; for on
it depends the answer to the question. Who are
members of the body of Christ ? Up to the time of
the Eeformation it was held, almost universally,
for a thousand years in Christendom (though there
were always bodies of Christians who denied it),
that the ministers of the New Testament were
officially sacerdotes, i.e. sacrificing priests, and that a
real power, which was superhuman and Divine, was
transmitted to them, by the sacrament of Laying on
of Hands by bishops, in a direct line from the
apostles and from Christ Himself ; and this is the
doctrine still taught by the Koman and the Orthodox
Eastern Churches, and by many in the Anglican
communion. This theory involves — (1) that the
Episcopacy as it now exists was instituted by Jesus
Christ ; (2) that without episcopal ordination there
can be no sacraments, no Church ; (3) that the body
of Christ is limited to those communities whose
bishops can trace their descent from the twelve
apostles, and that no others are members of
Christ's body.
All the three bodies mentioned above agree that
no non-Episcopalian is a member of the Catholic
THE SECOND GENERATION 29
Church ; but they differ in their beHef as to the
state of "those that are without." (1) The Eoman
community say, " No Pope, no Christian ! " (2) The
Greeks, "No bishop, no Christian !"i (3) The
Anglicans say, " Without a bishop one may be a
Christian but not a Churchman, or a member of the
body of Christ." Thus, according to the belief of
these three bodies, Episcopalianism, in the form
in which it now exists, is absolutely necessary to
the esse of a Church, more necessary, in fact, than
any other doctrine of the faith. It is no longer
" by their fruits ye shall know them," nor by their
living faith in a living Saviour, but by their belong-
ing to Eome, Moscow, or Canterbury. Some in our
own Church have exchanged the belief in " apostolic
succession," which is a comprehensible term, for one
quite incomprehensible and undefinable, namely,
belief in the " historic Episcopacy." The con-
^ The following is "Article X." of the Confession of Faith
drawn up by the Council of Bethlehem on the 20th of March
1672, and signed by Dositheus, Patriarch of Jerusalem ; Nec-
tarius, ex-Patriarch, seven other prelates, and sixty-one other
ecclesiastics : —
"That there is a visible Catholic Church; that episcopal
government is necessary to it ; that without this there can be
neither Church nor Christian ; that the power of the Episcopacy
is received by succession ; that the Episcopacy is entirely different
from and superior to tlie jyviesihood" {N exile's History of the Holy
Eastern Church, ii. 471).
It is a well-known rule of the Greek Church that no member of
any other Christian body is admitted to her communion except
on the condition of anathematising all the members of liis own
Church. The present Czarina is, we believe, the only person in
whose case an exception has been made to this rule.
30 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
sequence of such a doctrine is the excommunication
of all other Reformed communities or Churches in
Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, America,
Switzerland, France, and the British Empire, along
with the purest and most missionary of all Churches,
the Moravian,
Sacerdotalism.
By sacerdotalism is meant the dogma that our
Lord instituted in His Church a sacerdotal class of
sacrificing priests who can, like the Aaronic priest,
trace their descent by a regular line of spiritual
ancestors through the apostles to the great High
Priest, Jesus Christ. It is sad that so many earnest
believers in the Lord Jesus Christ should be led to
disbelieve in Episcopacy because of its supposed
connection with sacerdotalism. It is true that,
though Episcopacy can do very well without sacer-
dotalism, sacerdotalism cannot exist without Epis-
copacy. We must therefore ask, " Is there any
foundation in Holy Scripture for the claim made
by the sacerdotalist ? " And we answer emphatic-
ally, that there is none whatever. For (1) all the
passages which bear on the subject of the Christian
ministry, without any exception, agree in proving
that it was the organisation of the synagogue (with
its deacons, presbyters, and president), and not that
of the temple, that was perpetuated in the Christian
Church. (2) The term lepev^ or sacerdos is not
once used in Scripture, nor in any Christian writing
in the first two centuries of the Christian era, for a
THE SECOND GENERATION 31
minister of Christ.^ Neither " priest " nor " priest-
hood " occur in any of St. Paul's Epistles. St. Peter
calls all Christians " a holy priesthood " and " a royal
priesthood " ; and St. John calls them " a kingdom and
priests" (1 Pet. ii. 6, 9 ; Rev. i. 6). These are the
only passages in Scripture in which these terms are
used of Christians. (3) Until the fall of Jerusalem
(a.d. 70), the Christians continued to revere the
temple, priesthood, and sacrifices of the Old Dis-
pensation, and did not as yet see that they were
done away in Christ.
Many Christians are also prejudiced against Epis-
copacy (1) because of the unscriptural grounds upon
which too many of its upholders base it ; and (2)
because the term Episcopus had a very different
meaning in the days of the apostles and the apos-
tolic Fathers from what it bears now. In order to
prove that Episcopacy, as it now exists, is necessary
1 Bishop Gore, who is a strong advocate of sacerdotalism, acknow-
ledges that the term Priesthood is never applied to the Christian
ministry till the end of the second century.
" It will be observed that, whereas the conception of the Chris-
tian ministiy and pastorate of souls dates back behind our present
period into the immemorial past (sic), it is only at the beginning
of our period that the title of the priesthood begins to be applied
to it. Irenfeus and Clement do not speak of the Christian
ministers as priests, while TertuUian and Origcn do, so that it is
only towards the end of the second century that sacerdotal terms
begin to be applied to the clergy" (Gore, The Church and the
Minidry, p. 196).
Irenseus died about a.d. 200. TertuUian was converted to
Christianity about a.d. 192, and his literary activity lasted from
A.D. 198 to A.D. 220. Origen was born about a.d. 186, and his
writings belong entirely to the third century.
32 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
to the esse of a Church, it should be possible to show
evidence that it was the universal custom of the
apostles to consecrate a bishop over every Church
they founded. But so far is this from the case,
that there is no evidence in the writings of the
apostles and of the apostolic Fathers that any
apostle appointed a bishop to rule over any
Church.
(1) As to the twelve A'postles of the Circumcision.
— We have no account whatever in contemporary
history of any Church, except that in Jerusalem,
having been founded by them. St. Peter preached
to a Genbile congregation in the house of Cornelius,
and when they had been baptized by the Holy
Ghost, gave direction that they should be baptized
with water. Of their future history we know
nothing. St. Peter preached, chiefly to Jews, in
Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia
(1 Pet. i. 12 ; 2 Pet. i. 16); but the only order of
ministers he mentions in those Churches is that of
"presbyters" (1 Pet. v. 1). St. James also speaks
of " presbyters " only ( Jas. v. 1 4).
(2) The Apostles of the Un^ircumcision. — St. Paul
wrote his Epistle " To all that be in Eome, beloved
of God, called to be saints" in A.D. 60, probably
thirty years after the gospel had first been preached
in the great city, and we find no trace whatever of
any order of local ministry there. From the last
chapter of the Epistle we conclude that there was
as yet no one body of Christians who could be called
" the Church in Borne." St. Paul mentions several
THE SECOND GENERATION 33
groups of disciples in different parts of the great
metropolis, one of which he designates as " the
Church in the house of Priscilla and Aquila," from
which we infer that each several group was re-
garded by him as a Church. This may account for
the fact that when " he called the chief of the Jews
together" on his arrival in Eome, in a.d. 61, they
seemed to be quite ignorant of the fact that there
was a Christian Fcclesia in the city. There cer-
tainly was no bishop of the Church in Eome at that
time.
The history of the two other Churches, Ephesus
and Crete, throws important light on the question.
St. Paul was Hberated from his first imprisonment
in the spring of a.d. 63, and closed his second
imprisonment by suffering martyrdom in a.d. 67 or
68. In the four years that elapsed between the
two imprisonments we can trace his steps, by the
help of the Pastoral Epistles, to Crete, Miletus,
Ephesus, Troas, Macedonia, and Nicopolis. Having
preached the gospel in Crete, he left his brother
missionary, Titus, there, to organise the Church and
ordain presbyters. On bidding farewell to the
Ephesians and starting for Macedonia, he left
another brother missionary, Timothy, there to with-
stand the false teachers who had already appeared
there, and to appoint presbyters and deacons. The
work of Titus in Crete was of short duration, for the
apostle summoned him to join him at Nicopolis,
where he had " determined to spend the winter " ;
and we hear of him for the last time in Dalmatia
3
34 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
(2 Tim. iv, 10). Timothy's stay in Ephesus was
not of much longer duration than that of Titus in
Crete ; for he, too, was called away by St. Paul to
bring Mark with him to Eome (2 Tim. iv. 9, 11).
" It is the conception of a later date," says
Lightfoot, " which represents Timothy as bishop
of Ephesus, and Titus as bishop of Crete. St.
Paul's own language implies that the position which
they held was only temporary."
What we do know for certain is that (1) there
was no bishop in either Crete or Ephesus in a.d. 63.
(2) That St. Paul instructed his fellow-labourers to
see that fit persons were appointed presbyters and
deacons ; and that, when he called them away from
their respective spheres of temporary labour, he
gave them no direction to appoint any Church officer
higher than the rank of presbyter in either of the
two Churches of Crete and Ephesus.
III.
THE THIED GENEKATION.
The second of the three generations into which the
history of the first century of the Christian Church
divides itself, ends with the martyrdoms of St, Paul,
St. Peter, and St. James the Lord's brother, about
A.D. 68, and the entire disappearance from contem-
porary history of the names of all the other apostles,
with the exception of St. John. The third genera-
tion covers a period of thirty-two years, from A.D. 6 8
to A.D. 100. The Epistle to the Hebrews forms the
link between the first and second generation, and
throws light on the organisation of the Church in
the third, rather than in the second generation.
It was probably written, about A.D. 68, to prepare
the disciples for the change which must follow the
destruction of the holy city and temple.
The Epistle to the Hebrews.
Let us take our stand among the Christians in
Jerusalem two years before the fall of the city.
The Church in Jerusalem is still regarded by all
Churches as the mother Church. To it the great
S5
36 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Apostle of the Gentiles, at the close of each of his
missionary journeys, returned, ever striving to bind
each infant Church, by the bonds of love, to the
mother Church. The organisation of each Christian
congregation or church was on the model of the
Jewish synagogue, with a college of presbyters and
deacons, and not on that of the temple, with high
priest, priests, and Levites. To an Israelite this
would seem to be no organisation at all. The
central idea which bound them together as an
Ecclesia was not the synagogue but the temple.
The possibility of a universal Ecclesia with no
central city or earthly house of God was inconceiv-
able to them. They were beginning to realise the
approaching doom of city and temple as foretold
by Christ. To them, as well as to the Jew, the
words city, temple, priest, altar, sacrifice only meant
what they had meant to their fathers before Christ
came, and the question which must have troubled
them was, will God appoint another city, temple,
altar, and sacrifice for us ? for they saw not as yet
that all these were done away in Christ. It was
at this moment, we believe, that the Epistle to the
Hebrews was inspired by the Holy Spirit to answer
this question ; and the answer it gives to it is of
primary importance to the Church in all ages.
" In this connection," says Bishop Westcott, " the
teaching of the Epistle to the Hebrews is of the
greatest moment. It offers a view of the organisa-
tion of the gospel in most respects singularly
comprehensive, and it is not unlikely that the
THE THIRD GENERATION 37
imminent overthrow of the Jewish State gave
occasion for dwelHng on this aspect of the gospel.
There is, however, one striking omission. The
Epistle is almost silent as to ecclesiastical organisa-
tion. No one of the words which have come to
represent the main ideas of Church government is
used in it in its technical sense. The title ' apostle '
is used only of Christ Himself. ' The Apostle and
High Priest of our profession, Jesus' (iii. 1). The
verb iTTia-KOTretv, in the one place where it occurs,
suggests no thought of official oversight (xii. 15).
'The elders' are simply the heroes of the Old
Testament dispensation (xi. 1). The word 'deacon'
is not found in the book, nor is the term Ecclesia
used in the sense of a particular Church or of the
universal Church — ' In the midst of the Church '
(ii. 11); and, 'the Church of the firstborn'
(xii. 23). The single term which indicates ordered
discipline in the body is the most general, ' those
that have the rule,' ' those that lead ' (xiii. 7, 17, 24),
" With this exception the view given of the
social embodiment of the gospel is most varied.
Eight passages present it under five different
aspects — (1) 'The world to come' (ii. 5). 'The
Divine order in its fullest extent and realisation.'
(2) 'The house of God' (iii. 2, x. 21). 'The rela-
tion of the order to God as its head and indweller.'
(3) ' The city which hath foundations ' ; ' The city
which is to come' (xi. 10, 16, xiii. 14, comp. viii.
11); 'The social constitution of the order.' (4)
' The vision of the fulness of the order' (xii. 22 ff.).
38 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
(5) 'A kingdom which cannot be shaken' (xii. 28,
comp. * A present kingdom ' (Col. i. 13). " ^
Henceforth the words, " Jerusalem," " temple,"
" high priest," " priest," " sacrifice," were to have a
new meaning. With the Epistle to the Hebrews
on the eve of the fall of Jerusalem a new vocabulary-
was introduced, and the sphere of " the Israel of
God " was transferred from earth to heaven. " We
have a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God " ; but it is " the new Jerusalem,
Jerusalem that is above." We have a temple too ;
but it is " the house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens." " We have a great High Priest,
holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners,
who hath passed above the heavens." " The Lamb
of God, who taketh away the sin of the world,"
hath made the one sacrifice for sins for ever, and
hath sat down at the right hand of God. When
He gave up the ghost the veil of the temple was
rent, and the types and shadows of the Mosaic dis-
pensation passed away ; but the veil still remained
on the hearts of the " many myriads of Jews who
believed — and who were all zealous for the law." ^
That veil was rent from top to bottom by the
Epistle to the Hebrews.
What the Holy Land had been heretofore, heaven
was to be henceforth to the Christian, and they all
had now " boldness to enter into the Holiest of all,
by the new and living way which He hath con-
1 "Westcott, The Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 384.
- Acts xxi. 20, R.V.
THE THIRD GENERATION 39
Becrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His
flesh." ^ The Judaising Christians who had given so
much trouble to St. Paul did not teach that there
was a new official priesthood, an altar and a sacrifice
in the Christian Church, but they taught that the
worship of the old temple, altar, and sacrifice was
still binding upon Christians. If our Lord and His
apostles had instituted a new priesthood, altar, and
sacrifice in the Church, there would have been no
place for their false teaching. It remained for
Christian priests, so called, to bring in this new
heresy in after ages. There is no trace whatever in
the Epistle to the Hebrews of any sacerdotal class
in the Christian Church ; rightly understood it
makes such a class an impossibility.
St. John the Divine.
But as the Epistle to the Hebrews is only a treatise
on one particular subject, relating, indeed, to, and
throwing much light on, the spiritual organisation
of the Church, we need not wonder that we find
nothing in it relating to ecclesiastical organisation.
For this we must look to the writings of St. John.
St. John, " the son of thunder," " the disciple
whom Jesus loved," 0 *E7n(XTij0io<;, he who ever leant
on Jesus' hreast, " the Theologos " or " the Divine,"
was above all others the burning and shining lamp
of these thirty years. He was privileged to close
the Canon of Scripture by his inspired writings, but
1 Heb, X. 19, 20.
40 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
there is no certainty as to the exact date or place
of the writing of any one of them. He mentions
his own name only tbrice (Rev. i. 1, 4, 9). He
describes himself as " a slave of Jesus Christ," as
" your brother, and partaker with yiu in the kingdom
of Jesus Christ " ; and twice he calls himself " the
elder " or " presbyter " (Eev. i. 1 , 9 ; 2 John 1 ;
3 John 1).
Of the events of his life during these thirty years
we can only discover from his writings — (1) that
the seven Churches in Asia were the special objects
of his care ; (2) that in some persecution of the
Christians he was banished to Patmos, and probably
wrote the Apocalypse there ; (3) that, like St. Paul,
he had to encounter the opposition not only of the
heathen, but that of " false prophets " (1 John iv. 1) ;
of " many deceivers " (2 John 7) ; and of one who,
in a railing and malicious spirit, opposed the work
of the missionaries, and disputed St. John's authority
(3 John 9).
Heresy and False Doctrine.
The chief light cast by the writings of St. John
on the history of the Church relates to the rise of
heresies and the growth of false doctrine in the
Church. " Many false prophets have gone out into
the world ; " " even now there have arisen many
Antichrists ; " " Diotrephes, who loveth to have the
pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not — prating
against us with wicked words ; and not content
THE THIRD GENERATION 41
therewith, doth not receive the brethren, and them
that would he forbiddeth, and casteth them out of
the Church" (1 John ii. 18, iv. 1; 2 John 7;
3 John 9, 10).
The Church in Ephesus has left its first love ; the
seeds of evil, alluded to by St. Paul in his Pastoral
Epistles, have grown into a heresy called that of " the
Nicolaitanes " ; " Grievous wolves have entered in
among them, not sparing the flock ; and from among
themselves have arisen men speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after them " (comp. Acts xx.
29, 30, and Eev. ii. 2, 6). But the Ephesian
Christians have tried them, found them false, and
rejected them; and have hated the works of the
Nicolaitanes.
Worse still is the state of the Church in Pergamos.
They have tolerated the teaching of the Nicolaitanes,
and retained among them false teachers " who held
the doctrine of Balaam," and " made the house of
God a house of merchandise." And worst of all is
the state of the Church in Thyatira.
The mystery of iniquity, which "did already
work" in St. Paul's day (2 Thess. ii. 7), and which,
in ages yet to come, was destined to bring forth in
the Church fruits similar to those which the influ-
ence of Jezebel brought forth to the ruin of Israel
and Judah, was already visible to the anointed eye of
Israel's last great seer, and was " making the house
of God a den of thieves." The Church in Sardis,
proud of her orthodoxy, order, and good works, had
a name among men that she was living ; but in God's
42 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
eyes she was dead. And the Church in Laodicea,
rich in her own eyes, was in God's sight " the
wretched one, and miserable, and poor, and bhnd,
and naked." Only two out of the seven, the poor
and persecuted Church in Smyrna, and the missionary
Church in Philadelphia, were free from declension in
doctrine and morals.
This is a strong presumption in favour of the
late date of the Apocalypse. Alf ord says, " We
have a constant and unswerving primitive tradi-
tion that St. John's exile took place and the Apoca-
lypse was written towards the end of Domitian's
reign." ^
Bishop Westcott's remarks about the Epistle to
the Hebrews apply equally to the writings of St.
John. His writings are more voluminous than those
of all the rest of the twelve apostles ; they are
supplementary not only to the Synoptic Gospels, but
to all the other books of the New Testament. We
should have thought that a few words from him
would have decided most of the controversies about
Church orders and sacraments which have rent the
Church for ages, but he wrote not a word on these
subjects. More has been revealed through him on
the spiritual organisation of the living body than by
all other inspired writers, but nothing whatsoever
on the ecclesiastical organisation of the visible Church.
The keyword of his writings may be said to be,
" the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." " No
one of the words which have come to represent the
1 About A.D. 96.
THE THIRD GENERATION 43
main ideas of Church government is used by him
in its technical sense, with the exception of apostle,"
and that occurs only three times (Kev. ii. 2, xviii. 20,
xxi. 4). No one of the titles bishop, presbyter, or
deacon is ever used by him ; nor could any one
discover from his writings that Christ had instituted
any sacraments in His Church.
The Sacraments.
St. John tells us more than any other inspired
writer about the inward and spiritual graces of
which the two sacraments are the outward and
visible signs. In the third chapter of his Gospel
he gives us our Loi'd's own statement of the grace
of that holy baptism which had not yet been
instituted ; and in the sixth chapter His statement
of the grace of the other sacrament. He leaves no
doubt that the grace of the one is spiritual life, and
of the other spiritual food. That Christ Himself is
the life, and Christ Himself is the food, " the Bread
of God which came down from heaven to give life
unto the world." He repeats over and over again,
often in the words of our Lord and often in his
own words, that the means whereby we receive that
life and that food is faith, and faith alone. " He
that believeth on the Son of God hath life, and he
that believeth not on the Son of God hath not life."
' I am the bread of life ; he that cometh to Me
shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me
shall never thirst." See John i. 12, v. 24-26,
44 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
vi. 40, xi. 25, 26; 1 John v. 10-13, and many
other texts.
Unity or Uniformity.
Of all the inspired writers, St. John is pre-
eminently the evangelist of love and therefore of
unity. " Little children, love one another," was his
favourite exhortation. It is he who gives us the
parable of the Vine ; and our Lord's dying prayer
that " they all may be one, even as Thou, Father,
art in Me, and I in Thee, that the world may
believe that Thou hast sent Me." Is it the uni-
formity of all Christiaus under one ecclesiastical
organisation and one visible head that he teaches
us to seek, or the unity of the spirit between
members of different Churches with different organ-
isations ? It is he who was inspired to substitute
the New Testament symbol of the seven candlesticks,
and Christ in the midst, for the Old Testament
symbol of the one candlestick with seven branches.
Is it possible that towards the close of the century,
when the Churches of the East and the West were
already beginning to differ in matters of Church
order, that, if he thought that unity was to be
attained by uniformity of outward organisation, he
would have never alluded to it. In his Epistles,
instead of telling the disciples that they were
dependent on priest or minister for life or for
teaching, he says, " Ye have an unction from the
Holy One, and ye know all things."
The word Ecclesia is never used in the singular
THE THIRD GENERATION 45
number by John for the Church Catholic or universal.
In his second and third Epistles he uses it three
times, each time of the local assemUy of which the
person to whom he wrote was a member. In the
Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia he uses it
several times to designate the local congregation
resident in each of the seven cities. Fifteen times
he uses it in the plural, " the Churches." In some
of these, perhaps in all, he means the universal
Church. Thus, " the seven candlesticks which thou
sawest are the seven Churches." " And all the
Churches shall know that I am He which searcheth
the hearts and the reins." " I, Jesus, have sent My
angel to testify these things unto the Churches "
(Eev. i. 20, ii. 23, xxii. 16). In these three, and
perhaps in the twelve other texts in which he uses
Ecdesia in the plural number, the Church Catholic
is designated ; but St. John speaks of it not as one
Church, but as many. Thus we see St. John uses
the word Ecdesia in two senses, (a) In the singular
always and sometimes in the plural for local
Churches. (/3) Never in the singular, but several
times in the plural for the Catholic Church. The
terms used by St., John to designate the Church
universal are (1) the body of Christ; (2) the
true Vine ; (3) the seven golden candlesticks ; (4)
" the Churches."
IV.
CLEMENT OF EOME.
Until the latter half of the nineteenth century the
only writings that cast any light on the history of
the Church from a.d. 70 to a.d. 100 were those of
St. John. There are now two other treatises which
cast light upon it, namely, " the Epistle of the
Church of Kome to the Church of Corinth," com-
monly called " the Epistle of St. Clement of Eome,"
and " the Teaching of the Lord through His twelve
Apostles to the Nations," known as " the Didach^."
Though the amount of Church history contained in
these documents is small, yet it is of very great
value especially in the matter of the apostolic orders,
of the ministry, and the holy sacraments.
The Epistle of the Church of Eome to the
Church of Corinth.
We now possess three MSS. of the Epistle, " the
Alexandrian," " the Constantinopolitan," and " the
Syriac." The Alexandrian was presented to Charles
1. by the Patriarch Cyril Lucar, a.d. 1628 ; but the
MS. was in a mutilated state, one leaf of the ten
46
CLEMENT OF ROME 47
of which it consisted being wanting. It was not
till 1875 that "the Constantinopolitan," which
contains the missing leaf, was published by Philotheos
Bryennios, the Metropolitan of Serree, and brought
in the following year to Europe ; and this was soon
supplemented by the discovery of the Syriac version.
" We have now," says Bishop Lightfoot, " materials
for restoring the original text of Clement very much
better than in the case of any other Greek author,
except the writers of the New Testament. The
letter emanates from the Church of Eome, and
throws no hght upon the name of the person who
acted as the amanuensis of the congregation, the
first person plural being used throughout it. But
tradition unanimously points to Clement as the
writer. Thus Dionysius, chief pastor of the Church
in Corinth, writing to the Eomans, A.D. 170, refers
to it as " the letter you wrote by Clement " ; and
Irenaeus, about A.D. 180, "In the time of this
Clement . . . the Church in Eome sent a most
powerful letter to the Corinthians, urging them to
peace." ^
" Contrast this attitude of the Church of Eome,"
says Bishop Lightfoot, " remonstrating with the
Corinthians on terms of equality, and employing
their chief pastor, for such we must conclude
Clement was, with its attitude at the close of the
second century, when Victor, the bishop, excom-
municates the Churches of Asia Minor for clinging
to an ancient custom in regard to the celebration
^ Iren, Adv. Hceres. iii. 3.
48 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
of Easter. The substitution of the Bishop of Eome
for the Church of Eome is an all-important point. . . .
The later Eoman theory supposes that the Church
of Eome derives all its authority from the Bishop
of Eome as the successor of St. Peter, History
inverts the relation, and shows that, as a matter of
fact, the power of the Bishop of Eome was built
upon the power of the Church of Eome. ... A very
few years later than the date of Clement's letter,
Ignatius writes to Eome. He is a staunch advocate
of episcopacy. Of his six remaining letters one is
addressed to a bishop as a bishop, and the other
five all enforce the duty of the Churches whom he
addresses to their respective bishops; yet in the
letter to the Church of Eome there is not the
faintest allusion to the episcopal office from first
to last."
The Personality of Clement.
" Of St. Clement of Eome, who does not mention
himself in the epistle," says Dean Farrar, " we can
learn nothing. . . . The account of his martyrdom
is no earlier than the ninth century, and the various
writings assigned to him are acknowledged forgeries."
In fact, there is hardly a statement made with
regard to him, by any ancient writer, which is not
contradicted by others. " The letter of the Church
of Eome to the Church of Corinth" is the only
genuine writing of his that has come down to
us. The author of "the Shepherd of Hermas"
speaks of him as if he were his contemporary ; and
CLEMENT OF ROME 49
says that his special function in the Church in
Kome was to correspond with foreign Churches.
This is Bishop Lightfoot's interpretation of Trefiyjret,
ovv K\i]ixri<i eh ra? TroXet?, i/ceivw yap e'Tmer-
pairrai}
The numerous legends about him ; the many-
miracles which, according to tradition, were wrought
by him ; the romance of his martyrdom, in the
Tauric Chersonese, by the order of Trajan ; the
fable that the sea every year, at the festival of his
martyrdom, retired three miles for seven days, to
enable the pilgrims to do homage to the white
marble tomb which the angels had built over his
body in the depths of the ocean ; - the literature of
" the Clementines," forged in his name, and the
" Forged Decretals," on which the Bishops of Eome
founded their claims to be regarded as the successors
of St. Peter and the Vicegerent of Christ, — all prove
that he was a man of strong personality, and of
great influence in the Church. It follows as a
matter of course that after ages should have set
him on the throne of St. Peter, and agreed in
giving him the title, q^uite unknoion to himself and
his contemporaries, of Bishop of Eome, when we
remember that Clement is the only uninspired
Christian writer of the first century whose name has
come down to posterity ; that he is the first on the
list of the noble army of " Fathers of the Church " ;
that there is no other name in early annals of the
Eoman Church which could be used for the purpose,
^ Apostolic Age, p. 98. = Aiipeiulix A.
4
so APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
we cannot wonder that his name was made use of
as a peg upon which to hang not only the doctrine
of the apostolic succession of bishops, but that of
the supremacy of the Pope of Eome.
Clement was probably a Hellenist of Jewish or
proselyte parentage. He was well versed in the
Septuagint, but evinces no knowledge of the Hebrew
Scriptures. The letter is full of quotations and
illustrations taken from the Old Testament from
Genesis to Malachi. Not one name of a heathen
poet or hero occurs in it, whilst hardly one of the
great names of the Old Testament is absent. He is
a firm believer in the Divine origin of the Scriptures,
and quotes them not as the word of man, but as
the word of God. " Now the faith of Christ con-
firms all these admonitions ; for He Himself by the
Holy Spirit thus addresses us." And, " for the
Holy Spirit saith," etc. etc. It is also of very
special interest to note that some of the books of
the New Testament were accepted by this first of
" the Fathers " as the word of God. Thus he quotes
from the Synoptic Gospels, " being specially mindful
of the words of the Lord Jesus which He spake,
teaching us meekness and long-suffering ; for He
says. Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy,"
etc. ; and, " Take up the Epistle of the blessed
Apostle Paul — truly under the inspiration of the
Spirit he wrote to you." To the Epistle to the
Hebrews he alludes several times, " This is the way,
brethren, in which we find our salvation. Jesus
Christ, the High Priest of our offerings, the Defender
CLEMENT OF ROME 51
and Helper of our infirmity. — IVho being the efful-
gence of His majesty, is so much greater than the angels,
as He hath hy inheritance obtained a more excellent
name than they" (chap. 36 ; Heb. i. 4).
" We are disappointed," says Dean Farrar, " but
unreasonably so, to find that so much of Clement's
epistle is a mosaic of second-hand phrases ; that his
quotations are oftentimes loose ; that he seriously
appeals to the phoenix as an emblem of the resur-
rection ; that he draws unauthorised arguments from
misquoted texts. — But, on the other hand, let us
take notice that (1) we are thus furnished with an
additional measure of the immense superiority of the
writings of the apostles in their originality, power,
and wisdom ; that (2) Clement shows himself in no
respect more credulous than Herodotus, Pliny, Taci-
tus, and other writers of the highest rank in classical
literature ; and that the humble Christians of those
days were neither trained in the principles of
criticism, nor did they write with books always
at hand. Let us bear in mind that in its purity of
moral tone and depth of spiritual intuition, the
humble epistle of this primitive Christian stands
immeasurably above the finest productions of Greek
and Eoman genius."
The Date and Occasion of writing the
Epistle.
Chap. 1. "The Church of God which sojourneth
in Eome to the Church of God which sojourneth in
52 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Corinth, and them who are called and sanctified by
the will of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ,
grace to you, and peace be multiplied. By reason of
the multiplied and repeated calamities and reverses
that are befalling us, brethren, we consider that
we have been somewhat tardy in giving heed to
the matters of dispute that have arisen among
you, dearly beloved, and to the detestable and
unholy sedition, so alien and strange to the
elect of God, which a few headstrong and self-
willed persons have kindled to such a pitch of
madness, that your name, once revered, renowned,
and lovely in the sight of all men, hath been
greatly reviled."
Bishop Lightfoot says that this exactly de-
scribes the persecutions which the Christians
endured during the reign of Domitian ; hence we
conclude that the date of the Epistle is about
A.D. 96-97.
The nature of the " sedition " is described more
fully in chap, 47: "Take up the Epistle of the
blessed Paul. What did he write to you at the
time when the gospel first began to be preached ?
Truly, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote
to you concerning himself, Cephas, and Apollos,
because even then parties had been formed among
you. But that inclination for one above another
entailed less guilt upon you, inasmuch as your
partialities were then shown towards apostles,
already of high reputation, and towards a man
whom they approved. But now reflect who those
CLEMENT OF ROME 53
are who have perverted you, and lessened the fame
of your far-famed brotherly love. It is disgraceful,
beloved, yea highly disgraceful and unworthy of
your conduct in Christ, that such a thing should be
heard of, as that the most steadfast and ancient
Church of the Corinthians should, on account of
one or two persons, engage in sedition against its
presbyters."
Chap. 2. " Who ever sojourned among you and
. . . did not admire your sober and forbearing piety
in Christ ? Who did not publish abroad your
magnificent habit of hospitality ? Who did not
congratulate you on your perfect and sound know-
ledge ? For ye did all things without respect of
persons, and ye walked after the ordinances of God,
submitting yourselves to your rulers, and giving all
fitting honour to your elders. On the young, too,
ye enjoined that they should be modestly and
seemly minded {/xeTpia koI aepva voeiv) ; and the
women ye charged that they should perform all
their duties with a blameless, seemly, and pure
conscience, cherishing their own husbands as is
meet ; and ye taught them that, living by the rule of
obedience, they should manage their households in
seemliness and with all discretion. And ye were
all lowly in mind and free from arrogance, yielding
rather than claiming submission (vTroraacrofievoi,
fiaXXov rj v'rroTda(TovTe<;), more glad to give than to
receive {tjStov Bc86vt€<; rj \ap,^dvovTes:) " : no doubt
in reference to Acts xx. 35.
Chap. 3. " Every kind of honoui- and happiness
54 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
was bestowed upon you, and then was fulfilled that
which was written, ' My beloved did eat and drink,
and was enlarged, and became fat, and kicked ' ;
hence flowed emulation and envy, strife and
sedition, persecution and disorder, war and cap-
tivity. So the worthless rose up against the
honoured, those of no reputation against those
who were renowned, the foolish against the wise,
the young against those who were advanced in
years." . -
As envy and jealousy is the root of all their
divisions, he reminds them that it was by those
sins death first entered the world ; that they
were the cause of the fratricide of Cain, of the
flight of Jacob from the presence of Esau, of the
persecution of Joseph by his brothers, of the
flight of Moses from the face of Pharaoh to
Midian, of the sin of Aaron and Miriam, of the
destruction of Dathan and Abiram, and the source
of all the evils that David suffered at the hands
of Saul.
The sufferings of the Christian martyrs also arose
from the same source. " Let us take the noble
examples furnished in our own generation. Through
jealousy and envy the greatest and most righteous
pillars (of the Church) have been persecuted and
put to death. Let us set before our eyes the good
apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured
not one or two but numerous labours, and when he
had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the
place of glory due to him. Owing to envy Paul
CLEMENT OF ROME 55
also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after
having been seven times thrown into prison, driven
from place to place and stoned, after having preached
in the east and in the west . . . having taught
righteousness to the whole world, and come to the
extreme limits of the west, he suffered martyrdom
under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the
world and went unto the holy place, having proved
himself a striking example of patience."
The sufferings of the saints of the Old and New
Testaments, caused by envy and jealousy, naturally
lead our author upwards to a contemplation of the
Christian virtues, humility, meekness, and self-
control, so new to the proud Komans. He exhorts
them to repent of envy and strife which " have
overthrown great cities and rooted up mighty
nations," and to emulate the obedience, humility,
and patience of Abraham, Lot, Kahab, Elijah, Elisha,
Ezekiel, Job, Moses, David, Daniel, Ananias, Azarias,
and Mishael, on the narratives of most of whom he
dwells at some length. But while he sets before
their eyes " the great cloud of witnesses," he teaches
them above all to " look away to Jesus, the Author
and Perfecter of our faith," as the one perfect
example. " Let us look steadfastly to the blood of
Christ, and see how precious that blood is to God,
which, having been shed for our salvation, has
set the grace of repentance before tlie whole
world."
Chaps. 13, 16. "Let us therefore, brethren, be
lowly minded, laying aside all arrogance, conceit.
56 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
folly, and anger, and let us do that which is written.
For the Holy Spirit saith, ' Let not the wise man
glory in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his
strength, nor the rich man in his riches ; hut let
him that glorieth glory in the Lord.' For Christ
is of the lowly minded, and not of those that exalt
themselves over the flock. The Sceptre of the
Majesty of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, came not
in the pomp of arrogance or pride (though He might
have done so), but in lowliness of mind, according as
the Holy Spirit spake of Him, for He saith, ' Lord,
who hath believed our report,' et seq. (Isa. liii.). Ye
see, brethren, what is the example that has been
given us ; for, if the Lord thus humbled Himself,
what should we do who have through Him come
under the yoke of His grace."
Chaps. 14, 19, and 20. "Let us be kind one to
another after the pattern of the tender mercy and
benignity of our Creator. . . . Let us hasten and
return unto the goal of peace which hath been
handed down to us from the beginning, and let us
look steadfastly unto the Father and Maker of the
whole world ; let us behold Him with our mind, let
us look with the eyes of our soul into the depths of
His long-suffering Will ; let us note how free from
anger He is to all His creatures."
" The heavens are moved by His direction and
obey Him in peace. The sun, the moon, and the
dancing stars, according to His appointment, circle
in harmony within the bounds assigned to them.
The earth beareth fruit at her proper seasons,
CLEMENT OF ROME 57
putting forth the fruit abundantly, and satisfieth
both man and beasts and all living things, making
no distinction."
" The inscrutable depths of the abysses are con-
strained by the same ordinances. The basin of the
boundless sea, gathered by His workmanship into
its reservoirs, passeth not the barriers by which it is
surrounded ; the winds in their several quarters
fulfil their ministry at the proper season without
disturbance ; and the everflowing fountains, created
for enjoyment and health, without fail give their
breasts to sustain the life of men. All these things
the great Creator and Master of the universe ordered
to be in peace and concord, doing good to all things,
but far beyond the rest to us who fled for refuge to
his compassionate mercies through Christ Jesus,
to whom be the glory and the majesty for ever and
ever."
Chap. 46. " Why are these strifes, tumults, divi-
sions, schisms, and wars among you ? Have we not
all one God and one Christ ? Is there not one Spirit
of grace poured out upon us ? And have we not
all one calling in Christ ? Why do we divide and
tear in pieces the members of Christ, and raise up
strife against our own body ? and why have we
reached such a height of madness as to forget that
we are all members of one another ? Kemember
the words of our Lord Jesus when He said, ' Woe
to that man by whom offences come, it were better
for him that he had never been born, than that he
should cast a stumbling-block before one of My elect.
58 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Yea, it were better for him that a millstone should
be hung about his neck, and that he should be sunk
in the depths of the sea, than that he should cast a
stumbling-block before one of My little ones.' Your
schism has subverted the faith of many, has given
rise to doubt in many, and has caused grief to all,
and still your sedition continueth."
On Love.
Chap. 49. " Let us therefore with all haste put an
end to this state of things, and let us fall down before
the Lord and beseech Him with tears that He may
be mercifully reconciled to us, and restore us to our
former seemly and holy practice of brotherly love.
. . . Let him who has love in Christ keep the
commandments of Christ. Who can describe the
bond of the love of God ? What man is able to tell
the excellence of its beauty, as it ought to be told ?
The height to which love exalts is unspeakable.
Love unites to God. Love covers a multitude of
sins. Love beareth all things, is long-suffering in
all things. There is nothing base, nothing arrogant
in love. Love admits of no divisions ; love gives
rise to no seditious ; love does all things in harmony.
By love have all the elect of God been made perfect ;
without love nothing is well-pleasing to God. In
love has the Master taken us unto Himself. On
account of the love He bore us, Jesus Christ, our
Lord, gave His blood for us by the will of God, His
flesh for our flesh, and His soul for our souls."
CLEMENT OF ROME 59
On Confession and Absolution.
Chaps. 51, 52. " Let us therefore implore forgive-
ness for all those transgressions which through any
of the wiles of the adversary we have committed.
And those who have been the leaders of sedition and
disagreement ought to have respect to the common
hope. For such as live in fear and love would
rather that they themselves were involved in suffer-
ing than their neighbour. . . . The Master, brethren,
hath no need of anything whatsoever, and He desires
nothing of any one except that confession be made
unto Him. ('ATrpoaSe^f, aSeX<f}oi, 6 AeairoTr}^,
virdpyei rwv airdvTcnv : ovhev ov8evb<i '^pij^ei et firj
TO i^ofioXo'yeiadaL avrw.) For, says the elect
David, ' I will confess unto the Lord, and that will
please Him more than a young bullock that has
hoofs and horns. Let the poor see it and be glad.'
And again he saith, ' Offer unto God the sacrifice of
praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. And
call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify Me ' ; for the ' sacrifice of
God is a broken spirit.' "
On Apostolic Order and Ministry.
Chap. 40. " These things therefore being manifest
to us, and seeing that we have searched into the
depths of Divine knowledge, it behoves us to do all
things in order, which the Lord has commanded us
to perform at stated times. He enjoins offerings to
6o APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
be offered and services to be performed, and that
not thoughtlessly or irregularly. Now the offerings
and services He commanded to be performed with
care, and not rashly or in a disorderly manner, but
at fixed times and seasons. Where and by whom
He desired these things to be done He Himself fixed
by His supreme will, in order that all things being
piously done according to His good pleasure, might
be acceptable to Him. . . . For to the high priest
his proper services have been assigned, and to the
priests their proper place is appointed, and upon
the Levites their proper ministry is laid. And the
layman is bound by the laws that pertain to
laymen."
Chap. 41. " Let each of you, brethren, give thanks
to God in his own order, living in all good conscience,
with becoming gravity, and not going beyond the
rule of the ministry prescribed to him. Not in
every place, brethren, are the continual sacrifices
offered, or the freewill offerings, or the sin-offerings,
and the trespass-offerings, but in Jerusalem only.
And even there they are not offered in every place,
but only at the altar before the temple. . . . Those
therefore that do anything beyond that which is
agreeable to His will are punished with death.
You see, brethren, in proportion as we (Christians)
have been deemed worthy of greater knowledge,
so much the more are we placed in greater
danger."
Bishop Lightfoot has the following remarks on
the above. " This is evidently an instance from
CLEMENT OF ROME 6i
the old dispensation to show that God will have
His ministrations performed through definite persons,
just as below in chap. 41. There is therefore no
direct reference to the Christian ministry in ' high
priest, priests, and Levites,' but it is an argument
by analogy. Does the analogy then extend to the
three orders ? The answer to this seems to be
that though the Episcopate appears to have
been widely extended in Asia Minor at this
time, the Epistle throughout only recognises two
orders, presbyters and deacons, as existing at
Corinth."
And again, " The present tense {irpoa^epovraC)
has been thought to imply that the sacrifices were
still offered, and the temple still standing, and
therefore to fix the date of the Epistle before the
destruction of Jerusalem. ... To this very early
date, however, there are insuperable difficulties. . . .
Clement must, therefore, use the present tense as
implying rather the permanence of the record and of
the lesson contained therein than the continuance
of the institution and of the practice itself. If
any one doubt whether such a usage is natural,
let him read the account of the Mosaic institu-
tions and sacrifices in Josephus,^ where the parallels
to Clement's present tense are too numerous to be
counted." -
Chap. 42. "The apostles received the gospel for
us from the Lord Jesus Christ ; Jesus Christ from
God. So then Christ is from God, and the apostles
1 Ant. iii. cc. 9, 10. - Li{,'htfoot.
62 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
from Christ. Both then came of the Will of God
in the appointed order. Having therefore received
a charge, and being fully persuaded by the resur-
rection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and confirmed
by the Word of God, they went forth with
full assurance of the Holy Ghost, proclaiming
that the kingdom of God was at hand. And,
thus preaching through countries and cities, they
appointed the first-fruits (of their labours),
having first proved them by the Spirit, to be
bishops and deacons of those who should afterwards
believe.
" Nor was this any new thing, since indeed it was
written many ages before concerning bishops and
deacons ; for thus saith the Scripture in a certain
place,^ ' I will appoint their bishops in righteousness
and their deacons in faith.' "
Chap. 43. " And what wonder is it if those in
Christ who were entrusted with such a duty by
God, appointed 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, and when the
other prophets also followed him, bearing witness
with one consent to the ordinances which he
appointed ? For when rivalry arose concerning the
^ The text which Clement so strangely misquotes, and on which
he founds such a gi-oundless argument, is found in Isa. Ix. 17.
"I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exactors right-
eousness" (A.V. and K.V.). The LXX. or old Greek version thus
renders the passage : Kai dwcru roi/s &.pxovTd% cov ev eiprjvri, kcI
Tovs iiricTKOwovt aov [and thy bisliops] iv diKaiocrijvD,
CLEMENT OF ROME 63
priesthood. . . ." Here Clement brings in the story
of Aaron's rod from Num. xvii., and adds, " What
think ye, dearly beloved ? Did not Moses know
beforehand that this would happen ? Undoubtedly
he knew it, but he acted thus that there might be
no sedition in Israel, and that the name of the true
and only God might be glorified, to whom be glory
for ever and ever. Amen."
Chap. 44. " For this cause therefore, having re-
ceived complete foreknowledge, they appointed the
aforesaid persons, and afterwards they provided a
continuance, that when these should fall asleep,^
other approved men should succeed to their minis-
tration. Those therefore who were appointed by
them, or afterwards by other men of repute with
the consent of the whole Church, and who have
ministered blamelessly to the flock of Christ, in
lowliness of mind, peacefiilly and with all modesty,
and who for a long time have borne a good report
with all men, these persons we consider to have
been unjustly thrust out from ministration. For
it will be no light sin for us, if we thrust out
^ "When these should fall asleep." "The aforesaid persons,"
i.e. the first generation of presbyters, appointed by the apostles
themselves, and avTuv too, will refer to the same persons. . . . The
apostles, says Clement, first ap]5ointed approved persons to the
ministry, and afterwards provided for a succession, so that vacancies
by death should be filled by other approved men. The presbyters
of Corinth, who had been rudely ejected from their offices, belonged to
these two classes ; some had been appointed by the apostles ; others
belonged to the second generation, having been appointed by
persons immediately connected with the apostles " (Lightfoot).
64 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
those who have offered the gifts ^ of the Epis-
copate 2 unblameably and holily."
" Blessed are those presbyters who have gone
before, seeing that their departure was fruitful
^ ' ' What does Clement mean by sacrifices, gifts, and offerings ?
In what sense are the presbyters said to have offered gifts ? The
answer to tliese questions must be sought in the following parallel
passages : —
"Sec. 18. 'The sacrifices of God are a bruised spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart God will not despise 1 ' Sees. 35, 36. ' The
sacrifice of praise will glorify Me, and there is a way by which I
will show him the glory of God. This is the way, dearly beloved,
in which we find Jesus Christ our Saviour, the High Priest of all
our offerings, the Defender and Helper of our infirmity.' 41. 'Let
every one of you, brethren, offer thanks to God in his own order,
living in all good conscience, with becoming gravity, and not
going beyond the rule of the ministry prescribed to him.' 52.
' The blaster, brethren, stands in need of nothing whatsoever, and
He desires nothing of any except that confession be made to Him.
For the elect David saith, "I will confess unto the Lord, and that
will please Him more than a young bullock that hath horns and
hoofs." And again he saith, "Offer unto God the sacrifice of
praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High. . . . For the
sacrifice of God is a broken spirit." ' Compare Heb. xiii. 15, 16, to
which Epistle Clement is so largely indebted. These passages show
in what sense the presbyters might be said to offer gifts. They
led the prayers and praises of the congregation ; they presented
the alms and contributions to God, and asked His blessing on them
in the name of the whole body. Hence Clement is careful to
maintain that these offerings should be made at the right time and
in the right place, and by the right persons. The first day of the
week had been fixed by apostolic authority, not only for prayer
and breaking of bread (Acts xx. 7), but also for collecting alms
(1 Cor. xvi. 2) ; and the officers appointed by the same authority
were the proper persons to receive and dispense the contributions "
(Ibid.).
^ "The Episcopate here is, of course, the office of presbyter"
{Ibid.).
CLEMENT OF ROME 65
and ripe ; for they have no fear lest any one should
remove them from their appointed places. For we
see that ye have displaced certain persons, though
they were living honourably, from the ministration
which they had kept blamelessly." There are only
two other allusions in the Epistle to the Christian
ministry, and they are as follows : —
Chap. 54. " Who then among you is noble
minded ? who compassionate ? who full of love ?
Let him declare, ' If on my account sedition and
disagreement and schism have arisen, I will depart
and go away whithersoever ye desire, and I will do
whatever the majority commands ; only let the flock
of God live at peace with the presbyters set over
it.' He that acts thus will procure to himself great
glory in the Lord, and every place will welcome
him. For ' the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof.' These things they, who live a godly life
that is never to be repented of, both have done and
always will do."
Chap. 57. " Ye, therefore, who laid the foundation
of this sedition, submit yourselves to the presbyters,
and receive correction so as to repent, bending the
knees of your hearts. Learn to be subject, laying
aside the proud and arrogant self-confidence of your
tongue. For it is better for you that ye should
occupy a humble and honourable place in the flock
of Christ, than that being highly exalted ye should
be cast out from the hope of His people."
There is only one other passage in the epistle
which is thought by some to allude to the Christian
5
66 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
ministry, but it is very uncertain whether it alludes
to it or not : " Let us reverence the Lord Jesus
Christ, whose blood was given for us. Let us
esteem those who have tlie rule over us. Let us
honour the aged among us (or the presbyters) ; let
us train up the young in the fear of God, and let
us direct our wives to that which is good."
From the above it is evident (1) that Clement
believed in the Divine origin of the ministry of
presbyters (or bishops) and deacons, but not more
than St. Pavil did when he said to the Ephesian
presbyters, " Take heed unto yourselves and to all
the flock in which the Holy Ghost hath made you
bishops" (Acts xx. 28); (2) that he believed in
the apostolic succession of these two orders of the
ministry, and in the duty of every Christian to
honour and obey those who were set over them ;
(3) that he knew of no third order of ministry as
then existing in the Churches of Kome and Corinth.
If there had been a bishop in the Church in
Corinth, in the later meaning of the term, it is
impossible that, writing on such a subject as a
sedition of the laity against their presbyters, he
should have ignored his existence.
Canon (now Bishop) Gore acknowledges this to
be the case. " It is quite true that in Clement's
Epistle presbyters are called bishops, and that there
is no local authority in the Church at Corinth above
the presbyters. Clement's language about submis-
sion to them postulates this. It may also be
acknowledged that it is an unwarrantable hypothesis
CLEMENT OF ROME 67
that the see of the chief pastor was vacant when
St. Clement wrote." ^
As in every fully organised Jewish synagogue,
there was a ^"W or president of the college of
presbyters, and as the organisation of the Christian
congregations (or synagogues, as St. James calls
them) was after the pattern of the Jewish syna-
gogue, we should have expected to find that, in
the time of Clement, there would have been such
an office in the Churches of Rome and Corinth ;
but if there was, there is no allusion to it in
Clement's letter. In all probability there was a
president, or chairman of the presbyters ; but the
office was not regarded as a third order of ministry ;
though from the letters of St. Ignatius we know
that it was so regarded in the Churches of Asia
before the close of the century.
^ Gore, The Church and the Ministry, p. 322.
THE DIDACHE, OE "THE TEACHING OF
THE LORD, THROUGH THE TWELVE
APOSTLES, TO THE NATIONS."
The only other uninspired Christian writing of the
first century, besides the Letter of Clement, is " the
Didach^." It is the only other " solid, unquestioned
piece of historical fact " which throws light on the
apostolic order and ministry of the Church. The
contrast between the literature of the Epistle of
Clement and the Didach(^ is remarkable. The
humility of the author of the Epistle, the entire
absence of self-assertion, his never mentioning his
own name, or using the personal pronoun of him-
self, though his marked personality shines through
every letter, are charming. The author of the
Didache, on the other hand, uses the personal pro-
noun of himself throughout, and gives no indication
of the Church from which he writes.
Again, while the Epistle is full of quotations
from, and allusions to, the Old Testament, and
breathes throughout the spirit of our Lord and
His apostles, the Didache contains only two quota-
tions and hardly any allusion to the Old Testament,
68
THE DIDACHfi 69
and falls entirely short of a true conception of
gospel teaching. " The moral instruction," says
Gore, " is of an intensely Jewish character, far
inferior to the Sermon on the Mount, and to St.
James. It belongs rather to the enlightened
synagogue than to the illuminated Church." But,
with all its faults, the Didach^ is most valuable
to the student of Church history, because " it has
thrown so strange and interesting a light over
the simple organisation, faith, and worship of
the early communities of Christians " ; ^ and also,
because it is the first writing in which we
can discern the early sowing of tares among the
wheat.
It is contained in only one known MS., namely,
the same " Jerusalem Codex " which contains the
second version of Clement's Epistle, published by
Bryennios in Constantinople in 1873, but not made
known to the Western Church till 1883.
The Histoey of the Didach^ in the ancient
Chukch.
Considerable portions of it were incorporated into
the Epistle of Barnabas (written at the beginning of
the second century), into " the Shepherd of Hermas,"
and into the writings of Clement of Alexandria
(a.d. 202). Book vii. of the Apostolic Constitutions
(fourth century) is a paraphrase and enlargement
of the Didache. The first mention of its title is
^ Farrar.
70 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
in Eusebius. After the sixth century we find
no quotation from it.
The Author.
It is very strange that the name of so energetic
and forcible a writer should have passed into
oblivion, and that none of the Fathers who have
made such use of his writings should have pre-
served it. He was probably a Jewish Christian,
and it is hardly possible that a mere layman could
have written with such an assumption of ecclesias-
tical authority. We can only think that he was
one of the Spirit-called order of "Teachers" of
whom he makes mention ; or at least that he con-
sidered himself to be one, and was so regarded by
the Church.
The Date and Place of its Composition.
Its place in the Jerusalem Codex between the
Epistle of Clement and the Epistles of Ignatius, and
its being quoted in the Epistle of Barnabas, point
to its probable date as not later than a.d. 100. Its
contents lead to the same conclusion. Its ecclesi-
astical organisation is of the simplest kind ; " pres-
byter " and " bishop " are still synonymous terms ;
there is no indication of the existence of a heir-
archy, or of a diocesan or even congregational Epis-
copacy. The sacramental formulas contained in it
are of the most elementary nature, and there is no
THE DIDACHE 71
mention of heresies, not even of Montanism. All
these facts point to a very early date. It gives no
clue to the place of its birth. Historians are divided
between Syria and Egypt ; and as no other lands
have been suggested, the choice seems to lie between
these two. As we learn from the Epistles of
Ignatius that from the beginning of the second
century the terms " presbyter " and " bishop " were
no longer synonymous in Asia Minor and Syria,
and as the author makes no allusion to St. Paul,
and was in no way influenced by his teaching, we
think that Egypt was most probably the land of its
birth.
Its Purpose and Scope.
It bears a very lofty title, " the Teaching of the
Lord, through the Twelve Apostles, to the Nations."
This is another presumption for a very early date.
For though it professes to be for the Gentile world,
the author has not heard of the apostles of the
uncircumcision. It is divided into two parts —
Part I. §§ i.-vi.
This part may be called the first Christian Cate-
chism. It consists of rudimentary, moral teaching
about " the Two Ways." " Two Ways there are,
one of life and one of death ; but there is a great
difference between the two ways. The way of
life is this — first, thou shalt love the God who
made thee ; second, thy neighbour as thyself " (§ i.).
72 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
" But the way of death is this : first of all it is full
of evil and full of curse ; murders, adulteries, lusts,
fornications, thefts, idolatries, magic arts, robberies,"
etc. (§ v.).
Interesting though this first attempt at a Chris-
tian catechism is, yet we pass on to the second part,
as it alone treats of what belongs to our subject.
Part II. §§ vii.— xvi.
On Eites, Ceremonies, and Chukch Organisation.
(1) § vii. On Baptism.
As Part I. is a catechism for the instruction of
candidates for Baptism, an account of the mode of
the administration of the sacrament, and further
preparation for it follows.
" Now concerning baptism, thus baptize ye : hav-
ing first uttered all these things (§§ i.— vi.) baptize in
living water, ' into the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit.' But if thou hast
not living water, baptize in other water ; and if
thou canst not in cold, then in warm water. But
if thou hast neither, pour water upon the head
thrice, ' into the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit.' But before baptism let the
baptizer, and he that is to be baptized, fast, and as
many others as may be able. But as for him that
is to be baptized, thou shalt command him to fast
one or two days before."
THE DIDACHfi 73
This is the only uninspired utterance of the
Church of the first century on the manner of the
administration of holy baptism. It adds nothing to
the institution of the rite in Holy Scripture. The
outward and visible sign is water, and water only.
Living {i.e. spring or running) water to be preferred
to stagnant, and cold to hot ; immersion to sprinkling ;
but stagnant, or warm water, and sprinkling instead
of immersion, in cases of necessity, lawful. The
form of words, " Into the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit " is repeated twice.
The author, having used the singular pronoun in
addressing the candidate in Part I., now addresses
the whole congregation in the plural pronoun " ye,"
as if the Church were the baptizers ; and then
changes his style, and addresses him who acts for
the Church in the singular pronoun, but gives no
indication as to whom he is addressing, a minister or
a layman.
There is no mention of prayer, fasting having
taken its |?^rtC(? ; as in § ix. he substituted " fast
for them that persecute you," for the words of our
Lord, " pray for them that persecute you."
§ iii. On Fasting and Prayer.
" But let not your fastings be like those of the
hypocrites : for they fast on the second day of the
week and on the fifth ; but do ye fast on the fourth
and on the preparation (the sixth, Friday). Neither
pray ye like the hypocrites, but as the Lord com-
74 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
manded in His Gospel, thus pray : ' Our Father
who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven so
on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. And
forgive us our debt, as we forgive our debtors. And
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the
evil (one) : for Thine is the power and the glory for
ever.' Three times in the day pray ye thus."
This form agrees verbatim with the Authorised
Version of St. Matthew, with the exception that the
singular is used in " heaven " and in " debt." It
contains the doxology, as does the A.V., but omits
" Thy kingdom."
Fasting. — The Judaising spirit is manifest in the
substitution of fasting for prayer ; and in the heathen
idea that fasting is in itself meritorious, and more
efficacious with God than the simple prayer of the
child to his Father. The reference to the Sermon
on the Mount is apparent ; but how lamentably has
our author failed to comprehend the spirituality of
our Lord's teaching ! What a contrast is there be-
tween the above and Isa. Iviii. 13, 14, and Matt. vi.
16—18. This injunction about fasting on certain
days is the first instance, in the Christian Church,
of " the teaching for doctrines the commandments of
men " by which the Pharisees " made the word of
God of none effect." There is no instance of a day,
a week, or a month of fasting having been ordered
by God in the Bible. The word fast does not occur
in the Pentateuch ; the religion of Moses was unique
in this, that it was a religion of feasting and not of
THE DIDACH6 75
fasting, a religion of " rejoicing with great joy before
Jehovah." The word occurs only thrice in the
Epistles of the New Testament in A.V., and one
of these is omitted in R.V., and in one of the two
that remain it means enforced hunger from want of
food (2 Cor. xi. 27); but in the Didache, which is
only a little longer than the Epistle to the Galatians,
it occm"S twenty-eight times.
The Jewish Church had instituted days and weeks
and months of fast, but our Lord encouraged His
disciples ostentatiously to disobey her.
It is sad in our days to hear of bishops of the
" Protestant religion established by law " giving
dispensations to their clergy not to keep the fasts
of the Church ; as well might the apostles have
asked Caiaphas for a dispensation to break their
fast with the Master.
On the Eucharist.
§ ix. " Now concerning the Eucharist, thus
give thanks. First concerning the cup : We thank
Thee, our Father, for the holy vine of David Thy
servant, which Thou hast made known unto us
through Jesus Thy Servant. To Thee be the glory
for ever. And concerning the broken bread {nXda-
fjuiTO'i) : We thank Thee, our Father, for the life
and knowledge which Thou hast made known to us
through Jesus Thy Servant. To Thee be the glory
for ever. Just as that broken bread {Kkdafia) was
scattered over the hills, and having been gathered
76 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
together, became one, so let Thy Church be gathered
together from the ends of the earth into Thy king-
dom ; for Thine is the power and the glory for ever.
But let no one eat of your Eucharist except those
that have been baptized into the name of the Lord ;
for with regard to this the Lord said, ' Give not
that which is holy to the dogs.' "
§ X. " Now after ye are filled thus give thanks :
We thank Thee, holy Father, for Thy holy name,
which Thou hast caused to dwell in our hearts,
and for the knowledge and faith and immortality
which Thou hast made known to us through
Jesus Thy Servant. . . . Eemember, 0 Lord,
Thy Church, to defend her from every evil, and
to make her perfect in Thy love ; and gather
her, having been sanctified, from the four winds,
into Thy everlasting kingdom, which Thou hast
prepared for ever ; for Thine is the power and the
glory for ever. Let grace come, and let this world
pass away. Hosanna to the Son of David ! Who-
soever is holy, let him come ; whoever is not, let
him repent. Maranatha. Amen."
" But permit the prophets to give thanks as much
as they will."
There is a manifest allusion here to the feast
which our Lord gave to the five thousand. " And
concerning the broken bread {K\.d<xixaro<i), — ^just as
this broken bread {Kkdafia) was scattered over
the hills" (see John vi. 13). "And now after ye
are filled " (fiera Se to ifiirXija-drjvai), compare John
vi. 12 (a)9 8e iveirXTjcrdjja-av).
THE DIDACHE 77
Compare this account of a Christian Eucharist at
the end of the century with the accounts contained
in Acts ii. 42, 46, 47 (E.V.), xx. 7-11 ; 1 Cor. x.
xi., from all of which it appears that the Lord's
Supper was generally partaken of in the evening,
as part of an ordinary meal or of the Agapd.
There is one other allusion to the Holy Com-
munion in the Didach(5.
§ xiv. " But on the Lord's day (Kara KvpcaKrjv
8e Kvpiov) do ye assemble and break bread, and
give thanks, after confessing your transgressions,
in order that your sacrifice may be pure. But
every one that hath a controversy with his friend,
let him not come together with you until they
be reconciled, that your sacrifice may not be pro-
faned. For this is that which was spoken by the
Lord : ' At every place and time bring Me a pure
sacrifice ; for I am a great King, saith the Lord,
and My name is marvellous among the nations.' "
The author had said before that God requires
nothing of any one but to confess his sins to Him ;
he here rightly adds our Lord's teaching about being
first reconciled to one's neighbour before offering
one's gifts. Justin Martyr likewise uses the words
" sacrifice " in connection with the Eucharist, but
goes on to say, " prayers and thanksgivings, offered
by the worthy, are the only perfect and acceptable
sacrifice." ^
We have here an additional and independent
proof that the first day of the week had received
1 Dial. c. Try ph. ii. 117.
78 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
the title of " the Lord's day " before the end of the
first century.
Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers.
St. Paul says : " God set some in the Church,
first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers.
, . . Are all apostles ? are all prophets ? are all
teachers?" (1 Cor. xii. 28, 29). And again, "He
gave some to be apostles, and some to be prophets,
and some to be . . . teachers " (Eph. iv. 11). The
following quotations from the Didache are valuable
as a proof from history that these gifts of the Spirit
continued in the Church till the close of the first
century, and that they were orders of a spiritual
ministry, quite distinct from the local orders of
ministers, who were chosen and ordained by man.
§ xi. Fii'st Apostles.
" But in regard to apostles and prophets, accord-
ing to the ordinance of the gospel, so do ye.
Now, let every apostle that comes to you be received
as the Lord ; but he shall not remain with you
longer than one day. If, however, there be a
necessity for it, he may tarry for a second day ;
but if he stays for three days he is a false prophet.
And when an apostle departeth, let him take nothing
but bread enough till he find another lodging ; and
if he ask for money, he is a false prophet."
It is very hard indeed to understand these
THE DIDACHE 79
directions as to the treatment an apostle was to
receive at the hands of the Church. He is placed
above the prophet in the first rank of the gifts of
the ascended Lord to His Church. Though differing
from " the prophet," yet if he is a true apostle he is
also a true prophet, for " if he asks for money he is
a false prophet."
The word " apostle " occurs eighty times in the
New Testament ; forty-two times it is used for the
twelve apostles of the circumcision ; twenty-one
times for the apostles of the uncircumcision, St. Paul
and St. Barnabas ; once our Lord is called " the
Apostle ... of our profession " ; twice it is used for
"the messengers of the Churches" (2 Cor. viii. 23 ;
Phil. ii. 25). Once it occurs as a common term
for the apostles of the circumcision and of the
uncircumcision, and three times we read of false
apostles. In Kom. xvi. 7, Andronicus and Junia are
said to be " of note among the apostles " ; and in
seven other passages (Luke xi. 49 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28,
29 ; Eph. ii. 20, iii. 5, iv. 11 ; Eev. xviii. 20) it is
used in a wider sense, almost the same as
" missionary."
Of these seven different uses of the word the
author of the Didache must mean either " messenger
of the Churches " or " missionary." It seems im-
possible that he could mean the former, for he
classes the apostle with the prophet, and even places
him above him, as St. Paul does. He is evidently
speaking of a permanent office of one specially
endued with prophetic gifts, and recognised as such
8o APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
by the Church. His words cannot be construed as
meaning "if any Church send a messenger to you."
If they were missionaries in our sense of the word,
it is hard indeed to account for the restrictions
imposed upon them as to the time of their stay in
any one place. Yet, notwithstanding this difficulty,
we think they are the same as those of whom St.
John wrote about the same time, " for His name's
sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles.
We therefore ought to receive such, that we might
be fellow-helpers to the truth " (3 John 7,8).
Secondly Prophets. — " And every prophet who
speaketh in the spirit, ye shall not try nor judge ;
for every other sin shall be forgiven, but this shall
not be forgiven. But not every one that speaketh
in the spirit is a prophet, but only he who hath the
ways of the Lord. Thus by their ways shall the
false prophet and the true prophet be known. And
every prophet who ordereth a meal and eateth of it
is a false prophet ; and every prophet who teaches
the truth but does not practise it is a false prophet ;
and any prophet who has been proved and found
to be a true one, and who acts according to the
mystery of the Church on earth, though he does not
teach others to do all that he himself doeth, yet he
shall not be judged by you, for he has his judgment
with God ; for the prophets of old acted in the same
manner. But whoever saith in the spirit, ' Give me
money or any other thing,' ye shall not hearken
to him ; but if he ask for anything for others who
are in need, let no one judge him."
THE DIDACHE 8i
§ xii. On the Duty of Hosintalitij to Apostles,
Prophets, and others.
" But let every one who cometh in the name of
the Lord be received, but afterwards ye shall test
and know him ; for ye shall have understanding
right and left. If he who comes to you be a
traveller, help him as much as ye can ; but he
shall not stay with you for more than two days,
or, if there be a necessity, for three. And if he be
an artisan, and wishes to take up his abode among
you, let him work and so eat ; and if he have no
trade, make provision according to your understand-
ing, that no Christian live among you as an idler.
If any one will not act thus, he is one who makes
trade of Christ : beware of such persons."
§ xiii. On Prophets and Teachers.
" Now every true prophet who wishes to take up
his abode among you is worthy of his support.
Likewise a true ' teacher,' he also like a labourer is
worthy of his sustenance. All the first-fruits then
of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and sheep,
thou shalt take and give to the prophets ; for they
are your chief priests.^ But if ye have no prophet,
ye shall give them to the poor. And when thou
bakest bread, take the first of it and give it accord-
ing to the commandment. In like manner when thou
openest a jar of wine or oil, take the first of it and
give it to the prophets ; and take the first of money
^ Appendix B.
82 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
and clothing and of every possession and give it as
may seem fit to thee according to the commandment."
There can be no doubt that the prophets here
spoken of are of the same order as the prophets
of whom we read in the Acts and Epistles. Like the
" apostle " and " teacher," their calling was " neither
of man, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, and
God the Father who raised Him from the dead."
Every apostle was expected to be a prophet, but
every prophet was not an apostle. If the apostle
be unfaithful, " he is a false prophet." His special
call is that of an itinerant preacher to the heathen.
On the other hand, the mission of the prophet was
to the Church. For " prophesying serveth not for
them that believe not, but for them that believe "
(1 Cor. xiv. 22).
Accorditig to the Didache, the 2yro2yhets took precedence
of the local ministers. — In the administration of the
Lord's Supper the Church is to permit the prophet
to give thanks as much as he will. To judge a
prophet is the sin that shall never be forgiven.
The tithes are to be given to him, strange to say,
instead of to the poor.
The author evidently thought that the sin of
judging a prophet was the sin against the Holy
Ghost (Matt. xii. 31). It was the sin of "despising
prophecy " of which the Pharisees were guilty when
our Lord spoke those words, " Whosoever speaketh a
word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven
liim ; but whoso speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it
sliall never be forgiven him " ; and again, " He that
THE DIDACHE 83
receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall
receive a prophet's reward, — and he that despiseth
you despiseth Me, and he that despiseth Me
despiseth Him that sent Me." If our author was
wrong in using such strong language, how much
worse are they who, notwithstanding all the warnings
of Scripture, " despise prophesyings."
The gift of prophesying has never been with-
drawn from the Church.
" These thirteenth century saints (St. Francis of
Assisi and others)," says Sabatier, " were in fact
true prophets, apostles like St. Paul, not as the
result of a canonical consecration, but by the interior
order of the Spirit ; they were the witnesses of liberty
against authority." ^
" It is not easy to hear and to apply to oneself
the exhortation of preachers who, aloft in the pulpit,
seem to be carrying out a mere formality. It is
just as difficult to escape from the appeal of a lay-
man who walks at our side. The amazing multitude
of Protestant sects is due in a great degree to this
superiority of lay preaching over clerical. The
most brilliant orators of the Christian pulpit are
bad converters ; their eloquent appeals cultivate the
imagination and lead a few men of the world to the
foot of the altar ; but let a peasant or a working
man speak to those whom he meets a few simple
words going directly to the conscience, and the man
is always impressed, often won." ^
' The Life of St. Francis d' Assisi, Introduction, p. xv.
- Ibid. p. 71.
84 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
The multitude of sects is not due to the blessing
of God the Holy Spirit on the words of the prophets,
but to the rejection of them by those who sit in
Moses' seat.
But to return to our document. The " prophet "
and " teacher " are the only members of the Chris-
tian community who are exempted from the injunc-
tion that " no Christian live with you as an idler,"
or in the words of St. Paul, " If any man do not
work, neither shall he eat." " Every first-fruits
then of wine-press and threshing-floor, of oxen and
sheep, thou shalt take and give to the prophets, for
they are your chief priests. But if ye have no
prophet, give it to the poor." ^
Here the broadest distinction is drawn between the
extraordinary orders of " apostles " and " prophets,"
and the ordinary local orders of " bishop " and
" deacon." There appears to have been no provision
made for the maintenance of the local clergy ; they,
like the lay members of the Church, had to live by
the labour of their hands. If there were no resident
" prophet " the tithes were to be given, not to the
clergy, but to the poor. We cannot see how the
poor did not suffer from a prophet taking up his
residence in a Church. Some light may be thrown
upon this question by the injunction in § xi. : " But
whatever prophet saith in the Spirit, ' Give me
money or anything else,' ye shall not hearken to
him ; but if he ask you to give him anything for
one who is in need, let no man judge him." The
^ Didache.
THE DIDACHE 85
prophet may have been fully trusted to look after
the interests of the poor, so that they should not
lose by his receiving the tithes. He was at liberty
to beg for them, but not for himself.
Teachei's.
" Likewise also a true teacher, he also, like a
labourer, is worthy of sustenance " (§ xiii.). In
the section immediately preceding the author has
written, " Make provision that no Christian live
among you as an idler." The only exceptions to
this rule seem to have been the " prophet " and the
" teacher." Bishops and deacons appear to have
been no exceptions to it.
§ XV. The Local Ministry of Bishops and Beacons.
" Now appoint for yourselves bishops and deacons
worthy of the Lord ; men meek and not lovers of
money, true men and proved : for they too render
yoio tlie service of i^rophets and teachers. Therefore
neglect them not ; for they are those who should
be honoured by you, along with the prophets and
teachers. And reprove ye one another, not in anger,
but in peace, as ye have it in the Gospel ; and to
any one who erreth against another let no man
speak, nor let him hear anything from you until
he repent. But as to your prayers, and your alms,
and all your deeds, so do them as ye have received
it in the Gospel of our Lord."
86 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
This is the last testimony of history in the first
century to the apostolic orders of ministry in the
Christian Church, and it agrees with all previous
testimonies. It tells us that (1) the Spirit -called
orders of apostle, prophet, and teacher were the first
and highest, and that they were quite distinct from
the local orders of ministry. (2) That, according to
apostolic order and precedent, every Church was to
appoint for itself two orders of ministers, bishops
or presbyters, and deacons. — N.B. The verb used by
the author of the Didach^, " Now appoint (■^^eiporovt]-
aare) for yourselves," is the same as that used by
St. Luke of the appointment of presbyters by St. Paul
and St. Barnabas on their first missionary journey
{■)(€ipoTovricravK€<i, Acts xiv. 23). (3) That bishops
and deacons were also expected to have the gifts
of prophecy and teaching as well as the prophets
and teachers. (4) That the gifts of prophecy and
teaching were not confined to the Spirit-called and
man-appointed orders of ministry, but there was a
ministry of the lay members of the body also, and
they were to " reprove one another, not in anger,
but in peace, as ye have it in the Gospel."
Nothing proves more clearly the lamentable change
for the worse which came over the Church in the
following two centuries, than a comparison of that
part of the Apostolic Constitutions which is a
paraphrase of the Didach^ with the Didach^ itself.
The highest order of ministry, that of " apostles,
prophets, and teachers," has ceased to exist, and
the three orders are those of " bishops, presbyters,
THE DIDACHE 87
and deacons." ^ According to the Didach^, if there
were no prophet residing among them, the tithes
were given to the poor ; and if there were a prophet,
to him ; and the first-fruits were given to the
prophets (§ xiii.) ; but in the Apostolic Constitutions
the injunction is to give "a tenth to the widow,
the orphan, the poor, and the stranger," and to give
" to the priests all the first-fruits of the hot bread "
along with other gifts.
" In the Apostolic Constitutions," says Bishop Gore,
" there is an intense insistency on the necessity for
ordination to qualify a man for any ministerial
work ; there is a reiterated magnifying of the office
of bishops, whether as priests ministering the obla-
tions of the new covenant, especially the Euchar-
istic sacrifice, or as prophets and kings ; * he is
your king and ruler,' nay, more, ' he is your earthly
god after God ' ; or as mediators between God and
His people, ' as, after God, their fathers begetting
them to adoption through water and the Holy
Ghost.' There is an emphatic distinction drawn
between the powers of a bishop and those of a
presbyter ; the distinction of names is a distinction
of realities." ^
There was no such distinction of names in the
first century, and therefore no distinction of realities.
With these novel doctrines of (1) the necessity of
ordination to fit a child of God to do any work for
Him ; (2) the magnifying of the human bishop and
' Apost. Const, vii. 31.
^ The Church and the Ministry, p. 147.
88 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
priest as mediators between God and man, not only
did the ministries of the " prophet and teacher "
cease, but along with them the ministry of the
laity also, and Christians as such ceased to be kings
and priests to God.
§ xvi. Conclusion of the DidacM.
" Watch for your life's sake ; let not your lamps
go out, nor your loins be loosed ; but be ye ready,
for ye know not the hour in which your Lord
Cometh. But come together frequently, and seek
those things which benefit your souls ; for the whole
time of your faith will not profit you, if ye be
not made perfect in the last time. For in the
last days false prophets and corrupters shall be
multiplied, the sheep shall be turned into wolves,
and love turned into hate. For when lawlessness
increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and deliver
up one another, and then shall the world-deceiver
appear as the Son of God, and shall do signs and
wonders, and the earth shall be given into his
hands, and he shall commit iniquities, such as were
never committed since the beginning. Then all
created men shall come into the fire of trial, and
many shall be offended and shall perish, but they
who endure in their faith shall be saved from under
the curse. And then shall the signs of truth
appear. First the sign of an opening in the
heaven, then the sign of a sound of a trumpet, and
thirdly a resurrection of the dead ; yet not of all,
THE DIDACHE 89
but as it has been said : ' The Lord shall come, and
all His saints with Him.' Then shall the world
see the Lord come upon the clouds of heaven "
(compare 1 Cor. xv. 23; 1 Thess. iii. 13-18, and
Rev. XX. 4-6).
VI.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH.
Veey little is known about Ignatius, and all that
we do know is connected with his martyrdom by
order of the Emperor Trajan (a.d. 110-115), If
it were not for his tragic end his name might not
have come down to posterity. We first see him
as he is being carried by Eoman soldiers from
Antioch to Eome, there to be thrown to wild beasts
in the amphitheatre. We hear from his own lips
a touching story of the hardships he endured on
his journey. " From Syria, even unto Eome, I fight
with wild beasts, both by land and sea, both by
night and day, being bound to ten leopards, — I mean
a band of soldiers, who, when they receive benefits,
show themselves all the worse. But I am the more
instructed by their injuries to act as a disciple of
Christ ; yet I am not hereby justified " (Ad Rom. v.).
Like Paul, he was indulged with a certain amount
of liberty, and allowed to hold intercourse with
the Christian communities through whom he passed
on his way to Eome. But the indulgence which
the soldiers gave him was not entirely, if at all,
from motives of humanity. The " benefits " he
90
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 91
speaks of were probably presents given by the
Christians to them, in the hope that they would
treat the venerable saint with greater leniency ; but,
as is often the case with jailers in the East, they
only treated him with greater severity that they
might get larger presents from his friends. All we
know of the route by which the martyr was taken
to Eome is that he passed through Philadelphia,
Smyrna, Troas, Neapolis, and Philippi.
He spent some days in Smyrna, and was met
there by deputies from the Churches in Tralles,
Magnesia, and Ephesus. From Magnesia came the
Bishop Damas, the presbyters Bassus and Apollonius,
and the deacon Zotion. From Tralles came Bishop
Polybius, who brought him " some godly token of
good will (rr/i; Kara Oeov evvoiav), such as Epaphro-
ditus brought from the Philippians to Paul in his
prison in Eome. And from Ephesus, which was
only forty miles from Smyrna, came a more numerous
deputation, headed by the Bishop Onesimus. His
stay in Smyrna was of incalculable value to the
Chm'ch for all ages, for it gave him leisure to
write four of the seven precious letters which, with
the letter of Polycarp to the Philippians, are not
only the sole materials from which we know any-
thing for certain about the martyr bishop himself,
but which also illuminate a page in the history
of the Church which, without them, would be
shrouded in darkness. These four letters were to
the Churches in Ephesus, Magnesia, and Tralles,
which the respective bishops took back with them
92 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
to their flocks, and the Epistle to the Chiirch in
Eome.
He left Smyrna soon after August 24, the date
given in his letter to the Komans, and was taken
thence to Alexandria Troas, One of the Ephesian
delegates, Burrhus, accompanied him as far as Troas ;
and here he was joined by two members of his own
flock, who brought him the good news that the
Church at Antioch was now at peace.
Here he wrote three more letters to the Churches
of Philadelphia and Smyrna, both of which places
he had so recently visited, and to Polycarp, the
bishop of the Church in Smyrna, From Troas he
sailed to Neapolis, and his letters do not enable us
to follow him any further on his journey ; but from
the letter of Polycarp to the Philippians we learn
that he spent some time in that city, and was
taken thence to Kome.
This is the last item of genuine history that we
have about the noble martyr. At Philippi he was
joined by Zosimus and Rufus and others who, like
himself, were being carried in chains to Eome ; and
Polycarp asks for " any more certain information
you may have obtained respecting both Ignatius
himself and those that were with him."
His Martyrdom.
After the departure of the prisoners from Philippi
all is uncertain. All narratives contained in the
different martyrologies are legendary and confessedly
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 93
untrustworthy. Though the Roman Christians pre-
served not a single incident of his martyrdom, there
is no doubt that he " died under the claws and
teeth of wild beasts in the Flavian amphitheatre."
The aged saint was just such a victim as was
necessary for the wild-beast shows in which Trajan
(the best of Roman emperors) delighted, and for
which it was always desired to secure victims of
venerable and noble appearance. Like St. Peter and
St. Paul, no record of his last hours has survived
him, but it is enough to know that his name is
with theirs written in the Lamb's Book of Life in
the list of " the noble army of martyrs."
The Epistles of Ignatius not only carry us into
a new century, but they introduce us to a new era
of Church history, marked by new and special
characteristics. (1) All of the seven, with the
exception of the letter to the Church in Rome,
abound in denunciations of heretical teaching in the
Churches. (2) There is in them a reiterated and
intense insistency on the duty of all Christians " to
obey them that have the rule over them, and
submit themselves" to them (Heb. xiii. 17). And
(3) they contain a new nomenclature of the orders
of the apostolic ministry. It is possible that the
necessity for (1) accounts for (2) and (3).
I. Heresies.
Asia Minor was at this time a hotbed of false
doctrine and schismatical tendencies. The particular
94 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
type of heresy against which Ignatius warns the
Asiatic Christians was, according to Lightfoot, of the
same category with that " of the Colossian Church,
of the Pastoral Epistles, of the Apocalypse, and
of the Cerinthians. It is Judaism crossed with
Gnosticism." It was a form of Docetic Judaism,
and its followers denied the reality of the birth,
passion, and resurrection, in fact of the whole human
life, of the Lord Jesus Christ. In his letter to
the Trallians, Ignatius plays on the name Docete
(SoKijrat) by which these heretics were known :
" Certain persons who are godless, i.e. unbelievers,
say that He suffered only in semblance (to BoKelv),
being themselves mere semblance (avrol 6vre<i to
SoKclv)." He describes them as " treacherous wolves,
devouring the flock " (Ad Phil. ii.). " They are
mad dogs, biting by stealth " {Ad Eph. vii.) ; " noxious
herbs, which are not the husbandry of Jesus Christ "
{Ad Phil. iii.).
As an antidote against their pernicious teaching,
he reiterates over and over again the reality of the
historic events of the life and passion of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Thus, " For our God Jesus Christ
was conceived in the womb by Mary, of the seed
of David, but also of the Holy Ghost ; and He was
born and was baptized " {Ad Eph. xviii.) ; and " Be
ye fully persuaded concerning the birth, the passion,
and the resurrection, which took place in the time
of the government of Pontius Pilate ; for these
things were truly and certainly done by Jesus Christ
our hope ; from which hope may it not befall any
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 95
of you to be turned aside " {Ad Mag. xi.) ; and " Be
ye deaf therefore when any man speaketh to you
apart from Jesus Christ, who was of the race of
David, who was the son of Mary ; who was truly
born, and ate and drank ; who was truly persecuted
under Pontius Pilate," etc. {Ad Trail, ix.). " I have
perceived that ye are established in faith immovable
— fully persuaded, as touching our Lord, that He is
truly of the seed of David according to the flesh ;
but the Son of God, by the Divine will and power,
truly born of a virgin, and baptized by John " {Ad
Smyr. i.).
Compare the antidote given by St. Paul to the
Colossians for the same poison (Col. i. 15—20), and
by St. John in his first Epistle, also addressed to
the same neighbourhood ; and the latter's descrip-
tion of the heresy, " This is the antichrist, even he
that denieth the Father and the Son."
We can trace the growth of this first of the wicked
arts and plotting of the prince of this world {ra<i
KaKOTe-^vLa<i koI ive8pa<i tov ap'^ovTO'; rov al(ovo<;
TouTov) from its germ in the Colossian Church
(a.d. 62) to its further development when St. Paul
wrote his Pastoral Epistles (a.d. 66, 67). We find
it grown stronger in the Epistles to the seven
Churches in the last decade of the first century ;
and now the aged martyr, thirsting for the cup
that he is about to drink, is grieved in his
spirit at the terrible growth of " the strange
herbage," and writes to five of these Churches of
Asia to warn them of their danger, and reprove
96 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
some of them sharply for entertaining it amongst
them.
We have seen that the bishops of the Churches
in Ephesus, Tralles, and Magnesia, accompanied by
delegates from each Church, met Ignatius in Smyrna.
The heart of the martyr was gladdened by these
tokens of love and sympathy, but it was also
saddened by the news they brought of the harm
that was being done by false teachers in all the
Churches. This was the occasion of his writing
the first three letters to the Churches of Asia.
The heresy was in all cases a Docetic Judaism ;
but in some Churches the Docetic, and in others the
Judaic element was predominant.
To the Ephesians he writes : " I have learned that
certain persons passed through you from yonder^
bringing evil doctrine ; whom ye suffered not to sow
seed among you, for ye stopped your ears, so that ye
might not receive the seed sown by them " (compare
Acts XX. 28-31; Eev. ii. 2).
In Magnesia the Judaic element was more mani-
fest. He warns the Christians " not to be seduced by
strange doctrines and antiquated fables." " To put
away the vile leaven which hath waxed sour ; not to
live after the manner of Judaism ; not to sabbatize,
but to live according to the Lord's day "^ (Ad Mag. x.).
^ "The reference in iKeWev (from yonder) must remain uncertain ;
but if it were necessary to name any place, Philadelphia would
answer the conditions " (Lightfoot).
- This is the third mention in Christian literature of the Lord's
day (Rev. i. 10 ; Didache xiv. ).
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 97
In the letter to the Trallians " the denunciation
of Docetism is fuller and more explicit than in any
other of his letters. On the other hand, no allusion
is made in it to the Judaic side of the heresy ; but
a comparison with his language elsewhere shows
these false teachers to have been Judaisers also." ^
Of the JSjiistle to the Romans, which was also
written from Smyrna, but which contains no allusion
to the heresy, we shall speak later on.
While " the ten leopards " who were dragging
him to Eome halted at Troas, waiting for a ship to
carry them to Neapolis, Philo the deacon of Cilicia,
and Agathopus, " an elect man, who has followed
me from Syria, bidding farewell to his life," joined
him. They had halted at Philippi en route, and
Ignatius sends back by them his three remaining
letters.
Among the Philadelphians it was the Judaic side
of the heresy that chiefly troubled them, and against
which he warns them. Compare the words of the
Lord Jesus by St. John to the same Church, " Be-
hold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan,
who say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie ;
behold, I will make them to come and worship at
thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee "
(Rev. iii. 9).
He thanks the Church as a whole for their kind-
ness to Philo and Agathopus, but prays that certain
persons who " had dishonoured them may be forgiven
through the grace of Jesus Christ."
^ Lightfoot.
7
98 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
From the Epistle to the Smyrnceans it appears
that the Docetic element was the stronger there.
The Ejnstle to Polycarp is the last of his letters.
It bears marks of having been written in haste,
which is accounted for by his own words : " Inasmuch
as I have not been able to write to all the Churches,
because I must suddenly sail from Troas to Neapolis,
as the will of the emperor enjoins, I beg that thou,
as being acquainted with the purpose of God, wilt
write to the adjacent Churches," etc. {Ad Phil. viii.).
It is a pastoral Epistle dealing with his duty to his
flock, and their duty towards him. It contains only
one passing allusion to the heresy : " Let not those
who seem to be plausible, and yet teach strange
doctrines, dismay thee. Stand firm as an anvil
when it is smitten,"
II. The Duty of Obedience and Submission to
THEIR Pastors.
Nothing can be further from the truth than the
idea that the object of Ignatius was the undue
exaltation of the ministers of the gospel above the
laity. Ignatius knew nothing of any sacerdotal
class in the Church ; nothing of priests who had a
monopoly of the gifts of the Spirit, or who possessed
a mysterious power bestowed on them as official
priests by the laying on of hands.
The burden of all his letters is not the duty of
obedience to pastors as an end, but as a means of
keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 99
He knew that in unity was strength, and that the
unity of the members of the body with one another
was necessary for their growth in grace, but more espe-
cially at the present time to withstand the false teach-
ing of the heretics. The duty of submission to their
spiritual rulers was inculcated by him, not as an end
in itself, but as a means of attaining to that unity.
Every human organised body (whether family,
tribe, nation, army, or Church) must have duly
appointed officers and rulers, and without submis-
sion and obedience to them it is impossible for the
members of the body to have unity with one another.
The Churches of Christ are no exception to this rule.
A perusal of a few out of the many injunctions of
Ignatius on this subject will make this clear.
" It is therefore meet for you in every way to
glorify Jesus Christ who glorified you ; that being
perfectly joined together in one submission, sub-
mitting yourselves to your bishop and presbytery,
ye may be sanctified in all things." " It becometh
you to run in harmony with the mind of the bishop ;
which thing also ye do. For your honourable pres-
bytery, which is worthy of God, is attuned to the
bishop, even as the strings to a lyre ; therefore in
your concord and harmonious love Jesus Christ is
sung." " Assemble yourselves together in common,
every one of you severally man by man in grace, in
one faith, and one Jesus Christ, who after the flesh
was of the race of David, who is Son of Man and Son
of God, to the end that ye may obey the bishop and
the presbytery without distraction of mind ; break-
xoo APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
iug one bread which is tlie medicine of immortality,
and the antidote that we should not die but live
for ever in Jesus Christ " {Ad EjjJi. ii., iii., xx.).
" Do your diligence, that ye be confirmed in the
ordinances of the Lord and of the apostles . . . with
your revered bishop, and with the fitly-wreathed
circlet of your presbytery, and with the deacons who
walk after God " (Ad Mag. xiii.). " Take heed to
observe only one Eucharist ; for there is one flesh of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and one cup unto union in
His blood ; there is one sanctuary (on the meaning
of Ova-iaaTTjpiov, see Lightfoot, note Ad Eph. v.)^ as
there is one bishop, together with the presbytery and
the deacons, my fellow-servants, that whatsoever ye
do, ye may do it according unto God " {Ad Phil. iv.).
" Shun divisions as the beginning of evils. Do ye all
follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the
Father, and the presbytery as the apostles : and
reverence the deacons as God's commandment. Let
no man do ought of the things pertaining to the
Church apart from the bishop. Let that be held a
valid Eucharist which is under the bishop, or one to
whom he shall have committed it. Wheresoever the
bishop shall appear there let the people be, even as
where Jesus may be there is the Catholic Church.
It is not lawful apart from the bishop either to
baptize or to hold a love feast ; but whatsoever he
shall approve, this is well-pleasing to God ; that
everything which ye do may be sure and valid "
{Ad Smyr. viii.).
^ Appendix C.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH loi
III. The Change in the Nomenclature of the
Ministers.
In every Christian writing of the first century,
without any exception, the terms " presbyter " and
" bishop " are synonymous. In the Epistles of Ignatius
three distinct orders of ministry — bishop, presbyter,
and deacon — appear for the first time. We have
seen that in every fully-organised Jewish synagogue
there were three orders of ministry: (1) alms-
collectors or deacons, (2) presbyters, and (3) a
president ; and that the organisation of the Christian
Churches was formed on the model of the synagogue.
In all organised human bodies ruled by a college of
officers, it is an almost universal custom for the
college to appoint one of their number as chairman
or president. It is rather to be wondered at that in
the whole of the first century there is no trace of a
'permanent president in any Church but that of
Jerusalem, and that president was St. James, the
Lord's brother. It is not strange that at the be-
ginning of the second century we should find that
in the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria there are
life presidents, and that they are designated by a
special title. They had not to invent a new title
for the office, but simply to restrict the title of
Episcopus or Overseer, which in common with his
fellow presbyters he already bore, to him as chief
pastor, and to restrict the title of presbyter to the
remaining members of the college. Henceforth the
terms " bishop " and " presbyter " are no longer
I02 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
synonymous in the Churches of Asia and Syria, and
before the end of the second century the Churches
of Europe and Africa followed their example. It is
probable that the prevalence of heretical teaching
in Asia and Syria, and the consequent necessity of a
more perfect organisation to withstand it, led to the
change being made first in them.
Ignatius writes to Polycarp : " Ignatius, who is
also Theophorus, to Polycarp, overseer (episcopus) of
the Church of the Smyrnteans, or rather who art
thyself overseen by God the Father, and the Lord
Jesus Christ." The meaning of the term Episcopus
here depends on the meaning of the term Ecclesia.
Ecclesia is used by Ignatius (1) for a local Church,
i.e. the aggregate of Christians residing in any city
or locality. It occurs with this meaning thirty
times in his seven Epistles. (2) For the Catholic
Church, i.e. the aggregate of all the local Churches
in the world, or " the blessed company of all faithful
people." He is the first Christian writer who uses
the term " Catholic Church" and he thus defines it :
" Wheresoever Christ is, there is the Catholic Church"
{Ad Smyr. viii.).
The Ignatian bishops were therefore pastors of
single congregations of Christians, or, to quote the
words of Bishop Gore, " The bishop, according to
the early ideal, was by no means the great prelate.
He was the pastor of a flock, like the vicar of a
modern town, in intimate relations with his people." ^
And, on the limitation of this form of the
' Gore, The Church and the Ministry, pp. 104, 113.
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 103
episcopate to the Churches of Asia and Syria, Bishop
Gore writes : " This difference between the East and
the West continued till after the middle of the
second century. About the middle of that century (?)
Polycarp writes, no doubt as bishop, ' Polycarp and
the presbyters that are with him to the Church at
Philippi ' ; but he speaks of no bishop at Philippi,
only of elders and deacons, and bids the Philippians
' obey the elders and deacons as God and Christ,'
as if there were no higher office in question there.
The elders, moreover, are exhorted in terms which
imply that the exercise of discipHne and the ad-
ministration of alms belong to them." ^
Ignatius knew of no uniformity of ecclesiastical
organisation in the whole Catholic Church ; he knew
of no head of the Church but the ascended Lord.
The unity for which he pleads so earnestly was not
a union of Churches, but of the members of each
Chui'ch in submission to their pastors and teachers.
Each local Church was in his eyes a temple of God,
a body of Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He
knew of no aggregate of congregations forming one
Church under one human head ; there was no
Church of Asia Minor, of Italy, or of Greece. The
bishop was not a pastor pastor um, but " the pastor
of one flock, like the vicar of a modern town."
And that not universally in all Churches ; for, in
his Epistle to the Church in Rome, he makes no
allusion to a bishop there, any more than Polycarp
does in his Epistle to the Philippians.
^ Gore, The Church and the Ministry, pp. 104, 113.
I04 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Ignatius is not only an advocate of the necessity
of there being a bishop in each local Church, but
he is equally strong in urging the necessity of there
being aplurality of jpresbyters and a plurality of deacons
also in each congregation. " It is therefore necessary
that . . . without the bishop ye should do nothing,
but also be subject to the presbytery, as to the
apostles of Jesus Christ. ... It is fitting also that
the deacons, as being the ministers of the mysteries
of Jesus Christ, should in every respect be pleasing
to all. For they are not ministers of meat and
drink, but servants of the Church of God " (Ad
Trail, ii.).
Ignatius does indeed use very strong language as
to the necessity for the three orders of ministry in
each Church or congregation. " Let all men respect
the deacons of Jesus Christ, even as they should
respect the bishop as being a type of God the
Father, and the presbyters as the council of God
and as the college of the apostles. Apart from these
there is not even a Church " (Ad Trail, iii.).
He could hardly have intended these words to be
taken as of universal application, for in his Epistle
to the Romans he makes no mention of a bishop,
and yet addresses her as " the Church that is beloved
and enHghtened through the will of Him who
willeth all things that are."
The Einstle to the Church in Rome differs from all
his other letters. It contains no reference to false
doctrine. His object in writing it was to entreat
the Eoman Christians to do nothing, through motives
IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH 105
of mistaken kindness, to hinder his being thrown to
the wild beasts. "May I have joy of the beasts
that are prepared for me in Eome, and I pray that
I may find them prompt. . . . Come fire and cross
and grapphng with wild beasts, cuttings and man-
glings, wrenching of bones, hacking of limbs, crushing
of my whole body ; come cruel tortures of the devil
to assail me. Only let it be mine to attain unto
Jesus Christ " {Ad Rom. v.).
There is one very strange phenomenon in the
letters of Ignatius, namely, that they contain no
mention of St. John the Divine. He mentions St.
Peter, St. Paul, and Timothy, and was famihar with
the Epistles of the great Apostle of the Gentiles,
but gives no indication that He ever read any of
the writings of St. John. Of St. Paul he writes in
his letter to the Ephesians : " Ye are initiated into
the mysteries of the gospel with Paul, the holy,
the martyred, the deservedly most happy, at whose
feet may I be found when I shall attain to God,
and who in all his Epistles (or in every Epistle)
makes mention of you " (xii.). And of Timothy he
writes to the Magnesians : " Timothy the Christ-
bearer was young, but hear what his teacher writes
to him, ' Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou
an example of the believers in word and in conduct
(iii.). There are several other mentions of St. Paul
in his letters. As fully fifty years had elapsed
since St. Paul wrote these words to Timothy, and
not more than twenty since St. John's traditional
connection with the Churches of Asia had come to
io6 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
an end, this entire omission of any reference to him
or to his writings is very strange. It seems
impossible that Ignatius could have read the letters
to the seven Churches in Asia in the Apocalypse,
and have made no allusion to them when writing
to three of the same Churches and to two other
Churches in the same province. The omission gives
no colour to the theory that St. John was the
founder of the Episcopacy in the Churches of Asia,
and through them in all Churches. We must look
elsewhere for any true foundation for what is called
the apostolic succession of bishops, and we shall
look in vain through all the writings of the apostles,
of " apostolic men," and of " the apostolic Fathers."
VII.
POLYCAEP or SMYENA.
We do not know much more of the details of the
life of Polycarp than of that of Ignatius ; all we
do know with any degree of certainty is derived
from four sources, and each of them respectively
casts light on the only four events in his life of
which we have any certain knowledge.
I. The first of these sources is the letters of
Ignatius, from which we learn that the martyr spent
some time with Polycarp in Smyrna on his way to
martyrdom ; and wrote four of his seven letters
while staying with him, and evidently conceived
a greater friendship and esteem for him than for any
of the other bishops whose acquaintance he made on
his journey.
The last act of Ignatius, before he set sail from
Troas for Neapolis, was to write the last of his
precious letters to Polycarp. He wrote it in great
haste, because, he says, " I must suddenly sail from
Troas to Neapolis, as the will of the emperor
enjoins." In it he expresses the greatest affection
for his younger brother, and the high opinion that
he had formed of his character.
107
io8 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
" Having obtained good proof that thy mind is
fixed on God as upon an immovable rock, I loudly
glorify His name that I have been thought worthy
to behold thy blameless face, which may I ever
enjoy in God ! " (Ign. Pol. § 1).
Ignatius also makes special mention of Polycarp
in his letters to the Magnesians and Smyrnseans
(Ign. Mag. 15 and Smyr. 12).
II. The second source is the Epistle of Polycarp
to the Philippians. There can be no reasonable
doubt of the authenticity of the Epistle. Irenseus,
who was a disciple of Polycarp, says, " There is also
an all-sufficient {iKavcoTaTij) Epistle of Polycarp
written to the Philippians, from which those who
choose to do so, and are anxious about their sal-
vation, can learn the character of his faith and
the preaching of the truth " (Adv. Hoer. iii. 3).
Its authenticity is established by an abundance
of external testimony as well as by internal evi-
dence.
The Philippians had written to Polycarp asking
him to send them some words of exhortation (§ 3) ;
to forward a letter from them to the Church in
Syria (§ 13); and to send them any letters from
Ignatius which he might have received {ibid.). It
is addressed by " Polycarp and the presbyters who
are with him to the Church of God which sojourneth
in Philippi."
He writes : " I rejoiced greatly that ye received
the followers of the true love, and escorted them
on their way, as befitted you — those men encircled
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA 109
with the diadems of them that are truly chosen of
God and our Lord" (§ 1). And later on in the
Epistle he exhorts the Philippians to be imitators
of the martyrs : " I exhort you therefore to be
obedient to the word of righteousness, and to practise
all endurance, which also ye saw with your own
eyes in the blessed Ignatius and Zosimus and Rufus,
yea, and in others also who came from among
yourselves" (§ 9). As Zosimus and Eufus are not
mentioned in the letters of Ignatius, and he makes
no allusion to any fellow-prisoners, it appears that
they were Christian martyrs who were sent, probably
like Ignatius, by Pliny to be placed under the same
escort, and proceed with him to Eome in the custody
of the " ten leopards " (Ign. Bom. 5).
A great part of this short letter consists of
quotations from the New Testament, whereas there
is not a single quotation in it from the Old
Testament. He is, we believe, the first of " the
Fathers " who quotes either of the Epistles of
St. Peter ; and he makes more use of his first
Epistle than of any other of the books of the New
Testament.
There is a resemblance to words in St. Peter's
second Epistle in the following : " For neither am
I, nor is any other like me, able to follow the
wisdom of the blessed and glorified Paul " (§ 3 ;
comp. 2 Pet. iii. 15).
He expresses great grief for " Valens, who afore-
time was a presbyter among you," but who had
fallen through covetousness ; and takes occasion to
no APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
warn them that, " If a man refrain not from covet-
ousness, he shall be defiled by idolatry, and shall be
judged as one of the Gentiles who know not the
judgment of the Lord. Nay, know we not that
the saints shall Judge the world, as Paul teacheth
(1 Cor. vi. 2), But I have not found any such
thing in you, neither have heard thereof, among
whom the blessed Paul laboured, who were his
Epistles in the beginning (comp. 2 Cor. iii. 2), For
he boasteth of you in all those Churches which
alone at that time knew God ; for we knew Him
not as yet" (§ 11). This is a proof of the late
date of the foundation of the Church in Smyrna,
and furnishes a strong presumption in favour of the
late date of the Apocalypse ; for the Church in that
city must have been founded a considerable time
previous to the date of the Epistles to the seven
Churches in Asia (Rev. ii., iii.).
He exhorts the men to remember that " the love
of money is the root of all troubles " ; that we must
" arm ourselves with the armour of righteousness,
and let us teach ourselves first to walk in the
commandment of the Lord ; and our wives also, to
walk in the faith that hath been given them, and
in love and purity, cherishing their own husbands
in all truth, and loving all men equally in all
chastity; and to train their children in the training
of the Lord. Our widows must be sober-minded
as touching the faith of the Lord, knowing that
they are God's altar (Bvaiaa-T^ptov 6eov), and
that all sacrifices are carefully inspected, and
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA mi
nothing escapeth Him either of their thoughts
or intents or any of the secret things of the heart "
(§4).
" Deacons should be blameless in the presence of
His righteousness, as deacons of God and Christ, and
not of men ; not calumniators, not double tongued,
not lovers of money, temperate in all things, com-
passionate, diligent, walking according to the truth
of the Lord who became a minister of all {hiaKovo^
irdvTcov). Wherefore it is right that ye should
abstain from these things, submitting yourselves
to the presbyters and deacons as to God and
Christ" (§ 5).
" And the presbyters also must be compassionate,
merciful towards all men, turning back the sheep
that are gone astray, visiting the infirm, not
neglecting a widow or an orphan or a poor man ;
but providing always for things honourable in the
sight of God and man, abstaining from all anger,
respect of persons, unrighteous judgment ; being far
from all love of money, not quick to believe any-
thing against any man, not hasty in judgment,
knowing that we all are debtors of sin " (§ 6).
Date of the Epistle.
The only note of time contained in the Epistle is
to be found in the following words : " The letters
of Ignatius which were sent to us by him, and
others as many as we had by us, we send unto you,
according as ye gave charge,— from which ye will
112 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
be able to gain great advantage. Moreover, con-
cerning Ignatius himself and those that are with
him (twv avv avrw : qui cum eo sunt), if ye have any
sure tidings, certify us" (§ 13).
From these words it is evident that the letter
was written before tidings of the martyrdom of
Ignatius had reached Polycarp, and that the last
he had heard of Ignatius, Zosimus, Eufus, and
perhaps other martyrs, was their departure from
Philippi. As it is agreed by all that the martyrdom
could not have taken place later than A.D. 117,
the Epistle of Folycarp must have been written not
later than a.d. 120.
Conclusion of the Epistle.
" I write these things to you by Crescens, whom
I commended to you recently and now commend
unto you ; for he hath walked blamelessly with us ;
and I believe also with you in like manner. But
ye shall have his sister commended w^hen she shall
come to you. Fare ye well in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen" (§ 14).
With these words closes all that can be known
from the writings of the apostolic Fathers on Church
organisation and unity. But there are two other
writings of a later date which give additional in-
formation about Polycarp, and which are not without
bearing on our subject.
III. The third source from which we derive the
knowledge we possess of the details of the life of
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA 113
Polycarp is " the Fragment," which unfortunately
alone remains " of the letter written by Irenaus to
Victor, Bishop of Eonie" (a.d. 190-194).
There is a special interest attaching to a visit
which was paid by Polycarp to Eome (a.d. ISO-
IS 4). The object of his visit was to discuss various
points of difference in rites and ceremonies between
the Churches of the East and West, and especially
the proper time of keeping Easter. The Churches
of Asia, following the example of St. John, com-
memorated the Crucifixion on the 14th of Nisan,
whatever the day of the week might be ; whereas
the Churches of the West always observed a Friday
as the anniversary of the Crucifixion, and a Sunday
as that of the Eesurrection. Forty years later,
Victor, the Bishop of Eome, arrogantly excom-
municated the Eastern Churches for following the
custom of St. John. This was the beginning
of what afterwards led to the entire separation of
the Eastern Church from the Western. The
Council of Nice (a.d. 325) decided in favour of
the Western usage, and branded the Asiatic Chris-
tians as heretics, with the title of Quariodecimans.
Irenaeus, though he was a pupil of Polycarp and
an Eastern by birth, when he became bishop of a
Western Church (Lyons in France) adopted the
Western usage, probably thinking it a matter of no
importance. He strongly disapproved of the arro-
gance of Victor, and wrote him a letter of which the
following is the only fragment that remains. It will
speak for itself.
114 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
Fragment of Letter from Iren^.us, Bishop of
Lyons, to Victor, Bishop of Eome (a.d.
190-194).
" For the controversy is not merely as regards
the day, but also as regards the form itself of the
fast. For some consider themselves bound to fast
one day, others still more, while others do so for
forty days ; the diurnal and nocturnal hours they
measure out together as their fasting day. And
this variety among the observers of the fasts had
not its origin in our time, but long before in that
of our predecessors, some of whom probably, being
not very accurate in their observance of it, handed
down to posterity the custom as it had, through
simplicity or private fancy, been (introduced) among
them. And yet, nevertheless, all these lived in
peace one with another, and we also keep peace
together. Thus, in fact, the difference in observing
the fast establishes the harmony of (our common)
faith. And the presbyters preceding Soter in the
government of the Church which thou dost now
rule — I mean Anicetus and Pius, Hygenus and
Telesphorus, and Sixtus — did neither themselves
observe it (after that fashion), nor permit those
with them to do so. Notwithstanding this, those
who did not keep (the feast in this way) were
peacefully disposed towards those who came to them
from other dioceses (provinces ?) in which it was so
observed, although such observance was (felt) in
more decided contrariety (as presented) to those who
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA 115
did not fall in with it ; and none were ever cast out
of the Church for this matter. On the contrary,
those presbyters who preceded thee, and who did
not observe this custom, sent the Eucharist to those
of other dioceses who did observe it ; and when the
blessed Polycarp was sojourning in Eome in the
time of Anicetus, although a slight controversy had
arisen among them as to certain other points, they
were at once well inclined towards each other (with
regard to the matter in hand), not willing that any
quarrel should arise between them on this head.
For neither could Anicetus persuade Polycarp to
forego the observance in his own way, inasmuch as
these things had been always so observed by St.
John the disciple of the Lord, and by other apostles
with whom he had been conversant ; nor, on the
other hand, could Polycarp succeed in persuading
Anicetus (to keep the observance in his way), for
he maintained that he was bound to adhere to the
usage of the presbyters who preceded him, and in
this state of affairs they held fellowship with each
other ; and Anicetus conceded to Polycarp in the
Church the celebration of the Eucharist, by way of
showing him respect ; so that they parted in peace
one from the other, maintaining peace with the
whole Church, both those who did observe this
custom and those who did not."
Anicetus also manifested the esteem in which he
held Polycarp by asking him to preside, instead
of himself, at an ordination of presbyters (Euseb.
vi. 24).
ii6 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
It has been a pleasant task to trace the course
of the river of the water of Life from its source in
" the Eock of ages " through the Hves and teaching
of the apostles and apostolic Fathers. With the
exception of the rather muddy water of "the
Didache," we have found little, if anything, of
the turbid stream of human tradition mixed with
it. The charming story of the mutual forbearance
and love of Polycarp and Anicetus is a fitting close
to our study. Truly Christlike was their spirit in
the matter, and truly Christlike was the spirit
in which, forty years later, Irenaeus, while sternly
rebuking the arrogance of Victor, relates the narra-
tive. Alas ! from the time of Victor and onwards,
the student of Church history will have greater and
greater difficulty in tracing the course of the pure
river of Life amidst the foul waters of earth by
which it became more and more polluted. Ecclesi-
astical pride begun in Diotrephes, and, springing up
again in Victor, has been the most fruitful of all the
sources of divisions, troubles, and persecutions in
the Church. It was the same spirit of pride which,
less than two hundred years after the date of
Irenseus' letter, led the ecclesiastics " who governed
the conscience of the Emperor Theodosius " to egg
him on to promulgate his fifteen edicts against so-
called heretics ; one of which was a decree that
the atrocious crime of the Qiiartodccimans, in cele-
brating the festival of Easter on an improper day,
should be atoned for by capital punishment.^
' Gibbon's Rome, iii. 233, Bolm's ed.
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA 117
Another unexpected fact is brought to light by
this " Fragment of Irenseus." Although at the date
of his writing the letter (a.d. 190-194) the Epis-
copate must have become as distinct at least from
the Presbyterate in Europe as it had become in
Asia in the days of Ignatius, yet there is no trace
in the letter that it had become so in the days of
Anicetus at Eome (a.d. 150). In fact the words
of Bishop Gore are as applicable to the letter of
Irenseus to Victor as they are to the letter of Poly-
carp to the Philippians. Iremeus, though he writes
as a bishop to the Bishop of Kome, speaks of no
bishop, only of presbyters, in Rome in the days of
Anicetus ; as if there were no higher officer in
question there ; the presbyters, moreover, are spoken
of in terms which imply that the exercise of disci-
pline belonged to them.
IV. The letter of the Smyrnseans on the martyr-
dom of Polycarp is the fourth source from which we
derive information about the martyred bishop. The
letter is addressed by the Church of Smyrna to the
Church of Philomelium, and is by the best authorities
considered to be a genuine document. It was prob-
ably written shortly after his martyrdom, which took
place A.D. 155 or 156. It contains perhaps less of
the marvellous than any other of the numerous
martyrologies, and may be accepted as a true
account of the main facts of the last days of the
saint. It is to it that we are indebted for words
with which we are all so familiar ; how, when
Polycarp was pressed hard by the Roman magistrate
ii8 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
to swear by the genius of Csesar, in the stadium of
Smyrna, in presence of a crowd of his fellow-citizens,
he said : " Fourscore and six years have I served
Him, and He hath done me no wrong. How then
can I blaspheme my King who hath saved me ? "
While we accept on the whole the account of his
noble witness for Christ at the stake, we are not
obliged to believe as gospel all the details of his
martrydom ; how, " When he had offered up the
' amen ' and finished his prayer, the firemen lighted
the fire, and a mighty flame rushing forth, we, to
whom it was given to see, saw a marvel, yea, and we
were preserved that we might relate what happened
to the rest. The fire making the appearance of a
vault, like the sail of a vessel filled by the wind,
made a wall round about the body of the martyr ;
and it was there in the midst, not like flesh burning,
but like (a loaf in the oven, or like) gold and silver
refined in a furnace. For we perceived such a
fragrant smell, as if it were the wafted odour of
frankincense or of some other spice. So at length
the lawless men, seeing that his body could not be
consumed by fire, ordered the executioner to go up
to him and stab him with a dagger. And when he
had done this, there came forth a dove and a quantity
of his blood, so that it extinguished the fire ; and
all the multitude marvelled that there should be so
great a difference between the unbelievers and the
elect. In the number of these was this man, the
glorious martyr Polycarp, who was found an apos-
tolic and prophetic teacher in our own time, a bishop
POLYCARP OF SMYRNA 119
of the holy Church which is in Smyrna. For every
word which he uttered from his mouth was accom-
plished and will be accomplished" (§§ 15, 16).
Such is the only genuine account we possess of
the glorious death of the last of the apostolic
Fathers.
The only Life of Polycarp is that which is ascribed
to one Pionius ; it belongs to the close of the fourth
century, and " is so entirely unauthentic that we
cannot attribute the least certainty even to those of
its statements which are not demonstrably false." ^
^ Farrar.
VIII.
SOME DEDUCTIONS FEOM THE
FOREGOING.
The keynote of the writings of the apostoHc
Fathers is the same as that of the apostles, " the
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." According
to them, the esse of the body of Christ depended not
upon one outward organisation, but upon " the
power of an endless life " bestowed on every member
by the indwelling Spirit. The object of all their
writings was not the exaltation of the minister,
but the unity of the members ; not the priesthood
of a class, but the priesthood of all the members,
as members of the One Ever-living High Priest.
Ignatius, more than others, gives prominence to
the necessity of certain orders of ministry to the
health of the body, rightly considering that in every
material organisation there must be an outward and
visible order, as well as an inward spirit of unity
and life ; and that no society could for any time
preserve the unity of its members, without appoint-
ing properly constituted officers to rule it. It is
not true to speak of Ignatius as an advocate of
Episcopacy only, without pointing out that he was
120
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE FOREGOING 121
just as much an advocate of the necessity of there
being a phirality of deacons, and a council of pres-
byters in each congregation, as of there being an
episcopus over it ; and that the term episcopus in his
language means the pastor of a congregation, not
the bishop of a diocese. " Let all men respect the
deacons of Jesus Christ, even as they respect the
bishop as being a type of God the Father, and
the presbyters as the council of God, and as the
college of the apostles. Apart from these there
is no Church " (Trail, iii.). Of monarchical Epis-
copacy (monepiscopacy) there is no trace in the
period of Church history under discussion. The
organisation of the Church was on republican, not
on monarchical lines ; each congregation being ruled
by an episcopiis (overseer or rector), " in council
with your honourable presbytery, which is worthy
of God, and is attuned to the episcopus as the
strings to a lyre"; and the laity being represented
by the deacons, " who are most dear to me, and
who are intrusted with the ministry of Jesus
Christ " : the special office of the deacons being to
attend to the wants of the poor.
Unfortunately the trend of the Eeformed Churches
was, till lately, too much towards division ; thank
God it is now turning in the opposite direction, and
we are beginning to realise that unity is strength.
At the Eeformation there was a natural reaction
from the tyranny of a corrupt priesthood, under
which the laity had groaned for ages. The great
principle of the Eeformation being the right of
122 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
private judgment, and the privilege of every one to
read the word of God, and to draw near to his
Father in heaven, without the intervention of any-
human priest, men naturally fell into a mistaken
idea of " the liberty that is in Christ " ; forget-
ting that the Holy Spirit had appointed rulers
in His Church, and that it is the duty of all
Christians to submit to one another, and specially
to their spiritual leaders and rulers ; and that
without this mutual submission it is impossible
to " keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace."
Let us not forget that the three orders of
ministry in Asia in the beginning of the second
century were not a bishop over a diocese and a
single presbyter with no deacon in each congre-
gation ; but an cpiscopus, a council of presbyters,
and a number of deacons in each congregation.
Many non-Episcopal Churches retain, we beHeve,
these three orders, while Episcopal Churches have
given them up. Is it not our neglect, as Episco-
palians, of these apostoHc orders of ministry that
paralyses our work, and deprives us of the co-
operation of the laity ? Does it not make the
following words of the Bishop of Worcester, in his
presidential address on 30th September 1902,
equally applicable to every incumbent in his
diocese ? — " Too much is left to the solitary judg-
ment of the individual. On matters small and
great I am constantly being told, in a phrase
which I can never hear without its sending a
DEDUCTIONS FROM THE FOREGOING 123
shiver through me, ' It must be as your Lord-
ship pleases.' " ^
Thank God the definition of the " Church
Catholic " and of " the Churches " in the writings
of our Eeformers and in our Prayer-Book and
Articles is quite in agreement with that of the
Apostolic Fathers.
" The Church of God is the congregation of the
faithful, wherein the Word of God is truly preached,
and the sacraments justly administered, according to
the institution of Christ, and His doctrine taught
unto us by His Holy Word ; and the Church of
God is not by God's Word taken for the multitude
of bishops, priests, and such others ; but it is the
company of all men hearing God's Word and
obeying the same, lest any man should be seduced,
believing himself to be bound to any ordinary
succession of bishops and priests, but only to the
Word of God and the right use of the Sacraments." ^
The Church is " the mystical body of Thy
Son, which is the blessed company of all faithful
people." ^
There is one other theory of " the Churches " and
" the Church " at which it is well, in conclusion, to
take a glance, namely, that based upon the so-called
apostoUc succession of the Diocesan Episcopate.
^ Report of Worcester Chuicli Conference, Record, 3rd October
1902.
^ "John Hooper, Bishop and Martyr, a.d. 1551," Light from
Old Times, Bishop Ryle, p. 107.
^ Office of Holy Communion, Book of Common Prayer. Sec also
Article XIX. of the XXXIX. Articles of Religion.
IX.
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION.
(Audi Alter^am Partem !)
Episcopacy, with its claim to an apostolic succes-
sion, is necessary, not to the bene esse only, but to
the esse of a Church.
The above is the thesis of a remarkable book,
The Church and the Christian Ministry, by Canon
(now Bishop) Gore.
Statement of the Thesis.
" The Episcopate, with its claim of an apostolic
succession, claiming to be a priesthood, does not
represent a temporary accommodation of the
Christian ideal, more or less necessitated by cir-
cumstances, to the Jewish or Pagan ideas among
which the Church spread, but it is simply the
fulfilment of Christ's intention, an essential and
inviolable element of Christianity to the end —
(it is) the catholic conception of the Bishop, as
securing the channels of grace and truth and
representing the Divine presence." ^
' The Church and the Christian Ministry, p. 61.
124
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 125
" Christ instituted in His Church, by succession
from the apostles, a permanent ministry of truth
and grace, of ' the Word and Sacraments,' as an
indispensable part of her organisation and con-
tinuous corporate life. There belongs to the order
of bishops, and to them alone, the power to per-
petuate the ministry in its several grades by the
transmission of the authority received from the
apostles, its original depositaries ; so that, as a
consequence, no ministry except such as has been
received by episcopal ordination can be legitimately
or validly exercised in the Church,
" The transmission of ministerial authority, or
ordination, is an outward act of a sacramental
character, in which the laying on of hands with
prayer is a visible sign. The Church, without
change of principle, came to acknowledge the effect
of ordination as indelible, and to recognise as a
priesthood the ministry of bishops and presbyters
which it conferred." ^
Gensequeiice of Thesis.
" It will appear at once, as a consequence of all
this, that the various Presbyterian and Congre-
gational organisations, however venerable on many
different grounds, have, in dispensing with the
episcopal succession, violated a fundamental law
of the Church's life, — not that God's grace has
not worked, and worked largely, through many an
^ Tfie Church aiid the Christian Minidry, p. 115.
126 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
irregular ministry not episcopally ordained, where it
was exercised in good faith, but that a ministry not
episcopally received is invalid, that is to say, falls
outside the conditions of covenanted security, and
cannot justify its existence in terms of the covenant."^
A tremendous statement ! A sentence of ex-
communication— of exclusion from the covenant of
grace and life, and from the Church which is the
body of Christ, of a hundred million Christians !
This consequence of our author's thesis is of a more
serious nature when we remember that the learned
Canon, on the most solemn occasion in his life,
declared his belief that " as the Church of Jeru-
salem, Alexandria, and Antioch have erred ; so the
Church of Rome hath erred not only in their
living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters
of faith " (Art. XIX.). It is indeed a case of " the
temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are we."
We should expect the propounder of such a
thesis to establish it by the most authentic facts
from the history of the apostles and of the
apostolic Fathers, and by the most genuine quota-
tions from their writings. We have read and
re-read The Church and the Christian Ministry,
and found no such proof in it. The author does
not relate a single fact from the history of the
apostles or apostolic Fatliers to prove that, (1)
any one of the twelve apostles ever consecrated
a bishop over any Church that he had founded ;
nor (2) does he quote a single passage from their
' The Church and the Christian Ministry, p. 345,
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 127
writings to prove that they regarded the ministry
of bishops and presbyters as an otficial priesthood.
To dismiss the latter subject first, namely, that of
Sacerdotalism,
we quote his own words : " It will be observed
that whereas the conception of the Christian ministry
and pastorate of souls dates back behind our present
period (the close of the second century) into the
immemorial past (sic), it is only at the beginning
of our period that the title of the priesthood began
to be applied to it. Irenseus and Clement do not
speak of the Christian ministers as priests, while
Tertullian and Origen do, so that it is only to-
wards the end of the second century that sacerdotal
terms begin to be applied to the clergy" (p. 196).
Sacerdotalism, then, is not apostolic.
Viri Apostolici.
Our author acknowledges that there is a missing
link (rather many links) between the bishops of the
close of the second century and the apostles ; that
contemporary history leaves their pedigree incom-
plete. In order to bridge over the chasm, he
adduces the cases of " the apostolic men " {viri
Apostolici), St. James the Lord's brother, Timothy,
Titus, and Apollos.
(1) St. James the Lord's brother. "James is
clothed with apostolic authority, and when the
128 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
apostles go forth to exercise their universal com-
mission, remains to represent the apostolic office
in the Church of Jerusalem. Probably he was not
appointed by the apostles. Probably his authority
would have been understood to have been given him
when Christ appeared to him after the resurrection."
James, then, is not a case of a bishop appointed by
an apostle, but probably one of an apostle appointed
by Christ ; so he may be ruled out of court.
(2) Timothy and Titus. " As to the exten-
sion of the apostolic office. As apostolic legates
Timothy and Titus exercise what is essentially the
later episcopal office ; but it would not appear that
their authority, though essentially permanent, is
definitely localised like that of the diocesan bishop.
St. Paul certainly contemplates his (Timothy's)
continuing his ministry after his own death, and
presumably in the same Church of Ephesus, in
which it would appear that he had been solemnly
ordained to his office (2 Tim. iv. 1-8). 'Nor perhaps
can we argue against his localisation from the fact
of St. Paul summoning him to Kome, or from the
fact of his having gone there.
" But there is a close analogy between the office
of Timothy and that of Titus, and Titus certainly
appears to have left Crete to join St. Paul at Piome
(?), and to have left again not for Crete but for
Dalmatia (2 Tim. iv. 9 ; Heb. xiii. 23 ; Tit. iii. 12 ;
2 Tim. iv. 10). It should be added that no
definite title is assigned to Timothy and Titus, —
no doubt the necessity for fixed titles grew greater
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 129
with the lapse of time and the increase of con-
troversy" (p. 249).
(3) Apollos. " Such ordination, again, lue should
suppose Apollos to have received. It will, however,
be of course acknowledged that miraculous evidence
of the Divine will, such as the Church could recog-
nise, went far to reduce the ceremony of ordination
to a lower level of importance than it held in
ordinary cases " {ibid.).
(4) One other name of a possible local bishop in
the days of the last of the apostles (St. John), the
Canon strangely cites. "We shall probably be
incHned to see in Diotrephes, with his ambitious
self-exaltation and his power to cast out of the
Church brethren who had come from St. John,
one of these local bishops who was misusing his
authority" (p. 255).
We have seen above (p. 66) that, by our author's
candid acknowledgment, the Epistle of Clement
proves that there was no office in the Church of
Corinth in A.D. 95 higher than that of presbyter,
and (p. 103) that the Epistle of Polycarp to the
Philippians proves the same to have been the case
in Philippi " up to the middle of the second
century."
Of the case of Clement and the Church of Eome
we also read : " Though Clement cannot have been
called a bishop in the later sense of the word, his
position in the earhest tradition is so prominent
that he must in fact have been what would have
been in later times designated by that name One
9
I30 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
of this order must, we should sujjpose, always have
existed in so prominent a Church as Home. If not
in name, ive can well believe there was in fact an
episcopal succession from the first." ^
We have seen that he acknowledges that " the
Ignatian bishops " were not diocesan bishops, but
that their office was that of the vicar of a parish
or minister of a congregation.
His candid acknowledgment of the difficulty of
proving his thesis extends beyond the period of the
apostolic Fathers to that of Irenaeus (a.d. 200), for
he writes : " Irenaeus' use of language, indeed, about
the bishop is not quite determinate ; the venerable
title of ' presbyter ' is still used in an inclusive
sense for the Church rulers " (ii. 3. 2, iii. 2. 3,
iv. 26. 2, 4, 5, etc.).
One uniform visible Church.
" In the history of Christendom we discern a
great number of organised religious bodies, owing
their existence and their purpose to Christian belief
and Christian ideas ; but in the midst of these also
we discern something incomparably more permanent
and more universal — one continuous body — the
Catholic Church. There it is ; no one can overlook
its visible existence, let us say from the time when
Christianity emerges out of the gloom of the sub-
apostolic age down to the period of the Keformation.
And all down this period of its continuous life this
1 The italics are our own.
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 131
Society makes a constant and unmistakable claim.
It claims to have been instituted as the home of the
New Covenant of salvation by the incarnate Son of
God. Is the claim which this Catholic Church has
made a just one ? "
" Certainly the idea of a visible Church and its
unity (uniformity ?) was prominent there (in Kome)
when Victor (a.d. 190), the bishop, attempted to
excommunicate the Churches of Asia for keeping
Easter after their own Johannine tradition." ^
Let us place these statements in juxtaposition
with a few facts of history ! There was in Western
Christendom for many centuries down to the
Keformation, one continuous body which called her-
self the Catholic Church. There was in Eastern
Christendom a similar body in deadly feud with
her Western sister, who made the same claim for
herself ; and there were several other Eastern
Churches side by side with her. Many other
Christian bodies arose in Western Christendom, but
the great Western Church destroyed them with
great cruelty. This Western Church claims to be
the home of the New Covenant of salvation, and
denies the blessings of salvation to all outside her
pale. Is this claim which the Church of Kome has
made a just one ? Bishop Gore, if we rightly
understand him, says that it is a just one. The
Church of England, all the great Reformed Churches
of Western Christendom, and all the Oriental
Churches indignantly deny it.
. ^ Gore, The Church and the Christian Ministry,
132 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
The Canon summons strange witnesses to support
his thesis. In the first century, according to him,
Diotrephes was 2^ossibli/ the solitary instance of a
monarchical Episcopus ; in the second century,
Victor is (in opposition to Polycarp, Anicetus, and
Irenpeus) the sole upholder of the uniformity of one
visible Church.
Fvohdion.
The history of the first two centuries having
thus failed to produce any proofs of the thesis, the
Canon proceeds to show the abundant proofs which
doubtless exist in the writings of " the Fathers " of
later centuries, that the Church caine to acknowledge
more and more the necessity of the three orders of
bishop, priest, and deacon, and the claims made by
bishops of succession from the apostles, and of the
sacerdotal character of the offices of bishop and
presbyter ; and from these phenomena in later
Church history he argues, on the principle of
evolution, that they must have been in accordance
with the mind and intention of Christ. " Mr.
Darwin," he says, " uses these words : ' I fully admit
that there are many difficulties not satisfactorily
explained by my theory of descent with modification,
but I cannot possibly believe that a false theory
would explain so many classes of facts as I certainly
think it does explain. On these grounds I drop my
anchor, and believe that the difficulties will slowly
disappear.' It is interesting to note what grounds
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION 133
of evidence a great scientific writer thinks adequate
to support a far-reaching doctrine ; and it is
impossible not to perceive what infinitely higher
grounds we have for our theory of apostolic
succession. We then have better cause to drop
our anchor" (p. 243).
On the same theory of evolution as that on
which Bishop Gore bases his doctrine of apostolic
succession, the Church of Eome has built the
doctrines of the Papacy, Mariolatry, the worship
of Images, Indulgences, and all the other false
doctrines for rejecting which our Keformers died at
the stake ; and having once built her house on
the shifting sands of Tradition and Evolution, she
easily found historians who filled up the missing
link by the fable of St. Peter's episcopate of twenty-
two years over the Church of Kome, by the Forged
Decretals, and a thousand other similar inventions.
CONCLUSION.
Finally, let us return to the point from which we
started, namely, the duty of cultivating the unity of
the Spirit with all who love the Lord, in view of
the cry of the heathen world, at home and abroad,
which is going up into the ears of the Lord of
Sabaoth, and — first as to the heathen world abroad.
It is a mistake to think that differences of organ-
isation between various Churches in the mission field
are as great a stumbling-block to the heathen as
many think. Neither idolaters nor Mohammedans
expect to find Christians all of one school of
thought, any more than they themselves are. The
following conversation once took place between a
missionary and a Moslem priest : —
Priest. " How many sects have you in England ? "
Missionary. " I never counted them ; but I pre-
sume we have as many as Mohammed said we
should have."
F. " What did Mohammed, peace be upon him,
say ? "
31. " Art thou a teacher in Islam, and knowest
not what thy prophet said ? "
CONCLUSION 135
P. " Well, what did he say ? "
M. " It is written in your tradition that the
prophet said : ' There were seventy sects in the
religion of Moses, only one of whom went to
heaven ; there were seventy-one sects among the
Christians, ditto ; and there will be seventy-two
sects among my followers, only one of whom will
be saved,' "
The priest acknowledged that the prophet had
spoken these words, and asked no more questions.
As long as all evangelical Churches and missionary
societies do not trespass on the spheres of labour
of one another, and as long as they live in brotherly
love, intercommunion, and fellowship one with
another, differences in minor points of organisation,
etc., are no stumbling-block to the heathen. There
are a few missionary societies, we grieve to say,
who perpetuate our home differences and divisions
among the heathen, and who will not practise inter-
communion and fellowship with members of other
Christian bodies ; these are a sad stumbling -block to
idolaters, Moliammedans, and 7iative Christians.
It is in the homeland that our divisions do the
greatest harm. We have millions at home who
live without God and without hope. We have
millions at home existing in the slums of our cities,
in a state of squalor and degradation which fosters
the thirst for drink and every crime. Christians
seem to have forgotten that the two laws of our
being are, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart " ; and " Thou shalt love thy neighbour
136 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
as thyself." They have forgotten that they will be
judged by those two laws, and that " the King upon
the throne " will say to them : " Inasmuch as ye
did it not to one of the least of these My brethren,
ye did it not to Me."
Our Lord's last and greatest commission to His
Church was, " Make disciples of all nations " ; but
He added emphatically, " beginning at Jerusalem."
He charged them to " tarry at Jerusalem till they
should be endued with power from on high." The
promise of the Father was fulfilled ; the Holy
Spirit came upon them with power on the Day of
Pentecost ; and, " The love of God was shed abroad
in their hearts by the Holy Spirit which was given
them." It was not with a zeal for the conversion of
the far off heathen that He endued them, but with
love to one another, and with love to the poor.
Out of that love to the poor sprang, ere long, the
office of deacons in the Church. And St. Ignatius
asserts that in his opinion without a body of deacons,
as well as a council of presbyters, and a pastor in
each congregation, there cannot be a Church. There
is a new doctrine taught amongst us, that it is by
the o^ous operatum of sacraments, by observance of
outer rites and ceremonies, and not by " the love of
God shed abroad in our hearts," that we are to
be known as the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Our missionary societies cry in vain to wealthy
England for men, women, and money for the
extension of the kingdom of Christ in heathen lands.
Let us heal our home divisions, let us help our
CONCLUSION 137
Lord and Master " to lift the poor out of the dung-
hill" (1 Sam. ii, 8); let us practise love on the
poor at home, and thus learn true love to those
afar off; and the silver and the gold, which belong
unto God, will flow in abundance into His treasury,
and " Thy people shall be willing in the day of
Thy power " ; and " The earth shall be filled with
the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the
waters cover the sea."
APPENDIX.
A. — Legend of the Martykdom of Clement
OF Eome — (P. 49).
Legend of the Martyrdom.
In the reign of Trajan, Clement was accused of
being a Christian, and condemned by the emperor
to be put to death ; but he was so honoured and
beloved by the people of Eome for his holiness
and benevolence, that Mauritius the Prefect pre-
vailed on Trajan to commute the sentence to banish-
ment to the Tauric Chersonese. Mauritius wept as
he read the sentence of banishment, and said, " God
will not abandon thee." When Clement reached
the Crimea he found two thousand Christians there
working in the mines, who had been banished before
him. On the occasion of a great drought, when the
exiles were in danger of dying of thirst, Clement
prayed for them ; and as he prayed he saw in a
vision a lamb pointing to a spring of water in a
certain place. Clement knew that it was the Lamb
of God who had answered his prayer ; but on going
with the Christians to the place they found no
water there. However, no sooner had he struck
the ground with his spade than an abundant foun-
tain of water burst forth and satisfied the thirst of
all the Christians.
The miracle became also a fountain of life to a
APPENDIX 139
multitude of idolaters, who, seeing it, believed, and
were baptized in its waters. On hearing of this,
Trajan was enraged, and sent soldiers to slay the
converts ; and they all joyfully drank the cup of
martyrdom. As for Clement, for fear that the
Christians should pay homage to his remains, they
took him out some distance from the shore, and
having hung an anchor round his neck, cast him
into the sea ; but in answer to the prayers of the
Church, the sea retired three miles, and the body of
the saint was found enshrined in a white marble
tomb which the angels had built over it in the
depth of the sea, and the anchor lying beside
the shrine. Every year, at the festival of his
martyrdom, the sea retired for seven days, that the
Christians might worship at his tomb. Hence a
living fountain and an anchor are the symbols
of St. Clement in sacred art. There are forty-
seven churches in England dedicated to him, and
the device in that in the Strand is an anchor on
the buttons of the beadles and on the weather-
cock.
^.— Chief Priests— (P. 81).
For they are your chief priests. Though the
same word is used in the Greek of the New
Testament for " chief priest " and " high priest,"
yet a distinction is correctly made both in the
A.V. and E.V. between the singular and the
plural of the word. We always find the Greek
word translated " high priest " in the singular, and
" chief priest " in the plural. There could have
I40 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
been only one true "high priest" at any given
time among the Jews, but there were many whom
they called " chief priests." The word " high
priest " occurs forty-one times in the Gospels and
the Acts ; " chief priests " occurs sixty-five times.
Christ is, according to the Scripture and the
writings of the early Fathers {e.g. Clem, of Eome,
§ 36; Ignat. Phil. § 9), the One High Priest,
and the word has no plural in the Christian's
language.
According to the author of the Didache all
believers are " priests," and the " prophets," not the
presbyters or " bishops," are " your chief priests."
There is a wide gulf indeed between this usage
of the apostles and of the apostolic Fathers and
that of the Church of Eome, according to which
the Bishop of Eome is the " high priest " ; other
bishops, " chief priests," and the " presbyters " the
" priests of the New Covenant."
C. — SvaLaarripiov — (P. 100).
'Eav fir] Ti9 37 ivTo<; tov 6vcnaarr]piov, vaTepelrai
rov aprov [tov @eov\ el 'yap ei'o? koX Seurepov
irpocrev^^ roaavrijv la'^vv €^(€1, Troa-qy [xaWov i] re
rov eTrta-Korrov Koi Trao-?;? t^<? eKK\i](TLa<;. " For if
any one be not within the precinct of the sanctuary,
he lacketh the bread (of God). For if the prayer
of one and another hath so great force, how much
more that of the bishop and the whole Church "
(Ign. Aph. v.).
" TOV OvacacTTTjplov] The same expression oc-
APPENDIX 141
curs again Trail, vii., 6 ivTo<; dvcnaar'qplov cov
Kadap6<i eariv, k.t.X. The OvaiaaTijpiov here is not
the altar, but the enclosure in which the altar
stands, as the preposition ivro'i requires. This
meaning is consistent with the sense of the word,
which (unlike ^a)fio<;) signiiies the place of sacri-
fice " ; and it is supported also by examples of its
use as applied to Christian Churches ; e.g. Cone.
Laod., Can. 19, fi6voi,<; e^ov elvai Tol<i lepariKol^
elaiivat eh to Ova-iacrrripiov {i.e. the sacrarium),
compared with Can. 4, ov Zel <yvva2Ka<; iv to5
dvaiaaTripLW elaep^eaOai (Tabb. Cone. i. pp. 1533,
1537, ed. Colet).
" This seems also to be its sense in Eev. x. 1,
fierprjaov top vaov rov ©eov koI to OvcnaaTrjptov koI
Toix; irpoaKvvovvTa'i iv avTa>; comp. xiv. 17, 18,
aWo'i dyyeko'i i^i^XOef iv tov vaov . . . Kal aXXa
dyy€\o<; (i^rfKOev) iK tov dvataaTrjpcov. (For the
pas';, as confined to the holy place and distin-
guished from the court of the altar, see Clem. Kom.
41.)
" Thus OvcriaaTijpcov, being at once the place of
sacrifice and the court of the congregation, was
used metaphorically for the Church of Christ, the
dvataaTijpLov €p,-\^v')(pv, as St. Chrysostom terms it.
Somewhat similarly in Polyc. Phil. 4, yivwaKovaa^
OTL elalv 6v(naaT^piov @eov, it is applied to a
section of the Church, the body of ' widows.' . . .
In fact the imagery here is explained by the
following words, where 6 eV/(7/co7ro<? Kal irdaa 7)
iKKkrjaia corresponds to dvaiaa-rripiov, while rj
Trpoaev^i] is the spiritual sacrifice therein offered.
142 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
" For the prayers of the Christians, as taking
the place which the sacrifices held under the old
dispensation, see the note on Clem. Kom. 44 "
(Lightfoot, Ign. Aph. v.).
" Tov aprov rov Qeov] i.e. ' the spiritual susten-
ance which God provides for His people.' There is
probably a reference to the eucharistic bread here,
as there is in Bom. 7 (see note there). The
eucharistic bread, however, is not exclusively or
directly contemplated, but only taken as a type
of the spiritual nourishment which is dispensed
through Christ. This reference (like Bom. 7)
seems to be inspired by John vi. 31 sq., where
also the eucharistic bread furnishes the imagery,
while, at the same time, a larger application is
contemplated, o apro^i rov ©eov eariv 6 Kara^alvwv
€K TOV ovpavov, K.T.X." (ibid.).
Note how entirely scriptural is the conception of
the Church, the body of Christ, in the writings of
the apostolic Fathers ! According to them, all
believers, men and women alike, dwell in, or rather
are, the OvcnaarripLov, " the temple of the living
God" (2 Cor. vi. 16). How great was the fall-
ing off in the next two centuries ! According to
the canons of the Council of Laodicea (a.d. 363),
the 6v(na<nripiov is the sacrarium of the material
church, and all laymen and women are excluded
from it.
D.—(P. 117).
Though it was our intention, in seeking to ascer-
tain what was truly apostolic in the orders of the
APPENDIX 143
Christian ministry, not to go beyond the Apostolic
Fathers, and the date A.D. 130, yet the mention of
Polycarp in the letter of Irenaeus to Victor (a.d,
190-195) introduced that great Christian writer to
the reader. As the fact that Irenseus, in that letter,
speaks of no order of ministry higher than the pres-
byterate as having existed in Kome in A.D. 150,
may have given a false idea of his teaching on this
subject, it is necessary to correct this idea.
Irenseus is, in fact, the earliest Christian writer
who " asserts that the apostles established ' bishops '
in all the Churches which they founded ; endowed
them with authority to teach what was to be handed
down in unbroken succession, and bestowed on them
pre-eminently the gift of discerning and knowing
the truth " (Farrar, Lives of the Fathers, vol. i. p. 77).
Dean Farrar adds : " We will not go so far as to
call this ' an historic fiction ' ; but, if it be true, it is
strange that, on the one hand, all the data which
we possess should point to a different conclusion,
and that, on the other hand, we should hear nothing
definite about this fact until it was required to
strengthen the hands of the combatants against
Gnosticism in the last third of the second century.
But it is impossible to read Irenaeus without seeing
that he endows the physical Church with an infalli-
bility in all things which was never promised by
Christ, and loads it with attributes and eulogies
which are scarcely derived from the language of
Scripture " (ibid.).
Irenaeus quotes almost every book of the New
Testament, and many of the Old, in his refutation
144 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
of the Gnostics ; and it is ever to be regretted that
he did not see that the word of God was more than
sufficient for his purpose, and that his appeal to un-
certain tradition not only weakened his argument,
but sowed the seed of a system of error which has
done greater and more permanent injury to the
Church than the heresy which he so ably refuted.
" Since, however," he says, " it would be very
tedious — to reckon up the successions of all (the
bishops) in all the Churches, we do put to confusion
all those who, in whatever manner, whether by an
evil self-pleasing, by vainglory, or by blindness and
perverse opinion, assemble in unauthorised meetings ;
(we do this, I say,) by indicating that tradition,
derived from the apostles, of the very great, the
very ancient, and universally known Church founded
and organised at Eome by the two most glorious
apostles, Peter and Paul ; as also by (point-
ing out) the faith preached to men, which comes
down to our time by means of the successions of
the bishops. For it is a matter of necessity that
every Church should agree with this Church on
account of its pre-eminent authority, that is, the
. onful everywhere, inasmuch as the apostolic tradi-
tion has been preserved continuously by those
(faithful men) who exist everywhere.
'' The blessed apostles, then, having founded and
built up the Church, committed into the hands
of Linus the office of the episcopate. To him
succeeded Anacletus ; and after him, in the third
place from the apostles, Clement was allotted the
bishopric. To this Clement succeeded Evaristus.
APPENDIX 145
Alexander followed Evaristus ; then, sixth from the
apostles, Sixtus was appointed ; after him Teles-
phorus, who was gloriously martyred ; then Hyginus;
after him, Pius ; then after him, Anicetus. Soter
having succeeded Anicetus, Eleutherius does now,
in the twelfth place from the apostles, hold the
inheritance of the episcopate. In this order, and
by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from
the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have
come down to us. And this is most abundant proof
that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which
has been preserved in the Church from the apostles
until now, and handed down in truth " (Iren. Adv.
Hcer. iii. 3).
Great an authority as is Irenaeus on Christian
doctrine, he is notoriously unreliable as an historian.
Thus he tells us that Jesus Christ lived for fifty
years {Adv. Hcer. ii. 6). Few, if any. Church his-
torians now accept his statement as to the succes-
sions of the bishops of Eome as gospel truth.
" Dr. Burton has correctly observed that no point of
ecclesiastical history is involved in so much perplexity
and contradiction as the succession of the early bishovs
of Eome" (Harvey's L-en. vol. ii. p. 10). 'ix.
We have in the above the first nest-egg, from
which sprang the twin doctrines of "Apostolic
Succession " and " the supremacy of the Chura' " if
Eome," laid by the good Irengeus about a.d. 180.
These two dogmas stand or fall on the same founda-
tion. The best of men have erred and been incon-
sistent. Irenseus' inconsistency, with regard to the
second of these doctrines, is manifested by his letter
10
146 APOSTOLIC ORDER AND UNITY
to the Bishop of Kome, written ten years later, in
which he sharply reproves Victor for his attempt
to excommunicate the Eastern Churches for not
conforming to the tradition of the Church of Eome
as to the date of the observance of Easter. The
whole history of the Church in after ages proves
that bishops, as such, have not inherited from the
apostles the gift of infallibility in " discerning and
knowing the truth " in all things.
The only other Christian writer of the second
century who casts any light on the subject is Justin
Martyr ; and of him Dean Earrar writes : " Of ' the
Church ' Justin says scarcely anything. Unlike
Ignatius and Irenaeus he has nothing to remark
about bishops, knowing no church officer except a
^president (6 irpoeaTW';) and deacons, and recognising
the universal priesthood of all Christians under the
one great High Priest, Christ " {Lives of the Fathers,
p. 114).
May we not discern, in this account of the
churches with which Justin Martyr was cognizant,
a mark of the downgrade process which took place
in all religions, Christianity not excepted ? Of the
three Ignatian orders of the ministry in each con-
gregation, or church, only two remain. " The fitly-
wreathed circlet of your presbytery" (p. 100) has
ceased to exist, and the president of the college of
presbyters has become the president of the church ;
the college of deacons will soon follow the fate of
the college of presbyters,
INDEX.
Agathopus, a friend of Igna-
tius, 17.
Alfotd, Dean, on the date of the
Apocalypse, 426.
Altars, none in Christian syna-
gogues, 23.
Ananias, " a disciple," laid hands
on Saul of Tarsus, 17.
Anicetus, Bishop of Rome, agrees
to differ with Polycarp as to
the date of the observance of
Easter, 114, 115, 132.
Apocalypse, the, written towards
the end of the reign of Do-
mitiau, 42.
Apollonius, a presbyter of Mag-
nesia, 91.
Apostles, tlie, appointed by our
Lord, with St. Peter as their
president ; of the circumci-
sion, 10 ; representatives of
the twelve tribes of Israel, 15,
16 ; some strange facts con-
cerning, 16, 17 ; a college of
presbyters associated with,
25 ; of the uncircumcision,
Paul, Barnabas, and perhaps
others, 26, 32, 79 ; other, (1)
missionaries? 79, 80; (2)
messengers of the Churches,
79.
Apostolic Constitutions, 69, 87.
Apostolic Fathers, 5, 7.
Apostolic succession. Bishop
Gore's definition of, conse-
quence of his thesis, etc.,
124-134.
Atonement, the Day of, 12.
Asia, the seven Churches of,
40-43, 106.
Baptism, instituted by the Lord,
10, 12 ; St. John's statement
of the grace of, 43 ; directions
with regard to the administra-
tion of, in the Didach^, 72,
73.
Barnabas, a prophet, sent by the
apostles to build the Church
in Antioch, 17, 18 ; a fellow-
worker with Saul of Tarsus in
the Church in Antioch, 26 ; an
apostle of the uncircumcision,
79.
Barnabas, the Epistle of, 5, 61,
70.
Bethlehem, Council of (a.d.
1672), 29.
" Bishop " (^/n'sco/JMs), in every
instance of its use in the
first century synonymous with
presbyter, 27 ; according to
Roman Catholics, Greeks, and
Anglicans, essential to the esse
147
148
INDEX
of a Church, 29 ; none in the
Churches of Ephesus and Crete
in A.D. 63, 33, 34 ; not men-
tioned in "Hebrews" or in
the writings of St. John, 7,
43 ; in the Didache, 85-88 ;
distinct from "presbyter" in
the Churches of Asia Minor
and Syria in the beginning of
the second century, 98-104 ;
but not in the Churches of
Corinth, Rome, or Philippi,
66, 103 ; in the Ignatian
Epistles equivalent to "pastor
of congregation," not to "a
bishop of a diocese," 130.
"Catholic Church," the, first
iised by Ignatius, 9, 100, 103 ;
Bishop Gore's conception of,
130, 131 ; definitions of, by
the Reformers, and in the
Prayer-Book and Articles of
Religion of the Church of
England, 123.
Confession and Absolution, doc-
trine of, according to Clement
of Rome, 59.
Congregational Churches, the,
outside the covenant of grace
(Gore), 125.
"Chief priests," distinction be-
tween "high priest" and,
138.
Church (Ecdesia), the, our
Lord's teaching on the sub-
ject of, (a) the universal, (/3)
the local, 8 ; solidarity of, Avith
Old Testament Ecdesia, 9 ;
the history of, broken off for
a season, light thrown on it
by the Epistle of Clement of
Rome and the Didache, 7 ; the
twelve apostles, foundation-
stones of, 15 ; organised on
the pattern of the synagogue,
not on that of the temple,
19-23 ; the unity of, according
to St. John, 44, 45 ; one
uniform, and visible ? (Gore),
130, 131.
Clement of Alexandria, 69.
Clement of Rome, 5, 6, 46-67,
70, 129, 137, 138.
Crete, no bishop in the Church
of, in A.n. 63, 33.
Cyril Lucar, Patriarch of Con-
stantinople presents Charles r.
with an imperfect copy of
"the Epistle of Clement of
Rome" (A.I). 1628), 46.
Damas, Bishop of Magnesia,
visits Ignatius at Smyrna, 91.
Darwin, theory of Evolution,
132.
"Deacons," the office of, formed
on the model of the lowest
order of ministers in the
Jewish synagogue, 25, 215 ;
immediately follow "bishops "
in Phil. i. 1, 1 Tim. iii. 1-7,
and in the Didache, 85 ; the
only order of ministers besides
presbyters in Polycarp's letter
to the Philippians, 111 ;
highly valued by Ignatius,
100, 135.
Didache, the, 5, 6, 7, 46, 68-89.
Diotrephes, Bishop Gore's sup-
position about, 132 ; ecclesi-
astical pride begun in, 116.
Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth,
letter of, to the Romans, a.d.
170, 47.
Eastek, dispute between Poly-
carp and Anicetus about the
time of observing, 113.
Episcopacy, no trace of diocesan,
or monarchical, in the period
of Church history under dis-
cussion, 21.
Episcopus, the, not a jjasto)'
■pastorum, but "the pastor of
a flock, like a vicar of a
INDEX
149
modern town, in intimate
relations with his people "
(Gore), 102.
Ephesus, the position held by
Timothy in, only temporary,
34 ; the letter of Ignatius to
the Church of, 91 ; delegates
sent by the Church of, meet
Ignatius at Smyrna, 91, 95,
96.
Eucharist, the, the inward and
spiritual grace of, 43 ; the
earliest liturgy of, 75, 76 ; not
valid without the presence of
the bishop, 100.
Evolution, Gore's theory of
Apostolic Succession based
upon, 133.
Fakbar (Dean), on Clement of
Rome, 48, 51 ; on the Life of
Polycarp by Pionius, 119.
Forged Decretals, the, 133.
Gore, Bishop, his opinion of
Diotrephes, 11, 132; acknow-
ledges that Christian ministers
are never called "priests " till
the close of the second cen-
tury, 31 ; that there was no
order of ministry higher than
presbyter in Corinth when
Clement wrote his Epistle,
66 ; his opinion of the
Didache, 69 ; on the Apostolic
Constitutions, 86, 87 ; on
apostolic succession, 124 ; on
sacerdotalism, 127 ; drops his
anchor on evolution, 132.
Greek Church, the, decrees that
"without episcopal govern-
ment there can be neither
Church nor Christian," 29.
Hebrews, Epistle to, written
in "the second generation"
(probably about a.d. 68), 14,
23 ; link between second and
third generations, 35 ; con-
tents of, 35-39 ; quoted by
Clement of Rome, 50.
Hermas, the Shepherd of, 5 ;
speaks of Clement as if he
were his contemporary, 48 ;
portions of Didache incorpor-
ated in, 69.
Heresies, in the Churches of
Asia, in the days of St. Paul
and St. John, 40-42 ; in the
days of Ignatius, 93-97.
Historic Episcopacy, the, an in-
comprehensible and undefin-
able term, 29.
Holy Spirit, the, ministry of,
18, 24 ; baptism of, 18.
Hooper, bishop and martyr, his
definition of "Church," 23.
Hy genus, Pope, 114.
Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch,
5, 7, 8, 48, 67, 90-106, 107,
108, 112, 120, 135.
Irenseus, letter of, to Victor, 1 14 ;
lays the foundation of "Apos-
tolic Succession" and " supre-
macy ofChurch of Rome," 143.
Jesus Christ, the one great
name in "the first genera-
tion," 8-13.
Jerusalem, the Church in,
founded and flourished for a
time having only "the min-
istrj' of the Spirit," 24 ; the
first order of "the local
ministry," that of deacons,
instituted in, 25.
Judas and Silas, prophets, 19.
Justin Martyr, doctrine of Chris-
tian sacrifices according to, 77;
knows of no church officer
except "president" and
"deacon," 146.
Local ministry, the orders of,
in the Acts, 25 ; in the
ISO
INDEX
Pastoral Epistles, 27 ; in the
Epistle of Clement, 59-67 ; in
the Didache, 85-87 ; in the
Epistles of Ignatius, 98-105 ;
in the Epistle of Polycarp,
111 ; deduction from the
above, 120-123.
Lightfoot, Bishop, the organisa-
tion of the "Church" after
the model of the synagogue,
19 ; Timothy and Titus not
hishops, 34, 47, 49, 52, 60, 63,
64 ; on the Ignatian Epistles,
97, 139-142.
Lord's Day, the, 77.
Magnesians, the Epistle of
Ignatius to, 91, 9Q, 105.
Matthias, the election of, to the
apostolate necessary to com-
plete their number before the
descent of the Holy Spirit,
15, 16.
Neale, history of the holy
Eastern Church, 29.
Nice, Council of, decides against
the Quartodecimans, 113.
Onesimus, Bishop of Ephesus,
sent as deputy of the Church
to meet Ignatius at Smyrna, 91.
Papias, Fragments of, 5.
Passover, the. Holy Communion
the continuation of, 12, 13.
Pastoral Epistles, 77, 95.
Philadelphia, letter of Ignatius
to Churcli of, 92, 97, 103.
Philo, a friend of Ignatius, 97.
Philippians, Epistle of Polycarp
to, 108, 129.
Philotheos Bryennios, 47.
Pionius, biographer of Polycarp,
119.
Pius, Pope, 114.
Polycarp, 5, 91, 98, 102, 103,
107-119, 129, 132,
Presbyters, 20, 23, 25-27, 43,
99, 111.
President, 10, 21, 23, 25, 101.
Priests, 23.
Prophets, of New Testament,
18, 19, 78, 80, 81, 85.
Quartodecimans, 116.
Ramsay, 22.
Reformation, 28, 121, 131,
Romans, the, Polycarp's letter
to, 97 ; the letter of Ignatius
to, 97, 103, 104.
Rome, the Church of, 32, 52 ;
the Bishop of, 48, 49, 92,
112.
Rufus, carried in chains witli
Ignatius to Rome, 92, 112.
Sabatiee, on the ministry of
the Spirit, 83.
Sacerdotalism, 30, 127.
Sacraments, 10, 43, 72, 75.
Sacrifice, 23, 61.
Sixtus, Pope, 114.
Smyrnseans, the letter of Igna-
tius to, 98 ; letter of, to
Polycarp, 117.
St. Francis of Assisi, 83.
St. James, the Lord's Brother,
7, 23, 25, 35, 127, 128.
St. John, 14, 17, 35, 39-45, 105.
St. Paul, 6, 18, 21, 22, 23, 35,
50, 54, 66, 105.
St. Peter, 7, 16, 35, 54,
109.
Synagogue, Jewish, 19-23 ;
Christian, 23.
"Teachers," 78, 81, 85.
Telesphorus, Pope, 114.
Temple, the, 19, 20.
Tertullian and Origen, 31.
Theodosius, Emperor, 116.
evaLocrrripLov, 110, 139-142.
Timothy, 14, 33, 105, 127, 128.
Titus, 33, 128.
INDEX 151
Trajan, Emperor, 90, 137. letter of Irenseus to, 113-117,
Tralles, deputies from Church 132.
of, meet Ignatius at Smyrna, Viri Apostolici, 127-130.
91 ; letter of Ignatius to
Church of, 96, 97. I Westcott, Bishop, on "the
Hebrews," 36-38, 42.
Unity of Christians, relation Widows, God's altar, 110.
of, to mission work, 3. I
Unity or uniformity ? 44. i Zotion, deacon of Magnesia,
I 91.
Victor, Bishop of Rome, 47 ; Zozimus, martyr, 112.
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