CHAPTER V

THE CHURCH: ITS ORIGIN AND IDEA

We have now surveyed the primary agency through which, in Christianity, man is reconciled to God. It is conceivable that the effect of this agency, though spreading in everwidening circles, might gradually have died down and become dissipated and indistinguishable amid the multitudinous currents of human life. And it is not improbable that this would have been the case had there not been a second agency, appointed to maintain the original impulse, and hand it down unimpaired from generation to generation. Even if the New Testament Scriptures had been written, nevertheless, if they had been sent forth as separate treatises in the general mass of literature, to take their chance amid a crowd of competitors for individual acceptance, it is very doubtful whether they would ever have attained to the universality of influence which they now enjoy. That they have been selected and combined, and transmitted as a sacred treasure, to mould the thoughts and purify the dispositions of men, is due to the activity of an organized society, whose business it was to perpetuate the influence of Christ in the world. We are thus led to the contemplation of the Church, and of the various problems which are associated with it.

The word 'Church' in English is ambiguous. It is usually derived from Kuptakóν which was used in ancient times of the building where people assembled for public

worship.1 It is, however, also used of the society or societies of Christians, meeting together or organized as such; and it is only in this sense that it can engage our interest at present. The term which represents it in the New Testament is ¿κκλŋσía, a word which is most familiar to the classical student as denoting the general assembly of Athenian citizens. We find it used in a general sense in Acts xix. 32 and 40, where it refers to the tumultuous crowd that met in the theatre at Ephesus to maintain the rights of Artemis, and in verse 39 where it is applied to the lawful or regular meeting of citizens. It is, however, constantly employed in a technical sense, to denote a Christian society. This application of the term may be derived from its frequent appearance in the LXX, to represent the Hebrew the general assembly of the people of Israel. It is found in this sense in the New Testament, in Stephen's speech,2 and in a quotation in Hebrews ii. 12. Generally it refers to a local society, such as the Church at Corinth, and accordingly it is very frequently found in the plural. It was natural, however, to regard these several societies, which were distinguished by similar characteristics, and united by feelings of spiritual brotherhood, as forming one composite whole. This idea of a single Church is most fully expressed in Ephesians, which is one of the later Epistles. It is, however, recognizable in I Corinthians xii. 28; and in Philippians we meet with it in iii. 6, though in iv. 15 it has its more restricted application. The same varying sense is found also in Colossians i. 18, 24, compared with iv. 15, 16.

From the apostolic age down to the present time the Church has had a continuous existence. Even in very

1 For an example see Athanasius, Apologia ad Constantinum, 16.

2 Acts vii. 38.

3 Acts xv. 41, xvi. 5; Rom. xvi. 4, 16; I Cor. vii. 17, xi. 16, xiv. 33, 34, xvi. 1, 19; II Cor. viii. 1, 18, 19, 23, 24, xi. 8, 28, xii. 13; Gal. i. 2, 22;

I Thess. ii. 14; II Thess. i. 4; and several passages in Rev. i.-iii., and xxii. 16.

early times, however, the Christian society was rent by factions; and in the more recent centuries it has been split into an enormous number of sects, which all claim to be Christian because they profess the same ultimate allegiance, and justify their separate existence by their several pretensions to be better representatives of the original gospel than their neighbours. This fact at once betrays the existence of different conceptions of the origin, nature, and functions of the Church. These, having been brought into the arena of controversy, have become the subjects of dogmatic definition; and they will be most conveniently submitted to our consideration through a statement and criticism of the principal types of doctrine. We have been already obliged, in treating of the sources of doctrine, to estimate the claims of the Church as an organ of dogmatic truth; and we must now proceed to investigate other fundamental questions involved in the general theory of the Church.

The doctrine of the Church was not systematically defined by the Council of Trent; but it is set forth very fully in the Catechism, in the explanation of the article 'Credo sanctam ecclesiam catholicam.' The original reads eis μíav ἁγίαν καθολικὴν καὶ ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν. The omission of in is specially emphasized by the Catechism, so as to give the meaning, 'I believe that there is one holy and catholic Church,' our faith being placed in the three persons of the Trinity, and not in anything created.2 The importance of the doctrine is insisted on as a protection against heresy ; for a heretic is not merely one who has erred in the faith, but one who, neglecting the authority of the Church, obstinately maintains impious opinions. 'Ecclesia,' in its theological sense, is employed to signify the Christian commonwealth, and congregations of the faithful only; those namely, who have been called to the light of truth and the knowledge of God through faith, in order that having rejected the darkness of ignorance and error they may worship 2 § xxiii.

1 Pars I, Art. ix. Cap. x.

2B

the true and living God with piety and holiness, and serve him with their whole heart,' or, as Augustine says, it is a faithful people dispersed through the whole world.'1 The word itself, which signifies evocatio, a calling forth, making apparent as it does the splendour of Divine grace, distinguishes the Church from other commonwealths; for they depend upon human wisdom and prudence, but this has been constituted by the wisdom and counsel of God: for he has called us by the inward breathing of the Holy Spirit, who opens the hearts of men, but outwardly by the work and ministry of pastors and preachers. The Church consists of two parts, triumphant and militant. The former is the assembly of blessed spirits, and of those who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and safely enjoy eternal beatitude. The militant Church is the assembly of all the faithful who still live on earth; and it is called militant, because it has perpetual war with the world, the flesh, and Satan. In the latter portion of the Church there are two sorts of men, good and bad. The bad partake of the same sacraments, and profess the same faith as the good, but are dissimilar in life and morals. The good are united to one another not only by the profession of faith and the communion of the sacraments, but also by the spirit of grace and the bond of love. Men may conjecture who these are, but cannot have certain knowledge. It is owing to this inevitable ignorance that the Church includes both good and bad. That it does so the Gospel teaches in many parables, as when it compares the kingdom of heaven, that is the militant Church, to a net cast into the sea, or to a field in which tares have been sown in addition to the good grain. This was shown also at a much earlier time in the ark of Noah, in which there were unclean animals as well as clean. Hence it is that only three kinds of men are excluded from the Church: first, infidels; secondly, heretics and schismatics; and finally, the excommunicated. All others, 1' Populus fidelis per universum orbem dispersus.' § iii.

however wicked, continue in the Church; and the faithful may be confident that if the life of priests should happen to be flagitious, nevertheless they are in the Church, and there is not on that account any deduction from their power. Other parts of the universal Church are local Churches, as at Corinth or in Galatia; and sometimes the word Church signifies its presidents and pastors.

We must now attend to the properties, or, as they are frequently called, the 'notes' of the Church. The first is unity. Such a widely diffused multitude is called one because it declares that there is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism; for its ruler and governor is one, the invisible Christ, whom the eternal Father gave to be head over the whole Church, which is his body. But for constituting and preserving the unity of the Church a visible head was necessary, and this visible head is the occupant of the Roman See, the legitimate successor of Peter, the prince of the Apostles. The second property of the Church is holiness. It is called holy, first, because it is consecrated to God, and this remains true though it may include many sinners. Secondly, it is to be spoken of as holy, because it is joined as a body to its holy head, Christ the Lord, the fountain of all holiness, from whom are diffused the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the riches of Divine goodness. Thirdly, the Church alone has the legitimate worship (cultum) of sacrifice and the salutary use of the sacraments, through which, as effectual instruments of divine grace, God produces true holiness; so that those who are truly holy cannot be outside of this Church. The third property is catholicity or universality, because the splendour of one faith is diffused from the rising to the setting of the sun. For, unlike human commonwealths or sects of heretics, the Church is not limited by the boundaries of one kingdom, or of one class of men, but embraces in the bosom of its love all men, barbarians, Scythians, bond and free. Moreover, all the faithful, who have been from the time of Adam to the present day, or who are yet to be, as long as the world