Reason, and even as 'Christians.' How would he reconcile such a position with the exclusive claim of the Church? Probably by holding that all who had not had the opportunity of becoming members of the Church while on earth would, if they had been true to their light, be received into the Church in Paradise. At any rate the reconciliation was not effected by the idea of an invisible Church to which they belonged-an invisible Church containing the true servants of God whether they belonged to the visible Church or not. Neither the existence of good men outside the Church, nor the presence of bad men inside it, ever drove the Christian Fathers, whether eastern or western, to this hypothesis.1 1 The Church on earth was regarded as subdivided into false and true membersthe latter constituting the kupiws èxxλnσía of Origen, the corpus Christi verum of Jerome and Augustin. Neither of these (as Rothe, Anfänge, etc., p. 618 n. 44, remarks) 'agrees with the invisible Church of the Protestants.' The point of difference is specially this, that, whereas the members of the 'invisible Church' are regarded as belonging indifferently to any or no ecclesiastical unity, with Origen and Augustin the conception is the opposite. The membership in the 'true Church' depends upon membership in the visible Church on earth. The true Church is a subdivision of the actual Church-its genuine members. For 'non omnes qui tenent ecclesiam, tenent et vitam aeternam' (Augustin de Bapt. v. 20); 'multi. . . sunt in sacramentorum communione cum ecclesia, et iam non sunt in ecclesia' (de Unit. Eccl. 74). See further Rothe Anfänge § 61, esp. pp. 612 ff. and Stanton's Jewish and Christian Messiah, p. 230: 'Let me premise that I think the distinction cannot be maintained, which was first introduced by the theology of the sixteenth century ['the idea appears pretty fully developed in Wiklif,' footnote], between a visible and invisible Church in this world, the latter consisting only of the truly godly. Not only is such a distinction uncountenanced by Scripture, but the very idea of a Church is that of a Society which has its officers and its organisation. It is a contradiction in terms to call a number of individuals a Church who are not united together in a body. The moment they do begin to unite, by virtue of their common supposed characteristic of genuine godliness, they cease to be invisible. There have been such attempts to form a pure Church; but history and the warnings of our Lord Himself have taught us what to think of them.' Of course the greater part of the Church is to us invisible, but that is because its members are no longer on earth, and they enjoy 'perfect fellowship with one another, as well as with their Lord.' Cf. also William Law's Third Letter to the Bishop of Bangor, at the beginning-a powerful and racy passage. Of course the truth that the Church is a visible society, containing evil as well as good, is involved in our Lord's language in the parables of the Net gathering of every kind and the Field of wheat and tares: it is involved also in St. Paul's whole conception of the Church and of 'the saints,' that is the Christians as bound to holiness by the consecration B The Roman Victor C. A.D. 190. Hermas. From Africa and Gaul we come to the great western centre--Rome. Certainly the idea of the visible Church and its unity was prominent there at the time when Victor, the bishop, attempted to excommunicate the Churches of Asia for keeping Easter after their own specially Johannine tradition. He endeavoured, says Eusebius, 'to cut them off from the common unity' and make them 'utterly excommunicate.' He was reproved by Irenaeus for introducing into the Church the idea of a rigid uniformity, in place of the common faith, as the bond of union. He is reminded how, in the middle of the century, his predecessor Anicetus had kept his fellowship with the Asiatic Polycarp, in spite of their difference as to this particular custom-'those who observed it, and those who did not, keeping the peace of the whole Church.' But we may go back in the same Church at least 2 to the earlier part of the second century, to the days of Hermas, the seer of the Shepherd. In his visions the Church is represented as an aged lady, who appears to Hermas, and 'through whom he receives visions and revelations.' She is aged, it is explained to him, because she is the first creation of God, on whose account the world was made.' The Church is laid upon them in virtue of being baptized members of Christ, but not necessarily holy. Still it was only when the long repose of the last parts of the second century and the first half of the third made the Christian profession popular and easy, that the full weight of the problem came upon the Church. In part there was a disposition to meet it by rigorous discipline, passing into an impatient refusal to tolerate the 'mixed' condition of the Church; and this was a fruitful source of schism. In part stress was laid upon the Church on earth being only an outpost of a celestial society (cf. Tertull. de Bapt. 15 una ecclesia in caelis), an earthly image of it (cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. 8. 66 eixiv tŷs oùpavíov èkkdŋoias ʼn èñiyelos), or a preparation-ground for it: and thus necessarily imperfect. 1 Euseb. H. E. v. 2. 2 See further on the date, in chap. vi. 3 Vis. ii. 4: Τὴν πρεσβυτέραν, παρ ̓ ἧς ἔλαβες τὸ βιβλίδιον, τίνα δοκεῖς εἶναι; ἐγώ Φημι· Τὴν Σίβυλλαν Πλανᾶσαι, φησίν, οὐκ ἔστιν. Τίς οὖν ἐστίν ; φημί. Η here thought of as in a way existing from the beginning in the purpose of God, in the ideal world. But this divine Idea has become a fact. The actual Church, made up of those yet alive and of some who have departed in the faith of Christ, is represented to Hermas under the figure of a tower with a marvellous unity, which is being built by the angels of God upon the waters of baptism, the stones which are used for the tower, and those which are rejected, representing all sorts of men.1 This actual Church which is in process of being constructed is declared to be identical with the ideal Church. What existed before in idea is now real. And this real, visible Church is the only way of salvation. 'When the tower is finished, those who have not yet repented can no longer find place, but will be cast out.' There is another vision of the building of the tower to the same effect. In this it is made plain that the Church in its present state is imperfect. Many, who had been gathered out of all nations 'into the one body,' have fallen away and been cast out for awhile or for ever. Those who are members of the Church at present are evil as well as good; many will have to be cast out; and thus the Church as a whole will at the last be purified ἐκκλησία, φησίν. εἶπον αὐτῷ· Διατί οὖν πρεσβυτέρα; Οτι, φησίν, πάντων πρώτη ἐκτίσθη· διὰ τοῦτο πρεσβυτέρα, καὶ διὰ ταύτην ὁ κόσμος κατηρτίσθη. Cf. Vis. iv. 1; αἱ ἀποκαλύψεις καὶ τὰ ὁράματα ἅ μοι ἔδειξεν διὰ τῆς ἁγίας ἐκκλησίας αὐτοῦ. 1 Vis. iii. 2-8. 2 The tower which is the visible Church on earth is the ideal Church which appeared to Hermas, Ὁ μὲν πύργος ὃν βλέπεις οἰκοδομούμενον, ἐγώ εἰμι, ἡ ἐκκλησία, ʼn opleiσá σoi kaì vûv kaì tò #ρórepov (Vis. iii. 3). Cf. [pseudo] Clem. ad Cor. 14. If Hermas' Church of the divine Idea is spoken of 'as a sort of Aeon' (Rothe Anfänge p. 612 n. 42), it must be remembered that the Idea is actualized to Hermas, as the Word is made flesh. This differentiates the Church's system from the Gnostic; the Valentinian Aeon ékrλnσía is (by contrast) only ideal. For the Jewish form of the eternal Church see Book of Enoch c. 39. 3 Vis. iii. 5. There is, however, an inferior salvation implied for some who do not find place in the tower, if they repent, and after a purgatorial purification (ib. 7). 4 Sim. ix. This tower is built upon the great Rock, Christ. Clement C. A.D. 96. into complete holiness and unity. Still, as it is, the Church represents God's will, God's purpose of redemption; and those who separate themselves from it, separate themselves from the hope of salvation-like the covetous or the extortionate. They are represented as men diseased: 'they who are covered with scabs are they who denied their Lord and turned not to Him, but have become dry and desert-like, and cleave not to the saints of God, but, isolating themselves, lose their own souls.'1 How could imagery express more strongly the idea of salvation through the Church? 2 We may go back in the same Church to a yet earlier date, and still in the Epistle of Clement we shall find, without poetry or vision, the sense of the Church as vivid as possible. The Church in that Epistle is a visible society, with the divine principle of order stamped upon her, as upon the Church of the old covenant, by God's authority, and there is a common tradition over the different local Churches, for neglecting which that at Rome is bound to take her sister at Corinth to task. The western temper no doubt tended later (as will be seen) to colour the idea of the Church. As the Church at Rome became Latinized and came to inherit the secular prerogatives of the Roman name in addition to her own spiritual privileges, no doubt her influence gave a new tone-the tone of secular empire-to Christian institutions. Thus the doctrine of the Church becomes 1 Sim. ix. 26. 2 The commission to Clement to send the book to the other cities (eis ràs ĕ§w Tódels) implies the sense that the local Churches are essentially connected (Vis. ii. 4). 3 Clem. ad Cor. 40-44; see further chap. vi. 'The new law of the Church Clement 'most characteristically connected with the two models of the political and military organization of the Roman state and the sacerdotal hierarchy of the Jewish theocracy' (Pfleiderer Hibbert Lectures p. 252). materialized, but it is a complete mistake to suppose that the conception of the Church, or of the visible unity of the Church, was at all western in origin. Ignatius of Antioch was a thorough oriental, and he In the East: Ignatius writes to Churches which inherit the fruits of the last c. A.D. 110. years of apostolic influence when that influence had its centre at Ephesus. Yet it is impossible to conceive a teaching about the Church as a visible society more intense, more passionate, than that of Ignatius. Christ's authority is perpetuated in visible societies with a visible organization, and each of these societies, each Church, with its bishop and priests and deacons, is an embodiment of what is not local, but catholic.1 'Where the bishop appears, there let the people be, as where is Christ Jesus, there is the catholic Church.' 'He who is within the sanctuary is pure, he who is outside is impure, that is to say, he who does anything apart from bishop and presbytery and deacons is not pure in his conscience.' 'If any one follows a separatist he does not inherit the kingdom of God.' 2 The Church may be represented from different points of view. It may be emphasized, as was said above, as the home of a divine grace covenanted to its members alone; this is perhaps the thought specially suggested by the scriptural metaphors of the body of Christ and the branches of the Vine. It may be The Alexemphasized from the side of authority, the Church being the mistress of men to subdue and to rule them; and this is the thought specially dear to the Roman genius. It may be emphasized also from the side of the revelation of truth, the Church being the school 1 ad Smyrn. 8. The bishop is the centre of each individual Church, as Jesus Christ is the centre of the universal Church' (Lightfoot's note). For further quotations and discussion see chap. VI. 2 ad Trall. 7: ad Philad. 3. andrians- |