The church of the Apostles

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THE

CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES.

Preface

In this little volume the writer has endeavored to give a picture of the Church of the Apostles in the days of its purity, in some cases following it down until its brightness was dimmed by the errors and superstitions of Medieval times. Taking the brief description of St. Luke, he has attempted to fill up the outline, so as to enable those now living to realize how the men of that day believed and acted. The four points brought forward, he thinks, will cover much of the ground necessary for ordinary readers to know with regard to the Primitive Church.

Each of these articles might have been expanded into a volume, and, indeed, has furnished the text for many learned works in the past ; but the writer's wish has been to present these subjects in a popular shape, to inform those who have neither time nor taste to enter deeply into theological discussions. He has therefore avoided controversies — like that on the Eucharist — which seemed to come naturally in his way, and which

PREFACE.

have for centuries awakened the bitterness of polemical disputants. His object has been to make these articles more historical than theological.

In discussing the Council of Mce, he has acknowledged, in. several places, his indebtedness to the Yery Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D. D., Dean of Westminster. His work on " The Eastern Church " can have no rival for picturesque effect, as the author had advantages possessed by no other writer on this subject. He had himself visited these scenes of Eastern Ecclesiastical History, and, uniting the descriptions of the tourist with the narrative of the historian, he has been enabled to impart an interest to his pages which nothing else could have given them.

The writer has, however, carefully studied the works of Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomen, and Thcodoret, the original sources of the history of that Era in the Church ; but he found that the Dean of Westminster had already selected every salient point from these old chroniclers to weave the narrative for his own fascinating pages. When, therefore, the writer may sometimes seem to be following in the steps of Dr. Stanley, and drawing his facts from him, he is in reality quoting from the original authorities, the study of which was common to them both.

The materials for a picture of the Early Church, even slight as that presented by the following pages.

PREFACE.

are scattered widely through, the works of those centuries. They exist, too, in most varied forms. After leaving the sure record of Inspiration, which closes its history of the Church in suffering and persecution, we come to the narratives of Eusebius of Csesarea, and the other historians of that day whom we have mentioned above. Then, in some cases, facts and points of doctrine have to be gleaned from sermons, and homilies, and controversial writings, or they are spread before us in the glowing eloquence of St. Cyprian, as he sends his Epistles from the Church at Carthage. And so, here and there, we gather up the story of the early faith, until the review of this era ends, perhaps, in St. Augustine's " City of God," as he calls up the history of the past, and sends forth his shout of triumph over the fall of the " Eternal City " by the hands of the half-civilized Goths. When the crash startled the nations in terror, their ancient reverence for Rome as the Mistress of the world prepared them to unite in her solemn requiem ; but to St. Augustine she was only the "Mystical Babylon," and the fiery African recorded his loud gratulation that her power over the Church had passed away forever.

There could not, indeed, have been selected a subject which afforded less opportunity for originality than an attempt to portray the Church of the early centuries. Since first the Christian Church became " a pres-

PREFACE.

ence and a power " in the world, countless writers, for various and often widely-different objects, have been gleaning the field, and all that now can be attempted by any one is to select the facts, and so arrange them as to answer whatever purpose he may have in view. The explorer of the present day is " last of all, as one that gathereth after the grape-gatherers." '

As the drama of this world is drawing to its close, while the coming of our Lord seems to be delayed, the scoffing spirit of the times is heard with greater boldness questioning the solemn verities of our faith. But, at the same time, the earnest and inquiring are asking with deeper interest, Where is that Church which was constituted " the pillar and ground of the truth V It is to answer this question that this volume is partly intended, that men may see for themselves how our Lord and His apostles originally organized His Church, and then, as they look on the conflicts which are wasting the strength of so many who "profess and call themselves Christians," they may recognize in the One Apostolic Church, in its different branches, the lineaments of that likeness which has come down to us, still existing through all the intervening centuries.

The writer has endeavored not to make a mere detail of history, but to point out the practical lessuns taught by these events. As his readers follow the nar-

1 Ecclus. xxxiii. 16.

PREFACE. 9 rative of the progress of the faith " through the ages all along," he would have them imbibe something of the spirit of those who then, even at the cost of life, gave form and impress to the Church, and endeavor, in this waning period of the world — " this setting part of Time " — to revive in their own hearts the lofty devotion of those who, in far by-gone centuries, first chanted the anthems and uttered -the prayers which are now our precious inheritance.

San Francisco, May, 1877.

I. Oeeeds

Who goeth in the way that Christ hath gone, Is much more sure to meet with Him, than one That travelcth by-ways."

George Herbert.

I.

CREEDS.

It was a declaration of one of the patriarchs of the olden time : " Inquire, I pray thee, of the former age and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers (for we are bnt of yesterday, and know nothing, because our clays on earth are a shadow). Shall not they teach thee and tell thee and utter words out of their heart \ " *

And in this sentence he reveals but a natural impulse of the human mind. We are tempted ever to turn from the harshness of present realities to the distant past. We indulge in fond regrets for all that time has swept away, and gaze with longing eyes upon the landscape which lies far behind us, because it is clothed in a mellow light and rests there in dimness and silence. The tones of the living fall upon our ears with a harsh reality, and we look back with regret to the dead of ages past as their voices float gently u down through the corridors of time," and swell about us with solemn melody. We believe that theirs was the happy age which was freed from the evils of this present time.

The feeling, therefore, is a natural one, and seems deeply implanted in the mind of man. It is founded

1 Job viii. 8.

1G THE CHURCH OF THE APOSTLES.

on the belief that the early history of the human family was one of peace and purity, while, as time advanced, each passing century caused the shadows to darken more deeply over the pathway of our race and the glory which had rested on its birth —

" .... to die away, And fade into the light of common day."

The classic poets love, therefore, to dwell on the Golden Age, which they represent as gradually changing till it became the Iron Age in which they lived. There is, too, a strange universality about this tradition. We recognize its existence among all the nations of the East. They all look back to some Elysium in the past, the reality of which is gone, and the remembrance only survives in the legends they have inherited. They turn instinctively to the birthplace of the human race, and the Arab now, as he sits beneath his tent, narrates to his children wild and romantic stories of the early Eden. Even now, he declares, there is a guardian sanctity resting on it ; that there the wild beast may not wander, or the wild bird pause in its flight ; but the eye of God rests upon it, and the holiness of its early day still guards its hallowed precincts.

, The Church has also its Golden Age to which it looks back. It is an age of primitive purity, when the Apostles had just received the commission from their Lord, and were going forth to " inherit the earth." Small, indeed, was the band to which this mighty work was committed, and a single " upper room " was able to contain all who in the Holy City had professed the faith of the despised Xazarone. And against them were arrayed the sacred learning of Judea, as taught by its ancient priesthood ; the brilliant philosophy of Athens, where men had bowed to the glorious dreams of Plato and the intellectual teaching of Aristotle; and that wide-spread Oriental system, which could scarcely count its proselytes, as its influence stretched from the shrines of Memphis and Heliopolis, far Eastward over the plains of Asia, till it reached the cavemed temples of India.

Yet the faithful were all of one heart and one voice, and therefore the infant Church went forth iearlessly to proclaim its authority over the systems of this world. And so it was that it triumphed, bowing down every false creed before it, infusing a new life into the wasted forms of Eastern thought, and spreading a lofty tone through all the literature of the world, whether its utterance was heard in the Christianized Platonism of Alexandria, or it spoke out in the fantastic musings of the Fathers of the Desert.

"It was a religion of visible self-denial and holiness, that willingly took on itself the sorrows which to the multitude were inevitable, and lightened their sufferings by its own pain and privation. It was not, then, that urnbratile thing, that feeble exotic, shut up in churches, parsonages, and parlors ; but walked abroad, made the multitude both the receivers, the collectors, and distributors of her bounties ; compelled cities to wear her livery, and dared to inherit the earth. She then provided homes and forms of operation for the heroic virtues, for lofty aims and firm resolves, making their torrents flow in the manifold channels of mercy, instead of suffering them to waste the land with a baleful magnificence. She then gave names, and methods, and ancient

18 THE CnUECH OF TEE APOSTLES.

sanctions, and solemn order, and venerable holiness, and ev r ery quality men love and obey, to the pious bearers of spiritual and temporal aid to the ignorant and poor, as even the many sacred titles, which in the Old World the streets, and gates, and bridges, are still suffered to bear, do testify. She then did so combine and temper these works of benevolence with other holy em. ployments, with frequent daily prayer and oft-heard choral praise, that the social acts of temporal and ghostly relief seemed no separate and adventitious work, no petty craft of artificial goodness, but rather flowing from a something holy, natural, and complete in all its parts. She then had officers and employments for all ; that all, however humble in rank, or wealth, or mental culture, might be personally interested in the Church's work. She then could claim her own from every rank, teach all her holy character, make all acknowledge her claims to sacredncss and authority." l

Such is the picture of the ancient Church; and in this clay, when its glory seems to have faded, and its majesty to be blighted by the atmosphere of this workins world — when we look about us in vain for the heroism and the earnest convictions which characterized those distant days, when the seamless garment of Christ is rent asunder, and they who bear the Christian name have turned their weapons against each other — should we wish to call up this vision of beauty and to array before us a true representation of the Holy Catholic Church, we are obliged to look back through the clouds and mistiness of centuries that are gone.

In endeavoring, then, to lead our readers to survey

1 British Critic, No. Ivi., p. 3T0.

tlie Church in the peace and purity of its early day, we would turn to the very fountain-head — to the description which the inspired writer has left of the fold of Christ, as it appeared before it had lost the fervor of its first love, or its early zeal had faded away. He sums up all in a single sentence, " And they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers." l Let us look, then, at these different points, as each develops the Church in a new phase. Let us unroll the records of the past, and, taking the history of the Church as pictured by the Ecclesiastical writers of that day, we shall see how well in each particular it merited the commendation of St. Luke. The first point, then, brought before us is, the

STEADFASTNESS OF THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTLES' DOC- TRINE.

What was that doctrine, and where are we to look for it ? At first the Church needed no formal profession of its faith, as was afterward embodied in its Creeds. It was too early for the memory of its Lord's teaching to be lost, while His blood still crimsoned the heights of Calvary, and the earth was yet fragrant with His footsteps. The first teachers, too, were men of simple hearts and no worldly learning ; and it was reserved for another age, when philosophy had begun its endeavors to warp the faith to agreement with its own lessons, to witness the perversion of those primary truths on which the first generation rested its hopes. Few and simple, we believe, were at that time the tests of faith, for error had not yet crept into the fold. When the Ethiopian eunuch applied for baptism to

1 Acts ii. 42.

Philip the deacon, his answer was, " If thou believest with all thy heart, thou may est." And when the eunuch had declared, " I believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God," he was admitted by that rite into the Christian Church. This simple profession of faith in the Divinity and Messiahship of our Lord included everything which in that day was necessary. There is, therefore, in this point of view, a philosophical truth in that sentence of Newman's, " Freedom from symbols and articles is abstractly the highest state of Christian communion." '

But soon there was evidence of the necessity for a more formal declaration of the Christian faith, as the restless intellect of man began to frame doctrines not in accordance with the teachings of the Apostles. The first inspired teachers left behind them no complete system of Christian doctrine. The Epistles we now have were addressed to persons already instructed, already put in charge of the sacred deposit of Christian truth, before they received the Sacrament of Baptism. " It is true, indeed, that they were so directed by the Holy Spirit in writing these apparently casual and unconnected pieces, that no portion of the mass of divinely-revealed truth should lack written proof in confirmation from some part or other of their writings ; but that truth is nowhere exhibited entire, nowhere systematically or theologically stated, as in a Creed or a Catechism, nowhere so stated as it was used for purposes of instruction or profession." a

But scarcely had these early laborers entered into their

1 Newman's "Arians of the Fourth Century."

2 Mobcrly's "Forty Days," p. 78.

rest, and the Church thus been deprived of the power of reference to men who had seen their Lord in the flesh, when those who survived them felt the need of something more. As the Church, too, extended into heathen lands, it became of essential importance that the leading points of Christian doctrine they were to receive should be placed before them compressed into a small compass. 1 Experience soon demonstrated how useless it was to bring before the minds of the uncultivated and the barbarous vague or indefinite views of the faith. It was a necessity, therefore, in dealing with the heathen tribes with whom they were soon brought into contact, that the great verities of Christianity should be inculcated in brief and emphatic propositions, which the mind could grasp and the memory retain. The teachers of the faith began, therefore, to state the great outlines of the Apostles' teaching — the doctrines they had received from them — and these they required to be professed by all who came forward to baptism.

Thus arose what is called the Apostles' Creed — that form which now, at the distance of eighteen centuries from its origin, is repeated each time we assemble for the worship of God. Though probably not composed by the Apostles 'themselves, yet it was acknowledged in the Church throughout the world to contain a general summary of all the great and fundamental truths they taught.

We cannot but mark its perfect simplicity — how it deals with nothing but the primary doctrines of our faith. This characteristic alone would be sufficient to show the age in which it had its origin. According to

1 Milman's "History of Christianity,*' ii., 115.

the summary of it given in the Church Catechism, it teaches the great facts of " God the Father, who hath made ns and all the world ; God the Son, who hath redeemed us and all mankind ; God the Holy Ghost, who sanctifieth us and all the people of God." It is evidently not intended — like the later Creeds — to guard against any particular errors. It is therefore the most ancient and the simplest expansion of the doctrines of our Lord as they were handed down in the profession made at baptism. " Just outside of the Canon of actual Scripture, and not claiming a literal inspiration like that of actual Scripture, it is nevertheless the earliest historical record of the systematic doctrine of the Apostles." l

But, were all other proofs of the antiquity of this Creed wanting, we should draw the inference that it had existed in the days of the Apostles, from the fact that we so often meet with its expressions incorporated in the writings of that period. It tinged the religious firmament, and, in treating of the faith, its early defenders seemed insensibly to adopt the phraseology of the Creed as expressions with which they were familiar.

When St. Paul is charging St, Timothy to " hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard," he must have been alluding to some well-known formulary of doctrine which had been delivered to them. And what more probable than that it should have been this earliest Creed, which must have been widely spread even at that day ? And so, in writing to the Corinth-

1 Moberly's " Forty Days," p. 79. See King's M History of the Apostles 1 Greed," and Bingham's " Grig. K ; .vies.," h. xi., chap, vii., see. 8.

GREEDS. 23 ians, in enforcing the doctrine of the resurrection, he seems to be quoting from the Creed which he had previously taught them. " I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures." :

And, if we pass beyond the Canon of Holy Scriptures to the writings of men in the next generation, we find the most evident use of the language of the Creed. So it was with St. Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who was a disciple of St. John. In writing to the Trallians, at the close of the first century, he says : " Turn a deaf ear to any man who departs, in what he says, from Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David and born of Mary ; who truly was born, did eat, and did drink ; truly was persecuted under Pontius Pilate ; truly was crucified and died, being seen of them that are in Heaven, of them that are on earth, and of them that are under the earth ; who truly also was raised from the dead, His Father raising Him ; in the likeness whereto we also who believe in Him shall His Father raise up through Jesus Christ, without whom we have no real life." 2

So, again, Justin Martyr, in the year 140, in his " Apology for Christianity," in describing the rite of Baptism, uses this language : " We lead them to a place where there is water, and there they are regenerated in the same manner as we also were ; for they are then washed in that water in the name of God the Father and Lord of the universe, and of our Saviour, Jesus

1 1 Cor. xv. 3. 2 " Records of the Church " (Oxford), No. V.

Christ, and of the Holy Spirit. . . . He who is so illuminated is baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate ; and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who, by the prophets, foretold all things concerning Jesus." *

The fullest adoption, however, of the words of the Creed, is that shown by Irengeus, Bishop of Lyons, in France, who died in the year 202. In the formulary which he set forth, he says : " The Church, although extended through the whole world, even unto the end of the earth, has received from the Apostles and their disciples the belief in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them; and in one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was made flesh for our salvation ; and in the Holy Ghost, who, by the prophets, proclaimed the merciful dispensation, and the coming, and the birth from a Virgin, and the Passion, and the Resurrection, and the Ascension into heaven, in our flesh, of the beloved Christ Jesus, our Lord, and His appearing from heaven in the glory of the Father, to gather together all things in one, and to raise from the dead all flesh of human kind ; that to Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Saviour, and King, according to the good pleasure of the Invisible Father, every knee may bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue may confess Him, and that He may recompense just judgment upon all, sending into everlasting fire wicked spirits and angels that transgressed and became apostates, and irreligious, unjust, lawless, and profane men, but upon the just and holy,

1 Justin Martyr's " Second Apology."

who have kept His commandments and persevere in His love, whether serving Him from the first or turning by repentance, may bestow immortality by the free gift of life, and secure for them everlasting glory." 1

These are the words of the disciple of Polycarp, who had known the Apostle John. But, one remove from the Apostles, he bears his witness to the Catholic faith, such as the Church holds to this day.

Three centuries rolled by, during which the Christian Church had no need of any other profession of its doctrines. And we see the reason why Creeds and Confessions of faith during that period were short and simple. " While there were no heretics, there was no need to guard against heresy. Antidotes are only given to persons who have taken poison, or who are likely to take it. Neither do we use precautions against contagion when no disease is to be caught. The case, however, is altered when the air has become infected and thousands are dying all around us. It is then necessary to call in the physician, and guard against danger. The case was the same with the Church when she saw her children in peril from new and erroneous doctrines. When a member wished to be admitted, it was her duty to examine whether he was infected or not. The former tests were no longer sufficient. Words and phrases which had hitherto borne but one meaning were now found to admit of several ; and the Bishops and clergy were too honest to allow a man to say one thino; with his tongue while in his heart he meant an-

1 " Records of the Church " (Oxford), No. XIV other. It was thus that Creeds became lengthened and clauses were added to meet the presumptuous speculations of human reason. But the fault was with the heretics, not with the Church. Her great object from the beg inning had been unity." *

There was something, too, in the changing character of the age which produced this result. It had been an era of self-denial, and devotion, and active labor, when the great truths which it taught were regarded as themes for adoration, not for dispute. At length, when the hand of persecution was withdrawn, men turned to the deeper and more abstruse doctrines of our faith, and made them the points of irreverent inquiry. The East was always the fatal and prolific soil of speculative controversy, and, on this occasion, the question of the Trinity was the one destined to give birth to the element of disunion in the Christian world.

It was caused by the rashness of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, who, preaching in the Church of St. Mark, in the presence of the Presbytery and the rest of his clergy, attempted to explain, with perhaps too philosophical minuteness, that great theological mystery. 2 Anns, one of his priests, thinking that the Bishop was verging into the Sabellian heresy, opposed him with great logical acumen, while, in doing so, he ran into the opposite extreme. He had been the competitor of the Bishop for the Episcopate, and failed by a very few votes. The tradition is, that on the Sunday after this discussion Arius was appointed to preach in St. Mark's, while the Bishop officiated in the Baucalis. The Bishop,

1 Burton's "History of the Christian Church," p. 428.

2 Socrates's "Ecclesiastical History," b. i., chap. v.

in his sermon, made no reference to the controversy, while Arius availed himself of the opportunity to give a full exposition of his views. The consequence was a tumult, some of the congregation crying out, " This is not the faith we have received from our fathers ; " others, " Out with the second Cerinthus ! " " Anathema to the new Basileides ! " This commenced the contest.

The view of Arius was, that " there was a time, before the commencement of the ages, when the parent Deity dwelt alone in undeveloped, undivided unity. At this time, immeasurably, incalculably, inconceivably remote, the majestic solitude ceased, the Divine Unity was broken by an act of the Sovereign Will, and the Only- Begotten Son, the Image of the Father, the Yicegerent of all the Divine Power, the intermediate Agent in all the long-subsequent work of creation, began to beP 1 The Arian doctrine was summed up in the single sentence, " There was, when He was not." 2

At this day, it seems to us like the highest irreverence thus to dissect, as it were, the nature of the Supreme Being, or to endeavor to deprive it of that vagueness which, to the ordinary mind, constitutes its sublimity. The dispute, indeed, owed its existence to that exquisite subtil ty of the Greek language which enabled them to draw distinctions which in other tongues could not be expressed ; and while for three centuries they had bowed with awe before this great truth, looking on it only as a fact to be received with the most profound reverence, it was now to be subjected to what a writer calls " the anatomical precision of philosophic Greek."

1 " Milman's History, 1 ' vol. ii., p. 68.

2 Theodoret gives Arius's letter in full, lib. i., chap. v.

It is strange that this metaphysical question, so entirely abstract, which had no relation to anything which concerned man's spiritual interests, but referred only to " the ineffable relations of the Godhead before the remotest beginning of time," should have awakened an excitement which stirred up the most violent passions to their highest exercise. " Beginning in the Schools of Alexandria, the dispute," says Socrates, " ran throughout all Egypt, Libya, and the Upper Thebes, and at length diffused itself over the rest of the provinces and cities." l It became the absorbing topic of the day, enlisting all classes of the people. 2 It excited popular tumults, leading to conflicts in the streets and in the amphitheatre, which it required the utmost exertions of the military authorities to quell. The subject was parodied in the theatres by the pagans, who rejoiced to exhibit the manner in which the Christians u loved one another." Verses composed by Arius, and setting forth the disputed doctrine, were sung by all classes through the whole East. Perhaps nothing so much shocked every feeling of reverence in the orthodox mind as these doggerel pieces which were called " Thalia." The most sacred mysteries of our faith were ridiculed in language which had previously been used in the lowest ballads, and appropriated to subjects of disgraceful im-