and a distinct function in the liturgy of the Christian Church.1

The Epistle of Polycarp was written in reply to a message from the Philippian Church requesting him to forward their letter to the Church of Antioch now deprived of their holy Bishop Ignatius. In it we find the ministry at Philippi at this particular time to have been localized Presbyter-overseers under a general Apostolic representative. Ignatius or Polycarp may have been this himself.

2

The Shepherd of Hermas was written about A. D. 140. This document represents the Presbyters as the chief local authorities in subordination to rulers who represented the authority of the Apostles, and thus the chief authority in the Church.

Now in summing up these evidences as to the Constitution of the Church, it must never be forgotten that the authorities we have referred to are not treatises on the Christian ministry. Had the ministry been once attacked we should be in possession of some works specially on it. But the threefold Apostolic ministry was so evident as of divine authority to all Christians, till it was interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German reformers, that they could not conceive of a Church without it. With one single exception (that of Aerius of Lebastia, in Pontius, in the fourth century, who on that account is

1

placed by the Fathers among heretics, and his doctrine condemned as sacrilegious') the threefold Apostolic ministry, for a period of over fifteen hundred years, was accepted by the whole of Christendom as an institution of Christ. There was never a doubt upon this head. It was accepted alike by Orthodox as well as by Arians, Macedonians, Novatians, and Donatists. It is seen on every page of history; and it cannot be passed over or explained away.

Gibbon might as well have given to the world a view of Imperial Rome, in the days of her "Decline and Fall" without making any mention of her Emperors as to have reviewed Christianity for the first three centuries without admitting the fact of Episcopal government. But his words are-and he is no partial witness-" The Episcopal form of governappears to have been introduced before the close of the first century."" "It had acquired in a very early period the sanction of antiquity." "Nulla Ecclesia Sine Episcopo, has been a fact as well as a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenæus." "After we have passed the difficulties of the first century "-which would be before the death of S. John-" we find the Episcopal form of government universally established, until it was interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German reformers." 5

M. Guizot, another very impartial witness, says, in his "History of Civilization in Europe," after describing somewhat inaccurately what the condition of the Church was at the early period of the Roman Empire : "In proportion as it "the Church-"advanced-and very speedily, since traces are visible in the earliest monuments-a body of doctrines, of rules, of discipline, and of magistrates began to appear; one kind of magistrates were called πρεσβυτεροι, or ancients, who became the priests; another, ἐπισκοποι, or inspectors or superintendents, who became bishops; a third, διακόνοι, or deacons, who were charged with the care of the poor, and with the distribution of alms."1

We are now in a position to sum up briefly the results of our investigation. We have reviewed the Gospels and Epistles, the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic ages, and the age of later Church History; and what do we find?

We find that our Lord founded a Church and instituted a Ministry; that this Ministry, in the Apostolic Age, is seen as (1) the Apostolate; (2) the sub-Apostolate, the extension of the Apostolic functions in some of their features to (a) " Prophets" and others; (b) to Apostolic men like Timothy. general Ministry we find (3) "presbyters" "bishops"; (4) "deacons."

Under this

or

In the sub-Apostolic Age this Ministry took the form of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons-the subApostolate taking the place of the Apostolate. This form has remained ever since. Thus, then, the MinMinistry of the Age

istry of the Apostolic Age is the

1 Vol. i. lec. ii. pp. 32-36. London, 1851.

of S. John, of Polycarp, of Ignatius, of Linus, Cletus, Clement, Irenæus, Hermas, and of the "Didache," and of the Council of Arles.

What, therefore, we find the Constitution of the Church in Britain to be in A. D. 250, that we find it to be in Gaul in A. D. 170; and in Corinth, in Ephesus, in Smyrna, in Jerusalem, in Alexandria, in Crete, and in Rome, prior to the death of the last of the Apostles. “Si monumentum quaeris circumspice." If, therefore, you require a monument to the Constitution of the Church in the British Isles from the time it was first planted there in Apostolic times to the present day, look at this array of evidences-this cloud of witnesses! We may therefore venture to say of the Church in Britain, as well as of the Church all the world over :

Christ is gone up; yet ere He passed
From earth in Heaven to reign,
He formed one holy Church to last
Till He should come again.
His Twelve Apostles first He made
His Ministers of Grace;

And they their hands on others laid
To fill in turn their place.

So age by age, and year by year,
His grace was handed down,
And still the holy Church is here
Although her Lord is gone.1

Yes; the Holy Church is still there-the venerable Church of the Gauls; of the Britons; of the Irish; of the Scots; of the Saxons; of the Danes; of the Normans; and of the whole British nation.

CHAPTER V.

The Continuity of the Church in the British Isle

I.

AFTER what has been said on the continuity of the Faith, and the Constitution of the Church, in the British Isles, little remains to be said

For fifteen

hundred years on the continuity of the Church. The the only Church known in the Church represents the Christian Faith.

was

British Isles is No one can imagine a continuity of the what now commonly known as the An- Christian Faith without the continuity glican Church.

of the Christian Church. The one goes with the other. The continuity of the Faith is the continuity of the Church, and the continuity of the Church is the continuity of the Faith. Separate the one from the other and we get neither a continuity of the Faith nor a continuity of the Church.

No one who reads the history of the British nation-unless he reads it backwards-can help seeing throughout the continuity of our Church, from the day it was first planted on the soil of Britain to the present. It is one with the nation and the nation is one with it. The one cannot be separated from the other. The growth, unity, and continuity

1" Take the Church of England out of the history of England, and the history of England becomes a chaos, without order, without life, without meaning." The Church has not only been a part of the history of this country, but a part so vital, entering so

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