were ill-instructed in the principles of Christianity, or neglectful of the trust committed to them; but one or the other they must have been, if, for a length of time, they omitted taking the steps necessary to give the Church its being. But it is needless to say more. The difficulties are innumerable which beset every attempt to reconcile the Catholic theory of the Church with the fact of the progressive development of its polity.

"He that looks," we are told, "to find from the beginning of the Gospel an entire hierarchy, with its supplements and complements of order and office, must have a mind strangely unskilled in the analogies of God's works. The notion that the Church was perfected in all its organic parts-uno Apostolorum afflatu-by the first breath of St. Peter and the Apostles, has no foundation in the testimony either of inspired or uninspired history. On the contrary, not only the analogy of all God's inanimate and animate works, but also of His earlier dispensations, would lead us beforehand to look for what, in Holy Scripture, we find."* That the visible polity of the Church was not at once perfected is most true; but we must demur to the assertion that, the Church theory being supposed to be the true one, to expect things to have been otherwise indicates a mind unskilled in the analogies furnished by God's earlier dispensations. The Church theory affirms that a certain form of polity was delivered by Christ, either directly or through his Apostles, which is as essential to the Church as the body of a man is to a man; in other words, is absolutely essential to it; so essential, as that, apart from it, neither is there a covenanted way of access to God, nor can Christianity exert that renovating influence upon human nature which it was intended to exert. Now the only other instance which God's dispensations supply of a religious institution based upon this principle is that of the Mosaic economy; and in that instance we find that God did deliver the external framework of the polity "perfected in all its organic parts," and in detail, so that nothing was left to be supplied at a future time. The reason of so material a deviation from this precedent, in the case of the Christian Church, it is incumbent upon the Cyprianist to explain.

In the observation that "Christianity came into the world as an idea, rather than an institution," + there is important truth, if for the word "idea" we substitute the presence of Christ by His spirit in the hearts of believers. Christianity did come into the world

• Manning, Unity of the Church, p. 119. † Newman's Essay on Development, p. 116.

much more as a spiritual influence than as a visible institution. Christianity first appeared in the hundred and twenty, who, with the Apostles, were "with one accord in one place;" and what was the Church in that first moment of its existence? Not, primarily, an institution; not a papal, or an episcopal, or a presbyterian body; not a visible system, standing out in strong contrast with the existing one; but simply a company of men, "all filled with the Holy Ghost."* Of course, it could not always remain in this state. If the Church was to have a visible existence in the world, in the form of Christian societies, such societies must have laws, and representatives, and officers; in one word, must be visibly organised. But the whole history of the first Church shows how naturally, and, so to speak, spontaneously, the work of organisation advanced. The Christian society followed the law of all societies which have their essential principle within. When it became necessary to put on an outward form, it threw itself out, by force of the spirit within, under apostolic guidance, into such a polity as was suitable to its nature. The invisible constitution of the Church by the spirit preceded the visible manifestations of its existence, and the visible development of its polity. Moehler treats it as an absurdity to affirm, with Luther, that the visible Church owes its existence to the invisible, or, to speak more accurately, that the inner life of the Church precedes the visible exhibition of that life. "According to Luther, the Church is a congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly preached: first, therefore, there must be saints, whose origin and appearance no one can account for: then they preach."+ Luther's position is, however, as Nitzsch observes, + nothing but the strict truth. The Church of Christ was not properly in existence before the day of Pentecost much less did she, before that era, go forth on her mission to evangelize the world. A body of believers indeed had been by Christ gathered out of the Jewish people to be the first recipients of the Pentecostal effusion; but before that event, this body could not be called distinctively His Church. It is, then, nothing but the fact, that the invisible Church, or rather that which in the Church is invisible, preceded that which is visible. The spiritual power which wrought so wonderful a change in the Apostles must first descend from heaven, and give to the Church its inner form, its spiritual characteristic! afterwards the Apostles preach, and organise. First, there are saints, or men in whom + Symbolik, p. 426. Protestant. Beantwort. &c., p. 233.

* Acts, ii. 4.

Christ is formed by an invisible operation of His Spirit, whose origin, however, is not unknown; then these saints proceed to execute their appointed mission. The argument of the opponent only recoils upon himself.

SECTION IV.

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHRISTIAN DISPENSATION.

It appears, then (to state briefly the conclusion to which the foregoing remarks on the Christian dispensation conduct us), that both the nature of the divinely appointed ordinances of the Gospel and the process by which the polity of the Church became fixed, are such as to exclude the supposition of Christianity being, primarily, a visible institution. Had Christ come as a lawgiver in the same sense in which Moses was, He would, if the analogy of the earlier dispensation is to be any guide to us, have instituted other ordinances than those which He did, and on a different principle. In whatever point of view we compare the two systems, the contrast strikes us. The principle of the Mosaic law was to prescribe, in the first instance, to the outward act, with the view of ultimately forming the inner sentiment. The principle of the Christian dispensation is, to pre-suppose the existence of the inner sentiment, and, upon that supposition, to erect the visible superstructure. Under the former, men were placed under an outward rule of discipline; under the latter, the visible aspect of the system is the result of the natural, though not unguided, efforts of the inner life to clothe itself in its proper organic form. There, the performance of the prescribed act-the opus operatum-had a real, independent, value: here, the mere act is, in God's sight, valueless; it derives its worth from the living faith presumed to be present in those who perform it. That these are, severally, the characteristic features of the Mosaic and the Christian systems appears clear from the facts connected with the delivery of each.

Nor is the difference any other than that which we should have been led to expect from the contrast drawn by St. Paul between

the two dispensations. The passage has been before alluded to,* but it deserves a more attentive consideration. "Now I "Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all; but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." The former dispensation, it has been observed, was the childhood of revealed religion, and the whole system was framed with a reference to the low capacity, intellectual and moral, of the pupil. In this condition, however, it cannot be supposed that religion was to remain always. To advert to the analogy employed by St. Paul, even before full emancipation from the restraints of discipline takes place, the effects of a judicious system of education will be perceptible; and in proportion as the moral sense becomes stronger, and more enlightened, the instructions of the teacher will appeal more to reason, and general principles will take the place of specific prescriptions; the growing intelligence of the pupil rendering this mode of treatment both necessary and possible. At length the process of education being supposed to be complete, the pupil is released from the discipline of tutors and governors, and emerges, not into a second childhood, but into the privileges and responsibilities of manhood. What is the peculiarity of his present, as compared with his former, condition? Not that he is now free to abandon the virtuous habits in which he has been trained, but that he is expected to do spontaneously what he formerly did from compulsión. The liberty which he enjoys, far from being license, consists in his no longer needing an outwardly coercive law to retain him in the path of duty, but in his having become a law to himself. With him virtuous habits are presumed to have become second nature. It is expected that an inward perception of what is right and expedient, a moral intuition, will dictate to him what in each emergency, as it arises, is the path of duty. In the various circumstances of life which call for prudent action, the man, as contrasted with the child, is thrown upon his own resources; and the successful conduct of affairs depends, in his case, not upon following a code of minute prescriptions, for none such, embracing every case, could be given, but upon the application, under the guidance of reason and conscience, of cer

• P. 93.

† Gal. iv. 1-6.