CHAPTER III.

THE ACTUAL RELATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE FROM THE DAY OF PENTECOST TO

CONSTANTINE.

_Transmission of Spiritual Authority from the Person of Our Lord to Peter

and the Apostles, as set forth in the New Testament._

The Spiritual Power rests for its origin, so far as all Christians are

concerned, upon the transmission of spiritual authority from the Person

of our Lord to Peter and the Apostles.

That transmission runs up as a fact by a living unbroken line of men to

our Lord Himself. It subsists as a kingdom subsists. As the governments

of England, or France, or Russia, or China, occupy a portion of the

earth, and by that fact are recognised quite independently of any records

which attest their rise and growth, so the far greater and more widely

spread government of the Church exists, and is in full daily action,

independently of any records which attest its origin. Day by day in the

sacrament of Baptism it admits children into the Christian covenant; day

by day upon myriads of altars, from the rising to the setting sun, it

offers the unbloody sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ; day by day

in unnumbered confessionals it exercises in binding and loosing the

sacrament of Penance; day by day its priests teach, support, console,

uphold, in ways which it would exhaust the power of language to describe,

a multitude of its people. This is its vital force as a kingdom, which it

has gone on exerting for eighteen hundred and fifty years without a

moment's suspension. This vital force does not proceed from any record

which attests it: it is not stored up in any book, but in a divine

presence resting on a living succession of men, which perpetuates

itself--which, as a fact, goes on increasing in volume and in the effects

which it produces from age to age.

Nevertheless, it is desirable to draw out as accurately as we can the

account of the first transmission of that spiritual authority by which

this kingdom exists, as we have it recorded for us in the writings of the

New Testament. For this purpose I shall quote the terms which express it

as given in each of the four Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles and

the Epistles of St. Paul and in the Apocalypse.

First of all is the institution of that Priesthood which supports the

whole spiritual superstructure, and from which, as the stem, all its

branches spring. And this is seen to take place at a moment when our

Lord's Passion may be said to have begun--to be, as it were, the first

act of it. The fullest record we have is that given by St. Paul in the

First Epistle to the Corinthians, which runs thus: (1 Cor. xi. 23) "For I

have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you: the Lord

Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed, took bread, and giving

thanks, broke, and said, Take ye, and eat: this is My Body which shall be

delivered for you: this do for the commemoration of Me. In like manner

also the chalice, after He had supped, saying, This chalice is the new

testament in My Blood: this do ye, as often as ye shall drink, for the

commemoration of Me." The Apostle adds in His own words that this was an

everlasting memorial of the Lord's death, to continue until His second

coming, and that it so contained the Lord's Body and Blood that he who

ate or drank unworthily was guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord.

"For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink this chalice, you

shall show the death of the Lord until He come. Therefore, whosoever

shall eat this bread or drink the chalice of the Lord unworthily, shall

be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord."

St. Luke in the Gospel mentions the institution in terms similar to those

of St. Paul, especially in that he uses in respect of the Body the

sacrificial words, "Do or offer this in commemoration of Me," which St.

Paul uses of the chalice also, while St. Luke omits them. St. Matthew and

St. Mark record it more briefly still, not giving the sacrificial words

in either case; and St. John passes over the institution itself of the

Blessed Sacrament, while he adds very largely to the record of what was

said by our Lord on the eve of his Passion, and gives three whole

chapters which might almost be considered as a comment upon that act of

divine love. Indeed, the opening words, "I am the true Vine," seem to

point to the rite as having just been accomplished, and to give a divine

interpretation of the graces stored up in it. On the whole, it must be

said of these four accounts, even including that of St. Paul, that they

are rather an allusion to a thing otherwise well known to those for whom

it was written than a description of it. When St. Paul wrote, the

Priesthood and the Sacrifice had been in daily operation for twenty-five

or thirty years, and every Christian knew by the evidence of his senses

the full detail, both as to Priesthood and to Sacrament, of that to which

reference was made. This is a consideration which it is requisite to bear

in mind. Nothing could be further removed from the truth than to suppose

that we were intended to obtain our knowledge of what the Priesthood, the

Divine Sacrifice, and the Blessed Sacrament were, merely or mainly from

the record of them in the Gospel narrative. When this was first published

in writing, they were institutions upon which the Church had been already

founded; every detail of them was imprinted upon the heart of every

Christian, associated with his daily life, and enshrined in his practice.

To a heathen reading the Gospel, the words, "Do this in commemoration of

Me," might be an enigma; while to a Christian they carried the power of

which his whole spiritual being was the growth.

The institution of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Priesthood which is

to offer the Sacrifice is enacted by our Lord on the eve of His Passion

before the Apostles collected together, as He is about to make the

offering in commemorating which forever, until His final coming, the

Priesthood consists. Thus the moment of the institution is so chosen as

to connect it most intimately not only with His Person, but with that act

of our Lord wherein He is our High Priest, and in reference to which His

own words of institution carry so deep a significance. That which was

given by our Lord to His Apostles, that which they were to receive

themselves and give to others to the end of the world, was precisely that

which was to be offered on the same day for the sin of the world, which

is very exactly intimated in the tense used in the original; not a future

but a present tense: "Take, eat: this is My Body which is being broken

for you;" as if the action of His immolation had begun.

As the whole divine mission of our Lord is collected up in his

Priesthood, and no less the whole power which He left to His Church,

every circumstance of time, place, and occasion which belongs to its

institution has to be noted, and this in particular, that it is bestowed

before His death, and that it is the only power which is recorded to have

been actually bestowed before it. Perhaps it would be more correct to say

that His death is the crowning act of the eucharistic institution, and

accompanies the institution, understanding in this sense the words of St.

John, "Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should pass out of

this world to the Father, He loved them unto the end," words by which he

introduces the account of that last evening of our Lord's life.

The basis of the whole structure being thus laid in the act which began

our Lord's Passion and commemorates it for ever, we proceed to the

testimony of the several Gospels as to the investiture of the Church's

rulers which followed the Passion.

1. The words in which St. Matthew records the transmission of spiritual

power from the Person of our Lord after His resurrection are the

following:--"The eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain

where Jesus had appointed them.... And Jesus came and spoke to them,

saying, All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. Go forth,

therefore, and make disciples all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to

observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with

you all days, even to the consummation of the world."

The power thus given, as recorded by St. Matthew, comes direct from

Christ, as an outflowing of His all-power in heaven and on earth: it is

an universal power, co-extensive with all the purposes for which the

Church has been created, and enduring so long as the Church endures,

through the accompanying presence of the Lord; and it is given to the

Apostles collectively as to one body.

But St. Matthew, in a former part of his Gospel, had recorded a most

remarkable and singular promise made to Peter, or rather a group of four

promises forming one mass: the first, that he should be the Rock on

which Christ would build His Church; the second, that against this the

gates of hell should not prevail; the third, that Christ would give to

him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; the fourth, that whatsoever he

should bind on earth should be bound in heaven, and whatsoever he should

loose on earth should be loosed in heaven. Matthew (xviii. 17, 18) had

also recorded, a little later, a promise made to the Apostles

collectively, in which our Lord, after referring to the Church as an

authoritative tribunal for all His people, had added, "Amen, I say to

you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven,

and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in

heaven." This promise then contained a part of the fourfold promise

already made to Peter, with the limitation, however, not only that it was

made to the Apostles conjointly, whereas it had been made to Peter

singly, but also that it was detached from the other part of the promise

so given to Peter. With respect to the first point, a power vested in a

Body, with the condition that it be exercised by common consent, differs

greatly from the same power vested in the Head of that Body, to be

exercised by him singly. It differs, as far as the conception of

aristocracy differs from the conception of monarchy. And the second point

above noted, that the promise thus given to the Apostles is detached from

the other parts of the promise which had been given to Peter,

corroborates this distinction. The powers which indicate monarchy lie in

those parts of the promise which were not given to the Apostles

conjointly.

The whole testimony of Matthew, therefore, consists in the promise of

powers which he records to have been made before the Resurrection, and in

the giving of powers which he records to have been made after it.

2. The testimony of Mark is contained in the last six verses of his

Gospel: "And He said to them (the eleven), Go ye into the whole world and

preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized

shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these

signs shall follow them that believe: in My name shall they cast out

devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents;

and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they

shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover. And the Lord

Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sitteth

on the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere,

the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that

followed."

Here also the power comes direct from Christ; it is universal in its

range and permanent in duration; it is given to the Apostolic Body, and

St. Mark attaches to it the perpetual accompaniment of miraculous

effects, which he connects with the session of our Lord at the right hand

of God, as witnessing to the truth of the Apostolic mission; and not only

so, but as further implying that so long as the session at the right hand

of God continues, the divine effects which proceed from it shall

continue also.

It is remarkable that St. Mark's Gospel, which is the Gospel of Peter,

set forth by his disciple at his instance, is the only one of the four

which does not record either the promise or the conveyance of the special

power bestowed upon Peter.

3. St. Luke's record is this: Our Lord coming to the Apostles on the

evening of His Resurrection bestows upon them His peace; convinces them

that He has risen again; eats with them; illuminates their mind to

understand the Scriptures and the need of His Passion. "And He said to

them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to

rise again from the dead the third day; and that penance and remission of

sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at

Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. And behold I send the

promise of my Father upon you; but stay you in the city until you be

indued with power from on high. And He led them out as far as Bethania,

and lifting up His hands, He blessed them. And it came to pass while He

blessed them He departed from them and was carried up into heaven."

Luke completes his account in the Acts, where he says our Lord "showed

Himself alive, after His Passion, to the Apostles whom He had chosen by

many proofs, for forty days appearing to them and speaking of the kingdom

of God. And eating together with them He commanded them that they should

not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the

Father, which you have heard, saith He, by My mouth. For John indeed

baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not

many days hence. They, therefore, who were come together asked Him,

saying, Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

But He said to them, It is not for you to know the times or moments which

the Father hath put in His own power; but you shall receive the power of

the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in

Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part

of the earth. And when He had said these things, while they looked on, He

was raised up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight."

The power thus promised as about to be bestowed in terms so concise and

yet so simple, as "the promise of the Father sent down by the Son," "the

power from on high," "the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you," is

afterwards described in the events which took place on the Day of

Pentecost, which therefore supplement or give their full meaning to St.

Luke's account of the transmission of spiritual authority. It is a power

coming down on the Apostles in a Body direct from Christ--the power, in

fact, which makes the Church to be what she is; it is a visible descent

of that perpetual presence of the Holy Ghost within her which is her

life, by which she is the kingdom of God on earth--a power universal and

permanent.

It is given to the Apostolic College collectively, and there is no

mention here of a special power given to Peter. But St. Luke in his

account of the Last Supper introduces in a manner peculiar to himself a

special prerogative promised by our Lord to Peter. To gather its whole

force, it is necessary carefully to study the context in which it is

found.

Immediately after his reference to the institution of the Lord's Supper

and the announcement that there was one among them who should betray his

Lord, St. Luke writes: "And there was also a strife among them which of

them should seem to be greater. And He said to them, The kings of the

Gentiles lord it over them; and they that have power over them are called

beneficent. But you not so; but he that is the greater among you, let him

become as the younger, and he that is the leader, as he that serveth. For

which is greater, he that sitteth at table or he that serveth? Is not he

that sitteth at table? but I am in the midst of you as he that serveth.

And you are they who have continued with Me in My temptations; and I

dispose to you, as My Father has disposed to Me, a kingdom; that you may

eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and may sit upon thrones judging

the twelve tribes of Israel. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold

Satan has desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have

prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not; and thou being once converted,

confirm thy brethren. Who said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with Thee

both into prison and to death. And He said, I say to thee, Peter, the

cock shall not crow this day till thou thrice deniest that thou knowest

Me. And He said to them, When I sent you without purse and scrip and

shoes, did you want anything? But they said, Nothing. Then said He unto

them, But now, he that hath a purse let him take it, and likewise a

scrip, and he that hath not, let him sell his coat and buy a sword. For I

say unto you that this which is written must yet be fulfilled in Me, 'And

with the wicked was He reckoned.' For the things concerning Me have an

end. But they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And He said to

them, It is enough."

We may judge of the importance of this conversation by the fact that the

space given to it by St. Luke makes much more than half of his whole

record, so far as the events are concerned which took place in the upper

chamber, while it exceeds the whole record of those events given either

by St. Matthew or St. Mark. In fact, it constitutes the main addition

which St. Luke has made to the record of the first two Evangelists, and,

viewed as that addition, it specially draws our notice to his reason for

inserting it. The incident thus dwelt upon by St. Luke with so much

detail is omitted not only by St. Matthew and St. Mark, but by St. John

also. If we view the narrative of the Passion as a whole, given by the

four Evangelists, it is as special a contribution to it by St. Luke as

the conversation given by St. John.

And here, first, it may be again remarked, that our knowledge of the

institution either of the Priesthood or of the Blessed Sacrament did not

depend upon its record in the Gospels, because both were institutions of

the divine kingdom carried into effect before the Gospels were published,

and exhibited in the daily action of the Church. But our knowledge of a

contest having arisen among the Apostles at the very time our Lord was

speaking of one out of the Apostolic College itself who was to betray

Him--a contest the subject of which regarded the person who should be the

greater in that College--does depend upon the written record of it; and

the selection of it to occupy so large a part in so short a narrative, as

well as to form almost the whole addition which St. Luke was to

contribute to the previous record of St. Matthew and St. Mark, shows that

something was contained in it which was to be kept in perpetual

remembrance among Christians.

First, then, our Lord does not put aside this contest, but proceeds to

determine it. He draws the strongest contrast between heathen domination,

such as it both was then and had been in past time, and Christian

government, which as yet was not, but was to be. "The kings of the earth

lord it over them, and they that have power over them are called

beneficent. But you not so; but he that is the greater among you, let him

become as the younger, and he that is the leader as he that serveth."

Thus "a greater" and "a leader" in the Apostolic College is pointed out

as to be. But it is also pointed out that the type and example of this

superior is our Lord Himself. It is the character of one who represents

Him. "For which is greater, he that sitteth at table or he that serveth?

Is not he that sitteth at table? But I am in the midst of you as he that

serveth." If the character of our Lord's example is here pointed at on

the one hand, on the other the greatness of the rule to be exercised is

indicated. In both, in the character of the rule as being a service to

those who are ruled, and as representing our Lord Himself, the

application makes itself felt. The superior was to exercise not a

domination which had become the mark of Gentile kings, but a service for

the good of the governed such as Christ in all His ministry had shown.

The words recorded by St. Luke bring back those recorded by St. John,

which our Lord had uttered just before: "Know you what I have done to

you? You call me Master and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If then

I, being your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to

wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that as I have

done to you, so you do also." If this had been all which St. Luke had

recorded, the existence of a Superior in the Church after the pattern of

Christ Himself might have been inferred as to come.

But our Lord then proceeds to speak positively of a kingdom which He was

setting up, and of the place in it which the Apostles should hold: "And

you are they who have continued with me in my temptations; and I dispose

to you, as my Father hath disposed to me, a kingdom; that you may eat and

drink at my table, in my kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the

twelve tribes of Israel." From these words we gather that in the kingdom

thus announced there should be not only one Superior after the pattern

of Christ--"the greater and the leader"--but the College of the twelve,

sitting on thrones, and judging the whole people of God. The kingdom and

its rulers are correlative and co-enduring. And is not the whole of the

order of the Episcopate symbolised in these words, as well as the

distinctive rank of the twelve Apostles? For do not they in their heirs

carry on through the whole duration of the kingdom on earth the mysteries

of that wonderful priesthood instituted at this moment, eating and

drinking at His table in His kingdom, and judging His people in the

tribunal which has reference to it?

This interpretation seems intimated in the words which follow, in which

an attack is spoken of as to be made upon all the rulers of this kingdom;

and not, as it would seem, a passing, but a continuing attack. "And the

Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he

may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail

not; and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren." He singles

out one Apostle, and speaking of the whole Body in the plural as the

object of the attack, declares that He has prayed for that one, that he

may be able, at a future time, when he has been converted, to confirm his

brethren. Peter, supposing that our Lord spoke of the actual moment, said

to Him, "Lord, I am ready to go with Thee both into prison and to death.

And He said, I say to thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, till

thou thrice deniest that thou knowest Me."

Thus pointedly did our Lord exclude the time then present from that at

which Peter should confirm his brethren; and the event showed that, so

far from confirming them during the night of the Passion and the

subsequent Crucifixion, his faith and his conduct conspicuously failed:

while all deserted Him and fled, he denied Him.

But of what time, then, did our Lord speak? of what attack? of what

confirmation to be rendered by Peter?

The words which follow seem to give an answer to these questions. "And He

said to them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, did

you want anything? But they said, Nothing. Then said He unto them, But

now he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise a scrip, and he

that hath not, let him sell his coat, and buy a sword. For I say to you,

that this that is written must yet be fulfilled in Me, 'And with the

wicked was He reckoned.' For the things concerning Me have an end. And

they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And He said to them, It is

enough."

What is this but that our Lord contrasts all the time of His ministry,

when He was with them, their visible Master, Lord, and Comforter, when He

sent them forth with instructions, after fulfilling which they were to

return to Him, with another period--that in which the things concerning

Him had an end: when He was to be taken from them: when they were to go

forth in His power, but without the resource of His visible Headship and

the comfort of His visible presence. That period is the whole time

during which the apostolic ministry--the eating and drinking at His

table, and the sitting on thrones judging the twelve tribes of

Israel--continues. During all this time the attack of which our Lord

spoke is going on: there is one who desires to have them that he may sift

them as wheat: there is one also whose faith, in virtue of our Lord's

prayer, fails not, and who is appointed to "confirm his brethren." Peter

and the eleven, as individual men, passed away and went to their reward;

but the kingdom of which our Lord was speaking, and which He disposed to

them, did not pass, nor by consequence its rulers, neither those who were

to be sifted as wheat, nor he who was to confirm his brethren. Thus

during all that time which was to begin after His passion, death, and

resurrection, when the kingdom was disposed to the Apostles, when the

apostolic ministry was being carried on, and when the undying enmity of

the great enemy was to be shown in the persistence of his attack, the

chaff is burnt, the wheat is sifted, and the Confirmer, after having been

converted, is in the midst of his brethren and performs his work.

Thus completely does our Lord answer the question of the strife which had

arisen among the Apostles, and so great is the pertinence of the

narrative thus introduced by St. Luke, so important its bearing upon all

future history. If, then, these fifteen verses be considered in their

whole context, not forgetting that they constitute the insertion of a

totally new incident, in which consists mainly the addition made by St.

Luke to the two points which are common to his own record and that of

the first and second Evangelist, that is, the declaration of our Lord as

to the disciple who should betray Him, and the institution of the Blessed

Eucharist, it will appear that St. Luke distinguishes Peter from the

other Apostles, and the power promised to him of confirming his brethren

from the powers given to hint in common with them, no less markedly than

St. Matthew and St. John, though in quite other language. And it must be

added that, as his narrative in the Acts of what took place on the Day of

Pentecost completes his statement in his Gospel concerning that "promise

of the Father," and "power of the Holy Ghost" coming down, with which the

Apostles were to be endued; so his narrative, from the Day of Pentecost

through eleven chapters of the Acts, to the end of the time during which

he speaks of the whole College of the Apostles, their preaching and

miracles, illustrates what is meant in his Gospel by the special office

here promised to Peter of "confirming his brethren." For Peter throughout

appears at the head of the Apostles: his Primacy is exhibited in action

from the first mention on the Day of Pentecost itself, as in the words,

"Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke to

them;" while his supervision of the whole work, which comprises the first

period of the Church's history, while the Apostles acted in one country

together and until they separated, is stated in the words, "Peter, as he

went through, visiting all," which indeed may be said to be a compendium

of the whole narrative. And of him alone is it recorded that, when he

was in prison, "prayer was made without ceasing by the Church unto God

for him."

This, then, is the testimony of St. Luke considered as a whole, contained

partly in the Gospel, partly in the Acts, as to the transmission of

spiritual power, and such is the very remarkable addition which he

contributes to the narrative given by his predecessors, St. Matthew and

St. Mark.

4. The testimony of St. John as to the transmission of spiritual power

may be divided, as in the cases of St. Matthew and St. Luke, into the

promises which he records as made before our Lord's Passion and the

fulfilment which he records as made after His resurrection.

The promises are contained in that same wondrous discourse of our Lord to

His Apostles, of which St. Luke has preserved for us another portion in

the passage just transcribed. They are given to the apostolic Body

collectively, and, so far as they refer to this particular point, the

transmission of spiritual power, are contained in the following verses:--

"Whatsoever you shall ask the Father in My name, that will I do: that the

Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask Me anything in My

name, that will I do.--And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you

another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever: the Spirit of

truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor

knoweth Him: but you shall know Him, because He shall abide with you, and

shall be in you. I will not leave you orphans: I will come to

you.--These things have I spoken to you, abiding with you. But the

Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He will

teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I

shall have said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you:

not as the world giveth, do I give unto you.--If you abide in Me, and My

words abide in you, you shall ask whatsoever you will, and it shall be

done unto you.--You have not chosen Me: but I have chosen you; and have

appointed you, that you should go, and should bring forth fruit: and your

fruit should remain: that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My

name, He may give it you.--I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you

that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I

go, I will send Him to you.--But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come,

He will teach you all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself: but what

things soever He shall hear, He shall speak, and the things that are to

come He shall show you. He shall glorify Me: because He shall receive of

Mine, and show it to you.--And in that day you shall not ask Me anything.

Amen, amen, I say to you: if you ask the Father anything in My name, He

will give it you.--Sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou

hast sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world."

In these words our Lord foretells and promises the coming of the

Paraclete to His Apostles, whom He would send to them from His Father,

and the perpetual possession of truth which the Paraclete, by His

presence, would confer upon them, and our Lord also says how He would

bestow on them His own mission, received from the Father. There was the

promise of a vast and manifold spiritual power involved in these things,

which we do not attempt to draw out; but we pass to the record of St.

John as to the bestowal of spiritual power made by our Lord on the eve of

His resurrection to the assembled Apostles. A clear and striking

connection and correspondence between the bestowal and the promise are

here to be seen. An interval of three days only in time had taken place,

but in it the passion and resurrection of our Lord had been accomplished.

"Now when it was late that same day, the first day of the week, and the

doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of

the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be

to you. And when He had said this, He shewed them His hands and His side.

The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. He said

therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent Me, I

also send you. When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to

them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are

forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."

In these few words, addressed to the Apostles together, our Lord would

seem to have conveyed a power as universal and as direct from Himself as

that contained in the corresponding passages of the three preceding

Evangelists. Nothing could be wanting to that mission of which it is

said, "As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you;" nothing to the

fulness of the grace communicated by the Lord breathing on them, and

saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost;" while the concluding words coincide

exactly with the promise made to the Apostles in St. Matthew, that they

should receive the power to forgive or to retain sins. In this interview

with His Apostles on the evening of the day of His resurrection. He

conveys to them the full apostolate in terms the simplicity of which is

only equalled by their majesty.

Had the testimony of St. John stopped here, it would have seemed to give

to the Apostles every attribute of power needed for their work. And it is

to be noted that St. Peter was present with his brethren, St. Thomas

alone being absent, and so, notwithstanding his recent fall, was included

in that grant to the Apostolic College.

But St. John, in the last chapter of his Gospel, has added to it a record

of that famous scene wherein our Lord bestowed on Peter singly a power as

universal as that contained in the fourfold promise recorded by St.

Matthew, a power also completely including the power given collectively

to the Apostles in the four Evangelists. Indeed, we seem to hear the same

voice sounding which said, "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them,

and they that have power over them are called beneficent. But you not so;

but he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger, and

he that is the leader as he that serveth:" when the Lord said to Peter,

"Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these? Feed My lambs: be

shepherd over My sheep; feed My sheep." How else was it possible for

Eternal Love to give so stupendous a charge and power in language so

tender?

But considering that our Lord had already bestowed a mission on the

Apostles collectively, which He likened to the mission received by

Himself from the Father, what could these words mean save the universal

pastorship of the flock of Christ? What _more_ could Peter receive than

the others, in answer to his greater love for his Master, except this?

The passages which we have now cited contain the whole account which we

possess, as written in the Gospels, of the spiritual authority first

promised, and then communicated by Christ to the Apostles and to Peter.

They comprehend two classes of passages, those which regard the Apostolic

College collectively, and those which regard Peter singly. And this

division is made the more remarkable by the fact that no power is either

promised or conveyed to any Apostle distinctly from the rest except to

Peter.

In estimating their relative force, on the one hand, the full meaning

must be given to each of these classes; on the other, no interpretation

can be admitted which puts one class into conflict with the other. That

interpretation alone can be sound which binds them in one harmonious

whole.

If we take the passages which we have above cited, and which are

addressed to the Apostles collectively, that is, Matt. xxviii. 18 20,

Mark xvi. 15-20, Luke xxiv. 46-49, with Acts i. 3-9, and the passages

from our Lord's last discourse in St. John together with John xx. 21-23,

we find them to contain an universal supernatural power which is conveyed

to a Body consisting of the Apostles, and which is co-extensive with the

needs of that Body, and which lasts so long as the Body is to last.

Moreover, the language used by each Evangelist is sufficient by itself,

without reference to the others, to express the conveyance of this power,

but at the same time the language of each several Evangelist corresponds

to the meaning of the others.

If we take the passages addressed to Peter singly, that is, Matt. xvi.

17-19, Luke xxii. 31, 32, John xxi. 15-17, we find a power of Headship

superadded to the former power which had been conveyed to the Apostles as

a College. This Headship is conveyed in various expressions, such as the

Rock on which the divine House is built, while to it the promise of

perpetual stability is attached; the Keys, which indicate the supreme

power in the divine Kingdom; the power to bind and to loose everything in

heaven and earth, as given not to a collective Body, but to one singly,

which distinction in the terms of the grant greatly enlarges the

authority of the recipient by removing all restraint arising from common

action; the Confirming the brethren in the divine Family; the Pastorship

of the divine Flock. Each of these five things indicates sovereignty;

together they express it with cumulative evidence: but each of these

five things also indicates not collective sovereignty given to a college

of men, but the sovereignty proper to a single person.

These passages in three several Evangelists addressed to Peter singly

correspond to each other even more closely than the former class of

passages corresponds to each other, and the power conveyed in them is a

power more definitely marked than the power conveyed in the other.

Again, the two classes of passages, as given in the several Evangelists,

may be separately compared in the case of each; as Matt. xxviii. 18-20,

given to the College, with Matt. xvi. 17-19, promised to the individual;

as Luke xxiv. 46-49 and Acts i. 3-9, as said to all, with Luke xxii. 31,

32, prophesied of Peter singly; and, lastly, the various words addressed

to the Apostles collectively in the discourse after the Last Supper, and

the gift of the Holy Ghost breathed on them together in John xx. 21-23,

with the charge to Peter alone recorded in John xxi. 15-17. The result of

the most careful and accurate comparison will be to see that the full

power given to the Apostolic College in the concluding words of St.

Matthew's Gospel is not interfered with by the Headship promised to Peter

in chap. xvi. 17-19: that in Luke, the power from on high, and again the

power of the Holy Ghost coming down upon the Apostolic College, do not

exclude the confirming power promised to one of them: that in John, the

universal Apostolic mission and the imparting of the Holy Ghost, bestowed

by Christ upon the Apostles in common, so far from being opposed to the

universal Pastorship conferred upon Peter by our Lord on the shore of the

lake, receive as it were their completion and crown in the privileges of

the Head.

It may be noted that in St. Mark alone, the Evangelist who wrote from St.

Peter's side and at his direction, there is an absence of this

distinction of passages, some of which relate to the Apostles

collectively, others to Peter singly. He gives only one class of

passages, that which expresses the powers given to the Apostles in

common. But Matthew and Luke, while they record only the first class of

passages relating to powers given after the Resurrection, record also

singular promises made to Peter by our Lord before His Passion. St. John

alone, writing last, and in that purpose of supplementing the preceding

Gospels which so remarkably belongs to him, gives both words addressed

and powers assigned after the Resurrection to the Apostles collectively,

and words addressed and powers assigned to Peter singly. His record of

the creation of the universal Pastorship following upon his record of the

apostolic mission, following also the promise of the Holy Ghost to dwell

perpetually with the Apostles, and the gift of the Holy Ghost breathed

upon them from His mouth, seems to bind together in one harmony the whole

narrative in the four Gospels of the power given by our Lord for the

establishment of His Church. "As My Father sent Me, I also send you,"

addressed to a company of men, and the gift of the Holy Ghost accompanied

with the power to remit or retain the sins of men, seem to embrace all

the powers of the Apostolate. So, too, the words in the promise, "When

He, the Spirit of truth, be come, He shall lead you by the hand into all

truth," seem to embrace the whole gift of maintaining revealed truth in

the world: while the solemn charge, thrice given, and in the presence of

his brethren, to feed the sheep of Christ, addressed to one singly,

contains all the powers of the Primacy.

St. Luke says of our Lord, that "He showed Himself alive after His

Passion, by many proofs, for forty days appearing to the Apostles, and

speaking of the kingdom of God." We have cited all that we possess in the

written record of that intercourse, so far, that is, as concerns the

government of the kingdom which He was establishing. It would be a great

error to suppose that what we possess in the written record is all that

took place. There is a double warning of St. John given to prevent

precisely such an error. Immediately after his account of our Lord's

first and second appearance to the Apostles together, he adds, "Many

other signs also did Jesus in the sight of His disciples, which are not

written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that

Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you may have

life in His name." And immediately after his record of the Pastorship

conferred on Peter, he closes his Gospel with the words, "But there are

also many other things which Jesus did, which, if they were written every

one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books

that should be written."

The inference from these passages would be the same which meditation on

the whole subject would suggest, that in the great forty days between His

Resurrection and Ascension our Lord instructed His Apostles perfectly in

all which they needed to know concerning the kingdom of God for the

execution of their office as God's ministers for its propagation. Under

this head would fall the number and nature of the sacraments, their

ritual--in short, the government of the Church as a spiritual society. Of

the details which regarded these subjects, nothing was made known in the

writings, of which even the first in time, the Gospel of St. Matthew,

began to be published many years after the Church had been carried on in

its appointed order. The simple statement of such a fact is enough to

show that for the Christians themselves such details were not needed to

be expressed in a writing which might fall into other than Christian

hands; while to lay them open to the heathen empire, in the midst of

which the Church was rising, would have constituted a gratuitous danger,

and would have contradicted what we know to have been the discipline of

discretion long practised during the era of persecution. It was precisely

the polity of the Church at which the Roman State would take umbrage.

Thus the powers which are requisite for establishing and perpetuating

this polity were recorded as having been conveyed to the Apostles under

general heads. The language used for this purpose has a terseness, a

concentration, a sublimity which betokens the voice of a Sovereign, the

fiat of a Legislator. It befits the Person of the Word in the

construction of His divine work. It harmonises admirably with those

eight words upon the Mount which sustain and reveal a whole fabric of

divine philosophy and Christian life.

Thus the central mystery of divine love, carrying in it the perpetual

presence of the Incarnate God in His Church and the institution of the

Priesthood, is referred to in the briefest terms, as given to the

Apostles by our Lord on the eve of His Passion: "This do in commemoration

of Me." The authority which He bestowed on them after His Resurrection

is, as St. Matthew states it, a power to confer sacraments and to teach

all nations, carrying with it an obligation upon those who are taught of

obedience to all which the Apostles should enjoin as commanded by Christ,

and a promise of His perpetual presence with them in the fulfilment of

the office. As St. Mark states it, a power to teach all nations, to

dispense sacraments, and to work miracles, accompanied by the

co-operation of Christ sitting at the right hand of God. As St. Luke

states it, the promise of the Father sent upon them by Christ; power from

on high; power of the Holy Ghost coming upon them; baptism with the Holy

Ghost: all which is, in this case, elucidated by what took place on the

Day of Pentecost. As St. John states it, such a mission of the Apostles

by Christ as Christ received from the Father, and the gift of the Holy

Ghost proceeding from the mouth of Christ, together with the power of

remitting and retaining sins.

All this was power bestowed upon the Apostles collectively, which Peter,

as one of them, shared.

The privileges recorded to have been bestowed on Peter, if we treat, as

we must, the promise and the fulfilment as of equal force, are six--

The first, to be the Rock on which Christ would build His Church.

The second, that to the Church thus founded on the Rock, or to the Rock

itself, perpetual continuance and victory are guaranteed.

The third, that the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that is, supreme power

in the Lord's house, guardianship of the Lord's city, are committed to

him alone.

The fourth, that the power of binding and loosing whatsoever shall be

bound or loosed in earth and in heaven is committed to him singly.

The fifth, the power to confirm his brethren, in which name the Apostles

are specially indicated, because his own faith shall never fail.

The sixth, the supreme Pastorship of the whole flock of Christ.

Comparing carefully together what is said to the Apostles as a body with

what is said to Peter singly, we cannot but be struck with the fact that

while they received nothing without him, he received a power including

and crowning theirs. The terms of conveyance in the two cases are indeed

of similar majesty and simplicity, being the language of God in the

sovereign disposition of His gifts; but in the case of Peter there is

greater definiteness, and to him our Lord employs constantly the

parabolic form of expression, calling him the Rock, giving him the Keys,

committing to him singly the binding and loosing, and the confirmation

of the brethren, which is the image of a tower or structure held together

in one mass, charging him finally with the Pastorship of the flock of

Christ. This imagery is capable of wider application than any other form

of speaking, and as we know by the instance of the parables, contains in

it an amount of instruction which direct language can only convey at a

much greater length. None of it is given to any Apostle by himself,

except Peter; what the rest receive of it together, as in the case of the

power of binding and loosing, first promised and then given to them

collectively, is greatly exceeded by what he receives alone. And besides,

their commission and his throw light upon each other. The Papacy and the

Episcopate are their joint result. Give its full force to the Apostolic

commission, and Christ is with the one universal Episcopate all days to

the consummation of the world. Give the same full force to the words

bestowed upon Peter, and he feeds the flock of Christ until the second

coming of the Great Shepherd. Perpetuity enters equally into both.

There is thus accordance in the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles

as to the persons to whom transmission of spiritual power in the Church

was made. The Gospels and the Acts record in the form of narrative the

institution of the divine kingdom from its beginning and before it was

carried into effect. But there is another inspired writer who speaks of

it incidentally in his Epistles after it had been in operation between

twenty and forty years. The eminence of St. Paul as the Preacher of the

Gentiles is so great that we may endeavour to put together his testimony

concerning the constitution of that Church which he loved so well, and

for which he gave his life.

And, first, it is from him we derive that name of the Church which, more

perhaps than any other, expresses her nature, and identifies her with our

Lord. The Church to St. Paul is "the Body of Christ." "As the human

body," he says, "is one and has many members, and all the members of the

body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is Christ. For in

one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles,

whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink."

"There are," he says, "diversities of graces, but the same Spirit; and

there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and diversities

of operations, but the same God who worketh all in all;" and saying this

to the Corinthian disciples he well-nigh repeats it to the Roman. To him,

therefore, the whole structure of the Church's government is divine, as

drawn from Christ's Person, as animated by His Spirit, as the work of the

Eternal Father in and through the Son whom He has sent, and by the Spirit

whom He has also sent. And again, as he thus wrote in the middle of his

course to his Corinthian converts, so nearly at the end of it he

expressed to the beloved Church of Ephesus, the fruit of so many toils,

the same doctrine. This passage is sufficient of itself to give the

complete Pauline conception of the Church as it was present to his mind

in the whole range of time, stretching from the first to the second

coming of our Lord. "I therefore, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you

that you walk worthy of the vocation in which you are called, with all

humility and mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity,

careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. One Body

and one Spirit: as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord,

one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and

through all, and in us all. But to every one of us is given grace

according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Wherefore He saith:

Ascending on high He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men. Now

that He ascended, what is it, but that He also descended first into the

lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that

ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He

gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and

other some pastors and doctors for the perfecting of the saints unto the

work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the Body of Christ: until we

all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God,

unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ:

that henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried

about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning

craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive: but doing the truth in

charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the Head, even

Christ: from whom the whole Body, being compacted and fitly joined

together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation in

the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying

of itself in charity."

Are not these words a divine comment from the Apostle himself upon what

he means by the Body of Christ? It is no figure of speech, but the

grandest reality in the universe. The words contain the beginning,

middle, and end of his belief concerning the instrument of our salvation.

It is an inspired summary of the record in the Gospels which we have been

so long considering. Its compass reaches from the ascension above the

heavens to the completion "of the perfect man" in the fulness of the

mystical Body, when all the labours and sufferings of earth are at an

end. It places the security against error of doctrine, as well as the

growth of charity in the working together of one ministry through the

whole Church, and through all time, not only drawn from the institution

of Christ, but enclosed in the sacred structure of His Body; nor can we

conceive of any preaching of the Gospel without a divine mission derived

from Christ through this ministry, as he elsewhere wrote to the Roman

Church: "How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or

how shall they believe Him of whom they have not heard? or how shall they

hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?"

There is, in his conception, one mission only in the Body of Christ. The

splitting of this Body of Christ into two or three parts would be simply

the destruction of St. Paul's conception, not an atom of it would remain.

There is, in his conception, but one ministry, in unity and harmony with

itself, the guardian and the propagator of the truth--Bishops existing

outside this one divine ministry and exercising authority are a complete

denial of the whole idea.

It is in exact accordance with these passages that St. Paul, in his

pastoral letter to his disciple St. Timotheus, reminds him of the grace

of God derived to him by the imposition of the Apostle's hands, and the

hands of the Presbytery. He speaks manifestly of a divine gift descending

through the hands of men from Christ, "who, ascending up on high, gave

some apostles, some prophets," and the rest.

Again, it is after a strict and precise charge to St. Timotheus

respecting the quality of the persons whom he should choose for the

office of the episcopate that St. Paul winds up with the words: "These

things I write to thee, hoping that I shall come to thee shortly, but if

I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in

the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and

ground of the truth." Here then, also, as in the letter to the Ephesians,

he describes the divinely appointed ministry as bearing and upholding the

truth which it is charged to impart; so that St. Augustine was putting

St. Paul's doctrine forth when he wrote, "I should not believe the Gospel

unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me thereto."[30]

According to St. Paul's mind, it is the living ministry which carries to

the world the knowledge "of the living God," a knowledge which dwells in

"the house of God" alone. Outside the house the truth is corrupted, and

the ministry loses its gift.

From the union of these passages, to which many more of like import might

be added, we learn that the unity of the Church, in St. Paul's idea and

expression, rests upon the very deepest foundation, the unity of Christ's

Person as receiving a mission from the Father, which He accomplishes in

His own Body, and by the working of His Spirit. If the promise to St.

Peter and its fulfilment were for a moment put out of sight, yet this

divine unity testified in St. Paul's letters would still remain in all

its force, and could not be disregarded without giving up St. Paul's mind

altogether. How can it be accomplished except by means of the promises

given and the charge imposed on St. Peter? Thus St. Paul, in testifying

directly to the unity, a witness the depth, precision, force, and

tenderness of which no one can deny, testifies indirectly to the means by

which it is obtained. If there be one ministry discharging in the Body of

Christ the functions which St. Paul assigns to it, there must be the

organ also by which that ministry remains one. Nor does it follow less

that, as the ministry is visible and permanent, so likewise must the

organ of its unity be visible and permanent. And if St. John records, in

the most emphatic manner, the universal pastorship bestowed on Peter by

his Lord, St. Paul sets forth as a reality the unity thus created in a

symbol more striking, if possible, than the flock of the One Shepherd,

for it is the Body of the One Lord. If the Apostle who lay on our Lord's

breast and heard Him declare Himself to be the good Shepherd who gives

His life for His sheep, recorded the transmission of that charge to St.

Peter under that same figure of the Shepherd in the injunction to feed

the lambs and the sheep of Christ, St. Paul, who was carried up to heaven

and heard unspeakable words, saw from his prison in Rome, through the

whole vast period from our Lord's first to His second coming, the growth

of that sacred Body which was to fill all in all, compacted together of

the apostles, doctors, and pastors, whom at the beginning Christ gave,

whom He would continue to the end to give; for does it not run, "until we

all meet into the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of

God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of

Christ." In all this St. Paul declares that, so long as the Church is

militant, her ministry is the organ of truth, and this because the Church

is the Body of Christ.

Thus it is a great and striking harmony with the witness of the Gospels

and of the Acts to the transmission of Spiritual Power in the Church

which the vessel of election, the Preacher of the Gentiles, contributes.

Thus the figure of St. Peter stands in the New Testament between St.

Matthew and St. John, supporting him on one side, and St. Paul and St.

Luke on the other.

Nothing can be clearer than the mind of St. Paul in these passages. To

him the fabric of government is inseparably united with the fabric of

doctrine. It is one and the same institution which is indivisible in its

organic structure and infallible in the truth which it upbears and

expounds. He sets forth a Creed at the same moment that he describes a

Body. The Creed and the Body make one thing. St. Paul's doctrine of unity

is part of his conception of truth. The Church, the Body of Christ, is as

completely possessed by all the truth which came by Jesus Christ as it is

dowered with the grace which also came by Him. And the Christian

ministry, viewed as a whole, as the mantle dropped by Him who, ascending

up on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men, is that wherein

the double gift of truth and grace resides indefeasibly.

I pass to another point in St. Paul's teaching. Do the recipients of the

government which in general and in particular he thus describes receive

it from above or below? Does the magistracy draw its authority from a

charge which the community bestows, or from a power which creates the

community itself? Which is first both in principle and in time, the

magistracy or the community?

There are six names by which, in various parts of his epistles, St. Paul

describes the commission in virtue of which he spent his life and finally

poured forth his blood in preaching the Gospel. These six names are

apostle, minister, doctor, steward, ambassador, and herald. Sometimes

they are mentioned singly, sometimes they are blended with each other in

a way which sheds light upon them reciprocally. He terms himself an

ambassador, when he says, "for Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors, God

as it were exhorting by us." And he beseeches his converts to pray for

him "that speech may be given me that I may open my mouth with

confidence, to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an

ambassador in a chain."[31] He refers all his power back to God when he

says, "Our sufficiency is from God, who also has made us fit ministers of

the New Testament," for this word, the original of deacons, signifies

here a ministry to God, not a service of men. The sufficiency was that

God had accredited certain men to bear to their fellow-men a certain

document, a new covenant. They stood in the relation of ministers to Him

who appointed them; to those to whom they came they were the commissioned

agents of a sovereign. He calls himself also a steward,[32] where he

says, "Let a man so account of us as the servants of Christ, and the

dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required in dispensers

that a man be found faithful; but to me it is a very small thing to be

judged by you, or by man's day,--but He that judgeth me is the Lord." And

in another place he very remarkably joins together three terms which he

applies to himself, while he specially connects them with the source and

head of all power in that work of the dispensation which He became man to

accomplish. St. Paul breaks into a sort of creed, which is like a summary

of his whole message, in these most solemn words which he addresses to

the archbishop whom he had himself set in the great see of Ephesus:

"There is one God and one Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus,

who gave Himself a redemption for all, a testimony in due times.

Whereunto I am appointed a herald and an apostle (I say the truth, I lie

not), a doctor of the Gentiles, in faith and truth." And he joins the

same three names together in another letter to the same Bishop, "The

Gospel whereunto I am appointed a herald and an apostle and a doctor of

the Gentiles."[33] The original word herald was rendered by preacher; and

the term Apostle has become so fixed as the name of those to whom our

Lord committed His Church in chief, that the lesson as to the source of

the authority which it bears in its meaning of "the sent," has been

impaired to many minds. A multitude of men preach in these days without

any notion that a preacher is a man who bears a divine commission from a

Sovereign to announce pardon to His people, and that a man who chooses

himself for such a function is an impostor. Now what I wish to remark of

these six terms, by which St. Paul expresses his own authority and that

of the brethren who held the like rank with himself, is that they all

concur in deriving the power and the commission which they represent from

the person giving it, that is Jesus Christ, in the name of His Father,

and not from the people for whose good it is bestowed. The whole

publication of the Gospel is, in fact, called "The Proclamation," which

the word preacher and preaching no longer conveys. It is the message of a

King to His subjects declared by His heralds. They convey it to those who

hear it by a commission from above. Their whole authority comes from

above, not from below. It is not the election of brethren which is the

principle of their mission, but the charge of the Sender, Christ. And as

the Apostles were sent, they sent their successors. Election, in

subsequent times, however conducted, indicated the person upon whom power

fell; but the power was from God.

A further light is thrown upon this most grand and beautiful doctrine of

St. Paul as to the Church being the Body of Christ, and her ministry the

appointed organ for maintaining divine truth through the whole course of

time upon earth, by the magnificent vision bestowed upon the beloved

Apostle when he was by command of Domitian a prisoner in the island of

Patmos, "for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus." As he "was in

the Spirit on the Lord's day, he heard behind him a great voice as of a

trumpet, saying: What thou seest write in a book, and send to the seven

Churches which are in Asia, to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamus,

and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicia. And

I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw

seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven golden

candlesticks one like to the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to

the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. And His head and

His hairs were white, as white wool and as snow, and His eyes were as a

flame of fire, and His feet like unto fine brass, as in a burning

furnace. And His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His

right hand seven stars. And from His mouth came out a sharp two-edged

sword: and His face was as the sun shineth in His power. And when I had

seen Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me,

saying, Fear not, I am the First and the Last, and He that liveth, and I

became dead, and behold I am living for ever and ever, and have the keys

of death and of hell. Write, therefore, the things which thou hast seen,

and which are, and which must be done hereafter: the mystery of the seven

stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden

candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches: and

the seven candlesticks are seven Churches."

This vision occupies a quite singular position. It is, as it were, the

opening scene of that revelation which was made by our Lord to the

Apostle of the things that should happen in His Church from His first to

His second coming; and which terminates only in the conclusion of the

great conflict between the city of God and the city of the devil, when

the seer beholds the Holy City "coming down out of heaven from God,

prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." It took place rather more

than sixty years after the day of Pentecost, when two persecutions of the

Church, the first under Nero, and the second under Domitian, had already

tried the patience of the saints. Thus it dates a full generation after

the time of St. Paul. In accordance with the position which it occupies

at the head of a revelation given by the Lord Himself to him,

"Che vide tutti i tempi gravi,

Pria che morisse, della bella sposa,

Che s'acquistò con la lancia e co' chiavi,"

it is a vision of extraordinary power and majesty, repeating, and if

possible excelling, the grandeur of similar visions in the old prophets,

Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.[34] Our Lord appears with the incommunicable

name of God, as the First and the Last: as the Redeemer, that Living One

who became dead and is alive for ever and ever; as the Ruler who orders

all things as to the race of man, having the keys of death and of hell;

as the world's Teacher, with the sharp sword of the Word, the instrument

of His dominion, proceeding out of His mouth; in the glory of the

Resurrection, for His face is as the sun shining in his strength. The

disciple who lay upon His breast at the Supper, now, when he saw Him,

fell as one dead at His feet; but He, deigning to lay His right hand on

him, raised him up, and communicated the meaning of the vision: and we

learn from our Lord's own words that it showed Him present in the

government of His Church. Write, He commanded the seer, the mystery of

the seven stars which thou sawest in My right hand, and the seven golden

candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven Churches, and

the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are seven Churches. The mystery,

He said--and the number seven is mystical. The seven stars represent the

whole Episcopate held in the right hand of the Lord:[35] the seven

candlesticks the whole number of Churches throughout the world: and that

He, the Son of Man, is in the midst of them, His perpetual government in

and through those whom He has appointed:[36] and the seven letters

directed to the seven Churches, may by parity betoken seven ages or

conditions of the one Church.[37] For the vision, taken as a whole,

exhibits the perpetual action of Christ, not in one place, but in the

midst of His people from the beginning to the end. It is thus equivalent

to the scope of the entire Apocalypse, at the head of which it stands. It

also conveys to us, with the witness of St. John, a complete agreement

with the conception of St. Paul as to the unity of the divine mission

centred in the Church, and exerted by her Episcopate; as to the relation

of that Episcopate to Christ, which in every age is held in His right

hand, as in every age He is in the midst of the seven golden

candlesticks; as to the relation also of that Episcopate to the people

over which it is set: for our Lord commands what He would say to the

Churches to be written to their several angels, to express the truth that

they summed up in their person the flock committed to them. The stars

are in His hand, while He is in the midst of the candlesticks. They are

His angels, and their authority lies in the message which they bear from

Him, not in any charge deputed to them by those whom they govern. Each

letter gathers up the character of the people, in the single person of

the angel: "I know thy works, thy labour, and thy patience:" thus

expressing the doctrine of St. Cyprian, "the Church is in the Bishop."

Thus St. Paul's truth of the Body of Christ is delineated in the vision

of Him who is the First and the Last, who became dead, and who lives for

ever and ever, and from whom not only does all spiritual power originally

descend, but is perpetually carried in His right hand; which does not

leave Him because it is used by human instruments under Him. And if the

vision seen by St. John is in perfect agreement with the conception of

St. Paul, no less does it agree with, and convey in visible action, that

whole account of the origin and transmission of spiritual power which we

have been contemplating in the harmony of the Gospels and the Acts. Only

it is to be noted that what the Gospels declare is _to be_, the vision

exhibits _as being_.

If we take the whole mass of the Scripture testimony respecting the

transmission of spiritual power for the government of the Church and the

constitution of her polity, four qualities will appear salient: its

coming from above; its completeness; its unity; its independence of civil

authority.

1. First, the power thus instituted comes down from Christ upon Peter

and the Apostles, and from them upon their successors. It does not spring

from election out of the body, but by an exactly reverse process; the

body itself springs from it. On the eve of the Passion, just after the

institution of the Priesthood, our Lord said: "You have not chosen Me,

but I have chosen you, and have appointed you that you should go and

should bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."[38] This is

the whole order of the divine appointment, from beginning and throughout.

The Apostles develop out of themselves ministry and people. This growth

Peter's preaching on the day of Pentecost inaugurated, as the power from

on high came down upon him and his brethren. The whole history of the

Church through the first three centuries is a faithful continuation of

this beginning. But here we have to note how every particle of the

Scripture record testifies to the spiritual power coming down from above,

not rising up from below. The figure of this in the old law was Aaron

invested by Moses with the Priesthood in the face of the whole

congregation of the children of Israel; the counterpart in the new is

Christ ascending to heaven, blessing His brethren as He ascended, and

sending down upon them the promise of the Father. Thus the divine polity

unfolds itself in a spiritual descent.

2. The second quality is the completeness of this power. The absence of

details in the records, far from being an impeachment of this

completeness, subserves to its expression, because the power given is

summed up in a general head, which embraces all particulars under it. Of

this summing up we have in the same Gospel of St. John an instance both

in what is said to the Apostles and in what is said to Peter. As to the

Apostles, the Incarnation, often called by the Fathers the Dispensation,

embraces the whole work of our Lord; not only His coming in our flesh,

but His satisfaction for the sins of the world in the flesh assumed. All

this was a mission from the Father. Now, in investing His Apostles with

power on the evening of the Resurrection, He used this very expression:

"As My Father hath sent Me, I also send you." Whatever there was to be

done and ordered in the Church from the beginning to the end was, by the

force of the similitude with Himself thus used, included in these words.

They are truly imperial words, constituting a spiritual empire. So,

again, as to St. Peter, our Lord was "the great Pastor of the sheep in

the blood of the everlasting testament." As such He had been marked out

by prophecy: it was His name of predilection: "I am the Good Shepherd:

the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." Now, this and none

other was the term He used when He would convey to Peter, in the

concluding words of the last Gospel, supreme authority: "Lovest thou Me

more than these? Be shepherd over My sheep." What could be added to this

one word? That which we render "Be shepherd" comprehends all offices

which government in the divine polity requires. It is the word chosen of

old in psalm and prophecy for the sovereignty of the Messiah. First the

Psalmist sung, as he recorded the splendid promise of the future King,

"Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gentiles for Thine inheritance, and

the utmost parts of the earth for Thy possession: Thou shalt _rule_ them

with a rod of iron."

Again, when Herod, assembling all the high priests and scribes of the

people, inquired of them when the Christ should be born, they replied to

him out of the prophet Micheas, describing by this word the reign of

Messiah: "Out of thee shall come forth the Captain that shall _rule_ My

people Israel."

Again, when the last prophet saw in the Apocalyptic vision the glory of

the Word of God going forth as a Conqueror, he described His power in the

same expression: "The armies of heaven followed Him on white horses,

clothed in linen white and clean. And out of His mouth goes forth a sharp

sword, that in it He may strike the nations: and He shall _rule_ them

with a rod of iron." Our Lord of set purpose selected the one word[39]

which conveyed His regal dominion, and bestowed it upon Peter. Nor did He

give it with a restricted but with a universal application: "Be shepherd

over My sheep." Who can refuse St. Bernard's comment: "What sheep? the

people of this or that city, or country, or kingdom? _My_ sheep, He said.

To whom is it not plain that He did not designate some, but assign all?

Nothing is excepted where nothing is distinguished."[40] On the two

sides, therefore, the power is complete; in its nature, as that

specially belonging to Christ; in its subjects, as universal. This one

word includes in itself all inferior derivations, whether of episcopal or

other subordinate power, and in virtue of it St. Peter becomes the source

of the whole episcopate as well as the type or figure of every local

Bishop.

If the special conversations between our Lord and the Apostles which

passed in the forty days are not recorded for us in their details, as

being privileged communications made only to the chiefs of His kingdom,

for their guidance, and as instructions to be carried out by them in

practice, yet the institution of an everlasting polity by Him is marked

out in the two instances of Mission and Rule just cited, as well as in

the other passages before collected. In fact, it is in the institution of

such a polity that the perfection of our Lord as Lawgiver and Governor

consists. Nothing in His kingdom was left to chance, or to sudden

expedients arising in unforeseen dangers. All was from the beginning

foreseen and provided for. When He said to Peter, "Follow thou Me," which

was His interpretation of the commission He had just before given to

Peter, and a crucifixion which ensued upon a crowning in the case of the

disciple as of the Master, the whole sequence of His Church through the

centuries was in His mind and expressed in His voice.

3. But further, the very basis of the Spiritual Power, as delineated in

the testimony of Scripture, is so laid in unity, that if unity be broken

the idea itself is utterly destroyed.

"The Captain who should rule My people Israel" presents a very definite

idea. "To feed the flock of Christ" is equally definite. The one is the

portrait of Christ in prophecy; the other represents His kingdom in

history. It is one people and one flock, as it has one King and one

Shepherd. So the Rock on which the Church is built is one structure; the

confirmation of the brethren is the holding together one family in that

one structure. When St. Paul convoked the ancients of the Church at

Ephesus, he expressed the duty of Bishops through all time and place:

"Take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost

hath placed you Bishops, to rule the Church of God, which He has

purchased with His own blood." This work of the Holy Ghost was not

limited either as to time or as to place, and belongs to the Bishops of

the whole world as much as to those who met at Ephesus to receive the

farewell of St. Paul. In precisely similar terms St. Peter charged the

Bishops whom he had planted in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia,

Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, "to feed the flock of God which is among

you;" indicating at once the unity of the flock and the unity of the

episcopate held by many shepherds. For it is one flock which they rule

everywhere; not each a separate fold. A confederation of Bishops, each

ruling a fold of his own, would frustrate the divine idea; also it would

be difficult to imagine a government more futile, or a spectacle less

persuasive to the world. If we take the account of the Church's ministry

quoted just above from St. Paul, its unity runs through the whole as much

as its descent from above. The Body of Christ expresses both equally. If

either part is taken away, the essence is gone. A ministry such as is

there described, existing in a dozen different countries of the earth,

even if it possessed the same succession and order would present no such

idea as the Apostle contemplates, and offer no such guarantee of divine

truth as he dwells upon, unless it were organically one. Its witness in

one country might otherwise be diverse from its witness in another

country; and as each would have the same claim to be heard, the one would

neutralise the other. In fact, the Body of Christ would cease to be. So

ineffaceably is the Sacrament of Unity impressed on the whole Gospel

account of spiritual government. There is not a single promise made nor a

single power given except to the whole Church and to the one Church.

4. The three qualities we have described, the coming from above,

completeness, unity, are intrinsic to the essence of spiritual

government. They form together an external relation of entire

independence with regard to civil government. Nothing can by plainer than

the fact that Christ came from God, and that He gave to His Apostles, and

not to kings or rulers of the world, the Spiritual Power which He meant

to transmit. Equally plain is it that the power so given, being complete,

could derive nothing intrinsic to its essence from the Civil Authority;

and its unity demonstrates in no less a degree its independence of that

authority, for it is the same one power everywhere, whereas civil

government is both complete and different in each separate State. Thus

the independence of the Spiritual Power is essential to it, as flowing

out of the qualities which make it.

When we view the Spiritual Power as possessing inalienably these four

qualities, as coming from above, as complete in itself, as one in all

lands, and as independent of the Civil Power, the notion of perpetuity

will be found to be inherent in the thing so conceived. Again, the

promises made to it last as long as the subject to which they belong. As

the kingdom of Christ and the flock of Christ are perpetual from His

first to His second coming, so therefore is the Bearer of the keys and

the Shepherd of the flock. And yet more, the Body of Christ moves through

the ages, ever growing to His full stature and measure, so that this

living structure can as little fail as Christ Himself. The Head and the

Body live on together. Again, the secular power also, over against which

and in the midst of which in all lands and times the Spiritual Power

stands, is perpetual. The promise made to the College of Apostles,

"Behold I am with you all days to the consummation of the world," is an

express grant of perpetuity. The promise to Peter that the gates of hell

shall not prevail against the Rock, or the Church which is founded on the

Rock, is a grant of perpetuity equally express. The same is implied in

St. Mark's closing words, that our Lord sat down on the right hand of

God, after giving His commission to the Apostles to preach the gospel

through the whole world to every creature; and that as they went forth He

worked with them, confirming the word by signs following--a work and a

confirmation on His part which should last equally to the end, so long

as He was seated at the right hand of God. So equally the promise of the

Father, the Paraclete, sent down from above by the Son, is a permanent

power by which the Church was originally made and perpetually subsists.

All these divine promises cohere and shed light upon each other. Thus the

commission to Peter, "Feed My sheep," is universal, not only as to its

subject, which is the whole flock of Christ, but as to its duration,

which is so long as there is a flock to feed. It was a charge, not only

to a person, but to an office. If the thing itself to which it related

was to endure, it is obvious that the longer it lasted, and the more it

grew, the greater also the need of the office which should upbear it. The

duration of the living organism moved by the Head, which St. Paul so

strongly attests, and carries on into the unseen world, attests the

reciprocal duration of the Head.

As those divine words which convey the promise or confer the gift of the

Spiritual Power cohere and shed light on each other, so the impairing

them in any particular destroys their idea, which is to say that they

express a real and concrete existence, wherein the idea has passed into

an adequate act. This is Jesus Christ in His Kingship, the same

yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

FOOTNOTES:

[30] Contr. Epist. Manichæi, cap. 5, tom. 8, 154.

[31] 2 Cor. v. 20; Ephes. vi. 19, 20; 2 Cor. iii. 6.

[32] 1 Cor. iv. 1: hupêretas christou kai oikonomous mustêriôn Theou.

[33] 1 Tim. ii. 7; 2 Tim. i. 11.

[34] Isaias vi. 1; Ezech. iv. 32; Dan. vii. 9.

[35] Compare the strikingly similar and almost contemporary passage in the

letter of St Ignatius to the Ephesians: "For Jesus Christ, our inseparable

life, is the mind of the Father, as also the bishops, appointed throughout

the earth, are in the mind of Christ."

[36] Baur, Kirchengeschichte der drei ersten Jahrhunderte, p. 272, remarks,

"Nicht ohne Grund hat man daher schon in den Engeln, an welche die den

sieben Gemeinden der Apocalypse bestimmten Schreiben gerichtet sind, einen

Ausdruck der Episcopatsidee gesehen--da die den sieben Engeln

entsprechenden Sterne alle zusammen in der Hand Christi sind, in ihm also

ihre Einheit haben, so kann durch den Engel, welchen jede Gemeinde hat,

nichts anders ausgedrückt sein, als die Beziehung, die sie mit Christus als

dem einen Haupte aller Gemeinden und der ganzen Kirche verknüpft."

[37] "Ideo septem scribi ecclesias ut una Catholica septiformi gratiæ

spiritu plena designetur."--_Cornel. a L. in loco._ "Wherefore in the

Apocalypse the whole Church is represented by the sevenfold number of the

Churches."--_St. Greg._, 1. B. 23, _Morals. on Job_. "Propter quod et

Johannes Apostolus ad septem scribit ecclesias, eo modo se ostendens ad

unius plenitudinem scribere."--_St. Aug. de Civ. Dei_, xvii. 4.

[38] John xv. 16.

[39] Heb. xiii. 20; John x. 11, xxi. 16; Ps. ii. 9: Sept. Matt. ii. 6, in

translating Mic. v. 2, where its equivalent is archonta tou Israêl; Apoc.

xix. 15; the same word, poimainein, is used in all these passages.

[40] De Consideratione ad Eugenium Papam, 2, 8.