BOOK I CHURCH POLITY IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE, AND AFTER ATTEMPTS TO RECOVER THE LOST IDEAL OF THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS CHAPTER I THE POLITY OF THE APOSTOLIC CHURCHES AT POLITY OF THE CHURCH IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE: APOSTOLIC CHURCHES, CONGREGATIONAL AND INDEPENDENT CHURCHES-CHURCH CORINTH, A.D. 95-EARLY CHURCH ORGANISATION-TWO ORDERS: EVIDENCE OF CLEMENT, POLYCARP, "DOCTRINE OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES"-DevelopmeNT OF CHURCH ORGANISATION IN THE SECOND CENTURY-THREE ORDERS-BISHOPS AND PRESBYTERS DISTINCT IN ASIA MINOR-BISHOP NOT A DIOCESAN OFFICIALBISHOP, THE SECURITY AGAINST SCHISM (IGNATIUS); AGAINST HERESY (IRENÆUS); THE ABSOLUTE VICE-GERENT OF CHRIST (CYPRIAN)—Change of OrGANISATION DUE TO CHANGE IN THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH-CHRISTIAN COMMONALTY, DISREGARDING THEIR DUTIES, LOSE THEIR POWERS. THE I HE converts to the Christian Faith in the apostolic age were gathered into religious societies to which the New Testament attributes an extraordinary dignity and sanctity. To the apostles every society of Christians was a society of "saints," a temple of God," "the body of Christ." " I 99 66 It is certain, indeed, that many of those who bore the Christian name even in those early times had very little of the spirit and temper of Christ. They were contentious, arrogant, unforgiving, vain, and ambitious. It was necessary to warn them against lying, theft, and gross sensual sins. Their knowledge of Christian truth was imperfect, and they sometimes drifted into heresies which were inconsistent with the central facts of the Christian Gospel. But that in every actual Christian society there were some who were not Christians at all, and some whose loyalty to Christ was maintaining a 1 I Cor. vi. 2; 2 Cor. vi. 16; 1 Cor. xii. 27. |