apostles. Indeed, as our Lord had required faith in his doctrines, as well as baptism, in order to salvation, the Church was bound to ascertain as far as possible that those who desired baptism were believers, and therefore to require from them a profession of their faith. Creeds in this point of view, as summaries of the Gospel, are as old as the time of the apostles; their length and fulness varied in different Churches, and sometimes new articles were added, in order to assert the truth in opposition to prevalent heresies. The apostles' creed was the ancient baptismal creed of the Roman and Italian Churches; the Nicene creed was founded on the ancient creeds of the Eastern Churches by the holy synod of 318 bishops at Nice (A.D. 325), and was adopted as the rule of faith by the universal Church in all subsequent times. This creed was introduced into the liturgy or service of the eucharist in the fifth and sixth centuries.

What has been said of the apostolical antiquity of creeds applies also to liturgies. It appears that, in the fourth century, there were four forms of administering the eucharist in existence, which had continued in different parts of the universal Church from the remotest antiquity. These forms agreed in all their principal parts: their variety consisted chiefly in the different order in which those parts were arranged. One form prevailed in Judæa, Syria, Asia Minor, Macedonia, Greece; and, in the fifth century, was ascribed by the Church of Jerusalem to James the apostle. Another, which was established by St. Mark, prevailed in Egypt and Ethiopia. A third, which has been attributed, with some probability, to St. John the apostle, was used in Ephesus, and afterwards in France, Spain, and probably Britain. A fourth apostolical form existed in Rome, Italy, and Africa. Every Church had and exercised the power of improving its liturgy by the addition of new rites

and prayers; but all adhered to the general order and substance delivered from the beginning. The liturgy or service for the holy communion now used in England resembles the ancient Gallican in the most essential points.

Penitence was regarded as the remedy for sin committed after baptism. It was generally taught that confession of secret sins to God, with a truly contrite heart and changed life, were sufficient to obtain remission of sins. In the case of sins, however, which were public and caused scandal, a different method was pursued. St. Paul had commanded the Corinthian Church to expel from its communion a person who had committed a grievous and scandalous sin, and had enjoined them to receive him again on his sincere repentance. The Church, acting on this principle, excommunicated any of its members who fell into grievous sin, unless they voluntarily submitted to a lengthened course of penitence. Penitence for seven, ten, fifteen, or even twenty years, was required for some sins, in proportion to their enormity or scandal. During this period, the penitent first stood outside the church while divine service was proceeding; then, in process of time, was admitted into the church, but obliged to assume the humblest attitude, and forbidden to partake of the eucharist. During all this time, he was obliged further to manifest his grief by fasting, weeping, mourning, wearing sackcloth, and imploring the prayers of the brethren for his soul. Such was the severity of the ancient discipline; but the bishop had the power of diminishing the time, in cases where repentance was deep and manifest. The Church was at length fully satisfied, and the penitent was then solemnly absolved and blessed, and admitted to the full privileges of Christian fellowship. The same sort of penitence was required from those who had been

excommunicated for their sins, and desired to return to the Church.

Those who committed great sins in secret were recommended to disclose their guilt to discreet and judicious ministers of God, and receive from them directions for the course of private penitence which they ought to pursue. In the latter part of the third century, a penitentiary was appointed in most churches, whose duty it was to hear such voluntary confessions, and to offer spiritual advice to penitents. About a century afterwards, this office was discontinued by Nectarius, bishop of Constantinople, on occasion of the scandal caused by an imprudent publication of a crime, through the indiscretion of the penitentiary of that Church; and from this time, private penitents in the eastern Churches approached the Lord's table at their own discretion.

The ministry of the Church instituted by the apostles consisted of bishops, priests, and deacons. The apostles retained the government of all Churches in their own hands at first, only appointing deacons and bishops, or presbyters (for these two names are indiscriminately used in holy Scripture); but when about to depart from this world, they constituted bishops or chief presbyters "in their own place,' as we learn from St. Irenæus. Thus Timothy was placed at Ephesus, Titus at Crete, Dionysius the Areopagite at Athens, Linus at Rome, Anianus at Alexandria, as James had been long before appointed bishop at Jerusalem. Even the opponents of episcopacy admit, that by the middle of the second century all Churches were governed by bishops; and, in fact, no instance of any Church not under episcopal superintendence has ever been pointed out in the course of fifteen centuries after Christ. Amongst Churches, some had pre-eminent distinction from their opulence and magnitude, or the civil distinc

tions which their cities enjoyed; and thus, in the second and third centuries, the Churches of the principal cities, such as Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Carthage, were much honoured. All bishops and Churches, however, were regarded as perfectly equal in the sight of God; and all regulated their own affairs, and exercised discipline with perfect freedom.

The rules for the appointment of bishops and clergy were various. In some Churches, the people united with the clergy in electing their bishop; in others, the clergy alone appointed him. Ordination followed, in which a priest received imposition of hands from one bishop, while a bishop was ordained by several. Each bishop was aided in his ministry by presbyters, or priests, and deacons, whom he generally consulted in important matters. The administration of the revenues of the Church was under his direction, and the deacons were his almoners.

Those who were departing from this life were strengthened by receiving the holy communion, which the great council of Nice, A.D. 325, commanded not to be refused to any Christian, who might desire it in his last hour.

CHAPTER VII.

THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH DEFENDED BY THE SIX CECUMENICAL SYNODS.

A.D. 320-680.

N the period of the Church's history on which we now enter, temptations of a different sort assailed her faith. The times of persecution for the name of Christ had now passed away; but the watchful enemy of man seized the moment when

prosperity began to lull the Church into security, to introduce errors which were destructive of all true faith, and which led to persecutions, divisions, and innumerable calamities.

Religion had tasted the sweets of peace for a few years after the persecution of Diocletian had ceased, and her borders had been enlarged by the conversion of the king and people of Armenia by St. Gregory the illuminator, when the most formidable heresy by which she has ever been afflicted made its appearance. The evil doctrine of Arius, presbyter of Alexandria, disturbed the Christian world for fifty years. Several Roman emperors, deceived by the arts of one of the most crafty and unprincipled parties that ever existed, threw the whole weight of their authority into its scale; and sometimes it seemed for a moment triumphant. The doctrine of the Arians was, that our Lord Jesus Christ had been created, like all other things, by God; that he was not truly God, but a creature liable to fall into vice and sin; and that there was a time when he did not exist. To terminate the disputes excited by these blasphemies, the FIRST CECUMENICAL SYNCD, consisting of three hundred and eighteen holy bishops, many of whom had been confessors and exiles in the time of heathen persecution, assembled at Nice in Bithynia, by order of the Emperor Constantine the Great, A.D. 325, when Arius was heard before all the bishops; and his doctrine having been fully examined and universally condemned as impious, he was driven from the communion of the Church; and the Christian faith was declared in that celebrated Nicene creed, which has ever since been received as the rule of faith by all Christian Churches. In this creed it was professed that Christ is "of the same substance (homoüsion) with the Father, i. e. of the same real Godhead.