THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE CHURCH.

It is a natural and easy transition from the consideration of the Holy Spirit in relation to the individual Christian to that of His relation to the Church, because the Church is nothing less, as it can be nothing more, than the community of individual Christians. Both in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds the expression of belief in the Holy Ghost is immediately followed by the confession of our faith in the existence of the Church. ' I believe one Catholick and Apostolick Church.' This close connection suggests the truth which is found in Scripture, and which calls for careful attention, the relation of the Holy Spirit to the body of Christian people. Dr. Hort points out, and the matter is one of supreme importance, that the Church in its widest sense as the body of Christ is not the aggregate of particular Churches, but of individuals.

' The One Ecclesia includes all members of all partial Ecclesiae; but its relations to them are all direct, not mediate. It is true that, as we have seen, St. Paul anxiously promoted friendly intercourse and sympathy between the scattered Ecclesiae; but the unity of the universal Ecclesia as he contemplated it does not belong to this region: it is a truth of theology and of religion, not a fact of what we call Ecclesiastical politics.'1

And so when we speak of the Holy Spirit in the Church, we refer of necessity to real not to nominal Christians; to those who are in living union with Christ, the Head of the body. The New Testament reveals various aspects of the Church's life which are definitely and prominently associated with the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit constitutes the Church. It is evident from the record of Acts ii. that the penitent believers received the Holy Spirit, and were thereby added by the Lord to the community of Christian souls. With this agree St. Paul's words: ' By one Spirit are we all baptized into one body ' (1 Cor. xii. 13). As the fundamental idea of baptism is introduction into a new sphere and the designation of the recipient for blessings within that sphere, we can readily understand this reference to the Holy Spirit as introducing us into the body of Christ. It is the Spirit Who unites us to Christ and makes us members of His body, the Church.2

The Spirit thereupon abides in the Church. The metaphor of the building is found in the New Testament, implying the union of individual Christians as builded together for a permanent habitation of God through the Spirit (κατοικητήριον). With this agree the words of St. Paul, that Christians are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in them (1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19).3

The Spirit builds up the Church (οίκοδομία). By adding believer after believer to Christ the building is erected of living stones and becomes a spiritual house, an holy temple. The work is going on continually as one by one men are led to Christ and to each other in Him.

The Spirit administers the Church (οίκοδομία). He is the ' Executive of the Godhead,' the Representative of Christ, the ' other Comforter,' and in everything that pertains to the life of the Church He is supreme. Worship must be in the Spirit (Phil. iii. 3). Witnessing to Christ must be done in the power of the Spirit (Acts i. 8). Extension of the Church takes place through the Spirit (Acts viii. 29). Missionary work must be undertaken in obedience to the Spirit (Acts xiii. 2). Fellowship is in the Spirit (Phil. ii. i). Guidance in regard to new undertakings must be given by the Spirit (Acts xvi. 6, 7; Rom. viii. 14). Whatever concerns the Church's life and work is to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. The Father is the Owner, the Son the Head, but the Holy Spirit is the Administrator of the Church.

The Spirit unifies the Church. The New Testament has much to say on unity, and it is always that of the Spirit. We are to 'endeavour to keep it' (Eph. iv. 3), implying effort and earnestness. He Who unites each believer to Christ and to his fellow-believers undertakes the work of maintaining those believers and communities united in Christ as the prime secret of blessing and power. It is in proportion as Christians try to understand what this means and requires that the value of unity will be seen.4

The teaching of the New Testament regarding the Church, and the relation of the Holy Spirit to it, will do more than anything else to solve the current problems of controversy. It is essential that the term ' Church ' be correctly defined. As the Greek word indicates, it is the community of those who are called (Ecclesia), a body of people who believe in Jesus as the Christ (1 John v. i), and who confess Him as the Son of God (1 John iv. 15). The metaphors descriptive of the Church as that community which is in vital union with Christ are particularly noteworthy. There are at least seven of them. The Church is a Vine (John xv. 5), a Flock (John x. 16), a Temple (i Pet. ii. 4), a Bride (Eph. v. 27), a Family (Rom. viii. 29), a Body (Eph. i. 22, 23), a Spirit (1 Cor. vi. 17). It should never be forgotten that the one and only requirement for membership of the Church in its truest sense is vital union with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fullest teaching concerning the Church and its relation to the Holy Spirit is found in the Epistle to the Ephesians, and from the aspects there recorded all other views find their source and standard.

' All other meanings of the word " Church " are derived and modified from this, but this must not be modified by them.'5

The special interest and importance of Ephesians in regard to the Church is that apart from its companion Epistle to the Colossians it is, after St. Matthew xvi., the next and almost the only place in the New Testament where the Church is regarded absolutely as the one universal Church. In all earlier Epistles, as well as in the Acts, the term seems to be applied to a local Church and a number of local Churches, or else to the one universal Church as represented in the individual Church or local Churches. Out of the no places where the word occurs in the New Testament, 86 are in the Epistles of St. Paul, and of these ii only appear to refer to this idea of an universal Church; i.e. 9 in Ephesians and 2 in Colossians (Col. i. 18, 24). This does not mean that the idea of the unity of all believers was not in the Apostle's mind and teaching before this time. As a matter of fact it is traceable in earlier Epistles. The principles and duties of unity as based on fellowship with all Christians are already clear (1 Thess. ii. 14; 1 Cor. i. 12, 13; vi. 9), while St. Paul had also emphasised the essential oneness of Jew and Gentile in Christ (Gal. iii. 28; Rom. xi. 17). Thus the idea of all believers being one in Christ is evident from the first, but it is only in the Epistle to the Ephesians that we find it receiving full expression and adequate treatment.

This extension of idea and usage to include all Christians in one great universal Church is characteristic of these two Epistles of the Roman captivity, and for several reasons it is noteworthy and very significant. The time had evidently come for the Christians to receive this fuller teaching as the complement and crown of what they already knew. It was the necessary consequence and completion of the teaching given earlier. Thus the Epistle to the Romans deals mainly and primarily with the relation of the individual to God in Christ. The Epistle to the Ephesians, on the other hand, starts from the corporate side of Christianity, and views the individual as one of the Body. Further, Romans deals with the great problem of how Jew and Gentile were to be received respectively, and as it were, separately, into fellowship with Christ. Ephesians contemplates them both as already in Christ and making one body in Him. Again, while in i and 2 Corinthians St. Paul emphasises and urges unity in the local Church, in Ephesians the thought takes a wider and universal sweep as including all believers of all Churches at all times. We may perhaps also note how the Apostle, writing from Rome, and possibly influenced by the imperial atmosphere, might be led to conceive of the Church of Christ as one vast organism and to emphasise the solidarity of all Christians in Him. It is also noteworthy that this conception of one universal Church was a revelation granted to the Apostle Paul only.

' The full revelation respecting the Gentiles to which St. Paul refers in Ephesians iii. 6 ff. was not obviously involved from the first in the charge to preach the Gospel to all nations. It was to St. Paul himself doubtless that this prophetic illumination came in the first instance.'6

The ' mystery ' referred to in this Epistle cannot be interpreted to mean simply that the Gentiles were to be brought into blessing in connection with Christ. This was clearly shown even in the Old Testament (Gen. xii. 3; xviii. 18), and was no ' mystery ' at all (Gal. iii. 8; Rom. i. 2; iii. 21). The μυστήριον of Ephesians is that a people should be taken out from Jews and Gentiles and should be made a joint body (σύσσωμα) in Christ (Eph. iii. 2, 9). The various aspects of the teaching need close attention.

I. The Church is regarded as a Body. Up to the writing of Ephesians, St. Paul had used the idea of a body either simply as an illustration (Rom. xii. 3-5), or else with reference to the local Church only (i Cor. xii. 12, 13, 27). Now, however, he regards all Christians together as the Body of Christ. The following are the main outlines of his teaching on this subject.

(a) Christ is the Head of the Body. ' Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all ' (Eph. i. 22 f.). 'The Head, even Christ ' (ch. iv. 15). ' Christ is the Head of the Church ' (ch. v. 23). As the head to the body, so is Christ to the Church. Head and body are correlatives and organically connected. We are thus taught that the Church is not a fortuitous collection of individuals, but a Society with a Head, an organism and not merely two parts in juxtaposition. This connection between Christ and the Church as illustrated by the metaphor of a Body can be variously applied, (1) There is a connection of life. He is the Source of life to the Church. Apart from Him the Body is dead, for the Church has no life in itself. (2) There is a connection of cause and effect. The thoughts and purposes of the Head are expressed in the activities of the Body. (3) There is a connection of power. All energy in the Body comes from the Head and through union with Him. (4) There is a connection of sympathy. Head and Body are one in feeling, whether of pain or joy. (5) There is a connection of obedience. The Body responds to the orders of the Head, and what the will directs the members carry out. We may say, then, that there is a two-fold need; that of the Head by the members, and that of the members by the Head. The members need the Head for life, sensation, and volition. The Head needs the members for expression and activity.

' In some mysterious sense the Church is that without which the Christ is not complete, but with which He is or will be complete. That is to say, he (the Apostle) looks upon the Christ as in a sense waiting for completeness, and destined in the purpose of God to find completeness in the Church.'7

(b) The Holy Spirit is the Life of the Body. The emphasis laid on the Holy Spirit in Ephesians is very clear and striking, and with the one exception of Romans viii., there is more about the Spirit of God in this short Epistle than in any other of St. Paul's writings. There are at least twelve references to His Divine grace and work in relation to the Body of Christ. From the moment of conversion He is everything to the individual Christian and to the whole Church. It is the Spirit Who seals the believer as belonging to Christ (ch. i. 13; iv. 30). By the Spirit we are introduced to the Father (ch. ii. 18). We are indwelt by the Spirit (ch. ii. 22). We are taught by the Spirit (ch. iii. 5). The Spirit is the secret of inward strength (ch. iii. 16), of outward unity (ch. iv. 3), of inward sensitiveness (ch. iv. 30), and of spiritual fulness (ch. v. 18). The Word of God is described as ' the sword of the Spirit ' (ch. vi, 17), and prayer is to be offered ' in the Spirit ' (ch. vi. 18). Thus in every way, whether we think of the individual or the community, the Spirit of God actuates all. (c) Each individual Christian is a member of the Body. Believers are viewed first in relation to the purpose of the Father (ch. i. 4-6a), then in relation to the work of the Son (ch. i. 6b-i2), and lastly in relation to the grace of the Holy Spirit (ch. i. 13, 14), and thus we are members of His Body (ch. v. 30). To each and every individual member is some grace given (ἑκάστῳ, ch. iv. 7), and every one can supply something to the progress and growth of the Body: ' according to the proportional energy of each single part ' (ch. iv. 16). Each individual member is (1) a channel of nourishment to the rest (ch. iv. 16; cf. Col. ii. 19); (2) a means of unity as a joint and ligament harmoniously fitted and compacted, holding together the framework (ch. iv. 16); (3) a condition of growth, all acting as fitted, and so making continual increase (ch. iv. 16; cf. Col. ii. 19). Christians are therefore needed by one another for nourishment, growth, progress, fellowship, blessing, and it is a profoundly striking and deeply solemn thought that individual Christians can hinder blessing and growth from coming to the entire Body, hindering the flow of grace and keeping back spiritual power. Thus, while the Church as a whole is the Body, very clear and significant stress is laid on the importance, necessity, and due position of each single member of it. The individuality of single, though not separate. Christians could not be more clearly taught. The importance of this social and corporate aspect of the Christian life is very great, and needs constant emphasis.

' The believer's union to Christ, which is the deepest of all personal things, always involves something social. The call comes to him singly, but seldom solitarily.'8

We see, therefore, the great value of the Church. It is true that each man is saved solitarily and alone by direct contact as an individual with Christ, but it is equally true that he is sanctified in association with others. It must be constantly borne in mind that the true, full, vigorous, mature Christian life is impossible to any Christian who tries to live a solitary life. Individual Christianity can easily be carried to extremes — and become something very different from the Christianity of the New Testament. The Christian must realise in some way ' the Communion of Saints ' if he is to be a true saint himself. St. Paul prayed that the Christians of Ephesus might comprehend ' with all saints ' the love of Christ (ch. iii. i8), each saint apprehending a little and all together comprehending that which is intended for the whole Church.

(d) Jews and Gentiles go to make up the unity of the Body. It is pointed out by the Apostle that in the atoning death of Christ this oneness of Jew and Gentile was really contemplated, intended, and provided for. ' He is our peace. Who hath made both one ' (ch. ii. 14). ' That He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross ' (ch. ii. 16). ' Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father' (ch. ii. 18). And the fact that there was to be one Body consisting of Jews and Gentiles which, as we have seen, was the special revelation to St. Paul, is stated in very definite and significant terms. The Apostle's language in ch. iii. 3-6 is particularly noteworthy, with its emphasis on σύν- in the words ' joint-heirship,' ' joint-body,' ' joint-partakers.' This truth of Jew and Gentile as one Body in Christ, not as two. separate bodies, but a ' joint-body ' of which Christ is the Head, is the magnificent conception of this Epistle, and it is thence that we derive the only true ideas of unity and catholicity.

(e) There are diversities of gifts in the one Body. As ch. iv. 4-6 deal with unity, so verses 7-14 bring before us the diversities of gifts in the one Body.

2. The Church is also considered as a Building. Side by side with the metaphor of a Body and associated with it is the metaphor of a Building. The whole Church is regarded as a great structure, and several aspects of truth are brought before us by means of this symbol.

First, the foundation. ' Built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets' (ch. ii. 20). It would appear that the reference in this phrase is to the New Testament and not to the Old, and concerns the two forms of spiritual ministry by which the Church was commenced and continued (Acts xi. 28; xiii. i; xv. 32; xxi. 10; Eph. iii. 5; iv. ii).9 In speaking of apostles and prophets as a foundation, it is clear that the reference is not to any official position of authority, but simply to the order of the growth of the Church from them and their ministry.10

Second, the Corner-stone. ' Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone ' (ch. ii. 20). In 1 Corinthians iii. 11 our Lord Himself is put as the Foundation (cf. i Pet. ii. 6, 7; Isa. xxviii. 16). In this passage, however, He is the Corner-stone. It implies that our Lord is essential to the coherence and stability of the structure.

Third, the stones of the Building. By implication individual Christians are regarded as stones, each in his own place contributing his part to the progress and completeness of the whole (ch. ii. 19 f.; cf. i Pet. ii. 5, ' living stones ')• The individual aspect, however, is not the predominant, or even the prominent point in this Epistle, but the corporate and united effect of the whole.

Fourth, the character of the Building. The Building is to be a Temple (ch. ii. 21). The ναός is the shrine, the actual house, answering to the Holy Place and the Most Holy, the place of the Presence of God, and the Church thus regarded as a shrine is to be the permanent abode of God (κατοικήτηριον, ch. ii. 22; κατοικεῐν, ch. iii. 17).

Fifth, the progress of the Building. Stress is laid on the gradual upbuilding of this Divine and spiritual structure. The tenses of the verbs are particularly noteworthy in this connection. The Christians have been definitely and once for all placed on the foundation (Aorist, ch. ii. 20). They have been permanently founded (Perfect, ch. iii. 17). They are continually being built together (Present, ch. ii. 22). They are being continuously fitted together harmoniously in the process of building (Present, ch. ii. 21; iv. 16). The result is that the whole Building is to be one perfect outcome of a continuous increase and growth (ch. ii. 21; iv. 12, 16).

It is noteworthy that we have in this Epistle the blending of the two ideas of the Body and the Building (ch. ii. 21; iv. 12, 16; cf. iii. 17).

3. The Church is depicted as a Bride. This metaphor is brought before us in ch. v. with reference to the whole Church, though it had already been used in connection with a local Church in 2 Corinthians xi. 2, and also implicitly with reference to individual Christians in Romans vii. 1-4. It is urged by some authorities that as in the metaphor of the Body the Church is a part of Christ, it cannot be intended to represent the Church as His Bride, since the Bride is not a part of the Husband, but separate from Him. It is, however, more likely that we are to regard these metaphors as two aspects of the same relationship between Christ and the Church, the one a relationship of life, the other a relationship of love. This is especially probable in view of the words, ' They twain shall be one flesh,' and also in the light of ch. v. 32, ' This is a great mystery '; as though the Apostle would say, there is more in it than appears. Taking it, therefore, as a separate though connected metaphor we notice several aspects of spiritual teaching in the relationship of the Church as the Bride of Christ.

(a) There is the thought of Union. ' The mystical union betwixt Christ and His Church.' This union is wrought and maintained by the Holy Spirit (ch. i. 13-ii. 18), whereby every believer and all the Church is ' joined to the Lord ' (κολλώμενος, 1 Cor. vi. 17).

(b) There is the thought of Love. Christ loves the Church as the husband is to love his wife, and accordingly our Lord's love is brought before us as proved by the gift of Himself (ch. v. 25). Love in our Lord's case is no sentiment, but a sacrifice, and it does not even cease with His sacrifice of Himself; it is maintained and continued in service. 'Loving and cherishing it ' (ver. 29).

(c) There is the thought of Duty. Here we see the Bride's part, that of subordination and loyalty. So is it to be with the Church in relation to Christ. The two aspects of wifely duty, submission (ver. 22) and fear (ver. 33), are exactly equivalent to those required of the Church in relation to her Lord.

(d) There is the thought of the Future (ver. 27). Christ's purpose in relation to the Church is that by means of His sacrifice and service on her behalf ' He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.' Thus, the glorious future of the Bride, the Church of Christ, is brought before us as ' holy and without blemish.' In like manner in Revelation (chs. xix. and xxi.) we have the picture of the glorious future of the Lamb's Wife in all the eternal glory of heaven.

4. The Church may be regarded as a Brotherhood. Here metaphor is dropped, or at least changed, and the life of the Church is depicted mainly in terms of actuality. At the same time there are the two metaphors of the Household (ch. ii. 19) and the State (ch. ii. 19). The Church is thus brought before us under what may be regarded as the figure of a great Brotherhood having relations to God and to one another.

(a) The Godward attitude of this Brotherhood is emphasised. This is taught under several aspects. God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and our Father in Him (ch. i. 2, 3, 17; iii. 14, 15). We are His children in Christ Jesus, adopted into His family (ch. i. 5), beloved (ch. v. i), children of light (ch. v. 8), and members of His household (ch. ii. 19). We are also citizens of a Divine commonwealth (ch. ii. 19; cf. ii. 12; Phil. iii. 20). We are also saints, that is, those who belong to God, separated for, consecrated to, and possessed by Him. The prominence given to this aspect of the Christian life in relation to God is very noteworthy (ch. i. 15, 18; iii. 8, 18; vi. 18). We are also described as faithful (ch. i. i), which seems to blend the two ideas of trustful and trustworthy. In these various figures, which are strongly expressive of real relationships, we see something of the Church as a Brotherhood. God is our Father, and in Him all Fatherhood and paternal relationships find their source and warrant.

(b) The life of this Brotherhood is also taught. This thought is brought before us in relation to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. All Christians are led to God by Him (ch. ii. i8). He is the bond of peace between believers (ch. iv. 3, 4), and they are sealed by Him in view of the great future when redemption will be completed (ch. i. 13; iv. 30).

(c) The unity of this Brotherhood is strongly urged. With great fulness and definiteness we are taught the solidarity of the Christian Brotherhood in this Epistle (ch. iii. 15; iv. 3, 4). It is a unity based upon love, and the phrase ' in love,' which occurs six times in the Epistle, is applied four times to Christians in relation to one another. None of St. Paul's Epistles are so clear as this as to the unity of Christians as members of the family of God, and a very special feature of the Epistle is the use of the preposition σύν both in connection with our relation to Christ, and also in particular with our relation to one another. In regard to Christ, we have been quickened and raised with Him and are seated with Him (ch. ii. 5, 6). In relation to our fellow-Christians we are being fitted together (ch. ii. 21), builded together (ch. ii. 22), and compacted together (ch. iv. 16). We are fellow-citizens (ch. ii. 19). We have a joint-inheritance, we are a joint-body, and joint-partakers of the promise of Christ (σύν, three times in ch. iii. 6). We are to comprehend the love of Christ ' with all saints ' (ch. iii. 18). We are not to be sharers-together of evil (ch. V. 7), or fellow-partners with the works of darkness (ch. V. II).

(d) The reciprocal duties of this Brotherhood are specially pressed home. In this Epistle to the Ephesians it is most striking to observe how several practical duties are emphasised in direct view of our brotherhood with fellow-Christians. This is all the more remarkable when we compare the companion Epistle to the Colossians, which deals with the same duties from another standpoint, basing them, not on our relation to one another, but on our relation to our Lord.

Reviewing the entire teaching of the Epistle with regard to the Church in this four-fold aspect as a Body, a Building, a Bride, and a Brotherhood, there are several points of immediate and practical importance which arise out of it. The consideration of the one Body of Christ with our Lord as its Head and the Holy Spirit as its Life should dominate all our thinking and action in relation to the various questions connected with the Church to-day. Some of these applications may be fittingly considered as we draw to a close.

We can readily see from the teaching of Ephesians that the primary idea of the Church is that of an organism rather than of an organisation. ' Christianity came into the world as an idea rather than as an institution.'11 If, instead of ' idea,' we substitute ' the indwelling presence of the Spirit in the hearts of believers,' there is no doubt of the truth of these words and their agreement with the Pauline doctrine. The Church in its true idea is a spiritual fact rather than a visible institution. Such was the case as it was originally constituted on the Day of Pentecost by the indwelling of the Spirit of God, and that which we find recorded in Acts ii. of the birthday of the Church in its present form must necessarily determine its true nature in all ages.

' It is, in its true being and essence, the temple of the Holy Ghost, founded and built up on the doctrine of the Apostles.... Its progress was in accordance with this beginning... it developed itself from within outwards — not in the reverse direction.... Instead of passively receiving a superinduced stamp from without, the Christian society supplied its needs from within, and of itself, that is, the invisible Church preceded the visible.... The result is, that when we come to define the Church — when the question relates to its essence, not to its accidents — we must adopt the old explanatory addition of the Article in the Creed, and speak of it as " the communion, or congregation of saints "; of saints not merely by profession, or external dedication (though this, of course, is included), but in reality and truth.'12

The idea of the universal Church and its gifts as primarily spiritual should therefore dominate all our views of the local and ecclesiastical Church and ministry. When we take up this standpoint and judge everything by this standard, we can see how truly sad, utterly small, and practically futile are many of the controversies about Catholicity, Ministry, and Priesthood, and how dangerous to the true ideas of Church and ministry some of the developments in Church history have been.

It follows from the foregoing that the reference to ' the visible Church ' in Article XIX. of the Church of England is not otiose, but expresses a truth arising out of the Epistle to the Ephesians, a truth, moreover, which is supported by the Prayer Book, and especially by the Creeds. Even allowing that the terms ' visible ' and ' invisible ' represent controversial conditions of the sixteenth century, the truth expressed by them is valid, because the distinction is between a real and an apparent Church, between spiritual reality and outward manifestation, and the point is that the reality is not identical with, or fully expressed by, the manifestation. The New Testament idea of the Church, while not indifferent to visibility or order, nevertheless puts the primary and main stress on spiritual grace, and not on ecclesiastical institution. These two words, 'visible' and 'invisible,' represent the Church in two aspects, according as it is viewed inwardly or outwardly, according to spiritual nature or according to earthly organisation. The Church is visible as to those who compose it, but invisible as to its Divine Head and the Spirit of its life. The two aspects are necessarily connected, but they do not cover exactly the same ground. A man may belong to the Church as visible without belonging to the Church as invisible. He may be united to the outward society of Christians without being spiritually united to Christ. But it is also true according to the New Testament, that a man will not belong to the Church as invisible without belonging to the visible Church. A man in Christ will join himself to other Christians. Christians living and working alone, apart from brethren, are quite unknown to the New Testament. As there depicted, they are all united in fellowship and included in the Church of Christ, ' the blessed company of all faithful people.' A purely individualistic Christian life is an utter impossibility.

It is for this reason that we use the words ' I believe ' when we repeat the Creed about the Holy Catholic Church. We say ' I believe,' not 'I see,' for the essence of the Church is a matter of faith, not of sight, and lies in its invisibility to the outward eye and its visibility to the eye of faith.

' For lack of diligent observing the difference between the Church of God mystical and visible, the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed.'13

On this account it is absolutely impossible to identify ' the Holy Catholic Church ' of the Creeds with any existing institution in the world, and any attempt to refer the phrase ' Catholic Church ' to any one particular institution as now organised is of necessity inaccurate and even disloyal to the Creed.

Not less important in this connection is the consideration of the relation of the one universal Church to the various local Churches, and, as Dr. Hort points out, it is certainly very striking and significant that the units which compose this one universal Church are not Churches but individuals. A consideration of this simple fact will always be a safeguard against the erroneous, because inadequate, view that the one universal Church, which is the Body of Christ, is necessarily limited to and only coterminous with the sum total of certain local visible Churches.

' The Church of Christ, which we properly term His body mystical, can be but one; neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (albeit, their natural persons be visible) we do not discern under this property, whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is, a body collective, because it containeth a huge multitude; a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God showeth towards His Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised, " I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish " (John X. 28). They who are of this society have such marks and notes of distinction from all others as are not object unto our sense; only unto God, Who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret cogitations, unto Him they are clear and manifest.'14

This is the Church in which the Holy Spirit dwells as the present, continuous, and permanent life, the Church to which all the promises of God are made, the Church outside which no one can ever be saved, the Church from which no believer can ever be excommunicated, the Church against which the gates of Hades shall never prevail, the Church in which God's presence is continually realised and manifested, the Church through which His grace and glory will be displayed to the spiritual universe throughout the ages of eternity.

Literature." — Swete, The Holy Spirit in the New Testament, pp. 306, 317; Welldon, The Revelation of the Holy Spirit, p. 338; Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 230; Denio, The Supreme Leader, p. 188; Walker, The Holy Spirit, chs. x., xi.; A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of the Spirit, chs. iv., vii.; Masterman, ' I believe in the Holy Ghost,' ch. iii.; E. H. Johnson, The Holy Spirit, p. 279; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, p. 334; Davison, The Indwelling Spirit, ch. xiii.; J. M. Campbell, After Pentecost, What? chs. iv., xiv.; Elder Gumming, Through the Eternal Spirit, ch. xii.; Elder Gumming, After the Spirit, ch. iii.; Ridout, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit, ch. iv.; Tasker, Spiritual Religion, p. 143; Hort, The Christian Ecclesia.

1 Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 168. Cf. Hort's Prolegomena to Romans and Ephesians, p. 130 f.

2 See note L, p. 280.

3 See note M, p. 281.

4 See p. 259.

5 Bishop Moule on Ephesians i. 22.

6 Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 166.

7 Armitage Robinson, St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, p. 42 f.

8 Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, p. 7.

9 See also Armitage Robinson, and Moule in loc, and Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 165.

10 Hort, ut supra, p. 167.

11 Newman, Development, p. ii6.

12 Litton, Introduction to Dogmatic Theology, Second Edition, p. 360 f.

13 Hooker, Eccles. Pol. B. III. p. 9.

14 Hooker, Eccles. Pol. B. III.