By Very Rev. THOMAS S. PRESTON, V.G.,
II.
A visible church was established by our Lord, and it is a unity by constitution and by necessity.
What our intelligence asks as a just manifestation of divine mercy towards our fallen race, God has supplied beyond all our desires.
1. It is a matter of fact that our Lord Jesus Christ came upon earth and proved His divine mission by abundant miracles. It is also a fact that He founded and organized a church of visible men with all the necessary provisions for its perpetuity. He called to Himself disciples, whom He taught; and of them He chose twelve, whom he named apostles (St Luke vi. 12). The apostles were sent with divine authority to teach the world. "As My Father hath sent me, even so do I send you." (St John xx. 21.)
The Jewish Church was confessedly founded by God as a preparation for the Christian organization. It was a visible body, with power to represent the majesty of the divine Lawgiver on earth. So the church established by Christ is an external organization, but endowed with higher life and greater gifts. The Acts of the Apostles are a plain narrative of the growth of this church in different lands. We are not asked to prove a fact universally received, and one which has everywhere left ineffaceable marks upon society. It is incontestable that Jesus Christ founded a church to bear His name and minister His grace. That this church is visible, and must be so, is evident from the fact that it is composed of visible men and bears a mission to a visible world. An invisible church can only be for invisible men, with whom we have not now to do.
2. The church established by our Lord is a unity by constitution and by necessity.
One founder made it one. It is one in organization, with one head. The apostles were subordinated to one as a type and centre of unity. "Simon, son of John, feed my lambs, feed my sheep." (St. John xxi. 15,17) " Thou art Peter, and on this rock will I build my church." (St. Matt. xvi. 18.) The body which has one head is necessarily one, since a body with many heads would be a monstrous contradiction. So argues St. Paul: " There is 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." The unity of God is perfect. But the apostle tells us that the unity of the church is of the same nature. There can no more be two bodies than there can be two Gods. There cannot be two creeds, nor two baptisms, nor two Holy Spirits. Neither can there be two churches of Christ. So says St. Cyprian: "There is one God and one Christ, and His church is one, and the faith one, and the people one, joined into the solid unity of one body. Unity cannot be sundered, nor the one body be separated by the dissolution of its structure." ( St. Cyprian, De Unitate).
