ortunity of joining a congregation of
Christian worshippers. But those who now assumed the name of Catholics
were continually dwelling upon the importance of a connexion with their
own association; and, assuming that they were _the Church_, they
appropriated to themselves whatever they could find in Scripture in
commendation of its excellence. The promises addressed to the Church in
the book of inspiration refer, however, not to any local and visible
community, but to the "Church of the first-born which are written in
heaven;" [641:1] and the Catholics, by misapplying them, were led to
form very extravagant notions of the advantages of the position which
they occupied. The ascription of the attributes of the Church invisible
to their own association was, in fact, the fundamental misconception on
which a vast fabric of error was erected. By reason of the indwelling of
the Spirit in all believers the Church invisible is _catholic_, or
universal, that is, it is to be found wherever vital Christianity
exists; for the same reason it is _holy_, every member of it being a
living temple of Jehovah; it is also _one_, as one Spirit animates all
the saints and unites them to God and to each other; and it is
_perpetual_, or indestructible, for the Most High has promised never to
leave Himself without witnesses among men, and all His redeemed ones
shall remain as trophies of His grace throughout all eternity. But these
attributes were represented as belonging to the Church visible, and this
radical mistake became the parent of monstrous delusions. The
ecclesiastical writers who flourished towards the end of the second and
beginning of the third century exhibit a considerable amount of
inconsistency and vacillation when they touch upon the subject; [641:2]
but, half a century afterwards, the language currently employed is much
bolder and more decided. At that time Cyprian does not hesitate to
express himself in the strongest terms of high-church exclusiveness.
"_All_," says he, "_are adversaries of the Lord and antichrist_ who
are found to have departed from the charity and unity of the Catholic
Church." [641:3] "You ought to know that the bishop is in the Church and
the Church in the bishop, and _if any be not with the bishop_, that _he
is not in the Church_." [641:4] "The house of God is one, and there
cannot be salvation for any except in the Church." [641:5] "He can no
longer have God for a Father, who has not the Church for a moth