he Spirit, as well as the fruits of the
earth, may be improved; but when a section of the open field of
immorality and ignorance is first added to the garden of the Lord, it
may not forthwith possess all the fertility and loveliness of the more
ancient plantation. [652:1] A large portion of the early disciples had
once been heathens; they had to struggle against evil habits and
inveterate prejudices; they were surrounded on all sides by corrupting
influences; and, as they had not the same means of obtaining an exact
and comprehensive knowledge of the gospel as ourselves, we cannot
reasonably hope to find among them any very extraordinary measure either
of spiritual wisdom or of consistent piety.

When the Church towards the middle of the second century was sorely
harassed by divisions, its situation was extremely critical and
embarrassing. Christianity had appeared among men bearing the olive
branch of peace, and had proposed to supersede the countless
superstitions of the heathen by a faith which would bind the human race
together in one great and harmonious family. How mortified, then, must
have been its friends when Basilides, Marcion, Valentine, Cerdo, Mark,
and many others began to propagate their heresies, and when it appeared
as if the divisions of the Church were to be as numerous as the
religions of paganism! Had the ministers of the gospel girded themselves
for the emergency; had they boldly encountered the errorists, and
vanquished them with weapons drawn from the armoury of the Word; they
would have approved themselves worthy of their position, and acquired
strength for future conflicts. But whilst they did not altogether
neglect an appeal to Scripture, they were tempted in an evil hour to
think of sequestrating their own freedom that they might overwhelm
heresy with the vigour of an ecclesiastical despotism. By investing
their chairman with arbitrary power and by making communion with this
functionary the criterion of discipleship, they at once sanctioned a
perilous arrangement and endorsed a vicious principle. From this date we
may trace the commencement of a career of defection. The bishop and the
Church began to supplant Christ and a knowledge of the gospel. Bigotry
advanced apace, and conscience found itself in bondage.

The establishment of the hierarchical system, though imparting, as was
thought, greater unity to the structure of the Church, did not really
invigorate its constitution. The spiritual