and in love to God and the brethren here on
earth "in these last days."[143]

V. The want of a fixed doctrinal form in relation to the abstract
statement of the faith, and the corresponding variety and freedom of
Christian preaching on the basis of clear formulae and an increasingly
rich tradition.

VI. The want of a clearly defined external authority in the communities,
sure in its application, and the corresponding independence and freedom
of the individual Christian in relation to the expression of the ideas,
beliefs and hopes of faith.[144]

VII. The want of a fixed political union of the several communities with
each other--every _ecclesia_ is an image complete in itself, and an
embodiment of the whole heavenly Church--while the consciousness of the
unity of the holy Church of Christ which has the spirit in its midst,
found strong expression.[145]

VIII. A quite unique literature in which were manufactured facts for the
past and for the future, and which did not submit to the usual literary
rules and forms, but came forward with the loftiest pretensions.[146]

IX. The reproduction of particular sayings and arguments of Apostolic
Teachers with an uncertain understanding of them.[147]

X. The rise of tendencies which endeavoured to hasten in every respect
the inevitable process of fusing the Gospel with the spiritual and
religious interests of the time, viz., the Hellenic, as well as attempts
to separate the Gospel from its origins and provide for it quite foreign
presuppositions. To the latter belongs, above all, the Hellenic idea
that knowledge is not a charismatic supplement to the faith, or an
outgrowth of faith alongside of others, but that it coincides with the
essence of faith itself.[148]

The sources for this period are few, as there was not much written, and
the following period did not lay itself out for preserving a great part
of the literary monuments of that epoch. Still we do possess a
considerable number of writings and important fragments,[149] and
further important inferences here are rendered possible by the monuments
of the following period, since the conditions of the first century were
not changed in a moment, but were partly, at least, long preserved,
especially in certain national Churches and in remote communities.[150]

_Supplement._--The main features of the message concerning Christ, of
the matter of the Evangelic history, were fixed in the first and second
generations of believe