should gradually assume the form of canons, or rules, for the government of the represented churches; for rulersecclesiastical as well as civil-will generally assume authority as fast as the people will yield it.

The doctrine that the ministers of the Christian church were the successors of the Jewish priesthood, which, if not originated in the second century, was then most successfully inculcated by the clergy, contributed materially to the great work of corrupting the churches.

If the clergy were the successors of the Jewish priests, why then, of course, a resemblance between the two was to be looked for. The bishops, or presiding elders, were made to answer to the high priest, the presbyters or elders to the priests, and the deacons to the levites. "This idea," says Mosheim, "being once introduced and approved, drew after it other errors.' Among which was, that it gave an official elevation and sacredness to the clergy which Christ never authorized.

Another effect of this new doctrine was, to open the way for the exaction of the first fruits and tithes, for the support of the clergy. For surely, if they were successors to the Levitical priesthood, it was but reasonable that they should claim the tithes and first fruits, as means of support. Neither did they stop here; but " argued, that because the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, were the high-priests, priests, and levites of a superior, a more heavenly and spiritual dispensation, they ought to possess more of the unrighteous mammon; that is, more earthly treasures, and greater temporal power" than did the ministers of the ancient church. "And, what is still more extraordinary, by such wretched reasoning the bulk of mankind were convinced."*

* See Campbell's Lec. on Ecc. Hist. L. X. first part. Also,

By these several steps, the power of the clergy was greatly enhanced at the expense of the rights and privileges of the churches; and yet, so gradually, that those who were most affected by it, were least sensible of the process.

There is much truth, doubtless, in what Dr. Owen says on this point: "This declension of the churches from their primitive order and institution, is discoverable, rather by measuring the distance between what it left, and what it arrived unto, than by express instances of it. But yet, is it not altogether like unto that of a ship at sea, but rather like unto the way of a serpent on a rock, which leaves some slime in all its turnings and windings, whereby it may be traced."-Inquiry, etc. Pref. p. 20, 21.

Mr. Waddington very justly remarks: "It is true that the first operations of corruption are slow, and generally imperceptible, so that it is not easy to ascertain the precise moment of its commencement. But a candid inquirer cannot avoid perceiving that, about the end of the second, and the beginning of the third century, some changes had taken place in the ecclesiastical system which indicated a departure from its primitive purity. * * In closely attending to its history, we observe that it becomes thenceforward the history of men rather than of things; the body of the church is not so much in view, but the acts of its ministers and teachers are continually before us."-Hist. of Chh. pp. 49, 50.

We have now arrived at what Waddington terms—" The

Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 1. Chap.

*I would not be understood to assert, that I have accurately pointed out all the steps of the downward course of the churches from their original order and institution-but only some of the more prominent and probable.

first crisis in the internal history of the Church." It was in the third century that the bishops assumed "the ensigns of temporal dignity, the splendid throne, the sumptuous garments, the parade of external pomp," and the tokens of

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a contentious ambition." It was in this century that the addition of the "minor orders" of the ministry-such as sub-deacons, acolythi, readers, exorcists, etc.-gave proof of the growing pride and ambition, as well as indolence of the clergy.*

All these things indicate the corruption, as well as the extension, of Christianity. Its influence was indeed perceptibly growing in the empire, though exposed to occa. sional checks from popular tumults and legalized persecution. Beyond these limits, it was also making progress. And this brings us to notice another and most powerful cause of the corruption of the churches.

I refer to the admission to the churches of multitudes who were destitute of piety.

* Mosheim, Cent. III. P. II. Chap. 2. Waddington, Chap. 3. Even Milner-who certainly cannot be accused of uncharitableness towards the orthodox and established church—gives a sombre picture of the state of religion near the close of the third century. "If," says he, "Christ's kingdom had been of this world; and, if its strength and beauty were to be measured by secular prosperity, we should here fix the era of its greatness. But, on the contrary, the era of its actual declension must be dated in the pacific part of Diocletian's reign.

"During this whole century the work of God, in purity and pow. er, had been tending to decay; the connection with philosophers was one of the principal causes; outward peace and secular advantages completed the corruption; ecclesiastical discipline, which had been too strict, [?] was now relaxed exceedingly; bishops and people were in a state of malice; endless quarrels were fomented among contending parties; and ambition and covetousness, had, in general, gained the ascendency in the Christian church."-Hist. of Chh, Cent. III. Chap. 17.

When the ministers of the churches had become their governors, and the ambitious desire of enlarging their do minions and multiplying their subjects had induced these governors to dispense with the apostolic prerequisites for church membership, and to admit whole towns and cities, yea, and entire nations within the pale of the Christian church, upon a profession of their wish to become Christians and to receive baptism ;*-when, I say, these things became matters of history, as they did in the third and fourth centuries, it is obvious that the churches could no longer be little sacred republics. It was no longer possible to manage ecclesiastical matters after the manner of the first century. The world had now overspread the church; and the church, if governed at all, must be governed by worldly policy. And so it was, from about the close of the third century to the sixteenth.

The conversion of Constantine-whether real or nominal, I leave others to decidet-was followed, as a matter of course, by a similar conversion of the court and the empire itself. But the cause of corruption, of which I am now speaking, developed itself most fully in connection with the nominal christianization of the barbarians who conquered and overran the Roman Empire in the fifth and sixth centuries. For, contrary to the usual course of events, these conquerors embraced the religion of the conquered; and entered the church by thousands-yea, I might say, by nations! The same is substantially true of the admission

* See Dr. Owen-" The True Nature of a Gospel Church," etc. Chap. 1. Complete Works, Vol. XX. p. 363.

The reader will find in Gibbon (Vol. 1. Chaps. 18 and 20) all that can be said, or, with any color of truth insinuated, against Constantine, with much that is favorable to him. Waddington' takes a very just and candid view of the Emperor, Part 11. Chap. 6.

of those who had received the Christian religion from the hands of missionaries, previous to the overthrow of the Empire. These semi-christianized hordes, coming into the church with little knowledge of the principles of the Christian religion, and as little acquaintance with its spirit, would add to the numbers and outward glory of the churches, but not to their real strength.

Most pertinent and instructive are the words of Dr. Owen upon this subject: "Herein, I say, did the guides of the church certainly miss their rule, and depart from it, in the days of Constantine the emperor, and afterward under other Christian emperors, when whole towns, cities, yea, and nations offered at once to join themselves unto it. Evident it is, that they were not wrought hereunto by the same power, nor induced unto it by the same motives, or led by the same means with those who formerly under persecutions were converted unto the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this quickly manifested itself in the lives and conyersations of many, yea, of the most of them. Hence those which were wise, quickly understood, that what the church had got in multitude and number, it had lost in the beauty and glory of its holy profession. Chrysostom in particular complains of it frequently, and in many places cries out, What have I to do with this multitude, a few serious believers are worth more than them all. However, the guides of the church thought meet to receive them with all their multitudes, into their communion, at least so far as to place them under the jurisdiction of such and such episcopa! sees; for hereby their own power, authority, dignity, revenues, were enlarged and mightily increased. On this occasion, the ancient primitive way of admitting members into the church being relinquished, the consideration of their personal qualifications, and real conversion to God, omitted,