For a number of years the work made little progress outside of the British Isles, but the revolutionary move- ment in Europe in 1848 drew to it the attention of many in Germany, and churches were soon organised in Berlin and other cities and towns. It has gradual- ly extended itself into Switzerland, France, Holland, Belgium, Denmark, and Austria, and also into North America, and believers are to be found in countries where there is as yet no liberty of worship.
II. Orgamtatum and Poitty.—This body of Chris- tians, who take the name of the Catholic Apostolio Church, as being the proper designation of all the bap- tised, and not as exclusively their own, look upon tit» spiritual work which has been briefly described, as a divine movement in the one Church to restore to it its original structure and endowments, in preparation for the now rapidly approaching advent of the Lord Jesus Christ They believe it to be, not the founding of a new sect, much less the setting up of a new dispensi^ tion, but a woi^ of healing and recovery in the one body of Christ, which has had a continuous and histor- ic existence from the day of Pentecost to this hour. They recognise, therefore, the whole Christian Chun^ as brethren, according to the measure of truth in doe- trine and ordinances which it has retained in its sev- eral divisions. They believe that, in the purpose of God and in its own nature, it is one body ; and that intercommunion between the parts is the true law of its being, and the nccessaiy condition of its healthful growth ; intercommunion, not as between distinct and independent nations, but as between the different por- tions of one and the same nation, having one centrsl authority, and subject to common laws. The central authority which God gave to the Church in the begin- ning they believed him to have now restored, not ftr
CATR APOSTOLIC CHURCH 161 CATH. APOSTOLIC CHURCH
tlM gnpenedixig of tiie exiitiiig ministries, but fbr the conre^ing of grace and strength more abimdantlj to aO who will receive it. The apostolic office belongs to BO sect, bat is for the whole Chnrcb ; and those who ars gathered nnder it are not a sect, but a part of the one body brought into their right relations to the Head and to one another.
In respect to the organization of the Catholic Apos- toUo Chvreh, Hs chief pecnliarity lies in the fourfold ministry of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor, as described by St. Paul in the 4th of the Ephesians. Apostles are mlers in the Church universal, by whom the Lord In his absence exercises his functions of au- thority ; prophets are the special orgifns of the Holy Gbost, by whom light is imparted for the guidance of apostles in their worlc; evangelists carry forth the Gospel; and pastors feed and care for the flocks. The aame fourfold distinction is brought out in the particu- lar churches, in each of wbicli, where circumstances sUow of its being Ailly organized, there is an angel or chief pastor, representing to his own flock the Angel of the Covenant in the heavens, who has under him a body of elders in wliom there should be seen the same fourfoldness of ministry as in the Church uni- versal under Chrlst^-some helping him in the work of rule, others exercising the prophetic gift, and others still acting as evangelists and pastors within the limits of the angel*8 charge. This variety of functions in the ministry is in accofdance with a fourfold distinc- tion in the intellectua] and spiritual characters of men, to which the gifts of the Holy Ghost shape themselves —some having the power of rule, others the imagina- tire faculty, while hi others the adaptive understand- ing or the affections are respectively predominant.
In every church, in addition to the angel and eld- ers, there is a body of deacons, who are chosen by the people as being their representatives, and ordained by the angel ; whose office it is to assist in the public serv- ices, especially the celebration of the Eucharist; to distribute the alms of the church to the poor, and to be the counsellors of the people in worldly matters. There are also under-deaoons and deaconesses, as the necessities of the congregation may require. All min- isters except those in the diaconal office are called by the voice of prophecy, and ordained by the hands of apostiee. The apostles themselves are not ordained, there bdng none higher than themselves to confer on them authority and grace.
III. Doetrimes. — ^They receive the Scriptures of the CMdand New Testaments (rejecting the Apocrypha) as the plenarily inspired and authoritative revelation of God*8 will, and standard of doctrine for all generations. And they hold the common faith of Christendom, as expressed in the three great creeds best deserving the name of Catholic— the Aposties*, the Nicene, and the Athanasisn. They make use of no other creeds, and these are used constanUy/in the public services as a part of worshtp^-the Apoeties' being recited before God every day in the morning and evening services, the Kicoie every Sunday in the eucharistic office, and the Athanasisn on the principal feasts of the year. But they give especial prominence to the great doctrine of the Incarnation, with its corollaries of the death and resorrection of the Lord, and the descent of the Holy Ghost; teaching that the only and eternally-begotten Son of God took fidlen humanity by being bom of the Virgfai, folfilled in it as man the perfect righteousness of God, and yielded it to the death of the cross as a spotless and sufficient offering for the sins of the whole world; whereupon the Father gave him his reward by nisbg him from the dead in the incorruptible body, ind exalting him in the human nature to his own right liud. ^e was thus constituted the Head of the Church, >odhis next step was to form the body by sending the Holy Ghost to make men one with himself in all the •pirbnal fruits and results of his victory. The three grast ocdinances which he has appointed in his Church II.— L