Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

208 THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.What S. Paul32 lays down in dogma, history exhibitsin fact. A hundred years after his wordare written, the Church has stretched her limitsbeyond the empire, has multiplied incessantly, hasbeen attacked by a crowd of heresies striving toadulterate her doctrine, and has cast them out ofher by this double unity of her faith and her government,and so is one Body and one Spirit. Hervictory lies not in being without heresies, but instanding among them as a contrast and a condemnation.The solidity of internal organisation, and thedefiniteness of the One Faith which animated it,kept pace with the material increase of numbers.At the expiration of this period it is probable thatamong all the contemporaries and immediate disciplesof the Apostles one only of high rank remained,that Polykarp, joint-hearer with Ignatiusof S. John, and to whom in his passage the martyraddressed a letter as well as to his Church ; whoseown letter written at the time of the martr's combat,and commemorating the wonderful patiencetherein shown forth, is yet extant. But in themean time in every Church the transmission of authoritativeteaching passed to those who had grownup themselves in the bishop's council - his presbytery,which Ignatius loved to represent as beingto each bishop what the Council of Apostles was totheir Lord. And as the death of Apostles them-32 Ephes. iv. 4-1G.