PRIMITIVE CHURCH

(See Tradition .) The Church as it existed in the ages immediately after its first establishment. From its near connexion with the apostles and other inspired men, the primitive Church enjoyed many advantages, of which, at later periods, it was deprived. To the earliest ages we naturally look for illustrations of obscurities in the New Testament, for evidence and testimony of matter of fact, for sound interpretations of doctrine, for proofs of the efficacy of the gospel, and for examples of undaunted Christian heroism. Hence the value we are accustomed to attach to the writings which have come down to us from the first three centuries after Christ ; and this value is considerably enhanced by the fervour, the beauty, and the surpa ing eloquence which adorned the Church in that early day, and in the ages following. These were familiarly known to the Reformers of the Church of England; and, having taken the primitive Church as their model, and as the best witne of Catholic principles and usages, they transfused its spirit, not only into the liturgy, but into the whole framework and superstructure of that venerable fabric they aimed to restore. How well they succeeded, is evidenced in that fearle appeal which Catholics ever make, first to the Apostolic Church, then to those who drew their principles from it along with their infant breath, and flourished and died in an age when inspiration itself was scarcely extinct. That Church has nothing to dread which can lay its standards on the altar of antiquity, and return them to her bosom, signed with the glorious testimony of a Polycarp, an Ignatius, a Clement, and a “noble army of martyrs;” nothing has she to dread but the po ibility of declension, and unfaithfulne to her sacred trust.