this false standard proceeded at length the celibacy of the clergy and
monkery with all their attendant evils. And the time would fail me to
tell of the introduction of images and image-worship in the Western
Church and of that superstitious regard for miserable relics of every
description and kind. True evangelical faith was at length lost to
view, buried beneath the rubbish of men's traditions. The treatment
of such matters, however, belongs to the church historian, and as the
general facts are well-known, it is unnecessary here to make more than
a brief reference to them so as to prepare the mind for that treatment
of the reformation which is a special object of the present work.


[Footnote A: Tertullian is the earliest writer that clearly and
unmistakably teaches trine immersion, or records its practise. But
here he honestly confesses that it is a "somewhat ampler pledge than
the Lord has appointed in the gospel."]




CHAPTER VI

RISE OF ECCLESIASTICISM


[Sidenote: Two phases of apostacy]

In order to understand the place which the work of reformation has in
the plan and purpose of God respecting his church, we must carefully
observe the twofold character of the apostasy. Both these phases