the kingdom. In many instances the terms may be interchanged, while in others we could not
substitute the church for the kingdom without impropriety: e.g., in the phrase "of such is the kingdom
of heaven" (Matt. 5:3; Mark 10:14); or, "thy kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10) or, "the kingdom of God
cometh not with observation, ... the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20, 21) or, "to inherit
the kingdom" (Matt. 25:34; 1 Cor. 6:10; 15:30; Gal. 5:21); or, "the kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost." A distinction between nominal
and real, or outward and inward, membership of the church, is indicated in the words of our Lord,
"Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matt. 22:14), and by Paul when be speaks of a circumcision
of the flesh and a circumcision of the heart (Rom. 2:28, 29). Here is the germ of the doctrine of the
visible and invisible church.
The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds include the holy catholic church and the communion of
saints among the articles of faith,^676 and do not limit them by the Greek, Roman, or any other
nationality or age. "Catholic" means universal, and is as wide as humanity. It indicates the capacity
and aim of the church; but the actualization of this universalness is a process of time, and it will
not be completed till the whole world is converted to Christ.^677
The mediaeval schoolmen distinguished three stages in the catholic church as to its
locality,—the militant church on earth (ecclesia militans), the church of the departed or the sleeping
church in purgatory (ecclesia dormiens), and the triumphant church in heaven (ecclesia triumphans).
This classification was retained by Wiclif, Hus, and other forerunners of Protestantism; but the
Reformers rejected the intervening purgatorial church, together with prayers for the departed, and
included all the pious dead in the church triumphant.
In the militant church on earth, Augustin made an important distinction between "the true
body of Christ" (corpus Christi verum), and "the mixed body of Christ" (corpus Christi mixtum or
simulatum). He substitutes this for the less suitable designation of a "twofold body of Christ" (corpus
Domini bipartitum), as taught by Tichonius, the Donatist grammarian (who referred to Cant. 1:5).
These two bodies are in this world externally in one communion, as the good and bad fish are in
one net, but they will ultimately be separated.^678 To the true or pure church belong all the elect, and
these only, whether already in the Catholic Church, or outside of it, yet predestinated for it. "Many,"
he says, "who are openly outside, and are called heretics, are better than many good Catholics; for
we see what they are to-day; what they shall be to-morrow, we know not; and with God, to whom
the future is already present, they already are what they shall be hereafter."^679 On the other hand,
hypocrites are in the church, but not of the church.
It should be added, however, that Augustin confined the true church on earth to the limits
of the visible, orthodox, catholic body of his day, and excluded all heretics,—Manichaeans,
Pelagians, Arians, etc.,—and schismatics,—Donatists, etc.,—as long as they remain outside of
(^676) Yet not in the strict and deeper sense in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are articles of (saving) faith; hence the preposition
εἰς, in, is omitted before ecclesiam, and the following articles, at least in the Latin forms (the Greek Nicene Creed has εἰς).
(^677) The term "catholic" (καθολικός, from κατὰand ὅλος, whole, entire, complete) does not occur in the New Testament (for the
inscrip-tions of the Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, ἐπιστολαὶ καθολικαί, or simply καθολικαί, are no part of the apostolic text,
but added by transcribers), and is first used as an epithet of the Church by Ignatius of Antioch, the enthusiast for episcopacy and martyrdom
(Ad Smyrn., c. 8), and in the Martyrium of Polycarp (in Eusebius, II. E., IV. 14). It was applied also to faith, tradition, people, and became
equivalent with Christian, in distinction from Jews, idolaters, heretics, and schismatics.
(^678) De Doctr. Christ., III. 32 (in Schaff’s "Nicene and Post-Nicene Library;" Works of St. Augustin, vol. II. 509).
(^679) De Bapt. contra Donat., IV. 5. For a fuller exposition of his doctrine of the church, see his Donatist writings, and Reuter’s Augustin.
Studien (1887).