It was indeed a mighty system rising throughout the world, and reduced by slow degrees to regularity and form. But two points seem settled and clear from the very first,—the necessity of Baptism to membership in the Community, and the necessity of the Apostles’ sanction to _every_ thing in the Community Universal. {123} And these two points being as clear and undeniable as any can possibly be, they simplify and make plain many of the supposed difficulties of that unformed state of things, which must have presented itself first of all in the Christian societies. Supposing, for instance, it were even made quite clear, that any Christian man, at first, was permitted to administer Baptism (though there really is no proof of this, but, on the contrary, a great deal against it), yet, knowing, as we do for certain, the Supremacy of the Apostles, we may be sure that no such thing would have been practised without their temporary sanction. The same Apostles who gave Deacons a portion of their power, to “minister to the necessities of saints,” might if they thought fit have given to other Christians, permission to Baptize, in their absence. And this might be more readily accorded to those private Christians who had, as so many had, supernatural gifts. But it took, and plainly must have taken, many years to reduce to uniform order so far spread and rapidly-risen a system as that of the Christian Church. It would take time to ascertain in remote parts the will of the Apostles; and in the interim, doubtless, many confusions would naturally arise, especially in those scarcely-formed Communities which perhaps had no settled Elders or Deacons, much less Bishops. Since, then, the principle is clear, that every Baptized man was held to be a subject of the Apostles’ dominion, i.e. the “kingdom of heaven” or Church, it is plain, that the validity of any act of a ministerial kind would be derived from the Apostolical permission. And it is on this principle, and this alone, that Lay-Baptism can be said to have had any Primitive sanction. In so far as the Apostle, and afterwards the Bishop, might allow it, it might have a _pro tanto_ validity; and so the Bishop was deemed to complete Baptism by laying on his hands in Confirmation. (Acts viii. 17) Such is the language of the early Fathers, not only with respect to Baptism, but every other matter; as for instance, Marriage, which could not be sanctified by Roman Registrars had such existed, but was reckoned base and unchristian unless it had the Bishop’s sanction.