have succession from the apostles, as we have shown, and who, with the succession of the episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth according to the will of the Father; but as for those who depart from the principal succession, and meet in any place, they are to be suspected, either as heretics and men of false doctrine, or as schismatics, puffed up, and pleasing themselves, or as hypocrites, impelled to such actions by avarice and vain-glory "."

Tertullian: "If any heresies dare to connect themselves with the apostolic age, pretending to be derived from the apostles because they existed in their time, we may say: Let them declare the origin of their churches: let them unfold the catalogue of their bishops, so descending by succession from the beginning, that the first bishop had as his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles, or of the apostolic men who remained united to the apostles "."

Cyprian: "Novatian is not in the church, nor can he be deemed a bishop, who despising the evangelical and apostolical tradition, and succeeding to no one, is sprung from himself. One not ordained in the church has no church f." "These" (heretics)

d" Quapropter eis qui in ecclesia sunt, presbyteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab apostolis, sicut ostendimus; qui cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum, secundum placitum Patris acceperunt," &c.-Adv. Hær. iv. c. 26.

"Cæterum si quæ audent interserere se ætati apostolicæ, ut ideo videantur ab apostolis traditæ, quia sub apostolis fuerunt, possumus dicere: edant ergo ori

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are they who,

gines ecclesiarum suarum: evolvant ordinem episcoporum suorum, ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis vel apostolicis viris, qui tamen cum apostolis perseveraverit, habuerit auctorem et antecessorem." -Tertull. de Præscript. c. 32.

f" Novatianus in ecclesia non est, nec episcopus computari potest, qui evangelica et apostolica traditione contempta, nemini succedens, a se ipso ortus est: ha

of their own accord, without the divine will, appoint themselves to preside over some random conventicle; who without any lawful ordination constitute themselves pastors; who, without receiving it from any of the bishops, assume to themselves the title of bishop "."

Optatus: "You who pretend to claim for your own the holy church: declare the origin of your episcopal see b!"

h

Ephrem Syrus: "They are to be urged again each of them to show his age, which is the more ancient. Manes may claim the right of primogeniture, but Bardesanes was before him, &c..... Let them again be distinctly asked from whom they received the imposition of hands? And if they received it from us, and afterwards rejected it, the truth seeks nothing more. But if they took the priest's office themselves, there is enough to refute them and cover them with shame. For then any one may be a priest if he pleases to lay hands on his own head."

OBJECTIONS.

I. All Christians may celebrate the praise of God, offer to him spiritual sacrifices, and mutually comfort and exhort each other (Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16; 1 Thess. iv. 18.). Therefore there is no need of any formal vocation.

bere namque aut tenere ecclesiam nullo modo potest, qui ordinatus in ecclesia non est."-Epist. ad Magnum (ep. lxxvi.).

"Hi sunt qui se ultro apud temerarios convenas, sine divina dispositione, præficiunt; qui se præpositos sine ulla ordinationis lege constituunt; qui nemine episcoporum dante, episcopi sibi

nomen assumunt."-Cypr. de Unit. Ecclesiæ.

h"Vos vestræ cathedræ originem reddite, qui vobis vultis sanctam ecclesiam vindicare."Lib. ii. cont. Parmen.

i

Serm. xxii. adv. Hær. tom. ii. p. 487, 488. Oper. Ephr. Syri Syriace et Lat. ed. Assemani.

Answer. These are not properly the work of the ministry, but religious and charitable exercises which are performed without authority, and cannot interfere with the office of those whom "the Holy Ghost hath made overseers over the flock to feed the church of God" (Acts xx. 28.); of whom it is said, "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account" (Heb. xiii. 17.).

II. Those who were dispersed after the death of Stephen (Acts viii. 4.) went every where preaching the word.

Answer. (1.) They did not preach where the church already existed; therefore their preaching affords no pretext for assuming the office of the ministry in the church. (2.) It is not said that every one preached, but only in general terms, that those who were dispersed abroad did so, and we may reasonably suppose that such persons were either ministers of the church, (as Philip, Acts viii. 5.), or were endowed with gifts of the Spirit to prove their mission.

III. The "house of Stephanas addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints" (1 Cor. xvi. 15.).

Answer. They did so with the sanction and approbation of St. Paul, and not merely from their own impulse.

IV. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall all be taught of God" (John vi. 45.). "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things" (1 John ii. 20.). "The Spirit shall lead you unto all truth" (John xvi. 13.).

Answer. (1.) These passages cannot prove the Christian ministry needless, because its divine institution is recorded in Scripture. (2.) They speak of the high

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spiritual privileges of Christians, but these privileges are only conferred on him who obeys God's commandments, "for he it is that loveth me;" and one of those commandments is: "Obey them that have the rule over you," &c.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.

THE Oriental (sometimes called the Greek) church, prevails more or less in Russia, Siberia, North America, Poland, European Turkey, Servia, Moldavia, Wallachia, Greece, the Archipelago, Crete, Cyprus, the Ionian Islands, Georgia, Circassia, Mingrelia, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt. The vast and numerous churches of the East, are all ruled by bishops and archbishops, of whom the chief are the four Patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The Russian church was subject to a fifth patriarch from the latter part of the sixteenth century; but since the reign of Peter the Great, the appointment to this high office has been suspended by the emperor, who deemed its power too great, and calculated to rival that of the throne itself. In its place Peter the Great instituted the "Holy Legislative Synod," which is directed by the emperor. I maintain that these

a See Mosheim, vol. iv. sect. 3. part i. chapter 2; Consett's Present State of the Church of Russia, (1729) which contains the

"Spiritual Regulation" for the Synod, composed by Theophanes, archbishop of Novogrod, and published by Peter the Great.