Peter and St. John were, who call themselves presbyters. His words are these: "Proptereà eis qui in ecclesiâ sunt presbyteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab apostolis, qui cum episcopatûs successione charisma veritatis certum secundùm placitum Patris acceperunts." And a little after: "Tales presbyteros nutrit ecclesia, de quibus et propheta ait, Et dabo principes tuos in pace, et episcopos tuos in justitiâ." So that he gives testimony for us, not against us. As for St. Jerome, the third man, he, in the succession to the honour of the apostolate, joins presbyters with bishops; and that is right enough; for if the bishop alone does succeed, 'in plenitudinem potestatis apostolicæ ordinaria',' as I have proved he does, then, also, it is true of the bishop, together with his 'consessus presbyterorum.'"Episcopi presbyteri habeant in exemplum apostolos et apostolicos viros; quorum honorem possidentes, habere nitantur et meritum :" these are his words, and enforce not so much as may be safely granted; for 'reddendo singula singulis,' bishops succeed apostles, and presbyters apostolic men; and such were many that had not at first any power apostolical; and that is all that can be inferred from this place of St. Jerome. I know nothing else to stay me, or to hinder our assent to those authorities of Scripture I have alleged, and the full voice of traditive interpretation. SECTION XII. And the Institution of Episcopacy, as well as the Apostolate, expressed to be Divine, by primitive Authority. THE second argument from antiquity is the direct testimony of the fathers for a ' Divine institution.' In this St. Cyprian is most plentiful: "Dominus noster, episcopi honorem et ecclesiæ suæ rationem disponens in evangelio, dicit Petro, &c. Inde per temporum et successionum vices, episcoporum ordinatio et ecclesiæ ratio decurrit, ut ecclesia super episcopos constituatur, et omnis actus ecclesiæ per eosdem præpositos gubernetur. Cùm hoc itaque Divinâ lege fundatum sit," &c. h Cap. xliv. i Epist. 13. a Epist. 27. Lib. iv. c. 43. “Our Lord did institute in the Gospel the honour of a bishop. Hence comes the ordination of bishops; and the church is built upon them, and every action of the church is to be governed by them; and this is founded upon a Divine law." "Meminisse autem diaconi debent quoniam apostolos, i. e. episcopos, et præpositos Dominus elegit:" "Our Lord hath chosen apostles, that is, bishops and church governors "." And a little after: "Quòd si nos aliquid audere contra Deum possumus, qui episcopos facit, possunt et contra nos audere diaconi, à quibus fiunt:" "We must not attempt any thing against God, who hath instituted bishops." The same father, in his epistle to Magnus, disputes against Novatianus's being a bishop: "Novatianus in ecclesiâ non est, nec episcopus computari potest, qui evangelicâ et apostolicâ traditione contemptâ, nemini succedens, à seipso ordinatus est." If there was both an evangelical and an apostolic tradition, for the successive ordination of bishops by other bishops, (as St. Cyprian affirms there is, by saying, 'Novatianus contemned it,') then, certainly, the same evangelical power did institute that calling, for the modus of whose election it took such particular order. St. Ignatius, long before him, speaking concerning his absent friend, Sotion, the deacon, οὗ ἐγὼ ὀναίμην, ὅτι ὑποτάσσεται τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ καὶ τῷ πρεσβυτερίῳ χάριτι Θεοῦ, ἐν νόμῳ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, He wishes for the good man's company, because "by the grace of God, and according to the law of Jesus Christ, he was obedient to the bishop and his clergy."-And a little after: πρέπον οὖν ἐστι καὶ ὑμᾶς ὑπακούειν τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ ὑμῶν, κατὰ μηδὲν αὐτῷ ἀντιλέγειν. οὐ γὰρ τουτονὶ τὸν βλεπόμενον πλανᾷ τις, ἀλλὰ τὸν ἀόρατον παραλογίζεται, τὸν μὴ δυνάμενον παρὰ τίνος παραλογισθῆναι. τὸ δὲ τοιοῦτο, οὐ πρὸς ἄνθρωπον ἀλλὰ πρὸς Θεὸν, ἔχει τὴν ἀναφοράν. It is home enough. "Ye ought to obey your bishop, and to contradict him in nothing." It is a fearful thing to contradict him; for whosoever does so, "does not mock a visible man, but the invisible, undeceivable God. For this contumely relates not to man, but to God." So St. Ignatius; which could not be true, were it a human constitution, and no Divine ordinance. But more full are those words of his, in his epistle to the Ephesians : Σπουδάσατε ἀγαπητοὶ ὑποταγῆναι d Epist. ad Magnes. b Epist. 65. ad Rogatian. с Epist. 76. τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ, καὶ τοῖς πρεσβυτέροις, καὶ τοῖς διακόνοις. ὁ γὰρ τούτοις ὑποτασσόμενος ὑπακούει Χριστῷ τῷ προχειρισαμένῳ αὐτούς. “ He that obeys the bishop and clergy, obeys Christ, who did constitute and ordain them." This is plain and dogmatical; I would be loath to have two men so famous, so ancient, and so resolute, speak half so much against us. But it is a general resolve, and no private opinion. For St. Austin is confident in the case with a "Nemo ignorat episcopos Salvatorem ecclesiis instituisse. Ipse enim priusquam in cœlos ascenderet, imponens manum apostolis, ordinavit eos episcopos:" "No man is so ignorant but he knows that our blessed Saviour appointed bishops over churches; for before his ascension into heaven, he ordained the apostles to be bishops." But long before him, Hegesippus, going to Rome, and by the way calling in at Corinth, and divers other churches, discoursed with their several bishops, and found them catholic and holy, and then stayed at Rome three successions of bishops, Anicetus, Soter, and Eleutherius. "Sed in omnibus istis ordinationibus, vel in cæteris quas per reliquas urbes videram, ita omnia habebantur, sicut lex antiquitùs tradidit, et prophetæ indicaverunt, Et Dominus statuit:"" "All things in these ordinations or successions were as our Lord had appointed f." All things, therefore, both of doctrine and discipline, and therefore the ordinations themselves too. Further yet, and it is worth observing, there was never any bishop of Rome, from St. Peter to St. Sylvester, that ever writ a decretal epistle now extant and transmitted to us, but, either professedly or accidentally, he said or intimated, "that the order of bishops did come from God." St. Irenæus, speaking of bishops successors to the apostles, saith, that, with their order of bishoprick, they have received "charisma veritatis certum," "a true, and certain or indelible character;""secundum placitum Patris," "according to the will of God the Father." And this also is the doctrine of St. Ambrose: " Ideò quanquam melior apostolus aliquando tamen eget prophetis ; et quia ab uno Deo Patre sunt omnia, singulos episcopos singulis ecclesiis præesse decrevit :" "God, from whom all good things do come, did decree that every church should be governed by a bishop"." And again: "Honor igitur, fratres, et sublimitas episcopalis, nullis poterit comparationibus adæquari; si regum fulgori compares," &c. And a little after: "Quid jam de plebeiâ dixerim multitudine, cui non solùm præferri à Domino meruit, sed ut eam quoque jure tueatur patrio, præceptis imperatum est evangelicis:" "The honour and sublimity of the bishop is an incomparable pre-eminence, and is by God set over the people; and it is commanded by the precept of the holy Gospel, that he should guide them by a father's right." And in the close of his discourse: "Sic certè à Domino ad B. Petrum dicitur, ' Petre, amas me?'-repetitum est à Domino tertiò, 'Pasce oves meas.' Quas oves, et quem gregem non solùm tunc B. suscepit Petrus, sed et cum illo nos suscepimus omnes :" "Our blessed Lord committed his sheep to St. Peter to be fed, and in him we (who have pastoral or episcopal authority) have received the same authority and commission." Thus also divers of the fathers, speaking of the ordination of St. Timothy to be bishop, and of St. Paul's intimation, that it was by prophecy, affirm it to be done by order of the Holy Ghost. Tí sσti ἀπὸ προφητείας; ἀπὸ πνεύματος ἁγίου, saith St. Chrysostom * ; "He was ordained by prophecy, that is, by the Holy Ghost." Ο Θεός σε ἐξελέξατο· οὐκ ἀνθρωπίνῃ γέγονας ψήφῳ, “ Thou wert not made bishop by human constitution.” Πνεύματος προστάξει, so Oecumenius. By Divine revelation," saith Theodoret. By the command of the Holy Ghost," so Theophylact; and indeed so St. Paul, to the assembly of elders and bishops met at Miletus, "Spiritus Sanctus posuit vos episcopos," "The Holy Ghost hath made you bishops" and to be sure St. Timothy was amongst them, and he was a bishop, and so were divers others there present; therefore the order itself is a ray streaming from the Divine beauty, since a single person was made bishop by revelation. I might multiply authorities in this particular, which are very frequent and confident for the Divine institution of episcopacy, in Origen"; in the council of Carthage, recorded by St. Cyprian; in the collection of the Oriental canons by Martinus Bracarensis"; i De Dignit. Sacerd. cap. 2. Homil. 4. Græc. 5. Lat. in 1 Tim. cap. iii. In Tit. i. Acts, xx. m Hom. 32. in Johan. » Can, 6, h In 1 Cor. xii. 66 in the councils of Aquisgrane, and Toledo, and many more. The sum is that which was taught by St. Sextus : " Apostolorum dispositione, ordinante Domino, episcopi primitùs sunt constituti:""The Lord did at first ordain, and the apostles did so order it, and so bishops at first had their original constitution." These, and all the former who affirm bishops to be successors of the apostles, and by consequence to have the same institution, drive all to the same issue, and are sufficient to make faith, that it was the doctrine primitive and catholic that episcopacy is a Divine institution, which 'Christ planted' in the first founding of Christendom, which the 'Holy Ghost watered' in his first descent on Pentecost, and to which we are confident that God will give an increase' by a neverfailing succession, unless where God removes the candlestick, or, which is all one, takes away the star, the angel of light, from it, that it may be enveloped in darkness," usque ad consummationem sæculi et aperturam tenebrarum." The conclusion of all, I subjoin in the words of Venerable Bede before quoted: "Sunt ergo jure Divino episcopi à presbyteris prælatione distincti:" "Bishops are distinct from presbyters, and superior to them by the law of God"." The second basis of episcopacy is apostolical tradition.❜ We have seen what Christ did, now we shall see what was done by his apostles. And since they knew their Master's mind so well, we can never better confide in any argument to prove Divine institution of a derivative authority than the practice apostolical. "Apostoli enim, discipuli veritatis existentes, extra omne mendacium sunt; non enim communicat mendacium veritati, sicut non communicant tenebræ luci, sed præsentia alterius excludit alterum," saith St. Irenæus'." • Can. 25. P Octavum, can. 7. ▾ Lib. iii. in Lucam, c. 15. ¶ Epist. 2. |