SECTION XIII.

In Pursuance of the Divine Institution, the Apostles did ordain Bishops in several Churches.

FIRST, then the apostles did, presently after the ascension, fix an apostle or a bishop in the chair of Jerusalem. For they knew that Jerusalem was shortly to be destroyed; they themselves foretold of miseries and desolations to ensue ; (“Petrus et Paulus prædicunt cladem Hierosolymitanam,” saith Lactantius, lib. iv. Inst.) famines and wars, and not a stone left upon another, was the fate of that rebellious city by Christ's own prediction, which themselves recorded in Scripture. And to say they understood not what they wrote, is to make them enthusiasts, and neither good doctors nor wise seers. But it is a Béλous that the Holy Spirit, which was promised" to lead them into all truth," would instruct them in so concerning an issue of public affairs, as was so great desolation; and therefore they began betimes to establish that church, and to fix it upon its perpetual base. Secondly: the church of Jerusalem was to be the precedent and platform for other churches. "The word of God went forth into all the world, beginning first at Jerusalem;" and therefore also it was more necessary a bishop should be there placed betimes, that other churches might see their government from whence they received their doctrine, that they might see from what stars their continual flux of light must stream. Thirdly: the apostles were actually dispersed by persecution, and this, to be sure, they looked for, and therefore (so implying the necessity of a bishop to govern in their absence or decession any ways) they ordained St. James the first bishop of Jerusalem; there he fixed his chair, there he lived bishop for thirty years, and finished his course with glorious martyrdom. If this be proved, we are in a fair way for practice apostolical.

First Let us see all that is said of St. James in Scripture, that may concern this affair. Acts, xv. We find St. James in the synod at Jerusalem, not disputing, but giving final determination to that great question about circumcision.

"And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said," &c. He first drave the question to an issue, and told them what he believed concerning it, with a TIσTEÚμEV owenval, we trust it will go as well with us without circumcision, as with our forefathers who used it.' But St. James, when he had summed up what had been said by St. Peter, gave sentence and final determination: Aò và ngívw, "Wherefore I judge or give sentence." So he. The acts of council which the brethren or presbyters did use, were deliberative; "they disputed," ver. 7. St. Peter's act was declarative, but St. James's was decisive; which proves him clearly (if, by reasonableness of the thing, and the successive practice of Christendom in imitation of this first council apostolical, we may take our estimate), that St. James was the president of this synod; which, considering that he was none of the twelve (as I proved formerly), is unimaginable, were it not for the advantage of the place, it being held in Jerusalem, where he was "Hierosolymorum episcopus," as St. Clement calls him; especially in the presence of St. Peter, who was "primus apostolus," and decked with many personal privileges and prerogatives.

Add to this, that although the whole council did consent to the sending of the decretal epistle, and to send Judas and Silas, yet, because they were of the presbytery, and college of Jerusalem, St. James's clergy, they are said, as by way of appropriation, to come from St. James, Gal. ii. ver. 12. Upon which place St. Austin saith thus: "Cùm vidisset quosdam venisse à Jacobo, i. e. à Judæâ, nam ecclesiæ Hierosolymitanæ Jacobus præfuit." To this purpose that of Ignatius is very pertinent, calling St. Stephen the deacon of St. James', and, in his epistle to Hero, saying that he did minister to St. James and the presbyters of Jerusalem; which if we expound according to the known discipline of the church in Ignatius's time, who was "suppar apostolorum," only not a contemporary bishop, here is plainly the eminency of an episcopal chair, and Jerusalem the seat of St. James, and the clergy his own, of a college of which he was the "præpositus ordinarius," he was their ordinary.'

The second evidence of Scripture is Acts, xxi. “And when

a Epist. ad Trall.

we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly, and the day following Paul went in with us anto James, and all the elders were present." Why unto James? Why not rather unto the presbytery, or college of elders, if James did not 'eminere,' were not the youμevos, the 'præpositus' or 'bishop' of them all ?

Now that these conjectures are not vain and impertinent, see it testified by antiquity, to which, in matter of fact and church-story, he that will not give faith upon current testimonies, and uncontradicted by antiquity, is a madman, and may as well disbelieve every thing that he hath not seen himself, and can no way prove that himself was christened; and to be sure, after sixteen hundred years, there is no possibility to disprove a matter of fact, that was never questioned or doubted of before, and, therefore, can never obtain the faith of any man to his contradictory, it being impossible to prove it.

Eusebius reports out of St. Clement: Πέτρον γὰρ φησι καὶ Ἰάκωβον καὶ Ἰωάννην, μετὰ τὴν ἀνάληψιν τοῦ σωτῆρος, ὡς ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ Κυρίου προτετιμημένους, μὴ ἐπιδικάζεσθαι δόξης, ἀλλὰ Ἰάκωβον, τὸν Δίκαιον, ἐπίσκοπον Ἱεροσολύμων ἑλέσθαι . “ St. Peter and St. John, ". although they were honoured of our Lord, yet they would not themselves be, but made James, surnamed the Just, bishop of Jerusalem." And the reason is that which is given by Hegesippus in Eusebius for his successor Simon Cleopha; for when St. James was crowned with martyrdom, and immediately the city destroyed, "Traditur apostolos qui supererant in commune consilium habuisse, quem oportere dignum successione Jacobi judicare." It was concluded for Simeon, because he was the kinsman of our Lord, as St. James also, his predecessor. The same concerning St. James is also repeated by Eusebius: "Judæi ergo, cùm Paulus provocâsset ad Cæsarem-in Jacobum, fratrem Domini, cui ab apostolis sedes Hierosolymitana delata fuit,' omnem suam malevolentiam convertunt "."

In the apostolical constitutions under the name of St. Clement, the apostles are brought in speaking thus: "De ordinatis autem à nobis episcopis in vitâ nostrâ, significamus vobis quòd hi sunt; Hierosolymis ordinatus est Jacobus, frater

b Lib. ii. Hist. cap. i.

c Lib. iii. c. 11.

Lib. ii. c. 22.

Domini:" "St. James, the brother of our Lord, was ordained bishop of Jerusalem by us," apostles. The same is witnessed by Anacletus: "Porrò et Hierosolymitarum primus episcopus B. Jacobus, qui Justus dicebatur, et secundum carnem Domini nuncupatus est frater, à Petro, Jacobo, et Johanne, apostolis, est ordinatusf." And the same thing in terms is repeated by Anicetus, with a "Scimus enim beatissimum Jacobum," &c. Just as Anacletus before. St. James was bishop of Jerusalem, and Peter, James, and John, were his ordainers.

But let us see the testimony of one of St. James's successors in the same chair, who certainly was the best witness of his own church-records. St. Cyril of Jerusalem is the man. "Nam de his non mihi solùm, sed etiam apostolis, et 'Jacobo hujus ecclesiæ olim episcopo' curæ fuit," speaking of the question of circumcision, and things sacrificed to idols; and again, he calls St. James, "primum hujus parochiæ episcopum,” “the first bishop of this diocese."

St. Austin also attests this story. "Cathedra tibi quid fecit ecclesiæ, in quâ Petrus sedit, et in quâ hodiè Anastasius sedet? Vel ecclesiæ Hierosolymitana' in quâ Jacobus sedit,' et in quâ hodiè Johannes sedet?" I must not omit the testimony of St. Jerome, for it will be of great use in the sequel: "Jacobus," saith he, " post passionem Domini statim ab apostolis Hierosolymorum episcopus ordinatus ;" and the same also he repeats out of Hegesippus'. There are many more testimonies to this purpose, as of St. Chrysostom", Epiphanius", St. Ambrose, the council of Constantinople in Trullo P. But Gregorius Turonensis rises a little higher: "Jacobus, frater Domini vocitatus, ab ipso Domino nostro Jesu Christo episcopus dicitur ordinatus :" "St. James, the brother of our Lord, is said to have been ordained bishop by our Lord Jesus Christ himself." If by ordinatus' he means' designatus,' he agrees with St. Chrysostom: but either of them both will

* Lib. vii. c. 46. et lib. viii. cap. ult. Epist. Decret. Unic.

h Catech. 4.

f Epist. 2.

i Catech. 16.

Lib. ii. cont. Lit. Petil. c. 51. et lib. ii. cont. Crescon. c. 37.

1 Lib. de Script. Eccles. in Jacobo.

Hom. 38. in 1 Cor. xv. et 33. Hom. in Act. xv.

Hæres. 66.

Hom. S. in Act.

• In Galat. i.

Cap. iii. 3.

serve the turn for the present. But, either in one sense or the other, it is true, and attested also by Epiphanius: "Et primus hic accepit cathedram episcopatûs, cui concredidit Dominus thronum suum in terra primò :" "St. James had first the episcopal chair, for our Lord first intrusted his earthly throne to him." And thus we are encircled with a cloud of witnesses; to all which if we add what I before observed, that St. James is in Scripture called an apostle, and yet he was none of the twelve, and that, in the sense of Scripture and the catholic church, a bishop and an apostle is all one, it follows from the premises, (and of them already there is faith enough made,) that St. James was, by Christ's own designation and ordination apostolical, made bishop of the church of Jerusalem,- that is, had power apostolical concredited to him which presbyters had not; and this apostolate was limited and fixed, as his successors' since have been.

But that this also was not a temporary business, and to expire with the persons of St. James and the first apostles, but a regiment of ordinary and successive duty in the church, it appears by the ordination of St. Simeon, the son of Cleophas, to be his successor. It is witnessed by Eusebius: "Post martyrium Jacobi-traditur apostolos, &c. habuisse in commune consilium quem oporteret dignum successione Jacobi judicare; omnesque, uno consilio, atque uno consensu, Simeonem, Cleophæ filium decrevisse, ut episcopatûs sedem susciperet." The same also he transcribes out of Hegesippus: "Posteaquam Jacobus martyr effectus est-electione Divinâ Simeon Cleophæ filius episcopus ordinatur, electus ab omnibus, pro eo quòd esset consobrinus Domini." St. Simeon was ordained bishop " by a Divine election!;" and Epiphanius, in the catalogue of the bishops of Jerusalem, reckons first James, and next Simeon, "qui sub Trajano crucifixus est "."

r Hæres. 78.

Lib. iv. cap. 22.

Lib. iii. Hist. c. 11.

u Hæres. 66.