SECTION XIV.

St. Timothy, at Ephesus.

THE next bishop we find ordained by the apostles, was Timothy, at Ephesus. That he was ordained by an apostle appears in Scripture. For St. Paul imposed hands on him; that is certain; "Excita gratiam, quæ in te est per impositionem manuum mearum ;" 66 By the laying on of my hands." That he was there a bishop, is also apparent from the power and offices concredited to him. First, he was to be resident at Ephesus'. And although, for the public necessities of the church, and for assistance to St. Paul, he might be called sometimes from his charge; yet there he lived and died, as the church-story writes, there was his ordinary residence, and his avocations were but temporary and occasional. And when it was, his cure was supplied by Tychicus, whom St. Paul sent to Ephesus as his vicar, as I shall show hereafter.

2. St. Paul, in his epistles to him, gave directions to him for episcopal deportment, as is plain; "A bishop must be blameless, the husband of one wife," &c. Thirdly, St. Paul concredits jurisdiction to St. Timothy. Over the people; παράγγελλε ταῦτα καὶ δίδασκε. Παραγγέλλειν is of as great extent in St. Timothy's commission as didάone. Commanding' as 'teaching.' Over presbyters; but yet so as to make difference between them and the neotericks in Christianity, "the one as fathers, the other as brethrend." 'Exinanis is denied to be used towards either of them : ἐπίπληξις, ἐπιτίμησις saith Suidas, "a dishonourable upbraiding or objurgation." Nay it is more; TITTT is castigo, plagam infero,' saith Budæus so that that kind of rebuking the bishop is forbidden to use, either toward priest or deacon, clergy or laity, old or young. "For a bishop must be no striker." But аpanáлe, that is given him in commission both to old and young, presbyters and catechumens, that is, Require them; postula, provoca.' Пaganenλñodai eis ovμuaxiar Synesius; "To be provoked to a duel, to be challenged."

And παρακαλῶ ὑμᾶς εἰς προσευχήν. Chrysostom: “ Ad precandum vos provoco.” Παρακαλεῖς με εἰς δάκρυα. — Eurip. "Thou makest me, or compellest me to shed tears."'Suaviter omnia;' That is the way St. Paul takes: Meekly,' but yet so as to do his office, to keep all in their several duties, and that is by a magáyyeme taūta, “ Command these things;" for so he sums up the bishop's duty towards presbyters, neophytes, and widows. "Give all these things in charge"," command all to do their duty. Command, but not objurgate. "Et quid negotii esset episcopo ut presbyterum non objurgaret, si super presbyterum non haberet potestatem?" So Epiphanius urges this argument to advantage. For, indeed, it had been to little purpose for St. Paul to have given order to Timothy, how he should exercise his jurisdiction over presbyters and people, if he had had no jurisdiction and coercive authority at all. Nay, and howsoever St. Paul forbids Timothy to use ἐπίπληξις, which is ἐπιτίμησις, yet St. Paul, in his second epistle, bids him use it, intimating, upon great occasion : Ἔλεγξον, ἐπιτίμησον, παρακάλησον 8. To be sure Пapánλnois, if it be but an urging, or an exhortation, is not all, for St. Paul gives him coercive jurisdiction, as well as directive. Over widows: vewrépas de xngas пagaiтoữ. “ Reject the younger widows," viz. " à collegio viduarum, ab eleemosynis ecclesiæ." Over presbyters; for he commands him to have sufficient probate in the accusation of presbyters, of which if he was not to take cognizance, it was to no purpose to number witnesses. Κατὰ πρεσβυτέρου κατηγορίαν μὴ παραδέχου, "Receive not a public accusation foro externo' against a priest." "Non vocabis in jus, nisi in testimonio duorum," &c. to wit, in causes criminal. That is sufficient intimation of the bishop's power to take cognizance in causes criminal; then for his punishing in such cases, it follows in the next words, τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας ἐνώπιον πάντων ἔλεγχε. “ Reprehend them publicly," that is, 'disgrace them.' For Exerxès is Èπoveldioros, indecorous.'- -Αργεῖοι, ἰόμωροι, ἐλεγχέες, οὔ νυ σέβεσθε ; Homer. Iliad. d, 242. So that éváπiov návтwv čλeyxXE in St. Paul, is to call them to public account:' that is one part of the jurisdiction. "EXεyxov ToÚTOυ λaßev, is, to examine.' Plato,

• 1 Tim. v. 7.

82 Tim. iv. 2.

f Hæres. 75.

1 Tim. v. 20.

Epist. didova Exeyxov Toù Bíou,' to give an account of one's life.' Idem in Apolog. And then also it implies punishment upon conviction,

̓Ατρείδη, νῦν δή σε, ἄναξ ἐθέλουσιν ̓Αχαιοὶ

Πᾶσιν ἐλέγχιστον θέμεναι μερόπεσσι βροτοῖσι.— Hom. 6. Iliad.

Most true.

Most true.

"Let

But the words in St. Paul will clear the business. them that sin, be publicly shamed,” ἵνα καὶ λοιποὶ φόβον ἔχωσι, "that the rest may fear;" a punishment most certainly, something that is èv pudel Tav pobegav, malum in genere pœnæ.' What else should they fear? to sin? But why upon this reprehension, if not for fear of being punished? Add to all this, that here is, in this chapter, the plain giving of a jurisdiction, an erection of a judicatory, and is all the way direction for his proceeding in cases criminal, appears most evidently, verse 21, "I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the elect angels, that thou observe these things," xwpis pongiuaros, " without prejudging" the cause of any man, before it comes in open contestation under public test of witnesses, μηδὲν ποιῶν κατὰ πρόσκλισιν, "doing nothing for favour or partiality." Nothing in the world is plainer, for the erection of a consistory, than these mandates of St. Paul.

Lastly: To make up his episcopal function complete, St. Paul gives him also direction concerning giving of orders. Lay hands suddenly on no man." "Sub testatione ergo ea quæ ad ordinationem ecclesiæ mandat custodiri. facilè aliquis accipiat ecclesiasticam dignitatem peccat enim si non probet et sic ordinet. Melior enim cæteris debet probari qui ordinandus est. Hæc episcopus custodiens, castum se exhibebit religioni, cujus rei in futuro præmium consequetur." So St. Ambrose upon the place, who is so far from exempting presbyters from being submitted to the bishop's consistory, that he does appropriate all his former cautions concerning the judicature and coercive jurisdiction to causes of the clergy.

Add to this evidence of Scripture, the testimony of catholic and unquestioned antiquity, affirming St. Timothy to have been ordained bishop of Ephesus by St. Paul. Eusebius,

i 1 Tim. v. 22.

speaking of the successions to St. Paul," Sed et Lucas," saith he, "in Actibus Apostolorum plurimos ejus socios memorat, sicut Timothei et Titi, quorum alter in Epheso episcopus -- ab eo ordinatus præficiturk." St. Ambrose affirms that St. Paul, having ordained him bishop, writes his first epistle to him, to instruct him in his episcopal office : "Hunc igitur jam creatum episcopum instruit per epistolam, quomodo deberet ecclesiam ordinare '." And that this epistle was written to instruct St. Timothy for his own person, and all bishops in him, for their deportment in the office of a bishop, is the united concurrent testimony of St. Vincentius", Tertullian", St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose P, Ecumenius 9, Epiphanius', Primasius', and St. Gregory. As for Epiphanius, in the place now quoted, he uses it as an argument against the madness and stupidity of Aerius, contending a bishop and a presbyter to be all one: "Docet Divinus apostoli sermo, quis sit episcopus et quis presbyter, quum dicit ad Timotheum, qui erat episcopus, Presbyterum ne objurges,"" &c. I shall transcribe no more testimonies for this particular, but that of the general council of Chalcedon, in the case of Bassianus and Stephanus ; Leontius, the bishop of Magnesia, spake it in full council, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου Τιμοθέου μέχρι νῦν εἴκοσι ἑπτὰ ἐπίσκοποι ἐγένοντο, πάντες ἐν Ἐφέσῳ ἐχειροτονήθησαν: “ from St. Timothy until now, there have been twenty-seven bishops ordained in Ephesus." Who desires a multitude of testimonies, (though enough already have deposed in the cause, besides the evidence of Scripture,) may to these add that saying of St. Chrysostom", that to Timothy was committed ἔθνος ὁλόκληρον τοῦτο ̓Ασίας: of Theodoret, calling him " episcopum Asianorum;" the subscription to the first epistle to Timothy; (which, if it were not writ by St. Paul, yet at least will prove a primitive record, and very ancient), the fragment of the martyrdom of St. Timothy in Photius, St. Jerome, St. Theophylact', Isidore, and Nicephorus 2.

And now all is well, if, after all this, Timothy do not

Lib. iii. e. 4.

n Cont. Marcion. lib. v.

4 1 Tim. iv. 5.

In Pastor. part. ii. c. 11.

Præfat. in 1 Tim.

• Hom. 10. in 1 Tim.

r Hæres. 75.
Acts, xi.

"In Titum, et 1 Philip. et in 1 Tim. iii.

X De Script. Eccles.

Z De Vita et Mort, SS. 87, 88,

n Cont. Hæres. P In 1 Tim. vi. Ad 1 Tim. iv.

Biblioth. Photii, n. 254.

y In Præf. 1 Tim.

a Lib. ii. c. 34. 2 Tim. iv. 5.

prove an evangelist, for this one objection will be sufficient to catch at, to support a drowning cause, and though neither pertinent nor true, yet shall be laid in the balance against all the evidence of Scripture and catholic antiquity. But "do the work of an evangelist," saith St. Paul; therefore it is clear St. Timothy was no bishop. No, was not? That is hard but let us try however.

1. Τὴν διακονίαν σου πληροφόρησον, those are the next words ; " fulfil thy deaconship." And, therefore, he was no bishop? As well this as the other; for if deaconship do not exclude episcopacy, why shall his being an evangelist exclude it? Or why may not his being a deacon exclude his being an evangelist, as well as his being an evangelist exclude his being a bishop? Whether is higher, a bishoprick, or the office of an evangelist? If a bishop's office be higher, and, therefore, cannot consist with an evangelist, then a bishop cannot be a priest, and a priest cannot be a deacon, and an evangelist can be neither: for that also is thought to be higher than they both. But if the office of an evangelist be higher, then as long as they are not disparate, much less destructive of each other, they may have leave to consist in subordination. For as for the pretence that an evangelist is an office of a moveable employment, and a bishoprick of fixed residence, that will be considered by and by.

2. All the former discourse is upon supposition, that the word danovía implies the office of a deacon;' and so it may, as well as St. Paul's other phrase implies St. Timothy to be an evangelist, for if we mark it well, it is pyov πoinσov suayYENOTOй, "Do the work," not the "office, of an evangelist." And what is that? We may see it in the verses immediately going before, Κήρυξον τὸν λόγον, ἐπίστηθι εὐκαίρως, ἀκαίρως· ἔλεγξον, ἐπιτίμησον, παρακάλεσον ἐν πάσῃ μακροθυμίᾳ καὶ διδαχῇ. And if this be the work of an evangelist, which St. Paul would have Timothy perform, viz. " to preach, to be instant in season, and out of season, to reprove, to rebuke, to exhort:" there is no harm done; a bishop may, nay, he must do all this.

3. Consider what an evangelist' is, and thence take our estimate for the present. 1. He that writes the story of the Gospel is an evangelist; so the Greek scholiast calls him. And in this sense, indeed, St. Timothy was not an evangelist; but yet if he had, he might have been a bishop; because St.