Alexandria, (for bishop he was, most certainly,) is not obscurely intimated by the most excellent man, St. Gelasius, in the Roman council," Marcus à Petro apostolo in Ægyptum directus, verbum veritatis prædicavit, et gloriosè consummavit martyrium"." St. Peter sent him into Egypt to found a church, and, therefore, would furnish him with all things requisite for so great employment; and that could be no less than the ordinary power apostolical.

SECTION XVII.

St. Linus and St. Clement, at Rome.

BUT in the church of Rome, the ordination of bishops by the apostles, and their successions during the times of the apostles, is very manifest, by a concurrent testimony of old writers. "Fundantes igitur, et instruentes beati apostoli ecclesiam Lino episcopatum administrandæ ecclesiæ tradiderunt. Hujus Lini Paulus in his, quæ sunt ad Timotheum, epistolis meminit. Succedit autem ei Anacletus, post eum tertio loco ab apostolis episcopatum sortitur Clemens, qui et vidit ipsos apostolos, et contulit cum eis, cum adhuc insonantem prædicationem apostolorum, et traditionem ante oculos haberet." So St. Irenæus". "Memoratur autem ex comitibus Pauli Crescens quidam ad Gallias esse præfectus; Linus vero et Clemens in urbe Româ ecclesiæ præfuisse "." Many more testimonies there are of these men's being ordained bishops of Rome by the apostles; as of Tertullian, Optatus, St. Augustin, and St. Jerome'. But I will not cloy my reader with variety of one dish, and be tedious in a thing so evident and known.

SECTION XVIII.

St. Polycarp, at Smyrna, and divers others.

ST. JOHN ordained St. Polycarp bishop at Smyrna. “Sicut Smyrnæorum ecclesia habens Polycarpum ab Johanne collocatum refert; sicut Romanorum Clementem à Petro ordinatum edit, proinde utique et cæteræ exhibent quos ab apostolis in episcopatum constitutos apostolici seminis traduces habeant." So Tertullian'. "The church of Smyrna saith that Polycarp was placed there by St. John, as the church of Rome saith that Clement was ordained there by St. Peter; and other churches have those whom the apostles made to be their bishops." "Polycarpus autem non solum ab apostolis edoctus sed etiam ab apostolis in Asiâ, in eâ quæ est Smyrnis ecclesiâ, constitutus episcopus--et testimonium his perhibent quæ sunt in Asiâ, ecclesiæ omnes, et qui usque adhuc successerunt Polycarpo," &c. The same also is witnessed by St. Jerome, and Eusebius: "Quoniam autem valde longum est in tali volumine omnium ecclesiarum successiones enumerare," to use St. Irenæus's expression. It were an infinite labour to reckon up all those whom the apostles made bishops with their own hands, as Dionysius the Areopagite at Athens, Caius at Thessalonica, Archippuse at Colosse, Onesimus' at Ephesus, Antipas at Pergamus, Epaphroditus at Philippi, Crescens among the Gauls, Evodias at Antioch, Sosipater' at Iconium, Erastus in Macedonia, Trophimus at Arles, Jason at Tarsus, Silas at Corinth, Onesiphorus at Colophon, Quartus at Berytus, Paul, the proconsul, at Narbona, besides many more whose names are not recorded in Scripture, as these fore-cited are, so many as Eusebius counts impossible to enumerate; it shall * De Præscript. De Script. Eccles. lib. iii. c. 35.

Euseb. lib. iv. c. 23. et lib. iii. c. 4.

• St. Ambrose, in Coloss. iv.

Origen. lib. x. in Rom. x.

! Ignatius Epist. ad Ephes. et Euseb. lib. iii. c. 35.

Arethas in i. Apocal.

Epist. ad Philip. et Thedoret. ib. et 1 Tim. iii.

Euseb. lib. iii. c. 4. apud Gallias. So Ruffinus reads it. “In Galatia."

so is intimated in Scripture, and so the Roman Martyrol.

* Ignatius Epist. ad Antioch. et Euseb. lib. iii. c. 22.

' In Martyrologio Roman.

Lib. iii. c. 37.

therefore suffice to sum up this digest of their acts and ordinations in those general foldings used by the fathers, saying that the apostles did ordain bishops in all churches, that the succession of bishops, down from the apostles' first ordination of them, was the only argument to prove their churches catholic, and their adversaries', who could not do so, to be heretical. This also is very evident, and of great consideration in the first ages, while their tradition was clear and evident, and not so bepuddled as it since hath been with the mixture of heretics, striving to spoil that which did so much mischief to their causes.

"Edant origines ecclesiarum suarum, evolvant ordinem episcoporum suorum ita per successiones ab initio decurrentem, ut primus ille episcopus aliquem ex apostolis, aut apostolicis viris, habuerit auctorem et antecessorem, hoc modo ecclesiæ apostolicæ census suos deferunt," &c. And when St. Irenæus had reckoned twelve successions in the church of Rome from the apostles, " nunc duodecimo loco ab apostolis episcopatum habet Eleutherius. Hâc ordinatione," saith he," et successione, et ea quæ est ab apostolis in ecclesiâ traditio et veritatis præconiatio pervenit usque ad nos; et est plenissima hæc ostensio unam et eandem vivatricem fidem esse, quæ in ecclesiâ ab apostolis usque nunc sit conservata, et tradita in veritate"." So that this succession of bishops from the apostles' ordination, must of itself be a very certain thing, when the church made it a main probation of their faith; for the books of Scripture were not all gathered together, and generally received as yet. Now then, since this was a main pillar of their Christianity, viz. a constant reception of it from hand to hand, as being delivered by the bishops in every chair, till we come to the very apostles that did ordain them; this, I say, being their proof, although it could not be more certain than the thing to be proved, which in that case was a Divine revelation, yet to them it was more evident, as being matter of fact, and known almost by evidence of sense, and as verily believed by all, as it was by any one, that himself was baptized, both relying upon the report of others. "Radix Christianæ societatis per sedes apostolorum, et successiones episcoporum, certâ per orbem propaga

"Lib. iii. cap. S.

tione diffunditur," saith St. Augustin": "The very root and foundation of Christian communion is spread all over the world, by the successions of apostles and bishops."

And is it not now a madness to say there was no such thing, no succession of bishops in the churches apostolical, no ordination of bishops by the apostles, and so, as St. Paul's phrase is, "overthrow the faith of some," even of the primitive Christians, that used this argument as a great weapon of offence against the invasion of heretics and factious people? It is enough for us that we can truly say, with St. Irenæus, "Habemus annumerare eos qui ab apostolis instituti sunt episcopi in ecclesiis usque ad nos:" "We can reckon those, who, from the apostles until now, were made bishops in the churches ;" and of this we are sure enough, if there be any faith in Christians.

SECTION XIX.

So that Episcopacy is at least an Apostolical Ordinance; of the same Authority with many other Points generally believed.

THE sum is this. Although we had not proved the immediate Divine institution of episcopal power over presbyters and the whole flock, yet episcopacy is not less than an apostolical ordinance, and delivered to us by the same authority that the observation of the Lord's day is. For, for that in the New Testament we have no precept, and nothing but the example of the primitive disciples meeting in their Synaxes upon that day, and so also they did on the Saturday in the Jewish synagogues, but yet (however that at Geneva they were once in meditation to have changed it into a Thursday meeting, to have shown their Christian liberty,) we should think strangely of those men that called the Sunday-festival less than an apostolical ordinance: and necessary now to be kept holy with such observances as the church hath appointed.

Baptism of infants is most certainly a holy and charitable

ordinance, and of ordinary necessity to all that ever cried, and yet the church hath founded this rite upon the tradition of the apostles; and wise men do easily observe, that the anabaptist can, by the same probability of Scripture, enforce a necessity of communicating infants upon us, as we do of baptizing infants upon them, if we speak of immediate Divine institution, or of practice apostolical recorded in Scripture and therefore a great master of Geneva, in a book he wrote against the anabaptists, was forced to fly to apostolical traditive ordination, and therefore the institution of bishops must be served first, as having fairer plea, and clearer evidence in Scripture, than the baptizing of infants, and yet they that deny this are, by the just anathema of the catholic church, confidently condemned for heretics.

Of the same consideration are divers other things in Christianity, as the presbyters consecrating the eucharist; for if the apostles in the first institution did represent the whole church, clergy and laity, when Christ said, 'Hoc facite,' 'Do this,' then why may not every Christian man there represented do that, which the apostles, in the name of all, were commanded to do? If the apostles did not represent the whole church, why then do all communicate? Or what place, or intimation of Christ's saying, is there in all the four gospels, limiting hoc facite,' id est, benedicite,' to the clergy, and extending hoc facite,' id est,' accipite et manducate,' to the laity? This also rests upon the practice apostolical, and traditive interpretation of holy church, and yet cannot be denied that so it ought to be, by any man that would not have his Christendom suspected.

To these I add the communion of women, the distinction of books apocryphal from canonical, that such books were written by such evangelists and apostles, the whole tradition of Scripture itself, the apostles' creed, the feast of Easter, (which, amongst all them that cry up the Sunday-festival for a Divine institution, must needs prevail as caput institutionis,' it being that for which the Sunday is commemorated). These, and divers others of greater consequence (which I dare not specify for fear of being misunderstood), rely but upon equal faith with this of episcopacy, (though I should wave all the arguments for immediate Divine ordinance), and therefore it is but reasonable it should be ranked