founders, they became more rigid in their principles; at length they loft fight of epifcopacy fo far, as to commence open war against it: and they have now been engaged for these two centuries in producing and re-producing all those texts and arguments, which, in their judgment, appear to favour the cause they have previously adopted; because they would not be thought to have espoused a cause, for which nothing was to be faid.

Some of these texts and arguments you have thought proper to bring forward, by way of counterpoise to the purport of my second difcourfe. Had you done justice to that church, of which you profess yourself a member, by making yourself acquainted with those celebrated writers whose object it was to maintain the caufe of epifcopacy against that of Presbyterian church government; I am perfuaded you would, as a churchman, have felt yourself standing upon more firm ground than you do at prefent; and that you would not, by an ambiguous mode of writing, have left your reader in fome doubt with refpect to your conviction on the subject. It would be foreign to my purpose to enter into the whole extent of a subject which has been so often and fo fully

handled; my duty will, I truft, be discharged, by returning a brief reply to thofe particulars which have been brought forward to immediate notice.

Your firft obfervation refpecting the promiscuous application of the word prefbyter and bishop appears intended to prove, that the earliest bishops and prefbyters were the fame. "To argue (faid King James, at the Hampton-Court conférence) from the practice of a church in its beginning, and before it was perfectly formed, to a church fettled, and in a flourishing Dele condition, is no good reasoning." COLL. vol. ii. p. 675. Indeed before any advantage can be drawn from it to your prefent fubject, it must be proved, that the words bishop and prefbyter conveyed precisely the fame meaning in the Apoftolic age that they do at prefent; if they did not, we shall misinterpret the Apoftolic writings, by taking words in a fenfe dif ferent from that in which they used them.

Exооs, literally tranflated, is an overseer; a word which is taken in different fenfes. The Apostles are ftiled bishops in one fenfe, as overfeers of the church at large. The prefbyters whom they ordained, might be called bifhops in another sense; as overfeers of that particular district, over which the Apostles had placed them. But will it follow from hence, that becaufe

the name of bishop is applied occafionally to both, that they therefore acted in the fame character?

The word ПpesCurepos, literally translated, is elderman; a word used to express age and authority, and applied to men in different characters and ftations in life. In facred fcripture it is applied to the Apostles; whilst those who were ordained by the Apostles, and over whom they exercifed authority, are diftinguished alfo by the fame title. But does it follow from hence that there was no difference of character between the Apostles and the elders they ordained?

The word Alanovos literally fignifies a minifter or fervant. In the fifteenth chapter of Romans we find JESUS CHRIST called by that name. Are we thence warranted in concluding, that there was no difference between the office of CHRIST and that of deacons in the church? Of the fame kind, in my judgment, are the arguments which, from the etymology of words, are brought to prove, that bishops and prefbyters in the early church were the fame. But, Sir, when it' is confidéred, that it was after the Apoftolic age that thefe two titles of bifhop and prefbyter became diftinctly appropriated to thofe officers who now poffefs them in the church; our conclufion will be, that we cannot determine in what precife fenfe, according to

the distinct language of the prefent age, the words in question are to be taken; unless the context, or fome peculiar circumstance, be calculated to furnish an explanation. The difference of opinion that has taken place on this fubject, appears to have been derived chiefly from a want of attention having been paid to the different circumftances of the church, at different ftages of its progrefs in the world. In the Apoftolic age, the term bishop and presbyter were occafionally applied indifferently to the fame perfons: and there was no danger of misunderstanding on this fubject, fo long as that age continued; because the Apostles held the 'fupreme goverment of the church in their own hands, and well knew the extent of power de. livered by them to others. In the fucceeding age, from a change of circumftances, it was judged proper, that a difcrimination fhould be made between those titles, which in the day of the Apostles had been indifferently used; when in confequence of the title of Apoftle being, by a kind of general confent, confined to the character of those who had received the ori ginal commiffion from on high, that of bishop was exclufively appropriated to their fucceffors in that commiffion; as that of prefbyter and deacon, in the fenfe in which they are now received, was to the

fecond and inferior minifters in the church.

Accord

ing to this fettled order which had at that time taken place, we find the church defcribed by ST. IGNATIUS in the beginning of the fecond century. The learned Bishop ANDREWs on this subject writes thus: "In the place of the twelve fucceeded bishops; and in the place of the feventy, presbytery, priests, or ministers: and that by the judgment of IRENEUS, (lib. iii. c. 3) who lived immediately upon the Apostle's age: of TERTULLIAN, (de prefcript:) of ST. AUGUSTINE (in Pfal. xliv.) And this, till of late, was thought the form of that fellowship, and never otherwise imagined.” ANDREWS's Sermon on Acts ii. 42.

While we are upon this fubject, it may not be amifs to point out the origin of this confufion of the titles in question, as it has been thus in effect pointed out by EPIPHANIUS. AERIUS and EUSTATHIUS being contemporary scholars in Pontus, and equal proficients in learning, at length stood against each other for a bishopric. EUSTATHIUS obtained it. AERIUS was greatly offended. The bishop, with the view of fatisfying him, made him master of an hospital. But AERIUS was ftill diffatisfied. The repulfe he had received greatly tormenting him, he gave up his hofpital, and began to flander EUSTA