be subject to God."* In his epistles to the Magnesians, he says, "I exhort you that ye study to do all things in a divine concord; your bishop presiding in the place of God, your presbyters in the place of the council of the apostles; and your deacons, most dear to me, being entrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ." And he speaks in terms of commendation of Damas their bishop, Bassus and Apollonias their presbyters, and Sotio their deacon, whom he praises for being subject to the bishop and presbyters. In his epistle to the Trallians the same duties of subjection and reverence are enjoined on private christians towards their spiritual rulers, and on inferior ministers towards their bishop; "Let all reverence the deacons as Jesus Christ, and the bishop as the father, and the presbyters as the Sanhedrim of God, and college of the apostles. Without these there is no church."§ "He that is within the altar is pure; but he that is without, that is, that does any thing without the bishop, and presbyters and deacons, is not pure in his conscience." Addressing the Philadelphians, he says, "Let it be your endeavour to partake all of the same holy eucharist. For there is but one flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ; and one cup, in the unity of his blood; one altar; as also there is one bishop, together with his presbyters, and the deacons my fellow servants; that so whatever ye do, ye may do it according to the will of God."¶ "I cried whilst I was among you; I spake with a loud voice; attend to the bishop, and to the presbyters, and to the Ep. to Ephes. Sec. 1, 2, 5. † Ep. to Mag. Sec. 6. Ib. Sec. 2. deacons; do nothing without the bishop; keep your bodies as the temples of God; love unity; flee divisions; be the followers of Christ as he was of the Father.”* Again, in his epistle to the Smyrneans, we find him earnestly inculcating the same duties; "See that ye all follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ did the Father; and the presbyters as the apostles; and reverence the deacons, as the command of God. Let no man do any thing of what belongs to the church separately from the bishop. Let that Eucharist be accounted valid, which is ordered by the bishop, or one whom he appoints. Where the bishop appears, there let the people be; even as where Christ is, there is the Catholic Church. Without the bishop it is neither lawful to baptize, nor to celebrate the holy communion; but that which he approves is well pleasing to God." Writing to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, he says, "Let nothing be done without thy knowledge and consent; neither do thou any thing but according to the will of God; as also thou dost with all constancy." And afterwards he tells the Smyrneans to "hearken unto the bishop, that God also may hearken unto you. My soul be security for them that submit to their bishop, with their presbyters and deacons; and may my portion be together with theirs in God."§ Now all these quotations sufficiently prove that in the first century "the christian church was governed by the three distinct orders of bishops, priests and deacons; that these were of divine institution, and considered essential to the regu * Ep. to Philad. Sec. 7. Ep. to Pol, Sec. 4. † Ep. to Smyrn. Sec. 8. lar constitution of any church: and that no religious act could lawfully be done in the church without some of them, nor by the priests and deacons without the bishop's consent."* It remains that we consider what were the ministry and government of the church during the second and third centuries; as, after that period, there can be no question that Episcopacy every where prevailed throughout the world. In examining the testimony of the writers of the subsequent ages, we shall give the quotations as we find them in Archbishop Potter's work on Church Government ; not having ready access to the original authors. Irenæus, who suffered martyrdom, according to Du Pin, A. D. 202, who had been a disciple of Polycarp, the disciple of St. John, was first a presbyter, and afterwards bishop of Lyons, makes the succession of bishops an argument against the heretics, who crept into the church in that age. "We," says he, " can reckon up those whom the apostles ordained to be bishops in the several churches, and who they were that succeeded them down to our own time." And he then tells us that Linus was ordained the first bishop of Rome by St. Peter; and gives the succession from the apostles down to Elutherius, the twelfth in order, who was bishop of Rome when Irenæus wrote.‡ His contemporary, Clement of Alexandria, thus enumerates the three distinct orders, with their respective offices; "There are some precepts which relate to presbyters, others which belong to bishops; others respecting deaTertullian, who flourished about the same time, cons. Potter on Ch. Gov. 147. † Ibid. 148. + Ibid. 151. 6 in a different part of the world, speaks of bishops succeeding in a direct line from the apostles. "From him it appears that bishops were universally settled in all the churches of Africa, his native country, and had been so from the most early times. In his treatise of baptism, he affirms, That the power of baptizing is lodged in the bishop; and that it may also be exercised by presbyters and deacons, but not without the bishop's commission.'* A plain proof of the superiority of bishops, in his time, over the inferior orders of ministers. "In the beginning of the next century flourished Origen, who was Clement of Alexandria's scholar. And he, speaking of the debts in the Lord's Prayer, first insists on the debts or duties common to all christians; and then he adds, 'Besides these general debts, there is a debt peculiar to widows, who are maintained by the church; another to deacons ; another to presbyters; and another to bishops; which is the greatest of all, and exacted by the Saviour of the whole church, who will severely punish the non-payment of it.' So that he plainly makes bishops superior to presbyters and deacons by the appointment of Christ."t "In the same age flourished Cyprian, who was Tertullian's scholar, and bishop of Carthage. His epistles and tracts contain a most full account of the church officers, and the method of transacting all ecclesiastical affairs, which was then observed both in his own and other churches. He affirms that no church was without a bishop; that there being only one church and one episcopacy all the world over, and orthodox and pious bishops being already regularly ordained through all the provinces of the Roman empire, and in every city, he must needs be a schismatic, who laboured to set up false bishops in opposition to them.""* It is evident from Cyprian's epistles that there were many presbyters and deacons subject to him in the church of Carthage, of which he was bishop. At the close of the second, and beginning of the third century, Eusebius, the famous ecclesiastical historian, flourished. "After a most diligent search into the ancient records of the church, and the christian writers who lived before him, he derives the bishops of all churches from the apostles. And in the conclusion of his history he has given us," says Archbishop Potter, "such exact and authentic catalogues of the bishops who presided in all the principal cities of the Roman empire, from the apostles down to his own time, that it is as impossible for an impartial man, who shall compare this historian with the rest of the primitive Fathers, to doubt whether there was a succession of bishops from the apostles, as it would be to call in question the succession of Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar, or the succession of kings in any other country."t "Of the distinction of orders in the ministry," says the learned Barrow, "there was never in ancient times made any question, nor did it seem disputable in the church except to one malecontent, Aerius, who did indeed get a name in story, but never made much noise, or obtained any vogue in the world; very few followers he found in * Potter on Ch. Gov. 160. † Ibid 169. ‡ Sers. vol. iii. p. 110, &c. |