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first founders of a house of God, consisting as well of gentiles Apoc. as of Jews. In this there are not after them any other like xxi. unto them: and yet the apostles have now their successors Matt. upon earth, their true successors, if not in the largeness, surely xxiii. in the kind of that episcopal function, whereby they had power to sit as spiritual ordinary judges, both over laity and over clergy, where Christian churches were established.

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V. The apostles of our Lord did, according unto those di- The time rections which were given them from above, erect churches of institutin all such cities as received the word of truth, the gospel of ing every God. All churches by them erected, received from them the shops with same faith, the same sacraments, the same form of public re- restraint. giment. The form of regiment by them established at first was, that the laity of people should be subject unto a college of ecclesiastical persons, which were in every such city appointed for that purpose. These in their writings they term sometimes presbyters, sometimes bishops. To take one Acts xx. church out of a number for a pattern what the rest were; the presbyters of Ephesus, as it is in the history of their departure from the apostle Paul at Miletum, are said to have wept abundantly all, which speech doth shew them to have been many. And by the apostles' exhortation it may appear that they had not each his several flock to feed, but were in common appointed to feed that one flock, the church of Ephesus; for which cause the phrase of his speech is this, Atten- Acts xx. dite gregi, Look all to that one flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops. These persons ecclesiastical being termed as then, presbyters and bishops both, were all subject unto Paul, as to a higher governor appointed of God to be over them. But forasmuch as the apostles could not themselves be present in all churches, and as the apostle St. Paula foretold the presbyters of the Ephesians, that there would rise up from amongst their ownselves, men speaking perverse things, to draw disciples after them; there did grow in short time amongst the governors of each church, those emulations, strifes and contentions, whereof there could be no sufficient remedy provided, except, according unto the

a As appeareth both by his sending to call the presbyters of Ephesus before him as far as to Miletum, (Acts xx. 17.) which was almost fifty miles, and by his leaving Timothy in his place with his authority and instructions for ordaining of ministers there; (1 Tim. v. 22.) and for proportioning their maintenance ; (ver. 17, 18.) and for judicial hearing of accusations brought against them ;(ver. 19.) and for holding them in a uniformity of doctrine. Ch. i. 3.

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order of Jerusalem already begun, some one were endued with episcopal authority over the rest, which one being resident might keep them in order, and have pre-eminence or principality in those things, wherein the equality of many agents was the cause of disorder and trouble. This one president or governor, amongst the rest had his known authority established a long time before that settled difference of name and title took place, whereby such alone were named bishops. And therefore in the book of St. John's Revelation we find that Rev. ii. they are entitled angels. It will perhaps be answered, that the angels of those churches were only in every church a minister of sacraments: but then we ask, is it probable that in every of these churches, even in Ephesus itself, where many such ministers were long before, as hath been proved, there was but one such, when John directed his speech to the angel of that church ? If there were many, surely St. John, in naming but only one of them an angel, did behold in that one somewhat above the rest. Nor was this order peculiar unto some few churches, but the whole world universally became subject thereunto; insomuch as they did not account it to be a church which was not subject unto a bishop. It was the general received persuasion of the ancient Christian Cypr. iv. world, that ecclesia est in episcopo, the outward being of a Epist. 9. church consisted in the having of a bishop. That where colleges of presbyters were, there was at the first equality Hieron. amongst them, St. Jerome thinketh it a matter clear: but Ep. ad when the rest were thus equal, so that no one of them could command any other as inferior unto him, they all were controllable by the apostles, who had that episcopal authority abiding at the first in themselves, which they afterwards derived unto others. The cause wherefore they under themselves appointed such bishops as were not every where at the first, is said to have been those strifes and contentions, for remedy whereof, whether the apostles alone did conclude of such a regiment, or else they together with the whole church judging it a fit and needful policy did agree to receive it for a custom; no doubt but being established by them on whom the Holy Ghost was poured in so abundant measure, for the ordering of Christ's church, it had either Divine appointment beforehand, or Divine approbation afterwards, and is in that respect to be acknowledged the ordinance of God, no less than that ancient Jewish regiment, whereof though

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Jethro were the deviser, yet after that God had allowed it, Exod. all men were subject unto it, as to the polity of God, and not of Jethro. That so the ancient fathers did think of episcopal regiment; that they held this order as a thing received from the blessed apostles themselves, and authorized even from heaven, we may perhaps more easily prove, than obtain that they all shall grant it who see it proved. St. Augustine setteth it down for a principle, that whatsoever positive order the Januar. whole church every where doth observe, the same it must needs have received from the very apostles themselves, unless perhaps some general council were the authors of it. And he saw that the ruling superiority of bishops was a thing universally established not by the force of any council (for councils do all presuppose bishops, nor can there any council be named so ancient, either general, or so much as provincial, sithence the apostles' own times, but we can shew that bishops had their authority before it, and not from it). Wherefore, St. Augustine knowing this, could not choose but reverence the authority of bishops, as a thing to him apparently and most clearly apostolical. But it will be perhaps objected, that regiment by bishops was not so universal nor ancient as we pretend; and that an argument hereof may be Jerome's own testimony, who living at the very same time with St. Augustine, noteth this kind of regiment as being no where ancient, saving only in Alexandria; his words are these: “It Ep. ad. was for a remedy of schism that one was afterward chosen Evang. to be placed above the rest; lest every man's pulling unto himself, should rend asunder the church of Christ. For (that which also may serve for an argument or token hereof) at Alexandria, from Mark the evangelist, unto Heraclas and Dionysius; the presbyters always chose one of themselves, whom they placed in higher degree, and gave unto him the title of bishop." Now St. Jerome, they say, would never have picked out that one church from amongst so many, and have noted that in it there had been bishops from the time that St. Mark lived, if so be the selfsame order were of like antiquity every where; his words therefore must be thus scholied; in the church of Alexandria presbyters indeed had even from the time of St. Mark the evangelist, always a bishop to rule

a It is to be observed that Jerome saith, it was so in Alexandria; signifying that in other churches it was not so. T. C. lib. ii. p. 82.

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over them for a remedy against divisions, factions, and schisms: not so in other churches, neither in that very church any longer than "usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium," till Heraclas and his successor Dionysius were bishops. But this construction doth bereave the words construed partly ofw it, and partly of truth; it maketh them both absurd and false. For if the meaning be, that episcopal government in that church was then expired, it must have expired with the end of some one, and not of two several bishops' days, unless perhaps it fell sick under Heraclas, and with Dionysius gave up the ghost. Besides, it is clearly untrue that the presbyters of that church did then cease to be under a bishop. Who doth not know, that after Dionysius, Maximus was bishop of Alexandria, after him Theonas, after him Peter, after him Achillas, after him Alexander, of whom Socrates in this sort writeth? It fortuned on a certain time that this Alexander, in the presence of the presbyters which were under him, and of the rest of the clergy there, discoursed somewhat curiously and subtilly of the holy Trinity, bringing high philosophical proofs, that there is in the Trinity a unity. Whereupon, Arius one of the presbyters which were placed in that degree under Alexander, opposed eagerly himself against those things which were uttered by the bishop. So that thus long bishops continued even in the church of Alexandria. Nor did their regiment here cease, but these also had others their successors till St. Jerome's own time, who living long after Heraclas and Dionysius had ended their days, did not yet live himself to see the presbyters of Alexandria otherwise than subject unto a bishop. So that we cannot, with any truth, so interpret his words as to mean, that in the church of Alexandria there had been bishops endued with superiority over presbyters from St. Mark's time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius. Wherefore, that St. Jerome may receive a more probable interpretation than this, we answer, that generally, of regiment by bishops, and what term of continuance it had in the church of Alexandria, it was no part of his mind to speak, but to note one only circumstance belonging to the manner of their election, which circumstance is, that in Alexandria they used to choose their bishops altogether out of the college of their own presbyters, and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior order

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of the clergy; whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to choose as well from abroad as at home, as well inferior unto presbyters, as presbyters when they saw occasion. This custom, saith he, the church of Alexandria did always keep, till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise. These two were the very first not chose out of their college of presbyters.

The drift and purpose of St. Jerome's speech doth plainly shew what his meaning was; for whereas some did over extol the office of the deacon in the church of Rome; where deacons being grown great, through wealth, challenged place above presbyters: St. Jerome, to abate this insolency, writing to Evagrius, diminisheth by all means the deacon's estimation, and lifteth up presbyters as far as possible the truth might bear. "An attendant (saith he) upon tables and windows proudly to exalt himself above them at whose prayers is made the body and blood of Christ; above them, between whom and bishops there was at the first for a time no difference neither in authority nor in title. And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary, that some one should be placed over them, by which occasion the title of bishop became proper unto that one, yet was that one chosen out of the presbyters, as being the chiefest, the highest, the worthiest degree of the clergy, and not out of deacons: in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria, even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius, bishops there, the presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves, and not a deacon at any time, to be their bishop. Nor let any man think that Christ hath one church in Rome, and another in the rest of the world; that in Rome he alloweth deacons to be honoured above presbyters, and otherwise will have them to be in the next degree to the bishop. If it be deemed that abroad where bishops are poorer, the presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour; but at Rome where the bishop hath ample revenues, the deacons, whose estate is nearest for wealth, may be also for estimation the next unto him; we must know that a bishop in the meanest city is no less a bishop than he who is seated in the greatest; the countenance of a rich and the meanness of a poor estate, doth

Unto Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, Hero a deacon there was made successor. Chrysostom, being a presbyter of Antioch, was chosen to succeed Nectarius in the bishoprick of Constantinople.

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