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 :,ii5'«'t>* 
 
 THE F9U^P4TIp]^SQF EPISCOPACY : 
 
 , .*<*«• iff. 
 
 ■ • ys** ..•«Cc«jf;:.ia.>.-.ri'>-"' 
 
 
 SERMON, 
 
 PREACHED ON THE CONSECRATION 
 
 I J .' M 
 
 HP SaiCMS J iSMr OF THE RIGHT REV. 
 
 WILLIAM GRANT BROUGHTON, D.D. 
 
 VrnST BISHOP OF AUSTRALIA, 
 AND THB RIGHT REV. 
 
 GEORGE JEHOSHAPHAT MOUNTAIN, D.D. 
 
 FIRST BISHOP OF MONTREAL, LOWER CANADA. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. I. E. N. MOLESWORTH, M.A. 
 
 DOMESl'tC CHAPLAIN TO THE RIGHT HON. & REV. THE EARL OF GUILFORD, 
 
 HECTOR OF 8T. MARTIN'b, CANTERBURV, 
 
 AND ONE OV THE SIX PREACHERS OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY COMMAND OF HIS GRACE THE ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, 
 
 ST. Paul's church yard, 
 
 AND WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL. 
 
 1836. 
 
 Price Is. 6rf. 
 
&■ 
 
 I 
 t 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 
 
 
 L 
 
«<■■ 1.1 Miaiuiiijf v.i««n9VfV*M«ff. wiipvii JL ■.'■■■wiMii''iiRtwit^««pii<«?n>n«r*"rmKiawvfP 
 
 TO THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM GRANT BROUGHTON, D.D. 
 
 LORD BISHOP OF AUSTRALIA. 
 
 My dear Lord Bishop, 
 
 Had I regarded this dedication as a tribute to' your 
 Lordship in your public capacity, I should have 
 deemed it a privilege, as well as a duty, to have 
 associated with your name that of the tried and 
 honoured fellow-labourer in the cause of Christ, 
 who was consecrated with you. And it will be no 
 disparagement to either him or your Lordship to 
 add, that, if I had been influenced by no other 
 desire than that of gracing my humble production 
 with the highest name, I should have solicited 
 
 a2 
 
i! 
 
 . i 
 
 4 
 
 permission to inscribe it with that of the illustrious 
 individual who commanded its pubh'cation — whose 
 pre-eminence, not only in station, but in talents 
 and Christian graces, is universally acknowledged 
 — and who, I delight on all fitting occasions, with 
 honest pride and heartfelt gratitude, to state, took, 
 only on public grounds, an humble Curate from a 
 village, and laid his paternal injunctions on him to 
 do his duty to our blessed Lord and in the Church, 
 in the metropolitan city of his own diocese. 
 
 But here public considerations have been put 
 aside for the indulgence of those feelings of private 
 friendship and esteem, on which you have permitted 
 me to offer this dedication. And most sincere is 
 the gratification I experience in recording these 
 sentiments. 
 
 Ere you Can receive this, the wide waste of 
 waters and half the globe will be between us ; 
 and, as far as short-sighted man can judge, it is 
 probable that we shall meet no more, unless in the 
 presence of Him before whom we must one day 
 give account of our respective stewardships. 
 Deeply as I regret being thus deprived of the 
 
opportunities (few as they were) of " taking sweet 
 counsel together," I derive from the circumstance 
 at least one consolation — it effectually secures this 
 humble tribute from all semblance, or suspicion 
 of flattery. 
 
 of 
 
 Many coincidences in our career, known to you, 
 but not necessary to be explained here, contributed 
 to increase the gratification I felt in being selected 
 to preach on your consecration, but none more than 
 that of having my name associated with one who, 
 I have good reason to hope, will, by the help of 
 the Holy Ghost, prove himself a true Israelite, a 
 worthy successor of the Apostles, and a good 
 Bishop of that Episcopal Church of which the 
 faithful Martyrs, and pious and learned defenders, 
 will one day *' shine forth as the sun in the king- 
 dom of their Father." I know full well that your 
 field is an arduous one, that many a thorn and 
 briar is planted there, and many a snare and stum- 
 bling block will be laid for your feet. But I trust 
 that your prayers and ours on your consecration 
 were not vain. May they have reached the Mercy 
 Seat, — and may you find yourself strong 
 
 " In His dear might who waik'd the wave," 
 
h 5 
 
 • ! \ 
 
 6 
 
 and will bear up his faithful servants in all the 
 dangers and troubles which may assault them ! To 
 Him, to His grace, to His merits, and to His mercy, 
 I heartily commend you, and 
 
 Have the honor to be. 
 
 With all respect and esteem. 
 My dear Lord Bishop, 
 Yours most faithfully. 
 
 I. E. N. MOLESWORTH. 
 
 H, 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 To those at all acquainted with the question, and 
 the many dissertations written upon it, the Author 
 need scarcely observe, that the view of the founda- 
 tions of Episcopacy taken in a Sermon must be a 
 very cursory and imperfect one. However, though 
 a complete treatise may not be practicable within 
 such limits, an useful one may be. And this has 
 been the object aimed at. He has hoped that, by 
 a judicious selection of the points on which his 
 sketch will touch, it may be made like a rough 
 map, which, though it may not distinguish every 
 bye-path and cross road, yet may so indicate the 
 general plan of the country, and the direction of 
 the principal roads, as to guard the traveller from 
 being led far astray by fallacious representations, 
 or treacherous guides. Those who desire to 
 search more deeply, will find abundance of infor- 
 mation in Bilson, Andrewes, Jer. Taylor, Hall, 
 
8 
 
 
 Hammund, Dodwell, Hooker, Barrow, Heylin, and 
 Potter. 
 
 The collections of these learned men, as well as 
 his own many avocations, as Editor of a weekly 
 puhlication^ parish priest, and father of a family, 
 have induced him to make his references less 
 copious than might perhaps have been expected. 
 Seldom a day passes, at the close of which he can- 
 not appreciate, as well as the hardest labourer, the 
 luxury of laying his head on his pillow. He 
 claims, therefore, indulgence for any seegjinjr jcare- 
 lessness. For the same reasons, not disi 
 his cause, he has declined the discussion of contro- 
 verted texts ; and also because his object is to 
 defend the principles of his own Church, not to 
 condemn others. He has not read the arguments 
 on both sides without feeling that good men may 
 view them in a light different from that in which 
 they appear to him. And he hopes they will offer 
 up their prayers in the same spirit of charity for him 
 as he does for them, that " all who profess and 
 call themselves Christians, may be led into the 
 way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, 
 in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life." 
 
 i !l 
 
 lllL 
 
SERMON, 
 
 2 Tim. iv. 1,2. 
 
 1 charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and 
 His kingdom ; — Preach the word ; be instant in season, out of 
 season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and 
 doctrine. 
 
 This charge I affirm to have been addressed to 
 Timothy, as Bishop of Ephesus. It enforces, in 
 few and emphatic words, some very important 
 duties of the episcopal office ; it is couched in lan- 
 guage expressive of an earnestness and affection 
 correspondent to the responsibility of his situation, 
 and to the circumstances under which the injunc- 
 tions are uttered by St. Paul — when he was under 
 a strong conviction, if not a special assurance, 
 that the " time of his departure was at hand'," and 
 
 ' Verses 6, 7. 
 
10 
 
 ifli! 
 
 I 
 
 lilt 
 
 M 
 
 I 
 
 V. 
 
 that Timothy must shortly be deprived of his 
 counsels. 
 
 The course which I propose to pursue in preach- 
 ing from this text may be indicated under the 
 two following heads : 
 
 I. I shall endeavour to give a general sketch of 
 the foundations of our episcopal polity; and also 
 specially notice some passages in the Epistles to 
 Timothy, confirming my assertion that the text 
 was addressed to him as a Bishop, 
 
 II. I shall take occasion to offer a few observa- 
 tions with reference to the solemnity which we are 
 assembled to witness. 
 
 My position is defensive, not aggressive. I am 
 not solicitous to put forward the negation which it 
 may include ; but the principle cannot be compro- 
 mised, whatsoever inferences may be drawn from it. 
 The episcopal polity of our Church is founded on 
 the ordinance of Christ, and the practice of the 
 Apostles, and the testimony of the Church (universal 
 for one thousand five hundred years), and thence 
 continued, though controverted, to this day. 
 
 The proofs of these foundations of episcopacy 
 may be contemplated in two different points of 
 view. We may either take the direct testimony of 
 Scriptures, and then compare it with the subse- 
 quent records and practice of the Church ; or we 
 may survey the records and practice of the Church 
 in various ages, and then see how far the inferences 
 drawn from that survey harmonize with the direct 
 
11 
 
 testimony of Scripture. I have preferred the latter 
 course, because it appears to be equally convenient 
 for general purposes, and to possess this particular 
 advantage — that it places in a clearer light the 
 comparative strength of the positions of the advo- 
 cates and of the opponents of episcopacy, and also 
 the nature of that testimony which our position 
 (antecedently to the Scriptural evidences we can 
 adduce) entitles us to challenge on their part 
 before we can be shaken. 
 
 So sensible of oui' decided advantage^ with re- 
 spect to the testimony of the Church, are those 
 who would decry our apostolical pohty ', that they 
 have endeavoured to diminish its force by a taunt. 
 They tell us, that in laying great stress upon this 
 testimony, we give a sanction to the Romanist, and 
 fall into his error of setting the testimony of the 
 Church above Scripture, and making tradition the 
 rule of faith. But the language of our Articles, 
 and of our standard writers ^ is too explicit and 
 guarded to be confounded by a mere taunt. We 
 maintain, clearly and undeniably, the paramount 
 authority of God's word, and that no testimony of 
 
 ' Archdeacon Balguy, Disc. VI. VII., has some very sensible 
 remarks on the absurdity of confining the evidence of this ques- 
 tioii to the Scriptures only, and rejecting entirely the evidence of 
 the Church. 
 
 ' J«.;r. Taylor, in his dedication to his " Episcopacy Asserted," 
 has pointed out the distinctions in this case with his usual 
 felicity. 
 
12 
 
 H 
 
 n 
 
 the Church could establish any doctrine or practice 
 contrary to the letter or the spirit of Scripture '. 
 And because the Romanist has attached an undue 
 and excessive authority to the testimony of the 
 Church, we are not therefore to rush into the 
 opposite extreme, and ascribe to it no weight at 
 all. The Church, though not infallible, is a most 
 valuable and a most venerable witness. By its 
 practice, and the writings of the early fathers, we 
 have been enabled to confirm our faith in many 
 points of great importance — such, for example, as 
 the canon of Scripture, the observance of the 
 Lord's day, and the practice of infont baptism. 
 The present case is one of which the very circum- 
 stances would lead us to anticipate the usefulness, 
 not to say necessity, of our looking for illustration 
 of Scripture principles in subsequent practice. Even 
 in faith and morals, the Gospel generally lays down 
 only principles, with few and incidental illustra- 
 tions of their application to the innumerable and 
 ever-changing combinations and contingencies of 
 human life. Have we not even greater -reason to 
 expect this peculiarity to prevail with respect to 
 the principles of Church polity ? We can, at first, 
 look for nothing more than the model and principles 
 to be laid down. Their application to the various 
 positions in which the Churches may be placed by 
 external circumstances could be only partially 
 
 ' Art. VI. XX. XXXIV. 
 
13 
 
 developed, because the positions themselves could 
 be only partially encountered. In both the above 
 cases, but especially in that of discipline and polity, 
 the voice of the universal Church is entitled to 
 great weight. But, in the primitive Church, the 
 notices of the details are less precise, and the 
 recognition of the general principle often, indeed 
 usually, only incidental. 
 
 General exhortations to faith and holiness, sel- 
 dom adverting to the form of Church government, 
 and then referring only to universally-acknow- 
 ledged principles rather than controversial distinc- 
 tions or the details of official practice, characterize 
 the writings of the early fathers, and are such as 
 we should look for in addresses of an infant and 
 progressive Church. This may be illustrated by 
 the analogous case of the different creeds of the 
 Church, in which the increasing precision of the 
 Church's testimony may be traced from the few 
 words and first principles addressed to the early 
 converts by St. Peter ' — the larger form of that 
 creed called the Apostles' — the increasing distinc- 
 tions of the Nicene — to the elaborate definitions 
 of the Athanasian — each retaining the fundamental 
 doctrines, but developing their application to parti- 
 cular points, as occasion arose, and innovations 
 were attempted. 
 
 From these observations on the nature of the 
 
 Acts ii. 38. 
 
14 
 
 if 
 
 evidence we might expect, let us proceed to a cur- 
 sory examiiicition of that which actually presents 
 itself. From the second century to the Reforma- 
 tion, the ground is uncontested ^ Not a tittle of 
 evidence is adduced by our opponents to gainsay 
 the universal establishment of episcopacy : no 
 council acknowledges any other polity ^ In all 
 Churches, however remote, and however at va- 
 riance in other points, episcopacy, with its exclu- 
 sive power of conferring orders and its pre-emi- 
 nence in authority, is recognized ^ Even in our 
 
 1 
 
 ' Our learned Stillingfleet, in his " Irenicum," (a work of 
 which he lived to change his opinion,) cites the case of Scotland, 
 that it was governed only by Presbyters from A.D. 263 to the 
 coming of Palladius, A.D. 430. It can only excite a smile 
 when this instance is so pompously brought forward, to find it 
 resting on the authority of John de Fordun, an historian of no 
 general repute, much less in the dark and remote events of that 
 age and country, and writing himself in the sixteenth century. 
 If the case rested on good authority, it would be a solitary 
 exception, proving the rule. The case of the Gothic Church, and 
 m^re occasional interruptions of two or three episcopacies for a 
 few years, are merely cases in which accident or violence cause a 
 temporary suspension of the episcopal functions from necessity. 
 But no attempt is made to adduce a case of any Church volun- 
 tarily and formally setting up any other than episcopacy as the 
 polity of Christian community. 
 
 ^ The Council of Carthage ordains that Presbyters may assist 
 the JBnpcin ordaining ministers, by placing their hands near his ; 
 but no authority can be found, in either the Church or Scripture, 
 for a mere Presbyter ordaining. — Vide Bingham. 
 
 ' The case of -<Erius, who was condennicd as an heretic, and 
 
15 
 
 then unfrequented island, though it is supposed by 
 some to have received Christianity from St. Paul 
 himself, and certainly, from a very early period, 
 episcopacy came with Christianity , and notwith- 
 standing all the intervening barbarism and vicissi- 
 tudes, was found flourishing at the coming of 
 Augustine in the sixth century. 
 
 Eusebius, who has been truly styled the father 
 of ecclesiastical history, speaks of episcopacy in 
 his time as a matter on which no doubt existed, 
 and even gives the order of the succession of many 
 Bishops ^ of Jerusalem, Rome, Antioch, and Alex- 
 
 never formed a Ghurch upon lus own principles, is no exception. 
 Jerome, who has been the great authority in contending for pri- 
 mitive equality in dignity of the Presbyters with the Bishop, yet 
 asserts, in direct terms, that the Bishop had the exclusive privi- 
 lege of ordaining, and implies, in other respects, his superiority 
 of office. He admits, too, that superiority of the Bishop was 
 established in the time of the Apostles. The utmost point to 
 which our opponents pretend to carry his testimony is, that, 
 during a considerable part of the time that the Apoptles exer- 
 cised episcopal authority over the Churches, there were no 
 Bishops, but only Presbyters, and those, of course, equal in each 
 Church. But those Presbyters were not therebj. Bishops, nor the 
 episcopal office and authority, because exercised by the Apostles 
 themselves, not in existence. This would prove nothing, even 
 tb'^ugh we gave up other and earlier testimonies to his, and 
 allowed this to be the correct interpretation of his views, which 
 
 we do nut See Bilson, 2'il. 
 
 ' ** This," says Archbishop Potter, " was the rise of episco- 
 pacy, according to Eusebius : .'md in the following parts of his 
 history he has given us surli exact itnd authentic catalogues of 
 
16 
 
 andria, as Irenaeus and Tertulliaii had done before 
 him. Blondel, the most learned of the opponents 
 of episcopacy, is compelled to admit that it had 
 reared its head so early as the year of our Lord 
 140, only forty years after the death of St. John, 
 and when many, who must have remembered that 
 Apostle, if not others, and their polity, must have 
 been living. In the primitive fathers, the three 
 orders of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, are men- 
 tioned, and mentioned incidentally, not controver- 
 sially, but as we should expect a subject to be men- 
 tioned which was notorious — on which no difference 
 of opinion existed \ 
 
 w 
 
 hrj^ 
 
 S 
 
 $ 
 
 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 fatherSj^hether there was a succes- 
 sion of Bishops from fhe Apostles, as it would be to call in ques- 
 tion the succession of Roman emperors from Julius Caesar, or 
 the accession of kings in any other country." — See also Bilson, 
 Perpet. Govt., &c., 260, 261. 
 
 ' It is admitted by Blondel and others, that episcopacy had 
 established itself A. D, 140. If, therefore, any other form had 
 been the apostolical one, there would have been probably some 
 controversial distinctions observed in the passaged in which the 
 term ETriaKoiroi; occurs. But, if no doubt of its apostolical au- 
 thority existed, then we should expect the mention of it such as 
 we find it. Peirce, Vind. Dissent., says, " The writers of the 
 second century began, I confess, to distinguish the names of 
 Bishop and Presbyter." Is it probable that, when this distinction 
 was made so early, no controversy should have arisen, nor any 
 allusion to such controversy be made, if episcopacy had only re- 
 
17 
 
 I am prevented from citing these passages, only 
 by want of time, as they may be found collected in 
 abunda;.ce in the learned polemics' of our Church. 
 I will merely observe, that of the mnny fathers in 
 which the mention of Bishops occurs, Clement of 
 Rome is stated to "..ave been ordained by St. Peter; 
 Polycarp to have conversed with the Apostles; and 
 Ignatius to have suffered martyrdom, only a few 
 years'^ after St. John's death, having been then forty 
 years Bishop of Antioch. Finally, no record what- 
 ever can be produced of any church, governed in 
 any other manner than that which is admitted to 
 have universally prevailed from the second century 
 to the Reformation ; nor is any controversial writ- 
 ing on the subject extant, of the time at which 
 Blondel affirms episcopacy to have risen. Now if, 
 notwithstanding all this, we are, in the sixteenth 
 century, to be surprised with the discovery that. 
 
 ceiitly reared its head, and was with such rapidity swallowing up 
 another polity, which had been practised by Apostles ? We con- 
 tend that the jurisdiction was always distinguished, and that 
 even where the name was used doubtfully, such usage would be 
 (quanti valeit) rather evidence that the distinction of the jurisdic- 
 tion was notorious. Ignatius is very clear in his distinction of 
 the three orders. — Vide Ep. to Ephes., §. iv. ; Mag., §. iii. iv. 
 xiii. ; Trail., xii. xiii. The sense of these cannot be disputed; 
 however the genuineness of the Epistles may have been denied. 
 
 ' See Address to the Reader, which precedes this Discourse. 
 
 ' According to Eusebius, A. D. CX. ; to Marianus Scotus, 
 CXII. ; to Usher, CVII. ; to Lloyd, CVXL— See Wake. Apost. 
 Fathers. 
 
 B 
 
18 
 
 
 u 
 
 during the time of Christ and his Apostles, the 
 Church knew nothing of episcopacy, and was go- 
 verned under an entirely different polity, surely we 
 are entitled to ask how, when Churches were not 
 only fresh from the hands of the Apostles, but were 
 daily rising under zealous men, who were themselves 
 contemporary with the Apostles, or at least had 
 abundant facilities of knowing the practice of the 
 Apostles; and when these Churches were rising 
 in regions far distant from each other; how, in such 
 circumstances, one vast corruption was so soon 
 and so completely to overshadow the whole of 
 them; and how that other polity could so en- 
 tirely vanish from Christendom, that not a trace 
 of its adoption by any one early Church, nor one 
 voice lifted up against such a daring innovation 
 upon the polity of their Master and his Apostles, 
 should be left on record ? The theory seems im- 
 probable, monstrous'. It behoves those who adopt 
 
 ! 'J- 
 
 HI 
 ill 
 
 !ii 
 
 1 
 
 ' Bishop Taylor, in his Consecration Sermon, after affirming, 
 upon the testimony of Epiphanius, that at first there were only 
 Bishops and Deacons in the Churches, and that, as the harvest 
 became greater. Presbyters were ordained, and that certain whom 
 he enumerates were, by the universal testimony of the Church, 
 Bishops, proceeds thus : " All which, if there be any faith in 
 Christians that have given their lives for a testimony to the faith, 
 and any truth in their stories ; unless we who believe Thucydides 
 and Plutarch, Livy and Tacitus, think that all Church story is 
 a perpetual romance, and that all the brave men, the martyrs, 
 and the doctors of the primitive Church, did conspire, as one man, 
 to abuse all Christendom for ever ; I say, unless all these im- 
 
19 
 
 it, not to call upon us to show our Scripture cre- 
 dentials, but to produce their own. For if tlie 
 Scripture evidence were only equal, the testimony 
 of the Church should turn the scale. On them 
 falls the duty of showing that some other polity was 
 laid down in the Word of God, and laid down, not in 
 one or two douhtful and ciiestionable texts, but with 
 such unquestionable clearness, that, in deference to 
 such authority, we must (however unable to account 
 for the facts before us) give up the plain testimony 
 of the universal Church ^ Such, I contend, is the 
 position in which the Church of England stands. 
 The points of our case have, on the face of the 
 question, a strength similar to that which is attri- 
 buted in law to a title by possession. The holder 
 is not called upon to show his title-deeds; those 
 who dispute his right must first themselves make 
 out a case of their own. Let those who question 
 our title, show the foundations of their own, and 
 not call upon us to make out a title, when the 
 judgment of the whole Church has decided in our 
 favour. 
 
 Such, I say, is the position which we are entitled 
 
 possible snpposifions be admitted, all these whom I have now 
 reckoned wore Bishops fixed in several Churches, and had dio- 
 ceses for their charges." 
 
 ' This is a maxim that should not be lost sight of. It may 
 not be difficult to bring single texts, on which doubts and disputes 
 might be raised. But these avail nothing against the universal 
 testimony of the Church, and the general tenor of Scripture. 
 
 b2 
 
20 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 to take up. But, God be praised, those who have 
 leisure for the enquiry need not confine themselves 
 to this. We have no misgivings, —no flaws, which 
 make us fear to produce our title-deeds. We can show 
 the foundations of our polity in Scripture ; that the 
 primitive Fathers and the universal Church, though 
 they may have sometimes disfigured the model with 
 incongruous ornaments, yet have preserved its prin- 
 ciple and its authority ^ as it came from the hands 
 
 ' It is one of the fallacies of the day to contrast the external 
 circumstances of episcopacy, the accidents of it arising out of the 
 position of the Church, with the external circumstances of the 
 Apostles — circumstances, be it remembered, not embraced by 
 choice, but imposed by necessity, and consequently neither 
 approved nor condemned. Nothing can be more unjust than 
 the inferences drawn from this. The principle and the founda- 
 tion of episcopal jurisdiction is not altered by these extrinsic 
 accidents, which, in various positions of the Church, and in its 
 various relations with society, may be found to extend its use- 
 fulness. They are only means at one time applicable, at others 
 perhaps not applicable, to the end for which episcopacy was 
 ordained. To constitute a comparison between the Apostles and 
 their successors, the circumstances of the Church, of society, and 
 of the individuals, ought to be the same. If those who are so 
 zealous for primitive practice, and so fond of drawing these 
 parallels, would only remember that there is not one rule for 
 applying Gospel principles to the ministers of the Christian com- 
 munity, and another for the laity —if they would only begin by 
 carrying out their principles and their parallel by Jirst reducing 
 themselves to the state of the primitive Christian society, and 
 then drawing the parallel for the Bishops — I think a marvellous 
 light would break in upon some of them, and they would have 
 much less difficulty in seeing that the circumstances of the society 
 
n 
 
 of the Master Builders. Let us now take a sum- 
 mary view of the foundations of episcopacy, as 
 they appear in the Word of God. 
 
 Had the Scriptures been silent, analogy would 
 have afforded ground for presuming that the 
 Church of Christ was never to consist of disgre- 
 gated members, having no common bond of sym- 
 pathy, no common principle of action, and utterly 
 dead to those social propensities, which were either 
 originally implanted by God in the breast of man, 
 or so powerfully impressed upon him by his neces- 
 sities, that they seem part of his nature, and, in 
 every age and country, have influenced both his 
 religious and civil relations. But both Jesus him- 
 self and his Apostles have expressly, and under a 
 variety of figures, represented His Church as a 
 community', with that appropriation of powers and 
 s'ubordination of offices, which are necessary to the 
 order and welfare of any society. They have 
 likened it to a kingdom ; to an household with ser- 
 vants and rulers of servants^; to a hody^ with mem- 
 might require a change in the outward circumstances of its mem- 
 bers, whether rulers or subjects, without affecting the •principles 
 of the society itself. Would a Chvistian nobleman, for example, 
 think he was acting contrary to the principles of religion, because 
 he did not, as the early Christians, lay his possessions at the 
 Bishops' feet ? 
 
 * The very designation of the Church indicates that those who 
 compose it have, as it were, been chosen and called out from the 
 world, to form themselves into a religious community. 
 
 ^ Luke xii. '1 Cor. xii. 
 
S8 
 
 "9 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 bers, each having their proper functions; to an 
 house " built upon the foundation of the Apostles 
 and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief 
 corner stone'.'' He, who recognized this social 
 principle in His Church, did not leave it without a 
 model of government, to direct those to whom he 
 should commit it at his death, or those their suc- 
 cessors, with whom he expressly declared, he would 
 be " to the end of the xvorhl.'" And he not only ap- 
 pointed rulers in his Church, but himself became 
 their pattern, and showed them, by example, that 
 the authority is not to be assumed at pleasure, but 
 only by lawful calling. We are not left to infer 
 this from his acts, which we might iiave done; we 
 have the express testimony of St. Paul in the Epis- 
 tle to the Hebrews, that " even Christ glorified not 
 himself to be made an high priest, but He that 
 said unto him. Thou art my Son, this day have I 
 begotten thee"." 
 
 Having been thus consecrated, he calls others to 
 be with him, for the purpose of assisting him in his 
 ministry during his life, to qualify themselves for 
 being witnesses of his truth, and for governing the 
 Church after his departure into glory. With a 
 solemnity suited to the occasion, having passed the 
 whole of the previous night in prayer, he calls the 
 twelve; he gives them a special title— Apostles, 
 
 ' Eph. xi. 20. 
 
 ^ Heb. V. '). — coiiip. Matt. iii. 16, 17. 
 
23 
 
 and directs that they are to be with him'. Their 
 number, not their office, twelve, appears to have 
 been ordained with a view to the twelve heads of 
 the tribes; for to Israel was the Gospel preached 
 during the life of Christ, and for some time after. 
 And to this connexion with the twelve tribes, an 
 allusion appears to be made, when Jesus tells the 
 Apostles they shall sit on twelve thrones, judging 
 the twelve tribes of IsraeP. Afterwards, he sent 
 forth also seventy disciples (probably in both cases 
 fixing the number^ with reference to a number fami- 
 Har to his countrymen), after the pattern of the 
 seventy* elders in the book of Numbers, who were 
 
 ' Mark iil. 14. 
 
 ^ Luke xxii. 28 — 30. The strife of the sons of Zebedee for 
 to sit one on the right hand and tlie other on the left of our Lord, 
 shows the sense they had of the authority of their office. Their 
 authority is not questioned, only their ambition for precedency 
 rebuked. 
 
 ■' I say number^ "ief there appears no similarity in their office, 
 nor were they called " elders/' 
 
 ' Vid. Hammond. Dissertatione?, &c. Dissert, tertia, cap, iv. 
 §. 18. Heylin. from the xi. Numb, referred to by Hammond, 
 thinks they were 72, six to each of the 12, as the term septuagint 
 and 70 was commonly understood as speaking in round num- 
 bers, and, applied to Sanhedrim, to mean 72. The case of Num- 
 bers xi. is certainly one very much to the point, where the Lord 
 says, " Gather mo 70 men of the elders of Israel ;" and Moses is 
 said to have " gathered the 70 men c " vhe elders," &c. at the 
 tabernacle. But there were still two in the camp upon whom 
 also the Spirit fell, as well as on the rest. With respect to the 
 diiference between the office of elders under the Jewish and 
 
w 
 
 24 
 
 U 
 
 inferior to the twelve heads of tribes. No solem- 
 nity of prayer precedes their selection : they go 
 forth to preach; they give an account of their mis- 
 sion ; and no more is heard of them during our 
 Lord's ministry. They have no place assigned 
 them about his person, no name is appropriated to 
 them, nor is any commission afterwards given to 
 them by Christ or the Spirit, to rule the Church or 
 take his authority. They appear only as a subor- 
 dinate and secondary class of preachers. 
 
 But how different is the case with the ApostSes. 
 During Christ's abode upon earth, the authority 
 and regulation of the visible Church, for obvious 
 reasons, centered entirely in Him ; the Apostles as 
 yet are merely chosen to minister under Him, to 
 be with Him continually, and to qualify themselves 
 for the important part they were afterwards to act. 
 Only a prospective and subordinate authority had 
 yet been given them*. No independent authority 
 could be needed,, or exercised, till his death. But 
 then it is given, and given only to the Apostles, 
 
 
 '31 fi 
 
 I' 
 
 Cbristian dispensations, there are some good observations in 
 Townsend's Arrangem'jnt of the New Testament, vol. ii. 166, 
 in one of those valuable and condensed notes which enrich that 
 work. 
 
 ' Hammond, from the juxta-position of Mar. iii. 14, Luc. xx. 
 U. 19, Jo. XX. 23, Matt, xxviii. 19, ingeniously argues that the 
 advance of the Apostles by Jesus through the several degrees to 
 the highest order of the ministry mt y be traced. Vldo Disscrta- 
 tiones Quatuor, &c. Dissert, lerlia, cap. iv. §. 15 — 19. 
 
25 
 
 mis- 
 our 
 
 and with every solemnity which could indicate the 
 extent and the perpetuity of their office. Every 
 thing in this transaction denotes a regular, formal 
 transfer of the power to regulate the Church, and 
 to ordain a succession of governors and other offi- 
 cers. St. Matthew' expressly declares that the 
 government of the Church was delegated to the 
 eleven, and to the eleven only, by Christ himself; 
 that they were convened specially by Him to a 
 particular spot to receive it. H«? prefaces it by a 
 declaration, that lie is supreme in the Church; all 
 power in heaven and in earth had been given to 
 Him; and that in proper time and place they shall 
 receive power. They were to make disciples, as 
 He had done. His commission is universal — all 
 nations are to be taught, by them, all things He 
 had commanded. This could not be accomplished, 
 unless they had power to ordain others to assist 
 them. It was perpetualy for He is to be with those 
 to whom He delegates this office, " to the end of the 
 world;'* and therefore implies that the Apostles 
 must have the power of ordaining, not only assist- 
 ants, but also successors, with such powers as the 
 future maintenance and regulation of the Church 
 would require. Not a word appears of any such 
 delegation of his power to the seventy, or to any 
 other bodies or individuals. 
 
 If we turn to the Acts of the Apostles, and fol- 
 
 ' Matt, xxviii. 16. 
 
26 
 
 w 
 
 I 
 
 i 
 
 'A 
 
 low the course of events there, to the completion 
 of this commission, we shall nnd the same solemni- 
 ties and appropriation of power followed up. They 
 are appointed, but they have not yet received the 
 credentials of their calling ; and they are directed 
 to zvait at Jerusalem, till they should, as Jesus had 
 been before them, be baptized with, or visibly re- 
 ceive the power of the Holy Ghost, and be endued 
 with those gifts and proofs which the peculiar state 
 of the Church and of tor office render necessary. 
 
 I have used the very words of Christ, ** baptized 
 with the Holy Ghost ;" and I wish the phrase to be 
 marked. For the link it forms in a complete chain 
 of evidence has never, to my recollection, been suf- 
 ficiently noticed. Let it be connected with the 
 visible descent of the Spirit on Jesus, and the voice 
 from heaven at his haptistn \ with the declaration of 
 St. Paul, that Christ glorified not himself to be made 
 an high priest, but He that said unto him, thou art 
 mij Sony this day have i begotten thee'\' and, finally, 
 with the visible descent of the Spirit on the Ape lies, 
 and their immediate entrance upon their office^ ; and 
 you have then clearly the Apostles by the same au- 
 thority, in the same orderly manner, invested with a 
 similar jurisdiction over the Church, to that which 
 Christ himself exercised, and in which He sent them 
 forth, as his Father had sent Him. You advance 
 thus as far as the Scriptures can advance. You want 
 
 ' Matt. iii. Id, 17. 
 
 •' Acts ii. 
 
 Ili'b. 
 
27 
 
 another link, to carry on the same principle in the 
 Church, among the immediate successors of the 
 Apostles. And here it is, with a plain allusion to 
 the above passages, in the words of Clement of 
 Rome, an apostolical man; and, according to pri- 
 mitive testimony, ordained by St. Peter himself. 
 " The Apostles have preached to us from our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ from God. Christ there- 
 fore was sent by God, the Apostles by Christ ; so 
 both were orderly sent, according to the will of 
 God. For, having received their command, and 
 being i\\r ^oughly assured by the resurrection of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, and convinced by the Word 
 of God, with the fulness of the Holy Spirit, they 
 went abroad, publishing that the kingdom of God 
 was at hand. And, thus preaching through coun- 
 tries and cities, they appointed the first fruits of 
 their conversions to be bishops and ministers over 
 such as should afterwards believe, having first 
 proved them by the Spirit." — Clem. Rom. Wake's 
 Translation^. 
 
 ' Jeremy Taylor (Consecration Se'rmon) says St. Jumes, the 
 Bishop of Jerusalem, is by St. Paul called an Apostle : '* For 
 there were some whom the Scriptures call the Apostles of our 
 r^ord ; that is, such which Christ made by his word immediately, 
 or by his Spirit extraordinarily ; and even into this number and 
 title, Matthias, and St. Paul, and Barnabas, were accounted*. 
 But the Ciiurch also made Apostles f ; and these were called by 
 
 * I Cor. viii. 23. 
 
 t Phil. ii. 25. 
 
28 
 
 If this does not complete the chain, I know not 
 what moral evidence can establish any historical 
 fact. 
 
 But to return to the thread of our observa- 
 tions. Till this power had been " orderly given," 
 we cannot but observe the guarded accuracy of 
 
 St. Paul diroaToXoi eKicXj/fftwi', " Apostles of the Churches ;" and 
 particularly Epaphroditus was the *' Apostle of the Philippians ;" 
 — *' properly so," saith Pinnasius ; and " what is this else but the 
 Bishop ?" saith Theodoret ; " for roue vuy KaXovfievovg iviaKoirovQ 
 utvofia^ov dTTotTTuXove, those who are now called Bishops were then 
 called Apostles," saith the same father. 
 
 Hammond draw the following parallel between the ** com- 
 mission" of Jesus and of the Apostles : 
 
 Mirum est quam haec a Christo signanter, quam ad omnem 
 clarissimaB veritatis ignorationem pertinaci saeculo extundendam, 
 accurate et sollicite enunciata, quam fere omnibus, quae excogitari 
 poterant, dictionum figuris et schematismis variata nobis tradan- 
 tur, Pater judicium dedit Filio. Joh. v. 22. Filius judicium 
 Apostolis dedit. Matt. xix. 28 ; Luc. xxii. 30 ; 1 Cor. vi. 3 ; 
 2 Cor. X. 6. Pater Filio potestatcm dedit remittendi in terris 
 peccata. Matt. x. 6. Filius Apostolis potestatem dedit remit- 
 tendi itidem in terris peccata, Joh. xx. 23. Pater dates Filio 
 dedit. Matt. xvi. 19 ; Isai. xxii. 22 ; Apoc. iii. 7. Filius 
 Apostolis claves dedit. Matt. xvi. 19. Pater Filio dedit sedere 
 cum eo in throno ejus, itidemque Filius Apostolis dedit sedere cum 
 60 in throno ejus. Matt. xix. 28 ; Luc. xxii. 30. Pater Filium 
 dedi'cjundamentum, aut lapidem angularem ecclesiae. Matt. xxi. 
 42. Filius Apostolos dedit fundamenta super fundamento. Eph. 
 ii. 20. ^EfiiXiov 'AttootoAwv ovtoq aKpoyutfiaiov avrov 'Iriaov 
 XpiffToi), Pater denique Filium uVeflraAvt Kal 'iirefixpe, Sou. 
 V. 24, et xvii. 18. Filius deni Apostolos dniaTaXKt Kal intfixlie. 
 Joh. XX, 21. — Dissert, iii. cap. 2. § 13. 
 
29 
 
 the Apostles' conduct. They make no pretensions 
 to the power of ordination. They merely, after 
 having prayed, choose by lot one to fill the vacancy 
 occasioned by the death of Judas; a course they 
 never afterwards adopted (when their powers were 
 fully conferred). I need not describe the scene on 
 the day of Pentecost, when the power was, accord- 
 ing to Christ's promise, given, and their divine com- 
 mission sealed, in the same manner as it had been 
 sealed in Christ's Baptism, by the Spirit, before an 
 assemblage ^ capable of estimating the sufficiency 
 of their credentials. Up to this point a full and 
 formal account of the nature and source of their 
 authority is given. It cannot be more particular. 
 The illustrations of its application to practice are 
 to be found only incidentally in the Epistles and in 
 the Acts of the Apostles — a history not professing 
 to give much more than a brief account of the 
 beginnings of the Church in Judaea and among the 
 proselytes, its opening to the Gentiles, and the tra- 
 vels of St. Paul ^ The notices in the history are 
 
 ' Acts ii. 8—11. 
 
 ' " Their doctrine, indeed, doth plainly appear in their writ- 
 ings ; their successors doe not. For how should the Apostles 
 declare by their pcnnes who succeeded them after their deathes ? 
 Is not the whole Church of Christ a lawful and sufficient witnesse 
 in that case ? If we believe not the Churches that were directed 
 and ordered by the Apostles' preaching and presence, nor their 
 schollers that lived with them and next succeeded in *heir roomes ; 
 who that wise is will beleeve our bare surmises and conjectures of 
 
30 
 
 few, but not fewer than from the professed object 
 of it, and the progress of the rising Church strug- 
 gling with persecution, we might expect, particu- 
 larly when the jurisdiction of the Apostles could 
 not i)e doubted. In the Epistles, an unhesitating ' 
 tone of authority prevails, every where bearing 
 evident marks of a consciousness on the part of 
 the writers, that it is as unquestioned by those 
 whom they address ^ as it is by themselves. 
 
 The time warns me that I must not attempt to 
 adduce passages in support of these positions. But 
 
 things done 1500 ye.ires before wee were borne?" — Bilson, 
 eap. 12. 223. 
 
 ' 2 Thess. iii. G. 1 Cor xi. passim; xii. ditto; xiii. ditto; 
 xvi. 1. 10, 11. Epistles to Tim. and Titus, passim. — Number- 
 less passages might be pointed out ; and the tone is found to pre- 
 vail, not here and there only, but through all the Apostolic 
 writings. 
 
 * " No Christian Church could, in respect to their (the Apos- 
 tles') authority, aspire to independent rights, on the ground of 
 being a voluntary association, without a dereliction of the very 
 principles of Christianity, without disregarding the moral evi- 
 dence which attested the truth of the (Jospel. No such contempt 
 of Apostolic authority is chargeable on the primitive Churches : 
 on the contrary, there was a general disposition to defer, in all 
 respects, to their directions ; and in the first ages of the Church, 
 the societies in which an Apostle, or the conipaninn of an Apos- 
 tle, had presided, were looked upon as claiming a sort of pre- 
 eminent dignity." — Conder, Prot. NonconformUy. 
 
 Bilson asserted, long ago, the same ; and shrewdly questions 
 when and by what authority this principle of obedience to the 
 episcopal rule of the Apostles, and men appointed by the Apos- 
 tles, was altered. 
 
I u ivbiiMfi 'wm 
 
 31 
 
 I am consoled by the certainty, that these general 
 characters of the Acts and the Epistles are matters 
 of notoriety to every well-informed congregation, 
 and I request any who doubts to read St. Paul's 
 Epistles, with a view to this characteristic. I con- 
 tend not here for mere verbal distinctions, nor 
 shall I enter into the questions which have been 
 raised upon the application of the term Presbyter 
 to the Apostles as well as to other teachers, or the 
 supposed application of eTrtWoTroc; to the mere Pres- 
 byter. All I shall observe on this head is, that 
 though every Apostle or Bishop certainly was a 
 Presbyter, it will not follow that every Presbyter 
 was an Apostle or Bishop '. The Acts of the 
 
 ' I say supposed application to the mere Presbyter, meaning 
 thereby tliat the Episcopalian has at least full as much ground to 
 question such application of episcopacy in certain passages, as 
 his opponents have to affirm it. As, for example, in Titus i. f), 
 compared with verse 7, our opponents say, that here mere Pres- 
 byters, in the restricted sense of the word, were spoken of a.-* 
 Bishops. I contend, not only from the application of the title 
 Episcopus given to them in the 7th verse, but from the very terms 
 and tenor of tlie sentence itself, that they were not spoken of as 
 ordinary Presbyters, but merely as of men of age and gravity, 
 and also in the form of expression familiar to the Jews and lioly 
 writers — who gave to all the heads of the people, as an appella- 
 tion of reverence, the name of Elders. St. Paul says, I left 
 thee in Crete, &c., that thou shouldest (not, as our translation 
 has it, '* ordain," but) appoint, or set. Presbyters over each city, 
 as I had arranged with thee. KardarrfQ Kara noXiv '!rp£aj3vTioovQ, 
 a direction not ill-suited to Crete, called tKaTOfivoXig, the land of a 
 hundred cities. The phrase vara ttoXii' does not necessarily imply 
 
 13 
 
32 
 
 ^it 
 
 Apostles and general tenor of the Script:?res all 
 speak the same language as the early Church, and 
 are not to be shaken by a few ingenious verbal dis- 
 tinctions and niceties upon one or two disputable 
 texts. The question is not to be treated, as it often 
 is, as though the presumption were against episco' 
 pacy, when it is the reverse, both by the testimony 
 of the Church and general tone of the Bible. 
 
 I take my stand upon the manifest intention of 
 the commission given to the Apostles, and to the 
 Apostles only, upon the broad marks of appropria- 
 tion of authority — upon the distinct tenure of 
 power, ordination, and direction which the Apos- 
 tles display in the exercise of their functions \ and 
 
 that a Bishop was appointed to every city, but only to each city 
 where he was required. 
 
 The opponent of episcopacy may reply, I interpret this the 
 other way. Be it so. Then to what better arbitration can we 
 refer the question, than the'practice of the Apostles, and men to 
 whom the Apostles delegated their authority, such as Timothy 
 and Titus — the general tenor of Scripture, and the testimony of 
 the Church ? I merely take this as an example, not meaning to 
 enter into the wide field of controversy on single texts. 
 
 ' An excessive importance appears to be attached, in this con- 
 troversy, to the question whether the terms Episcopus or Pres- 
 byter were distinctly appropriated or not in Scripture. The 
 main point is, wheUier the office existed, was appropriated, and 
 delegated to successors, and continued in the Church. That it 
 was so by the Apostles, and by Timothy and others, and by the 
 universal Church, there appears to me a mass of evidence which 
 cannot be affected by the time at which the mere terms became 
 distinctly and strictly appropriated. 
 
 Bishop 
 
33 
 
 which they enjoin to those to whom they commit 
 
 Bishop Taylor says,— 1st, That the word " Presbyter" is but 
 an honourable appellative used amongst the Jews, as "Alderman" 
 amongst us ; but it signifies no order at all, nor was ever used in 
 Scripture to signify any distinct company or order of clergy : and 
 this appears not only by an induction in all the enumerations of 
 the offices ministerial in the New Testament *, where to be a 
 Presbyter is never reckoned either as a distinct office or a distinct 
 order, but by its being indiffijrently communicated to all the 
 superior clergy, and all the princes of the people. 
 
 2ndly, The second thing I intended to say, is this ; that al- 
 though all the superior clergy had not only one but divers 
 common appellatives, all being called irptafivTipoi and Sukovoi, 
 even the Apostolate itself being called a Deaconship f , yet it is 
 evident, that before the common appellatives were fixed into 
 names of propriety, they were as evidently distinguished in their 
 offices and powers, as they are at this day in their names and 
 titles. 
 
 A great stress has been laid upon Jerome's authority — his 
 meaning grievously perverted — by those who wished to represent 
 him as affirming that there was no distinction between the office 
 of the Bishop and the Presbyter, unless by the custom of the 
 Church. For he himself distinctly admits that the Bishop had 
 exclusively the power of ordination : " Quid enim facit, excepta 
 ordinatione, episcopus, quod Presbyter non faciat." He recites, 
 as among the Apostolic traditions, that Bishops, Presbyters, and 
 Deacons have the same relative gradations as Aaron, his sons, 
 and the Levites, and says the Presbyter is cont,'ih.^d in the 
 Bishop as the less in the greater. If his autV iity, thi'iet'ore, 
 standing alone, could be set against that oft!: eftrlier fn'' rs and 
 the universal Church, it would not avail ; for he ' * ■ . no argu- 
 
 * Rom. xii. 6. Eph. iv. 11. 1 Cor. xii. 28. 
 t Acts i. 25. 
 
 C 
 
34 
 
 their authority '. They, and they only, ordain 
 ministers — they confirm — they issue their decrees 
 to the Church — they receive appeals in matters of 
 controversy — they regulate all the rising Churches. 
 It is true that, at first, they have no specified dis- 
 tricts over which each presides (save that, from 
 the unanimous testimony of the early Church, 
 James appears to have been very early Bishop of 
 Jerusalem ^ ) ; but this is again precisely what. 
 
 ments to prove any thing more, than that, until the schism at 
 Corinth spoken of by St. Paul, one saying, I am of Paul, another 
 I am of Apollos, &c., the Gospel was preached, and the Church 
 governed, by the common council of persons who wero promis- 
 cuously termed Bishops and Presbyters. The words were applied 
 to the same persons — those persons were both Bishops and Pres- 
 byters — but he does not deny that there were two offices. Even 
 he not only recognizes the two offices, though at first exercised 
 by ihe same individual, but professes to fix the time and the 
 cause (the Corinthian schism) of their being separated, and sepa- 
 rated by the Apostles, and placed in the same superiority and 
 subordination as Aaron and his sons. The Apostles, we know, 
 called themselves elders, but we also know that there were elders 
 who were not Apostles, nor pretended to Apostolical functions. 
 The promiscuous use of the name is no proof that the offices 
 were not distinct. 
 
 But it is unnecessary, in this pamphlet, to enter upon the 
 questions of .Jerome's theory. The reader will find it well sifted 
 in Hammond's work on Episcopacy, Dissert. 2nd, cap. 27, 28, 
 and 29 ; and also in Fran. Amessana, Difficilia S. Hieron. loca. 
 
 ' Titus i. 5. 
 
 ' Hooker cites in proof of this, Acts xv. 13, xxi. 18; also the 
 direct testimony of Eusebius and Jerome. Ecc. Polity, lib. vii. 
 §. 4. This is fatal to the pretensions of Rome; and, indeed, it is 
 
35 
 
 from the state of things, we should naturally 
 expect. The Church was at first confined to the 
 Jewish nation and the proselytes of the gate — 
 therefore the principal seat of episcopal govern- 
 ment, is Jerusalem. At first, all the offices of the 
 ministerial character centered in the Apostles : 
 they performed the functions of Bishops, Priests, 
 and Deacons ', and did not estahhsh the subordi- 
 nate offices till the increase of the Church required 
 them. Their labours also, for some time, must 
 have been rather of a missionary character — to 
 travel about — to make converts — to settle and 
 regulate small congregations, not sufficiently po- 
 pulous, nor protected from jealousy or persecu- 
 tion, to have a separate episcopal government, or 
 be more than parishes under an ordinary Presbyter, 
 with the episcopal superintendence of the Apostles. 
 Afterwards, as Churches became firmly established, 
 and Bishops placed over them, the archiepiscopal 
 superintendence of the Apostles (directed by the 
 Spirit) over those infant establishments ''■ appears 
 
 evident that the Bishop of Rome had no other precedency than 
 that which the Churcli might reasonably concede to him as Bishop 
 of the chief city of that empire under which they were. He had 
 no right to rule over independent Churches. The principle of 
 the concession, one of social convenience, not Divine institution, 
 is followed out in practice in the separation of the Eastern and 
 Western Churches, when Constantinople became the seat of 
 empire. 
 
 ' See Acts vi. 1 — 7. 
 
 - 2 Cor. xi. 28. 
 
 ( »> 
 
 y,' Art 
 
,36 
 
 to have been continued. Tin's seems to have been 
 a chief object in St. Puurs travels, which so largely 
 occupy the narrative of the Acts of the Apostles. 
 
 But while the exercise of their superiority and 
 special power is to be traced occasionally in the 
 Acts, the language of the Epistles, as I have al- 
 ready observed (especially that of St. Paul), is 
 almost every where that of a ruler and a superior 
 officer in the Church, directing not only the laity, 
 but the ministers of religion. And in his Epistles 
 to Timothy and Titus, his language is not only 
 that of a Bishop, but of one addressing with archi- 
 episcopal authority and paternal affection Bishops 
 themselves — men who were themselves rulers, and 
 who had authority to ordain elders, and under 
 whose jurisdiction elders were placed. Especially to 
 Timothy does he speak with these views, and also 
 with a plain reference to the office being continued 
 after his own and Timothy's decease in lawful suc- 
 cession for ever. 
 
 I regret being compelled to hurry over this inte- 
 resting portion of our subject, but am sensible that 
 with the utmost compression I must exceed the 
 limits which, on such an occasion f;s this, I ought 
 to claim. I must therefore very briefly touch upon 
 the abundant marks of the recognition of Timothy's 
 episcopal character, which was discernible in St. 
 Paul's Epistles to him. St. Paul reminds him of 
 the apostolic authority from which his commission 
 is derived, and of the firmness with which he ought 
 
to exercise it. " 1 put thee in remembrance that 
 thou stir up the gift of God whicli is in thee by the 
 putting on of mi/ hands. For God hath not given 
 us the spirit of fear ; but of power'." He tells 
 him that he appointed him to Ephesus, and that 
 he is to use his power in ruling teachers — in charg- 
 ing " some that they teach no other doctrine ^" 
 He gives him instructions as to the character and 
 conduct of a Bishop ^ He suggests the points in 
 which he is to reprehend or praise the conduct of 
 the Deacons under him *. He cautions him that 
 heresies must arise, and teaches him what course 
 to take with respect to them '; He declares dis- 
 tinctly his jurisdiction over elders, and gives him 
 some cautions how to exercise it ". He tells him 
 to inflict public censure ^ He warns him, with a 
 most solemn appeal to " God and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ and the elect Angels," to use his authority 
 in these matters with impart'uditjj **. He recognizes 
 his power of ordination, and guards iiim against 
 rashly, and without due examination, admitting 
 any to the Ministry ^ ! He authorizes and enjoins 
 him also to provide for a succession in the Church, 
 and that all those things which he had learned 
 from an Apostle before many witnesses, and which 
 
 • 2 Tim. i. 6, 7. 
 ' 1 Tim. ii. 
 
 * Ibid. iv. passim. 
 ' Ibid, V. 20. 
 
 ' Ibid. V. 22. 
 
 * 1 Tim. i. 3. 
 
 * Ibid. V. 12, &c. 
 
 « Ibid. V. 1. 17. 19. 
 
 * Ibid. V. 21. 
 
38 
 
 :■! I 
 
 he was to keep until the appearing of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ \ he should *• commit to faithful men, 
 who shall be able to teach 'Others alsoV And 
 lastly, in the words of the text, the awful and 
 general charge is given to him before God and the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Can we read these instruc- 
 tions and exhortations, and regard them as given 
 to any other tiian a Bishop, or successor of St. Paul 
 in his apostolical jurisdiction, as St. Paul and his 
 fellow Apostles were successors of Jesus himself, 
 and intended to convey his authority fo the faithful 
 men, with whom Ke promised to be " to the end of 
 the world?" 
 
 E\en Milton, furiously prejudiced as he was, 
 admitted that Timothy was a vicegerent of St. 
 Paul ^ but only with a temporary power. How 
 far will prejudice mislead great minds ! Let any 
 read the chapter from which the text is taken, 
 and set the grave words of the Apostle against 
 the gratuitous assumption of the poet. It is won- 
 
 W i 
 
 ' 1 Tim. vi. \\. 
 
 ^ 2 Tim. ii. 1. and 1 Tim. vi. 14. Jesus also, giving his 
 jiijuiictions to the Apostles, tells them to teach uii nations — all 
 things Avhatsoever he had commanded or taught theizi ; iind 
 couples it with the promise of heing with them " lo the end of the 
 irorld" This is of precisely the same import as St. Paul's in 
 junction in these texts?. " 
 
 * Pierce says : " I do not, indeed, deny, that in every Church 
 there was one chief Preshyter, who was then eonstanl Moderator. 
 1 am so far from blaming this custom, that I think it was derived 
 from tlic Holy Scriptures." — I'hid. of Dhsenlets. 
 
39 
 
 derful how any man could hear or read them, 
 and not be struck with the awful seriousness 
 with which St. Paul seems to labour to impress 
 Timothy with the magnitude of his charge — with 
 the complete episcopal jurisdiction with which he 
 is invested — with che entire responsibility which 
 was shortly to devolve on him as a successor of 
 the Apostles. 
 
 The charge before God and the Lord Jesus, the 
 reminiscence of the day of judgment, the earnest 
 injunction to preach; to be instant in season and 
 out of season ; to exaort, reprove, rebuke, — all the 
 various offices of a chief ruler ; the prediction of 
 the rising impatience of sound doctrine ; the en- 
 treaty to vigilance; the allusion to his own ap- 
 proaching departure; and to the crown of glory 
 laid up for the faithful servant; present an assem- 
 blage of circumstances and cautions, which are 
 such as are consistent with a zealous Apostle, un- 
 der an expectation of being called uway, instructing 
 a successor in his important office ; and they cor- 
 respond with the testimony and practice of the 
 Chuich carried down from the days of the Apostle 
 to the present. 
 
 On the many duties v/hich from these Epistles I 
 might, as a servant of the Most High God, remind- 
 ing, not instructing, suggest to those now to be 
 consecrated, our limits will not permit me to dwell. 
 And it is the less a subject of regret, as in the one 
 case from public testimony, and in the other from 
 
40 
 
 both public testimony and personal knowledge, 
 I have ample grounds of assurance that they are 
 not persons who would lightly or unprepared en- 
 counter such a fearful responsibility. In the mdi- 
 vidual who is to be consecrated to the Diocese of 
 Montreal, we have one who has been long tried in 
 all the duties of the ministry, and whose usefulness 
 is placed on honourable record in the proceedings 
 of our Church Societies. He has had also to prove 
 his devotion to the cause of his Master, as St. Paul 
 did, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in 
 weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, in 
 cold, and in those privations and hardships which 
 the climate and the difficulties of the country have 
 compelled him to encounter, and which he has 
 encountered, as one conscious of the service in 
 v'jch they were required. 
 
 ; Of the other, I can speak from closer acquaint- 
 ance. I know him, I hope he permits me to say, 
 as a friend : I know him by the respect paid to 
 genuine piety, solid learning, discreet zeal, firm in- 
 tegrity, combined with unaffected meekness and 
 Christian gentleness. I know him by the affection 
 and veneration of those who, from his youth up, 
 have proved his heart and his understanding. And, 
 as far as I dare pronounce such a judgment upon 
 human character, I cannot entertain a doubt, but 
 that with a sound knowledge of his subject, he has 
 well considered the nature of his charge, and is, by 
 God's grace, well qualified to undertake it. 
 
 i.ti.ii 
 
41 
 
 We have good ground to hope and believe that 
 both these tried ministers must have searched the 
 Scriptures, remembered the authority and the love 
 of Him who left the command to feed his sheep. 
 They must have thought upon the doom of the 
 perfidious and hireling shepherd ; they have by 
 faith Hfted up the veil of earth, and gazed, with a 
 chastened hope and fearful consideration, on the 
 awful prospect beyond the grave, and the account 
 expected by Him, who himself said to the Father, 
 " Of those whom Thou ga/est me, have I lost none." 
 They have seen their work before them, and they 
 must often, on their bended knees, have implored 
 their heavenly Father, in the name of his blessed 
 Son, to give them that grace which alone will be 
 sufficient to enable them to render an account of 
 their trust in the great day with joy. They will 
 also here, in our presence, publicly offer up such 
 prayers in the language, and with the highest minis- 
 ters, of our Church. We are assembled as their 
 witnesses. Brethren, let not those prayers ascend 
 to the throne of grace as from isolated beings, in 
 whose cause no sympathy is felt, no charity glows; 
 * %i}ei.s not ascend as the cry of watchmen on 
 tn. r solitary towers, but as from the camp of our 
 Israel; as the voice of faithful leaders and holy 
 champions, being girt with arms of Christian chi- 
 valry, and vowing true devotion to an heavenly 
 cause. Let not their prayers and vows ascend 
 alone. Let our hearts be lifted up with theirs. 
 
42 
 
 !i 
 
 i 
 
 .1 
 
 commending them to the God of our battle ; sup- 
 plicating for them that strength in which they may 
 have " victory, and triumph, ^^gainst the devil, the 
 world, and the flesh." •:> , f, . 
 
 For, independently of the ordinary importance of 
 the episcopal office, and the consequences which 
 may result from the establishment of that Aposto- 
 lical polity over countries of vast extent, of pro- 
 bably future greatness, there are many circum- 
 stances, both in the present times (pregnant as 
 they are with unsettled notions of discipline and 
 doctrine), and in the r' »"i,cter of the colonies 
 themselves, one of them ^)ecially, vhich should 
 cause us to take a deep interest in the subjects of 
 the present consecration. 
 
 In Canada, indeed, episcopacy has been for some 
 time established; but who (looking at the vast ex- 
 tent and increasing population) can think a second 
 Bishop superfluous ? Poverty and enterprise daily 
 impel our countrymen in shoals to emigrate from 
 the crowded cities of their native land, and to fill 
 the wilds of America with multitudes of religionists 
 of every shade, and with others of no creed, or with 
 at best very unsettled notions of religion. The 
 Romanist, too, is there in power, ready to catch up 
 these stragglers. Shall the Episcopal Church of 
 Protestant England have no watchmen placed to 
 guide them into her saving truths and godly disci- 
 pline ? Could such be a Christian sentiment, or such 
 the policy of a Protestant State ? 
 
 5 
 
 n-/ ! 
 
43 
 
 In Australia, the jurisdiction of a resident Bishop 
 has not heretofore been established ; but it is a 
 most important district. He who will have in 
 that country to root our apostolical discipline, 
 to liiaintain sound doctrine, to cause the word 
 of salvation to be heard, to reprove, rebuke, 
 and exhort, — will have no light responsibility ; 
 nor has he, or the objects of his episcopal 
 charg':, an ordinary claim on our Christian sym- 
 pathy. Like Canada, it is the resort of those 
 whom poverty or enterprise have sent forth ; but it 
 has also a large and continual accession of ano- 
 ther description. There are those who have pub- 
 licly borne the brand of Satan; there are the out- 
 casts of our Israel ; there are the children of crime 
 and disgrace. Into the bosom of that fair land 
 have we poured out those who were a pollution 
 and pest to our own. Surely we have a Christian 
 duty to be paid to her. England owes her some 
 boon, and a noble boon she will confer upon her 
 in the establishment of that Gospel polity which 
 Christ established, his Apostles illustrated, and his 
 Church has maintained, and which, like its Divine 
 Founder, has gone about every where doing good. 
 It is a work worthy of this great nation, and one 
 that ought to rejoice the hearts of a Christian peo- 
 ple. Are we to have no regard for God's ordi- 
 nance ? Are we to hold true or false faith as mat- 
 ters of indifference ? Are we to use our Colonies 
 merely for our own convenience, and offer them 
 
44 
 
 Vf'i' 
 
 nothing in return ? Are we to be utterly regard- 
 less of their spiritual welfare ? Are we to draw 
 from them their wealth, and not to give them freely 
 of that which we have freely received ? May we 
 not apply to our long-favoured country, as well as 
 to individuals, the counsel of Jesus, " Make to 
 yourselves frietids of the mammon of unrighteous- 
 ness?" Apply some portion of that with which 
 God has blessed you to this holy purpose. Make, 
 Christian and Protestant England, make to your- 
 se\f friends, who may plead your cause when your 
 statesmen shall find no device, and your orators 
 shall be struck dumb with terror and confusion. 
 Establish upon strong foundations, and with spa- 
 cious gates, a refuge for your outcasts, that they 
 who wandered from the home of their earthly 
 fathers in poverty or enterprise, may find a recep- 
 tion in the house of their heavenly Father, and 
 gather, even in the trackless wilderness, the riches 
 of his grace; that they v/ho left our shores in 
 judgment, may turn to their Saviour for mercy, 
 and they who passed hence under the stern escort 
 of the fasces, may enter the Church of the Re- 
 deemed under the bright banner of the Cross. 
 These may be our friends, when England and all 
 its might, and all its riches, and all its glories, shall 
 be as the grass that withereth, and the flower that 
 fadeth. 
 
 To gather together these outcasts, and lay the 
 foundation of a Church, into which they may be 
 
45 
 
 collected in Christian love and Gospel truth, our 
 brethren are now to be consecrated bv those law- 
 fully authorised. Shall not our hearts be with 
 them? May I not address them, and "bid them 
 God speed," in the name of us all ? May I not say, 
 on your behalf as well as my own — Go, Brethren ; 
 go with our blessings and our prayers. Go among 
 those whom your country hath sent forth weeping, 
 and may you, by the grace of God, bring many 
 back to their Lord with joy. Go ; and may the 
 God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, the God 
 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, be with you ; — may 
 the Captain of our salvation be your leader ; the 
 Spirit of the Lord your strength and comfort. Go ; 
 guard and cberish every where your ions of the 
 tree of life, under whose refreshing shade the weary 
 and heavy laden may be refreshed, and from whose 
 goodly boughs Britain hereafter may entwine an 
 imperishable wreath, — a wreath that shall shine 
 with brightest lustre, even in that universal confla- 
 gration, when the heavens shall roll together as a 
 shrivelled scroll, and the victor's laurels, the gar- 
 lands of pleasure, and the crowns of policy and 
 ambition, shall be dioss and ashes. And should it 
 please the Sovereign Disposer of all things, that 
 affliction should befal this nation, which has been 
 as the signet in the Lord's right hand, and that the 
 candlestick of our Church should be cast down, 
 may her children in their humiliation have the 
 comfort of beholding, in many and distant realms, 
 
46 
 
 i '^ 
 
 i'int. 
 I'M' 
 
 the noblest trophies of her former glory and useful- 
 ness, — her episcopal Churches, in which many duti- 
 ful sons may remember her with blessings, and 
 speak of her as Bishop Hall, one of her own ho- 
 noured pastors, spoke of a defender of episcopacy 
 in the primitive Church. 
 
 " Let me, therefore, confidently shut up all with 
 that resolute word of that blessed martyr and saint, 
 Ignatius : ' Let all things be done to the honour of 
 God; give respect to your Bishop, as you would God 
 should respect you. My soul for theirs which obey 
 their Bishops, Presbyters, Deacons. God grant that 
 my portion may be the same as theirs/' And let my 
 soul have the same share with that blessed Martyr 
 that said so. Amen." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Gilbert & IIivington, Printers, St. John's Square, London.