OUTLINES
OF THE
CHRISTIAN
MINIS TR Y
WORDSWORTH
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT OF
H. D. Kirsdman
THE
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
LONDON : PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUAHtt
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
THE OUTLINES
OF THE
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
DELINEA TED
AND BROUGHT TO THE TEST OF REASON, HOLY SCRIPTURE, HISTORY,
AND EXPERIENCE; WITH A VIEW TO THE RECONCILIATION OF
EXISTING DIFFERENCES CONCERNING IT, ESPECIALLY
BETWEEN PRESBYTERIANS AND EPISCOPALIANS.
BY
CHARLES /WORDSWORTH, D.C.L.
L- -
BISHOP OF S. ANDREWS,
FELLOW OF WINCHESTER COLLEGE.
LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1872.
All rights reserved.
TO
MY FELLOW-LABOURERS FROM SCOTLAND IN THE
WORK OF REVISING THE AUTHORISED
VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
THE FOLLOWING LECTURES ARE INSCRIBED,
IN TOKEN OF SINCERE ESTEEM AND AFFECTION,
AND IN FULL ASSURANCE THAT
HOWEVER THEY MAY SEE CAUSE TO DISSENT FROM THE
ARGUMENTS THEREIN MAINTAINED,
THEY NEVERTHELESS DESIRE,
EVEN AS I DO,
TO FULFIL THE PROPHETICAL INJUNCTION
'LOVE THE TRUTH AND PEACE'
(Zech. viii. 19).
THE FOLLOWING LECTURES were written as they
now appear, about three years ago ; and they were
intended to have been delivered in the principal
cities and towns of Scotland, especially at the seats
of our four universities Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aber-
deen, and St. Andrews. Several reasons, both of a
public and private nature, concurred at the time to
prevent the accomplishment of this design ; and it is
not improbable that the publication would have been
indefinitely postponed, or even abandoned altogether,
had not the perusal of Professor Lightfoot's masterly
dissertation l on ' the Christian Ministry,' (which,
though it came out first in 1868, I did not happen to
see till quite recently), revived my interest in the
subject, and confirmed me in the conclusions at which
I had arrived. My first impulse, on reading that
1 Appended to his edition of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians.
viii PREFACE.
essay, was to apply to the Professor with a request
that he would allow it to be reprinted apart from the
volume to which it belongs, with the view to its being
used as a text-book by students of presbyterian
denominations, as well as by ourselves ; not as
though I concurred or expected Presbyterians to
concur in the representation of every particular
point exactly as it there stands, but because I re-
garded it and ventured to hope that their learned
divines and theological professors ' would also re-
gard it as, on the whole, an admirably competent
and fair discussion of the important subject with
which it deals. In short, I entertained the idea that
the critical and, so to speak, scientific spirit of the Pro-
fessor's essay entirely in harmony, as it is, with the
1 When the above was written, I Presbyterians who do not see weak-
had not read Principal Tulloch's nesses in their own system arising
article in the 'Contemporary Re- from the disuse of episcopacy,' p.
view ' for the present month ( Janu- 236, I hail the statement as affording
ary 1872), ' On the English and the very basis we require for a
Scotch Churches,' nor was I aware mutual understanding ; and I re-
that he had spoken of Professor ciprocate it by expressing my own
Lightfoot's Dissertation in terms belief, that there are few wise Epis-
virtually the same as I have used. copalians who do not see elements
It give* me sincere pleasure to be of strength in the presbyterian system
able to anticipate his concurrence in which are wanting to their own. See
the recommendation of it which I also the statement of Dr. P. C.
have expressed above. And when Campbell, Principal of the Univer-
he admits, as he does in that same sity of Aberdeen, quoted below, p.
article, that now ' there are few wise 92, note.
PREFACE. ix
most advanced scholarship of the present day its
thoroughly accurate and profound research, its calm
judicial tone, and above all, its transparent impar-
tiality leading the writer to distrust conclusions in
favour of his own clerical position, rather than the
contrary would suffice to recommend it to all who
desire to find some common ground, upon which the
advocates of episcopacy and presbyterianism may
look for the reconciliation of their mutual differences.
This, as I have said, was my first impression ; but
when I turned to my own MS. and began to compare
it with the dissertation in question, without any
undue predilection, I trust, for my own performance, I
could not but see that, however inferior the latter
might be in many respects, the more popular form
into which it had been cast, as necessary for 'Lec-
tures ' to a miscellaneous audience, and still more its
comprehensive practical character, leading me to
speak of many most important matters with which
the Professor had no call to deal, might tend to
render its publication now not the less, but rather
the more desirable, as a separate and independent
witness in favour of conclusions which are substan-
tially identical and common to us both. At the same
time, I have not failed to give my reader the bene-
fit of constant references to Dr. Lightfoot's work,
x PREFACE.
wherever we traverse the same ground ; and I have
carefully pointed out, I believe, every instance in
which I have found that the view which I had taken
is different from his.
And now it may be expedient to state shortly in
this place what has been my intention and aim in
these Lectures.
Their main purpose is, by a succinct but exact and
exhaustive method, first, to enquire what may be
presumed to be and next, to show what has actually
been the probable will and design of God in regard
to the constitution of the Christian Ministry.
In executing this purpose, there has been no desire
to challenge the validity of ordinances administered
otherwise than according to that constitution. It is
not denied on the contrary, it is most freely and
joyfully admitted that spiritual benefits may be
and have been derived to those duly qualified to
receive them under other systems. But, on the other
hand, it is maintained, nevertheless, that, the Church
being God's Institution, and God being, as the Scrip-
ture teaches, a God ' not of confusion but of peace,'
in His Church no less than in His World, a con-
scientious and enlightened sense of duty should in-
duce the true servants of God to conform themselves
to the arrangements which He appears to have made
PREFACE. xi
with the view to that result. More particularly, it is
argued that the preservation and enjoyment of peace
and order among Christians, (greatly as we all must
regret their loss, and desire their return), are not to be
expected, so long as a portion of the Church's organi-
sation, which is so deeply rooted, as the Threefold or
Episcopal ministry can be shown to be, in the history
of the past, and which runs up so clearly, without any
other form of ministry actually discernible, into apo-
stolic times and into Scripture itself, is set aside and
disallowed.
The author, therefore, has no wish to impose the
conclusion which he has reached, as necessary or
binding upon the conscience ; except so far as what-
ever is thought, upon sufficient grounds, to be sub-
servient to the cause of peace and order in religion,
and to be agreeable to reason, and to indications of a
divine intention, fairly gathered from Scriptural rules
and examples, and from the general practice of the
universal Church, may justly be considered necessary
and binding upon the conscience of those who so
think ; though not of those who, upon the like, or,
as they may suppose, better information, have been
led to think otherwise. Only it is earnestly entreated,
for the love of God and man, that ' the like or better
information ' may not be assumed without proof ; but
xii PREFACE.
may be brought openly to the light of day, and sub-
mitted to the same close inspection which the writer
challenges for his own argument. If indeed I had
not, on my own part, sifted the whole question to the
bottom with the utmost accuracy and conscientious-
ness of which I am capable as in a matter of the
gravest and most solemn importance to us all, socially,
politically, and religiously I could not have ventured
to come forward as I do with such an appeal. For
though I may appear to speak boldly and con-
fidently, it must not be supposed that I am not
keenly sensible of the extreme delicacy and difficulty
of the task which I undertake, when I invite, for the
most part, those whom I address to do that from
which we are all of us naturally averse viz. to recon-
sider the grounds of the position in which they find
themselves (it may be, from accidental circumstances,
or from inherited necessity, rather than from de-
liberate choice), and which they have hitherto perhaps
been accustomed to regard with satisfaction, if not
with confidence. As it is, there are two large classes
of Christians in particular, who, I cannot but hope,
will be inclined to look with some interest on this
appeal, and endeavour to promote the end at which
it aims. I mean, first, all who desire to maintain the
public profession of our National Christianity through-
PREFACE. xiii
out Great Britain ; which is becoming daily more and
more weakened through the continuance of our sepa-
rations, especially the separation between our two
National Church establishments : and, secondly, all
who< appreciate the necessity and the benefits of the
Reformation in the sixteenth century ; the mainte-
nance of which has also become imperilled through the
same cause. A third, and I fear a rapidly increasing
class, who point to our separations as an excuse for
their distrust and practical rejection of all religion, may
be expected, on the other hand, to regard the whole
discussion with indifference, if not with scorn.
There is one other point upon which it seems ne-
cessary to speak before I conclude this Preface.
It has too often been the practice, on the part of
the opponents of the threefold ministry, to press the
advocates of it to conclusions which are as undesirable
as they are unnecessary. Because we hold that such
a ministry is, and, in view of the past history of the
Church, must ever be, expedient, if not essential to
unity and good order among Christians, it does not,
therefore, follow that we insist upon it as ' of divine
right ' in the highest sense in which that phrase may
be understood, or in the same sense in which the two
great sacraments of the Gospel are of ' divine right.'
The latter are imperative in consequence of the ex-
xiv PREFACE.
press and direct command of Christ Himself, while the
former rests for its immediate sanction upon no such
command, but upon the duty of order and unity in the
Christian body not in this or that portion of the
body, but in the whole as it has existed from the
beginning and will continue to exist till the end of
time. For my own part, on the one hand, I accept
Professor Lightfoot's conclusions as amply sufficient
and satisfactory when he writes as follows :
' If the preceding investigation be substantially
correct, the threefold ministry can be traced to
apostolic direction, and, short of an express statement,
we can possess no better assurance of a divine ap-
pointment, or at least a divine sanction.' Page 265.
And again: 'The form of the ministry has been
handed down from apostolic times, and may well be
presumed to have a divine sanction.' Page 266.
On the other hand, I also agree with him that ' the
facts do not allow us ' certainly do not require us
' to unchurch other Christian communities differently
organised ' : though I cannot forbear adding, that the
co-existence of such different organisations, equally
claiming to be ' Churches,' in t/ie same place, has not
come up in the course of the Professor's investigation,
and appears to rest upon no sufficient human, as it
certainly rests upon no divine authority. And further,
PREFACE. xv
though I do not believe that a single well-authen-
ticated instance of merely presbyterian ordination is
to be found in the records of the ancient Church, 1
I agree with Dr. Lightfoot that ' the general
rule' (p. 231, comp. p. 224) upon that point is all
that we ought to plead for, and that sufficient
grounds are to be discovered (without descending to
post-Reformation times) in the nature of the early
evidence itself and I would add in the spirit which
appears to have guided the primitive Church in dealing
with the reconciliation of old and wide-spread differ-
ences to induce us to suspend, so far as may be ne-
cessary, the obligation of the rule, if by so doing we can
open a way for return to that unity which it was one
great object of the rule to accomplish and secure. In
a word, if we are to extricate ourselves out of our pre-
sent position (which no earnest Christian can approve
of, or feel to be satisfactory), we must look to the
broad principles of the Gospel, and to its spirit of
charity and brotherly love, which should suffice to re-
mind us that God ' will have mercy and not sacrifice/
whenever sacrifice interferes with that higher law;
1 On the other hand, it has to be orders ; which cannot, I believe, be
assumed, on our part, that a distinct proved till we come to the third and
form of ordination was required from fourth centuries,
the beginning for each of the three
xvi PREFACE.
which is above all ordinances ; and certainly, there-
fore, above such as cannot claim the obligation of
an express command; which sacrifice could claim when
the prophet Hosea was inspired to write those words.
I am fully persuaded that if the bishops and councils
of the primitive Church had been called upon to con-
sider a case similar to that of presbyterian Scotland
at the present day a case of inveterate and widely-
spread divergence from catholic usage but a diver-
gence accompanied all the while with most unques-
tionable exhibitions of true Christian character, and a
most conscientious fervent desire to do honour to the
written Word of God, they would have taken their
stand upon those broad principles and that charitable
spirit ; provided they had reason to hope that such a
course would serve to heal the separation, and would
also tend to the better and more extensive observance
of the suspended usage for the time to come. Upon
this point I shall be prepared to speak more at length,
and more definitely, if the proper season and occasion
for my doing so should ever arrive. In the meantime
let me recommend to the consideration of all my
readers, both episcopalian and presbyterian, the fol-
lowing words of Antony Faringdon, which it would
have been well for the Church of England if she
PREFACE. xvii
had taken for her guide at the time of the Resto-
ration :
4 The rules of discretion and spiritual prudence will
teach us that thriving lesson to lose something that
we may gain the more ; to yield that we may over-
come ; not to be overjust to ourselves that others may
be won at the last to do us the more right ; not to
stand upon credit and reputation when we plead for
peace.' Serm. Ixxxi. (preached A.D. 1654), vol. iii. p.
400.
It was my endeavour to make each of the three
Lectures complete, as far as possible, in itself, in
consideration of the different persons who might be
present on different occasions among the audience ;
and it is possible that this may have given rise to
somewhat more of repetition, or redundancy in the
treatment of the subject, than would otherwise have
been the case. Should the reader be conscious of
such an objection, I must ask for his kind indulgence
to forgive it.
Having now reached the twentieth anniversary of
my consecration to the episcopal office, I feel that I
am committing to the press what may not impro-
bably prove my last legacy to my fellow- Christians ;
and I earnestly pray that the Divine Blessing may
iviii PREFACE.
attend it, in proportion to the singleness of purpose
with which I have laboured to make it not altogether
unworthy to promote the great and all-important
object at which it aims.
PERTH, January 25, 1872.
(Conversion of St. Paul.)
ANALYTICAL VIEW
OF
CONTENTS OF THE THREE? LECTURES. 1
LECTURE I.
PAGE)
Introductory remarks Object of the Lectures Solution of the
question proposed not unattainable How it has become
difficult Threefold treatment of the subject : I. Argument &
priori ; II. From Holy Scripture and from history; III. Ex
consequente Persons more particularly addressed . 1-9
I. FIRST MAIN ARGUMENT A PRIORI.
(i) The Scriptural idea and representation of the Church
imply a visible and uniform organisation (2) This implied
also by analogy from the order of Nature (3) Also by
correspondence between the Jewish Church and the Chris-
tian, leading us to expect in the latter a threefold ministry
(4) The same form of ministry further indicated by analogy
from the divine object of Christian worship (5) Also by
analogy from the best form of civil government (6) Lastly,
by reference to the important ends which the ministry has
to serve . . . n
a2
xx ANALYTICAL VIEW OF CONTENTS
II. SECOND MAIN ARGUMENT FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE
AND FROM HISTORY.
rxcB
Preliminary observations Christ, and not Christian people,
the source of all ministerial authority Author's first stand-
ing-point of enquiry A.D. loo Why chosen: (i) A period
of preparation required ; (2) Also, the previous extinction
of the Jewish priesthood 20-25
Proceeding upwards, from A.D. 100, we come to :
First: the testimony of ST. JOHN From Scripture
' Angels ' of the seven Churches From ancient authors . 25-34
Secondly : the testimony of ST. PETER Church of Antioch
Church of Rome Church of Alexandria .... 34~39
Thirdly : the testimony of ST. PAUL Church of Ephesus
Church of Crete ........ 39~57
Fourthly : the testimony of ST. JAMES the Less Church of
Jerusalem 58-70
Review of argument from Scripture and the history of the
Church during the apostolic age, A.D. 33-100 They
combine to demonstrate a threefold, or prelatical, ministry 70-75
The opposite theory of Presbyterianism, or ministerial parity
according to Mosheim according to Westminster As-
sembly Merely theoretical, without support either in
Scripture or the earliest Church history .... 75-90
Recent testimony of eminent Presbyterians Both forms of
ministry, as at present existing, have much to gain from
^nutual alliance 90-94
LECTURE II.
SECOND MAIN ARGUMENT continued.
Author's former standing-point, at the close of the first century,
resumed, and the historical evidence traced downwards
through the earliest post -apostolic age (A.D. 100-233),
and, more generally, into subsequent times :
OF THE THREE LECTURES. xxi
PACK
(r) The primitive episcopal successions in the greater cities a
proof of prelacy Testimony of Irenseus of Tertullian
ofEusebius 95-108
(2) The primitive ministry a threefold one, a further proof of
prelacy Testimony of St. Clement of St. Ignatius of
Clement of Alexandria of Tertullian of Origen of the
4 Apostolical Canons ' of Eastern travellers in modern
times 108-124
(3) No attempt made to question the prelatical, or threefold,
ministry till the fourth century, by Aerius, the first to deny
the order of bishops ....... 124-126
(4) Attempt of an opposite character on the part of the ~
Church of Rome to elevate its bishops above the rest-
Papal supremacy Causes which led to it Denounced, in
1848, by the Eastern Patriarchs Reaction at the Refor-
mation Led to Presbyterianism Its downward course
Consistent position of the Church of England In accord-
ance with the position of the Greek and Russian Churches
and with the opinion of the greatest of the reformers . . 127-140
OBJECTIONS TO FOREGOING EVIDENCE CONSIDERED
AND ANSWERED.
First objection. From the sanction of Scripture to the threefold
ministry being inexplicit Fallacy of the objection . . 140-146
Second objection. From the apparently accidental character of
the primary organisation of the Church's ministry . . 146-148
Third objection. From the indiscriminate use of the names
' episcopus ' and ' presbyterus ' in the New Testament . 148-160
Fourth objection. From the testimony of certain of the
Fathers ; which, however, is shown to be either negative,
as in the cases of St. Clement and St. Polycarp, and Justin
Martyr ; or self-contradictory, as in the cases of St. Jerome
and the spurious Ambrose 160-191
No argument to be drawn from expressions of condescension ;
nor from our Lord's condemnation of clerical ambition . 191-194
Summing up of argument, Scriptural and historical Appeal
to members of the Established Church of Scotland . . 194-196
Supplement to Lecture II. on the testimony of Eutychius . 197-203
xx ANALYTICAL VIEW OF CONTENTS
LECTURE III.
III. THIRD MAIN ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE;
PACK
i.e. from the consideration of evil consequences which have
flowed more or less directly from neglect of the conclusion
arrived at in the foregoing Lectures :
First evil consequence. Indifference to unity, though com-
manded in Scripture; for the benefit, especially, of the
poor and the unlearned . . . . . . . 204-212
I Second evil consequence. Undue assumption of the right to
Ordain Episcopal Ordination proved from Scripture, and
] from the history of the Church Unwillingly relinquished
by the first Protestants ....... 212-226
Third evil consequence. Disuse of Confirmation, a Scriptural
ordinance, universally observed in the early Church Its
' importance . . . . . .. . 226-230
Fourth evil consequence. Disuse of other catholic ordinances;
viz. daily public worship, frequent Communion, observance
of fasts and festivals, &c. . . . . . . 230-236
Fifth evil consequence. Misapplication of endowments, espe-
cially at universities ' . . , , , . 236 sq.
Sixth evil consequence. Waste of ministerial and other re-
sources, and consequent insufficiency of provision for
clergy 237 sq.
Seventh evil consequence. Lowering of clerical status, and loss
of means and opportunities for theological study . . 239-241
Eighth evil consequence. Difficulty in dealing with the great
question of national education ...... 242-248
Ninth evil consequence. Practical denial of the true character
of the Church as a corporate institution Neglect of relative
duties and alienation of classes one from another Anoma-
lous position of the sovereign in reference to the two Church
establishments of England and Scotland .... 248-254
Tenth evil consequence. Greater and more unrestrained pre-
valence of unsound doctrine , *.,.. . 254 sq.
OF THE THREE LECTURES, xxiii
PAGE
Eleventh evil consequence. Impediments in the way of evan-
gelising the heathen, and of recovering the lapsed masses of
our population both at home and abroad .... 255-261
Twelfth evil consequence. Advantage given to popery and
voluntaryism National Christianity the true system, proved
from history and Scripture Union of Church and State,
why endangered 261-269
All these evil consequences traced to the Satanical principle,
* Divide et impera ' 270-272
Summary of the whole argument of the Lectures under its
three main heads 272-274
Fidelity of Scotch ' Episcopalians ' to their principles Ex-
cesses in the past confessed and deplored What kind of
prelacy is now desired ....... 274-277
Appeal to the people of Scotland Advantages of the union
between the two countries incomplete without ecclesiastical
intercommunion Adjustment of the ministry might be
expected to lead to greater harmony of doctrine and of
worship 277-284
Motives of the author in making this appeal .... 284-286
OUTLINES
OF THE
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.
LECTURE I.
IT WAS OBSERVED not long ago, by a writer in one of our object of
the Lee-
leading journals, that ' the few and feeble attempts which tures.
have been made to effect a union of Christians have almost
all proceeded upon the assumption that there is some one
Church which is destined to assimilate and absorb all the
others/ and it was added, 'As long as this belief prevails
our very endeavours after union will only tend to exasperate
the spirit of division.' Concurring as I do in the truth and
justice of that remark, I desire, first of all, to disown and
repudiate, on my own part, any such assumption.
I shall not indeed deny that one of my objects in these
Lectures is to induce you to think less unfavourably of Bishops
than many, I know, have been taught and are wont to think
of them. I wish to be allowed to show you that there is
much very much to be said, I do not mean for ourselves
J-<i B
2 LECTURE THE FIRST.
personally, but for our office ; and that, not as it may be found
in any special development, not as it exists or has existed
in any one particular Church, but in itself. I wish, more
particularly, to plead that, whatever may have been the delin-
quencies of our forefathers, either before or since the Refor-
mation ; whatever may have been their delinquencies and
I am not here to extenuate them they were no necessary
part of the system itself; and that we, their descendants,
having been disestablished and disendowed for nearly two
centuries, have now suffered enough on their account But
why do I wish, why do I come forward, to attempt this ?
Not certainly with a selfish or contracted view to our own
interests ; not certainly because I desire merely to uphold
Prelacy, still less to assail or disparage Presbyterianism ; nor
simply because, as a bishop of the Church, I am bound, so
far as I may be able, to vindicate and promote what appears
to me to be the truth : no ; but because the truth which
I would seek to recommend is, I am persuaded, no less
desirable for others than for ourselves ; or, to speak more
plainly, because it is, in my opinion, of the utmost impor-
tance to the interests of us all to our moral, social, political
and religious interests, and, I will add, to the interests of the
Gospel throughout the world that the differences between
Episcopacy and Presbyterianism should be reconsidered with
a view to their removal, or adjustment upon sound principles ;
in order to place religion in a stronger position against irre-
ligion, and, at the same time, to place reformed Christianity
in a stronger position against that which is still unreformed.
INTRODUCTION. 3
These, and no less than these, are the great objects which
I have in view. And am I mistaken when I say that the
circumstances, both of the country and of the time in which
we live, are more than commonly suited to encourage us to
make such an attempt ?
Scotland is the only country in Christendom in which an Advantages
of Scotland
independent national Presbyterianism and an independent ^enVtime
national Reformed Episcopacy are so intermingled that they
can look upon each other face to face. Both in turn have
been once and again in a position of State Establishment.
Neither hitherto has been so fully and so permanently suc-
cessful in that position, but it must have felt that it might,
with benefit to itself, have borrowed something from the
other. When the one has been weak the other has been
strong, and in that which the one has most lacked the other
has most abounded. Such is the advantage which we pos-
sess in comparison, for instance, with any of the countries
upon the continent of Europe, in none of which a Reformed
Episcopate is to be found, however much it may be desired
by many ; though Episcopacy unreformed is to be found in
all of them. And in regard to the advantage of the present
time, we have recently been told upon high authority, that
' the age in which we live is one of searching enquiry after
truth.' What, then, can be more suitable than that we
should set ourselves to apply such an enquiry to the subject
upon which our main difference has turned; not as desiring
to prove that one party has been in the right, and the other
in the wrong, but as frankly admitting that there have been
B 2
4 LECTURE THE FIRST.
faults on both sides, and as simply desiring to ascertain the
truth, in order that the truth, which alone can, through the
blessing of God, may now at length reconcile our differences
and reunite us to each other.
Necessity of It is nothing more than a truism to say, that division
Union.
among the adherents of any cause is a certain source of
weakness to that cause, and a hindrance to its success.
Now, I trust, we are all adherents of Christianity, and most
of us, if not all, adherents of Reformed or Protestant Chris-
tianity. As adherents of Christianity we require greater
union, for its own sake, because unity among His disciples
is prescribed by the Divine Author of our religion. As ad-
herents of Reformed Christianity we require the same, in
order that, presenting a united front upon true principles,
we may be able to maintain and advance our position
against the unabated aggressions of the Church of Rome,
which, because it is ostensibly united, though upon false
principles, is still found, in spite of its errors, to possess for
many minds an attraction which, on account of our differ-
ences and divisions, we cannot boast. 1
1 The following words were strength in the difficulties we have
spoken by the Pope, March 20, to encounter lies in perfect union.'
1869, in answer to an Address from Compare with the above a recent
a deputation of English Romanists : statement of the Bishop of Ely :
' We must cultivate in a most es- ' Union is vital to Christianity now ;
pecial manner the spirit of unity ; and if Rome alone in Western
for in that lies our strength, and Christendom exhibits an united
its want is the weakness of our front, it will draw a much larger
adversaries.' He repeated, 'Pro- host of earnest hearts into it than
testants are disunited ; and our it has ever drawn yet.'
INTRODUCTION. 5
And let us not be told that the truth which may lead The ques-
tion impor-
to such a blessed and important result is either immaterial tant, an
not inca-
in itself or impossible to be ascertained. There are, I pabieof
solution.
know, many, too many, who are inclined to hold one or
both of these positions. For my own part, I cannot allow
that anything whatever which tends, practically and directly,
to create disunion between fellow-Christians and fellow-
countrymen, and thereby to dishonour God by disobedience
to His plain commands, and to give advantage to the
enemies of true religion, can properly be regarded as of
little or no importance. Neither can I admit that the diffi-
culty of ascertaining the truth upon the subject before us is
by any means so great or insurmountable as some would
lead us to suppose, 1 if only we will undertake the enquiry in
a proper spirit. We have all accepted the settlement of a
question which in itself is far more difficult, far more impos-
sible for any but men of learning and laborious research, I
mean, in regard to the books which constitute the canon or
authentic volume of Holy Scripture, 2 a subject upon which
all the Reformed Churches are agreed among themselves,
but are not agreed with the Church of Rome. In like
1 Take, for example, these words haps more capable of decisive solu-
of Mr. Hallam, writing of Scotland tion ; it was at least one as to which
in the seventeenth century : ' The the bulk of mankind are absolutely
main controversy between the Epis- incapable of forming a rational
copal and Presbyterian Churches was judgment for themselves.' Const.
one .... little more interesting Hist., iii. p. 443.
than those about the Roman Senate 2 See below, Lecture ii.
or the Saxon Wittenagemot, nor per-
6 LECTURE THE FIRST.
manner I am persuaded that the question of the right con-
stitution of the Christian ministry is fully capable of solution,
and of solution in a way far more plain and obvious to men
of ordinary understanding. Originally, indeed, there was no
difficulty about it at all. No learning, no investigation was
required ; men had only to follow the plain teaching of
God's Word, which bade them, on the one hand, not to
separate themselves, and, on the other, to obey those who,
in spiritual matters, had legitimately the rule over them
(Heb. xiii. 1 7 ; see also 7-9). They would easily see that
observance of these precepts was quite inconsistent with the
notion of a variety of ministries in the same Christian com-
munity, or even in the Church at large ; unless it could be
proved that the apostles themselves had authorised such
variety in different localities a supposition inconsistent with
the fact that all, or nearly all the historical evidence which
we possess goes to prove the direct contrary, showing, as it
does most conclusively, that the primitive Churches, when
fully organised, exhibited everywhere one and the same
system. l
HOW the There was, then, I say, under the Divine guidance, no
question has
become difficulty at all about this question in the first instance. And
difficult.
1 Upon this point the following As soon as we have passed the diffi-
words of the historian, Gibbon, culties of the first century, we find
afford a testimony which is all- Episcopacy everywhere established,
sufficient. Speaking of the Church until it was disturbed by the repub-
in the second century, he writes : lican genius of the Swiss and Ger-
' No Church without a bishop was man Reformers." See also below,
(then) a fact as well as a maxim. p. 31 sq.
INTRODUCTION. ^
although afterwards, when usurpation and misgovernment
had provoked a spirit of insubordination, and when a spirit
of insubordination led men to divisions, and when all such
divisions 1 were attended more or less with deviations from
the original model ; although, I say, when the question had
become thus perplexed, difficulties undoubtedly arose
difficulties which do now require learning and research to
master them yet I cannot believe they are insurmountable.
I cannot bring myself to think that God would have required,
as we see in Scripture that He does, united and harmonious
action on the part of His Church which united action we
know by experience to be impossible without a substantial
unity and uniformity in its constitution, more especially its
clerical constitution I cannot bring myself to think that He
would have required this unless He had designed to mark
out sufficiently what was to be the form of that constitution,
and had also provided evidence which (though obscured
more or less, in proportion to men's disobedience) should
never cease to be accessible, to enable us to discover it.
Moreover, we know the evils the hindrances to the healthy
and effectual working of the Church which are caused by
sectarianism, and especially ministerial sectarianism ; and is
it to be supposed that we are for ever to be condemned to
this state of things because the only sufficient remedy is
1 I am speaking of those subse- the consciences of Christians of all
quent to the Reformation. In the kinds, that it was retained even by
earlier times the hold of the three- those bodies who separated from the
fold ministry was so strong upon Church.
8 LECTURE THE FIRST.
unattainable? It is true that ministerial division is often
only the index and representative of a divergence in other
respects ; but it is also true that the greatest separation, the
most melancholy and most extensive feud which has ever
arisen among fellow Christians in this country, has arisen
mainly out of disagreement in regard to this single point, the
true constitution of the Church's ministry ; and to this day
the same single point forms the distinctive ground of that
most unbrotherly discordance between the northern and
southern portions of Great Britain, which, whether as En-
glishmen or Scotchmen, we have all most occasion to deplore.
Once more : it can be shown that elements of identity
underlie the principal diversities of system which actually
exist, and that the diversities themselves can all be traced
historically to one and the same common origin.
For these, among other reasons, I cannot but conclude
that there ought to be discoverable what I may venture
to call emphatically the right constitution of the Christian
ministry, and that the fault must lie with ourselves if we fail
to discover it, and to agree upon its acceptance.
Threefold So far I have explained the general scope and grounds of
Division of
Subject. the enquiry, upon which I would invite you now to enter,
and the principal object which it has in view. I have next
to state, that I propose to divide the treatment of it into
three main heads or lines of argument.
i. The argument a priori, or from what was rationally to
have been expected beforehand under the circumstances of
the case.
INTRODUCTION. 9
2. The Scriptural and historical argument, which will con-
tain the formal and direct proof, and therefore will require to
be treated most fully.
3. The argument ex conseguente, or from the results which
tend directly or indirectly to confirm the conclusions before
arrived at.
Such is to be the course of our proposed investigation. Persons
more par-
I have already admitted that the enquiry cannot now be "cuiariy
addressed.
conducted so as to lead to any sound or trustworthy con-
clusion without study and research. For this reason I have
announced that I address my appeal more especially to the
learned professors and students of our universities. But I
address it, in the next degree, to all those who are responsible
in the sight of God for the right guidance of the mass of the
humbler and less-instructed of their fellow Christians and
fellow countrymen ; to the ministers of religion, to the mem-
bers of the Legislature, to the better educated of the laity of
all ranks, to the leaders of public opinion in all departments.
At the same time, I shall endeavour to make all that I have
to say perfectly intelligible, and I hope not altogether unin-
teresting to any miscellaneous audience who may favour me
with their attention; and while I shall avoid, as far as
possible, all appearance of controversial disputation, I pro-
mise you that I shall omit to notice no argument of import-
ance which has been alleged upon either side, and I shall
produce no testimony or quotation of any kind which I have
not myself drawn directly from its original source.
io LECTURE THE FIRST.
I now begin with the first main argument the argument
d priori, or from rational anticipation.
The church i. When we see the Church spoken of in Holy Scripture
a visible
organi- as a body, as a kingdom, as a house and household, as a
sat ion. * '
sheep-fold, as a tree or plant, we seem in these comparisons
to be referred at once to the idea of a constitutional unity.
And this idea is strengthened when we further read, still in
connection with the same comparisons, that there must be
no schism, no disjoin ture, in the body ; no rebellion, no
insubordination, in the kingdom ; no division, no dissension
in the house ; no alienation, no wandering from the fold ; no
splitting, no dissevering of the branches from the parent
tree. Nor will it suffice to understand these requirements,
as though they could be satisfied with fulfilment only in a
spiritual sense. Doubtless their fulfilment in that sense is
essential. 1 Doubtless, whatever else the Church may be, it
is above all things (to take the foremost of these typical
comparisons) a body spiritual, a body mystical. But, as
militant in this world, it is, and must be also a body visible ;
a body having form and constitution ; no less than an army
is visible, and has a form and constitution as such, over and
above the immortal souls of the men of whom it is composed.
We cannot, therefore, escape from the conclusion, that there
1 See the admirable remarks of as exhibited, for instance, in parts
the Bishop of Salisbury in his of the Ignatian Epistles, and in the
' Bampton Lectures,' pp. 198-200. Clementine Homilies, naturally led
And Professor Lightfoot has well to the spiritual reaction of Mon-
pointed out (p. 237) how the extra- tanism.
vagance of hierarchical pretensions,
ARGUMENT A PRIORI. n
is a constitution, a right constitution, of the Church and of
its ministry, which is to be sought for and maintained, if we
would pay due attention to the laws which Christ Himself
has prescribed, and the means which He has provided for
the life, the welfare, and the extension of the Body of which
He is the Head. He alone, I need scarcely say, is the sole
original source, as of all power in the world, so of all
government and administration in His Church ; and without
authority from Him, as the Head, as the High Priest
of our profession, as the one only supreme Bishop and
Shepherd of our souls, nothing is, or can be, lawfully
done, that is done, in any constitution of the Christian
ministry.
2. Again : the analogy of what we may observe in the Analogy
from order
external world would lead us to the same conclusion. It is of Nature.
true that the utmost variety abounds everywhere in Nature ;
but only such variety as is regulated by strict regard 'to the
principle of order, and to the due fulfilment of the functions
which each portion of creation is expected to discharge. We
are expressly told in the New Testament that God is ' a God
not of confusion, 1 but of peace ' and order in His Church, no
less than in His world ; and we know from experience, that
the prescribed functions of the Church are not only imper-
fectly performed, but grievously impaired and hindered in
consequence of the diversity of ecclesiastical organisations
which now exists. In a word, ' Order is God's first law :
1 i Cor. xiv. 33. ' Confusion ' ; ' want of a settled constitution,'
in the original aicaToo-roo-iav, literally
12
LECTURE THE FIRST.
Correspond-
ence be-
tween the
Jewish and
Christian
Ministry.
is it, then, to exist everywhere save in the ministry of the
Christian Church ?
3. Again : the evident relation which we discern between
the Law and the Gospel, the Jewish and the Christian
Church ; a relation which exhibits the latter as the continua-
tion and completion of the former ; ! a relation which is
exemplified in the correspondence between the two great
Jewish ordinances of Circumcision and the Passover, and the
two great Christian sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's
Supper; between the Jewish Sabbath and the Christian
Lord's Day ; between the public and private worship
enjoined upon the Jew, and the public and private worship 2
enjoined upon the Christian ; between the Jewish covenant
of infant circumcision and the Christian covenant of infant
baptism ; between the form and substance of the inspired
teaching of the Jewish Scriptures, and the form and substance
of the inspired teaching of the Christian Scriptures ; between
the foundation of the Jewish Church upon the twelve
patriarchs, and the foundation of the Christian Church upon
the twelve apostles ; Christ Himself being in both revealed
to faith as the Head Corner Stone. 3 This correspondence,
1 See Bishop of Lincoln on Jere-
miah xxxiii. 18-22.
z The ritual of the Tabernacle and
Temple is consummated and spiritua-
lised in the Christian Church. See
Bishop of Lincoln on Isaiah Ix. 7.
See also the prophecy of Amos ix.
ii, 12, as quoted by St. James in
the Council at Jerusalem, Acts xv.
15-17.
3 It might have been added be-
tween the observance of the Jewish
festivals, such as the Feast of Taber-
nacles, Passover, and Pentecost,
and the observance of the Christian
festivals, such as Christmas, Easter,
ARGUMENT A PRIORI. 13
I say, when traced in its details, would naturally lead us to
look for some tokens of a similar correspondence between
the constitution of the Jewish and the constitution of the
Christian Church ; in other words, would lead us to look not
only for a definite organisation, but for an organisation of a
peculiar form. 1 And the reasonableness of this expectation
is confirmed when we consider that it is one duty of the
Christian Church and ministry, as it was of the Jewish, to
act as guardian of Holy Scripture and not only of the same,
but a greatly enlarged volume of the Scriptures; and to
teach not only the same, but a much more extensive and
more mysterious system of revealed truth. Now in the
Jewish Church we find not only a body of men solemnly
called and set apart for the ministerial office, but a gradation
of orders in that body ; consequently in the Christian Church
we look for the same in both respects : we expect to find a
graduated ministry a ministry of three orders, corresponding
(so far as the different circumstances 2 admit) with the three-
fold ministry of the high priest, priests, and Levites among
the Jews. Such a correspondence, moreover, appears to
have been predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament, 3
and Whitsuntide. See Zechariah 243-262) ; though, perhaps, he has
xiv. 16-19 ; John vii. 2 ; Acts xviii. stated the negative somewhat too
21 ; xx. 16. broadly.
1 See below, Lecture ii. 3 See Isaiah Ixvi. 21 ; Jeremiah
* That the correspondence does xxxiii. 20-22 ; Mai. iii. 3, 4. The
not extend to the sacerdotal charac- word ' priest ' in the singular is con-
ter of the Jewish ministry is shown stantly used in the Old Testament
by Professor Lightfoot (pp. 184, to designate the ' high priest, ' and in
14 LECTURE THE FIRST.
and, as we shall see hereafter, was plainly recognised by the
ancient Fathers. 1
objections Nor has this argument, so far as I can judge, been really
answered
invalidated by any of the objections which have been
brought against it. 2 If it be alleged that because Christ is
the only true Head of the Christian ministry, therefore there
is no room in it for a superior order, like that of bishops,
we reply that to the faithful Jew He was also the only true
head of the Jewish ministry ; and that as the high priests
were His types and ministers in the latter, so the apostles
and their prelatical successors are His representatives and
ministers in the former. If it be objected that because there
was only one high priest, therefore the supposed corre-
spondence gives an advantage to Popery, we reply that the
remark is founded on a misconception. The Jewish ministry
was not, and was not intended to be, Catholic, as the Chris-
tian is ; and the resemblance is to be looked for in an ex-
tensive diocese under a single bishop ; with its cathedral,
like the temple, for the centre of its worship, rather than in
the entire body of the Christian Church. 3 Once more. It
the plural, so as to include him. The sufficient to justify ' superiority and
'sons of Levi ' would comprehend subordination of one order to another
the three orders. See below, in the Christian ministry, ' p. 174, sq.
Lecture ii. In 2 Kings xxiii. 4, 3 See Dr. Crawford's ' Presby-
we read of ' Hilkiah the high terianism Defended,' p. 8, sq.,
priest, and the priests of the second compared with the author's Synodal
order.' Address for 1864, p. 21, sq. ; Sadler's
1 See below, Lecture ii. ' Church Doctrine Bible Truth, '
* Stillingfleet's ' Irenicum ' ad- p. 199, sq. ; and the Bishop of Lin-
mits that ' the Jewish pattern ' is coin on Jeremiah xxxiii. 18-22.
ARGUMENT A PRIORI. 15
has been attempted to break the force of the argument de-
rived from the analogy between the three-fold ministry of
the Law, and the three-fold ministry of the Gospel, by look-
ing for the type of the latter in the organisation of the
Jewish synagogues. 1 But to this we reply that the institu-
tion of the Synagogues, though recognised by our Lord and
His apostles, was not, so far as appears in Scripture, a
divine ordinance ; and certainly it has no claim like that of
the priesthood, to be put upon a footing of comparison with
the ministry ordained by Christ Himself.
There is, then, we maintain, in this comparison a strong Succession
" of Jewish
ct priori ground in favour of a graduated or three-fold ^efu%
ministry in the Christian Church. And this being so, I pre "
cannot refrain from pointing out further in relation to the
Jewish priesthood, how carefully the succession of high
priests, priests, and Levites, was continued, notwithstanding
all the confusion of political revolutions. On the return
from the Babylonish captivity no one was allowed to exe-
cute any sacred office who could not prove his Levitical
descent. And this rule, we are told on the authority of
Josephus, was never relaxed. 2 In like manner the pro-
phetical passages of the Old Testament before referred to
would lead us to conclude that a similar continuity was in-
tended to be maintained in the Christian ministry, amid all
the revolutions to which the Church might be subjected in
1 See Stillingfleet's ' Irenicum,' Chron. vi., preliminary note. Also
pp. 239, 253, 265, 268, 285. ibid, note on ix. 20.
1 See Bishop of Lincoln on i
1 6 LECTURE THE FIRST.
different countries from time to time. For example, we
read in Jeremiah : ' Thus saith the Lord, David (i.e. Christ)
shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House
of Israel; Neither shall the priests, the Levites, 1 want a
man before me to offer burnt offerings . . . and to do sacrifice
continually.' And He goes on to compare this His divine
covenant with David and with Levi to His natural covenant
with the day and with the night, protesting that as the latter
is indissoluble, so also is the former (Jerem. xxxiii. 17-22).
I have no wish to press the passage of St. Jude's Epistle,
ver. n, further than it will justly bear, but it certainly seems
to imply that ' gainsaying ' or opposition, like that of Core,
which was directed not only against Moses, the civil gover-
nor, but against Aaron, the high priest, had been already
committed in the Christian Church, by those who withstood
the prelatical authority even of the apostles, as Diotrephes,
we know, withstood St. John. 2
Analogy 4. Again : the frequent occurrence of mystical analogies in
from the
object of Holy Scripture tends to confirm us in the same argument,
Christian J
worship. leading us, as it does, to expect that the worship of God, as
revealed in the Three Persons of the ever-blessed Trinity,
would be consigned to a ministry, of which the form and
constitution, being itself threefold, might serve to remind us
'In the history of Barnabas, a absorption of the former into the
Levitt, bringing the price of his latter.' Bishop of Lincoln on
land, and laying it at the feet of the Isaiah Ixi. 6.
apostles, we see an image of the * See Hammond's 'Dissert.' I.,
subordination of the Levitical priest- c. xii. p. 39, sq. ; c. xiii. pp. 43-47.
hood to the Christian, and of the
ARGUMENT A PRIORI. 17
of the Triune Being whom the Scriptures have taught us to
confess and to adore. Yes, I venture to think it is some-
thing more than an idle fancy when we recognise the fitness
of this divine economy ; when we seem to discover the un-
speakable mystery of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost shadowed
forth and typified in a father of the flock sending forth chosen
and ordained ministers of salvation to all his people ; in an
ei<er lasting priesthood sent by him to preach and to offer re-
conciliation through the One atoning sacrifice ; and in the
multiplied succession of the seven ' men of honest report,'
full of the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Ghost, who complete
the ministry and dispense its grace, not only the alms and
offerings cast into the treasury, but the comfort and the gui-
dance of the Spirit of truth and love.
5. Again : as all human society is imperfect without some Analogy
- ... .. from Civil
form of civil government, and as the best form of govern- Government
how far
ment has been proved by experience to be that of a consti- admissible,
tutional monarchy, balanced by inferior degrees of rank and
power, so in the Church it is reasonable to look for a corre-
sponding form, and, I may add, for no other because, how-
ever deflections from the highest standard deflections in-
volving much variety may be admissible in civil polity, it
was to be expected that only the best organisation would be
admissible in ecclesiastical polity; this, I say, was to be
expected as a consequence of God's greater care for His
Church, designed, as it is, to promote, not transitory and
temporal, but permanent and eternal interests. Nor is this
all. God has expressly revealed His will that the Church
c
1 8 LECTURE THE FIRST.
should be constituted as a Catholic or universal whole ; in
other words, as ' one body,' a body so united as not to be
divisible without sin, and subject to the same code of laws
(i.e. the Holy Scripture) and the same fundamental ordi-
nances. 1 But He has not revealed this in either respect as
regards the states and nations of this world ; rather He has
indicated the contrary, both by His Word and by His pro-
vidence. Consequently, we find, that whereas a diversity of
government among nations does not prevent them from
maintaining all those friendly relations which their circum-
stances may require for their mutual good, it is not so in the
case of ecclesiastical communities. On the contrary, expe-
rience teaches us that religious intercourse and co-operation
do not, and cannot, take place between them for their
1 It is the neglect of this conside- another.' This may, perhaps, be
ration which misled young Edward truly said with regard to political
Stillingfleet when he wrote in his government, but certainly it is not
' Irenicum, ' p. 153 : ' There can be no true of ecclesiastical for the reasons
necessity (for uniformity of Church mentioned in the text ; and so far
government) but either by way of from ' no one' saying that a general
means to an end, or by way of divine uniformity of Church ministry is
command. I know none -will say ' necessary as a means to an end, '
that any particular form of govern- I am persuaded that everyone will
ment is necessary absolutely by say so who has sufficiently con-
way of means to an end ; for cer- sidered that union and communion
tainly, supposing no obligation from (an end certainly prescribed in Scrip-
Scripture, government by an equality ture) between different Churches is
of power in the officers of the Church, unattainable without an essential
or by superiority of one order above agreement upon, and acceptance of,
another, are indifferent in order to the same ministry as well as the
the general ends of government, same Scriptures and the same sacra-
and not one more necessary than ments.
ARGUMENT A PR10RT. 19
Common benefit no, not even when the individuals of whom
they are composed are neighbours, friends, or relations, and
their interests, as such, compel them to associate unless their
form of Church government (together with their form of
Christian doctrine) be substantially the same. 1
It has been a favourite argument with those who deny the
obligation of uniformity in the Christian ministry to point to
the dissimilarity of political governments, and to infer that
there is no more ground for uniformity in the one case than
in the other. 2 But it will be evident from the remarks now
made that this analogy, however plausible, is not a just one.
Its fallacy would, I believe, have been more apparent if the
question of the ministry or clerical executive of the Church
had been kept more distinct from the question of its polity
or government, which, though inclusive of the ministry, is
not identical, and ought not to be confounded with it.
Whatever we may think of ecclesiastical polity as a whole, it
is certain that the ministry of the Church is an ordinance of
Christ Himself in a way far more definite than can be
pleaded in behalf of any civil executive.
6. Once more : the interests that are at stake, and depend The great
ends of the
in no small degree upon the due discharge of the functions, Ministry
' would lead
especially the higher functions, of the Christian ministry, are "^duatlon*
of such a kind, so inestimably precious, so unspeakably mo-
1 See the author's Synodal Ad- the opinions of Bochart, Grotius,
dress for 1864, p. 72 sqq. Lord Bacon, and others, to tha
2 Stillingfleet's ' Irenicum,' pp. effect.
192 sq. 402 sq., where he quotes
C 2
20 LECTURE THE FIRST.
mentous, that we should naturally expect to find, not only
a body of men set apart for their performance which con-
fessedly we do find but an order of rank in that body,
with stages of promotion fixed and regulated, so that in-
tervals of time and service must elapse, sufficient at once to
afford experience to each individual and to test his character,
before he can be commonly admitted to its most important
duties. This precaution of graduated advancement is ob-
served in other callings and professions, such as those of the
law, of the army and navy, of the civil service ; and how
much more reasonably may it be looked for and required in
the organisation of the Christian ministry, with its far more
weighty and more solemn responsibilities. Moreover, the
same principle is confirmed very strongly by the fact that
the apostles themselves were not fully consecrated and
installed in the great office which they were to exercise after
Christ's departure until they had received, at suitable in-
tervals of time, a thrice-repeated call and mission from their
divine Master. 1
Such, then, in brief, is an outline of the argument, as it
presents itself to us in its d priori form, the form in which
(as it seems to me) the question we have to consider may
be best approached.
Argument I now proceed, in the second place, to the Scriptural and
> rTpture. y historical argument ; in other words, we have now to ascer-
tain whether the facts of the case, as found in Scripture and
1 See Luke vi. 13, ix. i ; John xx. ax.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 21
in the history of the Church, do actually exhibit such results
as our preceding line of argument has led us to expect.
First, then, I observe that the facts recorded in the Gospels Preliminary
assump-
respecting our Lord's appointment of the twelve apostles, tions -
and the distinct position and operation which He assigned to
them, would seem to afford conclusive proof that, in the
system of the Gospel, ministerial agency and authority was
from the first, and was to continue to be, a leading principle.
Moreover, I remark, that the authoritative action of each
apostle did not depend upon his acting in concurrence with,
or in dependence upon, his apostolic brethren, (except in
cases of more than ordinary importance, such as occurred in
the Council of Jerusalem,) but was personal and individual ;
in other words, was complete and independent in itself.
And further, the fact that the apostles were not chosen by
the Church, but by Christ, before the Church was in ex-
istence, may be regarded as a sufficient indication that the
Church itself, through ifs members, is not the source of
ecclesiastical power and ministration, but that these are
derived to it from its divine Head, through the apostles
whom He ordained. 1 And the subsequent mission of St.
Paul, to be the apostle of the Gentiles, by a direct call from
Christ in Heaven, and his fuller and more formal ordination,
with Barnabas, eleven years afterwards, by express command
of the Holy Ghost, are additional evidences to the same
effect. Nor can I omit to add, that the distinction and pre-
eminence which were given by our Lord Himself in His own
1 See Wheatly 'On Common Prayer,' ch. ii. lect. iii. sect, i, p. 84 sqq.
22 LECTURE THE FIRST.
ministry to ' the twelve ' above ' the seventy,' must be allowed
to afford a presumption that in the ministry of the Church
the system to be observed would be one not of equality but
of subordination.
These propositions being assumed, let us investigate care-
fully what was the particular form of ministry which the
twelve apostles, with Paul and Barnabas, who had been put,
as I have said, into the same peculiar and distinct position,
did, by the aid and guidance of the Holy Spirit, actually
institute,
starting- For this purpose, let us begin by taking up our stand at
point of en-
of fir y s7 end *^e c l se f tne fi rst century ; that is, upon the confines of
the apostolic and post-apostolic age, which will also be the
confines of inspired and uninspired testimony.
Why chosen. I choose this particular position, in the first instance,
because it affords a starting-point which is neither too early
nor too late in the course of our investigation. On the one
hand, in occupying it, we may feel assured that we are not
so far from the first beginnings of the Church but that we
are still upon safe and certain ground. On the other hand,
it was not to have been expected that the ministry of the
Church would be able to assume what was eventually to be
its full and perfect organisation during the earlier stages of
its existence. This, I say, was not to have been expected,
on several accounts. First, the men to be admitted into the
ministry would require, for the most part, to go through a
course of preparatory training, more or less prolonged ;
especially such as were of heathen parentage, and had lived
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 23
only in heathen lands. 1 Many years after the Church had
been founded by St. Paul at Ephesus, he felt it necessary to
admonish Timothy not to ordain 'a novice.' (i Tim. iii. 6.) 2
Next, the inhuman treatment with which the first disciples
were constantly assailed, and the command which they had
received, that when persecuted in one city they should flee
into another, may remind us that the settled establishment
of diocesan episcopacy was a thing not easily to be accom-
plished, nor speedily to be looked for under such circum-
stances. And if at Rome, towards the close of his life, St.
Paul himself had occasion to complain that Demas, formerly
his fellow-labourer, had ' forsaken ' him, through ' love of
this present world ; ' and still worse that at his first being
brought to trial ' all men forsook him ; ' he would see cause
enough to be slow and cautious in appointing any to pre-
latical power. Again : before the Christian ministry could
be fully instituted and openly displayed, it was necessary, in
1 Epiphanius has justly remarked ch. xii. p. 287; Smalridge, serm. i.
that ' the apostles were not able to p. 192 ; Beveridge, ' Cod. Canon, '
establish all things immediately at lib. ii. c. xi. p. 313.
first. ... In the infancy of the 2 Comp. the second canon of the
Church it was necessary to adapt first General Council (of Nicasa,
the arrangements of the ministry, in A.D. 325), where this text is quoted,
Some degree, to the fitness of the with a strict injunction that it should
men who offered themselves, and to be still observed in regard to every
the circumstances of each particular candidate for the ministry : ' Nam
case.' And he adds : 'No system et tempore opus est ut sit catechu-
In the world was ever completed menus, et post baptismum multa
find brought to perfection except by probatione indiget.' See Labb.
degrees.' Vol. i. p. 908. Comp. Concil., ii. pp. 45, 238.
'Irenicum,' pp. 180, 328 sq. ; Bilson,
24 LECTURE THE FIRST.
the order of God's providence, that the Jewish ministry,
as having been also of divine institution, should disappear. 1
But that disappearance, we know, was not immediate upon
the commencement of the Christian Church. On the con-
trary, it did not take place till after the deaths of the far
greater number of the apostles, including St. Peter and St.
Paul. This interval extended over nearly forty years, during
all which time it was manifestly the will of God that the
Jewish priesthood, though doomed, and ' ready to vanish
away,' should be treated by Christians with all due respect. 2
It is upon this ground, probably, that we nowhere read in
the Acts of any formal institution of either a bishop or of
presbyters at Jerusalem ; just as we nowhere read of any
formal abolition of the Jewish Sabbath, or formal institution
of the Christian Lord's Day. And the truth is, that for some
time both of those days, our Saturday and Sunday, were
almost equally observed by the primitive Christians. Lastly,
for the causes and under the circumstances now explained,
it seemed good to the divine Head of the Christian Church,
during the first period of its existence, to make large use,
especially in heathen lands, of miraculous gifts and offices,
1 Comp. the author's Synodal the apostles and other faithful
Addresses for 1864, pp. 26, 38, Christians communicated in the
and for 1866, p. 25. services of the Temple as well as in
* See Acts xxiii. 5. (The date of those of the Church.' Also on Acts
that incident is A.D. 60.) Stilling- xi. 46, and 2 Chron. v. 5. The
fleet's 'Iren..' p. 255. Bishop of bishops of Jerusalem were all 'of
Lincoln on i Chron. xiv. 'During the circumcision' down to A.D. 136.
that interval of near forty years See Euseb. H. E., iv. 5.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 25
which for a time occupied the place, and performed the part
of ordinary ministration, to a considerable extent, and, as
may be supposed, with far greater effect.
For these reasons, we shall, as I have said, commence our
investigation from the time at which St. John, the last of the
apostles, closed his ministry ; and, advancing upwards from
that point, proceed to take a retrospective survey of the
scriptural and apostolic age.
First, then, St. John himself, shortly before his death, 1 Testimony
of St. John.
which occurred at Ephesus, about A.D. 100, composed the
book of Revelation (A.D. 95) while he was an exile in the
island of Patmos. In that book he is directed by Christ
Himself to write seven letters to the Seven Churches of the Angels of
the Seven
Lesser, or rather Lydian, Asia. And to whom, in each case, churches.
by Christ's own order, does he address them? To a
presbytery ? To a synod ? To a general assembly ? No
but to an individual whom He calls the ' Angelus ' of each
Church. And who is this individual ? Might not he be
the temporary president or ' moderator ' of a presbytery or
synod or general assembly ? In order to answer this question,
let us first consider the name of the individual, and then the
duties which he is required to perform. We know what the
1 Milman, agreeing with Liicke, assertion, the argument above would
boldly asserts that ' the Revelation not be weakened, but rather con-
of St. John belongs to an earlier firmed. Professor Lightfoot also
period of his life, before the de- seems inclined to adopt the later
struction of Jerusalem.' Hist, of date of the Apocalypse, 'with,' as
Christianity, vol. i. p. 388. If there he says, 'most recent writers,' p.
were sufficient authority for this 198.
26 LECTURE THE FIRST.
name ' moderator ' means. It means one who sits as
chairman, and moderates in the business of a meeting for
the time being, with no permanent office, no superiority but
that which it is necessary for him to use as president, and
who, in all other respects, is simply an equal among equals.
Meaning of The name ' Angelus ' means one who is sent with a message.
th(* name ... 1*1 T i -i T i / r /-M
'Angei.' It is applied to John the Baptist as the 'messenger of Christ
(Matt. xi. 10 ; Mark i. 2 ; Luke vii. 27). It is so similar in
meaning to the name Apostolus which signifies one who is
sent out that this latter word is also translated ' messenger '
in two places of St. Paul's Epistles, viz. 2 Cor. viii. 23 ; Phil,
ii. 25. From this, and from its ordinary use, to indicate an
' angel' of God, 1 we might reasonably infer that Christ, in
these letters, intends it as a title of eminence in the person
to whom it is applied, as it certainly was when applied to
John the Baptist ; and that He chose it designedly, rather
than the name ' apostle ' both on other accounts, and because
these angeli of the seven churches were not ' sent out,' but
stationary ' messengers,' and yet with so much of the mis-
sionary character, in the infancy of the Church, that the
name would still be more appropriate as an official de-
1 That, as used by St. John in fers to understand either ' an actual
the epistles to the Seven Churches, person the celestian guardian of
it cannot mean heavenly or holy the Church or only a personifica-
angels. see Archbishop Trench on tion the idea or spirit of the
those epistles, p. 53 sq. On the Church,' p. 198. He does not ap-
other hand, however, Professor pear to have considered the sense of
Lightfoot is not satisfied with the the Greek name, otherwise than in
interpretation given above, and pre- its English signification.
ARGUMENT fiROM SCRIPTURE. 27
signation 1 than that of episcopus, or settled overseer, which
soon after prevailed, to denote diocesan superintendence.
But to pass from the name to that which is more important,
and more conclusive the office itself. I think it would
greatly surprise anyone who happened to be, at the time,
either the in-coming or out-going moderator of a presbyterian
presbytery, or synod, or general assembly, to find himself
not only regarded as the representative 2 of his Church, but
made so entirely responsible for its good government, as is
implied in these letters of Christ addressed severally to the
angels of the Seven Churches. Read the letters, and see
what they contain. They contain no rebuke to the prelates
of those Churches for arrogating to themselves a pre-eminence
which was contrary to the design of Christ. No but they
condemn them, so far as they are condemned, for not ex-
ercising with sufficient zeal and fidelity the authority which,
as holding that pre-eminence, they were bound to use. It is
true, the names of the several individuals are not recorded, 3
and with good reason, because, as the Seven Churches them-
selves were typical and exemplary, so these addresses (we
1 Archbishop Trench justly re- throughout above the level of daily
marks : ' I am far from affirming life.' Page 56.
that bishops were commonly called 2 Stillingfleet, ' Irenicum,' p. 298,
" angels " in the primitive Church ; suggests that 'in the prophetical
or called so at all, except with a style an unity may be set down by
more or less conscious reference to way of representation of a multi-
this use of the word in the Apoca- tude.'
lypse., . . . The term belongs to the 3 See Dr. Crawford's ' Presby-
enigmatic, symbolic character of terianism Defended,' p. 20.
the book, elevated in its language
28
LECTURE THE FIRST.
Ministry of
the Seven
Churches
prclatical.
may be sure) were designed to be universally applicable, for
warning and instruction, in all ages of the Church. 1
For warning and instruction both in other respects, and
not least in regard to the right constitution of the Christian
ministry. For it is, I think, impossible * to put any satis-
factory interpretation upon these ' angeli,' except by under-
standing them to mean individual officers, holding singly
the highest and most responsible position in their respective
Churches a position which excludes the notion of a parity
of many such in the same ministry within the same Church. I
say of ' many such,' because at Ephesus, for example, one of
those Seven Churches, which had its ' angel,' we know, from
the Acts of the Apostles (ch. xx.), there had been a body of
presbyters nearly forty years before ; 3 and we also know
1 On the political importance of
the cities of the Seven Churches, see
Usher, voL vii. p. 61.
2 This Mosheim admits in the
plainest terms, ' De Rebus Christ.,'
p. 133 ; and he goes on to add that,
even if this proof of the antiquity
of bishops could be ' overthrown '
which he declares it ' never ' can
be 'ipsa tamen rerum veterum
Christianarum consideratio nos eo
facile ducet ut ipso civitatis Chris-
tianas exordio haud multum ju-
niores Episcopos esse statuamus.'
Archbishop Trench declares : ' I
again repeat my conviction that in
these angeli we are to recognise the
bishops of the several Churches. So
many difficulties, embarrassments,
improbabilities, attend every other
solution, all disappearing with the
adoption of this, while no other rise
in their room, that, were not other
interests, often, no doubt uncon-
sciously, at work, this assuredly is the
conclusion to which all interpreters
must have come.' Page 58. I have
already stated, however, that Pro-
fessor Lightfoot is not of this
opinion.
3 In A.D. 58, ' the Church of
Ephesus, which in the Acts is repre-
sented by its elders (presbyters), in
the Revelation is represented by its
angel or bishop.' Milman, ' Hist.
Christ.,' ii. p. 16. Archbishop
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 29
that thirty years before, Timothy had been placed there by
St. Paul in a prelatical position, with authority and instruc-
tion to ordain more presbyters, and also to ordain deacons
in a lower grade (i Tim. hi. 13). So that here, in these
chapters of the Apocalypse, we see before the departure of
the last apostle, the diocesan and prelatical system fully
developed, not only with its ' angel,' having presbyters and
deacons under him, but with St. John himself as its arch-
bishop or metropolitan. Moreover, all this we see not only
upon Scriptural and apostolic authority, but upon the direct
sanction and direction of Christ Himself. 1
Uninspired testimony, contemporaneous, or nearly so, to Uninspired
testimony to
the same effect, also exists, and can readily be produced. ^ s t ame
Such are the facts universally recognised in ecclesiastical
history, that Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Papias, bishop
of Hierapolis, a city not far from Laodicea, were both
disciples of St. John. Such is the express statement made
by Clement of Alexandria, 2 in a narrative which he repre- Clement of
Alexandria,
sents as carefully preserved and handed down to his own
time in the third century, that St. John, when (after leaving
Patmos) he had come to reside at Ephesus, was in the habit
Trench remarks : ' numerous as by l See Archbishop Usher on Ori-
this time the presbyters must have ginal of Bishops and Metropolitans,
been, there is only one angel in each Works, vol. vii. pp. 45 sq., 56, 59,
of these Churches. What can he 69.
be but a bishop? a bishop too with * 'Quis Dives,' &c., c. xli., vol. ii.
the prerogatives which -we ascribe to p. 959. Also in Euseb. H. E.,
one. His pre-eminence cannot be lib. iii. c. xxiii. p. 82.
explained away.' Page 55.
30 LECTURE THE FIRST.
of going forth, upon invitation, to the neighbouring countries
of the Gentiles : in some to appoint bishops ; in others to
constitute or set in order whole Churches ; and in others
again to ordain into the number of the clergy (which seems
to imply priests and deacons 1 ), this or that individual from
among those who were pointed out by the Holy Ghost.
Tertuiiian. Again : Tertullian, the contemporary of St. Clement, writing
about one hundred years after the apostle's death, speaks of
the foster Churches of St John, and with allusion especially
to those of the Apocalypse, says that the order of their
bishops (and in the time of Tertullian we know that the title
of bishop meant a prelatical bishop and nothing else) is to
be traced to him. 2 Once more : it is interesting to add that
St. Ignatius. i n the Epistles of Ignatius, written only seven years after
St John's death, we find the name of Onesimus as bishop of
Ephesus (c. i.), the name of Damas as bishop of Magnesia
(c. ii.), the name of Polybius as bishop of Tralles (c. i.) ; both
places not far from Ephesus ; and then descending to the
time of the first General Council the Council of Nicaea
in A.D. 325, we find among the names of the 318 prelates
who signed the acts of that Council, not only Menophanes,
bishop of Ephesus (in succession from Onesimus and from
Timothy), but Eutychius, bishop of Smyrna (in succession
1 See SclaterV Original Draught,' be understood with some qualifica-
p. 235 sq. ; Usher, vol. vii. p. 58. tion. St. Jerome mentions that
1 Contr. Marcion., lib. iv. c. v. ; St. John wrote his Gospel 'at the
vol. ii. p. 366. The words are, ' in request of the bishops of Asia. ' De
Joannem stabit auctorem ; ' which, Vir. Illust., vol. ii. p. 263.
in regard to Ephesus at least, must
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 31
from Polycarp), Artemidorus, bishop of Sardis (in succession
from Melito, mentioned by Eusebius, and by Jerome, as
occupying that see in the second century J ) ; Soron, bishop
of Thyatira, Ethymasius, bishop of Philadelphia, Nunechius,
bishop of Laodicea ; so that, on that list, we find episcopal
successors of six of the angels assigned to the Seven
Churches in the book of Revelation ; and in the list of the
bishops who subscribed at the fourth General Council the
Council of Chalcedon we find a successor of the seventh,
viz. Eutropius, the bishop of Pergamos. 2
Such is the evidence, inspired and uninspired, upon the importance
of this
question before us, which we obtain, more or less directly, evidence
generally
from the Scriptural teaching and apostolic authority of the f^" ^"
Beloved Disciple. It is manifestly of such weight that it
may be said to be conclusive, so far as it goes. Accordingly,
the historian Gibbon (who, I need not say, had no bias in
favour of the Christian hierarchy, prejudiced as he was
against Christianity itself) has declared, mainly upon the
strength of this evidence, that ' the Episcopal form of Church
government ' (which he describes as ' an honourable and
perpetual magistracy ') ' appears to have been introduced
before the end of the first century.' And it is plain, he held
that government to be Scriptural, because he refers to the
introductory chapters of Revelation in proof that ' bishops
1 See Euseb. H. E., iv. 26, tropius was absent, but his metro-
Jerome, ' De Vir. Illustr.,' c. xxiv. politan, Stephanus, bishop of Ephe-
* See Labbe's Concil., vol. ii. p. sus, subscribed for him.
52 sq. ; and vol. iv. p. 605. Eu-
LECTURE THE FIRST.
under the name of angels were already instituted in the seven
cities of Asia.' l The force of the same evidence has been
also felt and acknowledged by learned Presbyterians of the
Continent ; such as Grotius, 2 Scultetus, 3 Mosheim, the eccle-
siastical historian, 4 and more recently by Rothe, the author
of a work on ' The Beginnings of the Christian Church ; '
while among ourselves a distinguished Principal and theo-
logical professor not long since published a lecture, which
contained a statement in these words :
'Episcopacy, as an order distinct from presbyters, has
continued in the Church since the later age of St. John.
This is simply matter of history, which no candid enquirer
can deny.'
Unfortunately there are many who are not candid or
impartial enquirers 5 in this matter ; and many more, who
1 Gibbon's 'Hist.,' c. xv. See also
above, p. 6. Hooker, 'Ec. Pol.,'
book vii. c. v. z.
2 Grotius goes so far as to say
that the Apocalypse affords an irre-
fragable argument that episcopacy
was approved by divine right
'divino jure approbatum,' because
it was Christ Himself who, by St.
John, wrote to the seven 'angels.'
' De Imperio circum sacra.' Works,
vol. iv. p. 272.
3 In Ep. ad Tit. In this in-
stance I have not been able to verify
th<> quotation. But his words, I
believe, are : ' Angelos septem doc-
tissimi quique Interpretes interpre-
tantur septem Ecclesiarum Epis-
copos ; neque vero aliter possunt,
nisi textui vim facere velint.'
4 See above, p. 28, and below, p. 76.
5 I am sorry to observe that Dr.
Cunningham, whom I should be
unwilling to think uncandid, in his
Church History appears to place
the distinction between bishops and
presbyters a whole century later.
He writes : ' The second century
had not expired before we discover
traces of a distinction between
them,' vol. i. p. 65 ; and he adds,
with still greater violation of his-
torical truth : ' Even in the third
century every congregation had its
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 33
knowing little or nothing of ecclesiastical history, still are
forward to pronounce an opinion at variance with the facts ;
and consequently the strife is prolonged, simply as strife, to
the injury of all our best and highest interests, moral, social,
political, and religious.
But it may be argued and German theologians, in par- St. John's
testimony
ticular, finding themselves in the predicament of having no confirmed by
that of other
episcopal ministry, are not slow to argue in self-defence apostles.
that the practice and authority of St. John alone (although
we have shown that this testimony rests upon the express
direction of Christ Himself) are not sufficient, so as to in-
volve the obligation of the universal acceptance of the same
ministry ; and, further, it may be, and is, alleged that we
shall find it far more difficult, if not impossible, to prove a
similar ministry from the practice and authority of the other
apostles. And this we may suppose was felt and intended
by the respected writer, to whom I just now referred, when
he allowed his frank admission of the primitive existence of
episcopacy to go no farther back into the first, that is, the
Scriptural and apostolic century, than to the ' later age of
own bishop.' Moreover, he has dividual was chosen to be 'set over'
ventured to say in a note, that 'this (not 'preside in' as Maclaine
is substantially the account of the translates) the College of Presbyters,
matter given, not only by Neander 'quiprimum^4w < ^/j(Apoc. ii. t iii.),
but by Mosheim, and by Gibbon.' postea Episcopus dicebatur ; ' and
Now what Gibbon states, we have that this arrangement seems to have
seen above, p. 6 and p. 31. And been introduced first at Jerusalem ;
Mosheim represents that, 'when the that is, under St. James.' Cent, i,
apostles were scattered abroad ' part ii. ch. 2. See below, pp. 66
and therefore still living~-a.n in- and 75.
34 LECTURE THE fIRSJ.
St. John.' Let us then proceed, as I proposed, in our retro-
spective investigation, and leaving the standing-point which
I first selected the close of the first century let us advance
upwards from the date of St. John's death, A.D. 100, first to
that of St. Peter and St. Paul, who were martyred at Rome
A.D. 68 j and afterwards to that of St. James, surnamed The
Less, who was martyred at Jerusalem A.D. 62 ; and looking
again at the facts around us the Scriptural teaching and
the apostolic practice from those points of view, let us see
again how this matter stands. 1
Testimony Of St. Peter's history, after his miraculous escape from
of St. Peter.
imprisonment at Jerusalem, A.D. 44 (Acts xm. 17), we know
very little ; but that little has, almost all of it, a most im-
portant bearing upon the original constitution of the Christian
ministry. We know that he was again at Jerusalem, about
six years later, being present at the Council of which we read
in Acts xv., comp. Gal. ii. 9 ; and that when he was in
Antioch shortly after, St. Paul ' withstood him to the face '
1 It is the weakness of Rothe's deaths of the three former, and after
theory, that he draws too hard and the destruction of Jerusalem. See
broad a line between the organising Lightfoot, pp. 200, 203 sq. ; who,
work of the apostles, St. Peter, St. however, though he avoids these
Paul, and St. James on the one errors of Rothe, appears, like him,
hand, and of St. John with per- to refer the development of episco-
haps St. Philip and St. Andrew on pacy too exclusively to secondary
the other ; and that he makes the causes in his argument (see pp.
origin of episcopacy to rest upon a 204, 232) ; though in his conclusion
decree of a second apostolic Council, he claims for it ' a divine appoint-
whichhe supposes to have been held ment, or at least a divine sanction,'
for that purpose presently after the p. 265.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 35
(Gal. ii. 11-13) a sufficient indication that he enjoyed no
supremacy over the other apostles, that no appeal was
allowed to his judgment as of greater weight than theirs, -
still less as infallible. From thenceforward to the time of
his death we lose sight of him altogether in the history of the
New Testament. 1 His first Epistle, in which he 'exhorts'
(v. i) the presbyters of the dispersed Jewish converts to whom
it is addressed, purports to have been written from Babylon,
and its probable date is A.D. 64 ; while the date of the
second Epistle may be placed about three years later, or a
year before his martyrdom. That besides the more general
episcopate which he shared with the other apostles, he was
also in a more restricted sense bishop of Antioch first, and
afterwards of Rome, as having been closely connected with
the foundation of both those Churches or, at least, that he
assisted and sanctioned with his apostolic authority the con-
stitution of those bishoprics no one, I think, will be inclined
to doubt who has sufficiently examined the early and abun-
dant testimony 2 to that effect which we still possess, and the
1 See the Bishop of Lincoln on iii. 21, 35, iv. i ; and Chronicon,
the General Epistles, p. 37. The year A.D. 44; Epiphanius, Haer.
passage i Cor. i. 12 by no means xxvii. c. vi. Optatus, i. 10, ii. 2, 3,
necessarily implies the personal pre- 10; Jerome 'de Vir. Illustr.,' c. i. and
sence of St. Peter at Corinth. See c. xvi. ; in Epist. ad Gal. ii. n ; St.
Milman's ' History of Christianity," Chrysost., Horn, in S. Ignat. vol.
i. p. 464, note. ii. p. 712 ; Ruffinus, Praef. ad Re-
3 See Irenaeus, iii. 3 ; Tertullian ' de cognit. Clement. Patr. Apostol. i.
Prsescript. Hseret.,' c. xxxii. ; Origen p. 492 ; Fulgentius de Trin. c. i. p.
in Luc. Horn. vi. ; Cyprian Epist. 498. See Lightfoot, p. 207 sq.,
Iv. c. xiv. et alib. ; Eusebius H. E., respecting the testimony of the Cle-
D 2
36 LECTURE THE FIRST.
general acceptance which has been given to it by ecclesiasti-
cal historians. But whether the facts, as commonly stated,
be received or no, is comparatively unimportant in our
present argument ; because it is quite indisputable if any-
thing in the history of the world be so that a veritable
episcopal succession commenced in both those cities some
years before the close of the apostolic age, and (we must
conclude) with the sanction and by the appointment of one
or more of the apostles themselves. This succession has
Episcopal obtained for itself a place in books which are merely of a
successions
at Rome, secular character, having no ecclesiastical bias, and which
Antioch, and
dirfngthe record it simply as matter of undoubted fact ; just as they
record the succession of Roman consuls, or Roman emperors,
or other matters of the same kind, with no more hesitation
in regard to their credibility than is felt in accepting the
demonstration of a mathematical problem. Such a book is
the ' Fasti Romani ' of the late Mr. Fynes Clinton ; a work
of the highest authority as a chronological repertory ; a work
which Professor Blackie has truly said no scholar should be
without ; 1 a work not by an ecclesiastic, but by a layman,
who was for many years a member of the House of
Commons, and who, though a man of genuine faith and
mentine writings, and p. 218 re- iv. 22.
specting the early date of episcopacy 1 ' Mr. Clinton's solid and massive
at Rome. ' Hegesippus, who visited work on Greek [and Roman] Chro-
Rome about the middle of the second nology is the vade mecum of every
century, has left it on record that he scholar. ' Professor Blackie, Introd.
drew up a list of the Roman bishops Lecture, 1862.
to his own time. 'See Euseb. H. E.,
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE, 37
piety, certainly was not a high Churchman. Well, then,
this thoroughly learned and trustworthy work represents to
us first Linus (mentioned by St. Paul in the second Epistle
to Timothy, iv. 21, written from Rome), next Anacletus,
then Clement 1 (also not improbably the same who is men-
tioned by St. Paul, Phil. iv. 3), then Euarestus, as successively
bishops of Rome; it represents, first, Euodius, and then
Ignatius as successively bishops of Antioch ; it represents
first Annianus, then Abilius, then Cerdon as bishops of
Alexandria (with which metropolis St. Peter was also con-
nected, either personally or through St. Mark 2 ) ; it repre-
sents, I say, all these as having been bishops respectively in
Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria at that time the three
capital cities of Europe, Asia, and Africa before the end of
the first century, or, in other words, within the Scriptural and
apostolic age. Are we inclined to dispute whether there were
emperors of Rome during that time? Do we intend to
maintain that Pagan Rome was at that time governed by a
republican, and not a monarchical constitution ? If so, then
may we also dispute whether, during the same time, Rome
1 ' The reason for supposing Cle- sion of its bishops from him. Epist.
ment to have been a bishop is as ad Evang., i. p. 1194. Upon what
strong as the universal tradition he further says, in this latter passage,
of the next ages can make it.' respecting the appointment of the
Lightfoot, p. 219. See also below, earlier bishops of that Church, see
Lect. ii. below, Lect. ii., also Lect. iii. On
2 St. Jerome (after Euseb., ii. 16) the early Alexandrian succession
speaks of St. Mark as having founded which is recorded only by Eusebius,
the Church of Alexandria, ' De Vir. see Appendix to Lecture ii., and
Illustr.,' c. viii., and traces the succes- Lightfoot, p. 223.
3 LECTURE THE FIRST.
had bishops ; then may we also maintain that Christian
Rome was, at the same time, administered under a presby-
terian and not a prelatical constitution. But if we will
venture upon no such vain attempt, 1 if we accept the former
facts as historic truth, as well ascertained and unquestionable
realities, then I know not how we can answer it to God and
our own consciences, if (through a spirit of obstinate prejudice
or unchristian strife) we refuse to accept the latter facts as
no less true and certain and unquestionable ; seeing they are
brought before us in the same way, and rest upon similar
testimony of ancient authors, such as no scholar can reject
objections It has, indeed, been argued 2 that in those catalogues to
those sue- which I have referred, there may have been a personal suc-
cessions
groundless, cession, such as that of the Archons Eponymi at Athens,
1 The reader who wishes to see more sober judgment and prof ounder
young Edward Stillingfleet's attempt learning of the mature scholar and
to that effect (made when he was divine. See the same E. Stilling-
scarcely 24 years of age) may find it fleet's Preface to his Ordination
in ' Irenicum/ pp. 296 sq., 321 sq. Sermon, preached and published 25
He even doubts whether St. Igna- years afterwards (before he was
tiuswas 'brought to Rome to suffer,' made bishop), viz. in 1685. Works,
and avows that the story of his vol. i. p. 358. Also ' Unreason-
martyrdom 'doth not seem to be ableness of Separation,' Pref., p.
any of the most probable.' He ob- Ixxi. sq., Ixxvi. ; and his first charge
serves that ' in none of the Churches as bishop in 'Eccl. Cases,' i. pp.
most spoken of is the succession so 5-9.
clear as is necessary,' p. 301. But z SeeBlondel's 'Apologia,' Praef.
we appeal from the unripened sen- p. 7. Stillingfleet's ' Irenicum,' p.
timents of this able but youthful 300. On the other side, see S.
and self-confident controversialist, Parker's 'Church Government, 'p. 69.
with a thesis to maintain, to the
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 39
and yet no succession of prelatical power. But if so, it must
be asked, at what time and under what circumstances did the
transition from the former to the latter take place ? For
that the succession was a prelatical one when Eusebius, and
even when Irenaeus wrote, will not be questioned. And
why except for some unworthy purpose of gaining a con-
troversial advantage why are we to be so uncharitable as to
suppose that these and other ancient writers were guilty of
fraud ? for such it was if they have represented an episcopal
succession as continuous throughout in substantially one
and the same character, which in fact was continued in two
characters, widely different from each other ; guilty, I say,
of fraud, of which we find no hint whatever in any historical
record, and which they could have had little or no tempta-
tion to practise at a time when no controversy existed, or
had as yet been ever known to exist, respecting the constitu-
tion of the Christian ministry ?
So much, then, for St. Peter's history from this point of Testimony
view. I next proceed to the history of St. Paul, in which,
while the testimony of ancient authors will remain equally
clear, the teaching of Holy Scripture will become far more
manifest to the same effect, in proportion as the inspired
memorials which we have received of that apostle are more
abundant. It is, indeed, a noticeable fact and indicates, I
suppose, the pre-eminence which was at hand for the Gentile
Church that while his own epistles form by far the largest
portion of the sacred writings which relate to the foundation
and first upgrowth of the Church, the only Scriptural narra-
40 LECTURE THE FIRST.
tive which records the acts of the apostles during the same
period, so far as it embraces their missionary undertakings,
is devoted almost exclusively to the labours of St. Paul.
Whatever, therefore, is the result to which we may be led by
this part of our investigation, it is only reasonable to con-
clude that we should have reached the same if the New
Testament had favoured us with equally full details respect-
ing the operations of the other apostles.
For a considerable time, and during all the earlier stage of
his apostleship, it is evident that St. Paul retained in his own
hands the supreme authority over all the Churches which he
had founded ; and we may, I think, not unfairly suppose
that other apostles did the same. 1 In his first Epistle to the
Corinthians, A.D. 57, twelve years after his consecration he
writes, 'so ordain I in all the Churches' (vii. 17). Again :
in his second Epistle, he speaks of 'the care of all the
Churches coming upon him daily ' ( xi. 28). We must, there-
fore, look beyond the date of the epistles which he wrote
during that earlier period, if we desire to ascertain what
provision he proposed to make for the ministerial govern-
ment of the said Churches when the prelatical oversight
which he had hitherto exercised in his own person must
necessarily expire. Accordingly, with this design, we take up
one of the latest of his epistles, the first to Timothy, written
A.D. 65, only three years before his martyrdom. In that
epistle, the first passage to which I desire to draw your
attention, is the following in chap. iii. ver. 13 :
1 See Professor Lightfoot, p. 196 sq.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 41
' They that have used the office of a deacon well, purchase Foundation
of the minis-
to themselves a good degree (BaOuov) and great boldness try in the
diaconate.
(of speech) in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.'
That is, they are entitled, St. Paul writes to Timothy, to
be promoted by you in the ministry, for the discharge of
duties similar, but higher and more advanced, than those in
which they have been before engaged. In this text, then,
which even St. Jerome has interpreted 1 as relating to a
third order of the clergy, we see not only the actual founda-
tion, but the true rationale 2 of the Christian ministry. First
the candidates for the said office are to be 'proved,' that is,
as we now speak, examined. Then, having been found
worthy and ordained, provided they acquit themselves well
in that office, after a due period of service, they are to be
raised to the next order of the ministry, the order of pres-
byters or priests. It is important to remark that the Greek
word translated ' degree ' in this passage, was ever afterwards
employed in the language of the Church to express any one
of the three Holy orders of the ministry the order of
bishops, the order of presbyters or priests, the order of
deacons. 3 Now I am afraid it must be said that this funda-
1 ' Epist. ad Heliod.,' vol. i. p. that a man may have a commission
352. See below, Lect. ii. to perform some spiritual functions
2 The same rationale is evidenced without authority to perform all.
in the case of Philip the deacon 3 See Suicer's Lexicon, under
with relation to the Samaritans the word /3a0,uos. But comp. one
whom he had converted and baptized, of the Westminster divines, Mr.
but was not able to confirm. Acts Sympson, in Dr. John Laghtfoot's
viii. 5-17. That case plainly shows Journal. Works, vol. xiii. p. 92.
42 LECTURE THE PIRST.
mental rule of St. Paul is not attended to in the presbyterian
system. On the one hand, deacons, as such, never * pur-
chase to themselves a good degree ' in the sense which
St. Paul intended, because they do not serve with the view
of becoming preaching presbyters, or pastors, and in fact, I
suppose, rarely, if ever, become such. On the other hand,
the ' great boldness of speech ' which a ' minister ' or preach-
ing presbyter uses, he uses (if it be so) without having
'purchased,' as St. Paul speaks, the right to use it, by
passing through the lower grade of the ministry which is
here prescribed. 1 It is true they may or must have been
licentiates, or probationers, for a longer or shorter period, and
as such will have been allowed to preach ; but this arrange-
ment only shows the practical value and necessity of the
very law which the system, by arrogating the entire clerical
function to preaching presbyters or pastors only, does in fact
disallow; for probationers have no substantive position in
Discussion the ministry, being not ordained. I am aware of the dis-
heid1n C he cussion which the divines of the Westminster Assembly held
Westminster
Assembly. upon the position to be assigned to deacons a discussion
prolonged during the sessions of five days ; 2 and nothing,
in my opinion, could be more unsatisfactory, except as
showing how even able men may blunder and become
1 The Presbyterian Mosheim re- * Between December 15 and 28,
presents the presbyters of the first 1643. See Lightfoot's Journal,
century as having been chosen Works, vol. xiii. pp. 83-93 ; Gille-
chiejly out of the deacons (ex dia- spie's Notes, p. 5 ; Baillie's Letters,
conispotissimum). 'DeReb. Christ.,' vol. ii. p. 117.
p. 128.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 43
perplexed over the simplest matter, when, in their delibera-
tions upon such questions, they infringe upon a principle
which the Scripture has laid down for its own interpretation, 1
by assuming th em selves to be wiser than all who have gone
before them. After much disagreement they came to these
conclusions : that ' the Scriptures do hold out deacons as
distinct officers in the Church/ from Phil. i. i 2 and i Tim.
iii. 8, and that ' the office is perpetual ; ' but they confined
its duty ' to taking care in distributing to the necessity of
the poor,' from Acts iv. 1-4, and denied 3 that it * pertains
to the office of a deacon to preach the word, or administer
the sacraments ' a conclusion which is certainly at variance
with the universal practice of the Church, and which, taken
in its full extent, appears to contravene the teaching of
Scripture both elsewhere, 4 and especially in these words of
St. Paul, of which I have been speaking. For instance, let
any one read the directions given for deacons in verses 8-12
of i Tim. iii. and compare them with the directions given for
1 Isaiah xxxviii. 19; Jerem. vi. the vote I was absent.' Lightfoot,
16 ; Ps. Ixxviii. 5-7 ; Hebr. xiii. 7, ibid. p. 91.
17. 4 'The seven' (deacons) in Acts
2 A very doubtful text for such a vi. 6 were ordained with imposition
purpose. See Lect. ii. and Synodal of hands ; they were ' men full of
Address for 1864, pp. 43, 105. the Holy Ghost and wisdom."
3 ' This business held a long and Philip, one of the seven, preached
large debate ; but at last was put to and baptized, Acts viii. 5, 12. An-
the question, "whether the deacon other, St. Stephen, was much more
be to assist the pastor in preaching than an almoner, Acts vi. ra. See
and administering the sacraments "; Hughes' and Dissert, in Hickes*
and it was voted negatively ; but at Treatises, vol. iii. p. 353.
44 LECTURE THE FIRST.
presbyters (episcopt) in the preceding ^verses of the same
chapter, and he will be persuaded, I think, that both relate
to the same kind of ministration, though in different degrees.
Position of But to proceed in our examination of this first Epistle to
Timothy at
Ephesus. Timothy. We have seen from it that the fundamental prin-
ciple of the Christian ministry is one not of parity but of
gradation, with the diaconate for its base. We have next to
see the same principle culminating in the office which
Timothy is to hold. St Paul has placed him in a position
in which he requires him to do at Ephesus all that he himself
had done till now for that Church. He was to act as a
superior, as a governor, not only over deacons, but over
presbyters. 1 He is to ordain them, not ' suddenly,' but when
examined, and found to be duly qualified (iii. 8-13, v. 22).
He is to rebuke the teachers of unsound doctrine (i. 3), and
accusations that may be brought against a presbyter he is
to receive and try, but only under proper precautions (v. 19).
He is himself to teach and exhort (vi. 2). In short, he is
directed to do the very same that a modern bishop does in
the administration of his diocese. 2 Now we desire to know
what was the meaning of all this, if presbyters alone were the
proper persons to do these things, or even were to be allowed
to do them ? No one can reasonably doubt that there was
now, and had been for some time past, a sufficient number
1 See Bilson, p. 299 sq. both obliged and accustomed to do? '
* 'What is there which Timothy Hughes' and Dissert. SeeHickes'
used to do in the Church of Ephesus, Treatises, vol. iii. p. 326.
that bishops are not in all Churches
ARGUMENT FROM .SCRIPTURE. 45
of presbyters at Ephesus. That city was the capital of Presbyters
at Ephesus
Lydian Asia, and upon this and other accounts, it formed a
most important post for the preaching of the Gospel. Accor-
dingly, the great apostle had laboured in it continuously for
three years a longer period than he devoted (so far as we
know) to any other of the Churches which he founded. That
was between A.D. 54 and 57 (Acts xix. 8~io, xx. 31), about
ten years before this appointment of Timothy. During his
ministry of those three years it is certain he had ordained
presbyters : as we are expressly informed that he did in every
church upon his first apostolic journey (Acts xiv. 23). 1 This,
I say, may be considered certain, because, a year or two
later (A.D. 58 or 59) upon his return from Greece, he sent
to Ephesus for 'the presbyters of the church ' (xx. 17) to
come to him at Miletus, in order that he might deliver to
them, as their father in Christ, that most solemn and most
affectionate episcopal charge which we read in the twentieth
chapter of the Acts. And the testimony of that historical
narrative is the more valuable, because in St. Paul's own
Epistle to the Ephesians written while he was a prisoner at
Rome in A.D. 62, (that is, about three years after the
delivery of that charge, and three [years before Timothy's
appointment,) there is nothing from which we can discover
the then condition of the Ephesian ministry ; 2 only there
1 Not, however, in any case, on observation confirms what is said
his first visit to the Churches, but above, p. 23.
when he visited them a second time 2 The only passages in that
on his return homewards. This Epistle which touch upon the subject
46 LECTURE THE PIRST.
are indications that it might soon require the care of a more
effectual superintendence than the apostle himself in his
absence, and now a prisoner, with the prospect of his
approaching end, would be able to bestow. 1
Timothy's It may then, I repeat, be regarded as certain from the
relations to
them. narrative of the Acts, that there was already and had been
for some years a body of ordained presbyters at Ephesus
when St Paul besought Timothy to abide there (i Tim. i. 3)
and shortly afterwards sent to him these written directions.
And I ask again, what did these directions mean ? Why was
this slight to be put upon those presbyters ? 2 Why were they
to be superseded, or their office invaded by the appointment
of Timothy, if they themselves were competent to perform
the same functions ? Why, for instance, was Timothy to be
instructed to ordain presbyters and deacons at Ephesus, if
their ordination could be rightly and lawfully performed by
the presbytery which was already there ? Is this the way
that the wise master-builder is to build up the Church to
pull down what (as some would tell us) he has already per-
fected ? No ! the structure was not yet perfect, and he was
now only adding to it what it still required a resident 3 Chief
Pastor. And a successor of this resident chief is to be
of the ministry are of a general terial purposes. See below, p. 80,
character : viz. iii. 5, where ' apostles note i.
and prophets' are mentioned, and l See ch. iv. 3, 14, compared with
iv. ii, where, besides 'apostles 'and Acts xx. 29.
prophets, 1 are enumerated 'evan- 2 See Bilson, p. 293.
gelists,' and 'pastors and teachers,' 3 But comp. Lightfoot, quoted
as given to the Church for minis- below, p. 56.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 47
found (as we have seen) still in Scripture in what St. John
wrote at the dictation of Christ Himself more than thirty
years afterwards to the angel of the same Church, the
Church of Ephesus.
But before I can expect you to feel assured that the re- r
J Objections
presentation now made of these circumstances is the only ^^vd
true and just representation, I must invite you to do full
justice to the arguments which have been urged against it
from the presbyterian point of view. First, then, our T . From the
clerical no-
attention is drawn to a matter of verbal criticism, which, menciature
in New Tes
strictly speaking, however, has little or nothing to do with tament -
the facts of the case. We know that our name ' bishop ' is
derived from the Greek word iirlaKoiroQ (episcopus), meaning
overseer ; and further, we know that this same Greek word
is applied to the Ephesian elders, (or presbyters,) in the
Acts, xx. 17, and again, in reference, apparently, to those
elders (or presbyters) whom Timothy and Titus were to or-
dain : i. Tim. iii. 2 ; Titus i. 5, 7. I shall have a better
occasion to enter fully into this matter in my next lecture,
when I come to take up seriatim the various objections that
have been raised against our view of the Scriptural and his-
torical argument. For the present, it may suffice to observe
that a very little knowledge of the use of language, and
especially of etymology, should be enough to guard us against
the inference that because our word bishop is derived from
the Greek word episcopus, therefore the signification of the
former must be the same, or co-extensive with that of the
latter. The truth is, they are not identical ; any more than
48 LECTURE THE FIRST.
our word deacon, which is derived from the Greek
(diaconus), is in meaning co-extensive or identical with it.
It will be obvious, therefore, that presbyters might be called,
as they are, in the Greek episcopi, without being bishops, just
as apostles might be, and are, in the Greek, called diaconi,
without being deacons ; in both cases the larger and more
general signification of the Greek word including what the
more strict and confined English term does not. 1 And so it
is with the derivatives of both ; bishopric means only the
office of a bishop, as deaconship means only the office of a
deacon ; but the Greek episcope and diaconia not only mean
the same, but have also other and very different meanings.
After this explanation it will be idle to object that the actual
nomenclature of the Church does not (as we admit) corre-
1 Diaconus and its derivatives cur only eleven times, and it may
occur no less than ninety-eight times be doubted (see below, Lecture ii.),
in the Greek New Testament ; and whether they are used at all in the
yet they do not refer to the name and strict sense which we now attach to
office of a deacon more than six the words bishop, bishopric, epis-
times at the very most (viz. Acts vi. copate, &c., although our trans-
3 ; Phil. i. i ; i Tim. iii. 8, 10, 12, lators, certainly with no advantage
13), even as we understand the to the cause of episcopacy, but
office ; and perhaps not even once rather the reverse, have employed
as Presbyterians understand it. them, as the nearest equivalents in
The Westminster divines were the greater part of those instances :
willing to allege in support of their viz. in Acts i. 20 ; Phil. i. i ; i Tim.
lay diaconate, only i Tim. iii. 8, iii. i, 2 ; Titus i. 7 ; i Peter ii. 25.
where the office appears to be The other instances are Luke xix.
plainly a clerical one, and Acts vi., 14 ('visitation ') ; Acts xx. 28 ('over-
where the name does not occur. See seers '); i Peter ii. 12 ('visitation ')
Lightfoot's Journal, pp. 83-93, and v. 2 ( ' taking the oversight ' ) ; Heb.
the remark of Dr. Yonge.ibid., p. 97. xii. 15 ('looking diligently ').
Episcopus and its derivatives oc-
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 49
spond with the Scriptural nomenclature. And yet, if the
objection should be made, we can at least reply that the
same objection lies equally against the presbyterian nomen-
clature. For instance, we know what a presbyterian minister
is, and what a presbyterian deacon is. Well : minister is
simply a translation of the Scriptural word Diaconus ; but a
' deacon ' and a ' minister ' in the presbyterian vocabulary are
never the same. Again : we know what a presbyterian ' elder '
is ; he is mainly a layman. But elder is simply a translation
of the Scriptural word Presbyterus ; and it is more than
probable it is certain (if you will believe, not me, but a
high presbyterian authority 1 ) that the Christian presbyters
of the New Testament were never laymen, but always
clergymen.
Before I quit this matter for the present, you will, I hope, our present
have understood perfectly that the names bishop, presbyter "urTof the
ministry ex-
or elder, and deacon, as we are familiar with them in their plained.
English form, are all strictly technical and official, having,
not only a limited meaning, but a fixed relation to each
other, and that they do not now admit of being used other-
wise ; but that it was not so with any one of the original
words, episcopus, presbyterus, and diaconus, from which
they are etymologically derived. All these in the Greek,
when St. Paul used them, were capable of a wide, and
varied, and indefinite signification, with little or no m irked
distinction from each other, and all of them, but especially
1 See 'The Theory of the Ruling Eldership.' by Principal P. C.
Campbell of Aberdeen.
50 LECTURE THE FIRST.
the last, are so used in the New Testament, as they had
been previously used in the Septuagint and in other Greek
authors. And this is by no means an uncommon case in
regard to the altered use and relationship of many similar
words, as will be shown hereafter. 1 Remembering, then,
that as diaconus and diaconia were used of every kind of
ministration, high or low, sacred or secular, so episcopus and
episcope were used of various kinds and degrees of super-
intendence or authority much as we ourselves now employ
the words overseer or superintendent, which have etymo-
logically the same signification remembering this, we shall
find no real difficulty in the fact that those names are ap-
plied to presbyters in the New Testament ; we shall readily
understand how the Ephesian presbyters, in the Acts xx. 28,
may be spoken of by St. Paul as having been made episcopi
' overseers in 2 the flock to feed the Church of God ; ' how
in this Epistle to Timothy, iii. i, 2, the words, ' If a man
desire the office of a bishop,' literally, ' desire the superin-
tendence ' (7% jri<7K:o7rjc); and, again, 'a bishop,' literally,
' the superintendent ' (TOV iiriffwn-ov), then, must be blame-
less ' how these words may refer to the pastoral charge of
a congregation, and to the presbyter who is to occupy such
a charge. 3 Above all, we shall bear in mind that the ques
1 See below, Lecture ii., especially Lect. ii. .where, though he recognises
the quotation from Bentley. bishops as the first order of the
1 Not 'over,' as our translation threefold ministry, yet he speaks of
renders it. presbyters as ' pastors who guide,
3 See the passage from St. Cle- or rule, the Churches.'
ment of Alexandria, quoted below,
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 51
tion with which we are dealing is one, not of names, but of
things ; not what Timothy may have been called, or what
the presbyters under him were called, but what they were in
relation to him and he to them. They were ' overseers ' in
relation to their respective flocks (and the Scripture more
than once 1 expressly confines their ' oversight ' to their
flocks), but he was to be their overseer. They were clergy
ordained; he was to be an ordain er of clergy.
But besides this apparent difficulty, which has been raised 2. Objection
from the
out of the indistinctness of the clerical nomenclature, as name of
evangelist
used at first in the New Testament and in some of the most b ^' e " ( f t * p ~
ancient of the early Fathers, we are met here by a further a
objection, which also turns upon a question of words and
names, rather than upon any substantial argument or matter
of fact. In order to get rid of the conclusive argument
which the appointment of Timothy affords to the Scriptural
and apostolical authority of a threefold or episcopal ministry,
it has been attempted to show that the office which St. Paul
assigned to him was the office, not of a bishop, but simply of
an evangelist, 2 and that the office of evangelists was alto-
gether extraordinary, and not to be continued in the Church.
This subterfuge is suggested because,, in his Second Epistle
to this same Timothy, St. Paul has used the words, ' Do the
work of an evangelist' (evayyeXiffrov, iv. 5). But what are
the words which immediately follow these? They are
' Make full proof of thy ministry,' literally, ' thy deaconship '
1 Acts xx. 28 ; i Pet. v. 2. * ' Irenicum," p. 340.
E 2
52 LECTURE THE FIRST.
(rrjv SiaKoviav), as in the First Epistle he had called him, ' a
good minister,' literally, ' a good deacon (Stanovoc) of Jesus
Christ ' ( i Tim. iv. 6) ; so that, if in order to exclude
Timothy from the episcopate, we are to insist upon his
being an evangelist and nothing more, we might with almost
equal justice insist upon his being no more than a deacon ;
whom the presbyterian system will not allow even to preach
the Gospel the very thing which an evangelist (as the name
implies) had especially to do. Such are the inconsistencies
to which we are reduced when we have recourse to mere
verbal subtleties for the evasion of evidence which we are
unwilling to accept ! The truth is, we know little or nothing
about evangelists as distinct officers of the Church. The
word occurs only in two other passages of the New Testa-
ment, viz. Acts xxi. 8, when Philip, the deacon, whom we
know to have preached and baptized (as our own deacons
do), is spoken of as ' Philip the evangelist ;' and Eph. iv. n,
' He gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evan-
gelists, and some pastors and teachers,' &c. We seem,
however, to be safe in supposing that they were officers
specially employed to preach the Gospel in new regions. 1
But Ephesus, where Timothy was to abide, was not now a
new region. Apollos had done the work of an evangelist
there 2 even before St. Paul himself first visited it. And,
again, what right have we to conclude that an evangelist or
missionary preacher would be entitled to ordain, as Timothy
1 See Eusebius, H. E., iii. 37.
* Acts xviii. 34, 28. A.D. 54. See Hooker, book v. c. xxviii.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 53
is instructed to do in this Epistle ? No. A bishop may Timothy
. .. proved to
well be told to do the work of an evangelist, especially have been
bishop of
among the heathen part of the population of his diocese, as Ephesus.
our colonial and missionary bishops are wont to do ; but we
see no reason why an evangelist should be told, virtually, as
Timothy is, to do the work of a bishop (especially in a
Church like Ephesus, where there were presbyters already)
if presbyters are the proper persons to do that work. The
truth is, that this expression, so far from proving what it has
been alleged to prove, proves rather the direct contrary. It
proves that Timothy was not an evangelist. For consider :
If we were to tell a presbyter to do the work of a presbyter
or any other official to do the work of his office would
not this be paying him a poor compliment ? would it not be
almost tantamount to an affront ? In like manner, to tell an
evangelist to do the work of an evangelist would be flat and
unmeaning, not to say impertinent Whereas to tell one
who was not an evangelist merely, to do the work of an
evangelist beyond his own ordinary duty is natural and con-
sistent with the character and relations of the parties, and
with the circumstances of the case. We cannot, therefore,
doubt that Timothy was placed at Ephesus, not as an evan-
gelist merely, but in the office which all Christian antiquity
has assigned to him, viz. as a bishop. I could produce to
you no less than twenty distinct testimonies from ancient
writers or documents to this effect, 1 while not a single wit-
1 A considerable portion of these ham, vol. i. p. 63 sq. It is true, as
testimonies is to be found in Bing- Whitby has pointed out, that there
54 LECTURE THE FIRST.
ness is producible to the contrary, or to throw doubt upon
the rest ; but I shall be content to quote only one passage,
because the evidence which it affords is of such a kind that
it is scarcely possible to conceive any more satisfactory or
statement of more complete. 1 I allude to a statement which is contained
Leontius at
councilor m tne <Acts of the Fourth General Council,' held at Chal-
Chalcedon.
cedon, A.D. 451. At that Council, in the course of a debate
respecting the filling up of the Ephesian bishopric, which
had been declared vacant, it was mentioned by Leontius,
bishop of Magnesia, that, ' From Timothy to the time then
present, there had been twenty-seven bishops of that see,
all of whom had been ordained in Ephesus itself;' 2 and
though the accuracy of the statement as to all the ordi-
nations having taken place in Ephesus was disputed by
some, who put in a counter-claim in favour of Constan-
tinople as the patriarchal see, yet no one questioned the
fact ot the succession, as Leontius stated it. Among those
twenty-seven are doubtless to be reckoned, as successors
of Timothy, not only (as I have before remarked) the
angel of the same Church, to whom St. John writes in
the Book of Revelation, but Onesimus, whom St Ignatius,
is none of them earlier than the remark, but omits the latter,
latter part of the third century ; but, ' I do not hesitate to affirm this,
he adds, ' this defect is abundantly notwithstanding the cavils against
supplied by the concurrent suffrage the evidence which may be seen in
of the 4th and $th centuries.' Pref. ' Irenicum,' p. 302 sq.
to Notes on Ep. to Titus, p. 316. * Concil. Labbe, vol. iv. p. 700.
Dr. Crawford on Presbyterianism, See Usher, vol. vii. p. 47.
p. 47, note, has quoted the former
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 55
in his Epistle to the Ephesians, mentions as their then
bishop. 1
But you will perhaps desire to ask me, ' If Timothy was NO diffi-
culty in the
a bishop, why does not St. Paul call him by some name fact that .
Timothy is
which would sufficiently designate him as such, and so re- ^S^the
move all cause of doubt ? And, in return, I would wish to m g*t.
ask you two questions. First, Why are not ' the seven '
(Acts xxi. 8) of whose appointment we are informed in the
sixth chapter of the Acts, and whom we all assume 2 to have
been deacons why are they not called by that name, or by
any other official designation either there or elsewhere in the
New Testament? Again, Why were not the disciples of
Christ called Christians till they were so called (as we read
in Acts xi. 26) at Antioch, some ten years after the begin-
ning of the Christian Church ? It will not be denied that
many thousands had lived and not a few had died who
were really Christians during that interval, and yet they had
never received the name. Is it not reasonable to suppose
that what had happened in the case of so large a number of
the earliest members of the Church and happened in the
case of the lowest order of the ministry, might have
happened also for a time in the case of the highest order of
the same ministry, and in regard to one of the first appoint-
ments to that order ?
I venture, then, to say, with perfect confidence, that we
1 See c. ii., a passage preserved in which the Westminster divines found
the Syriac version. the obligation and perpetuity of the
* It is one of the two texts upon deaconship. See below, Lect. ii.
$6 LECTURE THE FIRST.
have found the true constitution of the Christian ministry
with a bishop, presbyters, and deacons (in fact, though not
yet fully in name) resting upon Scriptural and apostolic au-
thority in the Church of Ephesus probably the first of the
Gentile Churches which was fully built up, as it was certainly
the Church in which St. Paul had laboured more continu-
ously than in any other. And the same ministerial organi-
sation which we have thus found in regard to Ephesus, we
Titus proved may also find in regard to Crete. This appears evident
to have been
Crete P f ^ rom ^ t- ^ au ^ s Epistle to Titus, written about the same
time. What Timothy, as an individual chief pastor, was
instructed to do at Ephesus, that Titus, as an individual
chief pastor, was instructed to do in Crete, viz. to ordain
presbyters (i. 5) by his own single authority, only taking
care that they possessed the necessary qualifications (i. 6-9).
And that he did this, in the character of bishop of Crete,
and not as a theoretical evangelist, still less as a fancied
moderator of a presbytery, is the concurrent, unanimous
testimony of Christian antiquity, 1 as it was in the case of
Timothy. 2 On the other hand, there is not a syllable in
1 See Usher, vol. vii. p. 64. San- represents Timothy as bishop of
croft's first Sermon, Life, vol. ii. p. Ephesus, and Titus as bishop of
303 sq. and 335 ; who both consider Crete. St. Paul's own language
him to have been metropolitan, or implies that the position which they
archbishop. held was temporary. In both
2 Professor Lightfoot does not cases their term of office is drawing
concur in this conclusion. He re- to a close when the apostle writes.
gards Timothy and Titus only as See i Tim. i. 3, iii. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 9.
St. Paul's delegates. 'It is (he says) 21; Tit. i. 5, iii. 12, p. 197.' To me
the conception of a later age, which it does not seem necessary to draw
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 57
either of those Epistles to indicate that the government,
which till now had been monarchical in St. Paul's own person
over both Churches, was henceforward to become oligar-
chical or republican ; which surely was to have been expected
if the presbyterian system, and not the episcopal, was to
follow after his own decease.
It may be asked, Why did St. Paul write an Epistle to Examples of
Titus, as well as to Timothy, on Church regimen ? Would Crete both
necessary.
not the Epistles to Timothy have served for Titus also ? I
give the answer in the words of one of the most learned of
our recent commentators on the New Testament.
' The principal inference and it is an important one to
be derived from the fact in question, seems to be this : that
by writing to the two chief pastors of two places, so different
in population and habits as the polished capital of Asia,
Ephesus, and the almost savage island of Crete, and by
prescribing the same form of Church regimen to both, the Holy
Spirit has taught the world by St. Paul that this form of
Church government, which is no other than that of Diocesan
Episcopacy, is designed by the great Head of the Church for
all countries and ages of the world.' *
this conclusion from any of those ment made by Leontius at the
passages. But the question is were Council of Chalcedon. See above,
not the appointments of Timothy p. 54.
and Titus such that the episcopal l Bishop of Lincoln, 'Introduc-
successions of Ephesus and Crete tion to the Epistles to Timothy and
might be fairly said to have been to Titus/ p. 421. On the other
founded in them respectively ? The side, cotnp. Stillingfleet's 'Iren.,'
Professor does not notice the state- p. 185 sq., where the obligation of
58 LECTURE THE FIRST.
Testimony of Besides the history of St. John upon the question before
the Less. us> j have now examined the history first of St. Peter and
then of St. Paul one, the special apostle of the Jews dis-
persed throughout the world, the other, the special apostle
of the Gentiles. It remains to examine from the same point
of view the history of St. James, surnamed the Less, to dis-
tinguish him from the apostle of the same name, the son of
Zebedee, and brother of John. And this examination will
carry us still further upwards to the fountain head, in regard
both to time and place ; the time being the first thirty years
of the Church's life, immediately after our Lord's resurrec-
tion ; the place being Jerusalem itself, the parent and pattern
of all the Churches. 1 We need not enquire whether there
were deacons at Jerusalem ; for this we gather from Acts vi.
1-16, although the name of deacon does not there occur.
Neither need we ask whether there were presbyters at Jeru-
salem, for this also we know from Acts xi. 30,* and else-
continuity is denied, because St. that Jerusalem (and not Rome, as
Paul ( so far as we see in Scrip- the Council of Trent asserts) is ' the
ture) makes no provision for a sue- Mother of all the Churches.'
cessorship to either Timothy or * Mosheim, ' De Reb. Christ.,' p.
Titus. Such an objection implies 124, infers from the use of veuTepot
a low estimate of the spiritual in Acts v. 6, (whom he considers to
guidance vouchsafed to the primitive have been deacons before the ap-
Church. pointment of 'the seven') that rpr-
1 See Mosheim, 'De Reb. Christ.,' /Siirepot were already instituted in the
p. 134, and Bishop of Lincoln on Church at Jerusalem. See also
Isaiah liv. i, 'Zion, the mother of 'Hist. Eccles., 1 p. 46, where he in-
us all ' where St. Jerome and the terprets i Pet. v. 5 in the same
Synodal Epistle of the Council of way. On the other hand, St. Chry-
CoastaTitinople are quoted to prove sostom, Horn. xiv. on Acts, has
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 59
where ; although, it so happens, there is no record of their
institution. Our only enquiry, therefore, is in regard to the
first order of the ministry, the order of Bishops. And again
it will be seen that the plainest intimation of Holy Scripture
concerning matters of fact are sustained by the fullest and
most authentic testimonies of Christian antiquity.
During the great forty days after His resurrection Christ AS seen in
various pas-
appeared on ten different occasions. It was a time of the sages of the
New Testa'
deepest interest and importance. Everything that He then ment-
did and said had a more than ordinary significance. In
reference to the whole of that time, St. Luke tells us that He
' spake to them of the things pertaining to the kingdom of
God ' (Acts i. 3), 1 that is, to the Christian Church. On
one of those ten occasions, we learn from St. Paul what
none of the Evangelists had mentioned that ' He was seen of
James,' singly (i Cor. xv. 7). Who was this James, and why
was he singled out for this great distinction ? Why, again,
do we find him introduced repeatedly in the history of the
raised a doubt whether 'the seven' rangements made by the apostles
were really deacons. were inspired, and consequently that
1 Yet Mosheim, H. E., p. 44, the form of government which they
says that neither Christ Himself nor established'at Jerusalem, and which
His Apostles gave any express direc- from them was universally received
tion (diserte aliquid prseceperunt) in all Churches, must be regarded
respecting the external form and go- as divine. He will not, however,
vernment of the Church ; whence grant that it must therefore be im-
he infers that such matters are in the mutable and perpetual. His own
main left to the prudence of eccle- position unhappily forbade him so
siastical and civil rulers. At the to do.
same time, he admits that the ar-
60 LECTURE THE FIRST.
Acts, and in the writings of St. Paul, in such a way as to imply
some marked pre-eminence even among the apostles a pre-
eminence for which we had not been prepared, and which is
nowhere expressly notified or accounted for in the sacred
text ? For example why was it that St. Peter (A.D. 44),
when he had been miraculously released from prison by an
angel, sent, especially, to let James know, as we read in Acts
xii. 17? Why was it that on three (if not four) several
occasions, 1 which embrace together a period of at least
twenty years (A.D. 37-58), James was found by St. Paul in
residence at Jerusalem, and visited by that great apostle and
missionary of the Gentiles, as one whom it concerned even
him to see and to confer with ; and that, on the last of those
occasions, when he and his fellow travellers ' went in unto
James, all the presbyters were present ; ' (like the clergy
with their bishop) as if to receive them in solemn synod ? 2
Why was it that, at the first council of the Christian Church,
held at Jerusalem (A.D. 50), where not only presbyters, but
the apostles were present why, I ask, was it that James
(who, if one of the Twelve at all, which is uncertain, 3 was
certainly of no special eminence as such) spoke after all the
rest, claimed to be ' hearkened to,' and finally declared in
1 First visit, A.D. 37. Gal. L 18, (though he questions the actual
19 ; Acts xxii. 17-21 ; 2 Cor. xfi. episcopate of St. James at Jeru-
1-9. Second visit, A.D. 50, 51, salem) considers it clear, from this
Acts xv. 2; Gal. ii. i-io. Third text, that he exercised a kind of
visit, A.D. 58, Acts xxi. 18. prelacy. Comp. below, p. 66.
2 See Acts xxi. 18. Mosheim, 3 See Professor Lightfoot, p. 195.
'De Reb, Christ.,' p. 134, who
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 61
set form his own 'sentence,' as the determination of the
assembly ? See Acts xv. Why, again, was it that at Antioch
(A.D. 51) certain persons of Jerusalem, who represented
themselves as having ' come from James,' had sufficient
influence to induce both St. Peter and St. Barnabas to alter
their course of conduct upon a difficult question of the first
importance? See Gal. ii. 12. Why is it that St. Jude, at
the beginning of his Epistle, denominates himself, and is
denominated by St. Luke, both in his Gospel and in the
Acts, as ' brother of James ? ' Finally, why is it that in the
New Testament the Epistle of James is placed before those
of St. Peter, St. John, and St. Jude, and is addressed ' to the
twelve tribes scattered abroad ? ' and why does the writer
of that Epistle give directions to those that are sick to ' send
for the presbyters of the Church?' and on the other hand,
to the presbyters themselves, when so sent for, to ' pray over
them?' (v. 14).
All these are questions which closely concern the inter- HOW those
passages are
pretation of the sacred text, and they require an answer from to be inter-
preted,
intelligent students of the New Testament. ' To the law and to
the testimony ! ' was the cry of old ; and for our parts, we have
never shrunk from that appeal : only we have been anxious
not to put novel and strange interpretations upon the Word
of God. We reply, therefore, to these questions as Christian
antiquity has taught us to reply. We account for all those
passages of the New Testament concerning St. James and
it is worthy of notice that those are the only passages which
do relate to him ; so that all the inspired testimony which
62 LECTURE THE FIRST.
we have points to one and the same conclusion we account
for them, I say, in the only way in which they ever have
been, or can be, satisfactorily accounted for ; viz. by the
fact that James, during all that time, was bishop of Jeru-
salem, and as such, the earliest bishop of the Christian
Church. 1 I now proceed to bring forward the evidence
upon which that fact is established.
Evidence of i. Hcgesippus, a converted Jew, born about the time of
the Fathers
respecting St John's death, bears witness thus : ' James, the Lord's
St. James as J
bishop of brother, who was surnamed the Just, received the srovern-
Jerusalem. J
ment of the Church of Jerusalem with the apostles? Euseb.
ii. 23. Jerome, ' de Vir. Illustr.,' c. xi.
2. Clement of Alexandria, who flourished before Hege-
sippus' death, i.e. before the close of the second century,
testifies the same more fully thus : ' Neither Peter, nor
James (the son of Zebedee), nor John though they had
been distinguished by our Lord's especial favour claimed
1 Professor Lightfoot concurs sub- to the rest, he was still considered a
stantially in this conclusion. He member of the presbytery ; that he
writes : ' It seems vain to deny, with was in fact the head or president of
Rothe, that the position of James in the college,' p. 126. Compare what
the Mother Church furnished the is said below, p. 66 sq.
precedent and the pattern of the Eusebius has M"i with the geni-
later episcopate,' p. 204. See also tive, but in St. Jerome we read
pp. 195, 206. But he also draws at- ' post apostolos,' as if he had found
tention to the fact, that in Acts xi. M"<i with the accusative. The text
30, where the presbyters are men- being so far doubtful, we cannot be
tioncd, St. James is not named ; quite certain as to the precise mean-
and from this (compared with xv. ing of the phrase. Possibly it may
4, 23; xvi. 4), he infers that mean 'in accord with,' i.e. having
' though holding a position superior their concurrence and approval.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 63
to himself the honour to be made bishop of Jerusalem after
His ascension, but they chose James the Just to fill that
office.' Institut. lib. vi. ap. Euseb. ii. i.
3. The author of the ' Clementine Recognitions,' which
cannot be placed later than the beginning of the third
century, and most probably belong to the second, not only
speaks of James as bishop of Jerusalem, but assigns his
appointment to our Lord Himself. ' The Church of Jeru-
salem,' he writes, ' was governed by most upright regulations
(justissimis dispensationibus) by James, who was ordained
bishop in it by the Lord.' Book i. c. xliii. Patr. Apostol.
Cotel., i. p. 503. See also the ' Apostolical Constitutions,'
lib. vii. c. xlvi. Ibid. p. 385.
4. Eusebius, who was born about 270 A.D., and became
bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, describing the course pur-
sued by the apostles immediately after the ascension of
Christ, testifies as follows : ' First, Matthias was chosen by
lot to be an apostle in the place of the traitor Judas. There
were also appointed, by prayer and laying on of hands of
the apostles, approved men, seven in number, ... to the
office of deacons, for the public service. Then, too, it was
that Jarnes, called the brother of our Lord, whom our fore-
fathers, on account of the excellence of his virtue, surnamed
the Just, was called to occupy the see (or throne} of the
Church at Jerusalem so our records inform us as the first
bishop.' H. Ecc., ii. i. And the same Eusebius, in his
Chronicle, under the very year of our Lord's death, A.D. 33,
testifies again, 'James, the brother of our Lord, is ordained,
64 LECTURE THE FIRST.
by the apostles, the first bishop of the Church, at Jerusalem.'
But to return to his work upon Church history. In several
other parts of that work he not only repeats his testimony to
the same effect, and records the martyrdom of James, A.D. 62,
and the election of Symeon as his successor in the see, but
after Symeon, carries on the catalogue of all the bishops in
succession down to his own time. See ii. 23 ; iii. 5,7, 1 1 ;
iv. 5 ; v. ii ; vii. 19.
5. Cyril, who was himself bishop of Jerusalem about ten
years after the death of Eusebius, A.D. 349, in one of his
catechetical lectures, speaks of James as ' formerly bishop of
this Church ; ' and, again, in another lecture, as ' the first
bishop of the diocese.' Lect. iv. 28; v. 21.
6. Epiphanius, who was bishop of Salamis, or Constantia,
the metropolis of Cyprus, while Cyril was still alive, A.D.
366-402, mentions James as * the brother of our Lord,
and first bishop of Jerusalem,' adding that * by him and by
the apostles before named, successors of bishops and pres-
byters were appointed in the House of God.' Haer. Ixxix.
c. iii. Elsewhere he calls him ' the first who occupied the
chair of the episcopate.' Haer. Ixxviii. c. vii. ; see also Haer.
xxix. c. iii.
7. Jerome, who was contemporary with Epiphanius, and
who resided near Jerusalem during the latter part of his life,
testifies that ' James, who is called the Lord's brother, and
surnamed the Just, was ordained bishop of Jerusalem by the
apostles immediately after the Passion of our Lord.' He
also states that ' he presided over the Church of Jerusalem
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 65
for thirty years, i.e. to the seventh year of the Emperor Nero ;
when, having been thrown down from the roof of the Temple,
he thus suffered martyrdom, and was buried near the spot.'
De Vir. Illust, c. ii. See also Commentary on Isaiah, vol.
iv. p. 175 (where he is called 'a thirteenth apostle'), and
Commentary on Galatians, vol. vii. p. 330 sq.
8. Augustine, who was bishop of Hippo in Africa from
A.D. 395-430, testifies that ' James was bishop of the Church
at Jerusalem,' and 'the first bishop.' Vol. ii. p. 118. Ibid,
p. 674.
9. Chrysostom, who became bishop of Constantinople in
A.D. 398, testifies that 'James was the Lord's brother, and
bishop of Jerusalem ; ' that ' the Lord Himself is reported
to have ordained him, and made him the first bishop ; ' that
' because he was bishop in the Church of Jerusalem, there-
fore he spoke last at the council,' of which we read in Acts
xv. ; and that ' when Paul went up to Jerusalem, about
questions of doctrine, he immediately visited James : for he
was a person so much esteemed that he was the first who
was appointed to the episcopate.' Vol. ix. pp. 386, 414, 279 ;
vol. viii. p. 90.
Here then are nine different witnesses and it would be Summary of
the evidence
easy to produce more ' men of credit, men of intelligence concerning
St. James.
following one another in succession, down from the time
of the apostles to the end of the fourth century speaking
1 E.g. the Ancient Syriac docu- Nicene period, p. 46. Comp. Light-
ments, which belong to the Ante- foot, p. 209.
F
66 LECTURE THE FIRST.
to us from all parts of Christendom, and all testifying the
same thing : that James was bishop of Jerusalem the first
bishop appointed (as some say) by the apostles, or (as others
report) by our Lord Himself; and thus they enable us to
account for those passages of the New Testament to which
I before referred, and which, as I then remarked, have
received, and can receive, no satisfactory explanation except
in accordance with the statements of these witnesses. Those
passages were all of the nature of undesigned coincidences,
and if we take them collectively, and then corroborate the
conclusion to which they lead by the clear and unanimous de-
clarations of witnesses, so many and so trustworthy, we obtain
an amount of circumstantial proof which must, I am persuaded,
carry complete conviction to every fair and impartial mind. 1
His relation It is readily admitted that the twelve apostles, so long as
The (other) they remained together at Jerusalem, acted in a corporate
apostles.
capacity, after the manner of an episcopal synod ; and in
that capacity exercised collectively a general and supreme
control ; 2 so as to leave little or no room for the exercise of
1 Mosheim, ' De Reb. Christ.,' p. been formally the first bishop. His
135 sq. considers that Jerusalem reasoning, however, upon this latter
set the example of episcopacy, and point appears to have little or no
was ' under a bishop, ' a considerable weight ; and in denying James' epis-
time (satis diu) before the end of the copate while he grants him to have
first century. He also admits that been ' antistes, ' he makes a distinct-
James undoubtedly exercised a cer- tion without a difference. See below,
tain prelacy at Jerusalem, especially p. 75 sq., notes, and above, p. 33, note,
after the departure thence of the He takes no notice of i Cor. xv. 7.
other apostles (for he assumes that * See Acts ii. 14, 27, 42; iv. 35,
James was one of the twelve) ; but 37 ; v. 13 ; viii. 14. That the apos-
he does not allow him to have ties continued to form an order
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 67
an individual and distinct episcopate, such as was afterwards
exercised over the Gentile Churches which he founded, by
St. Paul. And that collective administration was adopted,
we may suppose, in order to give additional weight to the
arrangements which they made in common for the organi-
sation of the Church in that city, and which, being thus
agreed upon, they would afterwards introduce into all the
other Churches which they respectively set on foot. 1 If they
remained, as they appear to have done, at Jerusalem, during
the events recorded in the first eight chapters of the Acts,
up to the conversion of St. Paul in the ninth chapter, this
would include a period of only four years ; 2 not too long for
the purpose contemplated, nor, perhaps, for the preparation
required before they set off upon their several missions
distinct from that of presbyters, is rate and diaconate ' (p. 124) to the
proved by the double use of the common counsels of the apostles at
article, which our translation un- Jerusalem. See also pp. 132, 134.
happily has not preserved, in Acts * According to Apollonius, a
xv. 6, and elsewhere in that chapter; writer of the second century, the
' the apostles and the elders (presby- apostles remained together at Jeru-
ters).' It is true the copula sine arti- salem twelve years. See Clem.
culo occurs in verse 2 of that chapter, Alex. 'Strom.,' iv. 5, sub fin., and
but not without a various reading. Euseb. H. E., v. 18. But this cal-
Compare below, Lect. ii. culation (though followed more or
1 See Mosheim, 'DeReb. Christ.,' less by Greswell, ii. p. 58) seems
p. 77, note, and p. 112. Reassigns excessive, and not altogether in ac-
the observance of the Lord's Day cordance with the sacred text. That
as the Christian Sabbath, the origin eventually ' they went forth and
of parochial churches (p. 116), 'and preached everywhere,' we learn from
the institution of both the presbyte- Mark xvi. 20.
F2
68 LECTURE THE FIRST.
throughout the world. 1 But surely there is nothing in these
circumstances which militates in the least degree against the
conclusion at which we have arrived in regard to the epis-
copal appointment of James. It is still quite probable that
that appointment might have been indicated by our Lord
Himself, (as is stated by the author of the Clementine Re-
cognitions, and by St. Chrysostom,) and yet that three or
four years must be allowed to elapse, in that critical period
of the Church's infancy, before the plan would be fully ripe
for execution ; 2 and when ripe, it is equally probable that it
would {according to the statements of Clement of Alexandria,
of Eusebius, and Jerome) be carried formally into effect by
the apostles ; who, in the meantime, would seem to have
retained the chief administration of the Church in their own
hand. 3 All this, I say, is quite probable ; and quite consis-
tent with supposing that James may have held during those
few first years a position of temporary subordination to the
twelve, similar to that of some ancient bishops, resident in
monasteries, who, within the monastery, were subordinate
to the abbot. Be this, however, as it may, the first
Scriptural evidence to which I have referred in support of
James" episcopate, and permanent residence, as bishop, at
Jerusalem (excepting only his private interview with our
1 See Euseb. H. E.. iii. c. i.; and by which the twelve themselves were
Greswell, 'Dissert.,' where other raised by our Lord to the full exer-
testimonies from the Fathers are cise of the apostolic office. See
quoted at length. Vol. i. pp. above, p. 20.
146-150. 3 See Greswell, vol. ii. p. 59.
* Compare the gradual process
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 69
Lord before His ascension), does not occur in the history till
three years after St. Paul's conversion, or, in other words, till
seven years after the great day of Pentecost. l Before that The time at
which he
time to have placed him singly in a position of public pre- * ould be
likely to ap-
eminence might only have tended to mark him out for ^f s " as
instant death : but from that time forward, or shortly after,
when 'the Churches had rest throughout all Judaea, and
Galilee and Samaria, and were edified,' 2 it would seem, as I
have shown, absolutely certain that all Christian Church au-
thority at Jerusalem, even when the most eminent of the
apostles were present there, 3 was made to culminate in St.
James ; just as it is certain that, after James' martyrdom (in
A.D. 62), all Church authority culminated in his successor,
Symeon, the second bishop, and so in those who followed
after. Doubtless we might have felt more thoroughly
satisfied upon the point, if we had found the first institution
of the episcopate expressly recorded in the sacred text ; but
such is not the way in which (as I shall show hereafter) it
has pleased God to deal with us in regard to other matters
of the same or scarcely less importance ; it is not the way in
which He has actually dealt with us in the case of the
presbyterate, 4 the first institution of presbyters being no where
1 See Gal. i. 19 ; Acts ix. 27. 'antistites.' See above, p. 66, note.
2 Acts ix. 31. About A.D. 38. 3 As at the council of which we
Euodias is placed by Eusebius as read in Acts xv. Greswell supposes
first bishop of Antioch in A.D. 43. that Peter and James were the only
See Clinton F. R., appendix, p. 548. apostles, at that time, present in
And even according to Mosheim, Jerusalem. Vol. i. p. 145.
J ames was the first of Christian * And perhaps in the case also of
70 LECTURE THE FIRST.
recorded in the New Testament ; l and if this omission is to
be urged as weakening the proof in favour of episcopacy, it
must also be urged as weakening the proof (if, indeed, there
be any Scriptural proof,) in favour of presbytery. At the
But still in same time, it must be borne in mind, as tending to account
an unobtru-
sive position. f or t h e incidental and unobtrusive manner in which the
position of James is indicated rather than expressed in the
sacred narrative, that the authority of the Jewish high priest
was still, throughout the whole time of James' episcopate,
partially recognised by the Christian community ; 2 and that,
both on this account, and in order not to provoke his
jealousy in particular, and the furious hostility of the Jews
in general, there was manifest occasion for secrecy and con-
cealment 3 We read in the Acts (xxi. 20), that so late as
A.D. 58 only four years before James' martyrdom there
were ' many thousands ' of converted Jews, who, never-
theless, were ' all zealous for the law,' i.e. the Mosaic
system of ritual and government, 4 and who therefore, we may
suppose, would be unfriendly to any measure tending to
give unnecessary prominence to the Christian hierarchy.
Summing up I now return to the point of time from which we set out
of the evi-
dence as upon the foregoing Scriptural and historical investigation,
the NewTes- yj z t^ e en( j o f thg fo s t century. But before we pursue the
the diaconate. See above, p. 66, dress for 1864. p. 30, and above,
note, for the opinion of Mosheim. p. 24.
1 They are first mentioned in * See also concerning St. Paul
Acts xi. 30. himself, Acts xviii. 18, 21, 22 ; xx.
* See Acts xxiii. 5. 16 ; xxi. 26.
3 See the author's Synodal Ad-
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. ^l
enquiry further let us pause, in order to review the evidence lament and
the aposto-
which so far has been laid before us. lic a s e -
We have been looking back from that original starting-
place, over a period of seventy- seven years, up to the very
first beginning of the Church's life, and what have we seen ?
Inverting now the order in which that survey has been
taken, and tracing it downwards in its natural course, we
have seen, first, James in Jerusalem acting as bishop, speak- its results.
ing as bishop, in residence as bishop with his presbyters
around him, and, moreover, as bishop, writing to the mem-
bers of his scattered flock an epistle, in which he reminds both
them and their presbyters of their relative position and duty
towards each other ; and what we have thus seen done at
Jerusalem, we have every reason to conclude was designed
to set the example to all other Churches. Further, we have
seen St. Paul, in regard to the various Gentile Churches which
he founded, at first and during the greater part of his ministry,
writing and acting as bishop, in his own person, with supe-
riority over presbyters, and, towards the close of his career,
devolving his episcopal powers, including ordination, upon
Timothy at Ephesus, and upon Titus in Crete. We have
seen St. Peter acting as bishop, more especially in relation
to a portion of the converted Jews, dispersed throughout
the world ; and writing an epistle, in which, while he con-
descends to call himself their fellow-presbyter, he neverthe-
less reminds his presbyters of their duty as St. James had
done, and exhorts them, as St. Paul had done, to superintend
and feed their respective flocks (v. i, 2). We have seen
72 LECTURE THE FIRS7.
St. John, in relation like St. Paul to a portion of the Gentile
Churches, 1 though writing once and again with condescension
similar to that of St. Peter (ii. Ep. i, iii. Ep. i), yet acting as
an arch- or metropolitical bishop, at the direction of Christ
Himself, by the letters which he addressed to the angels or
bishops of the Seven Churches; not upbraiding them because
they were bishops, but impressing upon them the duties
which as bishops they were required to perform. All this
we have seen in Scripture itself ; and, moreover, we have
seen it all abundantly confirmed by the earliest testimonies
of trustworthy, though uninspired, Christian authors ; testi-
monies which, in regard to any matter of mere secular
history, would be accepted without controversy. Those
authors and Scripture with them (as we have seen) to a
great extent combine to represent to us, within this primi-
Listofthe tive and apostolic age, the Church of Jerusalem as constitu-
earliest
mfnfstriel tec * w ^ tn a P*** 8 ** 08 ' ministry, the Church of Antioch as
constituted with a prelatical ministry, the Church of Ephesus
as constituted with a prelatical ministry, the Church of
Rome as constituted with a prelatical ministry, the Church
of Alexandria as constitued with a prelatical ministry,
the Church of Crete as constituted with a prelatical
ministry, the Churches of Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira,
Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, all severally constituted
with a prelatical ministry. And ancient records, more or less
1 It would seem from Gal. ii. 9, if not exclusively, to ' the circum-
that St. John, as well as St. James cision.'
and St. Peter, went, at first, chiefly,
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE.
73
authentic, would enable us to extend this catalogue l of pre-
latical ministries to other places, still within the same time,
that is, be it remembered, the first seventy-seven years of
the Church's life. If ever ' authoritative example ' is to be
allowed to supply the place of positive precept as we all
allow it to do in the case, for instance, of the canon of
Scripture, and of the Christian Sabbath surely we may
make the same allowance in the present question. For, to
state once more the conclusion of this portion of our argu-
ment in a comprehensive form, we have seen that the facts
which have been brought before us all conspire to represent
and establish one and the same principle, viz. ' the apostolic
rule merging into the episcopal.' 2 We have seen that the
candid admission of Dr. Tulloch if we will examine the
1 See Bishop Taylor, ' Episcopacy
Asserted,' c. xviii. Works, vol. vii.
p. 72. Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,' pp.
539-545- Lightfoot, pp. 207, 211
sq., 214.
8 See Sadler's 'Church Doctrine
Bible Truth,' p. 272. Professor
Lightfoot would probably demur
to the statement of the text. He
regards the episcopate as having
been developed out of the presby-
terate. ' If, ' he writes, ' bishop
was at first used as a synonym for
presbyter, and afterwards came to
designate the higher officer under
whom the presbyters served, the
episcopate properly so called would
seem to have been developed from
the subordinate office. In other
words, the episcopate was formed
not out of the apostolic order by
localisation, but out of the presby-
terial by elevation ; and the title
which originally was common to all
came at length to be appropriated
to the chief among them.' P. 194.
I do not see why both views may
not stand, as applicable in different
places, and under different circum-
stances. Compare Lect. ii. sub
init. bishops regarded as successors
of the apostles; and Hooker an
Bentley, quoted below, in the same
Lecture.
74 LECTURE THE FIRST.
matter fairly and thoroughly requires to be extended so
as to reach not only ' the later age of St. John,' but the later
age of St. Peter, the later age of St. Paul, the later age of
St James ; in all of which we have found ' episcopacy as an
order distinct from presbyters. This is simply a matter of
history, which no candid enquirer can deny.'
Uniformity That the apostles, in the first foundation of Churches, did
of the results
sofarob to a certain extent adapt the arrangements which they made
tamed.
according to the necessities of each particular case, this we
do not deny ; l but the uniformity of result in which (as we
have seen) those arrangements issued, has left us no room
to doubt that, however separated, they were working to-
gether upon one and the same foreordained plan. And
what we have already seen will become, as we proceed in
our historical investigation, still more manifest We shall be
less and less" inclined to agree with those who have supposed s
that different apostles, proceeding upon different principles,
adopted different forms of organisation in the constitution
of the ministry ; because we shall find it impossible to
conceive how such differences, if they had existed, should
have disappeared and coalesced into the uniform system
which everywhere prevailed in the second century, without
the presence of any influence whatever to account for such
1 See above, p. 23, and note. St. Ignatius expressly asserts that
1 See ' Irenicum,' pp. 322, 331, the same episcopal ministry was
341 ; where a view, not to be rejected established everywhere by the
if kept within due bounds, is exag- apostles. See below, Lecture ii.
gerated to serve the author's theory.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE.
75
amalgamation. In saying this, we are quite content that
the obligation derived from apostolic practice should be
referred not merely to that practice itself (which, we grant,
has not been held sufficient to bind the Church in matters
of lesser moment), 1 but to 'the law and reason which
was the ground of it.' And that law and reason we con-
sider to be the necessity of union and order ; which, as we
before 2 observed, are not to be obtained without uniformity
of constitutional organisation throughout the body.
Now, in opposition to all this evidence, inspired and un- what is to
be said on
inspired, what is the ground which was formerly taken up the other
by the opponents of prelacy ? The more learned and more view of the
more learned
moderate disputants (such as Mosheim, in the last century, 3 disputants,
such as
a German Lutheran, and therefore a presbyterian from in-
herited necessity), have indeed admitted the primitive and
apostolic 4 institution of an ' antistes,' or superior, who was
1 See ' Irenicum, ' pp. 341-345.
2 See above, p. 18 sq., and again,
below, Lect. iii., and comp. ' Ireni-
cum,' pp. 347, 371.
3 He died in 1755.
4 See Mosheim ' De Reb. Christ.,'
p. 132. ' Viventibus et probantibus
apostolis.' In 'Hist. Ecc.,' p. 47,
he adds to what is stated in the
text : ' Videtur Ecclesia Hierosolymi-
tana, numerosa in primis, apostolis
delapsis et ad exteras gentes profec-
tis, anlistitem sibi primum elegisse,
cujus exemplum reliquae familiae
(branches of the Church) paulatim
secutae sunt.' Comp. ' De Reb.
Christ.,' p. 134. He had before
remarked : ' Ecclesiae Hierosolymi-
tanae exemplum, ex prczcepto aposto-
lorum, reliqui omnes coetus in
diaconis constituendis imitabantur. '
Why are we to suppose a precept
of the apostles 'for the appoint-
ment of deacons,' and not also for
the appointment of 'antistites,' both
in Jerusalem and in all the other
Churches, when the proper time
arrived for such appointments ?
76 ^LECTURE THE FIRST.
called first 'angelus,' and afterwards ' episcopus,' l and who,
they grant, was permanently ' set over ' his brother presbyters
so soon as their number was sufficient to render his appoint-
ment proper and desirable in short, a nascent prelate, such
as was to be expected in a nascent Church. By these admis-
sions they have allowed all that is pleaded for by moderate
Episcopalians (who desire to see neither dioceses too large,
nor diocesans too lordly) ; only they have failed to recognise
an actual three-fold ministry in the earlier apostolic period,
because, as they remark,* in the Acts of the Apostles and in
St. Paul's epistles, they see mention made of presbyters and
deacons, but none of an individual as exercising rule and
authority in any Church. They forgot that James at Jerusalem
(by their own confession 3 ) and St. Paul himself, and Timothy
and Titus after him, are all examples of such individuals, so
far as was possible and suitable in the circumstances of that
1 Mosheim, 'De Reb. Christ.,' p. universal prevalence of episcopacy
133; 'Hist. Ecc.,' p. 47. very soon after the death of the
* See Mosheim, 'De Reb. Christ.,' apostles,' yet considers that 'this
ibid. episcopacy was not prelatical but
3 Mosheim speaks of James as the presidential.' On Lay Eldership,
' antistes ' of the Church at Jerusa- p. 75. Would it not be difficult to
lem, 'Hist. EccL.'pp. 32, 47. What distinguish between the two? John-
is the difference between a/istes son's Dictionary defines a president
and //vzlatus, or /r<?positus ? this ' one placed with authority over
last word being used by him as well others.' Dr. Campbell adds, 'and
as the first. He also says of James, even if sanctioned, yet not prescribed,
'coetui Hierosolymitano prafati..' by the apostles' a distinction
' De Reb. Christ.,' p. 134. In like which it would be still more diffi-
manner Dr. P. C. Campbell, ad- cult to establish. See above, p. 75,
mining as undeniable ' the all but note 4.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 77
infant age ; and they also forgot that bishops when they
address their clergy as St. Paul addressed, for instance, the
Ephesian presbyters at Miletus do not commonly speak of
their own duties, but of the duties of those who are subject
to their superintendence. Other less learned and less
scrupulous opponents, such as our own Scotch and English
Anti-Prelatists in the iyth century, (who could not but
feel conscious that they had placed themselves in a position
which was aggressive in the extreme against all episcopal
jurisdiction,) determined, in the first place, to listen to no
evidence, however trustworthy, external to Scripture (even
though the evidence might only profess to give the sense of
Scripture, as the first Christians understood it) ; and then
took care that Scripture should be interpreted only in such
a way as to give no support to the authority against which
they had rebelled. Take, for instance, the case which has conduct of
had most influence upon posterity, and which will enable me miLter*
Assembly.
to substantiate more easily what has now been said I mean
the case of the Westminster Assembly. That Assembly
consisted of about one hundred and twenty English
' divines ' and thirty laymen, assisted by four ' divines ' and
two laymen, as commissioners from Scotland. 1 It was
appointed by an ordinance of the Long Parliament, which
1 Hetherington's ' History of the members added afterwards, in conse-
Westminster Assembly,' p. 112, quence of non-attendance or death of
where the names may be seen, 151 others, p. 114. Several Episcopalians
in all. The English lay members attended at first, but none after the
consisted of ten lords and twenty signing of the Solemn League and
commoners. There were twenty-one Covenant, p. 135.
78 LECTURE THE FIRST.
set forth, that ' Whereas it has been declared by the Lords
and Commons assembled in Parliament that the present
Church government by archbishops, bishops, &c. &c., is
evil, and justly offensive and burdensome to the kingdom,
&c. &c., therefore they are resolved that the same shall
be taken away, and that such a government shall be settled
in the Church as may be most agreeable to God's holy word.'
This ordinance passed on June 12, I643. 1 I n obedience to
it, but in disobedience to the royal proclamation of June 22,
which forbade their meeting, the Assembly met; ana on
September 25 all the members who were present, together
with the members (228 in number) of the House of Com-
mons, subscribed, in the Church of St. Margaret, Westminster,
the Solemn League and Covenant, by which they pledged
themselves to endeavour ' the extirpation of prelacy.' 2 This
they did before they had made any attempt whatever to
discover the kind of form of Church government which would
be ' most agreeable to God's word ' a duty which they did
not commence till the 23rd of the following month. 3 Thus,
as they had met to carry out, so far as episcopacy was con-
cerned, a foregone conclusion on the part of the Parliament,
so they themselves were self-excluded from a full and fair
examination of the Scripture upon the matter, and simply
1 Hetherington, p. 97. ton, however, after the Restoration,
* Ibid. pp. in, 127, 130. Light- argued otherwise. Works, iv. p. 386
foot, pp. 10, 15. Baillie understood sq.
'all kinds of episcopacy.' Letters, 3 Lightfoot's Journal, p. 26.
vol. ii. pp. 228, 252 sq. Bishop Leigh
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 79
prejudged and condemned episcopacy without a hearing. 1
Under such circumstances nothing was left for them but to
endeavour, by whatever means, to make good that which they
had taken up taken up, must it not be said ? most unad-
visedly, most presumptuously. And how did they contrive to
do this ? In the first place, they pronounced the apostles The resolu-
tions
to have been officers only pro temper e, and entirely extra- adopted by
the Assem-
ordinary ; and then they drew a line, hard and fast, between k^. ?'^
them and any other church officers whom they, the Assembly,
might afterwards allow to be ordinary and permanent. They
alleged as a ground for this distinction, in regard to the
apostles, that there is 'no promise in Scripture for their
continuance ; ' 2 whereas we think we see such a promise
very clearly in the concluding words of St. Matthew's Gospel.
' Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ; ' 3
1 The utterly exclusive and self- things here stood, -without their
sufficient animus of the Assembly brethren's help (i.e. from Scotland),
is evident from what Baillie, one of The learnedst and most considerable
the Scotch commissioners, wrote part of them were fully episcopal. '
under date April 19, 1644, respecting Ibid. p. 250. Comp. Lecture ii.
John Davie, who had been chosen 2 See Lightfoot, p. 27. Thus
as one of the superadded members they necessarily granted the entire
of the Assembly : ' If he should come absence of connection (which some
to us with the least tincture of Presbyterians have been anxious to
episcopacy, or liturgic learning, he maintain) between the apostolic order
would not be welcome to any I and that of presbyters. See above,
know. ' Vol. ii. p. 166. In writing p. 66, note 2.
some months afterwards to the same 3 ' These words belong to the
correspondent, he admits ' the im- apostles as to a perpetual corpora-
possibility ever to have gotten Eng- tion.' Bishop of Salisbury's Five
land reformed by human means, as Discourses, p. 45. See also below,
So LECTURE THE FIRST.
if not also in Ephesians iv. 11-13 : ' He gave some (to be)
apostles ... for the perfecting of the saints, for the work
of the ministry . . . till we all come to the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ.' * And, moreover, we might
ask, is there any promise in Scripture more distinct, or,
strictly speaking, any promise at all for the perpetuation of
presbyters, or of deacons? However, by this proceeding
(which constituted TO irptiTov i//w5oc their fundamental mis-
take), they at once excluded every argument adverse to
ministerial parity which might be drawn from the examples
And to the of apostolical prelacy, such as you have heard. It mattered
testimony of
the Fathers, nothing to them that the ancient Fathers not only call the
apostles ' bishops,' 2 which they were according to the greater
exigencies of the Church, as it was at the first; but they have
p. 85, note. Dr. Crawford, p. 109, to be continued ; viz. prophets,
(where he remarks that 'Christ at evangelists, pastors, and teachers ;
His ascension made no promise that and such I believe to be the true
the apostolic office should be per- interpretation of the passage. The
petuated, but simply that all faithful main functions of them all are still
ministers of the Gospel, when bapti- given to the Church ' for the per-
zing, &c., might in all ages rely fecting of the saints,' &c. Bishops
on His countenance and assistance,') perform more or less the main
appears to have forgotten Tertullian functions of all five ; presbyters the
' De Bapt.,' c. xvii., where we read, main functions of the four last ;
' Dandi quidem Baptismum habet deacons the main functions of three
jus summus sacerdos, qui est epis- of the prophet, as reading and
copus ; dehinc Presbyteri et Dia- expounding Scripture ; of the evan-
coni ; non tamen sine episcopi gelist, if licensed to preach the
auctoritate.' Gospel ; of the teacher, as cate-
1 I am aware that this observation chising the young,
involves the consequence that the * See BUson, p. 295.
other officers there named were also
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 81
also called bishops ' apostles,' 1 which (it may be said) they
are, according to the lesser exigencies of the Church as it
now is. At a later period of their discussions, however, Perplexities
of West-
the presbyterian part of the Assembly, when they came to minster
Assembly.
endeavour to construct from Scripture their own precon-
ceived system, were not a little perplexed by the manifest
rank which the apostles, before their dispersion, occupied at
Jerusalem. It was wished to establish the proposition, that
' the several congregations in Jerusalem were (from the first)
under one presbyterial government,' and in order to recon-
cile this with the recorded facts, it was argued that the
apostles, though gifted with authority proper to their office
as such, were also presbyters, and that it was as presbyters,
not as apostles, they acted in the government of the Church ! 2
The discussion was a long and tedious one (from the ist to Opposite*
on part of
the lAth of March, 1644), in consequence of the opposition the inde-
pendents
of the Independents ; but during all that time no one, on
1 See Bingham, i. p. 66 sq., is curious, as indicating the difficulty
quoting Theodoret and Pseud. Am- in which they found themselves :
brose. See also Jerome, Comment. March 6, 1644, afternoon. 'Then
in Philem. i, where he gives to fell we upon our proposition about
Timothy (and apparently also to a presbyterian government in Jeru-
Sosthenes and Silvanus) the title salem before the dispersion (of the
of apostles, vol. vii. p. 606 ; and on apostles) ; and there was a good long
Gal. i. 19 he says that ' in course of silence before anyone spake to it,
time others were ordained apostles and it was called to the question,
by those whom the Lord had chosen.' At last Mr. Seaman spake to it.'
Ibid. p. 330. Page 199. For the full discussion
2 The entry in Lightfoot's Journal see pp. 186-214.
82 LECTURE THE FIRST.
either side, appears to have drawn attention either to the
fact l that in Acts xv. 6 the double use of the article proves
' the apostles ' to have formed an order distinct from that of
' the presbyters,' or ' elders ; ' or to the historical testimony
in favour of the prelacy of James, 2 and to the argument in
support of it to be deduced from that same chapter.
HOW the But to return to ' the fundamental mistake ' made, as I
Timothy and have said, by the Westminster divines in denying continuity
Titus were
dealt with, to the apostolic body, as such. The position of secondary
apostles, such as Barnabas, they evidently found an embarras-
sing one ; 3 and as they could not so easily reconcile it with
the designs which they had in view, therefore, passing them by,
their next step was to extend their category of church officers,
temporary and extraordinary, so as to include evangelists also.
By this means they seemed to themselves to get rid of the
case of Timothy, upon the plea (to which I have before
referred) that he is instructed by St. Paul to ' do the work of
an evangelist \ ' the fact that he is called by various ancient
writers bishop of Ephesus, and never an evangelist merely,
not having been considered (so far as appears) worthy of
notice. And when Timothy had been thus disposed of
as an officer extraordinary, and not to be continued, in
1 See above, p. 66, note. This in Greek syntax. See Lightfoot, p.
omission is the more remarkable 54.
because, on a former occasion, one * The only references to James in
of the members (Dr. Temple) Lightfoot's Journal are at pp. 209,
showed that he was aware of the an.
difference implied in the use of the 3 Lightfoot, p. 28.
copula with or without the article
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 83
defiance of the episcopal succession which history records
at Ephesus from Timothy downwards ; when this had been
effected, it was an obvious expedient to dispose of Titus
also in the same way ; though he is not told to do the work
of an evangelist, nor is the title of evangelist ever applied to
him, either in the Scripture or elsewhere among the ancients ;
and though he is called expressly bishop of Crete by Eusebius
(following, as he says, previous records), by St. Jerome, by
St. Chrysostom, by Pseud. Ambrose, by Theodoret. l So far,
then, from the Assembly's point of view utterly narrow and
unauthorised as it was all at the first appeared smooth and
successful. It was not long, however, before they themselves
began to discover, as arising out of these conclusions, sundry
inconveniences which threatened to prove fatal to the whole
procedure. On the one hand, the denial of a successorship
to the apostles in the episcopal order, seemed to leave little
logical ground for a continual succession in their own order,
such as the Presbyterians were anxious to maintain against
the Independents. On the other hand, the removal not NO Scrip-
only of the apostles, but of Timothy and Titus into the rank rity left for
Ordination.
of officers extraordinary and not to be continued, had kft
little or no Scriptural authority for the perpetuity of any
ordination other than that which the Independents argued
for, viz. ordination conveyed simply by the ruling members
themselves of each separate congregation. 8 I have already
1 See the passages quoted in The main discussion was upon i
Bingham, vol. i. p. 64. Tim. iv. 14, whether ' the presbytery '
8 Hetherington, pp. 172, 175. in that text is to be confined to
G 2
84 LECTURE THE FIRST.
shown in part, and shall hereafter show much more fully,
that these conclusions of the Assembly, in denying bishops
to be proper successors of the apostles, and in denying
Timothy and Titus to have been among the first of such
successors, were entirely at variance, upon the matter of fact,
with the conclusions of the primitive Christians ; who must
have known the truth, and who had no prejudice (as the
Westminster divines certainly had) to warp their judgment.
The primitive Christians did not, indeed, doubt that the
twelve apostles and St. Paul held in many respects a peculiar
and unique position ; and so far they would have agreed
as we agree ! with the Westminster divines ; but this
persuasion did not lead them to infer that the apostolic
order, in all its ordinary functions of ruling, ordaining, con-
firming, preaching, and ministering the worship and sacra-
ments of the Church, was to be discontinued at the apostles'
death. On the contrary, they held that the apostles them-
' preaching presbyters,' as the Pres- ing how wide and marked an interval
byterians argued, or to ' ruling there was between their respective
elders, ' as the Independents wished. positions.' Presbytery or Prelacy,
It does not seem to have occurred p. 37, note. In part, this would be
to either party, that the preposition owing to difference of age, and still
' with ' (not ' by ' ) implies the more, to the fact that one was the
effectual action of a higher authority. convert and disciple of the other.
See below, p. 89. At p. 43, Dr. Crawford overlooks
1 Champions of episcopacy have the circumstance that we consder
sometimes erred in breaking down the germ not only of episcopal, but
this barrier. I agree with Dr. Craw- of metropolitical authority, to be
ford, that 'no one can read St. Paul's Scriptural, and derived from the
Epistles to Timothy without perceiv- apostles.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 85
selves made provision l for the continuation of their own
order, in regard to all those functions, and that in so doing
they acted in accordance with Christ's implied directions,
when He gave the promise to which I just now referred. 2
But supposing that both these cases the case of the NO notice
taken of
apostles, and the case of Timothy and Titus were capable of St - J ames -
being disposed of as the Westminster divines determined ;
supposing this, there would still remain first, the difficulties
that arise out of the case of James at Jerusalem ; who is
seen in Scripture to have occupied a position, apparently
permanent and distinct from his apostleship (if he was an
apostle) a position which was at once peculiar and pre-
eminent ; and who is seen in history to have had after his
death a regular continuation of successors in the same
position. Next, there would remain the difficulties that Nor of the
angels ' in
arise out of the ' angels ' of the Seven Churches. And, Revelation -
lastly, there would remain the difficulties that arise out of
the cases of the episcopal successions at Rome, at Antioch,
at Alexandria, which the most ancient Church history re-
cords as having existed during the apostolic age. Yes ; when
1 See St. Clement of Rome, c. xlii. 2 See above, p. 79. Matth.
(quoted in appendix to the author's xxviii. 20. The words in Acts i. z
Syn. Address, 1864, p. 108 sq.), who ' He through the Holy Ghost had
was himself one of those so ap- given commandment to the apostles
pointed by the apostles. The pas- whom He had chosen ' seem to
sage, however (though so understood determine the application of the
by Rothe), admits of a different in- text of St. Matthew to the apostles,
terpretation. Comp. Lightfoot, pp. and to them only.
201, 203.
86 LECTURE THE FIRST.
you have got rid of the apostles (as prelates wholly extra-
ordinary and only temporary), you have still to get rid of
Nor of the the prclatical successions, founded by apostles, in all the
great epis-
ceSSLns C at most conspicuous centres of European, Asiatic, and African
tfoch^'&c" civilisation and in some instances continued and traceable
down even to the present time ; you have still to get rid
of these ; and these you never can get rid of so long as
authentic history shall continue to be read and received as
such. What then, I ask, was the Westminster Assembly to
do with these last-named difficulties ? So far as can now be
discovered from the reports of their discussions as given by
three of their own body, Lightfoot, Baillie, and Gillespie, they
took no notice of them at all ! Subsequent champions of the
presbyterian cause, when challenged to account for them, have
followed, for the most part, the same course ; l and whenever
they have departed from it, what is the utmost they have been
able to advance ? Some have been content with the modern
fiction of a non-prelatical moderator ; the skirts of whose
official robe (scantily as he himself is clad) are to be extended
so as to cover all the ordinary precedents of primitive prelacy,
and this, although moderatorship, as regards either name
or thing, has no existence in Scripture or any ancient
author. Others have had recourse to the ancient dream
of St. Jerome, respecting quarrelsome presbyters, who, in
spite of apostolic rule and to the disparagement of apo-
stolic forethought, soon required a bond, fide prelate to keep
1 The case of James is not alluded 1847, nor in ' Presbyterianism De-
to in the Free Church Catechism of fended,' by Dr. Crawford.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE, ' 87
them in good order; or, again, it may be that he him-
self was too proud, too arrogant and ambitious, in those
days of persecution and martyrdom, to remain in his proper
rank ! Dreams which, I trust, I shall be able to dispel
effectually in my next lecture. Only let me add here, in
reference to those primitive successions of bishops at Rome,
and Antioch, and Alexandria, and to the silence which has
been maintained regarding them ; however such -silence
may have been allowed to pass unnoticed in the days of
the Westminster Assembly (when there was no certain
Chronicle of facts, such as that of Fynes Clinton, easily
accessible to the general reader), in the present age, when
we are properly required to take into account the discoveries
of science in the interpretation of the word of God, there
can be no sufficient reason why we should not be obliged
to pay at least equal regard to the testimonies of history.
The Westminster Assembly has pronounced that ' it pleased
God to create, or make of nothing, the world and all things
therein in the space of six days;' which we know from science
to be untrue. The same Westminster Assembly has pro-
nounced that it pleased Christ and His apostles to institute
the ministry of His Church in a republican parity, which we
know from history, sacred and profane, to be equally untrue.
And now, of all the incidents in this discussion, so far as Conclusions
of Assembly
we have pursued it hitherto, that which must strike a com- n l founded
on Scripture.
petent enquirer as most remarkable, is this : that a system
which was founded upon certain fact should have been over-
thrown to make room for one resting only upon uncertain
88 LECTURE THE FIRST.
speculation; and that a system which had been objected to as
resting insufficiently upon Scriptural proof, should have been
supplanted by one which (if the truth is to be spoken) posi-
tively rests upon no Scriptural proof at all. Let me show
what I mean by this latter statement. Of course, when we
establish the existence of the threefold ministry, we establish,
ipso facto, the existence of clerical presbyters ; and there is
one passage of the New Testament, and only one, viz.
i Tim. iv. 14, in which presbyters are spoken of, apparently,
as gathered into a presbytery. 1 But even from that passage,
and still more from every other in which presbyters are men-
tioned, we may see plainly they were not supreme ; they
were not self-sufficient ; they had some one over them, some
one from whom, as a superior, they received directions.
The presbyters at Jerusalem received directions from St.
James ; the presbyters of the Jewish dispersion received
directions from St. Peter ; the presbyters in Crete received
directions first from St. Paul, then from Titus ; the presbyters
at Ephesus received directions first from St. Paul, then from
Timothy, then from the angel whom St. John addresses.
The presbyters of the other six Churches of the Apocalypse
received directions, some of them probably, if not all, from
St Paul first, then from St. John, and then from their re-
spective angels or bishops. And in that single passage of
St. Paul to Timothy in which the presbytery is mentioned,
the language which is used, and which has reference to ordina-
tion, implies that there had been an authority engaged in that
1 See ' Irenicum, ' pp. 335, 353 sq.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 89
sacred function, associated indeed with the presbyters (as is
still the practice in our own ordinations), but superior to
them for the ordination is spoken of as administered
' with ' the laying on of their hands, but not ' by ' it, as is the
case in the ordination which St. Paul himself administered,
perhaps on the same occasion, to the same Timothy : ' Stir
up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my
hands,' 2 Tim. i. 6.
But more than this. It is certain that we have express On the con .
provision made in the New Testament (for instance, by Iist7ntwith
. . Scripture.
St. Paul) for carrying on the ministry and government of the
Church by the authority of individuals, such as Timothy and
Titus ; and it is equally certain that we have no provision
made for the carrying on the ministry and government of the
Church by the authority of a board of coequal officers with-
out a superintendent. St. Paul directed the Ephesian pres-
byters, who met him at Miletus, to take heed to themselves
and to the flock ; but he did not authorise them to ordain
other presbyters, or to exercise discipline over each other ;
as he did afterwards authorise Timothy in Ephesus and Titus
in Crete, both to ordain clergy, and to superintend them in
the discharge of their duty. It is well observed by a
modern writer, that < The Three Pastoral Epistles of St. Paul
are the only Epistles l in which there are any directions
whatsoever respecting the government of the Churches. In
no other Epistle is there one word respecting the choice,
qualifications, or ordination of ministers ; and these three
1 Excepting those of St. Jo,hn to the Seven Churches.
90 LECTURE THE FIRST.
Epistles are written to individual companions of the apostle,
not to Churches. . . . Nor is there any intimation whatever
that the authority conferred on those individuals was tempo-
rary or abnormal, to be speedily succeeded by some more
popular or democratic form.' l I repeat, therefore, that the
edifice which has been raised in this country over the ruins
of the threefold ministry, through the pretence that that
ministry was insufficiently grounded upon Scriptural proofs,
so far from being able to produce more satisfactory evidence
in its own behalf, either Scriptural or historical, will be found
by strict investigation to be literally based upon no evidence
at all. This will be demonstrated still more thoroughly as
we proceed. It will then be seen that the interpretation
which has been put upon the texts and facts of Scripture,
upon the one side, is in perfect harmony with history and
tradition, whereas on the other side it is at variance with
them both.
Recent testi- In the meantime, before I conclude the present lecture,
monies of
eminent allow me to offer one remark or rather to produce one all-
Presby
sufficient witness in order to show that in what I have just
now said, respecting the baseless and visionary character of
the system by which the three-fold ministry has been dis-
placed, I have not spoken rashly, or in the spirit of a par-
tisan, but really and truly in the character which I profess,
of a lover of truth and peace. In an early part of this
lecture I drew your attention to the fact, that a learned
Principal of one of our universities has recently declared,
1 Sadler's 'Church Doctrine Bible Truth,' p. 383 sq.
tenans.
ARGUMENT FROM SCRIPTURE. 91
that ' The existence of episcopacy, as an order distinct from
presbyters, ever since the days of the apostles, is simply
matter of history, which no candid enquirer can deny.' I
have now to point out, that a learned Principal in another of
our universities has recently admitted, with no less candour
and love of truth, that when champions of presbyterianism !
have made their system of lay eldership to rest upon the
authority of St. Paul, in i Tim. v. 17, they have done what
a sound interpretation of the sacred text will not justify. 2
More than this : in the able treatise which is devoted to a
discussion of that point, the author plainly declares that the
distinction between preaching and ruling presbyters, which
such champions have professed to draw directly from Scrip-
ture, is not Scriptural ; is, in short, nothing better than a
baseless theory; and that the name of lay elder, and the
term of ordination in connection with his appointment, are
indefensible and ought to be abandoned, 8 as tending to en-
gender and keep alive incorrect and unscriptural notions
respecting the Christian ministry. Such notions, I need
scarcely say, have never been accepted by the Anglican, or
1 Such as the authors of the (not presbyters or elders in the New
' Second Book of Discipline ' and Dr, Testament sense) is sufficiently
Miller of Princeton. See Principal based upon i Cor. xii, 28 and
Campbell's ' Lay Eldership/ pp. 8, Rom. xii. 8 ; such assessors being
38. the questmen, sidesmen (synods-
2 See ibid. pp. 2, 20, 32, and men), or testes synodales, and
comp. 'Irenicum,' p. 336 sqq. church wardens of the English
3 See ibid." pp. 69 sq., 109. He Church. He rests the admission of
considers, however, that the institu- laymen into synods upon Acts xv.
tion of lay assessors or councillors, 23. See pp. 5, 8, 12, 15.
92 LECTURE THE FIRST.
Eastern, or Roman Churches, and, though sanctioned by
Calvin in his writings (but not in his practice 1 ), have been
disallowed by many of the ablest of the foreign Reformed
Hopes from divines. If only we could have, upon both sides, more of
the exten-
sion of such t h e f a i r an( j candid spirit, combined with the needful learn -
sentiments.
ing and intelligence, which have been shown by the two
eminent presbyterian divines to whom I have referred, 2 I am
persuaded that the barriers which now separate Episcopa-
lians and Presbyterians would be speedily removed 3 (through
the blessing of God upon our earnest endeavours for that
end): and a reunion might be effected by building, not upon
the treacherous shifting sand of man's imagination, 4 but
upon the solid and immovable rock of divine truth. And is
there not a cause for such reapproachment on either side ?
1 See ibid. p. 2. Calvin's own so-called ' Lay Eldership ' is evidently
consistory at Geneva was not in written with the charitable design of
accordance with his theory, p. 17. removing one stumbling-block out of
1 I am sorry that I cannot extend the way of reunion. At p. 67, in
this remark to all that has been speaking of ' the Protestant Epis-
written by the former of those copal Church of the United States '
divines, especially in some recent of America, he throws out the va-
numbers of the ' Contemporary Re- luable and important hint, that ' its
view.' Not only Hooker, but Chil- admirable constitution combines the
lingworth and Stillingfleet, if they advantages of presbytery and epis-
were alive, would, I am sure, com- copacy.'
plain of the treatment they have 4 ' We have been in a pitiful
there received. labyrinth these twelve days about
3 It is feelingly remarked by ruling elders ; we yet stick into it. '
Principal Campbell : ' Surely the Thus wrote Baillie (a Scotch Corn-
visible Church is not always to re- missioner to the Westminster As-
main in its present divided condi- sembly), from London, under date
tion,' p. 66; and his treatise on the December 7, 1643 ; voL ii. p. 115.
ARGUMENT PROM SCRIPTURE. 93
On the one hand, who does not feel the havoc which was what both
ministries
made of the Christian ministry, as the apostles instituted it, have to gain
from mutual
when men forsook the ground of authoritative example, of alliance -
Christian precedent, in order to indulge their own temper,
to give effect to their own devices ? Instead of the well-
regulated gradation which our d priori reasoning had led us
to anticipate from the deacon to the presbyter, and from
the presbyter to the bishop ; instead of this, no gradation
was left at all ; no bishop at the head, no clerical deacon l at
the foot, and the presbyter, who alone remained, yet lost his
name; while the office was at once bisected and aggran-
dised, so as to give to each of the two sections more than its
due. But though all this must be matter for regret and
for amendment however we may estimate the conduct
which provoked it, yet, on the other hand, justice requires
us to pay the deserved meed of praise to those who, not-
withstanding their own mistakes upon other points, in one
most essential respect hit the blot and supplied the defect of
the true system, as it had come to be administered in later
times. Ecclesiastical councils, emancipated from all undue
interference on the part of the civil power, were again made
what they had been from the first at Jerusalem ; and the lay
brethren were again, not only allowed, but invited and re-
quired to recover and to hold their own (and if more than
their own, this was owing to the violence of a just recoil from
1 Principal Campbell quotes Dr. deacons are an order of the clergy,
Claudius Buchanan's ' Christian Re- and ought to come before lay repre-
scarches ' as tending to prove that sentatives, p. 12 sq.
94 LECTURE THE FIRST.
past exclusion) in the administration of all Church affairs. '
Let these last words be a proof that if we are bold, accord-
ing to the light and ability which God has given, to chal-
lenge and reprove the shortcomings of others, with the view
to their amendment and for the common good, we are no
less willing and desirous that our own defects should be
challenged and reproved, with the same view to correction,
for the benefit of the Church which is our common mother,
and of the country which we all love.
1 It should always be borne in government is not inconsistent with
mind that the distinguishing cha- the threefold ministry, but rather
racteristic of the Reformed Church requires the threefold ministry to
of Scotland, as compared with the harmonize and complete it. See
Reformed Church of England, is the author's Synodal Address for
Church government by kirk ses- 1870, and the presbyterian testi-
tions, presbyteries, synods, and monies there quoted, p. 26.
general assemblies; and that this
95
LECTURE II.
MY former lecture contained a Scriptural and historical Enquiry re-
commenced
survey of the apostolic age, tracing it upwards from the p r f ^. s t t h g en nd
death of St. John in the year 100, to the first infancy of the tury-
Church, after our Lord's ascension, at Jerusalem. I now
return to my original standing-point, the conclusion of the
first century ; and again starting from thence and proceeding
downwards in the natural course, I propose to carry on the
same investigation into the period which immediately suc-
ceeded, that is, into the earliest of the post-Scriptural and
post-apostolic times. And if we shall still discover traces
everywhere of the same result, which d priori reasoning had
led us to expect, and which we have seen exhibited in Scrip-
ture and in the practice of the apostles, we may, I think,
conclude with perfect safety, that we have found the truth
of which we were in search.
i. In the first place, then, when writers towards the end
of the second century, such as Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons,
and Tertullian, presbyter of Carthage a European and an
African in disputing with heretics, confront them with the
challenge to show, in behalf of their doctrine or discipline,
96 LECTURE THE SECOND.
what the Church had to show in behalf of hers viz. a
regular descent of the bishops of the several dioceses in
direct succession from the apostles when we see this, and
when we find that the challenge was never met ; is it possible
to conceive an evidence in favour of a prelatical ministry,
as primitive and apostolical, more satisfactory more de-
cisive ? Let me offer to you, then, some specimens of this
evidence.
Testimony And first, from Irenaeus ; of whom we know that, having
of Irenaeus. . , , , .
been previously a presbyter of Lyons, he succeeded Pothi-
nus as bishop in A.D. 177 (see Clinton, sub ann.). We also
know that in his youth he had been a disciple of Polycarp,
bishop of Smyrna, the disciple of St. John. This venerable
author has left us a large and elaborate work against heresies.
In that work, book iii. chap, iii., he thus writes :
' In every Church it is in the power of all, who may wish
to see the truth, to contemplate clearly the tradition of the
apostles manifested throughout the world ; and we are in a
position to reckon up those who were by the apostles insti-
tuted bishops in the Church and [to demonstrate] the suc-
cession of these men to our own times. . . . They (the
apostles) were desirous that those persons should be perfect
and unblamable in all things, especially as they were leaving
them to become their successors, suum ipsorum locum ma-
gisterii tradentes, i.e. delivering up to them their own place of
government.'
But it may be asked, 'Are we sure that Irenaeus, when
he wrote thus, did not mean simple ' presbyters,' and not
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT.
97
'bishops,' in the sense in which we now understand this latter
term, that is, of persons holding singly a permanent official
rank above presbyters ? This is a question which may be
fairly put, more especially as in the preceding chapter of
this third book, 1 and elsewhere, viz. lib. iv. c. xxvi., 2 the
same writer speaks of those whom he there calls 'presbyters,'
in the same way. 3 But the answer is clear and certain, 4
both from what he had said in the first book, and from what
he goes on to say immediately after the passage you have
heard. In the first book, c. xxiv., he had spoken of
1 See Harvey's note on that pas-
sage. ' While the apostles lived,
and exercised control over the
Churches which they established,
the subordinate spiritual ruler
(6 Trpoeo-Tws) of each Church was not
distinguished in point of ecclesiastical
title from the presbytery.' Vol. ii.
p. 7.
2 The words of this passage are :
1 It is necessary to obey those pres-
byters who are in the Church ; those
who possess, as I have shown, suc-
cession from the apostles ; who,
along with the succession of the
episcopate, have received the same
gift of Truth according to the good-
will of the Father.'
3 ' When we refer them (the here-
tics') to that tradition which origi-'
nates from the apostles, and which
is preserved by means of the
succession of presbyters in the
Churches, they object to tradition,
saying that they themselves are
wiser, not merely than the presby-
ters, but even than the apostles."
On this use of the name ' presbyters '
see Bishop Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,'
p. 546, who shows that, though
bishops were still sometimes (though
very rarely) so called, yet an indi-
vidual bishop was never called
' presbyter, ' nor an individual pres-
byter ever called 'episcopus,' by
Irenasus, or any other writer after
the apostolic age. Ibid., p. 549. (See
also Clinton, 'F. R.' sub an n. A.D.
177.) In pp. 538-543 he exposes
the error of Blondel and Salmasius
(also of Stillingfleet, p. 311 sq.) in
regard to the passage of Eusebius,
'H. E.,' v. 4.
4 I have no scruple in saying this,
notwithstanding the captious remark
in 'Irenicum, ' p. 306 sq.
II
98 LECTURE THE SECOND.
Hyginus (bishop of Rome) as ' holding the ninth l place
of the episcopal succession from the apostles downwards '
(tTrttncoTTiojfe <$moj;c avo riav 'AirooroXwj'). In the third book,
after the passage just now produced, he continues thus :
Episcopal ' Inasmuch as it would be tedious in a work such as this,
according to to reckon up the (episcopal) succession of all the Churches '
Irenacus
well this being so, what does he propose to do ? He
proposes to give and he does give the names of the
At Rome. bishops of Rome, 2 one by one, from the first foundation of
that Church by St. Peter and SL Paul 3 (St Peter as
representative of the Jews, and St. Paul of the Gentiles)
down to his own time, that is, to Eleutherius, the twelfth in
succession, and then bishop. Now no one, I think, at the
present day, 4 will venture to assert that all, or any of these
1 The correctness of this calcula- istence of the episcopal office. See
tion, which is questionable, does not Lightfoot, p. 220.
affect the relevancy of the passage 3 ' Those two apostles, the joint-
to the purpose for which it is founders of the Church of Rome,
quoted. St. Cyprian makes the left it, however, in charge of Linus
same statement, Ep.lxxiv. ad Pomp., when they proceeded, St. Paul to
c. ii. the West, and St. Peter into Pontus. '
* On the early episcopal succes- Harvey's Irenaus, vol. ii. p. 10.
sion at Rome as recorded by * See Bishop Pearson, 'Vind.
Irenaeus and others, see Bishop Ignat.,' in answer to Salmasius, p.
Pearson, Minor Works, ii. pp. 550 ; but Professor Lightfoot, p.
266-572, and Lightfoot, pp. 218-222, 219, considers that the prelatical
and p. 1 66 sq., note. In the time position of the bishop at Rome was
of Pius, the 8th or gth of the at first less marked than at Antioch
succession (A.D. 127-142), we find *or Smyrna, and than it soon after-
the word cathedra, ' chair ' or ' see ' wards became at Rome itself. He
used as a recognised phrase, indi- calls Clement 'the presbyter-bishop.'
eating a more or less prolonged ex- Page 222.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 99
were not bishops in the prelatical sense, that is, having presby-
ters under them in a lower degree : although, at the same time,
it is to be borne in mind, as tending still further to clear up
the point, that the generic name ' presbyteri ' might be and
was still sometimes used in a laxer acceptation, 1 to designate,
or include, bishops ; just as the name 'priest' is often used
in the Old Testament to designate, and in the plural to in-
clude, the high priest. We know from an extant letter of
Cornelius, the twentieth Roman bishop, A.D. 250, that he
had forty-six presbyters under him. 2 And the same un-
questionable distinction between the bishop and his pres-
byters holds good when Irenseus in the same place
goes on to mention next the episcopal succession in the
Church of Smyrna, of which he states that Polycarp was At Smyrna
andEphesus.
appointed bishop by the apostles ; for in the extant epistle
of Polycarp he and his presbyters are distinctly specified. 3
And once more : the same distinction holds good, where
Irenseus mentions, lastly, the episcopal succession in the
Church of Ephesus ; of which he tells us that it was founded
by St. Paul, and that St. John 'tarried' with it so late as the
time of Trajan ; virtually producing, therefore, those two
apostles as instituting arid sanctioning the episcopate of that
Church, in which, as we know from Scripture, and as I
pointed out fully in my former lecture, 4 there was a body of
1 See Sclater, p. 217 sq. ; also * See title of the epistle, and
above, p. 97, note 3, and below, p. 116. capp. v. and vi.
* See Euseb., vi. 43. 4 See above, p. 45.
H 2
ioo LECTURE THE SECOND.
presbyters even in the time of St. Paul; a body which
Timothy was instructed to enlarge, by ordaining others.
There is one other passage of Irenaeus which I cannot
refrain from quoting, because, while it bears further testimony
to the fact of the episcopal succession having been derived
from the apostles, it contains ' a wholesome doctrine ' which
is only too much needed in our own times. In the thirty-
third chapter of the fourth book he writes as follows :
warning of ' The truly spiritual Christian ' (he is alluding to the text of
Irenaeus
against St. Paul, i Cor. ii. 15, He that is spiritual judgeth all things}
divisions.
< The truly spiritual Christian will judge those who cause
divisions ; men who are destitute of the love of God, and
who look to their own private advantage rather than to the
unity of the Church ; who, for any trifling occasion that may
arise, cut and dissever, and, so far as they can, destroy the
great and glorious body of Christ ; men who talk of peace while
they are waging war, who strain at a gnat but swallow a
camel. For // is not possible that they should effect any im-
provement sufficient to compensate for the injury which they
cause by their schism.' Then, after condemning all such
persons, he goes on to say : ' True knowledge consists in
these things in the doctrine of the apostles ; in the primi-
tive system of the Church throughout the world ; in the
character, or marks, of the body of Christ, according to
the succession of the bishops, to whom they (the apostles') en-
trusted the several local or particular Churches which nou< exist ',
and which preserve the traditional rule of faith (i.e. the
Creed) in its perfect form, neither detracting from it, nor
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. lor
adding to it; in the reading of Holy Scripture, unadulterated
by apocryphal admixtures, and in sound and careful exposi-
tion founded upon safe and reverent interpretation of the
sacred text ; and (lastly, he adds), in the gift of charity,
which is more precious than knowledge, more glorious than
prophecy, and more excellent than all other gifts.'
Such is the guidance which Irenseus gives us for the dis-
covery of the truth, writing before the end of the second
century. 1 For my own part I know not where peaceable
and humble-minded Christians could find directions more
Scriptural, more trustworthy, more suitable to heal our
present divisions, and to restore to us the concord which we
so sadly need.
I quite admit that the passages which I have quoted, as
they occur in Irenseus, are introduced for no other purpose
than to confute the teachers of heretical doctrine ; there
being at that time no question in regard to Church govern-
ment, or the right constitution of the Christian ministry ;
but it cannot be denied that they also afford, upon this
latter point, incidental evidence which is highly valuable in
itself, and goes directly to confirm the conclusions to which
we are led by a long and orderly array of other proof.
The evidence of Tertullian follows about twenty or twenty- Testimony of
Tertullian.
five years after that of Irenaeus, at the very beginning of the
third century, or, in other words, only one hundred years after
St. John's death. In his treatise ' De Prescription e Haereti-
1 Professor Lightfoot remarks, p. pacy was certainly a venerable insti-
218, ' When Irenseus wrote, episco- tution.'
102 LECTURE THE SECOND.
corum/ that is, 'on the Church's rule for discerning and
arguing with heretics,' he thus writes :
' If there be any heresies which dare to represent them-
selves as of the apostolic age (in order that they may appear
to have sprung from the apostles, because they existed in
their time), we can say : Well, then, let them show the
original records (origines) of their Churches ; let them unfold
the catalogue of their bishops, so coming down in succession
from the beginning, that their first bishop shall have had as
his ordainer and predecessor some one of the apostles, or of
such apostolic men as continued steadfast in the apostles'
fellowship. For in this manner do the apostolical Churches
transmit their registers (fastos); as the Church of Smyrna bears
record that Polycarp was placed there by St. John ; as the
Church of Rome avouches that Clement was ordained by
St. Peter ; and so, too, of the other Churches. 1 They in like
manner exhibit those who, as having been appointed to the
episcopate by the apostles, have handed down the apostolic
doctrine ' (c. xxxii. vol. ii. p. 44 sq.). We shall see presently,
that there can be no doubt respecting the meaning of the
1 There is another passage to the But concerning Philippi, see below,
same effect in the 'De Praescriptione,' p. 162 ; concerning Thessalonica, see
c. xxxvi., which Professor Light- the tradition mentioned by Origen
foot quotes, p. 213, but of which he on Rom. xvi. 23, and referred to by
questions the strict historical accu- Lightfoot, p. 213 ; concerning Co-
racy, so far as concerns the use of rinth, see below, p. 161 ; and Light-
the term ' apostolic see ' in regard to foot himself, p. 214.
Philippi, Thessalonica, and Corinth.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 103
word ' episcopate,' as used by Tertullian. He intended by
it simply the first order of the threefold ministry.
The same line of argument was afterwards employed by ofOptatus,
St. Augustin,
Optatus, bishop of Milevi, in Numidia, and by St. Augustin, and F U I-
bishop of Hippo, in confuting the Donatists, who had sepa-
rated from the Church. The former, after tracing the epis-
copal succession of the Church of Rome from St. Peter
downwards to Siricius (the thirty-eighth), who was then
bishop (A.D. 385), gives to his opponents this challenge : ' Do
you now produce the origin of your episcopate (cathedra),
inasmuch as you claim to yourselves to be the Church.' *
In like manner Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspa, in Africa, at
the beginning of the sixth century, who wrote against the
Arian heresy, commends the orthodox faith, * which,' as he
writes, ' through a series of successors in the see (cathedra)
of Peter the apostle at Rome or at Antioch, in the see of
Mark the evangelist at Alexandria, in the see of John the
evangelist at Ephesus, in the see of James at Jerusalem,
is preached by the bishops of those cities even to the pre-
sent time.' 2
Now it is morally impossible that any men in their senses Force of this
evidence.
could have given challenges such as these to the host of
heretics throughout the world, unless the facts had been
really such as the challengers assumed ; that is, unless bond
1 ' De Schism. Donat.,' ii. c. iii. 'Irenicum,' p. 305.
p. 950. See Bishop Pearson's Minor * ' De Trin.,' c. i. p. 498. See
Works for the passages of St. Au- Bishop Pearson, ibid,
gustin, vol. ii. p. 309; and comp.
104 LECTURE THE SECOND.
fide episcopal, and not merely presbyterian, succession had
been actually traceable to the apostles in the Churches thus
referred to. Remember, I say nothing of the value of the
argument for the purpose to which they applied it, viz. as a
test of the true doctrine ; still less do I insist upon the epis-
copal succession as the sole and indispensable channel for
conveying the grace of sacraments, and other ordinances of \
the Gospel. Those are points with which I am not now
concerned. I simply assert the impossibility of an appeal
under such circumstances to facts which had no real exist-
ence, to evidence which was not plainly and notoriously
true, and also free from all ambiguity in regard to the real
character and position of those whose names and succes-
sion in an office of pre-eminence were thus produced, or
Bishops com- alluded to as notorious and capable of production. And I
monly called
f U the essors ^ S ^ vou to observe further, in connection with this line of
proof, that it was the common language of Christian anti-
quity to speak of bishops as successors of the apostles. For
instance, it is Jerome himself who says, 'A pud nos aposto-
lorum locum episcopi tenent.' l With us bishops hold the
place of the apostles. And as it will be impossible to deny
that the apostles in the New Testament had a pre-eminence
of jurisdiction over all other ministers, so it will follow that
they who succeeded them and succeeded them, as Firmi-
lian, bishop of Cappadocian Csesarea in Asia, writing A.D.
250, and Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in Africa, writing A.D.
1 Epist. ad Marcellum, vol. i. p. 476.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 105
254, both express it, 'vicaria ordinatione,' i.e. by an ordina-
tion that put them in the apostles' room must have had a
similar pre-eminence ; otherwise it would be a delusion to
call them successors.
We have seen that Irenasus felt himself precluded, by the Testimony of
Eusebius to
character of his work, from exhibiting more than two or ^cessions
three examples in which the succession of bishops might be
traced up to the apostles, viz. Rome, Ephesus, and Smyrna.
Happily, however, in the History of Eusebius, which succeeds
immediately to the Acts of the Apostles, any deficiency in
that respect, which we might otherwise have had occasion
to regret, is amply supplied. Eusebius, who was made
bishop of Csesarea, in Palestine, about the beginning of the
fourth century (A.D. 306), and who wrote his History, as he
tells us, on purpose ' to record the (episcopal) successions
from the apostles, together with the events which had oc-
curred in the Church, and the persons who had presided in
the principal dioceses down to his own time,' Eusebius, I
say, has given us the names of the bishops, one by one, not
only in the see of Rome, but also in the three other patri-
archal sees of Jerusalem, of Antioch, and Alexandria.
I must again repeat, let no one imagine that there can be Meaning of
that term.
any room for doubt in regard to the true clerical character
and rank of those who composed those several successions.
They were from the first what no one denies they were after-
wards, prelates or bishops, in the modern sense of this latter
1 See ' Patrologia/ vol. iii. p. 1168, vol. iv. p. 403 ; ' Irenicum,' p. 308.
io6 LECTURE THE SECOND.
name, and bishops only; though necessarily at first with
fewer subordinate clergy, and with a jurisdiction more
limited, and less accurately defined. In the history of
Athens we are duly informed respecting the magistrates
called archons ; that for many years their office continued to
be for life, that then it became a decennial, and ultimately
an annual one. But we have no information, no hint what-
ever, in the history of the Church, of an inverse change, or
of any change at all, having taken place in the office of
bishops. We must therefore conclude that no such change
occurred, unless we will suppose that the original authors to
whom I have referred, when they spoke of those episcopal
successions, were consciously intending to delude their
readers ; and that subsequent historical and chronological
writers writers, some of them at least perfectly impartial,
such as Gibbon, or such as Fynes Clinton who have
accepted their testimony to the catalogues in question,
allowed themselves to be deluded upon a matter of such
importance,
instances of ft w iu serve to put the point upon which I am now insist-
presbyters
episcopate! ^8 * n a st ^^ stronger light if I can show that there are upon
record, during the same period, instances of individuals
who had been presbyters, and who were afterwards promoted
and ordained to the episcopate as to a higher rank. And
instances of this can be shown. For example, we know
that Irenaeus had been a presbyter of the Church at Lyons
before he succeeded Pothinus as its bishop (Euseb. v. c. iv.).
Again, we learn from Origen, as quoted by Eusebius (lib. vi.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 107
c. xix.), that Heraclus, who succeeded Demetrius as bishop
of Alexandria, had previously been a presbyter of that
Church. So, too, Dionysius had been a presbyter of Rome,
and Cyprian had been a presbyter of Carthage (see his Life
by Pontius, his deacon, c. in.), before they became bishops.
(Euseb. vii. c. vii.; Jerome, 'de Vir. Illustr.,' c. Ixix).
It must be confessed that in the earliest times there is
some difficulty in proving a distinct ordination of those
who were raised from the second to the first order in the
ministry ; and opponents of prelacy have not been slow to
take advantage of this difficulty, as enabling them to main-
tain that the distinction between the two orders is not essen-
tial, and that, having been introduced merely as a human
arrangement, it may be dispensed with or maintained ac-
cording to circumstances, and simply upon grounds of
greater or less expediency. The only Scriptural evidence
which bears directly upon the point is derived from the
analogy, before referred to, between the Jewish and the c
J ' J See Lecture
Christian ministry ; and this, it cannot be denied, is of
great weight. It is certain that the high priest received a
separate and distinct consecration from that of the ordinary
priests, a consecration which consisted in being vested
with a special dress, in receiving a special unction, and in
offering a special sacrifice. 1 Of evidence which is post-
Scriptural to the same effect I know of none more conclu-
1 See Exod. xxviii.-xxx. ; Levit. vol. ii. pp. 182-197 .' Jerome, Epist.
viii. xvi. Selden, ' De Successione Ixiv. ad Fabiolam, vol. i. pp. 615-
in Pontificatum.'lib^ii. capp. vii.-ix. 617.
io8 LECTURE THE SECOND.
sive l than that which is afforded by the earliest canons of
the Church ; such as the so-called ' apostolical canons,' and
the canons of the first (Ecumenical Council 2 to both of
which I shall have occasion to refer presently. Meanwhile,
in the dearth of records to throw full light upon those early
times, we can only suppose that the Church fell into the
way of trine ordination as it fell into the way of infant
baptism and of the observance of the Lord's Day ; and that,
as no express notice has come down to us of the institution
of either of those usages, which, nevertheless, we retain with-
out scruple, so neither need we scruple to retain this usage,
which comes to us recommended by at least equal claims of
reason and propriety, as well as of prescriptive right.
But to proceed with the question of successorship to the
apostles.
The earliest 2. A second method of proving the point upon which we
known . .
ministry a are engaged viz. the prelatical character of the earnest
threefold
one - episcopate is to be found in the fact that the ministry to
which the apostolical succession appertained was invariably
a threefold one, composed of the three orders, bishops,
1 Bishop Beveridge, in his note is as follows : ' It is most fitting that
upon the Second Apostolical a bishop should be instituted by all
Canon, p. 14, remarks upon the the bishops of the province ; but if
impossibility of the trine ordination this be not practicable .... three
having been recognised so universally at all events must meet together,
as we find it was by the earliest and when they have received the con-
Councils, unless it had been instituted sent of those whoare absent, signified
by the apostles. by letter, then let them perform the
1 The fourth canon of that Council ordination'
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 109
priests, and deacons ; a ministry in which, as a rule, 1 the
same individual who rose to the highest, must have passed
through the lower orders ; a ministry, in short, the same as
that which we found laid down in Scripture in the directions
which St. Paul addressed to Timothy as first bishop of the
Church in Ephesus, for his own guidance, and for the guid-
ance of those who were to come after him. Let me now
request your attention to the evidence of this fact, as we
meet with it in writers who come next to the penmen of the
New Testament.
The earliest uninspired Christian document is the Epistle Testimony of
of Clement 2 to the Church at Corinth. It was written from
Rome very soon probably not more than two years after
St. Paul's martyrdom in A.D. 68; and, if so, thirty years
before the death of St. John. The evidence, therefore,
which it affords, belongs properly to the period embraced in
my former lecture the period of the first century the
Scriptural and apostolic age. It is very important to bear
this in mind. 3 It serves to account for the still unsettled
1 But this was not always ob- that the Clement who is mentioned
served. Deacons were sometimes by St. Paul, Phil. iv. 3, was the
made bishops, as St. Athanasius of same as the author of the Corinthian
Alexandria ; and even laymen, as Epistle, and bishop of Rome. See
Ambrose of Milan, and Nectarius Lightfoot, p. 166 sq.
of Constantinople, and Demetrius 3 Professor Lightfoot does not
of Alexandria. See Bingham, book concur in this early date. He con-
ii. c. x. 5, 7, vol. i. pp. 143, 145 ; siders the Epistle of Clement to
Neale, 'Hist, of Alex. Church,' vol. have been 'probably written in the
i. p. 12. last decade of the first century,' p.
a It is probable but not certain 216; in ' the later years of Domitian,
I io LECTURE THE SECOND.
state of the Corinthian Church much as we have seen it in
St. Paul's own Epistles written twelve years before. Whether
St Clement was already become bishop of Rome when he
wrote it we cannot certainly tell. If he was and according
to Tertullian, who represents him as having been ordained
bishop by St. Peter, 1 he must have been he doubtless
wrote the Epistle in that capacity : at all events, it appears
from the first chapter, that he had been formally consulted
by the Corinthian Church (as Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna,
afterwards was by the Church of Philippi 2 ) in its difficulties.
In this most primitive document, then, we appear to find a
sufficiently distinct recognition of the three orders of the
Christian ministry (as the intended normal constitution of
that ministry) in the comparison with the Jewish high priest,
priests, and Levites all distinctly named, as holding peculiar
and distinct offices in the elder Church (c. xl. 3 ), a compari-
son repeated afterwards more than once by St. Jerome. 4
Again : when Clement writes (c. xlii.) that ' the apostles,
about A.D. 96.' Page 166. contain 'a parallel of the Church
1 ' De Praescrip. Haeret., 1 c. xxxii. officers in the Gospel to those under
1 See his Epistle, c. iii. the Law.' I am glad to find myself
3 Following a conjecture of supported by Professor Lightfoot,
Neander, Dean Milman, ' Hist, of p. 248, in demurring to Dean Mil-
Christ.,' vol. iii. p. 259, writes, 'this man's 'arbitrary criticism.'
passage is rejected as an interpo- * See below in this Lecture.
lation by all judicious and impar- Athanasius calls Hilary the deacon
tial scholars' a statement which, a Levitt. 'Hist. Arian.,' c. xli. vol.
being certainly incorrect, appears to i. p. 368. Jerome gives the same
me singularly partial and injudi- name to the Roman deacons. See
cious. The passage is accepted in below, p. 175, note 2.
' Irenicum,' p. 326, and admitted to
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT.
ill
preaching through countries and cities, appointed the first
fruits of their labours after they had proved them (2o<a-
/xa<rav7-ec) by the Spirit to be overseers and ministers
(I7ri<nco7rove /ecu AiaKwove) of those who should afterwards
believe;' we see just such a germ of the future complete
threefold ministry as is found, for instance, in St. Paul's
Epistle to the Philippians, where the apostle himself is still
the prelate of the Church. 1
From the Roman bishop, and probable fellow-labourer of Testimony
of St.
St. Paul, St, Clement, we come next to the bishop or metro-
politan 2 of Antioch, St. Ignatius, the disciple of St. John.
I do not think that any person of competent learning, who
has thoroughly studied the controversy respecting the Igna-
tian Epistles will venture to dispute the genuineness of the
seven now generally accepted in their shorter form, 3 and
still less of the three to Polycarp, to the Ephesians, and to
1 See Lightfoot, p. 96.
2 In his Epistle to the Romans he
calls himself 'bishop of Syria,' of
which Antioch was the metropolis.
See Hammond, 'Dissert.,' ii. c. vii.
sect. 14.
3 The opinion of Dean Milman,
who belonged to the sceptical or
hypercritical school (see note 3, in
last page), is thus expressed : ' My
own opinion is decidedly in favour
of the genuineness of these Epistles
the shorter ones, I mean which are
vindicated by Pearson The
object of the writer does not seem to
be to raise the sacerdotal power, but
rather to enforce Christian unity.'
Ibid. vol. iii. p. 256. Compare
Hammond, 'Dissert.,' ii. c. xxii.
83 ; Professor Lightfoot, however,
accepts only the Curetonian Syriac ;
but though he regards 'the short
Greek recension as probably cor-
rupt or spurious,' he concludes
'from internal evidence that it can
hardly have been later than the
middle of the second century ; ' and
'its witness, therefore,' he adds, 'is
highly valuable.' See pp. 210 sq.,
232, 24.Q.
Ill LECTURE THE SECOND.
the Romans so far as they are preserved in the Syriac ver-
sion, first published in 1845. The saintly bishop of Antioch
was, as I have said, a disciple of St. John, and suffered
martyrdom not many years after St. John's death, viz. A.D.
H5. 1 Doubtless the temptation is great to dispute the au-
thority of writings which, coming from such a source, must
ever be felt, not only to give a strong testimony, but to
convey a severe censure against those who have reduced the
true ministry of the Church to a republican parity, and I
may add, against those also who have exaggerated it into an
autocratic supremacy. 2 But love of the truth will not yield
to that temptation ; and even so long as there is uncertainty,
so long as there is any ground of probability that these
Epistles may be genuine much more when the balance of
proof must be seen greatly to incline to that conclusion no
fair and candid reasoner will desire that the evidence which
they afford should be left out of view. And what, then, is
that evidence? 3 Of those seven Epistles, which purport to
be written by St Ignatius as a condemned martyr on his
way towards Rome, and which, whether written by himself
or not, we know 4 to have been in existence in the second
century, there is not one which does not make distinct men-
1 According to Clinton, 'F. R.,' maybe seen in 'Irenicum,' p. 308 sq.
p. 101. Others say A.D. 107, and < From the testimony of Poly-
others A.D. 117. carp (Ep. ad Phil., c. xiii.); of
2 See Bishop Pearson's 'Vind. Irenaeus (lib. v. c. xxviii.); of Origen,
Ignat.,' p. 350. (Prol. in Cant. Canticor.). See
3 Stillingfleet's remarks upon it also Euseb. iii. 34.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 113
tion of the threefold ministry, of a bishop, presbyters, and
deacons excepting only the Epistle to the Church of Rome
the Church in reference to which such mention, under the
circumstances, would be most likely to be suppressed, and,
as matter of evidence, is least required. In three of the
Epistles we find the name of the bishop of the Church to
which the Epistle is addressed viz. Onesimus, bishop of
Ephesus l (with a deacon named Borrus) ; Damas, bishop of
Magnesia (two of whose presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius,
and a deacon, Lotio, are also mentioned by name) ; and
Polybius, bishop cf Tralles, particulars not consistent with
the notion of forgery. 2 I propose to give but two speci-
mens 3 of the Ignatian evidence out of upwards of thirty
distinct testimonies which might be produced. And I shall
take the first specimen from one of the three Syriac Epi-
tomes. In the epitomised version of the Epistle to Poly-
carp, who is denominated in the inscription 'bishop of
Smyrna,' we read as follows : ' Be studious of unity, than
which nothing is more precious Cleave to your
bishop, that God also may (cleave) to you. I give my life
for those who are subject to the bishop, to presbyters, to
deacons. With them may my portion be in the presence of
1 Mentioned also in the Syriac elusions to which they lead, see
Epitome. Hammond, ' Diss. Sec., 1 capp.
* See Lightfoot, p. 211. xxv. xxvi. Also Appendix to the
3 For a general view of the other author's Synodal Address for 1864,
testimonies to be found in the Ig- pp. 114-120.
natian Epistles, and of the con-
1 14 LECTURE THE SECOND.
God!' 1 (capp. i. vi.}. You will remember that this is
quoted, not for the sake of the sentiment, but simply of the
testimony testimony to the fact of the existence of the
three orders in that primitive age (the first quarter of the
second century), when there was no controversy respecting
the form of the ministry to tempt to the fabrication of such
representations. The other specimen which I have to give
will show not only the same institution of an episcopal
ministry, and the same motive for maintaining it viz. re-
gard for unity but also that in the opinion of Ignatius it
rested upon the sanction of Christ Himself, and that it was
already universally received. Thus, then, he writes in his
Epistle to the Ephesians, ch. iii. : * Since love suffers me not
to be silent, I have taken upon me, first of all, to exhort you
that ye abide in unity according to the will of God. For as
Jesus Christ, our inseparable Life, was [the fulfilment of]
His Father's will, so the bishops, settled everywhere to the
utmost bounds [of the earth], are by the will of Jesus Christ.'
Testimony Similar proof in support of the threefold ministry is to be
' >f ' Martyr-.
<iom of derived from the narrative of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius.
Ignatius. J
which, if not actually written by the companions of his
journey, as it purports to be, is unquestionably a document
of primitive times. In that narrative we read : ' The cities
and Churches of Asia had welcomed the holy man through
their bishops, and presbyters, and deacons ' (ch. iii.).
1 On the conclusive character of Ignatianum, ' Pref. p. xyi. See also
this evidence in favour of the three- Lightfoot, pp. 96, 233 sqq.
fold ministry, see Cureton's ' Corpus
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 115
From Ignatius the Asiatic bishop passing over the apo- Hermas.
stolic Hermas (brother of Pius, bishop of Rome), who seems,
however, to mention the three orders, under the names of
' bishops, doctors or teachers, and deacons,' hi his third Vi-
sion, ch. v. 1 we come next to Clement of Alexandria, and
Tertullian, both African presbyters at the close of the second
that is, as I must frequently remind you, the first post-
apostolic century. In the former, Clement, we find at Testimony
. . , , . of Clement
least one passage in which the three orders are distinctly of Alex-
andria,
named, viz. in his book of ' Miscellanies,' where, speaking of
the degrees of celestial glory, and comparing them with the
dignities of the Church below, he writes : ' In my opinion
the gradations (vpoKOTrai) here in the Church, of bishops r
presbyters, and deacons, are imitations of the angelic glory,
and of that Economy which, the Scriptures say, awaits those
who, following the footsteps of the apostles, have lived in
the perfection of righteousness, according to the gospel '
(Strom, vi. c. xiii. vol. ii. p. 793). In another passage, how-
ever, of the same work (vii. i), he mentions only two orders,
viz. the presbyterate and diaconate, the former * for improve-
ment,' the latter 'ministerial.' In like manner, in his 'In-
structor ' (i. 6), he does not scruple to speak of himself and
his fellow-presbyters as ' Pastors who had rule over (irporiyov-
/it'vot) the Churches.' And again, in his 'Quis Dires,' &c.,
(c. xlii.), in the well-known anecdote respecting St. John, the
1 On the testimony of Hermas siders 'the notices in the Shepherd
see Lightfoot, p. 216 sq. He con- too vague to lead to any result/
12
u6 LECTURE THE SECOND.
names presbyter and episcopus appear l to be used indiffer-
ently of the same person. But it will be obvious, that while
each of these latter three passages is capable of being inter-
preted so as to comprehend a threefold division of orders or
decrees of ministry, 2 it is not possible to interpret the first
passage so as to reduce the three orders to only two. In
short, the fair inference to be drawn from Clement's testi-
mony, taken as a whole, is the same which has already been
dra\vn from that of Trenaeus, viz. that the generic name pres-
byter was still sometimes used in a laxer sense, so as to
include the episcopus or overseer of the presbyters. In
Testimony of Teitullian there are three passages at least which bear testi-
mony to the ministry as threefold, viz. in ' De Baptismo,' c.
xvii. vol. i. p. 1218; in 'De Fuga in Persecutione,' c. xi.
vol. ii. p. 1 13 ; .and in ' De Monogamia,' c. xi. voL ii. p. 493.
1 I say 'appear,' because Bishop ference to the last, he observes:
Pearson regards ' presbyter ' in that 'Clement, like Irenaeus, regards the
passage as descriptive of age, not of bishop as a presbyter, though the
clerical office. 'Vind. Ignat.,' vol. converse would not be true,' p. 227.
ii. p. 551. The passage in the ' Instructor,' iii.
2 In reference to the .first of those 12, upon which Bishop Pearson,
three passages, which represents the 'Vind. Ignat.,' p. 567, has laid so
duty of the presbyterate to be 'to much stress as testifying to the
improve,' while that of the diaco- threefold gradation of the ministry,
note is ' to serve, ' the Church, Dr. and claiming for it the authority of
Lightfoot remarks : ' The functions Scripture, Dr. Lightfoot dismisses
of the bishop and presbyter are thus as incompetent for that purpose,
regarded as substantially the same because it assumes that the names
in kind, though different in degree ; episcopus and presbyter are not
while the functions of the diaconate used synonymously in the New Tes-
arc separate from both,' In re- lament, p. 224, note.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 117
In the first of these passages, not only the distinct exist-
ence of the three orders, but the gradation of their power,
and the principle upon which it rests, are plainly marked, as
may be seen from the words which I proceed to quote :
' The chief priest, i.e. the bishop, has the right of giving
baptism ; after him the presbyters and the deacons ; not,
however, without the bishop's authority, out of regard to the
Church's honour, on the preservation of which depends the
preservation of peace.' Again I must remind you that I am
not defending sentiments but ascertaining facts, and with
this object I must beg you to observe that in each of the
four testimonies of the Alexandrian Clement and of Tertul-
lian to which I have now referred, as specifying the three
orders, the mention of them is introduced, not as a matter
of doubt or disputation for there had been no dispute
upon the point, nor did any arise till two centuries later
but simply as matter of illustration, or as a statement of ac-
knowledged fact. 1
Slightly later than Clement and Tertullian, but still in the Testimony
of Ongcn
early part of the third century, flourished Origen, another
presbyter, and successor of Clement as a teacher in the
school of Alexandria. His testimony, frequently 2 repeated
in various parts of his voluminous writings, is precisely the
same as that of the other two. In his Commentary on St.
1 Professor Lightfoot observes, tullian wrote ; ' i.e. within a century
,p. 213, 'Episcopacy was the only after the death of St. John.
,form of government known or re- 2 See Bingham, i. p. 55 ; Pearson,
numbered in the Church when Ter- ' Vind. Ignat.,' p. 272 sq.
n8 LECTURE THE SECOND.
Matthew alone there are four several passages in which the
three orders are distinctly enumerated just as we enumerate
them at the present day (see vol. iii. pp. 501, 646, 690, 752).
In one of those passages we read of persons who prided
themselves upon the fact that their fathers or forefathers had
been bishops, or priests, or deacons in which case they
must have been contemporary with the apostles or nearly
so ; ' in another it is plainly intimated that the three orders
are derived from Scripture. 2
or the One more testimony remains to be cited, which sets the
' Apostolical
Canons.* coping stone upon this line of proof. I allude to the collec-
tion called 'Apostolical Canons,' of which though the date
is uncertain, Mosheim, a Presbyterian, admits that they
exhibit the discipline received among the Eastern Christians
in the second and third centuries ; 3 and Bishop Beveridge,
who had examined the subject thoroughly, came substan-
tially to the same conclusion. 4 There seems, therefore, to
be no sufficient reason why we should not regard and speak
of them in the same way as the Westminster Shorter Cate-
chism speaks of the so-called ' Apostles' Creed,' only sub-
stituting the word discipline for the word faith : ' This col-
lection of canons, though not composed by the apostles,
1 Vol. iii. p. 690 ; see Pearson, second or at the beginning of the
ibid. p. 276. third century. See in his 'Synodi-
* Vol. iii. p. 646; see Pearson, con 1 the note on canon ii. p. 15,
ibid. pp. 273, 281. explaining the cause of the absence
8 See 'Hist. Eccl.,' c. ii. 19, p. of express evidence respecting ordi-
50. nations in the early Church. See
4 He considered that the collection also Bishop Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,'
was formed towards the end of the p. 546.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 119
is a brief sum of the Christian discipline, agreeable to the
word of God, and anciently received in the Churches of
Christ.' The first of those canons is in these words : ' Let
a bishop be ordained by two or three bishops, a priest by
one bishop, and so likewise a deacon.' l And this canon is
still observed by all the Churches of the Anglican commu-
nion, by all the Churches of the East, and by all the
Churches subject to the Church of Rome ; except that they
now insist upon the presence of at least three bishops for
the consecration of a bishop, according to the fourth canon
of the Council of Nicaea, before referred to. 2
The testimonies now produced do not descend later than Testimony
from later
200 years after our Lord's ascension. No one who is ac- tim es still
more abim-
quainted with early ecclesiastical history, with the writings dant -
of the Fathers or the decrees of Councils, will need to be
told that from that period 3 similar testimonies to the true
constitution of the ministry become, in consequence of the
greater mass of evidence, infinitely more abundant. For
instance, we learn from Eusebius (vi. 43) that a very large
synod, which chronologists place in A.D. 251, assembled at
Rome to take into consideration the false teaching of
1 See Brans., ' Canones Apost. et with reference, probably, to the
Concil.,' p. i ; and Bingham, book 44th of the so-called 'Apostolical
ii. ch. xi. 4, vol. i. p. 153 sq. Canons.'
* See above, p. 108. The canons 3 Concerning the evidence of the
of that Council distinctly recognise Clementine Homilies, which be-
the three orders again and again. long, most probably, to the second
See canons 3, 15, 16, 18. It is also century, and of the ' Ancient Syriac
to be observed, that the i3th canon Documents,' edited by Cureton and
speaks of the ' Old Canonical Law, ' Wright, see Lightfoot, p. 209.
120 LECTURE THE SECOND.
Novatus, ' at which sixty bishops, and a much greater num-
ber of presbyters and deacons were present.' Such was
the Church's experience in Europe. We have similar testi-
mony, to the same effect, about the same time in regard to
Africa and Asia; in the seventh Council held under Cyprian
at Carthage, 1 on the baptism of heretics, in A.D. 258, &t
which were assembled upwards of eighty bishops, with pres-
byters and deacons (Patrol, vol. iii. p. 1052); and in the
Council held at Antioch, against Paul of Samosata, in A.D.
264 (Euseb. vii. 30). Or if we descend into the following
century, to the reign of Constantine, it is calculated, accord-
ing to Gibbon, that there were then as many as 1800 bishop-
rics altogether in the East and West ; and we know that
some 318 bishops, 2 besides presbyters and deacons, actually
came from all parts of the then civilised world from Spain
and Gaul, from Italy and Greece, from Macedonia, from
Libya, Egypt and Arabia, from Palestine, and the various
provinces of the East in order to attend that first great
General Council to which I just now alluded, which was held
including at Nicaea in A.D. 325. Even from our own distant island we
evidence
from our rea( j o f a bishop of London, a bishop of York, and a bishop,
own island.
priest, and deacon from the diocese of Lincoln, among those
who were present at the Council assembled at Aries, in the
1 In one of his letters, epist. lix., * Their names, and the names of
he alludes to a Council, held before the sees which they represented,
his time, at which ninety bishops may be seen in Labbe's 'Concilia,'
were present. See Lightfoot, p. 222, ii. pp. 50-54.
note.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 121
south of France, somewhat earlier, viz. in A.D. 314.' In
short, the prevalence of that threefold ministry was so uni-
versal, so unexceptional, wherever Christianity itself had
spread, that the existence of a Church without a bishop,
priests, and deacons, would have been thought no less in-
"congruous, no less impossible, than the existence of a Church
without the possession of the Scriptures, or without the ob-
servance of the Lord's Day. And this uniformity of the
ministry is the more remarkable, because in rites and cere-
monies (the discussion of which has been sometimes impro-
perly mixed up 2 with the question of the ministry and of
Church government) great differences in different places
were unquestionably allowed without any injury to the cause
of peace and unity. 3 Nor was this all. The heretical Heretical
separatists
bodies also which had separated from the Church such as ke P l l r he
same form
the Arians, the Novatians, the Donatists, the Luciferians, of ministrv -
the Nestorians, sects which prevailed over different and
widely distant parts of Christendom all retained the same
1 See Labbe's 'Concilia,' vol. i. Augustin landed in England, A.D.
p. 1430. The names of the three 596, there were seven British bishops
bishops were Restitutus, Eborius, and one archbishop (of St. David's),
and Adelphius. ' There is reason See 'Theoph. Anglic.,' part ii. c. i.
to believe that there were, even at 2 For instance, in the ' First Book
that period, two other bishops in of Discipline,' c. xx., 'Not that we
Britain, one of whom was in Wales, think that one policy and one order
and the other in Scotland. In like of ceremonies can be appointed for
manner Britain sent three bishops to all ages, times, and places.'
the Council of Ariminum in A.D. 3 See Firmilian, quoted in ' Ireni-
359.' Cosmo Innes' Scotland in cum,' p. 323, and Augustin, ibid.
the Middle Ages, p. 46. When p. 60, also p. 383.
122 LECTURE THE SECOND.
form of ministry ; which it cannot be supposed that they
would have done if they had considered that the Church
was in error in this respect, or if there had been any tradi-
tion or belief that a different system had been instituted or
sanctioned by the apostles.
Pretended In making these last remarks I have not forgotten that an
exceptions of
the Goths, exception to this universal uniformity has been thought by
some to have been discovered among our own forefathers ; that
much has been said about a Culdean church without bishops ;
and, moreover, that the Goths have been assigned to us as
companions of our singularity in this respect. 1 In such a
case, where the multitude of unquestionable examples over
all parts of the Christian world was so very great, it might
be sufficient to say that as there are lusus Naturce in even-
department of creation, so in this case the exception only
proves the rule. But the truth is, that notwithstanding the
learned researches and peremptory conclusions which have
b'een put forth upon the point, there is good and sufficient
reason for believing that the supposed exception never really
existed. 2
NO just It has also been attempted to cast a slur upon this entire
comparison
between the argument by confounding the universal acceptance of an
universal
episcopal ministry with the upgrowth and wide extension of
western pre- popery ; and this representation has been largely and suc-
cessfully made use of in former times, for the purpose of
creating a prejudice against prelacy and in favour of a system
1 See ' Irenicum,' p. 374 sq.
* See Bishop W. Lloyd's ' Historical Account,' chaps, v.-vii.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 123
of ministerial parity. Nor is this to be wondered at, when
it is considered that in order to detect the fallacy there is
required some knowledge of early ecclesiastical history, of
which the mass of our population, and, I fear it must be
added, not a few even of our better educated classes, are
sadly ignorant. Of the upgrowth of popery, and of the
causes which led to it, I shall have occasion to speak pre-
sently ; and then it will be seen that, so far from any
natural or necessary connection existing between the two,
there has been nothing more fatal to the legitimate autho-
rity of bishops than the power of the popes. In the mean-
time let it be borne in mind that the universal prevalence
of a prelatically constituted ministry throughout the entire
East of Christendom has been, if possible, still more re-
markable than its prevalence in the West ; and that through-
out the East (where, be it also remembered, was the first
cradle of the Church) the usurpations of popery have been
disallowed all along from the beginning and still are no
less resolutely than since the Reformation they have been re-
jected by ourselves. There is, in fact, nothing with which Testimony
of Eastern
travellers in the East, who attend to matters of this kind, are travellers.
more struck at the present day than the entire absence among
all Christian communities, orthodox or heretical, of any
semblance of presbyterianism, or of the existence of any
other form of ministry than that which we call prelatical.
The late well-known missionary Dr. Joseph Wolff, after
stating that he himself once held wild and irregular views in
Church matters, has left upon record the following testimony :
124 LECTURE THE SECOND.
' The very fact that all the Eastern Churches, without one
single exception, have bishops, priests, and deacons, and
the very fact that a presbyterian Church is not known, is to
me a sufficient proof that episcopacy is of divine origin, and
that the doctrine of apostolic succession is a Scriptural
doctrine.' l In an earlier part of the present century the
interesting researches of Dr. Claudius Buchanan conveyed
similar testimony respecting the Syrian Christians on the
coast of Malabar, who appeared incredulous when, as a
Scotchman, he told them of a Church, without deacons in
holy orders, and without a bishop to superintend the pres-
byters ; while at the same time it appeared that the same
body of Christians had placed themselves in an attitude
of the staunchest Protestantism against the Church of
Rome, whose unscrupulous aggressions they had had only
too much reason to resent. 2
3. Hitherto it has been my aim in the present Lecture to
prove, first, that bishops, i.e. individuals holding a perma-
nent position above presbyters, and, strictly speaking, bishops
only, were regarded as successors of the apostles by the
primitive Christians who lived in the earliest post-apostolic
age ; and secondly, that during the same age the ministry
in which the said individuals occupied the foremost rank
was universally a threefold one, consisting of a bishop,
presbyters, and deacons. I now proceed, in the third place,
1 See 'The Primitive Church in p. 189.
its Episcopacy,' p. 67; also Dr. * See Dr. Buchanan's 'Christian
Wolff's 'Travels to Bokhara,' vol. i. Researches in Asia,' pp. 120-123.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 12$
and still in continuation of the same branch of evidence, to The first
attempt to
establish the fact that no attempt was made to question question the
threefold
the Scriptural authority of the same episcopal or three- ^d'fby
fold niiifristry till the fourth century ; and that no sooner was fourth 5 ' n
the attempt made than it was put down and condemned by
the universal conscience and witness of the Church. 1
Three authors, all of whom lived within the last quarter
of the fourth, and the first quarter of the fifth century, viz.
Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, the metropolis of Cyprus in
the east of the Levant ; Philastrius, bishop of Brescia, in
Northern Italy ; and St. Augustin, bishop of Hippo in
Western Numidia ; each of these an Asiatic, a European,
and an African composed a treatise against heresies or false
doctrines ; and each has included Aerius in his list of
heretics. 2 This man, who was a presbyter of Sebaste in
Lesser Armenia, and had previously been ambitious of a
bishopric, but without success, and who was still living when
Epiphanius wrote, this Aerius, unable to digest his morti-
fication and disappointment, took upon himself to broach the
opinion (besides being an Arian, and holding other unsound
1 Young Stillingfleet argues, that he has denied, more or less, in two
Aerius was condemned because he passages the Scriptural and apo-
denied the lawfulness of episcopacy stolic origin of the right he has as-
and for his separation ; otherwise serted in many more. See below,
Jerome must have been condemned in this Lecture,
too. See 'Irenicum,' pp. 276, 404. 2 Epiphanius, 'Hasr.,' Ixxv. vol.
It is true that Jerome's error was i. pp. 904-912 ; Philastrius, ' De
simply theoretical. He did not deny Haeresibus Liber,' c. cxxii. p. 70;
the right of bishops to their pre-emi- St. Augustin, 'De Hasr.,' c. liii. vol.
nence (quite the contrary), and what viii. p. 55.
126 LECTURE THE SECOND.
doctrines) that there ought to be no difference between a
bishop and a presbyter. The arguments which he used
were all drawn from Scripture, and appear to have been
precisely similar to those which it was found convenient
to have recourse to, in order to justify a foregone conclusion,
in the later stage of the Continental Reformation, and with
which in this country we have become familiar, since the
days of Andrew Melville, and still more of Alexander
Henderson. For instance, he referred to Philippians i. i,
and to i Timothy i. 14, without troubling himself (so far as
appears) to compare this latter text with 2 Timothy i. 6. !
But the true interpretation of Scripture upon such a point,
however speciously attacked, was not to be so easily over-
thrown in that early age ; being attested, as it then was, by
a uniform tradition, and by the experience of universal
Christendom. Consequently the teaching of Aerius (not-
withstanding the support it might have derived from the
wild statement which St. Jerome put forth not long after,
and to which I shall presently refer at length) this teaching,
I say, this discovery of Aerius, appears to have become ex-
tinct with his own death ; and no more is heard of it until
it was revived by the supposed ' necessity ' of untoward cir-
cumstances which embarrassed, for the most part, the legiti-
mate progress and development of the Reformation in the
sixteenth century.
Meanwhile, we have now to turn our attention to a cor-
1 See Epiphanius, ibid., and Bishop Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,' pp. 326.
5 6 5 sq- S7i-
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 127
ruption of the truth the very opposite of that which was Corruption
} of the truth
broached by Aerius. ? the PP-
sile extreme.
I remarked in my former lecture, that an indication of the
probable design of a uniform ministry, and of our being able
to discover it, is to be found in the fact that elements of
identity underlie the diversities of system which actually
exist, and that the diversities themselves can all be traced
historically to one and the same common origin.
We have now arrived at that stage of our enquiry when
the grounds of that remark are to be made good. And this
will form the fourth and last stage of investigation under
that second main head of our general argument with which
we are now engaged.
4. It has been shown, then, I think conclusively, that the
apostles formed a distinct body, having prelatical authority,
each in his own person ; that they severally made provision
for a successorship to themselves in all the ordinary func-
tions of their prelatical office ; and that their successors
from the first were, and have been ever since, known by
the name of bishops, having presbyters and deacons under
them, as necessary to complete the clerical ministry.
We have also seen, that in the fourth century an attempt
was made by Aerius to call in question the Scriptural autho-
rity of that successorship, and to prove that the apostles in
fact had no successors, and that no higher order than that
of presbyters ought to be maintained in the Church. It has
been seen, moreover, that the time was not yet ripe for any
such attempt. More than a thousand years were to pass
128 LECTURE THE SECOND.
before it could be renewed ; and then it would be made,
and would partially succeed as a reaction from an attempt
which, as I have said, was of the very opposite kind, and
which also appeared for the first time in the fourth century.
Upgrowth of I allude to the pretensions in behalf of the see of Rome,
when there began to be advanced though in a way scarcely
perceptible, and certainly with no intention of producing the
extreme results which eventually flowed from them preten-
sions whereby, over and above the successorship of bishops
to the apostles, which Aerius denied, there was asserted a
special successorship to one apostle, viz. St. Peter, which
was to give to one bishop the bishop of Rome an official
rank and authority superior to and distinct from the rank
and authority of all the rest ; and thus the threefold ministry,
which Aerius would have reduced to two orders, was virtu-
ally increased to four. Happily, not only the teaching of
Scripture, 1 but the testimony of the Church's history for the
first 300 years and upwards 2 is no less conclusive against the
exorbitant claims of the single bishop of Rome, than it is
against the opposite claims of the disappointed presbyter of
Sebaste. I cannot say, more conclusive ; on the contrary, I
must confess, that full as much apparent testimony is to be
derived from both these sources from Scripture, and from
antiquity in favour of the papal excess, as is to be derived
from them in favour of the presbyterian defect ; for such is
the nature of these two extremes in comparison with the
1 See a tract entitled ' The Epis- printed in the Report of the Nor-
copate,' by the Rev. H. Dodds. wich Church Congress, 1865 ; and
* See the author's Address, Perth Lecture, 1854, pp. 17-22.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 129
true system of the Church's ministry. We have no difficulty
in tracing the steps which gradually led up to the gigantic
structure of the papal supremacy. The use of St. Peter's causes
name, not without some semblance of a primacy among the to papal
supremacy.
apostles being assigned to him in Scripture ; the unquestion-
able primacy of Rome itself as princeps tirbium in the civi-
lised world ; the learning, sanctity, and fidelity of some of
its first bishops ; the value of a centre to look to and to
rally round during the early childhood of the Church, in
days of persecution or in days of heresy, and when the
Church being still confined within one empire, and speaking,
for the most part, one language the recognition of such
a centre involved none of those practical inconveniences
which render it both undesirable and impracticable at the
present day: and again, at a later period, when the irrup-
tion of barbarians from all sides had broken up the order
of Christian society throughout Europe, the obvious advan-
tage of guidance and of authority, the best and most power-
ful that could be had, in dealing with the new elements, so
as to bring them, as far as might be, under a control which,
in proportion as it was uniformly systematised, would be
more widely felt : these, and such as these, were the causes
which led men to acquiesce in, or promote too often
through the use of force or fraud ! a development of the
1 ' History deposed unhesitatingly righteously, as concerns the Church
that Rome rose to the eminence she the whole Church I mean by
occupied in the thirteenth century, fraud and force ; by the weapon of
when at her zenith . . . most un- the weak and the weapon of the
K
130 LECTURE THE SECOND.
threefold ministry, which practically destroyed its divine
symmetry, and introduced a power utterly inconsistent with
the teaching of Scripture, and with the testimony and ex-
ample of the Church during the apostolic and post-apostolic
age. And how was this power to be maintained ? It was
to be maintained partly by denying, partly by undermining,
the legitimate authority of the highest order of the threefold
ministry that is, of the bishops, as each and all equally l
successors of the apostles ; and then by obtruding the pope
alone into their place. And this was done. 2 Contrary to
the prevailing sentiment of the primitive Church, first, the
schoolmen, in the pope's interest, invented a distinction
whereby, though they allowed bishops to be superior to
presbyters in power and jurisdiction, they made them to be
strong alternately put into her hand, Scottish Reform.,' and ed., pp. 16
and employed by her as legitimate sq., 93-97. It is strange that a
for the spread of her power, to the Church historian like Gieseler, vol. i.
dismemberment and destruction of p. 89, should not have understood
the Church at large ; the most the real drift of ' admissions ' made
striking specimens of each kind be- by the Roman canonists and school-
ing the Pseudo-Decretals, including men to the effect that bishops and
of course the Pseudo-donation, and presbyters are of one order. See
the Crusades.' Ffoulkes' Letter to also Stillingfleet's ' Iren.,' pp. 273,
Archbishop Manning. 300, and Professor Lightfoot, p.
1 See St. Jerome, ' Epist. ad 228 : ' The substantial identity of
Evang.,'i. : ' Ubicunque fuerit Epis- order (of bishops and presbyters)
copus, sive Romae, sive Eugubii, was maintained even by popes and
sive Constantinopoli, sive Rhegii, councils.' Yes, by popes, and by
sive Alexandriae, sive Tanis, ejusdem councils so far as they were over-
meriti, ejusdem est et sacerdotii.' ruled by popes. But see the next
Vol. i. p. 1194. note.
* See the author's ' Discourse on
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 131
both of one and the same order. 1 In this they were followed
by the Jesuits ; 2 and to the present day, though the Church
of Rome reckons altogether seven orders in the ministry
four of them being inferior, and only semi-clerical the epis-
copal order is not included, 3 but is regarded as merged in
that of presbyters, while the pope sits alone, extraordinary,
and supreme above them all !
This is what is meant by papal supremacy. This is Supremacy
of the pope
what the Eastern patriarchs, in the encyclical letter which denounced
by Eastern
they addressed to the present pope in complaint of his P atriarchs -
aggression upon their jurisdiction twenty years ago, called
and justly called ' the great heresy of modern times, as
Arianism was the great heresy in the earlier ages ' (p. 9).
Acting upon the new notion of the schoolmen, and calcu-
lating that whatever tended to depress the episcopate would
elevate themselves, the popes did not scruple to give dispen-
sations whereby presbyters were authorised, on occasions,
1 See Bishop Pearson's Minor Hooker, Field, Mason, Mede, Usher,
Works, i. p. 275 ; Bingham, i. pp. have followed the scholastic distinc-
52, 270, and ix. p. 245. At the same tion, speaking of only two orders,
time, it is not to be forgotten that but three degrees. Compare Bishop
the Council of Trent, mainly through Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,' p. 279. But
the influence of the Spanish bishops Bishop Andrewes, ' Opusc. Posth.,'
(see Father Paul's History, pp. 552 p. 183, has shown that the pretended
sqq., 686), pronounced anathema distinction of order and degree is
against any 'who shall say that there not founded on Scripture or the
is not in the Catholic Church a Fathers. And so also Bingham, ut
hierarchy, instituted by divine ap- supra.
pointment, which consists of bishops, 3 The seven Roman orders are:
priests, and deacons.' See below, presbyter, deacon, subdeacon ;
p. 138. acolyte, exorcist, reader, doorkeeper.
1 Some of our earlier divines, e.g.
132 LECTURE THE SECOND.
Policy of the to perform episcopal acts. And worse than this: not
pope to
impair the on iy did they encourage throughout Christendom the insti-
bishops. tution of rich and powerful monastic bodies, which they set
free from episcopal jurisdiction by making their establish-
ments extra-diocesan ; but they took upon themselves to
appoint legates or vicars, by whom their own supreme
authority was to be represented and enforced in other coun-
tries beyond Italy ; an abuse which our great dramatic poet
has exposed in the accusation against Cardinal Wolsey,
which he puts into the mouth of the Earl of Surrey :
You wrought to be a legate, by which power
You maimed the jurisdiction of all bishops.
King Henry VIII. Actiii. Sc. 2.
In this manner, when episcopacy had been depreciated to
serve the interests of the papacy, 1 and when its rights and
position as a distinct order in the ministry had become
obscured and confounded with those of the presbyterate,
the way was prepared for the downward course which fol-
1 See Pearson's M. W., i. p. 274 other mere priests special graces to
(and Churton's Pref., p. Iviii.) : ' No- exercise some essential offices of
thing is more certain than that episcopacy, have made this sacred
all diminution of the rights of epis- order cheap, and apt to be invaded.'
copacy had its source in the papal Archbishop Bramhall, i. p. 252 :
usurpation.' See also ibid. pp. 286, ' Though the popes do not abolish
434. Bishop Taylor, vi. p. 809 : ' I the order of bishops, or episcopacy,
shall say one thing more, which is in- in the abstract, yet they limit the
deed a great truth, that the diminu- power of bishops in the concrete at
tionofepiscopacywasfirstintroduced their pleasure, by exemptions and
by popery ; and the popes of Rome, reservations.'
by communicating to abbots and
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 133
lowed naturally upon the overthrow of the papal usurpation ;
a downward course which, in this and other Protestant
countries, has been going on from the time of the Refor-
mation to the present day. And, much as there is to con- injurious
effect of this
demn in the avowed doctrine and in many of the practices policy upon
J the Scotch
of the Church of Rome. I cannot but consider that a less nd f f ^ n
* is. eioruierr*.
amount of injury to the cause of Christianity, and to the
propagation of the Gospel throughout the world, has arisen
from these than from the usurped dominion of the same
Church ; which, through the opposition which it roused,
has given occasion, more or less directly, to those divisions
by which our modern Christendom is disturbed and rent.
The various steps of the downward course just now re- Gradual
departure
ferred to, are to be traced no less easily than the steps of [ rom the
* true system
the ascent which I before described. When the people, ^ minis -
exasperated into lawlessness by a long period of great and
grievous provocation, shook off the power of the pope, and
assumed it to themselves, it was not unnatural for them to
suppose that as the pope had often allowed presbyters to
act as bishops, and had reduced bishops into little more than
presbyters, through their subjection to himself, they (the
people) might do the same ; they also, with at least equal
propriety, might treat their own national bishops as pres-
byters, and their presbyters as bishops. And this they did :
they turned the acts of the papacy against itself. 1 Hence it
1 On 'The Defects of the Re- 'Disc, on Scottish Reform.,' p. 16,
formation as due originally to Ex- and Append, ch. v.
cesses of Popery ' see the author's
134 LECTURE THE SECOND.
is that, according to the just remark of Charles Leslie,
' Whosoever would write the true history of presbyterianism
Upgrowth of must begin at Rome, and not at Geneva.' 1 First came the
Presbytery.
system of Knox (1560) with the shadow of episcopacy in
the persons of superintendents, but without the laying on of
hands, a system professedly founded upon the principle
which, however familiar to us now, had been till then un-
heard of, that the ministry of the Church admits of variation. 2
Next came the system of Andrew Melville (1580), with laying
on of hands restored, 3 but with no superintendents to lay
them on, and with the assertion of simple equality in the
power and authority of all pastors, or preaching presbyters,
and with the novel introduction of lay elders (otherwise called
ruling presbyters) as a permanent ' spiritual function,' to
share with the pastors the government of the Church ; the
diaconate being also permanently converted into a lay
office : 4 a system founded upon the opposite principle of
setting a limit permissible to variety in the constitution of
the ministry, at least so far as to exclude 5 even the shadow
1 Leslie's Works, vol. vii. p. for election of laymen as elders and
127. deacons ; but neither office was to be
2 ' We do not think that any permanent. Both officers were to
policy can be appointed for all be elected annually.
ages, times, and places.' Scotch 5 Grub, ' Eccles. Hist.,' ii. 225,
Confession of Faith, 1560, c. xx. goes further. He considers that
3 Melville himself, like Calvin, the system laid down in the second
never, I believe, received even pres- ' Book of Discipline, ' is there held
byterian ordination. to be ' of perpetual authority, . . .
4 In thejlrst ' Book of Discipline' and therefore unalterable under any
provision had been made (c. x.) circumstances whatever.' But he
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 135
of episcopacy before allowed. Next followed the Glasgow
Assembly of 1638, which formally renounced and con-
demned episcopacy, ' as having no warrant nor fundament
in the Word of God ; ' and shortly after, the Westminster
Assembly (1643-47), which, having first taken a solemn
pledge in the house of God to do their utmost to extirpate
prelacy, proceeded to examine the Word of God, and there
found what for fifteen centuries had never been found there
viz. that a ministerial platform of coequal clerical pastors, of
semi-lay, ruling presbyters, and lay deacons, is alone of Divine
appointment, and, as such, of perpetual obligation ; to which
they added, as at least ' lawful and agreeable to the Word
of God,' graduated government by congregational assemblies
(otherwise called kirk sessions), classical assemblies, or pres-
byteries, synodical assemblies, and general assemblies ; a
system which bore upon its front its own condemnation,
because, while it claimed, for the most part, to be of univer-
sal obligation, it professed to be framed 'in a method of
their own ; ' for human originality in the things of God is
equivalent to untruth, 1 according to the favourite but much-
abused maxim 2 of the Puritans themselves, which on this
occasion they appear to have forgotten. Then came, in origin of in-
open antagonism to the last system, the system of Indepen-
adds, 'It cannot, however, be said l See 'Acts of General Assembly,'
that the divine right of the presby- p. 114.
terian system was even now dis- * See 'Confession of Faith,' 1560,
tinctly set forth.' On the exclu- c. xviii., and comp. author's 'Disc, on
sion of episcopacy see ibid. pp. Scottish Reform.,' Appendix, c. iii.
212, 2T9.
136 LECTURE THE SECOND.
dency, by which each congregation was to form in itself a
complete Church. Such were the retrogressive, downward
steps of the great reaction from the upward development
and ascendency of popery ; till at last Quakerism was reached,
without any ministry at all, and with women permitted, if
not preferred, to preach ! And now we have had, within
the last quarter of a century, symptoms of a counter-reaction.
Not only has the Free Church endeavoured to restore the
diaconate, which (though pronounced to be of perpetual
obligation) had become practically obsolete, to its original
jrvingism. place in the presbyterian system ; but the sect of the Irving-
ites, not content to accept the threefold ministry in its
Catholic form, have added, by an invention of their own, a
fourth order, whom, in repudiation of the feeling of reve-
rence which influenced the primitive Christians, 1 they do not
scruple to call ' apostles.'
Consistent i n striking contrast with all this change and inconsistency
position of
of e En h iand ^^ a ^ ^ at excess on tne P art f Popery, and with all
this defect on the part of an heterogeneous and discordant
Protestantism stands out the simple position of the Church
of England ; which when it had shaken off the papal usur-
pation, under which it had groaned, more or less {though
not without continual protests), for three centuries it
accepted and announced, not, however, as something new
and original, but as old and traditional ; whicri it announced,
I say, at the commencement of the Reformation, 2 and from
1 See Theodoret in Ep. i. ad z It must be admitted, however,
Timoth., c. iii. vol. iii. p. 652. that in the minds of many of the
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 137
which, up to the present time, it has never deviated so much
as a hair's breadth a proof at once of consistency and
pttth ! The announcement was made in these words, which
form the first sentence of the preface of our Ordination
Services :
' It is evident unto all men diligently reading the Holy
Scripture and antient authors, that from the apostles' time
there have been these orders of ministers in Christ's Church
bishops, priests, and deacons.'
Controversy may beat against these words, like waves
against a rock, but it will never move them. And anyone
who has studied the aberrations of the human mind in the
spirit of a sound philosophy will recognise, I think, a further
confirmation of the historical argument which has now been
traced, in the fact that the Church, which has certainly
produced the greatest and most learned of the Reformed
divines, has also given the most consistent witness to the
truth ; standing now, as it has ever stood, equally removed
from both those extremes, whereby the true proportions of
the organisation of the Christian ministry have been ex-
ceeded or curtailed.
But the evidence is to be extended further yet. I have
produced the uniform testimony of the Churches of the An-
Anglican reformers, as individuals, had produced similar results in the
and especially of Archbishop Cran- views of Knox and his associ-
mer, there was much confusion ates. See ' Irenicum,' pp. 392 sq.
and unsoundness upon the point, 404.
arising out of the same causes which
138 LECTURE THE SECOND.
glican communion English, Irish, Scotch, American, Colo-
its agree- nial. The testimony of all the Eastern Churches and of the
ment with
of C Russia hcs Church of Russia (which, be it remembered, are as much
Eatt ft opposed to popery as Western Protestants are) is to the
same effect, as may be seen from the following words of the
larger Catechism of the Russian Church : ' The necessary
degrees of order in the Church are three, viz. those of
bishops, priests, and deacons.' l But, strong and valuable as
both those testimonies are (representing, as they do, the uni-
form conclusion of the two most numerous communities of
Christians in the world, next to the Roman Catholics), I am
not sure that the confessions which have come from the two
extremes themselves are not even still more conclusive. On
the one hand, it was decreed in the Council of Trent, mainly
through the influence of the Spanish and French bishops,
and greatly against the will of the Ultramontane party, 2 as
follows :
' If anyone shall say that there is not in the Catholic
Church a hierarchy, instituted by divine appointment, which
consists of bishops, priests, and deacons, let him be ana-
thema ' (Session xxiii. c. vi.).
Opinion of And to this, on the other hand, we have the corresponding 3
Calvin.
anathema of Calvin himself. His words are these :
1 Page 96. See also the 'Con- 2 See above, p. 131, note, and the
fession of Dositheus,' Patriarch of History of Father Paul there re-
Jerusalem, stating the faith of the ferred to.
Oriental Church in 1672 ; Kimmel's 3 But Calvin's ' anathema ' was
' Monumenta,' vol. i. p. 437 sq. prior to that of Trent.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 139
' If they (the Romanists) would show us an hierarchy in
which the pre-eminence of bishops should be placed upon
a footing as that they would not refuse to be subject
unto Christ and to depend upon Him as their only head '
in allusion to the false headship of the bishop of Rome, as
episcopus episcoporum ' and in which they would so culti-
vate a mutual brotherhood, as to acknowledge no other
bond of union than the truth of God ; then, indeed, if there
be any who could not reverence such an hierarchy, and
pay it entire obedience, they would be worthy, I confess,
of every possible anathema (nullo non anathemate).' l
Such, in principle, is the hierarchy which we now show,
and which the Church of England shows. But the divines
of the Westminster Assembly swore to extirpate what the
learning and the judgment of Calvin would not suffer him
to condemn, nay, even obliged him to anathematise those
who should condemn and disallow it.
In like manner, it was Luther himself, who, in the last of Luther,
work which he wrote, and published in 1545, only a year
before his death, gave this testimony :
' Let the bishops cease to persecute and blaspheme the
Gospel ; let them provide for the Churches true teachers ;
let them put away forms of worship which are impious and
idolatrous, and restore such as are pure and true : and then
the duty which we owe to them shall be fully paid ; then will
' De Necessitate Reform. EC- ber 1554, 'Epist. et Resp.,' pp.
cles.,' Op., viii. 60. See also his 187-191.
letter to the king of Poland, Decem-
140 LECTURE THE SECOND.
we acknowledge them as our fathers indeed ; then will we
gladly submit ourselves to their authority, which we see to be
thoroughly fortified by the word of God (Verbo Dei commu-
nitam).' !
The members of the Glasgow Assembly of 1638 could not
see this : the divines of the Westminster Assembly could not
see it; they saw the reverse : but the Father of Protestantism
could see it, and all the more clearly the nearer he ap-
proached to his latter end.
I have now gone through what I considered to be neces-
sary in order to exhibit in as clear and, at the same time,
in as succinct a manner as I could the argument upon the
question before us, so far as it is to be drawn from a strict
investigation, first of the Scriptural, and then of the historical
evidence. But there is one thing which is still wanting in
order to complete this portion of the subject, viz. to notice
the principal objections which have been raised, more or
less, against such a representation of the said evidence as
that which has been now given; and the consideration of
these will occupy the remainder of the present lecture.
i. First, then, the objection with which we are most
familiar arises out of the form in which that portion of the
historical proof which we derive from Scripture is communi-
cated to us. It is felt that this might have been made far
1 Luth. Op., viii. 591 sq.; Usher, vii. p. 69.) speaks to the
Seckendorf, ii. 553; Calvin, Inst.' same effect. See further testimonies
lib. iv. c. iv. i, 4, (quoted in below, in Lect. iii.
'Jrenicum,' p. 405 sq.; and by
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 141
more direct and definite than we see it is, and hence it is
inferred that no obligation can lie upon us to accept as
/matter of duty what is only to be proved with difficulty, if
proved at all. 1 The case is put in the ordinary popular way
by Sir Walter Scott in the ' Legend of Montrose,' where the
author is describing in his own person the two opposing
parties ' the Prelatists and Presbyterians of the more vio-
lent kind ' in the days of Charles I. : 'It was in vain re-
marked to these zealots that had the Author of our holy
religion considered any peculiar form of Church government
as essential to salvation it would have been revealed with
the same precision as under the Old Testament dispensa-
tion ' (chap. i. p. 9). In these words, if we take them to re-
present the objection referred to as made in the present day,
there is the ordinary twofold fallacy. First, there is what Fallacy of
this objec-
logicians call ' ignoratio elenchi,' or misstatement of the "on.
question. Even in the time of the Covenant, I doubt
whether the most violent zealot would have said and
certainly none of us say at the present day that a parti-
cular form of Church ' is essential to salvation.' But what
some of us do say and maintain is this : that a particular
form of Church government is (upon other grounds, and not
least for the sake of unity) expedient, if not necessary, for
the good order, and welfare, and extension of the Church
1 Comp. Ezek. xx. 49, from he had really a message from God
whence it would seem that a similar -which was designed to guide us,
objection was raised against the would it be delivered in such dark
warnings of the old prophets: 'If and ambiguous terms?'
142 LECTURE THE SECOND.
all which being matters of concern to Christ Himself, must
be also matters of concern to all good Christians. And then
the argument itself that if one particular form of Church
government had been essential in the Christian Church it
would have been revealed with the same precision as in the
Jewish this argument, I say, is equally fallacious. For
what right had we to entertain any such expectation, when
we know that in the parallel case of the observance of the
Lord's Day no precise revelation is to be found upon the
point ? No ; rather it would be fair and reasonable to argue
that a threefold ministry having been already revealed and
made obligatory under the Law just as a weekly Sabbath
had been revealed and made obligatory there was no
further occasion for an express command, and that the ab-
sence of such renewed command only leaves us to infer
equally in both cases that, mutatis mutandis, the original
order is still to be observed. 1
Other points But it may be well to state our answer to this popular ob-
of duty on
which Holy jection a little more fully. The truth, then, is, that so far
Scripture is J '
ex' licit* from being entitled to look for a precise, explicit revelation,
totidem verbis, upon a point like this the right constitution
of the Christian ministry the evidence which we have re-
garding it is exactly of the same kind (viz. circumstantial
rather than direct) which it has pleased God to give
us in regard to other practical matters of scarcely, if at
all, less importance. 2 I have already mentioned the case of
1 See the author's Synodal Ad- - See Hammond's Works, vol. i.
dress for 1866, p. 18, note. p. 398 sq.; vol. iv. p. 742.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 145
the observance of the Christian Sabbath. There is also the
case of infant baptism. But that which is the strongest per-
haps of all, and certainly the most important, is the case of the
canon of the New Testament. 1 Surely nothing can be more
essential than that we should be left in no uncertainty upon
a matter on which the whole system of Christianity entirely
depends. And yet no one can pretend that the canon of Canon of
Scripture.
Scripture, and especially of the New Testament Scnpture,
has been revealed to us in any way whatever. No one can
point to any authoritative declaration emanating from an
apostle, or council of apostles, to give it the sanction which
the objection we are considering assumes to be necessary.
No one can say that it has been ascertained otherwise than
by traditional usage and historical research, usage and
research which are doubtless sufficiently conclusive ; but
certainly not more conclusive than the usage and research
precisely similar which enable us to ascertain the true
ministry of the Church ; while, in regard to this latter, we
may also gather evidence clear and sufficient (not in my
opinion only but in the opinion of great divines, such as
Hooker 2 ) to the same effect from Revelation itself. More-
over, it must be admitted that upon grounds far less suffi-
cient, far less conclusive, we receive without question the
most important facts and deductions of secular history.
Nor can I omit to remark, as a further justification of the
1 See above, Lect. i. p. 5. Scripture,' &c. &c. I might have
8 ' Ecc. Pol.,' book v. c. Ixxviii. added, in the opinion of Luther also.
9. 'It dearly appeareth by Holy See above, p. 140.
"144 LECTURE THE SECOND.
dealing of God's providence with us in these respects, that
there is a manifest advantage in circumstantial evidence
over that which is direct in such a case ; because it leaves far
less room for suspicion of forgery, which might be raised by
interested persons against a single text, containing a direct
and express command.
If, notwithstanding all that has now been said, it be still
objected that there are few persons competent or inclined to
conduct with the requisite care an investigation such as cir-
cumstantial evidence confessedly demands, and such as we
admit to be necessary in the present case ; then we reply
see First ( as was indicated in my former lecture), that there was a
time, during the first ages of the Church, when no such in-
vestigation was called for ; because, when one and the same
threefold ministry was everywhere in existence, no question
could be raised concerning it ; or, if raised, it would, as in
the instance of Aerius, be immediately set at rest by the
unanimous voice of the universal Church. And if occasion
has since been given for the question, and no unanimous
voice is now heard to settle it ; then we further reply, that
this state of things is due to misgovernment on one side,
and to insubordination on the other ; and while it is plain
that the goodness of God cannot fairly be made responsible
for the consequences of human faults, it is equally obvious
that the faults themselves are punished most appropriately
by the increased doubts and difficulties which such mis-
conduct has tended to create.
But after all (to sift this objection still more thoroughly),
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 145
what was there that we could reasonably expect from Scrip- A mistake
to suppose
ture in regard either to the record of fact, or delivery of ^ s ^ c
precept, which we have not received ? If men ask us to insufficient -
show them a full-blown diocesan system with a threefold
ministry in every place where the Gospel was first preached,
during Scriptural times, they ask what implies a misconcep-
tion of the circumstances of the case; and the Scripture
itself has taught us to protest against any such demand.
There is abundant evidence that the Church was every-
where to be built up by degrees, and only out of materials
thoroughly and cautiously prepared. 1 In no place, so far
as we read, did the apostles ordain presbyters upon a first
visit ; though it is probable this may have been done at
Ephesus, where St. Paul's first visit extended to the unusual
period of three years. In default of men regularly trained
and willing to devote themselves to the clerical profession,
as now they do, from early manhood, there was at first large
employment of extraordinary and miraculously gifted minis-
trations of which we have now no experience. St. Paul
himself was not formally ordained as apostle of the Gentiles
(Acts xiii. i, A.D. 45) till ten years after his miraculous con-
version and primary call on the way to Damascus (Acts ix.
A.D. 34). At Ephesus, after the Church had existed there
about twelve years, Timothy was warned not to ordain ' a
novice' (i Tim. iii. 6). Again, the apostles, when perse-
cuted in one city, would have to break off their missionary
1 See above, Lect. i. p. 22. Also 1864, p. 26 sq., and for 1866, p.
the author's Synodal Address for 25.
L
146 LECTURE THE SECOND.
work, and (as their divine Master had enjoined) flee to
another. In the matter of precept, we could scarcely
look for more, under such circumstances, than general in-
junctions to maintain unity and uniformity, to practice sub-
ordination, and to show all due respect and obedience to
constituted authorities and of such injunctions there is no
lack. Nor, in regard to historical fact, can we reasonably
complain that we have been left without the needful guid-
ance, so long as we can find, during Scriptural times, what we
have discovered in the Church of Jerusalem, in the Church
of Ephesus, in the six other Churches of Lydian Asia, in the
Church of Crete out of Scripture itself; and out of un-
inspired but trustworthy authorities, in the Church of Rome,
in the Church of Antioch, in the Church of Alexandria, not
to mention others 1 still during Scriptural times : so long as
we can find thus early such and so many instances of an
episcopal or threefold ministry ; and can find no instance
whatever, either in or out of Scripture, of the Papal system on
the one hand, or the Presbyterian system on the other, during the
same primitive period ; so long as this is so, to ask for more
evidence, is surely of a piece with the conduct of the un-
believing Jews, who, though Christ had wrought so many
miracles before their eyes, still professed themselves dis-
satisfied, still continued to ask for some further sign.
2. objec- 2. A second objection, which may be disposed of in a
few words, has been raised upon the remark that the most
1 See above, Lect. i. p. 72 sq.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 147
important arrangements in the organisation of the Church Apparently
accidental
for instance, the appointment of ' the seven ' whom we sup- character of
/ primary or-
pose to be the first deacons (Acts vi.) appear to have s anisation -
arisen out of circumstances purely incidental, and not from
forethought or design. Hence it has been argued 1 that
such arrangements must be still subject to the control of
circumstances, so as to be variable at our own discretion,
and can have no legitimate claim to be received as of per-
petual obligation. But there seems to be no good reason
why God should not employ the incidents in the history of
the Church as He employs all other incidents, in order to
accomplish His own purposes in His own good time. This
was the ground that was taken by more than one of the
Westminster divines in discussing the very point referred to
as an example, viz. the Institution of the Diaconate. Its
perpetuity was insisted on, and the very same objection in
regard to it was overruled by Mr. Vines, because, as he
argued, ' that which is occasional in the rise, yet may be
perpetual in the use ; ' and again by Mr. Rutherford, who
pleaded that, ' though the occasion was the murmuring, &c.,
yet the motivum was the good of the Church to the end of
the world ; as the occasion of St. John's Gospel was [the
heresies of] Ebion and Cerinthus, but the motivum was the
good of the Church for ever.' 2 Moreover we cannot be
1 See Dr. Caird's Essay in 'Good to ' the Epistle to Philemon, and the
Words, ' July 1863. case of Zelophehad, 'as additional ex-
* See Lightfoot's Journal, pp. 87, amples to the same effect. St. Luke's
89. Mr. Rutherford also referred Gospel is another case in point.
L2
148 LECTURE THE SECOND.
quite certain that the appointment of the seven did really
form the first institution of the diaconate. Mosheim and
others are decidedly of opinion that it did not, 1 and that
deacons had been previously instituted and employed in the
Church; although we find no mention of the fact in the
Acts, as we also find no mention there of the institution of
presbyters at Jerusalem. Again, St. Chrysostom (in loc.)
has raised a doubt whether the seven were deacons at all in
the clerical sense ; or rather, he considers it very manifest
that they were neither deacons nor presbyters, but were
appointed only for the particular purpose specified in the
history. So that of this objection it may be said :
Nil agit exemplum litem quod lite resolvit.
And, after all, it is to be borne in mind that the institution
of the third order of the ministry, though it may be illus-
trated by the appointment of ' the seven,' yet it does not rest
upon that appointment for its binding force, so much as upon
the injunctions which St. Paul gives in his first Epistle to
Timothy ; one of those three which are called the pastoral
or hierarchical epistles, because they deal expressly and
authoritatively with matters of this description.
3. Objec 3. I now proceed to notice a third objection which has
been repeatedly urged against the threefold ministry, from
the fact that the names which we give to the first and second
1 See above, Lect. i. p. 58, note thought to leave the matter uncer-
2. The heading of the chapter in tain,
our authorised translation may be
tlOD
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. i 49
orders appear to be used in the New Testament, not as we indiscrimi-
nate use in
use them, with a plainly marked distinction between the New Testa -
/ ment of
owo, but indiscriminately, 1 and with reference (perhaps ^/J^f 5
exclusively) to the second order alone. Common fairness r e * by ~
required that, before this objection was pressed as it has
been, account should have been taken of the similar or
rather much greater diversity, which also exists between the
New Testament use of the name of the third order of the
ministry, and its employment not only by us, but by Pres-
byterians themselves, and by every other denomination of
Christians. If we find, as we do find, in the New Testament,
such a laxity of use of the original word SiaKovta (deacon-
ship), that it is applied even to the apostleship, and that
apostles are called by the name of deacons, and yet we
conclude nothing from thence either against the apostleship,
or against the diaconate, as distinct offices in the ministry ;
if this be so as unquestionably it is then, a fortiori^ if
we find a similar laxity of use of the original word, iiriaKoiri]
(episcopate or bishopric), so that it is applied to the pres-
byterate, and that presbyters are called episcopi (bishops or
overseers), we are bound in like manner, if we would be fair
1 See 'Irenicum,' p. 287 sq., and shown that the confusion, if it exists.
Professor Lightfoot, pp. 93-97. It was not noticed by the Fathers till
is due, however> to Bishop Pearson, after the third century. See ' Vind.
as the greatest scholar among An- Ignat.,' pp. 556, 571 sq. He also
glican divines, to state that he never proves that after the time of the
yielded the point of the indiscrimi- apostles, that is, from the beginning
nate or synonymous use of the of the second century, the name of
names presbyter and episcopus in episcopus was never given to a
the New Testament; and he has simple presbyter. (Ibid., p. 547 sq.)
150 LECTURE THE SECOND.
and consistent, to conclude nothing from thence against
either the presbyterate or the episcopate as distinct orders.
Those The truth is that each of those three names has been ren-
names not . .
capable of dered untranslateable by change of circumstances ; having
proper
translation, been originally all used laxly and even interchangeably, and
now (in their anglicised form of bishops, presbyters, and
deacons) being all used strictly and definitively ; or, rather, in
order to translate them properly, inasmuch as we can derive
no theory from their employment in the New Testament, we
must take our theory with us (which has been derived not
from names but facts), and apply it in the best way we can
translating at one time strictly and definitely, according to
the modern use, at another time laxly and indiscriminately,
according to the ancient use. It may be doubted whether our
translators have been always successful in this difficult task. 1
They have sometimes perhaps been lax where it would have
been better to have been strict, as in Acts xx. 17, and in
Titus i. 5, where they have translated 'presbyters ' by ' elders ; '
but more frequently they have been strict where it would
have been better perhaps to have been lax ; as where they
have spoken of the ' bishoprick ' of the fallen apostle Judas
(Acts i. 20) ; where they have translated the same word 'the
office of a bishop ' in i Tim. iii. i ; where they have trans-
lated 7TiWo7roc ' bishop ' in Titus i. 7 ; and where, in the
first verse of the Epistle to the Philippians, we read ' with
the 2 bishops and deacons/ when ' overseers and ministers,'
1 They are right in Acts xx. 28, 'oversight.'
overseers;' and in i Pet. v. 2, l There is no definite article in
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 151
in the then immature and unsettled state of the Church of
Philippi, might probably have been safer and nearer to the
'facts. 1
Here, then, we are dealing, strictly speaking, with a Explanation
of those
question not so much of Church order, as of criticism and ^" by
scholarship. And upon such a question it is satisfactory Bentley -
that we are able to produce the authority of perhaps the
most eminent scholar and the most gifted critic whom the
world has yet known I mean Richard Bentley. In his
controversy with the freethinker, Collins, who had attacked
our translation of the New Testament, and, among other
passages, had objected that, in Acts xx. 28, the word
(e7ri<7<co7rovc), which is rendered 'overseers,' ought to have
been translated bishops, Bentley had occasion to take up
this matter. Already, in discussing the right translation of
the word ' ecclesia,' which originally meant, not a Church,
but a political assembly, he had been led to remark, that
'political words in different languages are seldom totally
equivalent : and those foreign words that are not inter-
preted but adopted, and retained, as apostle, bishop, priest,
deacon ' each of which is merely a Greek word turned into
English ' have always a narrower sense where they are
the Greek ; but a preposition going the tables and expostulated, not
before renders its insertion in the why here (Acts xx. 28) overseen.
translation at least excusable. but why not everywhere else, he
1 Bentley seems to intimate the could not have been so easily an-
same, when he remarks, 'if our swered.' 'Works,' vol. iii. p. 380,
awkward freethinker had changed See below, p. 161 sq.
LECTURE THE SECOND.
transplanted than in their first soil.' ! He then proceeds
thus, in reference to the text which I just now mentioned :
Acts xx. 28. ' Here, instead of overseers, he (Collins) would have it
rendered bishops, that it might appear that bishops and pres-
byters in Scripture phrase are synonymous words. And
what if they should be so, iidern presbyteri qui episcopi ; the
first the name of their age and order, the latter of their office
and duty ? Does he think_to fright your bishops with this ? "
For Bentley is writing not in his own name, but as a
foreigner, a German, in a letter to an Englishman. ' Does
this affect the cause of episcopacy? How then came
Theodoret a bishop, Theophylact an archbishop, and
1 Thus (i) Sidieovos (with its de-
rivatives, Stcucovi'a the noun of office,
and Siaucovia the verb), of our three
clerical names the widest in signi-
fication, and found most frequently,
besides being used to denote the
position of a domestic servant and
of a civil magistrate, is applied ec-
clesiastically not only to deacons
properly so called, but to presbyters,
bishops, apostles, and even to our
Lord Himself.
(2.) 7ry><r/3uT<po5 (with its deriva-
tive irp<r0vTepioi') > besides being used
to denote an elder, or senior in
point of age, is applied ecclesiasti-
cally to Jewish elders and to Chris-
tian presbyters, perhaps also to
bishops, certainly by apostles in
speaking of themselves.
(3.) cr/oxojros, (with its derivative
lirttrxoin), the noun of office, and en-i-
cncon-c'io the verb), though found much
more rarely, besides being used in
more general senses not ministerial,
is applied probably to the presby-
terate, perhaps to the episcopate,
certainly to the apostleship and to
the office of our Lord Himself.
(4.) Even the word 'AjrooroAo*,
which became official sooner than
any of those, continued to be used
in a non-official sense as equivalent
to messenger, if the translation in
Phil. iv. 18, a Cor. viii. 23, is cor-
rect.
See the author's Synodal Ad-
dress for 1864, Appendix, c. ii.,
' On the Nomenclature of the Orders
of the Threefold Ministry, as used
in the New Testament and in th
earliest of the Fathers.'
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 153
Chrysostom a patriarch, not to be aware of it, whe"n they
expressly affirm what our writer would have appear^ They,
"with all Christian antiquity, never thought themselves and
their order to succeed the Scripture tirlaKoirot, but the
Scripture a-rroaroXoi ; they were SidSoxot rtiv 'ATroordXwi', the
successors of the apostles.^- The sum of the matter is this :
though new institutions are formed, new words are not
coined for them, but old ones borrowed and applied.
'ETT/O-KOTTOC, whose general idea is overseer, was a word in use
long before Christianity ; a word of universal relation to
economical, civil, military, naval, judicial, and religious
matters. This word was assumed to denote the governing
and presiding persons of the Church, 2 as dmravoe (another
word of vulgar and diffused use) to denote the ministerial.
The presbyters, therefore, while the apostles lived, were
ETTIOKOTTOI, overseers. But the apostles, in foresight of their HOW the
name epis-
approaching martyrdom, having selected and appointed their r*/*came
successors in the several cities and communities, as St. Paul strained to
bishops.
did Timothy at Ephesus and Titus in Crete four years
before his death, what names were these successors to be
called by? Not aTroaroXoi, apostles; their modesty, as it
seems, made them refuse it ; they would keep that name
1 See above, p. 104. overseer of an English parish is not
8 The two nearest English equi- the bishop, nor even the incumbent,
valents of the Greek eVt'o-KOTros are but a lay official ; and a superin-
overseer and superin tenden t ; and it tendent may now signify the ma-
is remarkable how far removed they nager of almost any kind of work,
both of them are from any mean- except ecclesiastical.
ing connected with episcopacy. An
154 LECTURE THE SECOND.
proper and sacred to the first extraordinary messengers of
Christ, though they really succeeded them in their office, in
due part and measure, as the ordinary governors of the
Churches.' I may add that the name would cease to be
equally appropriate when they were no longer to be sent out
to institute new societies of Christians, but rather were to
stay at home and superintend, each in his own diocese, those
already instituted. ' It was agreed, therefore,' he proceeds,
' over all Christendom at once, in the very next generation
after the apostles, to assign and appropriate to them the
word ITTIOKOTTOS or bishop. From that time to this, that
appellation, which before included a presbyter, has been
restrained to a superior order. And here's nothing in all this
but what has happened in all languages and communities in
the world. See the Notitia of the Roman and Greek
Empires, and you'll scarce find one name of any state
employment, that in course of time did not vary from its
primitive signification. So that should our Lutheran pres-
byters ' -Bentley, as I have said, is writing in the character
of a German ' contend they are Scripture bishops ' as so
many of my opponents in the public journals have done
'what would they get by it? No more than lies in the
syllables. The time has been when a commander even of a
single regiment was called imperator : and must every such
nowadays set up to be emperors ? The one pretence is
altogether as just as the other.' l
1 'Remarks upon a late Dis- leutherus Lipsiensis.' Bentley's
course of Freethinking, by Phile- 'Works/ vol. iii. pp. 378-380.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 155
These are the observations of one who, in the province of Foregoing
explanation
criticism, has had no superior. The assertion, however, ^bYy ob"
which he makes respecting the change of name from apostle jl
to bishop, as the received designation of the highest order
of the ministry in the very next generation after the apostles,
is pronounced by a living Presbyterian divine to be ' against
all probability. We cannot suppose,' he writes, ' that a whole
class of Church rulers would willingly lay down their honoured
title of apostles, and assume another less honourable.' 1
To me, on the contrary, I confess the case appears very
supposable ; and when I take into account the actual circum-
stances, certainly I cannot see in it, as another Presbyterian
writer has done, 'a miracle of voluntary humiliation alike
unexplained and unexampled.' 3 For what were the actual
circumstances ? It is true the first bishops were successors
of the apostles in some respects, but in some respects they
were not their successors ; and whether or no we allow them
to have been for the most part 'humble and modest'
Christians a character which both these writers have ven-
tured to deny to them they could not have been unconscious
of the difference, and, unless we will suppose them to have
been devoid of truthfulness as well as modesty, not unwilling
to acknowledge and avow it by a change of name. But be
1 Dr. Crawford's ' Presby terianism have condescended to surrender the
Defended,' p. 53. name of presbyter-, and even of elder.
J Dr. King quoted, ibid. Is except in the case of lay elders, and
there not an example somewhat to take in exchange for it the name
similar, not of the motive, but of the of minister (diaconus) ?
result, in the fact that Presbyterians
i $6 LECTURE THE SECOND.
it so that, in our want of charity, we are unable to suppose
this what is the alternative ? Our uncharitableness must
advance a step further ; and we who have found it so diffi-
cult to believe in the humility which could submit to a change
of name, must find it easy to believe in the pride which,
together with the change of name, could and did, for its own
aggrandisement, accomplish a change a revolution, in fact
whereby ' Presbyterian bishops rising in their pretensions
gradually slid into Prelatical bishops ; ' and to believe also
in the universal faithlessness and pusillanimity which could
submit to such a change, contrary to the system everywhere
authorised and established by the apostles ! This indeed is
to believe a miracle of unnatural presumption and undutiful-
ness alike unexampled and unexplained ; unexampled, more
especially, as shown at a time of persecution and of martyr-
dom, which would be most sure to fall upon those who were
in highest place ; unexplained, because, as we shall presently
see, the only testimony which has seemed to offer an expla-
nation is abundantly refuted and contradicted by itself.
Moreover the belief of this latter miracle must include a
disbelief of those episcopal successions, commenced in some
cases before, in others immediately after, the deaths of the
apostles; whereas the belief of the former presumed in-
credibility naturally implies more or less directly the recog-
nition of those well-attested facts which all ecclesiastical
history accepts as such.
It does not appear to be necessary to say more under this
head, unless I am to allude to the argument, which has
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 157
been so often and so vauntingly urged, that we see in the Fallacy of
objection
New Testament distinct notice taken of two orders in the f^' e e n s in
ministry, and directions given to them, but no notice taken ent JnTy*"
. . . . . , , for presby-
of, and no directions given to, the supposed highest and tersand
deacons.
most important order. 1 This argument is used partly in
forgetfulness of the fact that the writer who gives the direc-
tions was himself of that highest order ; and partly upon the
assumption, which I have shown to be most unwarrantable,
that Timothy and Titus, who received directions from the
pen of St. Paul, and the angels of the seven Churches who
received directions from Christ Himself by the pen of St
John, are to be regarded as it matters not what provided
we deny them to have been prelates or bishops of their
respective Churches. But more than this. The truth is,
that if we were disposed to maintain, as some of our greatest
and most learned divines 2 have maintained, that in places
of Scripture, such as Phil. i. i and i Tim. iii. 2, 8, where
two denominations only are specified, the three orders may
yet be implied 3 if we were to maintain this, we should be
amply justified by similar use of language, both in Scripture
itself and elsewhere. How often in the Old Testament do
we find the names ' Priests and Levites ' used so as to
include the high priest; and therefore to imply the three
1 ' Free Church Catechism, ' p. who is fi i to be made a bishop, he
117; Dr. Crawford's 'Serm.,' p. 27. has no further occasion to specify
* Such as Bishop Pearson. See the qualifications of a good presby-
above, p. 149, note. ter, but may proceed at once to
3 Upon this supposition, when speak of the qualifications necessary
St. Paul has described a presbyter for a good deacon.
158 LECTURE THE SECOND.
orders of the Jewish priesthood ! Nay, the word ' priest ' is
constantly employed even when the high priest alone is
intended. Thus, in different passages we read of Aaron the
Priest, Eleazar the Priest, Phineas the Priest, Eli the Priest,
Ahimelech the Priest, Abiathar the Priest, Zadok the Priest,
Jehoiada the Priest, Aiariah the Priest ; and yet we know
that all these were chief priests, and are so called in other
passages. In like manner there would be nothing strange
in supposing that either of the two words, Trptefivrepoc, or
firiffKOTroe, may be used to include, or even to designate, the
chief presbyter, the chief overseer. Indeed we find that
Irenaeus, and some other of the earlier Fathers, have done
this, at least in the case of the former of those words. 1 On
the other hand, we have an example among ourselves of a
twofold denomination, where a threefold is intended, and
where not the former but the latter of the two words has
the comprehensive application, in the case of the phrase,
' bishops and curates.' Under that expression all the three
orders of the ministry are prayed for in our daily service,
morning and evening, and again in the prayer for the Church
militant. Yet what stranger might not infer from reading
those words that the Church of England admits only of two
orders, and those two bishops and deacons to the omis-
sion of presbyters? Moreover, in this use of the word
* curate,' we have another example, similar to that which
Bentley produced in the word imperator ; only this is a case
1 See above, p. 99 and p. 116.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 159
of a word having fallen from a higher, 1 that was a case of
one having risen from a lower signification. When our
Prayer Book was compiled, the word ' curate ' signified every
clergyman below a bishop, having a benefice or cure of souls.
Now it never means a beneficed clergyman, but only their
assistants, whether presbyters or deacons; that is, it is now
both lowered and confined to one and that the- humblest
class of labourers in the ministry.
Let me close my answer to this third objection with one Character
J of the third
remark. There is a well-known phrase in the Latin Ian- objection,
guage verba dare literally 'to give words,' but meaning
to give words and nothing more, when more was promised
or implied ; and so, to deceive a person, to impose upon
him. And this has been the case (not indeed consciously,
but really) in regard to the whole or greater part of the
argument, as derived from the New Testament, in favour of
Presbyterianism. It has been a 'giving of words,' and
nothing more. Let it be understood that the word presby-
terus was used at first in the Christian Church, as the word
jOvc certainly was in the Jewish, comprehensively of the
two first orders. Let it be understood that the word epis-
copus was used during the apostles' lifetime in a sense lower
than that in which we now use the word bishop, as the word
diaconus undeniably was used in a higher than that in which
we now use the word deacon ; let these simple matters, which
every scholar comprehends at once as of ordinary occurrence,
1 Compare the names parish and diocese. See Bingham, bk. ix. c. ii. i.
160 LECTURE THE SECOND.
be generally understood, and whatever difficulty may have
been felt in regard to the Scriptural application of these
terms immediately disappears. And when was this assumed
difficulty chiefly taken up and obtruded upon the Church ?
It was in an age ' which,' according to the testimony of
Milton, an unexceptionable witness,
. . . hated learning worse than toad or asp. *
The requisite learning in this case would have shown that,
however the ancient Fathers and first interpreters of Scrip-
ture may be found to differ from one another in regard to
the right interpretation of those passages of the New Testa-
ment in which the clerical names occur, there is not one of
them no, not even Jerome himself who does not, in the
view of those passages, recognise the three orders of the
clergy as having existed in Scriptural and apostolic times. 2
4. Objec- 4. In order to complete my notice of the objections which
tion.
Testimony h ave been raised against the conclusions arrived at in this
of some of
q 1 Jfot*ed t on l ' s and my former lecture, it remains to examine the testimony
side"' of a few of the Fathers, which appears to be not indeed at
open variance, but still scarcely reconcilable with what I
have represented as the unanimous consent of patristical
authority in favour of the threefold ministry.
The first of these testimonies is the epistle of Clement, 3
1 Sonnet xi. See also Twells' Ignat.,' p. 555 sq., and on Jerome,
' Life of Pocock/ p. 176: ' In those pp. 561-563.
times of disorder and confusion, the 8 Stillingfleet's remarks upon it
contempt and even hatred of learn- are to be seen in ' Iren.,' p. 310 sq.,
ing prevailed to a great degree.' and p. 326 sq.
8 See Bishop Pearson, ' Vind.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 161
written from Rome to the Corinthian Church. In this
epistle (of which I have spoken in a former part of this See above >
lecture) we have, it is true, no positive trace of an episco-
pate at Corinth ; and yet, it must be confessed, we find a
state of things disclosed a state of unruliness and disorder
in which, had there been a bishop, it is almost certain he
would have been mentioned. On the other hand, however,
it is to be borne in mind that the writer of the epistle was in
all probability himself a bishop at the time bishop of Rome ;
that he appears to have been applied to for his advice and
guidance, probably in that capacity ; 1 and that the epistle
was written very early 2 so early, according to the best
authorities, as A.D. 69 or 70, i.e. only a year or two after the
martyrdom of St. Paul, who himself had found the Corinthians
the most ungovernable of all his converts. And to all this
it is to be added, that we have certain evidence in the
' History of Hegesippus,' as quoted by Eusebius (iv. 22),
that Corinth had received a prelatical ministry before the
middle of the second century ; for he mentions ' Primus,'
whom he himself had known and conversed with, as the
bishop at that time.
2. The testimony to be derived from the epistle of Poly- St. Poiy-
carp.
carp to the Philippians is of the same kind simply negative.
Both presbyteri and diaconi are mentioned generally (c. v.
and vi.), as they were also in St Clement's epistle, and ex-
horted to discharge their respective duties ; and among the
1 St. Jerome says, ' Scripsit ex per- Script., c. xv. vol. ii. p. 633.
sona Ecclesiae Romanae.' Catal. 2 But see above, p. 85, note i.
M
i6 LECTURE THE SECOND.
presbyteri the chief presbyter or bishop may of course be
included ; but, if he existed, he is not specified. Bishop
Pearson suggests l that the see may have been vacant when
Polycarp wrote. At all events, in this case also, we know
that the writer of the epistle was himself a bishop bishop
of Smyrna and that he had been appointed by St. John.
Here, too, it is observable that the geographical relations
between Smyrna and Philippi were not unlike to those
between Corinth and Rome ; and, further, in days when the
episcopate led so frequently to martyrdom one, if not 2 both,
of the writers of these two epistles suffered that glorious
death we must be prepared to expect that even when there
was a duly ordained bishop, his name would be withheld
from unnecessary publication, as was the case even in our
own Church during the persecution of the last century.
Justin 3. Of Justin Martyr, a Samaritan by birth, and teacher of
Martyr.
philosophy, who, having become a convert to Christianity,
suffered at Rome A.D. 165, the testimony, though sometimes
quoted as unfavourable to the threefold ministry, is still
more inconclusive. It amounts only to this, that in giving
a general description of the Christian assemblies for public
worship in his first apology a description intended for the
information of the heathen Roman emperor, senate, and
people having no occasion to specify the three orders, he
1 ' Vind. Ignat./p. 551 ; but com- asserted by Ruffinus in the sixth
pare Lightfoot, p. 213, and see century, is questionable. See Tille-
above, p. 102, note. mont, ii. p. 124, and note,
2 Clement's martyrdom, though
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 163
merely mentions 6 7rpoe<mJf, the person who presided, and
the deacons. Of course the former, general, term would be
strictly correct as applicable either to the bishop or, in his
absence, to the presbyter, who would then perform the chief
part of the service. 1
4. We have now to pass over from the middle of the s far the
evidence on
second to the latter half of the fourth century. That is, all J^e^oni
the evidence which is to be found on the other side till we "
come to the last-named date has now been produced ; and
you have seen what it is. It is, in the strictest sense, merely
negative. It affords no sign whatever of the characteristic
elements of the Presbyterian system, of lay elders, of govern-
ment by presbyteries ; and, instead of exhibiting a clerical
parity, it exhibits at least a duality of orders. In short, it
amounts to nothing more than an absence of direct proof in
our favour, in the case of three writers, the latest of whom
died less than seventy years after the death of St. John, viz. in
the year 1 65 A.D. During the 200 years that followed i.e. from
165 to 365 we have a superabundance of the most express
and direct evidence of all kinds, but not one syllable of it is
such as to cast, even negatively, a shade of suspicion upon
the universality of the institution of the threefold ministry ;
not one syllable is such as to indicate the existence the
theory or the practice of any other, as having been either
known then, or heard of previously in the Church. But
now, at the termination of that long interval of 200 years,
1 See Bishop Pearson's 'Vind. Ignat./ p. 569 ; Bishop Kayo's 'Justin
Martyr,' p. 98.
M2
164 LECTURE THE SECOND.
we come upon a witness whom it will be necessary to
examine more at length, in consequence of the authority
which attaches to his name, and to the judgment he has
been supposed to pronounce upon this question. The
St. Jerome, witness to whom I allude is St. Jerome. As in the case of
Aerius, his contemporary, whom we have seen universally
condemned as a heretic, it becomes important to know
something of St. Jerome's history and character, in order
His charac- that we may estimate his evidence at its real worth. A man
ter and early
history. o f vas j- learning and abilities, but also of a hasty and intem-
perate judgment, and of an overbearing temper, which made
him many enemies, he raised himself, while a sojourner at
Rome, so as to become secretary to Pope Damasus, A.D.
382 ; and there is reason to think that, if it was not the
.avowed object of his ambition, he had at least cherished the
secret hope of succeeding him in the bishopric. 1 But in
Like Aerius, this he was disappointed, as Aerius had been, when
disappointed
of a bishop- actuated by the same desire. Upon Damasus' death, in A.D.
nc. J
385, Siricius was chosen to succeed ; and, to add to Jerome's
mortification, the new pope, it is said, refused to continue
him in the office of secretary. 2 Upon this, leaving Rome in
disgust, 3 he retired into the East, and shortly after fixed
1 He writes of himself to a Roman p. 481.
lady, as he was leaving Italy for 2 See the Latin life prefixed to
the East, August, A.D. 385, after his Works, vol. i. p. 54.
Damasus' death, ' Omnium paene 3 He had not spared the Romans,
judicio dignus summo sacerdotio de- clergy or people, while he dwelt
cernebar.' He was then a presby- among them, and henceforward,
ter. Epist. xlv. ad Asellam. vol. i. to borrow Dean Milman's words,
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 165
himself as a monk in a cell at Bethlehem. He had not been Settles at
Bethlehem.
settled there many years before he involved himself in a
serious quarrel * with his own immediate diocesan, John of
Jerusalem, which was kept up between them with great
bitterness, at least on Jerome's part, 2 so long as they
both lived.
The first work which he composed 3 after he had retired
to Bethlehem was his Commentary upon four of St. Paul's
Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Titus, and Philemon.
This he wrote at the request, and for the special benefit of
two Roman ladies of noble birth, Paula and Eustochium,
who had placed themselves under his spiritual guidance ;
and in order to ingratiate himself still further in their eyes,
which he would be tempted to do all the more after the
disparaging treatment he had recently experienced, he would
naturally be led to magnify his own order in the ministry,
which was that of a presbyter (ordained without a title 4 ),
and, as we have seen, a mortified and disappointed pres-
byter. Accordingly, in the third of those commentaries on
the Epistle to Titus, i. 5 we read as follows :
they became blacker and more in- See Newman's transl, p. 228,
excusable in his harsher and more where the causes of it are detailed.
unsparing denunciations.' West. 2 See Clinton, F. R., Append., p.
Christ., i. p. 75. In one passage he 456.
describes the Roman clergy as 3 A. D. 387 or 388. See' Life, ' ut
'PharisaeorumSenatus.' 'Praef. ad supr., p. 68.
Libr. Didymi de Spir. Sancto,' vol. 4 By Paulinus, at Antioch, see
ii. p. 102 sq. 'Life,' ut supr., p. 41, and New-
1 According to Fleury, ' the great man's note on Fleury, p. 257.
dispute' with John arose A.D. 392.
1 66 LECTURE THE SECOND.
commen- < Let us attend carefully to the words of the apostle, who,
tary on
Titus ;. 5 pointing out what sort of person ought to be ordained l a
presbyter, says, If any be blameless, &c., and adds thereafter,
for a bisfwp must be blameless as the steward of God. A
presbyter, therefore, is the same as a bishop.' That is the
first important statement. He proceeds, ' And before there
arose, through the instigation of the devil, factions (studia)
in religion, and people began to say, / am of Paul, I of
Apollos, and / of Cephas, the Churches were governed by the
common counsel of presbyters.' That is a second important
statement ' But (he continues) after that everyone came
to think that those whom he had baptized were his own and
not Christ's ' that is a third important statement ' it was
decreed in the whole world that one chosen from among the
presbyters should be placed over the rest, to whom all the
care of the Church should appertain, and so the occasions
of disunion should be taken away.' That is a fourth im-
portant statement. ' If,' he adds in reference to his first
statement, ' anyone imagines that in declaring a bishop and
a presbyter to be one and the same the former being the
name of their office, the latter of their time of life I have
stated merely an opinion of my own, and not of the Scrip-
tures, let him read again the words of the apostle to the
Philippians Paul and Timotheus . . . to all the saints in
Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with (the) bishops and
deacons. Philippi is a single city of Macedonia, and cer-
1 The word in the original properly might have been ordained presbyters
means to 'place' or 'appoint.' They already. See p. 157, note 3.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 167
tainly in one city there could not be several bishops, as
they are now called (or reckoned). 1 But because at that
time they called "bishops" those whom they also called
"presbyters," therefore he speaks of bishops as of presbyters
without any difference. Some one may perhaps still think
the point doubtful, unless I prove it by another testimony.
It is written, then, in the Acts that when Paul had come to
Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, and summoned the presbyters
of that Church ; to whom, among other things, he said, Take
heed to yourselves and to all the flock over the 2 which the Holy
Ghost hath made you bishops, &c. Here, also, observe care-
fully how calling together the presbyters of that one city,
Ephesus, he afterwards styles the same persons " bishops."
Again/ he is now to produce proof in support of his third
statement ' whosoever will receive 3 the epistle which is
written in the name of Paul to the Hebrews, there, too, the
care of the Church is divided equally among several : for he
writes, Obey them that have the rule over you. And Peter, in
his epistle, speaks (in the same way) as follows : The pres-
byters which are among you I exhort, who am their fellow-
presbyter, feed the flock of God which is among you, &c.
1 There is a variation in the MSS. true constitution of the Christian
between ' nuncupantur ' and ' nunc ministry notwithstanding the abun-
putantur.' dant evidence upon which it rests
2 Literally 'in the which.' Jerome because an author like Jerome, in
has ' in quo, ' which the Greek re- the fourth century, chooses to cast
quires. a slur upon it, we have the same or
3 It is important to observe this greater reason to entertain doubts
statement. It shows that if we are respecting the Canon of the New
to listen to doubts respecting the Testament. See above, p. 143.
168 LECTURE THE SECOND.
(i Pet. v. i, 2). My design,' he adds, 'in all this, is to show
that among the ancients" presbyters and bishops were the
same ; but that by degrees l the whole care and charge was
committed to one, in order that the dissensions which were
growing up (dissensionum plantaria) might be eradicated.
Therefore,' he concludes with a suitable admonition to
all his superiors in the ministry ' as the presbyters are well
aware that it is the custom of the Church which makes them
subject to him who has been set over them, so let the bishops
know that it is the same custom of the Church rather than
any reality of a divine appointment which has made them
greater than the presbyters ; and that it is their duty, while
they govern the Church for the good of all (in commune), to
imitate Moses, who, when he had it in his power to rule the
people of Israel by himself alone, yet chose seventy persons
to assist him in his jurisdiction (Numb, xi.).'
I have sometimes fancied that the main ideas of this
passage may have been set down by Jerome (in a fit of
spleen against bishops his own bishop in particular) from
recollection of what he had heard respecting the teaching of
Aerius. 2 But be this as it may, the passage itself contains,
1 'Paulatim.' Stress has been for a similar use of 'paulatim, 1 vol.
laid upon this expression, as tending vii. p. 330.
to show that Jerome did not mean s Aerius was alive when Epipha-
a formal decree, but the gradual nius wrote his work against
upgrowth of a custom. See ' Ireni- Heresies, A.D. 376 (see Clinton,
cum,' p. 281. But the gradual up- 'Fast. Rom.,' Append., p. 445), and
growth was during apostolic times. Jerome, though he was considerably
See 'Comment, in Ep. ad Gal./ i. 19, younger, knew Epiphanius well.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 169
as you have seen, four important statements ; and it is now The passage
contains four
our concern to mark how far the author of those statements important
statements.
has proved, or attempted to prove them. It is evident he
was desirous to prove them as far as he could, under a con-
sciousness that what he had stated might be supposed to be
not the teaching of Scripture, but only an opinion or fancy
of his own. If, therefore, he has failed in this respect, it
may fairly be concluded that, from some cause or other, he
had been carried away into assertions which he could not
justify.
i. First, then, he has stated that, according to Scripture, t state
ment of
a presbyter and a bishop are all one, not in name only, but f^^J 6
in degree.
This he has attempted to prove by the fallacy of which I
have before spoken, and which consists in the use of two
ambiguous terms, presbyter and episcopus; while, at the
same time, he has studiously kept out of view the position
and authority of the apostles themselves and of apostolic
men, such as James at Jerusalem, Timothy, Titus, the angels
of the seven Churches, and the first beginners of the suc-
See below, p. 173. Dupin observes upon Jerome's own confession in a
that Jerome was in the habit of letter to St. Augustin) appears to
adopting into his commentaries, have forgotten how much more
without acknowledgment, the views his own side of the argument is
and expositions of others ; and dependent upon one of the com-
this even when he did not ap- mentaries (viz. on Ep. to Titus)
prove of them. Vol. iii. p. 103 ; than the other side is upon all the
and comp. 'Irenicum,' p. 278, rest of the commentaries put to
where Stillingfleet (in making the gether.
same disparaging remarks founded
170 LECTURE THE SECOND.
cession at Rome, and Antioch, and Alexandria, all of whom,
as we shall presently see, he himself has elsewhere reckoned
to have been bishops not in the presbyteral but prelatical
sense,
and state- 2. Secondly, he has stated that Churches were originally
ment of
St. Jerome governed by the common counsel of the presbyters. Of
examined. J J
this he has offered no better proof than the apostolical
injunction addressed to the Hebrews in all parts of the
world, Obey them that have the rule over you, &c. ; as if the
use of such language must necessarily imply that in every
separate Church or congregation there must be several rulers
to be obeyed, and not that each was to obey its own ruler ;
or as if, among several rulers, there might not be different
degrees of rule, each to be obeyed according to his own
degree, the bishop as bishop, the presbyter as presbyter, the
deacon as deacon ; which, in truth, is the very lesson
St Ignatius has expressly taught. And to this Jerome has
added another testimony which, if possible, is weaker still ;
viz. from the injunction of St. Peter, also addressed to
Jewish Christians dispersed abroad, where he exhorts the
presbyters, as their fellow-presbyter, to feed the flock of God ;
as if that apostle might not be speaking there with the
humility and self-abasement which his Divine Master had
prescribed especially to one who would be first of all ; and
as if the higher order of the apostle did not include the
lower order of the presbyters, according to the well-known
maxim, ' Omne majus continet suum minus.' *
1 Comp. below, p. 176, p. 191 sq., and above, p. 116.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 171
3. Thirdly, Jerome has stated that the primitive Chris- srd state-
ment of
tians, and especially the clerical portion of them, were St - J e . rome
* examined.
everywhere quarrelsome, and actuated by party spirit. Of
this he offers no proof at all. Only we see that he had the
Church of Corinth in his eye ; and from this single instance
he draws a universal conclusion ! We also see from the
same reference that the time to which his remarks are meant
to apply was the very earliest time in the Church's history ;
a time about which (living when he did) he could know no
more than we all know from Scripture itself; the time
when St. Paul and St. Peter and St. John and other apostles
were still alive, and governing the Church. 1 This, I say,
we see, if not from the expression I am of Paul> &c., which
may be interpreted, perhaps, more generally and with greater
laxity, yet from the allusion to the circumstance of the bap-
tizers claiming to themselves those whom they had baptized,
a circumstance which comes to us authenticated in no other
way but from the experience and the testimony of St. Paul
himself. 2
4. Fourthly, Jerome has stated that as a remedy for the 4th state-
ment of
universal quarrelsomeness which existed (so far as appears) St - Jerome
' examined.
only in his own imagination, a change was decreed, and
gradually effected, still more imaginary, whereby the Churches
1 See Bilson, p. 291 sq. p. 177. Comp. Pearson, ' Vind,
2 See Dodwell in Churton's edit. Ignat.,' p. 318, ' Originem tantum
of Pearson's M. T. Works, ii. p. 389. special, ' and p. 562, 'serfs aposlo-
The lime of the supposed change is lorura lemporibus, vel paulo anle
also proved lo be aposlolical from obilum Pelri el Pauli, vel eerie anl
the epistle to Evangelus. See below, mortem Joannis.'
172 LECTURE THE SECOND.
everywhere ceased to be presbyterian and became prelatical ;
from which it is inferred that the result of the change, viz.
prelacy, did not rest upon any divine provision, but only upon
the received custom of the Church. But of all this, also, utterly
at variance as it was with his own experience, and removed
altogether from his own cognizance, he offers no proof what-
ever. Where, when, or how a. decree of such vital conse-
quence was passed, and thenceforth became the universal
law not only of every portion of the Church, but of every
See above, sect of heretics (for, as I have before observed, the threefold
P. 121.
ministry prevailed in the early heretical bodies not less than
in the Church); and again, whether or no the supposed
alteration was effected with the sanction of the apostles
(if with their sanction, they must have repented of their
original design) nothing of all this does he condescend to
explain. And the truth is, it did not admit of explanation. 1
Not only is there no mention in the New Testament of any
such decree, of any such change, but there is not a syllable
to suggest the faintest surmise of such an occurrence ; no,
nor in any other primitive record of any kind. Well, indeed,
might Chillingworth declare * that he would sooner believe
all the transformations of heathen mythology which ' Ovid
describes than he would credit this fable this dream
which the wounded vanity of Jerome attempted to impose
upon his two female devotees, and through them upon the
1 Stillingfleet's remarks upon the f Vol. i. p. 485. And yet, see
passage may be seen in 'Irenicum,' Dr. Cunningham's 'Church Hist.,'
pp. 278-283. i. p. 66.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 173
Church ! He does not, however, need to be rebuked by us
for these wild imaginations. In the person of the heretic
Aerius, he was abundantly rebuked, while alive, by the
venerable metropolitan of Cyprus, Epiphanius, 1 who had
been his friend and patron, and whom he himself has styled
' patrem paene omnium episcoporum, et antiquse reliquias
sanctitatis ; ' 2 nay, he was afterwards rebuked even by him-
self when he severely condemned his own bishop, John of
Jerusalem, for using language only too similar to that of his
own Commentary. 8
But, after all, wild and fanciful as those statements of The state-
Jerome are, taken as a whole, what is the kind of shelter Jerome, as a
whole, of no
which they afford to the opponent of prelacy ? On the one j:^,^" 6
hand, if he is to claim the benefit of those statements, he prel
must, ipso facto, admit that the parity which he advocates has
been introduced in contravention of a decree of the Universal
Church a decree passed in the very earliest times, and
adopted as a necessary remedy for the very evils of which
we have now so much reason to complain, and the existence
of which must at least go to prove that the said decree
ought never to have been violated, and needs now to be
1 Epiphanius calls it 'a mad or he would probably have seen
assertion,' to say that a bishop and that, instead of using strong Ian-
presbyter are equal ; and again ' to guage, it would have been better to
every sensible man it is manifest have exposed the verbal fallacy.
that nothing could be more foolish.' 2 Vol. ii. p. 365 ; comp. Fleury,
Vol. i. pp. 906, 908 ; comp. above, p. ut supr., p. 228.
125. There is an absence of critical 3 See below, p. 183 ; and comp.
power in the writings of Epiphanius, Bilson, p. 358.
174 LECTURE THE SECOND.
reinforced. On the other hand, what was it that Jerome
himself would have as the practical result of those state-
ments ? Does he suggest that bishops, if they would do
their duty, and be content with the position which the
Scripture has assigned to them, should surrender their pre-
eminence, and allow the Churches to be governed by a
parity of ministers ? No ! He wishes bishops to do as
Moses had done ; not to cease to govern, but to admit the
presbyters to partake of their authority and assist them in
their charge ; a sound and just determination however
visionary the premises upon which it rests and one which
no bishop, who understands either his duty or his interest,
will ever venture to neglect. 1
St. Jerome's So much concerning this famous passage of St. Jerome's
epistle to
Evangeius Commentary, which has probably produced more mischief in
the Church than any other that was ever penned. There is,
indeed, a companion to it, 2 though somewhat less mis-
chievous, in one of his epistles the well-known epistle to
Evangeius (or Evagrius), 3 which appears to have been
written about the same time. 4 His object in writing it
1 See 'Irenicum,' pp. 335, 354, episcopacy maybe mainly ascribed."
sqq., for examples of the practice But is not this to attribute too much
of primitive bishops, and other to mere secondary causes?
testimonies to this effect. 3 As it used to be quoted. See
8 Both passages are quo ted by Pro- vol. i. p. 1192, and comp. p. 676,
fessor Lightfoot, p. 204, who derives note.
from them the remark : ' To the 4 According to Dupin, vol. iii. p.
dissensions of Jew and Gentile con- 93, 'about A.D. 387,' i.e. the same
verts, and to the disputes of Gnostic year. There is also an epistle of
false teachers, the development of Jerome to Oceanus. supposed to
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 175
was to express his indignation (and he does express it !) at
the presumption of the Roman deacons, who, being confined
to ' seven,' in imitation of the number in the Acts, by a fanciful
species of abuse, became men of wealth and consequence ;
more so in some respects than the presbyters, who were far
more numerous, and whom they presumed to regard as their
inferiors. 1 So that, whereas in his Commentary, Jerome's
object had been to elevate presbyters in order to depress
the episcopate, he now, in this epistle, endeavours to do the
same, in order to depress the diaconate. 2 I need not quote the
passage in full. Except that it says nothing of the Church
being governed by the common counsel of presbyters,
it repeats substantially the same statements that pres-
byters and bishops, according to Scripture, were originally
the same ; but that afterwards, when there was a fear lest
the Church should be torn in pieces by each of them
attracting followers to himself, one was chosen to be placed
above the rest as a remedy against schism. Again, however,
we have no proof of this latter statement. In support of the
former the original equality of bishops and presbyters
the same texts are produced as in the Commentary ; viz.
Acts xx. 1 8, Phil. i. i, i Pet. v. i, 2 ; except that instead of
have been written ten years later, 1 See Euseb. 'H. E.,' lib. vi. c.
i.e. about A.D. 397, in which he xliv.
repeats the statement that ' apud 2 Comp. the author of ' Qusest.
veteres iidem episcopi et presbyteri Vet. et Nov. Test.' ' De jactantia
fuerunt, quia illud nomen dignitatis Romanorum Levitarum.' St. Aug.,
est, hoc aetatis.' (Ep. Ixix. vol. i. vol. iii. p. 2939.
p. 656.)
176 LECTURE THE SECOND.
the passage from the Hebrews before quoted, now (besides
2 John i and 3 John i, which add nothing to the text of
St. Peter) Jerome alleges also i Tim. iv. 14, respecting
ordination ' with the laying on of the hands of the pres-
bytery ; ' and from i Tim. iii., Titus i. (where St. Paul gives
directions about persons to be ordained, and in so doing,
proceeds at once from the bishop to the deacon), he draws
the remark : ' St. Paul says nothing at all about presbyters,
because in the bishop the presbyter also is contained ' a
remark which is perfectly just, if properly understood ; for,
See above, as I before observed, that which contains must be something
170-
more and greater than that which is contained by it 1
Admissions j have called this letter less mischievous than the Corn-
contained in
that epistle. me ntary on account of the admissions which we find in it.
For instance, it admits that only bishops have the right to
ordain ; stating, however, at the same time that this is their
only legitimate distinction from presbyters : 2 and yet St.
Jerome elsewhere testifies that, by the universal practice of
the Church, bishops also alone administered confirmation. 3
Tt declares expressly that bishops, besides being all equal in
office, whatever the size or dignity of their respective sees,
1 Elsewhere he says that St. been borrowed from Aerius. See
Paul in Titus c. i. is giving direc- Epiphanius, vol. i. p. 908. And St.
tions for the ' princeps ' and ' ponti- Chrysostom, who repeats it on
fex' of the Church. See 'Comment.' i Tim. iii., Horn, xi., may have
in loc., vol. vii. p. 567; and 'Adv. borrowed it from Jerome. Com-
Jovin.,' vol. i. p. 35; vol. ii. p. pare below, p. 192, notes.
258. 3 'Contr. Lucif.,' c. ix. vol. ii. p.
1 This remark appears to have 164 sq.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 177
are also all successors of the apostles ; and it does not
declare the same of presbyters. 1 It recognises the typical
parallel of the high priest, priests, and Levites, with the
bishop, presbyters, and deacons ; and, as regards the latter,
it avows that parallel to be an ' apostolical tradition '
taken from the Old Testament; and finally it concludes,
' What Aaron and his sons and the Levites were in the
Temple, that let bishops and presbyters and deacons claim
to themselves in the Christian Church.' 2 The epistle is also
more valuable to us than the commentary in this discussion,
because it marks more distinctly the time at which Jerome
imagined the change which he specifies (from presbyterian
to episcopal regimen) to have taken place. It must have
been while the apostles were still alive and the change, if
made at all, must have been made by apostolic authority, or,
at least, with apostolic sanction because he exemplifies his
statement by the case of St. Mark as one whom the change
in question had raised to be the first bishop at Alexandria.
It is true, this last statement is expressed in such a way that
1 It must be admitted, however, ! See Bilson, p. 309. Young
that elsewhere ('Epist. ad Heliod.,' Stillingfleet's attempt (against Pear-
vol. i. p. 352) he has spoken of the son) to explain away this pas-
clergy generally as 'Apostolico sage of Jerome may be seen in
gradui succedentes, ' in opposition his ' Irenicum,' pp. 265 sqq., 283.
to monks, who could boast of no He does not seem to have been
such distinction. Comp. 'Iren.,' aware that Jerome (after St.
p. 308. But this need imply no Clement) repeats the same corn-
more than that a portion of the parison in other passages. See
clergy enjoyed a privilege which no below, pp. 182, 183.
portion of the monks enjoyed.
N
1 78 LECTURE THE SECOND.
the opponents of prelacy have attempted to discover in it a
primitive usage on the part of presbyters, not only to appoint
their president or bishop out of their own body, but even to
Practice of ordain him. The words are these : ' At Alexandria, from
the Church
of Alex- Mark the Evangelist 1 down to the bishops Heraclas and
andria
st Jerome' Dionysius [the i3th and i4th in the succession ; the date of
the latter is A.D. 249], it was the custom for the presbyters
to choose one out of their own body whom they placed in
a higher grade and called bishop ; in the same way as if an
army were to make its own general, or deacons to choose
from among themselves one whom they knew to be diligent
and call him archdeacon.' It is quite possible that what St.
Jerome here states may have been the practice at Alexandria ;
but the statement, if correct, while it proves, as I have said,
the primitive institution of prelacy in the case of St. Mark,
or, at least, at Alexandria immediately after St Mark's
death, it proves nothing in regard to ordination by presby-
ters. 2 On the contrary, in the very next sentence of the
letter we read : ' For what is there that a bishop does which
a presbyter may not do, except ordination ? ' It is certain
that Jerome would not have made this exception if he had
meant to say that the Alexandrian presbyters, down to A.D.
249, had been accustomed not only to elect but to consecrate
their bishop. It is true that the spurious Ambrose, of whom I
shall have occasion to speak presently, tells us that ' In Egypt
1 See above, Lect. i. p. 37. Ellington's ' Life of Ussher, ' p. 257 ;
* See Pearson, 'Vind. Ignat.,' and Bright's ' Church Hist.,' p. 20,
pp. 284, 289 sq. ; Bingham, book note,
ii. c. vi. sect. 3, vol. i. p. 87 ;
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 179
the presbyters consignantj i.e. administer confirmation, ' if a
bishop be not present ; ' and in the anonymous work, entitled
' Questions upon the Old and New Testament,' now com- and the
author of
monly supposed to have been written by the same author, ' Q" 65 ^" 5
rr * 'on the Old
we find a similar statement, but with a various reading in ^" e s t ^^ t .'
the text, which renders it uncertain whether confirmation or
consecration (whatever the latter word may l mean) is intended
to be ascribed to the Egyptian presbyters. 2 It is also true
that more than four centuries afterwards, Eutychius, who statement of
Eutychius.
was then (A.D. 933) patriarch of Alexandria, in a preserved
fragment of his historical work upon the antiquities of his
Church, does actually assert as follows : ' The evangelist
St. Mark appointed Hananias the first patriarch of Alexan-
dria ; and together with Hananias he also appointed twelve
presbyters, who should remain with the patriarch, so that,
when the see should become vacant, they might choose one
of their body, upon whom the remaining eleven might lay
their hands, and bless him, and create him patriarch. And this
1 See Bingham, book xii. c. ii. both passages. Selden, 'Comment,
sect. z. He does not even men- ori Eutychius,' p. 509, also reads
tion the meaning of ordination. 'consignat,' and is inclined to
1 The words are : ' In Alexandria understand by it both ordination
et per totam ^Egyptum, si desit and confirmation. On the con-
episcopus, consecrat (v. 1. con- trary, Professor Lightfoot reads
signal) presbyter. ' See in St. Au- ' consecrat ' in both places, and
gustin's Works, vol. iii. Append., supposes it may mean not only
p. 2941. Valesius in Euseb. ' H. E./ ordination of presbyters, but con-
vi. 43, p. 313, reads ' consignat, ' secration of a bishop. P. 229.
and interprets it of confirmation, in
N 2
i8o LECTURE THE SECOND.
practice continued to be observed at Alexandria to the time
of the patriarch Alexander, A.D. 318, who ordained that,
upon the vacancy of the see, the bishops should convene to
consecrate a successor, and that the power of election was
to be in their hands, without confining themselves to the
twelve presbyters.' 1 And further, he states that 'whereas
there had been no other bishop in the provinces of Egypt
down to the time of Demetrius, that patriarch, the eleventh
of the succession, ordained three.' It would take me too
far from the point before us if I were to enter now into
the merits of this last testimony, but I promise to do full
justice to them when these lectures shall appear in a printed
form. 2
Evidence of We return, therefore, to Jerome and his letter to Evan-
St. Jerome
as collected gelus. The admissions which escape from him in that letter
from his
ther works. f orm a vei y srna ll portion indeed of the evidence which he
has given us of a similar kind, and which it would puzzle
the most ingenious disputant to reconcile with his dream
first told to Paula and Eustochium. The truth is, there is
no one author who helps us so much as Jerome does, to
establish the true constitution of the Christian ministry, as
of Scriptural and apostolical authority; there is no author
who enables us so thoroughly to confute his own wild and
fanciful theory ; and this, for the most part, in works which
he wrote at a later period of life, and when the unfortunate
1 See Selden's Works, vol. ii. p. A.D. 1642.
422, who first published the frag- * See supplement at the end of
ment in Arabic, with a Latin version. this lecture.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 181
bias to which he had been previously subject would be
likely to operate less forcibly upon his mind. You will be
able to judge for yourselves of the truth of the remark which
I have now made, if I simply lay before you a summary of
the several statements bearing upon this question which are
to be gleaned from the various writings of Jerome, arranged
according to their contents, under four general heads, and
with the date of publication, so far as it can be ascertained,
affixed to each :
I. In his book of 'Biographical Sketches' 'De Viris i. Bio-
graphical
Illustribus ' written A.D. 392, in his sixty-first year, 1 he re- sketches.
cords :
1. That Peter was bishop of the Church of Antioch, and
afterwards became bishop of Rome. C. i. and v. vol. ii. p.
607.
2. That James * the Just,' called the Lord's brother, was
ordained bishop of Jerusalem by the apostles, immediately
after the passion of our Lord, and remained bishop for thirty
years. C. ii.
3. That Mark as bishop of Alexandria was succeeded by
Annianus. C. viii.
4. That John wrote his Gospel at the request of the
bishops of Asia. C. ix.
5. That Clement, St. Paul's fellow-labourer, was bishop of
Rome C. v. and xv.
6. That Ignatius, who suffered martyrdom A.D. 115, was
the third bishop of Antioch. C. xvi.
1 He was bora A.D. 331, and died A.D. 420.
1 82 LECTURE THE SECOND.
7. That Polycarp was ordained bishop of Smyrna by St
John. C. xvii.
8. That Papias, a disciple of St. John, was bishop of
Hierapolis. C. xviii.
9. That Quadratus, a disciple of the apostles, was bishop
of Athens, in succession to Publius, who had suffered mar-
tyrdom. C. xix.
2. Epistle*. II. In his Epistles :
1. He speaks of St. Mark as first bishop of Alexandria,
as before quoted. To Evangelus, A.D. 387 (?), vol. i.
p. 1194.
2. He asserts that bishops occupy the place of the apo-
stles. To Marcella, A.D. 384. Ibid., p. 476.
3. He describes the Christian ministry as consisting of
bishops, priests of the second order, and Levites. To
Eustochium, A.D. 404. Ibid., p. 904.
4. He compares the bishop, presbyters, and deacons to
the high priest, priests, and Levites ; speaking of the parallel,
on the part of these latter, as 'an apostolical tradition
derived from the Old Testament.' See above, p. 177. To
Evangelus, as before. And again, in another letter, he
writes, ' We should know the bishop and his presbyters to
be what Aaron and his sons were.' To Nepotianus, A.D.
394. Ibid., p. 534.
5. He specifies the directions given by St. Paul to deacons,
i Tim. iii., as directions 'to the third order' tertio gradui;
thereby alleging Scriptural and apostolical authority for the
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 183
threefold ministry. To Heliodorus, A.D. 373. Ibid., p. 352.
Comp. ' Advers. Jovin.,' lib. i. c. xxxiv. vol. ii. p. 258.
III. In his controversial Treatises : 3- Contro-
versial
1. He repeats the parallel of the three orders as existing treatises.
equally in the Old and New Testament : therefore they are
equally of Scriptural and divine authority. ' Adv. Jovin.,'
lib. ii. c. xxviii. A.D. 393. Vol. ii. p. 325.
2. He asserts that neither presbyter nor deacon has the
right of baptizing without authority of the bishop ; as Ter-
tullian 1 had asserted nearly two and Ignatius 2 nearly
three centuries before. ' Advers. Lucif.,' c. ix. A.D. 379.
Ibid., p. 165.
3. He regards the Ark, with its measurement of thirty
cubits, as typical of the Church ; which ' multis gradibus
consistens, ad extremum diaconis, presbyteris, episcopisque
finitur.' Therefore the type having been of divine institu- ,
tion, the antitype must be the same. Ibid., c. xxii. p. 176.
4. He states that Clement was bishop of the Church of
Rome. ' Apol. adv. Libros Ruffini,' lib. ii. c. xvii. A.D. 402.
Ibid., p. 439.
5. He tells John, the bishop of Jerusalem, that he had
made 'a grievous blunder at starting,' in portu naufragium,
when in a spirit of undue condescension and mistaken
courtesy he had spoken of there being little or no difference
between a bishop and a presbyter. ' Contr. Joann. Hierosol.,'
c. xxxvii. A.D. circ. 400. Ibid., p. 390.
1 ' De Baptismo,' c. xvii. * 'Ep. ad Smyrn.,' c. viii.
1 84 LECTURE THE SECOND.
6. Above all, he declares that the safety and well-being of
the Church depend upon the dignity of the bishop summi
sacerdotis and that if some special and pre-eminent autho-
rity be not given to him, there will be caused as many
schisms in the Churches as there are priests sacerdotes.
'Adv. Lucif.,' c. ix. vol. ii. p. 164.
4. Commen- IV. In his Commentaries :
tanes on
Scripture. j H e asserts that Clement was bishop of Rome as Peter
had been before him. 'In Isaiam,' c. liii. A.D. 410. Vol.
iv. p. 504 sq.
2. He considers the episcopate the fulfilment of prophecy.
Ibid., c. Ix. and Ixi. pp. 596, 601.
3. He speaks of the three degrees of the ministry as being
all worthy of honour. ' In Mich.,' c. vii. A.D. circ. 390.
Vol. vi. p. 1220.
4. He states that the apostles ordained in the different
provinces presbyters and bishops. ' In Matt.,' c. xxvi A.D.
398. Vol. vii. p. 1 88.
5. He mentions James, the Lord's brother, as having been
the first bishop of Jerusalem. ' In Ep. ad Gal.,' lib. i. c. i.
A.D. 387. Vol. vii. p. 230.
6. He does not appear to doubt what he records as the
received account, that Peter was the first bishop of Antioch,
and was from thence translated to Rome ; although, he
observes, St. Luke has omitted to mention these circum-
stances in the Acts. Ibid., lib. i. c. ii. p. 341.
I make no use of the many important testimonies con-
tained in the ' Chronica ' of Eusebius, because, though that
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT.
185
work was translated by Jerome, and therefore, we may con-
clude, was considered by him to be generally trustworthy, in
regard to any particular statement, it would not be fair to
impute him a responsibility which he has himself declined.
(Praef., p. 39.)
Now, in reference to the various passages l I have quoted character of
.... , these admis-
from Jerome s works, it is important to observe that many sions made
by Jerome.
have consisted of simple statements of fact, commonly
received as such in the history of the Church, and as such
accepted by him; whereas the two previous quotations
1 Most of them have been quoted
by Hammond, ' Diss. Sec.,' cap.
xxix. ; and by Bishop Pearson,
'Vind. Ignat.,' pp. 318-323, and
p. 561 sq. Stillingfleet, ' Irenicum, '
p. 278, attempts to depreciate the
testimony of Hammond's quota-
tions, as being 'occasional and
incidental,' in comparison with the
other two, which he describes as
'designed and set discourses.' I
mention the remark, and leave the
reader to judge of its fairness and
accuracy.
Blondel's 'Apology for the
Opinion of Jerome' on the primitive
equality of bishops and presbyters,
written at the request of the West-
minster Assembly, and published
1646, in a thick closely printed
volume, has been answered, so far
as it went, by Hammond (1651 and
1654), Pearson (1672), Samuel
Parker (1683), Hughes (1710). I
say 'so far as it went,' for at p. 8,
the author announces that 'he
hopes to explain in its proper place,
infra sect, vi., the last part of
Jerome's "Epistle to Evangelus," in
which he speaks of promotion from
a less degree to a greater, of apo-
stolical traditions, and of the dis-
parity between Aaron, his sons, and
the Levites.' But Blondel's work
consists of only three sections, and
there is no other evidence that he
ever intended to continue it. At
all events, the said statements of
Jerome remain unexplained.
The same has happened also in
the case of Salmasius, who, as
'Walo Messal.' (1641), made a
similar promise, p. 467, which has
never been performed.
See Hammond, Ibid., p. 124 ;
Pearson, Ibid., p. 321.
186 LECTURE THE SECOND.
from the Commentary on Titus, and from the Epistle to
Evangelus presented nothing more than a theory of his
own ; a theory purporting indeed to be deduced from Scrip-
ture, but unsupported by any evidence, and appealing to no
knowledge not accessible to ourselves, and for the most
part inconsistent with the statements which he himself has
made elsewhere. And well may it be asked, Are we to
believe in Jerome when he indulges his own fancy, or his
own spleen, and disbelieve him when he records historical
facts, or testifies to the practice of the universal Church ?
Thus, then, we have not only examined, but cross-ex-
amined, this important witness ; and the result is, that the
story, which he told at first, so far as it may have been
designed, as it certainly has been employed, to impair the
authority of the threefold ministry, has entirely broken
down. Called, as it were, to curse, he has blessed it alto-
gether. For what are the conclusions to which the evidence
which you have heard, taken as a whole, indisputably leads ?
They are these :
Summary of i. That the episcopate, in Jerome's opinion, was an order
St. Jerome's . .
evidence. distinct from and supenor to the presbyterate ; and the
presbyterate an order distinct from and superior to the
diaconate.
2. That, accordingly, he recognised the three orders of
the ministry, bishops, priests, and deacons.
3. That he regarded the three orders as necessary, and
laid especial stress upon the highest order.
4. That he considered the three orders to be derived
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 187
not only from apostolical times, but from the apostles
themselves.
5. That he held them to be Scriptural, and the episcopate
the fulfilment of prophecy.
6. That bishops alone have the right of ordination.
7. That all bishops, whatever may be the size or dignity
of their respective dioceses, are equally successors of the
apostles.
Hence, then, it appears that one who has been brought
forward as a leading and all-important witness by those who
are commonly wont to pay little or no regard to the testi-
monies of antiquity, has not only failed to substantiate a
single point in their favour, but has given against them
manifold evidence of the strongest kind. And I am per-
suaded that had they been sufficiently aware of the general
tenor and character of his works, he would never have been
called into court. Notwithstanding his vast learning and
unquestionable ability, he is sometimes very inaccurate, and
this too when writing without personal bias, and with no
apparent cause to disturb his judgment. To give but a
single instance, which may suffice to show that in regard even
to Scriptural matters, and such as are obvious to the most
ordinary reader, he is not always to be trusted. He tells
us that St. John founded (Efle/^XtWt) all the Churches of
Asia, 1 whereas we know from the New Testament that
Ephesus and many others were founded by St. Paul. 2
1 ' De Vir. Illustr.,' c. ix. vol. ii. 2 Irenseus, iii. 3 (quoted by
p. 626. Eusebius. iii. 23), says expressly
i88 LECTURE THE SECOND.
Ambrosias- There is still one other witness to be examined, who,
ter's ' Com-
mentary on though of much inferior authority, occupies a position upon
this question somewhat similar to that of Jerome. I allude
to the anonymous author of the ' Commentary on St. Paul,'
which was formerly attributed to St. Ambrose, and is still
printed as an appendix to his works, but which is now uni-
versally believed to have been compiled and partially written,
either by Hilary, the Roman deacon (who was engaged in
the Luciferian schism l ) or by some later author. He, too,
whoever he was, like Jerome, has dreamed a dream ; a
dream which imputes the first institution of our present epis-
copacy not (as Jerome's did) to the quarrelsomeness, but to
the general unworthiness of the senior presbyters ; 2 but as
(though living so late as the end of the fourth 3 or beginning
of the fifth century) he has offered no authority whatever for
the statement, we may safely leave it, like other dreams, to be
told and forgotten. And all the more because, in his waking
moments, the same author has said all, or nearly all, that
that the Church of Ephesus was Heylyn, p. 216 ; and comp. Stilling-
founded (Tee/mtAofxeV)) by St. Paul. fleet, 'Iren.,' pp. 312, 330 sq. -
1 See Dupin, Cent. v. p. 189. 3 The author himself says that
8 On Eph. iv. 12, p. 241. At first, he wrote ' sub Damaso, ' who died
he says, the senior presbyter sue- A.D. 384 ; but the words have been
ceedtd to a kind of prelacy; 'sed quia thought to be an interpolation,
coeperunt sequentes presbyteri in- Bishop Pearson supposes that he
digni inveniri ad primatus tenendos, wrote before Chrysostom and Je-
immutata est ratio, prospiciente rome, 'Vind. Ignat./ p. 560 sq. ;
concilio, ut non ordo (seniority) andcomp. Clinton, Append., p. 437.
sed meritum crearet episcopum.' He has borrowed largely from the
See Bilson, pp, 283, 286, 310 ; spurious Jerome, or vice versd.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 189
we could desire ; l though perhaps not without a lurking Summary of
his evidence,
tendency to depreciate the episcopate, which, if we knew who
he was, and the circumstances of his life, we might be better
able to account for.
For example :
1. He says that when St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians,
governors in the several Churches were not yet ordained
(i Cor. i. i, p. 112. Ibid., vi. 5, p. 129). Consequently,
the constitution or management of the Churches then was
not in all things the same as it is now, in their complete
and settled state. On Eph. iv. 2, p. 241.
2. He says that the angels of the seven Churches in the
Book of Revelation were bishops. On i Cor. xi. 8, p. 147.
3. He says that because all things are from God the
Father, therefore God decreed that each Church should be
governed by its own bishop. Ibid., xii. 28, p. 153.
4. He says that ' the apostles were bisHops ; ' that in the
bishop all the orders are contained, because he is the first
priest (sacerdos), that is, the ' chief of the priests ' (frinceps
sacerdotuni) and prophet and evangelist. Eph. iv. n, p. 241.
5. He says that St. Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, as
individuals, because they had been made by him bishops
respectively of Ephesus and Crete. Phil. i. i, 2 p. 251.
Comp. Prolog., pp. 290, 314.
6. He says that St. Paul (i Tim. iii.), 'after speaking of
the bishop, goes on to treat of ordination to the dia-
1 See Pearson, ' Vind. Ignat. , ' pp. that verse so as to refer the title to
560, 574, where some of the fol- Paul and Timothy, 'qui utique
lowing passages are quoted. episcopi erant.'
2 He interprets ' with bishops ' in
190 LECTURE THE SECOND.
conate, because the ordering (ordinatio) of bishop and
presbyter is one ; for either is a priest (sacerdos), yet the
bishop is first ; so that though every bishop is a presbyter,
yet every presbyter is not a bishop ; for the bishop is he
who is the first among the presbyters.' l
7. Lastly, he signifies that 'Timothy was an ordained
presbyter ; but, because he had no one before him, he was
a bishop. Wherefore, also, St. Paul shows him how he is
to ordain a bishop ; for it was not allowable, nor indeed
possible, that the less should ordain the greater. For
no one is able to give what he has not received ; ' a
confused statement, from which it is not altogether easy to
discover whether the author considered that a third ordina-
tion was necessary or not ; only it would seem that he" did
not consider 6 eVtWoiroe (with the article) as used by St. Paul
to be altogether synonymous with irpeafivrfpoc. i Tim. iii. 8,
P- 2 95-
Reflections And now, in parting from this witness, whose evidence,
on this
an"d on e whatever else it may be good for, is certainly of no value
Jerome's. (taken as a whole) to the presbyterian cause, there is one
remark which must, I should imagine, occur to all our
minds. Is it not obvious that a due feeling of reverence
should have led him and should have led Jerome also to
assume that the apostles, being under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit in matters of far less importance, would not
could not have been left without direction in regard to so
vital a point as the constitution of the Church's ministry ; a
1 Quoted by LiglHfoot, p. 227.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 191
point which, above all others, would be liable to cause
among their converts jealousies and disputes, if known to be
contingent upon their own choice ? But, as God had given
to Moses a pattern of the future tabernacle (Heb. viii. 5) ;
as He had given to David, by inspiration, a pattern of the
future Temple (i Chron. xxviii. 12, 19) ; so was it not to be
expected that the apostles would likewise receive their plan,
duly prearranged and settled, upon which to work ? l Had
our two critics considered this as they ought to have done,
they would have abstained from the indulgence of their own
fancies, and would have piously concluded that what they
saw and knew to be everywhere the uniform and well-
ordered result, had been from the beginning the divinely-
revealed and foreordained design.
I know of no other testimony that remains to be noticed, Expressions
of conde-
unless I am to allude to expressions of condescension, or ot scension
afford no
compliment ; such as those in which St. Cyprian, imitating evidence -
the humility of St. Peter and St. John, 2 addresses clergy of
1 It is no proper answer (see guidance would be insufficient, as
Stillingfleet's 'Iren.,' p. 177 sq.) to I have argued; young Stillingfleet,
this question that ceremonial details however, argued otherwise, p. 179.
were settled under the Law which Comp. above, Lect. i. p. 18, note,
are not settled under the Gospel. It is further to be observed, that in
All that is pleaded for is that if the pattern of the Temple, delivered
sufficient guidance was given under by David to Solomon, there was a
the Law, being such as it was, we constant reference made to the
may conclude that sufficient guid- pattern of the Tabernacle delivered
ance would be given under the by God to Moses. See Bishop of
Gospel, being such as it is ; but Lincoln on i Chron. xxviii. 18.
without fundamental direction con- * i Pet. v. i ; 2 John i and 3
cerning the form of ministry John i. But in all those passages
(though not concerning ritual), the there may be a reference to age.
192 LECTURE THE SECOND.
the second order as his ' fellow-presbyters ; ' : or in which
St Augustin, though a bishop, tells a great scholar and
divine like Jerome, though only a presbyter, that ' notwith-
standing the superior titles of respect which it is customary
to give to bishops, in many things Augustin is inferior to
Jerome.' 2 Nor, again, will it, I think, be worth our while
to lay stress upon occasional language which the supposed
necessities of a lax or inaccurate criticism of the sacred
text may have led even an author like St. Chrysostom to
use ; ' 3 when we consider that long before his time the dis-
tinction between the first and second orders of the ministry
was unquestionably as strongly marked as it has been at any
subsequent period in the history of the Church.
And let it not be supposed that there is any inconsistency
between this whole argument and those sayings of our Lord
1 See above, pp. 170, 176. In like Comp. Lightfoot, p. 228.
manner St. Paul speaks of many 3 See, for example, on Tim. iii.
who were not apostles as his ' work- 8, Horn. xi. vol. xi. p. 666 (upon
fellows.' Rom. xvi. 3, 9, 21, and which passage Dr. Cunningham has
elsewhere. Nay, our Blessed Lord remarked, ' Even in the beginning of
Himself, being the Son of God, the fifth century Chrysostom and
preferred to call Himself the Son Jerome could assert the primitive
of Man. equality, or rather identity of the
8 Epist. Ixxxii. 34, vol. ii. p. bishop and presbyter.' ' Church
303. ' Quanquam secundum hono- Hist.,' vol. i. p. 66), and the
rum vocabula, quse jam ecclesiae spurious Jerome on the same text in
usus obtinuit, episcopatus presby- Jerome's Works, vol. xi. p. 880,
terio major sit, tamen in multis ' Episcopos presbyterorum nomine
rebus Augustinus Hieronymo minor comprehendit, quia secundus, imm6
est.' He could not have meant paene unus, est gradus.' Compare
to imply that the episcopate was above, p. 176.
greater only in titles of respect.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT. 193
when, on more than one occasion, He rebuked the ambitious Our Lord's
. . condemna-
rivalry of His disciples (Mark ix. 33-37, Luke ix. 46-48, tionof
Matt. xx. 24-28, Mark x. 41-45, Luke xxii. 24-27), or when j^w'tJTbe
He admonished them that as they were to call no man their undei
father upon the earth, so neither should they themselves,
like the scribes and Pharisees, seek to be called of men
Rabbi, Rabbi (Matt, xxiii. 1-12). It is evident that our
Lord's intention on these occasions was not to condemn
pre-eminence as such (which He expressly sanctions on the
part of all the twelve), but the undue desire and ambition
of pre-eminence ; l and, at the same time, to teach that
among themselves there was to be an equality of rank,
which, while it justifies the order of bishops as coequal
fathers and governors of the Church, would seem to de-
nounce by anticipation the exorbitant supremacy which has
been claimed by one. a
Such, then, is the evidence, Scriptural and historical, upon Foregoing
evidence
this great question the question of the right constitution of conclusive,
the Christian ministry ; and such the objections which have
1 See Blondel, Praef., p. 49 sq. ; it may be asked, Does not this
and Hammond, ' Diss. Tert.,' cap. command militate against the au-
ii. pp. 139-141. thority of individual bishops over
* 'The bishop of Rome has not their flocks altogether? It will be
been content with the precedence found on consideration that it does
of an elder brother in the see of not do so ; on the contrary, that
St. Peter, but has claimed that of a this divinely commissioned au-
tnaster and father ; and this com- thority is the only remedy against
mand of our Lord (Matt, xxiii. 8) the ambition which breaks up
being broken, the unity and strength society.' Williams' Holy Week, p.
of the Church has been lost. But 216 sq. See the whole passage.
194 LECTURE THE SEGOND.
been raised to invalidate its force. I venture to think that
the objections have been shown to rest upon no solid foun-
dation ; that the evidence is conclusive. I venture to
believe that if the case were to be submitted to the judgment
of any competent tribunal in this country simply upon the
matter of fact and of constitutional right there would be no
hesitation as to the verdict which would be pronounced. I
venture to maintain that there is nothing of the same im-
portance in the world's history which stands upon stronger
testimony; and that, whatever there may be of doubt or
difficulty concerning it, which has not been manifestly caused
by human failings or excesses on the part both of governors
and governed, is no more than was to have been expected,
to try our faith and obedience in accordance with God's
dealing with us for our moral probation in other instances.
Summing And now, having laid this evidence before you, I ask for
up of argu- . . , . .
mentfrom nothing but a. patient and impartial examination, such as
Scripture
and history. ma y j ea( j to the discovery of the truth ; and that, when the
truth is discovered, justice may be done accordingly. In a
word, we ask from you what John Knox asked from the
opponents of the Reformation. Shall we ask in vain, as he
did? Speaking for his brethren and fellow-reformers, as
well as for himself, ' We are content,' he said, ' not only that
the precepts and rules of the New Testament, but also the
writings of the ancient Fathers . . . decide the contest.' l
And again : ' Let God speak by His law, by His prophets,
1 * First Petition to the Queen Regent' in 1558. Knox's Works, i. p. 305.
HISTORICAL ARGUMENT, 195
by Christ Jesus, or by His apostles, and so let Him pro-
nounce what religion He approveth : . . . and if my adver-
saries think to have advantage by their councils and doctors,
this I further offer, to admit the one and the other as wit-
nesses in all matters debatable.' l We continue that appeal
against the usurpations and corruptions of the Church of
Rome; but we repeat it also with equal confidence in
favour of a system such as can be proved to rest upon
Scripture and upon the example of the Primitive Church.
Are we unreasonable in this ? Will you reject our petition?
Will you oblige us to continue in apparent separation ? I Appeal to
members of
address myself now more especially to those who represent Established
Church of
the Church established in this country will you oblige us Scotland -
to continue separated and excluded from the national em-
bodiment of our common Christianity, because we cannot
consent to separate ourselves from the only system which
the Universal Church has recognised, and which is esta-
blished in the sister country ; from the system which rests, as
I have said, and as you yourselves have seen, upon abun-
dant Scriptural and apostolical authority, and which, even
though it rested upon no better sanction than the primitive
decree throughout all the world which Jerome dreamt of,
ought not to be abrogated without a decree of equal autho-
rity to justify the change ? Will you persist in your determi-
nation as it stands now expressed in the ordination-promise
required of all your ministers and elders 2 to say to us for
1 ' Appellation to the Nobility,' * Elders are required to declare
vol. iv. p. 518 sq. ; see also p. 446. that they ' own and acknowledge
O 2
196 . LECTURE THE SECOND.
all time to come : ' Brethren though you are, and with title-
deeds to show far more ancient than our own, yet you shall
have no portion, no inheritance with us, in the Church of
your fathers, unless you will consent to adopt and maintain
exclusively those standards of doctrine and of worship which
owe their origin to a period not of religious reformation,
but of political turbulence and civil war?' If on these
accounts our exclusion is to be continued ; if on these
accounts a division is to be kept up, and the ecclesiastical
concord which we crave is to be denied ; I will urge you no
further. I will not ask, Is not this harsh ? Is not this un-
brotherly ? Is not this unchristian usage ? But I appeal to
a higher tribunal. The Lord judge between us and you 1
The third and last head of the main argument viz. that
which arises from consideration of consequences remains to
be treated of in my next and concluding lecture.
Presbyterian Church government, ministers and probationers are re-
now settled by law to be the only quired to add that they are ' per-
government of this Church, and suaded that the Presbyterian govern-
that they will submit thereto and ment of this Church is founded
concur therewith, and never directly upon the Word of God and agree-
or indirectly endeavour the prejudice able thereto. '
or subversion thereof.' To which
197
SUPPLEMENT TO LECTURE II.
On the Testimony of Eutychius, &"f,
(See above, p. 179.)
THE value of the testimony of this mediaeval patriarch has been
keenly contested on both sides ; because if accepted it appears
to afford at least one conclusive proof that ordination, or
rather, what is more, consecration, by presbyters, was allowed
from the beginning in the primitive Church, and continued, if
nowhere else, yet in so important a see as Alexandria, even to
the early part of the fourth century.
It was, as I have said above, the learned John Selden, who, Fragment of
in 1642, the year before the meeting of the Westminster foatprinted
Assembly of which he was himself a prominent member first 1/1642. e "
gave to the world, from an Arabic MS., the fragment of
Eutychius' historical work which contains the testimony in
question ; claiming at the same time for the author of it a
character not less trustworthy than that of our own Bede
(Works, ii. 418). And probably the appearance at such a time
of such a testimony may have produced an effect prejudicial to
episcopacy J not inferior to that which the appearance of ' Eikon
1 ' That learned man .(Selden) became not a little displeased with
having been censured by the High some bishops of the Church of
Commission for some offensive England ; and the resentment of
passages in his " History of Tithes," that former usage lay deep in his
198 SUPPLEMENT TO SECOND LECTURE.
Basilike seven years afterwards produced in favour of the resto-
ration of the monarchy and of the Church. The entire work 1
of Eutychius was not long after, viz. in 1658, published at
E. Pocock. Oxford by the celebrated Oriental scholar Dr. E. Pocock, who
had undertaken it at Selden's request, but who felt no sympathy
with his opposition to episcopacy, and who also entertained a
much lower opinion of the general trustworthiness of the
patriarch's performance : and, as it would appear, not without
reason, both from internal evidence (for example, the writer states
that 2,048 bishops were present at the Council of Nice, and he
makes a bishop of Origen, and places him in the middle of the
sixth century !), and from the fact (which Pocock himself dis-
covered from another Arabic work which he afterwards pub-
lished) that the archives of the Church of Alexandria, from which
Selden ' had no doubt ' that Eutychius had derived much of his
annals, were all destroyed by fire when the city was taken by
the Saracens, A.D, 638, three centuries before. 2 In short, it
seems to be now agreed that the general character of the work
is not unfairly described in the words of Du Pin : "Tis full of
fables and very vulgar stories.'*
But to return to the testimony itself. It was first made use
D. Blondel. of by Blondel, in his famous ' Apologia pro sententia Hieronymi,'
1646; see Praef., pp. 17-20. The first answer was from the
H. Thorn- pen of Thorndike, 1649; see 'The Right of the Church in a
dike.
mind, and was at length sufficiently Hughes in Hickes' 'Treatises,' vol.
discovered by him.' Twells' Life iii. p. 49. The Arabic work alluded
of Pocock, p. 225 sq. See also Wai- to is the ' Oriental History of
ton's 'Proleg., xiv. 10 ; but comp. Gregory Abulpharagius, ' primate of
Aikin's 'Life of Selden,' p. 122. the Eastern Jacobites, A.D. 1266.
1 It consists of annals from the 3 'Eccles. Hist.,' vol. viii. p. 4.
beginning of the world to A.D. Cave, ' Hist. Lit.,' vol. ii. p. 96,
900. speaks of it in the same way.
See Twells, Ibid., p. 228, and
TESTIMONY OF EUTYCHIUS. 199
Christian State,' pp. 498-500. This was followed two years
afterwards (1651) by Hammond in his fourth Dissertation H. Ham-
against Blondel (c. x. pp. 177-179). Both decline to believe
the assertion of Eutychius, that before Demetrius there were no
bishops in the whole of Egypt besides the patriarch of Alex-
andria ; and consequently ' cannot admit his relation to be
historical truth.' But Dr. Bryan Walton, four years later, in B. Walton.
the Prolegomena to his celebrated Polyglott, 1657, not only
rejects the statement as incredible, but speaks of the author in
the most contemptuous terms (c. xiv. sect. 10). Again after .
two years, viz. in 1659, appeared young Stillingfleet's 'Ireni- Stillingfleet.
cum,' who professes to answer Hammond (p. 273 sq.), and wishes
to know ' who and where those bishops in Egypt were who did
consecrate and ordain the bishop of Alexandria after his elec-
tion by the presbyters, especially while Egypt remained but one
province, under the government of the Pr&fectus Augustalis?
The work of Abraham Echellensis, a learned Maronite, who Abraham
. . , , Echellensis.
took up the opposite side of the question, at Rome, in 1661, I
have not seen ; but probably it contains nothing of importance
which has not been urged at least equally well from the same
point of view by Bishop Pearson (who refers to it, pp. 290, 303, Pearson's
,.,.-.. ,. . _ . ., ,. arguments.
sq.) in his ' Vindiciae Ignatianae, 1672, where he elaborately dis-
cusses the whole question (Part i. c. xi.). He begins by noticing
the inconsistency between Jerome's statement and that of
Eutychius ; the former asserting that the practice of the Alex-
andrian presbyters to choose their bishop ended with Heraclas
and Dionysius, in the earlier part of the third century ; the
latter that it ended with Alexander, nearly a whole century later
(p. 283). He considers it incredible that the consecration of
the patriarch was made without bishops ; and he remarks that
had Jerome known of any such custom, he would certainly
have mentioned it in his letter to Evangelus (p. 286). He points
out that in the 'Apostolical Constitutions,' book vii. c. xlvi. sect. 4
200 SUPPLEMENT TO SECOND LECTURE.
(where see Coleterius' note) Avilius, or Abilius, the second
bishop of Alexandria, is said to have been ordained by St. Luke
(p. 289). He rejects the statement of Eutychius as to the non-
existence of bishops in Egypt before the time of Demetrius
(about A.D. 190) ; repeating the fact respecting the destruction,
long before, of the Alexandrian archives (on which see Arch-
deacon Churton's note in answer to Gibbon) as a ground for re-
fusing credit to an annalist of the tenth century, whose inaccu-
racy at the same time he exposes upon other points (pp. 292-
296) ; and in regard to the matter stated, he shows by various
proofs, 1 that Egypt was not without bishops before the end of
the second century ; and he infers the same from the circum-
stance (for which see Athanasius' ' Hist. Tracts,' p. 300) that in
A.D. 324 nearly a hundred bishops of Egypt and Libya met
together at the call of Alexander, then patriarch of Alexan-
dria, to condemn Arius and his supporters (pp. 296-303).
Gibbon. But notwithstanding all this, Gibbon, in the notes to the
fifteenth- chapter of his Roman History, has not failed to let us
know, more than once, that he is not persuaded by it. His
words are (vol. ii. p. 332): ' The ancient state, as it is described
by Jerome, of the bishop and presbyters of Alexandria, receives a
remarkable confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius, whose tes-
timony I know not how to reject, in spite of all the objections of
the learned Pearson, in his " Vindiciae Ignatianae." ' And again,
he states in his text (Ibid., p. 363): In Egypt, ' the progress of
Christianity was for a long time confined within the limits of a
single city, which was itself a foreign colony (Alexandria) ; and
till the close of the second century, the predecessors of Deme-
trius (the Alexandrian patriarch) were the only prelates of the
1 Dr. Neale, however, admits Church of Alexandria,' vol. i. p. n,.
that none of those proofs can be note,
considered decisive. 'Hist, of the
TESTIMONY OF EUTYCHIUS. 201
Egyptian Church. Three bishops were consecrated by the
hands of Demetrius, and the number was increased to twenty
by his successor Heraclas.' And then he adds in a note :
' This curious fact ' if he means the latter statement, it certainly
is most curious and utterly unexampled in the history of the
Church that one single bishop should appoint twenty ' is pre-
served by the patriarch Eutychius, and its internal evidence
would alone be a sufficient answer to all the objections which
Bishop Pearson has urged in the " Vindiciae Ignatianae." ' For
my own part I can see no ' internal evidence ' in the passage, or
in the context as given by Selden, to justify this description.
On the other hand, Professor Lightfoot, though he follows on Professor
Lightfoot.
the same side, does so out of regard not to internal but external
evidence. He remarks : ' The authority of a writer so inaccu-
rate as Eutychius, if it had been unsupported, would have had
no great weight ; but, as we have seen, this is not the case '
(p. 229). What, then, has been ' the support ' which the Pro-
fessor refers to ? I can see none but that of Jerome and of the
spurious Ambrose (as above quoted, p. 1 78 sq. and note 2) ; the
former of whom could not, as we have shown, have meant to
imply ordination by presbyters, even at Alexandria, and the
latter must be regarded as at best an insufficient witness so long
as his text and the meaning to be assigned to it are both un-
certain. Be this, however, as it may, it is evident that Dr.
Lightfoot accepts the Eutychian statement of the non-existence
of bishops in Egypt till the time of Demetrius in all its breadth.
He writes : ' At the close of the second century, when every
considerable Church in Europe and Asia appears to have had
its bishop, the only representative of the episcopal order in
Egypt was the bishop of Alexandria. It was Demetrius first
(A.D. 190-233), as Eutychius informs us, who appointed three
other bishops, to which number his successor Heraclas (A.D.
233-249) added twenty more,' And further he remarks ; ' This
202 SUPPLEMENT TO SECOND LECTURE.
extension of episcopacy to the provincial towns of Egypt paved
the way for a change in the mode of appointing and ordaining
the patriarch of Alexandria. But before this time it was matter
of convenience and almost of necessity that the Alexandrian
presbyters should themselves ordain their chief (p. 230).
j. M. Neale. it only remains to lay before the reader the opinion of the
late learned Dr. Neale, in his valuable ' History of the Alexandrian
Church.' He begins (vol. i. p. 9) by remarking that though the
statement of Eutychius has been repeatedly noticed and con-
futed, a history of the Church of Alexandria would be incom-
plete without an examination into its truth. Taking the story
as it stands, he considers it impossible to believe ' that the
second see in the Catholic Church was for the space of one
hundred and fifty years governed by arch-priests ; that these
men, during that period, refrained from the ordination of other
bishops, though presuming to lay hands on priests 1 and the
inferior order of the hierarchy j that the eleventh patriarch
asserted his claim to consecrate bishops ; and that six of his
successors (i.e. between Demetrius and Alexander), for nearly a
hundred years, persevered in this practice, 2 without a remon-
strance from, and enjoying communion with, every other branch
of the Church.' He admits indeed that some foundation for the
story is to be found in Jerome's statement ; at least so far as to
forbid us to treat it as a mere fabrication of Eutychius ; but he
considers that the words of the latter, though apparently so
much stronger, no more really imply ordination than those of
1 This does not follow necessarily * This appears to mean, the prac-
from Eutychius' statement. The tice of being consecrated by presby-
patriarch might have ordained them; ters. The only patriarchs who are
though this, of course, would add said by Eutychius to have conse-
nothing to the validity of ordination, crated bishops, are Demetrius and
if he himself had been ordained only his successor Heraclas.
by presbyters.
TESTIMONY OF EUTYCHIUS. 203
the former. He writes : ' It may well be asserted that the
words of Eutychius refer to the election, not the consecration of
the bishop. It was the custom, in the early Church that not
only presbyters but even laics laid their hands on the heads of
the party so chosen ; and this was the case more especially in
the Coptic Church, as writers, both Catholic and Jacobite,
allow. And Echellensis has clearly proved that in many
instances at least a triple imposition of hands took place ; of the
people voting, of the presbyters electing, of the bishops conse-
crating. At the same time the presbyters of Alexandria had
certain privileges which the presbyters of other Churches did not
enjoy ; 1 and these two facts coming together to the knowledge of
an ignorant writer like Eutychius, may have occasioned the
fable to which the unhappy consequences of the Western Refor-
mation have given such undue celebrity.' To this explanation he
adds the following : Prepared to grant that the patriarch may
have been really ordained by those twelve (eleven) presbyters,
he infers that, if so, they must have been ' an episcopal college,
retaining the name which in the primitive Church was used
synonymously with bishops.' He considers that either of these
explanations is 'perfectly satisfactory' (pp. 10-12).
1 More especially provincial letters jointly with the patriarch's. Ibid.,
were addressed in their name con- p. 12.
ao 4
LECTURE III.
IT has been shown in my two former lectures, first, that a
ministry, uniform and of a particular character, was ante-
cedently to have been expected in the Christian Church ;
and, secondly, that such a ministry existed from the begin-
ning, and continued everywhere to exist (though in the West,
for many centuries, in a corrupt and exaggerated form,
through the undue influence of the Church of Rome) till
the period of the Reformation ; and that it still exists, re-
formed or unreformed, over by far the largest portion of
Christendom east and west, north and south at the
present day.
Argument I have now to ask your attention to several considerations,
from evil
consc- which will appear in the form of consequences : some of
quences
f" e ardof^ them tending more or less directly to justify and confirm
conclusion. tne conclusion which the two preceding lines of argument
have led us to adopt ; while others, I am conscious, will add
nothing in the way of proof, and are only valuable as giving
force to this appeal, upon the assumption that the point in
question has been already proved.
i. In the first place, then, it will not be denied that a
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE. 205
disregard of the position which I have sought to establish, First evil
conse-
is calculated to lead, and has actually led, to the practice of quence :
Indifference
separation, and to a growing indifference to that practice. ^"iT'h 7 '
In saying this, I do not mean to imply that the acceptance sTrfptur" ;
of that position has been, 1 or ever will be, found sufficient
of itself under all circumstances to secure us against sepa-
ration. All I intend and would maintain is, that the
apostolical institution of one uniform system of the ministry,
and a firm belief in that institution, supposing it to be proved,
cannot but be powerful instruments to deter us from divi-
sions, and to assist us in keeping or recovering unity. Now,
whatever ideas we may severally entertain of the duty of
union, and communion among Christians, as prescribed in
Scripture, I think we shall all admit 2 that our present
1 St. Irenaeus taught that all who obortae sunt et oriuntur, dum epis-
belong to the Church 'preserve copus, qui unus est, et ecclesias
the same form of ecclesiastical con- praeest, superba quorundam pro-
stitution,' or 'ordained ministry. 1 sumptione contemnitur.' Vol. i. p.
Book v. c. 20. And yet there were 403. ' Ecclesise salus in summi
even then many heretics who became sacerdotis dignitate pendet ; cui si
also schismatics. Nevertheless, we non exsors quaedam, et ab omnibus
know the remark of St. Cyprian, and eminens detur potestas, tot in ec-
even of St. Jerome, and we do clesiis efficientur schismata, quot
not doubt that it contains truth. sacerdotes.' Jerom. Dial, contr.
' Neque enim aliunde haereses Lucif., vol. ii. p. 165.
obortae sunt, aut nata sunt schis- * This has been admitted by
mata, quam inde quod sacerdote ministers of the Established Church,
Dei non obtemperatur.' Cyprian, such as Dr. Bisset, in his Modera-
Epist. liv. (or lix.) ad Cornel., vol. tor's Address for 1862, and of the
iii. p. 802. And again Epist. Ixviii. Free Church such as Dr. Guthrie,
(or Ixvi.) ad Florent. Papian. : in his speech at Blair-Atholl, of the
' Inde enim schismata et hsereses same year both quoted in the
ao6 LECTURE THE THIRD.
condition is not what it ought to be in this respect. Most
of us, it is to be hoped, would be glad to see somewhat less
of inconsistency between the actual relations in which
fellow-Christians, especially of the same country, the same
language, the same neighbourhood, now live as such, and
the plain requirements of the Word of God. 1
tended and ^ e ^ ave been told indeed that ' the average Presbyterian
chr dby does not deem it necessary to attend to antiquarian and
Scriptural arguments,' such as have been brought before
you in my former lectures, ' because they seem to him to be
attempting to prove what cannot be true ; inasmuch as God
cannot be conceived to have spoken miraculously on a mere
matter of detail and convenience like Church government.' 2
But surely it is not inconceivable that God should have
done under the Gospel what it is certain He did under the
Law. And, still more is it conceivable that the Divine
Founder of the Christian Church should desire to preserve
from disorganisation the Society which He instituted ; and
if ' a matter of detail and convenience, such as Church
author's 'Bicentenary Lecture' Church has spoken, more or less,
delivered at Kidderminster, 1862, on the evils of separation.
pp. 31-40. ' We are beginning to ' ' There are at the present
feel the inexpediency of schism ; we moment in Scotland fourteen
shall next feel its sinfulness.' Rev. distinct Churches, or complete
P. Grant, of Tenandry, at a Christian organisations, competing
meeting of the presbytery of Dun- for the attachment of the nation.'
keld, April 26, 1870. Since the Dr. R. Wallace, in ' Recess Studies, '
year of Dr. Bisset's Address, almost p. 187.
every moderator of the Established * Ibid., p. 204 sq.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 207
government,' would be calculated, as certainly it would, to
assist in this, then so far from pronouncing it inconceivable,
we should certainly expect Him, in His goodness, to afford
such assistance. I repeat therefore that, if we desire to
please God, and to obey His commands in regard to unity
among fellow-Christians, we shall (among other means for
producing that result) endeavour to ascertain the divine
intention in regard to the constitution of the Church's
ministry. If episcopacy be in accordance with that inten- The course
to be taken
tion (as, I think, I have shown- it is), then, as one way ^^} 1 1 r | vers
towards diminishing our separations, let us add to our j r n u ^ h ofHls
presbyterianism what it now improperly wants. If presby-
terianism be in accordance with that intention and can be
proved to be so by fair argument then let it be asserted as
such. If it can be proved only to be ' defensible,' then I
cannot see what claim it has to be established, to the entire
exclusion of other systems also, upon that theory, granted
to be defensible ; and sure I am, it never would have been
established, to the exclusion of a reformed episcopate, if, in
the first instance, it had been content to rest upon such a
plea. But the point which we have to keep in view is this.
The theory that a Church which is accepted and established
as national, is merely defensible, or even is merely prefer-
able, has a direct tendency to cause indifference to separa-
tion ; and so tends, indirectly at least, to produce it. Let
us not then be told of established presbyterianism (non-
established presbyterianism will often hold a bolder and
more consistent tone), that, having thrust itself into the place
208 LECTURE THE THIRD.
of authority and of privilege, in which God's truth alone
should be enthroned, it now ' detests proselytising ; ' it now
declines to assert that truth; and that'being lawfully settled
in the sole possession of the national kirks and manses, it
now only desires to leave alone and be left alone. And
yet not altogether to leave or be left alone ; for it seeks and
even claims ! support for new endowments, and augmented
stipends, upon the plea of its established position, from the
descendants of those whose forefathers, because it pro-
nounced them to be in error, and avouched itself to be the
truth, it unmercifully dispossessed of all privilege and all
endowment ! Or, once more, if popery be in accordance
with the divine intention, and can be proved to be so, then
let us not only accept a national episcopate, in addition to
our presbyterianism, but let us further add the authority
of a foreign autocrat ; let us submit ourselves, one and all,
to the spiritual supremacy of the bishop of Rome. But let
us not go on any longer in this pitiful, this most miserable
bewilderment ; as if, upon so great a matter as the constitu-
tional ministry of the Christian Church, there were no such
thing as truth or untruth, right or wrong ; or at least, if
there be, that we, for our part, are unable to discover them !
I was asked the other day, by a most excellent lady, to
subscribe to a charitable institution for imbecile children,
and I did so, though not without some misgiving ; for upon
1 See the speeches delivered at Scotland Association for Augment-
the public meeting, held at Glas- ing the smaller Livings of the
gow, in behalf of ' the Church of Clergy,' December 1866.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 209
enquiry respecting the religious training of the children, I
found, from the printed report which was put into my hands,
that all difficulty had been amicably smoothed over by the
boys being taken to the Established, and the girls to the Free
Church ! Are we not, most of us, upon this great question,
in such a state of childish imbecility, that we should be no
unfit inmates for such an institution ?
This, then, is the first evil consequence which flows in Scriptural
proof of
part at least from our non-acceptance of the truth, 1 that there God ' s wil1 in
regard to
is a right constitution of the Christian ministry, and that we umty -
may ascertain it if we will. The Word of God did not mock
at the poor and the unlearned when it told them to ' avoid
those who cause divisions ' (Rom. xvi. 1 7) ; and when
it reckoned ' separations ' among ' the works of the flesh,'
and assured us that 'they who do such things shall not
inherit the kingdom of God' (Gal. v. 20, i Cor. iii. 3). It
did not mock at the poor and the unlearned when it bade
them to be 'all of one mind' (i Pet. iii. 8, Phil. ii. 12, Rom.
xii. 1 6, xv. 5) and to 'live in peace,' and that so ' the God of
love and peace would be with them ' (2 Cor. xiii. 1 1), or
when it besought them all ' to speak the same thing,' and
that there should be ' no divisions (or schisms) among them '
1 Let me explain, once for all, to imply no more than some suppose
that I have no wish to enforce this (though not, as I think, correctly)
word, as so used, in its highest Hooker intended, viz. ' a divine ex-
sense, upon the consciences of pediency ; ' or than Mr. Matthew
others, whatever may be my own Arnold contends for, viz. 'a true
opinion concerning it. I am quite development.' See 'St. Paul and
content that it should be understood Protestantism,' pp. 174-178.
2io LECTURE THE THIRD.
(i Cor. i. 10, xii. 24, 25, Rom. xii. 5); when it exhorted
them to ' be like-minded one towards another,' for this end,
that they might not only ' with one mind,' but also ' with
one mouth glorify God ' (Rom. xv. 5, 6 ; comp. Phil. i. 27,
Heb. x. 25, Acts ii. 42). Once more, the Word of God did
not mock at the poor and the unlearned when it taught
them to 'obey those who have,' i.e. have rightly and legiti-
mately, 'the rule over them' (Heb. xiii. 17), and again, to
' know those who are over them in the Lord and admonish
them' (i Thess. v. 12). No; it did not mock at them, when
it bade them to observe and to do all these things. But is
our duty it not true that we mock at the great mass of the poor and
towards the
poor and ignorant when we put the Bible into their hands, to be their
unlearned.
rule of life, and at the same time virtually tell them that there
are no such things as divisions to be avoided ; no such persons
to be known, who can claim to admonish, to guide, to rule, to
watch for their souls, as being set over them in the Lord
except so far as they themselves (in their poverty) may
make, or (in their ignorance) may choose such an one for
themselves ? I speak, you will observe, more particularly of
the poor and the unlearned ; because it is the will of God
that they, and such as they, should ' never cease out of the
land,' and because it is the will of Christ that to them, and
to such as they, more especially the Gospel should be
preached. But who is to be their preacher ? And how can
he preach except he be sent ? * And who is to have au-
thority to send him ? A weighty question, my friends ; one of
1 Rom. x. 15.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 211
the weightiest that can be asked in this world, because if it
is to receive no answer, then what limit can there be to
divisions, and to confusion of every kind in the Church of
Christ ? And yet it is impossible to give any sufficient or
satisfactory answer to it, until we have determined what is
the right and true constitution of the Christian ministry. To
that question, therefore, I shall next proceed. In the mean-
time I will only remind you what is the sum and substance
of the remarks which have now been made. As we had
been led from various considerations to conclude a priori
that a definite system of the Christian ministry would be pro-
vided by the Divine wisdom and goodness ; so we have been
brought to the conclusion, ex consequente, that such a system
must have been provided, and can be ascertained, and ought
to be observed by us, in order that we may obey God's plain,
repeated, and most strict command of Christian unity a
command in which the highest and most important interests
of the poor and ignorant are especially concerned. At
present, need I say ? we are living in the most careless and
most flagrant violation of that command. And what if it
should be the will of God that the poor and ignorant should
ere long become the instruments to take His vengeance
upon those who are comparatively rich, and who are, or
might be, better informed, unless we will seek to enter upon
some sounder, more obedient, and more Scriptural course?
And let us not be told that having gone on for so long in our
present path, it is now hopeless to escape from it ; or that
bad as our existing separations are, we must be content to
F2
212 LECTURE THE THIRD.
make the best of them. Let us rather assure ourselves that
no duration of time can give a prescriptive right to what is
wrong in the sight of God. The whole history of the Jewish
people, for upwards -of a thousand years, is a continued proof
that God is willing and waiting to be gracious to nations that
will repent and walk in the ways which He has appointed
for them to walk in ; and that if they will not do so, their
degradation, if not their utter ruin, is eventually inevitable.
Second evil 2. The second evil consequence of our present state, or,
co.isequence:
-Undue as- m other words, of our disregarding the principle of a uniform
sumption of
Ordam ht u Christian ministry, is one which if consciously admitted, would
involve a still graver offence against the divine law ; viz. the
offence not of discord and division only, but of injustice,
of usurpation. For is not this offence committed when the
power of Ordination is assumed otherwise than according to
the ' authoritative example ' which we find in the New Testa-
ment, and to the unquestionable rule, and standing practice
for fifteen centuries, as we think, the invariable practice
of the universal Church, which assigns that power to the
highest order of the threefold ministry ? Again and again
the opponents of prelacy have been challenged to show the
record of a single authentic and indisputable instance of
non-episcopal ordination in the entire history of the Church
before the Reformation ; and must it not be said ? no such l
1 On the several disputed instances (d) of the power of the chorepis-
which have been produced viz. (a) copi ; see Bingham, book ii. c. iii.
of Ischyras, ordained by Colluthus, 7, and c. xiv. 6 ; Potter ' On Church
but deposed; (b) of the abbot Gov.,'p. 265 sq.; Hughes, inHickes'
Daniel; (c) of the Goths and Scots; 'Treatises,' vol. iii. pp. 339-355;
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 213
instance has been produced. I will not undertake to say
that no weight whatever is to be attached to the negative
evidence which may be derived from the Epistle of Clement
to the Corinthians, or of Polycarp to the Philippian Church;
or again to the positive statements such as they are of
Jerome at the end of the fourth, or of Eutychius, at the be-
ginning of the tenth century; all of which have been referred See above;
p. 161 sq.,
to in my last lecture. But I cannot admit that these few par- ^ P- l6 4
sqq.
tides of evidence, taken even at their highest estimate, deserve
to be placed for a moment in comparison with the over-
whelming mass of authority which is to be reckoned on the
other side. I am also aware that/^r more than a century after
the Reformation, i.e. down to the Restoration in 1660, even in
England to say nothing of this country, in which some of
our leading reformers were not ordained at all cases
occurred in which presbyterian ordination, received abroad
(where no Reformed bishops l were to be found), was recog-
nised and admitted as sufficient by individual bishops, though
not, I believe, by any law or action of the Church itself.
Thorndike, ' Right of Church," &c., tional opposition to Reformed epis-
vol. i. pp. 493-500 ; ' Irenicum,' pp. copacy. Only more stress had been
379-382. See also Lightfoot, p. laid upon emancipation from papal
230 sq. ; and add the case of Liud- error and usurpation than upon the
ger, the Saxon missionary, men- strict observance of ceremonial re-
tioned by Hardwick, ' Church Hist. , ' gularity . This important considera-
p. 26, note. tion is too often overlooked. See
1 In all such cases therefore there an article by Principal Tulloch in
had not been any conscious or in- the ' Contemporary Review, ' Janu-
tentional preference of presbyterian ary 1872. Compare below, p. 222,
ordination, and still less any inten- note 3.
214 LECTURE THE THIRD.
But before we enter further upon the Church's witness in
regard to this most solemn and important matter, which St.
Chrysostom has justly called TO KV^MTOTOV varTuv, the most
sovereign instrument of all for maintaining the unity of the
Church? let us enquire what is the guidance and authority
concerning it which we may derive directly from the Word
of God.
Scriptural First, then, we see that the apostles ordained ' the seven,'
evidence
concerning supposed deacons (Acts vi. 6). Next, we see that the
Ordination.
apostles Paul and Barnabas ordained presbyters (xiv. 23).
Then, we see that Paul ordained Timothy with, but not 2 by,
the laying on of the hands of the presbyter}' ; just as bishops
now ordain presbyters, admitting other presbyters to lay on
their hands simultaneously (2 Tim. i. 6, i Tim. iv. 14).
Moreover, we see that Timothy himself, as supposed bishop
of Ephesus, is empowered to ordain presbyters and deacons ;
but we do not see that the Ephesian presbyters had any
such power of themselves, however they might have been
permitted to join in that solemn action (i Tim. v. 22, iii.
i-io). In like manner we see that Titus, as supposed
bishop of Crete, is empowered to ordain ; 3 but we do not see
that a Cretan presbytery had any such power (Tit. i. 5-7).
1 In Ep. i. ad Tim., Horn. xvi. something to do in the way of
vol. xi. p. 691. dutiful concurrence and brotherly
f Stillingfleet, ' Irenicum, ' p. 271, recognition, but not of primary
has fallen into this mistake. Comp. action or direct authority as they -
p. 275, where he asks, 'If the still have in our own ordinal. See
presbytery had nothing to do, to the bishop of Salisbury's ' Bampton
what purpose were their hands laid Lect.,' p. 209 sq.
upon him ? ' We answer, they had * But see above, p. 166, note.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE. 215
Lastly and this is the only other remaining instance of
ordination recorded in the New Testament we see that
among five so-called ' prophets and teachers ' at Antioch
Barnabas, Simeon or Niger, Lucius, Manaen, and Saul the
first and last were ordained, in consequence of a special
revelation and command of the Holy Ghost to that effect,
by the other three (Acts xiii. 1-3). But this was a case so
special and extraordinary that they are said to have been
'sent forth by the Holy Ghost' (Ibid. 4), and St. Paul expressly
declares that he was an ' apostle,' or one sent out, ' not by
man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father ' (Gal. i. i ;
comp. Acts xxvi. 17). The whole proceeding, I say, plainly
belongs to those extraordinary ministrations in which the
Holy Spirit, during the infancy of the Church, manifestly
interposed so as to supply what was afterwards to be ob-
tained by the regular action of the ordinary ministry. And
may we not suppose that though the form of ordination, in
order to mark its obligatory character, was not to be omitted
even in a privileged case like that of St. Paul as it had not
been omitted by our Lord Himself in the no less privileged
case of ' the traitor ' there was a special intention in giving
to the great apostle of the Gentiles a sanction which should
be at once equally divine, and, so far as it was primary,
altogether independent of the apostolate of the Jews, ' the
Twelve,' as we know, being all of that nation ? *
1 The election (by lot, before the stolic office. This appointment of
day of Pentecost) of Matthias into Barnabas and Saul (who are thence-
the place of Judas, indicated the forth also called apostles), after
necessary continuation of the apo- James, the brother of John, had
216 LECTURE THE THIRD.
Such, then, is the guidance which we receive from Scrip-
ture itself. There is no text which gives any direction or
authority to presbyters to ordain ; but direction and au-
thority to that effect are given to two several individuals to
Timothy and to Titus who we know had presbyters under
them ; and as, it appears, tHe authority in question was not
given to presbyters, so neither, so far as we read in the New
Testament, did they attempt to exercise it.
Nor is there, as I have already said, any well-authenticated
instance in the history of the Church of their being allowed
Testimony so to do till the time of the Reformation. Hooker whom
of Hooker.
no one will accuse of speaking either ignorantly or at ran-
dom declares expressly : ' No man is able to show either
deacon or presbyter ordained by presbyters, and his ordina-
tion accounted lawful, in any ancient part of the Church.' '
been slain by Herod (Acts xii. 2), pointment of the original twelve,
indicated not only its necessary and as He afterwards exercised less
continuation, but its necessary ex- directly (through lot) in the appoint-
tension in number beyond twelve : ment of Matthias,
thus pointing to an enlargement J Book vii. c. vi. sect. 5, vol. iii.
which would eventually be co-exten- p. 170. See also Overall, ' Convoc.
sive with the universal episcopate. Book, ' pp. 150, 156 ; Pearson, Minor
A fundamental act of this kind in Theol. Works, i. pp. 274, 289 ; ii. p.
the constitution of the Church, 75, 232. Compare ' Irenicum, ' p. 382.
coupled as it was with the first great and Professor Lightfoot, p. 231 : 'As
mission to the Gentiles, might seem a general rule, even those writers
to require the same direct sanction who maintain a substantial identity
of divine authority, in the person of in the offices of bishop and presby-
the Holy Spirit, as that which ter, reserve the power of ordaining
Christ Himself had exercised in His to the former.'
own person upon earth in the ap-
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE. 217
And Gibbon, who may be trusted upon the matter of fact, or Gibbon,
thus writes concerning the age of Constantine, that is, the
early part of the fourth century : ' The Catholic Church was
administered by the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of 1,800
bishops, of whom one thousand were seated in the Greek,
and eight hundred in the Latin provinces of the empire ; '
and he adds, in his usual style of ill-disguised irreverence
when he has occasion to speak of religious matters: ' the
bishops alone possessed the power of spiritual generation '
(c. xx.) meaning that the ordination of clergy was confined
exclusively to them. 1
How came it, then, to pass that this universal practice of Episcopal
ordination
the Church was first interrupted in some parts of Western u ^ ivers ^ 11> ;,,
observed til)
Christendom (in the East it has never been interrupted) at Reforma^
tion.
the time of the Reformation ? It came to pass, if we are to why inter-
rupted then,
believe no less an authority than Hallam, because ' the
foreign reformers had neither the wish, nor possibly the
means, to preserve ' an episcopal ministry. 2 If by ' foreign re-
formers ' our author meant, as most readers would suppose
him to mean, the first authors and most illustrious champions
1 See Epiphanius adv. Hasr., Ixxv. is unreasonable. For if he had
sect. 4, vol. i. p. 908, and St. known that presbyters, even in the
Chrysostom on i Tim. iv. 14, vol. most ancient times, had been al-
*t. p. 672. Even St. Jerome re- lowed to ordain, it is certain he
stricts the right of ordination to would have said so in an argument
bishops. See above, p. 176. Blondel where his purpose was to represent
(p. 311 sq.) supposes that he presbyters as equal to bishops,
is speaking there only with refer- * See 'Const. Hist.,' vol. i. p.
ence to his own time ; but this 137.
2i8 LECTURE THE THIRD.
of the foreign Reformation, in other words, of original
Protestantism, I am sorry to say, he has stated what is not
correct. What their ' means ' may have been is one thing ;
wish of the what their ' wishes ' were is another. And if their own words
original
Protestants are to be trusted, it is certain that their ' wishes ' were the
to retain
?y d bTshops. ver y reverse of that which the words I have quoted would
lead us to suppose. In the ' Apology for the Confession of
Augsburg,' drawn up by Melancthon in 1531 (eleven years
after the excommunication of Luther by the Pope), and
adopted by the whole Protestant body, we read as follows :
'With respect to canonical (i.e. episcopal) ordination, we
have often professed before the Diet, that it is our most
earnest wish and desire (nos summa voluntate cupere) to pre-
serve the ecclesiastical polity and orders in the Church. . .
But the bishops,' that is, the unreformed papal bishops,
' either compel our clergy to renounce and anathematise the
doctrine which we have set forth in our confession, or they
put them to death with the utmost cruelty and injustice.
This is the reason which prevents our clergy from ac-
knowledging these bishops. This is the cause why the
canonical Church government, which we for our part most
anxiously wished to preserve (nos magnopere cupiebamus
conservare), has in some places ceased to exist.' * I admit
there is evidence (especially in the ' Smalcald Articles,' and
in the treatise 'de Primatu Papae,' both drawn up in 1537)
that the Lutheran party, smarting under continued provoca-
. ! Cap. vii. Hase, p. 204. The few lines further on in the same
s me 'wish' is again expressed a chapter.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 219
tion, began to waver in their recognition of the abstract
right of an episcopal ministry ; but I am also prepared to
show that to the very close of Luther's life their prevailing
sentiment was such as that which I have just exhibited. It
is sufficient to refer to their ultimatum, presented to the
elector of Wittenberg on January 14, 1545, and to the cor-
respondence which took place at that time, when the struggle
had been carried on between them and their opponents for
nearly thirty years. They then wrote, inter alia : ' Nothing
seems more likely to promote harmony, than restoring to the
bishops ordination, which has always been accounted their
chief, or single, function.' * And in the manifesto itself which
bears the subscription of Luther, Melancthon, and five others,
these words occur : ' We. are as little disposed as any men to
dissolve or weaken the constitution and government of the
Church ; and it is our anxious wish (valde optamus) that the
bishops and their colleagues in that government would truly
discharge the duties of their calling, in which case we offer
them our obedience. . . In short, there is no other way to a
holy concord than this, that the bishops should embrace the
true doctrine of the Gospel, and the right use of the sacra-
ments, and that we should obey them as the governors of the
Church, to which we pledge ourselves' 2 Luther died in the
year after he had set his name to this remarkable document.
It is evident from these extracts that the greatest of the
1 Seckendorf, 'Hist. Luth.,' ii. p. testimony of the prince of Anhalt.
538. quoted in ' Irenicum,' p. 409.
s Ibid., p. 531. See also the
220 LECTURE THE THIRD.
foreign reformers not only ' wished ' (contrary to Hallam's
misrepresentation) to retain an episcopal ministry ; but that
they would not have considered themselves justified in
ordaining as presbyters, if they could have obtained ordina-
tion for their adherents from a reformed episcopate. And
for my own part, I have no doubt they would have regarded
ordination, practised under the circumstances in which
presbyterian ordination is now practised in this country, to
be no less a usurpation than the papal usurpation against
which they strove.
Contrary The difficulties which beset the members especially the
determina-
tion of the presbyterian members of the Westminster Assembly in the
Westminster l
Assembly. following century were of another kind. Our presbyterian
brethren at the present day are wont to boast of their
zealous Protestantism ; and they are apt to think that we
* episcopalians ' fall short of them in this respect. But it is
certain that their forefathers' still accepted guides, the West-
minster divines, departed much further than we have ever
done from the principles maintained by the first and true
Protestants by Luther, by Melancthon, and even by Calvin r
1 See his treatise ' De Necess. 296 ; and Bramhall's Works, iii. p.
Reform. Eccles.,' 1544, quoted 483. I am quite aware that views
above, p. 139, and his ' Letter to of a different character (such as his
the King of Poland,' 1554, Epist., own irregular office and position
p. 191. See also the narrative of rendered necessary) are to be found
the proposals made by him and in other parts of Calvin's works,
Bullinger to King Edward VI. in especially those of an early date.
1549, in Strype's 'Life of Parker,' See Cook's 'History of Reform.,'
i. p. 140 ; 'Life of Cranmer,' i. p. ii. p. 380, note.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE. 221
on the question of the right constitution of the Christian
ministry. In their zeal and impatience to destroy prelacy
root and branch as they solemnly pledged themselves to
do, before they had begun to examine the Scriptural autho-
rity upon which it rests * they made apostles to be wholly
extraordinary ministers ; they made Timothy and Titus to
be wholly extraordinary ministers ; they made ' prophets ' to
be wholly extraordinary ministers. Thus they deprived
themselves of every text, of every Scriptural example, upon
which they could found the continuance of ordination. The
divines of the Assembly, who were champions of Inde-
pendency, were not slow to observe this, and they secretly
rejoiced over the confusion which it caused among their
presbyterian opponents, while it gave the utmost advantage
to their own system, their own theory of ordination, which
they proposed to derive not from above, but from below ;
not from the institution of Christ, through His apostles, but
from the will and choice of the congregation a revolution
of all previous principle and practice in the Church, for
which the presbyterian divines, hostile as they were to all
apostolical succession except in their own order, were not
prepared. Nothing can, I had almost said, be more melan-
choly nothing certainly can be more unsatisfactory to a
Christian mind than to see the manner in which the two
parties of disputants quarrelled over the prey the sacred
privilege of ordination of which they had combined to
1 See above, Lecture i. p. 78.
222 LECTURE THE THIRD.
despoil the rightful possessors. 'After a keen and even
stormy debate of fourteen days' duration, the subject was
laid aside, in compliance with the request of Lord Say, who
favoured the Independents.' This is the account of Dr.
Hetherington, 1 a stanch Presbyterian, as derived from the
journal of Lightfoot,- who, being a member of the Assembly,
was present at the discussion.
Promise now it appears, then, that by presbyterian ordination, except
required in
Srdination" 1 un ^ er circumstances of extreme necessity 3 which may be thought
to justify it, bishops are deprived of their undoubted right
of their special prerogative in the Christian ministry
given to them not for their own pride or pleasure, but for
the benefit of the Church upon the grounds which I ex-
plained in my first lecture. But what are the circumstances
under which presbyterian ordination is now administered in
this country ? Only under a pledge upon the part of the
recipient that he will do nothing ' directly or indirectly ' to
the prejudice or subversion of presbyterianism ; and under
a profession of his belief that it is ' founded upon the Word
1 ' Hist, of the Westminster As- Protest.,' Ordin., p. 139; Bishop
sembly,' 3rd edit., 1856, p. 175. Hall, vol. x. pp. 149-54, vol. xi.
* First published in 1824. See p. 21. And see the references in
pp. 114-131. ' Irenicum,' p. 413. Since 1662 the
3 This plea has generally been Church of England, both by her
admitted in favour of foreign Pro- own law and by the teaching of her
testants by the great Anglican best divines, has declined to be a
divines down to the time of the party to a plea which has in fact
Savoy Conference, 1661-62 ; e.g. ceased to be a real or sufficient one.
by Hooker, 'E. P.,' vii. 15 ; Field, Compare above, p. 213, note i, and
book iii. p. 157 ; Mason, 'Def. of Bunsen's 'Church of Future," p. 23.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 223
of God and agreeable thereto.' 1 Now consider what this
profession implies. To say that presbyterianism is ' founded
upon the Word of God and agreeable thereto,' is to say that
for fifteen centuries the universal Church misunderstood the
Word of God, or did not care to follow it. Is there no
responsibility incurred in making such an assertion, and in
requiring others to make it ? It may be made in ignorance ;
but can it be made with a due knowledge of the fa.cts ? and
is not a due knowledge of the facts incumbent upon all
who are to presume to make it, and still more upon all who
require it to be made ? It is certain that every Church of
which we read in the New Testament was prelatical, and
that no Church was presbyterian, unless we are to separate
the apostles from the Churches which they founded, contrary
to the universally accepted principle of the primitive
Christians, and to the express teaching of the New Testa-
ment itself. It is equally certain that from the apostolic
times to the sixteenth century every Church whose history
is known to us is seen to have been prelatical ; and that no
Church throughout the world, whose history is known to us,
is seen to have been presbyterian : and it is inconceivable
that this should have been the case if presbyterianism were
really founded upon the Word of God, or agreeable thereto ;
however the authors and promoters of it, provoked by papal
corruptions or actuated by political discontent, may have
persuaded themselves into this conviction ; and some of
1 See above, Lect. ii. p. 195 sq.
224 LECTURE THE THIRD.
them, by degrees, into the conviction, still more monstrous,
which condemned and sought to extirpate prelacy as con-
trary to God's Word. It is also certain, as I have shown
See pp. 218- above, that the first and ablest of the reformers, such as
220.
Luther, Melancthon, and even Calvin, drifted into presby-
terianism from a supposed necessity, and not from choice a
necessity which they openly avowed and regretted ; but is it
to be conceived that they would have expressed such regret
had they believed that system to be ' founded upon the
Word of God, and to be agreeable thereto ' ? Once more, if
presbyterian ordination had been ' founded upon the Word
of God, and agreeable thereto,' can we conceive that it would
have been disallowed, not only by the Church of Rome, and
all the Churches of the East, but by the Church of England
and its affiliated branches throughout the world ? l Must we
not ask, then, under such circumstances : Is it right, is it
just, to require of young men entering upon the Christian
ministry not only to accept a position which has no distinct
Scriptural or historical basis, but to bind themselves for ever
to maintain a system which places them in virtual and irre-
trievable antagonism to an array of testimony and of authority,
so vastly great and so nearly, if not absolutely, unanimous ?
For what is there to be set on the other side ? Are we to be
referred to the condition of continental presbyterianism of
Protestant Germany, or Holland, or Switzerland, or France
as giving either evidence of the past, or promise for the future,
1 See above, Lect. ii. pp. 137-140.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 225
sufficient to justify the course in question ? If so, let us
hear the testimony of one of the ablest German Protestants
of modern times, who, while he was a devoted patriot, was
also a most competent witness in all other respects. ' Long Testimony
of Baron
has it been clear to me,' wrote the late Baron Bunsen, ' that Bunsen as to
the state of
in Protestant Germany no Church exists. Pious individuals ^''g' " in
J Germany.
there are, standing singly. But the Church itself is fallen and
is destroyed. How many a one is silently longing after a
better order of things, or, may be, asking how should the
Church be built up again ? Many a one in despair has become
Romanist. 1 Again, in another place, ' Our Church has yet
to be built.' ! Such, by the confession of this unexception-
able witness, is the result of three centuries of non-episcopal
Protestantism in the land which gave it birth. On the other
hand, when Bunsen had to speak of episcopal England, he
called it ' the bulwark of religion and of civil liberty.' And
again, ' One cannot cease to cling with heart and mind to
that country, with which the freedom and the glory of the
Reformation would perish.' 2
I have dwelt long, and spoken strongly not, I would
hope, too strongly upon this grave question ; and, before
1 quit it, let me say, in regard to individuals now living, how
earnestly I desire to be understood as condemning no man,
as accusing no man. If there be a wrong committed, it is
committed, I am sure, without any evil purpose or design
1 ' Memoirs of Baron Bunsen,' ing the state of Protestantism in the
vol. i. p. 181 and p. 418. Similar other countries named,
testimonies might be given respect- ' 2 Ibid., p. 464 and p. 354.
Q
226 LECTURE THE THIRD.
inadvertently, unconsciously. And all I would plead for is,
that we should endeavour to bring about amendment in that
for which no man living is directly responsible, and of which
having now the option of what is better no wise or com-
petently learned judge, as I venture to think, can thoroughly
approve. I would even admit that though fieri non debuit,
factum valet ; and accepting the present, as God Himself
has manifestly accepted it, in its many fruits of love and of
a lively faith, I would ask of God and man, for the future, in
the words and in the spirit of the direction of St. Paul for
the Church of Crete, and of the prayer of Bishop Andrewes
for the Church of England J sVicSiojofluJo-ai ro XetVorra, ' to
set in order the things that are wanting? (Tit. i. 5.)
Third evil 3. it has been frequently observed, that acts of aggression
SisuseoT seldom stand alone, and that one false step commonly leads
tion. to another. This will be illustrated by the matter of which
we have next to speak, viz. Confirmation. We read among
the acts of the famous Glasgow Assembly of 1638, ' Concern-
ing confirmation, .... seeing episcopacy is condemned,
imposition of hands by bishops falleth to the ground.' 3 And
A Scriptural yet, as we have shown that episcopacy is plainly Scriptural
ordinance.
and apostolical, so we are prepared to show that the
ordinance of confirmation rests upon the authority of Scrip-
ture, being mentioned in due order, after baptism, as among
the fundamental ' principles of the doctrine of Christ ' in
Heb. vi. i ; and upon the practice of the apostles, as re-
1 See Bishop Andrewes' ' Preces * 'Acts of General Assembly," p.
Privatae, ' p. 68 ; also pp. 96, 260. 20.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 227
corded concerning St. Peter and St. John in Acts viii. 14-17,
and in Acts xix. 5, 6, concerning St. Paul. It is also
attested by abundant evidence of ancient authors. I shall
content myself with one quotation from St. Jerome, not only Universal in
/ J / the Church.
because it affords all-sufficient proof that, when he lived, Testimony of
' St. Jerome.
confirmation was sanctioned and observed universally in the
Church, but because it refutes what the same author has
told us elsewhere respecting ordination, as if it were the
single peculiar function of the episcopal office. The testi-
mony appears in the course of a supposed dialogue between
a Luciferian dissenter and an orthodox churchman; but
this only brings out the fact which is stated on the one side,
and admitted on the other, more strongly.
' Lucif. Know you not it is the practice of the Churches
that to persons who have been baptized, the laying on of
hands should be administered, and so the Holy Ghost
invoked upon them ? Do you ask where this is written ? I
answer, in the Acts of the Apostles. But even if it did not
rest, as it does, upon the authority of Scripture, the con-
sentient practice of the whole Church to this effect would have
the weight of a command.
' Orthod. Such, I grant, is the custom of the Churches,
that to those who have been baptized by presbyters and
deacons at a distance from the larger cities, the bishop goes
out for the purpose of administering the laying on of hands,
and of invoking the gift of the Holy Ghost.' l
1 'Adv. Lucifer/ c. viii. vol. ii. that same passage of the Acts,
p. 164. A similar interpretation of above referred to, is given by St.
Q2
228 LECTURE THE THIRD.
No one who is competent to judge can doubt that con-
firmation is a very important ordinance, and would be
calculated to do much good were it only of human
observed by institution. 1 Accordingly it is observed among Lutherans
Lutherans.
Testimony in many parts of Germany, even without a bishop. This ap-
of Bunsen.
pears, for instance, from a work which I just now quoted, the
lately published ' Memoirs of Baron Bunsen,' who, though
as far removed as any man from the least tincture of super-
stition, regarded the administration of this rite to the
several members of his family, as they grew up, with the
liveliest interest. 2 At the same time, that the practice among
German Protestants is less general than it ought to be, or
that not being episcopal it is not satisfactory at least to
some, appears, from the complaint of the learned Lutheran
Delitzsch in his Commentary upon the Epistle to the
Hebrews vi. 2, where he asks, ' Can we suppose that the
apostolic writer of this Epistle would represent the laying on
Cyprian, Ep. Ixxiii. c. ix. ; and he be otherwise but that schism will
adds, 'The same is now practised prevail. It cannot be otherwise
also among us.' See also St. Augus- but that the nets -will be
tin, ' De Trin.,' xv. 26. 'In Epist. broken, and broken the more
Joann.,' Tract., vi. 10. 'DeBapt. irreparably in proportion to the
adv. Don.,' iii. 21. neglect.' The prevalence of dissent
1 On the rite of confirmation, as in England, and of sectarianism in
symbolising unity, being adminis- America, is there traced to that
tered t>y bishops only, see the neglect as it existed in former years,
author's Oxford Ramsden Sermon, * See ' Bunsen's Memoirs,' vol. i/
for 1857, pp. 9-12 : 'It follows ppt 315, 559 sq., 630, vol. ii. p. 17,
from what has been said, that if note, 216, 352.
.confirmation be neglected, it cannot
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 229
of hands, following after baptism, as among the fundamentals
of Christianity, if it were not a holy ordinance and had not
a divine promise annexed to it ? ' And then he adds :
' Unhappily, the Church of the present lacks many things in
comparison with the Church of the first century ; but that
deficiency will only become greater, if it (i.e. the Church of
the present) forms thereon mere theories, not to say empty
dreams.' 1
I hope I may be allowed to express a wish that our confirmation
ought not to
Presbyterian friends would lay these words to heart. I be withheld
from the
cannot but think that their ministers incur a very serious young-
responsibility in withholding confirmation from the young.
We strongly condemn in the Church of Rome the denying
of the cup to the laity. I have no desire to press the two
cases into a close comparison ; but while I admit that the
latter cannot be censured too severely, I am utterly at a
loss to excuse the former. If the testimony which a clergy-
man of North America, who was once a Presbyterian
minister, has published respecting one of his own children, be
verified only in a single case out of many hundreds, the
result would suffice to justify the ordinance, irrespective of
our obligation to observe it on other accounts. The narra-
tive is a touching one, and I give it you simply as I find it
in the father's own words :
* One of those little ones the first that was given me, and
the first that I gave the Church is now among them that
sleep in Jesus. In the glow of childhood, in her fifteenth
1 Quoted by the Bishop of Lincoln, in loc.
230
LECTURE THE THIRD.
Fourth
evil conse-
quence :
Disuse
of other
catholic
ordinances.
year, she expressed the usual desire to be confirmed at the
next visitation of the bishop. As her father was beyond
the seas, her friends advised her to await his return. But
with the grace already given her, she urged her request very
importunately. . , . She was accordingly confirmed, under the
most gratifying appearances of sincerity and earnestness. A
new measure of the Spirit evidently rested upon her from
that hour ; she spoke in a sweeter tongue ; she led a
more heavenly life ; not noisy but still, not ostentatious but
retiring ; not even conscious was she of the impression made
upon her heart and life, nor of that impression so sweetly re-
flected upon those around her. . . . And such a life of gentle-
ness and holiness, and self-denial and prayer and humble
usefulness, it has never been my lot to know in one so young.
And God has rewarded it. Within a year from the time that
she knelt under the bishop's hands, she entered joyfully
into the rest for which she had been unconsciously maturing,
and was " so blessed, she blessed the hand of death." ' l
4. To proceed with my argument. Closely allied, as
consequences flowing, more or less directly, from the aban-
donment of the threefold ministry, are :
a. The discontinuance of daily public worship.
b. The renunciation of the catholic observance of the
great fasts and festivals of the Church, such as
Advent, Christmas, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Ascen-
sion, Whitsuntide.
1 ' A Presbyterian Clergyman looking for the Church.' p. 95.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTE. 231
c. The infrequency of administration of Holy Communion.
d. The disallowal of Communion to the sick and dying.
I trace all these to abandonment of what I venture to call
the legitimate ministry, because, wherever that abandonment
has taken place, such results will be found to have ensued in a
greater or less degree. There may appear at first sight to be no
connexion between the threefold ministry and (for example)
liturgical worship. But in truth the connexion is not far to
seek. A system which claims to be more or less directly of
divine institution, as compared with one which is of human
origin, will naturally inspire greater reverence in all our
dealing with divine things ; and consequently will lead us to
shrink from approaching the Majesty of God, in His solemn
worship, through the extemporaneous effusions of each
individual minister. Again: a system of graduated authority,
as compared with parity among ministers (as we see in a
monarchy compared with a republic) will no less naturally
lead to the same result : and in the minister himself, there
can scarcely fail to be less respect for an office which he has
received from his equals, and a lower estimate of the value
of its functions, except so far as they depend upon the
exercise of his own personal gifts. Now either of these
principles, and still more both combined, may suffice to
account for each of those four results, which I just now
specified as effects of the abandonment of the threefold
ministry.
It was far from being the intention of our reformers in this
country that the daily public worship, which had been cele-
232 LECTURE THE THIRD.
brated in the churches before the Reformation, should alto-
Daiiy public gether cease. In the first Book of Discipline (1560), though
worship
f> rd scotch tne y ^ not attem P t to enforce any general rule upon the
subject, yet they expressly contemplate that 'some kirks
might convene every day ; some twice, some thrice in the
week ' (c. xi.). And in ' the short Sum' of the same book,
'for the Instruction of Ministers and Readers in their
Office,' they go further : ' In towns we require (they say)
every day either sermon or public prayers, with some reading
of Scriptures.' And again: ' In every notable town we require
that at the least once in the week beside the Sunday, the
Origin of its whole people convene to the preaching' (c. x.). But when
liturgical worship came to be superseded, as it did very
soon under the new system, by prayer more or less extempo-
raneous, the greater effort and the necessity for at least
some preparation, which this latter practice would in almost
all cases impose upon the minister together with di-
minished regard for public prayer itself simply as such l
produced the neglect which now, I believe, everywhere pre-
vails of all stated provision for week-day services. The same
causes that is, on the one hand, lack of reverence, cloaking
itself under the dread of superstition, in regard to the use of
all things sacred and of the ministry itself; and, on the
other hand, the greater difficulty in meeting the require-
1 Dr. R. Lee testified, not long being considered as mere garnish-
since, that the sermon had come to ing.' Reform of the Church of Scot-
be regarded as ' the grand centre ' of land, p. n.
the whole service, ' the other acts
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS.
233
ments of all special occasions in the absence of prescribed
liturgical forms these causes, I say, have brought about
also the other consequences to which I just now referred,
viz. the non-observance of the great fasts and festivals; 1 the
sad infrequency 2 'of the breaking of bread,' so unlike the
practice of the primitive Christians, as recorded in the New
Testament ; and the disallowal of it altogether except to
those who can attend the public Communion on the rare
occasions when it is administered. Far be it from us to
boast as if the threefold ministry, wheresoever it is exercised,
either among ourselves or elsewhere, could be acquitted of
all deficiency in these respects. But this at least may be
said with truth. Breathing as we do in this country an
atmosphere which unhappily is most unfavourable to all
such usages ; still there is, I believe, no diocese in which the
prediction of the Psalmist is not publicly fulfilled, that in
the days of the Messiah ' prayer should be made for Him
continually, and daily should He be praised' (Ps. Ixxii. 15) ;
Other de-
fects traced
to the same
cause.
1 They were repudiated in the first
'Book of Discipline' (c. i.), which
things, among other observances
there condemned as ' inventions of
the Papists, because in God's Scrip-
tures they neither have command-
ment nor assurance, we judge them
utterly to be abolished from this
realm ; affirming further that the
obstinate maintainers and teachers
of such abominations ought not to
escape the punishment of the civil
magistrate' (!). The observance of
the great holidays is based upon
Scriptural principles, as well as
upon the authority of the Church.
See above, p. 12.
2 ' I should hail with thankfulness
.... a more frequent dispensation
of the Holy Communion (in not a
few parishes there is yet, shamelessly,
but the single annual celebration)
say, quarterly, or at least three times
a-year. 1 Dr. John Wylie's Pastoral
Reminiscences, 1868, p. 324,
234 LECTURE THE THIRD.
no diocese in which there is not at least one church
wherein the lamp of God is trimmed, and the spiritual
incense ascends from day to day, according to the practice
of the Church, Jewish and Christian, from the beginning ;
and where intercession is made for all the rest, and for the
whole of Christ's body militant throughout the world.
London and And if we compare episcopalian London with presbyterian
Edinburgh
compared. Edinburgh in this respect, what is the result? In and
around London (as appears from a statistical record for the
present year, 1869) there are 588 churches, and of these
there is daily service in more than one-fifth that is, con-
siderably more than joo ; and weekly administration of the
Holy Communion at nearly one-fourth of the same churches. l
Who can tell how much the safety of the British Empire
throughout the world may depend upon these acts of public
worship in its great metropolis ? In Edinburgh, and even
in Glasgow with its venerable Cathedral, among all the Pres-
byterian denominations, including the Established Church,
there is not, I believe, a single place of worship which is
opened daily ; or, as a rule, on any day but Sunday for
public prayer.
Furthermore, with respect to the rarity of Holy Com-
munion, I am tempted to observe that this is one of the
many instances, in which there is practically a meeting of
1 See 'Mackeson's Guide to the both in daily services and weekly
Churches of London and its Sub- Communions. See also the testi-
urbs.' The same ' Guide ' for 1872 mony of ' Pietas Londinensis,' 1712,
represents a considerable increase in regard even to the last century.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 23
extremes between popery and presbyterianism. In the pre- Meeting
of the ex-
Sent case I attribute the coincidence to the exaggeration of tremes
popery and
the true form and character of the Christian ministry and P resbvter y-
of its divinely ordered functions on the one hand ; and to
their equally undue diminution and depreciation on the other.
It is well known that the infrequency of lay communicating
rendered only more glaring by the constant private Masses
of the priests came, as a general practice, into the Church of
Rome when the clergy had assumed ultra-sacerdotal powers ;
and when all that was said or read in public worship was in a
tongue not commonly understood. The same infrequency
as regards not the people only but the ministers also came
into Protestant communities when the sacred ministry had,
in a great measure, denied itself, by sharing its sacred
functions with lay presbyters ; and, as if secretly conscious
of its inherent defects, it shrunk from the assertion of the
true doctrine and practice of the Sacramental Ordinances of
the Gospel ; till at length the public recital of the Lord's
Prayer, and of the Catholic Creeds, and even the reading of
the inspired volume itself, had been commonly discontinued. 1
The failures and deficiencies which I have been led to
notice, not (God knows) as desiring to seek occasion for
censure, but simply in order to carry out and complete the
argument upon which we are engaged, are such as men would
1 See Dr. Lee's ' Reform, &c.,' p. place of late years; and perhaps
ii, 31, 80. It is but just to say, the statement quoted, made as it
in regard to the first and last of the was with reference to the earlier
three particulars, mentioned above, part of the present century, may
that great improvement has taken have been somewhat exaggerated.
236 LECTURE THE THIRD.
not readily acquiesce in, if they related to the comforts and
accommodations of this present life. As it is, they relate to
things of in finitely more importance. The question then oc-
curs Shall no effort be made to remedy or amend them,
when their continuance cannot be otherwise than a cause
to many of just dissatisfaction it may be also to some of
grave disaster ? Again, be it remembered that we have been
speaking only of a system, and its seen results, as testified
by those who were themselves adherents of it.
Fifth evil 5. There is, proceeding from the same cause, another
conse-
quence: consequence by which wrong though doubtless, it must be
Alienation
of endow- said, legalised wrong is committed, and that, in regard not
merits from
ime^ted on ty to tmn S s moral and spiritual, but material also. I will
donore. not refer to the building of churches by Episcopalians formerly,
which are now held by Presbyterians ; nor to the founding
of exhibitions at the Universities for our advantage which are
now applied to the benefit of Presbyterians ; but I will ask
what is the history of the foundation of some portion at least
of those professorships I mean the theological which alone
are now reserved to the Established Church, and from which,
therefore, we are excluded ? For example, of the four pro-
fessorships in the faculty of divinity at the University of
Aberdeen, three were founded under episcopacy, viz. in 1616,
1620, and 1674 ; and, we may reasonably infer, for episco-
palian purposes. Is it fair is it right that the chairs of these
professorships l should be now used to instil into the minds
1 Even the lay professors are still clare solemnly, that in the discharge
required (by the Act of 1853) to de- of their office they will never,
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 237
of young candidates for the sacred ministry principles and
sentiments more or less hostile to episcopacy, and conse-
quently not only to us and to our system, but also to the
system of the Church of England"} Must it not be admitted
that if we are wrong, and are in consequence deprived of
the inheritance which our forefathers provided for us, then
the Church of England is also wrong ; and if the Church of
England is right, then are we also right ; or at least not so
far wrong, that we deserve to be trampled on and despoiled ?
Neither will it suffice to compare with spoliation such as
that under which we suffer the case of the ante-Reformation
endowments taken from the Church of Rome. The nation,
as a body, had waked up to the conviction a sound and
just conviction that the Church of Rome, whatever it
might be and do in Italy, in this country was, and was exer-
cising, not only a usurped but an anti-national authority ;
which authority, therefore, and the instruments that upheld
it, might and ought to be taken away. I need not say that
nothing of the kind ever has been or could be alleged
against ourselves.
6. I pass on to notice a sixth evil consequence which sixth evil
conse-
must always ensue more or less wherever separation abounds ; quence :
3 ' Waste of
and which, as is only too obvious, prevails in this country ^j^'",!* 1
to a lamentable extent I allude to the evident waste of resources -
power and of the means of doing good, of all kinds, when in
directly or indirectly, teach anything opposed to .... the Westminster
Confession of Faith.
238 LECTURE THE THIRD.
a case where a single ministry would have sufficed, especially
in country districts, four or five ministers are to be found,
drawing the perplexed and bewildered people so many
different ways ; l while they themselves (a further unhappy
consequence) are reduced in many instances to a state
bordering upon penury, 2 without the possibility of making
fit provision for their families ; so that their positions have
come to be spoken of jestingly as ' not livings but starving*. '
And to say the truth though it may sound as if spoken with
undue bitterness it is only well that we should all be
starved, like discordant jurymen on a trial for life and
death, until we can bring ourselves to agree better than we
now do upon the momentous verdict which, in a general
sense, it is our office to deliver. Yes ; if our mutual charity
be starved, if we be straitened, as St. Paul speaks, in our own
bowels, it is no more than just that we should be straitened
also in the nourishment which they crave. We meet indeed
with but little commiseration, and must it not be said ?
we deserve less. 3
1 ' While there is in some places vision for the ministers of religion,
an enormous waste of Christian see Barrow's 'Consecration Sermon,'
energy, owing to several sects over- vol. i. p. 318.
lapping and embarrassing each 3 Let the reader weigh well the
other, in others fields white unto the statements made in the following
harvest are not touched by a single testimony :
sickle.' Report of Committee of 'While our country is over-
Church of Scotland on Christian churched at so great an expense,
Life and Work, presented at Gene- the spiritual destitution of the land
ral Assembly, May 20, 1870. is year by year increasing. As
2 On the necessity of a due pro- steadily as the churches grow in
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS.
239
7. To these considerations connected with a ministerial Seventh
evil conse-
supply, which is excessive because beyond the requirements ^^^""
of the population, it may be added that the levelling of ranks *i
among the clergy, consequent upon the discontinuance of
the three orders, has involved the lowering of their social
position, and the withdrawal of all those dignities and dis-
tinctions which, sometimes combining leisure (more or less)
with emolument, were wont to be spoken of as ' prizes ' in
the Church. In other words, the system of presbyterian
parity has a tendency to destroy, and has actually destroyed,
not only the inducements, but also the opportunities of high
clerical cultivation. 1 This at a time when learning, in at
the
number, the wave of ignorance, and
poverty, and irreligion rises higher
and higher. In five-and-twenty
years the churches have nearly
doubled ; and as one of the most
natural functions of a church is the
care of the poor, we might argue
that poverty must have diminished
in a corresponding ratio. Yet what
is the fact? The cost of maintain-
ing the poor has increased from
300, ooo/. to 900, ooo/. ; and though
it would be rash to assert that they
were long ago adequately main-
tained, they were yet in a better
state than to-day. More than a
thousand schools have been added
during that period, yet the unwel-
come* assertion stares us in the face
that 90,000 children are growing up
without school instruction. Glas-
gow, with 196 churches, has a popu-
lation outside all these churches
of 130,000. Edinburgh, with 20
churches too many, has made
public confession that its poor are
unrelieved, and that 40,000 or
50,000 are living without any ordi-
nances of religion. These are
awful facts to ponder especially for
Presbyterians. For we do not hesi-
tate to lay the blame of them very
much at their door. Ask anyone
for the explanation of this state of
m'atters, and the answer is imme-
diately given THE DISSENSIONS
OF THE CHURCHES.' The Glas-
gow Herald, April 1870.
1 The want of a high-class indi-
genous theological literature in Scot-
240 LECTURE THE THIRD.
least some portion of the clergy, is more than ever required,
is a serious loss. And the same cause has led to a further
evil, scarcely less to be deplored. I allude to the fact that
the office of the ministry has come to be filled almost exclu-
sively out of one, viz. the middle class, and not always by the
most talented and most enterprising of that class, because to
such at the present day openings more promising and more
remunerative are presented in other lines of life. This is a
result which operates in various ways most injuriously upon
the whole body of society. It has commonly sent the
younger sons of the Scottish gentry and aristocracy to seek
their fortunes in India ; l whereas, had they remained at
home and become clergymen (as is the case very generally
with persons of a corresponding condition in England), they
might have done incalculable good by assisting to draw
together all classes of the population throughout the country,
and in some instances, at least, would doubtless have
exhibited (as is seen in England among clergy of that class)
land has often been lamented by served that 'nearly all Scotchmen
Presbyterians themselves. Much know something about India,
has been done to supply the defect especially what are called the more
by translations from German divines. comfortable and wealthier classes:
And it must not be forgotten that for there is hardly one of their
the valuable 'Ante-Nicene Library ' families which has not sent some
is due not only to the enterprise of members out to make their fortune
Scottish publishers, but to the in that distant country.' The cause
learning and scholarship of Scottish of this will be found mainly, I be-
editors, though one of them till re- lieve, in the presbyterianism of this
cently was located in England. country, which has thus benefited
1 Mr. Bright, in his speech at India at the expense of the father-
Edinburgh, November 3, 1868, ob- land.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 241
the best examples of clerical efficiency, combined with
clerical self-denial. Upon this and other accounts it is not
too much to say that presbyterianism could never have pro-
duced that humblest, holiest specimen of an English parish
priest, the high-born author of The Country Parson.' l On
the other hand, it would be desirable, perhaps, for the
Church of England that a larger proportion of her clergy
should be drawn from the middle class. The truth is that
the Church, in order to do her work effectually, requires for
her ministers men from all classes. She requires men of
gentle blood, of refined taste, who will be able to speak
at once with acceptance and with authority to the rich and
powerful ; but she also requires men who, from their own
experience, will know how to enter into the wants and
sympathise with the feelings of those whose lot is cast in
different and even opposite circumstances. Happily, in this
country there is no lack of admirable examples of the latter
description ; but for the former, it must be confessed, we
have to look almost in vain. And yet, in a state of society
in which the aristocratical element prevails so largely as it
does amongst ourselves, it cannot be otherwise than a
serious disadvantage when the ministers of religion have
little or no direct personal connexion with that element. 2
8. A further evil consequence, not yet fully developed,
1 See Barnabas Oley's Preface, 194 sq., 295. And upon the subject
c. v. of this section generally, comp.
2 See the valuable remarks in Hooker, 'E. P.,' book vii. cc. xvi.-
Burke's ' Reflections on the French xxiv.
Revolution.' Works, vol. v. pp.
242
LECTURE THE THIRD.
Eighth
evil conse-
quence :
Difficulty
in dealing
with the
great ques-
tion of
national
education.
but threatening to become so more and more, the longer we
remain in our present state, is the supposed necessity of
dealing with education in such a way, that in order to render
it national or general, we must make it irreligious, or at least
must separate it from religion. That this is no idle fear has
been made only too apparent by the bill upon that subject
recently l introduced into the House of Lords. The dis-
tinguished member of the Government who brought forward
that measure openly avowed its object in these words : ' It
is proposed,' he said, ' to cut off the connexion between
the education in Scotland and the tenets of any religion
taught there ; ' and he proceeded to ' appeal to the various
religious bodies in this country to lay aside their differences
and dissensions,' in order to co-operate with the promoters
of the bill in effecting such a result. I too have appealed
and I now appeal again to our various religious bodies to
lay aside their differences and dissensions, but with a very
different aim. Doubtless it is better and so far I agree
with the resolutions of the Glasgow Committee of the 24th
April last doubtless it is better that our schools should con-
tinue denominational, than that they should become merely
secular. But we in Scotland are fond of demanding the
express authority of Scripture for what we do in all such
matters. And where, I would ask, is the Scriptural autho-
rity for ' denominationalism ' ? Is not the very term itself
1 The reader will bear in mind
that these lectures were written in
the earlier part of 1869. The re-
marks above remain unchanged, as
being equally applicable at the
present moment, February 1872.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 243
no better than a piece of hypocrisy ; used only because we
are unwilling to call our various self-styled * Churches ' what
St. Paul would have called them so many schisms ? Be
this, however, as it may, it is certain that the legislative
proposal which we now deprecate would never have been
entertained if statesmen had not grown impatient, only too
naturally, of our ' divisive courses ; ' and regarding them as
a hopeless impediment in the way both of the necessary ex-
tension and improvement of education, they have resolved,
after giving us full and repeated warning, to take the matter
into their own hands.
It is now fifteen years ago since the first announcement The author's
sentiments
of a bill, similar in its irreligious tendency to that which I as expressed
in the year
just now alluded to, induced me to come forward and to l854
found upon it an appeal similar to the appeal which I am
making now ; and the circumstances for the most part being
still the same, I may be allowed perhaps to repeat a small
portion of the public address which I then delivered. 1
' I am quite unable ' I then said ' to express the fore
bodings I entertain respecting the momentous issues which
are at stake in that measure ' the bill which was then
before Parliament for the extension and amendment of our
national education. ' Only let me say, if it pass into a law,
Satan, our great enemy, will have gained an advantage over
1 In the City Hall, Perth, May 4, Scotland under existing circum-
1854. What appears to the author stances was stated by him in his
the best solution of the religious Charge for last year, 1871, pp. 12-
difficulty in national education for 14.
K 2
244 LECTURE THE THIRD.
us, such as I dread to contemplate. He it is, I believe, who
has been foremost in raising the cry of the neglect of educa-
tion, and in persuading us to appeal to our civil rulers for
the remedy of the evil ; not that he desires to see it remedied,
but because he knows that any legislation which may be
adopted, in deference to that discordant cry, will turn to his
advantage ; will tend to weaken still further the foundations
of religious faith ; to form a focus of still more bitter and
unchristian animosity in every town and village throughout
the land ; to poison the well-spring of truth and godliness,
by separating the young from the superintendence of their
pastor ; and, above all, to withdraw the keystone from the
parochial system that triumphal arch, against which his
most fiendish spite will always be directed, because it records
and contributes to maintain the victory of the Gospel over
this and other Christian nations which he had formerly held
in his own darkness and in the shadow of death.
' It is, I would humbly trust, in no other spirit than that
of a Scottish patriot, of one who could weep over his
adopted country when he sees that she is driving fast upon
quicksands from which there can be no escape except with
the wreck of her religious faith ; it is in no other spirit than
this that I venture to raise my voice, and entreat that legis-
lation may be suspended, or carried no further than is
absolutely necessary in the meantime for the maintenance
and efficiency of the present system, until some greater
measure of unanimity can be obtained, upon sound and
settled principles, agreeable to the Word of God, which will
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS.
245
warrant our legislation to be sound also. And where can
we find these principles in our present divisions ? l O my
brethren ! let us think whether, while we have been disputing
in mistaken zeal about the royalty of Christ, we have not
rather plaited a crown of thorns, and put it upon His head !
And now, if under the malignant influence of these dis-
sensions, we shall go on to take from Him His little ones,
to take from Him those concerning whom He has said,
" Of such is the kingdom of Heaven ; " take them from the
bosom of His Church, and give them over to the charge of
that cruel stepmother, the starveling world ; give them to
be educated by a master of any religion, or of no religion ;
if, I say, we shall do this, what punishment, think you, will
suffice to expiate our guilt? Will war, will famine, will
1 I desire to submit to the reader's
earnest attention the following pro-
positions :
(a) It may be doubted whether
separation from a true branch of the
Church is justifiable under any
circumstances : i. Because it is
contrary to the plain teaching of
Scripture ; and, 2. Because the evil
which it inflicts is sure to be greater,
in the long run, than any good
which it can hope to do.
(6) All the separations of which
we have experience appear to have
arisen from causes quite insufficient.
(c) They have all proceeded upon
the false assumption (in dependence
upon which the precepts of Scrip-
ture against separation have been
set aside), that if the Church to
which we belong does, or suffers to
be done, what we think in our
consciences to be evil, we become
responsible for the evil, unless we
separate ; whereas all we are re-
sponsible for is, to endeavour, by
every lawful means, to withstand
and correct it.
(a) The Reformation in the six-
teenth century was not a separation
on the part of the Reformers, but a
rejection of usurped authority.
It is believed that a conscientious
examination of these propositions
would go far, by God's help, to enable
us to see our way out of our divisions.
246 LECTURE THE THIRD.
pestilence, will any or all of these l be a sufficient chastise-
ment for a nation which has been so signally blessed, and
which, notwithstanding, shall be so heartless, so ungrateful,
as to adopt a system of education of which the very heathen
would be ashamed ?
The real ' There was a time when the people of this country would
character of
Christian not have endured that even a Scottish parliament should
education.
presume to legislate in regard to things spiritual. But now,
it would seem, the Church has no alternative but to abdicate
her office in favour of whatever law it may please Parliament
to impose : so short-sighted has been the wisdom, and so
calamitous the zeal, with which we have taken on us to
support the throne and royalty of Christ by ways that are
none of His. For is not the education of Christians a
spiritual thing ? Is it not of all things the most spiritual ?
Is not the Holy Spirit Himself the Author of it ? Is it not
He who alone can order the unruly wills and affections of
sinful men, or of weak, wayward children, so as to make
"either the one or the other to become dutiful, humble,
chaste, temperate, truthful, pious, loyal and so to fulfil the
end of all true education ? Yes ; though one has declared
recently, on a public occasion, that he can find no authority
in the Word of God for assigning to the clergy the super-
intendence of education, as if the same divine voice which
1 The address was delivered at of cholera, and of the Crimean
the time of the appointment of a War. in which we were then en-
day for national humiliation, in gaged,
consequence of the recent visitation
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 247
commanded, " Feed my sheep," had not also commanded,
" Feed my lambs ; " and though another has jeeringly re-
marked that he sees no mention of schools in the New
Testament, but " the school of one Tyrannus ; " let us, my
brethren, be persuaded that education is a spiritual thing.
Yes ; and let us not go further than we have already gone in
breaking up the foundations of our faith as a Christian
people ; let us not require of our rulers in the State to do
for us what our own divisions have rendered impossible to
be done, except in a manner of which we shall soon find
reason bitterly to repent ; let us be assured that all the
difficulties of the educational question have arisen out of
these divisions, and that the more we attempt to extricate
ourselves, while we persist in this sinful course, the deeper
we shall sink into false principles, the more surely shall we
bring down upon our heads the divine displeasure. How
many questions have these dissensions already opened,
which heretofore we should have been ashamed to enter-
tain ! How perplexing, and how melancholy, would be the
report of all the arguments which have been urged upon
the ministry of the day by the various deputations which
have gone up from this country, each in turn endeavouring
to impress upon them its own peculiar views ! What might
not our own children say of us when they see us so much
confused, or, what is worse, so violently opposed to each
other, in regard to the system by which they are to be
educated ! Would it not seem as if, while we are all so
eager to promote their improvement, we ourselves have
248 LECTURE THE THIRD.
need that one teach us again which be the first principles of
our duty both in Church and State ? ' l
inserted [Eighteen years have elapsed since the foregoing words were
February
1872. spoken, and still we find ourselves in the same or even
greater perplexities ; and our governors can suggest to us
nothing wiser, nothing more worthy of our dignity and
responsibilities, as a Christian people, than that religion
should be cast out as a bone to the dogs, to become an
occasion of so many sectarian conflicts and dissensions as
there are to be so-called boards of education throughout the
land.]
Such, then, are some of the evil consequences which have
obviously arisen out of our abandonment of the principle of
religious unity. There are others still remaining to be
specified which extend even more widely, and will require
us to take a yet broader view.
Ninth 9- ^ s ** not then, I would venture to ask, a result deeply
quence" " to be deplored by all its true members that the system of
denial of the Christianity, in its practical aspects, is no longer seen in the
character , m ,
of the character which its Divine Author intended it to bear that
Church as
a corporate
institution. i ^ Parochial Schoolmaster ' consequently consult their own in-
lately wrote to the ' Edinburgh clinations in the matter of work.'
Courant ' (May 17, 1869): 'The I have reason to know that instances
facts of Scripture are very imper- are not uncommon of children
fectly leamt in the Sunday school, attending the Sunday schools of two
for there is in general such a keen or three different denominations on
competition to secure attendance the same day with the view to some
that the children speedily come to material advantage at the year's
think that they confer an obligation end.
on their teachers by attending, and
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 249
is, a corporate character ? Not only has the ' one Body ' of
Christ become a monster of many bodies, but the corpora-
tion, which He designed to institute, is, in a manner, indi-
vidualised ; the ' members in particular ' have come to be
everything, and the Body nothing. The 'communion of
saints ' is still an article of the belief we profess, but is it an
article of the life we lead? And what is the result? A
large portion of the duty which the Scripture enjoins upon
us as Christians is not only not performed by us, but the
performance of it is rendered impossible. For example, the Neglect of
relative
Scripture lays down as a first principle of our membership duties
unavoidable.
in Christ's mystical Body which it also teaches is one and
undivided l that if one member suffer, all the members
should suffer with it, or if one member be honoured, all the
members should rejoice with it (i Cor. xii. 26). But is this
possible in our present state ? Can the Established Church-
man rejoice, when we Episcopalians prosper, or when the
Free Church prospers, or when the United Presbyterians
prosper? No ! in reason and in conscience, we must
mutually desire not the prosperity, but the overthrow of
each other. 2 It is true, as individuals loving and esteeming
each other in many instances, we desire to escape from this
miserably false and unchristian conclusion, to which we are
1 i Cor. i. 13, xii. 12, 13, 27 ; Eph. strife' (Phil. i. 15-18) ; but there is
i. 23, iv. 4, 5, 12, 13, v. 23, 30 ; Col. no reason to suppose that the strife
i. 24 ; Rom. xii. 5. had led to formal separation, or
2 I do not forget that St. Paul that it involved more than want of
had grace to ' rejoice ' that Christ due consideration and respect to St.
was preached, though ' of envy and Paul personally.
250 LECTURE THE THIRD.
practically shut up by our respective circumstances ; and,
conscience-smitten at the sight of the deformity of the con-
dition to which we are reduced, and desiring to throw the
best veil over it that we can, we are fain to have recourse to
various devices such as the Evangelical Alliance, and
miscellaneous prayer meetings, and interchange of pulpits
between ministers who never meet at the same table for Holy
Communion in order to soothe, as we would hope, the
yearnings of our hearts, and to allay the thirstings of our
spirit, as in a dry land where no water is. But the experi-
ence now of many years, utterly barren of all substantial
fruit, may have sufficed to teach us that God will never
suffer the devices of man to supply the place of His own
ordinances ; while the inconsistency of our well-meant
endeavours must have forced upon us the conviction at
every turn that we were only throwing dust in each other's
eyes : and some of us, it may be, in the consciousness of a
participation in a self-imposed delusion, can scarcely refrain
from smiling at each other; as Cicero supposes of the
Roman augurs, when they chanced to meet. Again, there
are duties religious duties which masters of a household
owe to their servants, superiors to their dependents ; duties
of example ; duties of teaching, of admonition, of warning ;
duties of superintendence, of encouragement in their Chris-
tian course : but how can any of these be fully and ade-
quately discharged, when the Christian course, in which they
respectively walk, in regard to the public profession and
practice of religion, is not the same j when the course in
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 251
which the master walks is, perhaps, opposed to that in which
the servant walks, and when the latter will be not unlikely
to resent any interference upon the part of the former on
that account ? The disorganisation of domestic life, in too
many instances, and especially of the wholesome relations
between the upper and lower classes of society, consequent
upon the prevalence of our religious divisions, is indeed one
of the most bitter fruits of those divisions ; l and akin to
this is the diminished influence which, on the same account,
and through fear of the mutual jealousies among us, minis-
ters of the Gospel, as such, are, for the most part, allowed to
exercise over all proceedings of a public character. Even
in good works of a semi-sacred kind, such as the manage-
ment of our infirmaries, the laity would seem to be unwilling,
in some instances, to share with us the grave responsibility
which they impose upon themselves ; doubtless because
they have seen reason to apprehend that greater embarrass-
ment might arise out of our several differences than advan-
tage from our common help. In this respect, at least, the
disunion in England being comparatively less, the clergy
there are still in a position to confer far greater benefits
upon the whole community.
1 See the conclusion of the Earl and prosperous history of the Scot-
of Rosebery's inaugural address at tish union (with England) ; a
the Philosophical Institution, No- greater page lies vacant before us
vember 4, 1871, in which he on which to inscribe a fairer union
characterised class-separations as still ;' i.e. of the classes of our popu-
the crying evil of Scotland. ' A lation among themselves,
great page records the bloodless
252 LECTURE THE THIRD.
Position I must not quit this section of our present argument
of the
sovereign. without alluding to the position which our sovereigns
themselves are obliged to occupy in consequence of the
disagreement between their Scotch and English subjects
upon the matter which we are now considering. The
' Confession of Faith ' would teach them, as a main part of
their duty, ' to take order that unity and peace be preserved
in the Church.' * But what is one of the first acts which we
impose upon them, as a condition of their being allowed to
ascend the throne ? We require them to take two different
oaths, by which they promise equally to uphold two
ecclesiastical systems which, as they now exist, are con-
fessedly irreconcileable. Thus they find themselves yoked
to two professions which have proved their discordancy
by their historical antagonism. They are placed in cir-
cumstances which tempt nay, to a certain extent, compel
them to 'halt between two opinions.' Such a predicament
can scarcely fail to be injurious both to those who are
placed in it, and to the mass of the people who are liable to
be influenced by the example of their rulers. 2 It obviously
tends to impair their confidence in the unity and consistency
of divine truth ; to foster the growth of indifferentism upon
religious questions of other and, it may be, still more
important, kinds ; to weaken the principles of the unstable ;
to offend the consciences of the earnest-minded ; and, at the
1 See Westminster Confession, of the city is, such are all they that
c. xxiii. 3. dwell therein.' Eccles. x. 2. Comp.
* 'What manner of man the ruler Cic. ' de Leg., 1 iii. 24.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 253
same time, to undermine the loyalty of all by diminishing
the sentiments of esteem and veneration in which the
monarchy itself is held. The evil had been comparatively
dormant till these latter years ; but the frequent visits to this
country of our gracious Sovereign who now reigns, and her
own considerate desire to adapt herself, as far as possible, to
the feelings of all her subjects, and the supposed demands of
her position, have combined to force it upon public notice,
and to compel us to regard it as a stumbling-block which
(for her sake and for our own), we should desire to remove.
For we cannot escape out of this dilemma. If it be indeed
a matter of indifference, then unquestionably we do wrong
to make it a subject of such solemn obligation ; if it be not
indifferent, then we do wrong to constrain our rulers virtually
to regard it as if it were, by obliging them to become equal
supporters of both systems.
And the same evil operates in a greater or less degree Alienation
of classes
upon a large proportion of our population ; more especially O r t ^ r each
of the upper classes, who have ties and associations which
bind and often draw them to England. Take the case of
a landed proprietor who possesses large estates in both
countries. He finds one form of religion established in the
one country, and a different form established in the other.
What is he to do ? If he is an earnest and conscientious
man, it is impossible that his sympathies should be with
both those forms ; and not being bound, as the holder of the
crown is, to be a monstrum biforme in religion a Protestant
of two denominations it is not unlikely that he may choose to
254 LECTURE THE THIRD.
belong to neither ; as we have recently seen in the case of a
young and promising nobleman, who being placed under such
circumstances, preferred to go over to the Church of Rome.
IO ' ^ s ^ a ^ toucn but slightly upon the evil effect which,
Greatlr~ as a k m to the foregoing, I have next to specify ; not because
of unsound it is less deplorable than others for there is none which, in
doctrine. ...
itself, is more injurious but because among ourselves the
experience of it has been less manifest than elsewhere ; I
mean the more general prevalence of unsound and heretical
opinion (together with exaggeration of some portions of the
Truth and neglect or disparagement of others), which are
wont to take place when the true framework of the ministry
has been mutilated or renounced. No one who is ac-
quainted with the history of continental Protestantism,
especially at Geneva, in Holland, and in parts of Germany,
can doubt that, following upon the disorganisation of the
Church's ministry, and upon the concurrent disuse (partial or
entire) of liturgical worship, there has arisen a laxity of doc-
trine which has wellnigh divested Christianity of all its dis-
tinctive truth. 1 That the same effect has not followed in this
country, or followed in a far less degree, I must be allowed
to think is due (through God's blessing) to the fact, that the
operation of the same causes has been kept in check, if not
1 A correspondent of the 'Times,' creed. . . . Only a small fraction of
writing from Berlin, in August the nation attends divine service.
1869, used these words : ' Three- .... Who that knows modern
fourths of all educated men in Germany would call it a Christian.
Germany are estranged from the land!' Compare the testimony of
dogmatic teaching of the Christian Bunsen, as given above, p. 225.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 255
by the presence among us, at least to some extent, of a re-
formed episcopal ministry, yet unquestionably by the power-
ful influence of the writings of the great English divines, and
of the English Prayer Book ; which have never ceased to act,
however secretly, yet with a most sure and salutary effect.
In Germany, the same spirit of a learned and ingenious
scepticism, which denied the personality of the poet Homer,
has occupied itself in seeking to explain away the facts and
testimonies upon which episcopacy rests, and in substituting
for them theoretical fancies of its own invention. But it did
not stop there. It has proceeded, in a not unnatural course,
to undermine the authority of revelation, by attempting to
disprove the genuineness and authenticity of large portions
of Holy Scripture, including the life of our blessed Lord
Himself. In this country, a community of situation and of
interest has induced our presbyterian fellow-countrymen to
avail themselves of the labours of that sceptical erudition in
justifying their repudiation of the threefold ministry ; but it is
matter for earnest congratulation that they have shrunk, for
the most part, from the use of the more deeply poisoned
weapons which the same armoury would have supplied ;
and be it spoken to our shame it has been left to some,
who have possessed every advantage, and are, or were, in
communion with ourselves, to borrow and apply those
weapons in the attacks which they have made upon the
inspiration and veracity of the Word of God.
ii. The next evil consequence which I have to name Eleventh
evil conse-
is, the disadvantage under which separation places every quence:
256 LECTURE THE THIRD.
impediments Christian community in its endeavours to uphold and extend
in the way
ofconvertmg the Gospel. It is obvious that, if the uniformity of the
the heathen,
coveri f n re our Christian ministry which once existed could be restored, at
population, least among the people of this island, the great work of
Christian evangelisation might then be carried on by us,
both at home and abroad, with far greater success than we
can expect to meet with, disorganised and divided as we
now are ; and consequently disentitled to receive, so largely
as we might otherwise hope to do in such a cause, the divine
blessing, without which our best efforts can be of no avail.
At home, for example, the report issued in the early part of
last year (February 1868) concerning the miserable condi-
tion of the poor in Edinburgh, while it confessed inability
to discover ' which is the first link in the chain of causation,'
yet did, in fact, suggest this as the one great obstacle that
stood in the way of effectually grappling with the mass of
evil which had been found to exist. And accordingly, in an
able article which appeared in the ' Scotsman ' newspaper
upon that report, it was observed that ' the remedial agencies
proposed, though more or less in practice at present, do not
answer their purpose, because they exist in operation
without co-operation. They do not work together for good.
The supreme and central remedial measure aimed at in the
present instance is the concentration of our isolated forces
of beneficence, which are now in so monstrous and mis-
chievous a degree clashing with, and counteracting or neu-
tralising each other where indeed they do not augmettt the
evils they were meant to mitigate in a chaos of ill-directed,
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 257
and therefore often fruitless, endeavour. Order is Heaven's
first law, and economy is like unto it. Our charities being
confessedly disorderly and wasteful, how can we expect
them to be blessed? ... It is one of the chief curses of our
present no system that, by the distrust which attends it, the
springs of charitable giving and doing are dried up at their very
sources.' Such is a specimen of our condition at home,
according to a testimony which is all the more valuable
because it is given not from any religious or ecclesiastical
point of view. I may add, that the before-named valuable
and trustworthy report represents what it calls * the lapsed
classes in Edinburgh ' as constituting more than one-fourth
of the entire popiilation. It is thus that the broken law of
unity still continues to avenge itself by introducing a Babel-
like confusion, which, even when we would be doing good,
baffles and defeats our aims ! *
Abroad, the interesting address, delivered shortly afterwards Dr N.
in the General Assembly by Dr. Norman McLeod, upon his India.
return from India, afforded only another evidence, in addi-
tion to countless testimonies before given to the same effect ; 2
1 ' The multiplication of sects heathen,' Report of Committee on
among us has multiplied the ap- Christian Life and Work, presented
pliances for developing the activity to the General Assembly of the
of professing Christians, but has Church of Scotland, May 20, 1870.
not only not diminished the proper- Compare above, p. 239 sq., note 3.
tion of practical heathen to the * See the author's ' Discourse on
members of Churches among us, Scottish Reformation,' Append.,
but is at the present moment one c. vi. And add Speech of Bishop
of the chief barriers to the proper of Bombay, ' Colonial Church
application of Christian power Chronicle,' March 1872, p. 101.
to the work of reclaiming such
358 LECTURE THE THIRD.
viz. that nothing acts as a greater hindrance in missionary
enterprise than conflicting systems among the missionaries.
Accordingly, he denounced denominationalism. He would
have us teach the people of India that what they want
what they must have is a Church of India. But with what
face can we, Scotch and English, presume and upon what
principles can we attempt to teach them this, so long as
we ourselves have a Church of England, and a Church of
Scotland, which are not at one, which are dissenters de-
nominationalists to each other ?
Bishop Piers I have said that Dr. N. McLeod's testimony is only one
Claughton of
Colombo. of many to the same effect. A sermon upon ' The Christian
Ministry and the Controversies concerning it,' preached
(1867) in the Cathedral of Colombo, by the bishop of that
see, now Archdeacon of London, contains the following
passage, which, from the allusion in the first words, though
addressed to others so many thousand miles away, would
seem to speak in an especial manner to ourselves :
' Happily, the question between our Scottish brethren and
ourselves is daily becoming more simple and plain, cleared
from the difficulties which beset it in the days of our fathers.
One by one causes of difference have melted away, or are
being canvassed in an impartial spirit with a view to their
just settlement.' And then apparently addressing Presby
terians and others who were not of his own flock for the
occasion being a Christmas ordination had probably at-
tracted many such, and, as it would seem, some of the
heathen also the bishop proceeds: 'What we wish is
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 259
that you should understand the stress laid in Scripture on
the unity of God's people that you should not accept a
mere consent to meet amicably now and then for actual
communion in Christ. And here, in the face of the un-
converted heathen, I tell you plainly, as one put in charge
with the Gospel, and I do not say it for the first time you
Christians must get rid of your manifold and needless divisions,
before you have so much as a reason to look for success in your
endeavours to convince those heathen of the truth of your own
religion ' J (p. 6).
Such is a sample of the testimonies which have come to us
from the far-distant East. Let us compare with them the
evidence which we have also received from the far-distant
West, and among a population whose condition, though
nominally Christian, would appear to be almost more alien
from genuine Christianity than heathenism itself. The
friends of Dr. Stephen Elliot, who was bishop of Georgia, a
southern State of North America, for more than twenty-five
years, and who died in December 1866, have since published
a volume of his admirable sermons, one of which, written in
the last year of his life, and therefore with all the benefit of
his ripe experience, is upon the text of Hosea viii. n :
' Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars
1 This last statement has received London, April 1870, complained
a remarkable confirmation from the that ' so many different doctrines and
leader of the Indian Theists Baboo rituals-were presented to the Hindoo
Keshub Chunder Sen who, in a by the missionaries of differing
most interesting address which he Churches, that he was quite bewil-
delivered at a public meeting in dercd and confounded by them '
S 2
a6o LECTURE THE THIRD.
shall be unto him to sin.' The solemn warnings which that
sermon contains would make it very valuable if it were
reprinted and circulated in this country. After remarking
that ' the tendency of the times is to strike at everything
positive and distinctive to put all systems, all institutions,
nay, all men, upon an ignoble level' (p. 166); and after
tracing the consequences of Jeroboam's politic (as it seemed)
and plausible disobedience to God's express command in
separating himself and his people from the one appointed
temple and altar and priesthood at Jerusalem consequences
which appeared first in a multiplicity of altars throughout
the land of Israel, until at length, under Ahab and Jezebel
and Joram, idolatry, the foulest and most degrading, usurped
the place of the worship of Jehovah it thus proceeds :
' And are we not in this country passing through pre-
cisely this experience ? . . . Are we not dividing and subdi-
viding into innumerable sects, each one setting up its own
altar, and each altar further and still further removed from
the doctrine and discipline of Christ? . . . Has not the
progress been rapidly downward, striking in turn at every-
thing distinctive in doctrine, and bringing in arrangements
of religious worship more and more radical ? Is not God mani-
festing the law of His government by permitting these altars
to multiply, and, as they multiply, to be more and more irre-
gular and profane ? . . . Look at the rapid deterioration of
religion in many parts of the United States, once the most
rigid and devout ! Look at the doctrines which are now
publicly proclaimed throughout the land, which are gathering
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 261
disciples, which are forming sects ; doctrines of devils, fit only
for execration and condemnation ! . . . " Ephraim is making
many altars to sin ; "... and true to the principle of its
action, his law is being fast made the banner under which idols
of every hue and shape idols of imagination, of sentiment,
of will, of pride, of lust are to take the place of Christ and
His Church. And what is worse, Christians seem blinded
to the condition of things, and are comforting themselves
with the idea that religion is advancing through the land,
when it is really fast running into the foulest corruption '
<p. 169 sq.).
12. One more evil consequence, requiring us to take a Twelfth
evil conse-
Jarge and comprehensive view, if we would pay due regard quence:
Advantage
not only to our spiritual and religious, but also to our secular ^ e e " to and
and political interests, consists in the advantage which OUT ta^lm.
establishment of two different and discordant forms of
Protestantism affords to the Church of Rome. I am sorry
that it should be necessary to speak of any Church as if we
were justified in regarding it with suspicion and distrust, and
still more, as if it were an adversary, whom it is our duty to
withstand. But such, unhappily, is our case towards the
Church of Rome ; and not ours only, but the case of every
other Church that refuses to submit to her despotic sway.
She must be resolutely withstood, because she considers it
her duty to press forward that Sway wherever she can do so
with the least prospect of success. And what have we to
oppose to that aggressive spirit ? Not long since I saw it
stated in a public journal that, whereas half a century ago,
a6a LECTURE THE THIRD.
the number of Roman Catholic clergy in Great Britain did
not amount to 300, it now exceeds 1,500; being consider-
ably more than the number of ministers of the Established
Church in Scotland. And all that force of Romanist clergy
have been trained, be it remembered, upon one and the same
system. But how have we been trained ? To fight against
each other. Look at the Catechism, sanctioned and put
forth by the General Assembly of the Free Church in 1847.
It has, it is true, its ' anti-papal testimony ; ' but it has also
what it calls its ' anti-prelatical testimony.' Or if not trained
to fight against each other, we learn, I had almost said, to
do worse to dissemble and slur over differences which,
nevertheless, so long as they exist, must be sufficient to keep
us from all effectual co-operation. It is not my avowal, but
the avowal of the late Dr. Robert Lee, that the two Esta-
blished Churches of this island ' as now existing, are rather
antagonists than allies.' l Nor could this well be otherwise,
when the establishment of one has been founded upon the
disestablishment of that which was, and is, in communion
with the other. How, then, are they to cease to be antago-
nists and to become allies ? ONLY BY THE DISCOVERY AND
ACCEPTANCE OF THE TRUTH. I have done my best not
hastily, not superficially, but after full and patient enquiry
to ascertain the truth in regard to the main point of differ-
ence which now separates the two Church establishments ; "
and, until it shall be shown by a more laborious and more
competent enquirer that I have fallen into error, I shall
1 ' Reform of the Church of Scotland.' p. 41.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 263
venture to think that I have demonstrated to the satisfaction
of every fair and candid mind what the truth in question
really is. I am equally prepared to prove that the true sys- National
tern of Christianity, as revealed to us for our guidance in thetnie
' ' system.
the Word of -God is, what in opposition to popery from
one point of view, and to voluntaryism from another may
best be called the national system ; that is, the system by
which each nation orders and establishes its own Church, as
in the sight of God (who has given to each its own language,
its own character, its own bounds of habitation), not in a
spirit of innovation, or of self-sufficiency, but in accordance
with the Scriptures, the faith, and ministry, everywhere re-
ceived among Christians, when the Church was one, and
before the universal Roman Empire, providentially formed
with the view to the extension of Christianity, had been,
with the view to its consolidation, no less providentially
broken up. By a process of argument similar to that which Proved from
history and
has been used in demonstration of the threefold ministry, it Scripture,
may be shown that this national system, as it had been fore-
told by God's ancient prophets long before, 1 so in the ful-
ness of time it was actually accomplished. It may be shown
that the command for the evangelisation of the world was
' to baptize ' not individuals merely, but ' all the nations '
as such, 2 and that what Christ ' commanded,' has been
' observed.' Wherever Christianity was received, there it
1 See Isaiah xlix. 22, 23 ; Hi. 15 ; Ix. 10-12, 16. Ps. ii. 8-12 ; Ixxii. n.
3 Matt, xxviii. 19.
264 LECTURE THE THIRD.
became national just as, wherever it became national, there
it had previously become episcopal. It may be shown that,
confessing our belief (as the Scripture teaches) in the session
of Christ ' at the right hand of God,' we thereby intend that
' all power has been given to Him in heaven and in earth ;' !
we virtually confess no less than this, that 'by Him ' and
for Him ' kings reign and princes decree justice ; ' a in other
words, we virtually confess not only the headship of Christ
over His Church, but His acquired right to all national and
political power, to be administered in His name by the
secular magistrate, as all ecclesiastical power is, or ought to
be, administered in His name by the spiritual magistrate. *
St. John Nor is there in these solemn truths anything at variance
xviii. 36, as
explained by with the word of Christ Himself (if only it be not, as too
St. Augustin
in IK. often it is, misinterpreted), when He declared to Pilate,
' My kingdom is not of this world.' That is, not received, or
derived i from 4 this world ; ' no, not 'from hence,' as He
presently repeats, thus explaining His meaning in the end
of the same verse (John xviii. 36) ; but 'here, in this world/
as St. Augustin declares (and so ' of this world," in a most
1 Ps. ex. i. Mark xvi. 19. i Pet. ii. 13, 14. Eph. i. 19-22.
Eph. i. 20. Col. iii. i. Heb. i. 3 ; Heb. xiii. 7, 8, 17. i Thess. v. 12.
x. 12. Matt, xxviii. 18. See also Phil. ii. 29, 30.
Dan. vii. 13, 14. Rev. i. 5 ; xvii. * The preposition in the Greek
14 ; xi. 15. indicates this. To express what
3 Prov. viii. 15. we commonly understand by 'of
3 That is, in Scriptural language. this world,' the genitive case would
the two powers, of the sword and have been used without a prepo^i-
of the keys. See Rom. xiii. 1-6. tion.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 265
real and true sense), ' is His kingdom, and all the powers of
the world, by divine right, are subject to it.' l
And yet, while all this can be shown, as I believe, to be
the very true teaching of the Word of God, I am far from
maintaining that circumstances can never arise in which
fidelity to her Divine Bridegroom may not provoke, nay, com-
pel the Church to sue for a divorce from her earthly bride-
groom.
But this I do say, and would most steadfastly maintain
being taught to do so by the sure voice of prophecy Woe
to the State which so treats its Church as to force her to
such a course ! Woe to the nation, that having been once
baptized, tears, as it were, the Cross from off its forehead
and repudiates its acceptance of Christ as its King ! a
With these convictions, I confess, I am not much disposed Success of
voluntary
to listen to calculations as to what the voluntary system system
delusory.
may, or may not, be able to effect. I consider that God
Himself has spoken upon the point, and that the national
system alone is in accordance with His will ; as shown, not
only by the teaching of His Word, but also by the working of
His providence, which has once wrought for Christianity its
establishment throughout the civilised world. But if nations
1 This is also the interpretation utterly wasted.' Isaiah Ix. 12. 'Be
of St. Chrysostom and of Theo- wise now therefore, O ye kings,
phylact. See the author's Perth . . . Kiss the Son, lest he be angry,
Lecture, 1854, p. 28. and so ye perish from the way,
s ' The nation and kingdom that when his wrath is kindled but a
will not serve thee (the Church) shall little.' Ps. ii. 10-12.
perish ; yea, those nations shall be
266 LECTURE THE THIRD.
take a retrograde course ; if they so far fall away as to prove
themselves unworthy of this better condition designed for
them by God ; then by all means let them make the best of
the alternative that remains to them the alternative of
voluntaryism. Only let them not vaunt themselves in so
doing ; let them not boast as if they had chosen the better
part when they have fallen back upon the worse ; and let
them not expect that the divine blessing will still rest upon
them no less than if they had dutifully adhered to the
divine will. No! and meanwhile, as members of the
Church, let us feel assured that the present successes, which
we are called upon to admire l in the working of the voluntary
system, whether in this country or elsewhere, are by no means
a conclusive proof, either of the sufficiency of the system
itself, or of the goodness of the cause in behalf of which it is
exerted. Such successes will be often due in a great degree
to local or occasional circumstances; and, so soon as the
established system is set aside, one great incentive to the
activity of voluntaryism, which arises out of a spirit of oppo-
sition to the power and prerogatives bestowed upon its
rival, will be withdrawn. But if we are to be told that a
cause must necessarily be a good one which is attended
with such appearances <5f success, then, I would ask, what
effects have ever been produced more extraordinary, or
1 On the other hand, we have away by the promises of a system
received warning from several of which their own experience had
the American bishops when they found to be delusive,
visited this country, not to be led
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 267
more admirable, than those glorious specimens of ecclesias-
tical architecture our abbeys and cathedral churches
erected under the influence of the papal system, when the
corruptions of that system were at their greatest height ? Or,
again, what success was apparently ever greater than that of
the sword, when drawn in behalf of the cause of the false
prophet, Mahomet ? Nor is the result in such cases difficult
to account for. Error can appeal to motives more powerful,
at least for a time, than those which the truth appeals to.
Error will not scruple to make use of instruments which the
truth would be unwilling or ashamed to employ.
The system, then, of a national established Church, or, in union of
Church and
other words, of a union between the Church and the State State, why
endangered.
of every nation professing to be Christian this I believe to
be the true, the only true and divinely intended system ; and
this, as regards ourselves, and the highly favoured nation to
which it is our privilege to belong, popery and voluntaryism
are now combining to destroy. And if our opposing front
is to continue still divided, and at variance, between prelacy
and presbyterianism, is there not too much reason to fear
that, eventually, they will succeed ? And when the national
system has given way, it is idle to expect that the system of
voluntaryism, with no bond of union in itself, will long be
able to withstand the spurious but attractive unity of the See above,
p. 4 and p.
Church of Rome. The secularisation of a State which has aa s-
once been Christian can never be regarded without regret
by a Christian mind. I say nothing of the circumstances
which may be thought to justify it in a country situated as
268 LECTURE THE THIRD.
Ireland is (1869) at the present time. But believing as I do
that the measures which we are now witnessing would never
have been proposed if there had been no such difference as
unhappily exists between the two chief bodies of Protestants
Episcopalians and Presbyterians in that country, I cannot
but see in the threatened legislation a solemn warning which
we ourselves, whether Englishmen or Scotchmen, should lay
to heart.
Opinion of I do not forget the expressed opinion of Lord Macaulay,
Macaulay
in what that the union accomplished in 1707 between England and
sense to be
Scotland has been a great blessing to both countries,
' because, in constituting one State, it left two Churches.' 1
And I grant that there is a sense in which that sentiment is
true. Assuming that the religious profession of a majority
of the people was fairly represented in 1690 by the dises-
tablishment of episcopacy and establishment of presby-
terianism in its room an assumption, however, which a
strict investigation of the facts of the case will scarcely
justify 2 but supposing this, which is the popular belief, it
certainly would have been most undesirable that any attempt
should have been made to force upon Scotland the reac-
ceptance of episcopacy as a condition of the union between
the two countries. But that the circumstances were such as
to require the establishment of ' two Churches,' unlike each
other, in the same State this, so far from having proved a
1 'Hist, of England,' vol. iv. p. 202 sq. ; and comp. Sage's ' Pres-
268. bytery Examined,' pp. 312-333.
* See Burton's ' Hist.,' voL ii. p.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 269
great blessing, must be acknowledged to have been the very
reverse by all who have at heart the interests of true
religion, and who also desire the continuance of the union
between Church and State. For what after little more
than a century and a half has been the result, as we now
see it sufficiently developed, of this ecclesiastical biformity
within the same kingdom? It started with the anomaly
that Scotch Presbyterians were thenceforth to be admitted 1
to legislate for the Episcopal Church of England, and
English Episcopalians to legislate for the Presbyterian Church
of Scotland. Hence churchmen and dissenters both being
capable of either description, according to the point of view
from which they were regarded would be equally at a loss
to maintain their true character ; and the barrier was broken
down which had hitherto fenced ecclesiastical legislation, in
respect to the Church establishments of both countries,
from illegitimate intrusion. It is easy to see that by such a
policy something more than the thin end of the wedge was
inserted ; whereby all the subsequent breaches into the
constitution, upon its ecclesiastical side, have followed
logically.
Such, then, and so many are the evil consequences which Forenamed
flow more or less directly from the abandonment of the one quences"
traced to
constitution which was once universal in the ministry of the their ori ' n -
1 During the operation ot the qualified episcopal congregations,
penal laws against Scottish episco- who were virtually Independents,
pacy in the last century, none but could be elected from Scotland to
Presbyterians or members of the serve in Parliament.
270 LECTURE THE THIRD.
Church, and which (as we have seen reason to conclude)
was designed by Christ to be maintained in all countries and
Satanical at all times. Can we doubt that results so injurious to the
principle and
devices. interests of religion have been caused through the agency of
that evil spirit who is represented in Scripture as the great
enemy of God and man ? ' Divide et impera ' DIVIDE
AND GOVERN ! such has ever been his master principle,
his most successful policy. Divide man from his Maker ;
divide fellow-Christians, Church against Church, altar
against altar; divide class from class, rich and poor.
Finally, divide Church and State. Yes ; in opposition to
the first great principle l of Christ, our Friend and Saviour,
' UNITE AND CONQUER ' such has been from the beginning
the principle and the policy of our enemy and destroyer.
St. Paul could say, and say truly, ' We are not ignorant of
his devices.' Can the same be said now? What other
explanation can be given of the many popular apologies
which we hear for continuance in our present state, but that
they are devices of Satan, and that they who use them, use
them in ignorance of their true character ? Is it not, for
instance, a melancholy proof of such ignorance when a man
fancies that he can be more edified in breaking the intended
order, and oftentimes, the express command of Christ, than
in keeping it ? When he flatters himself that because the
Gospel is spiritual, therefore he may dispense with its forms,
its laws and ordinances ; because the Scriptures are above all
to be read and searched, therefore the Church is not to be
1 See Bishop Andrewes' sixth serm. on 'Resurrection/ vol. ii. p. 279 sq.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 271
heard or known ; because all Christians are in a certain
sense priests, as in a certain sense also they are all kings,
therefore a duly ordained ministry has no proper claim to
his submission and regard ; because religion is a matter
between God and every man's conscience, therefore it is not a
matter as between man and his fellow-men ; because every
man is to obey his own conscience, therefore the guidance or
supposed guidance of conscience, however ignorant and
ill-informed, is to suffice to bar all other guidance, however
legitimate and however wise and enlightened ; because
offences must needs come, and the offence of schism among the
rest, therefore there is no such sin as schism, or if there be, it
is needless or impossible to ascertain in what it consists, or
how it is to be avoided. What sophistry ! What delusion !
What half-truth always better for the purposes of Satan than
entire falsehood ! What ignorance of his devices is there
in all this ! W T hat appeal to the natural pride of man's
heart ! What pandering to his envy, jealousy, distrust of
others to his own self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-love !
What renunciation of all meekness and humility ! Or again,
when pleading, as I am pleading in these lectures, for one
uniform constitution in the ministry of the Church, we are
met with the taunt, instead of argument, that our position is
a narrow and an antiquated one as if the prescribed way
that leadeth unto life were not also narrow ! and that pres-
byterianism is valuable and must be maintained, if on no
other account yet on this because it serves as a standing
protest against a position so illiberal ; can there be
272 LECTURE THE THIRD.
conceived a device of Satan more similar to that with which
he tempted our first parents, when, under a promise of
extended knowledge, he induced them to disobey God's
plain command ?
Summing up For, to sum up now the argument upon which we have
of the whole
argument. been engaged, it will stand thus :
First head. ! We find, in the first place, that a definite and orderly
organisation of the Christian ministry was to have been
expected & priori, from various considerations :
1. From the corporate idea and delineation of the Church
as revealed in Scripture.
2. From the analogy of order in the external world.
3. From the correspondence between the Christian
Church and the Jewish, in which the system of a threefold
ministry was prescribed by God.
4. From the mystical analogy between such a ministry
and the divine object of Christian worship.
5. From the analogy of the form of government which is
acknowledged to be the best for civil society.
6. From the sacred character and high importance of the
functions to be performed by the said ministry.
Second H. We find, in the second place, concerning the three-
head.
fold or episcopal ministry :
1. That it is plainly Scriptural and apostolical.
2. That it was universal in the Church from the earliest
period at which it could be reasonably expected to be fully
organised, down to the Reformation in the sixteenth century.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 273
3. That it is still universal in the East, and, for the most
paiit, also in the West, either in a reformed or unreformed
condition.
4. That in either case, both before and since the Refor-
mation, it has ever been regarded as essential to the complete
constitution of a Christian Church.
III. We find, in the third place, that, wherever the said Third head.
form of ministry has been discontinued, there sundry evil
consequences have ensued more or less directly ; for in-
stance :
1. A breach of unity, which such discontinuance has
involved, contrary to the express command of God, and a
gradually increasing indifference to the sin of schism.
2. A usurpation of the rights and powers of the episcopal
ministry, especially of the power of Ordination, by other
bodies, whose credentials are at best open to question.
3. A withholding of the ordinance of Confirmation from
the young.
4. A discontinuance of other catholic ordinances, such
as daily public worship, frequent Communion, observance of
the great Christian fasts and festivals, administration of
Communion to the sick and dying.
5. An appropriation of ecclesiastical and especially
professorial endowments to purposes at variance with those
for which they were bestowed.
6. A waste of ministerial power and of charitable resources
of all kinds consequent upon separation.
T
274 LECTURE THE THIRD.
7. A lowering of the social position of the clergy, and a
loss of means and opportunities for theological study.
8. A temptation to have recourse to systems of education
which, in order to be general or national, must be, more or
less, irreligious.
But besides these we find other consequences of a still
wider and more disastrous scope ; viz. :
9. A practical denial of the true character of the Church
as a corporate institution ; and, arising therefrom, a neglect
of relative duties, and an interference with the beneficial
action of the several classes of society one towards another.
10. A greater and more unrestrained prevalence of false
or unsound doctrine.
11. An increase of difficulty thrown in the way of evan-
gelising the heathen, and of converting the lapsed masses of
our own population both at home and abroad.
12. Advantage given to the papal system and to the
principle of voluntaryism, in opposition to the true system
of national Christianity, and to the principle of the union
of Church and State.
Scotch This, then, is what we find, upon the question before
* Episco-
pahans' us i and this. I verily believe, is the finding of the truth
their fidelity
to principle; itself. It is for reasons such as these, and not from any
foolish and bigoted adherence to a weak and indefensible
position, that a large, and not the least intelligent or least -
influential portion of the community in Scotland, notwith-
standing many great and calamitous vicissitudes, have still
adhered to the original constitution of their Church ; have
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 275
still desired to retain a ministry such as in England has
never ceased to be retained not by individuals only, but by
the nation itself except during the interval of the great
Rebellion. That when they were in the ascendant, our attended by
failings in
forefathers used their authority meekly and moderately in the past
which are
times when meekness or moderation were not to be found "f^j 6 "
on any side is not maintained : on the contrary, that they
too often did the very reverse, is freely confessed and
penitently deplored. But it is maintained that, whatever
may have been their faults or excesses in that respect, these
were no necessary consequence, no proper fruit, of the
system itself which they so misused. Nor when we speak what kind
of prelacy is
of adherence to a prelatical Church, is it to be understood desired,
that we desire to weaken still less to exclude either
government by synods, or the just influence of the laity;
both of which it has been the wisdom of the presbyterian
system to vindicate and uphold, and which we believe to
be no less Scriptural and apostolical than prelacy itself.
Neither do we desire to see the ecclesiastical element in the
State unduly subjected to the civil element ; any more than
we desire to see the civil power oppressed and overridden
by the ecclesiastical; and any advantage which Scotland
may possess, more especially in the former of these respects,
we should wish not only to be maintained in this country,
but to be extended to England also. On the other hand,
we have no wish to see repeated in this country sundry
inconveniences which still attach to the Southern Church ;
such as the monstrous, unmanageable size of the larger
T2
276 LECTURE THE THIRD.
dioceses l an evil deplored by none more than by many of
the bishops themselves ; the virtual abeyance of synodical
action, and consequently of an important portion of the
rights, both of the lower orders of the clergy and also of the
laity; and the substitution of multitudinous and often
jarring societies for the action of the Church itself.
Prelatical Yes ; let it be repeated, again and again, that while we
necessary advocate, upon the Grounds which have been stated and for
part of the
the good of all, the due recognition of a prelatical ministry,
we would yield to no one in condemning prelatical abuses
of all kinds prelatical exorbitances, prelatical despotism.
And yet, though this avowal be frankly made, let it be borne
in mind that neither personal delinquencies, however great,
nor general corruption, however dominant, would seem (so
far as we can learn from Scripture) to justify a departure
from the system itself, the administration of which is so
dishonoured. Even a Judas must have a successor. The
ancient prophets, severely as they denounced the degene-
racy of the Jewish priesthood, never counselled separation
from them. 3 Our Blessed Lord Himself gave command to
1 It was wisely urged by John he at least did not wish to see epis-
Knox, more than three centuries copacy abolished but well reformed,
ago, in his ' Brief Exhortation to See Works, vol. v. p. 515 ; comp.
England,' A,D, 1559 : ' Let no man ' Irenicum,' p. 415 ; and Bingham,
be charged in preaching of Christ vol. ix. p. 412 sq.
Jesus above that which one man * See St. Augustin, Ep. xciii.:
may do ; I mean that your bishop- ' Toleraverunt Prophetae contra
ricks be so divided, that of every one, quos tanta dicebant, nee communio-
as they be now for the most part, be nem sacramentorum illius populi
made ten/ A sufficient evidence that relinquebant.' Vol. ii. p. 354.
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 277
His disciples that even the scribes and Pharisees, abomina-
ble hypocrites and false teachers as they were, should be
still obeyed and respected in the exercise of their authority,
because they sat in Moses' seat. 1 It will be admitted that
these remarks belong naturally to the .argument upon which
we have been engaged. In point of fact, however, it can-
not, I believe, be truly said that prelacy has ever been
rejected in this country simply for its own demerits. 2 In
1560 it was rejected because it had been allied with popery.
In 1638 it was rejected in consequence of the unconstitu-
tional means by which Charles I. attempted to force upon
the people the acceptance of a liturgy. In 1690 it was
rejected because the bishops, who were then its representa-
tives, refused to acknowledge King William III. as the
legitimate sovereign of these realms.
May it not, then, be allowed to us to hope that nearly Appeal to
the people
two centuries of exclusion from its just position may have of Scotland.
sufficed to atone not only for the mistake the loyal and
not ignoble mistake which it then made, but also for the
other misdeeds and shortcomings of which it is acknow-
ledged to have been guilty in its days of power ? May it
not be allowed to us to hope that this Christian appeal in
its behalf will meet with some consideration from the Chris-
tian conscience of the people of this land ? The appeal to
them to them as Christians is not uncalled for, because
1 Matt, xxiii. 1-3. See St. 2 See Bishop Sage, ' Presbytery
Chrysostom on i Thess., Horn. x. Examined,' p. 306, and compare
i ; and on Coloss., Horn. iii. 4. his pathetic appeal (1695), p. 399.
278 LECTURE THE THIRD.
we have been assured by no mean authority that the General
Assembly, whatever else it may be induced to alter or relax,
must never be expected to move a hand towards opening
the doors by which I will not say we but tfie Catholic and
apostolic ministry is now excluded from all entrance into the
Advantages National Church, as by law established. The appeal itself is
of the union
between the no t uncalled for : because the consummation of the union
two coun-
tne^incom- ^^ England has given to the discussion which it raises an
augmented interest, which cannot but find an echo in the
breast of every true Christian, and which no true patriot will
be slow to recognise. It will be felt by such that the advan-
tages of that union must be incomplete so long as united
action in religious matters is rendered impossible by the
discordancy which exists between the two Church establish-
ments as they now stand. It is true they are both Protest-
ant. But so is Independency, so is Anabaptism, so is Soci-
nianism, so is Unitarianism, so is Quakerism. And is it
not true that in the past they have protested against each
other, almost as vehemently as either of them has protested
against Rome ? Is it not the fact that each country harbours
in its bosom allies of the other's Church which are, not from
choice, but from necessity, the foes of its own? What
power upon earth can reconcile this melancholy, this disas-
trous state of things? Again I say, THE POWER OF TRUTH.
Only ascertain the truth as (I am sure) it can be ascertained,
and act upon it as (I am sure) it can be acted on, and har-
mony will ensue. Otherwise, we must be prepared not only
for the continuance of the same evil consequences which
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 279
have been pointed out, and for their propagation (if they
remain unchecked) in an aggravated form ; but for the
addition of others still more calamitous, when the punish-
ments which will be due to national apostacy are to fall
upon us.
At least, then, let us hear no more that the matter is a importance
of results
small or unimportant one, when the results involved in it are inyoived in
this appeal.
such that it would be impossible to conceive any greater or
more momentous. Neither let us be told that certainty in
respect to it, sufficient for all practical purposes, is not to be
obtained, when, if we take in the evidence as a whole, in-
spired and uninspired, what is there which has been more
plainly manifested ? What is there in regard to which we
are placed under stronger obligations to obey the guidance
which reason, Scripture, and experience combine to offer?
Nor, once more, let us be told as Edward Stillingfleet,
when a youth of twenty-four, told the readers of his
' Irenicum,' but afterwards, when his knowledge had been
enlarged, and his judgment matured, confessed that he had
yielded more than the truth allowed l let us not be told
that because good and learned men have been ranged on
either side as disputants on this question, therefore the
question is one which may and ought to be looked upon as
indifferent. For what is the real truth in regard to the pre-
miss upon which this conclusion rests? The truth is, the
dispute has not been simply between opponents equally
1 See 'Irenicum,' p. 2 sq. ; and edition of his works, vol. i. p. 4.
comp. Life prefixed to the folio See also above, p. 38, note r.
280 LECTURE THE THIRD.
good and learned, but between the judgment and practice
of the universal Church on the one hand, and, on the other
hand, the private opinion of individuals, influenced in great
measure by considerations external to the merits of the case
itself.
Condition ot Meanwhile I am aware that there are some who would call
the Church
off our thoughts from the state of our own country, and even
from the crisis now arisen in Ireland, in order to ask, with
little feeling of good-will, whether the Church of England
itself be not tottering to its fall. For my own part, I enter-
tain no such opinion. On the contrary, I am persuaded
that, if left to itself, if saved from the disturbing effects
caused, through Parliament or otherwise, by the operation
of Scotch or of Irish influences, its security, in its established
position, in the present and for the future, would be as great
or greater than it has ever been. I am sure there never was
a time when its bishops and clergy, taken upon the whole,
have been more devoted to their sacred calling. That in a
body of men amounting to upwards of 20,000 some are to
be found who, in a stirring and unsettled age like this, are,
from motives of various kinds, bad and good, unable to
resist the temptation of extreme opinions, or extreme prac-
tices this can occasion no surprise. But, for the most
part, the symptom which the body itself exhibits is the
healthiest of all symptoms ; via, a desire for its own self-
improvement, with a view to its greater and more effective
usefulness. And the consequence is, that the influence of
the clergy in England notwithstanding the unhappy draw-
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 281
backs to which I have referred was never at a greater
height. I will not ask you to accept this statement upon
my authority, but upon authority which will, I believe, be
thought sufficient. A liberal journal of high repute, averse Testimony
of a Liberal
to any but the broadest sentiments upon matters of religion, journal,
gave expression to the following strong and distinct testi-
mony in December last (1868) :
' This is, we think, the fair and legitimate inference to
be drawn from the (late) elections : that the Church of
England is not tottering, nor likely to totter ; that it is
planted deep in the affections of the English people.'
Spectator.
The speech of Mr. Gladstone at Greenwich, upon his Of the Prime
Minister.
re-election in the same month, contained a declaration of
opinion precisely similar but in fuller terms ; when his own
feelings or interests might have tempted him rather to
question or suppress the truth. He is reported to have
said :
' The elections have undoubtedly shown a strong attach-
ment, on the part of the great body of the people in Eng-
land, to the Church of England. And I am glad of that
attachment, and of the great influence of the clergy ; though
I venture to think they have used their influence improperly.
I am glad, however, that it has been gained in the main by
the conviction that the clergy do their duty. They may
differ there may be wise men and foolish men among
them ; but, speaking generally, they are men in earnest ;
they are men who attract the respect of the people by
282 LECTURE THE THIRD.
working hard in their vocation. The Church of England, it
may be truly said, ministers to the people ; less so, perhaps,
in these great centres of the population, where it is relatively
weakest, but, taking the country as a whole, the Church of
England ministers to the people. (Cheers.) Doing so, it is
appreciated.'
It is important to bear in mind that these words not only
proceeded from a speaker who had far more reason to flatter
the dissenting interest, but were addressed to one of those
overgrown suburban populations in which the Church
labours under greatest disadvantage ; and that their truth
appears to have been acknowledged by those who heard
them.
Adjustment I said at the beginning that if this question, which affects
of ministry
would lead the constitution of the ministry, could be first adjusted, I
to greater
ofdocmne should anticipate comparatively little difficulty in the solution
* hlp ' of others, the importance of which, though they have been
merely touched upon in subordination to this, it must not
be supposed that I am either capable of forgetting or willing
to underrate. I am led to entertain the hope which I have
expressed from various considerations. In the history of
the past, since the Reformation, I find a general concurrence
between EpiscopaUartSsand Presbyterians in the use of the
same doctrinal standards to a great extent, even at the
periods when their antagonism upon the question of Church
government was at its height. On the one hand, it is
certain that John Knox must have signed the Articles of
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 283
the Church of England ; * and in the following century it
appears from what occurred in the Westminster Assembly
that the same Articles were not unacceptable even to the
Independents ; 2 while, at the present time, it is not un-
common, I believe, among Presbyterians, to require the
standard work of Bishop Pearson on the Creed to be studied
as the principal text-book by candidates for the ministry.
On the other hand, the old Scotch Confession of 1560, the
work of Knox and his fellow-reformers, was allowed by
Episcopalians during the period both of their first and
second establishment. 3 In regard to questions of worship,
the experience of the present leaves no room to doubt that
a gradual approximation of sentiment is setting in, before
which it may be hoped that existing barriers, which exclude
even the partial use of a liturgy, will eventually disappear.
To these considerations it is to be added that the promoters
of the change at the Revolution in 1690, so far as they were
actuated by religious motives, professed to take account of
no other differences between their own party and the party
of the Church which they disestablished, but such only as
concerned the constitution of the ministry ; and even these,
1 See the author's ' Discourse on in debating upon the first fifteen
Scottish Reformation, ' p. 36 sq. Articles, but ' that part of their pro-
* ' The Independents professed to ceedings led to no practical result."
agree with the Church of England Ibid., p. 122.
in its Articles.' Hetherington's His- 3 See Bishop Russell's 'Appendix
tory of the Westminster Assembly, p. to Keith,' p. 492.
137. The Assembly spent ten weeks
284 LECTURE THE THIRD.
by their own avowal, they regarded in the light of popular
feeling not to say of popular prejudice as it existed at the
time, rather than of any judgment professing to be formed
upon conviction of the truth.
Motives of But whatever may be the weight which is due to these
the author
in making i as t remarks, for myself I shall feel that I have ample cause
this appeal.
to be more than satisfied if I may succeed in recommending
what I believe to be the first great instrument of unity ; if I
may assist, however feebly or remotely, in obtaining a
triumph for the truth upon the single point which has
formed the main subject of this appeal. God is witness
that I have not argued, and pressed the matter upon your
attention, for the sake of victory, or of self-interest, nor from
any other motive, but such as may become a lover of his
country and a minister of the Gospel of the Prince of Peace.
In every discussion, in every controversy in which I have
engaged with the same object in view, it has never been my
aim to detract from the esteem in which some who have
differed from me are deservedly held; and I have often
declined an encounter, or desisted from it at an apparent
disadvantage, when I saw that nothing was to be gained but
the paltry satisfaction of exposing the errors or the weakness
of an opponent, with no prospect of benefit to the cause
itself. That caupe, if it be of man, will come to nought ;
but if it be of God as I humbly but confidently trust it
is of His Spirit, and of His Truth, then, though I myself
may not live to see any ripened fruit of my own labours, yet,
ARGUMENT EX CONSEQUENTS. 285
when the time of harvest shall arrive, others will enter into
those labours ; and God grant, of His infinite mercy, that
both sower and reaper may rejoice together in a better
a peaceful and united world ! Meanwhile, you will not,
I am sure, grudge to me the indulgence of feelings which a
descendant, however unworthy, of an ancient and honourable
lineage may be allowed to entertain, if in any way I have
contributed to remove the thick cloud of misapprehension
and mistrust under which episcopacy in this country has
been doomed to lie. It is sometimes seen in the generations
of this world, that while succession to the title has been
retained by the rightful heir, the property has gone to
another and less legitimate branch of the same family. I
think I have shown that something like this has happened
in the present case. At the same time, without seeking to
extenuate the failings of our ancestors, I venture to claim
for them the remembrance of services which shed lustre
upon many a page of our country's history (witness the
names of Turgot and of Kennedy, of Elphinstone and of Bishops who
Forbes, of Gawin Douglas and of Leighton) ; and which ^7 h e e d ir we11
reach upward to the time when our first forefathers were f h u u r ^. and
converted from the worship of idols to serve, in the faith of
Christ, the One living and true God. It only remains for
me to add that as Luther, when excommunicated, appealed
to the pope, ' melius informando ' that is, in the hope that
the time would come when he would be accessible to a
fuller and purer knowledge of the Gospel so we, being
286 LECTURE THE THIRD.
excluded from the pale of the National Church establishment
in this country (though not in England), appeal to the
enlightened consciences of our fellow-countrymen and
fellow-Christians to do us justice, and at the same time to
do justice to themselves and to the sacred cause of ' TRUTH,
UNITY, AND CONCORD.'
PRAYER FOR UNITY.
O GOD, the Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, our only
Saviour, the Prince of Peace, give grace to us and to all
Thy people in this land, seriously to lay to heart the great
dangers we are in by our unhappy divisions. Take away
all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may hinder
us from godly Union and Concord : that, as there is but one
Body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our Calling, one
Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us
all, so we may seek henceforth to be all of one heart and of
one soul, united in one holy bond of Truth and Peace, of
Faith and Charity, and may with one mind and one mouth
glorify Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
GENERAL INDEX.
AER
AERIUS, 125, 168 n. 2
Ambrose, Pseudo, 1 78 ;
his statements as to prelacy, 188
Andrewes, Bishop, referred to, 226,
270
' Angelus,' how used in Book of
Revelation, 25, 28, 32 n. 3
Apostles, distinct order from pres-
byters in Acts of Apostles, 66 n.
2 ; unique and peculiar position
of, 84
'Apostolic Canons,' 108, 118
' Apostolus, ' how used in New Testa-
ment, 152 . I
T)AILLIE'S Letters referred: to,
D 78 n. 2, 79 . I, 92 n. 4
Bentley on New Testament use of
'EirfffK ojroy, 151
Beveridge, Bishop, on trine ordina-
tion, 1 08 n. I ; on ' Apostolic
Canons,' 118
Bilson, Bishop : the Fathers entitle
apostles bishops, 80 ; referred to,
CAM
171 . I, 173 n. 3, 177 . 2, 188
n. 2
Bingham : bishops entitled apostles,
8 1 ; evidence of Titus being en-
titled bishop of Crete, 83
Bisset, Dr., his address as mode-
rator referred to, 205 . 2
BlondePs 'Apologia' referred to, 38
n. 2, 185 n. I, 198, 217 n. i
Bright's, Professor, 'Church His-
tory' referred to, 178 n. 2
Bunsen, Baron, on continental pres-
byterianism, 225 ; ' Memoirs ' re-
ferred to, 225, 228 n. 2, 254 n. i
Burton's, Dr. John Hill, ' History,'
268 n. 2
/"^AIRD'S, Professor J., essay in
V_^ ' Good Words, ' 147 n. I
Calvin on hierarchy, 139, 220
Campbell's Principal P. C., theory
of ruling eldership referred to,
Pref., viii. n. I, 49 . I, 76 n. 3,
91 n. i, 2, 3, 92 . I, 3, 93 n. i
288
GENERAL INDEX.
CHI
Chillingworth, his argument in fa-
vour of episcopacy, 172
Chunder Sen, on Christian divi-
sions in India, an impediment to
reception of the Gospel, 259 . I
Claughton, Bishop Piers, on Chris-
tian ministry, &c. , 258
Clement of Alexandria, testimony
to threefold ministry, 115
Clement of Rome, Epistle to Corin-
thians, 109 sq., HO; objections
to threefold ministry from, 1 60,
213
Clinton's 'Fasti Romani,' 36, 69 .
2, 87, 165 n. 2
Confirmation, Glasgow Assembly
(1638) on, 226 ; Scriptural evi-
dence for, 226 ; testimony to use
of: Jerome, 173, 227 ; Cyprian,
227 n. I ; Augustin, 227 n. I ;
Lutheran, 228 ; Delitzsch, 228 ;
importance of, 228 ; testimony to
value of, 229
Crawford, Professor, ' Presbytery or
Prelacy,' 84 . I ; ' Presbyterian-
ism Defended,' 14 n. 3, 27 . 3,
53 . i, 79 . 3, 86 n. i
Cunningham's, Dr. John, 'Church
History' referred to, 32, 152 n.
i, 157 n. I, 172 . 2, 192 . 3
DEACONS, 40, 41 ; Westmin-
ster Assembly on, 42, 48 n.
I, 55 . 2
' Diaconus,' how used in New Testa-
ment, 48 . I, 152 n. i, 159
' Divine right,' expression how used,
Pref. , xiii.
FRE
Dupin, referred to, 168 n. 2, I74.
4, 198 n. 3
T^ DINBURGH, Report on con-
l* dition of poor (1868), 256
Elliot, Bishop, of Georgia, on divi-
sions in America, 259
England, Church of, present pros-
pects of, 280
Epiphanius referred to, 173 . I
Episcopacy, testimonies to : Gib-
bon, 6 n. I, 31, 32 ; Dr. Joseph
Wolff, 124; Dr. C. Buchanan, 124;
does not appear fully developed
in New Testament, and why, 22,
23, 70
' Episcopus,' how used in New
Testament, 48 . I, 152 . I,
153 2, 159
Eutychius, statement concerning
Church of Alexandria, 179, 213 ;
value of his testimony, 197; his-
tory of controversy concerning it,
197-203
* Evangelist,' how used in New
Testament, 52
FASTS and festivals, obser-
vance of, 230 ; Scottish re-
formers on, 233 . i
Ffoulkes, Mr., his letter to Arch-
bishop Manning, 129 n. i
Free Church Catechism of 1847, its
'anti-prelatic testimony,' 86 . I,
157 . I, 262
GENERAL INDEX.
GIB
IBBON on episcopacy, 6 . i,
vJT 31, 32 . i; on testimony of
Eutychius, 200 ; on Ordination,
217
Gladstone, W. E., on Church of
England, 281
Government, Church, system of :
of Knox, 134 ; of Melville, 134 ;
Glasgow Assembly, 135 ; West-
minster Assembly, 135 ; Inde-
pendents, 135 ; Quakerism, 136 ;
Free Church of Scotland, 136 ;
Irvingites, 136 ; Church of Eng-
land, 136 ; Cranmer and Angli-
can Reformers, 136 n. 2
Grant, Rev. P., on separation, 205
. 2
Greswell referred to, 67 n. 2, 68 n.
i> 3, 69 . 3
Guthrie, Dr. T., on separation,
205 n. 2
HALLAM, on controversy be-
tween episcopacy and pres-
bytery, 5 n. i ; on foreign re-
formers and episcopacy, 217,
&c.
Hammond's dissertations, 16 n. 2,
185 n, I
Harvey's ' Irenseus,' 97, 98
Hetherington's 'History of West-
minster Assembly,' 77 n. I, 78
. I, 2, 83 n. 2, 283 n. 2
Heylyn, Dr. P., 188 n. 2
Hierarchy, according to Council of
Trent, 131 . i, 138 ; Eastern
Church, 138 ; Calvin, 138 ;
Luther, 139
KNO
Holy Communion, neglect of, 233 ;
infrequency of celebration, 233
and n. 2, 234, 235
Hooker, 32 n. i, 52 n. 2, 216, 241
n. 2
Hughes' dissertations, 43 n. 4, 44
. 2, 185 n. i, 198 n. 2
T GNATIUS, epistles of, 1 1 i-i 14.
J- See Pearson
Irenasus, evidence as to prelatical
ministry, 96 ; on those who cause
divisions, too, 205 ; referred to,
96, 97, 205 n. i
JEROME, his history and charac-
ter, 164 ; views as to Church
government, " J 86 ; Commentary
on Titus, 165-174; Epistle to
Evangelus (Evagrius), 174-178,
180 ; to Oceanus, 174 n. 4;
evidence as to true constitution
of Christian ministry, 180 ; from
biographical sketches, 181 ; in
epistles, 182 ; in controversial trea-
tises, 183 ; in commentaries, 184 ;
summary of Jerome's evidence,
185 ; testimony to Confirmation,
176 n. 3, 227 ; bishops the centre
of unity, 184, 205 n. I
Justin Martyr, objections from, to
threefold ministry, 162 sq.
IV'NOX, John, referred to, 276;
. i, 282
U
990
GENERAL INDEX.
LEE
T EE, Dr. R., 'Reform of Church
I * of Scotland,' 232 n. I, 235
n. i, 262
Leighton, Archbishop, referred to,
78 . 2
Leontius at Council of Chalcedon,
54
Lightfoot's (Dr. John) Journal of
Westminster Assembly, 42 .
2, 78 3. 79 2, 81 . 2,
82 . I, 2, 3, 85 n. i, 147
. 2
Lightfoot, Professor, his dissertation
on the Christian ministry referred
to, Pref., vii.-xv., 10 n. i, 13 n.
2, 25 . i, 26 . i, 34 . i,
35 2, 37 . 2, 48 . i, 56 .
2, 60 . 3, 62 . i, 65 . i,
73 . i, 2, 85 n. i, 98 . 2,
4, IOI . I, IO2 n. I, 109 .
2, 3, no . 3, in . 3, 113
. 2, 114 . I, 115 . i, 116 .
2, 117 . i, 119 . 3, 120 n. i,
130 . 2, 149 n. i, 162 . i,
174 . 2, 179 . 2, I9O W. I, 192
n. 2, 2OI, 212 n. I, 216 n. I
Lincoln, Bishop of, references to
Commentary by, 12 n. I, 14 . 3,
15 . 2, 16 . i, 24 . 2, 35 n.
i, 57 . i, 58 n. i
Luther on hierarchy, 139 ; on ordi-
nation by bishops, 219
MACAULAY, Lord, on the
union with England, 268
McLeod, Dr. N., on Indian mis-
sions, 257
ORD
Milman on Revektion of St. John,
25 w. I
Moberly, Bishop, his Bampton Lec-
tures, IO n. I, 214 n. 2 ; 'Five
Discourses,' 79 n. 3
Mosheim referred to on antiquity of
bishops, 28 . 2 ; apostolic
canons, 118; Church polity, 58
n. I, 2, 59 . i, 60 n. 2, 75 n. 4,
76 w. i, 2, 3 ; James of Jerusa-
lem, 66 n. i ; results of common
council at Jerusalem, 67 n. i
NATIONAL religion in accord-
ance with Scripture, 263,
267
Nicaea, canons of, 108, 119 . 2
ORDINATION, disputed in-
stances of, 212 and n. I ;
presbyterian, how far and in what
respects admitted by Church of
England, 213 and n. I ; alleged
Scriptural evidence for, 214 ; plea
of necessity urged, 222 and . 3,
224; power of, restricted by
Jerome to bishops, 178, 217 ;
Hallam on foreign reformers and
episcopal ordination, 217; Me-
lancthon (apology for Augsburg
Confession), 218 ; Smalcald arti-
cles, 218 ; Luther, 219 ; Hooker,
216 ; Gibbon, 217
Ordination of Barnabas and Paul,
special considerations relating to,
215 . i
GENERAL INDEX.
191
ORD
Ordination, promise required by
Church of Scotland, 195 . 2
Origen, 117
PARKER'S, S., 'Church Go-
vernment," 185 n. I
Pearson, Bishop, did not admit
that the names ' episcopus ' and
' presbyterus ' are used synony-
mously in New Testament, 149
n. l. His ' Vindicise Ignatianse '
referred to, 73 n. I, 97 n. 3, 98
. 4, 149 n. I, 160 n. 2, 162 n.
l, 171 n. 2, 178 n. 2, 185 n. I,
188 . 3, 189 . i; 'Minor
Works,' 98 . 2, 131 . I, 2,
132 . I, 171 n. 2, 216 n. I
Polycarp, objection to the threefold
ministry from his epistle, con-
sidered, 161, 213
Presbyterianism, alleged necessity
for, 224
Presbyters of New Testament always
clergymen, 49 ; clerical, existence
and position of, in primitive
Church, 88 ; distinction between
teaching and ruling, a baseless
theory, 91
' Presbyters, ' name how used in New
Testament, 49, 152 . I, 159
ROTHE, theory of, on origin
of episcopacy, 34 . I
Roman supremacy, rise of, 128, 133 ;
destroys rights of bishops, 132
Rosebery's, Earl of, address, 1871,
251 n. I
TRE
QADLER'S 'Church Doctrine,
O Bible Truth,' referred to, 73
. 2, 89
Sage's ' Presbytery Examined,' 268
n. 2, 277 n. 2
Salmasius referred to, 185 n. l
Scotland, Established Church of,
appeal to, 195, 207, 236 ; Ordi-
nation promise in, 195 and . 2,
222, 223, 224, 278; its report
of committee on Christian work,
238 . i, 257 . I
Selden's Works referred to, 179 n.
2, 180 . i, 197
Stillingfleet's 'Irenicum,' funda-
mental error in, 1 8 n. I, and see
279 ; referred to, 14 n. 2, 1 8 n. I,
38 . i, 54 n. i, 57 . i, 74 n. 2,
75 n. i, 2, 88 n. I, 97 . 3, 4,
125 . i, 149 n. I, 160 . 3,
168 . i, 2, 172 n. i, 174 . I,
177 n. i, 2, 185 n. i, 188 . 2,
191 n. I, 212 n. I, 214 n. 2,
2l6 n. I, 219 n. 2, 276 . I, 279
n. l
npAYLOR, Bishop Jeremy, re-
J. ferred to, 73 n. I, 132 . I
Tertullian on threefold ministry, 79
n. 3, loi, 116
Tests in Scottish universities, 236
n. I
Thorndike, 212 . I
Trench, Archbishop, referred to,
26 . I, 27 . i, 28 n. 2, 3
Trent, Council of, on hierarchy, 131
. I, 138
V 2
292
GENERAL INDEX.
TUL
Tulloch, Principal John, referred to,
Pref., viii. n. I, 32, 73, 90, 92
. 2, 213 n. I
T TSSHER, Archbishop, referred
\J to, 28 . i, 29 . i, 56 w. I
VERBAL criticism applied to
titles of Christian ministry,
47, 'Si
Voluntaryism, 265 ; warnings from
America regarding, 266 . I
ALLACE, Dr. R., 206 and
WOR
Westminster Assembly, discussion on
deacons, 42, 48 n. i, 55 n. 2 ; on
episcopacy, 77 ; of whom com-
posed, 77 ; conclusions of, tested
by science and history, 87 ; on
Timothy and Titus, 82, 83 ; de-
parture from reformers, 220
Westminster Confession referred to,
252 . i
Whitby, Dr. Daniel, 53 n. i
Wolffs, Dr. Joseph, testimony to
episcopacy, 124
Worship, daily public, 230 ; inten-
tion of Scottish reformers re-
garding, 231 ; why abandoned,
232
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
EXODUS
ISAIAH
PAGE
i
AGE
xxviii.-xxx. .
. 107
xxxviii. 19 .
43
xlix. 22, 23 .
263
LEVITICUS
Hi. 15
263
viii. and xvi.
. 107
Ix. 7
12
2 KINGS
Ix. 10-12, 16 . . 263,
Ixvi. 21 ....
265
13
xxiii. 4 ...
- 14
i CHRONICLES
JEREMIAH
xiv. ....
24
vi. 16
43
2 CHRONICLES
xxxiii. 20-22
xxxiii. 18-22 . . 12, 14,
13
16
v. 5
. 24
PSALMS
EZEKIEL
;; v i i
r
141
11. o 12 ...
X. 12 .
. 265
Ixxii. II
. 263
DANIEL
Ixxii. 15
233
vii. 13, 14 .
264
Ixxviii. 5-7 .
43
264
HOSEA
PROVERBS
viii. II
259
viii. 15
. 264
AMOS
ECCLESIASTES
ix. II, 12, compared with Acts
X. 2
252
xv. 15-17
12
294
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
Z/Kt-MAKlAW.
PAGE
ACT
1
PAGB
xiv. 16-19
13
ii. 14, 27, 42
. 66
ii. 42 .
. 210
MALACHI
iv. 1-4
43
iii. 3, 4
3
iv. 35-37
. 66
v. 6 .
. . 58
MATTHEW
v. 13 .
. 66
xi 10 .
. 26
vi. 1-16
. . 58
xx. 24-28 .
193
xxiii. 1-3 .
193, 277
vi. 12 .
43
xxviii. 1 8
. 264
viii. 5-17 .
. 41
ff
xxviii. 19
. 263
viii. 14 . .
66
xxviii. 2O . .
79,85
viii. 14-17 . ". .
. 227
.*.
ix. . . ' .
. 67
MARK
ix. 27 . . .
ix. 31 .
. . 6 9
. . 69
i. 2 .
. 26
55
'* 33-37
193
xi. 30 . . . .
. 58, 62, 70
x. 41-45
IQ^
24
xvi. 19 ......
. 264
. 21$
xvi. 2O ...
. 6 7
xiil 1-3 .
. 215
xiii. 4 . -..,
215, 216
LUKE
xiv. 23
45, 214
X
34, 61, 69
vi A i3 .
20
xv. 1, 4 . .'
O2
viu 27 . .
. 26
xv. 4, 23 .
. 62
ix. i . .....
20
. 67
ix. 46-48
xxii. 24-27 . . ..
193
193
xv. 15-17 .
12
67
xviii. 21 . .
13
JOHN
xviii. 18, 21, 22 .
. 70
vii. 2 .
xviii. 24, 28
. 52
xviii. 36 ...
. 264
xix. 5, 6 .
. 227
XX. 21 ...
2O
xix. 8-IO
. . 45
xx. 16.
13, 70
ACTS
xx. 17.
28, 45, 47, 50
xx. 18.
. 175
i. 3
_
Aft
i. 20 .
48, ISO
xx. zy . . .
xx. 28. .
4
.50,51,151
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
295
ACTS
PAGE
ii. 11-13
45
ii. 12
xxi. 8 .
52, 55
v. 20 .
xxi. 20 ...
. 70
xxi. 26 ...
. 70
EP
xxiii. 5 ...
24, 70
i. 20 .
xxvi. 17 with Gal. i. I .
. 215
i. 19-22
i. 23 .
ROMANS
iii. 5 .
X I?
2IO
iv. 3, 14
xii. S .
2IO, 249
iv. 4, 5, 12, 13
209
iv. II .
xiii. 1-6
. 264
iv. 11-13
2O9
v. 23, 30
xv. 5, 6
. 2IO
xvi. 3, 9, 21
. 192
PHIL
xvi. 17 ...
. 209
i. i . .4.
i. 15-18
i CORINTHIANS
i. 27 .
i. 10 .
. 2IO
ii. 12 .
i. 12 .
35
ii. 25 .
ii. 15 .
. IOO
ii. 29, 30 .
iii. 3 ....
. 209
iv. 3
vii. 17 ...
. 40
Pni
xii. 24, 25 .
. 210
\*r\Jl.
xii. 12, 13, 26, 27
. 249
i. 24 .
xiv. 33
II
iii. I
xv. 7 .
"5Q, 66
2 CORINTHIANS
PACK
35
61
209
. 264
. 264
. 249
. 46
. 46
. 249
46, 52
. 80
. 249
43, 48, 126, 157, 175
. 249
. 2IO
. 2O9
. 26
. 264
37
249
264
i THESSALONIANS
V. 12 . . . . 210, 264
viii. 23 ...
. 26
xi. 28 .
. 40
xiii. ii
. 209
i- 3
i. 14 .
iii. I .
GALATIANS
iii. i, 2
i. i compared with Acts
xxvi.
iii. 2 .
17 .
21?
iii. I-IO
ii. 9
14. 72
iii. 2, 8
i TIMOTHY
44, 46
. 126
. 150
5
47
. 214
157
296
INDEX OF TEXTS OF SCRIPTURE.
i TIMOTHY
HEBREWS
i
AGE
PAGE
iii. 6 .
23,
145
xiii. 7, 8,
17
43, 26 4
iii. 8 .
43, 44,
192
xiii. 7-9
6
iii 13 .
29,
4
xiii. 17
6, 2IO
iv. 6
52
iv. 14 .
.46, 88, 176,
214
JAMES
v. 17 .
91
v. 14 .
61
v. 19 .
44
i PETER
v. 22 .
44,
214
vi. 2
44
". I3-H
.
. 264
iii. 8 .
. 209
2 TIMOTHY
V. I
V. I, 2
35,
. 7i,
191 n. 2
168, 175
i. 6 .
89, 126,
214
V. 2
48,51,
150 n. \
iv. 5
.
5'
v. 5 .
58
iv. 21 .
37
2 JOHN
TITUS
i
72, 176,
191 n. 2
i- 5
5-7
47, ISO,
' 47,
226
214
3 TOHN
i. 7
. . . 48,
15
I
72, 176,
191 . 2
JUDE
)
HEBREWS
7
.
. 16
i, ] 3
264
vi. i .
226
REVELATION
vi. 2 .
....
228
i- S
.
. 264
X. 12 .
.
264
xi. 15 .
.
. 264
x. 25 .
.
2IO
xvii. 14
. 264
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INDEX.
ACTON'S Modern Cookery 25
AIRD'S Blackstone Economised S7
Alpine Club Map of Switzerland 23
Alpine Guide (The) K
AMOS'S Jurisprudence 5
Primer of the Constitution 5
ANDERSON'S Strength of Materials 13
ARMSTRONG'S Organic Chemistry 13
ARNOLD'S (Dr.) Christian Life 19
Lectures ou Modern History 2
Miscellaneous Works 9
School Sermons 19
(T.) Manual of English Literature 8
Atherstone Priory 24
Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson 9
AYRK'S Treasury of Bible Knowledge 21
BACON'S Essays, by WHATELY "
Life and Letters, by SPEDDING 5
Works, edited by SPEDDINO 7
BAIN'S Emotions and Will 10
Logic, Deductive and Inductive 10
Mental and Moral Science 10
on the Senses and Intellect 10
BAKEH'S 2 works on Ceylon 22
BALL'S Alpine Guide 23
BANCROFT'S Native Races of the Pacific ... 11
BECKER'S Charicles and Callus 44
BLACK'S Treatise on Brewing 27
BLACKLKY'S German-English Dictionary... 8
ELAINE'S Rural Sports 25
BLOXAM'S Metals IS
BOULTBEE on 39 Articles 20
BOUBNE'S Catechism of the Steam Engine . 19
Handbook of Steam Engine 19
Improvements in the Steam
Engine 19
Treatise on the Steam Engine ... 19
BOWDLKR'S Family SIIAKSPEARE 25
BRAMLEY-MOORE'S Six Sisters of the
Valleys 24
BRASDE'S Dictionary of Science, Litera-
ture, and Art 16
BRAY'S Philosophy of Necessity 11
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GREVILLE'S Journal 1
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