CHAP. I. DISS. I. terms occur, and to the general tenor of the writer's argument. We must not expect words and phrases to be used with the same precision on their first appropriation to ecclesiastical things and persons, as we find them in later ages; when their peculiar and restricted meaning was established, and when familiarity with their new interpretation had dissolved ancient associations. Arrangement of the arguments in this essay. Foundation of the Church. Order of Apostles. Having thus far cleared the way for a full discussion of this question, I shall proceed to state some arguments in favour of Episcopacy, both drawn from Scripture and from ecclesiastical antiquity. I shall afterwards examine the validity of popular objections alleged against Episcopacy by the advocates of other systems. The Founder of the Christian Church is Jesus Christ the Son of God, and Saviour of the world. This Divine person ordained twelve Apostles, whom, previously to his ascension into heaven, he authorized to form in his name, a spiritual society, by virtue of a commission conveyed in the amplest and most authoritative terms. "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained'. All Power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in 1 John xx. 21, 22. ye, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world'." Invested with these high powers, both for themselves and for their successors unto the end of the world; and inspired with wisdom from above by the descent of the Holy Ghost: the Apostles proceeded to the formation of a religious community, which, under the protecting care of Heaven, should gradually extend itself throughout the earth, and should continue till the consummation of all things. This spiritual society at first consisted of a single company or congregation. The members all resided in the same city. They performed their sacred rites together. They even had their property in common; and their whole affairs, both temporal and spiritual, were managed by their divinely constituted overseers. DISS. I. CHAP. I. In proportion to the increase of members in the Church, by the conversion and baptism of many thousands both in Jeusalem and in adjoining districts; the charge of all ecclesiastical affairs became burdensome and oppressive for so small a number as the apostolic college. A new order, therefore, of Church officers was introduced under the name of Deacons, that is, of ministers or servants, to Order of whom the care of the sick and the poor was entrusted; with authority to supply the wants of 1 Matt. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. Deacons. CHAP. I. DISS. I. both, out of the common funds of the Church'. These Deacons were permitted also (at least in some instances) to baptize, to preach, and to assist at the administration of the Lord's supper. This arrangement seems to have continued for some time; but afterwards, when the Apostles, by Divine command, beginning from Jerusalem, made converts throughout Judea, Samaria, and the various provinces of the Roman empire, (not only among the Jews in those countries, but also among the Gentiles,) another order of Church officers was appointed. This order was found necessary to govern and direct, in different towns and confined districts, certain small communities placed under their charge; to preside also in their religious meetings; to administer the sacraments; and to superintend the conduct of the Deacons. On this Presbyters. superior rank of ministers was bestowed the name of Presbyters, Elders, Pastors, or sometimes even of Bishops, in the sense of overseers of the people. At the same time that the Presbyters and Deaence by the cons took the charge of single congregations, the Apostles exercised over the whole Church a general control. They retained in their own hands the exclusive power of ordination they gave directions to the inferior ministers for the administration of Divine service; they instituted forms of worship; they prescribed rules of discipline; they silenced erroneous teachers; they inflicted censures on Order of Priests or General superintend Apostles. 1 Acts vi. notorious offenders; they expelled the contumacious from the society. As, however, congregations in various quarters of the earth continued to increase and multiply, the care of all the Churches became too great a labour for the small number of Apostles originally ordained; which number had, from the first, been diminished by the apostacy and death of Judas, and afterwards by the martyrdom of James. Accordingly St. Matthias, St. Barnabas', and St. Paul were added by our Lord himself to the apostolic or episcopal college', and invested with the same powers as the original members. DISS. I. CHAP. I. Cessation of But even this addition was at last inadequate to the increasing exigencies of the Church: besides that the advancing years of the apostles, and their prospect of removal from the sphere of their earthly labours, made it necessary to provide for the spiritual wants of future generations. They, therefore, under the direction of the Holy Ghost, consecrated other apostolical persons, to be invested with powers somewhat and substisimilar to their own; but who, deriving those powers not immediately from Divine, but from human election, would in some respect be inferior and subordinate. 1 "Which" (design to offer them sacrifice) "when the Apostles, Barnabas and Paul heard of, they rent their clothes." Acts xiv. 14. 2 "The first Bishops in the Church of Christ were the blessed Apostles. For the office whereunto Matthias was chosen, the sacred history doth term πσкоπ an episcopal office, which being expressly spoken of one, agreeth not less unto all, than unto him."-Hooker's Ecc. Pol. Book vii. Sec. 4. immediate authority tution of episcopal. DISS. I. CHAP. I. Timothy made Bishop of Ephesus. Powers given to Timothy. Superin tendence. Thus St. Paul, in the prospect that he might not be able, in his own person, to visit the Church of Ephesus for some time, and never perhaps again ; appointed Timothy to preside over it with apostolical or episcopal authority. In his first epistle to this beloved disciple, whom he calls "his own son in the Faith," he instructs the newly consecrated bishop "how to behave himself in the house of God," and expresses his apprehensions of being "constrained to tarry long" away from his Ephesian friends and converts. And in his second epistle, written in the last year of his life, he inculcates diligence on the Ephesian bishop, from the consideration that his own ministry was now about to close. "Preach the word," says the Apostle to his youthful representative and successor; instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine: for I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand1.” "be That the powers entrusted to Timothy were the same with those which have been assigned by all churches to bishops ever since, will be abundantly evident from the following instructions :-"I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies. Let the Presbyters that rule well be counted worthy of 12 Tim. iv. 2. 6. |