bishop was primitively, the pastor of a single congregation, with his assistant, presbyters, and deacons. But these changes, in process of time, gave place to still greater. When the division of ancient parishes, which I shall henceforth call dioceses, be→ came universal, the principal reason for confining them within moderate bounds entirely ceased, and motives of interest and ambition operated the contrary way without control. The immediate dependance of the people, and even of the clergy, upon the bishop, and the connection of ninety-nine parts in a hundred of the diocese with the bishop's church, formerly the parish church, now the cathedral, being totally dissolved, and the people more commodiously supplied in every part of the religious services, worship, sacraments, and teaching, by those tituli, now called parish churches, newly erected, there needed no more to abolish the presbytery, whose principal use subsisted no longer. The diocese accordingly underwent a new division into deaneries, so named from their including at first ten parishes, or ten presby ters in each, though they did not long confine themselves to that number. The president, called decanus, the dean, is pro→ perly an arch-presbyter, such as anciently, in the bishop's absence, presided in the presbytery. The deanery of the cathedral, consisting of the clergy, whose duty it is to perform there the sacred service, and to preach, is denominated capitulum, the chapter, being, as it were, the head of the clergy of the diocese. But the rural deaneries, as they answered little purpose, have, in most places, gone into disuse. The presbyters, who under the dean officiated in the mother church, came to be distinguished from the parochial clergy by the titles of prebendaries and canons. The former name they derived from appointments called prebends, to which they were entitled; the latter, from the regulations to which they were subjected. The chapter served instead of the presbytery in matters of election, not only in electing the inferior officers, but in supplying vacancies, in concurrence with the bishop, in the prebends or canonries, and deanship; nay, that they anciently, on the decease or transla→ tion of the bishop, elected his successor, the conge d' elire, still in use in England, though now no better than a form, is a standing evidence. They had the superintendency of the fabric, with the goods and ornaments belonging to the cathedral,

and were also guardians of what is now called the spiritualties of the bishopric, when the see was vacant.

In regard to the episcopal jurisdiction, which extended over the whole diocese, the chapter, consisting only of the clergy of the cathedral, could not be considered as a proper council. In the bishop's court of judicature, denominated the consistory, his counsellors and assessors in judgment when he was present, and delegates in his absence, were those called archdeacons. The archdeacon was originally of the order of deacons, as the name imports. There was but one of them in a diocese. He presided among those of his own order; was a constant attendant upon the bishop; and was considered as his prime minister, But some time after, the partition of dioceses became very general, particularly after the country bishops were, through a jealousy that they would lessen the dignity of the order, suppressed by canon, and their parishes annexed to those of the next city bishops, it was found convenient to elect those delegates, the archdeacons, from the order of the presbyters, apd to have more or fewer in a diocese, according to its extent. Through the influence of custom, in opposition to propriety, the name archdeacon was retained. The diocese was accordingly divided into archdeaconries, and these subdivided into deaneries, not unlike the division of counties that obtains in England into hundreds and tithings. It was then judged expedient to invest archdeacons with a share of episcopal jurisdiction, both in temporals and in spirituals, within their archdeaconries, where they perform regular visitations, like the bishops, hold spiritual courts, either in person, or by their deputies, called officials, and are accounted dignitaries. The only acts peculiar to the bishop are confirming and ordaining.

I have been the more particular in this deduction, in order to give at once a faint sketch of the model which, in a great measure, still subsists in England and Ireland, and among the The variations, indeed,

secular clergy of the church of Rome. are considerable, which the influence of time and local customs have produced in different places. A perfect uniformity in these things is not to be expected. We are now arrived at the second step of the hierarchy, when prelacy or diocesan episcopacy succeeded the parochial, and began generally to prevail.

LECTURE IX.

IN my

IN last lecture, I traced the origin of prelacy, or diocesan episcopacy. I shall now, ere I proceed, for the further illustration of the subject, contrast the two methods that might naturally be supposed to have suggested themselves, upon the great revolution in circumstances which the establishment of Christianity by the imperial laws, and the numerous conversions from paganism consequent thereon, occasioned in the church. There was then, indeed, an absolute necessity to make a considerable alteration in the arrangement which had subsisted formerly, in order that such multitudes of people might be supplied with pastors, and with the ordinances of religion. One way of answering this end was to attempt anew the division of Christian countries into such parishes as were no more than ne→ cessary for affording each a sufficient congregation, and to give each, as formerly, its own bishop, presbyters, and deacons, independently of every other parish. In this way, indeed, there would have been vast alterations made on the territories and local extent of pastoral charges, which would have had the appearance of dispossessing, in a great measure, those then actually in office. But the form, as well as the spirit, of the model adopted in the second century, would have remained. And, indeed, this was the only possible method whereby it could have remained unimpaired.

The other way was to preserve the same division of territory that had been made so long before, and which the people, through custom, were brought to regard as sacred, to continue the same nominal parishes in the same hands, but in order also to accommodate the parishioners without overloading the pastors, to increase the number of the presbyters, and, as they could not now all convene in one place, to erect a sort of subordinate chapels or churches, (a thing in the two first centuries probably not conceived) to affix to each, in subordination to the

prelate, its proper presbyter, who in most things was to be, in respect of this smaller parish, what the bishop had been in respect of the larger parish whereof it was a part. If the former of these methods suited more the primitive constitution of the church, the latter (which in fact was adopted) was more accommodated to the natural bent of the imagination. It had the appearance of paying a proper regard to ancient land-marks, of accommodating the people without injuring individuals, by stripping them both of the titles and of the territories which had been immemorially possessed by them and their predecessors.

Besides, though the accession of proselytes to the Christian cause was both great and sudden on the establishment of Christianity as the religion of the empire, there had been a real, though more gradual accession, for centuries before. And as this, through its being gradual, had never given rise to any new division, but, perhaps, in a few distant places, to the erection of country parishes, under the care of those called chorepiscopi, or to the addition of some presbyters to the bishop's council, they would be prepared by custom to adopt the second method rather than the first. I have hinted already, that both interest and ambition pointed to the same conduct. I might add another thing, which has no inconsiderable influence on our apprehensions of fitness, that a certain analogy to the civil government would also contribute to recommend this plan. How far this principle operated on the advancement of the hierarchy to the grandeur which in process of time it attained, as it is admitted by every judicious and candid historian, shall be evinced more fully in the sequel.

Thus a circumstance in itself merely accidental, and which we have reason to think was not regarded as of any moment by the first publishers of the gospel, namely, the extent of territory that was necessary for affording converts enow to make a congregation, (this circumstance, I say,) aided by some concurring causes, proved the secret source of that total change, in respect to government, which the church in a few ages after underwent. Some of those concurrent causes have been explained already, and we shall have occasion to investigate others of them as we proceed. But that we may, if possible, be more fully satisfied of the truth of the foregoing remark, in regard to the rise of the

dioceses, comprehending many congregations out of parishes, which, though generally the same, or nearly so, in local extent, comprehended each but one congregation, let us suppose that the apostles and other founders of the churches, instead of converting, as they did, a thirtieth, or a fortieth part of every city where they preached, had converted all the inhabitants, is it not manifest that the same principle of combining as many converts as would constitute a congregation, which made them include the whole city in the parish, when the whole could furnish no more than one congregation, would have led them to erect as many parishes as there were streets or lanes, when each street or lane could afford the same number which, as things happened, were afforded by the whole city. Had this been the case from the beginning, such a revolution in the circumstances of the church as I have endeavoured to explain to you, could never have happened.

But I promised to advert briefly to some other causes, which concurred in producing the same effect. The more effectually to accomplish this promise, it will be necessary to turn back a little, that we may trace the origin and progress of ecclesiastic courts. I have had frequent occasion to mention the presbytery. It was the radical court, and subsisted from the beginning. Mention is made of it in scripture. And as a plurality of pastors was settled in most Christian congregations, planted by the apostles, and as those pastors were required to conduct their matters with harmony and prudence, there was a necessity that, for this purpose, they should often meet and consult together. This was properly the council of the congregation. And the different congregations, with their ministers, seemed, in a great measure, independent of one another. Every thing regarding their own procedure in worship, as well as discipline, was settled among themselves. But it is extremely plain, that a total independency was not adapted to the more general character that belonged to all as members of the commonwealth of Christ. It was not the being members of the same congregation that constituted their Christian brotherhood and unity, but the being all, through one Mediator, adopted as children into the family of God, or, as it is otherwise expressed, the being members of the same body whereof Christ is the head, and,