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apostles had the same right and institution that the apostles themselves had; and though the personal mission was not immediate, as of the apostles it was, yet the commission and institution of the function was all one. But to the seventytwo Christ gave no commission but of preaching,' which was a very limited commission. There was all the immediate Divine institution of presbyterate, as a distinct order that can be fairly pretended. But yet farther, these seventy-two the apostles did admit "in partem solicitudinis," and, by new ordination or delegation apostolical, did give them power of administering sacraments, and absolving sinners, of governing the church in conjunction and subordination to the apostles, of which they had a capacity, by Christ's calling them at first "in sortem ministerii;" but the exercise, and the actuating of this capacity, they had from the apostles. So that, not by Divine ordination, or immediate commission from Christ, but by derivation from the apostles, and, therefore, in minority and subordination to them, the presbyters did exercise acts of order and jurisdiction in the absence of the apostles or bishops, or in conjunction consiliary, and by way of advice, or before the consecration of a bishop to a particular church. And all this I doubt not, but was done by the direction of the Holy Ghost, as were all other acts of apostolical ministration, and particularly the institution of the other order, viz., of deacons. This is all that can be proved out of Scripture, concerning the commission given in the institution of presbyters; and this I shall afterwards confirm by the prac-. tice of the Catholic church, and so vindicate the practices of the present church from the common prejudices that disturb us; for, by this account, episcopacy is not only a Divine institution, but the only order that derives immediately from Christ.

For the present only, I sum up this with that saying of Theodoret, speaking of the seventy-two disciples. "Palmæ sunt isti qui nutriuntur ac erudiuntur ab apostolis. Nam quanquam Christus hos etiam elegit, erant tamen duodecim illis inferiores, et postea illorum discipuli et sectatores:" "The apostles are the twelve fountains, and the LXXII are the palms that are nourished by the waters of those fountains. For though Christ also ordained the LXXII, yet they were

inferior to the apostles, and afterwards were their followers and disciples.

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I know no objection to hinder a conclusion; only two or three words out of Ignatius are pretended against the main question, viz., to prove that he, although a bishop, yet had no apostolical authority, οὐχ ὡς ἀπόστολος διατάσσομαι, " I do not command this as an apostle, (for what am I, and what is my father's house, that I should compare myself with them,) but as your fellow-soldier and a monitor"." But this answers itself, if we consider to whom he speaks it. Not to his own church of Antioch, for there he might command as an apostle, but to the Philadelphians he might not, they were no part of his diocess, he was not their' apostle, and then because he did not equal the apostles in their commission extraordinary, in their personal privileges, and in their universal jurisdiction, therefore he might not command the Philadelphians, being another bishop's charge, but admonish them with the freedom of a Christian bishop, to whom the souls of all faithful people were dear and precious. So that still episcopacy and apostolate may be all one in ordinary office: this hinders not, and I know nothing else pretended, and that antiquity is clearly on this side is the next business.

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For hitherto the discourse hath been of the immediate Divine institution' of episcopacy, by arguments derived from Scripture; I shall only add two more from antiquity, and so pass on to tradition apostolical.

SECTION X.

So that Bishops are Successors in the Office of Apostleship, according to the general Tenent of Antiquity.

1. THE belief of the primitive church is, that bishops are the ordinary successors of the apostles, and presbyters of the seventy-two, and, therefore, did believe that episcopacy is as truly of Divine institution as the apostolate, for the ordinary office both of one and the other is the same thing. For

* In Lucam. c. 1.

y Epist. ad Philadelph.

this there is abundant testimony. Some I shall select, enough to give fair evidence of a catholic tradition.

St. Irenæus is very frequent and confident in this particular, "Habemus annumerare eos, qui ab apostolis instituti sunt episcopi in ecclesiis, et successores eorum usque ad nos.

Etenim si recondita mysteria scîssent apostoli, his vel maxime traderent ea, quibus etiam ipsas ecclesias committebant-quos et successores relinquebant, suum ipsorum locum magisterii tradentes:" "We can name the men the apostles made bishops in their several churches, appointing them their successors, and most certainly those mysterious secrets of Christianity which themselves knew, they would deliver to them, to whom they committed the churches, and left to be their successors in the same power and authority themselves had"."

Tertullian reckons Corinth, Philippi, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and others, to be churches apostolical, " apud quas ipsæ adhuc cathedræ apostolorum suis locis præsident:" "Apostolical they are from their foundation, and by their successión, for the apostles did found them, and apostles or men of apostolic authority still do govern them"."

St. Cyprian: " Hoc enim vel maximè, frater, et laboramus et laborare debemus, ut unitatem à Domino, et per apostolos nobis successoribus traditam, quantùm possumus obtinere curemus:" "We must preserve the unity commanded us by Christ, and delivered by his apostles to us, their successors." To us, Cyprian and Cornelius,' for they only were then in view, the one bishop of Rome, the other of Carthage. And in his epistle ad Florentium Pupianum: "Nec hæc jacto, sed dolens profero, cum te judicem Dei constituas et Christi, qui dicit ad apostolos, ac per hoc ad omnes præpositos, qui apostolis vicariâ ordinatione succedunt, Qui vos audit, me audit," &c. "Christ said to his apostles, and in them to the governors or bishops of his church, who succeeded the apostles as vicars in their absence, He that heareth you, heareth me"."

Famous is that saying of Clarus à Muscula, the bishop, spoken in the council of Carthage, and repeated by St. Austin: "Manifesta est sententia Domini nostri Jesu Christi

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apostolos suos mittentis, et ipsis solis potestatem à patre sibi datam permittentis quibus nos successimus eâdem potestate ecclesiam Domini gubernantes. Nos successimus:" "We succeed the apostles governing the church by the same power." He spake it in full council in an assembly of bishops, and himself was a bishop.

The council of Rome under St. Silvester, speaking of the honour due to bishops, expresses it thus: "Non oportere quemquam Domini discipulis, id est, apostolorum successoribus detrahere:" "No man must detract from the disciples of our Lord, that is, from the apostles' successors."

St. Jerome, speaking against the Montanists for undervaluing their bishops, shows the difference of the catholics" honouring, and the heretics' disadvantaging that sacred order f. "Apud nos," saith he, "apostolorum locum episcopi tenent, apud eos episcopus tertius est:" "Bishops with us. [Catholics] have the place or authority of apostles, but with them [Montanists] bishops are not the first but the third state of men." And upon that of the Psalmist, " Pro patribus nati sunt tibi filii," St. Jerome, and divers others of the fathers, make this gloss; "Pro patribus apostolis filii episcopi, ut episcopi apostolis, tanquam filii patribus, succedant :" "The apostles are fathers, instead of whom bishops do succeed, whom God hath appointed to be made rulers in all lands." So St. Jerome, St. Austin, and Euthymius, upon the 44th Psalm. aliàs 45th.

But St. Austin, for his own particular, makes good use of his succeeding the apostles, which would do very well now also to be considered: "Si solis apostolis dixit, Qui vos spernit me spernit, spernite nos; si autem sermo ejus pervenit ad nos, et vocavit nos, et in eorum loco constituit nos videte ne spernatis nos." It was good counsel not to despise bishops, for they being in the apostles' places and offices are concerned and protected by that saying, "He that despiseth you, despiseth me." I said it was good counsel, especially if, besides all these, we will take also St. Chrysostom's testimony. "Potestas anathematizandi ab apostolis ad successores eorum nimirum episcopos transit:" "A power

* Lib. vii. c. 43, de Baptis, cont. Donatist.

s De verbis Dom. serm. 24

Epist. 54.

of anathematizing delinquents is derived from the apostles to their successors, even to bishops."

St. Ambrose, upon that of St. Paul, Ephes iv. "Quosdam dedit apostolos, apostoli episcopi sunt:" "He hath given apostles, that is, he hath given some bishops"." That is downright, and this came not by chance from him; he doubles his assertion. "Caput itaque in ecclesiâ apostolis posuit, qui legati Christi sunt, sicut dicit idem apostolus, pro quo legatione fungimur.' Ipsi sunt episcopi, firmante istud Petro apostolo, et dicente inter cætera de Judâ, Et episcopatum ejus accipiat alteri." And a third time: "Numquid omnes apostoli? verum est; quia in ecclesiâ unus est episcopus." Bishop and apostle was all one with St. Ambrose, when he spake of their ordinary offices; which puts me in mind of the fragment of Polycrates, of the martyrdom of Timothy in Photius, ὅτι ὁ ̓Απόστολος, Τιμόθεος ὑπὸ τοῦ μεγάλου Παύλου καὶ χειροτονεῖται τῆς Ἐφησίων μητροπόλεως ἐπίσκοπος καὶ ἐνθρονίζεται κ . "The apostle Timothy was ordained bishop in the metropolis of Ephesus, by St. Paul, and there enthroned." To this purpose are those compellations and titles of bishopricks usually in antiquity. St. Basil calls a bishoprick, προεδρίαν τῶν ̓Αποστόλων, and προεδρίαν ̓Αποστολικήν. So Theodoret. "An apostolical presidency." The sum is the same which St. Peter himself taught the church, as St. Clement, his scholar, or some other primitive man in his name, reports of him. "Episcopos ergo vicem apostolorum gerere Dominum docuisse dicebat, et reliquorum discipulorum vicem tenere presbyteros debere insinuabat:" "He [Peter] said that our Lord taught, that bishops were to succeed in the place of the apostles, and presbyters in the place of the disciples1." Who desires to be farther satisfied concerning catholic consent, for bishops' succession to apostles in their order and ordinary office, he may see it in Pacianus, the renowned bishop of Barcinona", in St. Gregory", St. John Damasceno, in St. Sextus the First, his second decretal epistle, and most plentifully in St. Coelestine writing to the Ephesine council", in the epistle of Anacletus de Patriarchis

h In Ephes. iv. In 1 Cor. xii. 28.

k Biblioth. Phot. n. 254.

m

Epist. 1. ad. Sempron.

• Orat. 2. de Imagin.

i In verse 29, ibid.
Lib. iv. c. 18. Epist. 1.
n Homil. 26. in Evang.
PEpist. 7.

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