is so much disparity in the very nature, and exercise, and first original of it, must abide for ever; then so must that disparity. If the apostolate, in the first stabiliment, was this eminency of power, then it must be so; that is, it must be the same in the succession that it was in the foundation. For, after the church is founded upon its governors, we are to expect no change of government. If Christ was the author of it, then, as Christ left it, so it must abide for ever: for ever there must be the governing and the governed, the superior and the subordinate, the ordainer and the ordained, the confirmer and the confirmed.

Thus far the way is straight, and the path is plain. The apostles were the stewards and the ordinary rulers of Christ's family, by virtue of the order and office apostolical; and although this be succeeded to for ever, yet no man, for his now or at any time being called a presbyter or elder, can pretend to it; for, besides his being a presbyter, he must be an apostle too; else, though he be called “ in partem | sollicitudinis," and may do the office of assistance and under-stewardship, yet the kupos, "the government," | and rule of the family, belongs not to him.

66

But then rig apa кaì σýμeрov, "who are these stewards and rulers over the household now ?" To this the answer is also certain and easy. Christ hath made the same governors to-day as heretofore; "apostles still." For though the twelve apostles are dead, yet the apostolical order is not: it is τάξις γεννητικὴ, "a generative order," and begets more apostles. Now who these "minores apostoli" are, the successors of the apostles in that office apostolical and supreme regiment of souls, we are sufficiently taught in holy Scriptures; which when I have clearly shown to you, I shall pass on to some more practical considerations.

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1. Therefore, certain and known it is, that Christ appointed two sorts of ecclesiastic persons,-twelve apostles, and the seventy-two disciples; to these he gave a limited commission; to those a fulness of power; to these a temporary employment; to those a perpetual and everlasting from these two societies, founded by Christ, the whole church of God derives the two superior orders in the sacred hierarchy; and, as bishops do not claim a Divine right but by succession from the apostles, so the presbyters cannot pretend to have been instituted by Christ, but by claiming a succession to the seventy-two. And then consider the difference, compare the tables, and all the world will see the advantages of argument we have; for since the seventy-two had nothing but a mission on a temporary errand; and more than that, we hear nothing of them in Scripture; but upon the apostles Christ poured all the ecclesiastical power, and made them the ordinary ministers of that Spirit, which was to abide with the church for ever: the Divine institution of bishops, that is, of successors to the apostles, is much more clear than that Christ appointed presbyters, or successors of the seventy-two. And yet,, if from hence they do not derive it, they can k Gal. i. 19. Philip. ii. 25.

11 Cor. viii. 23. Psal. xlv. 16.

never prove their order to be of Divine institution at all, much less to be so alone.

But we may see the very thing itself-the very matter of fact. St. James, the bishop of Jerusalem, is by St. Paul called an apostle: "Other apostles saw I none, save James, the Lord's brother." For there were some whom the Scriptures call "the apostles of our Lord;" that is, such which Christ made by his word immediately, or by his Spirit extraordinarily; and even into this number and title, Matthias, and St. Paul, and Barnabas, were accounted. But the church also made apostles;' and these were called by St. Paul, áñóστoλoɩ έkkλŋav, "apostles of the churches;" and particularly Epaphroditus was the "apostle of the Philippians ;"

m

properly so, saith Primasius; and "what is this else but the bishop," saith Theodoret; for Tous νῦν καλουμένους ἐπισκόπους ὠνόμαζον ἀποστόλους, "those who are now called bishops, were then called apostles," saith the same father. The sense and full meaning of which argument is a perfect commentary upon that famous prophecy of the church, "Instead of thy fathers thou shalt have children, whom thou mayest make princes in all lands;" that is, not only the twelve apostles, our fathers in Christ, who first begat us, were to rule Christ's family, but when they were gone, their children and successors should arise in their stead: "Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis:" their direct successors to all generations shall be "principes populi,” that is, “rulers and governors of the whole catholic church."—" De prole enim ecclesiæ crevit eadem paternitas, id est, episcopi quos illa genuit, et patres appellat, et constituit in sedibus patrum," saith St. Austin: "The children of the church become fathers of the faithful; that is, the church begets bishops, and places them in the seat of fathers, the first apostles."

After these plain and evident testimonies of Scripture, it will not be amiss to say, that this great affair, relying not only upon the words of institution, but on matter of fact, passed forth into a demonstration and greatest notoriety by the doctrine and practice of the whole catholic church: for so St. Irenæus, who was one of the most ancient fathers of the church, and might easily make good his affirmative: "We can," says he, "reckon the men, who by the apostles were appointed bishops in churches, to be their successors unto us; leaving to them the same power and authority which they had."--Thus St. Polycarp was by the apostles made bishop of Smyrna; St. Clement, bishop of Rome, by St. Peter; "and divers others by the apostles,” saith Tertullian; saying also, that the Asian bishops were consecrated by St. John. And to be short, that bishops are the successors of the apostles in the stewardship and rule of the church, is expressly taught by St. Cyprian and St. Jerome, St. Ambrose and St. Austin, by Euthymius and Pacianus, by St. Gregory and St. John Damascenus, by Clarius à Muscula and St. Sixtus, by Anacletus and St. Isidore; by the Roman council under St. Sylvester,

o In 1 Cor. xii.

q

Epist. 1. Simpronianum.

In Psal. xliv.

and the council of Carthage; and the dadoxn, or "succession" of bishops from the apostles' hands in all the churches apostolical, was as certainly known as in our chronicles we find the succession of our English kings, and one can no more be denied than the other. The conclusion from these premises I give you in the words of St. Cyprian: "Cogitent diaconi, quòd apostolos, id est, episcopos, Dominus ipse elegerit:" "Let the ministers know, that apostles, that is, the bishops, were chosen by our blessed Lord himself:" and this was so evident, and so believed, that St. Austin affirms it with a "Nemo ignorat," ," "No man is so ignorant but he knows this, that our blessed Saviour appointed bishops over churches." s

Indeed the Gnostics spake evil of this order; for they are noted by three apostles, St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. Jude, to be "despisers of government, and to speak evil of dignities;" and what government it was they did so despise, we may understand by the words of St. Jude; they were Ev r avriλoyią roʊ Kope, "in the contradiction or gainsaying of Corah," who with his company rose up against Aaron the high priest; and excepting these, who were the vilest of men, no man, within the first three hundred years after Christ, opposed episcopacy. But when Constantine received the church into his arms, he found it universally governed by bishops; and, therefore, no wise or good man professing to be a christian, that is, to believe the holy catholic church, can be content to quit the apostolical government, (that by which the whole family of God was fed, and taught, and ruled,) and beget to himself new fathers and new apostles, who, by wanting succession from the apostles of our Lord, have no ecclesiastical and derivative communion with these fountains of our Saviour.

If ever Vincentius Lirinensis's rule could be used in any question, it is in this: "Quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus;" that bishops are the successors of the apostles in this stewardship, and that they did always rule the family, was taught and acknowledged "always, and every where, and by all men" that were of the church of God: and if these evidences be not sufficient to convince modest and sober persons in this question, we shall find our faith to fail in many other articles, of which we yet are very confident: for the observation of the Lord's day, the consecration of the holy eucharist by priests, the baptizing infants, the communicating of women, and the very canon of the Scripture itself, rely but upon the same probation; and, therefore, the denying of articles thus proved, is a way, I do not say, to bring in all sects and heresies,—that is but little; --but a plain path and inlet to atheism and irreligion; for by this means it will not only be impossible to agree concerning the meaning of Scripture, but the Scripture itself, and all the records of religion, will become useless, and of no efficacy or persuasion.

I am entered into a sea of matter; but I will break it off abruptly, and sum up this inquiry with the words of the council of Chalcedon, which is one * Quæst. V. et N. T. զ. 197.

T

Epist. 65. ad Rogat.

t Isa. lx. 17.

of the four generals, by our laws made the measures of judging heresies: Επίσκοπον εἰς πρεσβυτέρου βαθμὸν ἀναφέρειν, ἱεροσυλία ἐστίν, " It is sacrilege to bring back a bishop to the degree and order of a presbyter." It is indeed a rifling the order, and entangling the gifts, and confounding the method of the Holy Ghost; it is a dishonouring them whom God would honour, and a robbing them of those spiritual eminences with which the Spirit of God does anoint the consecrated heads of bishops. And I shall say one thing more, which indeed is a great truth, that the diminution of episcopacy was first introduced by popery; and the popes of Rome, by communicating to abbots, and other mere priests, special graces to exercise some essential offices of episcopacy, have made this sacred order to be cheap, and apt to be invaded. But then add this: if Simon Magus was in so damnable a condition for offering to buy the gifts and powers of the apostolical order, what shall we think of them that snatch them away, and pretend to wear them, whether the apostles and their successors will or no? This is ψεύσασθαι τὸ ayιov ПIvɛvμa, " to belie the Holy Ghost;" that is the least of it: it is rapine and sacrilege, besides the heresy and schism, and the spiritual lie. For the government episcopal, as it was exemplified in the synagogue, and practised by the same measures in the temple, so it was transcribed by the eternal Son of God, who translated it into a gospel ordinance it was sanctified by the Holy Spirit, who named some of the persons, and gave to them all power and graces from above: it was subjected in the apostles first, and by them transmitted to a distinct order of ecclesiastics: it was received into all churches, consigned in the records of the Holy Scriptures, preached by the universal voice of all the christian world, delivered by notorious and uninterrupted practice, and derived to further and unquestionable issue by perpetual succession.

I have done with the hardest part of the text, by finding out the persons intrusted, "the stewards of Christ's family;" which though Christ only intimated in this place, yet he plainly enough manifested in others: the apostles, and their successors the bishops, are the men intrusted with this great charge; God grant they may all discharge it well. And so I pass from the officers to a consideration of the office itself, in the next words; "whom the Lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their meat in due season."

2. The office itself is the stewardship, that is episcopacy, the office of the bishop: the name signifies an office of the ruler indefinitely, but the word was chosen, and by the church appropriated to those whom it now signifies, both because the word itself is a monition of duty, and also because the faithful were used to it in the days of Moses and the prophets. The word is in the prophecy of the church: "I will give to thee princes in peace, καὶ ἐπισκόπους ἐν dikauoouvy, and bishops in righteousness;" upon which place St. Jerome says, "Principes ecclesiæ vocat futuros episcopos ;"" "The Spirit of God

u

u Hunc locum etiam citat S. Clement. Ep. ad. Cor.

sity of making severe accounts. But all this is nothing but the general measures; I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular. The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions, by which christian bishops have blessed and built up christendom; for because we must be followers of them, as they were of Christ, the recounting what they did worthily in their generations, will not only demonstrate how useful, how profitable, how necessary episcopacy is to the christian church, but it will, at the same time, teach us our duty, by what services we are to benefit the church, in what works we are to be employed, and how to give an account of our stewardship with joy. 1. The christian church was founded by bishops, not only because the apostles, who were bishops, were the first preachers of the gospel, and planters of the churches, but because the apostolical men, whom the apostles used in planting and disseminating religion, were, by all antiquity, affirmed to have been diocesan bishops; insomuch that, as St. Epiphanius witnesses, there were, at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ, many churches, who had in them no other clergy, but a bishop and his deacons and the presbyters were brought in afterwards, as the harvest grew greater: but the bishops' names are known, they are "recorded in the book of life," and "their praise is in the gospel;" such were Timothy and Titus, Clemens and Linus, Marcus and Dionysius, Onesimus and Caius, Epaphroditus and St. James, our Lord's brother,— Evodius and Simeon; all which, if there be any faith in christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith, and any truth in their stories; and unless we, who believe Thucydides and Plutarch, Livy and Tacitus, think that all church-story is a perpetual romance, and that all the brave men, the martyrs and the doctors of the primitive church, did conspire, as one man, to abuse all christendom for ever; I say, unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted, all these, whom I have now reckoned, were bishops fixed in several churches, and had dioceses for their charges.

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The consequent of this consideration is this: If bishops were those upon whose ministry Christ founded and built his church, let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be pillars: the stewards of Christ's family must be wise; that Christ requires: and if the order be necessary to the church, wisdom cannot but be necessary to the order; for it is a shame if they, who by their office are fathers in Christ, shall by their unskilfulness be but babes themselves, understanding not the secrets of religion, the mysteries of godliness, the perfections of the evangelical law, all the advantages and disadvantages in the spiritual life. A bishop must be exercised in godliness, a man of great experience in the secret conduct of souls, not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making homilies to the people, and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases; but ready to answer in all secret inquiries, and able to convince the iLib. iii. tit. 1.

gainsayers, and to speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect.

If the first bishops laid the foundation, their successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental, but build up the church in a most holy faith, taking care that no heresy sap the foundation, and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it; and above all things, that a most holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreprovable faith. So the apostles laid the foundation, and built the walls of the church, and their successors must raise up the roof as high as heaven. For let us talk and dispute eternally, we shall never compose the controversies in religion, and establish truth upon unalterable foundations, as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully, that is, with designs and little artifices, and secular partialities; and they will for ever do so, as long as they are proud or covetous. It is not the difficulty of our questions, or the subtlety of our adversaries, that makes disputes interminable; but we shall never cure the itch of disputing, or establish unity, unless we apply ourselves to humility and contempt of riches. If we will be contending, let us contend like the olive and the vine, who shall produce best and most fruit; not like the aspen and the elm, which shall make most noise in a wind. And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end. And as for the people, the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of faith and government, is by reducing them to live good lives. When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony, and drunkenness, and filthy lusts, they quickly fell into abominable idolatries; and St. Paul says, "that men make shipwreck of their faith by putting away a good conscience :"k for the mystery of faith is best preserved ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειShoe, "in a pure conscience," saith the same apostle secure but that, and we shall quickly end our disputes, and have an obedient and conformable people; but else never.

2. As bishops were the first fathers of churches, and gave them being, so they preserve them in being; for without sacraments there is no church, or it will be starved, and die; and without bishops there can be no priests, and consequently no sacraments; and that must needs be a supreme order, from whence ordination itself proceeds. For it is evident and notorious, that in Scripture there is no record of ordination, but an apostolical hand was in it; one of the avèpes youμevo, one of the chief, one of the superior and " ruling" clergy; and it is as certain in the descending ages of the church, the bishop always had that power: it was never denied to him, and it was never imputed to presbyters: and St. Jerome himself, when, out of his anger against John, bishop of Jerusalem, he endeavoured to equal the presbyter with the bishop, though in very many places he spake otherwise, yet even then also, and in that heat, he excepted ordination, acknowledging that to be the bishop's peculiar. And, therefore, they who go about to extinguish episcopacy, do as Julian did; they destroy the presbytery, and starve the flock, and take away their shepherds, k1 Tim. i. 19. 11 Tim. iii. 9.

and dispark their pastures, aud tempt God's providence to extraordinaries, and put the people to hard shifts, and turn the channels of salvation quite another way, and leave the church to a perpetual uncertainty, whether she be alive or dead, and the people destitute of the life of their souls, and their daily bread, and their spiritual comforts, and holy blessings.

The consequent of this is: if sacraments depend upon bishops, then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials, sanctified with a holy ministry, and ministered by holy persons for although it be true that the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers; yet it is as truc, that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the receiver; but both together, relying upon the goodness of God, produce all those blessings which are designed. The minister hath an influence into the effect, and does very much towards it; and if there be a failure there, it is a defect in one of the concurring causes; and therefore an unholy bishop is a great diminution to the people's blessing. St. Jerome presses this severely: "Impiè faciunt," &c. "They do wickedly who affirm, that the holy eucharist is consecrated by the words (alone) and solemn prayer of the consecrator, and not also by his life and holiness:"m and therefore St. Cyprian affirms, that "none but holy and upright men are to be chosen, who, offering their sacrifices worthily to God, may be heard in their prayers for the Lord's people" but for others, "Sacrificia eorum, panis luctûs," saith the prophet Hosea: "Their sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow; whoever eats thereof, shall be defiled."

This discourse is not mine, but St. Cyprian's; and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically, but in the case of duty and caution, yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts, and consider how we shall give an account of our stewardship, if we shall offer to the people the bread of God with impure hands; it is of itself a pure nourishment; but if it passes through an unclean vessel, it loses much of its excellency.

3. The like also is to be said concerning prayer; for the episcopal order is appointed by God to be the great ministers of Christ's priesthood, that is, to stand between Christ and the people in the intercourse of prayer and blessing. "We will give ourselves continually to prayer," said the apostles; that was the one-half of their employment;-and indeed a bishop should spend very much of his time in holy prayer, and in diverting God's judgments, and procuring blessings to the people; for in all times, the chief of the religion was ever the chief minister of blessing. Thus Abraham blessed Abimelech, and Melchisedeck blessed Abraham, and Aaron blessed the people; and "without all controversy," saith the apostle," the less is blessed of the greater." But then "we know that God heareth not sinners;" and it must be "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that shall prevail."

And, therefore, we may easily consider, that a vicious prelate is a great calamity to that flock, which he is appointed to bless and pray for. How shall he reconcile the penitents, who is himself at enmity with God? How shall the Holy Spirit of God descend upon the symbols at his prayer, who does perpetually grieve him, and quench his holy fires, and drive him quite away? How shall he that hath not tasted of the Spirit by contemplation, stir up others to earnest desires of celestial things? Or what good shall the people receive, when the bishop lays upon their head a covetous or a cruel, an unjust or an impure hand? But, therefore, that I may use the words of St. Jerome, "Cum ab episcopo gratia in populum transfundatur, et mundi totius et ecclesiæ totius condimentum sit episcopus," &c. Since it is intended that from the bishop grace should be diffused amongst all the people, there is not in the world a greater indecency than a holy office ministered by an unholy person, and no greater injury to the people, than that of the blessings which God sends to them by the ministries evangelical, they should be cheated and defrauded by a wicked steward. And, therefore, it was an excellent prayer, which to this very purpose was, by the son of Sirach, made in behalf of the high priests, the sons of Aaron: "God give you wisdom in your heart, to judge his people in righteousness, that their good things be not abolished, and that their glory may endure for ever." P

4. All the offices ecclesiastical always were, and ought to be, conducted by the episcopal order, as is evident in the universal doctrine and practice of the primitive church: Oi πpeoßUTEрoi kaì diákovoi åvev γνώμης τοῦ ἐπισκόπου μηδὲν ἐπιτελείτωσαν. It is the fortieth canon of the apostles, "Let the presbyters and deacons do nothing without leave of the bishop; "a but that case is known.

The consequent of this consideration is no other than the admonition in my text: "We are stewards of the manifold grace of God," and dispensers of the mysteries of the kingdom; and "it is required of stewards that they be found faithful;" "that we preach the word of God in season and out of season, -that we rebuke and exhort, admonish and correct;"-for these God calls "pastores secundum cor meum," "pastors according to his own heart, which feed the people with knowledge and understanding; "s but they must also "comfort the afflicted, and bind up the broken heart;" minister the sacraments with great diligence, and righteous measures, and abundant charity, always having in mind those passionate words of Christ to St. Peter: "If thou lovest me, feed my sheep; if thou hast any love to me, feed my lambs."

And let us remember this also, that nothing can enforce the people to obey their bishops as they ought, but our doing that duty and charity to them which God requires. There is reason in these words of St. Chrysostom: "It is necessary that the church should adhere to their bishop, as the body to the head, as plants to their roots, as rivers to a Et 24. C. Concil. Antioch. Jer. iii. 15.

r 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2, 3.