churches or particular congregations there was a presbytery; that is, each local church had a plurality of elders or presbyters. Luke speaks of such elders or bishops in local churches (Acts 14: 23; 20: 17, 28; 21: 18), and Paul calls them a presbytery (1 Tim. 4: 14); of which we shall speak more particularly in another Lecture. In this local church presbytery, or board of elders, there would naturally arise by choice, or otherwise, a presiding officer, who would receive in time some distinguishing title, though only the first among equals. The name bishop, though originally and everywhere in the New Testament synonymous with presbyter or elder, the three words being used interchangeably, — at length became the title for distinguishing the presiding presbyter. Thus, in the genuine Ignatian Epistles, we read of "being subject to the bishop and the presbytery; "23 of a "justly renowned presbytery," being "fitted as exactly to the bishop as the strings are to the harp; " of "obeying the bishop and the presbytery with an undivided mind, breaking one and the same bread; "25 of being "subject to the bishop as to the grace of God, and to the presbytery as to the law of Jesus Christ; "26 and of similar expressions in ten other passages, showing how common the distinction had become, if indeed these expressions are not in part or wholly interpolations. The bishop and presbytery were in the local or particular church, the only diocese then known. In later writings presbyters are also spoken of as presiding over the local churches, while the bishop and his presbytery are at a still later writing again conjoined.28 The bishops of the early churches were pastors of local churches. Under the persecutions which every-where met the preachers of Christ, and the want of church edifices in which to meet, the presbytery of each church, under its chosen leader, called a bishop in honor, not in order, would teach and feed the flock as best they could, in the homes or 23 Ep. Eph. 11. 25 Ibid. xx. 20 Ep. Mag. ii. 28 Apostol. Const. book ii, xxviii; book viii, iv. wherever they could most safely or conveniently assemble the whole or a part of the church. The presbyters would also labor in adjacent territory, which labor would require some overseeing, and this would naturally fall to the lot of the bishop of the local presbytery, the primus inter pares. Vice-Principal Edwin Hatch, in his famous Bampton Lectures, says that "the weight of evidence has rendered practically indisputable " the identity of the primitive bishops and presbyters; that, in the course of the second century, the bishop came to stand above the rest of the presbyters of the local church; that "the episcopate grew by the force of circumstances, in the order of Providence, to satisfy a felt want;" that "the supremacy of the episcopate was the result of the struggle with Gnosticism;" that "dioceses in the later sense of the term did not yet exist" in the fourth century; and that the first diocese was that of which Alexandria was the centre.29 "By degrees a systematic organization sprang up, by which neighboring churches were grouped together for the purposes of consultation and self-government. The chief city of each district had the civil rank of the metropolis,' or mother city. There the local synods naturally met, and the bishop-styled 'metropolitan,' from his position took the lead in the deliberations, as 'primus inter pares,' and acted as the representative of his brother bishops in their intercourse with other churches. Thus, though all bishops were nominally equal, a superior dignity and authority came by general consent to be vested in the metropolitans, which, when the churches became established, received the stamp of ecclesiastical authority. A little higher dignity was assigned to the bishops of the chief seats of government, such as Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and subsequently Constantinople; and among these, the bishop of Rome naturally had the precedence." 30 Thus slowly, under a favoring environment, the 29 Org. Early Christ. Chhs. (1880), 38; 82, 83; 98, 99; 215; 195, 194. 30 8 Ency. Brit. 488. bishop from being a mere presbyter became a presiding presbyter over equals, then a metropolitan among neighboring churches, and finally a bishop with authority, when Christianity became the state religion in the Roman Empire. § 58. The Episcopal Theory of the Christian Church when fully developed may be thus stated: "In order to be a valid branch of the Church of Christ, the Church must have (1) the holy Scriptures; (2) the ancient catholic creeds; (3) the ministry in an unbroken line of succession from the apostles; (4) this ministry must be in the exercise of lawful jurisdiction; (5) the Christians of any nation with these conditions constitute a national branch of the Church of Christ, totally independent of the jurisdiction and authority of any foreign church or bishop, subject only under Christ to the authority of the universal Church in general council assembled; and (6) as such they have jurisdiction over all their members and authority in matters of faith to interpret and decide, and in matters of discipline and worship to legislate and ordain such rites and ceremonies as may seem most conducive to edification and godliness, provided they be not contrary to the Holy Scriptures." 31 This theory is sometimes stated more briefly and broadly, but with less accuracy. § 59. The constitutive principle of this theory may be found in apostolic succession; that is, that "episcopal ordination in an unbroken line of succession from the apostles is necessary to valid jurisdiction and the due administration of the sacraments anywhere." 32 If this line be broken anywhere, the life ceases in the branches thus severed, and can not again be restored, except by ordination at the hands of some bishop, in lawful jurisdiction, who has himself been ordained in unbroken line of succession from the apostles. Hence the children are taught: "How is the life of the church preserved? By the Holy Ghost, through the Apos 31 Appleton's Am. Cycl. vii, 249. 32 Ibid. 250 "What is necessary to tolic Succession of her ministry." make any particular church a true branch of the Catholic Church? It must hold to the Creed of the Church, to the Apostolic Ministry, and to the Apostolic Succession." 33 The touch of a bishop's fingers in succession is the essential principle, since neither faith nor worship nor works avail any thing without his official touch. On this "fiction,” as Archbishop Whateley calls it, the renewing grace of God in Christ Jesus is made to depend. 34 6 § 60. This constitutive principle needs ample and' convincing proof, but instead it rests on assumption largely. "Bishop Stillingfleet declares that this succession is as muddy as the Tiber itself.' Bishop Hoadley asserts: 'It hath not pleased God, in his providence, to keep up any proof of the least probability, or moral possibility, of a regular uninterrupted succession; but there is a general appearance, and, humanly speaking, a certainty to the contrary, and that the succession hath often been interrupted.' Archbishop Whately affirms that there is not a minister in Christendom who is able to trace up, with an approach to certainty, his spiritual pedigree.'" It is admitted that the New Testament does not even set forth the fact of an episcopate, much less the constitutive principle of the Episcopal Theory, which has come into such power in Christendom; and the supposed traces of it have been largely removed by the revision of the New Testament. "The care of all the churches" (2 Cor. 11: 28) is simply "anxiety for all the churches." James is sometimes called "the bishop of Jerusalem," but there is no evidence that he was any thing more than a presiding presbyter, if not one of the apostles. Jerome is quoted to show that episcopacy was called into being to repress heresies and supplement the authority of the rapidly diminishing body of the apostles, and that the superiority of bishops over presbyters was rather due to the custom of the churches than to the ordinance of Christ. The constitutive principle has no 33 Trinity Church Catechism, Qs. 77, 79. 34 Orthodox Congregationalism, by Dr. Dorus Clarke, 23. 35 8 Ency. Brit. 484, seq. proof, but stands in direct antagonism to the tests given in the New Testament of what constitutes true believers, ministers, and churches. Christ refused to let his apostles forbid a man casting out devils in his name, because he did not follow them (Mark 9: 38, 39). God made the gift of the Holy Spirit the test, and taught Peter so in a vision (Acts 10: 916). The apostles and church at Jerusalem, in two test cases, followed the same rule (Acts 11: 1-18; 15: 1–29). Hence, not apostolic succession, but the gift and graces of the Holy Spirit, distinguish the gospel ministry and the churches of Christ. But this will appear more fully hereafter. § 61. This constitutive principle develops into a compact. system. (1) There must be different orders of the clergy, some as bishops possessed of functions which others as presbyters do not possess. In fact there has arisen this series deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, and patriarchs; but not all these are essential to the system. (2) Lawful jurisdiction must be observed to prevent confusion. The higher orders must have their respective realms; a bishop his diocese; the priest his congregation. The bishop has in his diocese authority over churches and priests and deacons, in matters of admission, discipline, and property. (3) There are national convocations or conventions, composed of two houses, into the lower of which laymen may be admitted, - which have authority to enact whatever may be needful in matters of faith, discipline, ritual, and worship, that does not contravene the sacred Scriptures. (4) General councils were held in the early centuries, having authority over the whole Church in virtue of the union of Church and State. These have been for many centuries suspended through the divisions in Christendom. They must be restored again in order to complete the theory, and to express the unity of all the national churches. (5) The bishops have the sole power and right to confirm and ordain to holy orders. No one not episcopally ordained is qualified for the ministry, or |