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does severally refer to each diftinct Member and Part, whereof that Complex Body does confift; and plainly denotes, that every Part, as well one as the other, did hold an Affembly on that Day, or else the fame Abfurdity wou'd unavoidably follow as before, that All made but one Affembly in the whole. So unwarily (at least) are this Holy Martyr's Words mifreprefented here, to prove what they no wife do prove, or never intended to do.

For the plain Cafe was this; the pious Apologift writes to the Heathen Emperor, Senate, and People, in Vindication of the perfecuted Chriftians throughout the Roman Empire, and towards the Clofe of his Apology fets forth the general Method of them all in the Exercife of their Religion; I fay, the general Method of them all, for otherwife his charitable Plea for that Profeffion had been very Lame and Imperfect indeed, and contrary to the Tenor of his whole Apology, as is obvious to them that read it: So that his Sundays-Affemblies here, were a Specification of the Catholick Practice, whether in Cities or Countries throughout the Empire, as the Plural Words, obferv'd above, do unquestionably imply; and forafmuch as they were Aliens to the Chriftian Difpenfation, to whom he wrote, he neither us'd the peculiar Word Bishop or Presbyter, to express the Prefident of their refpective Affemblies by, (tho' our Enquirer frankly tranflates it by the former of these) but only fuch a general Term as might inftruct the Heathens he addrefs'd to, that

* 'O Пgger's Juft. Apol. ib.

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that a Perfon in peculiar Authority did prefide over each of them, and principally discharge the Duties of the Affembly, and the Day; and what does this prove as to the Certainty of but one Congregation only in any City or Diocefe?

His next Appeal is to fundry Paffages in the Epiftles of S. Ignatius. The Quotations are pretty many in Number; but the Force and Importance of them all, I conceive, when you hear them, will appear to be much the fame.

To the Church of * Smyrna he writes thus: Where the Bishop is, there the People must be: And again, It is Unlawful to do any Thing without the Bishop. To the Trallians, thus: § There is a Neceffity that we do nothing without the Bishop. And to the Philadelphians; Where the Paftor is, there the Sheep ought to follow. And to the Magnesians, As Chrift, fays he, did nothing without the Father, So do you nothing without the Bishop and Presbyters, but affemble into the fame Place (fo he renders to our, without any other Word joined to it; that you may have one Prayer, one Supplication, one Mind, and one Hope.

Now

* Οπι ἂν φανῇ ὁ ἘπίσκοπΘ, ἐκεῖ τὸ πλῆθο Οὐκ ἐξόν όξιν χωρὶς ἐπισκόπε ἔτε βαπτίζειν, ἔτε ἀγάπην ποιών Ep. ad Smyr. p. 6.

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§ Αναγκαῖον ἐν ὅτιν ἀνὰ ἐπισκόπε μηδὲν πρέπειν uas. Ep. ad Tralles. p. 48.

Η Ὅπε ἢ ὁ ποιμήν όξιν, ἐκεῖ ὡς πρόβαλα άκολες JTE. Ep. ad Philad. p. 42.

+ Ανευ τὸ Ἐπισκόπε και η Πρεσβυτέρων, μηδὲν προσπλε, ἀλλὰ ἐπὶ τὸ αυτὸ μία προσοχή, μία δέκ σις, εις νῆς, μία ἐλπίς. Ep. ad Magner. p. 33.

Now can any Man fee more in all this, than that the Bishop must be in all the Ministrations of the Church, and none can rightly partake of any of them, but by him? But how? By his Perfonal Miniftry alone? Yes; or elfe all our learned Enquirer'sUfe and Inference from them, will come to little indeed: But are we fure the holy Martyr himself meant fo too? Nothing plainer, I think, than that he did not; elfe how cou'd he say immediately before his Charge to the Church of Smyrna, of doing nothing without the Bishop, let that Eucharist be counted Valid with you, (fays he) which is Celebrated by your Bishop, or by fuch an one as he shall Authorize to do it. And immediately after it again, as foon as he had told them, that without the Bishop, it was not Lawful to Baptize or Solemnize their Love-Feast, (which implies Communion too) he adds, as it were by way of Exception; But what he (that is, the Bishop) does approve, that is acceptable unto God. The Bishop's Permiffion and Approbation (it feems then) were, in the holy Martyr's Senfe, as good as his very Act and Deed. And no less is plainly to be feen in that great Argument, by which he enjoins this dutiful Regard to the Bishop, in his Charge to the Magnefians; of As the Lord (fays he) did nothing of himself, or by his Apoftles, without the Father

* Εκείνη βεβαία Εὐχαρισία ἡγείπω ἡ ὑπὸ ἐπίσ κοπον ἔσα, ἢ ᾧ ἂν αὐτὸς ἐπιτρέψη. Ad Smyrn. p. 6. ที่ || Αλλ ̓ ὃ ἂν ἐκῶν δοκιμάζη, τότο καὶ τῷ Θεῷ 'dapesov. Ib.

+' ουτε δι ̓ ἑαυτό, ἔτε διὰ τ Αποςόλων. Εp. ad Magnes. p. 33.

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fo neither do you without the Bishops and the Pref byters. In the Relative part of this Comparison, (we fee) what our Lord did either by himself, or bis Apoftles, (commiffion'd by him) are imply'd to be the fame thing; and therefore in the Correlate which anfwers to it, what the Church fhould do by the Ministry of the Bishop himself, or of the Presbyters commiffion'd by him, by a juft Analogy of Senfe fhou'd be the fame too; and for this Reafon, perhaps, our cautious Enquirer, in quoting this Paffage in this Place, left out the whole former Part of this Comparison in his Original in the Margin, and thefe Words, [By himself, or by his Apofttes in his Tranflation of it in the Text. I need not add, fure, how natural and undifputed a Maxim it is, in all Acts of Government whatsoever, that the Supreme Magiftrate is faid and own'd to do what is warrantably done by his commiffion'd Minifters and Authority; fo little does S. Ignatius's Language, in this Senfe, and in his own Interpretation of it, differ from the ordinary Dialect and Notion of all Mankind.

That a Bishop, then, might and did fo -act by deputed Presbyters, I think is very clear in S. Ignatius's own Senfe of it; and this fort of Deputation fo very nearly resembles even what we call Inftitution in an Epifcopal Church at this Day, (at least as to the exercifing of Minifterial Offices in it) that if the Place, as well as Office, were affign'd, I fhou'd fcarce know what we did dispute about. And that thofe primitive Bishops could and did affign to Presbyters, as well a feparate Place

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or Places to minifter in, as depute them to the Ministry itself, I can bring this very learned Enquirer himself to bear Witness for me; for in the 38th and 39th Pages of this very Treatife of his, (where he gives Account of the populous Church of Alexandria) he confeffes, that because 'twas incommodious for all the People to affemble in their own ufual Meetingplace, which was very far from their own Homes, and withall to avoid Schifm from their Bishop, the People ask'd leave, and the good Bishop Dionyfius granted it, that they fhou'd erect a Chappel of Eafe. He might have faid Chappels in the Plural, if he pleas'd; for in the Hiftorian himfelf there is the fame Authority for it; and this, about the Suburbs of the City, and to be under the Bishop's Furifdiction, and guided by a Presbyter of his Commiffion and Appointment. † This Paffage (from Eufeb. Hift. Eccl. l. 7. c. 11.) is reprefented in a very nice and arbitrary Figure here, to fuit the Scheme it was produc'd for, as much as it cou'd handfomly do; and yet how little it does fo, nay, how directly it contradicts the Whole, is obvious to any Reader by the bare Reciting of it. Here are feveral Affemblies of Chriftians under the Jurifdi&tion of one Bishop; Subordinate and Accountable Presbyters, by Permission and Commiffion of that one Bishop, officiating feparately in them; and diftin&t Places affign'd for their doing fo. Judge

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* Kalà μép Σwayajai. Dionyf. apud Eufeb.

1. 7. c. 11.

+ See my Remarks on this Paffage at large, from Pag. 9. to Pag. 13. in the former Chapter.

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