VII. say of the presbyters at Alexandria, that the head whom they CHAP. 75 chose themselves out of their own number, they named "Bishop" of Alexandria. 66 dotes. teri. § 4. Otherwise, as it is well known that the name of "sacer- Sacerdos" is common to both estates, in regard of the offices of divine service which were performed by both, so in regard of the government of the Church, common to both, are they many times comprised together in the common style of "presbyters," the name of their age, or antistites, pоεστŵτes, præpositi, and the like, the names of their charge. For as the Apostle maketh himself an elder when he writeth to them in this style, 1 Pet. v. 1, "The elders I exhort, who am also an elder," so is the like to be observed in that well-known passage of Clemens Alexandrinus', related by Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. iii. 23, concerning the youth which St. John the Apostle 76 commended to the Bishop of a certain place. Clemens, proceeding in the relation, addeth, ó dè πρeσßúτepos" but the Presbyelder," saith he, "taking the youth home to his house;" &c. calling him a "presbyter" whom he had named a "Bishop" but just afore. So Tertullian, Apologet. c. 39, describing what was wont to be done in the assemblies of Christians, addeth Præsident probati quique seniores, honorem istum non pretio sed testimonio adepti; "Elders all approved are presidents having obtained the honour by testimony not by reward;" not meaning to tell us that there was no Bishop to be seen at these meetings-for in his book De Præscript., where he nameth Polycarpus, whom we alleged afore', cap. 32, Bishop of Smyrna, he speaketh as much of Bishops that succeeded the Apostles in the rest of the Churches of their planting, but comprising both ranks and estates in one name of "elders;" and that, upon the reason specified in the commentaries under St. Ambrose's 77 name, upon 1 Tim. iii. 8, where he giveth the reason why the VIL CHAP. Apostle passeth straight from Bishops to deacons; because, saith he, "every Bishop is a presbyter, though every presbyter is not a Bishop, who is the chief of presbyters." And the true St. Ambrose', Offic. i. 20. Viduarum ac virginum domos, nisi visitandi gratia, juniores adire non est opus: et hoc cum senioribus, hoc est, vel cum Episcopo, vel, si gravior est causa, cum presbyteris-"It is not expedient that the younger go to the widows' and virgins' houses unless it be to visit, and that with the elders," saith he; "that is, with the Bishop, or if need be with the presbyters." Justin Martyr, in his first m Apology, relating the orders of Christians in their assemblies, having spoken of reading the Scriptures, "Then," saith he, "the reader having done, & роeσTOS, the ruler, maketh a speech of instruction to the people, exhorting them to imitate what was read"." And again, of the Eucharist: "Then," saith he, "bread and wine is offered to the ruler," TO TроεσTOTI. Was it the Bishop alone, or the presbyters alone, that preached and celebrated the Eucharist? Sure both did it; 78 and the name of πроeσтos was chosen on purpose by Justin to comprise both. Antistites. ...... § 5. The same is to be observed in the words of St. Augustine3, Hom. ult. ex quinquaginta, cap. 11, Veniat [peccator] ad antistites, per quos illi in Ecclesia claves ministrantur, et . . . . a præpositis sacramentorum accipiat satisfactionis suæ modum." "Let the sinner come to the president by whom the keys are ministered to him in the Church and . . . . . . let him receive the measure of his satisfaction from those that are set over holy things." Antistites in Ecclesia is not the Bishop alone, but the Bishop and the presbyters. Hegesippus in Eusebius, Eccles. Hist. iii. 20, relateth how some of our Lord's kindred were brought afore Domitian upon suspicion of danger to the state, in regard of their title to the kingdom, Episcopus presbyter sit, non tamen S. Ambrosii de officiis Ministro- • Εἶτα παυσαμένου τοῦ ἀναγινώσκοντος ὁ προεστώς διὰ λόγου τὴν νουθεσίαν καὶ πρόκλησιν τῆς τῶν καλῶν τούτων μιμήσεως ποιεῖται.-Apol. i. cap. 67. p. 83. ed. Ben. • Καὶ ὡς προέφημεν, παυσαμένων ἡμῶν τῆς εὐχῆς, ἄρτος προσφέρεται καὶ οἶνος καὶ ὕδωρ, ib. referring to ἔπειτα προστ φέρεται τῷ προεστῶτι τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἄρτος καὶ ποτήριον ὕδατος καὶ κράματος. -cap. 65. p. 82. PS. Augustini serm. 351. de Pœnitentia, tom. v. col. 1359. ed. Ben. VII. but dismissed by him upon notice of their profession of life in CHAP. tilling their grounds with their own hands, tried by the hardness of them which it had wrought. "These," saith Hegesippus, “ were hereupon chosen ἡγήσασθαι τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν, 79 to be leaders of Churches, as both cousins of our Lord and His witnesses;" comprehending both Bishop and presbyters in one title. As in Ignatius', ad Trall., oi ǹyoúμεvoi тŵv 'EкKλnov, "the rulers of Churches" is put in one word to express Bishops and presbyters both, as the circumstance of the place will evidence. To this we must add the words of Irenæus, iv. 43: "Wherefore," saith he, "it behoveth us to obey the elders that are in the Church, which have received, according to the Father's pleasure, the certain grace of truth, with the succession of their bishoprics." And again, iii. 2, he speaketh of the tradition "coming from the Apostles, which had been preserved in the Churches through the succession of presbyters." Irenæus, that is wont to appeal to the succession of Bishops, to evidence that which the Church then believed to have come from the Apostles, here referreth himself to the presbyters for 80 the same purpose, affirming that they succeeded the Apostles; without doubt calling the Bishops by the name of "presbyters," in regard of the office common to both. προεσ= [προεστώς we § 6. Thus are both ranks comprised in one name of TOTES in the first canon of the Council at Antiochia", where TES.] read, Εἰ δέ τις τῶν προεστώτων τῆς Ἐκκλησίας Ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ πρεσβύτερος, ἢ διάκονος “If any of the presidents of the Church, Bishop, presbyter, or deacon:" where we are not to conceive that deacons are reckoned among the Tроeσтwтes, as hath been mistook; but the sense is to be directed by distinguishing the words thus: Εἴ τις τῶν προεστώτων τῆς Ἐκκλησίας (Επίσκοπος ἢ πρεσβύτερος) ἢ διάκονος, reckoning the προεσTwτes, as well presbyters as 4 Τοὺς δὲ ἀπολυθέντας ἡγήσασθαι τῶν Ἐκκλησιῶν ὡς ἂν δὴ μάρτυρας ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀπὸ γένους ὄντας τοῦ Κυρίου.-Euseb. Hist. Eccles. iii. 20. p. 90. ed. Vales. · Ασπάζομαι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ Σμύρνης, ἁμὰ ταῖς συμπαρούσαις μοι Ἐκκλησίαις τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὧν οἱ ἡγούμενοί με κατὰ πᾶν ἀνέπαυσαν, σαρκί τε καὶ πνεύματι.-Epist. Interp. cap. xii. p. 71. ed. Coteler. Quapropter eis, qui in Ecclesia sunt, presbyteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab Apostolis, Bishops, neither more nor less sicut ostendimus; qui cum Episcopatus t Cum autem ad eam iterum tradi- Concil. Antiochen. A.D. 341. Labbei, tom. ii. col. 585. ed. Venet. VII. CHAP. than antistites in Latin, which we had in St. Augustine before. And thus you have both ranks comprised in the same style, of præpositi in St. Cyprian, and of præsidentes in Tertullian. The first, Epist. 62x, Et cum omnes omnino disciplinam tenere 81 oporteat, multo magis præpositos et diaconos curare hoc fas est. "And seeing all utterly are to observe discipline, much more is it just that the presidents look to this." The other, De Cor. mil. c. iii. Eucharistia sacramentum.. nec de aliorum manu quam præsidentium sumimus. "We receive the Sacrament of the Eucharist from no other hands but of the presidents'." CHAPTER VIII. What pattern this government might have in the syna WHAT PATTERN THIS GOVERNMENT MIGHT HAVE IN THE SYNAGOGUE. BISHOP AND PRESBYTERS. BEFORE we leave this point, it will not be amiss to take notice what pattern the Apostles might have for this form of government in the synagogue. For when our Lord in the Gospel, Matt. xviii. 17, giveth His disciples, in the case of gogue. private offences, the rule, Dic Ecclesiæ, it is to be supposed He reflecteth upon some bench to which that people were wont to resort with their causes-otherwise what could the hearers 82 understand by these words?-intimating that His will was, the Church, which He was now founding, to be provided of the like. Nevertheless, in regard this Church was intended a mere spiritual state, to be cherished and nourished in the bosom and entrails, as it were, of all commonwealths, there must no comparison be made in that which concerneth the temporal state of that people. [Moses' charge.] § 2. Let us see, then, Moses' charge. Deut. xvii. 8, 9, thus we read: "If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment, between blood and blood, between plea and plea, and between stroke and stroke, being matters of controversy within thy gates; then shalt thou arise, and get thee up into the place which the Lord thy God shall choose; and thou shalt come unto the priests and Levites, and to the judges that shall be Ep. iv. ad Pomponium. p. 8. ed. Oxon. 1682. VIII. in those days, and enquire; and they shall shew thee the sen- CHAP. 83 tence of judgment." He that readeth here on the one side two sorts of persons-the "priests and Levites" for one, and "the judge that shall be in those days;" on the other side, two sorts of causes-one concerning ceremonies of the religion in force, the other the civil laws of that people, hath cause to think that the meaning of this law is, that they should resort to several persons, according to the differences of their causes especially, being indifferent in the words, to translate it thus: "Thou shalt come to the priests, the Levites, or to the judge that shall be in those days," as after, verse 12, it is read. Had it been thus, the correspondence had been clear between the High-priest and his inferiors in the synagogue, and the Bishop and his presbyters in the Church. tice of the § 3. But the practice of the nation beareth it otherwise; in [The prac 84 which we must believe their doctors, when they tell us that the nation.] whole passage as well that of "the priests and Levites," as that of "the judge that shall be in those days," is referred to the Sanhedrin, whereof R. Isaac Abarbanel giveth this reason in his commentaries upon that place: because that court for a great part consisted of priests and Levites, and therefore had the hearing of all sorts of causes". And though they were brought hither from lower courts-whereof there was one of three and twenty persons in every place which contained one hundred and twenty families, one of three in less places-by the judges themselves, as the Hebrew doctors will have it, arguing from the words, "thou shalt arise"-" thou that findest a matter too hard for thee in judgment shalt arise;" yet can we compare the consistory of the Church with no court but this; first, because all mother-Churches in mother85 cities are absolute in their rule, as to those Churches or congregations that depend upon them, as members on the whole. But as to the Churches of more eminent cities, they are allby the subordination wherein the unity of the Church con ▾ Hebræi hunc versum referunt ad concilium Sanhedrim quod erat summum, instar parliamenti, et judicabat de lege, rege et propheta, ad illudque erat ultima appellatio. Porro Sanhedrim constabat 70 viris, qui tam ex Sacerdotibus quam ex primariis viris cujusque tribus assumebantur, quasi illi hic intelligantur per rò judicem, id |