how else?) so as to be the supreme in suo ordine,' in offices ecclesiastical. And again, "Quid enim aliud est episcopus quàm is, qui omni principatu et potestate superior est?" Here his superiority and advantage is expressed to be in his 'power' a bishop is greater and higher than all other in power, viz. 'in materiâ,' or 'gradu religionis.' And in his epistle to the Magnesians: "Hortor ut hoc sit omnibus studium in Dei concordiâ, omnia agere, episcopo præsidente loco Dei:" "Do all things in unity, the bishop being president in the place of God." President' in all things. And with a fuller tide yet, in his epistle to the church of Smyrna : "Honora episcopum, ut principem sacerdotum imaginem Dei referentem, Dei quidem propter principatum, Christi verò propter sacerdotium." It is full of fine expression both for eminency of order and jurisdiction. The bishop is the prince of the priests, bearing the image of God for his principality, that is his jurisdiction and power: but' of Christ himself for his priesthood;' that is his order. St. Ignatius hath spoken fairly; and if we consider that he was so primitive a man that himself saw Christ in the flesh, and lived a man of exemplary sanctity, and died a martyr, and hath been honoured as a holy catholic by all posterity,―certainly these testimonies must needs be of great pressure, being sententiæ repetiti dogmatis,' not casually slipped from him, and by incogitancy, but resolutely and frequently. 66 But this is attested by the general expressions of afterages. Fungaris circa eum potestate honoris tui," saith St. Cyprian to bishop Rogatianus ": " Execute the power of thy dignity" upon the refractory deacon; and 'vigor episcopalis,' and 'auctoritas cathedræ' are the words expressive of that power, whatsoever it be, which St. Cyprian calls upon him to assert in the same epistle. This is high enough. So is that which he presently subjoins, calling the bishops' power "ecclesiæ gubernandæ sublimem ac divinam potestatem," a high and a divine power and authority in regiment of the church." "Locus magisterii traditus ab apostolis," so St. Irenæus calls episcopacy"; "a place of mastership or authority delivered by the apostles to the bishops their successors." Eusebius speaking of Dionysius, who suc 99.66 ceeded Heraclas, he received, (saith he,) Tñs gooτarías tŵv nat”. ̓Αλεξάνδρειαν ἐκκλησιῶν τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν, " the bishoprick of the presidency over the churches of Alexandria:" is Thy átíða ThS ETIσxоTйs, saith the council of Sardis; "to the top or height of episcopacy." "Apices et principes omnium," so Optatus calls bishops; "the chief and head of all; "— and St. Denis, of Alexandria, "scribit ad Fabianum, urbis Romæ episcopum, et ad alios quam plurimos ecclesiarum principes de fide catholicâ suâ," saith Eusebius. And Origen calls the bishop, "eum qui totius ecclesiæ arcem obtinet;" "he that hath obtained the tower or height of the churchf." -- The fathers of the council of Constantinople in Trullo, ordained that the bishops,- dispossessed of their churches by encroachments of barbarous people upon the churches' pale, so as the bishop had in effect no diocese,-yet they should enjoy τῇ τῆς προεδρίας εὐθεντίᾳ κατὰ τὸν ἴδιον ὅρον, “ the authority of their presidency according to their proper state;" their appropriate presidency. And the same council calls the bishop τὸν τῆς πόλεως πρόεδρον, "the prelate or prefect of the church;" I know not how to expound it better. But it is something more full in the Greeks' council of Carthage, commanding that the convert Donatists should be received according to the will and pleasure of the bishop, Toù έv tậ αὐτῷ τόπῳ κυβερνῶντος ἐκκλησίαν, “ that governs the church in that place." And in the council of Antioch, wíononov ëxeiv τῶν τῆς ἐκκλησίας πραγμάτων ἐξουσίαν, “ the bishop hath power over the affairs of the church." "Hoc quidem tempore Romanæ ecclesiæ Sylvester retinacula gubernabat:" " St. Sylvester (the bishop) held the reins or the stern of the Roman church;" saith Theodoret1. But the instances of this kind are infinite; two may be as good as twenty, and these they are. The first is of St. Ambrosek: "Honor et sublimitas episcopalis nullis poterit comparationibus adæquari:" "The honour and sublimity of episcopal order is beyond all comparison great." And their commission he specifies to be in pasce oves meas;'"unde regendæ sacerdotibus contraduntur, meritò rectoribus suis subdi dicuntur," &c.: "The sheep are delivered to bishops d Lib. vi. Hist. c. 26. can. 10. Lib. vi. Hist. c. 26. Homil. 7. in Jerem. e Lib. ii. adv. Parmen. b Can. 25. 1 Hist. Tripart. lib. i. cap. 12. * De Dignit. Sacerdot. c. 2. as to rulers, and are made their subjects:" and in the next chapter: "Hæc verò cuncta, fratres, ideò nos præmisisse cognoscere debetis, ut ostenderemus nihil esse in hoc sæculo excellentius sacerdotibus, nihil sublimius episcopis reperiri : ut cùm dignitatem episcopatûs episcoporum oraculis demonstramus, et dignè noscamus quid sumus, actione potius quàm nomine demonstremus:" "These things I have said, that you may know nothing is higher, nothing more excellent, than the dignity and eminence of a bishop," &c. The other is of St. Jerome: "Cura totius ecclesiæ ad episcopum pertinet:" "The care of the whole church appertains to the bishop." But more confidently spoken is that in his dialogue' adversus Luciferianos:' "Ecclesiæ salus in summi sacerdotis dignitate pendet; cui si non exsors quædam et ab omnibus eminens detur potestas, tot in ecclesiis efficientur schismata quot sacerdotes :" "The safety of the church consists in the dignity of a bishop, to whom unless an eminent and unparalleled power be given by all, there will be as many schisms as priests "." m Here is dignity, and authority, and power enough expressed; and if words be expressive of things, (and there is no other use of them,) then the bishop is superior in a peerless and incomparable authority; and all the whole diocese are his subjects, viz. ' in regimine spirituali.' SECTION XXXV. Requiring Universal Obedience to be given to Bishops by Clergy and Laity. BUT from words let us pass to things. For the faith and practice of Christendom require obedience, universal obedience, to be given to bishops. I will begin again with Ignatius, that these men, who call for reduction of episcopacy to primitive consistence, may see what they gain by it; for the more primitive the testimonies are, the greater exaction of obedience to bishops; for it happened in this, as in all other things at first, Christians were more devout, more pursuing of their duties, more zealous in attestation of every particle of their faith; and that episcopacy is now come to so low an ebb, it is nothing; but that, it being a great part of Christianity to honour and obey them, it hath the fate of all other parts of our religion, and particularly of charity, come to so low a declension, as it can scarce stand alone; and faith, which shall scarce be found upon earth at the coming' of the Son of Man. But to our business. St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the church of Trallis, "Necesse itaque est," saith he, " quicquid facitis, ut sine episcopo nihil tentetis." So the Latin of Vedelius, which I the rather choose, because I am willing to give all the advantage I can. "It is necessary," saith the good martyr, " that whatsoever ye do, you should attempt nothing without your bishop." And to the Magnesians, " Decet itaque vos obedire episcopo, et in nullo illi refragari:" "It is fitting that ye should obey your bishop, and in nothing to be refractory to him." Here is both a decet' and a ' necesse est,' already. It is very fitting, it is necessary.' But if it be possible, we have a fuller expression yet, in the same epistle: "Quemadmodum enim Dominus sine Patre nihil facit,' Nec enim possum facere à meipso quicquam:' sic et vos sine episcopo, nec diaconus, nec laiconus, nec laicus; nec quicquam videatur vobis consentaneum quod sit præter illius judicium; quod enim tale est, et Deo inimicum." Here is obedience universal, both in respect of things and persons; and all this no less than absolutely necessary. "For as Christ obeyed his Father in all things, saying, 'Of myself I can do nothing;' so nor you without your bishop, whoever you be, whether priest, or deacon, or layman: let nothing please you, which the bishop dislikes; for all such things are wicked, and in enmity with God." But it seems St. Ignatius was mightily in love with this precept, for he gives it to almost all the churches he writes to. We have already reckoned the Trallians and the Magnesians. But the same he gives to the priests of Tarsus, οἱ πρεσβύτεροι ὑποτασσέτωσαν ἐπισκόπῳ. “ Ye presbyters, be subject to your bishop." The same to the Philadelphians : "Sine episcopo nihil facite :" "Do nothing without your bishop" But this is better explicated in his epistle to the oi church of Smyrna: "Sine episcopo nemo quicquam faciat eorum, quæ ad ecclesiam spectant:" "No man may do any thing, without the bishop," viz. " of those things which belong to the church." So that this saying expounds all the rest; for this universal obedience is to be understood according to the sense of the church, viz. to be in all things of ecclesiastical cognizance, all church-affairs. And, therefore, he gives a charge to St. Polycarp, their bishop, that he also look to it, that nothing be done without his leave. "Nihil sine tuo arbitrio agatur, nec item tu quicquam præter Dei facies voluntatem:""As thou must do nothing against God's will, so let nothing (in the church) be done without thine." By the way, observe, he says not, that as the presbytery must do nothing without the bishop, so the bishop nothing without them; but, so the bishop nothing without God. But so it is. "Nothing must be done without the bishop ;" and therefore, although he encourages them that can, to remain in virginity; yet this, if it be either done with pride or without the bishop, it is spoiled. For," Si gloriatus fuerit, periit, et si id ipsum statuatur sine episcopo, corruptum est." His last dictate in this epistle to St. Polycarp, is with an "Episcopo attendite, sicut et Deus vobis:" "The way to have God to take care of us, is to observe our bishop." "Hinc et vos decet accedere sententiæ episcopi, qui secundum Deum vos pascit ; quemadmodum et facitis, edocti à Spiritu:" "You must, therefore, conform to the sentence of the bishop; as indeed ye do already, being taught so to do by God's Holy Spirit." There needs no more to be said in this cause, if the authority of so great a man will bear so great a burden. What the man was, I said before; what these epistles are, and of what authority, let it rest upon Vedelius, a man who is nowise to be suspected as a party for episcopacy; or rather upon the credit of Eusebius, St. Jerome, and Ruffinus, who reckon the first seven, out of which I have taken these excerpta, for natural and genuine. And now I will make this use of it; Those men that call for reduction of episcopacy to the primitive state, should do well to stand a Ep. ad Ephes. b Apologia pro Ignatio. • Lib. iii. Hist. e. 30. • Apud Euseb. quem Latinè reddidit. |