LECT. IV. the bishops of the cities, by their own decree, without any pretence to scriptural right, laid violent hands on hundreds or thousands of churches, and killed them outright. They were no longer independent churches with their own bishops, for these were unbishoped, pronounced in the ninth century no bishops at all; and their charges, or flocks, unchurched, become nondescript things, for which neither the Scriptures nor the earliest fathers furnish a name. From primaries, shining by their own light, they were made secondaries, reflecting the glory of some civic luminary, who boasted of being called of God as was Aaron, and, like him, possessing a rod that swallowed up all competitors. This aggrandisement of the episcopal rank it would be difficult to overrate; but with what face could the diocesan bishops afterwards complain of a patriarch, or pope, for attempting to swallow them up in their turn? Modern days have heard loud complaints of the presumption of parliaments in cutting up bishoprics, annihilating the old, and fabricating new ones; and on the right, or justice, we give no opinion; but ministers of state may say to bishops, "Who set us the example ?” If these reply, "" But we complain of it as an act of the state;" secular men may ask, "In what text of Scripture, or sentence from an early father, can you prove even the right of bishops to annihilate others?" Let both church and state remember that the power which can do this to one can do it to LECT. IV. all. There is, however, one bright spot in this wholesale extinction of bishops and churches. It was honest. For this thing was not done in a corner. No hypocritical mask was worn by the actors; for they tell us plainly how and why they did the deed. By a synodical decree, to enhance the honour of the bishops, the poor ones were put out of the way. Here let the reader pause and meditate; for volumes of instruction lie open to his view. If a church and a bishop may be annihilated because they belong to a village, has not Rome advanced far towards the day when her church and bishop may cease to be? She is even now a village compared to her former self; and if protestants, chiefly English, should cease to spend in her their gold, another council may decide that a chorepiscopus ought no longer to exist. of a church. The materials of which the church is com- The elements posed, or the qualities that constitute a genuine member, are thus expressed: "But the virtue which embraces the church, as the Shepherd (of Hermas) speaks, is faith, by which the elect of God are saved."* Here is a reference to one supposed to be so early as the Hermas of Paul. Clement of Rome addresses the church of the Corinthians as elect, sanctified by the will of * Strom. ii. 281. P LECT. IV. God." Polycarp, too, assumes that the church of Philippi was composed of such persons. Ignatius writes to the Trallians as "elect, having peace through the flesh and blood of Christ;" to the Romans as "illuminated through the will of God;" to the Philadelphians as "rejoicing in the sufferings of our Lord;" and to the Smyrnæans as filled with faith and love."* Justin Martyr describes a Christian society as consisting of holy men. Irenæus says, "Where the church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God, there is the church and all grace, but the Spirit is truth." Origen tells Celsus, "There are everywhere instituted (arranged in polities ‡) churches, (assemblies, or congregations,) opposite to the churches, or congregations, of the superstitious and wicked." Many such are arranged everywhere in the churches of the cities. They are as lights in the world. Who would not confess that even the worst of those that are of the church are better than those assemblies among the people?" A church, consisting of the indiscriminate mass of a nation, where the great majority have no semblance of Christian character, would have astounded the early fathers; though their successors were by degrees familiarized, but not * The Salutations to the Epistles of Ignatius. always reconciled, to the mischievous perversion LECT. IV. of terms. If we adopt the most moderate hypothesis, and give the name of a church to a society that has a majority of its members visibly answering to the scriptural description of a Christian, even though they should not excommunicate the wicked, which, however, would anciently have unchurched them; still we could not make the best nation upon earth and a Christian church commensurate; for no country has ever yet been able to shew that a majority of its inhabitants were real Christians. bers of the saints. In the earliest writers no trace is found of the All the memmodern practice which appropriates the term church called saint to certain eminent persons, and confines it to those of the New Testament. We are familiar with St. Paul and St. Ignatius, but should start and smile, or frown, at St. Aaron, or St. Noah ; though we read in Scripture of " Aaron, the saint of the Lord," and Job says, "To which of the saints will you turn ?" But anciently, ἅγιος, saint, was associated with moròs, faithful, or believer," just as in Scripture we read of the saints and faithful brethren in Christ Jesus." The change has arisen from sinful causes, and produces guilty consequences; professed Christians, ceasing to be holy, have been contented to compliment a few with a title which ought to apply to all. LECT. IV. Bishops and deacons. PART II.-The Officers of the Church. THE original officers of the church, now strangely transformed, will require minute investigation; and as the deacons were first appointed, we commence with an inquiry into the view which the early church entertained of their office, which was, however, so combined with that of bishop, that it will be difficult to keep them distinct. Clement, the earliest known writer, makes a remarkable appeal to the original appointment of both, saying, to the Corinthians, "The apostles, preaching through countries and cities, constituted their first fruits, having proved them by the Spirit, for bishops and deacons of those that should believe. And this, not as a novelty; for, from many ages, it was written concerning bishops and deacons. For so the Scripture somewhere says, "I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith."* It is observable that, only two kinds of offi * Οἱ ἀπόστολοι . . . Κατὰ χώρας οὖν καὶ πόλεις κηρύσσοντες, καθίστανον τὰς ἀπαρχὰς αὐτῶν, δοκιμάσαντες τῷ πνεύματι, εἰς ἐπισκόπους καὶ διακόνους τῶν μελλόντων πιστεύειν. καὶ τοῦτο οὐ καινῶς· ἐκ γὰρ δὴ πολλῶν χρόνων ἐγέγραπτο περὶ ἐπισκόπων καὶ διακόνων. Οὕτως γὰρ τοῦ λέγει ἡ γραφή Καταστήσω τοὺς ἐπισκόπους αὐτῶν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ τοὺς διακόνους αὐτῶν Ev TiOTEL. Clem. ad Cor., c. 42. |