not receive him; that is, that particular church or congregation to which he appertained excluded him from communion because of his depredations and robberies; so that a parish and a particular church are synonymous terms, signifying one and the same thing; and consequently a bishop having but one parish under his jurisdiction, could extend his government no further than one single congregation; because a single congregation and a parish were all one, of the same bulk and magnitude. § 2. But that the bishop's diocess exceeded not the bounds of a modern parish, and was the same, as in name, so also in thing, will appear from these following observations, as, 1. All the people of a diocess did, every Sunday, meet all together in one place to celebrate divine service. Thus saith Justin Martyr, "On Sunday all assemble together in one place, where the bishop preaches and prays ;” for, as Ignatius writes, "where the bishop is, there the people must be ;" and "there is a necessity that we do nothing without the bishop; "a since "it is unlawful to do any thing without him;"e for "where the pastor is there the sheep ought to follow ;" wherefore, "as Christ did nothing without the Father, so do you nothing without the bishop and presbyters, but assemble into the same place, that you may have one prayer, one supplication, one mind, and one ܂ . Ἡ ἰδία παροικία αὐτὸν ὅθεν ἦν οὐκ ἐδέξατο. Apud. Euseb. lib. 5, cap. 18, p. 185. • Πάντων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ συνέλευσις γίνεται. Apol. 1, p. 99. • Οπε ἂν φανῇ ὁ ἐπισκοπος ἐκεῖ τὸ πλῆθος ἔςω. Epist. ad Smyr. p. 6. · Αναγκαῖον οὖν ἔςιν ἄνευ τοῦ ἐπισκόπε μηδὲν πράσσειν ὑμᾶς. Εp. ad Tralles. p. 48. • Οὐκ ἔξον ἐςιν χωρὶς τοῦ ἐπισκόπε, οὔτε βαπτίζειν, οὔτε ἀγάπην TOLEIV. Epist. ad Smyrn. p. 6. · Οπε δὲ ὁ ποιμὴν ἐςιν, ἐκεῖ ὡς πρόβατα ἀκολουθεῖτε. Εpist. ad. Philadelph. p. 42. hope;" "for if the prayer of one or two have so great a force, how much more prevalent must that be which is made by the bishop and the whole church! He then that doth not assemble together is proud, and hath condemned himself: for it is written, 'God resisteth the proud.' Let us not therefore resist the bishop, that we may be subject to God."b So that these passages clearly prove, that all the members of the bishop's church assembled together in one place to send up their common prayers to the throne of grace, and to discharge those other religious duties which were incumbent on them, which convincingly evidences the bishop's church to be no bigger than our parishes; for if it had been bigger, it would have been impossible that the members thereof should have constantly assembled together in one place, as we see here they did. 66 2. The bishop had but one altar or communion-table in his whole diocess, at which his whole flock received the sacrament from him. "There is but one altar," says Ignatius, as there is but one bishop." At this altar the bishop administered the sacrament to his whole flock at one time. So writes Cyprian: "We celebrate the sacrament, the whole brotherhood being present.' And thus it was in Justin Martyr's days: "the bishop's whole diocess met together on Sunday, when the bishop gave them • Ανευ τοῦ ἐπισκόπου καὶ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων μηδὲν πράσσητε, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ μία προσευχὴ, μία δέησις, εἰς νοῦς, μία ἔλπις. Epist. ad Magnes., page 33. • Εἰ γὰρ ἕνος καὶ δευτέρου προσευχὴ τοσαύτην ἰσχὺν ἔχει, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἤτε τοῦ επισκόπου, καὶ πάσης ἐκκλησίας; ὁ οὖν μὴ ἐρχόμενος ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ, οὗτος ἤδη ὑπερηφανεῖ καὶ ἑαυτὸν διεκρίνεν· γέγραπται γαρ ὑπερηφάνοις ὁ Θεὸς ἀντιτάσσεται· σπουδάζωμεν οὖν μὴ ἀντιτάσε σεσθαι τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ, ἵνα ὦμεν Θεῖ ὑποτασσόμενοι. Epist. ad Eph. p. 20. • Εν θυσιαστήριον ὡς εἷς ἐπίσκοπος. Epist. ad Philad. 41. d Sacramenti veritatem fraternitate omni præsente celebramus. Epist. 63, § 12, p. 177. p. с the eucharist; and if any were absent, he sent it to them by the deacons." Certainly that diocess could not be large where all usually communicated at one time, and the deacons carried about the consecrated eucharist to those that were absent; which would have been an endless and painful task for the deacons, had their bishopric contained more Christians in it than one congregation would have held. Tertullian writes, that in his time and country, "the Christians received the sacrament of the Lord's supper from the hands of the bishop alone." Now in those days and places they communicated at least three times a week, viz., Wednesdays, Fridays, and Lord's days, which had been impossible to have been done if the bishop had had inspection over more than one congregation, as is obvious to every one's reason; for the bishop, being finite and corporeal as well as others, could not be present in many places at once, but must be confined to one determinate fixed place, in which alone he could administer and dispense the eucharist: and for this reason it is that Ignatius exhorts the Philadelphians "to use the one eucharist," that is, not to leave the bishop, and communicate elsewhere, but to partake of that single eucharist which was administered by him: for, as he proceeds to say in the same place, "there is but one body of our Lord Jesus Christ, one cup, one altar, and one bishop." As there was but one bishop in a church, so there was but one altar, a bishop and an altar being correlates: so • Τῇ τῇ ἡλίου λεγομενῃ ἡμέρᾳ παντὼν ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ συνέλευσις γίνεται, διάδοσις καὶ ἡ μετάληψις ἀπὸ τῶν εὐχαριςηθέντων ἑκάςῳ γίνεται, καὶ τοῖς ἐ παροῦσι διὰ τῶν διακόνων πέμπεται. Apol. 2, p. 98. Nec de aliorum manu quàm de præsidentium sumimus. De corona militis, p. 338. • Vid. de Oratione, p. 661. d Mia eixapisía xpñoval. Epist. ad Philadelp. p. 40. • Μία γὰρ σὰρξ τοῦ κυρίω ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριςοῦ, καὶ ἓν ποτήριον, ἓν θυσιαςήριον, ὡς εἰς ἐπίσκοπος. Ibid. that to set up another altar was a periphrasis of a schismatic, or of one that causelessly separated from his lawful bishop, and set up another, which was that they called schism, as we shall show in its proper place. Thus Cyprian describes a schismatic as one "that contemns his bishop, leaves the ministers of God, and dares to set up another altar :"a and particularly he brands Novatian as such a one, because "he erected a profane altar;" that is, an altar in opposition to the altar of Cornelius, his lawful bishop. For, as he saith in another place, "no man can regularly constitute a new bishop, or erect a new altar, besides the one bishop, and the one altar;" for which reason he calls the altar that is erected by schismatics against the one altar of their lawful bishops, "a profane altar," which agrees with that of Ignatius, that "he that is within the altar is pure, but he that does any thing without the bishops, priests, and deacons, is impure ;" and as he says in another place, "Whosoever is without the altar, wants the bread of God."f 3. The other sacrament of baptism was generally administered by the bishops alone within their respective diocesses. So saith Tertullian, "Before the bishop we renounce the devil and the world."g For as Cyprian a Contemptis episcopis, et Dei sacerdotibus derelictis, constituere audet aliud altare. De Unitat. Ecclesiæ, § 15, p. 301. b Profanum altare erigere. Epist. 67, § 2, p. 193. c Aliud altare constitui, aut sacerdotium novum fieri, præter unum altare, et unum sacerdotium, non potest. Epist. 40, § 4, p. 93. d Altare profanum. Epist. 65, § 4, p. 193. • Ὁ ἐντὸς θυσιαςηρίε ὢν, καθαρός ἐςιν, τοῦτ' ἐςιν, ὁ χωρὶς ἐπισ κόπο καὶ πρεσβυτερία καὶ διακόνε πράσσων τι, οὗτος οὐ καθαρός ἐςιν Ty ovveidhoεi. Epist. ad Tralles. p. 50. 1 Ἐὰν μή τις ᾗ ἐντὸς τοῦ θυσιαςηρίω, ὑςερεῖται τοῦ ἄρτε τοῦ Θεοῦ. Epist. ad. Ephes. p. 20. Sub antistite contestamur nos renunciare diabolo et pompa. De Corona Militis, p. 336. says, "the bishops ought only to baptize :" and to the same effect writes Fortunatus, bishop of Thucabori, that our Lord Jesus Christ "gave unto the bishops the power of baptizing." So that the bishops did ordinarily baptize all the persons that were baptized in their diocesses; and if so, it is not probable, I may say possible, that their diocesses were extended beyond the bulk of single congregations. 4. The church's charity was deposited with the bishop, who, as Justin Martyr reports, was the common curator and overseer of all the orphans, widows, diseased, strangers, imprisoned, and, in a word, of all those that were needy and indigent." To this charitable office Ignatius adviseth Polycarpus ; but of that advice more shall be spoken in another place; only let us observe, that that diocess could not be very large where the bishop personally relieved and succoured all the poor and indigent therein. 5. All the people of a diocess were present at church censures, as Origen describes an offender as appearing “before the whole church."e So Clemens Romanus calls the censures of the church "the things commanded by the multitude." And so the two offending sub-deacons and acolyth at Carthage were to be tried "before the whole people."s a Non nisi ecclesiæ præpositis licere baptizare. Epist. 73, § 6, p. 220. b Potestatem baptizandi episcopis dedit. Act. Concil. Carth. apud Cyprian. p. 445. • Αὐτὸς ἐπικερεῖ ὀρφανοῖς τὲ καὶ χήραις καὶ τοῖς διὰ νόσον ἢ δι' ἄλλην αἰτίαν λειπομένοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐν δεσμοῖς οὖσι, καὶ τοῖς παρεπιδήμοις οὖσι ξένοις, καὶ ἁπλῶς, τοῖς ἐν χρείᾳ οὖσι κηδεμὼν γίνεται. Apol. 2, p. 99. d Epist. ad. Polycarp. p. 12. • 'Exì πάons Tñs έkкλŋσías. Comment. in Matth. Tom. 13, p. 335, vol. 1. * Τὰ προςασσόμενα ὑπὸ τοῦ πλήθος. Epist. 1 ad Cor. p. 69. • Plebe universâ. Cyprian. Epist. 28, § 2, p. 64. · |