The Presbyterian doctrine is, that there is but one order of miRisters in the Church, and that Bishops and Presbyters are the same-and constitute that one order,

The Episcopalian doctrine is, that there are three orders of ministers, Bishops, Presbyters, and Deacons; the Bishop having authority over the others, who receive their ministerial authority from him.

340. In the passages just recited from Eusebius, who is quoted by Dr. Miller as above mentioned, (303, 309 10, 328) the inferiority of the Presbyter is plainly shown.

341. There is but one Bishop in a Church. In the many hun. dred instances which Eusebius relates of Bishops being ordained to office, there is no case in which it is not obvious that he was the only Bishop in that Church, (330,331, 332, 333 to 336;) except only in one, in which the Bishop being more than 150 years of age took to himself an adjunct to assist him. (Ec. Hist. B. vi, chap. x. xi.) 342. The Presbyters were numerous in proportion to the size of the Church: (329 compared with 151, 334, 336, 337.)

343. There was a plain and marked distinction between them continually made: (329 compared with 330, 331, 333, 334, 336, 337.)

344. The Bishops administered the government of the Church: (330, 332, 333, 336.)

345. The Bishops were superior to the Presbyters, (330, 331, 333, 334;) and had control over them, (333.) The Bishops are called the heads of the ministers of God, as well as of the Churches: (337.) The Presbyters and Deacons are called their adherents: (337.) The Presbyters had no seat in Councils as principals, but might sit as representatives of their Bishop; for, the Bishop of Rome, being unable through age to attend the Council of Nice, was represented by his Presbyters: (337.)

346. There was an ordination to the office of Presbyter, which indeed need not be proved: (333.)

347. There was an ordination to the office of Bishop: (331, 335, 336.)

348. Bishops ordained both Presbyters and Bishops: [333, 335, 336.]

349. There is not a syllable of ordination performed by Presby

even alleged by our opponents. See also on these several points, [341 to 349] the following sections, 130, 153, 154, 183, 185, 191 to 195, 201, 202, 203, 205, 206, 209, 241, 242, 247, &c., 252, 282, and all the passages in Italics in the Epistles of Ignatius.

350. Eusebius mentions the succession to the Episcopate, in the different Churches of Europe, Asia, and Africa, of a very great number of persons; together with an infinite variety of circumstances, transactions, controversies; and yet there is not a single expression at variance with what is stated above, [341 to 349] as far as I have seen; and I have looked through most of the books, by the index, in order to discover passages in which these subjects are mentioned.

351. Unquestionably, then, there is complete evidence that the government of the Church was Episcopal in the time of the Council of Nice, viz. in the year 325. And if we inquire when it was otherwise, the answer must be, never.

352. Was it otherwise in the time of Cyprian? No. For although he was in the habit of consulting his Presbyters on all important occasions, it was because he thought proper to do so."Statui apud me," &c. according to Bishop Taylor, [vol. vii, p. 225.] “I have resolved with myself" to consult you, were his words. And notwithstanding this resolution, [which the very words show was a matter in which he might do as he pleased,] when, in his absence, his Presbyters received those who had lapsed in the persecution, on what he considered insufficient evidence of their repentance, and without consulting him, he reversed their decision, put out of the Church those whom the Presbyters had received, and told them when he should return that they should have a fair hearing before him. See sections 153, 188, 191 to 195, 200 to 203, 241, 242, 252, all of which relate to his time. The government of the Church was, therefore, certainly Episco. pal in the time of Cyprian, viz. about the year 250.

353. Was it otherwise in the time of Origen? This great and most learned man, whose lectures were attended even by the Heathen Philosophers, lived four years after Cyprian became Bishop of Carthage and Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria. That the government of the Church under Cyprian and Dionysius was Episcopal, we have already seen, [334, 352.] Dionysius succeeded Heraclas, first as Principal of the Catechetic School at Alexandria, and, at his death, as Bishop. Heraclas succeeded Demetrius in the

Bishoprick. Origen was under all three of these Bishops in suce cession. The first had appointed him, when he was very young, Principal of the Catechetic School, While absent on some occasion from Alexandria, two Bishops ordained him Presbyter, at which interference with those under his authority, Demetrius took great offence: [333.] These Bishops were so much pleased with Origen, that they caused him to preach and explain the Scriptures when they were present, choosing rather to hear him than to preach themselves. Hearing of this, Demetrius issued an order to him to return to Alexandria, and he obeyed. [Cave's Lives vol. 2. p. 396.] These things show that Demetrius exercised the same authority that Dionysius and Cyprian had done, [352;] and that the government of the Church was the same in the youth as in the old age of Origen. Demetrius was made Bishop of Alexandria in the 10th year of the Emperor Commodus; [Euseb. Ec. Hist. B. v. chap. xxii] viz. in the year 190, in the time of Irenæus and Tertullian.

354. But what do they say? Irenæus writes that the Roman Bishops succeeded one by one in the government, one Bishop only at a time being in the Church in this immense capital of the civilized world; that Paul and Peter themselves delivered the government of the Church to Linus the first of the series; and that this is given as an example of what took place in every Church which was in all respects faithful, the Apostles having appointed Bishops in all the Churches: [130.] Tertullian's testimony agrees entirely with this; [185] and the testimony of both is confirmed by Eusebius's very particular mention of the accession of the successive Bishops to the Episcopate, in a number of the principal Churches, as Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, with the time, and circumstances in very many instances; drawn from the records of the different Churches, consisting of controversial writings between Christians and Heretics, Christians and Heathens, and dif ferent parties of Christians; and of numberless Epistles of all the principal men in the Church in every part of Christendom, from the beginning; of all which Eusebius cites an immense number, and quotes books now lost.

355. Irenæus was born in 97, and Polycarp suffered martyrdom in 148; so that the former was full fifty years of age when the lat ter was put to death. Irenæus says that he had seen Polycarp, who was not only taught by the Apostles and conversed with many of those who had seen our Lord, but was likewise appointed by the Apostles

Bishop in that Church which is at Smyrna in Asia, [130.] He men tions his most glorious martyrdom, and his "most excellent Epis tle" to the Philippians, still extant, "from which," he says, "they who wish and have regard for their own salvation, can learn the character of his faith and the doctrine of the Truth," [130.] In this Epistle Polycarp speaks in the strongest terms of the Epistles of Ignatius, all of which it may be observed, are mentioned by Eusebius by name, except that to the Romans, and from that one he has a passage quoted; [Ec. Hist. B. iii. chap. xxxvi.] Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, mentioned by Irenæus, says of the Epistles of Ignatius, they "are subjoined to this Epistle, by which you may be greatly profited; for they treat of faith and patience, and of all things that pertain to edification in the Lord Jesus." [126.] These strong expressions of high regard and esteem, bind these ancient servants of God so entirely together, that it is impos sible to separate them and their testimony as to the matter of fact, the form of government of the Church in their day.

356. The public life of the three embrace the whole period from the time of Paul and Peter until the close of the second century. Polycarp and Ignatius, both acquainted with the Apostles,* [117, 125, 130] were contemporary from their day until the martyrdom of the latter in the very beginning of the second century, about & dozen years after the death of St. John. Polycarp and Irenæus were contemporary from that time until the martyrdom of the latter in 148; and Irenæus continued until the end of the second century, indeed until 202.

Irenæus speaking of Polycarp in the strongest terms of appro bation, and specifying a particular Epistle of his, in which Ignatius's Epistles are as strongly commended, adds his testimony to that of Polycarp in favour of the Epistles of Ignatius. The latter, therefore, give us a just representation of the government of the Church throughout the whole period, from the days of the Apostles to the end of the second century.

357. What is the period fixed upon by those who assert that there

*Eusebius quotes a passage from Ignatius's Epistle to the Smyrneans in which he says he saw our Saviour: "Ego vero etiam post resurrectionem eum in carne cognovi," &c. [Ec. Hist. B. iii. chap. xxxvi.] "But I knew him in the flesh even after the resurrection," &c. See the passage in the appendix, 3rd section of the Epistle to the Smyrneans, which, after the word flesh, is exactly translated. It may be mentioned here, that Eusebius's quotation from the Epistle of Ignatius to the Romans and the translation in the appendix, section 5, agree entirely.

was a time in this century when the government was other than Episcopal? The most learned Presbyterian writers, Blondel, &c. and the Presbyterian Assembly in London in the 17th century, (who met to settle their Church in England,) [162] have fixed upon the year 140. If so, it must have been eight years before the martyrdom of Polycarp, who suffered in 148, some say later.

The attachment of Polycarp to the Church was gloriously evinced, as Irenæus says, by his death. His whole life showed it no less, and secured to him the unbounded regard of the whole Christian world, [130.] So fundamental a change as that from a Presbyterian to an Episcopal form of Government, originating, as is represented, in the pride and ambition of aspiring Priests, never could have been approved of by him; much less could he have been partaker of their ambitious views. His character forbids the thought, [130] and yet his high approbation of the Epistles of Ignatius shows that he had no idea of any other than the Episcopal form of Government. It is, moreover to be remembered that this approbation was expressed at the time of Ignatius's death, after he had left Smyrna on his way to Rome and before Polycarp had yet heard the event. For in his Epistle to the Philippians, he desires them, if they have heard certainly of the event of Ignatius's journey, to inform him. This was in the year in which Syra and Senecius were a second time consuls according to the account of his martyrdom kept by his friends; [See the martyrdom in the appendix, section 13,] which was, according to the Roman Consular lists, in the year 107; or if we take into account their serving together a part of a year, in consequence of the death of the Emperor Nerva who was that year consul, the second time that Sura and Senecius were consuls together was in the year 102.According to Tacitus, however, the martyrdom of Ignatius occurred in the year in which Trajan went to Antioch, viz. in the year 113. [Appendice Cronologica Trajano xci.] At the latest it was thirty five years before the martyrdom of Polycarp, and twenty seven years before the time fixed upon by the Presbyterian writers as the commencement of Episcopacy. The great regard expressed for Ignatius, [See martyrdom, and Polycarp's Epistle, 126] and the strong desire manifested by the Churches of Asia to procure his Epistles, [128] and the open and unreserved manner in which he writes and Polycarp approves, manifest in all of them the most perfect consciousness, that there was nothing in those Epistles con