SECTION V. And Office. BUT in holy Scripture, the identity of the ordinary office of apostleship and episcopacy is clearer yet. For when the Holy Spirit had sent seven letters to the seven Asian bishops, the angel of the church of Ephesus is commended for trying them, which say they are apostles and are not, and hath found them liars. This angel of the church of Ephesus, as antiquity hath taught us, was at that time Timothy, or Gaius; the first a disciple, the other had been an entertainer of the apostles, and either of them knew them well enough: it could not be, that any man should dissemble their persons, and counterfeit himself St. Paul or St. Peter. And if they had, yet little trying was needful to discover their folly in such a case; and whether it was Timothy or Gaius, he could deserve but small commendations for the mere believing of his own eyes and memory. Besides, the apostles, except St. John, all were then dead, and he known to live in Patmos ; known by the public attestation of the sentence of relegation ' ad insulam.' These men, therefore, dissembling themselves to be apostles, must dissemble an ordinary function, not an extraordinary person. And, indeed, by the concourse of story, place, and time, Diotrephes was the man St. John chiefly pointed at. For he, seeing that at Ephesus there had been an episcopal chair placed, and Timothy a long while possessed of it, and perhaps Gaius after him, if we may trust Dorotheus, and the like in some other churches; and that St. John had not constituted bishops in all other churches of the lesser Asia, but kept the jurisdiction to be ministered by himself, would arrogantly take upon him to be a bishop without apostolical ordination, obtruding himself upon the church of Ephesus; so becoming ἀλλοτριο-επίσκοπος, "a busy man in another's diocese." This, and such impostors as this, the angel of the church of Ephesus did try, and discover, and convict; and in it he was assisted by St. John a Apocal. ii. b Doroth. Synops. e Vide Constit. Apost. per Clement. ubi quidam Johannes in Epheso Episc. post Timoth. collocatur. himself, as is intimated in St. John's third epistle, written to his Gaius, (v. 9,) "I wrote unto the church," to wit, of Asia, "but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not." Clearly this ↓eudoazóσtoros would have been a bishop. It was a matter of ambition, a quarrel for superintendence and pre-eminence, that troubled him; and this also appears further, in that he exercised jurisdiction and excommunication, where he had nothing to do; (v. 10.) "He forbids them that would receive the brethren, and casteth them out of the church." So that here it is clear, this false apostolate was his ambitious seeking of episcopal pre-eminence and jurisdiction, without lawful ordination. Dropwrɛúwv Aloтgɛqùs, that was his design; he loved to be the first in the church," esse apostolum, esse episcopum;""to be an apostle, or a bishop." SECTION VI. Which Christ himself hath made distinct from Presbyters. BUT this office of the ordinary apostleship or episcopacy, derives its fountain from a rock; Christ's own distinguishing the apostolate from the function of presbyters. For when our blessed Saviour had gathered many disciples, who believed him at his first preaching, " Vocavit discipulos suos, et elegit duodecim ex ipsis quos et apostolos nominavita," saith St. Luke: "He called his disciples, and out of them chose twelve, and called them apostles." That was the first election. "Post hæc autem designavit Dominus et alios septuaginta-duos." That was his second election; the first were called' apostles,' the second were not, and yet he sent them by two and two. We hear but of one commission granted them, which when they had performed, and returned joyful at their power over devils, we hear no more of them in the Gospel, but that their names were written in heaven. We are likely, therefore, to hear of them after the passion, if they can but hold their own. And so we do. For after the passion, the a Luke, x. apostles gathered them together, and joined them in clerical commission, by virtue of Christ's first ordination of them; for a new ordination we find none in holy Scripture recorded, before we find them doing clerical offices. Ananias, we read, baptizing of Saul; Philip, the evangelist, we find preaching in Samaria, and baptizing his converts; others also, we find, presbyters at Jerusalem, especially at the first council; for there was Judas, surnamed Justus; and Silas, and St. Mark; and John, (a presbyter, not an apostle, as Eusebius reports him ;) and Simeon Cleophas, who tarried there till he was made bishop of Jerusalem. These, and divers others, are reckoned to be of the number of the seventy-two, by Eusebius and Dorotheus. Here are plainly two offices of ecclesiastical ministries, apostles and presbyters; so the Scripture calls them. These were distinct, and not temporary, but succeeded to; and if so, then here is clearly a Divine institution of two orders, and yet deacons neither of them. Here let us fix awhile. SECTION VII. Giving to Apostles a Power to do some Offices perpetually necessary, which to others he gave not. THEN, it is clear in Scripture, that the apostles did some acts of ministry, which were necessary to be done for ever in the church, and, therefore, to be committed to their successors; which acts the seventy disciples or presbyters could not do. Ἐγκρίτως δὲ αὐτῇ παρὰ τὰς λοιπὰς τάξεις εἰς λειτουργίαν ὁ θεῖος θεσμὸς ἀπονενέμηκε τὰς θειοτέρας ἱερουργίας, saith St. Denis, of the highest order of the hierarchy: "The law of God hath reserved the greater and diviner offices to the highest order." First: The apostles imposed hands in ordinations, which the seventy-two did not. The case is known, Acts, vi. The apostles called the disciples, willing them to choose seven men, whom they might constitute in the ministration and oversight of the poor. They did so, and set them before the twelve apostles; so they are specified and numbered, verse 2 b Lib. iii. c. 3. Eccles. Hierarch. c. 5. As of Ordination. '; cum 6," and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them." They, not the disciples, not the seventy-two, who were there actually present, and seven of them were then ordained to this ministry; for they were not now ordained to be διάκονοι μυστηρίων, but τραπέζων, as the council of Constantinople calls them; and that these were the number of the seventy-two disciples, Epiphanius bears witness. He sent other seventy-two to preach, ἐξ ὧν ἦσαν οἱ ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ τῶν χηρῶν TeTayμévoi, "of which number were those seven ordained and set over the widows." And the same is intimated by St. Chrysostom, if I understand him right; Ποῖον δὲ ἄρα ἀξίωμα εἶχον οὗτοι, καὶ ποίαν ἐδέξαντο χειροτονίαν ἀναγκαῖον μαθεῖν· ἄρα τὴν τῶν διακόνων ; καὶ μὴν τοῦτο ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλλὰ τῶν πρεσ βυτέρων ἐστιν ἡ οἰκονομία. What dignity had these seven here ordained? Of deacons? No; for this dispensation is made by priests, not deacons; and Theophylact, more clearly repeating the words of St. Chrysostom, pro more suo,' adds this: Τῶν πρεσβυτέρων οἶμαι τὸ ὄνομα εἶναι, καὶ τὸ ἀξίωμα αὐτῶν· ἀλλὰ τέως εἰς τοῦτο διακονεῖν τοῖς πιστοῖς τὰ πρὸς τὴν χρείαν ἐχειροτοvýnσave. The name and dignity of these seven was no less, but even the dignity of presbyters, only for the time they were appointed to dispense the goods of the church for the good of the faithful people. Presbyters they were, say St. Chrysostom and Theophylact; of the number of the seventytwo, saith Epiphanius. But, however, it is clear, that the seventy-two were present; for the whole multitude of the disciples was as yet there resident; they were not yet sent abroad, they were not scattered with persecution, till the martyrdom of St. Stephen; but the twelve called the whole multitude of the disciples to them about this affair (verse 2). But yet themselves only did ordain them. Secondly: An instance parallel to this, is in the imposition of hands upon St. Paul and Barnabas, in the first ordination that was held at Antiochf. "Now there were in the church that were at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon, and Lucius, and Manaen, and Saul. Λειτουργούντων δὲ αὐτῶν, while these men were ministering, the Holy Ghost said to them, Separate me Barnabas and b In Trullo, can. 16. c Hæres. xx. e In hunc locum. f Acts, xiii. Saul." They did so; they "fasted, they prayed, they laid their hands on them, and sent them away. So they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed into Seleucia." This is the story; now let us make our best of it. Here, then, was the ordination and imposition of hands complete; and that was said to be done by the Holy Ghost, which was done by the prophets of Antioch. For they sent them away; and yet the next words are," so they, being sent forth by the Holy Ghost." So that here was the thing done, and that by the prophets alone, and that by the command of the Holy Ghost, and said to be his act. Well! but what were these prophets? They were prophets in the church of Antioch: not such as Agabus, and the daughters of Philip the evangelist, prophets of prediction extraordinary, but prophets of ordinary office and ministration ; προφήται, διδάσκαλοι, καὶ XEITOUgYouντes, prophets, and teachers, and ministers.' More than ordinary ministers, for they were doctors or teachers; and that is not all, for they were prophets too. This, even at first sight, is more than the ordinary office of the presbytery. We shall see this clear enough in St. Paul, where the ordinary office of prophets is reckoned before pastors, before evangelists, next to apostles; that is, next to such apostles, oùs autòs done, as St. Paul there expresses it; next to those apostles to whom Christ hath given immediate mission. And these are, therefore, apostles too; apostles' secundi ordinis; none of the twelve, but such as St. James, and Epaphroditus, and Barnabas, and St. Paul himself. To be sure they were such prophets as St. Paul and Barnabas; for they are reckoned in the number by St. Luke; for here it was that St. Paul, although he had immediate vocation by Christ, yet he had particular ordination to his apostolate or ministry of the Gentiles. It is evident, then, what prophets these were; they were, at the least, more than ordinary presbyters, and, therefore, they imposed hands, and they only. And yet, to make the business up complete, St. Mark was amongst them, but he imposed no hands; he was there as the deacon and minister, (verse 5,) but he meddled not. St. Luke fixes the whole action upon the prophets, such as Prophetas duplici genere intelligamus, et futura dicentes, et scripturas revelantes. S. Ambros. in 1 Cor. xii. Ephes. iv. h |