made in cities, which should be provisionary for villages; and that is, of such men as had power to ordain, and power to send presbyters to what part of their charge they pleased. For since presbyters could not ordain other presbyters, as appears by St. Paul's sending Titus to do it there, where, most certainly, many presbyters before were actually resident; if presbyters had gone to villages, they must have left the cities destitute; or if they staid in cities, the villages would have perished; and at last, when these men had died, both one and the other had been made a prey to the wolf; for there could be no shepherd, after the decay of the first generation. But let us see further into St. Titus's commission, and letters of orders, and institution: "A man that is an heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject f." Cognizance of heretical pravity, and animadversion against the heretic himself, is most plainly concredited to St. Titus: for, first, he is to' admonish him,' then to reject him,' upon his pertinacity, from the catholic communion. "Cogere autem illos videtur, qui sæpe corripit," saith St. Ambrose, upon the establishing a coactive or coercive jurisdiction, over the clergy and whole diocese. But I need not specify any more particulars; for St. Paul committed to St. Titus, nãσav TITαyny, "all authority and powers." The consequence is that, which St. Ambrose prefixes to the commentary on his epistle: "Titum apostolus consecravit episcopum, et ideò commonet eum ut sit solicitus in ecclesiasticâ ordinatione, id est, ad quosdam, qui simulatione quâdam dignos se ostentabant ut sublimem ordinem tenerent, simulque et hæreticos ex circumcisione corripiendos." And now, after so fair preparatory of Scripture, we may hear the testimonies of antiquity witnessing, that Titus was, by St. Paul, made bishop of Crete. "Sed et Lucas," saith Eusebius," in Actibus Apostolorum, Timothei meminit et Titi; quorum alter in Epheso episcopus; alter ordinandis apud Cretam ecclesiis ab eo ordinatus præficitur." That is it which St. Ambrose expresses something more plainly: "Titum apostolus consecravit episcopum ;" "The apostle consecrated Titus, bishop';" and Theodoret calling Titus, "Cretensium fTit iii. 10. i Ubi suprà. * Tit. ii. 15. h Lib. iii. c. 4. episcopum," "the bishop of the Cretans." And for this reason saith, St. Paul did not write to Sylvanus, or Silas, or Clemens, but to Timothy and Titusk, ὅτι τούτοις ἤδη ἐκκλησίας ἦν ἐγκεχειρικώς, “ because to these he had already committed the government of churches." But a fuller testimony of St. Titus being a bishop, who please may see, in St. Jerome', in Dorotheus, in Isidore", in Vincentius, in Theodoret ", in St. Gregory, in Primasius', in Sedulius, Theophylact', and Nicephorus". To which if we add the subscription of the epistle, asserted from all impertinent objections, by the clearer testimony of St. Athanasius*, St. Jerome, the Syriac translation, Ecumenius, and Theophylact3, no confident denial can ever break through, or escape conviction. And now, I know not what objection can fairly be made here; for I hope St. Titus was no evangelist.' He is not called so in Scripture, and all antiquity calls him a bishop;' and the nature of his offices, the eminence of his dignity, the superiority of jurisdiction, the cognizance of causes criminal, and the epistle, proclaim him' bishop.' But suppose awhile, Titus had been an evangelist, I would fain know who succeeded him? or did all his office expire with his person? If so, then who shall reject heretics, when Titus is dead? Who shall silence factious preachers? If not, then still, who succeeded him? The presbyters? How can that be? For if they had more power after his death than before, and governed the churches, which before they did not; then, to be sure, their government in common is not an apostolical ordinance, much less is it a divine right, for it is postnate to them both. But if they had no more power after Titus, than they had under him, how then could they succeed him? There was, indeed, a dereliction of the authority, but no succession. The succession, therefore, both in the metropolis of Crete, and also in the other cities, was made by singular persons, not by a college; for so we find in the diadoxal, * 1 Tim. iii. 1 De Script. Eccles. in Tito. n De Vita et Morte S. Sanct. m In Synops. • Lib. xxxviii, c. 10. P Apud Ecumen. in præfat. in Tit. et 1 Timoth. iii. 9 In Pastor. part. ii. c. 11. In 1 Tim. i. et in 2 Tim. i. 6. * In Synopsis Sacr. Script. 1 Comment. ad Titum. r Præfat. in 1 Tim. et in 2 Tim. i. u Lib. ii. c. 34. t In 1 Tit. y Ad Paulam et Eustoch. a Ibid. recorded by Eusebius, that in Gnossus, of Crete, Pinytus was a most eminent bishop, and that Philip was the metropolitan at Gortyna ; "Sed et Pinytus nobilissimus apud Cretam in episcopis fuit," saith Eusebius". But of this enough. SECTION XVI. St. Mark at Alexandria. My next instance shall be of one that was an evangelist indeed, one that writ the Gospel, and he was a bishop of Alexandria. In Scripture we find nothing of him, but that he was an evangelist and a deacon; for he was deacon to St. Paul and Barnabas, when they went to the Gentiles, by ordination and special designment, made at Antioch; συμπαραλαβόντες Ἰωάννην τὸν ἐπικληθέντα Μάρκον. • They had John to be their minister; viz. John, whose surname was Mark.' But we are not to expect all the ordinations made by the apostles in their Acts, written by St. Luke, which end at St. Paul's first going to Rome; but many other things, their founding of divers churches, their ordination of bishops, their journeys, their persecutions, their miracles and martyrdoms, are recorded, and rely upon the faith of the primitive church. And yet the ordination of St. Mark was within the term of St. Luke's story; for his successor, Anianus, was made bishop of Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero's reign, five or six years before the death of St. Paul.' "Igitur Neronis primo imperii anno, post Marcum evangelistam, ecclesiæ apud Alexandriam Anianus sacerdotium suscepit:" so the Latin of Ruffinus reads it, instead of 'octavo.' Sacerdotium,' XEITOUPYíav, that is, the bishoprick;' for else there were many λeíTougyo and priests in Alexandria besides him; and how then he should be St. Mark's successor, more than the other presbyters', is not so soon to be contrived. But so the collecta of the chapter runs: "Quod post Marcum primus episcopus Alexandrinæ ecclesiæ ordinatus sit Anianus:" " Anianus was consecrated the first bishop of Alexandria, after St. Mark." And Philo, the Jew, telling the story of the Christians in Alexandria, called by the inhabitants, Cultores,' and Cultrices,' the worshippers,' "Addit autem adhuc his," saith Eusebius; "quomodo sacerdotes vel ministri exhibeant officia sua, vel quæ sit supra omnia episcopalis apicis sedes;" intimating that, beside the offices of priests and ministers, there was an episcopal dignity, which was apex super omnia,'' a height above all employments,' established at Alexandria; and how soon that was, is soon computed; for Philo lived in our blessed Saviour's time, and was ambassador to the emperor Caius, and survived St. Mark a little. "A Marco But St. Jerome will strike up this business. evangelistâ ad Heraclam usque et Dionysium episcopos, presbyteri Ægypti semper unum ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum episcopum nominabant." And again, "Marcus interpres apostoli Petri, et Alexandrinæ ecclesiæ primus episcopus." The same is witnessed by St. Gregory, Nicephorus, and divers others. Now, although the ordination of St. Mark is not specified in the Acts, as innumerable multitudes of things more, and scarce any thing at all of any of the twelve but St. Peter, nothing of St. James the son of Thaddeus, nor of Alpheus, but the martyrdom of one of them; nothing of St. Bartholomew, of St. Thomas, of Simon Zelotes, of St. Jude the apostle; scarce any of their names recorded; yet no wise man can distrust the faith of such records, which all Christendom hitherto, so far as we know, hath acknowledged as authentic; and these ordinations cannot possibly go less than apostolical, being done in the apostles' times, to whom the care of all the churches was concredited, they seeing and beholding several successions in several churches before their death; as here at Alexandria, first St. Mark, then Anianus, made bishop five or six years before the death of St. Peter and St. Paul. But yet, who it was that ordained St. Mark, bishop of Epist. ad Evagr. De Script. Eccles. et in proæm. in Mat. Alexandria, (for bishop he was, most certainly,) is not obscurely intimated by the most excellent man, St. Gelasius, in the Roman council," Marcus à Petro apostolo in Ægyptum directus, verbum veritatis prædicavit, et gloriosè consummavit martyrium. St. Peter sent him into Egypt to found a church, and, therefore, would furnish him with all things requisite for so great employment; and that could be no less than the ordinary power apostolical. " SECTION XVII. St. Linus and St. Clement at Rome. BUT in the church of Rome, the ordination of bishops by the apostles, and their successions during the times of the apostles, is very manifest, by a concurrent testimony of old writers. "Fundantes igitur, et instruentes beati apostoli ecclesiam Lino episcopatum administrandæ ecclesiæ tradiderunt. Hujus Lini Paulus in his, quæ sunt ad Timotheum, epistolis meminit. Succedit autem ei Anacletus, post eum tertio loco ab apostolis episcopatum sortitur Clemens, qui et vidit ipsos apostolos, et contulit cum eis, cum adhuc insonantem prædicationem apostolorum, et traditionem ante oculos haberet." So St. Irenæus 2. "Memoratur autem ex comitibus Pauli Crescens quidam ad Gallias esse præfectus; Linus vero et Clemens in urbe Româ ecclesiæ præfuisseb." Many more testimonies there are of these men's being ordained bishops of Rome by the apostles; as of Tertullian, Optatus, St. Augustin, and St. Jerome. But I will not cloy my reader with variety of one dish, and be tedious in a thing so evident and known. e In Decret. de Lib. Authent. et Apocryph. Lib. iii. c. 3. Lib. ii. cont. Parmen. b Euseb. lib. iii. c. 4. c De Præscript. ' De Script. Eccles. |