pened to conceive this passage to contain the idea of lay presbyters. That here are mentioned old men, who were lay men, is very certain; it likewise appears, that such were consulted on church affairs in ancient times, and also that Jewish synagogues were wont to do the same thing. This comment, like the text on which it was made, relates only to old men who are not presbyters. In both, they were contrasted with young men, and old women with young women. There is no mention made of office or order, in either. The idea of an order of presbyters in the comment would have been a departure from the text. The not taking their advice, is not stated to have been a violation of any right, except of the respect due to years, a thing merely optional, yet improperly omitted. No inferior presbyter in the church, has been once mentioned by any father or council prior to this writer. So far is he from alleging a general discontinuance of such a class of officers, that he never has hinted at the existence of such an officer, and for the best of reasons, because no such order was ever found in any Christian church before his time. Had this author known of two offices of presbyters, he would have discovered that knowledge, when arrived at the seventeenth verse of this chapter, where a diversity in the exercises of the presbyter's duty being mentioned by the apostle, it has become in modern times, the foundation of an imaginary distinction into ruling elders, and those who labor in word and doctrine. Hilary has well established the identity of the ordination of the ruling presbyter or bishop, and of the other presbyters; but

dum, ut facilius suscipiat admonitionem. Potest enim vereri com. monitus ne postea corripiatur, quod turpe est seniori. Nam apud omnes ubique gentes, honorabilis est senectus. Unde et synagoga et postea ecclesia seniores habuit, quorum sine consilio nihi agebatur in ecclesia. Quod quâ negligentiâ obsoluerit, nescio, nisi forte doctorum desidia, aut magis superbia, dum soli volunt, aliquid vi deri. Juniores quasi fratres censet admonendos, cum dilectionis affectu, ut videntes amoris causâ se commoneri, facilius se corrigant; quippe cum videant non discrepare opera ejus a prædicatione. Anus vero quasi matres."-" Adolescentulas ut sorores," &c.

being unable to divine the modern construction, by some put upon this verse, he says, "Good and faithful stewards ought not only to be judged worthy of honor (reward) on high, but of that which is earthly, that they may not be distressed with a want of supplies, but rather rejoice in their faith and doctrine. For he becomes more assiduous, if he be not humbled by want, and his influence increases, when he perceives, that he obtains the present fruit of his labors; not that he may abound, but that he may not suffer want."m Here no distinction is made among presbyters, they being at first spoken of together in the plural. And this officer is then named in the singular, the commentator thereby plainly evincing that he understood the verse as descriptive of one office. That three centuries should have elapsed after Paul wrote this word goowles, ruling, and this sentence have been read daily in the original, being, in the age of Hilary, still a living language, spoken in the fairest portion of the churches; also, that no intimation should have been given, in this or any other writer, that it described an inferior order of presbyters, is a posing fact to the advocates of lay presbyters.

Hilary, the deacon, exposes the opinion of one Falcidius, that Levites were equal to priests, and deacons to presbyters, announcing it as boldness and presumption, because Levites were bajulos, porters, and deacons, ministros, servants. He argues: "The greater order

m"Boni dispensatores ac fideles non solum honore sublimi debent digni judicari, sed et terreno, ut non contristentur indigentiâ sumptuum sed magis gaudeant fide suâ et doctrinâ. Instantior enim fit, si non humilietur inopiâ, et crescit in illo authoritas, cum videt se etiam in præsenti laboris sui fructum percipere, non ut abundet, sed ut non deficiat." Ambros. Oper. tom. iii. p. 277.

n Quest. ci. August. tom. iv p. 779. "Major enim ordo intra se et apud se habet et minorem, presbyter enim et diaconi agit officium et exorcista et lectoris. Presbyterum autem intelligi episcopum, probat Paulus apostolus, quando Timotheum quem ordinavit presbyterum, instruit qualem debeat creare episcopum. Quid est enim episcopus, nisi primus presbyter, hoc est, summus sacerdos? Denique non aliter quam compresbyteros, hic vocat et consa

contains in it the less, for the presbyter acts the part of deacon, exorcist, and reader. And Paul the apostle proves, that a presbyter is to be understood a bishop, seeing he instructs Timothy, whom he ordained a presbyter, what kind of man he ought to create a bishop. For what is a bishop, unless a first presbyter, that is, a chief priest? Wherefore, he calls them no otherwise than his co-presbyters and co-priests.""The order of the deacon is to receive from the priest and give to the people."

This passage well accords with the evidence of fact, which has hitherto appeared in detail; that the priority of the bishop or first presbyter was merely adventitious, and by no means, however supported by canons, a diversity in order of office; there being originally but one ordinary preaching order in the church of Christ, which was that of presbyters; and that bishops, after every effort to elevate them by ecclesiastical authority and preferences, had no other than presbyterial ordination. If there were not different kinds of presbyters, it results, that none of them were laymen. Also, the fact, that deacons still, in the middle of the fourth century, received the bread and wine from the hands of the presbyters, and conveyed those elements to the people, clearly evinces, that there existed at that period no such intermediate grade of elders in the churches.

cerdotes suos."—"Diaconi ergo ordo est, accipere â sacerdote, et sic dare plebi."

SECTION XIII.

Athanasius was a deacon, then archdeacon, and then a bishop. The powerful opponent of Arius. Often banished and still preserved. He conformed to the canons of Nice, which gave ordination to bishops. In Alexandria there were different congregations under different presbyters, who all made one presbytery for the purpose of ordination, and had one рceσls, BπσXTOS or bishop. Optatus lived in Numidia, and conformed to the government of his day; bishops, presbyters and deacons, his seniors were not officers.— Aerius accorded in views of government with Hilary the deacon, and lived in Pontus.

ATHANASIUS excelled neither in style nor eloquence, yet in strength of understanding, clearness of conception, and choice of expression, on abtruse subjects, he was surpassed by none of that age.

That this champion against Arianism, was duly chosen and ordained to be the bishop of Alexandria, according to the customs of that church, and the directions of the council of Nice, whereof he had been a very active member but five months before, there is no reason to question. That he had attended that council as a deacon, and at the death of Alexander was an archdeacon, are clear.a But that he was at any period a presbyter, except as that office identifies itself with that of bishop, we have no where any proof, unless a general expression left by Gregory Nazianzan b can be received as such. The words of this father, compared with the views of that age exhibited in our last section, and with the circumstances recorded of the placing Athanasius in the chair, probably extended

a Athan. Oper. 2d vol. 547, 520, 521, 570.—n♪n xas Tou Twv ag. χιδιακόνων βαθμου, &c.

b Greg. Nazianz. Oper. i. vol. 376.-raσav THI των βαθμών ακολουθίαν διεξελθων.

THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &c.

119

only to the office of deacon, and his promotion to be the head of his order. His extermination was the settled purpose of the Arians, but Providence always defeated these schemes, and truth prevailed against the imperial authority which they wielded. His ostracisms. were blessings to the provinces; for in every place to which he came, he was a learned and insuperable advocate of the doctrine of the Trinity. Self-defence led him to claim and exercise powers, justified only by the exigencies of his condition. Thus his refusal, upon his second restoration, to permit a single church of the Arians at Alexandria, being suspended upon the condition of a like toleration of the orthodox party in other cities, appears to have been founded in policy, rather than in right. His popularity at home, protection abroad, and long concealment from persecutors, prove that his episcopal administration, however unscriptural, had not been tyrannical.

There occurs a passage in a circular written by the Synod of Alexandria, and preserved in his second apology, wherein they defend him from the charge of breaking a chalice of certain schismatics, by denying that there was any church at the place, any celebration of the ordinance at the time, or the existence of a presbyter there, except the far-famed Ischyras, who was never chosen by a church, and when Alexander received the presbyters, who had been constituted by Miletius, he was not numbered with them: nor had he been thus set apart in that place. When therefore was Ischyras a presbyter? "By whom constituted? Was he by Collythus, since this remains? But because Collythus died a presbyter, every imposition of his hand was void, and all those who were constituted by him in the schism, became laymen," &c. This argument is founded upon the supposition that Ischyras was not a presbyter, and therefore had no right to administer

e Vol. i. 570. Τίνος καταστησαντος; αρα κολλουθου, τουτο γαρ λοιπον, αλλά ότι κολλουθος πρεςβυτερος ων ετελεύτησε, και πασα χεις αυτου γέγονεν ακυρος, &c.