despised Galilean fishermen at length became the rulers of kings, and the lords of the world. This progress was retarded by ecclesiastical jealousies. Alternate persecutions restrained the Arians and the orthodox party, and delayed the full exercise of canonical power. Gregory Nyssen, from such, or better motives, though a bishop, and the brother of his metropolitan, writes as a pastor of a church, rather than a diocesan.

Thus he observes:." That all should not intrude themselves into a knowledge of the mysteries, but choosing one from themselves, able to understand divine things, αλλα επιλέξαντες εξ εαυτών τον χωρήσαι τα θεια Savaμevov, they should submissively hear; esteeming worthy of faith whatever they should learn of him. For it is said, all are not apostles, nor all prophets, but this is not now observed in many of the churches. In another place, speaking of his own ordination, he says:w "To us has come the public ministration of the spiritual supper, η της πνευματικης εστιάσεως λειτουργια, whom it would better become to participate with, than to communicate to others." The feast here intended is that of the gospel, from the preaching of which he had hoped to be excused.

The proximity of Nyssa to the former residence of Thaumaturgus, adds credibility to the account he has given of the ordination of that father by Phœdimus, which, he says, was in his absence, words being substituted for the hand, αντιχειζος. This had always been the mode pursued in ordaining presbyters, who were of one degree. When presbyters or bishops were chosen, or succeeded, they were not re-ordained in the two first centuries; and when canonical ordination arose, it was not performed by imposition of hands, but instead of such imposition, the deacons held the open gospels over the head of the party, who had been chosen by holding up hands.*

▾ Greg. Nyss. Oper. vol. i. p. 220.

w Vol.i. p. 372.

* Των δε διακονών τα θεία ευαγγελια επι της του χειροτονούμενου

He has attributed too much to Stephen, and also strangely erred in the adoption of the appellative sense of the word deaconship, when he says: "Then Stephen, full of wisdom and grace, was called by the Spirit to the aid of the apostles. Let no one conceive from the word deaconship, τω διακονιας ονοματι, that he descended below the apostolic dignity, δευτερευειν αυτού παρα την αποστολικήν αξίαν, seeing Paul acknowledged himself a deacon, diaxovov, of the mysteries of Christ."z

After an apostrophe to the aged Simeon, of whom he had been discoursing, he turns to those who preside in the churches, and says: "Seeing to you, and to such as you, adorned with hoary wisdom from above, who are presbyters indeed, and justly styled the fathers of the church, the word of God conducts us to learn the doctrines of salvation, saying, (Deut. xxxii. 7,) Ask thy father, and he will show thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee." Here those who presided in the churches, are denominated, without exception, presbyters; and the official sense is clearly exhibited by an allusion to the appellative meaning of the term. But neither episcopal superiority, nor clerical subordination, find a place. The latter had not indeed then come into existence and though the former everywhere prevailed, and even in the writer himself, yet his early impressions guided him to the truth, and his piety rendered him denied to the empty distinctions of a perishing world.

κεφαλης ανεπτυγμένα κατεχουντων, &c. Zonar. p. 1002. Hippol. vol. ii. p. 249.

SECTION XV.

Cyril of Jerusalem, renounced his ordination of presbyter, to be ordained by an Arian, a bishop. Ambrose at first a lawyer. Compelled to become archbishop of Milan. The commentary on Paul's epistles is the work of Hilary the deacon. His opinion of the angels of the seven churches. Acknowledges a presbyter to be his co-presbyter. Disclaims the authority of an apostle and of an evangelist. Clerical bribery common in his day.

a

CYRIL, bishop of Jerusalem, claimed a grade by ancient custom of high dignity; that church also venerated by Christians as a mother, obtained an exception in the canons of the council of Nice, against the power of the Metropolitan of Cesarea. "Since custom has prevailed and ancient tradition, that the bishop in Ælia is to be honored, let him have the privileges consécutive of such preference εχε7ω την ακολουθειαν της τιμης the proper dignity being secured to the metropolis." But the purpose of conforming the hierarchy, in the subordination of its offices and the extent of their jurisdictions, to the imperial government, conceded to Jerusalem, through the indecisiveness of the canon, little more than the name of a preference. That Cyril was made deacon by Macarius, and afterwards ordained a presbyter by Maximus; and that Acacius the Arian Metropolitan of Cesarea, in favour with Constantius, re-ordained Cyril as bishop of Jerusalem, upon the stipulated terms, that he should first renounce his office as presbyter and officiate again as deacon, are facts too plainly testified to be resisted. This stipulation was unnecessary, if every ordination whereby a presbyter becomes a bishop is a renunciation of his office as pres

a Ta agxara son vide Council. Nic. can. iv.
b Ibid. can. vii.

byter; but if the first office remains, then episcopal ordination resting on canons and custom only, is merely void. If re-ordination after suspension or deposition is never to be performed, it follows that the episcopal is not a re-ordination, the authority of man being the foundation of canonical ordination, whilst that of the Holy Ghost has authorized the other. The ordination of elders in presbyterian churches, must be either of deacons, or of presbyters, or a nullity; if it be that of scriptural presbyters, then as often as any such are afterwards ordained pastors, there is an equally unauthorized and merely human re-ordination. That Cyril was not confusedly or impiouslyd ordained bishop, has been argued from the language of a subsequent council which pronounced him "canonically ordained by the bishops of the province." This opinion was founded upon the validity of his ordination as presbyter, though effected by an Athanasian bishop of Jerusalem, without the sanction of the Arian Metropolitan of Cesarea. Before the council of Nice, episcopacy was often defended by allusions to the Jewish priesthood, and their orders; the shadow being identified with the substance, the obsolete sacrificial economy perpetuated, and the gospel ministry clothed with the rights and prerogatives of the Levitical hierarchy. But the canons of that council, Constantine being at its head, became the supreme law of the empire, and reasons of state conspiring with clerical ambition, provided that bishops should have power and importance, proportioned to the grade of the cities over which they ecclesiastically presided. Whether the provisory canon had been violated by the bishop of Jerusalem, or of

c Sacerdotio confusa jam ordinatione suscepto. vita Cyrilli. c. v. 27.

Dissertat. de

d Quorum Cyrillus, quum a Maximo fuisset presbyter ordinatus, et post mortem ejus ita ei ab Acacio episcopo Cesariensi, et cæteris episcopis Arianis episcopatus permitteretur, si ordinationem Maximi repudiasset; diaconus in ecclesia administravit; ob quam impietatem sacerdoti mercede pensatus.-Jerom. Chronico.

• Κανονιακως τε παρα των επαρχιας χειροτονηθεντα, Theod. hist. 1. v. c. 9.

Cesarea, it being merely a human ordinance, and the decision of the second council of no higher authority, Cyril was in fact, not only a presbyter, but a ruling elder, or president of the church at Jerusalem.

In the last of his catecheses we have the priest, the presbyters, and the altar, with subordinate deacons. "You have seen a deacon furnishing water for ablution to a priest and presbyters, τω ιερω και τοις πρεσβύτεροις encircling the altar of God. But he furnished it not for bodily filth, for there is none, for we at first entered εσκείμεν the church, having no dirt on our bodies." Was this holy water?

In his catecheses, the last five of which are denominated mystagogic, those peculiarities of the Catholics, which the Protestants reject, are generally prematurely recognised. The weight of these productions as historical testimony is consequently very little; but since they have no bearing on our subject, it is unnecessary to marshal the evidence of their corruptions. The letter to Constantius is a standing monument of his weakness. In the few remains of his other writings, nothing has been found to our purpose. The letter to Augustine concerning Jerom is certainly not his, for he died about A. D. 386, whilst Jerom was living. He was an imbecile, ambitious time-server, alternately orthodox and Arian, as his interest led him. His piety must be submitted to another tribunal; but with us, neither his personal character, nor the genuineness of the writings attributed to him, have competent support from his canonization.

Ambrose was the son of a præfect of Gaul, where he was born about A. D. 340. Upon the death of his father he was brought to Rome, educated, and became a pleader of causes. Appointed governor of Liguria and Emilia, and attempting to quiet a tumult, which had arisen upon the election of a successor to the bishop of Milan, he was unexpectedly nominated and elected, and at length by the Emperor obliged to accept the office. He was baptized, and within a week became arch-bishop of Milan, A. D. 374, where he died