appointment of Stephen and the other six, and has given it as his opinion on Acts vi. that the commission was of a special nature, and though their duties were in the first instance ministerial, yet they were designed to be preachers, and did go forth as such.

Isidore of Pelusium flourished in the first part of the fifth century, and having adopted the monastic life, he directed letters to men of various characters and in different stations, even to the emperor himself. Some officiously reprove in pungent language; others temperately answer the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, who sought his counsel. Being in no instance entire, they appear as extracts or abridgments, laconically written. He avows the deliberate purpose of speaking freely, and causing men of no sensibility to blush for sin; and if he should thereby suffer, it would be with the prophets, apostles, and saints, an event desirable for him who was one of the multitude,

ενα των πολλων οντι.Ρ

His numerous letters against simony show it to have been then a common vice. He charges it on Eusebius, the bishop of Pelusium, whom he admits to be προεστώς, but denies that he, ερασθαι, renders the spiritual service of priest. The early corruptions of the hierarchy are sufficiently evinced in his letters, which accord with the state of the church after the erection of diocesan episcopacy, and the general adoption of the canons of the council of Nice into practice. He uses the words επισκοπος, προεςτως, and ιερευς, promiscuously for the same office; but the last of these words most frequently both for bishop and presbyter. Nor has a presbyter been found in the volume, who was not a priest. Deacons and readers are often mentioned, but neither arch-bishop nor patriarch has been

ο Οθεν ούτε διακονών, ούτε πρεσβυτέρων οιμαι το ονομα είναι δηλον και φανερον· Αλλα τεως εις τουτο εχειροτονηθησαν, και ουκ απλώς ενεχειρίσθησαν αλλα επευξαν ο αυτοις γενέσθαι δυναμιν άυλος ενεχείς ρίσθησαν ούλοι τον λογον. Acts hom. xiv.

P Page 664.

¶ Page 326.

observed. Yet he repeatedly assigns a pre-eminence to Peter above the other apostles. This work, though of small importance in the history of the church, is, nevertheless, by its numerous, brief, and often singular expositions of difficult passages in the Scriptures, rendered highly interesting.

SECTION XVIII.

Jerom; his birth, education, places of residence, employment, learning, and death-His opinion of the changes which had obtained in the offices and government of the church.—The ambition of presbyters produced the necessity of transferring much of their authority to a president in each church.— This was effected gradually, and by custom.-Jerom was contented with the church government established by canons of councils, which had the force of the supreme authority of the empire; his denial of the primitive, or inspired right, was to take away the unjust defences of clerical improprieties.-His letter to Evagrius translated.-The church at Alexandria.-The expressions of Jerom on different occasions explained.-The importance of maintaining the succession of presiding presbyters, to exclude heretics; but there was no re-ordination of presbyters till the Cyprianic age, or middle of the third century.

JEROM was born in the upper confines of Dalmatia, before A. D. 345. After preparatory instructions at Stridon, and great progress in philology at Rome, he went into Gaul in quest of higher proficiency. Having returned from Rome, where he had been baptized, he proceeded to Antioch and Jerusalem. In Syria he devoted four years to the prosecution of oriental languages.

At Antioch, he sided with Paulinus, by advice from Damasus, bishop of Róme, and A. D. 375 consented to be ordained presbyter, but not to serve as such. Thus at liberty, he chose Bethlehem as his residence, whence he visited Gregory Nazianzen at Constantinople. In 382, coming to Rome, he was detained by Damasus, to whom his knowledge of languages, the Scriptures, and the world, seemed indispensable.

Upon the demise of the bishop of Rome, he retired to his beloved Bethlehem, with a number of recluses.

THE PRIMITIVe government, &c.

163

After visiting Egypt, he spent the residue of a long life in retirement at Bethlehem with his chosen friends, and died about 420.

Devoted to study, and unrivalled in learning, he shared the esteem of the greatest and best ; but as he needed no emolument, he coveted no preferment in the church. He acquiesced in the aggrandizement and influence of the ecclesiastical establishment, because he thought the exercise of power necessary to the government of the church; but he would have the superior clergy to remember, that by the word of God they were only presbyters, and that all higher authority was founded only on custom.

In writing a translation and a commentary upon the Scriptures, which were to continue to remote generations, we naturally expect his most matured judgment; and, therefore, begin with his observations on Titus i. 5, &c. "Let us carefully consider the words of the apostle: that you may appoint presbyters through the cities as I directed you;' who, describing afterwards the character to be ordained a presbyter, and having observed, If any be blameless, not a polygamist,' &c. then subjoined, for it becomes a bishop to be blameless, as a steward of God. A presbyter is the same, therefore, as a bishop; and before there arose, by the temptation of the devil, preferences in religion, and it was said among the people, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, the churches were governed by a common

a

"Totus semper in lectione, totus in libris est." Sulp. Serv.

P. 506.

b"In omni scientia nemo audeat comparri." Id. 504.

с

"Plane eum boni omnes admirantur et diligunt.” Id. 506. d "Idem est ergo presbyter, quiet episcopus, et antequam diaboli instinctu, studia in religione fierent, et diceretur in populis; Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem Cepha: communi presbyterorum concilio, ecclesiæ gubernabantur. Postquam vero unusquisque eos, quos baptizaverat, suos putabat, non esse Christi: in toto orbe de. cretum est ut unus de presbyteris electus superponeretur cæteris, ad quem omnis ecclesiæ cura pertineret, et schismatum semina tollerentur. Hierom. Oper. tom. vi. p. 198.

council of presbyters. But afterwards, every one esteeming those whom he had baptized as his own, not Christ's, it was decreed, throughout the world, that one chosen from the presbyters should be placed above the rest, to whom the care of the whole church should belong, and the source of all discord be removed. If it be supposed this is not the sense of the Scriptures, but my own opinion, that bishop and presbyter are one, and that one is the name of age, the other of office, read again the words of the apostle to the Philippians- Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus, who are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons, grace to you, and peace,' &c. Philippi is a single city of Macedonia, and certainly there could not be in the one city many bishops, in the present meaning of the term. But because at that time they called the same persons bishops whom they called presbyters, on that account he spoke of bishops indifferently as of presbyters. This may still seem doubtful to some, unless it be proved by another testimony. It is written in the Acts of the Apostles, that when he had come to Miletus, he sent to Ephesus, and called the presbyters of that church, to whom he af terwards said, among other things, Attend to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit hath placed you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord, which he has gained by his blood.' And here observe more particularly, that inviting the presbyters of the one city, Ephesus, he afterwards calls the same bishops. If that epistle which is written to the Hebrews under the name of Paul, be received, there also the care of a church is equally divided among many; forasmuch as he writes to the people, Obey your leaders, and be in subjection, for they watch for your souls, as rendering an account, lest they may do this with sorrow; since this is to your advantage.' And Peter, who derived his name from the firmness of his faith, speaks in his epistle, saying, Wherefore the presbyters among you I intreat, who am a co-presbyter, and witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also an associate in the glory which is here

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