ed in succession, that when they should die, other approved men should accept that sacred office. That those should be ejected from their public ministrations, who were ordained by them, or afterwards by other excellent men with the consent of the whole church, and who have ministered blamelessly to the flock of Christ with humility, peacefulness, and intelligence, and with universal approbation for a long time, we think to be unjust. For it would be a great sin in us, if we should cast off those who have performed the functions of the episcopate, enoxоnns, blamelessly and holily. Blessed are those elders, peoВuleрo, who have finished their course, who have obtained their complete and happy discharge, for they have no fears, lest any shall remove them from the place assigned as a mansion to them."a These elders held the episcopate; were the bishops, presbyters, or leaders of that church; were in every instance named in the plural, and, beyond all question, ranked in the highest order of the ordinary officers of a Christian church.

The original organization of churches is particularly shown.f The apostles, "preaching through regions and cities, χώρας και πολεις, set apart their first fruits, having proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons εις επισκοπους και διακονους of those who should believe." Had the word presbyters been here substituted for bishops, lay-elders might have been alleged to have been comprehended; but the word is not here generic; nor can it be appellatively taken. The word set-apart, xa0ε67avov, fixes upon it an official sense. Also the expression χαλα χωρας και πολεις evince that the presbyters in the region of country, and in the cities, the chorepiscopi and episcopi; were at the first of one grade, and the individuals of equal authority. The supposition that either a superior, or an intermediate grade of officers, is omitted in this enumeration, is not

d Chap. 44.

e Chap. 1. “ υπολασσομενοι τοις ηγουμενοις υμων.”

f Chap. 42.

merely to charge the writer with a careless inattention to an important fact, but to impeach his veracity; for if the first converts were set apart to three orders, they were not to two, for a portion of them constituted a third. That his language was designedly exclusive, appears also from his justification of this apostolical two-fold distribution, by a passage in Isaiah; "I will constitute their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith." Thus does this letter positively affirm to the church at Corinth, that their presbyters, whose government they had renounced, were all bishops, Exoxoлous, both by apostolic ordination, and prophetic authority. Should any allege, that this prophecy was misunderstood, our argument is still safe, because the opinion of the writer is clear, and he must have given the officers of a Christian church, as they then existed. Thus nothing can be more evident than that this letter, which, above all other uninspired productions, is of the highest authority, and at the earliest period, being prior to the Revelation of John, does use πρεσβύτερος and επισκοπος for the same order and office, and allows them but one ordination only; and, as it is in the face of those lordly powers, which bishops afterwards claimed, jure divino, over presbyters; so it is a standing and perpetual testimony against those, who would degrade the office of the presbyter, to the mute ministrations of a modern ruling elder; which is but another name for a deacon, and in a large proportion of the American Presbyterian churches, (whose opinion on this point has been protected by all their successive forms of government,his ordination, charge, authority, and duties being the same,) no other deacon exists.

g Isaiah lx. 17. np he renders ¡¤×πous, and own dianorous.

SECTION II.

The testimony of the Scriptures being postponed, till the facts and primitive usage of the churches have been shown; the letter of Polycarp is examined. -According to Clement and Polycarp, at Rome, Corinth, Smyrna, and Philippi, no officer was superior to the presbyter, and no presbyter a layman. Papias accords with the same representation, that a presbyter, appellatively an elder, was the only ordinary teacher, and without a superior.

AFTER the credible uninspired evidence of the first century, the testimonies of the second, may be condensed into three periods. In the first period are discovered, except forgeries, but two witnesses, Polycarp and Papias.

The venerable "apostolical presbyter" Polycarp, whose letter is common, derived his first religious knowledge from the apostles: and was "in the church at Smyrna," probably, the presiding poec7w5, presbyter, "bishop," or angel." This epistle, unquestionably genuine, was written to the church at Philippi, near the commencement of the second century, we suppose about A. D. 116, and more than fifty years before his martyrdom. Read publicly in the churches in Asia, so late as the fourth century, it was too generally known, to be removed, or successfully interpolated; its simplicity too undisguised and evangelical, to encourage imitation.

A single letter from each of those apostolical men, Clement and Polycarp has rescued their testimonies from the frauds of designing ecclesiastics. The former was saved by a single copy. Had a genuine letter of the pious Ignatius, in like manner escaped, it would have confounded those Arian and Athanasian

Ο «αποστολικος πρεσβυτερο απο αποστολών μαθητευθείς.” - εν τη Σμυρνη εκκλησία επισκοπο.” Irenæus.

b

-"usque hodie." Hieronym.

productions, too credulously ascribed to him, and which are the corner-stone of that system, which partaking of the Jewish and Pagan hierarchies, is equally hostile both to the rights of God and man.

This precious relic of ancient times begins, in a manner altogether becoming the character of its excellent and pious author; "Polycarp and the presbyters with him, to the church of God dwelling at Philippi, mercy to you, and peace be multiplied from God Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour." The omission of his official name, has been made an argument of superiority. He was neither an apostle, nor an evangelist. In a particular church, no office more elevated than that of a presbyter, has yet appeared. His silence, though precisely that, which might be expected from the saint, had he been even Patriarch or Archbishop, names then unknown in the Christian church, can never establish the existence of a non-entity. Neither the title angel nor poɛ75, if such he was, which is probable, nor any consequent duty or honor, rendered him more than a presbyter. Not word have we yet found, nor shall we in this letter discover any thing, that bears even a semblance of a proof of any diversity of grade, in the ordinary preaching office, the possessor of which as yet, was indiscriminately denominated presbyter and bishop. The OUV OUTW, Apεoßulεpot, presbyters with him, may import equality, or locality; but it seems rather to denote a union, in design and action. If it be asked, why then was his name expressed? Because he wrote the letter, which is throughout in the first person singular. Thus Paul and Timotheus are joined in the introduction of the inspired letter to the same church; but the third verse is in the first person singular, and the letter was Paul's This introduction can neither prove parity, nor disparity, in the office of Polycarp and the presbyters with him; yet it is not improbable, that his grace, talents, cha

a

• Πολύκαρπος και οι συν αυτω πρεσβυτεροι, τη εκκλησία το Θεα τη παροίκουση Φιλίπποις κ. τ. λ.

racter, seniority in office, and even their personal knowledge of him, may have conduced, with the fact that he composed the letter, to his naming himself in it to the Philippians. If Polycarp was the only elder, "who laboured in word and doctrine," and the other presbyters were laymen, ordained in the same, and that the only mode, to govern and rule; why were the deacons omitted? That such there were, appears from the letter itself. This omission of deacons and association of Polycarp with presbyters, is at least a probable foundation for the supposition that he was himself a presbyter, a name expressly given him in the writings of Irenæus who remembered him, but whose account of him, being later testimony, must be left for future examination. This probability corroborated by the circumstance that no ordinary preaching officer except the presbyter has appeared in any testimony prior to this period, is all that can reasonably be expected on the point. As every presbyter was hitherto a bishop, if any were laymen, they were of course, lay-bishops. If Polycarp was as we have supposed a posd75, or presiding bishop, he had the only preaching office, and the highest standing then known in the church; unless any of the Evangelists yet survived, of which we know not any testimony. If he was the angel of the church of Smyrna, mentioned in the Apocalypse, as some imagine he was, it is fair to presume that he was of the same grade with the angels in the other Asiatic churches, who were consequently not superior to that of the presbyter or bishop; but if angel was a higher office, it was a wandering star, that has come and gone without leaving a trace behind. Every talent must render its account, and the personal influence of every posows, presiding elder, or bishop carried with it, its own responsibleness. Neither Clement, nor Polycarp has recognised, either a superior authority, or an assignment of duty more arduous, in any one presbyter of a church, than in another.. The latter mentions only presbyters and deacons at Philippi; Paul directs