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." 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.

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a 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 can. ons, 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 προεσίως, επισκοπος 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 nai rou Tæv agχιδιακόνων βαθμου, &c.

b Greg. Nazianz. Oper. i. vol. 376.—aσar Hy Tor Batμar ακολουθίαν διεξελθων.

THE PRIMITIVE GOVERNMENT, &c.

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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 Ålexander 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. Τινος καταστησαντος; αρα κολλουθου, τουτο γαρ λοιπον, άλλα ότι κολλουθος πρεςβύτερος ων ελελεύλησε, και πασα χεις αυτου γεγονεν ακυρος, &c.

cess.

the ordinance; and that he was not a presbyter, because Collythus had no right to ordain him such, "under a pretence that he was a bishop, when he was not." The members of the synod to which the church of Alexandria appertained, were neither ignorant of that canon which confined the ordination of bishops to bishops, nor unacquainted with the ancient government of the church of Alexandria, secured to it by the council of Nice.f Collythus did not ordain by virtue of his office as presbyter, but as if he was a bishop, who presided over presbyters, which he was not, and such he was afterwards judicially decided never to have. been. It has been alleged that Ischyras had no church, had been ordained by a schismatic, and out of the dioThere is also another ground which Athanasius has particularly stated, "Mareotes was a part of Alexandria, and there never was a bishop or chorepiscopus constituted in it, but the churches of the whole district were under the bishop of Alexandria, and each of the presbyters had their own sections."g From the first planting of the gospel in cities, one presbytery only existed in each, and when from an increase of numbers there were many places of worship, the presbyters served in the different congregations, but ordinnations were performed only by the presbytery of the city, and each had its permanent president, роε7ws, who was afterwards called exoxoxos, bishop, a name at first common to all presbyters. If a single presbyter should exercise the power of ordination, especially within the district, over which his presbytery had always exercised that power, it was deservedly account

d Ibid. p. 616. υπο γαρ κολλουθου του πρεσβύτερου φαντασθέντος CITROTHY, &c.

e Council of Nice. Canon iv.

f Canon. vi.

5 ὁ Μαρεώτης χωρα της Αλεξανδρειας εστι και ουδέποτε εν τη χώρα γεγονεν επισκοπος, ουδε χωρεπίσκοπος, αλλα τωτης Αλεξανδρείας επισκόπω αι εκκλησίαι πάσης της χώρας υποκεινται, εκαστος δε των πρεσβυτέρων εκεί τας ιδίας κωμας.-Athan. apol. ii.