pate, qui cum episcopatus successione, have received the sure gift of the truth, according to the will of the Father." "Presbyters," it has been objected, may mean here, old men. But he contrasts those presbyters, with the heretical preachers, and speaks of them as being in the church, and having succession from the apostles, and with the succession of the episcopate, as having received the gift of the truth; that is, those sound doctrines, which are taught in the original churches. On all which accounts, they were to be obeyed, rather than the heretics, who had none of these things. "Such presbyters, gulgous," he says in another place, "the church nourishes, concerning whom also the prophet says, 'I will give your princes, apzorlag, in peace, and bishops, extorous in righteousness."'" The prophecy which he here introduces, in support of presbyters, expresses bishops. The succession from the apostles, which he sometimes affirms of bishops, he also applied to presbyters: repeatedly thus discovering, that he accounted presbyters to be bishops, and bishops presbyters. When Irenæus therefore makes presbyters the successors of the apostles, and ascribes the episcopacy to presbyters, he may be considered a very positive, as well as competent witness to establish, that there were no preachers, after the apostles and evangelists, of an order higher than that of presbyters, nor any presbyters, of an inferior grade. In another place he speaks of bishops, as of those to whom the apostles delivered the churches, "episcopi quibus Apostoli tradiderunt ecclesias," and says that "the church every where preaches the truth." In the next parai' graph he observes, that "They who leave (relinquunt) the preaching of the church, praeconium ecclesiæ, accuse arguunt the holy presbyters of ignorance." The presbyters named in this passage are spoken of as the only preachers then in the church, as having had succession from the apostles, as being the bishops to whom the f Lib. iv. C. 26. S. 2. g Lib. iv. C. 26, S. 5. church was committed, and evidently the highest of ficers, at that period existing in the church. The writer is speaking of his own day, and in the present tense, and therefore excludes the fond conceit of those who imagine that Irenæus used the terms bishop and presbyter promiscuously, only of those, who lived before his day. It is plain that one preaching office only existed in this age. He mentions no preaching officer of his day either superior or inferior to a presbyter, and no class among presbyters who were not preachers. Neither do the works which remain of Irenæus, nor any other genuine writing in or before his time, appear to contain a solitary proof of any distinction in the office of presbyter. One passage only have we found in Irenæus to present a semblance of variance with the promiscuous use of presbyter and bishop. "The bishops and presbyters who were from Ephesus, and other neighbouring cities, being convened at Miletus, because he," Paul, "was hastening to spend Pentecost at Jerusalem," &c. In the history of "the Acts of the Apostles," the bishops only of a single "flock," or church are addressed, unless we suppose them placed over the whole Christian church. Consequently, they who are on that occasion called presbyters, are the same persons whom Paul denominates bishops. If the original of this inconsistent passage should ever emerge from darkness, and no article should follow the xa before ngoutɛg, the identical persons were at the same time bishops and presbyters. This hearsay evidence, for a version is no more, of a distinction in the only preaching office, appears in a faulty, barbarous and miserable translation, the original of which, at the place, has been lost. It not only stands alone, and is at variance with every book and testimony before it, but it is diametrically opposed to all the numerous representations of Irenæus himself upon the same subject. And after all, if the distinction had been expressed by him, k Lib. iii. c. 14. and had been true, it could have furnished not even the idea of a lay presbyter. That this passage in the translation falsely represents the mind of Irenæus, plainly appears, when he afterwards expressly affirms the office of presbyter to be the highest in the church. "They who have also been accredited as presbyters by many, but serve their own pleasures and have no fear of God, in their hearts, who treat others reproachfully and are puffed up with the loftiness of the principal seat, et principalis concessionis tumore elati sunt, and do evil in secret, and say no one sees us, shall be condemned by the Word." This language plainly represents, that the presbyterial office was the highest in the church. If the goε0775 προεστωτες presidents of churches are here intended, which is probable, because he speaks of such in the persons of Soter, Victor and others, in the present catalogue of popes, yet they are in this place expressly called presbyters. The testimony of Irenæus is therefore upon the whole decisive, that in his day, the office of presbyters was one and undivided, and the highest in the Christian church; and consequently that no presbyters were lay men. SECTION V. Clemens Alexandrinus mentions, a gwloxa0dpia, first seat, in each presbytery, and although he mentions presbyters, bishops and deacons, yet he shows there were but two orders.-Tertullian supports Justin's description of a eucharist and proves an antistes or president in the presbytery of each church; calls this highest priest the bishop, and affirms his right to grant baptism. He makes a succession of such bishops from the apostles in the first churches a test of the orthodox faith which the heretics could not furnish. No alteration appears in the offices of the church. during the second century, unless with the change of president, gosols, for exisxoños bishop, presbyters began to act by his appointment, or in his presence. Though not in writers hitherto examined, some traces of it are in the two assigned to this section; who lived in both centuries. Titus Flavius Clemens is called Atheniensis because educated at Athens; Alexandrinus, because instructed in the catechetical school of Pantænus, and a presbyter of the church at Alexandria. The preceptor of Origin, Alexander of Jerusalem, and others, he lived till the reign of Alexander Severus. He wrote an Admonition to the Greeks, The Pedagogue, Stromata, and What rich man can be saved? He had a leaning to Gentile ethics, and the merit of works. On future punishments he is erroneous. προηγούμενοι, Church officers are mentioned incidentally; "For as much as we are shepherds, ποιμενες ες μεν, who govern Agonyovμsvo, the churches, after the example of the good shepherd, and guard the sheep." This pastoral office was that of the presbyter, for he was such. In strict accordance he speaks of the presbyter, as blessing with the imposition of hands. "Upon whom will the a Pedagogue, Lib. i. p. 99. b presbyter, geßutεgos, impose his hand, and whom will he bless?" This ascription of blessing to presbyters supposes them of one kind and clerical. After citing from the epistle of Paul ten passages of practical duties, suited to various classes, he observes; "numerous other precepts also, directed to select characters, have been written, in the sacred books, some to presbyters neßlegos, some to bishops, and some to deacons, and others to widows." If presbyters be not here taken appellatively, the language makes a threefold discrimination, presbyters, bishops and deacons. It is possible that the author, in these precepts given from the New Testament, follows the language of the epistle to Titus, in which the same order is named, presbyters and bishops. (Ch. i. 5. 6. 7.) That there were but two orders, (Siaxovat) presbyters and deacons, he expressly and repeatedly shows; and that there was a newlоxαdgia or first seat, in each presbytery, he also asserts; the meaning therefore of the passage is obvious. If from the circumstance, that this writer never enumerated deacons before presbyters, because an inferior order, it may be fairly inferred, that the collocation of bishops after presbyters, in this sentence, evinces no inferiority in presbyters, we may be permitted to argue from the same circumstance, that he had no idea that presbyters were mere laymen. Whether, in this passage, πρεσβυτέροις was intended only of those who presided over the rest of the bishops, or vice versa, lay presbyters are equally, and wholly omitted. In the numerous precepts addressed by the Scriptures to various characters, neither this author nor any other, has ever found a charge directed to lay presbyters. Writing of marriage, he decides, that each man should be "the husband of one wife, whether he b Pedagogue, Lib. iii. p. 248. E |