The Christian Observer

Belig. Com. Account of St. Polycarp; He-
brew Vowels: On an extract from Bishop Review of
Kidder; On Deut. xxii. 11; Prayer for a
Family Grace and Holiness; Extempore
Preaching; On Preaching; Charity Schools

525-547.

Mac-Margaret Johnson's Letter; Coun- Lit. and Phil. Intel-

cil of Jews in Hungary; Lines of Sir H.

Wotton; Fragments

p. 550-552.

p. 687-711.

-Great Britain; Swit-

zerland; Germany; Sweden'; List of New

Books

p. 713-714.

Reviers of The Controversy respecting Relig. Intel.- Account of the Mission, to

Marsh's Hypothesis; The Fashionable

Karafs in Tartary

World displayed; Lord Chatham's Let- Public Affairs-

lers; Daubeny's Vindicia Ecclesiæ Angli-

cana; Evangelical Magazine; British Cri-

p. 553-576.

tic

p. 715

-Continental Intelligence;

American Intelligence; Great Britain

Obituary Deaths

p. 718.

719.

Ne. 25.7

THE

JANUARY, 1804.

[No. 1. VOL. III.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

EVIDENCE IN FAVOUR OF THE EXISTENCE OF EPISCOPACY, AS A DISTINCT ORDER, IN THE

FIRST CENTURY.

(Continued from Vol. II. p. 725.)

AFTER
AFTER attentively considering the
arguments which have fallen in my
Way against the existence of primitive
episcopacy, they have always struck
me as leading to two conclusions not
altogether consistent with each other,
i. e. as tending in some instances to
establish the doctrine of absolute pa-
rity, in others to allow a presidency,
yet inter pares.

For the first opinion, after having
stated all that I have heard in its be
half, and perhaps something more, I
hope to shew that it is not entitled to
any great degree of attention.
The second will require a longer
and more elaborate refutation.

dell, light upon a copy of this Epistle in the corner of some ancient library a thousand years hence, and from the terms of the address discover it to be clearer than daylight, that in the beginning of the nineteenth century the Churches of England and Sweden were Presbyterian, and that their con-cerns were managed by a council of elders, he would reason exactly in the same way with this zealous advocate of equality; yet who but must be struck with the absurdity of his inference?

But the argument of Blondell, if it prove any thing, will prove a great deal more than he intended, and par

First-The address prefixed to the ticularly these two things-First, That Epistle of Clemens Romanus is as fol- the Epistle universally assigned to lows, Hexaria y en apoina Pa- Clemens was in truth a joint composiκαι την εκκληση το θεό τη παροικέση Κορινθον, tion of the whole college of Presbyupon which Blondell, one of the cham- ters at Rome. pions of ecclesiastical parity, has this strange remark "Ubi cum nulla peculiaris vel scribentis mentio, vel cleri Romani prærogativa, vel Corinthiaci Presbyterii a plebe discriminatio sed omnes ad omnes confertim scripsisse compertum sit, luce clarius elucescit

Yet secondly, (it is for himself to reconcile the contradiction) that these two Churches were not only without bishops, but that they had neither presbyters, deacons, nor government of any kind.

tunc temporis ecclesias communi præ- from the silence of the address with positorum consilio non unius regimini respect to a particular order, but that

For observe, his argument is drawn

subjacuisse."

To shew the futility of this conclu- orders; he is, therefore, bound to in

silence equally extends to the other

sion, let us suppose

a tant Episcopal Church, that of Sweden foreign Protes

for example, in some matter of gene

fer from it the non-existence of all or

none.

ral concern to the interests of the re- which has occurred to me in the

The following objection, however,

tory Epistle to ourselves with the fol- far as I know, has not been urged be

lowing direction-"

"The Church of

Sweden to the Church of England." unattended with real difficulty.

fore, may seem to be not altogether

Now should some critic, like Blon-
Christ. Observ. No. 25.

The Epistle of Polycarp to the Phi

lippians may be considered almost as a collection of texts from the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John; of these a considerable part is made up of directions for the conduct of presbyters and deacons, without a hint at the existence of another order in the Church. The exercise of church discipline is also in the clearest terms ascribed to presbyters, as they are required" to abstain from unjust judgments, to be slow in admitting and believing an accusation against any one, and not to be hasty and headstrong in their sentences." In this omission there is something at first sight which will startle and perplex the reader. But whether we suppose the Bishop of Smyrna to have forborne, in pure modesty, the use of the same freedom towards an equal which he assumed towards his inferiors, or whether he thought that the same injunctions which were directly addressed to the presbyters (and it is allowed that they had at this time a share in discipline) would, through their intervention, find a way to the bishop, his silence as to the constitution of the Church of Philippi is merely negative. Neither does the style he assumes to himself, Πολύκαρπος Κωι οι συν αυξῳ Πρεσβύτεροι, prove any thing. From the arrangement of the words it may, with equal probability, be inferred, that he was and that he was not included in the number of presbyters. Yet it must be allowed, that the mention of the name of Polycarp alone will prove nothing more than a presidency inter pares. Every chairman of a commit. tee subscribes his own name to an address, and no one considers it as a mark of any thing else than a temporary superiority produced by the single occasion.

Hitherto, therefore, the difficulty as to this particular Epistle remains as we found it; a difficulty, though negative, very different indeed from that of Blondell, inasmuch as it proceeds upon the omission of episcopacy in a passage where the other orders are distinctly referred to.

But when in addition to the fact that Polycarp did singly by name su

perscribe the Epistle in question we find him styled in the authentic acts of his martyrdom, eminently and in the singular number "Bishop of the Church which is in Syria;" when we meet with him in the works of Irenæus who knew his person, and therefore could scarcely be ignorant of his office, distinguished by the same appropriate appellation, we must at least be compelled to allow, that the language of this Epistle concludes nothing against the Episcopal character of the writer; and with respect to the receivers the utmost which can be extracted from it is a surmise, that at this time there was no bishop in that particular Church, which if it could be advanced to certainty would fall far short of proving that the constitution of that Church was not episcopal, as the office might possibly be vacant at the time when Polycarp wrote. The see of Ely was once void for twentyseven years together, during which time many subordinate parts of the episcopal jurisdiction were probably exercised by the dean and chapter; would then a person, who happened to meet with a single letter addressed to this body alone on Church business during that interval, be justified in concluding that the permanent government of that diocese was in a dean and chapter?

I have now stated fairly, though concisely, the little that can be urged of contemporary authority for the existence of parity in its strictest sense during this early period of the Church.

It now remains that we consider the opinion of those who, reasoning for the most part from passages adduced in favour of a proper episcopacy, can discover nothing in them beyond a presidency among equals.

Now if, either by direct proof or fair induction, it can be made appear that this presidency was of a rotatory nature, and passed at shorter or longer intervals from presbyter to presbyter, it must be allowed that our adversaries have proved their point. But if what these persons assert be this, that granting one presbyter to have presided over a college of his brethren

sul and Cæsar the perpetual dictator? It was not merely that the former office was legally constituted and the latter of usurped assumption; nor, to come a little nearer to the point, did it consist in this, that, under the consulate, Cotta, Lentulus, or Cato, might themselves govern in their turn, of which, under the dictatorship, the probability was very small; but that under the former and legitimate constitution alone they could hope to exercise the same jurisdiction which Casar now exercised over them, not only over their fellow citizens in general but over Cæsar himself.

Republican jealousy, aware that monarchy and even tyranny creep in by means of perpetuity in office, always provides that the functions of government shall be rotatory and of no long

duration.

This illustration will, I think, place in a strong and clear point of view our position, that the essence of equality, whether civil or ecclesiastic, consists in a possibility at least that subjects, for the time being, may exercise authority in succession, mediately or immediately, over their present ruler; and, consequently, that an office with jurisdiction for life necessarily infers a superiority of order, because, by the very supposition, a sinking back of the magistrate into the mass of the people becomes impossible.

Indeed the very essence of equality, whether ecclesiastical or civil, consists in this single circumstance, that as the obligation to be governed at all is a necessary evil resulting from the present constitution of the world, it must at least be palliated by affording to the sufferers a prospect of retaliating by turns; and that, as in the scale of society, a perfect equilibrium is impossible, there may be at least an alter nate and regular preponderancy; or, in one day have his chance of exercising that their functions continued for life other words, that every citizen may

authority mediately or

Henceforward, therefore, the question becomes a question of fact, whether it can be collected from any early and well authenticated catalogue of these ecclesiastics which yet remains,

over those who now exercise it over tion. immediately or were limited to some shorter dura

him.

Now in the first place, allowing

Thus in the successive changes of the office to have been originally limit

the constitution at Athens,

inter pares only; and such a presiden- that the succession is more rapid duris well as annual archon was a primus cumstance will necessarily appear, a decennial ed to any period short of life, one cir monarchy, might yet consist with the things than afterwards, when episcopacy, though certainly tending towards ing the continuance of this order of equality of a republic; but Pisistra- cy is certainly known to have been tus, though constituted by the suffra. held till the death of the functionary. ges of the people, though he ruled Another may possibly be expected, perhaps with a gentler hand than many which is, that the names of the same of the periodical magistrates, yet, be- persons will now and then appear a cause he held his office for life, be- second or third time as re-elected, af

came a sovereign over subjects.

To illustrate this idea a little far

ther, let it be asked, what it was that whole body of presbyters in any one constituted the specific difference, as church, the dispute might nearly be a magistrate, between Cæsar the con- settled by the re-appearance, or the

ter some interval, to the presidency. Were any catalogue extant of the

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