order of clergy subject to the Bishop, empowered to preach, baptize, and administer the Lord's Supper; but having no power to ordain or confirm. But all this is said without the smallest evidence. On the contrary, the Presbyters or Presbytery are represented as always present, with the Bishop and his congregation, when assembled; as bearing a relation to the same flock equally close and inseparable with its Pastor ; and as being equally necessary in order to a regular and valid transaction of its affairs. In short, to every altar, or communion table, there was one Presbytery, , as well as one Bishop. To suppose then that these Presbyters were the parish Priests, or Rectors of different con gregations, within the diocese to which they be. longed, is to disregard every part of the representation which is given respecting them. No; the only rational and probable construction of the language of Ignatius is, that each of the particular churches to which he wrote, besides its Pastor and Deacons, was furnished with a bench of Elders or Presbyters, some of them, probably, ordained to the work of the ministry*, and therefore empow

I say some of these Elders were probably ordained to the work of the ministry, and of course, empowered to preach and administer ordinances : But this is not certain. They might all have been Ruling Elders for aught that appears to the contrary. For in all these epistles, it is no where said that they either preached or dispensed the sacraments. It cannot be shown then, that Ignatius, by his Presbyters and Presbytery, or Eldership, means any thing else than a bench of Ruling Elders in each church.

a

ered to teach and administer ordinances, as well as rule; and others empowered to rule, only. The whole strain of these Epistles, then, may be con. sidered as descriptive of Presbyterian government. They exhibit a number of particular churches, each furnished with a Bishop or Pastor, and also with Elders and Deacons, to whose respective ministrations every private member is exhorted, as long as they are regular, implicitly to submit*.

I have been thus particular in attending to the testimony of Ignatius, because the advocates of prelacy have always considered him as more decidedly in their favor than any other Father, and have contended for the genuineness of his writings with as much zeal as if the cause of Episcopacy

* Every regularly organized Presbyterian church bas a Bishop, Elders, and Deacons. Of the bench of Elders, the Bishop is the standing President or Moderator. Sometimes, where a congregation is large, it has two or more Bishops, united in the pastoral charge, and having, in all respects, an official equality. When this is the case, each of the Bishops is President or Moderator of the Eldership in turn. In some Presbyterian churches, the Bishop, instead of having one or more Colleagues, of equal authority and power with himself, lias an assistant or assistants. These assistants, though clothed with the whole ministerial character, and capable, without any other ordination, of becoming pastors themselves; yet as long as they remain in this situation, they bear a relation to the Bishop similar to that which Curates bear to the Rector, in some Episcopal churches ; and of course, cannot regularly baptize or administer the Lord's Supper without the concurrence of the Bishop. Ignatius, therefore, could scarcely give a more perfect representation than he does of Presbyterian government.

were involved in their fate. But you will perceive that these writings, when impartially examined, instead of affording aid to that cause, furnish decisive testimony against it.

Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis, a city of Asia, is said to have been "an hearer of John, and a companion of Polycarp." He flourished about the year 110 or 115. Some fragments of his writings have been preserved. Out of these, the following passage is the only one that I have been able to find, that has any relation to the subject under debate. It is cited by Eusebius, in his Ecclesiastical History, lib. iii. cap. 39.

"I shall not think it grievous to set down in (6 writing, with my interpretations, the things which "I have learned of the Presbyters, and remember

as yet very well, being fully certified of their "truth. If I met any where with one who had "conversed with the Presbyters, I inquired after "the sayings of the Presbyters; what Andrew, "what Peter, what Philip, what Thomas, or James "had said; what John, or Matthew, or any other "disciples of the Lord were wont to say; and "what Ariston, or John the Presbyter, said: for "I am of the mind that I could not profit so much by reading books, as by attending to those who "spake with the living voice."

The only thing remarkable in this passage, is, that the writer, obviously, styles the Apostles, Presbyters; and this when speaking of them, not with the lightness of colloquial familiarity, but as ora

cles, whose authority he acknowledged, whose character he revered, and whose sayings he treasured up. Could we have more satisfactory evidence that this title, as employed in the primitive church, was not considered as expressing official inferiority in those to whom it was applied ?

Irenæus, who was a disciple of Polycarp, and who is said to have suffered martyrdom about the year 202 after Christ, is an important and decisive witness on the subject before us. The following passages are found in his writings. Book against Heresies, lib. iii. cap. 2.

" When we challenge them (the heretics) to that apostoli“ cal tradition which is preserved in the churches

through the succession of the Presbyters, they oppose the tradition, pretending that they are wiser,

not only than the Presbyters, but also than the + Apostles.” Lib. iii. cap. 3.

“ The apostolic tradition is present in every church. We can enumerate " those who were constituted Bishops by the Apos" tles in the churches, and their successors even to

us, who taught no such thing. By showing the s tradition and declared faith of the greatest and

most ancient church of Rome, which she received * from the Apostles, and which is come to us “ through the succession of the Bishops, we confound " all who conclude otherwise than they ought.”

Lib. iv. cap. 43. “ Obey those Presbyters in " the church who have the succession as we have

shown from the Apostles; who with the succession

"s of the Episcopate, received the gift of truth, ac“cording to the good pleasure of the Father.”

Lib. iv. cap. 53. True knowledge is the doc“ trine of the Apostles, according to the succession

of Bishops, to whom they delivered the church “ in every place, which doctrine hath reached us “preserved in its most full delivery."

Lib. iv. cap. 44. “ We ought, therefore, to ad“ here to those Presbyters who keep the Apostle's " doctrine, and together with the Presbyterial suc

cession, do show forth sound speech. Such Pres. * bytors the church nourishes; and of such the

Prophet says-I will give them Princes in peace, * and Bishops in righteousness*." " Lib. v. cap. 20.

66 These are far later than “the Bishops to whom the Apostles delivered the “ churches : and this we have carefully made mani. *6 fest in the third book.”

Lib. iii. cap. 3. “ The Apostles, founding and s instructing that church, (the church of Rome) « delivered to Linus the Episcopate ; Anacletus suc“ ceeded him; after him Clemens obtained the Epis

copate from the Apostles. To Clement succeeded * Evaristus; to him Alexander; then Sixtus; and * after him Telesphorus ; then Hugynus ; after him “ Pius ; then Anicetus; and when Soter had suc“ ceeded Anicetus, then Eleutherius had the Epis