evdikaloσún, and bishops in righteousness;" upon which place S. Hicromed says, Principes ecclesiæ vocat futuros episcopos, 'the Spirit of God calls them who were to be christian bishops, principes, or chief rulers; and this was no new thing, for the chief of the priests who were set over the rest, are called bishops by all the Hellenist Jews. Thus Joel is called ἐπίσκοπος ἐπ ̓ αὐτοὺς, the bishop over the priests; and the son of Banif, èñíσкoños devirov, 'the bishop and visitor over the Levites;' and we find at the purging of the land from idolatry, the high-priest placed ἐπισκόπους εἰς οἶκον κυρίους, 'bishops over the house of God.' Nay it was the appellative of the high-priest himself, èñíσкоños 'Еλ€áÇaph, 'bishop Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest,' to whom is committed the care of lamps, and the daily sacrifice, and the holy unction.

Now this word the church retained, choosing the same name to her superior ministers, because of the likeness of the ecclesiastical government between the Old and New testament.

For Christ made no change but what was necessary. Baptism was a rite among the Jews, and the Lord's supper was but the postcanium of the Hebrews changed into a mystery, from a type to a more real exhibition; and the Lord's prayer was a collection of the most eminent devotions of the prophets and holy men before Christ, who prayed by the same Spirit; and the censures ecclesiastical were but an imitation of the proceedings of the judaical tribunals; and the whole religion was but the law of Moses drawn out of its veil into clarity and manifestation; and to conclude in order to the present affair, the government which Christ left was the same as He found it; for what Aaron and his sons, and the Levites, were in the temple, that bishops, priests, and deacons are in the church; it is affirmed by S. Hierome more than once; and the use he makes of it is this, Esto subjectus pontifici tuo, et quasi animæ parentem suscipe, obey your bishop, and receive him as the nursing father of your soul.' But above all, this appellation is made honourable by being taken by our blessed Lord himself, for He is called in scripture the great 'shepherd and bishop of our souls.'

But our enquiry is not after the name, but the office, and the dignity and duty of it. Ecclesiæ gubernanda sublimis ac divina potestas, so S. Cyprian1 calls it, 'a high and a divine power from God of governing the church; rem magnam et pretiosam in conspectu Domini, so S. Cyril, a great and precious thing in the sight of God;' Tŵv vm ἀνθρώποις εὐκταίων ὅρον, by Isidore Pelusiot", 'the utmost limit of

what is desirable among men.' But the account upon which it is so desirable,' is the same also that makes it formidable. They who have tried it, and did it conscientiously, have found the burden so great, as to make them stoop with care and labour; and they who do it ignorantly or carelessly, will find it will break their bones. For the bishop's office is all that duty which can be signified by those excellent words of S. Cyprian", "He is a bishop or overseer of the brotherhood, the ruler of the people, the shepherd of the flock, the governor of the church, the minister of Christ, and the priest of God." These are great titles, and yet less than what is said of them in scripture, which calls them salt of the earth,' 'lights upon a candlestick,' 'stars' and 'angels,' 'fathers of our faith,' 'embassadors of God,' 'dispensers of the mysteries of God,' 'the apostles of the churches, and the glory of Christ;' but then they are great burdens too, for the bishop is toTevμévos tòv λaòv Toû Kupíov, 'intrusted with the Lord's people;' that's a great charge, but there is a worse matter that follows, Kai Tòv ὑπὲρ τῶν ψυχῶν αὐτῶν λόγον ἀπαιτηθησόμενος, the bishop is he of whom God will require an account for all their souls: they are the words of S. PaulP, and transcribed into the fortieth canon of the apostles, and the twenty-fourth canon of the council of Antioch'.

And now I hope the envy is taken off; for the honour does not pay for the burden; and we can no sooner consider episcopacy in its dignity, as it is a rule, but the very nature of that rule does imply so severe a duty, that as the load of it is almost insufferable, so the event of it is very formidable, if we take not great care. For this stewardship is κυριότης καὶ διακονία, a principality and a ministry. So it was in Christ; He is Lord of all, and yet He was the servant of all, so it was in the apostles, it was κλῆρος διακονίας καὶ ἀποστο Ans, 'their lot was to be apostles, and yet to serve and minister;' and it is remarkable that in Isaiaht the LXX use the word πíσкооS or bishop,' but there they use it for the Hebrew word nechosheth, which the Greeks usually render by ἐργοδιώκτης, φορολόγος, πράκτ Top, and the interlineary translation by exactores. Bishops are only God's ministers and tribute gatherers, requiring and overseeing them that they do their duty; and therefore here the case is so, and the burden so great, and the dignity so allayed, that the envious man hath no reason to be troubled that his brother hath so great a load, nor the proud man plainly to be delighted with so honourable a danger. It is indeed a rule, but it is paternal; it is a government, but it must be neither ἀναγκαστικὸν nor αἰσχροκερδές", it is neither a power to constrain, nor a commission to get wealth; for it must be without necessity and not for filthy lucre sake; but it is a rule, s diakovoûνTOS, SO S. Luke, 'as of him that ministers;' &s TávTwv doúλov, so S. Mark', 'as of him that is servant of all;' &s ñóðas víñ

TOVTOS, SO S. John', such a principality as he hath that washes the feet' of the weary traveller; or if you please, take it in the words of our blessed Lorda himself, that "he that will be chief among you, let him be your minister," meaning that if under Christ's kingdom you desire rule, possibly you may have it; but all that rule under Him are servants to them that are ruled; and therefore you get nothing by it, but a great labour and a busy employment, a careful life, and a necessity of making severe accounts. But all this is nothing but the general measures, I cannot be useful or understood unless I be more particular. The particulars we shall best enumerate by recounting those great conjugations of worthy offices and actions by which christian bishops have blessed and built up christendom; for because we must be followers of them as they were of Christ, the recounting what they did worthily in their generations, will not only demonstrate how useful, how profitable, how necessary episcopacy is to the christian church, but it will at the same time teach us our duty, by what services we are to benefit the church, in what works we are to be employed, and how to give an account of our stewardship with joy.

1. The christian church was founded by bishops, not only because the apostles, who were bishops, were the first preachers of the gospel, and planters of churches, but because the apostolical men, whom the apostles used in planting and disseminating religion, were by all antiquity affirmed to have been diocesan bishops; insomuch that as S. Epiphanius witnesses, there were at the first disseminations of the faith of Christ, many churches who had in them no other clergy but a bishop and his deacons, and the presbyters were brought in afterwards as the harvest grew greater: but the bishops' names are known, they are 'recorded in the book of life,' and 'their praise is in the gospel;' such were Timothy and Titus, Clemens and Linus, Marcus and Dionysius, Onesimus and Caius, Epaphroditus and S. James our Lord's brother, Evodius and Simeon; all which,—if there be any faith in Christians that gave their lives for a testimony to the faith, and any truth in their stories; and unless we who believe Thucydides and Plutarch, Livy and Tacitus, think that all church story is a perpetual romance, and that all the brave men, the martyrs and the doctors of the primitive church, did conspire as one man to abuse all christendom for ever;-I say unless all these impossible suppositions be admitted, all these whom I have now reckoned were bishops fixed in several churches, and had dioceses for their charges.

The consequent of this consideration is this. If bishops were those upon whose ministry Christ founded and built His church, let us consider what great wisdom is required of them that seem to be pillars: the stewards of Christ's family must be wise; that Christ requires and if the order be necessary to the Church, wisdom can

[chap. xiii. 14.] [Matt. xx. 27.]

Lib. iii. tit. 1. [al. hær. lxv. § 5.lib. i. tom. 1. p. 908.]

not but be necessary to the order; for it is a shame if they who by their office are fathers in Christ, shall by their unskilfulness be but babes themselves, understanding not the secrets of religion, the mysteries of godliness, the perfections of the evangelical law, all the advantages and disadvantages in the spiritual life. A bishop must be exercised in godliness,' a man of great experience in the secret conduct of souls, not satisfied with an ordinary skill in making homilies to the people, and speaking common exhortations in ordinary cases, but ready to answer in all secret enquiries, and able to convince the gainsayers,' and to 'speak wisdom amongst them that are perfect.'

If the first bishops laid the foundation, their successors must not only preserve whatsoever is fundamental, but build up the church in a most holy faith, taking care that no heresy sap the foundation, and that no hay or rotten wood be built upon it; and above all things, that a most holy life be superstructed upon a holy and unreprovable faith. So the apostles laid the foundation, and built the walls of the church, and their successors must raise up the roof as high as heaven. For let us talk and dispute eternally, we shall never compose the controversies in religion, and establish truth upon unalterable foundations, as long as men handle the word of God deceitfully, that is, with designs and little artifices, and secular partialities; and they will for ever do so, as long as they are proud or covetous. It is not the difficulty of our questions, or the subtlety of our adversaries that makes disputes interminable; but we shall never cure the itch of disputing, or establish unity, unless we apply ourselves to humility, and contempt of riches. If we will be contending, let us contend like the olive and the vine, who shall produce best and most fruit; not like the aspine and the elm, which shall make most noise in a wind. And all other methods are a beginning at a wrong end. And as for the people; the way to make them conformable to the wise and holy rules of faith and government, is by reducing them to live good lives. When the children of Israel gave themselves to gluttony and drunkenness, and filthy lusts, they quickly fell into abominable idolatries; and S. Paul says, that men make shipwreck of their faith by putting away a good conscience;' for the mystery of faith is best preserved ἐν καθαρᾷ συνειδήσει, in a pure conscience,' saith the same apostled: secure but that, and we shall quickly end our disputes, and have an obedient and conformable people; but else never.

2. As bishops were the first fathers of churches, and gave them being; so they preserve them in being. For without sacraments there is no church, or it will be starved and die; and without bishops there can be no priests, and consequently no sacraments; and that must needs be a supreme order from whence ordination 4 [1 Tim. iii. 9.]

[1 Tim. i. 19.]

itself proceeds. For it is evident and notorious that in scripture there is no record of ordination but an apostolical hand was in it, one of the avopes nyoúμevoie, one of the chief,' one of the 'superior and ruling' clergy; and it is as certain in the descending ages of the church the bishop always had that power, it was never denied to him, and it was never imputed to presbyters: and S. Hierome' himself, when out of his anger against John bishop of Jerusalem he endeavoured to equal the presbyter with the bishop, though in very many places he spake otherwise, yet even then also, and in that heat, he excepted ordination, acknowledging that to be the bishop's peculiar. And therefore they who go about to extinguish episcopacy, do as Julian did; they destroy the presbytery and starve the flock, and take away their shepherds, and dispark their pastures, and tempt God's providence to extraordinaries, and put the people to hard shifts, and turn the channels of salvation quite another way, and leave the church to a perpetual uncertainty whether she be alive or dead, and the people destitute of the life of their souls, and their daily bread, and their spiritual comforts, and holy blessings.

The consequent of this is,-If sacraments depend upon bishops, then let us take care that we convey to the people holy and pure materials, sanctified with a holy ministry, and ministered by holy persons. For although it be true that the efficacy of the sacraments does not depend wholly upon the worthiness of him that ministers, yet it is as true that it does not wholly rely upon the worthiness of the receiver; but both together relying upon the goodness of God, produce all those blessings which are designed. The minister hath an influence into the effects, and does very much towards it; and if there be a failure there, it is a defect in one of the concurring causes; and therefore an unholy bishop is a great diminution to the people's blessing. S. Hierome presses this scverely, Impie faciunt, &c., they do wickedly who affirm that the holy eucharist is consecrated by the words' (alone) and solemn prayer of the consecrator, and not also by his life and holiness.' And therefore S. Cyprian' affirms that "none but holy and upright men are to be chosen, who offering their sacrifices worthily to God, may be heard in their prayers for the Lord's people;" but for others, sacrificia eorum panis luctus, saith the prophet Hosea, 'their sacrifices are like the bread of sorrow, whoever eats thereof shall be defiled.'

This discourse is not mine but S. Cyprian's; and although his words are not to be understood dogmatically, but in the case of duty and caution, yet we may lay our hands upon our hearts, and consider how we shall give an account of our stewardship, if we shall