This perhaps is the best place to observe that, while the name now given universally to a successor of the Apostles since the beginning of the second century, has been BISHOP, it is only used once with that meaning in the New Testament,' though S. Peter applies it to our Lord as the Apostle of the Father-"the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls." 2 The word is a corruption of the Greek Episkopos, literally Overseer or Superintendent, and like the word Pastor or Shepherd, it was at first applied to both orders, Apostle and Presbyter. It was probably at the close of the first century, or the beginning of the second, when the first generation of the Apostles had died, that the word Apostle was usually (though not universally) restricted to them as a token of special honor. The original word had a distinctly missionary signification, and when the Church began to assume its normal and more settled condition, and the general missionary idea became less prominent, the Episcopacy, that is, the overseeing of many congregations united in a single Diocese, became the chief thought. Henceforth Bishop, that is, Episkopos or Overseer, became the word in common use for the Apostle, while the Episkopoi or Overseers of single congregations were known only as Presbyters. Only the name was changed, while the office remained the same."

The third order of the Ministry, DEACONS, corresponding to the Levites in the older Church, while it doubtless existed in our Lord's original plan, seems to have had its actual beginning in the Ordination of the Seven, when the

See Acts xx, 17, 28, Rev. Ver.; 1 Tim. iii, 1, 2; Tit. i, 5, 6, 7; Phil. i, 1. Bishop Pearson sums up his argument on this point thus: "Therefore an Apostle is an extraordinary Bishop; a Bishop is an ordinary Apostle." Minor Theol. Works, 284.

need of an additional class of helpers was forced upon the Apostles in the first year of the Church's existence.1 Later we see them form an integral part of the three-fold Ministry.2 We see, therefore, that even during the lifetime of the first Apostles, who "had the mind of Christ," and knew His will, the Christian Ministry took the settled form of three sacred Orders, Apostle or Bishop, Presbyter or Priest, and Deacon; and "stedfast continuance in the Apostles' fellowship," as represented by this three-fold order, remained as at first one of the four tests of faithful membership in "the congregation of Christ's Flock." Thus the challenge of the Preface to the Ordinal, so far as the New Testament is concerned, is seen to be well grounded: "It is evident unto all men, diligently reading Holy Scripture, that from the Apostles' time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christ's Church, -Bishops, Priests, and Deacons." In the following chapter we shall examine the witness of "Ancient Authors."

4

1 Acts vi, 1-7.

Phil. i, 1; 1 Tim. iii, 8, 10, 12.

I Cor. ii, 16. • Acts ii, 42.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE ORDINAL-THE WITNESS OF ANCIENT AUTHORS

"Other doctrines develop slowly; this of Apostolic Succession starts forth at once. Other doctrines find their first formal statements in Fathers removed by a century or even more from apostolic times; this is enunciated and enforced in the most emphatic words by those who had been taught by the Apostles themselves. Other doctrines have been disputed from time to time; this one held undisputed possession of men's beliefs throughout the Church for fifteen hundred years."—A. W. HADDAN. "Let preachers take heed that they deliver nothing from the pulpit to be religiously held and believed by the people, but that which is agreeable to the Old and New Testaments, and such as the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops have collected therefrom." Canon of the Convocation which

adopted the Articles of Religion in 1571.

WITH the testimony of Holy Scripture in regard to

WIT the textured Orders of the Christian

the three sacred Orders of the Christian Ministry, ALL THE WRITERS OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES who have dealt at all with the subject are in complete agreement. During all this period not one voice is raised against the threefold Ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons, as of Divine authority. Clement the Bishop of Rome who, some thirty years before, had been a valued "fellow laborer" with S. Paul in that city,1 wrote a letter to the Church in Corinth, not later than A.D. 97, in regard to such irregularities there as the Apostle himself had done his best to check. Ignatius, born about A.D. 30, Bishop of Antioch and all Syria in A.D. 69, the disciple of S. John, and the "little child" to whom tradition has assigned the honor of being "set in

1 Phil. iv, 3.

1 Cor. chaps. iii and xii, especially.

the midst" of the Apostles as an example of humility,' wrote six letters to the Churches through which he passed on his way to Rome as a prisoner and a martyr, and one to Polycarp, another friend of S. John, who was probably "the angel of the Church in Smyrna," to whom our Lord by that Apostle sent one of His most comforting messages from heaven. Polycarp also (born about A.D. 65), who followed Ignatius to martyrdom about A.D. 150, has left us one letter of undoubted authenticity, addressed to "the Church of God sojourning in Philippi." And in all these letters of pupils of the Apostles we have the same testimony in regard to the Ministry as that which we have found in the New Testament itself.

Clement, the former of these authors, dealing with the sectarian divisions in Corinth, writes: "Let us then, men and brethren, with all energy act the part of soldiers, in accordance with His holy commandments. Let us consider those who serve under our generals. . . . All are not prefects, nor commanders of a thousand, nor of a hundred, nor of fifty." He refers them to the example of the ancient priesthood in its three divinely ordained orders. "His own peculiar services are assigned to the high priest," he says, "and their own proper place is prescribed to the priests, and their own special ministrations devolve on the Levites. The layman is bound by the laws that pertain to laymen." He writes also, "Our Apostles knew, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there would be strife on account of the office of the episcopate. For this reason, therefore, inasmuch as they had obtained a perfect foreknowledge of this, they appointed those [ministers] already mentioned, and afterwards gave instructions, that when these should fall

1 S. Matt. xviii, 2.

Rev. ii, 8-12.

asleep, other approved men should succeed them in their ministry." 1

THE SEVEN LETTERS OF IGNATIUS in their shorter form are pronounced by the best critics to be genuine and authentic.2 Condemned as a Christian Bishop about A.D. IIO to be killed by wild beasts in the amphitheatre at Rome, he was led thither under guard of ten Roman soldiers, whom for their harshness he calls "ten leopards." As he passes through the cities of Asia Minor he receives deputations of fellow Christians who make his progress a triumph. From Smyrna, the city of Polycarp, he writes letters to the Churches of the Ephesians, Magnesians, Trallians, and to the Church in Rome. Farther on, at Troas, he writes to the Churches in Philadelphia, and Smyrna, and to Polycarp. These letters of a man who was now of a great age are of extraordinary interest. "They are full of a passionate holiness and a rich theology of the incarnation." But their special historical value is in their witness to the primitive character of the Christian Ministry. A few extracts out of many will show the nature of this evidence.

To the Trallians he writes: "When ye are obedient to the Bishop as to Jesus Christ, it is evident to me that ye are living not after men but after Jesus Christ. . . . It is therefore necessary, even as your wont is, that ye should do nothing without the Bishop; but be ye obedient also to the Presbytery, as to the Apostles. . . . In like manner let

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1 Ep. to the Corinthians, Edinburgh edition, chaps. xxxvii, xl, xliv. Likewise S. Jerome, in the fourth century, writes in his Ep. ad Ev.: "What Aaron and his sons and the Levites were in the Temple, that let the Bishops, and Presbyters, and Deacons claim to be in the Church."

See Bp. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers; Harnack in Expositor, Jan., 1886, who says their genuineness is "certain;" and Gore, The Christian Ministry, 289.

Bp. Gore, Orders and Unity, p. 119.