those who maintain that bishops, presbyters, or priests,
and deacons, are three distinct orders in the church; and that the
bishops have a superiority over both the others. The episcopal form of
church government professes to find in the days of the Apostles the
model upon which it is framed. While our Lord remained upon earth, he
acted as the immediate governor of his church. Having himself called the
Apostles, he kept them constantly about his person, except at one time,
when he sent them forth upon a short progress through the cities of
Judea, and gave them particular directions how they should conduct
themselves. The seventy disciples, whom he sent forth at another time,
are never mentioned again in the New Testament. But the Apostles
received from him many intimations that their office was to continue
after his departure; and as one great object of his ministry was to
qualify them for the execution of this office, so, in the interval
between his resurrection and his ascension, he explained to them the
duties of it, and he invested them with the authority which the
discharge of those duties implied. “Go,” said he, “make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them, teaching them; and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. As my Father hath sent me, even so send
I you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” Matt. xxviii, 19, 20; John xx, 21,
22. Soon after the ascension of Jesus, his Apostles received those
extraordinary gifts of which his promise had given them assurance; and
immediately they began to execute their commission, not only as the
witnesses of his resurrection, and the teachers of his religion, but as
the rulers of that society which was gathered by their preaching. In
Acts vi, we find the Apostles ordering the Christians at Jerusalem to
“look out seven men of honest report,” who might take charge of the
daily ministrations to the poor, and to bring the men so chosen to them,
that “we,” said the Apostles, “may appoint them over this business.” The
men accordingly were “set before the Apostles; and when they had prayed,
they laid their hands on them.” Here are the Apostles ordaining deacons.
Afterward, we find St. Paul, in his progress through Asia Minor,
ordaining in every church elders, ϖρεσϐυτέρȣς; the name properly
expressive of age being transferred, after the practice of the Jews, as
a mark of respect, to ecclesiastical rulers, Acts xiv, 23. The men thus
ordained by St. Paul appear, from the book of Acts and the Epistles, to
have been teachers, pastors, overseers, of the flock of Christ; and to
Timothy, who was a minister of the word, the Apostle speaks of “the gift
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands,” 2 Tim. i, 6. Over the
persons to whom he thus conveyed the office of teaching, he exercised
jurisdiction; for he sent to Ephesus, to the elders of the church to
meet him at Miletus; and there, in a long discourse, gave them a solemn
charge, Acts xx, 17–35; and to Timothy and Titus he writes epistles in
the style of a superior.
2. As St. Paul unquestionably conceived that there belonged to him, as
an Apostle, an authority over other office-bearers of the church, so his
epistles contain two examples of a delegation of that authority. He not
only directs Timothy, whom he had besought to abide at Ephesus, how to
behave himself in the house of God as a minister, but he sets him over
other ministers. He empowers him to ordain men to the work of the
ministry: “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also,” 2 Tim. ii, 2. He gives him directions about the ordination of
bishops and deacons; he places both these kinds of office-bearers in
Ephesus under his inspection, instructing him in what manner to receive
an accusation against an elder who laboured in word and doctrine; and he
commands him to charge some that they teach no other doctrine but the
form of sound words. In like manner he says to Titus, “For this cause
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that
are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee,”
Titus i, 5. He describes to Titus the qualifications of a bishop or
elder, making him the judge how far any person in Crete was possessed of
these qualifications; he gives him authority over all orders of
Christians there; and he empowers him to reject heretics. Here, then, is
that Apostle, with whose actions we are best acquainted, seemingly aware
that there would be continual occasion in the Christian church for the
exercise of that authority over pastors and teachers, which the Apostles
had derived from the Lord Jesus; and by these two examples of a
delegation, given during his life time, preparing the world for
beholding that authority exercised by the successors of the Apostles in
all ages. Accordingly, the earliest Christian writers tell us that the
Apostles, to prevent contention, appointed bishops and deacons; giving
orders, too, that, upon their death, other approved men should succeed
in their ministry. We are told that the other Apostles constituted their
first-fruits, that is, their first disciples, after they had proved them
by the Spirit, bishops and deacons of those who were to believe; and
that the Apostle John, who survived the rest, after returning from
Patmos, the place of his banishment, went about the neighbouring
nations, ordaining bishops, establishing whole churches, and setting
apart particular persons for the ministry, as they were pointed out to
him by the Spirit.
3. As bishops are mentioned in the earliest times, so ecclesiastical
history records the succession of bishops through many ages; and even
during the first three centuries, before Christianity was incorporated
with the state, every city, where the multitude of Christians required a
number of pastors to perform the stated offices, presents to us, as far
as we can gather from contemporary writers, an appearance very much the
same with that of the church of Jerusalem in the days of the Apostles.
The Apostle James seems to have resided in that city. But there is also
mention of the elders of the church, who, according to the Scripture
representation of elders, must have discharged the ministerial office,
but over whom the Apostle James presided. So, in Carthage, where Cyprian
was bishop, and in every other Christian city of which we have
particular accounts, there was a college of presbyters; and there was
one person who had not only presidency, but jurisdiction and authority,
over the rest. They were his council in matters relating to the church,
and they were qualified to preach, to baptize, and to administer the
Lord’s Supper; but they could do nothing without his permission and
authority. It is a principle in Christian antiquity, εἶς ἐπίσκοπος, μία
ἐκκλησία, “one bishop, and one church.” The one bishop had the care of
all the Christians, who, although they met in separate congregations,
constituted one church; and he had the inspection of the pastors, who,
having received ordination from the bishop, officiated in the separate
congregations, performed the several parts of duty which he prescribed
to them, and were accountable to him for their conduct. In continuation
of this primitive institution, we find episcopacy in all corners of the
church of Christ. Until the time of the reformation, there were, in
every Christian state, persons with the name, the rank, and the
authority of bishops; and the existence of such persons was not
considered as an innovation, but as an establishment, which, by means of
catalogues preserved in ecclesiastical writers, may be traced back to
the days of the Apostles.
4. Upon the principles which have now been stated, it is understood,
according to the episcopal form of government, that there is in the
church a superior order of office-bearers, the successors of the
Apostles, who possess in their own persons the right of ordination and
jurisdiction, and who are called ἐπισκόποι, as being the overseers not
only of the people, but also of the clergy; and an inferior order of
ministers, called presbyters, the literal translation of the word
ϖρεσϐυτέροι, which is rendered in our English Bibles _elders_, persons
who receive, from the ordination of the bishop, power to preach and to
administer the sacraments, who are set over the people, but are
themselves under the government of the bishop, and have no right to
convey to others the sacred office, which he gives them authority to
exercise under him. According to a phrase used by Charles I, who was by
no means an unlearned defender of that form of government to which he
was a martyr, the presbyters are _episcopi gregis_; [bishops of the
flock;] but the bishops are _episcopi gregis et pastorum_, [bishops of
the flock and of the pastors.]
5. The liberal writers on that side, however, do not contend that this
form of government is made so binding in the church as not to be
departed from, and varied according to circumstances. It cannot be
proved, says Dr. Paley, that any form of church government was laid down
in the Christian, as it had been in the Jewish, Scriptures, with a view
of fixing a constitution for succeeding ages. The truth seems to have
been, that such offices were at first erected in the Christian church as
the good order, the instruction, and the exigencies of the society at
that time required; without any intention, at least without any declared
design, of regulating the appointment, authority, or the distinction, of
Christian ministers under future circumstances. To the same effect,
also, Bishop Tomline says, “It is not contended that the bishops,
priests, and deacons of England are at present precisely the same that
bishops, presbyters, and deacons were in Asia Minor, seventeen hundred
years ago. We only maintain that there have always been bishops,
priests, and deacons, in the Christian church, since the days of the
Apostles, with different powers and functions, it is allowed, in
different countries and at different periods; but the general principles
and duties which have respectively characterized these clerical orders
have been essentially the same at all times, and in all places; and the
variations which they have undergone have only been such as have ever
belonged to all persons in public situations, whether civil or
ecclesiastical, and which are indeed inseparable from every thing in
which mankind are concerned in this transitory and fluctuating world. I
have thought it right to take this general view of the ministerial
office, and to make these observations upon the clerical orders
subsisting in this kingdom, for the purpose of pointing out the
foundation and principles of church authority, and of showing that our
ecclesiastical establishment is as nearly conformable, as change of
circumstances will permit, to the practice of the primitive church. But,
though I flatter myself that I have proved episcopacy to be an
Apostolical institution, yet I readily acknowledge that there is no
precept in the New Testament which commands that every church should be
governed by bishops. No church can exist without some government; but
though there must be rules and orders for the proper discharge of the
offices of public worship, though there must be fixed regulations
concerning the appointment of ministers, and though a subordination
among them is expedient in the highest degree, yet it does not follow
that all these things must be precisely the same in every Christian
country; they may vary with the other varying circumstances of human
society, with the extent of a country, the manners of its inhabitants,
the nature of its civil government, and many other peculiarities which
might be specified. As it has not pleased our almighty Father to
prescribe any particular form of civil government for the security of
temporal comforts to his rational creatures, so neither has he
prescribed any particular form of ecclesiastical polity as absolutely
necessary to the attainment of eternal happiness. But he has, in the
most explicit terms, enjoined obedience to all governors, whether civil
or ecclesiastical, and whatever may be their denomination, as essential
to the character of a true Christian. Thus the Gospel only lays down
general principles, and leaves the application of them to men as free
agents.” Bishop Tomline, however, and the high Episcopalians of the
church of England, contend for an original distinction in the office and
order of bishops and presbyters; which notion is controverted by the
Presbyterians, and is, indeed, contradicted by one who may be truly
called the founder of the church of England, Archbishop Cranmer, who
says, “The bishops and priests were at one time, and were not two
things; but both one office in the beginning of Christ’s religion.” The
more rigid Episcopalians admit of no ordination as valid in the church
but by the hands of bishops, and those derived in a right line from the
Apostles. See PRESBYTERIANS.
6. The churches of Rome and of England are the principal Episcopalian
churches in the west of Europe; and those of the Greeks and Arminians in
the east; but, beside these, there are Episcopalians in Scotland, and in
other countries, where, Presbyterianism being the establishment, they
are, of course, Dissenters. Thus a Presbyterian is a Dissenter in
England, and an Episcopalian a Dissenter in Scotland. There is also an
Episcopalian church in the United States of America; but there being no
established religion, there are, of course, no Dissenters. The Episcopal
church in America is organized very differently from that in England.
The following particulars are from the best authorities:--The general
convention was formed in 1789, by a delegation from the different
states, and meets triennially. They have eleven dioceses, two of which
are without bishops, and are at liberty to form more in other states.
The above convention consists of an upper and lower house; the former
consisting of bishops, in which the senior bishop presides: they have no
archbishop: and the lower, of the other clergy, and laymen mingled with
them. There are also diocesan conventions annually, in which the bishop
presides. The bishops have no salaries as such, but are allowed to hold
parishes as other ministers; but it has lately been found more
convenient in many states to raise a fund for the support of the bishop,
that his time may be more at liberty for visiting the clergy. They have
neither patronage nor palaces, and some of their incomes are extremely
small. The English Common Prayer Book is adopted, with the omission of
the Athanasian Creed, and some other slight alterations. Subscription to
the articles is not required by candidates for holy orders. The
Methodists in America, also, form an episcopal church; but founded upon
the primitive principle that bishops and presbyters are of the same
_order_, although the _oversight_ of presbyters may be committed to
those who are, by virtue of their office, also called _bishops_.
[The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in December, 1784. The
fundamental principle on which the episcopacy of this church rests, is
here correctly stated. It is proper to add to Mr. Watson’s enumeration,
that the Roman and Moravian churches in the United States are also
episcopal; and that the statement that the bishops of the Protestant
Episcopal Church receive no salaries as bishops, is not at present
(1832) without exception. Their incomes, too, though doubtless extremely
small compared with those of the bishops of the establishment in
England, are not so, compared with those of other ministers generally in
the United States.
and deacons, are three distinct orders in the church; and that the
bishops have a superiority over both the others. The episcopal form of
church government professes to find in the days of the Apostles the
model upon which it is framed. While our Lord remained upon earth, he
acted as the immediate governor of his church. Having himself called the
Apostles, he kept them constantly about his person, except at one time,
when he sent them forth upon a short progress through the cities of
Judea, and gave them particular directions how they should conduct
themselves. The seventy disciples, whom he sent forth at another time,
are never mentioned again in the New Testament. But the Apostles
received from him many intimations that their office was to continue
after his departure; and as one great object of his ministry was to
qualify them for the execution of this office, so, in the interval
between his resurrection and his ascension, he explained to them the
duties of it, and he invested them with the authority which the
discharge of those duties implied. “Go,” said he, “make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them, teaching them; and lo, I am with you always,
even unto the end of the world. As my Father hath sent me, even so send
I you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost,” Matt. xxviii, 19, 20; John xx, 21,
22. Soon after the ascension of Jesus, his Apostles received those
extraordinary gifts of which his promise had given them assurance; and
immediately they began to execute their commission, not only as the
witnesses of his resurrection, and the teachers of his religion, but as
the rulers of that society which was gathered by their preaching. In
Acts vi, we find the Apostles ordering the Christians at Jerusalem to
“look out seven men of honest report,” who might take charge of the
daily ministrations to the poor, and to bring the men so chosen to them,
that “we,” said the Apostles, “may appoint them over this business.” The
men accordingly were “set before the Apostles; and when they had prayed,
they laid their hands on them.” Here are the Apostles ordaining deacons.
Afterward, we find St. Paul, in his progress through Asia Minor,
ordaining in every church elders, ϖρεσϐυτέρȣς; the name properly
expressive of age being transferred, after the practice of the Jews, as
a mark of respect, to ecclesiastical rulers, Acts xiv, 23. The men thus
ordained by St. Paul appear, from the book of Acts and the Epistles, to
have been teachers, pastors, overseers, of the flock of Christ; and to
Timothy, who was a minister of the word, the Apostle speaks of “the gift
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands,” 2 Tim. i, 6. Over the
persons to whom he thus conveyed the office of teaching, he exercised
jurisdiction; for he sent to Ephesus, to the elders of the church to
meet him at Miletus; and there, in a long discourse, gave them a solemn
charge, Acts xx, 17–35; and to Timothy and Titus he writes epistles in
the style of a superior.
2. As St. Paul unquestionably conceived that there belonged to him, as
an Apostle, an authority over other office-bearers of the church, so his
epistles contain two examples of a delegation of that authority. He not
only directs Timothy, whom he had besought to abide at Ephesus, how to
behave himself in the house of God as a minister, but he sets him over
other ministers. He empowers him to ordain men to the work of the
ministry: “The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others
also,” 2 Tim. ii, 2. He gives him directions about the ordination of
bishops and deacons; he places both these kinds of office-bearers in
Ephesus under his inspection, instructing him in what manner to receive
an accusation against an elder who laboured in word and doctrine; and he
commands him to charge some that they teach no other doctrine but the
form of sound words. In like manner he says to Titus, “For this cause
left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that
are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee,”
Titus i, 5. He describes to Titus the qualifications of a bishop or
elder, making him the judge how far any person in Crete was possessed of
these qualifications; he gives him authority over all orders of
Christians there; and he empowers him to reject heretics. Here, then, is
that Apostle, with whose actions we are best acquainted, seemingly aware
that there would be continual occasion in the Christian church for the
exercise of that authority over pastors and teachers, which the Apostles
had derived from the Lord Jesus; and by these two examples of a
delegation, given during his life time, preparing the world for
beholding that authority exercised by the successors of the Apostles in
all ages. Accordingly, the earliest Christian writers tell us that the
Apostles, to prevent contention, appointed bishops and deacons; giving
orders, too, that, upon their death, other approved men should succeed
in their ministry. We are told that the other Apostles constituted their
first-fruits, that is, their first disciples, after they had proved them
by the Spirit, bishops and deacons of those who were to believe; and
that the Apostle John, who survived the rest, after returning from
Patmos, the place of his banishment, went about the neighbouring
nations, ordaining bishops, establishing whole churches, and setting
apart particular persons for the ministry, as they were pointed out to
him by the Spirit.
3. As bishops are mentioned in the earliest times, so ecclesiastical
history records the succession of bishops through many ages; and even
during the first three centuries, before Christianity was incorporated
with the state, every city, where the multitude of Christians required a
number of pastors to perform the stated offices, presents to us, as far
as we can gather from contemporary writers, an appearance very much the
same with that of the church of Jerusalem in the days of the Apostles.
The Apostle James seems to have resided in that city. But there is also
mention of the elders of the church, who, according to the Scripture
representation of elders, must have discharged the ministerial office,
but over whom the Apostle James presided. So, in Carthage, where Cyprian
was bishop, and in every other Christian city of which we have
particular accounts, there was a college of presbyters; and there was
one person who had not only presidency, but jurisdiction and authority,
over the rest. They were his council in matters relating to the church,
and they were qualified to preach, to baptize, and to administer the
Lord’s Supper; but they could do nothing without his permission and
authority. It is a principle in Christian antiquity, εἶς ἐπίσκοπος, μία
ἐκκλησία, “one bishop, and one church.” The one bishop had the care of
all the Christians, who, although they met in separate congregations,
constituted one church; and he had the inspection of the pastors, who,
having received ordination from the bishop, officiated in the separate
congregations, performed the several parts of duty which he prescribed
to them, and were accountable to him for their conduct. In continuation
of this primitive institution, we find episcopacy in all corners of the
church of Christ. Until the time of the reformation, there were, in
every Christian state, persons with the name, the rank, and the
authority of bishops; and the existence of such persons was not
considered as an innovation, but as an establishment, which, by means of
catalogues preserved in ecclesiastical writers, may be traced back to
the days of the Apostles.
4. Upon the principles which have now been stated, it is understood,
according to the episcopal form of government, that there is in the
church a superior order of office-bearers, the successors of the
Apostles, who possess in their own persons the right of ordination and
jurisdiction, and who are called ἐπισκόποι, as being the overseers not
only of the people, but also of the clergy; and an inferior order of
ministers, called presbyters, the literal translation of the word
ϖρεσϐυτέροι, which is rendered in our English Bibles _elders_, persons
who receive, from the ordination of the bishop, power to preach and to
administer the sacraments, who are set over the people, but are
themselves under the government of the bishop, and have no right to
convey to others the sacred office, which he gives them authority to
exercise under him. According to a phrase used by Charles I, who was by
no means an unlearned defender of that form of government to which he
was a martyr, the presbyters are _episcopi gregis_; [bishops of the
flock;] but the bishops are _episcopi gregis et pastorum_, [bishops of
the flock and of the pastors.]
5. The liberal writers on that side, however, do not contend that this
form of government is made so binding in the church as not to be
departed from, and varied according to circumstances. It cannot be
proved, says Dr. Paley, that any form of church government was laid down
in the Christian, as it had been in the Jewish, Scriptures, with a view
of fixing a constitution for succeeding ages. The truth seems to have
been, that such offices were at first erected in the Christian church as
the good order, the instruction, and the exigencies of the society at
that time required; without any intention, at least without any declared
design, of regulating the appointment, authority, or the distinction, of
Christian ministers under future circumstances. To the same effect,
also, Bishop Tomline says, “It is not contended that the bishops,
priests, and deacons of England are at present precisely the same that
bishops, presbyters, and deacons were in Asia Minor, seventeen hundred
years ago. We only maintain that there have always been bishops,
priests, and deacons, in the Christian church, since the days of the
Apostles, with different powers and functions, it is allowed, in
different countries and at different periods; but the general principles
and duties which have respectively characterized these clerical orders
have been essentially the same at all times, and in all places; and the
variations which they have undergone have only been such as have ever
belonged to all persons in public situations, whether civil or
ecclesiastical, and which are indeed inseparable from every thing in
which mankind are concerned in this transitory and fluctuating world. I
have thought it right to take this general view of the ministerial
office, and to make these observations upon the clerical orders
subsisting in this kingdom, for the purpose of pointing out the
foundation and principles of church authority, and of showing that our
ecclesiastical establishment is as nearly conformable, as change of
circumstances will permit, to the practice of the primitive church. But,
though I flatter myself that I have proved episcopacy to be an
Apostolical institution, yet I readily acknowledge that there is no
precept in the New Testament which commands that every church should be
governed by bishops. No church can exist without some government; but
though there must be rules and orders for the proper discharge of the
offices of public worship, though there must be fixed regulations
concerning the appointment of ministers, and though a subordination
among them is expedient in the highest degree, yet it does not follow
that all these things must be precisely the same in every Christian
country; they may vary with the other varying circumstances of human
society, with the extent of a country, the manners of its inhabitants,
the nature of its civil government, and many other peculiarities which
might be specified. As it has not pleased our almighty Father to
prescribe any particular form of civil government for the security of
temporal comforts to his rational creatures, so neither has he
prescribed any particular form of ecclesiastical polity as absolutely
necessary to the attainment of eternal happiness. But he has, in the
most explicit terms, enjoined obedience to all governors, whether civil
or ecclesiastical, and whatever may be their denomination, as essential
to the character of a true Christian. Thus the Gospel only lays down
general principles, and leaves the application of them to men as free
agents.” Bishop Tomline, however, and the high Episcopalians of the
church of England, contend for an original distinction in the office and
order of bishops and presbyters; which notion is controverted by the
Presbyterians, and is, indeed, contradicted by one who may be truly
called the founder of the church of England, Archbishop Cranmer, who
says, “The bishops and priests were at one time, and were not two
things; but both one office in the beginning of Christ’s religion.” The
more rigid Episcopalians admit of no ordination as valid in the church
but by the hands of bishops, and those derived in a right line from the
Apostles. See PRESBYTERIANS.
6. The churches of Rome and of England are the principal Episcopalian
churches in the west of Europe; and those of the Greeks and Arminians in
the east; but, beside these, there are Episcopalians in Scotland, and in
other countries, where, Presbyterianism being the establishment, they
are, of course, Dissenters. Thus a Presbyterian is a Dissenter in
England, and an Episcopalian a Dissenter in Scotland. There is also an
Episcopalian church in the United States of America; but there being no
established religion, there are, of course, no Dissenters. The Episcopal
church in America is organized very differently from that in England.
The following particulars are from the best authorities:--The general
convention was formed in 1789, by a delegation from the different
states, and meets triennially. They have eleven dioceses, two of which
are without bishops, and are at liberty to form more in other states.
The above convention consists of an upper and lower house; the former
consisting of bishops, in which the senior bishop presides: they have no
archbishop: and the lower, of the other clergy, and laymen mingled with
them. There are also diocesan conventions annually, in which the bishop
presides. The bishops have no salaries as such, but are allowed to hold
parishes as other ministers; but it has lately been found more
convenient in many states to raise a fund for the support of the bishop,
that his time may be more at liberty for visiting the clergy. They have
neither patronage nor palaces, and some of their incomes are extremely
small. The English Common Prayer Book is adopted, with the omission of
the Athanasian Creed, and some other slight alterations. Subscription to
the articles is not required by candidates for holy orders. The
Methodists in America, also, form an episcopal church; but founded upon
the primitive principle that bishops and presbyters are of the same
_order_, although the _oversight_ of presbyters may be committed to
those who are, by virtue of their office, also called _bishops_.
[The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in December, 1784. The
fundamental principle on which the episcopacy of this church rests, is
here correctly stated. It is proper to add to Mr. Watson’s enumeration,
that the Roman and Moravian churches in the United States are also
episcopal; and that the statement that the bishops of the Protestant
Episcopal Church receive no salaries as bishops, is not at present
(1832) without exception. Their incomes, too, though doubtless extremely
small compared with those of the bishops of the establishment in
England, are not so, compared with those of other ministers generally in
the United States.