PREACHING The old papal popular sermons had gone off like a charge of gunpowder, producing only a fright, a bustle, and a black face; but those of the newe learninge, as the monks called them, were small hearty seeds, which, being sown in the honest hearts of the multitude, and watered with the dew of heaven, softly vegetated, and imperceptibly unfolded blossoms and fruits of inestimable value. These eminent servants of Christ excelled in various talents, both in the pulpit and in private. Knox came down like a thunder-storm; Calvin resembled a whole day's set rain; Beza was a shower of the softest dew. Old Latimer, in a coarse frieze gown, trudged afoot, his Testament hanging at one end of his leathern girdle, and his spectacles at the other, and without ceremony instructed the people in rustic style from a hollow tree; while the courtly Ridley in satin and fur taught the same principles in the cathedral of the metropolis. Cranmer, though a timorous man, ventured to give King Henry the Eighth a New Testament, with the label, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; while Knox, who said, there was nothing in the pleasant face of a lady to affray him, assured the queen of Scots, that, "If there were any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of honesty and wisdom in her, she would not be offended with his affirming in his sermons, that the diversions of her court were diabolical crimes,-evidences of impiety or insanity." These men were not all accomplished scholars; but they all gave proof enough that they were honest, hearty, and disinterested in the cause of religion. All Europe produced great and excellent preachers, and some of the more studious and sedate reduced their art of public preaching to a system, and taught rules of a good sermon. Bishop Wilkins enumerated, in 1616, upwards of sixty who had written on the subject. Several of these are valuable treatises, full of edifying instructions; but all are on a scale too large, and, by affecting to treat of the whole office of a minister, leave that capital branch, public preaching, unfinished and vague. સ PREDESTINATION who have entered into their views with disinterestedness and success: and, in the present times, both in the church and among dissenters, names could be mentioned which would do honour to any nation; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with proportionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, originality of thought, fervency of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great usefulness in the Christian church. May their numbers still be increased, and their exertions in the cause of truth be eminently crowned with the divine blessing! See Robinson's Claude, vol. ii. preface; and books recommended under article MINISTER. PREADAMITE, a denomination given to the inhabitants of the earth, conceived by some people to have lived before Adam. Isaac de la Pereyra, in 1655, published a book to evince the reality of Preadamites, by which he gained a considerable number of proselytes to the opinion; but the answer of Demarets, professor of theology at Groningen, published the year following put a stop to its progress, though Pcreyra inade a reply. His system was this. The Jews he calls Adamites, and supposes them to have issued from Adam; and gives the title Preadamites to the Gentiles, whom he supposes to have been a long time before Adam. But this being expressly contrary to the first words of Genesis, Pereyra had recourse to the fabulous antiquities of the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and to some idle rabbins, who imagined that there had been another world before that described by Moses. He was apprehended by the inquisition in Flanders, and very roughly used, though in the service of the dauphin. But he appealed from their sentence to Rome, whither he went in the time of Alexander VII. and where he printed a retraction of his book of Preadamites. The arguments against the Preadamites are these. The sacred history of Moses assures us that Adam and Eve were the first persons that were created on the earth, Gen. i. 26; ii. 7. Our Saviour confirmed this when he said, "From the beginning of the creation God made them, male and feruale." Mark x. 6. It is undeniable that he speaks this of Adam and Eve, because in the next verse he uses the same words as those in Gen ii. 4. "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave unto his wife." It is also clear from Gen. iii. 20, where it is said, that "Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living;" that is, she was the source and root of all men and women in the world: which plainly intimates that there was no other woman that was such a mother. Finally, Adam is expressly called twice, by the apostle Paul, the first man, 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47. One of the most important articles of pulpit science, that which gives life and energy to all the rest, and without which all the rest are nothing but a vain parade, is either neglected or exploded in all these treatises. It is essential to the ministration of the divine word by public preaching, that preachers be allowed to form principles of their own, and that their sermons contain their real sentiments, the fruits of their own intense thought and meditation. Preaching cannot be in a good state in those communities, where the shameful practice of buying and selling manuscript sermons is carried on. Moreover, all the anunating encouragements that arise from a free, unbiassed choice of the people, and from their uncontaminated, disinterested applause, should be left open to stimulate a generous youth to excel. Command a man to utter what he has no incli-rection or command. The precepts of religion, nation to propagate, and what he does not even believe; threaten him, at the same time, with all the iniseries of life, if he dare to follow his own ideas, and to promulge his own sentiments, and you pass a sentence of death on all he says. He does declaim; but all is languid and cold, and he lays his system out as an undertaker does the dead. Since the reformers, we have had multitudes PRECEPT, a rule given by a superior: a di says Saurin, are as essential as the doctrines; and religion will as certainly sink, if the morality be subverted, as if the theology be undermined. The doctrines are only proposed to us as the ground of our duty. See DOCTRINE, PREDESTINARIANS, those who believe in predestination, See PREDESTINATION. PREDESTINATION is the decree of God, whereby he hath for his own glory fore-ordained PREDESTINATION PRE-EXISTENCE 2. Excludes the idea of chance. lieve no existence of Christ before his incarnation; they differ from the Sabellians, who only own a trinity of names: they differ, also, from the generally received opinion, which is, that the human soul began to exist in his mother's womb, in exact conformity to that likeness unto his brethren, of which St. Paul speaks, Heb. ii. 17. The writers in favour of the pre-existence of Jesus Christ's human soul recommend their thesis by these arguments. whatever comes to pass. The verb predestinate Is of Latin original (prædestino,) and signifies in that tongue to deliberate beforehand with one's self how one shall act, and, in consequence of 5. Affords believers great consolation. See such deliberation, to constitute, fore-ordain, and DECREES OF GOD; NECESSITY; King, Toplady, predetermine, where, when, how, and by whom Cooper, and Tucker, on Predestination; Bur any thing shall be done, and to what end it shall net on 17 Art.; Whitby and Gill on the Fire be done. So the Greek word poop, which Points; Wesley's Pred. considered; Hill's Lo exactly answers to the English word predestinate, gica Wesleiensis; Edwards on the Will; Pol and is rendered by it, signifies to resolve before-hill on the Decrees; Edwards's Veritas Redur; hand with one's-self what shall be done, and be- Saurin's Serm. vol. v. ser. 13; Dr. Williams's fore the thing resolved on is actually effected; to Sermon on Predestination. appoint it to some certain use, and direct it to PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS CHRIST, some determinate end. This doctrine has been is his existence before he was born of the Virgin the occasion of considerable disputes and contro- Mary. That he really did exist before is plain versies among divines. On the one side it has from John iii. 13; vi. 50, &c.; xvii.; viii. 58 been observed, that it is impossible to reconcile it 1 John i. 4; but there are various opinions re with our ideas of the justice and goodness of specting this existence. Some acknowledge, that God, that it makes God to be the author of sin, in Jesus Christ there is a divine nature, a rational destroys moral distinction, and renders all our soul, and a human body. His body, they think, efforts useless. Predestinarians deny these con- was formed in the Virgin's womb; his human sequences, and endeavour to prove this doctrine soul, they suppose, was the first and most excelfrom the consideration of the perfections of the lent of all the works of God; was brought into divine nature, and from Scripture testimony. If existence before the creation of the world, and his knowledge, say they, be infinite and un-subsisted in happy union in heaven with the se changeable, he must have known every thing cond person in the Godhead, till his incarnation from eternity. If we allow the attribute of pre- These divines differ from those called Arians, for science, the idea of a decree must certainly be be- the latter ascribe to Christ only a created deity, lieved also; for how can an action that is really whereas the former hold his true and proper di to come to pass be foreseen, if it be not deter-vinity; they differ from the Socinians, who be mined? God knew every thing from the beginning; but this he could not have known if he had not so determined it. If, also, God be infinitely wise, it cannot be conceived that he would leave things at random, and have no plan. He is a God of order, and this order he observes as strictly in the moral as in the natural world, however confused things may appear to us. To conceive otherwise of God, is to degrade him, and is an insult to his perfections. If he, then, be wise and unchangeable, no new idea or purpose can arise in his mind; no alteration of his plan can take place, upon condition of his creatures acting in this or that way. To say that this doctrine makes him the author of sin is not justifiable. We all allow omnipotence to be an attribute of Deity, and that by this attribute he could have prevented sin from entering into the world, had he chosen it; yet we see he did not. Now he is no more the author of sin in one case than the other. May we not ask, Why does he suffer those inequalities of Providence? Why permit whole nations to lie in idolatry for ages? Why leave men to the most cruel barbarities? Why punish the sins of the fathers in the children? In a word, Why permit the world at large to be subject to pains, crosses, losses, evils of every kind, and that for so many thousands of years? And yet, will any dare call the Deity unjust? The fact is, our finite minds know but little of the nature of divine justice, or any other of its attributes. But, supposing there are difficulties in this subject, (and what subject is without?) the Scripture abounds with passages which at once prove the doctrine, Matt. xxv. 34; Rom. viii. 29, 30; Eph. i. 3, 6, 11; 2 Tim. i. 9; 2 Thess. ii. 13, Pet. i. 1, 2; John vi. 37; xvii. 2 to 24; Rev. xiii. 8; xvii. 8; Dan. iv. 35; 1 Thess. v. 19; Matt. xi. 26; Exod. iv. 21; Prov. xvi. 4; Acts xiii. 48. The moral uses of this doctrine are these. 1. It hides pride from man. 1. Christ is represented as his Father's mes senger, or angel, being distinct from his Father, sent by his Father long before his incarnation, to perform actions which seem to be too low for the dignity of pure Godhead. The appearances of Christ to the patriarchs are described like the ap pearances of an angel, or man really distinct from God; yet such a one, in whom God, or Jehovah, had a peculiar indwelling, or with whom the di vine nature had a personal union. 2. Christ, when he came into the world, is said, in several passages of Scripture, to have divested himself of some glory which he had be fore his incarnation. Now if there had existed before this time nothing but his divine nature, this divine nature could not properly divest itself of any glory. I have glorified thee on earth; I have finished the work thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thing own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.-Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich, John xvii. 4, 5; 2 Cor. viii. 9. It cannot be said of God that be became poor: he is infinitely self-sufficient; he is necessarily and eternally rich in perfections and glories. Nor can it be said of Christ as man that he was rich, if he were never in a richer state before, than while he was on earth. It seems needful that the soul of Christ should pre-exist, that it might have an opportunity to PRE-EXISTENCE earth. PRE-EXISTENCE Christ represents himself as one with the Father: I and the Father are one, John x. 30.; xiv. 10, 11. There is, we may hence infer, such a peculiar union between God and the man Christ Jesus, both in his pre-existent and incarnate state, that he may be properly called Godman in one complex person. give its previous actual consent to the great and | blood upon him, and was called Jesus Christ on painful undertaking of atonement for our sins. It was the human soul of Christ that endured the weakness and pain of his infant state, all the labours and fatigues of life, the reproaches of men, and the sufferings of death. The divine nature is incapable of suffering. The covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son is therefore represented as being made before the foundation of the world. To suppose that simple deity or the divine essence, which is the same in all the three personalities, should make a covenant with itself, is inconsistent. Among those expressions of Scripture which discover the pre-existence of Christ, there are several from which we may derive a certain proof of his divinity. Such are those places in Christ is the angel to whom God was in a the Old Testament, where the angel who appearpeculiar manner united, and who in this unioned to the ancients is called God, the Almighty made all the divine appearances related in the God, Jehovah, the Lord of Hosts, I am that I Old Testament. am, &c. God is often represented in Scripture as appearing in a visible manner, and assuming a human form. See Gen. iii. 8; xvii. 1; xxviii. 12; xxxii. 12; Exod. ii. 2; and a variety of other passages. The Lord Jehovah, when he came down to visit men, carried some ensign of divine majesty: he was surrounded with some splendid appearance. Such a light often appeared at the door of the tabernacle, and fixed its abode on the ark, between the cherubims. It was by the Jews called the Shekinah, i. e. the habitation of God. Hence he is described as dwelling in light, and clothed with light as with a garment. In the midst of this brightness there seems to have been sometimes a human shape and figure. It was probably of this heavenly light that Christ divested himself when he was made flesh. With this he was covered at his transfiguration in the Mount, when his garments were white as the light; and at his ascension 'nto heaven, when a bright cloud received, or invested him; and when he appeared to John, Rev. i. 13: and it was with this he prayed his Father would glorify him. Dr. Watts supposes, that the doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul of Christ explains dark and difficult scriptures, and discovers many beauties and proprieties of expression in the word of God, which on any other plan lie unobserved.— For instance, in Col. i. 15, &c., Christ is described as the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature. His being the image of the invisible God cannot refer merely to his divine nature; for that is as invisible in the Son as in the Father: therefore it seems to refer to his pre-existent soul in union with the Godhead. Again: when man is said to be created in the image of God, Gen. i. 2, it may refer to the God-man, to Christ in his pre-existent state. God says, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. The word is redoubled, perhaps to intimate that Adam was made in the likeness of the human soul of Christ, as well as that he bore something of the image and resemblance of the divine nature. On the other side it is affirmed, that this dootrine of the pre-existence of the human soul of Christ weakens and subverts that of his per sonality.-1. A pure intelligent spirit, say they Sometimes the great and blessed God appeared the first, the most ancient, and the most excellent in the form of a man or angel. It is evident that of creatures, created before the foundation of the the true God resided in this man or angel; be-world, so exactly resembles the second person of cause, on account of this union to proper deity, the angel calls himself God, the Lord God. He assumes the most exalted names and characters of Godhead. And the spectators, and sacred historians, it is evident, considered him as true and proper God: they paid him the highest worship and obedience. He is properly styled the angel of God's presence.-The (messenger or) angel of the covenant, Isa. Ixiii. 9; Mal. iii. 1. The same angel of the Lord was the particular God and King of the Israelites. It was he who made a covenant with the patriarchs, who appeared to Moses in the burning bush, who redeemed the Israelites from Egypt, who conducted them through the wilderness, who gave the law at Sinai, and transacted the affairs of the ancient church. The angels who have appeared since our blessed Saviour became incarnate, have never assumed the names, titles, characters, or worship, belonging to God. Hence we may infer that the angel who, under the Old Testament, assumed divine titles, and accepted religious worship, was that peculiar angel of God's presence, in whom God resided, or who was united to the Godhead in a peculiar manner; even the pre-existent soul of Christ, who afterwards took flesh and the Arian trinity, that it is impossible to show the least difference, except in name.-2. The pre-existent intelligence supposed in this doctrine is so confounded with those other intelligences called angels, that there is great danger of mistaking this human soul for an angel, and so of making the person of Christ to consist of three natures.-3. If Jesus Christ had nothing in common like the rest of mankind, except a body, how could this semi-conformity make him a real man?-4. The passages quoted in proof of the pre-existence of the human soul of Jesus Christ are of the same sort with those which others allege in proof of the pre-existence of all human souls.-5. This opinion, by ascribing the dignity of the work of redemption to this sublime human soul, detracts from the deity of Christ, and renders the last as passive as the first active. 6. This notion is contrary to Scripture. St. Paul says, in all things it behoved him to be made like his brethren: he partook of all our infirmities, except sin. St. Luke says, he increased in stature and in wisdom, Heb. ii. 17; Luke ii. 52. See articles JESUS CHRIST, and INDWELLING SCHEME: Robinson's Claude, vol. i. p. 214, 311; Watts's Works, vol. v. p. 274, 385; Gill's Body of Div, vol. ii. p. 51; Robinson's Plea, p PRESBYTERIANS 140; Flemings's Christology; Simpson's Apology for the Trin. p. 190; Hawker's Serm. on the Divinity of Christ, p. 44, 45. PREMONSTRANTES, or PRÆMONSTRATENSES, a religious order of regular canons, instituted in 1120 by S. Norbert, and thence called Norbertines. The rule they followed was that of St. Augustine, with some slight alterations, and an addition of certain severe laws, whose authority did not long survive their founder. They first came into England A. D. 1146. Their first monastery, called New-house, was erected in Lincolnshire, by Peter de Saulia, and dedicated to St. Martial. In the reign of Edward I. this order had twenty-seven monasteries in England. PRESBYTER. See next article; and articles DEACON, Elder. PRESBYTERIANS. The title Presbyterian comes from the Greek word Пpurpos, which signifies senior or elder, intimating that the government of the church in the New Testament was by presbyteries, that is, by association of ministers and ruling elders, possessed all of equal powers, without any superiority among them, either in office or order. The Presbyterians believe, that the authority of their ministers to preach the Gospel, to administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, and to feed the flock of Christ, is derived from the Holy Ghost by the imposition of the hands of the presbytery; and they oppose the Independent scheme of the common rights of Christians by the same arguments which are used for that purpose by the Episcopalians. They athrm, however, that there is no order in the church as established by Christ and his apostles, superior to that of presbyters; that all ministers, being ambassadors of Christ, are equal by their commission; that presbyter and bishop, though different words, are of the same import; and that prelacy was gradually established upon the primitive practice of making the moderator, or speaker of the presbytery, a permanent officer. These positions they maintain against the Episcopalians by the following Scriptural arguments.-They observe, that the apostles planted churches by ordaining bishops and deacons in every city; that the ministers which in one verse are called bishops, are in the next perhaps denominated presbyters; that we no where read in the New Testament of bishops, presbyters, and deacons, in any one church; and that, therefore, we are under the necessity of concluding bishop and presbyter to be two names for the same church officer. This is apparent from Peter's exhortation to the elders or presbyters who were among the Jewish Christians. "The elders (presbyters) which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, (acting as bishops thereof,) not by constraint, but willingly; not for fifthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being LORDS over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock," 1 Pet. v. 2, 3. From this passage it is evident that the presbyters not only fed the flock of God, but also governed that flock with episcopal powers, and that the apostle himself, as a church officer, was nothing more than a presbyter or PRESBYTERIANS elder. The identity of the office of bishop or presbyter is still more apparent from Heb. xiii., 17; and 1 Thess. v. 12; for the bishops are there represented as governing the flock, speaking to them the word of God, watching for their souls, and discharging various offices, which it is inpossible for any man to perform to more than one congregation. "From the last cited text it is evident that the bishops (Tavous) of the Thessalonian churches had the pastoral care of no more souls than they could hold personal communion with in God's worship; for they were such as all the people were to know, esteem, and love, as those that not only were over them, but also 'closely laboured among them, and admonished them' But diocesan bishops, whom ordinarily the hundredth part of their flock never hear nor see, cannot be those bishops by whom that flock is admonished; nor can they be what Peter requires the bishops of the Jewish converts to be, enamples to the flock. It is the opinion of Dr. Hammond, who was a very learned divine, and a zealot for episcopacy, that the elders whom the apostle James desires (Jas. v. 14) the sick to call for, were of the highest permanent order of esclesiastical officers; but it is self-evident that those elders cannot have been diocesan bishops, otherwise the sick must have been often without the reach of the remedy proposed to them. "There is nothing in Scripture upon which the Episcopalian is more ready to rest his cause than the alleged episcopacy of Timothy and Titus, of whom the former is said to have been bishop of Ephesus, and the latter bishop of Crete, yet the Presbyterian thinks it is clear as the noonday sun, that the presbyters of Ephesus were supreme governors, under Christ, of the Ephe sian churches, at the very time that Timothy pretended to have been their proper diocesan. "In Acts xx. 17, &c. we read, that 'from Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus, and called the elders (presbyters) of the church. And when they were coine to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at al seasons. And now, I know that ye all, amet, whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Tase heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to af the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made y overseers (rous, bishops,) to feed the chu- 1. of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you, n sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shad men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember that, by the space of three years, I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace,' &c. "From this passage it is evident that there was in the city of Ephesus a plurality of pastors of equal authority, without any superior pastor o bishop over them; for the apostle directs his d course to them all in common, and gives that equal power over the whole flock. Dr. Ham mond, indeed, imagines, that the ellers whom PRESBYTERIANS PRESBYTERIANS "But if Timothy was not bishop of Ephesus, what, it may be asked, was his office in that city? for that he resided there for some time, and was by the apostle invested with authority to ordain and rebuke presbyters, are facts about which all parties are agreed, and which, indeed, cannot be controverted by any reader of Paul's epistles. To this the Presbyterian replies, with confidence, that the power which Timothy exercised in the church of Ephesus was that of an evangelist, Tim. ii. 4, 5, and not a fixed prelate. But, ac Paul called to Miletus, were the bishops of Asia, | ture charge, and to give him proper instructions and that he sent for them to Ephesus, because for the discharge of his duty? that city was the metropolis of this province. But, were this opinion well founded, it is not conceivable that the sacred writer would have called them the elders of the church of Ephesus, but the elders of the church in general, or the elders of the churches in Asia. Besides, it is to be remembered, that the apostle was in such haste to be at Jerusalem, that the sacred historian measures his time by days; whereas it must have required several months to call together the bishops or elders of all the cities of Asia; and he might certainly have gone to meet them at Ephe-cording to Eusebius, the work of an evangelist sus in less time than would be requisite for their was, 'to lay the foundations of the faith in barmeeting in that city, and proceeding thence to barous nations, and to constitute among them pas him at Miletus. They must therefore have been tors, after which he passed on to other countries.' either the joint pastors of one congregation, or the Accordingly, we find that Timothy was resident pastors of different congregations in one city; for a time at Philippi and Corinth (Phil. ii. 19; and as it was thus in Ephesus, so it was in Phi-1 Cor. iv. 17; xvi. 10, 11), as well as Ephesus, lippi; for we find the apostle addressing his epis- and that he had as much authority over those tle to all the saints in Jesus Christ which are at churches as over that of which he is said to have Philippi, with the bishops and deacons.' From been the fixed bishop. Now, if Timotheus the passage before us it is likewise plain, that the come, see that he may be with you without fear, presbyters of Ephesus had not only the name, for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do but the whole power of bishops given to them by Let no man, therefore, despise him.' This text the Holy Ghost; for they are enjoined to do the might lead us to suppose that Timothy was whole work of bishops-ποιμαινειν την εκκλησίαν του bishop of Corinth as well as of Ephesus; for it -which signifies to rule as well as feed the is stronger than that upon which his episcopacy church of God. Whence we see that the apostle of the latter church is chiefly built. The apostle makes the power of governing inseparable from says, 1 Tim. i. 3, I besought thee to abide still that of preaching and watching; and that, ac- at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that cording to him, all who are preachers of God's thou mightest charge some that they teach no word, and watchmen of souls, are necessarily other doctrine.' But, had Timothy been the fixed rulers or governors of the church, without being bishop of that city, there would surely have been accountable for their management to any prelate, no necessity for beseeching him to abide with his but only to their Lord Christ, from whom their flock. It is to be observed, too, that the first epis power is derived. tle to Timothy, which alone was written to him "It appears, therefore, that the apostle Paul during his residence at Ephesus, was of a date left in the church of Ephesus, which he had prior to Paul's meeting with the elders of that planted, no other successors to himself than pres-church at Miletus; for in the epistle he hopes byter-bishops, or Presbyterian ministers, and that he did not devolve his power upon any prelate. Timothy, whom the Episcopalians allege to have been the first bishop of Ephesus, was present when this settlement was made, Acts xx. 5; and it is surely not to be supposed that, had he been their bishop, the apostle would have devolved the whole episcopal power upon the presbyters before his face. If ever there were a season fitter than another for pointing out the duty of this supposed "The identity of the office of bishop and presbishop to his diocese, and his presbyters' duty to byter being thus clearly established, it follows, him, it was surely when Paul was taking his final that the presbyterate is the highest permanent leave of them, and discoursing so pathetically con-office in the church, and that every faithful pascerning the duty of overseers, the coming of ra- tor of a flock is successor to the apostles in every venous wolves, and the consequent hazard of the thing in which they were to have any successors. flock. In this farewell discourse he tells them, In the apostolic office there were indeed some that he had not shunned to declare unto them things peculiar and extraordinary, such as their all the counsel of God.' But with what truth immediate call by Christ, their infallibility, their uld this have been said, if obedience to a dio- being witnesses of our Lord's resurrection, and cean bishop had been any part of their duty, their unlimited jurisdiction over the whole world. eitner at the time of the apostle's speaking, or at These powers and privileges could not be conany future period? He foresaw that ravenous veyed by imposition of hands to any successors, wolves would enter in among them, and that even whether called presbyters or bishops; but as rulers one of themselves should arise speaking perverse or office-bearers in particular churches, we have things; and if, as the Episcopalians allege, dioce- the confession of the very chiefest apostles,' san episcopacy was the remedy provided for these Peter and John, that they were nothing more evils, is it not strange, passing strange, that the than presbyters, or parish ministers. This being inspired preacher did not foresee that Timothy, the case, the dispute which has been so warmly who was then standing beside him, was destined agitated concerning the validity of Presbyterian to fill that important office; or, if he did foresee ordination may be soon decided; for if the ceroit, that he omitted to recommend him to his fu-mony of ordination be at all essential, it is obvious to come to him shortly; whereas he tells the elders at Miletus that they should see his face no more. This being the case, it is evident that Timothy was left by the apostle at Ephesus only to supply his place during his temporary absence in Macedonia; and that he could not possibly have been constituted fixed bishop of that church; since the episcopal powers were afterwards committed to the presbyters by the Holy Ghost in his presence. |