The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-06-15
For the Central Presbyterian.
Presbyters are Bishops.


men in the Anglican Church are fast
coming up to the point at which an abso-
lutte rejection of what is known as the
High Church" claims of Diocesan Epis-
copacy, is inevitable. The stable foun-
dation on which the great English eccle-
slastlcal scholars have established their
regulations gives them strength to resist
all influences of earlier days, and of pre-.
possession and partisanship, and to follow
out ascertained facts to their logical re-
suits. In America, such strength has not
been attained by many in the Protestant
Episcopal Church, but is the distinguish
ing trait of the brave and successful men
who lead the Reformed Episcopal Church
In England, Rev. DR.. ]. B. Lightfoot,
formerly Professor of Divinity in the Uni
versity of Cambridge, and now holding
the high Office of Bishop of Durham, has
deservedly taken his place among the
great scholars of the world Dean Stan
ley, in learning, is not far below him. and
it will be interesting and instructive to
recall the approving testimony of the
Dean to the sound historic views of the
Bishop. They were thus announced in
a sermon preached in 1879 before the
Glasgow Society of the Sons of the
Clergy: "The most learned of all the
living bishops of England, whose acces-
sion to the great see>of Durham has been
recently welcomed by the whole Church
of England with rare unanimity and
enthusiasm, has, with his characteristic
moderation and erudition, proved be-
yond dispute, in celebrated essay at
tached to lis edition of St. Paul's Epistle
to the Philippians, that the early consti-
tuition of the Apostolic churches of the
first century was not that of single
bishop, but of body of pastors indifer-
emily styled bishops or presbyters, and
that it was not till the very end of the
apostolic age that the office which we now
call Episcopacy gradually and slowly
made its way in the churches of Asia
Minor; that Presbytery was not later
growth out of Episcopacy, but that Epis-
copacy was later growth out of Presby-
terry that the Office which the apostles
instituted was kind of rule not of bish-
ops but of presbyters and that even
down to the third century, presbyters as
well as bishops possessed the power of
nominating and consecrating bishops"
These opinions were deliberately ex-
pressed and maintained with high scrip
tural and patristic learning by Dr.. Light
foot in his work on 1.-THE Christian Min
istry,' of which a New York edition was
published in 1878. A recent examina-
ton of this able and suggestive book has
led to the preparation of this article. The
learned author proves with resistless force
that, in apostolic ages, the presbyter Cor
elder) was a bishop, and the bishop was
presbyter. Not word or line indi-
eating the establishment of any class OF
spiritual officers in the Church above the
presbyters, appears in the New Tesla
ment In few stringent paragraphs
DIR. Lightfoot annihilates the attempts
made occasionally by incompetent men
to prove the existence, in apostolic times,
of Diocesan bishops from the cases OF
Timothy and Titus and Epaphroditus,
and the angels of the Seven Apocalyptic
churches addressed in the Revelation OF
st. John.
This learned author does indeed pro
fess to find reliable historic evidences that
Episcopacy in its modern sense existed
in Asia Minor at least as early as the
beginning of the second century; and as
suming this to be fact, he argues that
it must have been established there dur
ing the three closing decades of the life
of the Apostle John, and must therefore
be held to have received his sanction and
approval, if not his express appointment.
But he expressly admits that not one
word in the inspired writings of John
whether gospel, epistles, or revelation
authorizes any such belief 1t is mere
inference on his part and on that of others
who assume his ground And it is an
inference not only far-fetched and illogi-
cal in itself, but founded on an assumed
state of facts unsupported by any evil
dence except documents and writings in
many cases known to be spurious, and
which to the extent that they are genu-
inc, do not prove any episcopacy except
that of presbyters.
DR.. Lightfoot admits the spurious char
acter and the exaggerated and false state
ments Of the so-called Clementine writ
ings and of much the larger part of the
epistles attributed to st. Ignatius of An
tioch. Yet these counterfeits contain the
only distinct declarations in favor of do
cesar episcopacy early in the second cen
fury. And when we come down in the
fourth century to the undoubtedly gen
uine words of Jerome, whose piety and
learning unite in giving conclusive weight
to his testimony, DIR. Lightfoot very can