earnestness, and to enforce it with sterner measures of compulsory benevolence. For it being once assumed, that such an order, with such rights and duties, is essential to the existence of the church, and the church to the salvation of souls; of course, all measures became necessarily right, and even merciful, by which this authority of prelates might be sustained against heretics and opposers.1

Hence we find the earliest of the order, as, par eminence, Ignatius, leaning upon authority, for the preservation of their asserted dignity; and thus "laying the first steps of the papal pandemonium," in their sacerdotal ambition. This prelatical arrogance had reached a height of preposterous extravagance, as early as the third and fourth centuries; and was unquestionably based upon the perversions of truth, and the corruptions of gospel simplicity, introduced as early as the first century. The martyr church thus became itself, by its inherited principles, the executioner of countless multitudes of martyrs. The prelates, at least some of them, of the Cyprianic and following ages, seem to have been filled to overflowing with the most enormous notions of spiritual transcendency, and divine prerogative; and really to have believed, that they were ordained as the means of "immediate connexion between God and manthe chain between time and eternity." Heaven and earth were

1) See Athanasius, in Potter on Ch. Govt. p. 171. Chrysostom, p. 173. Cyprian, pp. 164, 161.

"The following just remarks are from an article in a late number of the American Biblical Repository:

"Real intolerance, the intolerance of the heart, is seldom or never seen by the possessor in its true light. It is sincere, indeed; but there can be

no

are

more hurtful form of bigotry than that of deluded fanaticism. Instigated by this spirit, men guilty of unrighteous oppression, and verily think they are doing God service. Persecutors and persecuted, in multitudes of instances, have been alike animated with sincere zeal for what they considered the right. There can be no doubt,' says the persecutor, 'that my views are correct, and that he who does not adopt them endangers his spiritual welfare. It must be a benevolent act to appeal to the temporal interests of my neighbor for the good of his soul. Therefore I am bound to try, by pains and penalties, yes, if it be necessary, by the menace of death itself, to bring him

from his errors into the true faith; and if the actual infliction of death upon him will deter others from injuring their own souls by the same or like errors, does not philanthropy require the stroke?' One of the popes, in a letter enjoining all true followers of the church to ferret out heretics, and punish them with death if they proved obstinate, sustains his injunction by the following argument: 'The man who takes away physical life, is punished with death. Now, faith is the source of eternal life; for it is written: 'The just shall live by faith.' How much more guilty, then, than a common murderer, and how much more worthy of death, must a heretic be, who robs people of their faith-of eternal life!'

"Such is the sophistry with which intolerance has in all ages deceived, or sought to defend itself."

2) Spiritual Despotism, pp. 492, 491.

3) Osborne's Doctr. Errors of the Apostl. Fathers, ch. xi.

4) See Chrysostom on the Priesthood.

1

too poor, and kings too humble, to afford apt illustrations of the supereminence of their pontifical glory. To say aught against their order, or to do aught in contravention to their decisions, was sure to call down upon the guilty head the most summary vengeance, deposition, excommunication, and the brand of infamous schism, heresy, and conspiracy with the devil.2 Presbyters were in due season excluded from all synods and councils; and in many cases, not even allowed to preach in the prelate's presence, or only as permitted by him. The laity were also deprived of all representation, in the government of the church, by the express authority of that passage of scripture, which teaches us, that "it was not for beasts to touch the mount of God."4 All remonstrance was, in this way, effectually silenced, and borne down, and the very memory of it obliterated from the knowledge of posterity. "The spiritual despotism that spoke in the popes, is now," as has been said, "sixteen hundred years old." The connexion of prelacy, as exhibited in the superstitious and tyrannous polity pursued from the second century downwards, with the Romish hierarchy, was accidental, and does not, by any means, constitute it what it ever was, and, when unchecked, ever will be, human nature being what it is. When unlimited authority is committed to a few rulers, with the power to judge between themselves and all who resist them, and when this power is sustained by the believed sanction of an immediate divine intercourse, and communication,-what can prevent it from consolidating into the most intolerant despotism? And again, let it be borne in mind, the very soul of such a system, is the doctrine of a supernatural efficacy, resident, by right of transmitted inheritance, in a line of prelatical successors.R

1) See as an illustration, the conduct of Cyprian as quoted in Potter on Ch. Govt. pp. 165, 166.

2) "Thus," says Professor Powell in his Tradition Unveiled, (p. 56,) "by virtue of this celebrated 'Disciplina Arcani,' the tenets of any who venture to oppose them, were unanswerably proved heretical, and the catholic faith was found to possess a more and more precise and metaphysical form. They had the power in their own hands; and with an ascendency and a majority, it was easy by arts and practices, obvious even to men less skilled in the knowledge of human nature and the means of influencing it, to maintain that ascendency, and advance it even to an exclusive dominion."

3) See Note A.

4) Spiritual Despot. p. 476. That they anciently participated in the management of church affairs in England, see fully shown in Foster's Examination of the Scheme of Ch. Power, of the Codex Juris Eccl. Anglic. pp. 75, 84. He also shows that the exclusion of the laity was owing to the over-ruling power of the church of Rome. See p. 84. 5) Ibid, p. 291.

6) The history of this progressive system of church power, is thus given by Sir Michael Foster in his Examination of Bishop Gibson, third ed. 1736, p. 12.

"I take the case, with regard to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, to have been thus: when christianity became

The resulting effects of every doctrine, especially, if they have been found invariably consequent, when not hindered by some counteracting agency, are allowed to be a fair test of its inherent character and tendency.1 We must judge of a system

by its essential principles, and not by any occasional manifestations it may make. Now, from a very early period in the history of the church, no complaint is more frequently and loudly made, by church writers, than that which bears upon the degeneracy, corruption, and tyranny, of these rulers and governors. The rulers, says Chrysostom, after depicting the miserable condition of the church, are more guilty than any others.1 Augustine represents the church as in a worse bondage, through their impositions, than it was under the law. Nazianzen complains of the prelates, who, when they had overrun all things with violence, in fine, tyrannized over piety itself. To escape from their impositions, Jerome, as Erasmus thinks, betook himself to a cell. Chrysostom assures us that he feared nothing so much as prelates. Theophilus of Alexandria declares, that the audaciousness and tyranny of the bishops, before, had ruined the nation, and dispersed the people through the world."

Isidore of Pelusium declares, that prelacy, as divers exercised it, is a tyrannical licentiousness, because they turned it into domination, or rather, to speak freely, unto tyranny. He further says, that there were very few not thus guilty, and these were afraid to speak out against them. The tyranny of the prelates hindered any reformation. Prosper thus bewails this matter: "But we, delighted with things present, while we hunt after the advantages and honors of this life, make all haste to be prelates, not that we may be better, but richer; nor that we may be more holy, but more honored. "We decline the labor of our office, affecting only the profit and the dignity." This judgment is confirmed by Ambrose, and almost every writer. The pride, ignorance, and superciliousness, of even the chief of the western prelates, is exposed by Basil; while in the east, as Sozomen declares, they were sick of their unworthy prelates, and languishing for want of some who would be truly pastors. What better could be expected, says Chrysostom, when the dignity is put to sale, and he carries it, not who has the richest land, but the fullest purse." Thus were the prelates generally the worst of their day, and their authority so degenerately abused, that Theophilus, of Alexandria, rather than be controlled

1) Homil. 29, in Act.

2) August. Epist. 119, Januario c. 19.

3) Orat. in laud, Athanas, 21. 4) Epist. 13, and ep. 2. 5) In Georg. Alex. vet Chysost. c. 39.

6) Ibid. 1. v. ep. xxi. and epist. ad theod. cxxv. leb. ii.

7) Ibid. ep. lxxxix. 1. v.

8) Ibid. 1. iii. ep. 223. For other

10

testimonies see Socrates' Hist. lib. vii. ch. vii. and ch. xi. Canon. in Cod. clxxviii. and canon xii.

9) Prosper de vit. Contempl. 1. i.

c. ii.

10) Ambrose de Sacerd. degnit cap. V. Nazianzen Orat. Funeb. Athanas, et Orat. in laud. Basil. Basil epist. xvi.

11) Hom. in Ephes. and Isid. 1. v. ep. 276, 470.

by any that were wise and prudent, as George, of Alexandria, and Palladius both affirm, actually filled the vacant see with fools.1

Such is the representation given of the practical working of this theory, as drawn even by its advocates and its administrators. We may well believe, therefore, all that is charged upon it by the unvarying testimony of history. "Episcopacy, as developed in this theory of succession," says Professor Powell, a methodist clergyman in England, "as it has hitherto existed in the christian church, has been at the head of nearly all the oppression and persecution that have been found in the church to the present day. I believe abuse very early got into the church in an unguarded, uncontrolled form of episcopacy. It degenerated into tyranny of the worst kind. Popery is its genuine offspring. Let no man trust an unguarded episcopacy," says he, "it will do what it has always done, viz. degenerate into popery." Protestantism had its worst enemies among the apostolical succession bishops. I rejoice to except, after that time, such hallowed names as Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, Hooper, and Jewell; but they are the exceptions and not the rule. And it must be confessed, that since that time all the persecution of the puritans and nonconformists originated generally with the bishops."

3

994

The bigoted intolerance of the Romish church was not abandoned when England separated from Rome. Popery still lived in the prelacy, and prelates were still found to be animated with the spirit of popes. The inquisition was perpetuated in the star chamber and high commission court, and all difference of opinion brought to the test of power, and decided in the court of civil pains and penalties, of fines, imprisonments, and death." No sooner was prelatic authority fully established under the

the result but for the puritans, &c. see Edwards' Preacher, vol. ii. p. 183. Life of Whitgift, p. 105, ed. 1699, and Hanbury's Hooker, vol. i. pp. 33, 34.

5) Powell ut supra, p. 144. See also Neal's Puritans, vol. ii. pp. 362, 368, 370, 496, vol. iii. pp. 7, 72, et passim, Howitt's Hist. of Priestcraft, pp. 115, 167, 180.

6) See the spirit and tendency of prelacy illustrated by a chronological series of facts, in "An Answer to a Book entitled an Humble Remonstrance," in which the original of liturgy and episcopacy is discussed. Written by Smectymnuus, Lond. 1641. Postscript, pp. 85-94. Old South Library.

See also, "A speech of William