[3:1] Mr Merivale, in his "History of the Romans under the Empire," (vol. iv. p.450,) estimates the population in the time of Augustus at eighty-five millions, but in this reckoning he does not include Palestine, and perhaps some of his calculations are rather low. Greswell computes the population of Palestine at ten millions, and that of the whole empire at one hundred and twenty millions. ("Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels," vol. iv. p.11, 493.)

[7:1] See the article [Greek: Hetairai] in Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities."

[8:1] "We despise," says an early Christian writer, "the supercilious looks of philosophers, whom we have known to be the corrupters of innocence, adulterers, and tyrants, and eloquent declaimers against vices of which they themselves are guilty." -- Octavius of Minucius Felix.

[9:1] "De Republ.," ii.

[9:2] In the "Octavius of Minucius Felix" (c.25), we meet with the following startling challenge -- "Where are there more bargains for debauchery made, more assignations concerted, or more adultery devised than by the priests amidst the altars and shrines of the gods?" This, of course, refers to the state of things in the third century, but there is no reason to believe that it was now much better. Tertullian speaks in the same manner ("Apol". c.15). See also "Juvenal," sat. vi.488, and ix.23.

[10:1] "Origen. Contra Celsum," lib. i. c.49.

[10:2] Mat. xxii.23.

[10:3] Luke ii.25, 36.

[11:1] See Matt. v.18; John v.39, and x.35.

[11:2] See Josephus against Apion, i. Sec.8. Origen says that the Hebrews had twenty-two sacred books corresponding to the number of letters in their alphabet. Opera, ii.528. It would appear from Jerome that they reckoned in the following manner: they considered the Twelve Minor Prophets only one book; First and Second Samuel, one book; First and Second Kings, one book; First and Second Chronicles, one book; Ezra and Nehemiah, one book; Jeremiah and Lamentations, one book; the Pentateuch, five books; Judges and Ruth, one book; thus, with the other ten books of Joshua, Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, making up twenty-two. The most learned Roman Catholic writers admit that what are called the apocryphal books were never acknowledged by the Jewish Church. See, for example, Dupin's "History of Ecclesiastical Writers," Preliminary Dissertation, section ii. See also Father Simon's "Critical History of the Old Testament," book. i. chap. viii.

[11:3] Matt, xxiii.15.

[12:1] Many proofs of this occur in the Acts. See Acts x.2, xiii.43, xvi.14, xvii.4.

[12:2] See Cudworth's "Intellectual System," i.318, &c. Edition, London, 1845. Warburton has adduced evidence to prove that this doctrine was imparted to the initiated in the heathen mysteries. "Divine Legation of Moses," i.224. Edit., London, 1837.

[12:3] Gal. iv.4.

[12:4] Gen. xlix.10; Dan. ix.25; Haggai ii.6, 7.

[12:5] Virgil. Ec. iv. Suetonius. Octavius, 94. Tacitus. Histor. v.13.

[13:1] Haggai ii.7.

[13:2] Dan. vii.14.

[14:1] See Supplementary Note at the end of this chapter on the year of Christ's Birth.

[14:2] Luke ii.6, 7.

[15:1] Luke i.11, 19.

[15:2] Luke.26, 31.

[15:3] Luke ii.13, 14.

[15:4] Matt. ii.9.

[15:5] Matt. ii.12.

[15:6] Matt. ii.3. The evangelist does not positively assert that the wise men met Herod at Jerusalem. On their arrival in the holy city he was probably at Jericho -- distant about a day's journey -- for Josephus states that he died there. ("Antiq." xvii.6. Sec.5. and 8. Sec.1.) We may infer, therefore, that he "heard" of the strangers on his sick-bed, and "privily called" them to Jericho. The chief priests and scribes were, perhaps, summoned to attend him at the same place.

[16:1] Matt. ii.16. The estimates formed at a subsequent period of the number of infants in the village of Bethlehem and its precincts betray a strange ignorance of statistics. "The Greek Church canonised the 14,000 innocents," observes the Dean of St Paul's, "and another notion, founded on a misrepresentation of Revelations (xiv.3), swelled the number to 144,000. The former, at least, was the common belief of our Church, though even in our liturgy the latter has in some degree been sanctioned by retaining the chapter of Revelations as the epistle for the day. Even later, Jeremy Taylor, in his 'Life of Christ,' admits the 14,000 without scruple, or rather without thought." -- Milman's History of Christianity, i. p.113, note.

[16:2] Matt. ii.11.

[16:3] Luke ii.38. It is a curious fact that in the year 751 of the city of Rome, the year of the Birth of Christ according to the chronology adopted in this volume, the passover was not celebrated as usual in Judea. The disturbances which occurred on the death of Herod had become so serious on the arrival of the paschal day, that Archelaus was obliged to disperse the people by force of arms in the very midst of the sacrifices. So soon did Christ begin to cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. See Greswell's "Dissertations," i. p 393, 394, note.

[17:1] Luke ii.40.

[17:2] Luke ii.52.

[17:3] Mark vi.3.

[17:4] John vii.15.

[18:1] Luke ii.46, 47.

[18:2] Luke iv.16.

[18:3] Luke iii.21-23. "It became Him, being in the likeness of sinful flesh, to go through these appointed rites and purifications which belonged to that flesh. There is no more strangeness in His having been baptized by John, than in His keeping the Passover. The one rite, as the other, belonged to sinners, and among the transgressors He was numbered." -- ALFORD, Greek Testament, Note on Matt. iii.13-17.

[18:4] See Greswell's "Dissertations upon an Harmony of the Gospels," vol. i. p.362, 363. John probably commenced his ministry about the feast of Tabernacles, A.D.27.

[18:5] See Josephus, "Antiq." xviii, 5, Sec.2.

[19:1] Matt. iv.23.

[19:2] Matt. iv.24, 25.

[19:3] Isaiah xlv.15.

[19:4] 1 Kings viii.10-12.

[19:5] John v.13, vi.15, viii.59, xii.36; Mark i.45, vii.24.

[19:6] Mark ii.1, 2; Matt. xiv.13, 14, 21, xv.32, 38, 39.

[20:1] Matt. iv.13. Hence it is said to have been "exalted unto heaven" in the way of privilege. Matt. xi.23; Luke x.15. It was the residence as well of Peter and Andrew (Matt. xvii.24), as of James, John (Mark i.21, 29), and Matthew (Mark ii.1, 14, 15), and there also dwelt the nobleman whose son was healed by our Lord (John iv.46). It was on the borders of the Sea of Galilee, so that by crossing the water He could at once reach the territory of another potentate, and withdraw Himself from the multitudes drawn together by the fame of His miracles. See Milman's "History of Christianity," i.188.

[21:1] John i.46.

[22:1] Luke xxiv.32.

[22:2] Matt. vii.29.

[23:1] According to Mr Greswell our Lord adopted this method of teaching about eighteen months after the commencement of His ministry, and the Parable of the Sower was the first delivered. "Exposition of the Parables," Vol. i. p.2.

[23:2] Isa. xxxv.5, 6.

[23:3] See John v.13, ix.1, 6, 25, 36.

[23:4] Mark ii.6, 7, 10, 11, iii.5, 22.

[24:1] John vi.9.

[24:2] Matt. xiv.24, 25.

[24:3] Mark iv.39; Matt. viii.26, 27.

[24:4] John ix.16.

[24:5] Matt. xxi.19. Neander has shown that this was a typical action pointing to the rejection of the Jews. See his "Life of Christ." Bohn's Edition.

[24:6] John ii.9.

[24:7] Matt. ix.28, 29; Mark vi.5, ix.23, 24.

[25:1] John viii.12.

[26:1] Several of the early fathers imagined that it continued only a year. Some of them, such as Clemens Alexandrinus, drew this conclusion from Isaiah lxi.1, "To preach the acceptable year of the Lord." See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p.347.

[26:2] John ii.13, v.1, vi.4, xii.1. Eusebius argues from the number of high priests that our Lord's ministry did not embrace four entire years. "Ecc. Hist." i. c. x.

[26:3] He lived, therefore, about thirty-three years. According to Malto Brun ("Universal Geography," book xxii.), "the mean duration of human life is between thirty and forty years," and, in the same chapter, he computes it at thirty-three years. It would thus appear that, at the time of His death, our Lord was, in point of age, a fitting representative of the species.

[26:4] Luke iv.44, viii.1; Matt. ix.35.

[27:1] John iii.1, 2.

[27:2] Matt. xxvi.63-66.

[27:3] Matt, xxvii.38.

[27:4] Matt, xxvii.24; John xviii.38.

[27:5] Mark xv.10, 15.

[28:1] Acts ii.23.

[28:2] Matt. xxvi.38; Mark xiv.33.

[28:3] Luke xxii.44.

[28:4] Matt, xxvii.46.

[28:5] Luke xxii.43.

[28:6] Luke xxiii.44; Mark xv.33.

[29:1] Matt, xxvii.51, 52.

[29:2] Matt, xxvii.54.

[29:3] John x.18.

[29:4] Ps. xvi.10; Acts ii.31.

[29:5] John ii.19; Mark viii.31; Luke xviii, 33.

[29:6] John xiv.19; 1 Thess. iv.14.

[29:7] Rom. i.4; 1 Cor. xv.14, 17; 1 Pet. i.3; Rev. i.18.

[29:8] John xix.33, 34.

[29:9] Matt, xxvii.60.

[30:1] Matt, xxvii.66.

[30:2] Matt, xxviii.2, 4.

[30:3] Matt, xxviii.11.

[30:4] Matt, xxviii.12, 13, 15.

[30:5] Rev. i.5.

[30:6] Acts x.40, 41.

[30:7] John xiv.22.

[31:1] Acts i.3.

[31:2] Luke xxiv.27.

[31:3] Matt, xxviii.19.

[31:4] Luke xxiv.50, 51.

[32:1] John i.10-12.

[36:1] Isa. liii.3.

[36:2] John vii.39.

[36:3] Acts i.15.

[37:1] 1 Cor. xv.6.

[37:2] See Matt. xv.31; John ii.23, vii.31, viii.30.

[37:3] See Joshua xv.25.

[37:4] Hence called Iscariot, that is, Ish Kerioth, or, a man of Kerioth. See Alford, Greek Test., Matt. x.4.

[37:5] Acts ii.7.

[37:6] Compare Matt. ix.9, 10, and Mark ii.14, 15.

[37:7] "As St John never mentions Bartholomew in the number of the apostles, so the other evangelists never take notice of Nathanael, probably because the same person under two several names; and as in John, Philip and Nathanael are joined together in their coming to Christ, so in the rest of the evangelists, Philip and Bartholomew are constantly put together without the least variation." -- Cave's Lives of the Apostles. Life of Bartholomew. Compare Matt. x.3; Acts i.13; and John i.45, xxl.2.

[38:1] Compare Matt. x.3, and Acts i.13.

[38:2] John xi.16, xxi.2.

[38:3] Mark xv.40. He was in some way related to our Lord, and hence called His brother (Gal. i.19). But though Mary, the mother of our Saviour, had evidently several sons (see Matt. i.20, 25, compared with Matt. xiii.55; Mark vi.3; Matt. xii.46, 47), they were not disciples when the apostles wore appointed, and none of them consequently could have been of the Twelve. (See John vii.5). The other sons of Mary, who must all have been younger than Jesus, seem to have been converted about the time of the resurrection. Hence they are found among the disciples before the day of Pentecost (Acts i.14).

[38:4] Mark iii.17.

[38:5] Matt. x.2.

[38:6] John i.42.

[38:7] Matt. x.4; Mark iii.18; Luke vi.15; Acts i.13. Some think that Kananites is equivalent to Zelotes, whilst others contend that it in derived from a village called Canan. See Alford, Greek Test., Matt. x.4; and Greswell's; "Dissertations," vol. ii. p.128. Some MSS. have [Greek: Kananaios].

[38:8] Mark vi.7. "Although no two of these catalogues (of the Twelve) agree precisely in the order of the names, they may all be divided into three quaternions, which are never interchanged, and the leading names of which are the same in all. Thus the first is always Peter, the fifth Philip, the ninth James the son of Alpheus, and the twelfth Judas Iscariot. Another difference is that Matthew and Luke's Gospel gives the names in pairs, or two and two, while Mark enumerates them singly, and the list before us (in the Acts) follows both, these methods, one after the other." -- Alexander on the Acts, vol. i. p.19.

[39:1] Gal. i.19.

[39:2] Acts i.13. See also Jude v.1.

[39:3] Upon this subject see the conjectures of Greswell, "Dissertation," vol. ii. p.120.

[39:4] John i.35, 40.

[39:5] From the great minuteness of the statements in the passage, it has been conjectured that the evangelist himself was the second of the two disciples mentioned in John i.35-37.

[39:6] John iii.30.

[39:7] Matt. xix.27.

[40:1] Mark i.20.

[40:2] Luke xix.2.

[40:3] Luke xix.2.

[40:4] Mark ii.15.

[40:5] John vii.52.

[40:6] John xi.16. See also v.8.

[41:1] John xx.25.

[41:2] John xx.28.

[41:3] Some writers have asserted that he is a different person from James "the Lord's brother" mentioned Gal. i.19, but the statement rests upon no solid foundation. Compare John vii.5; 1 Cor. xv.7; Acts i.14, xv.2, 13. See also note p.38 [38:3] of this chapter.

[41:4] John i.47.

[41:5] Mark v.37, ix.2; Matt. xxvi.37.

[41:6] Acts xii.2, 3. "It is remarkable that, so far as we know, one of these inseparable brothers (James and John) was the first, and one the last, that died of the apostles." -- Alexander on the Acts, i.443.

[41:7] See Greswell's "Dissertations," vol. ii. p.115.

[42:1] Matt. xx.20, 21.

[42:2] Some writers have asserted that Philip and Nathanael were learned men, but of this there is no good evidence. See Cave's "Lives of the Apostles," Philip and Bartholomew.

[42:3] Greswell makes it nine months. See his "Harmonia Evangelica," p. xxiv. xxvi.

[42:4] Matt. x.5, 6.

[42:5] See Vitringa "De Synagoga Vetere," p.577, and Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Vidal, vol. i.120-2, note.

[43:1] This is the calculation of Greswell. "Harmonia Evangelica," p. xxvi. xxxi. Robinson makes the interval considerably shorter. See his "Harmony of the Four Gospels in Greek."

[43:2] They received new powers at the close of their first missionary excursion. See Luke x.19.

[43:3] Selden in his treatise "De Synedriis" supplies some curious information on this subject. See lib. ii. cap.9, Sec.3. See also some singular speculations respecting it in Baumgarten's "Theologischer Commentar zum Pentateuch," i.153, 351. Some of the fathers speak of seventy-two disciples and of seventy-two nations and tongues. See Stieren's "Irenaeus," i. p.544, note, and Epiphanius, tom. i. p.50, Edit. Coloniae, 1682; compared with Greswell's "Dissertations," ii. p.7.

[43:4] Gen. x.32.

[44:1] The following tabular view of the names of the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, mentioned in the 10th chapter of Genesis, will illustrate this statement: --

SHEM. " HAM.
Elam.Asshur.Arphaxad, Lud. Aram, "Cush, Mizraim, Phut. Canaan, Salah, Uz, "Seba, Ludim, Sidon, Eber, Hul, "Havilah, Anamim, Heth, Peleg, Gether,"Sabtah, Lehabim, Jebusite, Joktan, Mash. "Raamah, Naphtuhim, Amorite, Almodad, "Sabtechab,Pathrusim, Girgasite, Sheleph, "Sheba, Caslubim, Hivite, Hazarmaveth, "Dedan, Caphtorim, Arkite, Jerah, "Nimrod. Philistim. Sinite, Hadoram, " Arvadite, Uzal, " Zemarite, Diklah, " Hamathite. Obal, "
Abimael, "
Sheba, "
Ophir, "
Havilah, "
Jobab. "

JAPHETH.
Gomer, Magog. Madai. Javan, Tubal. Meshech. Tiras. Ashkenaz, Elishah,
Riphath, Tarshish,
Togarmah. Kittim,
Dodanim.

It often happens that one branch of a family is exceedingly prolific whilst another is barren. So it seems to have been with the descendants of the three sons of Noah. Thus, Elam, Ashur, and others, appear each to have founded only one nation, whilst Arphaxad and his posterity founded eighteen.

[45:1] Luke x.1.

[45:2] John iv.39.

[45:3] Mark vii.24, 26, 30, 31.

[45:4] This is the opinion of Dr Robinson. See His "Harmony." See also Luke ix.51, 52, x.33.

[45:5] Luke x.13, 17, 18.

[45:6] Matt. xv.24.

[46:1] Rev. xxi.14.

[46:2] It is certain that some were called apostles who were not of the number of the Twelve. See Acts xiv.4. In 1 Cor. xv.5, 7, both "the Twelve," and "all the apostles," are mentioned, and it may be that the Seventy are included under the latter designation. Such was the opinion of Origen -- [Greek: epeita tois eterois para tous dodeka apostolois pasi, tacha tois ebdomekoita]. "Contra Celsum," lib. ii.65. See also "De Recta in Deum Fide," sec. i., Opera, tom. i. p.806.

[46:3] Luke x.9, 16, 19, 24.

[46:4] Eph. ii.20. See also Eph. iii.5. It is evident, especially from the latter passage, that the prophets here spoken of belong to the New Testament Church.

[47:1] Acts xv.6, xxi.18.

[47:2] 1 Pet. v.1; 2 John v.1; 3 John v.1. It is remarkable that Papias, one of the very earliest of the fathers, actually speaks of the apostles simply as the elders. See Euseb. book iii. chap.39.

[47:3] Thus, Simon Zelotes is said to have travelled into Egypt and thence passed into Mesopotamia and Persia, where he suffered martyrdom; whilst, according to others, he travelled through Egypt to Mauritania and thence to Britain, where he was crucified. See Cave's "Lives of the Apostles," Life of Simon the Zealot. No weight can be attached to such legends. Origen states that the Apostle Thomas laboured in Parthia, and Andrew in Scythia. "In Genesim," Opera, tom. ii. p.24.

[47:4] Acts vi.6.

[48:1] Matt. vii.16.

[48:2] Acts xxvi.16; Luke x.2; 1 Tim. i.12.

[48:3] Such was Valentine, the most formidable of the Gnostic heresiarchs, said to be a disciple of Theodas, the companion of Paul. Clem. Alex. Strom. vii. Paul of Samosata and Arius were able to boast, at least as much as their antagonists, of their apostolic descent.

[49:1] 1 John iv.1, 6.

[49:2] 2 John 10, 11.

[49:3] Gal. i.8, 9.

[50:1] Luke x.16.

[50:2] 2 Cor. iii.1-3.

[51:1] Acts i.3.

[51:2] Luke xxiv.46, 47.

[52:1] Acts ii.41.

[52:2] Acts ii.44, 45.

[53:1] See Acts iv.34. Barnabas was probably obliged to go to Cyprus to complete the sale.

[53:2] Acts vi.1.

[54:1] Acts vi.2, 3.

[54:2] Acts i.15, 23. They selected two, and not knowing which to prefer, they decided finally by lot.

[54:3] Acts vi.6.

[55:1] Acts iv.18.

[55:2] Acts iv.19.

[55:3] That is, A.D.34, dating the crucifixion A.D.31. Tillemont, but on entirely different grounds, assigns the same date to the martyrdom of Stephen. See "Memoires pour servir a L'Histoire Ecclesiastique des six premiers siecles," tome prem. sec. par. p.420. Stephen's martyrdom probably occurred about the feast of Tabernacles.

[55:4] Daniel ix.27. A day in prophetic language denotes a year. Ezek. iv.4, 5. A prophetic week, or seven days, is, therefore, equivalent to seven years.

[56:1] "The one week, or Passion-week, in the midst of which our Lord was crucified A.D.31, began with His public ministry A.D.28, and ended with the martyrdom of Stephen A.D.34." -- Hales' Chronology, ii. p.518. Faber and others, who hold that the one week terminated with the crucifixion, are obliged to adopt the untenable hypothesis that John the Baptist and our Lord together preached seven years. The view here taken is corroborated by the statement in Dan. ix.27 -- "In the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease," -- as Christ by one sacrifice of Himself "perfected for ever them that are sanctified."

[56:2] Matt, xxviii.19.

[57:1] Acts viii.6, 12.

[57:2] John iv.9.

[57:3] Acts viii.1.

[57:4] Luke xxiv.47; Acts i.4.

[57:5] Acts i.8.

[57:6] Acts viii.27-38.

[57:7] Acts x.19, 30, 32.

[57:8] Acts x.1.

[58:1] Acts x.2.

[58:2] Acts xxi.39.

[58:3] Strabo, xiv. p.673.

[58:4] Rom. xi.13; 1 Tim. ii.7; 2 Tim. i.11.

[58:5] Matt. x.5, 6.

[59:1] 1 Cor. xv.8.

[59:2] Rom. i.1.

[59:3] Acts xxii.3.

[59:4] Acts xxii.3.

[59:5] Acts xxvi.5.

[59:6] Acts vii.58.

[60:1] Acts xxvi.10. [Greek: psephon]. See Alford on Acts xxvi.10, and Acts viii.1. See also "The Life and Epistles of St Paul" by Conybeare and Howson, i.85. Edit., London, 1852. Paul says that "all the Jews" knew his manner of life from his youth -- a declaration from which we may infer that he was a person of note. See Acts xxvi.4. There is a tradition that he aspired to be the son-in-law of the high priest. Epiphanius, "Ad Haer.," 1, 2, Sec.16 and Sec.25.

[60:2] Acts ix.2, and xxii.5.

[60:3] Acts ix.3-21.

[60:4] Gal. i.17, 18.

[60:5] This date may be established thus: -- Stephen, as has been shewn, was martyred A.D.34. See note, p.55 of this chapter. Paul seems to have been converted in the same year, and therefore, if he returned to Damascus three years afterwards, he must have been in that city in A.D.37. It would appear, from another source of evidence, that this is the true date. The Emperor Tiberius died A.D.37, and Aretas immediately afterwards seems to have obtained possession of Damascus. He was in possession of it when Paul was now there. See 2 Cor. xi.32, 33. It is probable that he remained master of the place only a very short time.

[60:6] Gal. i.12.

[60:7] 2 Cor. xi.5.

[61:1] Acts ix.17, 18.

[61:2] Acts xiii.1, 2.

[61:3] Simeon or Niger, according to Epiphanius, was one of the Seventy. "Haeres," 20, sec.4. Luke, the writer of the Book of the Acts, is said to have been one of the Seventy, and some have asserted that he is the same as Lucius of Cyrene, mentioned Acts xiii.1.

[61:4] Ananias, by whom he was baptized, was, according to the Greek martyrologies, one of the Seventy. See Burton's "Lectures," i.88, note. It is evident that Ananias was a person of note among the Christians of Damascus.

[62:1] Acts ix.23.

[62:2] See Josephus' "Antiquities," xviii.5.

[62:3] See Burton's "Lectures," i.116, 117.

[62:4] 2 Cor. xi.32, 33.

[62:5] Acts ix.26, 27.

[62:6] This statement rests on the authority of a monk of Cyprus, named Alexander, a comparatively late writer. See Burton's "Lectures," i.56, note.

[62:7] Acts xxii.21.

[63:1] Acts ix.29, 30.

[63:2] Gal. i.21.

[63:3] Acts xv.23, 41.

[63:4] Acts xi.25, 26.

[64:1] Griesbach, Lachmann, Alford, and other critics of great note, here prefer [Greek: Hellenas] to [Greek: Hellenistas], but the common rending is better supported by the authority of manuscripts, and more in accordance with Acts xiv.27, where Paul and Barnabas are represented, long afterwards, as declaring to the Church of Antioch how God "had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." See an excellent vindication of the textus receptus in the Journal of Sacred Literature for January 1857, No. VIII., p.285, by the Rev. W. Kay, M.A., Principal of Bishop's College, Calcutta.

[64:2] Acts xi.20.

[65:1] John xix.19-22.

[65:2] Acts xi.27-30.

[66:1] It is obvious from Acts ix.31, xxvi.20, and Gal. i.22, that such churches now existed.

[66:2] Acts xii.3, 24, 25.

[66:3] Clem. Alex. Strom, vi. p.742, note; Edit. Potter. Eusebius, v.18.

[66:4] "Antiquities," xix. c.8, Sec.2, xx. c.2, Sec.5.

[66:5] Acts xii.20-23.

[66:6] From the comparative table of chronology appended to Wieseler's "Chronologie des apostolischen Zeitalters," it appears that the date given in the text is adopted by no less than twenty of the highest chronological authorities, including Ussher, Pearson, Spanheim, Tillemont, Michaelis, Hug, and De Wette. It is also adopted by Burton. Wieseler himself, apparently on insufficient grounds, adopts A.D.45.

[67:1] Though Peter was taught, by the case of Cornelius, that "God also to the Gentiles had granted repentance unto life" (Acts xi.18), and though he doubtless felt himself a debtor, both to the Greeks and to the Jews, yet still he continued to cherish the conviction that his mission was, primarily to his kinsmen according to the flesh. James and John had the same impression. See Gal. ii.9; James i.1; 1 Pet. i.1.

[68:1] Acts xii.2.

[68:2] Acts xxii.17-21.

[68:3] I here partially adopt the translation of Conybeare and Howson. Their work is one of the most valuable contributions to sacred literature which has appeared in the present century.

[68:4] The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written about fourteen years after this, or towards the close of A.D.57. See Chap. IX. of this Section. The Jews often reckoned current time as if it were complete.

[68:5] 2 Cor. xii.2-4.

[68:6] Exodus iii.2-10.

[68:7] Isaiah vi.1, 2, 8, 9.

[70:1] Acts xiii.1-3.

[70:2] Acts iv.36.

[71:1] Deut. xxxiii.10.

[72:1] Rom. i.1.

[73:1] Gen. xlviii.13-15.

[73:2] Lev. viii.18, and iv.4.

[73:3] Num. xxvii.18.

[74:1] 1 Tim. v.17.

[74:2] This portion of the apostolic history may illustrate 1 Tim. iv.14, for Paul had official authority conferred on him "by prophecy," or in consequence of a revelation made, perhaps, through one of the prophets of Antioch, "with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery." Something similar, probably, occurred in the case of Timothy. But, in ordinary circumstances, the rulers of the Church must judge of a divine call to the ministry from the gifts and graces of the candidate for ordination.

[75:1] Acts xiii.4.

[75:2] Acts xiii.4.

[75:3] Acts iv.36.

[75:4] Until this date we read of "Barnabas and Saul," now of "Paul and Barnabas." Paul was the Roman, and Saul the Hebrew name of the great apostle. His superior qualifications had now full scope for development, and accordingly, as he takes the lead, he is henceforth, generally named before Barnabas.

[75:5] 2 Cor. xi.26, -- [Greek: potamon].

[76:1] Acts xv.38.

[76:2] Acts xv.39.

[76:3] Acts xiv.6.

[76:4] Acts xiv.23.

[76:5] [Greek: Cheirotonesantes de autois kat' ekklesian presbuterous]. -- The interpretation given in the text is sanctioned by the highest authorities. See Rothe's "Anfange der Christlichen Kirche," p.150; Alford on Acts xiv.23; Burton's "Lectures," i.150; Baumgarten's "Acts of the Apostles," Acts xiv.23; Litton's "Church of Christ," p.595.

[76:6] Acts xiv.27.

[76:7] They set out on the mission probably in A.D.44, and returned to Antioch in A.D.50. The Council of Jerusalem took place the year following.

[77:1] Acts xiii.48.

[77:2] Acts xiv.13.

[77:3] Acts xiii.6-8.

[77:4] Acts xiii.50.

[77:5] Acts xiv.2.

[78:1] Acts xiv.19.

[78:1] 2 Tim. iii.10, 11.

[79:1] Acts xv.1.

[79:2] This inference was indeed admitted. See Acts xv.5, 24.

[79:3] Gal. v.2-4, vi.13, 14.

[79:4] Acts xvi.31; John iii.36.

[80:1] Luke xxiii.43.

[80:2] Ps. ii.12.

[80:3] Acts xv. ii.

[81:1] Acts xv.2.

[81:2] Acts xv.23, 24, 41.

[81:3] Acts xvi.4.

[81:4] Paul and Barnabas, with the other deputies, were sent "to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders" (Acts xv.2); "when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders" (Acts xv.4); and the decrees are said to have been ordained "of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem" (Acts xvi.4); but not one of these statements necessarily implies that these rulers were exclusively elders of the Church of Jerusalem.

[82:1] It has been argued by Burton ("Lectures," vol. i. p.122), that the first visit of Paul to Jerusalem after his conversion took place about the time of one of the great festivals, as he is said, on the occasion, to have "disputed against the Grecians" (Acts ix.29), who were likely then to have been very numerous in the city. If he arrived now at the time of the same festival, the interval must have been precisely fourteen years.

[82:2] Gal. ii.1. Some make these fourteen years to include the three years mentioned Gal. i.18, but this interpretation does violence to the languages of the apostle. The system of chronology here adopted requires no such forced expositions. Paul came to Jerusalem three years after his conversion, that is, in A.D.37; and fourteen years after, that is, in A.D.51, he was at this Synod.

[82:3] Acts ix.26.

[83:1] Acts xxi.20.

[83:2] Acts xxi.21.

[83:3] Acts xv.5.

[83:4] Gal. ii.4. It is here taken for granted that the visit to Jerusalem, mentioned in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, is the same as that described in the fifteenth of Acts. Paul says that he went up "by revelation" (Gal. ii.2), -- a statement from which it appears that he was divinely instructed to adopt this method of settling the question.

[83:5] Gal. ii.12.

[83:6] Gal. ii.2.

[83:7] Acts xvi.4, xxi.25.

[84:1] Acts xv.12.

[84:2] Acts xv.22.

[84:3] Acts xv.23.

[84:4] The expression here used -- "the multitude" ([Greek: to plethos]) -- is repeatedly applied in the New Testament to the Sanhedrim, a court consisting of not more than seventy-two members. See Luke xxiii.1; Acts xxiii.7. There were probably more individuals present at this meeting.

[84:5] Acts xv.2.

[84:6] 1 Cor. xii.28; Eph. iv.11.

[84:7] In Acts xi.27, we read of "prophets" who came "from Jerusalem unto Antioch."

[84:8] Acts xv.23. "The apostles, and elders, and brethren."

[84:9]The context may appear to be favourable to this interpretation, for the two deputies now chosen -- "Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas" -- who are said to have been "chief men among the brethren" (ver.22), are likewise described as "prophets also themselves" (ver.32). In Acts xviii.27, "the brethren" appear to be distinguished from "the disciples."

[85:1] This reading, which is adopted by Mill in the Prolegomena to his New Testament, as well as by Lachmann, Neander, Alford, and Tregelles, is supported by the authority of the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Alexandrinus, the Codex Ephraemi, and the Codex Bezae. It is likewise to be found in by far the most valuable cursive MS. yet known. It is confirmed also by the early testimony of Irenaeus, and by the Latin of the Codex Bezae, a version more ancient than the Vulgate, as well as by the Vulgate itself. The reading in the textus receptus may be accounted for by the growth of the doctrine of apostolical succession; as, when the hierarchy was in its glory, transcribers could not understand how the apostles and elders could be fellow presbyters.

[85:2] It is worthy of note that Peter, fourteen or fifteen years afterwards, speaks in the style here indicated. Thus he says -- "The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder" ([Greek: sumpresbuteros]). -- (l Pet. v.1.)

[85:3] Acts xv.28.

[86:1] Gal. iii.2.

[86:2] Acts xv.8-10.

[86:3] Acts xi.15, 17.

[86:4] This style of speaking was used by councils in after-ages, and often in cases when it was singularly inappropriate.

[87:1] Acts xv.29.

[87:2] See 1 Cor. x.23, 31, 32.

[88:1] "Since the eating of such food, as Paul expressly teaches (1 Cor. x.19, 33), was not sinful in itself, and yet to be avoided out of tenderness to those who thought it so, the abstinence here recommended must be understood in the same manner." -- Alexander on the Acts, ii.84.

[89:1] Gal. ii.12.

[89:2] Gal. ii.9.

[89:3] Gal. ii.13.

[90:1] Acts xvi.9.

[90:2] Acts xvi.12.

[91:1] "The Jus Italicum raised provincial land to the same state of immunity from taxation which belonged to land in Italy." -- Conybeare and Howson, i.302, note.

[91:2] Not the Strymon. See Conybeare and Howson, i.316.

[91:3] Acts xvi.14.

[91:4] Acts xvi.14.

[92:1] Acts xvi.16-18.

[92:2] They may have perceptive powers of which we can form no conception, and may thus discern the approach of particular events as distinctly an we can now calculate the ebb and flow of the tides, or the eclipses of the sun and moon.

[92:3] Matt. viii.28, 29; Mark i.24, 25; Luke iv.34, 35.

[93:1] Acts xvi.18.

[93:2] Acts xvi.19.

[93:3] In some parts of the Empire magistrates and men of rank acted gratuitously, but a large portion of the priests subsisted on the emoluments of office.

[94:1] Acts xvi.24.

[94:2] Acts xvi.25.

[95:1] Acts xvi.26.

[95:2] Acts xvi.28. "By a singular historical coincidence, this very city of Philippi, or its neighbourhood, had been signalised within a hundred years, not only by the great defeat of Brutus and Cassius, but by the suicide of both, and by a sort of wholesale self-destruction on the part of their adherents." -- Alexander on the Acts, ii.122, 123.

[96:1] Acts xvi.29, 30.

[97:1] Acts xvi.31.

[98:1] Acts xvi.33, 34.

[98:2] Acts xvi.35.

[98:3] Paul says that he was "free born" (Acts xxii.28). It was unlawful to scourge a Roman citizen, or even, except in extraordinary cases, to imprison him without trial. He had also the privilege of appeal to the Emperor.

[98:4] Acts xvi.37.

[99:1] Acts xvi.39.

[99:2] Acts xvi.40.

[99:3] Phil. iv.14-16.

[100:1] Acts xvii.4.

[100:2] Acts xvii.7.

[100:3] Acts xvii.8. [Greek: etaraxan -- tous politarchas]. It has been remarked that the name here given to the magistrates (politarchs), does not occur in ancient literature; but it is a curious and important fact that a Greek inscription, on an arch still to be seen at this place, demonstrates the accuracy of the sacred historian. This arch supplies evidence that it was erected about the time when the Republic was passing into the Empire, and that it was in existence when Paul now preached there. It appears from it that the magistrates of Thessalonica were called politarchs, and that they were seven in number. What is almost equally striking is that three of the names in the inscription are Sopater, Gaius, and Secundus, the same as those of three of Paul's friends in this district. Conybeare and Howson, i.360.

[101:1] Acts xvii.11.

[102:1] Acts xvii.16.

[102:2] Acts xvii.17.

[102:3] See Conybeare and Howson, i.241.

[102:4] See Alford on Acts xiii.9, and xxiii.1.

[102:5] 2 Cor. x.10.

[102:6] 2 Cor. x.10.

[102:7] Acts xvii.18.

[103:1] [Greek: Adikei Sokrates -- etera de kaina daimonia eispheron.] -- Xen. Mem. i.1.

[103:2] Acts xvii.19, 20. It is very evident that he was not arraigned before the court of Areopagus as our English translation seems to indicate.

[104:1] Acts xvii.22, 23. This translation obviously conveys the meaning of the original more distinctly than our English version. See Alford, ii.178; and Conybeare and Howson, i.406.

[104:2] It is a curious fact that the impostor Apollonius of Tyana, who was the contemporary of the apostle, speaks of Athens as a place "where altars are raised to the unknown Gods." "Life," by Philostratus, book vi. c.3. See also Pausanias, Attic, i.4.

[105:1] See Cudworth's "Intellectual System, with Notes by Mosheim," i.513, 111. Edition, London, 1845.

[105:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries on the Affairs of the Christians before Constantine," by Vidal, i.42.

[105:3] Acts xvii.24.

[105:4] See Alford on Acts xvii.26.

[105:5] Acts xvii.26.

[105:6] Acts xvii.25, 26.

[106:1] Acts xvii.29.

[106:2] Acts xvii.31.

[106:3] Cudworth, with Notes by Mosheim, ii.120, and Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Vidal, i.42.

[106:4] Acts xvii.32.

[106:5] Acts xvii.21.

[107:1] Acts xvii.34.

[107:2] These writings, which made their appearance not earlier than the fourth or fifth century, were held in great reputation, particularly by the Mystics, in the Middle Ages.

[107:3] Burton's "Lectures," i.183.

[108:1] 1 Cor. ii.1, 2, 4, 5.

[109:1] Strabo, lib. viii. vol. i., p.549; Edit. Oxon.1807.

[109:2] Acts xviii.6.

[109:3] Acts xviii.8.

[109:4] 1 Cor. i.26.

[109:5] Rom. xvi.23. This epistle was written from Corinth.

[109:6] Acts xviii.8.

[109:7] 1 Cor. i.14; Rom. xvi.23.

[109:8] Acts xviii.2, 26; Rom. xvi.3; 1 Cor. xvi.19; 2 Tim. iv.19.

[110:1] Acts xviii.2.

[110:2] "Rabbi Judah saith, 'He that teacheth not his son a trade, doth the same as if he taught him to be a thief;' and Rabban Gamaliel saith, 'He that hath a trade in his hand, to what is he like? He is like a vineyard that is fenced.'" -- See Alford on Acts, xviii.3.

[110:3] Acts xviii.3.

[111:1] Epiphanius, "Haer.," xxx.16.

[111:2] Acts xviii.11.

[112:1] Acts xviii.9, 10.

[112:2] See 1 Cor. i.11, and xi.20, 21; and 2 Cor. xii.21, and xiii.2.

[112:3] See 1 Cor. vi.9-11.

[112:4] Acts xviii.12.

[112:5] Acts xviii.13.

[113:1] Acts xviii.14-16.

[113:2] Acts xviii.17.

[113:3] 1 Thess. v.12, 13.

[113:4] 2 Thess. ii.2.

[113:5] 2 Thess. ii.3-12.

[113:6] 1 Thess. i.9.

[114:1] [Greek: Tas paradoseis].

[114:2] 2 Thess. ii.15. Paul is here speaking, not of what had been handed down from preceding generations, but of what had been established by his own apostolic authority, so that the rendering "traditions" in our English version is a peculiarly unhappy translation.

[115:1] Acts xviii.18.

[115:2] See Conybeare and Howson, i.454.

[115:3] Acts xviii.19.

[116:1] Acts xviii.24.

[116:2] Acts xviii.25.

[116:3] Acts xviii.26.

[116:4] It is worthy of note that she is named before Aquila in Acts xviii.18; Rom. xvi.3; and 2 Tim. iv.19.

[116:5] 1 Cor. xiv.34, 35; 1 Tim. ii.12.

[117:1] Acts xviii.24.

[117:2] Acts xviii.27.

[117:3] Acts xviii.27, 28.

[117:4] 1 Cor. iii.4-6.

[118:1] Acts xviii.22.

[118:2] Acts xviii.23.

[118:3] Acts xvi.6.

[118:4] Acts xix.8.

[118:5] Acts xix.9.

[119:1] That this epistle was written after the second visit appears from Gal. iv.13. Mr Ellicott asserts that "the first time" is here the preferable translation of [Greek: to proteron], and yet, rather inconsistently, adds, that "no historical conclusions can safely be drawn from this expression alone." See his "Critical and Grammatical Commentary on Galatians," iv.13.

[119:2] Gal. i.6, iii.1.

[120:1] Gal. ii.16, iv.1-4, v.1.

[120:2] 1 Cor. xvi.7; 2 Cor. xii.14, xiii.1.

[120:3] The Acts take no notice of various parts of his early career as a preacher. Compare Acts ix.20-26 with Gal. i.17.

[120:4] 2 Cor. xi.25.

[120:5] 2 Cor. xi.26.

[120:6] Titus i.5.

[120:7] See Titus i.6-11, ii.1, 7, 8, 15, iii.8-11. The reasons assigned in support of a later date for the writing of this epistle do not appear at all satisfactory. Paul directs the evangelist (Titus iii.12) to come to him to Nicopolis, for he had "determined there to winter." This Nicopolis was in Greece, in the province of Achaia, and we know that Paul wintered there in A.D.57-58. Acts xx.2, 3. See Schaff's "Apostolic Church," i.390.

[120:8] 2 Cor. ii.13, vii.6, 13, viii.6, 16, 23, xii.18; Gal. ii.1, 3.

[121:1] Acts xix.10.

[121:2] See Col. iv.13, 15, 16. These churches were not, however, founded by Paul. See Col. ii.1.

[121:3] "This was the largest of the Greek temples. The area of the Parthenon at Athens was not one fourth of that of the temple of Ephesus." -- Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography, Art. EPHESUS.

[121:4] Conybeare and Howson, ii.72.

[121:5] Acts xix.35.

[122:1] Conybeare and Howson, ii.73. Minucius Felix in his Octavius speaks of Diana as represented "at Ephesus with many distended breasts ranged in tiers."

[122:2] Conybeare and Howson, ii.13.

[122:3] His Life, written by Philostratus about A.D.210, is full of lying wonders. His biographer mentions his visit to Ephesus, book iv.1.

[123:1] Acts xix.11, 12.

[123:2] Acts xix.16, 17.

[123:3] The piece of silver here mentioned was worth about tenpence, so that the estimated value of the books burned was about L2000.

[123:4] Acts xix.19, 20.

[123:5] It was written not long before Paul left Ephesus, and probably about the time of the Passover.1 Cor. v.7, xvi.5-8.

[123:6] 1 Cor. i.11.

[123:7] 1 Cor. v.1.

[123:8] 1 Cor. xv.12. This passage supplies evidence that errorists very soon made their appearance in the Christian Church, and furnishes an answer to those chronologists who date all the Pastoral Epistles after Paul's release from his first imprisonment, on the ground that the Gnostics had no existence at an earlier period.

[124:1] Acts xix.24.

[124:2] Conybeare and Howson, ii.74.

[124:3] Acts xix.25.

[125:1] Acts xix.25-27.

[125:2] Acts xix.28.

[125:3] See Conybeare and Howson, ii.79-81.

[125:4] Acts xix.29.

[125:5] See Hackett's "Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles," p.273.

[125:6] Acts xix.31.

[126:1] Acts xx.34. The Asiarchs "derived their title from the name of the province, as the corresponding officers in Cyprus, Syria, and Lydia, were called Cypriarchs, Syriarchs, Lydiarchs. Those of Asia are said to have been ten in number.... As the games and sacrifices over which these Asiarchs presided, were provided at their own expense, they were always chosen from the richest class, and may be said to represent the highest rank of the community." -- Alexander on the Acts, ii.210.

[126:2] 2 Tim. iv.14.

[126:3] Acts xix.34. It has been observed that, according to the ideas of the heathen, this unintermitted cry was, in itself, an act of worship; and hence we may understand why it was so long continued, but it is surely a notable example of "vain repetitions." See Hackett, p.275.

[127:1] Acts xix.40.

[127:2] Acts xix.32.

[127:3] Our English version "robbers of churches" is obviously incorrect.

[127:4] Acts xix.37. It is plain from this passage that the apostle, when referring to the Gentile worship, avoided the use of language calculated to give unnecessary offence.

[128:1] 1 Cor. xvi.8.

[128:2] Acts xx.1.

[128:3] Rom. xv.19.

[128:4] See Acts xix.22.

[128:5] 1 Tim. i.3.

[128:6] 1 Tim. i.2.

[129:1] According to the chronology adopted in our English Bible, all the Pastoral Epistles were written after Paul's release from his first imprisonment, and this theory has recently been strenuously advocated by Conybeare and Howson, Alford, and Ellicott; but their reasonings are exceedingly unsatisfactory. For, I. The statement of Conybeare and Howson that "the three epistles were nearly contemporaneous with each other" is a mere assertion resting on no solid foundation; as resemblance in style, especially when all the letters were dictated by the same individual, can be no evidence as to date. II. There is direct evidence that heresies, such as those described in these epistles, existed in the Church long before Paul's first imprisonment. See 1 Cor. iii.18, 19, xv.12; 2 Cor. xi.4, 13, 14, 15, 22, compared with 1 Tim. i.3, 7. III. The early Churches were very soon organised, as appears from Acts xiv.23; 1 Thess. v.12, 13; so that the state of ecclesiastical organisation described in the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus is no proof of the late date of these letters. IV. But the grand argument in support of the early date, and one with which the advocates of the later chronology have never fairly grappled, is derived from the fact that Paul never was in Ephesus after the time mentioned in Acts xx. When he wrote to Timothy he intended shortly to return thither. See 1 Tim. i.3, iii.14, 15. It is evident that when the apostle addressed the elders of Ephesus (Acts xx.25) and told them they should "see his face no more," he considered himself as speaking prophetically. It is clear, too, that his words were so understood by his auditors (Acts xx.38), and that the evangelist, who wrote them down several years afterwards, was still under the same impression. I agree, therefore, with Wieseler, and others, in assigning an early date to the First Epistle to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus.

[130:1] 2 Cor. xi.9, 24-28, 32, 33, xii.2, 7-9. The Second Epistle to the Corinthians was written late in A.D.57.

[130:2] 2 Cor. ii.4.

[130:3] [Greek: eis ten Hellada], i.e., Achaia.

[130:4] Acts xx.2, 3.

[130:5] Rom. xvi.1, 2, 23.

[130:6] Rom. i.8.

[130:7] Rom. xvi.7, 11.

[130:8] Rom. xvi.3.

[130:9] Acts xix.21; Rom. i.10, 11, xv.23, 24.

[131:1] Acts xx.3.

[131:2] Acts xx.6.

[131:3] Acts xx.6.

[131:4] Acts xx.17-35.

[131:5] Acts xx.36-38.

[131:6] Acts xxi.8.

[131:7] Acts xx.23, xxi.10, 11.

[131:8] [Greek: hepiskeuaramenoi] -- the reading adopted by Lachmann and others. The word "carriages" used in the authorised version for baggage, or luggage, is now unintelligible to the English reader. The word "carriage" is also used in our translation in Judges xviii.21, and 1 Sam. xvii.22, for something to be carried.

[131:9] Acts xxi.15.

[132:1] Acts ii.45.

[132:2] Rom. xv.26.

[132:3] 1 Cor. xvi.3; 2 Cor. viii.19.

[132:4] Acts xx.4.

[133:1] Prov. xviii.10.

[133:2] Acts xxi.17.

[133:3] Acts xxi.24.

[133:4] "It was customary among the Jews for those who had received deliverance from any great peril, or who from other causes desired publicly to testify their dedication to God, to take upon themselves the vow of a Nazarite.... No rule is laid down (Numb. vi.) as to the time during which this life of ascetic rigour was to continue; but we learn from the Talmud and Josephus that thirty days was at least a customary period. During this time the Nazarite was bound to abstain from wine, and to suffer his hair to grow uncut. At the termination of the period, he was bound to present himself in the temple, with certain offerings, and his hair was then cut off and burnt upon the altar. The offerings required were beyond the means of the very poor, and consequently it was thought an act of piety for a rich man to pay the necessary expenses, and thus enable his poorer countrymen to complete their vow." -- Conybeare and Howson, ii.250, 251.

[133:5] Acts xxi.26.

[134:1] Acts xxi.29.

[134:2] Acts xxi.30.

[134:3] Acts xxi.30.

[134:4] Acts xxiii.26.

[134:5] Acts xxi.32.

[134:6] Acts xxi.33, 34. There were barracks in the tower of Antonia.

[135:1] Acts xxi.38. "Assassins is in the original a Greek inflection of the Latin word Sicarii, so called from Sica, a short sword or dagger, and described by Josephus as a kind of robbers who concealed short swords beneath their garments, and infested Judea in the period preceding the destruction of Jerusalem." -- Alexander on the Acts, ii.289.

[135:2] Acts xxii.2.

[135:3] Acts xxii.22-24.

[136:1] Acts xxiii.6.

[136:2] Acts xxiii.7.

[136:3] Acts xxiii.10.

[136:4] Acts xxiii.12, 21.

[136:5] Acts xxiii.16, 23, 30.

[136:6] "Per omnem saevitiam ac libidinem jus regium servili ingenio exercuit." -- Hist. v.9.

[136:7] Josephus' "Antiq." xx. c.7. Sec.1,2.

[137:1] Acts xxiv.25.

[137:2] Acts xxiv.27.

[137:3] See some account of him in Josephus' "Antiq," xx. c.8, Sec..9, 10.

[138:1] Acts. xxv.11.

[138:2] Acts xxv.12.

[138:3] Acts xxv.13. Festus appears to have been Procurator from the beginning of the autumn of A.D.60 to the summer of A.D.62. Felix was recalled A.D.60. See Conybeare and Howson, Appendix ii. note (C).

[139:1] Josephus' "Wars," ii. c.12, Sec.8; "Antiq." xx. c.5, Sec.2.

[139:2] Acts xxv.23.

[139:3] Acts xxvi.6.

[140:1] Acts xxvi.22.

[140:2] Acts xxvi.24.

[140:3] Acts xxvi.27.

[140:4] Acts xxvi.28. Some would translate [Greek: en oligo] "in short," instead of "almost."

[140:5] Acts xxvi.29.

[141:1] Acts xxvi.30-32.

[141:2] Eph. vi.22; Phil. ii.1, 2; Col. i.24, iv.8; Philem.7, compared with 2 Cor i.3, 4.

[141:3] Acts ix.15, 16.

[142:1] Acts xxvii.20. This part of the history of the apostle has been illustrated with singular ability by James Smith, Esq. of Jordanhill in his "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul."

[142:2] Acts xxvii.5, 6.

[142:3] Acts xxviii.1. That Melita is Malta has been conclusively established by Smith in his "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul." "Dissertation," ii.

[142:4] Acts xxviii.11. "With regard to the dimensions of the ships of the ancients, some of them must have been quite equal to the largest merchantman of the present day. The ship of St Paul had, in passengers and crew, 276 persons on board, besides her cargo of wheat, and as they were carried on by another ship of the same class, she must also have been of great size. The ship in which Josephus was wrecked contained 600 people." -- Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, p.147.

[143:1] Acts xxviii.13.

[143:2] Acts xxvii.17.

[143:3] Acts xxvii.29. "The ancient vessels did not carry, in general, so large anchors as those which we employ; and hence they had often a greater number of them. Athenaeus mentions a ship which had eight iron anchors." Hackett, p.372.

[143:4] Acts xxvii.27.

[143:5] "When the Lively, frigate, unexpectedly fell in with this very point, the quarter-master on the look-out, who first observed it, states, in his evidence at the court-martial, that, at the distance of a quarter of a mile the land could not be seen." -- Smith's Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul, pp.89, 90.

[144:1] Hackett, p.371.

[144:2] Acts xxvii.28.

[144:3] Conybeare and Howson, ii.351.

[144:4] Acts xxvii.39.

[144:5] Acts xxvii 41.

[144:6] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p.102.

[144:7] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p.92.

[144:8] Acts xxvii.41.

[145:1] Smith's "Voyage and Shipwreck of St Paul," p.104.

[145:2] Conybeare and Howson make the population more than 2,000,000 (ii.376). Merivale reduces it to something less than 700,000 (iv.520). In Smith's "Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography" it is stated as upwards of 2,000,000. Greswell makes it about 1,000,000 ("Dissertations," iv.46). Dean Milman reckons it from 1,000,000 to 1,500,000 ("History of Latin Christianity," i.23).

[145:3] Merivale, iv.391.

[145:4] Rev. xvii.1.

[146:1] Merivale, iv.412.

[146:2] Merivale, iv.414-420.

[146:3] Rev. xviii.11.

[146:4] Acts xxviii.14.

[147:1] Acts xxviii.14.

[147:2] Acts xxviii.15.

[147:3] Acts xxviii.15.

[147:4] Called in our English version "the captain of the guard." The celebrated Burrus was at this time (A.D.61) the Praetorian Prefect. Wieseler, p.393. See also Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. p.199.

[147:5] Acts xxviii.16.

[148:1] Acts xxviii.17.

[148:2] Acts xxviii.23.

[148:3] Acts xxviii.24.

[148:4] Acts xxviii.31.

[148:5] Conybeare and Howson, ii.296.

[149:1] Philem.9.

[149:2] 2 Cor. x.10.

[149:3] See Conybeare and Howson, ii.428.

[149:4] Phil. ii.25; Philem.2.

[149:5] Eph. vi.13, 14, 16, 17.

[149:6] Phil. iv.3. When speaking of a "true yoke-fellow," he may here refer to the way in which he was himself unequally yoked.

[149:7] See Acts xxvi.1, 29.

[149:8] Eph. iv.1.

[150:1] [Greek: en olo to praitorio] -- "We never find the word employed for the Imperial house at Rome; and we believe the truer view to be -- that it denotes here, not the palace itself, but the quarters of that part of the Imperial guards which was in immediate attendance on the Emperor."-Conybeare and Howson, ii.428.

[150:2] Phil. i.12-14.

[150:3] Philem.18, 19.

[150:4] Col. iv.7.

[150:5] Col. ii.8, 16, 18, 23.

[150:6] Eph. vi.21, 22.

[151:1] Eph. i.1.

[151:2] Col. iv.16.

[151:3] Phil. i.3-7.

[152:1] Phil. ii.24; Philem.22.

[152:2] Phil. i.23-25.

[152:3] Rom. xv.24, 28.

[153:1] [Greek: epi to terma tes duseos] -- Epist. to the Corinthians v. Clement in the same place mentions that Paul was seven times in bonds. See also Greswell, "Dissertations," vol. iv. p.225-228.

[153:2] See Cave's "Fathers," i.147. Oxford, 1840.

[153:3] [Greek: ton phelonen]. Some think that he wished for the cloak to protect him against the cold of winter. See 2 Tim. iv.21.

[153:4] In the "Life of St Columba" by Adamnan (Dublin, 1857), the learned editor, Dr Reeves, has given an interesting account of an ancient leather book-case in his own possession. See "Life of St Columba," p.115. If Paul referred to a case, it was probably to one of a larger description.

[153:5] 2 Tim. iv.13. It is probable that, in the anticipation of his death, he wished to give the documents as a legacy to some of his friends. Among them may have been Scripture autographs.

[153:6] 2 Tim. iv.20. [Greek: apelipon]. The translation "they left," instead of "I left," is given up even by Dr Davidson, though he rejects the idea of a second imprisonment. See his "Introduction to the New Testament," iii.53.

[153:7] Miletum, or Miletus, in Crete, is mentioned by Homer. "Iliad," ii.647.

[154:1] Acts xii.6-9.

[154:2] Heb. xiii.23, 24. In this epistle he apparently refers to his late imprisonment. Heb. x.34, but the reading of the textus receptus is here rejected by many of our highest critical authorities, such as Griesbach, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Scholz. Respecting the second imprisonment, see also Eusebius, ii. c.22.

[155:1] 2 Tim. iv.20.

[155:2] Phil. ii.24.

[155:3] 2 Tim. iv.13.

[155:4] Philem.22.

[155:5] Heb. xiii.23.

[155:6] 2 Tim. iv.20.

[155:7] 2 Tim. iv.16, ii.9.

[155:8] This may refer to some powerful defence of Christianity which he had made before the Gentile tribunal of Nero.

[155:9] 2 Tim. iv.16, 17.

[156:1] 2 Tim. iv.6-8.

[156:2] "Euseb. Hist." ii.25.

[156:3] Euseb. ii.25. See the Note of Valesius on the words [Greek: katha ton auton kairon]. See also Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," iii.361.

[156:4] 2 Tim. iv.11.

[156:5] Tertullian "De Praescrip," c.36. Euseb. ii.25. See also Lactantius, or the work ascribed to him, "De Mort. Persecutorum," c.2.

[156:6] According to Gregory Nazianzen, Judea was the sphere of Peter. "Oratio." 25, tom. i.438. If so, Paul when visiting Jerusalem was likely to meet with him.

[157:1] 1 Pet. v.13.

[157:2] Rev. xvii.5, xviii.2, 10, 21.

[157:3] Euseb. ii.15.

[157:4] 1 Pet. iv.12.

[157:5] 2 Tim. iv.11.

[157:6] 1 Pet. v.13.

[157:7] 1 Pet. v.12.

[157:8] Acts xv.40, xvi.19, 25, xvii.4, 10, xviii.5; 1 Thess. i.1; 2 Thess. i.1.

[158:1] 1 Pet. v.12.

[158:2] The Jews at this time were wont to call Rome by the name of Babylon. It was not, therefore, strange that Peter, being a Jew, used this phraseology. See Wordsworth's "Lectures on the Apocalypse," p.345, and the authorities there quoted.

[158:3] 2 Pet. i.12, iii.1.

[158:4] These words apparently suggest that the preceding letter was written not long before.

[159:1] 2 Pet. i.13.14.

[159:2] Gal. iv.17, 21, vi.12; Col. ii.16-18.

[159:3] 1 Pet. i.1.

[159:4] 2 Pet. iii.16.

[159:5] As Heb. vi.4-6, vii.1-3, ix.17.

[160:1] 2 Pet. iii.16.

[160:2] Euseb. iii.1.

[160:3] Euseb. iii.1.

[160:4] Prudentius, "Peristeph. in Pass. Petr. et Paul." Hymn xii. Augustine, serm.28. "De Sanctis." The testimony of earlier witnesses represents them as dying "about the same time." See Euseb. ii. c.25.

[161:1] Phil. iv.22.

[161:2] Caius, a Roman presbyter who flourished about the beginning of the third century, refers to the Vatican and the Ostian Way as the places where they suffered. Routh's "Reliquiae," ii. p.127.

[162:1] Hab. ii.3.

[163:1] John i.11.

[163:2] John xix.15.

[163:3] Acts iv.3, v.18.

[164:1] Acts xii.2, 3.

[164:2] See Acts xvii.5, xviii.12.

[165:1] Acts xviii.2. Suetonius in Claud. (c.25), says -- "Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes Roma expulit." The words Christus and Chrestus seem to have been often confounded, and it has been thought that the historian here refers to some riotous proceedings among the Jews in Rome arising out of discussions relative to Christianity. These disturbances took place about A.D.53. It is remarkable that even in the beginning of the third century the Christians were sometimes called Chrestiani. Hence Tertullian says -- "Sed et cum perperam Chrestianus pronunciatur a vobis, nam nec nominis certa est notitia penes vos, de suavitate vel benignitate compositum est." "Apol." c. iii. See also "Ad Nationes," lib. i. c.3.

[165:2] See Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. p.233.

[165:3] Eusebius, ii.23.

[166:1] "Certi enim esse debemus, si quos latet per ignorantiam literature secularis, etiam ostiorum deos apud Romanos, Cardeam a cardinibus appellatam, et Forculum a foribus, et Limentinum a limine, et ipsum Janum a janua." Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c.15. See also the same writer "Ad Nationes," ii. c.10, 15; and "De Corona," 13.

[166:2] 2 Tim. iii.12. Cyprian touches upon the same subject in his Treatise on the "Vanity of Idols," c.2.

[167:1] The Christians were familiar with the idea of the conflagration of the world, and there is much plausibility in the conjecture that, as they gazed on the burning city, they may have given utterance to expressions which were misunderstood, and which awakened suspicion. "Some," says Dean Milman, "in the first instance, apprehended and examined, may have made acknowledgments before a passionate and astonished tribunal, which would lead to the conclusion that, in the hour of general destruction, they had some trust, some security, denied to the rest of mankind; and this exemption from common misery, if it would not mark them out in some dark manner, as the authors of the conflagration, at all events would convict them of that hatred of the human race so often advanced against the Jews." -- Milman's History of Christianity, ii.37, 38.

[167:2] Tacitus, "Annal." xv.44.

[167:3] Heb. xii.4.

[167:4] Heb. x.25.

[168:1] 1 Pet. iv.12.

[168:2] 1 Pet. iv.17.

[168:3] Tertullian, "Ad Nationes," i.7.

[168:4] See "De Mortibus Persecutorum," c.2, and Sulpitius Severus, lib. ii. p.139; Edit. Leyden, 1635.

[168:5] Dan. ix.27.

[169:1] Matt. xxiv.2, 15, 16, 34; Mark xiii.2, 14, 30; Luke xxi.6, 20, 21, 24, 32.

[169:2] See Euseb. iii.31.

[169:3] Acts xvii.7.

[169:4] Euseb. iii.20.

[169:5] Matt. xiii.55. See Greswell's "Dissertations," ii.114, 121, 122.

[170:1] Matt, xxvii.57; Mark xv.43.

[170:2] Acts xiii.7.

[170:3] Phil. iv.22.

[170:4] Dio Cassius, lxvii.14.

[170:5] Euseb. iii.18.

[171:1] Rev. i.9.

[171:2] Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." c.36.

[171:3] See Mosheim, Cent. i. part i. ch.5.

[171:4] According to Baronius ("Annal." ad. an.92, 98) John was six years in Patmos, or from A.D.92 to A.D.98. Other writers think that he was set at liberty some time before the death of Domitian, or about A.D.95. According to this reckoning, had he been six years in exile, he must have been banished A.D.89. This conclusion derives some countenance from the "Chronicon" of Eusebius, which represents the tyrant in the eighth and ninth years of his reign, or about A.D.89, as proscribing and putting to death very many of his subjects. If the visions of the Apocalypse were vouchsafed to John in A.D.89, the interval between their revelation and the establishment of the Pope as a temporal prince is found to be 755-89, or exactly 666 years. See Rev. xiii.18. There is another very curious coincidence in this case; for the interval between the fall of the Western Empire, and the establishment of the Bishop of Rome as a temporal prince, is 755-476=279 complete, or 280 current years, that is, 40 prophetic weeks. But it so happens that the period of human gestation is 40 weeks, and this would lead to the inference that the Man of Sin was conceived as soon as the Western Empire fell. See 2 Thess. ii.7, 8. I am not aware that these remarkable coincidences have yet been noticed, and I therefore submit them to the consideration of the students of prophecy.

[172:1] See Burton's "Lectures," i.361.

[172:2] 2 John 1; 3 John 1.

[172:3] 1 Pet. v.1; Philem.1.

[172:4] Acts xx.28.

[172:5] Mark iii.17.

[172:6] Jerome, "Comment. on Galatians," vi.10.

[172:7] See Vitringa, "Observationes Sacrae," lib. iv. c.7, 8.

[173:1] Rev. iii.16.

[173:2] Rev. iii.2.

[173:3] Rev. ii.5.

[173:4] Claudia, the wife of Pudens, supposed to be mentioned 2 Tim. iv.21, is said to have been a Briton by birth. See Fuller's "Church History of Britain," vol. i. p.11; Edit. London, 1837.

[173:5] Euseb. ii.16.

[173:6] Acts ii.10.

[174:1] Acts ii.9, 11.

[174:2] See in Cave's "Fathers," Bartholomew, Matthew, and Thomas.

[175:1] 1 Cor. vi.9-11.

[175:2] Prov. xviii.24.

[177:1] John xiv.26.

[177:2] John xvi.13.

[177:3] See Irenaeus, "Adv. Haeres.," iii.1; and Euseb. vi.14.

[177:4] It is probable that these three Gospels were written nearly at the same time. When Luke wrote, he does not seem to have been aware of the existence of any other Gospel. See Luke i.4.

[177:5] Origen, "Dial, de Recta in Deum Fide," sec. i. tom. i. p.806; Edit. Delarue. Paris, 1733. See Whitby's "Preface to Luke." There is good reason to believe that the "young man" mentioned Mark xiv.51, 52, was no other than Mark himself (Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," i.139); and if so, we have thus additional evidence that the evangelist had enjoyed the advantages of our Lord's ministry. He has always been reputed the founder of the Church of Alexandria, and the testimony of Origen to the fact that he was one of the Seventy is therefore of special value; as the Alexandrian presbyter was, no doubt, well acquainted with the traditions of the Church of the Egyptian metropolis.

[178:1] Acts i.21.

[178:2] Luke i.2.

[178:3] Matt. ix.9, x.3.

[178:4] Mark xiv.71.

[178:5] Luke xxiv.25.

[178:6] John xxi.23.

[178:7] Matt. xxviii.19.

[179:1] Mark ix.15.

[179:2] Luke x.1.

[179:3] John xiv., xv., xvi., xvii.

[179:4] See Horne's "Introduction," ii.173. Sixth Edition.

[180:1] See Baumgarten on Acts, vii., viii., ix., xiii.

[180:2] Period i. sec. i. chap.7, 8, 9.

[180:3] Horne, iv.359.

[181:1] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," Lectures viii. ix.

[181:2] Prov. xxx.5.

[181:3] This designation is not found in the most ancient manuscripts. Thus, in the very ancient "Recension of the Four Gospels in Syriac," recently edited by Dr Cureton, we have simply -- "Gospel of Mark" -- "Gospel of John," &c. See p.6, Preface. See also any ordinary edition of the Greek Testament.

[181:4] Horne, ii.174.

[182:1] Titus iii.12.

[182:2] Some, however, assign to it a much earlier date. See Davidson's "Introduction to the New Testament," iii.320.

[182:3] See Period i. sec. i. chap.10, p.158.

[182:4] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," p.273.

[182:5] See Davidson's "Introduction," iii.464, 491.

[182:6] Irenaeus, v.30. Euseb. iii.18.

[182:7] See Wordsworth "On the Canon," p.157, 160, 249.

[182:8] Justin Martyr, ap. i.67.

[182:9] 2 Pet. iii.16

[183:1] Wordsworth "On the Canon," p.205.

[183:2] "The allusions to the Epistle to the Hebrews are so numerous that it is not too much to say that it was wholly transfused into Clement's mind." -- Westcott on the Canon, p.32. See also Euseb. iii.38.

[183:3] Wordsworth "On the Canon," p.249.

[183:4] "The word ([Greek: graphe]) translated Scripture, which properly means simply a writing, occurs fifty times in the New Testament; and in all these fifty places, it is applied to the writings of the Old and New Testament, and to no other." -- Wordsworth, p.185, 186.

[183:5] Wordsworth, p.249, 250.

[184:1] See Davidson's "Introduction," iii.540-550.

[184:2] See Horne's "Introduction," ii.168. The author of the present division into chapters is said to have been Hugo de Sancto Caro, a learned writer who flourished about the middle of the thirteenth century. The New Testament was first divided into verses by Robert Stephens in 1551. The Geneva Bible was the first English version of the Scriptures into which these divisions of Stephens were introduced.

[184:3] Horne, ii.169.

[185:1] John v.39; 2 Tim. iii.15.

[185:2] Rev. i.3. See also 2 Peter i.19.

[185:3] Paul's epistles were often written with the hand of another. See Rom. xvi.22; 2 Thess. iii.17.

[186:1] Ps. xii.6.

[186:2] The epistle to Diognetus may have been written in the first century, but it is commonly referred to a later date.

[186:3] He speaks of the Church of Corinth at the time as "most ancient" (Sec.47), and refers apparently to the Domitian persecution. See Euseb. iii.15, 16.

[186:4] Tertullian also illustrates the resurrection by the story of the phoenix, "De Resurrec. Carn." c.13.

[187:1] Clement's "Epistle to the Corinthians," Sec.25. The fragment of the second epistle is not generally considered genuine.

[189:1] Matt. v.17.

[189:2] 2 Tim. i.10.

[189:3] Matt. xvi.16; John i.41.

[189:4] Luke xxiv.19, 21; John i.49.

[189:5] Matt. xvi.21, 22; John xii.34.

[189:6] Mark xv.43; Luke ii.38.

[189:7] John iv.20-25.

[189:8] John xix.12.

[189:9] Matt. ii.2, 3, xx.21; John vi.15.

[190:1] Acts i.6.

[190:2] Luke xxiv.45.

[190:3] Luke xxiv.44.

[190:4] Acts x.34, 35.

[190:5] Acts xi.3, 17.

[190:6] Heb. x.1, 14, 18.

[190:7] Period i. sec. ii. chap.1.

[191:1] Mark vii.7-9.

[191:2] Matt. iv.1-10, xii.3, 5, 7; Mark xii.26.

[191:3] John v.39.

[191:4] Acts ii.14-36.

[191:5] 2 Tim. iii.15.

[191:6] 2 Tim. iii.16, 17.

[191:7] Matt. xxii.43, 45; Gal. iii.16; Heb. ii.8, 11.

[191:8] John x.34, 35; Heb. viii.13.

[191:9] Acts xxviii.25; Heb. iii.7.

[191:10] Heb. i.1, 2; Matt. i.22, ii.15.

[192:1] 1 Cor. ii.13.

[192:2] 2 Tim. iii.16.

[192:3] Gen. iii.15; Ps. cxxx.7, 8; Dan. ix.24.

[192:4] Ps. xcviii.1-4; Isa. ix.6.

[192:5] Rom. iii.19.

[192:6] Eph. ii.1.

[192:7] John v.24.

[192:8] Rev. iii.20.

[192:9] Heb. xi.27.

[193:1] Heb. xii.2.

[193:2] Heb. vi.18.

[193:3] 1 Pet. ii.3.

[193:4] Rom. v.1.

[193:5] Acts xv.9.

[193:6] 1 John v.4.

[193:7] Rom. v.2.

[193:8] Heb. xi.1.

[193:9] John xx.31.

[193:10] John i.29.

[193:11] Rom. x.4.

[194:1] Eph. v.23.

[194:2] Rev. xvii.14.

[194:3] Col. i.27.

[194:4] Ps. cxlvi.8, compared with John ix.32, 33.

[194:5] Job ix.8, compared with Matt. xiv.25.

[194:6] Ps. cvii.29, compared with Luke viii.24.

[194:7] Amos iv.13, compared with Matt. xii.25, and John ii.24, 25.

[194:8] Tit. ii.14.

[194:9] Mark ii.5-10.

[194:10] Eph. v.26.

[194:11] Acts xvi.14; Luke xxiv.45.

[194:12] Rev. ii.23.

[194:13] Mal. iii. i.

[194:14] Isa. xl.3, and vi.1, compared with John xii.38-41.

[194:15] Isa. xl.3, 9; Ps. xlv.6.

[194:16] Ps. ii.12.

[194:17] Ps. lxxii.15.

[194:18] Ps. ii.12, compared with Ps. cxlvi.3, 5, and Isa. xxvi.4.

[194:19] John i.49; Matt. xvi.16, 17.

[194:20] Such as John xx.28, xxi.17.

[195:1] Luke xxiv.27.

[195:2] 1 Cor. xii.3.

[195:3] Rom. ix.5.

[195:4] Eph. i.12, 13; Matt. xii.21.

[195:5] Col. iii.24.

[195:6] Acts ix.14; 1 Cor. i.2.

[195:7] Rev. v.11-13. Though modern criticism has shaken the credit of some passages usually quoted in support of the Deity of Christ, such as 1 Tim. iii.16, it is remarkable that it has discovered others equally strong not now in the received text. See Lachmann's text of Col. ii.2, and 1 Pet. iii.15.

[196:1] Heb. ii.14.

[196:2] Matt. xvi.22.

[196:3] Luke xxiv.46.

[196:4] Rom. iii.26.

[197:1] Heb. ix.12.

[197:2] 1 Cor. i.24.

[197:3] Phil. ii.13.

[197:4] Eph. i.4-6.

[197:5] Matt, xxviii.19; John x.30, xv.26.

[198:1] Eph. iv.5.

[198:2] See Bingham, iii.323-327.

[198:3] Acts viii.37; 1 Pet. iii.21.

[198:4] Matt. i.21.

[199:1] Prov. viii.11.

[199:2] Phil. iv.11-14.

[200:1] "[Greek: Hairesis] autem Graece, ab electione dicitur: quod scilicet eam sibi unusquisque eligat disciplinam, quam putat esse meliorem." -- Hieronymus in Epist. ad Galat. c.5. See also Tertullian, "De Praescrip." c.6.

[200:2] "Life," Section 2; "Antiq." xiii.5, 9.

[200:3] Acts xxvi.5.

[200:4] Acts xxiv.5.

[200:5] Gal. v.20.

[201:1] Eph. iv.17, 18; Col. i.13.

[201:2] John iii.18, 19.

[201:3] Mosheim has overlooked this fact, and has, in consequence, been betrayed into some false criticism when treating on this subject.

[201:4] Titus iii.10.

[201:5] 2 Pet. ii.1.

[202:1] Every one acquainted with the works of Philo Judaeus must be aware that Jewish literature was now largely impregnated with pagan philosophy.

[202:2] Col. ii.8.

[202:3] 1 Tim. vi.20.

[202:4] See Burton's "Inquiry into the Heresies of the Apostolic Age," pp.314, 315. Also Mosheim's "Dissertation" appended to Cudworth, iii.171.

[203:1] Col. i.16, 17.

[204:1] From [Greek: dokeo], I appear.

[204:2] John i.14.

[204:3] 1 John iv.3.

[204:4] 1 John i.1-3.

[204:5] 2 John 7.

[204:6] 1 Cor. xv.12.

[204:7] 2 Tim. ii.16-18.

[205:1] Acts viii.9.

[205:2] Irenaeus, i.23; Eusebius, ii.13.

[205:3] Acts viii.20-23.

[205:4] Acts viii.9.

[205:5] Justin Martyr, "Apol." ii.69. Edit. Paris, 1615.

[205:6] 1 Tim. i.20; 2 Tim. i.15, ii.17, iv.14.

[206:1] Irenaeus, i.25, 26; Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." 33; Epiphanius, "Haer." xxx.2, lxix.23.

[206:2] Irenaeus, iii.3, 4.

[206:3] Irenaeus, iii.11.

[206:4] Rev. ii.6, 15.

[206:5] Acts vi.5. Others conceive, however, that the name Nicolaitanes is merely equivalent to Balaamites (as Balaam in Hebrew is nearly equivalent to Nicolas in Greek, each word signifying Ruler, or Conqueror of the people), and that the apostle does not here refer to any party already known by this designation, but to all who, like Balaam, were seducers of God's people. See Neander, "General History," ii.159. Edinburgh edition, 1847.

[207:1] Rev. ii.6, 15.

[207:2] Acts xxiii.1, 6.

[207:3] 1 John ii.19.

[207:4] Compare Jude 19, and Heb. x.25.

[208:1] 1 Tim. i.20.

[208:2] Rev. ii.15.

[208:3] Hegesippus in Euseb., iv.22.

[208:4] Eusebius, iv.22.

[208:5] 1 Cor. xi.19.

[209:1] James iii.17.

[210:1] Luke xxiv.21.

[210:2] Luke xxiv.17, 22, 23.

[211:1] Acts xx.7.

[211:2] Rev. i.10, [Greek: he kurtake hemera]. The day was ever afterwards distinguished by this designation. See a letter from Dionysius of Corinth in Eusebius, iv.23. See also Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p.418. The first day of the week is called "the Christian Sabbath" in the Ethiopic version of the "Apostolical Constitutions." See Platt's "Didascalia," p.99. But these Constitutions are of comparatively late origin.

[211:3] Matt. v.17-19.

[211:4] Matt. iii.15.

[211:5] Matt. xii.3-5; Mark ii.25, 26.

[211:6] Matt. xii.7.

[211:7] Gen. ii.3.

[212:1] Exod. xx.1-17.

[212:2] Mark ii.27.

[212:3] Matt. xxiv.20.

[212:4] See Heb. xiii.10, 15, 16; Ps. li.17.

[212:5] Isa. lvi.6, 7. Compare with Isa. ii.2.

[212:6] Mark ii.28.

[212:7] John xx.19, 26. According to the current style of speaking," after eight days" means the eighth day after. See Matt, xxvii.63.

[213:1] Acts ii.1. That the day of Pentecost was the first day of the week appears from Lev. xxiii.11, 15. The same inference may be drawn from John xviii.28, and xix.31, compared with Lev. xxiii.5, 6. See also Schaff's "History of the Apostolic Church," i. p.230, note, and the authorities there quoted.

[213:2] In the same way the Eucharist is called the Lord's Supper: [Greek: Kuriakon deipnon] (1 Cor. xi.20). Thus also we speak of the Lord's house, and the Lord's people.

[213:3] Heb. x.25.

[213:4] 1 Cor. xvi.1, 2.

[213:5] Isa. lxv.17, 18.

[213:6] [Greek: Sabbatiamos]. See Owen "On the Hebrews," iv.9.

[213:7] Heb. iv.9, 10.

[213:8] Rom. xiv.5.

[214:1] Col. ii.16, 17.

[214:2] The ordinary temple service could scarcely be called congregational. It was almost exclusively ceremonial and typical, consisting of sacrificing, burning incense, and offering various oblations. The worshippers generally prayed apart. See Luke i.10, xviii.10, 11.

[215:1] See these eighteen prayers in Prideaux's "Connexions," i.375, and note. Bingham admits (Orig. iv.194), that these are their "most ancient" forms of devotion; and, of course, if they were written after the fall of Jerusalem, it follows that the Jews had no liturgy in the days of our Lord. Had they then been limited to fixed forms, He would scarcely have upbraided the Scribes and Pharisees for hypocritically "making long prayer" Matt, xxiii.14.

[215:2] See Palmer's "Origines Liturgicae," i. pp.44-92; and Clarkson's "Discourse concerning Liturgies;" "Select Works," p.342.

[215:3] Matt. vi.9-13.

[215:4] 1 Thess. v.18.

[215:5] Eph. vi.18.

[215:6] Eph. vi.18.

[215:7] Acts i.24, 25, iv.24-30.

[216:1] See Lightfoot's "Temple Service," ch. vii. sec.2; "Works," ix.56.

[216:2] Lightfoot's "Prospect of the Temple," ch. xxxiii.; "Works," ix.384.

[216:3] The multitudes who assembled at the great festivals in the temple could not well unite in one service. The wall of the building was more than half a mile in circumference. See Lightfoot, ix.217. There were various courts and divisions in the building.

[216:4] Heb. ix.9-12, x.1; John ii.19-21; 1 Pet. ii.5.

[216:5] Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p.203.

[216:6] Eph. v.19. According to some, the Psalms were divided into these three classes.

[216:7] Heb. xiii.15.

[217:1] Bingham, ii.482-484.

[217:2] Luke iv.16, 17.

[217:3] Col. iv.16; 1 Thess. v.27.

[217:4] 1 Cor. xiv.29. It would appear from this that only two or three persons were permitted to speak at a meeting. By him that "sitteth by" (verse 30), a doctor or teacher is meant. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p.600, and Matt. v.1.

[217:5] 1 Cor. xiv.27. The gift of "interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. xii.10) was quite as wonderful as the gift of "divers kinds of tongues" (1 Cor. xii.10).

[218:1] Censers were introduced into the Church about the fourth or fifth century. Bingham, ii.454, 455.

[218:2] 1 Cor. xvi.19; Col. iv.15; Philem.2.

[218:3] Matt. iii.4.

[218:4] The rite of confirmation, as now practised, has no sanction in the New Testament. The "baptisms" and "laying on of hands," mentioned Heb. vi.2, are obviously the "divers washings" of the Jews, and the imposition of hands on the heads of victims. The laying on of the apostles' hands conferred miraculous gifts. Had the apostle referred to Christian baptism in Heb. vi.2, he would have used the singular number.

[218:5] Lightfoot affirms that the use of baptism among the Israelites was as ancient as the days of Jacob. He appeals in support of this view to Gen. xxxv.2. "Works," iv.278.

[219:1] Lightfoot's "Works," iv.409, 410. Edit. London, 1822.

[219:2] Acts x.2, 44-48, xvi.15, 33, xviii.8; 1 Cor. i.16.

[219:3] Acts viii.37.

[219:4] Mark xvi.16; John iii.18.

[219:5] Matt. xix.14; Luke xviii.15. In the New Testament children are described as uniting with their Christian parents in prayer (Acts xxi.5). Were not these children baptized? They were no doubt brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. vi.4).

[220:1] Col. ii.11, 12, 13.

[220:2] Col. i.2, iii.20; Eph. vi.1, 4.

[220:3] 1 John ii.12.

[220:4] Acts ii.38, 39.

[220:5] 1 Cor. vii.14. The absurdity of the interpretation according to which holy is here made to signify legitimate, is well exposed by Dr Wilson in his treatise on "Infant Baptism," p.513. London, 1848.

[220:6] This would, indeed, have been almost, if not altogether, impossible. They would probably act somewhat differently at the river Jordan and in such a place as the jail at Philippi.

[220:7] [Greek: Baptizo].

[221:1] Dr Wilson has demonstrated the incorrectness of Dr Carson's statements on this subject. See his "Infant Baptism," p.96.

[221:2] Wilson's "Infant Baptism," p.157. In Titus iii.5, 6, there is something like a reference to this mode of baptism: "The washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed (or poured out) on us abundantly." [Greek: Ou execheen eph' hemas plousios].

[221:3] In some cases, as at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, they do not seem to have had the means of immersing their converts. See also Acts x.47. The text John iii.23, indicates the difficulty of baptizing by dipping.

[221:4] Isa. lii.15; Ezek. xxxvi.25; I Pet. i.2; Heb. ix.10; Rev. i.5.

[221:5] 1 Cor. v.7, 8.

[221:6] Acts xx.7.

[221:7] Acts xx.7; 1 Cor. x.16.

[222:1] It was in use before the end of the second century. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.431, 451.

[222:2] 1 Cor. x.17.

[222:3] 1 Cor. v.11.

[222:4] See Lightfoot's "Works," iii.242, and xi.179. Vitringa "De Synagoga," p.550.

[222:5] Acts xx.28.

[223:1] Heb. xiii.17.

[223:2] Heb. xxi.17.

[223:3] 1 Tim. iii.5.

[223:4] 1 Tim. v.19, 20.

[223:5] Heb. xiii.17.

[223:6] 1 Cor. v.1,13.

[223:7] 2 Cor. ii.6.

[224:1] See Period I. section i. chap. v. p.88.

[224:2] 1 Cor. v.2, 6.

[224:3] 1 Cor. V.3-5.

[224:4] 1 John v.19, [Greek: en to ponero].

[225:1] In the above passage respecting delivering unto Satan there may be a reference to Job ii.6, 7, and it may be that some bodily affliction rested on the offender. In that case there would be here an exercise of supernatural power on the part of Paul. According to Tertullian, to deliver to Satan was simply to excommunicate. "De ceteris dixit qui illis traditis Satanae, id est, extra ecclesiam projectis, erudiri haberent blasphemandum non esse." -- "De Pudicitia," c. xiii.

[225:2] 1 Cor. i.11,12.

[225:3] That the Church of Corinth at this time was organized in the same way as other Christian communities is evident from various allusions in the first epistle. See 1 Cor. iv.15, vi.5, xii.27, 28. Crispus, mentioned Acts xviii.8, was, no doubt, one of the eldership. There is a reference to the elders in 1 Cor. xiv.30. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p.600.

[225:4] In the apostolic age, censures were pronounced in presence of the whole church. See 1 Tim. v.20. It is to be noted that Paul himself does not excommunicate the offender. He merely delivers his apostolic judgment that the thing should be done, and calls upon the Corinthians to do it; but he expects them to proceed in due order, the rulers and the people performing their respective parts.

[227:1] 2 Cor. ii.7, 8. The mode of proceeding here indicated is illustrated by what took place in the Church of Rome about the middle of the third century. There certain penitents first appeared before the presbytery to express their contrition, and then it was arranged that "this whole proceeding should be communicated to the people, that they might see those established in the Church, whom they had so long seen and mourned wandering and straying." -- Cyprian, Epist. xlvi. p.136. Edit. Baluzius, Venice, 1728.

[228:1] That "the church" here signifies the eldership, see Vitringa, "De Synagoga," p.724.

[228:2] Matt, xviii.15, 17.

[228:3] In our English version the original word [Greek:(paradosin)] is improperly rendered tradition.

[228:4] Thess. iii.6.

[228:5] Matt. v.45.

[229:1] 2 Thess. iii.14, 15.

[229:2] For an account of the excommunication of the Druids, see Caesar, "De Bello Gallico," vi.13. Many things in the Latin excommunication are doubtless borrowed from paganism.

[229:3] As an example of this, see an old form of excommunication in Collier's "Ecclesiastical History," ii.273. Edit. London, 1840.

[230:1] Eph. iv.11, 12.

[230:2] 1 Cor. xii.28.

[230:3] 2 Tim. iv.5.

[230:4] Acts xxi.8, viii.5.

[230:5] 1 Tim. i 3, v.1, 7, 17; Tit. i.5.

[231:1] Acts viii.13; 2 Tim. i.6. This latter text is often quoted, though erroneously, as if it referred to the ordination of Timothy. The ordainer usually laid on only his right hand. See "Con. Carthag." iv. can. iii. iv. In conferring extraordinary endowments both hands were imposed. See Acts xix.6.

[231:2] John xiv.26, xvi.13, xx.22.

[231:3] Matt. x.1, xxviii.18, 19.

[231:4] John xx.26, xxi.1; Acts i.3; 1 Cor. ix.1.

[231:5] Such is the opinion of Chrysostom and others. See Alford on this passage.

[231:6] Acts vi.2-4.

[231:7] In the Peshito version helps and governments are translated helpers and governors.

[232:1] It is remarkable that the lay council of the modern synagogue are called Parnasim or Pastors. See Vitringa, "De Synagoga," pp.578, 635.

[232:2] Mr Alford observes that in 1 Cor. xii.28, "we must not seek for a classified arrangement" -- the arrangement being "rather suggestive than logical." Hence "helps" are mentioned before "governments." In the same way in Eph. iv.11, "pastors" precede "teachers."

[232:3] Acts xx.28; 1 Pet. v.2.

[232:4] Acts xx.17, 28; Titus i.5, 7; 1 Pet. v.1, 2.

[232:5] 1 Tim. iii.1, 2, 5.

[232:6] 1 Pet. v.1, 2, 4 The identity of elders and pastors is more distinctly exhibited in the original here, and in Acts xx.17, 28, as the word translated feed signifies literally to act as a shepherd or pastor.

[232:7] 1 Tim. v.17. Mr Ellicott, in his work on the "Pastoral Epistles," thus speaks of this passage -- "The concluding words, [Greek: en logo kai didask.], certainly seem to imply two kinds of ruling presbyters, those who preached and taught and those who did not."

[233:1] Compare 1 Cor. xii.28, and Philip, i.1; 1 Tim. iii.1-8.

[233:2] Acts vi.3, xiv.23; Titus i.5; James v.14.

[233:3] 1 Cor. xiv.1, 5, 6, 31.

[233:4] Section Rom. xii.6-8.

[233:5] 1 Tim, iii.5. Lightfoot says that, "in every synagogue there was a civil triumvirate, that is, three magistrates who judged of matters in contest arising within that synagogue." -- "Works," xi.179. The same writer declares that "in every synagogue there were elders that ruled in civil affairs, and elders that laboured in the word and doctrine." -- "Works," iii.242, 243.

[234:1] [Greek: diples times]. Those who adduce this passage to prove that the apostle here defines the pecuniary remuneration of elders involve themselves in much difficulty; for, if limited to the matter of payment, and literally interpreted, it would lead to the inference that, irrespective of the amount of service rendered, all the elders should receive the same compensation; and that no church teacher, though the father of a large family, should be allowed more than twice the gratuity of a poor widow! Compare I Tim. v.3, and 17. The "double honour" of I Tim. v.17, is evidently equivalent to the "all honour" of 1 Tim. vi.1. In the latter case there can be no reference to payment. Paul obviously means to say that the claims of elders should be fully recognized; and in the following verse (1 Tim. v.18) he refers pointedly to the temporal support to which church teachers are entitled.

[234:2] 1 Tim. iii.2-7.

[234:3] [Greek: didaktikon].

[234:4] Matt. iv.23; Acts v.42, xv.35.

[235:1] Heb. iii.13.

[235:2] Col. iii.16.

[235:3] 1 Pet. iii.15.

[235:4] 2 Tim. ii.24, 25.

[235:5] Even a female, though not permitted to speak in the Church, had often this aptness for teaching. Such was the case with the excellent Priscilla, Acts xviii.26. The aged women were required to be "teachers of good things," Titus ii.3.

[237:1] In the Church of Corinth several speakers were in the habit of addressing the same meeting.1 Cor. xiv.26, 27, 29, 31.

[237:2] 1 Tim. v.17.

[237:3] Gal. vi.6.

[237:4] 1 Tim. v.18.

[237:5] 1 Cor. ix.14.

[237:6] Matt. x.1; 1 Cor. xiv.18.

[237:7] "The place which the apostles occupied while they lived is now filled, not by a living order of ministers, but by their own inspired writings, which constitute, or ought to constitute, the supreme authority in the Church of God.... The New Testament Scriptures, as they are the only real apostolate now in existence, so, are sufficient to supply to us the place of the inspired Twelve." -- Litton's Church of Christ, p.410.

[237:1] "While it is clearly recorded that the apostles instituted the orders of presbyters and deacons, it is not so clearly recorded, indeed it is not recorded at all, that they instituted the order of bishops." -- Litton, p.426. Such a testimony from a Fellow of Oxford is creditable alike to his candour and his intelligence.

[237:2] Acts xv.6, xvi.4, xxi.18, 25.

[237:3] Acts xx.17, 25.

[237:4] Acts xx.29-31.

[237:5] Acts vi.4. "Here," says Mr Litton, "no mention is made of government or of ordination, as the special prerogative of the apostolic office; and if it were not dangerous to lay too much stress upon a single passage, it might from this one be plausibly inferred that the special function of the apostles, as representatives of the ordinary Christian ministry, has descended, not to bishops, but to presbyters, to whom it specially pertains to give themselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word." -- Litton's Church of Christ, p.407. It is certainly not dangerous to lay as much stress upon any Scripture as it will legitimately bear, and the inference hero drawn is in accordance with the rules of the most exact logic.

[238:1] 1 Cor. i.17.

[238:2] Eph. iii.8. In dealing with individuals, the apostles seldom challenged obedience on the ground of their divine authority. When they are represented as directing the movements of ministers, the language generally implies simply that the parties in question undertook certain services at their instigation or request, or by their advice. Thus, Paul says that he besought Timothy to abide in Ephesus, that he left Titus in Crete, and that he sent Epaphroditus to the Philippians (1 Tim. i.3; Titus i.5; Philip. ii.25). But Paul himself is said to have been sent forth to Tarsus by the brethren (Acts ix.30). When Mark refused to accompany Paul and Silas into Asia Minor he did not therefore forfeit his ecclesiastical status (Acts xiii.13, xv.37-39). Apart from their special commission, the apostles were entitled to deference from other ministers on account of their superior age and experience; and Paul sometimes refers to this claim. See Philem.8, 9. On the same ground all who have recently entered the ministry are bound to yield precedence to aged pastors, and to respect their advice. See 1 Pet. v.5.

[238:3] It can scarcely be necessary to remind the reader that the postscripts to these epistles setting forth that Timothy was "ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians," and that Titus was "ordained the first bishop of the Church of the Cretians," are spurious. See Period i. sec. ii. chap. i. p.181.

[239:1] 1 Tim. i.3. Paul says (1 Cor. iv.17) to the Corinthians -- "I have sent unto you Timotheus .... who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ;" and, according to the mode of reasoning employed by some, we might infer from this text that Timothy was bishop of Corinth. "It is a suspicious circumstance," says Dr Burton, "that several persons who are mentioned in the New Testament, are said to have been bishops of the places connected with their names. Thus Cornelius is said to have been bishop of Caesarea, and to have succeeded Zacchaeus, though it is highly improbable that either of them filled such an office." -- "Lectures," i., p.182.

[239:2] 1 Tim. vi.17.

[239:3] See Period i. sect. i. chap, ix. p.131.

[239:4] Acts xx.30, 31.

[240:1] The word [Greek: katasteses], here translated "ordain," should rather be rendered constitute, or establish.

[240:2] Titus i.5.

[240:3] Titus iii.13.

[240:4] Acts vi.3, xiv.23; 2 Cor. viii.19, 23.

[240:5] Acts xxiii.3.

[240:6] "The whole Sanhedrim were the judges, and sitting to judge him according to the law." -- Alford on Acts xxiii.3.

[241:1] See Prideaux's "Connections," part ii. books 1 and 8.

[241:2] Acts xxvi.17, 18. See also, as another illustration, Matt. xvi.19.

[241:3] 2 Cor. xi.28.

[241:4] 1 Tim. iv.12, 13; 2 Tim. ii.22, 23; Titus ii.7, 8.

[241:5] 1 Tim. ii.1, 2, iv.16, v.19, 20, 22; 2 Tim. ii.2, 15, iv.2, 5; Titus iii, 8, 9.

[242:1] 1 Tim. v.5, 16, vi.1, 2, 9, 17; Titus ii.6, 9, 10.

[242:2] One of the most remarkable instances of an appeal to the sense of individual obligation in a case where many were concerned may be found in Gal. vi.1.

[242:3] Whitby, in his "Preface to the Epistle to Titus," says candidly of the allegation that Timothy and Titus were bishops respectively of Ephesus and Crete -- "Now, of this matter, I confess I can find nothing in any writer of the first three centuries, nor any intimation that they bore that name."

[242:4] 1 Tim. i.3; 2 Tim. iv.10, 12, 21; Titus i.5, iii.12.

[242:5] Hence Fulgentius speaks of "cathedra Joannis Evangelistae Ephesi." Lib. "De Trinitate," c.1. Contradictory traditions sometimes happily annihilate each other.

[243:1] Homer, "Iliad," ii. v.156.

[243:2] Mark x.42-45.

[244:1] 1 Pet. v.3.

[244:2] Acts i.15, 21-23, 26.

[244:3] 2 Cor. viii.19, 23. See also 1 Cor xvi.3.

[244:4] Acts vi.3, xiv.23. See also 1 Tim. iii.10, compared with 1 John iv.1.

[244:5] Clemens Romanus states that, in the apostolic age, ecclesiastical appointments were made "with the approbation of the whole church." "Epist. to Corinthians," Sec.44.

[245:1] Acts vi.6; 1 Tim. v.22.

[245:2] See Selden, "De Synedriis," lib. i. c.14.

[245:3] Acts xiii.1-3.

[245:4] Acts xiv.23.

[245:5] 1 Tim. iv.14. That the preposition [Greek: meta] here indicates the instrumental cause, see Acts xiii.17, xiv.27.

[245:6] Acts vi.6. Some have thought it strange that Paul gives no instructions to Titus respecting the ordination of deacons in Crete. See Titus i.8. This was unnecessary, as the elders, when ordained, could afterwards ordain deacons.

[245:7] Rom. xvi.1.

[245:8] [Greek: diakonon].

[246:1] 1 Tim. v.3, 4, 9.

[246:2] Rom. xvi 2.

[247:1] 1 Cor. xii.12, 21, 26.

[249:1] Such as we find described in Deut. xxxi.10-12.

[249:2] In Greek [Greek: ekklesia]. The reference in the text is to its ecclesiastical use, for in the New Testament it sometimes signifies a mob. See Acts xix.32.

[249:3] Acts xi.22, xv.4.

[249:4] Acts xxi.20, [Greek: posai muriades] -- literally, "how many tens of thousands."

[249:5] One of these is mentioned Acts xii.12.

[249:6] Acts xiii.1.

[249:7] Acts ix.31. The true reading here is, "Then had the church ([Greek: ekklesia]) rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria." This reading is supported by the most ancient manuscripts, including ABC; by the Vulgate, and nearly all the ancient versions; including the old Syriac, Coptic, Sahidic, Ethiopian, Arabic of Erpenius, and Armenian; and by the most distinguished critics, such as Kuinoel, Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Tregelles. It is likewise sustained by the authority of what is believed to be by far the most valuable cursive MS. in existence. See Scrivener's "Codex Augiensis," Introd. lxviii., and p.425. Cambridge, 1859.

[250:1] John xvii.21.

[250:2] Eph. iv.16.

[250:3] See Col. ii.19.

[251:1] Acts viii.14.

[251:2] Acts xi.22. "No notion is more at variance with the spirit of apostolic Christianity than that of societies of Christians existing in the same neighbourhood, but not in communion with each other, and not under a common government." -- Litton, p.450.

[251:3] 2 Cor. viii.19.

[251:4] Period I. sec. iii. chap. i. p.214.

[251:5] "That the Church did really derive its polity from the synagogue is a fact upon the proof of which, in the present state of theological learning, it is needless to expend many words." -- Litton's Church of Christ, p.254.

[251:6] See Selden, "De Synedriis," lib. ii. c.5; Lightfoot's "Works," iii.242, and xi.179. Josephus says that Moses appointed only seven judges in every city. "Antiq." book iv. c.8, Sec.14. See also "Wars of the Jews," ii. c.20, Sec.5.

[252:1] Luke xxii.66; Acts v.21, vi.15. See also Prideaux, part ii. book vii., and Lightfoot's "Works," ix.342.

[252:2] Matt. xvi.21, xxvi.59; Mark xv.1. See also Lightfoot's "Works," iv.223.

[252:3] 1 Chron. xxiv.4, 7-18.

[252:4] Acts v.34.

[252:5] As they represented the people, and were probably twenty-four in number, there may be a reference to them in Rev. iv.4.

[252:6] Matt. v.22.

[253:1] Deut. xvii.8-10; 2 Chron. xix.8-11; Ps. cxxii.5.

[253:2] Acts ix.1, 2, 14.

[253:3] Acts ii.14, 41, 42, iv.4, 32, 33, 35, v.14, 42, vi.6, 7, viii.14.

[253:4] Acts xiii.1, 3.

[253:5] Titus i.5.

[253:6] 1 Tim. iv.14.

[253:7] In the same way the Puritans, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, frequently held meetings in London during the sittings of Parliament. See Collier, vii.33, 64.

[254:1] For a more particular account of the constitution of the meeting mentioned in the 15th chapter of the Acts, see Period I. sec. i. chap. v. p.82.

[255:1] Acts xv.6.

[255:2] Acts xv.19. "James, according to the somewhat pompous rendering in our English version, says -- 'Wherefore my sentence is' -- in the original -- [Greek: dio elo krina] -- a common formula by which the members of the Greek assemblies introduced the expression of their individual opinion, as appears from its repeated occurrence in Thucydides, with which may be compared the corresponding Latin phrase (sic censeo) of frequent use in Cicero's orations." -- Alexander on the Acts, ii. p.83.

[256:1] Mark xvi.15.

[257:1] See the spurious epistle of Clement to James, prefixed to the Clementine Homilies. Cotelerius, "Pat. Apost." vol. i. p.617.

[258:1] Acts xx.17.

[258:2] Acts xx.16.

[258:3] The view here taken is corroborated by the authority of Irenaeus, iii. c.14, Sec.2: -- "In Mileto enim convocatis episcopis et presbyteris, qui erant ab Epheso, et a reliquis proximis civitatibus," &c.

[259:1] Acts xx.18.

[259:2] Acts xix.8, 10.

[259:3] Acts xx.31.

[259:4] Acts xx.25. Demetrius says to the craftsmen -- "Ye see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people." Acts xix.26.

[259:5] See Period I. sec. i. chap. viii. p.123.

[259:6] 1 Cor. xvi.19.

[259:7] Gal. i.2.

[259:8] Gal. v.13.

[259:9] Gal. vi.2.

[259:10] 1 Pet. i.1.

[260:1] 1 Pet. v. i, 2.

[260:2] In Acts xx.28, these designations are identical. The exhortation in 1 Pet. v.5 -- "Yea, all of you be subject one to another" -- is obviously addressed to ministers, and implies their mutual subordination. This command can be acted upon only by ministers who are confederated and who hold the same ecclesiastical status. Lachmann adopts a somewhat different reading of this verse without changing the sense, for he puts a semi-period after [Greek: allelois]. According to his Larger Edition of the Greek Testament, the commencement of the verse should be rendered thus -- "Likewise ye younger (presbyters) submit yourselves unto the elder, AND ALL TO ONE ANOTHER." I here suppose presbyters to be understood, as the apostle is speaking to them in all the preceding part of the chapter.

[260:3] 2 Cor. viii.5, 18, 22; Phil. ii.25, 28; Col. iv.7-9; 2 Tim. iv.9-12.

[260:4] 2 Cor. iii.1.

[261:1] 2 John 10.

[261:2] 1 John iv.1.

[261:3] Phil. i.15-18.

[263:1] Rev. i.1.

[264:1] Rev. i.11.

[264:2] Rev. i.12-16.

[264:3] Rev. i.20.

[264:4] This was the opinion of Gregory Nazianzen, as well as others. There is an ingenious article on this subject in the "Bibliotheca Sacra" for April 1855. Its author, the Rev. Isaac Jennings, advocates the view propounded in this chapter.

[265:1] This is the opinion of Prideaux, Vitringa, and many others. See Prid. "Connec." part. i. book vi.; and Vitringa, "De Synagoga," lib. iii. par.2, cap.3.

[265:2] Acts xiii.15.

[265:3] Luke iv.16.

[265:4] Luke iv.20.

[266:1] Prideaux, part i. book vi. vol. i. p.385. Edit. London, 1716.

[266:2] "The hours of public devotions in them on their synagogue days were, as to morning and evening prayers, the same hours in which the morning and evening sacrifices were offered up at the temple." -- Prideaux, part i. book vi.

[266:3] Maurice, in his work on Diocesan Episcopacy in reply to Clarkson, admits (p.257) that in our Saviour's time, Laodicea had "but few inhabitants." Philadelphia is described by Strabo as a place with a small population.

[266:4] Acts xix.20.

[266:5] Acts xix.26.

[267:1] Prideaux speaks of the angel of the synagogue, in relation to the rulers, as "next to them, or perchance one of them." -- Part i. book vi. vol. i. p.385.

[267:2] It appears never to have occurred to Tertullian that the angels of the Churches were bishops. He obviously considered the angel of the Church an invisible intelligence. Thus he says of Paul -- "Lusit igitur et de suo spiritu, et de ecclesiae angelo, et de virtute Domini, si quod de consilio eorum pronunciaverat rescidit." -- De Pudicitia, c. xiv. ad finem. See also Tertullian "De Baptismo," c. vi. Such, too, was the opinion of Origen. -- "De Principiis," lib. i. c.8, and "De Oratione," 11. The fact that, long after the hierarchy was formed, in two or three rare cases a bishop is called an angel, in reference to the angels of the Apocalypse, is nothing to the purpose. See Bingham, i.79.

[268:1] Phil. iv.14, 18.

[269:1] Phil. ii.25.

[269:2] 2 Cor. viii.23, [Greek: apostoloi ekklesion]. In after-times it was deemed proper that those messengers should be of the clerical order. -- See Cyprian, epist. xxiv., lxxv., and lxxix.

[269:3] Luke vii.27, [Greek: ton angelon mou].

[269:4] James ii, 25, [Greek: tous angelous].

[269:5] John xxi.7, 20.

[270:1] Thus Hippolytus speaks of a certain elder, named Hyacinthus, who was sent to the governor of Sardinia with a letter for the release of the Christians banished there. "Philosophumena," p.288. The legate of the bishop of Rome is a species of memorial of the angel of the ancient Church.

[270:2] Rev. ii.7, 11, 17, 29, iii.6, 13, 22.

[270:3] Rev. i.11.

[271:1] Rev. i.1.

[271:2] Isa. xlix.15, 16.

[271:3] The Christians of Hierapolis are mentioned Col. iv.13.

[271:4] Acts xx.4.

[272:1] Lev. xxvi.11, 12.

[272:2] Rev. i.16.

[272:3] Ps. lxvii.1, 2.

[275:1] A.D.96 to A.D.98.

[275:2] A.D.98 to A.D.117.

[276:1] Origen, "Contra Celsum," i. Sec.67. See also i. Sec.26.

[276:2] Origen, "Contra Celsum," iii. Sec.29.

[277:1] Justin Martyr, "Apol." ii.61. Edit, Paris, 1615.

[277:2] The Peshito, or old Syriac version, is supposed to have been made in the first half of the second century. -- Westcott "On the Canon," pp.264, 265. There are traces of the existence of a Latin version in the time of Tertullian, or before the close of the second century. -- Ibid., p.275. "Two versions into the dialects of Upper and Lower Egypt -- the Thebaic (Sahidic) and Memphitic -- date from the close of the third century." -- Ibid. pp.415, 416.

[278:1] See Middleton's "Inquiry," pp.3, 9.

[278:2] See Kaye's "Tertullian," pp.98-101. Edition, Cambridge, 1826.

[278:3] Tertullian states that the Emperor Marcus Aurelius became friendly to the Christians, in consequence of a remarkable interposition of Providence in favour of his army, in a war with the Marcomanni and the Quadi. It was alleged that, in answer to the prayers of a body of Christian soldiers, afterwards known as the Thundering Legion, the imperial troops were relieved by rain, whilst a thunderstorm confounded the enemy. It is quite certain that the Roman army was rescued from imminent peril by a seasonable shower; but it is equally clear that the emperor attributed his deliverance, not to the God of the Christians, but to Jupiter Pluvius, and that a certain section of the Roman soldiers was known long before by the name of the Thundering Legion. There is no evidence that Marcus Aurelius ever became friendly to the Christians. See Lardner. "Heathen Testimonies," "Works," vii.176-188.

[279:1] See Middleton's "Inquiry," p.84. Edition, Dublin, 1749. Bishop Kaye has remarked that, in the writings of Tertullian, "the only power of the exercise of which specific instances are alleged, was that of exorcising evil spirits." "Kaye's Tertullian," p.461. From the symptoms mentioned it would appear that the individuals with whom the exorcists succeeded were epileptics.

[279:2] Irenaeus, who seems to have been not unfavourable to the Montanists, speaks of the gift of tongues as possessed by some in his age, and yet he himself, as a missionary, was obliged to struggle with the difficulties of a foreign language. "Adv. Haeres," v., c.6, and "Praef." ad.1.

[279:3] When Theophilus of Antioch, towards the end of the second century, was invited by Autolycus to point out a single person who had been raised from the dead, he did not accept the challenge. See Kaye's "Justin Martyr," p.217.

[279:4] Middleton's "Inquiry," Preface, p. iv.

[279:5] Middleton, pp.22, 23.

[280:1] Plinii, "Epist." lib. x. epist.97.

[280:2] Tertullian, "Ad Scapulam," c.5.

[280:3] "Spicilegium Syriacum" by Cureton, p.31. The correspondence between Abgar and our Lord, given by Eusebius, is manifestly spurious.

[281:1] Gregory of Tours, "Hist. Francorum," lib. i. c.28.

[281:2] Sozomen, "Hist. Eccles." ii.6, and Philostorgius, "Hist. Eccles." ii.5.

[281:3] "Adversus Judaeos," c.7.

[282:1] Justin Martyr, "Dialogue with Trypho," Opera, p.345.

[282:2] Theophilus, "Ad Autolycum," lib. ii. See also Origen, "In Matthaeum," Opera, tom. iii. p.858.

[282:3] "Life of Alexander Severus," by Lampridius.

[282:4] Euseb. viii.1.

[284:1] Cyprian, "De Laude Martyrii," Opera, pp.620, 621. See also Tertullian, "Ad Scapulam," c.5. ad finem.

[285:1] Tertullian, "Apol." 50.

[287:1] Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c.17.

[287:2] Matt. x.35, 36.

[287:3] Tertullian, "Apol." c.3, and "Ad Nationes," i. Sec.4.

[287:4] 1 Cor. xv.19.

[288:1] The Christians long gloried in the fact that Nero was their first persecutor. See Tertullian, "Apol." c.5.

[289:1] Plinii, "Epist." lib. x. epist.97.

[290:1] Matt. xiii.55; Mark vi.3. That Simon and Simeon are the same, see Acts xv.7, 14.

[290:2] Trajan died A.D.117, and if Simeon was born a year after Jesus, he entered upon the 120th year of his age about the close of this Emperor's reign. See Greswell's "Dissertations," vol. ii. pp.127, 128. It was the opinion of Tertullian that Mary had other sons after she gave birth to our Lord. See Neander's "Antignostikus," and Tertullian "De Monogamia," c.8.

[293:1] The account of the trial of himself and his companions, as given in the "Acta Sincera Martyrum" by Ruinart, bears all the marks of truth.

[293:2] An account of his martyrdom is given in a circular letter of the Church of Smyrna. See Jacobson's "Patres Apostolici," tom. ii. p.542. Euseb. iv.15.

[294:1] These places are distant from each other about seventeen miles.

[296:1] Euseb. v.1.

[296:2] Among the Romans a concubine held a certain legal position, and was in fact a wife with inferior privileges. Converted concubines were admitted to the communion of the ancient Church. See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.7.

[296:3] Mosheim ("Commentaries" by Vidal. ii.52, note) and many others, refer the transaction recorded in the text to the reign of Hadrian, but without any good cause. Tertullian, who tells the story ("Ad Scapulani," c.5), evidently alludes to a transaction which had recently occurred. In the reign of Commodus there was a proconsul named Arrius Antoninus who was put to death. See Lamprid, "Vita Commodi," c.6, 7. See also Kaye's "Tertullian," p.146, note; and "Neander's General History" by Torrey, i.162, note.

[296:4] Clemens Alexandrinus apparently refers to the times immediately following the death of Commodus when he says -- "Many martyrs are daily burned, crucified, and decapitated before our eyes." Strom, lib. ii. p.414.

[297:1] Tertullian, "Ad Scapulam," c.4.

[297:2] Compare Justin Martyr, "Apol." ii. pp.70, 71, and "Dial, cum Tryphone," p.227, with Tertullian, "Apol." c.7.

[297:3] Called libellos.

[297:4] These parties sometimes appealed to Acts xvii.9, in justification of their conduct.

[298:1] The sacrificati, or those who had sacrificed, as well as offered incense, were considered still more guilty.

[298:2] "Acta Perpetuae et Felicitatis." The martyrs appear to have been Montanists. See Gieseler, by Cunningham, i.125, note. Tertullian mentions Perpetua, and his language countenances the supposition that she was a Montanist. "De Anima," c.55.

[300:1] See the "Chronicon" of Eusebius, par. ii., adnot. p.197. Edit. Venet, 1818.

[301:1] The Roman clergy speak of "the remnants and ruined heaps of the fallen lying on all sides." Cyp. "Epist." xxxi. p.99. Cyprian complains of "thousands of letters given daily" in behalf of the lapsed by misguided confessors and martyrs. "Epist." xiv. p.59. The writer here probably speaks somewhat rhetorically, and evidently does not mean, as some have thought, that all these letters were written at Carthage. He speaks of what was done "everywhere," including Italy, as well as the cities of Africa. "Epist." xiv., xxii., xxvi.

[301:2] Dionysius of Alexandria, quoted by Euseb., vi.41.

[302:1] Euseb. vi.39.

[302:2] A.D.249 to A.D.251.

[302:3] Cyprian, Epist.82, ad Successum.

[302:4] Cyprian, who seems to have been much respected personally by the high officers of government at Carthage, was, when taken prisoner, granted as great indulgence as his circumstances would permit; but Gibbon, who describes his case with special minuteness, most uncandidly represents it as affording an average specimen of the style in which condemned Christians were treated. As an evidence of the social position of the bishop of Carthage we may refer to the testimony of Pontius his deacon, who states that "numbers of eminent and illustrious persons, men of rank and family and secular distinction, for the sake of their old friendship with him, urged him many times to retire." "Life," Sec.14.

[303:1] Euseb. vii.13.

[303:2] See Bingham, ii. p.451.

[304:1] "De Mortibus Persec." c.10.

[304:2] Euseb. viii.2; "De Mort. Persec." c.13. See also "Neander," by Torrey, i.202, note.

[305:1] Eusebius, "Martyrs of Palestine," c.4.

[305:2] Eusebius, "Martyrs of Palestine," c.9.

[305:3] The Vatican Manuscript, the oldest in existence, was probably written shortly after this persecution. It possesses internal evidences that its date is anterior to the middle of the fourth century. See Horne, iv.161, 10th edition.

[306:1] Eusebius, viii.6, 9, 10, 12.

[307:1] Firmilian refers to a noted persecution which "did not extend to the whole world, but was local." Cyprian, "Epist." lxxv. p.305.

[308:1] The treatise "De Mortibus Persecutorum" is generally attributed to Lactantius who flourished in the early part of the fourth century. The authorship is doubtful.

[308:2] Ps. ix.16.

[308:3] Herodian, iii.23. This circumstance, as well as some others here stated, is not mentioned in the work "De Mort. Persec." Tertullian mentions some other remarkable facts, "Ad Scapulam," c.3.

[308:4] "De Mortib. Persec.," c.49.

[309:1] Tertullian, "Apol." c.46.

[310:1] Tertullian, "Apol." 28.

[310:2] Tertullian, "Ad Scapulam," Sec.2.

[311:1] John xviii.36.

[312:1] Phil. iii.18, 19.

[313:1] Cyprian, "De Lapsis," p.374.

[313:2] Cyprian, "Ad Cornelium," epist. xlix. p.143. Cyprian also charges one of his deacons with fraud, extortion, and adultery. Epist. xxxviii. p.116.

[313:3] Cornelius of Rome in Euseb. vi.43.

[315:1] See Eusebius, v.3, vi.9.

[315:2] See Neander's "Antignostikus," part ii. sect. ii. at the end. It appears that the Christian ascetics adopted the dress of the pagan philosophers.

[315:3] Cyprian, "De Habitu Virginum," pp.354, 361.

[315:4] Still, in the time of Origen, the sons of bishops, presbyters, and deacons valued themselves upon their parentage. -- Origen in "Matthaeum" xv. opera, tom. in. p.690. Even Cyprian bears honourable testimony to certain married presbyters. See "Epist." xxxv. p.111. See also "Epist." xviii. p.67. Cyprian himself was indebted for his conversion to an eminent presbyter, named Caecilius, who had a wife and children. "Life of Cyprian," by Pontius the Deacon, Sec.5.

[315:1] Cyprian, "Epist." lxii. p.219. Concerning the Subintroductae, see also the letter relating to Paul of Samosata in Euseb. vii.30.

[316:1] Jerome and Athanasius.

[316:2] See Medhurst's "China," p.217. The symbol of the cross was engraved on the walls of the temple of Serapis. "When the temple of Serapis was torn down and laid bare," says Socrates, "there were found in it, engraven on stones, certain characters, which they call hieroglyphics, having the forms of crosses. Both the Christians and Pagans on seeing them, thought they had reference to their respective religions." "Ecc. Hist." v.17.

[316:3] Prescott, "Conquest of Mexico," in.338-340. See also note, p.340. Sir Robert Ker Porter mentions a block of stone found among the ruins of Susa, having, on one side, inscriptions in the cuneiform diameter; and, on another, hieroglyphical figures with a cross in the corner. See his "Travels," vol. ii. p.415. Among the ancient pagans, the cross was the symbol of eternal life, or divinity. On medals and monuments of a date far anterior to Christianity, it is found in the hands of statues of victory and of figures of monarchs. See also Tertullian, "Apol." c.16.

[317:1] Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." c.40. See also Kaye's Tertullian, p.441. "The ancient world was possessed by a dread of demons, and under an anxious apprehension of the influence of charms, sought for external preservatives against the powers of evil, and accompanied their prayers with external signs and gestures." Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.351.

[317:2] See Justin Martyr, "Dialogue with Trypho," pp.259, 318, and "Apol." ii. p.90. Tertullian, "Adv. Judaeos," c.10. In the "Octavius" of Minucius Felix, the following remarkable passage occurs: -- "What are your military ensigns, and banners, and standards, but crosses gilded and ornamented? Your trophies of victory not only imitate the appearance of a cross, but also of a man fixed to it. We discern the sign of a cross in the very form of a ship, whether it is wafted along with swelling sails, or glides with its oars extended. When a military yoke is erected there is a sign of a cross, and, in like manner, when one with hands stretched forth devoutly addresses his God. Thus, there seems to be some reason in nature for it, and some reference to it in your own system of religion." The monogram [symbol: Chi-Rho], composed of the initial Greek capitals [Greek: Chi] and [Greek: Rho] of the name [Greek: christos], was in use among the heathen long before our era. It is to be found on coins of the Ptolemies. Aringhus, "Roma Subterranea," ii. p.567.

[318:1] Tertullian maintains ("Ad Jud." c. xi.) that the mark mentioned Ezekiel ix.4 was the letter T, or the sign of the cross. See a Dissertation on this subject by Vitringa, "Observationes Sacrae," lib. ii. c.15. See also Origen. "In Ezechielem," Opera, tom. iii. p.424, and Cyprian to Demetrianus, Sec.12. It would appear that the worshippers of Apollo used to mark themselves on the forehead with the letters [Greek: CHI ETA]. See Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of Bib. Lit." art. FOREHEAD.

[318:2] Tertullian, "De Corona." c.3. By the Romans, crosses were erected in conspicuous places to intimidate offenders, just in the same way as the drop is now exhibited in the front of a jail. It is not improbable that some of these crosses were afterwards worshipped by the Christians! Aringhi mentions a stone, to be seen in his own time in the Vatican, which was treated with the same absurd reverence. On this stone many of the early Christians were said to have suffered martyrdom, probably by decapitation; but it was afterwards held "in very great honour" at Rome, and regarded as "a sacred thing!" "Roma Subterranea,'" i.219.

[319:1] Minucius Felix, "Octavius," c.24. There is a similar passage in Tertullian, "Apol." c.12.

[319:2] Clemens Alexandrinus, "Paedagog." iii. Opera, pp.246, 247.

[319:3] Clemens Alexandrinus, "Stromat." v. Opera, p.559.

[320:1] Canon 30. The comment of the Roman Catholic Dupin upon this canon is worthy of note. "To me," says he, "it seems better to understand it in the plainest sense, and to confess that the Fathers of this Council did not approve the use of images, no more than that of wax candles lighted in full daylight." -- History of Ecclesiastical Writers, Fourth Century.

[320:2] Tertullian, "De Pudicitia," c.7. But all were not so scrupulous, for Tertullian elsewhere complains that the image-makers were chosen to church offices. "De Idololatria," c.7.

[320:3] Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c.6.

[321:1] Cyprian, "Ad Donatum," Opera, p.5.

[321:2] Tertullian, "De Spectaculis," c.4. According to the English Liturgy the person baptized "renounces the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world." This was originally intended to apply to such exhibitions as those mentioned in the text.

[322:1] Tertullian, "De Pudicitia," c.7. Theophilus to Autolycus, book iii.

[322:2] Tertullian "Apol." c.44. Minucius Felix, in his "Octavius," makes a similar statement: -- "The prisons are crowded with criminals of your religion, but no Christian is there, unless he is either accused on account of his faith, or is a deserter from his faith."

[322:3] Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, says to him -- "Your blind and foolish teachers even to this day permit every one of you to have four or five wives." -- Opera, p.363.

[323:1] 1 Tim. iii.2, 12.

[323:2] Rom. vii.1-3; 1 Cor. vii.2.

[323:3] The Montanists, in their extravagance, insisted that any one who contracted a second marriage after the death of his first wife should be excommunicated.

[323:4] 2 Cor. vi.14.

[324:1] Tertullian, "Ad Uxorem," ii.4.

[324:2] Gibbon, "Decline and Fall," chap. ii. Some writers, such as Zumpt and Merivale, consider this estimate quite extravagant. Others again think it quite too low. See Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," p.316. New York, 1859.

[324:3] Gal. iii.28.

[325:1] Onesimus, the slave mentioned Philem.10, 16, probably became a Christian minister.

[325:2] 1 Cor. vii.21.

[325:3] 1 Cor. vii.20-22.

[325:4] 1 Tim. vi.1, 2.

[325:5] Kindness to slaves was particularly enjoined by the early Church teachers. See Cyprian, "Lib. Tres. Test. adv. Judaeos," lib. iii. Sec.72, 73.

[325:6] It is stated in the "Octavius" of Minucius Felix that, in the estimation of the heathen, "for a slave to be partaker in certain religious ceremonies is deemed abominable impiety." (c.25.)

[326:1] One of the laws made by Constantine shortly after his conversion sanctioned the manumission of slaves on the Lord's day.

[326:2] Thus, on one occasion, Cyprian raised a contribution of about L900 in Carthage to purchase the release of some Christians of Numidia. Cyprian, Epist. lx. p.216. Tertullian said to the heathen, "Our charity dispenses more in every street, than your religion in each temple." -- Apol. c.42.

[327:1] About A.D.252.

[327:2] Cyprian, "Ad Demetrianum," and "De Mortalitate." "Vita Cypriani per Pontium," c.9.

[327:3] Euseb. vii.22.

[328:1] Athanasius, "Hist. Arian. ad Monachos," Sec.64.

[329:1] Luke xxii.24-26.

[329:2] Rom. i.8, 13.

[330:1] Gal. ii.7-9.

[330:2] Rom. xvi.3-15.

[330:3] Acts ii.10.

[330:4] Euseb. ii.22.

[330:5] Period 1. sec. i. chap. x.

[331:1] Hegesippus seems to have been the first who attempted to draw up a list of the bishops, or presiding presbyters of Rome. See Pearson's Criticism on Euseb. iv.22, in his "Minor Works," vol. ii. p.319, Oxford, 1844; and Routh's "Reliquiae," i. pp.270, 271.

[331:2] Thus, Irenaeus (i.27) speaks of Hyginus as the ninth, and again (iii.3), as the eighth in succession from the apostles.

[331:3] Thus, Irenaeus affirms (iii.3) that Linus was the immediate successor of the apostles, whilst Tertullian, who was his contemporary, and who possessed equally good means of information, assigns that position to Clement. "De Praescrip. Haeret." c.32.

[331:4] Euseb. iii.4.

[332:1] Irenaeus, "Contra Om. Haer." iii.3, Sec.3. Bunsen has justly remarked that, "with Telesphorus the most obscure period of the Roman Church terminates." -- Hippolytus, iv. pp.209, 210.

[332:2] Irenaeus, iii.4, Sec.3.

[332:3] This name continued to be given to the Roman bishop until at least the close of the second century. See Irenaeus quoted in Euseb. v.24.

[332:4] [Greek: katholikos]. See this subject more fully illustrated in Period II. sec. iii. chap. viii.

[333:1] "Qui absistunt a principali successione, et quocunque loco colligunt, suspectos habere (oportet) vel quasi haereticos et malae sententiae; vel quasi scindentes et elatos et sibi placentes; aut rursus ut hypocritas, quaestus gratia et vanae gloriae hoc operantes." Irenaeus, iv.26, Sec.2.

[333:2] See Period II. sec. iii. chap. vii.

[333:3] Blondel's "Apologia pro sententia Hieronymi," p.18. Under ordinary circumstances the new president, or bishop, was often elected before his predecessor was buried. See Bingham, book ii. c. xi. Sec.2.

[333:4] See Pearson's "Minor Works," ii.520.

[333:5] This method of appointment continued to be observed long afterwards in some parts of the Church. See Bingham, book iv. chap. i. sec. i. At Alexandria in the beginning of the fourth century the presbyters selected three of their senior members, of whom the people chose one. Cotelerius, ii., app. p.180.

[334:1] [Greek: Ton tes episkopes kleron]. "Irenaeus," ed. Stieren, i. p.433.

[334:2] The Paschal feast. Irenaeus admits that this point formed only a subordinate topic of discussion. See Stieren's "Irenaeus," i. p.826, note 6.

[334:3] See Period II. sec. iii. chap. vii.

[334:4] Euseb. iv.14.

[335:1] Cyprian speaks of sending messengers to Rome "to ascertain and report as to any rescript published respecting" the Christians. "Epist. ad Successum." The Roman clergy could at once supply the information.

[336:1] Extract of a letter from Dionysius of Corinth, preserved in Eusebius, iv.23.

[336:2] The testimonies to this fact may be found discussed in Minter's "Primordia Eccelesiae Africanae," p.10. Herodian, who flourished in the third century, speaks of Carthage as the next city after Rome in size and wealth. Lib. vii.6.

[336:3] In this way we may readily account for various statements in Tertullian and Cyprian.

[337:1] We here see how a father who wrote so soon after the apostolic age, blunders egregiously respecting the history of the Apostolic Church.

[337:2] So I understand "his qui sunt undique." See Wordsworth's "Hippolytus," p.200. We have thus a remarkable proof that the word catholic was not in use when Irenaeus wrote, for he here expresses the idea by a circumlocution.

[337:3] "Propter potentiorem principalitatem."

[337:4] Irenaeus iii.3. See on this passage Gieseler, by Cunningham, i.97, note. See also Period II. sec. iii. chap. viii.

[337:5] The circular letter relating to the martyrdom of Polycarp quoted in Euseb. iv.15. It was probably written a considerable time after the death of the martyr, as it speaks of the way in which his memory was cherished when it was drawn up. Sec.19. As it uses the word catholic it must have been written after the appearance of the work of Irenaeus.

[337:6] Irenaeus quoted in Euseb. v.24. See Period II. sec. iii. chap. viii.

[339:1] We have an extract from them in Euseb. v.4.

[339:2] Period II. sec. i. chap. ii. p.296.

[339:3] Hippolytus, "Refut. Om. Haeres." book ix.

[340:1] This probably occurred early in the reign of Septimius Severus, who at first is said to have been very favourable to the Church. Shortly before, many in Rome of great wealth and eminent station had become Christians. -- Euseb. v. c.21.

[340:2] See a more minute account of this controversy in Period II. sec. iii. chap. xii.

[340:3] This is evident from the fact that Hippolytus is scarcely willing to recognise some of the Roman bishops, his contemporaries. But meanwhile both parties probably belonged to the same synod. Hippolytus seems to have been the leader of a formidable opposition.

[341:1] Matt. xvi.18.

[341:2] See the Muratorian fragment in Bunsen's "Analecta Ante-Nicaena," i.154, 155. This, according to Bunsen, is a fragment of a work of Hegesippus, and written about A.D.165. Hippolytus, i.314.

[341:3] "Hermae Pastor," lib. iii. simil. ix. Sec.12-14. "Petra haec.... Filius Dei est.... Quid est deinde haec turris? Haec, inquit, ecclesia est.... Demonstra mihi quare non in terra aedificatur haec turris, sed supra petram."

[341:4] Tertullian, "De Praescrip." xxii. "Latuit aliquid Petrum aedificandae ecclesiae petram dictum?" Tertullian here speaks of the doctrine as already current. Even after he became a Montanist, he still adhered to the same interpretation -- "Petrum solum invenio maritum, per socrum; monogamum praesumo per ecclesiam, quae super illum, aedificata omnem gradum ordinis sui de monogamis erat collocatura." -- De Monogamia, c. viii. Again, in another Montanist tract, he says -- "Qualis es, evertens atque commutans manifestam domini intentionem personaliter hoc Petro conferentem? Super te, inquit, aedificabo ecclesiam meam." -- De Pudicitia, c. xxi. See also "De Praescrip." c. xxii. According to Origen every believer, as well as Peter, is the foundation of the Church. "Contra Celsum," vi.77. See also "Comment in Matthaeum xii.," Opera, tom. iii. p.524, 526.

[342:1] See this subject more fully explained in Period II. sec. iii. ch. viii.

[343:1] Even the letters of Victor, which created such a sensation throughout the Church, are not forthcoming. See Pearson's "Vindiciae Ignatianae," pars 2, cap.13, as to the spuriousness of those imputed to him.

[343:2] They extend from Clement, who, according to some lists, was the first Pope, to Syricius, who was made Bishop of Rome A.D.384. All candid writers, whether Romanists or Protestants, now acknowledge them to be forgeries. They may be found in "Binii Concilia." They made their appearance, for the first time, about the eighth century.

[344:1] This is the date assigned to its erection by Bunsen, but Dr Wordsworth argues that it was erected earlier.

[344:2] 22d August.

[345:1] The first edition appeared at Oxford in 1851, exactly three hundred years after the discovery of the statue.

[345:2] This point has been fully established by Bunsen and Wordsworth.

[345:3] This is expressly stated by Tertullian, "Adversus Praxeam," c. i.

[345:4] See Bower's "History of the Popes." Victor, 13th Bishop.

[345:5] According to the commonly received chronology, Victor occupied the papal chair from A.D.192 to A.D.201; Zephyrinus from A.D.201 to A.D.219; and Callistus from A.D.219 to A.D.223.

[346:1] [Greek: andros idiotu kai aischrokerdous].

[346:2] [Greek: apeiron ton ekklesiakon horon].

[346:3] "Philosophumena," book ix.

[348:1] "Philosophumena," book ix.

[348:2] 14th October.

[348:3] "Philosophumena," book i., prooemium.

[348:4] [Greek: dedoikos eme].

[348:5] Bunsen describes Hippolytus as "a member of the Roman presbytery" ("Hippolytus," i.313), but he is here evidently mistaken. Hippolytus was at the head of a presbytery of his own, the presbytery of Portus. The presbytery of Rome was confined to the elders or presbyters of that city. The presbyter Hippolytus mentioned by some ancient writers seems to have been a quite different person from the bishop of Portus.

[348:6] "Philosophumena," book ix.

[349:1] It is probable that the bishop was at first chosen by lot out of a leet of three selected by the presbytery from among its members. (See preceding chapter, p.333, note.) An appointment was now made out of this leet of three, not by lot, but by popular suffrage.

[349:2] Euseb. vi.29.

[350:1] Evidently from [Greek: kata], down, and [Greek: kumbos], a cavity. Mr Northcote, in his work on the "Roman Catacombs," published in 1857, calculates that the streets in all, taken together, are 900 miles long!

[350:2] See "Three Introductory Lectures on Ecclesiastical History," by William Lee, D.D., of Trinity College, Dublin, p.27.

[350:3] It is probable that many were condemned to labour in these mines as a punishment for having embraced Christianity. See Lee's "Three Lectures," p.28.

[350:4] Maitland's "Church in the Catacombs," p.24. Dr Maitland visited Rome in 1841, but his inspection of the Lapidarian Gallery seems to have been regarded with extreme jealousy by the authorities there. After having obtained a licence "to make some memoranda in drawing in that part of the Museum," he was officially informed that "his permission did not extend to the inscriptions", and the communication was accompanied by a demand that "the copies already made should be given up." To his refusal to yield to this mandate we are indebted for many important memorials to be found in his interesting volume.

[351:1] See Maitland, pp.27-29.

[352:1] Maitland, p.14.

[352:2] Maitland, pp.33, 41, 43, 170.

[352:3] "Philosophumena," book ix.

[352:4] As Carthage now furnished Rome with marble and granite, it is probable that the quarrymen and sand-diggers of the catacombs came frequently into contact with the Carthaginian sailors; and we may thus see how, in the time of Cyprian, there were such facilities for epistolary intercourse between the Churches of Rome and Carthage. Under favourable circumstances, the mariner could accomplish the voyage between the two ports in two or three days.

[353:1] "Philosophumena," book ix. Tertullian corroborates the charges of Hippolytus. See "De Pudicitia," cap. i.

[353:2] We know, however, that, long after this period, married bishops were to be found almost everywhere. One of the most eminent martyrs in the Diocletian persecution was a bishop who had a wife and children. See Eusebius, viii. c.9. Clemens Romanus, reputed one of the early bishops of the Western capital, speaks as a married man. See his "Epistle to the Corinthians," Sec.21.

[353:3] Maitland, pp.191-193. These inscriptions may be found also in Aringhi, i.421, 419.

[353:4] Aringhi, ii. pp.228; Rome, 1651.

[354:1] Cyprian to Antonianus, Epist. lii, p.151.

[355:1] Cyprian speaks of "the blessed martyrs, Cornelius and Lucius." Epist. lxvii. p.250.

[355:2] See Cyprian's "Epistle to Successus," where it is stated that "Xystus was martyred in the cemetery [the catacombs] on the eighth of the Ides of August, and with him four deacons."

[355:3] This fragment may be found in Euseb. vi.43.

[355:4] For an account of their duties see Period II. sec. iii. chap. x.

[355:5] According to some manuscripts, there were, not forty-six, but forty-two presbyters, seven deacons, seven sub-deacons, and forty-two acolyths. At a later period, we find three presbyters connected with each Roman church. There were fourteen regions in the city, and supposing a congregation in each, there would now be three presbyters, one deacon or sub-deacon, and three acolyths belonging to each church. See Blondel's "Apologia," p.224.

[356:1] Cornelius (Euseb. vi.43) calls him "a malicious beast," but he evidently writes under a feeling of deep mortification.

[357:1] Firmilian, "Cypriani Epistolae," lxxv.

[357:2] Matt. xvi.16-18.

[357:3] John i.42.

[357:4] See 1 Pet. ii.5. Peter adds, as if to illustrate Matt. xvi.18 -- "Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture -- Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded." 1 Pet. ii.6.

[358:1] Matt. vii.24, 25.

[358:2] See Tertullian, "De Praescrip." xxii.; and Cyprian to Cornelius, Epist. lv. p.178, where he says -- "Petrus, tamen, super quem aedificuta ab eodem Domino fuerat ecclesia." See also the same epistle, pp.182, 183, and many other passages.

[358:3] Thus, Cyprian in his letter to Quintus (Epist. lxxi. p.273) makes the following awkward attempt to get over the difficulty: -- "Nam nec Petrus, quem primum Dominus elegit, et super quem aedificavit ecclesiam suam, cum secum Paulus de circumcisione postmodum disceptaret, vindicavit sibi aliquid insolenter aut arroganter assumpsit, ut diceret se primatum tenere et obtemperari a novellis et posteris sibi potius oportere."

[359:1] A.D.325.

[359:2] The Suburbicarian Provinces comprehended the three islands of Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia, and the whole of the southern part of Italy, including Naples and nearly all the territory now belonging to Tuscany and the States of the Church. See Bingham, iii. p.20.

[359:3] Basil, Ep.220.

[360:1] Euseb. vii.50.

[360:2] Thus we read of "the blessed Pope Cyprian," bishop of Carthage. Cyprian, Epist. ii. p.25. The name was sometimes given to the head of a monastery. In the catacombs there was found an inscription probably to the memory of a Pope of this description. See Maitland, p.185. See also Routh's "Reliquiae," iii. pp.256, 265.

[360:3] See Bower, "Marcellus," 29th Bishop.

[360:4] That is, from the autumn of A.D.304 to the spring of A.D.308. See Burton's "Lectures on the Ecc. Hist, of the First Three Cent." ii. p.433.

[361:1] In the life of Marcellus we read of so many places of worship in Rome. See "Hist. Platinae De Vitis Pontif. Roman," p.40, Coloniae, 1593. Optatus speaks of forty churches in Rome at this time; but he is probably mistaken as to the date. There may have been so many after the establishment of Christianity by Constantine. There were only fifty churches in the Western capital in the beginning of the fifth century. See Neander, i.276; Edit. Edinburgh, 1847.

[362:1] In Matt. xvi.18. Opera, tom. ii. p.344; Edit. Eton, 1612.

[362:2] In Joh. i.50. Opera, tom. ii. p.637; Edit. Eton, 1612.

[362:3] "In Johann. Evang. Tractat." 124, Sec.5. Opera, tom. ix. c.572. Augustine had before held the more fashionable view. See "Barrow on the Pope's Supremacy," by Dr M'Crie, p.78.

[365:1] The references in this work to the Apostolic Fathers by Cotelerius are to the Amsterdam Edition, folio, 1724.

[365:2] This is the date assigned to it by Bunsen. "Hippolytus," i.309. It is not probable that Polycarp was at the head of the eldership of Smyrna much earlier. See Period II. sec. iii. chap, v., note.

[365:3] According to Ussher in A.D.169.

[365:4] See Pearson's "Minor Works," ii.531.

[366:1] The original narrative may be found in the Dialogue with Trypho.

[366:2] The references to Justin in this work are to the Paris folio edition of 1615.

[367:1] He afterwards became the founder of a sect noted for its austere discipline. His followers used water, instead of wine, at the celebration of the Lord's Supper. They lived in celibacy, and observed rigorous fasts.

[367:2] The writer says of the temple (chap. xvi.) -- "It is now destroyed by their (the Jews) enemies, and the servants of their enemies are building it up." Jerusalem was rebuilt by Hadrian about A.D.135, and the name Aelia given to it.

[368:1] Two short letters ascribed to Pius are mentioned Period II. sec. iii. chap. vii. For a long time Barnabas, the author of the epistle, was absurdly confounded with the companion of Paul mentioned Acts xiii.1, and elsewhere; and Hermas was supposed to be the individual saluted in Rom. xvi.14. Hence these two writers have been called, like Polycarp and others, Apostolic Fathers.

[368:2] Eusebius, who has preserved a few fragments of this author, describes him as a very credulous person. See his "Hist." iii.39.

[368:3] In the text it has not been considered necessary to mention all the writers, however small their contributions to our ecclesiastical literature, who appeared during the second and third centuries. Hence, Melito of Sardis, Caius of Rome, and many others are unnoticed. The remaining fragments of these early ecclesiastical writers may be found in Routh's "Reliquiae," and elsewhere.

[368:4] [Greek: haemon, ton en Keltois diatribonton kai peri barbaron dialekton to pleiston ascholoumenon]. -- Contra Haereses, lib. i. Praef.

[369:1] The references to Irenaeus in this work are to Stieren's edition of 1853.

[369:2] Wordsworth has remarked that in the "Philosophumena" of Hippolytus we have some of the lost text of Irenaeus. St Hippolytus, p.15.

[369:3] Such is the testimony of Jerome. See Cave's "Life of Irenaeus."

[369:4] Euseb. "Hist." iii.39.

[369:5] Irenaeus adopted the millenarianism of Papias.

[370:1] This is evident from his own statements. See his "Apology," c.18, and "De Spectaculis," c.19. The references to Tertullian in this work are either to the edition of Oehler of 1853, or to that of Rigaltius of 1675.

[370:2] According to some the population of Carthage at this time amounted to hundreds of thousands. "The intercourse between Carthage and Rome, on account of the corn trade alone, was probably more regular and rapid than with any other part of the Empire." -- Milman's Latin Christianity, i. p.47.

[370:3] See Euseb. ii.2, 25.

[370:4] Such is the testimony of Jerome, who asserts farther that the treatment he received from the clergy of Rome induced him to leave that city.

[370:5] Such as the tracts "De Pallio" and "De Jejuniis."

[371:1] As a choice specimen of his vituperative ability his denunciation of Marcion may be quoted -- "Sed nihil tam barbarum ac triste apud Pontum quam quod illic Marcion natus est, Scythia tetrior, Hamaxobio instabilior, Massageta inhumanior, Amazona audacior, nubilo obscurior, hieme frigidior, gelu fragilior, Istro fallacior, Caucaso abruptior." -- Adversus Marcionem, lib. i. c.1.

[371:2] Victor of Rome, who was contemporary with Tertullian, is said to have written in Latin, but the extant letters ascribed to him are considered spurious.

[372:1] Such, according to Jerome, was the practice of Cyprian.

[372:2] He is supposed to have died at an advanced age, but the date of his demise cannot be accurately determined. Most of his works were written between A.D.194 and A.D.217.

[372:3] The part of the work "Adversus Judaeos," from the beginning of the ninth chapter, is taken chiefly from the third book of the Treatise against Marcion, and has apparently been added by another hand.

[374:1] "Admonitio ad Gentes," Opera, p.69. Edit. Coloniae, 1688.

[374:2] "Stromata," book v.

[374:3] See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p.378.

[374:4] Period II. sec. i. chap. v. p.344.

[375:1] Prudentius. See Wordsworth's "Hippolytus," p.106-112.

[377:1] He had acted literally as described, Matt, xix.12.

[377:2] Euseb. vi.3.

[377:3] Euseb. vi.21.

[378:1] He says Celsus lived in the reign of Hadrian and afterwards. "Contra Celsum," i. Sec.8; Opera, tom. i. p.327. The references to Origen in this work are to the edition of the Benedictine Delarue, 4 vols. folio. Paris, 1733-59.

[379:1] The three other Greek versions were those of Aquila, of Symmachus, and of Theodotion.

[379:2] Origen, in his writings, repeatedly refers to Philo by name. See Opera, i.543.

[379:3] See Euseb. ii. c.17.

[380:1] Thus he declares-"The prophets indicating what is wise concerning the circumstances of our generation, say that sacrifice is offered for sin, even the sin of those newly born as not free from sin, for it is written -- 'I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me.'" -- Contra Celsum, vii. Sec.50.

[380:2] He held, however, that Satan is to be excepted from the general salvation. See "Epist. ad Amicos Alexandrinos," Opera, i. p.5.

[381:1] See Sage's "Vindication of the Principles of the Cyprianic Age," p.348. London, 1701.

[382:1] In the case of these epistles, much confusion arises, in the way of reference, from their various arrangement by different editors. The references in this work to Cyprian are to the edition of Baluzius, folio, Venice, 1728. Baluzius, in the arrangement of the letters, adopts the same order as Pamelius, but Epistle II. of the latter is Epistle I. of the former, and so on to Epistle XXIII. of Pamelius, which is Epistle XXII. of the other. Baluzius here conforms exactly to the numeration of the preceding editor by making Epistle XXIV. immediately follow Epistle XXII., so that from this to the end of the series the same references apply equally well to the work of either. The numeration of the Oxford edition of Bishop Fell is, with a few exceptions, quite different.

[382:2] Mr Shepherd has completely failed in his attempt to disprove the genuineness of these writings. They are as well attested as any other documents of antiquity.

[383:1] See Period II. sec. i. chap. ii. p.302, note.

[383:2] It has not been thought necessary in this chapter to notice either Arnobius, an African rhetorician, who wrote seven Books against the Gentiles; or the Christian Cicero, Lactantius, who is said to have been his pupil. Both these authors appeared about the end of the period embraced in this history, and consequently exerted little or no influence during the time of which it treats.

[384:1] His life was written by Gregory Nyssen about a century after his death.

[385:1] See a preceding note in this chapter, p.367.

[385:2] Matt. x.29.

[385:3] Scorpiace, c. ix.

[385:4] Stromata, book iii.

[385:5] Matt, xviii.20.

[385:6] "For," says he, "from the first hour to the third, a trinity of number is manifested; from the fourth on to the sixth, is another trinity; and in the seventh closing with the ninth, a perfect trinity is numbered, in spaces of three hours."-On the Lord's Prayer, p.426.

[386:1] "Contra Celsum," v. Sec.11.

[386:2] Theophilus to Autolycus, lib. ii. Sec.24.

[386:3] In proof of this see his treatise "Contra Celsum," i.25, also "Opera," iii. p.616, and iv. p.86.

[386:4] "Contra Haereses," ii. c. xxiv. Sec.2. See Matt. i.21.

[386:5] "Contra Haereses," ii. c. xxxv.3. He seems to have confounded Adonai and Yehovah. The latter word was regarded by the Jews as the "unutterable" name. Hence it has been thought that in the Latin version of Irenaeus we should read "innominabile" for "nominabile." See Stieren's "Irenaeus," i.418.

[386:6] "Paedagogue," book i. See Gen. xxxii.28.

[386:7] "Stromata," book v. Sec Gen. xvii.5. Not a few of these mistakes may be traced to Philo Judaeus. Thus, this interpretation of Abraham may be found in his "Questions and Solutions on Genesis," book iii.43.

[386:8] "Apol." ii. p.88.

[386:9] "Dialogue with Trypho," Opera, p.268.

[386:10] "Apol." ii. p.76.

[386:11] "Apol." ii. p.86.

[387:1] "Contra Haereses," ii. c. xxii. Sec.5.

[387:2] He thus makes His ministry about a year in length. "Adversus Judaeos," c. viii.

[387:3] "De Cultu Feminarum," lib. i. c.2, and lib. ii. c.10.

[387:4] See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.196. See also Warburton's "Divine Legation of Moses," i.510. Edit. London, 1837.

[387:5] "Adversus Hermogenem," c.35, and "Adversus Praxeam," c.7.

[389:1] In 1842, Archdeacon Tattam, who had returned only about three years before from Egypt, where he had been searching for ancient manuscripts, set out a second time to that country, under the auspices of the Trustees of the British Museum, chiefly for the purpose of endeavouring to procure copies of the Ignatian epistles. On this occasion he succeeded in obtaining possession of the Syriac copy of the three letters published by Dr. Cureton in 1845. Shortly before the Revolution of 1688, Robert Huntingdon, afterwards Bishop of Raphoe, and then chaplain to the British merchants at Aleppo, twice undertook a voyage to Egypt in quest of copies of the Ignatian epistles. On one of these occasions he visited the monastery in the Nitrian desert in which the letters were recently found.

[390:1] Of the writers who have taken a prominent part in the Ignatian controversy we may particularly mention Ussher, Vossius, Hammond, Daille, Pearson, Larroque, Rothe, Baur, Cureton, Hefele, and Bunsen.

[390:2] Matt, xviii.2-4; Mark ix.36.

[390:3] There has been a keen controversy respecting the accentuation of [Greek: Theophoros]. Those who place the accent on the antepenult ([Greek: Theo'phoros]) give it the meaning mentioned in the test; whilst others, placing the accent on the penult ([Greek: Theopho'ros]), understand by it God-bearing, the explanation given in the "Acts of the Martyrdom of Ignatius." See Daille, "De Scriptis quae sub Dionysii Areop. et Ignatii Antioch. nom. circumferuntur," lib. ii. c.25; and Pearson's "Vindiciae Ignatianae," pars. sec. cap. xii.

[391:1] Cave reckons that at the time of his martyrdom he was probably "above fourscore years old." See his "Life of Ignatius."

[391:2] See Period II. sec. in. chap. v. Evodius is commonly represented as the first bishop of Antioch.

[392:1] "Fuerunt alii similis amentiae: quos, quia cives Romani erant, annotavi in Urbem remittendos." -- Plinii, Epist. lib. x. epist.96.

[392:2] The Greek says the ninth, and the Latin the fourth year. According to both, the condemnation took place early in the reign of Trajan. See also the first sentence of the "Acts." In his translation of these "Acts," Wake, regardless of this statement, and in opposition to all manuscript authority, represents the sentence as pronounced "in the nineteenth year" of Trajan.

[392:3] See Jacobson's "Patres Apostolici," ii. p.504. See also Greswell's "Dissertations," vol. iv. p.422. It is evident that the date in the "Acts" cannot be the mistake of a transcriber, for in the same document the martyrdom is said to have occurred when Sura and Synecius were consuls. These, as Greswell observes, were actually consuls "in the ninth of Trajan." Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. p.416. Hefele, however, has attempted to show that Trajan was really in Antioch about this time. See his "Pat. Apost. Opera Prolegomena," p.35. Edit. Tubingen, 1842.

[393:1] "Acts of his Martyrdom," Sec.8.

[393:2] He is said, when at Smyrna, to have been visited by a deputation from the Magnesians. But had notice been sent to them as soon as he arrived at Smyrna, the messenger would have required three days to perform the journey; and had the Magnesians set out instantaneously, they must have occupied three days more in travelling to him. Thus, notwithstanding all the precipitation with which he was hurried along, he could scarcely have been less than a week in Smyrna. See "Corpus Ignatianum," pp.326, 327.

[394:1] "He was pressed by the soldiers to hasten to the public spectacles at great Rome." "And the wind continuing favourable to us, in one day and night we were hurried on." -- Acts of his Martyrdom, Sec.10, 11.

[394:2] Philadelphia is distant from Troas about two hundred miles. "Corpus Ignatianum," pp.331, 332. Here, then, is another difficulty connected with this hasty journey. How could a deputation from Philadelphia meet Ignatius in Troas, as some allege they did, if he did not stop a considerable time there? See other difficulties suggested by Dr Cureton. "Cor. Ignat." p.332.

[395:1] Such is the opinion maintained by the celebrated Whiston in his "Primitive Christianity." More recently Meier took up nearly the same position.

[395:2] See Preface to the "Corpus Ignatianum," p.4.

[395:3] Published in 1849. In 1846 he published his "Vindiciae Ignatianae; or the Genuine Writings of St Ignatius, as exhibited in the ancient Syriac version, vindicated from the charge of heresy."

[396:1] In 1847 another copy of the Syriac version of the three epistles was deposited in the British Museum, and since, Sir Henry Rawlinson is said to have obtained a third copy at Bagdad. See "British Quarterly" for October 1855, p.452.

[396:2] Dr Lee, late Regius Professor of Hebrew in Cambridge, Chevalier Bunsen, and other scholars of great eminence, have espoused the views of Dr Cureton.

[396:3] By Archbishop Ussher in 1644, and by Vossius in 1646.

[396:4] Such was the opinion of Ussher himself. "Concludimus ... nullas omni ex parte sinceras esse habendas et genuinas." Dissertation prefixed to his edition of "Polycarp and Ignatius," chap.18.

[397:1] Pearson was occupied six years in the preparation of this work. The publication of Daille, to which it was a reply, appeared in 1666. Daille died in 1670, at the advanced age of seventy-six. The work of Pearson did not appear until two years afterwards, or in 1672. The year following he received the bishopric of Chester as his reward.

[397:2] "In the whole course of my inquiry respecting the Ignatian Epistles," says Dr Cureton, "I have never met with one person who professes to have read Bishop Pearson's celebrated book; but I was informed by one of the most learned and eminent of the present bench of bishops, that Porson, after having perused the 'Vindiciae,' had expressed to him his opinion that it was a 'very unsatisfactory work.'" -- Corpus Ignat., Preface, pp.14, 15, note. Bishop Pearson's work is written in Latin.

[397:3] The "Three Epistles" edited by Dr Cureton contain only about the one-fourth of the matter of the seven shorter letters edited by Ussher.

[398:1] Dr Cureton has shewn that even the learned Jerome must have known very little of these letters. "Corpus Ignat.", Introd. p.67.

[398:2] Euseb. iii. c.36.

[399:1] Euseb. i. c.13.

[399:2] "Corpus Ignatianum," Introd. p.71.

[399:3] Proleg. in "Cantic. Canticorum," and Homil. vi. in "Lucam."

[399:4] In the Epistle to the Romans, and the Epistle to the Ephesians.

[399:5] He quotes the words -- "I am not an incorporeal demon," from the "Doctrine of Peter;" but they are found in the shorter recension of the seven letters in the "Epistle to the Smyrnaeans," Sec.3. Had this epistle been known to him, he would certainly have quoted from an apostolic father rather than from a work which he knew to be spurious. See Origen, "Opera," i. p.49, note.

[400:1] "Opera," ii.20, 21; iii.271.

[400:2] See Period II. sec. ii. chap. i. p.367. Origen, "Opera," iv.473.

[400:3] Ibid. p.368.

[400:4] "Opera," i.79; iv.683.

[400:5] "Contra Haereses," lib. v. c.28, Sec.4. "Quidam de nostris dixit, propter martyrium in Deum adjudicatus ad bestias: Quoniam frumentum sum Christi, et per dentes bestiarum molor, ut mundus panis Dei inveniar."

[401:1] Thus he speaks of "Saturninus, who was from Antioch." "Contra Haereses," lib. i. c.24, Sec.1.

[401:2] It seems to have been soon translated into Syriac. See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iv. Preface, p.8.

[401:3] See large extracts from this letter in Euseb. v. c. i. Also Routh's "Reliquiae," i.329.

[402:1] Irenaeus, "Contra Haereses," lib. iii. c.2, Sec.1, 2.

[402:2] Lib. iii. c.3, Sec.3.

[402:3] Lib. iii. c. iii. Sec.4.

[402:4] Lib. v. c. xxxiii. Sec.3, 4.

[402:5] Lib. iv. c. vi. Sec.2.

[402:6] In his "Vindiciae," (Pars. i. cap.6,) Pearson attempts to parry this argument by urging that Irenaeus does not mention other writers, such as Barnabas, Quadratus, Aristidus, Athenagoras, and Theophilus. But the reply is obvious -- 1. These writers were occupied chiefly in defending Christianity against the attacks of paganism, so that testimonies against heresy could not be expected in their works.2. None of them were so early as Ignatius, so that their testimony, even could it have been obtained, would have been of less value. Some of them, such as Theophilus, were the contemporaries of Irenaeus.3. None of them held such an important position in the Church as Ignatius.

[403:1] He was martyred A.D.167, at the age of eighty-six. According to the Acts of his Martyrdom, Ignatius was martyred sixty years before, or A.D.107. Polycarp must, therefore, have been now about twenty-six. See more particularly Period II. sec. ii. chap. v. note.

[403:2] Sec.4.

[403:3] Secs.5, 6.

[403:4] Sec.11.

[403:5] Sec.3.

[404:1] [Greek: ou monon en tois makariois Ignatio, kai Zosimo, kai Roupho, alla kai en allois tois ex humon]. -- Sec.9.

[404:2] See Baronius, "Annal. ad Annum." 109, tom. ii. c.48, and Jacobson's "Pat. Apost." ii.482, note 6. Edit. Oxon., 1838.

[405:1] Epist. xxxiv. p.109.

[405:2] "Scripsistis mihi, et vos et Ignatius, ut si quis vadit ad Syriam, deferat literas meas quas fecero ad vos." The Greek of Eusebius is somewhat different, but may express the same sense. See Euseb. iii.36. There is an important variation even in the readings of Eusebius. See Cotelerius, vol. ii. p.191, note 3.

[405:3] Thus Bunsen, in his "Ignatius von Antiochen und seine Zeit," says -- "At the present stand-point of the criticism of Ignatius, this passage can only be a witness against itself." And, again -- "The forger of Ignatius has interpolated this passage." And, again -- "The connexion is entirely broken by that interpolation." (Pp.108, 109.) Viewed as a postscript, it is not remarkable that the transition should be somewhat abrupt.

[405:4] "Et de ipso Ignatio, et de his qui cum eo sunt, quod certius agnoveritis, significate."

[406:1] See the "Acts of his Martyrdom," Sec.10, 12.

[406:2] See this "Epistle," Sec.1, 9.

[406:3] "Epistolas sane Ignatii, quae transmissae sunt vobis ab eo, et alias, quantascunque apud nos habuimus, transmisimus vobis." According to the Greek of Eusebius we should read "The letters of Ignatius which were sent to us ([Greek: hemin]) by him." Either reading is alike perplexing to the advocates of the Syriac version of the Ignatian epistles. See Jacobson, ii.489, not.5.

[406:4] See a preceding note, p.405.

[407:1] It would seem that only two Greek copies are known to exist, both wanting the concluding part. See Cotelerius, vol. ii. p.186, note 1.

[407:2] It is not easy to understand the meaning of the passage -- "Si habuerimus tempus opportunum, sive ego, seu legatus quem misero pro vobis." Some words seem to be wanting to complete the sense.

[407:3] [Greek: Smurnan] for [Greek: Surian]. In the beginning of the Epistle from Smyrna concerning Polycarp's martyrdom, the Church is said to be -- [Greek: he paroikousa Smurnan.] The very same mistake has been made in another case. Thus, in an extract published by Dr Cureton from a Syriac work, Polycarp is called Bishop in Syria, instead of in Smyrna. See "Corpus Ignatianum," p.220, line 5 from the foot. Such mistakes in manuscripts are of very frequent occurrence. See "Corpus Ignatianum," pp.278, 300. A more extraordinary blunder, which long confounded the critics, has been recently corrected by Dr Wordsworth. See his "St. Hippolytus," pp.318, 319, Appendix.

[409:1] Pearson alleges that the reason why Tertullian does not quote Ignatius against the heretics was because he did not require his testimony! He had, forsooth, apostolic evidence. "Quasi vero Ignatii testimonio opus esset ad eam rem, cujus testem Apostolum habuit." "Vindiciae," Pars. prima, caput. xi. He finds it convenient, however, to mention Hermas, Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, and many others.

[409:2] See also in Euseb. v.28, a long extract from a work against the heresy of Artemon in which various early writers, who asserted that "Christ is God and man," are named, and Ignatius omitted.

[409:3] See Neander's "General History," by Torrey, i.455. Octavo Edition Edinburgh, 1847. See also Kaye's "Tertullian," p.415.

[409:4] The number of spurious writings which appeared in the early ages was very great. Shortly after the date mentioned in the text it is well known that an individual named Leucius forged the Acts of John, Andrew, Peter, and others. See Jones on the "Canon," p.210, and ii. p.289.

[410:1] This is a literal translation of part of the superscription of the letter as given by Dr Cureton himself in his "Epistles of Saint Ignatius," p.17. In the "Corpus Ignatianum" he has somewhat weakened the strength of the expression by a more free translation -- "To her who presideth in the place of the country of the Romans." "Corp. Ignat." p.230. Tertullian speaks ("De Praescrip." c.36) of the "Apostolic sees presiding over their own places" -- referring to an arrangement then recently made which recognised the precedence of Churches to which Apostles had ministered. This arrangement, which was unknown in the time of Ignatius, was suggested by the disturbances and divisions created by the heretics. Though the words in the text may be quoted in support of the claims of the bishop of Rome, they do not necessarily imply his presidency over all Churches, but they plainly acknowledge his position as at the head of the Churches of Italy.

[411:1] See Euseb. iii.36.

[411:2] See preceding note, p.406.

[411:3] "Corpus Ignatianum," Intro, p.86, note.

[412:1] See "Corpus Ignatianum," pp.265, 267, 269, 271, 286.

[412:2] See Blunt's "Right Use of the Early Fathers." First Series. Lectures v. and vi.

[414:1] It would be very unfair to follow up this comparison by speaking of the Trustees of the British Museum, as the representatives of hierarchical pride and power, proceeding, like Tarquin at the instigation of his augurs, to give a high price for the manuscripts. We believe that these gentlemen have rendered good service to the cause of truth and literature by the purchase.

[414:2] Bunsen rather reluctantly admits that the highest literary authority of the present century, the late Dr Neander, declined to recognise even the Syriac version of the Ignatian Epistles. See "Hippolytus and his Age," iv. Preface, p.26.

[415:1] See "Corpus Ignat." Introd. p.51.

[416:1] Thus, in his "Epistle to the Corinthians," Clemens Romanus, on one occasion, (Sec.16,) quotes the whole of the 53d chapter of Isaiah; and, on another, (Sec.18,) the whole of the 51st Psalm, with the exception of the last two verses.

[416:2] How different from the course pursued by Clement of Rome and by Polycarp! Thus, Clement says to the Corinthians -- "Let us do as it is written," and then goes on to quote several passages of Scripture. Sec.13. Polycarp says -- "I trust that ye are well exercised in the Holy Scriptures" and then proceeds, like Clement, to make some quotations. Sec.12.

[416:3] Phil. iii.3.

[416:4] Eph. vi.17.

[416:5] Heb. xii.1, 2.

[416:6] "Epistle to Polycarp." Lest the plain English reader should believe that the folly of the original is exaggerated in the translation, I beg to say that, here and elsewhere, the English version of Dr Cureton is given word for word.

[417:1] Sec.8.

[417:2] See Period II. sec. ii. chap. ii. p.403.

[417:3] Epistle to Philemon, 10.

[418:1] See Daille, lib. ii. c.13. p.316.

[418:2] According to some accounts, Timothy presided over the Church of Ephesus until nearly the close of the first century, when he was succeeded by Gaius. See Daille, ii. c.13. Some attempt to get over the difficulty by alleging that there was a second Onesimus in Ephesus, who succeeded Gaius, but of this there is no evidence whatever. The writer who thought that Ignatius had been at school with Polycarp, also believed, and with greater reason, that he was contemporary with the Onesimus of the New Testament.

[418:3] "Epistle to the Romans."

[419:1] Euseb. v.21.

[419:2] See Period II. sec. i. chap. v. p.354.

[419:3] Paul was certainly at Rome before Peter, and according to the reading of some copies of Irenaeus, in the celebrated passage, lib. iii. c.3. Sec.2, the Church of Rome is said to have been founded by "Paul and Peter" (see Stieren's "Irenaeus," i.428); but Ignatius here uses the style of expression current in the third century, and speaks of "Peter and Paul."

[419:4] In the Epistle to Polycarp, Ignatius says, "If a man be able in strength to continue in chastity, (i.e. celibacy,) for the honour of the body of our Lord, let him continue without boasting." Here the word in the Greek is [Greek: hagneia]. But this word is applied in the New Testament to Timothy, who may have been "the husband of one wife." See 1 Tim. iv, 12, and v.2. It is also applied by Polycarp, in his Epistle, to married women. "Let us teach your (or our) wives to walk in the faith that is given to them, both in love and purity" ([Greek: agape kai hagneia]). -- Epistle to the Philippians, Sec.4. See also "The Shepherd of Hermas," book ii. command.4; Cotelerius, i.87.

[420:1] This is very evident from the recently discovered work of Hippolytus, as well as from other writers of the same period. See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," i. p.312.

[420:2] Euseb. vii.30.

[420:3] Some have supposed that this was the church of Antioch, but it is not likely that Paul would have cared to retain the church when deserted by the people. Besides, the building is called, not the church, but "the house of the Church" ([Greek: tes ekklesias oikos]).

[420:4] If the reading adopted by Junius, and others, of a passage in the 4th chapter of his Epistle be correct, Polycarp must have been a married man, and probably had a family. "Let us teach our wives to walk in the faith that is given to them, both in love and purity,.... and to bring up their children in the instruction and fear of the Lord." See Jacobson's "Pat. Apost." ii.472, note.

[421:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap. vii.

[421:2] See his "Epistle to the Corinthians," c.42, 44, 47, 54.

[421:3] See Westcott on the "Canon," pp.262, 264, 265.

[421:4] "In the estimation of those able and apostolical men who, in the second century, prepared the Syriac version of the New Testament for the use of some of the Oriental Churches, the bishop and presbyter of the apostolic ordination were titles of the same individual. Hence in texts wherein the Greek word episcopos, 'bishop,' occurs, it is rendered in their version by the Syriac word 'Kashisha,' presbyter." -- Etheridge's Syrian Churches and Gospels, pp.102, 103.

[421:5] The use of the word catholic in the "Seven Epistles," edited by Ussher, is sufficient to discredit them. See "Epist. to Smyrnaeans," Sec.8. The word did not come into use until towards the close of the second century. See Period II. sec. iii, chap, viii., and p.337, note.

[422:1] "Epistle to the Ephesians."

[422:2] Daille has well observed -- "Funi Dei quidem verbum, ministerium, beneficia non inepte comparaveris; Spiritum vero, qui his, ut sic dicam, divinae benignitatis funiculis, ad nos movendos et attrahendos utitur, ipsi illi quo utitur, funi comparare, ab omni ratione alienum est." -- Lib. ii. c.27, pp.409, 410.

[422:3] Col. ii.18.

[423:1] "Epistle to the Ephesians."

[423:2] Matt. xxvi.39.

[423:3] John xxi.18.

[423:4] 2 Tim. iv.17.

[424:1] We have here an additional and very clear proof that Polycarp, in his Epistle, is not referring to Ignatius of Antioch. Instead of pronouncing the letters now current as treating "of faith and patience, and of all things that pertain to edification," he would have condemned them as specimens of folly, impatience, and presumption. Dr Cureton seems to think that, because Ignatius was an old man, he was at liberty to throw away his life ("Corp. Ignat." p.321); but Polycarp was still older, and he thought differently.

[424:2] Sec.4.

[424:3] See "Corpus Ignatianum," p.253.

[424:4] The reader is to understand that all the extracts given in the text are from the Syriac version of the "Three Epistles."

[425:1] "Epistle to the Ephesians."

[425:2] "Epistle to the Romans." Pearson can see nothing but the perfection of piety in all this. "In quibus nihil putidum, nihil odiosum, nihil inscite aut imprudenter scriptum est." ... "Omnia cum pia, legitima, praeclara." -- Vindiciae, pars secunda, c. ix.

[425:3] From A.D.208 to A.D.258.

[425:4] Thus in the "Acts of Paul and Thecla," fabricated about the beginning of the third century, Thecla says -- "Give me the seal of Christ, (i.e. baptism,) and no temptation shall touch me," (c.18.) See Jones on the "Canon of the New Testament," ii. p.312.

[426:1] "Epistle to Polycarp."

[426:2] 1 Cor. xiii.3.

[426:3] See Blunt's "Early Fathers," p.237. See also Origen's "Exhortation to Martyrdom," Sec.27, 30, 50.

[426:4] According to Dr Lee, a strenuous advocate for the Syriac version of the "Three Epistles," this translation, as he supposes it to be, was made "not later perhaps than the close of the second, or beginning of the third century." "Corpus Ignat." Introd. p.86, note. Dr Cureton occasionally supplies strong presumptive evidence that the translation has been made, not from Greek into Syriac, but from Syriac into Greek. "Cor. Ignat." p.278.

[426:5] Though Milner, in his "History of the Church of Christ," quotes these letters so freely, he seems to have scarcely turned his attention to the controversy respecting them. Hence he intimates that Ussher reckoned seven of them genuine, though it is notorious that the Primate of Armagh rejected the Epistle to Polycarp. (See Milner, cent. ii. chap, i.) Others, as well as Milner, who have written respecting these Epistles, have committed similar mistakes. Thus, Dr Elrington, Regius Professor of Divinity in Trinity College, Dublin, the recent editor of "Ussher's Works," when referring to the Primate's share in this controversy, speaks of "the recent discovery of a Syriac version of four Epistles by Mr Cureton!" "Life of Ussher," p.235, note.

[428:1] "Instit." lib. i. c. xiii. Sec.29.

[429:1] See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," i. p.27.

[430:1] Period I. sec. ii. chap, iii. pp.202, 203.

[430:2] See Tertullian, "Adversus Hermogenem," c. x. and iv.

[430:3] [Greek: gnosis].

[431:1] Ps. cxiii.6.

[431:2] See Tertullian, "Adversus Marcionem," lib. i. c.2. About this time many works were written on the subject. Eusebius mentions a publication by Irenaeus, "On Sovereignty, or on the Truth that God is not the Author of Evil," and another by Maximus on "The Origin of Evil." Euseb. v.20, 27.

[431:3] Irenaeus, "Contra Haeres." lib. i. c.24, Sec.7.

[433:1] Irenaeus, lib. i. c.24. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, Basilides flourished in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. "Stromata," lib. vii. Opera, p.764.

[433:2] [Greek: Buthos kai ennoia, nous kai aletheia, logos kai zoe].

[433:3] According to some, Valentine was the disciple of Marcion. Clemens Alexandrinus states that Marcion was his senior. "Strom." lib. viii. Tertullian says expressly that Valentine was at one time the disciple of Marcion. "De Carne Christi," c.1.

[434:1] See Neander's "General History," by Torrey, ii. pp.171, 174, notes.

[434:2] See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," pp.316, 317.

[435:1] The Ophites carried this feeling so far as to maintain that the serpent which deceived Eve was no other than the divine Aeon Sophia, or Wisdom, who thus weakened the power of Ialdabaoth, or the Demiurge.

[435:2] See Mosheim, "De Caussis Suppositorum Librorum inter Christianos Saeculi Primi et Secundi." "Dissert, ad Hist. Eccl. Pertin." vol. i.221.

[437:1] His great text was Rev. xx.6, 7. Hence some now began to dispute the authority of the Apocalypse.

[437:2] Others, who do not appear to have been connected with Montanus, but who lived about the same time, held the same views on the subject of marriage. Thus, Athenagoras says -- "A second marriage is by us esteemed a specious adultery." -- Apology, Sec.33.

[437:3] "Nam idem (Praxeas) tunc Episcopum Romanum, agnoscentem jam prophetias Montani, Priseae, Maximillae, et ex ea agnitione pacem ecclesiis Asiae et Phrygiae inferentem, falsa de ipsis prophetis et ecclesiis eorum adseverando et praecessorum ejus auctoritates defendendo coegit et litteras pacis revocare jam emissas et a proposito recipiendorum charismatum concessare." -- Tertullian, Adv. Praxean., c. i.

[438:1] Euseb. v.16.

[438:2] It would appear, however, that it maintained a lingering existence for several centuries. Even Justinian, about A.D.530, enacts laws against the Montanists or Tertullianists.

[438:3] Isaiah xlv.5, 7.

[439:1] Augustin, "Contra Epist. Fundamenti," c.13.

[439:2] On the ground that their oil is the food of light! Schaff's "History of the Christian Church," p.249.

[441:1] We find Tertullian, after he became a Montanist, dwelling on the distinction of venial and mortal sins. See Kaye's "Tertullian," pp.255, 339.

[441:2] Rom. vi.23.

[442:1] 1 Thess. v.22.

[442:2] James i.15.

[442:3] See Cudworth's "Intellectual System," with Notes by Mosheim, iii. p.297. Edition, London, 1845.

[442:4] See Hagenbach's "History of Doctrines," i. p.218.

[442:5] See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.348.

[442:6] The doctrine of Purgatory, as now held, was not, however, fully recognised until the time of Gregory the Great, or the beginning of the seventh century.

[443:1] See Mosheim's "Institutes," by Soames, i.166.

[443:2] Marcion, it appears, declined to baptize those who were married. "Non tinguitur apud illum caro, nisi virgo, nisi vidua, nisi caelebs, nisi divortio baptisma mercata." -- Tertullian, Adver. Marcionem, lib. i. c.29.

[443:3] See Neander's "General History," ii.253.

[443:4] In the "Westminster Review" for October 1856, there is an article on Buddhism, written, indeed, in the anti-evangelical spirit of that periodical, but containing withal much curious and important information.

[444:1] Col. ii.23.

[446:1] The most remarkable instance of this is the condemnation of the word [Greek: homoousios], as applied to our Lord, by the Synod of Antioch in A.D.269. It is well known that the very same word was adopted in A.D.325, by the Council of Nice as the symbol of orthodoxy; and yet these two ecclesiastical assemblies held the same views. See also, as to the application of the word [Greek: hupostauis], Burton's "Ante-Nicene Testimonies," p.129.

[446:2] "The inference to be drawn from a comparison of different passages scattered through Tertullian's writings is, that the Apostle's Creed in its present form was not known to him as a summary of faith; but that the various clauses of which it is composed were generally received as articles of faith by orthodox Christians." -- Kaye's Tertullian, p.324.

[446:3] These may be found in Routh's "Reliquiae." Eusebius has preserved many of them.

[447:1] "Si quis legat Scripturas.....et erit consummatus discipulus, et similis patrifamilias, qui de thesauro suo profert nova et vetera." -- Irenaeus, iv. c.26, Sec. i.

[447:2] "Ubi fomenta fidei de scripturarum interjectione?" -- Tertullian, Ad Uxorem, lib. ii. c.6.

[447:3] As in the case of Origen. In the Didascalia we meet with the following directions -- "Teach then your children the word of the Lord..... Teach them to write, and to read the Holy Scriptures." -- Ethiopic Didascalia, by Platt, p.130.

[447:4] Euseb. viii. c.13.

[448:1] Clemens Alexandrinus, "Stromata," lib. vii.

[448:2] Homil. xxxix. on Jer. xliv.22.

[448:3] Period I. sec. ii. chap. i. p.184.

[448:4] The fathers traced analogies between the four Gospels and the four cardinal points, the living creatures with four faces, and the four rivers of Paradise. See Irenaeus, lib. iii. c. xi. Sec.8; and Cyprian, Epist. lxxiii., Opera, p.281.

[449:1] Such as the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas.

[449:2] See Westcott on the Canon, pp.452, 453.

[449:3] "The opinion that falsehood, was allowable, and might even be necessary to guide the multitude, was," says Neander, "a principle inbred into the aristocratic spirit of the old world." -- General History, ii. p.72.

[449:4] Such as the numerous works ascribed to Clemens Romanus, and the Ignatian Epistles.

[450:1] Cyprian, Epist. lxxiv. p.294.

[450:2] Cyprian, Epist. lxxiv. p.296.

[450:3] Cyprian, Epist. lxxiv. p.294.

[450:4] The conflicting traditions relative to the time of keeping the Paschal feast afford a striking illustration of this fact.

[450:5] See Kaye's "Justin Martyr," p.75.

[450:6] "Originis vitium." "Malum igitur animae.... ex originis vitio antecedit." -- De Anima, c.41. Cyprian calls it "contagio antiqua." "Innovati Spiritu Sancto a sordibus contagionis antiquae." -- De Habitu Virginum, cap iv.

[450:7] "Per quem (Satanan) homo a primordio circumventus, ut praeceptum Dei excederet, et propterea in mortem datus exinde totum genus de suo semine infectum suae etiam damnationis traducem fecit." -- De Testimonio Animae, c. iii.

[451:1] "Nothing can be less systematic or less organized than their notions on this subject; I might say, often even contradictory; such inconsistency partly, perhaps, arising from the point never having been canvassed by men with any care, as it eventually was by controversialists of a later day,... and partly from the embarrassment of their position; for whilst Scripture and self-experience compelled them to admit the grievous corruption of our nature, they had perpetually to contend against a powerful body of heretics, who made such corruption the ground for affirming that a world so evil could not have been created by a good God, but was the work of a Demiurgus" -- Blunt's Early Fathers, pp.585, 586.

[451:2] "Paedagogue," lib. i.

[451:3] See Kaye's "Clement," p.432. See also the comments of Neander, "General History," ii.388.

[451:4] Pliny's Epistle to Trajan.

[451:5] See various passages in Justin's Dialogue with Trypho, and in Origen against Celsus.

[452:1] Thus Origen says -- "We do not pay the highest worship to Him who appeared so lately, as to a person who had no previous existence, for we believe Him when He says himself -- 'Before Abraham was, I am.'" -- Contra Celsum, viii. Sec.12.

[452:1] The origin of this name has been much controverted. It is probable that it was derived from Ebion, the founder of the sect. See Period I. sect. ii. chap. iii. p.206. Among other things the party seem to have inculcated voluntary poverty.

[452:3] This passage, which is somewhat obscure as it stands in the original, has been misinterpreted by Unitarian writers from generation to generation. The rendering which they commonly give of it makes it quite inconsistent with the context, and with the statements of Justin elsewhere. See Kaye's "Justin," p.51.

[453:1] Thus Tertullian says, "The only man without sin is Christ, because Christ is also God." -- De Anima, cap. xli. Justin Martyr complains that the Jews had expunged from the Septuagint many passages "wherein it might be clearly shewn that He who was crucified was both God and man." -- Dialogue with Trypho, Sec.71.

[453:2] Euseb. v.28.

[454:1] Euseb. v.27, 30. Epiphanius, "Haer." 65, 1.

[454:2] The superscription of this epistle is a sufficient refutation of much of the reasoning of Mr Shepherd against the genuineness of the Cyprianic correspondence, as here the names of a crowd of bishops are given without any mention whatever of their sees.

[454:3] Euseb. vii.30.

[454:4] [Greek: trias] or trinitas.

[454:5] This is, however, by no means clear, as there is nothing in his works to indicate that he held such a position.

[454:6] "Ad Autolycum," ii. c.15. [Greek: tupoi eisin tes Triados].

[455:1] Thus Irenaeus says -- "There is ever present with Him (the Father) the Word and Wisdom, the Son and Spirit." -- Contra Haereses, iv.20, Sec.1. It may here be proper to add that the early Christians worshipped the third Person of the Trinity. Thus, Hippolytus says -- "Through Him (the Incarnate Word) we form a conception of the Father; we believe in the Son; we worship the Holy Ghost." -- Contra Noetum, c.12.

[455:2] "Legat. pro. Christianis," c.10.

[455:3] "Legat. pro. Christ." c.12.

[456:1] "Monarchiam, inquiunt, tenemus." -- Tertullian, Adv. Praxean, c.3.

[456:2] "Athanas de Synodis," c.7.

[456:3] Hippolytus, "Philosophumena," book ix.

[456:4] He flourished about A.D.220, and was contemporary with Hippolytus. See Bunsen, i.131.

[457:1] Hermias speaks of the Trinity of Plato as "God, and matter, and example." -- Sec.5.

[457:2] "Doleo bona fide Platonem omnium haereticorum condimentarium factum. ... Cum igitur hujusmodi argumento illa insinuentur a Platone quae haeretici mutuantur, satis haereticos repercutiam, si argumentum Platonis elidam." -- De Anima, c.23.

[457:3] "Adversus Praxeam," c.2, 3.

[458:1] "Paedagogue," book i. c.5, 6, 11.

[458:2] Opera, p.74.

[458:3] "Paedagogue," book i. c.1.

[458:4] "Stromata," book ii.

[458:5] Justin, Opera, p.500.

[459:1] See Kaye's "Clement," pp.431, 435.

[459:2] Epist. i. ad Donatum, Opera, p.3.

[459:3] The philosophers, according to Justin, maintained a general, but denied a particular providence. Dial, with Trypho, Opera, p.218. Some who call themselves Christians adopt this portion of the pagan theology.

[460:1] "Non facti solum, verum et voluntatis delicta vitanda, et poenitentia purganda esse." -- Tertullian, De Paenitentia, c. iii.

[460:2] "Hoc enim pretio Dominus veniam addicere instituit." -- Tert. De Paenit. c. vi.

[460:3] Clemens Alexandrinus, "Strom." book vi.

[460:4] "Sufficiat martyri propria delicta purgasse." -- Tertullian, De Pudicitia, c.22.

[460:5] See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.431. Origen speaks of the baptism of blood (martyrdom) rendering us purer than the baptism of water. Opera, ii. p.473.

[460:6] Epist. lxxvi. Opera, p.322.

[460:7] Epist. lv. p.181.

[461:1] Ps. cxix 18, 19.

[463:1] See the Apology of Athenagoras, secs.3, 10; and Minucius Felix, c.10.

[463:2] "Nostrae columbae etiam domus simplex, in editis semper et apertis, et ad lucem." -- Tertullian, Advers. Valent. c.3.

[463:3] Life of Alexander Severus, by Lampridius, c.49.

[464:1] See Kennett's "Antiquities of Rome," p.41.

[464:2] Bingham has proved, by a variety of testimonies, that such was the order of the ancient service. See his "Origines," iv.383, 400, 417. The early Christians thus literally obeyed the commandment -- "Come before his presence with singing;" "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." -- (Ps. c.2, 4.).

[464:3] See 1 Cor. xiv.26. See also Euseb. v.28.

[464:4] At the end of his "Paedagogue." This hymn to the Saviour was composed by Clement himself.

[465:1] Euseb. vii.30.

[465:2] See Bingham, i. p.383. Edit. London, 1840.

[465:3] Chrysostom in Psalm cxlix. See Bingham, ii.485.

[466:1] [Greek: hose dunamis.] See Origen, "Contra Celsum," iii.1 and 57; Opera, i.447, 485.

[466:2] "Apol." ii. p.98.

[466:3] "Suspicientes Christiani manibus expansis denique sine monitore, quia de pectore oramus." -- Apol. c.30. The omission of a single word, when repeating the heathen liturgy, was considered a great misfortune. Chevallier says, speaking of this expression sine monitore -- "There is probably an allusion to the persons who were appointed, at the sacrifices of the Romans, to prompt the magistrates, lest they should incidentally omit a single word in the appropriate formulae, which would have vitiated the whole proceedings." -- Translation of the Epistles of Clement, &c., p.411, note.

[466:4] Opera, i.267.

[466:5] See Minucius Felix.

[466:6] Tertullian, "De Oratione," c.14.

[466:7] See Bingham, iv.324. In prayer the Christians soon began to turn the face to the east. See Tertullian, "Apol." c.16. This custom appears to have been borrowed from the Eastern nations who worshipped the sun. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.408.

[467:1] Thus Prideaux mentions how the Persian priests, long before the commencement of our era, approached the sacred fire "to read the daily offices of their Liturgy before it." -- Connections, part i., book iv., vol. i. p.218. This liturgy was composed by Zoroaster nearly five hundred years before Christ's birth.

[467:2] See Clarkson on "Liturgies," and Hartung, "Religion der Romer." It is remarkable that the old pagan Roman liturgy, in consequence of the change in the language from the time of its original establishment, began at length to be almost unintelligible to the people. It thus resembles the present Romish Liturgy. The pagans believed that their prayers were more successful when offered up in a barbarous and unknown language. See Potter's "Antiquities of Greece," i.288. Edit. Edinburgh, 1818. The Lacedaemonians had a form of prayer from which they never varied either in public or private. Potter i.281.

[467:3] "In the persecutions under Diocletian and his associates, though a strict inquiry was made after the books of Scripture, and other things belonging to the Church, which were often delivered up by the Traditores to be burnt, yet we never read of any ritual books, or books of divine service, delivered up among them." -- Bingham, iv.187.

[467:4] It is worthy of note that, in modern times, when there is any great revival of religion, forms of prayer fall into comparative desuetude even among those by whom they were formerly used.

[468:1] See Tertullian, "De Oratione," c.9; and Origen, "De Oratione."

[468:2] 1 Tim. ii.2.

[468:3] Tertullian, "Apol." c.39.

[468:4] See Tertullian, "De Praescrip." c.41.

[468:5] See Guerike's "Manual of the Antiquities of the Church," by Morrison, p.214.

[468:6] Guerike's "Manual," p.213.

[469:1] There is reference to this in the "Apostolic Constitutions," lib. ii. c.57. Cotelerius, i.266.

[469:2] Euseb. vii.30.

[470:1] See Bingham, ii.212.

[470:2] Letter from Pius of Rome to Justus of Vienne.

[470:3] Bingham, ii.451.

[470:4] See Period II. sec. i. chap. iii. p.320.

[472:1] See the "Epistle of the Church of Smyrna," giving an account of his martyrdom, Sec.9.

[472:2] The Latin version of his words, as given by Jacobson, is -- "Octogesimum jam et sextum annum aetatis ingredior." -- Pat. Apost. ii.565. See also the "Chronicum Alexandrinum" as quoted by Cotelerius, ii.194; and Gregory of Tours, "Hist." i.28.

[472:3] He is represented as standing, when offering up a prayer of about two hours' length (Sec.7), and as running with great speed (Sec.8). Such strength at such an age was extraordinary. The Apostle John is said to have lived to the age of one hundred; but, towards the close of his life, he appears to have lost his wonted energy.

[472:4] "Apol." ii. Opera, p.62. See Dr Wilson's observations on this passage in his "Infant Baptism," pp.447, 448.

[473:1] Dialogue with Trypho. Opera, p.261.

[473:2] There may here be a reference to 1 Cor. vii.14.

[473:3] Book ii. c. xxii. Sec.4.

[473:4] Thus he says -- "Giving to His disciples the power of regeneration unto God, He said to them -- Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." -- Book iii. c. xvii. Sec.1. Thus, too, he speaks of the heretics using certain rites "to the rejection of baptism, which is regeneration unto God." -- Book i. c. xxi. Sec.1. Irenaeus here apparently means that baptism typically is regeneration, in the same way as the bread and wine in the Eucharist are typically the body and blood of Christ.

[474:1] That infant baptism was now practised at Alexandria is apparent also from the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, who, in allusion to this rite, speaks of "the children that are drawn up out of the water." -- Paedag. iii. c.11.

[474:2] Hom. xiv. in "Lucam." Opera, iii.948. See also Opera, ii.230. Hom. viii. in "Leviticum."

[474:3] Comment. in "Epist. ad Roman," lib. v. Opera, iv.565.

[475:1] "De Baptismo," c.18.

[475:2] Acts ii.41.

[475:3] Acts viii.37, 38; xvi.31-33.

[476:1] "Parents were commonly sponsors for their own children ... and the extraordinary cases in which they were presented by others, were commonly such cases, where the parent could not, or would not, do that kind office for them; as when slaves were presented to baptism by their masters, or children whose parents were dead, were brought, by the charity of any who would shew mercy on them; or children exposed by their parents, which were sometimes taken up by the holy virgins of the Church, and by them presented unto baptism. These are the only cases mentioned by St Austin in which children seem to have had other sponsors." -- Bingham, iii.552.

[476:2] Mark x.14.

[476:3] Compare Mark x.13-16 with Luke xviii.15, 16.

[477:1] See Acts xvi.15.

[477:2] "De Baptismo," c. viii. xvi.

[477:3] "It would be thought by many a cruelty to place a person without his own consent, and in unconscious infancy, in a situation, so far, much more disadvantageous than that of those brought up pagans, that if he did ever -- suppose at the age of fifteen or twenty -- fall into any sin, he must remain for the rest of his life -- perhaps for above half a century -- deprived of all hope, or at least of all confident hope, of restoration to the divine favour; shut out from all that cheering prospect which, if his baptism in infancy had been omitted, might have lain before him." -- Archbishop Whately's Scripture Doctrine concerning the Sacraments, p.11, note.

[478:1] Acts ii.38, 39.

[478:2] Gen. xvii.12; Lev. xii.3.

[479:1] Epist. lix. pp.211, 212.

[479:2] Laurentius, a Roman deacon, who flourished about the middle of the third century, is represented as baptizing one Romanus, a soldier, in a pitcher of water, and another individual, named Lucillus, by pouring water upon his head. See Bingham, iii.599.

[480:1] Here the validity of the ordinance is made to depend upon the personal character of the administrator.

[480:2] Epist. lxxvi. p.321.

[480:3] Epist. lxxiv. p.295.

[480:4] Epist. lxxvi. p.317. In like manner Clement of Alexandria says -- "Our transgressions are remitted by one sovereign medicine, the baptism according to the Word." See Kaye's "Clement," p.437.

[480:5] Epist. lxx. p.269.

[480:6] Tertullian, "De Baptismo," c.1.

[480:7] Cyprian, "Con. Carthag." pp.600, 602.

[480:8] See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p.441, and Tertullian, "De Corona," c.3.

[480:9] Tertullian, "De Baptismo," c.7.

[480:10] Tertullian, "De Baptismo," c.8.

[481:1] "De Resurrectione Carnis," c.8.

[481:2] "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." -- Matt, xxviii.19.

[481:3] Bingham, iii.377.

[483:1] Rev. xxii.18, 19.

[484:1] "Apol." ii. Opera, pp.97, 98.

[485:1] In an article on the Roman Catacombs, in the "Edinburgh Review" for January 1859, the writer observes -- "It is apparent from all the paintings of Christian feasts, whether of the Agapae, or the burial feasts of the dead, or the Communion of the Holy Sacrament, that they were celebrated by the early Christians sitting round a table."

[485:2] This calumny created much prejudice against them in the second century. See Justin Martyr's "Dialogue with Trypho," Sec.10; and the "Apology of Athenagoras," Sec.3. If Pliny refers to the Eucharist when he speaks of the early Christians as partaking of food together, it is obvious that they must then have communicated sitting, or in the posture in which they partook of their ordinary meals.

[485:3] Tertullian, "De Oratione," c.14.

[485:4] See Euseb. vii.9.

[485:5] Justin Martyr, "Apol." ii.98; and Tertullian's "Apol." c.39.

[486:1] Epist. lxiii. "To Caecilius," Opera, p.229.

[486:2] Larroque's "History of the Eucharist," p.35. London, 1684.

[486:3] Cyprian, "De Lapsis," Opera, pp.375, 381. This was probably the result of carrying to excess a protest against the Montanist opposition to infant baptism. Such a reaction often occurs. It was now maintained that the Lord's Supper, as well as Baptism, should be administered to infants.

[486:4] At an earlier period it was dispensed in presence of the catechumens. See Bingham, iii. p.380.

[486:5] "De Oratione Dominica," Opera, p.421.

[487:1] See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.357.

[487:2] See Gieseler's "Text Book of Ecclesiastical History," by Cunningham ii.331, note 3.

[487:3] "Dialogue with Trypho," Opera, pp.296, 297.

[487:4] See Kaye's "Clement of Alexandria," p.445.

[487:5] [Greek: akeraioteron], Opera, in. p.498.

[488:1] In Mat. tom. xi. Opera, iii.499, 500.

[488:2] Epist. lxiii. "To Caecilius," Opera, p.225.

[488:3] Epist. lxiii. Opera, 228.

[488:4] Matt, xviii.20.

[489:1] Irenaeus, "Contra Haereses," v. c.2, Sec.3. Clement of Alexandria says that "to drink the blood of Jesus is to partake of the incorruption of the Lord." -- Paedagogue, book ii.

[489:2] "Contra Haereses," iv. c.18, Sec.5.

[489:3] This feeling prevailed in the time of Tertullian. "Calicis aut panis etiam nostri aliquid decuti in terram auxie patimur." -- De Corona, c.3.

[489:4] Hom. xiii. in "Exod." Opera, ii.176.

[489:5] Ps. xii.6.

[490:1] See Kaye's "Justin Martyr," p.94. Irenaeus, iv. o.17, Sec.5. Tertullian, "De Oratione," c.14.

[490:2] "Nonne solemnior erit statio tua, si et ad aram Dei steteris?" Tertullian, "De Oratione," c.14, or, according to Oehler, c.19.

[491:1] Matt. iii.5, 6.

[491:2] Acts xix.17, 18.

[493:1] Acts xvi.33.

[493:2] "Apol." ii. Opera, p.93, 94.

[493:1] "De Paenitentia," c. ix.

[493:2] Joshua vii.6; Esther iv.1; Isaiah lviii.5; Ezek. xxvii.30.

[494:1] See a "Memorial concerning Personal and Family Fasting," by the pious Thomas Boston. Edinburgh, 1849.

[494:2] Matt. ix.15.

[494:3] Lev. xxiii.27.

[494:4] The text Matt. ix.15 was urged in support of this observance. See Tertullian, "De Jejun." c. ii.

[494:5] "Wednesday being selected because on that day the Jews took counsel to destroy Christ, and Friday because that was the day of His crucifixion." -- Kaye's Tertullian, p.418. As Wednesday was dedicated to Mercury and Friday to Venus, this fasting, according to Clement, signified to the more advanced disciple, that he was to renounce the love of gain and the love of pleasure. Kaye's "Clement," p.454.

[495:1] These Xerophagiae, or Dry Food Days, were even now objected to by some of the more enlightened Christians on the ground that they were an import from heathenism. Tertullian, "De Jejun." c. ii.

[495:2] Col. ii.23.

[495:3] Thus Cyprian, Epist. liii. p.169, speaks of a penance of three years' duration.

[496:1] Socrates, v. c.19.

[497:1] See canon xi. of the Council of Nice.

[497:2] See Cyprian, Epist. xl., p.53, and "ad Demetrianum," p.442.

[497:3] See p.419, note Sec..

[497:4] See p.460.

[498:1] Rom. iii.28.

[498:2] Matt. iii.8.

[498:3] Isa. lviii.6-8.

[499:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap. i. pp.465, 466.

[499:2] 1 Tim. v.17.

[500:1] Apost. Constit. ii. c.17.

[500:2] Phil. iv.3.

[500:3] No less than five persons are mentioned as having preceded Polycarp in the see of Smyrna, viz., Aristo, Strataeas, another Aristo, Apelles, and Bucolus. See Jacobson's "Patres Apostolici," ii.564, 565, note. It is not at all probable that he became the senior presbyter long before the middle of the second century. Irenaeus, indeed, tells us that he was constituted bishop of Smyrna by the apostles (lib. iii. c.3, Sec.4) -- a statement which implies that at least two of the inspired heralds of the gospel were concerned in his designation to the ministry; but as he was still only a boy of nineteen when the last survivor of the twelve died in extreme old age, the words cannot mean that he was actually ordained by those to whom our Lord originally entrusted the organization of the Church. The language was probably designed simply to import that John and perhaps Philip had announced his future eminence when he was yet a child, and that thus, like Timothy, he was invested with the pastoral commission "according to the prophecies" which they had previously delivered. See 1 Tim. i.18; iv.14.

[501:1] Sec.74.

[502:1] Sec.54.

[502:2] Sec.44.

[502:3] Sec.44. All these quotations attest the late date of the Epistle. Tillemont places it in A.D.97. Eusebius had evidently no doubt as to its late date. See his "History," iii.16.

[502:4] Sec.57.

[502:5] For many centuries it was considered lost. At length in the reign of Charles I. a copy of it was discovered appended to a very ancient manuscript containing the Septuagint and Greek Testament -- the manuscript now known as the Codex Alexandrinus.

[502:6] Euseb. iii.16; iv.23.

[503:1] See the Romish Breviary under the 23d of November, where a number of absurd stories are told concerning him.

[503:2] Sec.42.

[503:3] They continued to be so used when the Peshito version of the New Testament was made. That version is assigned by the best authorities to the former half of the second century. See p.421, note.

[503:4] It is probably of nearly the same date as the first Apology of Justin Martyr.

[504:1] [Greek: hoi sun autoi presbuteroi] -- evidently equivalent to [Greek: sumpresbuteroi]. See 1 Pet. v. i.

[504:2] Phil. i.1.

[504:3] Sec.5.

[504:4] Sec.6.

[504:5] Jerome, "Comment. in Tit."

[504:6] 1 Cor. xiv.40.

[505:1] As in Acts xiv.23.

[505:2] I make no apology for employing a word which, even the Benedictine Editor of Origen has adopted. Thus he speaks of the "senatores et moderatores ecclesiae Dei." -- Contra Celsum. iii.30, Opera, i.466.

[505:3] Such as Acts xxi.18; Gal. ii.12.

[506:1] "At Antioch some, as Origen and Eusebius, make Ignatius to succeed Peter. Jerome makes him the third bishop, and placeth Evodius before him. Others, therefore, to solve that, make them contemporary bishops; the one, of the Church of the Jews; the other, of the Gentiles.... Come we to Rome, and here the succession is as muddy as the Tiber itself; for here Tertullian, Rufinus, and several others, place Clement next to Peter. Irenaeus and Eusebius set Anacletus before him; Epiphanius and Optatus both Anacletus and Cletus; Augustinus and Damasus, with others, make Anacletus, Cletus, and Linus all to precede him. What way shall we find to extricate ourselves out of this labyrinth?" -- Stillingfleet's Irenicum, part ii. ch.7. p.321.

[506:2] "Polycarp, and the elders who are with him, to the Church of God which is at Philippi."

[506:3] A Roman deacon of the fourth century. His works are commonly appended to those of Ambrose.

[507:1] "Primum presbyteri episcopi appellabantur, ut, recedente uno, sequens ei succederet." -- Comment. in Eph. iv.

[507:2] "Ut omnis episcopus presbyter sit, non omnis presbyter episcopus; hic enim episcopus est, qui inter presbyteros primus est." -- Comment. in 1 Tim. iii. According to a learned writer this arrangement extended farther. "Ita, uti videtur, comparatum fuit, ut defuncto presbytero, primus ordine diaconus locum occuparet ultimum presbyterorum, novusque in locum novissimum substitueretur diaconus; decedente vero episcopo, primus ordine presbyter in ejus locum sufficeretur, et primus in ordine diaconorum novissimam presbyterii sedem capesseret." -- Thomae Brunonis Judicium de auctore Can. et Const. quae apost. dicuntur. Cotelerius, ii. Ap. p.179.

[507:3] 1 Pet. v.5. It is a curious and striking fact, arguing strongly in favour of the antiquity of their Church polity, that among the Vaudois Barbs of old the claims of seniority were distinctly acknowledged. The following rule of discipline is taken from one of their ancient MSS. "He that is received the last (into the ministry by imposition of hands) ought to do nothing without the permission of him that was received before him." -- Moreland, History of the Evang. Ch. of the Valleys of Piedmont, p.74.

[507:4] He is speaking immediately before of presbyters. See 1 Pet. v.1-4.

[507:5] Matt. x.2, "The first, Simon, who is called Peter." Mark iii.16; Luke vi.14; Acts i.13.

[507:6] Jerome in "Jovin," i.14.

[508:1] Savigny's "History of the Roman Law," by Cathcart, i. pp.62, 63, 75.

[508:2] Euseb. iii.23. [Greek: ho presbutes].

[508:3] In Africa the senior bishop or metropolitan was called father. See Bingham, i.200. In the second century we find the name given to the Roman bishop. See Routh's "Reliquiae," i.287. According to Eutychius, his predecessor in the see of Alexandria in the early part of the third century was called "Baba (Papa), that is, grandfather."

[509:1] Euseb. v.1.

[509:2] He was one hundred and sixteen years of age in A.D.212 (Euseb. vi.11), so that in A.D.196, or about the time of the Palestinian Synod at which he presided (Euseb. v.23), he was a century old.

[509:3] Etheridge's "Syrian Churches," pp.9, 10.

[509:4] See 1 Tim. iv.12.

[509:5] That is, Anacletus, Evaristus, Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, and Hyginus; but some consider Anacletus the same as Cletus, who is supposed to have died before Clement.

[510:1] Pearson has noticed this fact, and has endeavoured to erect upon it an argument against the current chronology. See his "Minor Works," ii.527. It would appear that the names of the three bishops of Smyrna next after Polycarp were Thraseas, Papirius, and Camerius. At least two of these had passed away a considerable time before the Paschal controversy. See Greswell's "Dissertations," iv. part ii. p.600, note.

[510:2] Hist. iv.5.

[510:3] According to Eusebius his appointment took place after the destruction of Jerusalem, or about A.D.71. He was, therefore, at the head of the Church forty-five years, as his martyrdom occurred in A.D.116. According to this reckoning he was in his seventy-fifth year when made president.

[510:4] This explanation of the matter approximates to that given by Tillemont. "Cela peut etre venu de ce qu'on les choisissoit entre les plus agez du Clerge pour les faire Evesques: car on ne voit pas qu'ils ayent este plus persecutez que d'autres." -- Mem. pour servir a l'Histoire Ecclesiastique, tom. ii. part ii. p.40. It would appear from Eusebius (iii.32), that at the time of the death of Simeon there were still living a number of very old persons who were relatives of our Lord. Some of these were, probably, elders in the Church of Jerusalem.

[511:1] He is said in the "Chronicon" of Eusebius to have presided sixteen years.

[511:2] Euseb. v.12.

[512:1] In the tenth century, the darkest and most revolting period in the history of the Popedom, there were twenty-four bishops of Rome. Some of these reigned only a few days; at least one of them was strangled; several of them died in prison; and several others were driven from the see or deposed. There have been only twenty-four Popes in the last two hundred and fifty years.

[512:2] There have been only twenty-eight Archbishops of Canterbury since 1454.

[512:3] In the middle of the third century we find Firmilian appealing to it as a witness against the Church of Home. Cyprian, Epist. lxxv. Opera, p.303.

[512:4] "Hist." vi.20.

[513:1] "Hist." iv.5; v.12.

[513:2] Such as, after the death of the aged Simeon, when Justus, at the age of fivescore and ten, was advanced to the presidential chair.

[514:1] Irenaeus, iii.2. Tertullian, "De Praescrip. Haeret." Sec.25.

[514:2] "Ad eam iterum traditionem, quae est ab apostolis, quae per successiones presbyterorum in ecclesiis custoditur, provocamus eos." -- Irenaeus, iii.2.

[514:3] Irenaeus here speaks in the language of his own times, and refers to the presidents, or senior ministers, of the presbyteries. In like manner Hilary says that the change in the mode of appointing the president of the presbytery was made by the decision of many priests (multorum sacerdotum judicio), though the title priest was not given to a Christian minister when the alteration was originally proposed.

[514:4] Irenaeus, iii.3.

[515:1] Period II. sec. i. chap. iv.; and Period II. sect. iii. chap. vii.

[515:2] According to a very ancient canon, no one under fifty years of age could be made a bishop. See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.56. Even in the time of Cyprian much stress was still laid upon age. See Cyprian, Epist. lii. p.156.

[515:3] Sec Period II. sect. iii. chap. xi. See also Bingham, i.198.

[515:4] Muenter's "Primordia Ecclesiae Africanae," p.49. See also Bingham, vi.377-379.

[516:1] Bingham, i.201.

[516:2] Binius, i.5. Fourth Council of Toledo, canon 4.

[516:3] Bingham, i.204.

[517:1] Bunsen dates it about A.D.200. "Hippolytus and his Age," p.114. The recently discovered treatise of Hippolytus against all heresies shews that Noetus must have appeared much earlier than most modern ecclesiastical historians have reckoned.

[517:2] Routh, "Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula," tom. i. pp.49, 50. Oxon, 1858. This extract proves that the Church of Smyrna continued under presbyterial government long after the time of Polycarp. Other Churches about this time were in the same position. See Eusebius, v.16.

[518:1] During the Paschal controversy the Churches of Jerusalem, Caesarea, and others sided with Rome, and then probably adopted her ecclesiastical regimen. It had, perhaps, been generally adopted in Asia Minor during the Montanist agitation.

[518:2] Chapter vii. of this section.

[519:1] The word catholic came now into use. The minister of the Word was called a priest, and the communion table, an altar.

[519:2] Euseb. v.12.

[519:3] Euseb. vi.10. The word [Greek: cheirotonian] here employed is indicative of a popular choice. See also the "Chronicon" of Eusebius.

[519:4] Muenter's "Primordia Eccles. Afric.," pp.25, 26.

[520:1] Acts x.1, 45-48; xxi.8.

[520:2] "Hist." v.22.

[520:3] "Hist." v.23; v.25; vi.19; vi.23; vi.46; vii.14, &c, &c.

[520:4] "Annal." p.332.

[520:5] See Lardner's Works, vii.99. Edit. London, 1838.

[521:1] Eusebius, vi.26. Towards the close of his episcopate Demetrius held several synods in Alexandria, at which a considerable number of bishops were present.

[523:1] It would appear that the "Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius was published shortly after Constantine first publicly recognized Christianity. That event took place in A.D.324, and with that year the history terminates.

[523:2] "Vita Malchi," Opera, iv. pp.90, 91. Edit. Paris, 1706.

[524:1] "Antequam Diaboli instinctu, studia in religione fierent, et diceretur in populis, Ego sum Pauli, ego Apollo, ego autem Cephae, communi presbyterorum consilio ecclesiae gubernabantur. Postquam vero unusquisque eos quos baptizaverat suos putabat esse, non Christi, in toto orbe decretum est, ut unus de presbyteris, electus superponeretur caeteris, ad quem omnis ecclesiae cura pertineret, et schismatum semina tollerentur." -- Comment. in Titum. The language here used bears a strong resemblance to that employed by Lactantius long before when treating of the same subject -- "Multae haereses extiterunt, et instinctibus daemonum populus Dei scissus est." -- Instit. Divin., lib. iv. c.30.

[525:1] 1 Cor. i.12.

[525:2] "Hic locus vel maxime adversum Haereticos facit qui pacis vinculo dissipato atque corrupto, putant se tenere Spiritus unitatem; quum unitas Spiritus in pacis vinculo conservetur. Quando enim non idipsum omnes loquimur, et alius dicit Ego sum Pauli, Ego Apollo, Ego Cephae, dividimus Spiritus unitatem, et eam in partes ac membra discerpimus."-Comment, in Ephes., lib. ii. cap.4. Again, we find him saying-"Neonon et dissensiones opera carnis sunt, quum quis nequaquam perfectus, eodem sensu, et eadem sententia dicit. Ego sum Pauli, et ego Apollo, et ego Cephae, et ego Christi. ...Nonnumquam evenit, ut et in expositionibus Scripturarum oriatur dissensio, e quibus haereses quoque quae nunc in carnis opere ponuntur, ebulliunt." -- Comment, in Epist. ad Galat., cap.5.

[525:3] Philip, i.1, 2.

[526:1] Acts xx.17, 28.

[526:2] Our translators, as it would appear acting under instructions from James I., here render the word "overseers."

[526:3] The Church of Rome, of which Jerome was a presbyter, long hesitated to receive the Epistle to the Hebrews. Its opposition to ritualism seems, in the third and fourth centuries, to have been offensive to the ecclesiastical leaders in the Western metropolis. In the first century no such doubts respecting it existed among the Roman Christians. See Period I. sec. ii. chap. i. p.183.

[526:4] Heb. xiii.17. The reading of Jerome, here, as well as in the case of other texts quoted, differs somewhat from that of our authorized version. He seems to have often quoted from memory.

[527:1] 1 Pet. v. l, 2.

[527:2] It may suffice to give in the original only the conclusion of this long quotation. "Paulatim vero, ut dissensionum plantaria evellerentur, ad unum omnem solicitudinem esse delatam. Sicut ergo presbyteri sciunt se ex ecclesiae consuetudine ei qui sibi praepositus fuerit esse subjectos; ita episcopi noverint se magis consuetudine quam dispositionis dominicae veritate presbyteris esse majores." -- Comment, in Titum.

[527:3] See Period I. sec. i. chap.10. p.157.

[527:4] Thus Dr Burton says that "the Epistles of St John were composed in the latter part of Domitian's reign." -- Lectures, i.382. Jerome was evidently of this opinion, for he says that, in his First Epistle, he refers to Cerinthus and Ebion, who appeared towards the close of the first century. "Jam tunc haereticorum semina pullularent Cerinthi, Ebionis, et caeterorum qui negant Christum in carne venisse, quos et ipse in Epistola sua Antichristos vocat." -- Proleg. in Comment, super Matthaeum.

[528:1] 2 John 1.

[528:2] 3 John 1.

[528:3] Epist. ci. "Ad Evangelum."

[528:4] Period II. sec. iii. chap.5. p.500.

[528:5] Sec.1.

[528:6] The reader may find the quotations in the preceding chapter, pp.501, 502.

[528:7] Thus Milner says that "so far as one may judge by Clement's Epistle," the Church of Corinth, when the letter was written, had Church governors "only of two ranks," presbyters and deacons. -- Hist. of the Church, cent. ii. chap.1.

[528:8] As the letter supplies no trace whatever of the existence of a bishop in the Church to which it is addressed, Pearson is sadly puzzled by its testimony, and gravely advances the supposition that the bishop of Philippi must have been dead when Polycarp wrote! "Vindiciae Ignatianae," pars ii. cap.13. Rothe is equally perplexed by the Epistle of Clement. He says that "in the whole Epistle there is never any reference to a bishop of the Corinthian community," and he admits that, when the letter was written, "the Corinthian community had no bishop at all;" but, to support his favourite theory, he contends, like Pearson, that the bishop of Corinth must also have been dead! "Die Anfange der Christlichen Kirche," pp.403, 404. Strange that the bishop of Corinth and the bishop of Philippi both happened to be dead at the only time that their existence would have been of any historical value, and that no reference is made either to them or their successors!

[529:1] See Euseb. iv. c.11.

[529:2] Euseb. in.32, and iv.22.

[529:3] Euseb. iii.32. It was probably immediately after the election of Marcus, as bishop of Jerusalem, that Thebuthis became a heretic. See Euseb. iv.22. About that time the sect of the Nazarenes originated.

[530:1] Origen, "Contra Celsum," iii. Sec.10, Opera, i.453, 454.

[530:2] "Dialogue with Trypho," Opera, p.253.

[530:3] "Contra Haeres." i.27, Sec.1.

[530:4] "Strom." p.764.

[530:5] Epist. lxxiv. Opera, p.293. The ancient writers speak of all the early schismatics as heretics. Thus Novatian, though sound in the faith, is so described. Cyprian, Epist. lxxvi. p.315. When, therefore, Jerome speaks of the early schismatics he obviously refers to the heretics. Irenaeus says of them -- "Scindunt et separant unitatem ecclesiae." -- Lib. iv. c. xxvi. Sec.2. In like manner Cyprian represents "heresies and schisms" as making their appearance after the apostolic age, and as inseparably connected. "Cum haereses et schismata postmodum nata sint, dum conventicula sibi diversa constituunt." -- De Unitate Eccles., Opera, p.400.

[531:1] The existence of heresy in Gaul in the second century is established by the fact that Irenaeus spent so much time in its refutation. Had he not been annoyed by it, he never would have thought of writing his treatise "Contra Haereses."

[531:2] Valentine himself seems to have been a presbyter. He at one time expected to be made bishop.

[532:1] Such is the statement of Hilary -- "Immutata est ratio, prospiciente concilio, ut non ordo sed meritum crearet episcopum, multorum sacerdotum judicio constitutum, ne indignus temere usurparet, et esset multis scandalum." -- Comment. in Eph. iv.

[532:2] See Period II. sec. i. chap. iv. pp.333, 334, 349.

[533:1] At an early period, out of three elders nominated by the presbytery, one was chosen by lot; subsequently, out of three elders chosen by lot, one was elected by the people. See pp.333, 349.

[533:2] "Collocatum."

[533:3] Epist. ci. "Ad Evangelum."

[534:1] A few passages of the letter may here be given in the original. "Manifestissime comprobatur eundem esse episcopum atque presbyterum.... Quod autem postea unus electus est, qui cicteris praeponeretur, in schismatic remedium factum est, ne unusquisque ad se trahens Christi ecclesiam rumperet. Nam et Alexandriae a Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium Episcopos, presbyteri semper unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum episcopum nominabant."-Epist. ci. ad Evangelum.

[535:1] Matt. xx.26, 27.

[535:2] The view here taken is sustained by the verdict of learned and candid episcopalians. "When elders were ordained by the apostles in every Church, through every city, to feed the flock of Christ, whereof the Holy Ghost had made them overseers: they, to the intent that they might the better do it by common counsel and consent, did use to assemble themselves and meet together. In the which meetings, for the more orderly handling and concluding of things pertaining to their charge, they chose one amongst them to be the president of their company and moderator of their actions." -- The Judgment of Doctor Rainoldes touching the Original of Episcopacy more largely confirmed out of Antiquity, by James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh. Ussher's Works, vii. p.75.

[537:1] Pearson has endeavoured to destroy the credit of this chronology, and has urged against it the authority of the "Annals of Eutychius!" "De Successione prim. Rom. Episc." He had before laboured to prove that the testimony of these "Annals" is worthless. "Vindic. Ignat." pars i. c. xi.

[537:2] The chronology of Eusebius, as arranged by Bower in his "Lives of the Popes," stands thus: --

Evaristus, A.D.100 to A.D.109.
Alexander, A.D.109 to A.D.119.
Sixtus (or Xystus), A.D.119 to A.D.128.
Telesphorus, A.D.128 to A.D.139.
Hyginus, A.D.139 to A.D.142.
Pius, A.D.142 to A.D.157.
Anicetus, A.D.157 to A.D.168.
Soter, A.D.168 to A.D.176.
Eleutherius, A.D.176 to A.D.192.
Victor, A.D.192 to A.D.201.

[538:1] The following is the chronology of Pearson: --

Clement died A.D. 83.
Evaristus, A.D. 83 to A.D. 91.
Alexander, A.D. 91 to A.D.101.
Xystus, A.D.101 to A.D.111.
Telesphorus, A.D.111 to A.D.122.
Hyginus, A.D.122 to A.D.126.
Pius, A.D.127 to A.D.142.
Anicetus, A.D.142 to A.D.161.
Soter, A.D.161 to A.D.170.
Eleutherius, A.D.170 to A.D.185.
Victor, A.D.185 to A.D.197.

-- "Minor Works," ii. pp.570; 571.

[539:1] I have endeavoured, from the records of the late Synod of Ulster, to estimate the medium length of the incumbency of a moderator for life, being the senior minister of a presbytery of from ten to fifteen members, and have found that the average of thirty-six successions amounted to between eight and nine years. In these presbyteries young ministers generally constituted a considerable portion of the members. Had they all been persons advanced in life, the average must have been greatly reduced.

[539:2] During that part of the second century which terminated with the death of Hyginus, the average duration of the life of a Roman bishop very little exceeded eight years; whereas, during the remainder of the century, it amounted to nearly twelve years. According to the chronology of Pearson the disproportion is still greater, being as eight years and a fraction to fourteen years. If we insert the episcopate of Anacletus, it will be nearly as seven to fourteen.

[539:3] In the verses erroneously attributed to Tertullian, the Church of Rome is represented as in a flourishing state when visited by Cerdo.

"Advenit Romam Cerdo, nova vulnera gestans
Detectus, quoniam voces et verba veneni
Spargebat furtim; quapropter ab agmine pulsus,
Sacrilegum genus hoc genuit spirante dracone.
Constabat pietate vigens Ecclesia Romae
Composita a Petro, cujus successor et ipse
Jamque loco nono cathedram suscepit Hyginus."

[540:1] Euseb. iv.11. Irenaeus says that Valentine, the most famous and formidable of the Gnostic teachers, "came to Rome under Hyginus, was in his prime under Pius, and lived until the time of Anicetus." -- Contra Haeres., iii.4. Sec.3. Cyprian speaks of "the more grievous pestilences of heresy breaking forth when Marcion the Pontian emerged from Pontus, whose master Cerdo came to Rome during the episcopate of Hyginus." -- Epist. lxxiv. He adds -- "But it is acknowledged that heresies afterwards became more numerous and worse." -- Epist. lxxiv. Opera, pp.293, 294.

[540:2] Euseb. iv.11. See also a fragment attributed to Irenaeus in Stieren's edition, i.938.

[540:3] See Mosheim, "Commentaries," by Vidal, ii.266.

[541:1] Hieronymus, "Comment, in Titum."

[541:2] Ibid.

[541:3] "Tamen postquam in omnibus locis ecclesiae sunt constitutae, et officia ordinata, aliter composita res est, quam coeperat." -- Comment. in Epist. ad Ephes. cap.4.

[541:4] "Ideo non per omnia conveniunt scripta apostoli ordinationi, quae nunc in ecclesia est; quia haec inter ipsa primordia sunt scripta." -- Ibid.

[541:5] "Ut non ordo, sed meritum crearet episcopum." -- Ibid. Hilary appears to have believed with Jerome that the Church was originally governed "by the common council of the presbyters," but that, meanwhile, with their sanction, or under peculiar circumstances, deacons might preach and even laymen baptize. Such, too, seems to have been the opinion of Tertullian. See Kaye's "Tertullian," pp.226, 448. Hilary, however, maintained that this arrangement was soon abrogated. "Coepit alio ordine et providentia gubernari ecclesia; quia si omnes eadem possent, irrationabile esset, et vulgaris res, et vilissima videretur."

[543:1] Irenaeus, iii.3, Sec.3.

[544:1] See Period II. sec.1. chap. iv. pp.334-336.

[544:2] Irenaeus, i.24, Sec.1; i.28, Sec.1.

[544:3] Thus, Valentine travelled from Alexandria to Rome, and afterwards settled in Cyprus. Marcion, who was originally connected with Pontus, and who taught in Rome, is said to have also travelled in Egypt and the East.

[545:1] "Blondelli Apologia pro Sententia Hieronymi," p.18. Blondel makes the vacancy of four years' continuance.

[545:2] Pearson's "Minor Works," ii. p.571.

[546:1] Epiphanius, "Haeres." 42, Opera, tom. i. p.302.

[546:2] See Burton's "Lectures," ii.98.

[546:3] "Speraverat episcopatum Valentinus, quia et ingenio poterat et eloquio. Sed alium ex martyrii praerogativa loci potitum indignatus de ecclesia authenticae regulae abrupit." -- Adv. Valent. c. iv.

[546:4] Tertullian states that Valentine at first believed the doctrine of the Catholics in the Church of Rome. "Be Praescrip." c.30. When he came to the city he was admitted to communion. He set up a distinct sect after Pius was made bishop. It is impossible, therefore, to avoid the inference that he was mortified because he was not himself chosen. Tertullian here confounds Eleutherius and Hyginus.

[547:1] The unwillingness even of Tertullian to say anything to its prejudice has been often remarked. See Neander on a passage in the tract "De Virg. Veland." in his "Antignostikos," appended to his "History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church," in Bohn's edition, ii.420. See also the same, p.429. See also "De Pudicitia," c.1.

[547:2] They are quoted as genuine by Binius, Baronius, Bona, Thorndike, Bingham, Salmasius, and many others. Bishop Beveridge speaks of one of them as of undoubted authority. "In indubitata illius epistola." -- Annot. in Can. Ap. See Cotelerius, i.459. Pearson rejects them as spurious, whilst contending so valiantly for the Ignatian Epistles.

[547:3] Such as Missa and Titulus. But that Pastor really did erect a place in which the Christians assembled for worship, as stated in one of these letters, is not improbable. See Routh's "Reliquiae," i.430. Pearson objects to them on the ground that Eleutherius is spoken of in one of them as a presbyter, whereas Hegesippus describes him as deacon afterwards in the time of Anicetus. See Euseb. iv.22. But it is not clear that Hegesippus here uses the word deacon in its strictly technical sense. He may mean by it minister or manager, and may design to indicate that Eleutherius was the most prominent official personage under Anicetus, occupying the position afterwards held by the archdeacon.

[548:1] "Presbyteri et Diaconi, non ut majorem, sed ut ministrum Christi te observent."

[549:1] That, in the time of Marcion, there were Roman presbyters who had been disciples of the apostles, see Tillemont, "Memoires," tom. ii. sec. par. p.215. Edit. Brussels, 1695.

[550:1] "Presbyteri illi qui ab apostolis educati usque ad nos pervenerunt, cum quibus simul verbum fidei partiti sumus, a Domino vocati in cubilibus aeternis clausi tenentur."

[550:2] Pearson ("Vindiciae," par. ii. c.13) has appealed to a letter from the Emperor Hadrian to the Consul Servianus as a proof that the terms bishop and presbyter had distinctive meanings as early as A.D.134. The passage is as follows: -- "Illi qui Serapim colunt, Christiani sunt; et devoti sunt Serapi, qui se Christi episcopos dicunt. Nemo illic Archisynagogus Judaeorum, nemo Samarites, nemo Christianorum Presbyter.... Ipse ille Patriarcha, quum Aegyptum venerit, ab aliis Serapidem adorare, ab aliis cogitur Christum." Such a testimony only shews that Pearson was sadly in want of evidence. This same letter has in fact often been adduced to prove that the terms bishop and presbyter were still used interchangeably, and such is certainly the more legitimate inference. See Lardner's remarks on this letter, Works, vol. vii. p.99. Edit. London, 1838.

[550:3] "The Philippians appear to have continued to live under the same aristocratic constitution (of venerable elders) about the middle of the second century, when Polycarp addressed his Epistle to them." -- Bunsen's Hippolytus, i.369.

[551:1] [Greek: proestos], Opera, pp.97-99.

[551:2] "Episcopi, id est, praesides ecclesiarum." -- Lib. iii. simil. ix. c.27. There is a parallel passage to this in Tertullian, "De Baptismo," c.17 -- "Summus sacerdos, qui est episcopus." This is, perhaps, the first instance on record in which a bishop is called the chief priest. Hence the necessity of the interpretation -- "qui est episcopus." Pastor considered an explanation of the title "episcopus" equally necessary.

[551:3] Neander supposes this work to have been written A.D.156. "General History," ii.443.

[551:4] See Period II. sec. ii. chap. i. p.368.

[552:1] So high indeed is its authority that many facts taken from it are recorded in the "Breviary." Even Bunsen appeals to it. See "Analecta Antenicaena," iii.52, 53.

[552:2] Binius makes the following abortive attempt to explain the statement-"Quod hierarchicus catholicae ecclesiaeae ordo, quo presbyteri episcopis, diaconi presbyteris, populus presbyteris et diaconis subditus est, ab Hygino compositus esse hic dicitur, non aliter intelligi potest, quam quod Hyginus hierarchiae ecclesiasticae jam tempore apostolorum a Christo Domino constitutae, et a sanctis Patribus ipso antiquioribus comprobatae, quaedam duntaxat injuria temporum et scriptorum deperdita addiderit, vel eadem quae Divino jure instituta, et a patribus comprobata sunt, hac constitutione sua illustraverit." -- Concilia, i.65, 66.

[552:3] "Hic clerum composuit, et distribuit gradus." -- Binii Concil. i.65. Baronius, ad annum, 158.

[553:1] When referring to this statement Baronius says -- "Porro quod ad gradus cujusque ordinis in Ecclesia, quo ecclesiastica habetur composita hierarchia, jam a temporibus apostolorum haec facta esse, Ignatio auctore et aliis, tomo primo Annalium demonstravimus; verum aliqua antiquae formae ab Hyginio fuisse addita, vel eadem illustrata, aequum est aestimare."

[554:1] See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.414.

[555:1] 1 Tim. v.17.

[555:2] Euseb. iv.11; iv.19. Dr Burton has well observed that Alexandria and Antioch were "the hotbeds from which nearly all the mischief arose, which, under the name of philosophy, inundated the Church in the second century." -- Lectures, vol. ii. p.103.

[556:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap. v. pp.516, 517.

[556:2] "Quanquam sunt inter scriptores ecclesiasticos qui putaverint Polycarpum Romam venisse, ut quaereret de festo paschatis: ex his Irenaei verbis luco clarius elucet, ob alias causas Ioannis apostoli discipulum Romam profectum esse." -- Stieren's Irenaeus, i. p.826, note.

[557:1] Euseb. v.24.

[557:2] Stieren's "Irenaeus," i.827.

[557:3] First, as his senior; and secondly, as a disciple of the apostles.

[557:4] It was a standing rule of the Church that a strange bishop should be thus treated. See "Didascalia," by Platt, p.97.

[559:1] "Paulatim vero, ut dissensionum plantaria evellerentur, ad unum omnem solicitudinem esse delatam." -- Comment. in Tit.

[560:1] Period II. sec. iii. chap.5, pp.510, 512, 516, 520.

[560:2] But the presiding elders now began generally to be called bishops.

[560:3] Thus, though, as we may infer from the testimony of Tertullian, Christianity was planted in North Britain in the second century, the universal tradition is that originally there were no bishops in that country. According to an ancient MS. belonging to the former bishops of St Andrews, and to be found in the "Life of William Wishart," one of their number who lived in the thirteenth century, the first bishop created in Scotland was elected in A.D.270. See Jamieson's "Culdees," pp.101, 101.

[561:1] Song of Solomon, vi.9; Ps. xlv.9. "Sub Apostolis nemo Catholicus vocabatur.....Cum post Apostolos haereses extitissent, diversisque nominibus columbam Dei atque reginam lacerare per partes et scindere niterentur; nonno cognomen suum ecclesia postulabat, quae incorrupti populi distingueret unitatem?"

[562:1] Pacian, "Epist. to Sympronian," secs.5 and 8. Pacian is said to have been bishop of Barcelona. He died A.D.392.

[562:2] Epist. lxix.265, 266.

[563:1] Justin Martyr, Opera, p.99.

[563:2] According to the "Apostolic Constitutions" the deacons were not at liberty to baptize. Lib. viii. c.28.

[563:3] "De Baptismo," c.17.

[563:4] Tertullian thus corroborates the testimony of Jerome.

[563:5] "In the sixth century the clergy of Italy complained to Justinian that, owing to the vacancy of sees, 'an immense multitude of people died without baptism.' Even so late as the time of Hinemar (the ninth century) baptisms were still performed by the bishop, and they alone were considered canonical." -- Palmer's Episcopacy Vindicated, p.35, note.

[564:1] "It appears to have been the custom at Rome and other places to send from the cathedral church the bread consecrated to the several parish churches." -- Stillingfleet's Irenicum, pp.369, 370. "Thomassinus shown that in the fifth century the presbyters of Rome did not consecrate the Eucharist in their respective churches, but it was sent to them from the principal church." -- Palmer, p.35, note.

[564:2] Thus Rome is called the "principal Church" in regard to Carthage. Cyprian, Epist. lv. p.183.

[564:3] Tertullian apparently refers to this when he says -- "Una omnes probant unitate communicatio pacis et appellatio fraternitatis, et contesseratio hospitalitatis." -- De Praescrip. c.20.

[564:4] "Ecclesiis apostolicis matricibus et originalibus fidei."

[565:1] "Cathedrae apostolorum suis locis praesident." These words clearly indicate that the Churches founded by the apostles were now recognized as centres of unity for the surrounding Christian communities.

[565:2] It is worthy of note that, in the second canonical epistle ever written by Paul, he warns this Church of the coming of the Man of Sin. (2 Thess. ii.3.) It appears from the text that thus early it was identified with the system which resulted in the establishment of the Papacy. It is equally remarkable that the bishop of Thessalonica was the first Papal Vicar ever appointed. See Bower's "History of the Popes," Damasus, thirty-sixth bishop; and Gieseler, i.264.

[565:3] "De Praescrip." xxi., xxxvi.

[565:4] The tendency of "Church principles" to terminate in the recognition of a universal bishop has appeared in modern as well as in ancient times. "What other step," says a noble author, "remains to stand between those who held those principles and Rome? Only one: that the priesthood so constituted, invested with such powers, is organized under one head -- a Pope....The space to be traversed in arriving at it is so narrow, and so unimpeded by any positive barrier, either of logic or of feeling, that the slightest influence of sentiment or imagination, of weakness or of superstition, is sufficient to draw men across." -- Letter from the Duke of Argyll to the Bishop of Oxford, p.23. London, Moxon, 1851.

[566:1] Tertullian says that John, as well as Peter and Paul, had been in Rome. "De Praescrip." xxxvi.

[567:1] "Contra Haeres." iii. c. iii. Sec.2.

[567:2] "Maximae et antiquissimae et omnibus cognitae, a gloriosissimis duobus apostolis Petro et Paulo Romae fundatae et constitutae ecclesiae." -- Irenaeus, iii. c. iii. Sec.2.

[567:3] We find this designation in some of the early canons. See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.50.

[567:4] Euseb. v.24.

[568:1] See the statement of Cyprian in the Council of Carthage, "Opera," p.597; and Jerome, in his Epistle to Evangelus, "Opera," iv. secund. pars. p.803.

[568:2] "Pontifex scilicet Maximus, quod est episcopus episcoporum, edicit: Ego et moechiae et fornicationis delicta poenitentia functis dimitto." -- Tertullian, De Pudicitia, c.1. "Neque enim quisquam nostrum episcopum se esse episcoporum constituit." -- Cyprian, Con. Car., Opera, 597.

[569:1] "Ecclesiae catholicae radicem et matricem." -- Epist. xlv. p.133.

[569:2] "Navigare audent et ad Petri cathedram atque ad ecclesiam principalem unde unitas sacerdotalis exorta est." -- Epist. lv. p.183. "Nam Petro primum Dominus, super quem aedificavit ecclesiam, et unde unitatis originem instituit et ostendit, potestatem istam dedit." -- Epist. lxxiii. p.280. See also Epist. lxx.-"Una ecclesia a Christo Domino super Petrum origine unitatis et ratione fundata."

[570:1] The word catholic first occurs in the Epistle of the Church of Smyrna giving an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, but that letter was probably not written until at least twenty years after the event which it records. See Period II. sec. i. chap. iv. p.337. It is remarkable that the word is not found in Irenaeus, or used by his Latin interpreter. The pastor of Lyons, however, recognizes the distinction indicated by the word catholic, for he speaks of the ecclesiastici or churchmen, and of those "qui sunt undique." Stieren's "Irenaeus," i.430, 502, note. The word catholic was obviously quite current in the time of Tertullian.

[570:2] Particularly Matt. xvi.18. Clemens Alexandrinus says that our Lord baptized Peter only, and that Peter then baptized other apostles. See Kaye's "Clement," p.442; and Bunsen's "Analecta Antenic." i. p.317. See also Origen, "Opera," ii.245; and Firmilian's "Epistle."

[571:1] Even Polycrates of Ephesus admits that he had been requested by Victor to convene a synod. Euseb. v.24. About sixty years afterwards Cyprian writes to Stephen of Rome requesting him to send letters into Gaul that Marcianus the bishop, who had sided with Novatian, "being excommunicated, another may be substituted in his room." -- Cyprian, Epist. lxvii. pp.248, 249.

[572:1] Thus he says -- "For neither did Peter, whom the Lord chose first, and on whom He built His Church, when Paul afterwards disputed with him about circumcision, claim or assume anything insolently and arrogantly to himself, so as to say that he held the primacy." -- Epist. lxxi. p.273.

[573:1] Gen. xi.4.

[573:2] Book I. vision iii. Sec.3, &c.

[574:1] Rev. xiv.6-8.

[575:1] 1 Tim. v.17.

[576:1] See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," ii.305, and iii.35, 36.

[576:2] Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.36.

[576:3] "Apost. Constit." ii.57.

[576:4] [Greek: kai oute ho panu dunatos en logo ton en tais ekklesiais proestoton, hetera touton erei (oudeis gar huper ton didaskalon) oute ho asthenes en to logo elattosei ten paradosin]. -- Contra Haereses, i. c.10. Sec.2.

[576:5] "Optatus adv. Donat." vii.6.

[576:6] 1 Cor. xiv.5, 24, 26, 31.

[577:1] Euseb. vi.19. It is to be observed that these laymen, having the sanction of the ecclesiastical authorities, were thus virtually licensed to preach.

[577:2] "Apost. Constit." vii.46. There was a Church at Cenchrea in the time of the apostles. Rom. xvi.1. Strabo calls Cenchrea a village, lib. viii.

[577:3] See Bingham, iii.129.

[577:4] Cyprian, "Council of Carthage." Girba, Mileum, Badias, and Carpi, the sees of these bishops, were all small places with, no doubt, a still smaller Christian population.

[578:1] Cyprian, "Council of Carthage."

[578:2] Euseb. vii.30.

[578:3] See Sage's "Vindication of the Principles of the Cyprianic Age," p.348. Edit., London, 1701.

[578:4] See Period II. sec. i. chap. v. pp.355, 356.

[578:5] See Bingham, i.41, 43.

[579:1] Bunsen's "Hippolytus," i.129; and Wordsworth, p.257. It would appear from Celsus that not a few of the Church teachers in the second century supported themselves by manual labour. See Origen, Opera, i.484.

[579:2] "Adleguntur in ordinem ecclesiasticum artifices idolorum." -- De Idololatria, c. vii. Malchion, one of the presbyters of Antioch in the time of Paul of Samosata, was the head-master of one of the principal schools in the place. Euseb. vii.29.

[579:3] Cyprian, Epist. lxvi. p.246. In after times the bishop himself was the grand-executor, having the charge of all the wills of his diocese!

[581:1] Council of Elvira, A.D.305, 18th canon.

[581:2] Period II. sec. iii. chap. vi. p.533.

[581:3] "Nam et Alexandria a Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam et Dionysium Episcopos, presbyteri semper unum ex se electum, in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant; quomodo si exercitus Imperatorem faciat; aut Diaconi eligant de se quem industrium noverint, et Archidiaconum vocent." -- Epist. ad Evangelum.

[581:1] Heraclas now succeeded him. The immediate successor of Heraclas was Dionysius.

[581:2] "Apud nos quoque et fere per provincias universas tenetur." -- Cyprian, Epist. lxviii. p.256. The arrangement of which Cyprian speaks was now, perhaps, pretty generally established in the West, but he may have understood, through his intercourse with Firmilian, that in some parts of the East a different usage still prevailed.

[581:3] "Nam et Alexandriae."

[582:1] Eutychius, the celebrated patriarch of Alexandria who flourished in the beginning of the tenth century, makes this assertion. According to this writer there were originally twelve presbyters connected with the Alexandrian Church; and, when the patriarchate became vacant, they elected "one of the twelve presbyters, on whose head the remaining eleven laid hands, and blessed him and created him patriarch." -- See the original passage in Selden's Works, ii. c.421, 422; London, 1726. This passage furnishes a remarkable confirmation of the testimony of Jerome as to the fact that the Alexandrian presbyters originally made their bishops, but it is probably not very accurate as to the details. As to the laying on of hands it is not supported by Jerome.

[582:2] The case is different with the modern English archdeacon who is a presbyter.

[583:1] "A fratribus constitutus et colobio episcoporum vestitus."

[583:2] "Saluta omne collegium fratrum, qui tecum sunt in Domino."

[583:3] The practice seems to have continued longer at Alexandria than at Rome and various other places.

[583:4] The statement of Jerome is not inconsistent with the fact that the senior elder was originally the president or bishop, for he was recognized as such by mutual agreement. Neither is it at variance with the idea that the elders sometimes made a selection by lot out of three of their number previously put in nomination. There are good grounds for believing that even after bishops begun to be elected by general suffrage, the people were in some places restricted to certain candidates chosen from among the elders by lot. Cyprian apparently refers to this circumstance when he says that he was chosen by "the judgment of God" as well as by the vote of the people. Epist. xl. p.119. The people of Alexandria, towards the close of the third and beginning of the fourth century, are said to have been restricted to certain candidates. See p.333, Period II. sec. i. chap. iv. Cornelius of Rome is said to have been made bishop by "the judgment of God and of his Christ" and by the votes of the people. Cyprian, Epist. lii. pp.150, 151.

[584:1] Euseb. v.24.

[585:1] "Contra Haereses," iv. c.26, secs.2, 4. "Quapropter eis qui in ecclesia sunt, presbyteris obaudire oportet, his qui successionem habent ab apostolis, sicut ostendimus; qui cum episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt; reliquos vero, qui absistunt a principali successione, et quocunque loco colligunt, suspectos habere vel quasi haereticos et malae sententiae.... Ab omnibus igitur talibus absistere oportet; adhaerere vero his qui et apostolorum, sicut praediximus, doctrinam custodiunt, et cum presbyterii ordine sermonem sanum et conversationem sine offensa praestant."

[585:2] This was long the received doctrine. Thus, the author of the "Questions on the Old and New Testament" says -- "Quid est episcopus nisi primus presbyter?" -- Aug. Quaest. c.101.

[585:3] "Onmis potestas et gratia in ecclesia constituta sit, ubi praesident majores natu, qui et baptizandi et manum imponendi et ordinandi possident potestatem." -- Firmilian, Epist. Cyprian, Opera, p.304.

[586:1] See Bunsen's "Hippolytus," ii.351-357. See also Fabricius, "Biblioth. Graecae," liber v. p.208. Hamburg, 1723.

[586:2] The earliest of these canons was probably framed only a few years before the middle of the third century. They were called apostolical perhaps because concocted by some of the bishops of the so-called apostolic Churches.

[586:3] The collection to which it belongs bears the designation of the "Canons of Abulides," -- the name of Hippolytus in Abyssinian, as their calendar shews. Bunsen, ii.352. The canons edited by Hippolytus were, no doubt, at one time acknowledged by the Western Church.

[586:4] Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.43, and "Analecta Antenicaena," iii.415.

[587:1] Eutychius intimates that the Alexandrian presbyters continued to ordain their own bishop until the time of the Council of Nice. It is not improbable that, until then, some of them may have continued to take part in the ordination, and the statement of the Alexandrian patriarch may be so far correct.

[587:2] See Bunsen, iii.45.

[587:3] Where the bishop, as in the case contemplated in a canon quoted in the text, had to depend for his official income on the contributions of twelve families, it is plain that the elders could expect no remuneration for their services. As the hierarchy advanced these ruling elders disappeared. Hence Hilary says -- "The synagogue, and afterwards the Church, had elders, without whose counsel nothing was done in the Church, which, by what negligence it grew into disuse I know not; unless, perhaps, by the sloth, or rather by the pride of the teachers, while they alone wished to appear something." -- Comment on 1 Tim. v.1. Some late writers have contended that these elders (seniores) were not ecclesiastical officers at all, but civil magistrates of municipal corporations peculiar to Africa. It must, however, be recollected that Hilary was a Roman deacon of the fourth century, and that he speaks of them as belonging to the Church before the civil establishment of Christianity.

[590:1] Thus, Firmilian speaks of "seniores et praepositi," and of the Church "ubi praesident majores natu." -- Cyprian, Opera, p.302 and 304.

[590:2] Justin Martyr, Opera, p.99.

[590:3] In the days of Origen the episcopal office was not unfrequently coveted for its wealth. Origen, Opera, iii. p.501. See also Cyprian, Epist. lxiv. p.240.

[591:1] Comment, in Matt., Opera, iii. p.723.

[591:2] See Period II. sec. i. chap. v. p.354.

[592:1] Euseb. vi.43.

[592:2] Tertullian, "Praescrip. Haeret." c.41. This office, even in the fourth century, was often committed to mere children -- a sad proof that the importance of reading the Word effectively was not duly appreciated.

[592:3] Origen makes mention of them, Opera, ii. p.453; and Firmilian, Cyprian, Epist.1xxv. p.306.

[592:4] Cyprian, Epist. lii. p.150.

[592:5] As in the case of Fabian of Rome. Euseb. vi.29.

[593:1] Bingham, i.356, 359.

[593:2] Cyprian, Epist. lv. pp.177, 178; xl. pp.119, 120.

[593:3] Epist. xxxiii. p.105.

[594:1] Epist. xxiv. pp.79, 80.

[594:2] Epist. xxxiv. pp.107, 108.

[594:3] Epist. xxxv. p.111.

[595:1] Bishops and presbyters appear to have continued to ordain bishops in the time of Origen. His "Commentaries on Matthew," written according to his Benedictine editor in A.D.245 (see Delarue's "Origen," iii. Praef.), speak of bishops and presbyters "committing whole churches to unfit persons and constituting incompetent governors." -- Opera, iii. p.753.

[595:2] It would appear that the five presbyters who opposed Cyprian constituted the majority of the presbytery. Cyprian, Epist. xl. pp.119, 120. See also Sage's "Vindication of the Principles of the Cyprianic Age," p.348.

[595:3] Euseb. vi.29.

[596:1] Cyprian, Epist. xxxi. pp.99, 100.

[596:2] Cyprian, Epist. iv. p.31.

[596:3] Cyprian, Epist. xxxiii. p.106, xxxiv. p.107, lviii. p.207, lxxi. p.271, lxxvii. p.327. Euseb. vii.5.

[596:4] Thus we find him going so far as to complain that his presbyters "with contempt and dishonour of the bishop arrogate sole authority to themselves." -- Epist. ix. p.48.

[596:5] Epist. xlix. p.143. See Neander's "General History," i.307, and Burton's "Lectures on the Ecc. Hist, of the First Three Centuries," ii.331. Burton repudiates the attempts of Bingham and others to explain away this proceeding.

[597:1] They are called so for the first time in the Council of Ancyra. They had before always been called simply bishops. It has been remarked that we never find any chorepiscopi among the African bishops, though many of them occupied as humble a position as those so designated elsewhere.

[597:2] Canon xiii., "Canones Apost. et Concil. Berolini," 1839.

[598:1] In the case of Novatian. Euseb. vi.43.

[599:1] These presbyters were called Doctores. Cyprian, Epist. xxxiv. p.80.

[599:2] It would appear that, even at the time of the Council of Carthage held A.D.397, a bishop had sometimes only one presbyter under his care. See Dupin's account of the Council.

[599:3] Bingham, i.198; and Beveridge, "Cotelerius," tom. ii. App. p.17.

[600:1] See Period II. sec. i. chap. ii. p.302, and p.355.

[601:1] Euseb. vi.43.

[601:2] Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.50. Another canon says -- "He who is worthy out of the bishops ... putteth his hand upon him whom they have made bishop, praying over him." -- Bunsen, iii.42.

[601:3] See chapter viii. of this section, pp.565, 567.

[602:1] Bunsen, iii.111.

[602:2] Euseb. viii.1.

[603:1] The following observation of a distinguished writer of the Church of England is well worthy of consideration. "The remains of ancient ecclesiastical literature, especially those of the Latin Church, teach us that the corruption of Christianity of which Romanism is the full development, manifested itself, in the first instance, not in the doctrines which relate to the spiriting life of the individual, but in those connected with the constitution and authority of the Christian society." -- Litton's Church of Christ, p.12.

[604:1] "Can. Apost." xiv. "Concil. Nic." xv.

[604:2] Euseb. "Martyrs of Palestine," c.12.

[604:3] Euseb. viii. i.

[605:1] Acts xxvi.16-18.

[605:2] Such was the case with the churches mentioned Acts xiv.23, and Titus i.5.

[606:1] Trajan regarded with great suspicion all associations, even fire brigades and charitable societies. See Pliny's "Letters," book x., letters 43 and 94.

[607:1] Such as Mosheim, "Instit." i.149, 150; Neander, "General History," i.281.

[607:2] During the first forty years of the second century Gnosticism did not excite much notice, and as the Church courts must have been occupied chiefly with matters of mere routine, it is not remarkable that their proceedings have not been recorded.

[607:3] We have no contemporary evidence to prove that ordinations took place in the former half of the second century, and yet we cannot doubt their occurrence.

[608:1] Acts xx.17.

[608:2] "In Mileto enim convocatis episcopis et presbyteris, qui erant ab Epheso et a reliquis proximis civitatibus." -- Contra Haeres, iii. c.14. Sec.2.

[608:3] Cyprian, Epist. lxviii. Sec.256.

[608:4] The new bishop was often chosen before the interment of his predecessor; and even when the senior elder was the president, it is probable that the neighbouring pastors assembled to attend the funeral of the deceased pastor, and to be present at the inauguration of his successor.

[609:1] See Chapter vi. of this Section, p.524.

[609:2] The old writer called Praedestinatus speaks of several synods held in reference to the Gnostics before the middle of the second century. He may have had access to some documents now lost, but the testimony of a witness who lived in the fifth or sixth century is not of much value.

[610:1] "In toto orbe decretum est ut unus de presbyteris electus superponeretur caeteris." -- Com. in Titum.

[610:2] Euseb. v.16.

[610:3] See Routh's "Reliquiae," ii.183, 195.

[611:1] Mosheim ("Commentaries" by Vidal, ii.105) has made a vain attempt to set aside the Latin translation of this passage by Valesius, as he saw that it completely upsets his favourite theory. But any one who carefully examines the Greek of Eusebius may see that the rendering complained of is quite correct. It cannot be necessary to point out to the intelligent reader the transparent sophistry of nearly all that Mosheim has written on this subject.

[611:2] Euseb. v.23.

[612:1] See Period II. sec. iii. chap. v. p.509.

[612:2] Tertullian, "De Jejun," c. xiii.

[613:1] "Aguntur praeterea per Graecias illa certis in locis concilia ex universis ecclesiis."

[613:2] "Ipsa repraesentatio totius nominis Christiani magna veneratione celebratur." Mosheim argues from these words that the bishops attended these assemblies, not by right of office, but as representatives of the people! He might, with more plausibility, have contended that they were held only once a year. "Ista sollemnia quibus tunc praesens patrocinatus est sermo."

[614:1] Euseb. v.24. Hippolytus complains of a bishop of Rome that he was "ignorant of the ecclesiastical rules," -- a plain proof, not only that synods were in existence in the West, but also that a knowledge of canon law was considered an important accomplishment. See Bunsen, ii.223.

[614:2] Cyprian (Epist. lxxiii.) speaks of a large council held "many years" before his time "under Agrippinus," one of his predecessors. This bishop appears to have been contemporary with Tertullian.

[614:3] In his book "De Pudicitia," c.10, he speaks of the "Pastor" of Hermas as classed among apocryphal productions "ab omni concilio ecclesiarum" -- implying that it had been condemned by African councils, as well as others.

[614:4] The prevalence of the Montanistic spirit in Asia Minor may account for this.

[615:1] See Potter's "Antiquities of Greece," i.106.

[615:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," cent. ii. sect.22.

[616:1] "Per singulos annos seniores et praepositi in unum conveniamus."

[616:2] Cyprian, Epist. lxxv. pp.302, 303.

[616:3] In Africa, however, this arrangement was not established even in the fifth century. There, the senior bishop still continued president.

[617:1] This canon somewhat differs from the fifth of the Council of Nice, as the latter requires the first meeting to be held "before Lent." It is somewhat doubtful which canon is of higher antiquity.

[619:1] "Seniores et praepositi." -- Epist. Cypriani, Opera, p.302.

[619:2] "The Councils of the Church," by Rev. E.B. Pusey, D.D., p.34 Oxford, 1857.

[619:3] Pusey, p.58.

[619:4] Ibid. p.66.

[619:5] Ibid. p.95.

[619:6] As in the case of Athanasius at the Council of Nice.

[619:7] As witnesses and commissioners may still be heard by Church courts.

[619:8] "Graviter commoti sumus ego et collegae mei qui praesentes aderant et compresbyteri nostri qui nobis assidebant" -- Cyprian, Epist. lxvi. p.245. "Residentibus etiam viginti et sex presbyteris, adstantibus diaconibus et omni plebe." -- Concil. Illiberit.

[620:1] Euseb. vii.30.

[621:1] Prov. xi.14.

[621:2] Mosheim's "Institutes," by Soames, i.150.

[624:1] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," cent. ii. sec.39; American edition by Murdock.

[624:2] Acts xxiv.5.

[624:3] Euseb. iv.5.

[625:1] The English name Easter is derived from that of a Teutonic goddess whose festival was celebrated by the ancient Saxons in the month of April, and for which the Paschal feast was substituted.

[626:1] Pentecost, called Whitsunday or White-Sunday, on account of the white garments worn by those who then received baptism, was observed as early as the beginning of the third century. Origen, "Contra Celsum," book viii. Tertullian, "De Idololatria," c.14. We have then no trace of the observation of Christmas. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.413.

[626:2] See Mosheim's "Commentaries," by Murdock, cent. ii. sec.71. Dr Schaff seems disposed to deny this, but he assigns no reasons. See his "Hist. of the Christ. Church," p.374.

[626:3] Even as to this point there is not unanimity -- some alleging that our Lord partook of the Paschal lamb on the night preceding that on which it was eaten by the Jews.

[627:1] This is distinctly asserted by Irenaeus. "Anicetus and Pius, Hyginus with Telesphorus and Xystus, neither did themselves observe, nor did they permit those after them to observe it. And yet though they themselves did not keep it, they were not the less at peace with those from churches where it was kept, whenever they came to them, although to keep it then was so much the more in opposition to those who did not." -- Euseb. v.24.

[629:1] It would appear that the Armenians, the Copts, and others, still observe this rite. Mosheim's "Comment." cent. ii. sec.71. As to the continuance of this custom at Rome, see Bingham, v.36, 37.

[629:2] Socrates, an ecclesiastical historian of the fifth century, has expressed himself with remarkable candour on this subject. "It appears to me," says he, "that neither the ancients nor moderns who have affected to follow the Jews have had any rational foundation for contending so obstinately about it (Easter). For they have altogether lost sight of the fact that when our religion superseded the Jewish economy, the obligation to observe the Mosaic law and the ceremonial types ceased.... The Saviour and His apostles have enjoined us by no law to keep this feast: nor in the New Testament are we threatened with any penalty, punishment, or curse for the neglect of it, as the Mosaic law does the Jews." -- Ecc. Hist. v. c.22.

[629:3] This system seems to have been in existence in the time of Tertullian. See Tertullian, "Ad. Martyr." c.1., and "De Pudicitia," c.22.

[630:1] Cyprian speaks of a confessor spending his time "in drunkenness and revealing," (Epist. vi. p.37,) and of some guilty of "fraud, fornication, and adultery." (De Unit. Ecc. p.404.)

[630:2] Thus Cyprian says -- "Lucianus, not only while Paulus was still in prison, gave letters in his name indiscriminately written with his own hand, but even after his decease continued to do the same in his name, saying that he had been ordered to do so by Paulus." -- Epist. xxii. p.77.

[630:3] Cyprian, Epist. x. p.52.

[631:1] Apostasy in time of persecution was considered a mortal sin. Adultery was placed in the same category. Cyprian, Epist. lii. p.155. At one time Cyprian himself held the sentiments of the stricter party. See his "Scripture Testimonies against the Jews," book iii. Sec.28, p.563.

[633:1] Cyprian, Epist. lxxiii. p.279, and lxxiv. p.295.

[633:2] Cyprian, Epist. lxxiii. p.277, 278.

[634:1] In Stieren's "Irenaeus," i.824, there is a different reading of this passage, according to which some continued the fast forty days.

[634:2] Euseb. v.24.

[636:1] John x.11, 27, 28.

[636:2] Eph. v.25-27.

[636:3] Matt, xxviii.20.

[636:4] 1 Pet. i.5.

[636:5] Matt. xvi.18.

[637:1] Eph. iv.3.

[637:2] Eph. iv.13.

[637:3] Eph. iv.13.

[637:4] No writer since the Reformation has discussed the subject of the Church with more learning and ability than the Rev. Dr Hodge of Princeton. Those who wish to be thoroughly acquainted with all the bearings of the question should consult his "Essays and Reviews," New York, 1857. Also the "Princeton Review." See also an article of his taken from the "Princeton Review" in the "British and Foreign Evangelical Review" for Sept.1854.

[637:5] Matt. xiii.47-50.

[638:1] 1 Cor. i.11, 12.

[638:2] Gal. i.6, iii.1.

[638:3] Rev. iii.1.

[639:1] Thus, Melito of Sardis is said to have written a work "On the Church." Euseb. iv.26.

[639:2] Apostles' Creed. For another form see Bunsen's "Hippolytus," iii.25, 27.

[640:1] 3 John 9, 10.

[640:2] He appears, for certain reasons now unknown, to have been dissatisfied with some disciples who had been engaged in missionary work; and he had influence sufficient to procure the excommunication of the brethren who entertained them.

[640:3] He would be a bold man who would assert that all the pious members of the Society of Friends are in a hopeless condition.

[641:1] Heb. xii.23.

[641:2] See Rothe's "Anfange der Christlichen Kirche," p.575.

[641:3] Cyprian, Epist. lxxvi. p.316.

[641:4] Epist. lxix. p.265.

[641:5] Epist. lxii. p.221.

[642:1] "De Unit. Ecc." p.397. See also Lactantius, "De Vera Sapientia," lib. iv. p.282.

[642:2] Eph. iv.12.

[642:3] Acts xx.32.

[643:1] Rev. i.6.

[644:1] If our authorized version of the English Bible is to be regarded as a standard of correct usage, the word priest cannot be properly employed to designate a Christian minister. In the New Testament, as stated in the text, a minister of the word is never called a priest ([Greek: hiereus]), and the latter term, when used in reference to an official personage in our English Bible, always denotes an individual who offers sacrifice. To call a gospel minister a priest is, therefore, at once to adopt an incorrect expression and to insinuate a false doctrine. The English word priest is derived, not as some say, from the Greek [Greek: presbuteros] through the French pretre, but from the Greek [Greek: proestos], in Latin praestes, and in Saxon preost. See Webster's "Dictionary of the English Language."

[644:2] Epist. lxix. p.264.

[644:3] Thus, Tertullian speaks of the "ordo sacerdotalis." "De Exhor. Cast." c. vii.

[645:1] Cyprian, Epist. lxiii. p.230; lxiv. p.239.

[645:2] Cyprian, Epist. lxix. p.264. Cotelerius, i.442. The Eucharist is called a sacrifice by Justin Martyr (see his Dialogue with Trypho., "Opera," p.260) apparently in a figurative sense, but when dispensed by a minister called a priest, such language became exceedingly liable to misconception.

[645:3] In proof of this see Cyprian, Epist. lvi. p.200, and lxiii. p.231. In the former place Cyprian says -- "Mindful of the Eucharist, the hand which has received the Lord's body may embrace the Lord himself."

[645:4] Heb. v.4; Acts xx.28, xxvi.16.

[646:1] Cyprian, Epist. xlvi. p.136.

[646:2] Epist. lxix. p.262. See also Epist. lv. p.177. "If any amount of difference of opinion as to the truth or untruth of the teaching of a geographical priesthood, will justify separation under another Christian ministry, then it at once ceases to be true that there can be but one bishop, or one priest, over any given area in which such differences exist; there then may obviously be as many bishops, or as many priests, as there may be different bodies of men differing from each other's teaching in what they deem sufficiently essential points to justify separation." -- Letter from the Duke of Argyll to the Bishop of Oxford, p.8.

[647:1] Epist. lxix. p.264.

[647:2] Acts x.48.

[648:1] Jerome, "Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers."

[648:2] Some of those called heretics had many martyrs. Euseb. v.16.

[648:3] "De Unit. Ecc." Opera, p.399.

[648:4] "De Unit. Ecc." p.401.

[648:5] "De Unit. Ecc." p.401.

[649:1] Jeremiah xxiii.21, 22.

[649:2] Phil. i.15, 18. See also Mark ix.38, 39.

[649:3] Cyprian himself makes this admission. Epist. lxxvi. p.319.

[649:4] Epist. lii. p.156.

[649:5] Epist. lxxvi. p.319.

[650:1] Rom. x.13,17.

[650:2] Tertullian did not hold the doctrine of her perpetual virginity. See "De Monog." c.8, and "De Carne Christi," c.23. Neither did he believe in her immaculate conception. See Kaye's "Tertullian," p.338.

[652:1] One of the most distinguished and sagacious of modern missionaries has called attention to this fact. See Livingstone's "Missionary Travels in South Africa," p.107.

[654:1] Maximian, in his famous edict of toleration, lays great stress on this circumstance. "De Mortibus Persecutorum," c.34.

[654:2] Cornelius to Cyprian, Epist. xlvi. p.136.

[654:3] "De Unit. Eccles." p.397.

[654:4] Epist. lii. p.156.

[654:5] Matt. xvi.18.

[654:6] Cyprian, Epist. xl. pp.120, 121.

[656:1] 2 Cor. iii.17.

[656:2] Isa. xl.4, 5.

[656:3] Isa. lii.8.

[656:4] Zech. xiv.9.