"understanding, as contend with one another about these things. "Nevertheless, seeing they are otherwise good, if, when they shall "hear these commands, they shall amend themselves, and shall, "at my persuasion, suddenly repent; they shall, at last, dwell in "the tower, as they who have truly and worthily repented. But "if any one shall again return to his dissensions, he shall be shut "out of the tower, and lose his life. For the life of those who "keep the commandments of the Lord, consists in doing what "they are commanded; not in principality, or in any other "dignity."*

Hegesippus, who lived in the second century, and who was the first father who undertook to compose a regular ecclesiastical history, writes thus. "When James, the just, had been martyred "for the same doctrine which our Lord preached, Simon, the son "of Cleophas, was constituted bishop with universal preference, "because he was the Lord's near kinsman. Wherefore they "called that church a pure virgin, because it was not defiled with

corrupt doctrine. But Thebuli, because he was not made bishop, "endeavoured to corrupt the church; being one of the seven here"tics among the people, whereof was Simon, of whom the Simo"nians."+

Dr. Bowden represents the age of Cyprianas among the very purest periods of the Christian church, and quotes that father with a frequency and a confidence which evince the highest respect for his authority. The following passages will show how far the illustrious pastor of Carthage considered the bishops of his day as beyond the reach of selfishness and ambition.

"A long continuance of peace and security had relaxed the "rigour of that holy discipline which was delivered to us from "above. All were set upon an immeasurable increase of gain; " and, forgetting how the first converts to our religion had behaved "under the personal direction and care of the Lord's apostles, or "how all ought in after times to conduct themselves; the love of money was their darling passion, and the master spring of all

*Simil. 8. § 7.

tSec fragments of this writer preserved in Eusebius, Lib. IV. Cap. 22.

They had been free from persecution only about thirty eight years.

"their actions. The religion of the clergy slackened and decayed; "the faith of priests and deacons grew languid and inactive; "works of charity were discontinued; and an universal license "and corruption prevailed. Divers bishops, who should have "taught, both by their example and persuasion, neglecting their

high trust, and their commission from above, entered upon the "management of secular affairs; and leaving their chair, and their "charge with it, wandered about, from place to place in different "provinces, upon mercantile business, and in quest of disreputable "gain. Thus the poor of the church were miserably neglected, "while the bishops, who should have taken care of them, were in"tent upon nothing but their own private profit, which they were "forward to advance at any rate, and by any, even the foulest "methods."*

Speaking of Cornelius, who had been made bishop, Cyprian says, "In the next place, he neither desired, nor canvassed for "the dignity conferred upon him; much less did he invade it, as

some others would, who were actuated by a great and lofty con"ceit of their own qualifications; but peaceably and modestly, like "such as are called of God to this office. Instead of using violence, 66 as a certain person in this case hath done, to be made a bishop, "he suffered violence, and was raised to his dignity by force and "compulsion."+

The same father, in the same epistle, has the following passage. "Unless you can think him a bishop, who, when another was or"dained by sixteen of his brethren bishops, would obtrude upon "the church a spurious and foreign bishop, ordained by a parcel "of renegadoes and deserters; and that by canvassing and "intriguing for it."‡

Cyprian speaks also of a certain deacon who had been deposed from his "sacred diaconate, on account of his fraudulent and "sacrilegious misapplication of the church's money to his own private use; and by his denial of the widows' and orphans' "pledges deposited with him."S

Origen, the contemporary of Cyprian, more than once lashes the clergy of his day for their vices. The following passage is

* De Lapsis. § 4.

+ Ibid.

† Epist. 55.

§ Epist. 52.

surely strong enough, were there no other, to take away all doubt. "If Christ justly wept over Jerusalem, he may now, on much bet❝ter grounds, weep over the church, which was built to the end "that it might be an house of prayer; and yet, through the filthy

usury of some, (and I wish these were not even the pastors of "the people,) is made a den of thieves. But I think that that "which is written concerning the sellers of doves, doth agree to "those who commit the churches to greedy, tyrannical, unlearned, "and irreligious bishops, presbyters, and deacons."* The same father elsewhere declares: "We are such as that we sometimes in "pride go beyond even the wickedest of the princes of the gen"tiles; and are just at the point of procuring for ourselves splen"did guards, as if we were kings, making it our study moreover "to be a terror to others, and giving them, especially if they be poor, very uneasy access. We are to them, when they come and "seek any thing from us, more cruel than are even tyrants, or the "cruelest princes to their supplicants. And you may see, even in "the greater part of lawfully constituted churches, especially those "of greater cities, how the pastors of God's people, suffer none, though they were even the chiefest of Christ's disciples, to be "equal with themselves."+

66

Eusebius, who lived in the next century, writes in the same strain concerning the age of Cyprian. "When, through too much "liberty, we fell into sloth and negligence; when every one began "to envy and backbite another; when we waged, as it were, an "intestine war amongst ourselves, with words as with swords; "pastors rushed against pastors, and people against people, and "strife and tumult, deceit and guile advanced to the highest pitch "of wickedness. Our pastors, despising the rule of religion, "strove mutually with one another, studying nothing more than "how to outdo each other in strife, emulations, hatred, and mu"tual enmity; proudly usurping principalities, as so many "places of tyrannical domination. Then the Lord covered the "daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger."‡

--

Nay, Archbishop Whitgift, with all his episcopal partialities, was constrained to acknowledge the ambitious and aspiring temper which disgraced many bishops even as early as the time of

Cyprian. "There was great contention," says he, "among the "bishops in the council of Nice, insomuch that even in the presence "of the Emperor, they ceased not to libel one against another. "What bitterness and cursing was there between Epiphanius and "Chrysostom! What jarring between Jerome and Augustine! "Bishops shall not now need to live by pilling and polling, as it "seems they did in Cyprian's time; for he complaineth thereof "in his sermon De Lapsis."

With Whitgift agrees his contemporary Rigaltius, who was so much distinguished for his learned annotations on the works of Cyprian. Speaking of Cyprian's age, and of the deacon's office, he says, "By little and little, and from small beginnings, a king"dom, and a love of dominion entered into the church. In the "apostles' time there were only deacons ; Cyprian's age admitted "sub-deacons; the following age arch-deacons, and then arch"bishops and patriarchs."

These extracts are produced, not to blacken the ministerial character; but to establish the fact, which Dr. Bowden denies, that clerical ambition, and clerical encroachments were familiarly known, even during that period which he pronounces the purest that was ever enjoyed by the christian church. I certainly have no interest, and can take no pleasure in depicting the foibles, the strife, and the vices, of the clergy in any age. But when assertions are made respecting them as directly contradictory to all history, as they are contrary to the course of depraved human nature; and especially when these assertions are triumphantly employed as arguments to establish other assertions equally unfounded, it is time to vindicate the truth. To do this, in the present case, is an easy task. The man who, after perusing the foregoing extracts, can dare to say, that the clergy of the first three centuries, were all too pious and disinterested to admit the suspicion, that they aspired to titles and honours, and intrigued for the attainment of episcopal chairs, must have a hardihood of incredulity, or an obliquity of perception truly extraordinary. We have seen that Hermas plainly refers to certain ecclesiastics of his time, who had “envy and strife among themselves concerning dignity and pre-eminence." Hegesippus goes further, and points out the case of a particular

Defence of his Answer against Cartwright, p. 472, &c.

individual, who ambitiously aspired to the office of bishop, and was exceedingly disappointed and mortified at not obtaining it. Cyprian expressly declares not only that a spirit of intrigue, of worldly gain, and of ecclesiastical domination, existed among the clergy of his day, but that such a spirit was awfully prevalent among them. Eusebius gives us similar information in still stronger terms. Archbishop Whitgift makes the same acknowledgment, more particularly with respect to the bishops of that period. And even Dr. Bowden himself, forgetting his own assertions, unwarily acknowledges, in several other parts of his work, that a number of persons, as early as the days of Cyprian, and before his time, who aspired to the office of bishop, and who used every effort and artifice to attain it, on being disappointed, distinguished themselves as heretics or schismatics, and became the pests of the church. Was there no spirit of ambition and domination among such men? Why did they aspire to the office of bishop? Was there nothing in that office to attract their regard, or to excite their cupidity? Or did they act without motive? Surely this gentleman needs to have some one at hand to refresh his memory, and to prevent him from warring against his own cause. But a man must be wary and ingenious indeed, who can be consistent when truth is against

him.

Still, however, the question recurs: What, in those days of persecution and peril, before Christianity was established; when the powers of the world were leagued against it; and when every Christian pastor especially held a station of much self-denial and danger, what could induce any selfish or ambitious man to desire the pastoral office, and to intrigue for the extension of the powers and honours of that office? When my opponents can tell me what induced Judas Iscariot to follow Christ at the risk of his life; when they can tell me what impelled Diotrephes to desire the pre-eminence in the church; or what were the objects of Demas, Hymenæus, and Alexander, in their restless and ambitious conduct, while Calvary was yet smoking with the blood of their crucified Lord, and while their own lives were every moment exposed to the rage of persecution; when my opponents can tell me what actuated these men, I shall be equally ready to assign a reason for the early rise and progress of prelacy.

But there is no need of retreating into the obscurity of conjecture,