The Theology of the Early Christian Church by James Bennett

Author:James Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nabu Press

dination of a

afterwards, make so much of the first appoint- mere pres

rr byter.

ments, and of the succession, in regular order; and because modern times have made presbyters the elements out of which bishops must be formed. The apostolic appointment of the non-episcopal presbyters, therefore, was a prior question which ought to have been settled; for if lay materials cannot be immediately transformed into a bishop, but a layman must be made a presbyter, and then, from the presbyter, the bishop be educed, the primitive ordination of the presbyter is a question of vital importance. A profound silence on this subject speaks volumes. Of the ordination of a presbyter that was not a bishop the Scriptures say nothing; for their presbyters are bishops, and their bishops presbyters; and Ignatius, while other apostolic fathers do not distinguish the presbyter from the bishop, says nothing of the ordination of a mere presbyter. No one pretends to trace up a non-episcopal presbyter to the apostles, fond as many are of ascribing prelates to that origin; and no ordination of a mere presbyter is to be found, till the apostles and apostolical fathers are too far removed from us to give to non-episcopal presbyters apostolicity. When the ecclesiastical arrangement of which Jerome speaks was effected, the persons who had been presbyter-bishops, and were not selected to be bishops, X«t' !$<>x,w, or by emphasis, became, of Lect. iv. course, mere presbyters, and persons were afterEk'oe,,to wards elected into their office, and ordained to it:

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