Barrow - BX1805 .B3 1852

98 ST JAMES SEEMS TO HAVE THE BEST TITLE. The Popes Nicholas I. and GregoryVII., &c., call them "Princes of the apostles."' St Ambrose, or St Augustine, or St Maximus Taur. [of Turin,] (choose you which,) thus speaks of them: " Blessed Peter and Paul are most eminent among all the apostles, excelling the rest by a kind of peculiar prerogative; but whether of the two be preferred before the other is uncertain, for I count them to be equal in merit, because they are equal in suffering, ' &c. To all this discourse I shall only add, that if any of the apostles, or apostolical men, might claim a presidency or authoritative head- ship over the rest, St James seems to have the best title thereto ;3 for " Jerusalem was the mother of all churches,"4 the fountain of the Christian lawand doctrine, the see of our Lord himself, the chief pastor, Isa. ii. 3; Luke xiii. 34e. He therefore who, as the fathers tell us, was by our Lord himself constitutedbishop of that city, and the " first" of all bishops, might best pretend to be in special manner our Lord's vicar or successor.° "He," says Epiphanius, "first received the episcopal chair, and to him did our Lord first intrust his own throne upon earth."6 He, accordingly, first exercised the authority of presiding and moderating in the first ecclesiastical synod, as St Chrysostom in his notes thereon remarks. He, therefore, probably by St Paul is first named in his report concerning the passages at Jerusalem, Gal. ii. 9; and to his orders it seems that St Peter himself conformed, for it is said there, that " before certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles; but when they were come, he withdrew," chap. ii. 12. Hence, in the Apostolical Constitutions, in the prayer prescribed for the church and for all the governors of it, the bishops of the principal churches being specified by name, St James is put in the first place, before the bishops of Rome and of Antioch : " Let us pray for the whole episcopacy under heaven, of those who rightly Nie. I., Ep. vii., Plat. inGreg. VII., &c. 2 Beati Petrus et Pauluseminent inter universos apostolos, et peculiari quadam præ- rogativa prwcellunt; verum inter ipsos quis cui præponatur incertum est, puto enim illos æquales esse meritis, quia æquales sunt passione, &e.Ambr., Seres. lxvi.; Aug. de Sanet., xxvii.; Max. Taur., Berm. liv. 3 Has voces ecclesite, ex qua habuit omnis ecclesia initium.Iren., iii. 12. "These are the words of thechurch fromwhence every church had itsbeginning." 4 Ecclesia in Hierusalem fundata totius orbis ecelesias seminavit.--Rieron. in Ise. ii. " The church founded in Jerusalemwas the seminary of the churches throughout the whole world." Theod., v. 9. Vide Tert. de Prcescr., cap. xx. 5 "Evrsrra r'0n 'Iazweá, i ee $oxeî ri¡ áóe)4' aiProü' abrós yelp ire xáyemar xexerp,r'- vnzivar, xaì iziewovrav iv'Iapse'Xó ams vravroiz[var rpârov. Chrys. in 1 Cor., Or. ii. " After that he was seen of James, I suppose to his brother; for he is said to have ordained him, and made him the first bishop of Jerusalem." 6 17r7,ros ,i IProe f% S rñv xslílpav mñs 'avrrezoa'ñs, a+ asvriorsuxe Kípras róv 916v,, aúrau iv.ì r.,s yñs Yr rwr" I%'ph' Ileer., lxxviii. ..v.,...... ...,. +c

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