SCRIPTURAL EQUALITY OF BISHOPS. 1.67 the Jewish policy represented bishops, there was none there to pre- figure the pope. In those days the bishop of Nazianzum, a petty town in Cappa- docia, was a high priest; so Gregory calls his father.? And the bishop of a poor city in Africa [Augustine, bishop of Hippo] is styled " SovereignPontiffof Christ, most blessedFather, most blessed Pope;"' and the very Roman clergy call St Cyprian " Most blessed and most glorious Pope : "3 which titles the pope now so charily re- serves and appropriates to himself. But innumerable instances of this kind might be produced. I shall only, therefore, add two other passages, which seem very obser- vable to the enforcement of this discourse. St Jerome, reprehending the discipline of the Montanists, has these words: " With us the bishops hold the places of the apostles, with them a bishop is in the third place ;for they have for the first rank thepatriarchs of Pepusa in Phrygia; for the second, those whom they call cenones. Thus are bishops thrust down into the third, that is, almost the last place; as if thence religion became all the more stately, if what is first with us be the last with them."4 Now, does not St Jerome here affirm that every bishop has the place of an apostle, and the first rank in the church? Does he not tax the advancement of any order above this? May not the popish hierarchy most fitly be compared to that of the Montanists, and is it not equally liable to the censure of St Jerome? Does it not place the Roman pope in the first place, and the cardinals in the second, detruding the bishops into a third place? Could the Pepusian patriarch, or his cenones, either more overtop in dignity or sway by power over bishops than do the Roman patriarch and his cardinals? Again; St Cyprian tells Pope Cornelius that in episcopacy resides "the sublime and divine power of governing the church," it being " the sublime top of the priesthood."' " He," says the blessed man concerning Pope Cornelius, " did not suddenly arrive to the episco- pate; but being through all ecclesiasticaloffices promoted, and having indivine administrations often merited of the Lord, he did, by all the steps of religion, mount to the sublime top of priesthood. "6 Where A bishop called apxrfpnç.Apost. Const. viii. 10, 12. 9 Summus Christi pontifexAugustinus.Paulin., apud Aug., Ep. xxxvi.; Aug., Ep. xaxv. Beatissimopapas Augustin.Hieron., Aug. Ep. xi., xiii., xiv., &c. s Optamus to beatiss. et gloriosissime papa in Domino semper valere.Ep. xxxi. 4 Apud nos apostolorum locumepiscopi tenent, apud eos episcopus tertius est ; habent enim primos de Pepusa Phrygisepatriarchal, secundos quosappellant cenones. Atque ita in tertium, id est, pene ultimum locum, episcopi devolvuntur; quasi exinde ambitiosior religio fiat, si quod apud nos primum est, apud illos novissimum sit. Hier. adMar- cellam, Ep. liv. 6 - actum est de episcopatus vigore, et de ecclesise gubernandas sublimi as divina pot3state.Cypr., Ep. lv. ad P. Cornet. 6 Non iste ad episcopatum subito pervenit, sed per omnia ecclesiasticaofficia pro.
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