(6) a local ministry of 'bishops and deacons' III. St. John (with other apostles) develops episcopacy' in 261 This is confirmed by the testimony of Ignatius to the (a) shows a differentiated ministry having succession (6) postulates an order above the presbyter-bishops 264 275 and deacons. 299 PAGE 3. What alone seems to satisfy the evidence-the episcopate A. Dr. Lightfoot's Dissertation on 'The Christian Ministry' B. The early history of the Alexandrian ministry CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH. of this THE reader of the history of Christendom cannot The subject fail to be conscious, at each stage of his subject, of inquiry. the prominent position held in the Church by a Ministry, which is regarded as having a divine authority for its stewardship of Christian mysteries— an authority which is indeed limited in sphere by varying political and ecclesiastical arrangements, but which in itself is believed to be derived not from below but from above, and to represent and perpetuate, by due succession from the Apostles, the institution of Christ. It is this Christian ministry which is to be the subject of the present inquiry. We shall endeavour to ascertain its history, to trace it back through its series of changes to the fountain-head. More than this, we shall endeavour to investigate its authority and search into its title-deeds. Is this ministry, with its claim of an apostolic succession, the mere product of circumstances-valuable just so far as it is found spiritually convenient? As claiming to be a priesthood, does it represent a temporary accommodation of the Christian ideal, more or less necessitated by circumstances, to the Jewish or pagan ideas amidst which the Church spread? Is it a temporary restriction of the free Christian spiritdangerous, however necessary? Or, on the contrary, |