in the ceremony of ordination. Some at the
present day do not hesitate to assert that presbyters have no right
whatever to ordain, but this canon supplies evidence that in the third
century they were employed to ordain bishops.

It thus appears that the bishop of the ancient Church was very different
from the dignitary now known by the same designation. The primitive
bishop had often but two or three elders, and sometimes a single deacon,
[587:2] under his jurisdiction: the modern prelate has frequently the
oversight of several hundreds of ministers. The ancient bishop,
surrounded by his presbyters, preached ordinarily every Sabbath to his
whole flock: the modern bishop may spend an entire lifetime without
addressing a single sermon, on the Lord's day, to many who are under his
episcopal supervision. The early bishop had the care of a parish: the
modern bishop superintends a diocese. The elders of the primitive bishop
were not unfrequently decent tradesmen who earned their bread by the
sweat of their brow: [587:3] the presbyters of a modern prelate have
generally each the charge of a congregation, and are supposed to be
entirely devoted to sacred duties. Even the ancient city bishop had but
a faint resemblance to his modern namesake. He was the most laborious
city minister, and the chief preacher. He commonly baptized all who were
received into the Church, and dispensed the Eucharist to all the
communicants. He was, in fact, properly the minister of an overgrown
parish who required several assistants to supply his lack of service.

The foregoing testimonies likewise shew that the doctrine of apostolical
succession, as now commonly promulgated, is utterly destitute of any
sound historical basis. According to some, no one is duly qualified to
preach and to dispense the sacraments whose authority has not been
transmitted from the Twelve by an unbroken series of episcopal
ordinations. But it has been demonstrated that episcopal ordinations,
properly so called, originated only in the third century, and that even
the bishops of Rome, who flourished prior to that date, were "of the
order of the presbytery." All the primitive bishops received nothing
more than presbyterian ordination. It is plain, therefore, that the
doctrine of the transmission of spiritual power from the apostles
through an unbroken series of episcopal ordinations flows from sheer
ignorance of the actual constitution of the early Church.

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