le
confirmation from the patriarch Eutychius, (Annal. tom. i. p. 330, Vers
Pocock;) whose testimony I know not how to reject, in spite of all the
objections of the learned Pearson in his Vindiciae Ignatianae, part i.
c. 11.]

[Footnote 110: See the introduction to the Apocalypse. Bishops, under
the name of angels, were already instituted in the seven cities of Asia.
And yet the epistle of Clemens (which is probably of as ancient a date)
does not lead us to discover any traces of episcopacy either at Corinth
or Rome.]

[Footnote 111: Nulla Ecclesia sine Episcopo, has been a fact as well as
a maxim since the time of Tertullian and Irenaeus.]

[Footnote 112: After we have passed the difficulties of the first
century, we find the episcopal government universally established, till
it was interrupted by the republican genius of the Swiss and German
reformers.]

[Footnote 113: See Mosheim in the first and second centuries. Ignatius
(ad Smyrnaeos, c. 3, &c.) is fond of exalting the episcopal dignity. Le
Clerc (Hist. Eccles. p. 569) very bluntly censures his conduct, Mosheim,
with a more critical judgment, (p. 161,) suspects the purity even of the
smaller epistles.]

[Footnote 114: Nonne et Laici sacerdotes sumus? Tertullian, Exhort. ad
Castitat. c. 7. As the human heart is still the same, several of the
observations which Mr. Hume has made on Enthusiasm, (Essays, vol. i. p.
76, quarto edit.) may be applied even to real inspiration. * Note: This
expression was employed by the earlier Christian writers in the sense
used by St. Peter, 1 Ep ii. 9. It was the sanctity and virtue not the
power of priesthood, in which all Christians were to be equally
distinguished.--M.]

Such was the mild and equal constitution by which the Christians were
governed more than a hundred years after the death of the apostles.
Every society formed within itself a separate and independent republic;
and although the most distant of these little states maintained a
mutual as well as friendly intercourse of letters and deputations,
the Christian world was not yet connected by any supreme authority or
legislative assembly. As the numbers of the faithful were gradually
multiplied, they discovered the advantages that might result from a
closer union of their interest and designs. Towards the end of the
second century, the churches of Greece and Asia adopted the useful
institutions of provincial synods, [1141] and they may justly be supposed to
have bor