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given them by Jesus Christ, that in every thing they were enriched by Him in all utterance and in all knowledge, so that they came behind in no gift." But the Apostle goes on immediately to reprove them for their want of unity; it had been declared to him, that there were contentions among them. And how did these contentions arise? in low views of Apostolical Authority. They had forgotten that there was but One Foundation; One Building of God; One Rule, according to which the several builders must carry up the structure which Apostles had founded. And how did the Apostle endeavour to drive out the spirit of schism? by asserting and enforcing his own authority over them, as the one only father whom they had in the Gospel, (though they might choose for themselves ten thousand instructors,) and by sending Timothy to bring into their remembrance his ways which were in Christ, as he taught every where in every Church. Thus were they to be brought back to the blessed unity of spirit of the One Catholic and Apostolic Church.—And here, by the way, we have light thrown upon the doctrine contained in the Epistles of Ignatius. Remarkable and consolatory to the inquirer after truth as is the evidence therein afforded to the divine appointment of Episcopacy, perhaps there is mingled with his satisfaction some surprise at the earnestness and frequency with which the Holy Martyr urges the doctrine. But it is plain, what the Apostles are in St. Paul's Epistles, such the Bishops are in those of Ignatius, centers of unity; and as St. Paul, when denouncing schism, magnifies the Apostolic Office, in just the same natural, or rather necessary way, does Ignatius oppose the varieties of opinion in his own day by the doctrine of Episcopacy.—To return: the same Apostle writes to the Church of Rome; "I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given to me of God, that I should be the Minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God." (Rom. xv. 14—16.) The passage which follows is worthy of especial notice, as shewing that the Apostles marked out for themselves distinct provinces, so that each had his own Diocese, as it were, his own peculiar sphere of duty and authority. St. Paul tells us he strove to preach not
