other province of Lydia, Carolus à Sancto Paulo reckons twenty-six dioceses. 1, Sardis, the metropolis. 2, Philadelphia. 3, Tripolis. 4, Thyatira. 5, Septe. 6, Gordus. 7, Trallis. 8, Silandus. 9, Mæonia. 10, Fanum Apollinis. 11, Mostena. 12, Apollonia. 13, Attalia. 14, Bana. 15, Balandus. 16, Hierocæsarea. 17, Acrassus. 18, Daldus. 19, Stratonicia. 20, Satala, 21, Gabala. 22, Heraclea. 23, Areopolis. 24, Helene. 25, Sena, or Setta. 26, Civitas Standitana. To which Holstenius adds three more, Mastaura, Cerasa, and Orcanis, or Hircani." Bingh. ix. iii. 9.

The ancient election of Bishops by the people and clergy. Cyprian observes of Cornelius, "That he was made bishop by the testimony of the clergy, and suffrage of the people;" where it is evident the words testimony and suffrage are equally ascribed both to clergy and people." Socrates, speaking of the election of Chrysostom, says, " he was chosen by the common vote of all, both clergy and people." And Theodoret describes the election of Eustatius, bishop of Antioch, after the same manner, when he tells us, "he was compelled to take the bishopric by the common vote of the bishops and clergy, and all the people." Sirecius styles this "the election of the clergy and people ;" and Celestin, "the consent and desire of the clergy and people ;" and Leo, "both the consent, and election, and suffrage or votes of the people."— From all which, and many other passages, that might be alleged to the same purpose, it is very evident, that the power of the clergy and people was equal in this matter, and that nothing was challenged by the one, that was not allowed to the other also.' Bingh. iv. ii. 2. 'Sometimes the bishops in Synod proposed a person, and the people accepted him sometimes, again, the people proposed, and the bishops consented; and where they were unani

mous in a worthy choice, we scarce ever find they were rejected. We learn from one of Leo's epistles, where he gives us at once both the Church's rule and practice, and the reasons of it. "In the choice of a Bishop," says he," let him be preferred whom the clergy and people do unanimously agree upon and require; if they be divided in their choice, then let the metropolitan give preference to him, who has most votes and most merits :always provided, that no one be ordained against the will and desire of the people, lest they contemn or hate their bishops, and become irreligious or disrespectful, when they cannot have him whom they desired." The transgression of this rule was objected as a great crime to Hilarius Arelatensis, by the Emperor Valentinian the Third, "that he ordained bishops in several places against the will and consent of the people, whom when they would not admit of, because they had not chosen them, he used armed force to settle them in their sees, introducing the preachers of peace by the violence of war." Leo objects the same thing to him, saying, "That he ought to have proceeded by another rule, and first to have required the votes of the citizens, the testimonies of the people, the will of the gentry, and the election of the clergy; for he that was to preside over all, was to be chosen by all." Bingh. iv. ii. 4. In many cases the voices of the people prevailed against the bishops themselves, when they happened to be divided in their first proposals. Thus it happened in the famous election of St. Martin, bishop of Tours. The people were unanimously for him; Defensor, with a great party of bishops, at first was against him; but the voice of the people prevailed, and the bishops complied and ordained him. Philostorgius gives us such another instance. Demophilus, bishop of Constantinople, with some other bishops,

suspected of Arianism, meeting at Cyzicum, to ordain a bishop there, the people first made a protestation against them, "that unless they would anathematize publicly Aetius and Eunomius, both in word and writing, they should ordain no bishop there:" and when they had complied to do this, they still insisted on their privilege, that no one should be ordained but one of their own choosing," which was one, who, as soon as he was ordained, preached the Catholic doctrine of the 'Opoor, that the Son was of the same substance with the Father. Ancient history will furnish the reader with many other instances of the like nature.' Bingh. iv. ii. 5. What voice have the people and the

their bishops now?

clergy in the election of

Independence of ancient bishops, who form their own liturgies. There is one thing more must be taken notice of, whilst we are considering the proper office of bishops, which is, the absolute power of every bishop in his own church, independent of all others. For the right understanding the just limits of this power, we are to distinguish between the substantial and the ritual part of religion. For it was in the latter chiefly that bishops had an absolute power in their own church, being at liberty to use what indifferent rights they thought fit in their own church, without being accountable for their practice to any other. Thus, for instance, though there was but one form of worship throughout the whole church, as to what concerned the substance of Christian worship, yet every bishop was at liberty to form his own liturgy, in what method and words he thought proper, only keeping to the analogy of faith and sound doctrine. Thus Gregory Nazianzen observes of St. Basil, “That, among other good services which he did for the church of Cæsarea, whilst he was but a presbyter in it, one was

the composing of forms of prayer, which, by the consent and authority of his bishop, Eusebius, were used by the church." And this is thought not improbably by some, to be the first draught of that liturgy, which bears his name to this day. The church of Neo-Cæsarea, in Pontus, where St. Basil was born, had a liturgy peculiar to themselves, which St. Basil speaks of in one of his epistles. Chrysostom's liturgy, which he composed for the church of Constantinople, differed from these. The Ambrosian form differed from the Roman, and the Roman from others. The Africans had peculiar forms of their own, differing from the Roman, as appears from some passages cited by Victorinus Afer and Fulgentius, out of the African liturgies, which Cardinal Bona owns are not to be found in the Roman.-The like observation may be made upon the creeds used in divers churches. There was but one rule of faith, as Tertullian calls it, and that fixed and unalterable, as to the substance, throughout the whole church. Yet there were different ways of expressing it, as appears from [the several forms still extant, which differ something from one another. Those in Irenæus, in Cyprian, and Turtullian, are not exactly in the same method nor form of words. The creed of Eusebius and his church of Cæsarea differed from that of Jerusalem, upon which Cyril comments; and that of Cyril's from that in St. James's liturgy. And to omit abundance more, that might be here mentioned, the creed of Aquileia, recited by Ruffin, differs from the Roman creed, which is that we commonly call the Apostle's creed. Now the reason of all this difference could be no other but this, that all bishops had power to frame the creeds of their own churches, and express them in such terms as suited best their own convenience, and to meet with the heresies they were most in danger from.'

Bingh. 11. vi. 1, 2, 3.

'When any new episcopal church

was taken and erected out of another, the new-erected church was not obliged to follow the model and prescriptions of the old church, but might frame to herself a form of divine service agreeable to her own circumstances and conditions. Of which Sozomen gives a clear evidence in the instance of Maiuma, a city raised from a village in Palestine, and once belonging to the diocese of Gaza : for as soon as it was erected into a distinct episcopal see, it was no longer obliged to observe precisely the rules and forms of the church of Gaza, but had, as he particularly remarks, a calendar for the festivals of its own martyrs, and commemorations of their own bishops and presbyters that had lived among them. Which is the same thing, as to say, they had a liturgy and service of their own, independent of the church out of which they were taken.' Bingh. XIII. v. 1. If such had been the case in Lydia, there would have been a different church service every five square miles; so that it will be seen, how shamefully tyrannical it must be to endeavour to impose one service upon a whole nation.

Maintenance of the ancient clergy.-They were maintained first by the voluntary oblations of the people, of which some learned persons think there were two sorts; 1st, the weekly or daily oblations that were made at the altar; 2d, the monthly oblations that were cast into the treasury of the church. The first sort of oblations were such, as every rich and able communicant made at his coming to partake of the eucharist; where they offered not only bread and wine, out of which the eucharist was taken, but also other necessaries, and sometimes sums of money, for the maintenance of the church, and relief of the poor; as is evident from those words of St. Jerom, in his comments upon Ezekiel, where he tells us "that