is to be hoped he will not stay his hand until he has translated the lineaments of its third important member into the political domain. He may then, not unprofitably, contemplate the fourth - the Parish Session - with a view to establish something like its civil or political equivalent throughout these realms. We shall then possess a system-monarchico-democratic or democratico-monarchic -so simple and broad-based, penetrative and effective, that, wisely and intelligently worked, many of the evils which have hampered and harassed the imperial Parliament for generations will soon disappear. Moreover, while, in an adequate and inexpensive way, the smallest local wants would be promptly met, all others, up to the weightiest imperial concerns, would be clearly and sufficiently provided for; and, withal, the Throne, august and inviolable, securely buffered at every point by responsible Ministers, would remain unaffected by the movements and changes inseparable from the expansion and progress of a great and many-peopled empire. APPENDIX. APPENDIX A. NEW TESTAMENT EPISCOPACY AND THE FUTURE OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. ALL Presbyterian Churches, by whatever distinctive names they may be known, and whatever distinctive purpose in the providence of God their separate existence may have been called to promote, are substantially one-one in doctrine, discipline, worship, and government. Pauline and evangelical in doctrine; Scriptural, and therefore benign and impartial, in discipline; simple and apostolic in worship; representative and democratic in government. This, it is claimed, is simply the Presbytery or Episcopacy of the New Testament, where presbyter or elder and bishop are but different designations of the same ecclesiastical officer. Bishop Lightfoot1 puts this beyond all question for his fellow churchmen when, adducing conclusive evidence, he says: "It is a fact, now generally recognised by theologians of all shades of opinion, that in the language of the New Testament the same officer in the Church is called indifferently 'bishop' (ἐπίσκοπος) and 'elder' or presbyter (πρεσβύτερος). Again, he says: "The two are only different designations of the same office." The presbyters or elders were the bishops, and there was no superior order of bishops. Thus presbytery is simply New Testament episcopacy, and Apostolic episcopacy is simply presbytery. Ordination was not the act of a prelate, but of a presbytery; not the special function of one person claiming to be of a higher order and invested with higher authority than his brethren, but the common function of the bishops or presbyters in meeting assembled, 1 Saint Paul's Epistle to the Philippians.' By J. B. Lightfoot, D.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Bishop of Durham, Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Seventh edition. 1883. 2 B |