30G APPENDIX. 



not like that counterfeit ware, which Isidore Mer- 

 cator,* under venerable names, hath had the hardi- 

 ness to obtrude upon the world ; but of the right 

 stamp and alloy; and such, as St. Augustine saith, 

 t a bishop ought always to carry in his hand, and 

 to have before his eyes. 



The verse I have read to you, following imme- 

 diately upon the salutation, begins the body of 

 the epistle itself; and, like an ingenious and well- 

 contrived perspective, gives us,^ from the very 

 front, a fair prospect into the contents of the 

 whole. It is, as it were, a kind of magical glass ; 

 in which the man not blind with ignorance, nor 

 bleared with passion, may see distinctly the face 

 of the primitive church, in that golden age of the 

 Apostles ; the platform of her government ; the 

 beautiful order of her hierarchy; the original,, 

 and derivation of her chief officers,, and their 

 subordination both to one another, and to Christ, 

 the great Bishop of our souls, J in the last resort; 

 together with the manage and direction of the 

 mo&t important acts of the government, both in 

 point of ordination and jurisdiction too. For here 

 we haven^Eo-puTEpa? kxIcI ttoKiv, elders, that is, bishops^ 

 (as shall be showed in due time) disposed of city 

 by city, in every city one ; these bishops both 



* Vide D. Blondelli Pseudo Isidor. 

 f De Doct. Christian. 1. 4. c. 16. 

 . X IPet.ii. 25. 



