you, so now do thou likewise; and as thou doest, so shall it be done unto thee; as thou hast refreshed them, so in that awful day shalt thou be refreshed; and, Christ saith to thee, "thou shalt be blessed, for they cannot recompense thee; for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." "The Lord grant you, that you may find mercy of the Lord in that day "!"

Almighty God and heavenly Father, who, of Thine infinite love and goodness towards us, hast given to us Thy only and most dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ to be our Redeemer, and the Author of everlasting life: who, after He had made perfect our redemption by His death, and was ascended into heaven, sent abroad into the world His Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Doctors, and Pastors; by whose labour and ministry He gathered together a great flock in all the parts of the world, to set forth the eternal praise of Thy holy Name: For these so great benefits of Thy eternal goodness, we render unto Thee most hearty thanks, we praise and worship Thee; and we humbly beseech Thee, by the same Thy blessed Son, to grant unto all, which either here or elsewhere call upon Thy holy Name, that we may continue to shew ourselves

thing it is to be obliged to cover up their dead, without the solemn rites and attendance of a Christian Minister." Stewart Missions, p. 189. ap. Brit. Crit. No. 48. p. 406.

thankful unto Thee for these and all other Thy benefits; and that we may daily increase and go forwards in the knowledge and faith of Thee and Thy Son, by the Holy Spirit. So that as well by those Thy Ministers, as by them over whom they are appointed Thy Ministers, Thy holy Name may be for ever glorified, and Thy blessed kingdom enlarged; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the same Holy Spirit, world without end*. Amen.

* Taken from a Prayer for the Ordering of Priests.

NOTES.

Note A.

On the mode in which Bishops were sent out to convert the Heathen.

SEE the details under the heads of the different Churches in Fabricius Lux Evangelii. Thomassin, in his learned work, Vetus et nova Ecclesiæ Disciplina, admits, that all Bishops, severally, as successors of the Apostles, but chiefly the primitive Sees, had received a commission to send out Evangelists into Heathen countries, and form new Bishoprics. §. 1. "We cannot doubt that the Apostles, and the Bishops of the Apostolic times, who, for the most part, confined themselves to the chief cities of the empire, and the Metropolis of each Province, both themselves founded new Bishoprics, (or so many citadels of the Christian new Church was Empire,) in those cities, where a gathered, and left the like power to their successors. For all, being Apostles, and leaving a more abundant portion of Apostolic power (as has been said) to those who should be Bishops of the Metropolis, they transmitted to them the same power of founding new Churches, and new Bishoprics. This Eusebius directly affirms, speaking of Apostolic men'. §. 2. But since a larger power descended,

a P. i. lib. 54. Of this work there are two authentic forms, the French, and the Latin translation by the Author himself, which often varies, and is not always intelligible without the original. Both have been used in these extracts.

b [See above, p. 47.]

But

as it were by inheritance, from the Apostles to Apostolic seats, these were mostly applied to, for the formation of new colonies, [as in the instance of Frumentius sent by Athanasius, and Moses, sent to Alexandria to be ordained Bishop of the Saracens.] §. 3. But Bishops were ordained not for one city only but for a whole nation, the name of the cities oftentimes not being even known, and because those.. Apostolic Bishops ought to follow the rapidity of the Holy Spirit who impelled them, and the speed of the conquests of the Gospel. Such a pastor Constantine sent, as Theodoret relates, to the new Church of the Iberi. where there was only one Bishop in any nation, he could not ordain others. Whence Sozomen relates, that in Scythia there were many very large cities, which together had only one Bishop. Wherefore new Bishops must needs be continually sent, which could only be looked for from larger cities and Churches. And this perhaps was the reason why the Council of Chalcedon' decreed, that for the barbarous nations, which before were subject to the three lesser Exarchs, the Bishop of Constantinople should ordain Bishops; whereas the first Council of Constantinople had only decreed, that Bishops should be ordained there according to the ancient custom. Chrysostom had ordained the celebrated Unilas, Bishop for the Goths. After his decease, being asked by the king of the Goths to send another, he, though an exile from his own Church, provided that another should be sent. For so he writes to Olympias", That excellent person, Unilas, whom not long ago I created Bishop, and sent into Gothia.'”

§. 7. "Hitherto [during the five first centuries] there is no trace whatever of any imperial authority in the formation of Bishoprics."

c Socr. iv. 29. g Can. 2.

d H. E. i. 24. [23.]
h Ep. cxxiii. [xiv. ed. Ben.]

e vii. 19.

f Can. 28.