We learn from Eusebius, that the Apostles selected various parts of the world as the separate fields of their labour. And wherever there was an Apostle, there was one who had the power (which he did not neglect to use) of transmitting the grace of the Ministry of CHRIST; consequently there must have been several lines of Ministerial Succession from the first. Probably every Apostle ordained some, as “overseers,” “presidents,” of Churches; and so became an originator, not of one, but of several, lines of Apostolical grace. If each of the Twelve had ordained but one, there would still have been twelve such lines Apostolical: but since the indefatigable Apostles doubtless did much more than this, there must have been many Ministerial lines, from the very first. We are putting ourselves therefore in a very false position when, in arguing with Romanists, we allow them tacitly to assume, as they seem to do, that there was but one line of Apostolic Ministration transmitted from the beginning. But this error will be more apparent by examining farther. Let us endeavour to look at the case both historically and practically, that so we may see not only its past, but also its present bearings. In so doing we may be led to understand its principle more clearly. When, at any time, a Bishopric might become vacant in the Church, and a new Bishop was to be consecrated thereto by the “laying on of hands,” by whom was this solemn rite to be performed? Take, for example, a Bishop of Antioch. He dies, and a new one is to be consecrated.—Who is to do it?—Several, probably, unite in “laying hands on him” with prayer and fasting. (Acts xiii. 3.) Suppose one of them to be the Bishop of Alexandria; then the next question must be—Who consecrated _him_? and those who were his coadjutors at Antioch? And it might take us to as many different Churches to decide this point, as there were Bishops at that consecration. By the laws and practice of the Church, {58} it is necessary for three Bishops, if possible, to be present and unite in the Consecration of every new Bishop. Now suppose another of the three, in the case just given, to have been a Bishop of Rome; then to trace the Apostolical Succession we must proceed to ask, who consecrated that Bishop of Rome?—Not the previous Bishop of Rome; for he, probably and almost invariably, would be dead before his Successor was appointed. Then, of course it must needs be some foreign Bishop, assisted by _two_ others from different parts of Christendom. And then the question would widen still farther, as each of _their_ ordinations would have to be examined. And so the inquiry would have to proceed, widening from Bishop to Bishop, and from Church to Church, till we might arrive, if possible, at the first Apostolic consecration of at least _one_ of the long line, through which the manifold grace had flowed. Except in the case of the translation of a Bishop from one See to another (a practice unsanctioned