Page:A short account of the rise and progress of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in America.djvu/103

 1. The Bishop, or Superintendent, and his powers or authority in the Church. 2. The Elder and his duty, and

3. The Deacon and his duty. In order to take up the first proposition, we shall begin with the word Episcopacy, or Episcopal, appertaining to the Bishopric. As we, from our commencement, took this Title, we have been judged, by some unfriendly persons, to claim a name that did not belong to us, according^ to our present mode of government by a Superintendent elected, and not particularly or especially ordained for a Bishop ; and with this view, those persons endeavour to invalidate our connexion, as having no Bishop, and therefore have no right to the name of Episcopal, and in consequence of this unfriendly practice, many of our brethren have been much annoyed, being not able to confute them by contrary information. In order to meet this objection, and stop the mouths of these gainsayers, it will be necessary to inquire into the origin of a Bishop, and thereby find out from whence the term Episcopal arose. We proceed then to say, that Buck's Theological