Jerome here explains himself in language which admits of no second interpretation; for all these proofs, adduced to shew that the Church was originally under presbyterial government, are of a later date than the First Epistle to the Corinthians.  The Epistle to the Philippians contains internal evidence that it was dictated during Paul’s first imprisonment at Rome; the Epistle to the Hebrews appeared after his liberation; and the First Epistle of Peter was written in the old age of the apostle of the circumcision. [527:3] Nor is this even the full amount of his testimony to the antiquity of the presbyterian polity.  On another occasion, after mentioning some of the texts which have been given, he goes on to make quotations from the Second and Third Epistles of John—­which are generally dated towards the close of the first century [527:4]—­and he declares that prelacy had not made its appearance when these letters were written.  Having produced authorities from Paul and Peter, he exclaims—­“Do the testimonies of such men seem small to you?  Let the Evangelical Trumpet, the Son of Thunder, whom Jesus loved very much, who drank the streams of doctrine from the bosom of the Saviour, sound in your ears—­’The elder, unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth;’ [528:1] and, in another epistle—­’The elder to the very dear Caius, whom I love in the truth.’ [528:2] But what was done afterwards, when one was elected who was set over the rest, was for a cure of schism; lest every one, insisting upon his own will, should rend the Church of God.” [528:3]

We have already seen [528:4] that extant documents, written about the close of the first century and the middle of the second, bear similar testimony as to the original constitution of the Church.  The “Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians” cannot be dated earlier than the termination of the reign of Domitian, for it refers to a recent persecution, [528:5] it describes the community to which it in addressed as “most ancient,” it declares that others now occupied the places of those who had been ordained by the apostles, and it states that this second generation of ministers had been long in possession of their ecclesiastical charges. [528:6] Candid writers, of almost all parties, acknowledge that this letter distinctly recognizes the existence of government by presbyters. [528:7] The evidence of the letter of Polycarp [528:8] is not less explicit.  Jerome, therefore, did not speak without authority when he affirmed that prelacy was established after the days of the apostles, and as an antidote against schism.