we consider _what_ that
style is. It carries with it evident marks of primitive simplicity, some
of which I shall instance. The first remark which would be made on
reading them relates to their brevity, the breadth of the rules which
they lay down, and their plain and unartificial mode of stating them. An
instance of this, among others which might be taken, is supplied by a
comparison of the 7th of them with one of a number of Canons passed at
Antioch by a Council held A. D. 341, and apparently using the
Apostolical Canons as a basis for its own. The following, read with the
words in brackets, agrees, with but slight exceptions, with the
Antiochene Canon, and, without them, with the Apostolical:--

"All who come [to church] and hear the [holy] Scriptures read, but do
not remain to prayer [with the people,] and [refuse] the holy communion
[of the Eucharist, these] must be put out of the Church, as disorderly,
[until, by confession, and by showing fruits of penitence, and by
entreaty, they are able to gain forgiveness."]

(4) Now this contrast, if pursued, will serve to illustrate the
antiquity of the Apostolical Canons in several ways, besides the
evidence deducible from the simplicity of their structure. Thus the word
"metropolitan" is introduced into the thirty-fifth Canon of Antioch; no
such word occurs in the Apostolical Canon from which it is apparently
formed. There it is simply said, "the principal bishop;" or, literally,
the primus. This accords with the historical fact, that the word
metropolitan was not introduced till the fourth century. The same remark
might be made on the word "province," which occurs in the Canon of
Antioch, not in the other. This contrast is strikingly brought out in
two other Canons, which correspond in the two Collections. Both treat of
the possessions of the Church; but the Apostolical Canon says simply,
"the interests of the Church," "the goods of the Church;" but the
Antiochene, composed after Christianity had been acknowledged by the
civil power, speaks of "the revenue of the Church," and "the produce of
the land."

Again, when attempts have been made to show that certain words are
contained in the Canons before us which were not in use in the
Ante-Nicene times, they have in every case failed in the result, which
surely may be considered as a positive evidence in favour of their
genuineness. For instance, the word "clergy," for the ministerial body,
which is found in the Apostoli