REESE

LIBRARY

OF THE

UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA

PART II.

DOCTRINES OF CONGREGATIONALISM.

GROWING Out of the principles which have just been considered, and more or less intimately connected with them, are several important doctrines; in the maintenance of which all consistent Congregationalists agree. Among these may be mentioned:

1. That there are but two orders of church officers, ELDERS-Sometimes called pastors, teachers, overseers, bishops-and DEACONS.

It is admitted that there were among the apostolic churches a greater variety of official persons than have now been mentioned. But do the Scriptures furnish evidence that any other officers except elders and deacons, were appointed by particular churches; or were permanently connected with them?

The church at Jérusalem, it is true, chose an apostle to take the place of Judas, Acts 1: 15-26; the church at Antioch appointed Barnabas and Saul to go forth as missionaries among the Gentiles, Acts 13: 1-3; and there were among the primitive churches, evangelists, or ministers without permanent charge, as Timothy and Titus; but, neither of these were church officers, properly speaking. They had no official connection with any particular church; they were, strictly speaking, ministers at large, or missionaries.*

*

Timothy is directed by Paul (2 Tim. 4: 5) to "do the work of an evangelist" (oyov noinoov sťaɣyslovov). "Theodoret testifies,"

Assistants in the Apostolic churches.

Besides the apostles and evangelists, there were in the primitive churches several other orders of religious teachers and helpers. These are enumerated by the apostle, 1 Cor. 12: 28: "God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles (men possessed of special miraculous power), then gifts of healing (a kind of divinely educated physicians), helps, governments (persons especially qualified to assist in the government of the churches), diversities of tongues" (persons gifted with the power of speaking different languages).

Not to enter upon the disputed question-what were the limits of these several religious helpers? or even, the question whether the terms employed designate distinct offices and officers in the church-it will be readily admitted,

says Wahl," that the term svayyshotai was originally applied to those * ** who were not stationary teachers, but were sent by the apostles to different countries in order to spread the knowledge of the Christian religion."

Though Titus is not expressly called an evangelist, yet, as the work assigned him, and the instructions given to him by the apostle are so similar to those given to Timothy, we are fully justified in considering him as sustaining the same office.

The reader will find this question most satisfactorily settled, in a small work published by Rev. Albert Barnes, of Philadelphia, entitled: "The Scriptural Argument for Episcopacy Examined;" being a reply to Bishop Onderdonk's "Episcopacy Tested by Scripture."

Any one who would see how diocesan Episcopacy bears to be "tested by Scripture," will do well to examine Mr. Barnes' learned and excellent little work.

* Those who would investigate this subject, are referred to the copious notes of Macknight upon the chapter; or the more brief, but judicious remarks of Bloomfield and Doddridge.

Inspiration essential to them.

that no more full catalogue is anywhere furnished of primitive teachers and helpers, and ecclesiastical persons, than this chapter contains. But an examination of this chapter will, I think, convince any unprejudiced mind that, with the exception of' teachers,' these were all ministers extraordinary, who were qualified for their work by the special and miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit; gifts which ceased with the exigencies of the churches which called them forth. When, therefore, the miraculous gifts themselves were withdrawn, it is evident that those who had exercised these gifts would cease, of course, to sustain any official, or special relation to the churches. That these miraculous gifts were early withdrawn from the church is admitted on all hands.

ses.

The same view may be taken of another class of church officers mentioned in the New Testament-the deaconesThese were an order of helpers, which the peculiarities of Eastern manners and customs rendered necessary to the primitive churches. Every reader of ancient history must be aware, that in Judea, and indeed, in most oriental countries, familiar social intercourse between the sexes was not allowed. Even to this day, an Eastern lady would regard herself as degraded were she exposed to the gaze of the other sex. Hence the practice of veiling the face; and in some instances even the whole person.

To meet this state of things among the people to whom the gospel was first preached, it became necessary to appoint aged women, usually widows, to administer to the necessities of the female disciples; to visit them in sickness, to distribute among them the charities of the church; and, in various other ways, to minister to their necessities both temporal and spiritual. This service the elders and

Office and work of deaconesses.

deacons of the church could not perform with propriety, owing to the peculiarities of Eastern habits.

To these females, reference is made 1 Tim. 5: 9, 10; "Let not a widow be taken into the number (that is, of the deaconesses) under threescore years old," etc.

Phebe, spoken of by the apostle, Rom. 16: 1, was one of this number: "I cominend unto you (or I introduce to your Christian confidence) Phebe, our sister, which is a servant (Siάxovov*—a deacon) of the church at Cenchrea."

From Ecclesiastical history we learn that these deaconesses were set apart to their office by imposition of hands. "Yet we are not to imagine, that this consecration," says Bingham, gave them any power to execute any part of the sacerdotal office * * Women were always forbidden to perform any such offices as those." ** "Some heretics, indeed, as Tertullian observes, allowed women to teach, and exorcise, and administer baptism; but all this, he says, was against the rule of the apostle." *** *

Epiphanius, a Christian father who died about A. D. 403, says: "There is indeed, an order of deaconesses in the church, but their business is not to sacrifice, or perform any part of the sacerdotal office, ** but to be a decent help to the female sex in the time of their baptism, sickness, affliction, or the like."+

Mosheim notices briefly these servants of the church. "There were," says he, "in many churches, and especially in those of Asia, female public servants, or deaconesses." Vol. I. p. 84.

* Pronounced diaconon; whence the English deacon.

"Antiquities of the Christian Church," Book 11. chap. 22. sect. 7.

Elders.

If the primitive churches were authorized to ordain these "female public servants, or deaconesses"-which, however, the Scriptures nowhere intimate-it is very obvious that they were, like several other servants of the churches in those days, extraordinary, and not designed for permanent church officers; but appointed simply to meet the exigencies of the church in Eastern countries; and consequently, that when these exigencies ceased, or among a people of different habits, the office itself should be discontinued.

Setting aside the apostles, and these spiritual persons, and extraordinary assistants, we have remaining, as constituted and permanent officers in the church of Christ :

1. ELDERS. These were ordained persons, who had the charge of particular churches; and, so far as we are informed, had no ecclesiastical authority in any other church than that over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers."

The account of the second visit of Paul and Barnabas to the churches of Asia Minor (Acts 14: 21-23) confirms this view. We read: “And when they had ordained *

* The Greek word here translated " ordained,” is jɛiotovijoavTES; from yelp the hand, and tɛivo to stretch out. Wall renders the word, " to vote by holding up the hand;" and refers to Polybius for authority. Schrevelius gives, as the meaning of the word, "to raise up and extend the hands-to elect by hand-vote· to vote by holding up the hand." Bloomfield, as we might expect, resists this interpretation; but admits that "several of the ablest commentators" adopt it. Doddridge has a long and able note upon this passage: He maintains that the Greek word employed in the text clearly denotes that the elders were elected by a vote of the several churches over which they were respectively placed. In this opinion agree Erasmus, Calvin, and Beza. Dr. John Owen main