mm^^mm^ »>>> ^Hr .-^^^.^adk^yX.^; 7 ^cs^^ooa. E. EDINMfEGH. to tbe Xil'targ DOUGLAS BAMERMAN, D.D. PERTH. / THE WARRANT, NATURE, AND DUTIES, OF THE OFFICE OF THE RULING ELDER, PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. BY SAMUEL MILLER, D.D, PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AND CHURCH GOVERxVMENT IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY AT PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY. A NEW EDITION. WITH AN INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, BY THE REV. WILLIAM LINDSAY, GLASGOW. EDINBURGH : ROBERT OGLE, SOUTH BRIDGE M. OGLE & SON, GLASGOW; WHITTAKER & CO., LONDON, MDCCCXLII. TO THE MINISTERS AND ELDERS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES. Reverend and Respected Brethren, The substance of the following Essay was de- iiverecl from the pulpit, in the form of a sermon, more than tw^enty yeais ago, and subsequently pub- lished. In consequence of repeated solicitation from some individuals of your number, I have thought proper to alter its form, to enlarge its limits, and to adapt it, according to my best judgment, to more general utility. It has long appeared to me, that a more ample discussion of this subject than I have hitherto seen, is really needed. And if the present volume should be considered as, in any tolerable degree, answering the desired purpose, I shall feel myself richly rewarded for the labour which has attended its preparation. IV Such as it is, my venerated friends, I inscribe it, most respectfully, to you. My first prayer in regard to it is, that it may be the means of doing some good; my next, that it may be received by those whom I have so much reason to respect and love, as a well intended effort to benefit the church of God. I am aware that some of my brethren do not concur vdth me in maintaining the divine authority of the office of the Ruling Elder, and, probably, in several other opinions respecting this office advanced in the following pages. In reference to these points, I can only say, that as the original publication, of which this is an enlargement, was made without the remotest thought of controversy, and even without adverting in my own mind to the fact that I differed materially from any of my brethren, so nothing is more foreign from my wishes, in the republication, than to assail the opinions or feelings of any brother. I have carefully re-examined the whole subject, and although in doing this I have been led to modify some of my former opinions in relation to a few minor points, yet in reference to the divine warrant and the great importance of the office for which I plead, my convictions have become stronger than ever. The following sheets exhibit those views, and that testimony in support of them, which at present satisfy my own mind, and which I feel confident may be firmly sustained. How far, however, the considerations which have satisfied me may impress more impartial judges, I cannot venture to foretell. All that I dare to ask in their behalf is, that they may be seriously and candidly weighed. But there is one point in regard to which I an- ticipate no diversity of opinion. If the statement given in the following Essay concerning the duties incumbent on Ruling Elders be correct, it is certain that very inadequate views of those duties have been too often taken, both by those who conferred and those who sustained the office, and that there is a manifest and loud call for an attempt to raise the standard of public sentiment in reference to the whole subject. That we make so little of this office, com- pared with what we might do, and ought to do, does really appear to me one of the deepest de- ficiencies of our beloved church. That a reform in this respect is desirable, is to express but half the truth. It is necessary: it is vital. It has pleased the Sovereign Disposer to cast our lot in a period of mighty plans and of high moral effi^rt for the benefit of the world. In the subject of this volume, I am inclined to think, is wrapped up one of those VI means which are destined, under his blessing, to be richly productive of moral energy in the enterprises of Christian benevolence, which appear to be every day gathering strength. When the rulers of the church shall, in the genuine spirit of the humble, faithful, and laborious Paul, " magnify their office ; when they shall be found cordially and diligently co-operating with those who ' labour in the word and doctrine,' " in inspecting, counselling, and watch- ing over the " flocks " respectively committed to their " oversight in the Lord ; " and when they shall be suitably honoured and employed in their various appropriate functions, both by pastors and people: this change will, I believe, be at once one of the surest precursors, and one of the most efficient means of the introduction of brighter days in the church of God. So far as we can anticipate events, this important change must begin with the teachers and rulers of the church themselves. On every one of you, there- fore, if my estimate of the subject be correct, devolves a high and most interesting responsibility. That you may have grace given you to acquit yourselves of this responsibility, in a manner acceptable to our common Master, and conducive to the signal ad- vancement of his kingdom, and that future genera- Vll tions, both in the church and out of it, may have reason to " rise up and call you blessed," is the fervent prayer of. Reverend and Respected Brethren. Your friend and Fellow-servant In the House of God, SAMUEL MILLER. Princeton, April 20th, 1831. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Introductory Remarks — Nature of the Church — Visible and Invisible Church — Unity of the Church — A form of govern- ment for the Church appointed by Christ — Nature and limits of ecclesiastical power — Summary of the doctrine of Presby- terians on this subject — The proper classes of officers in a Church completely organized — Positions intended to be esta- blished, as affording a warrant for the office of Ruling Elders. — p. 1—16. CHAPTER 11. Testimony from the order of the Old Testament Church — Import of the term Elder — Specimen of the representations given of this class of officers — Elders of the Synagogue — Authorities in reference to the government of the Synagogue — The titles, duties, number, mode of sitting, &c., of the Elders of the Synagogue — Quotations from distinguished writers on this subject — Burnet, Goodwin, Lightfoot, Stillingfleet, Grotius, Spencer, Clark, Neander. — p. 17 — 33. CHAPTER III. Evidence from the New Testament Scriptures— Model of the Synagogue transferred to the Church — Specimen of the passages which speak of the New Testament Elders — Particular texts which establish the existence of this class of Elders in the Primitive Church — Objections to our -construction of these passages — Answered. — p. 34 — 54. IX CHAPTER IV. Testimony of the Christian Fathers — Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, Origen, Gesta Purgationis, &c., Optatus, Ambrose, Augustine, Apostolical Constitutions, Iso- dore, Gregory — Facts incidentally stated by the Fathers con- cerning some of the Elders — Syrian Christians. — ^p. 55 — 83. CHAPTER V. Testimony of the Witnesses for the Truth in the Dark Ages — Waldenses, Albigenses — Bohemian Churches — Calvin derived this feature in his ecclesiastical system from the Bohemian Brethren.— p. 84 — 95. CHAPTER VI. Testimony of the Reformers — Zuingle, Oecolampadius, Bucer, Peter Martyr, John A. Lasco, Calvin, Whitgift, Dean Nowell, Ursinus, Confession of Saxony, Szegeden, Magdeburgh Centuriators, Junius, Zanchius, Paraeus, Piscator, Cartwright, Greenham, Estius, Whitaker — Ruling Elders generally estab- lished in the Reformed Churches. — p. 96 — 117. CHAPTER VII. Testimony of eminent divines since the Reformation — Owen, Baxter — English Puritans — of New England — Goodwin, Hooker, Cotton, Davenport, Thorndike, Cotton Mather, Edwards, Kro- mayer, Baldwin, Suicer, Whitby, Watts, Doddridge, Neander, D wight.— p. 118—141. CHAPTER VIII. Ruling Elders necessary in the Church — The importance of Discipline to the purity of the Church — Discipline cannot be maintained without this class of officers, or persons of equivalent powers — The Pastor alone cannot maintain it — The whole body of the church cannot conduct it in a wise and happy manner — Prelatists and Independents both obliged to provide substitutes for them. This provision, however, inadequate. — p. 142 — 159. CHAPTER IX. Nature of the Ruling Elder's office — Analogy between their office and that of secular rulers — Their duties as members of the Church Session — Their more private and constant duties as " overseers " of the Church — Their duties as members of higher judicatories — Question discussed whether they ought to be called Lay Elders — Duties of the Church Members to their Elders — Elders ought to have a particular seat assigned them. — ^p. 160 —180. CHAPTER X. Distinction between the office of Ruling Elder and Deacon — The persons whose appointment to take care of the poor is recorded in the sixth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, were the first deacons — The question discussed, whether they were Deacons at all — Whether the first Deacons were preachers and baptisers ? — Deacons were never Ecclesiastical Rulers — The office of Deacon dropped by many Presbyterian churches — The offices of Ruling Elder and Deacon united in the same men, in Scotland and the United States — This not desirable — Reasons for this opinion. — p. 181 — 205. CHAPTER XL The qualifications proper for the office of Ruling Elder — It is not necessary that they be aged persons — It is of the utmost im- portance that they have unfeigned and approved piety — That they possess good sense and sound judgment — That they be or- thodox, and well informed in gospel truth — That they have emi- nent prudence — That they be of good report among them who are without — That they be men of public spirit — That they be men of ardent zeal and importunate prayer. — p. 206 — 220. CHAPTER XIL Of the election of Ruling Elders — Who are proper Electors ? — Ought they to be elected for life, or only for a limited time ? — Of the number of Elders proper for each Church — Of those XI who may be considered as eligible to this office — Whether a man may be a Ruling Elder in more than one Church at the same time.— p. 221—234. CHAPTER XIII. Of the ordination of Ruling Elders — Ordination a necessary designation to office — Proofs from Scripture — The laying on of hands — Not always connected with the special gifts of the Spirit — This ceremony ought to be employed in the ordination of Ruling Elders — Probable reason of its falling nto disuse — Authorities in favour of its restoration — Who ought to lay on hands in the ordination of Elders ? — Advantages of imposing hands in ordaining this class of officers. — ^p. 235 — 251. CHAPTER XIV. On the resignation of Ruling Elders — Their removal from one Church to another — The method of conducting discipline against them. — p. 252 — 258. CHAPTER V. The advantages of conducting discipline upon the Presby- terian plan — It is founded on the principle of Representation — It presents one of the best barriers against Clerical ambition and encroachments — Furnishes one of the best securities for preserving the rights of the people — Furnishes to Ministers efficient counsel and support — Favourable to dispatch and en- ergy — Accomplishes that which cannot be attained in any other way — Favourable to union and co-operation in enterprizes of Christian benevolence. — p. 259 — 277. INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. The prosperity of the kingdom of Christ is an object which the genuine Christian will ever assidu- ously labour to promote. It is the prevalence of the Christian faith alone which can effectually destroy the numberless evils which afflict society, and direct to a beneficial result the improvements and discoveries which are made in the arts and sciences. The great end for which the human race was first brought into existence, was to show forth the glory of God; and the highest perfection of which our nature is susceptible, consists in the entire devotion of our powers to the service of Heaven. The world in which we dwell may be viewed as one great temple, in which adoration and praise are to be paid to the Sovereign Ruler; and those who busy themselves with the things which are seen and temporal, to the exclusion of those which are unseen and eternal, are chargeable with the folly of preferring the decorations of the building to the pre- siding Deity whose glory it illustrates. Love to God should be the paramount feeling in every human breast, and obedience to the sacred laws of Heaven the lofty object to which all our exertions are directed. The object of the mission of Christ to this world was to restore the wretched sons of Adam to the ori- IV ginal dignity of their nature, and to place them in circumstances in which they might be enabled to fulfil the purposes of their being. In accomplishing this glorious end, the Saviour did not merely, like many of those who have aspired to be the teachers and guides of mankind, diffuse through society information re- specting the duties of life ; but he appointed that all those persons, who should be brought to concur with the designs of God in the gospel, should be formed into one body or association; and his followers are required, by the love which he cherished towards them, and which his death so strikingly displayed, to regard each other with the tenderest sentiments of affection. Christians are forbidden by the very spirit of their religion to act as if they were isolated individuals, scat- tered through society, and, like particles of sand, held together by no bond of union : it is their duty to regard each other as all one in Christ, and they should be strongly united together by the cement of Christian affection. And though certainly the Church of God does not destroy our connection with other societies, such as families and kingdoms, yet, because its objects and the interests involved in it are immeasurably more important than those of any other connection, we are required in all cases of competition to give it the pre- ference. We must regard our union with the Chris- tian church as the loftiest privilege which we possess; and we must cleave to it with unyielding tenacity, what- ever sacrifices our perseverance in the service of Christ may require at our hands. " If any man come to me,'* says the Saviour, " and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." Every earthly affection must dwindle into nothing, when compared with the love which we cherish to the Son of God. The Kingdom of Christ, then, comprehends under its sway all those persons who are renewed in the spirit of their minds, and united to the Saviour by faith. Its subjects, though hving among the men of the world, and united to them by the ties of kindred and country, are a separate people, invested with privileges to which others are strangers: they are mechanically, but not chemically combined with the rest of mankind. And their interest as a peculiar people requires that they should ever be careful to keep themselves distinct from the world ; mingling in its scenes only so far as the business of life may require, and making all their intercourse with the wicked, subservient to the design of bringing them to a knowledge of the truth. One of the means which Christ, the Head of the Church, has appointed for preserving his people from the corruptions which abound in the world, is the sys- tem of control or of government which he has esta- blished in his kingdom. Living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, even the saints them- selves are liable to be seduced into sin; and too fre- quently, besides, does it happen that persons who have never been truly converted, find their way into the communion of the church; and therefore it was indis- pensably necessary that means should be appointed for ensuring the expulsion of unworthy and irreclaimable members, and for restraining and confirming those whose conduct might be in any measure suspicious or wavering. It must, indeed, be evident to every per- son who reflects upon the subject, that government is as necessary to the prosperity of the church, as it is to the welfare of civil society. Numbers of men cannot act together, unless their proceedings be regulated by some known and acknowledged principles; and in all cases of co-operation the power must be vested some- where, of enforcing upon individuals compliance with the fundamental principles by which they are associated together. There is a prejudice, we are aware, entertained by many against the very idea of the power of the church; and it must be acknowledged that some ground has been furnished for it, by the proceedings of persons VI who have borne the Christian name. During the period when the sway of th e Papal power was undisputed , the censures of the church were stript entirely of their spiritual character, and instead of being employed to reclaim the erring and to confirm the unstable, they were prostituted to the advancement of worldly schemes. Frequently were even monarchs, when they opposed the will of the haughty Pontiff, made to tremble upon their thrones; and though they might persevere for a time in asserting their independence, they were gene- rally compelled at last, with loss both of honour and of influence, to submit to the spiritual tyranny which they had rashly dared to encounter. Excommunication was one of the most dreadful calamities which could befal either prince or subject, for it excluded its unhappy victim from the most common offices of humanity, and placed him beyond the protection of law. Nor were the rulers of the Romish church the only persons, who fell into the dangerous error, of connecting civil punish- ments with disobedience to spiritual authority: the Protestants followed the fatal example which the adhe- rents of Rome had set them, and for a long series of years their conduct was such as too clearly to show that they had deeply drunk of the cup which bigotry and intolerance had filled. The opinion indeed, it is manifest from history, universally pre- vailed at the period referred to, that penal statutes were the proper weapons by which uniformity of reli- gious belief should be secured; and as every party of course believed themselves to be in the right, and all who differed from them to be in the wrong, the first attempt of each, whenever the opportunity occurred, was to force others to confess their supposed errors, and publicly to recant them. The whole history of England teems with proofs of the justice of these ob- servations. Need we mention the long-continued and cruel persecutions carried on by the Protestant Church of England against the Puritans, which were more atrocious, if possible, than any of the Popish persecu- Vll tions, inasmuch as the difference between the Churcii of England and the Puritans, in the first instance at least, was trifling compared with the difference between both and the Church of Rome. Nor were the Puri- tans themselves free from the foul stain of persecuting for conscience' sake. Whatever opinion we may form of them from their early history, their conduct after the Great Rebellion makes it exceedingly manifest, that they had been slow to learn the lesson which the bit- ter experience of so many years might have taught them. Many were the complaints thrown out against the Government, especially by the Presbyterians, for the slowness with which they proceeded to bring the other parties to order, or, as the expression translated into modern English signifies, to compel them to re- nounce their religious opinions; and there can be no doubt, when the unsettled and excited state of the kingdom is duly considered, that, if Cromwell had not been a man of uncommon energy, and advanced far before the age in which he lived in his notions of religious liberty, there would have raged in England as fierce a persecution as any of which we read in his- tory. But though truth thus compels us to confess that the Puritans themselves were tainted with the spirit of persecution, justice at the same time requires us to state, that they have the signal honour of being the first who renounced the abominable and pernicious principle, that one man has a right to constitute him- self the judge of his neighbour's faith. When these facts are considered, it will be readily acknowleged, that the prejudice which many enter- tain against the power of the church, is exceedingly natural. In the hands of worldly and designing men that power was converted into a weapon, which proved the bane alike of the temporal and of the spiritual interestsof mankind; and it need not excite our wonder, that men should dread the recurrence of similar scenes. But widely different is the view which we entertain of the power of the church: most unscriptural as well as VIU most unreasonable, do we regard the slightest approach to the employment of civil pains and penalties for the defence or support of religion. The power which is vested in the office-bearers of the Christian church, is derived solely from the authority of Christ; and it is entirely of a spiritual nature, extending not to the persons, but simply to the consciences of men. When any member of a Christian society is walking in a dis- orderly manner, whatever may be the nature of his fault — whether a neglect of the ordinances of religion, or impurity of conduct, or a refusal to contribute of his substance for the support of the gospel — it is the duty of the office-bearers to wait upon him, and in a spirit of kindness to admonish him of his error, and to urge him to repentance and amendment of life; but should he refuse to listen to their reproof, should he despise their authority, yea, should he even proceed to the fearful extent of blaspheming the name of Christ, the utmost length to which they are warranted to go, is to declare that he can no longer be recognised as one of their body. No power on earth may legitimately add to this sentence. The excommunicated individual retains all his civil rights, enjoys his property without disturbance, and is as safe in his person as if he were sovereign of the world. No civil disabilities, or bodily inflictions, or loss of property should be connected with the sentence of excommunication: the punishment of spiritual offences is reserved by the Almighty in his own hands. We are members of civil society by the very condition of our birth; we become members of the Church by receiving Christ in faith — two condi- tions of membership which are fundamentally and ra- dically distinct; and, therefore, to make the privileges of the worldly community hinge upon the privileges of the spiritual, is to join together things which have no natural connection. But here it will be said, that though the church has confessedly no right to inflict upon any of her mem- bers a greater punishment than exclusion from her IX communion, yet the nation may, and ought to exclude from civil privileges all persons who fall under the dis- pleasure of the church. This is the old doctrine that dominion is founded in grace, a doctrine which has been the source of nearly all the persecutions that have happened in the world. The principle proposed bears a most striking resemblance to the principle upon which the church of Rome defends her conduct. That church, according to the pleading of her own friends, was never guilty ofinflicting temporal punishments upon any whom she had declared heretics. She only pronounced the scriptural sentence of excommunication, and then handed the delinquents over to the secular arm of the law ; and it was the magistrate who kindled the flames, while the hypocritical priests with seeming earnestness im- plored him, upon their bended knees, to have mercy upon the wretched sufferers. But most people will be inclined to think that there is no difference of any real importance between this representation of the case, and the view which is commonly received. If I am to be excluded from civil privileges and con- signed to the flames, it matters little to me whether it be by the direct sentence of the church, or by the state founding its proceedings upon the excommunica- tion previously pronounced by the church. Do we then deny the right of a nation to fix the qualifications of its own rulers ? By no means. The principle which we uphold is, that every nation has a right to settle the form of its own government; yea, that the legitimacy of any government depends, notupon the length of time during which it may have existed, but simply upon the fact of its being in accordance with the national will ; and the principle opposed to this is, that dominion is founded in grace, or that certain descriptions of persons have a right to rule indepen- dently of the nation's consent. The persons who have a right to sit in the legislative assembly of a nation are those who are fairly chosen by the electors, unre- stricted in their choice, and voting for whom they please. The character of Parliament must be deter- mined by the character of the nation. Any attempt to regulate by previous law, independently of the national will, what the prevailing sentiments of the supreme assembly shall be, must prove highly per- nicious : for infallibly it will either happen, that the resentment of the proscribed classes will be roused, and disorganization introduced into the framework of society ; or the required oaths and tests will degenerate, by tacit agreement, into matters of mere form, and thus will the foundations of the public morals be destroyed, while at the same time the end for which this tremendous sacrifice is made is not attained. If there are any individuals who think that certain descriptions of per- sons alone are qualified to rule, the com^se which they should adopt is, not to advocate the enactment of laws confining political privileges to men of their views, but to labour with all their might for the diffusion of what they esteem sound principles through society, that the electors may be converted to their opinions, and induced to support them. We are as deeply convinced as any persons can be, that genuine Evangelical Christians, men who have passed from death to life, will always prove the most upright rulers, but we should regard, as utterly futile and unjust, every attempt which might be made to confine to them political privi- leges by positive enactment. Such a system may be practicable under a despotic government, but where the elective franchise is enjoyed, the only course which remains, is to diffuse the principles of pureandundefiled religion throughout every corner of the land ; and then it will infallibly happen, sooner or later, that the governing power will receive a large infusion of prac- tical Christianity. The electors are the fountain of Parliament : make the fountain pure and the stream will be pure also. And as it is only by the diffusion of correct principles through the mass of society, that a right government can be established ; so it is only by the preservation of a right tone of feeling among the electors, that the continued existence of such a govern- XI ment can be secured. The favourite method to which parties, when they have risen to power, have ever been prone to resort, viz. the exclusion, by positive enact- ment, of all who differ from them, is wrong in prin- ciple, seeking fruit where the seed has not been sown ; and it must prove utterly unavailing to stem the tor- rent which a constituency, altered by the lapse of time, will pour in upon the constitution. It is in vain that one generation of men endeavours, by the use of tests and prohibitions, to make any human institution bear the impress of their own sentiments to the end of time ; for each generation retains all the rights which any preceding generation ever possessed ; and therefore, whenever it happens that any institutions have ceased to be in unison with the spirit of the age, they must of necessity give way — brought down by the rude hand of violence, where exclusive laws enacted in their favour have been obstinately adhered to, or fading imper- ceptibly away, like the snow before the increasing power of the sun, where no test has prevented the governing body from gradually adapting itself to the changes of society. Let those persons therefore, who are impressed with the importance of having the reins of government placed in the hands of genuine Christians, instead of deploring the want of exclusive laws to shut out Ca- tholics and Infidels, labour to leaven the mass of society with the knowledge of the truth. Christianity, in re- forming the institutions and manners of a country, does not begin with the government. It commences with individuals, generally in the lower ranks of life : its influence extends from one person to another : imperceptibly the number of its adherents increases ; the little leaven leaveneth at last the whole lump. Christians thus gradually acquire more extensive in- fluence, till at last their principles begin to control the measures of government. But all the while their power depends upon the hold which true religion has upon the affections of the inhabitants, and any attempt Xll to build it upon the essentially different foundation of an exclusive test, destroys the moral influence of its charac- ter, and leads to the fatal idea that the Christianity of the statute book, may be regarded as a sufficient sub- stitute for the Christianity of the country. The king- dom of Christ cometh not with observation; it is within men, and there is more or less of religion in a country — it is partly Christian and it is partly Infidel, whatever acts of Parliament may say, just according to the proportion which the genuine followers of the Redeemer bear to the rest of the inhabitants. In perfect accordance with these principles, and leading indeed directly to them, is the doctrine of ex- communication as laid down in the word of God. It imports exclusion simply from the religious privileges of the society whose fundamental laws have been des- pised, but it does not imply any deprivation of civil or political rights, any loss of property, or any bodily suffering. The individual who has been expelled from the church, as well as the individual who has never been a member of it, retains every right which might belong to him as a member of the community ; and any evil or inconvenience which he may suffer, is alto- gether of an indirect kind, not forming part of his sentence, but resulting out of the diminished confidence which his fellow-men, if Christianity be widely diffused, will naturally feel disposed to place in him. From the account which we have given of the nature of ecclesiastical authority, and of the limits beyond which it is never permitted to go, it must be apparent, that the prejudices which many have entertained against it, are altogether unfounded. The power of the church is indeed nothing more than the right which every voluntary society possesses, of excluding from its membership those persons who despise and trample upon its fundamental laws. It is the power of enforcing, not by carnal weapons, but by the sanctions of the spiritual world, by the prospect of a future judgment, by the terrors of the Lord, the laws which Christ has Xlll laid down for the regulation of the conduct of Christians. And though some persons might be dis- posed to think that the addition of a little temporal suffering, either in person, or property? or rights, could not hinder, but might rather tend to aid the effect of the sentence of the church, yet the very nature of the case stamps the seal of folly upon such an idea. The value of the sentence of excommunication depends upon the preservation of its spiritual character. If any ingredients of an earthly kind are thrown into the cup which the offender is required to drink, the con- sequence inevitably is that a wrong motive is brought to bear upon his mind ; and for the sake of avoiding the temporal suffering, he may be strongly tempted to make professions of a sorrow of w^hich there is no trace in his heart. But when the power of the church, shorn of all those base and earthly accompaniments which the wisdom of man has added to it, rises in simple majesty, and addresses the conscience of the offender, appealing to the future world, and to that God who though unseen by us yet sees us all, it is eminently calculated to produce a deep impression upon the mind; and the manner in which the final decision is received, will furnish an excellent criterion by which the spiritual state of the individual may be determined. Every person who is brought under discipline by the church, should be made to feel, and if visited with the sentence of excommunication, should be sent away with the impression upon his mind, that it is not his degradation or temporal ruin which is sought, but solely the welfare of his immortal soul. Temporal suffering, it is true, if it comes in the course of God's providence, associated with the sentence of excommunication, may produce the happiest results; but if it is inflicted by the hand of man, and forms part of the sentence pronounced by the rulers of the church, it will either lead to hypocrisy, or to increased open profanity. Such is the nature of the authority which Christ has XIV established in his church, and such are the only sanctions which men are permitted to employ for the purpose of securing attention to the institutions of religion. In Presbyterian churches the power of carrying these laws into effect, and of bringing these sanctions to bear upon the consciences of men, is vested in the sessions of particular congregations, and in the associated office-bearers of all the congregations of a district. The Presbyterian form of Church government appears to us to be founded in scripture, and to be admirably calculated to promote the prosperity of the body of Christ. The pastoral equality which it estab- lishes, the representative character of its elders, and the subordination of its courts, are excellent safe- guards against injustice and tyranny; and furnish the best means of preserving from encroachment the rights of all the parties concerned. Presbytery differs from Episcopacy in this, that while the latter recognises different orders of teachers, the inferior deriving their power from the superior, and placed under their con- trol, the former places all Christian ministers upon a level, and requires the designation to the sacred office to be made by those who have themselves been pre- viously appointed to it. The difference, again, between the Presbyterian and the Independent forms of church government isthis^ that among the Independents there is no association of neighbouring churches for the purposes of government, but each congregation is the ultimate tribunal with reference to all the disputes which originate in itself ; while among the Presbyterians all the churches of a neighbourhood are associated toge- ther, and their office-bearers or representatives are formed into a judicature, to which there lies an appeal from the decision of each particular church. But there is another feature peculiar to Presbytery, which distinguishes it, both from Episcopacy on the one hand, and from Independency on the other, and which is indeed the most remarkable characteristic of that XV form of government, we refer to the office of the ruhng elder. Among the Episcopalians, the ordinary mem- bers of the church have no share in its government : the bishop is the fountain of all power in his own diocese, and the inferior clergy derive their authority from him. Among the Independents, on the other hand, the government of the church is vested in the members themselves; and there is no distinction between the rulers and the ruled: they are identically the same body. But the Presbyterians take a middle and wiser course. They avoid the dangerous extreme of investing any one man with uncontrolled authority, and they avoid the no less hazardous measure of elevating all to the rank of rulers. They place the government of the church not in the pastor alone, nor y€t in the members indiscriminately, but in persons chosen by the members, and acting as their represen- tatives. Episcopacy is a system of despotic tyranny : Independency is a pure democracy, while Presbytery is that happy medium, which places the management of affairs, in whidi all have an interest, in the hands of representatives, in whose election all have a voice. Presbytery, in a word, is founded upon that very principle, viz. the principle of representation, which is now universally regarded as the corner-stone of free- dom, and which experience has showTi to be the only principle which can enable bodies of men to act, at once with promptitude and in accordance with the mind of the majority. But whatever might be the advantages of the Pres- byterian form of church government, and however great the analogy between it and the principles which experience has shown to be the best in conducting the civil affairs of a nation, we at once acknowledge that, unless it could be shown from scripture that a foundation existed for it there, all such considerations would be insufficient to prove its propriety, or its law- fulness in the Church of Christ. The constitution and laws of the Redeemer's kingdom are laid down in XVI the sacred writings, and nothing is binding upon Christians which cannot be deduced from the precepts of the gospel. In all controversies, the appeal must be made to the law and to the testimony : the grand inquiry must ever be. What saith the Scripture ? The distinguishing features, then, of the Presbyterian form of church government, are the equality of its teachers, and the existence of a separate class, styled ruling elders, w^hose office it is to manage the spiritual affairs of the church. In maintaining the equality of Christian teachers, it is with the Episcopalians alone that we have any controversy ; for the Independents allow, as well as the Presbyterians, that there is only one permanent order of religious teachers authorized by the sacred Scriptures ; but the Episcopalians have several orders, viz. archbishops, bishops, arch-deacons, deans, rectors, &c. It is proper however to remark, that the Episcopalians themselves do not maintain that all their different orders are to be found in the Bible ; there are only two which they pretend to find there, viz. bishops and presbyters, though they imagine, that when once the princple of subordination is established, there is no harm in carrying it out to a further extent, and creating as many different orders as the circum- stances of the case may seem to require. Is it true then that there were two classes of Christian teachers appointed by Christ to exist permanently in the church, the one subordinate to the other? We believe the very reverse to be the case. A small degree of ex- amination will make it apparent that the bishop of the word of God is the pastor of a single congregation, and not, like the bishop of the Church of England, the superintendent of all the teachers residing in a large district of country. The main argument which the Episcopalians employ in defence of their views, is founded upon the fact that the ministers appointed b}^ the apostles, are styled in scripture, sometimes bish- ops, and sometimes presbyters; whence they hastily xvu infer that, since these names are different, they were intended to designate two different classes, or orders of teachers. But every person who has read the sacred writings with care, must be sensible that the names in question are applied in numerous passages to the very same individuals, and are frequently interchanged without any restriction ; whence it plainly follows that they were intended to designate not two different classes, but one and the same class of religious in- structors. It is sufficient to refer to the portions of scripture which contain the evidence of these state- ments. The following may be consulted : Acts xx. 17—28. Titus i. 5—7. 1 Peter v. 1, 2. Phil. i. I. 1 Tim. iii. 1 : in which passages the attentive reader will find, in the first place, that the very same individuals who are styled presbyters or elders, are likewise styled bishops or overseers, or persons taking the oversight of the church, which latter phrases are all translations of the same original terra ; and secondly, that when exhortations are given to persons holdiij^' office in the church, bishops and deacons alone are mentioned, making it clear beyond reach of doubt, that the teaching elders, or the pastors of single con- gregations, are either addressed as bishops, or have not been supposed by the apostles to stand in need of any charge at all. The second characteristic of Presbytery, which distinguishes it equally from Episcopacy, and from Independency, is its recognition of a class styled ruling elders, whose office it is, not to preach the word publicly, but to aid the preaching elder in conducting the spiritual affairs of the church. There was a time when this class of office-bearers was very extensively acknowledged to be scriptural, both by the Episcopa- lians and by the Independents, but it is now confined to the Presbyterians; and experience has amply shown that it is of immense importance to the welfare of the Christian community. But it is unnecessary that we should enter into any discussion respecting the office XVill of the ruling elder ; for this is the very subject to the consideration of which the following treatise is devoted. Overlooking the first branch of the general question, of which we have taken a hasty view, the author con- fines his attention entirely to the second branch, viz. the office of the ruling elder: and the scriptural war- rant for this office, and its vast utility he establishes, in our estimation, with a variety and force of evidence which it is impossible to resist. The whole treatise, indeed, is excellent, and it cannot fail to be of essential service to the Christian world. The men especially who have been ordained to the office of the eldership should be familiar with its contents: the perusal of its pages would greatly elevate their views of the sacred office to which they have been called, and lead to increased conscientiousness in the discharge of its duties. Such is the system or framework of government, which Christ has appointed, as the means of dispensing and applying that power of the church, v/hose pur- poses we have described, and whose nature and limits we have endeavoured to define. The elders, both teaching and ruling associated together, are the persons whom the Redeemer has invested with the power of carrying into effect the laws of his kingdom. On them is devolved the task of preserving the purity of the church : to them are given the opportunity and the means of exerting a salutary control over all professing Christians ; their duty it is to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the backsliding, to confirm the unstable, and to console the afflicted ; and according to their decision are persons both to be received into membership with the church, and expelled from her communion. The highest sentence which the Scrip- ture warrants, together with all the inferior steps of discipline, the Head of the Church has placed in their hands, as the means of counteracting and expelling any leaven of wickedness whose presence may be observed, XIX and whose unchecked growth might endanger the wel- fare of the whole body. These are duties, the bare enumeration of which is sufficient to demonstrate, the vast importance of the office of the eldership, and the high responsibility which devolves upon those who undertake to act as the spiritual overseers of the church. On their fidelity, under God, depends the purity of the body of Christ: on the right discharge of their duties is suspended the fate of thousands. If they are negligent of the spiritual functions which devolve upon them, and careless of their own private conduct, they may be the means of introducing a total degeneracy of manners into the church, both by the admission of improper members, and by the malign influence of their own example : and thus the very name of Jesus may be brought into discredit, and the prevalence of the principles of in- fidelity be greatly accelerated. There can be no question that the improper conduct of professing Christians is the means of inflicting a deeper wound upon Christianity, than all the malice and opposition of the most powerful avowed enemies ; and that wound, it is as little to be doubted, will be much more deadly and severe, if the very hands which should be prompt to apply to it the healing balsam, lend their assistance to urge forward the weapon which inflicts it. How can the office-bearers of the church expect that, if they, who should be patterns to others, live in carelessness and folly, the ordinary professors of Christianity will be distinguished for piety, and a diligent and faithful discharge of their religious duties ? Is it not a fact that all who make a profession of religion, are strictly watched by the world ? Is it not a fact that those persons who take office in the church are made the objects of a scrutiny peculiarly close and searching ? Are not all their actions observed? Is not their example appealed to in every house ? Is not their misconduct employed by the dissolute to encourage each other in their evil courses ? Yes, their sins are XX seeds peculiarly quick to grow, which, falling upon a soil entirely congenial to their nature, produce a most abundant harvest. While they themselves are quietly reposing upon their pillows at home, their example sleeps not with them. Their inconsistencies may be filling the bowl of madness, around which the mid- night revellers sit ; or they may be employed to give point to the argument with which the unbeliever assails Christianity. It is generally allowed that the low state to which religion was reduced in France, by the negli- gence and errors of the Popish establishment, was the main cause of that extensive and fatal triumph which infidelity enjoyed for so long a period in that kingdom ; and every corruption of Christianity, and every incon- sistency of its adherents, tends in a greater or less degree to produce the very same results. But, on the other hand, let the office-bearers of the church be sedulous and faithful in the discharge of their important duties, admitting members with caution, and counselling with unremitting watchfulness and affection those who are already in communion; and how salutary and enduring may the results of their labours be ! A high tone of moral feeling will be produced and sustained in the church: a holy emulation will be excited in the bosoms of the faithful : the self-denial and devotion of the office-bearers will transfuse themselves into the breasts of the members : heavenly sympathy will bind together the hearts of all ; and when at any time the rulers of the church may be driven to the dire necessity of exerting the full stretch of their authority, their hands will be strengthened by the countenance and approbation of those who are under their care : and even in cases of difficulty and doubt, where there may be room for misconstruction, the experience which the members have had of their former prudence and zeal, will inspire them with con- fidence in the wisdom and integrity of their present pro- ceedings. The elders indeed of a Presbyterian church, occupy a peculiarly favourable position for exerting a XXi salutary influence over the minds of their fellow- Christians, and form an admirable instrument for preserving the purity of the church, and administering its law^s. Chosen by the communicants on account of their superior worth and attainments, they enjoy the confidence of those over whom they preside, and are regarded by them with that powerful sympathy which voluntary choice, unless the objects of it are guilty of egregious misconduct, never fails to inspire. Is it not then apparent that elders are men in whose hands there is placed a moral instrument of powerful efficiency, and should they not therefore make it their daily endeavour to wield that instrument in such a manner, that it may be productive of good to the Church of Christ ? Should they not labour to cultivate personal religion, and to exhibit a walk and conversa- tion becoming the gospel, that others seeing their good works, may be stimulated to the cultivation of similar graces ? In vain will they reprove the backsliding, if their own piety be of a questionable kind. Should they not study to acquire an accurate and extensive knowledge of the sacred writings, that they may be able to instruct the ignorant, and to resolve the doubts of those who are involved in perplexity ? Should they not take a deep interest in the diffusion of Christian knowledge, and the enlargement of the Redeemer's kingdom, giving their countenance to every plan of usefulness, both that they themselves may be the honoured instruments of increasing the glory of the Redeemer's name, and that the energies of those who are committed to their care may be directed aright, and prevented from sinking into a state of listless inactivity? Should they not strive to act with prudence, and cir- cumspection in all the affairs which come under their consideration, ever looking with a single eye to the glory of their Master's name, that they may acquire a larger share of the confidence of the Christian people, and be enabled to exert over them the greater moral influence ? Should they not labour to avoid even the XXll appearance of evil, living in all godliness and honesty, lest any actions of theirs, however innocent in them- selves, should, in consequence of unfavourable circum- stances, be converted by the wicked, who are ever prone to judge harshly of the conduct of professing Christians, into weapons of attack against the pure and holy reli- gion of Christ ? Should they not, in a word, regard themselves as the guides of the people of God, stationed over them for the purpose of exciting them, both by precept and example, to the diligent and faithful dis- charge of their duties, and responsible therefore in a certain degree for their improvement, as well as for their own ? To them indeed, as well as to the preach- ing elders, may be applied most justly that striking passage in the book of Ezekiel iii. 17 : " Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel ; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die ; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul." Such are the duties which the very nature of the case demonstrates to be binding upon those who have assumed the office of the eldership ; and such are the fatal, and such the salutary results which the careless or the diligent discharge of these duties is calculated to produce. What ground then for serious reflection, and what motives to unsparing self-examination do these considerations suggest ! How fervent should be the prayers which the elder of the church presents to God, for strength to enable him to walk uprightly, and for grace to guard him from every course which might prove a stumbling-block to others ! Should not the duty which he owes to Christ, and to the members of the church be ever present to his mind ? The man XXill who knows that he is wielding a weapon which may prove fatal to the lives of others, should certainly give especial heed to his movements : and the servant of Jesus who knows that the gospel is a double-edged sword, with the one edge powerful to heal, but where its healing virtue is depised, powerful with the other to destroy, should use his utmost efforts to bring its salutary edge into contact with the consciences of men. It it an awful responsibility which rests upon the heads of those who undertake the spiritual oversight of the Church of Christ. Stewards of the mysteries of God, they are engaged in a task of the most momentous kind ; and their labours are productive of consequences which extend through the duration of eternity. Their employments have reference not to the fleeting interests of this world, but to the immortal destinies of the soul ; and when they neglect or abuse their spiritual func- tions, they are pursuing a course which may involve thousands in a ruin beyond the reach of remedy. Theirs is not the negligence of the men who bring misery upon themselves alone. Theirs is the negli- gence of the guide, whose dying groans are mingled with the groans of the victims whom he has led astray. Like the general whose unskilfulness or folly has con- signed his men to the sword of the foe, their blood they commingle with the blood of others; and the sting of their own death must carry the concentrated venom of a thousand dissolutions. W. L. 14ih November, 1334. AN ESSAY, &c. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. Our once crucified, but now exalted Redeemer, has erected in this world a kingdom which is his church. This church is either visible or invisible. By the invisible church, we mean the whole body of sincere believers, of every age and nation, " that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ, the glorious Head thereof." Part of these are already made perfect in heaven. Another portion are at present scattered over the earth in different denominations of professing Christians, though not certainly distinguishable from others by the human eye. And the remainder are in future to be gathered in by the grace of God ; — when the whole number of the " redeemed from among men," will be united in one holy assembly, which is the " spouse," the " body of Christ, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." By the visible church is meant the body of those who profess the true religion, together with their children. It is that body which is called out of the world, and united under the authority of Christ, the Head, for the purpose of maintaining Gospel Truth and Order, and promoting the knowledge, purity, comfort, and edification of all the members. When A we use the term churchy as expressive of a visible^ professing body, we either mean the whole visible church of God throughout the world, or a particular congregation of professing Christians, who have agreed to unite together for the purpose of mutual instruction, inspection, and edification.* The word church is also employed in Scripture to designate a church judicatory; that is, the church assembled and acting by her representatives, the elders, chosen to inspect, and bear rule over the whole body. This, it is believed, will be evident to those who impartially consult Matthew xviii. 15 — 18; and compare the language of the original here, with that of the original, and the Greek translation of the Seventy, of Deuteronomy xxxi. 28 — 30. The visible church is a spiritual body. That is, it is not secular or worldly, either in its nature or objects. The kingdom of Christ " is not of this world." Its Head, laws, ordinances, discipline, penalties, and end, are all spiritual. There can be no departure from this principle ; in other words, there can be no con- nection between the Church and the State; no en- forcement of ecclesiastical laws by the power of the * It has been asserted by some, that the term Church not only means, strictly, a religious assembly — a body of professing people ; but that it cannot be applied, with propriety, to any thing else ; and that it is altogether improper to apply it, as is often done, to the building in which the assembly is wont to convene for worship. This is, undoubtedly, a groundless scruple. Under the Old Testament economy, it is plain that the word synagogue was indiscriminately applied both to the public assembly, and to the edifice in which they worshipped. Besides, the word Church is evidently derived from the Greek words, y,v^iou oiKo;, " the house of the Lord;" and therefore, may be con- sidered as pointing quite as distinctly to the edifice as to the worshippers. Nay, it is highly probable that the word in its original use, had a primary reference to the house rather than to the assembly. And even if it were not so, still the under- standing and use of the word in this double sense, if once agreed upon, cannot be considered as liable, so far as is perceived, to any particular objection or abuse. 8 secular arm, or by " carnal weapons," without depart- ing from " the simplicity that is in Christ," and invading both the purity and safety of his sacred body. This great visible chiu-ch is one, in all ages, and throughout the world. From its first formation in the family of Adam, through all the changes of the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian dispensations, it has been one and the same : having the same divine Head, the same ground of hope, the same essential characters, and the same great design. Diversity of denomination does not destroy this unity. All who profess the true religion, together with their offspring, however divided by place, by names, or by forms, are to be considered as equally belonging to that great family denominated the church. The Presbyterian, the Episcopalian, the Methodist, the Baptist, and the Independent, w^ho hold the fundamentals of our holy- religion, in whatever part of the globe they may reside, are all equally members of the same visible community; and, if they be sincere, will all finally be made partakers of its eternal blessings. They cannot, indeed, all worship together in the same solemn assembly, even if they were disposed to do so : — and the sin and folly o men have separated into different bodies those who ought to " walk together." Still the visible church is one. All who " hold the Head," of course, belong to the body of Christ. " We, being many," says the inspired apostle, " are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Those who are united by a sound profession to the same Almighty Head ; who embrace the same " precious faith ; " who are sanctified by the same Spii'it; who eat the same spiritual meat, who drink the same spiritual drink; who repose and rejoice in the same promises ; and who are travelling to the same eternal rest, are surely one BODY, — in a sense more richly significant than can be ascribed to millions who sustain a mere nominal unity. This unity is very distinctly recognized, and very happily expressed by Cyprian, a distinguished Chris- 4 tian father of the third century. " The church," says he, " is one, which, by its fruitful increase, is enlarged into a multitude. As the rays of the sun, though many, are yet one luminary; as the branches of a tree, though numerous, are all established on one firmly rooted trunk ; and as many streams springing from the same fountain, though apparently dispersed abroad by their overflowing abundance, yet have then- unity preserved by one common origin; — so the church, though it extends its rays throughout the world, is one light. Though every where diffused, its unity is not broken. By the abundance of its increase, it extends its branches through the whole earth. It spreads far and wide its flowing streams; yet it has one Head, one Fountain, one Parent, and is enriched and enlarged by the issues of its own fruitfulness."* It is ever also to be borne in mind that the church is not a mere voluntaiy association, with which men are at liberty to connect themselves or not, as they please. For, although the service which God requires of us is throughout a voluntary one : although no one can properly come into the church but as a matter of voluntary choice : although the idea of either secular or ecclesiastical compulsion is, here, at once un- reasonable and contrary to Scripture : yet as the church is Christ's institution, and not men's ; and as the same divine authority which requires us to repent of sin, and believe in Christ, also requires us to " confess him before men," and to join ourselves to his professing people : it is evident that no one is at liberty, in the sight of God, to neglect uniting himself with the church. Man cannot, and ought not, to compel him; but if he refuse to fulfil this dut}', when it is in his power, he rejects the author! t}^ of God. He, of course, refuses at his peril. Of this body, Christ alone, as before intimated, is the Head, He only has a right to give laws to his " * De Unitate Ecclesice, Sect. iv. church, or to institute rites and ordinances for her observance. His will is the supreme guide of his pro- fessing people ; his word their code of laws ; and his glory their ultimate end. The authority of church officers is not original, but subordinate and delegated : that is, as they are his servants, and act under his commission, and in his name, they have power only to declare what the Scriptures reveal as his will, and to pronounce sentence accordingly. If they attempt to establish any other terms of communion than those which his word warrants; or to undertake to exer- cise authority in a manner which he has not authorised, they incur guilt, and have no right to exact obedience. In this sacred community, government is absolutely necessary. Even in the perfect holy and harmonious society of heaven, there is government ; that is, there is law and authority, under which the whole celestial family is united in perfect love, and unmingled enjoy- ment. Much more important and indispensable is government among fallen depraved men, among whom *' it is impossible but that offences will come," and to whom the discipline of scriptural and pure ecclesiastical rule, is one of the most precious means of grace. To think of maintaining any society, ecclesiastical or civil, without government, in this depraved world, would be to contradict every principle of reason and experience, as well as of Scripture: and to think of supporting government without officers, to whom its functions may be intrusted, would be to embrace the absurd hope of obtaining an end without the requisite means. The question. Whether any particular form of church government is so laid down in Scripture, as that the claim of divine right may be advanced on its behalf, and that, of consequence, the church is bound, in all ages, to adopt and act upon it; — will not now be formally discussed. It has been made the subject of too much extended and ardent controversy, to be brought within the compass of a few sentences, or even a few pages. It may not be improper, however, briefly a2 6 to say, that it would, indeed, have been singular, if a community, called out of the world, and organized under the peculiar authority of the all-wise Redeemer, had been left entirely without any direction as to its government: — That the Scriptures, undoubtedly, exhibit to us a form of ecclesiastical organization and rule, which was, in fact, instituted by the apostles, under the direction of infinite wisdom : — That this form was evidently taken, with veiy little alteration, from the preceding economy, thus giving additional presumption in its favour: — That we find the same plan closely copied by the churches for a considerable time after the apostolic age : — That it continued to be in substance the chosen and universal form of govern- ment in the church, until corruption, both in doctrine and practice, had, through the ambition and de- generacy of ecclesiastics, gained a melancholy preva- lence: — And, that the same form was also substantially maintained by the most faithful witnesses for the truth, during the dark ages, — until the great body of the Reformers took it from their hands, and established it in their respective ecclesiastical connections. These premises would appear abundantly to warrant the conclusion, that the form of Government which answers this description, is the wisest and best ; that it is adapted to all ages and states of society ; and that it is agreeable to the will of Christ that it be universally received in his church. All this the writer of the following Essay fully believes may be established in favour of Presbyterianism. There seems no reason, however, to believe, with some zealous votaries of the hierarchy, that any particular form of goverment is in so rigorous a sense of divine right, as to be essential to the existence of the church ; so that where this form is wanting, there can be no church. To adopt this opinion, is to take a very narrow and unscriptural view of the covenant of grace. After yielding to the visible church and its ordinances, all the importance which the word of God warrants, still it cannot be doubted, that on the one hand, men in regular external membership with the purest church on earth, may be hypocrites, and perish; and on the other, that all who cordially repent of sin, and receive the Saviour in spirit and in truth, will assuredly obtain eternal life, although they never enjoyed the privilege of a connection with any portion of the visible church on earth. The tenor of the Gospel covenant is, " He that believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life; but he that believeth not the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." Still it is plain, from the word of God, as well as from uniform experience, that the government of the church is a matter of great importance ; that the form as well as the administration of that government is more vitally connected with the peace, purity and edification of the church, than many Christians appear to believe ; and, of consequence, that it is no small part of fidelity to our Master in heaven to "hold fast" the form of ecclesiastical order, as well as the " form of sound words " which He has delivered to the saints. The existence of ecclesiastical Rulers, presupposes the existence and exercise of ecclesiastical power. A few remarks on the nature, source and limits of this power, may not be irrelevant as a part of this preliminary discussion. When we speak of ecclesiastical power, then, we speak of that which, much as it is misunderstood, and deplorably as it has been perverted and abused, is plainly warranted, both by reason and Scripture. In fact, it is a prerogative which common sense assigns and secures to all organized society, from a family to a nation. The doctrine attempted to be maintained by the celebrated Erastus, in bis work, " De Excommunicatione," viz : that the exercise of all church power, however-modified, is to be rejected, as forming an imperium in imperio, is one of the most weak and untenable of all positions. The same argument would preclude all authority or 8 government subordinate to that of the State, whether domestic, academical, or financial. The truth is, there not only may 6e, but there actually are thousands of imperia in imperio^ in every civil community in the world; and all this without the least danger or inconvenience, as long as the smaller or subordinate governments maintain their proper place, and do not claim, or attempt to exercise, powers, which come in collision with those of the State. Now the power exercised by the church is of this character. Christ is the Sovereign. His kingdom is spiritual. It interferes not with civil government. It may exist and flourish under any form of political administration ; and always fares best when entirely left to itself, without the interference of the civil magistrate. Accordingly, it is notorious, that the power of which we speak, was exercised by the church in the days of the Apostles, and during the first three centuries of the Christian era, not only without any aid from the secular arm, but while all the civil governments of the world were firmly leagued against her, and following her wdth the bitterest persecution. But the moment the church became allied with the State, that moment the influence of each on the other became manifestly mischievous. The State enriched, pampered, and corrupted the church ; and the church, in her turn, gradually extended her power over the State, until she claimed, and in some instances gained, a haughty supremacy over all rulers and governments. This is an ecclesiastical power which the Bible no where recognizes or allows. It is the essence of spiritual usurpation : and can never have a place but where the essential character of the religion of Jesus Christ is misapprehended or forgotten. This abominable tyranny, so long and so wickedly maintained in the name of the meek and lowly Saviour, who, instead of countenancing, always condemned it ; — has prejudiced the minds of many against ecclesiastical power in any form. On account of this prej udice it is j udged proper to state, with some degree of distinctness, what we mean when we speak of the church of Christ as being invested with power for the benefit of her members, and for the glory of her almighty Head. It is evident that even if the church were a mere voluntary association, which neither possessed nor claimed any divine warrant, it would have the same powers which are universally conceded to all other voluntary associations ; that is, the power of forming its own rules, of judging of the qualifications of its own members, and of admitting or excluding, as the essential principles and interests of the body might require; and all this as long as neither the rules themselves, nor the execution of them, infringed the laws of the State, or violated any public or private rights. When a literary, philosophical, or agricultural society claims and exercises powers of this kind, all reflecting people consider it as both reasonable and safe ; and would no more think of denying the right to do so, than they would think of denying that the father of a family had a right to govern his own liousehold, as long as he neither transgressed any law of the State, nor invaded the peace of his neighbours. But the Christian church is by no means to be con- sidered as a mere voluntary association. It is a body called out of the world, created by divine institution, and created, as its members believe, for the express purpose of bearing testimony for Christ, in the midst of a revolted and rebellious world, and maintaining in their purity the truth and ordinances which He has appointed. The members of this body, therefore, by the act of uniting themselves with it, profess to believe certain doctrines, to be under obligation to perform certain duties, and to be bound to possess a certain character. Of course, the very purpose for which, and the very terms on which the Master has formed this body, and bound its members together, necessarily imply, not only the right, but the duty, of refusing to admit those who are manifestly hostile to the essential 10 principles of its institution, and of casting out those who, after their admission, as manifestly depart from those principles. To suppose less than this, would be to suppose that a God of infinite wisdom has withheld from a body, formed for a certain purpose, that which is absolutely necessary for its defence against intrusion, insult, and perversion; in other words, for its own preservation. Hence the Apostle Paul, after the New Testament church was erected, speaks (1 Cor. xii. 28.) of " go- vernments," as well as " teachers" being "set in it" by the authority of God. He expressly claims, (2 Cor. x. 8, ) an "authority" which God had given to his servants as rulers in the Church, " for edification, and not for destruction." And he exemplifies this authority by representing it as properly exercised in casting out of the church any one who was immoral or profane; (1 Cor. v.). Hence the officers of the church are spoken of as "guides" [nyovfAevoi), "overseers" or "bishops" (iTriiTKOTroi), and " rulers" {7r^oim want of suitable qualifications, were not fitted to be public 39 preachers, and seldom or never attempted this part of the service. * But there are distinct passages of Scripture, which have been deemed, by some of the most impartial and competent interpreters, very plainly to point out the class of elders now under consideration. In Romans xii. 6, 7, 8, the apostle exhorts as fol- lows: — " Having then gifts, differing according to the grace given to us ; whether prophecy, let us prophecy according to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching ; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation ; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity ; he that ruleth, with diligence ; he that showeth mercy, with cheerful- ness." With this passage may be connected another, of similar character, and to be interpreted on the same principles. In 1 Corinthians xii. 28, we are told, — " God hath sent some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues." In both these passages there is a reference to the different offices and gifts bestowed on the church by her divine King and Head : in both of them there is a plain designation of an office for ruling or government, distinct from that of teaching ; and in both, also, this office evidently has a place assigned to it below that of pastors and teachers. Now, this office, by whatever name it may be called, or whatever doubts may be started as to some minor questions respecting its powers and investiture, is sub- stantially the same with that which Presbyterians distinguish by the title of ruling elder. Some, indeed, have said that the apostle in 1 Cor- inthians xii. 28, is not speaking of distinct offices, but of different duties, devolving on the church as a body. But no one, it is believed, who impartially considers the whole passage, can adopt this opinion. In the * Vitringa De Synagoga Vetere. Lib. ii. chap. ii. 40 whole of the context, from the 12th verse, the apostle is speaking of the church of God under the emblem of a body, and affirms that, in this body, there is a variety of members adapted to the comfort and con- venience of the whole body. '' For the body," says he, " is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say. Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it, therefore, not of the body? And if the ear shall say. Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it, therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling ? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?" Plainly implying that in every ecclesiastical, as well as in every natural body, there are different functions and offices: that all cannot be teachers ; that all cannot be gover- nors, or governments, but that to each and every functionary is assigned his proper work and duty. Nor is this interpretation of the apostle confined to Presbyterians. Peter Martyr, the learned Italian reformer, interprets the passage before us just as we have done. In his Commentary on 1 Corinthians xii. 28, he speaks thus : " Governments, — Those who are honoured with this function, are such as were fitted for the work of government, and who know how to conduct every thing relating to discipline righteously and prudently. For the church of Christ had its government. And because a single pastor was not able to accomplish every thing himself, there were joined with him, in the ancient church, certain elders, chosen from among the people, well-informed, and skilled in spiritual things, who formed a kind of parochial senate. These, with the pastor, deliberated on every matter relating to the care and edification of the church. Which thing Ambrose makes mention of in writing on the epistle to Timothy. Among these elders the pastor took the lead, not as a tyrant. 41 but rather as a consul presiding in a council of senators." Many Episcopalians and others find in the passage the same sense. The Reverend Herbert Thorndike, before quoted, a learned divine of the church of Eng- land, who lived in the reign of Charles I., speaks thus of the passage last cited. " There is no reason to doubt, that the men whom the apostle, 1 Cor. xii. 28, and Ephes. iv. 11, called doctors, or teachers, are those of the presbyters, who had the abilities of preach- ing and teaching the people at their assemblies. That those of the presbyters who preached not, are called here by the apostle, governments; and the deacons, scvTikyl^Pil;, that is, hclps, or assistants to the govern- ment of presbyters; so that it is not to be translated helps in governments, but helps, governments, &c. There were two parts of the presbyter's office, viz. teaching and governing, the one whereof some attained not, even in the apostW times." * But there is still more pointed reference to this class of elders in 1 Timothy v. 17, " Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine." It would seem that every person of plain common sense, who had never heard of any diversity of opinion on the subject, would, without hesitation, conclude, on reading this passage, that, at the period in which it was written, there were two kinds of elders, one whose duty it was to labour in the word and doctrine, and another who did not thus labour, but only ruled in the church. The apostle declares that elders who rule well are worthy of double honour, but especially those who labour in the word and doctrine. Now, if we suppose that there was only one class of elders then in the church, and that they were all teachers, or labourers in the word and doctrine, we make the in- spired apostle speak in a manner utterly unworthy of his high character. There was, therefore, a class of * Discourse of Religious Assemblies. Chap. iv. p. i 17. d2 4€ elders in the apostolic church, who did not, in fact, or at any rate ordinarily preach, or administer sacra- ments, but assisted in government; in other words, ruling elders. For this construction of the passage. Dr. Whitaker^ a zealous and learned Episcopal divine, and Regius Professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge, of whom Bishop Hall remarks, that " no man ever saw him without reverence, or heard him without wonder," very warmly contends, — " By these words," says he, " the apostle evidently distinguishes between the bishops and the inspectors of the church. If all who rule well be Worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine, it is plain that there were some who did not so labour ; for if all had been of this description, the meaning would have been absurd; but the word especially points out a difference. If I should say that all who study well at the University are worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the study of theology, I must either mean, that all do not apply themselves to the study of theology, or I should speak nonsense. Wherefore I confess that to be the most genuine sense by which pastors and teachers are distinguished from those who only governed : Romans xii. 8. Of this class of elders Ambrose speaks in his Commentary on 1 Tim. v. 1."* The learned and venerable Dr. Owen, gives his opinion of the import of this passage, in still more pointed language. " This is a text," says he, " of in- controllable evidence, if it had any thing to conflict withal but prejudice and interest. A rational man, who is unprejudiced, who never heard of the contro- versy about ruling elders, can hardly avoid an appre- hension that there are two sorts of elders, some who labour in the word and doctrine, and some who do not so do. The truth is, it was interest and prejudice * Praelectiones, as quoted in Calder wood's Altare Damas- cenuni, p. 681. 43 which first caused some learned men to strain their wits to find out evasions from the evidence of this testimony. Being found out, some others of meaner abihties have been entangled by them. There are elders, then, in the church. There are, or ought to be so in every church. With these elders the whole rule of the church is intrusted. All these, and only they, do rule in it." * Equally to our purpose is the judgment of that acute and learned Episcopal divine. Dr. Whitby, in his Commentary on this passage : — " The elders of the Jews," says he, " were of two sorts; 1st, such as governed in the synogogue, and 2dly, such as mini- stered in reading and expounding their scriptures and traditions, and from them, pronouncing what did bind or loose, or what was forbidden, and what was lawful to be done. For when, partly by their captivity, and partly through increase of traffic, they were dispersed in considerable bodies through divers regions of the world, it was necessary that they should have gover- nors or magistrates to keep them in their duty, and judge of criminal causes; and also rabbins, to teach them the law, and the tradition of their fathers. The first were ordained ad judicandum, sed non ad docen- dum de Ileitis et vetitis, i. e. to judge and govern, but not to teach. The second, ad docendum, sed non ad judieandum, i. e. to teach, but not to judge or govern." "And these the apostle here declares to be the most honourable, and worthy of the chiefest reward. Ac- cordingly, the apostle, reckoning up the officers God had appointed in the church, places teachers before governments;" I Cor. xii. 28. I am aware that a number of glosses have been adopted to set aside the testimony of this cogent text in favour of ruling elders. To enumerate and show the invalidity of them all, would be inconsistent with * True Nature of a Gospel Church. Chapter vii. pp. 141, 142, 143. 44 the limits to which this manual is restricted. But a few of the most plausible and popular may be deemed worthy of notice. Some, for example, have said, that by the elders that rule well in this passage, civil magistrates are intended; while, by those who labour in the word and doctrine, ministers of the gospel are pointed out. But it will occur to every reflecting reader, that at the time when the passage of Scripture under considera- tion was addressed to Timothy, and for several centuries afterwards, there were no Christian magis- strates in the Church ; and to suppose that the church is exhorted to choose heathen judges or magistrates, to compose differences, and maintain order among the followers of Christ, is in the highest degree im- probable, not to say altogether absurd. Others have alleged that by the elders that rule well are meant deacons. It is enough to reply to this suggestion, that it has never been shown, or can be shown, that deacons are any where in the New Testament distinguished by the title of elders; and, further, that the function of ruling is no where repre- sented as belonging to their office. They were ap- pointed ^tKTiovuv r^aTTilctt? " to scrve tables ; " Acts vi. 2, 3 ; but not to act as rulers in the house of God. Of this, however, more in a subsequent chapter. A third class of objectors contend, that the word ^ax/jra, which our trauslators have rendered "especially," ought to be translated " much. " That it is not to be considered as distinguishing one class of elders from another, but as marking intensity of degree : in other words, that it is meant to be exegetical of those who rule well ; viz. those who labour much^ or with peculiar diligence, in the word and doctrine. On this plan, the verse in question would read thus : — Let the elders who rule well, that is, who labour much in the word and doctrine, be accounted worthy of double honour. If this were adopted as the meaning of the passage, it would go to show, that it is for preaching alone. 45 and not for ruling well, that elders are entitled to honour. But is it rational or consistent with other parts of Scripture, to suppose that no honour is due to the latter? It has also been contended, by excellent Greek critics, that the structure of the sentence will not, naturally, bear this interpretation. It is not said, 01 f^akisra, x.o'Ttiuvri', as would havc been the proper order of the words, if such had been the meaning intended to be conveyed; but ^aXijra J; ;ta5r/&.i,'T«) they of Caesar's household." Thus also, (2 Tim. iv. 13,) " When thou comest, bring with thee the books, but especially {f-a-y-nTu.^ the parchments," Further, (1 Tim. iv. 10,) " Who is the Saviour of all men, es- pecially (,aax/;ra) of thosc who belicve." Again, (Titus i. 10,) " For there are many unruly and vain talkers, especially (^«x/jr«) they of the circumcision." Now, in all these cases, there are two classes of objects intended to be distinguished from each other. Some of the saints were of Caesar's household, and others were not. Good was to be done to all men ; but all were not believers. There were many vain and unruly 46 talkers alluded to, but they were not all of the cir- cumcision ; and so of the rest. A fourth class of objectors to our construction of this passage, are certain prelatists, who allege, that by the elders that rule well, the apostle intends to designate superannuated bishops, who, though too old to labour in the word and doctrine, were still able to assist in ruling. To this it is sufficient to reply, that, whether we understand the " honour " (Tif^yis) to which the apostle refers, as intended to designate pecuniary support, or rank and dignity, it would seem contrary to every principle, both of reason and Scripture, that younger and more vigorous labourers in the word and doctrine, should have a portion of this honour awarded to them, superior to that which is yielded to those who have become worn out in the same kind of service. These aged, venerable, and exhausted dignitaries, according to this construction, are to be, indeed, much honoured, but less than their junior brethren, whose sti'ength for labour still continues. A further objection made to our construction of this passage is, that when the apostle speaks of double honour {^i-^^-^s nf^m) as due to those who rule well, he refers, not to respect and regard, but to temporal support.* Now, say this class of objectors, as Presby- terians never give salaries to their ruling elders, they * It is worthy of notice, that Calvin, in his Commentary on this place, gives the following- view of the apostle's meaning, when he speaks of double honour. " When Chrysostom inter- prets the phrase double honour, as importing support and rever- ence, I do not impugn his opinion. Let those adopt it who think proper. But to me it appears more probable, that a com- parison is here intended between widows and elders. Paul had just before commanded to have widows in honour. But elders are still more worthy of honour than they. Wherefore to these double honour is to be given." This interpretation is natural and consistent. " Honour widows," says the apostle, " that are widows indeed;" but " let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those that labour in the word and doctrine." The same word is used to express honour, in both cases. 47 cannot be the kind of officers contemplated by the sacred writer in this place. But is it certain, that by the original term here translated, " honour," salary, or maintenance, is really intended ? Why not assign to the word ^r/^'j its more common signification, viz. honour, high respect, reverence? It is common to say, that the illustration contained in the 18th verse, — " Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn ; and the labourer is worthy of his reward," seem to fix the meaning to temporal support. But those illustrations only carry with them the general idea of reward; and surely a reward may be of the moral as well as of the pecuniary kind. But supposing the inspired apostle really to mean double, that is, liberal maintenance, still this interpretation does not at all militate against our doctrine. It might have been very proper, in the days of Paul, to give all the elders a decent temporal support, as a reward for their services. But if any elders chose to decline receiving a regular stipend, as Paul himself seems to have done, he surely did not, by this disinterestedness, forfeit his office. It may be that ruling elders ought now to receive a compensation for their services, especially when they devote to the church a large part of their time and talents. But if any are willing to render their services gratuitously, whether they be ruling or preaching elders, every one sees that this cannot des- troy, or even impair their official standing. Accordingly, it will be seen in the sequel, that there is a concurrence of sentiment in favour of our con- struction of this celebrated passage in Timothy, among the most distinguished divines of all denominations, Protestant and Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed, truly remarkable, and affording a very strong pre- sumptive argument in favour of its correctness. There is another class of passages, already quoted in a former part of this chapter, which is entitled to more formal consideration. I mean such as that found in 1 Thessalonians v. 12, 13. "And we beseech 48 you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their works' sake." Such also as that found in Hebrews xiii. IT, " Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves ; for they watch for you souls as they that must give account," &c. Here the inspired writer is evidently speaking of particular churches. He repre- sents them as each having a body of rulers " set over them in the Lord," who " watch over them," and whom they are bound to " obey." In short, we find a set of officers spoken of, who are not merely to instruct, and exhort, but to exercise official authority in the church. Now, this representation can be made to agree with no other form of government than that of the Presbyterian church. Not with Prelacy, for that presents no ruler in any single church but the Rector only. It knows nothing of a parochial council or senate, who conduct discipline, and perform all the duties of spiritual rule. Not with Independency, for according to the essential principles of that system, the body of the communicants are all equally rulers, and even the pastor is only the chairman or president, not properly the ruler of the church. But with the Presbyterian form of church government, in which every congregation is furnished with a bench of spiri- tual rulers, whom the people are bound to reverence and obey, it agrees perfectly. There is only one passage more which will be ad- duced in support of the class of elders before us. This is found in Matthew xviii. 15, 16, 17. Here it is believed that the 17th verse, which enjoins, — " Tell it to the church," has evidently a reference to the plan of discipline known to have been pursued in the Jewish synagogue ; and that the meaning is, " Tell it to that consistory or judicatory, which is the church acting by its representatives." It is true, indeed, that some Independents, of more zeal than caution, have confi- dently quoted this passage as making decisively in 49 favour of their scheme of popular government. But when carefully examined, it will be found not only by no means to answer their purpose, but rather to sup- port the Presbyterian cause. We must always inter- pret language agreeably to the well known under- standing and habit of the time and the country in which it is delivered. Now, it is perfectly certain that the phrase — " Tell it to the church," was con- stantly in use among the Jews to express the carrying a complaint to the eldership or representatives of the church. And it is quite as certain, that actual cases occur in the Old Testament in which the term church (£x»X'/5o-/a) is applied to the body of elders. See, as an example of this, Deuteronomy xxxi. 28, 30, comparing our translation with that of the Seventy, as alluded to in a preceding chapter. We can scarcely avoid the conclusion, then, that our blessed Lord meant to teach his disciples, that as it had been in the Jewish syna- gogue, so it would be in the Christian church, that the sacred community should be governed by a bench of rulers regularly chosen and set apart for this purpose. In support of this construction of the passage before us, we have the concurring judgment of a large ma- jority of Protestant divines, of all denominations. We have not only the opinion of Calvin, Beza, Parseus, and a great number of distinguished wi'iters on the continent of Europe ; but also of Lightfoot, Goodwin, and many others, both ministers of the Church of England, and the Independents of that country. It is worthy of remark, too, that Chrysos- tom, known to be an eminently learned and accom- plished father, of the fourth century, evidently under- stands this passage in the Gospel according to St. Matthew, as substantially agreeing with the views of Presbyterians ; or, at any rate, as totally rejecting the Independent doctrine. Zanchius, (in Quart. Proecept.) and Junius (Controv. iii. lib. ii. cap. vi.) quote him as asserting, in his Commentary on this place, that by the church to which the offence was to be told, 50 we are to understand the ^r^as^^a/ ««/ •pr^oitrruTi? of the church. It may not be improper, before taking leave of the scriptural testimony in favour of ruhng elders, to take some notice of an objection which has been advanced with much confidence, but which, manifestly, when examined, will be found destitute of the smallest force. It has been said that great reliance is placed on the word '^^onfrun?, found in 1 Timothy v. 17, as expressive of the ruling character of the office under consideration ; whereas, say these objectors, this very- word, as is universally known and acknowledged, is applied by several of the early fathers to teaching elders, to those who evidently bore the office of pastors of churches, and who were, of course, not mere rulers, but also " labourers in the word and doctrine." If, therefore, this title be applied to those who were con- fessedly teachers, what evidence have we that it is intended, in any case, to designate a different class? This objection is founded on a total misrepresentation of the argument which it is supposed to refute. The advocates of the office of ruling elder do not contend or believe that the function of ruling is confined to this class of officers. On the contrary, they suppose and teach that one class of elders both rule and teach, while the other class rule only. Both, according to the doctrine of the Presbyterian church, are isiecT the couucil of the church, &c. &c. ; that they were always present with the bishop or pastor when he presided in public worship ; that he did nothing of importance without consulting them : that they seldom or never preached, unless in cases of necessity, or when specially requested to do so by the pastor ; that they were more frequently than other- wise called clergymen, like the elders who "laboured in the word and doctrine," but sometimes distinguished from the clergy ; that, however, whether called clergymen or not, they were " ecclesiastical men," that is, set apart for ecclesiastical purposes, devoted to the spiritual rule and edification of the church ; that all questions of discipline, such as admitting members into the church, inspecting their Christian deportment, and censuring, suspending and excommunicating, were decided by these elders : and, finally, from all it is apparent, that as discipline became unpopular, and ecclesiastics more aspiring, the ruling part of the elder's office was gradually laid aside, and the teaching part alone retained. CHAPTER V. TESTIMONY OF THE WITNESSES FOR THE TRUTH, DURING THE DARK AGES. It has been the habit of zealous and high-toned Prelatists, for more than two centuries past, as well as of some Independents, to assert, that ruling elders were unknown in the Christian church until about the year 1541 ; that then Calvin invented the order, and introduced it into the church of Geneva. And some worthy men, of other denominations, have allowed themselves, with more haste than good advisement, to adopt and repeat the assestion. It is an assertion which, undoubtedly, cannot be made good; as the fol- lowing testimonies will probably satisfy every impartial reader. At how early a period the old Waldenses took their rise is uncertain. In some of their Confessions of Faith, and other ecclesiastical documents, dated at the com- mencement, or soon after the commencement, of the Reformation by Luther, they speak of their doctrine and order as having been handed down from father to son for more than five hundred years. But Rei- nerius, who himself lived about two hundred and fifty years before Luther, who had once resided among the Waldenses, but afterwards became one of their bitterest persecutors, seems to ascribe to that people a much earlier origin. " They are more pernicious," says he, " to the church of Rome than anv other set of here- 85 tics, for three reasons: — 1. Because they are older than any other sect ; for some say that they have been ever since the time of Pope Sylvester, (who was raised to the Papal chair in 314 ;) and others say, from the time of the Apostles.* 2. Because they are more extensively spread than any other sect ; there being scarcely a country into which they have not crept. 3. Because other sects are abominable to God for there blasphemies ; but the Waldenses are more pious than any other heretics ; they believe truly of God, live justly before men, and receive all the articles of the creed ; only they hate the Church of Rome." Now, John Paul Perrin, the well known historian of the Waldenses, and who was himself one of the ministers of that people, in a number of places recog- nizes the office of elder, distinguished from that of pastor, or teacher, as retained in their churches. He expressly and repeatedly represents their Synods as composed of ministers and elders. The same writer tells us that in the year 1476, the Hussites, being en- gaged in separating and reforming their churches from the Church of Rome, understood that there were some churches of the ancient Waldenses in Austria, in which the purity of the gospel was retained, and in which there were many eminent pastors. In order to ascertain the truth of this account, they (the Hussites) sent two of their ministers, with two elders, to inquire and ascertain what those flocks or congregations were.f The same historian, in the same work, speaks of the ministers and elders of the Bohemian churches.^: Now the Bohemian Brethren, it is well known, were * Reinerius flourished about A.D. 1250, more than 250 years before the Reformation ; and, at that time, he speaks of the Waldenses as an ancient people, of too remote an origin to be traced with distinctness and certainty. f History of the Old Waldenses, part. ii. book 1. chap. 10; book 2, chap. 4; book 5, chap. 7. X Partii. book 2. chapter 9, 10. H 86 a branch of the same people called Waldenses.* They had removed from Picardy, in the north of France, about two hundred years before the time of PIuss and Jerome, to Bohemia, and there, in conjunction with many natives of the country, whom they brought over to their opinions, established a numberof pure churches, which long maintained the simplicity of the gospel. The undoubted existence of ruling elders, then, among the Bohemian Brethren, affords in itself, strong pre- sumptive proof that the same class of officers existed in other branches of the same body. And, accordingly, a Synod, of which we have an account, as held in Piedmont in Italy, in 1570, is represented repeatedly as made up of " pastors and elders.'' Again, in the form of Government of the same people, in the chapter on Excommunication, we find the following direction respecting the disorderly, who refuse to listen to private admonition : — " Tell it to the church ;" that is, to the " guides, whereby the church is ruled ;" and that we may be at no loss who these " rulers" were, we are told in a preceding chapter that they were elders chosen from among the people for the purpose of governing ; and informed that they were distinct from- the pastors. The testimony of Perrin and others, is supported by that of M. Gillis, another historian of the Wal- denses, and also one of tlieir pastors. In the Confes- sion of Faith of that people, inserted at length in the " Addition" to this work, and stated by the historian to have been the Confession of the ancient, as well as of the modern Waldenses, it is declared, (p. 490 — art. 31,) that " it is necessary for the church to have pastors, to preach God's word, to administer the sacra- ments, and to watch over the sheep of Jesus Christ ; and also elders and deacons, according to the rules of good and holy church discipline, and the practice of the primitive church." f History of the Waldenses, 4to. 1655, published by order of Cromwell. 87 Sir Samuel Moreland, who visited the Waldenses in the year 1656, and took unwearied pains to learn from themselves their history, as well as their doctrine and order ; informs us, that besides their Synodical meetings, which took place once a year, when all can- didates for the pastoral office were commonly ordained, they had also consistories in their respective churches, by means of which pure discipline was constantly maintained.* Accordingly, the Rev. Dr. Ranken, in his labori- ously learned History of France, gives the following account of the Waldenses and Albigenses, whom he very properly represents as the same people. '' Their government and discipline were extremely simple. The youth intended for the ministry among them, were placed under the inspection of some of the elder barbes, or pastors, who trained them chiefly to the knowledge of the Scriptures ; and when satisfied of their proficiency, they received them as preachers, with imposition of hands. Their pastors were maintained by the voluntary offerings of the people. The whole church assembled once a year, to treat of their gen- eral affairs. Contributions were then obtained ; and the common fund was divided, for the year, among not only the fixed pastors, but such as were itinerant, and had no particular district or charge. If any of them had fallen into scandal or sin, they were prohibited from preaching, and thrown out of the society. The pastors were assisted in their inspection of the people's morals, by elders, whom probably both pastors and people elected, and set apart for that purpose."-|- Further ; not only does PeiTin speak of the minis- ters and elders of the Bohemian churches, thereby plainly intimating that they had a class of elders * History of the Evangelical Churches of Piedmont, book i. chapter viii. f History of France, vol. iii. pp. 203, 204. 88 distinct from their pastors, or preachers; but the same thing is placed beyond the possibihty of doubt or question by the Bohemian Brethren themselves, who, in the year 1535, presented a Confession of their Faith to Ferdinand, king of Hungary and Bohemia, with a friendly and highly commendatory preface by Lilther ; and who, a number of years afterwards, published their " Plan of Government and Discipline," which con- tains the following paragraph : — " Elders {Preshyteri^ sen Censores morum) are honest, grave, pious men, chosen out of the whole con- gregation, that they may act as guardians of all the rest. To them authority is given, (either alone or in connection with the pastor) to admonish and rebuke those who transgress the prescribed rules, also to re- concile those who are at variance, and to restore to order whatever irregularity they may have noticed. Like- wise in secular matters, relating to domestic concerns, the younger men and youths are in the habit of ask- ing their counsel, and of being faithfully advised by them. From the example and practice of the ancient church, we believe that this ought always to be done ; see Exodus xviii. 21. — Duteronomy i. 13. — 1 Cor. vi. 2^ 4, 5.— 1 Tim. V. 17." This they say, at the close, " is the ecclesiastical order which they and their forefathers had had estab- lished among them for two hundred years :* which they derived from the word of God ; which they main- tained through much persecution, and with much patience, and which they had observed with much happy fruit to themselves, and to the people of God."f * The " Plan of Government and Discipline," from which the above extracts are made, was drawn up by their " General Synod" in 1616, and printed in 1632. When, therefore, they declare that they and their forefathers had enjoyed the Sfime order for two hundred years, it carries back the date of this system to 1416, that is to the time of John Huss ; and, of course, nearly a century before the birth of Calvin. -|- Jo, Amos Comenii Historia Fratrum Bohemorum Ratio Disciplines Ordinisque^ &c, 11, 56, 68, 89 And that all mistake might be precluded respecting the real import of the above stated classes, the Bohe- mian historian and commentator, Comenius, makes the following remarks on the elders in question : — " Presbyter, a Greek term, signifying the same with Senior, in Latin, (an elder,) is applied by the apostles both to the pastors of the church, and to those who assisted them in taking care of the flock, who do not labour in the word and doctrine; 1 Timothy v. 17, Such are our elders; they are styled judges of the congregation, or censors of the people, and also ruling elders. I am not ignorant, indeed, that Hugo Grotius has laboured hard to prove that, in the apostles' days there were no other presbyters than pastors ; and that he assigns a different meaning to the passage in 1 Timothy v. 17. Yet, inasmuch as he finally confesses, that although such elders of the church as sit with the pastors in ecclesiastical judica- tories, be an institution of human prudence, they are, nevertheless, very useful, and ought by all means to be retained : I hope no one will easily find any reason- able objection. To guard against abuses, he subjoins very judicious cautions, at the close of chapter xi. of the book which he entitled, De Imperio Summarum Protestatum circa Sacra.''* In precisely the same manner are both the theory and practice of the Bohemian Brethren understood by the celebrated Martin Bucer, a very learned Lutheran divine, whose fame throughout Europe induced Arch- bishop Cranmer to invite him to England, during the progress of the Reformation in that country, where he received patronage and preferment, and was held in high estimation. Bucer was a contemporary of the Bohemian worthies who published the exhibition of their faith and practice above quoted, and, of course, had every opportunity of knowing both its letter and spirit. He speaks of it in the following terms : — * Annotationes ad Rationem Ordinis Fratrum Bohemorum ad cap. i. p. 68. 2 II 90 " The Bohemian Brethren, (Picardi,)* who pub- lished a Confession of their faith, in the year 1535, with a preface by Luther, and who almost alone pre- served in the world the purity of the doctrine, and the vigour of the discipline of Christ, observed an excellent rule, for which we are compelled to give them credit, and especially to praise that God who thus wrought by them, notwithstanding those brethren are prepos- terously despised by some learned men. The rule which they observe was this : besides ministers of the Word and Sacraments, they had, in each church, a bench or college of men, excelling in gravity and prudence, who performed the duties of admonishing and correcting offenders, composing differences, and judicially deciding in cases of dispute. Of this kind of elders, Hilary (Ambrose) wrote, when he said — " Therefore the synagogue and afterwards the church had elders, without whose counsel nothing was done."t It would seem difficult to deny or resist this testi- mony that the Bohemian Brethren held to ruling elders, and actually maintained this class of officers in their churches. Could Bucer, whom Mr. Middleton, in his Biographia Evangelica, represents as " a man of immense learning," and who is spoken of by Bishop Burnet as " perhaps inferior to none of all the Re- formers for learning ;" — could he have been ignorant, either of the real meaning of a public document, put forth in his own time, or of the public and uniform practice of a body of pious people, whom he seems to have regarded with so much respect and affection, as * Bucer styles these worthy people, Fratres Picardi, in refer- ence to their origin from the Waldenses, or rather the branch called Albigenses in France, to which those who migrated to Bohemia belonged. But the people to whom he refers are ascertained with unerring certainty by the " Confession of Faith" which he so precisely describes. f Scripta duo Adversaria Latomi^ &c. in Cap. De Ecclesice Autoritaiey p. 159. 91 witnesses for God in a dark world ? It cannot be imagined. And what gives additional weight to the testimony of this illustrious man is, that he seems to have had no interest whatever in vindicating this class of church officers; for it is not known that he ever had any special inducement, from a sense of reputation, or any other cause, to exert himself in maintaining them ; and the latter part of his life was spent in England, in the service of the established church of that kingdom, in the bosom of which he died. As a further confirmation of Bucer's judgment in reference to the Bohemian Brethren, the celebrated John Francis Buddseus, an eminently learned Lu- theran divine of Germany, of the seventeenth century, who gave an edition, with a large preface, of the work of Comenius, in which the history of the Bohemian Brethren, and their form of Government, are pub- lished, evidently understands their plan in reference to the office of ruling elder, precisely as Bucer and other learned men have understood it. He employs the greater part of his preface in recommending this office. And although he does not seem prepared to allow that it existed as a separate office in the apostolic church, yet he thinks that, virtually, and in substance, it did make a part of the apostolic system of supervision and order. He thinks, moreover, that, without some such office, it is wholly impossible to maintain pure morals and sound discipline in the church of God ; and that the Bohemian Brethren rendered a most important service to the cause of truth and piety in maintaining it in their ecclesiastical system.* Luther in some of his early writings, had expressed an unfavourable opinion of the Bohemian Brethren ; but, upon being more fully informed of their doctrine and order, and more especially of their provision for maintaining sound discipline, by means of their elder- ship in each congregation, he changed his opinion, and * Jo. Francisci Buddaei, Praefatio de instauranda Disdplina Ecclesiastica — Passim. 92 became willing both to speak and to write strongly in their favour. Hence his highly commendatory pre- face, to their " Confession of Faith," of which men- tion has been already made. And hence, at a still later period, the following strong expressions in favour of the same people. " There hath not arisen any peo- ple since the time of the apostles, whose church hath come nearer to the apostolical doctrine and order than the Brethren of Bohemia." And again, " although these brethren do not excel us in purity of doctrine, (all the articles of faith with us being sincerely and purely taken out of the word of God,) yet in the ordinary discipline of the church which they use, and whereby they happily govern the churches, they go far beyond us, and are, in this respect, far more praise- worthy. And we cannot but acknowledge and yield this to them, for the glory of God, and of his truth ; whereas our people of Germany cannot be persuaded to be willing to take the yoke of discipline upon them."* It is presumed that no one, after impartially weigh- ing the foregoing testimonies, will listen for one moment, with any respect, to the allegation that the plan of a bench of elders for ruling the church and conducting its discipline was invented by Calvin. But we may go further. The truth is, that instead of the Waldenses, or Bohemian Brethren taking this order of officers from Calvin, it may be affirmed that precisely the reverse was the fact. We have satisfac- tory evidence that Calvin took the hint from the Bohemian Brethren ; and that the system which he afterwards established in Geneva, was really suggested and prompted by the example of those pious sufferers and witnesses for the truth, who had this class of officers in their churches long before Calvin's day. This will be made clearly to appear from the follow- ing statement. * Joh. A. Comenii Historia Bohem. Frat. sect. 82. 93 When Calvin first settled in Geneva, in 1536, he found the Reformed religion already introduced, and, to a considerable extent, supported, under the ministry of Farel and Viret, two bold and faithful advocates of evangelical truth. Such, however, was the opposition made to the doctrines which they preached, and espe- cially to the purity of discipline which they struggled hard to establish, by the licentious part of the inhabi- tants, among whom were some of the leading magis- trates, that in 1538, Calvin and his colleagues were expelled from their places in the Genevan church, because they refused to administer the Lord's Supper to the vilest of the population who chose to demand the privilege. In a paroxysm of popular fury, those faithful ministers of Christ were commanded to leave the city within two days. During this temporary triumph of error and profligacy, Calvin retired to Strasburg, where he was appointed Professor of Divinity and Pastor of a Church, and where he re- mained nearly four years. In 1540, the year before he was recalled to Geneva, he corresponded with the Bohemian Brethren, and made himself particularly acquainted with their plan of church government, which he regarded with deep interest ; an interest, no doubt greatly augmented by the sufferings which he had recently undergone in fruitless efforts to maintain the purity of ecclesiastical discipline ; in which efforts he had been baffled chiefly by the want of such an efficient system as the Bohe- mian churches possessed. In the course of this cor- respondence, while yet in exile for his fidelity, Calvin addressed the Bohemian pastors in the following pointed terms : — " I heartily congratulate your churches, upon which, besides sound doctrine, God hath bestowed so many excellent gifts. Of these gifts, it is none of the least to have such pastors to govern and order them ; to have a people themselves so well affected and dis- posed; — to be constituted under so noble a form of government ; — to be adorned with the most excellent 94 discipline, which we justly call most excellent, and, in- deed, the only bond by which obedience can be pre- served. I am sure we find with us, by woful experience, what the worth of it is, by the want of it ; nor yet can we by any means attain to it. On this account it is that I am often faint in my mind, and feeble in the discharge of the duties of my office. Indeed, I should quite despair did not this comfort me, that the edifica- tion of the church is always the work of the Lord, which He himself will carry on by his own power, though all help beside should fail. Yet still it is a great and rare blessing to be aided by so necessary a help. Therefore I shall not consider our church as properly strengthened, until they can be bound to- gether by that bond." And the pious historian, after giving this extract from the venerable Reformer, adds: " It so happened, in the course of divine Providence, that not long afterwards, this eminent man was re- called to minister in the church of Geneva, where he established the very same kind of discipline which is now famed throughout the world."* Testimony more direct and conclusive could scarcely be desired. Comenius, himself a Bishop of the Bohe- mian Brethren, surely knew what kind of eldership it was which was estabhshed among the churches of his own denomination. He says it was the very same with that which Calvin afterwards established in Geneva. We know, too, that this venerable man, before he was expelled from Geneva, in 1538, and while he was struggling and suffering so much for want of an efficient discipline, made no attempt to introduce the institution in question. But, during his painful exile, his attention is forcibly turned to the Bohemian plan. He is greatly pleased with it; speaks in the strongest terms of its excellence : declares that he has no hope of any church prospering until it is in- troduced ; and the very next year, on his return, * Joh. A. Comenii Historia Bohem. Frat. sect. 80. 95 makes it one of the conditions of his resuming his pastoral charge, that this plan of conducting the dis- cipline of the church, by a bench of elders, shall be received with him, and thus causes it to be adopted in Geneva. And yet the historian of the Waldenses, John Paul Perrin, has been reproached, and insinuations made unfavourable to his honesty, because he has represented the Bohemian Brethren as having ecclesiastical elders distinct from their ministers of the gospel. How utterly unjust such reproaches are, every one must now see. If there were ever ruling elders in Geneva, they were found in the churches of Bohemia. Nor is it any solid objection to the fact, as we have stated it, that they had some other features in their system of church order which were not strictly presbyterian. All that the his- torian has to do is with facts. Having stated these, he is answerable for nothing more. That those churches gave the title of Seniors, but more frequently of Antis- tites to certain elderly clergymen, who were peculiarly venerable in their character, and who chiefly took the lead in all ordinations, is no doubt true ; that, in their plan of church government, they distinguished their Diaconi from their Eleemosynarii ; and that they in- clude in the list of their ecclesiastical offices, some which are strictly secular, is also manifest. But surely none of these invalidate the fact, that they had ruling elders ; a fact stated in a manner which it is impossible either to doubt or mistake. Thus we have good evidence, that all the most dis- tinguished and faithful witnesses for the truth, during the dark ages, with whose faith and order we have any minute acquaintance, carefully maintained the office for which we are contending ; that some of them, at least, considered it as of divine appointment, and accordingly quote in its support Scriptural authority ; and that they appear, with good reason, to have re- garded it as one of the most efficient means, under the divine blessing, of promoting the spiritual order and edification of the church. CHAPTER VI. TESTIMONY OF THE REFORMERS, AND OTHER LEARN- ED AND DISINTERESTED WITNESSES, NEARLY CONTEMPORARY WITH THEM. We have seen how utterly groundless is the asser- tion, that ruling elders were invented and first in- troduced by Calvin at Geneva. If there be any truth in history, they were in use long before Calvin was born, and in the purest churches on earth, to say no- thing of their apostolical origin. Nor is this all. It may further be maintained, that a great majority of the Reformers, in organizing those churches which separated from the Church of Rome, either actually introduced this class of officers, or, in their published writings, freely and fully declared in its favour. And this was the case, as we shall presently see, not merely on the part of those who followed Calvin both as to time and opinion; but also on the part of those who either preceded, or had no ecclesiastical connection whatever with that illustrious man : and who were far from agreeing with him in many other particulars. Now this is surely a marvellous fact, if, as some respectable writers would persuade us to believe, the office in question is a mere figment of Genevan contriv- ance, toward the middle of the sixteenth century. The first reformer whose testimony I shall adduce in favour of this office is Ulrick Zuingle, the celebrated 97 leader in the work of Reformation in Switzerland. And I mention him first, because as he never was connected with Calvin — nay, as he was removed by death in 1531, five years before Calvin ever saw Geneva, or appeared in the ranks of the Reformers, and ten years before the introduction of ruling elders into that city — he cannot be suspected of speaking as the humble imitator of that justly honoured individual. On the subject of ruling elders, Zuingle speaks thus : — " The title of presbyter or elder, as used in Scripture, is not rightly understood by those who con- sider it as applicable only to those who preside in preaching: for it is evident that the term is also sometimes used to designate elders of another kind, that is, senators, leaders, or counsellors. So we read Acts xv. where it is said, ' the apostles and elders came together to consider of this matter.' Here we see that the elders spoken of are to be considered as senators or counsellors. It is evident that the 5r^£?/3yr£^« mentioned in this place were not ministers of the word ; but that they were aged, prudent, and venerable men, who, in directing and managing the affairs of the church, were the same thing as the senators in our cities. And the title elder is used in the same sense in many other places in the Acts of the Apostles."* Again, Oecolampadius, who also died before Calvin appeared as an active reformer, and of course before the introduction of ruling elders in the church of Geneva, speaks thus, in an Oration which he pro- nounced before the Senate of Basil in 1530, about a year before his death : " But it is evident that those which are here intended, are certain seniors or elders, such as were in the apostle's days, and who of old time were called ^^isfivn^oi, whose judgment being that of * This quotation from ZuiDgle, is taken from the PoliticcB Ecclesiastic ce of Voetius, in which it is cited for the same pur- pose as here ; a copy of the works of the Swiss Reformer not being- at present within the reach of the writer of the Essay. 98 the most prudent part of the church, was considered as the decision of the whole church." Here again, is the testimony of a man, who could not have been influenced by any knowledge of the opinions of Calvin — for Calvin had as yet published no opinions on the subject — and who yet speaks in very unequivocal terms of a class of officers, as not only existing afterwards, but as of apostolical institution ; which, according to some, were not known in the church, either in theory or practice, for ten years after the decease of this distinguished reformer. The testimony of Martin Bucer, as one of the most venerable and active of the reformers, properly belongs to this branch of the subject. But as his sentiments were so fully detailed in the quotation from him presented in the preceding chapter, it is not deemed necessary to repeat the statement here. From that ex- tract it is evident, not only that he approved of the office of ruling elder, as of eminent use in the church, but also that he considered Ambrose as asserting that officers of this class were found in the primitive church, and that he agreed with the pious father in maintaining this assertion. Here was another eminently learned man, and a contemporary of Calvin, who bears testi- mony that ruling elders were in use in the purest portion of the Christian church, as a laudable and scriptural institution, centuries before the reformer of Geneva was born. The character of Peter Martyr, a celebrated Pro- testant divine of Italy, whose high reputation induced Edward VI. to invite him to England, where he was made Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and Canon of Christ Church, speaks of ruling elders in the follow- ing decisive terms : — " The church" (speaking of the primitive church) " had its elders, or, if I may so speak, its senate, who consulted about things which were for edification for the time being. Paul describes this kind of ministry, not only in the 12th chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, but also in the first Epistle 99 to Timothy, where he thus writes : — ' Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those that labour in the word and doctrine.' Which words appear to me to signify that there were then some elders who taught and preached the word of God, and another class of elders who did not teach, but only ruled in the church. Concerning these Ambrose speaks when he expounds this passage in Timothy. Nay, he inquires whether it was owing to the pride or the sloth of the sacerdotal order that they had then almost ceased in the church."* The celebrated John Alasco, a devoted and eminently useful reformer, is also a decisive witness on the same side. Alasco was a Polish nobleman, of excellent education, and great learning. He was offer- ed two Bishoprics, one in Poland, and another in Hungary : but he forsook his native country, and all the secular and ecclesiastical honours which awaited him, from love to the Reformed religion. In his youth he enjoyed the special friendship of Erasmus, who speaks of him in one of his letters, (Erasmi Epist. Lib. 28. Ep. 3,) as a man of uncommon excellence and worth. The Protestant churches in the lov/ coun- tries being scattered, in consequence of the agitation produced by the celebrated ordinance called the In- terim, published by Charles V., Alasco was invited to England, by King Edward VI., at the instance of Archbishop Cranmer. He accepted the invitation, and was chosen Superintendentf of the German, French, and Italian congregations erected in London, which are said to have consisted in the aggregate, of more than three thousand souls. He afterwards published * P. Martyris Loci Communes. Class, iv. Cap. 1. Sect. 2. f It is worthy of notice here that althouo^h a superintendent was regarded by Alasco as one who had the inspection of several congregations ; yet " he was greater than his brethren only in respect of his greater trouble and care, not having more authority than the other elders, either as to the ministery of the word and scraments, or as to the exercise of ecclesiastical dis- cipline, to which he ^^as subject equally with the rest." 100 an account of the form of government and worship adopted in those congregations. The affairs of each, it is distinctly stated in that account, were managed by a pastor, ruUng elders, and deacons, and each of these classes of officers was considered as of divine appoint- ment. We also learn from his statement, that the ru- ling elders and deacons of these churches, as well as the pastors were ordained by the imposition of hands. He further informs us, that in the administration of the Lord's Supper, in the churches under his superin- tendency, the communicants sat at the table ; and he occupies a number of pages in showing that this posture ought to be preferred to kneeling. In short, he de- clares " We have laid aside all the relics of Popery, with its mummeries, and we have studied the greatest possible simplicity in ceremonies." Notwithstanding the publication of these sentiments, and the establishment of these practices, marking so great a non-conformity with the Church of England, Alasco was highly esteemed, and warmly patronized by Archbishop Cranmer, and also by the King, who granted him letters patent, constituting him and the other ministers of the foreign congregations a body corporate, and giving them important privileges and powers. These letters may be seen among the original records subjoined to Burnet's History of the Refor- mation, ii. 202. The following remarks by Alasco himself, will serve at once to explain the design of the king in granting his royal sanction to these people, and also his own view of the principles upon which he and his brethren acted in founding the churches in question. " When I was called by the king, and when certain laws of the country stood in the way, so that the public rites of divine worship used under the Papacy could not be immediately purged out, (which the king himself greatly desired,) and when I was anxious and earnest in my solicitations for the foreign churches, it was at length his pleasure that the public rites of the English 101 churches should be reformed by degrees, as far as could be accomplished by the laws of the country ; but that strangers who were not strictly and to the same extent bound by these laws, should have churches granted to. them, in which they should freely regulate all things, wholly according to apostolical doctrine and practice, without any regard to the rites of the country ; that by this means the English churches also might be excited to embrace apostolical purity, by the unanimous con- sent of all the estates of the kingdom. Of this project, the king himself, from his great piety, was both the chief author and the defender. For although it was almost universally acceptable to the king's council, and the Archbishop of Canterbury promoted it with all his might, there were not wanting some who took it ill, and would have opposed it, had not his majesty checked them by his authority, and b}^ the reasons which hf adduced in favour of the design." Again, in the appendix to the same book, p. 649, he says : — " The care of our church was committed to us chiefly with this view, that in the ministration thereof we should follow the rules of the divine word, and apostolical observance, rather than any rites of other churches. In fine, we were admonished both by the king himself, and his chief nobility, to use this great liberty granted to us in our ministry rightly and faithfully ; not to please men, but for the glory of God, by promoting the reformation of his worship."* On the whole, we have in this case a witness as unexceptionable and weighty as can well be desired. A man of eminent learning, piety, and devotedness. A man formed not in the school of Calvin, but of Zuingle. A man who, when the transactions and * See M'Crie's Life of Knox, vol. i. pp. 392—396. See also, Gisberti Voetii PoUHccb Ecclesiasticcs. Tom. i. 420 — 422. See also Forma et Ratio totius Ecclesiastici ministerii Edvardi sexti in Pe?e(/rinorum, maxime Germanorum Eceles. Also, De Ordinatione Ecclesiarum Peregrinarum in Anglia. Epist Dedicate et. p. 649. 2 I 102 publications above alluded to occurred, lived in England, where ruling elders were unknown : and who yet in these circumstances, declared himself in favour of this class of officers as of divine appointment, and as im- portant to the purity and edification of the church. But there is a still more conclusive fact in reference to this stage of the Reformation in England. Alasco, it will be observed, asserts that both king Edward and Archbishop Cranmer were strongly favourable to the plan of discipline which he and others had intro- duced into the churches of foreign Potestants in Eng- land. In confirmation of this statement, there is evi- dence that Cranmer and the rest of the Commissioners in Edward's reign, did directly propose the introduc- tion of ruling elders in the national church. They drew up a body of laws which, though not finally ratified, partly on account of opposing influence, and partly from the premature decease of the monarch, yet clearly show the opinion and wishes of Cranmer and his associates. One of the proposed laws is as fol- lows : — " After evening prayers, on which all shall attend in their own parish churches, the principal min- ister or parson, and the deacon, if they are present ; or, in case of their absence, the curate and the elders, shall consider how the money given for pious uses had best be laid out : and then let discipline be exercised. For, those whose sin has been public, and given offence to the whole church, should be brought to a sense of it, and publicly undergo the punishment of it, that so the church may be the better for their correction. After that the ministers shall withdraw with some of the elders, and consult how all other persons who are disorderly in their life and conversation may be con- versed with ; first by some sober and good men in a brotherly manner, according to the direction of Christ in the gospel ; and if they hearken to their advice, God is to be praised for it ; but if they go on in their wickedness, they are to be restrained by that severe 103 punishment which is in the gospel prescribed for such obstinacy."* The testimony of Calvin will next be introduced. As he is charged with being the inventor of this class of officers, the weight of his opinion as a witness in its favour, will probably be deemed small by its opposers. But there is one point of view in which his testimony will surely be regarded with deep respect, and, may I not add, as decisive ? That he was a man of mature and profound learning no one can doubt. Joseph Scaliger, himself a prodigy of erudition, pronounced him to have been the most learned man in Europe in his day ; and, particularly, " that no man understood ecclesiastical history so well." Now, it is certain that Calvin did not consider the office of ruling elder as originating with himself; but that he regarded it as an apostolical institution ; that he refers to Scripture for its support ; and that he quotes Ambrose, (whose testimony has been so often refered to,) as an unques- tionable witness for the existence of the office under consideration in the primitive church. The following extracts from his Commentary and his Institutions will fully establish what is here asserted. In his exposition of 1 Tim. v. 17, he speaks thus : " From this passage we may gather that there were then two kinds of presbyters, because they were not all ordained to the work of teaching. For the words plainly mean that some ruled well, to whom no part of the public instruction was committed. And, verily, there were chosen from among the people grave and approved men, who, in common council and joint au- thority with the pastors, administered the discipline of the church, and acted the part of censors for the cor- rection of morals. This practice, Ambrose complains, had fallen into disuse, through the indolence, or rather * Peirce's Vindication of the Dissenters, p. 23. Baxter's Treatise of Episcopacy, part. ii. p. 112. Reformatio Leg-iim EccleHiasticarum, ex authoritate Regis, Hen. viii. et. Ed v. vi. 4 to. 1640. 104 the pride of the teaching elders, who wished alone to be distinguished." In his Institutions, (book iv. chapter iii.,) he has the following passage equally explicit. " In calling those who preside over churches by the appellations of ' bishops,' ' elders,' and ' pastors,' without any dis- tinction, I have followed the usage of the Scriptures, which apply all these terms to express the same mean- ing. For to all who discharge the ministry of the word, they give the title of ' bishops.' So when Paul enjoins Titus to ' ordain elders in every city,' he im- mediately adds, ' For a bishop must be blameless.' So, in another place, he salutes more bishops than one in one church. And in the Acts of the Apostles, he is declared to have sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus, whom, in his address to them, he calls ' bishops.' Here it must be observed, that we have enumerated only those offices which consist in the min- istry of the word; nor does Paul mention any other in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians which we have quoted. But in the Epistle to the Ro- mans, and the first Epistle to the Corinthians, he enu- merates others, as ' powers,' ' gifts of healing,' * inter- pretation of tongues,' ' governments,' ' care of the poor.' Those functions which are merely temporary I omit, as foreign to our present subject. But there are two which perpetually remain, ' governments,' and ' the care of the poor.' ' Governors,' I apprehend to have been persons of advanced years, selected from the people, to unite with the bishops in giving admoni- tions, and exercising discipline. For no other inter- pretation can be given of that injunction, ' He that ruleth, let him do it w^ith diligence.' For from the beginning every church has had its senate or council, composed of pious, grave, and holy men, who were invested with that jurisdiction, for the correction of vices, of which we shall soon treat. Now, that this was not the regulation of a single age, experience it- 105 self demonstrates. This office of government is necessary, therefore, in every age." I ask, was Calvin honest or dishonest in these de- clarations ? If he had invented and introduced the office himself, could he have been ignorant of the fact ? And whether it was so or not, who may reasonably be considered as best able to judge — himself, or those who lived nearly three hundred years after him ? And who would be most likely to know whether it were of ancient or modern origin; — the most learned man then, perhaps, in the world — or men with not a tenth part of his erudition, at the present day ? The truth is, these passages, considered in connection with that quoted in a former chapter, in which he speaks of himself, in reference to this office, as following the ex- ample of the pious witnesses of the truth who preceded him, — prove, either that Calvin did not consider him- self as the inventor of the office, but believed that it had been in the church in all ages, — or that he was gratuitously and profligately regardless of the truth, to a degree never laid to his charge. Nor is the testimony to the primitive existence of the class of officers, confined to those of the reformers who were favourable to their continuance in the church. Some, by no means friendly to their restoration, were yet constrained to acknowledge their early origin. That there were ruling elders in the primitive church, is explicitly granted by Archbishop Whitgift, a warm and learned friend of diocesan episcopacy. " I know," says he, " that in the primitive church, they had in every church certain seniors, to whom the government of the congregation was committed ; but that was before there was any Christian prince or magistrate that openly professed the gospel ; and before there was any church by public authority established." And again : — " Both the name and office of seniors were extinguished before Ambrose's time, as he himself doth testify, writing upon the fifth of the first epistle to Timothy. Indeed, as Ambrose saith, the synagogue. 106 and afterwards the church, had seniors, without whose counsel nothing was done in the church ; but that was before his time, and before there was any Christian magistrate, or any church estabhshed."* The learned and acute Archbishop, it seems, was not only convinced that there was ruling elders, distinct from preaching- elders, in the primitive church, but with all his eru- dition and discernment, he understood Ambrose just as the friends of this class of officers now understand him. There is another testimony on this subject, from one of the most conspicious and active friends of the Refor- mation in England, which is worthy of particular notice. I refer to that of the Rev. Dean Nowell, who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and whose celebrated catechism, drawn up in 1562, obtained, perhaps, as much currency and respect as an}^ publica- tion of that period. Nor are we to consider it as ex- pressing the sentiments of the illustrious divine whose name it bears, alone ; for it was unanimously approved and sanctioned by the same lower house of Convocation which passed the 39 Articles of the Church of England, and directed to be published and used as containing the true doctrine of that church. In this catechism, j)ward the close, when speaking of the evils of retain- ing unworthy members in the church, the following questions and answers occur : — " Q. What remedy for this evil can be devised and applied ?" " ^. In churches well constituted and governed, there was, as I before said, a certain plan and order of government appointed and observed. Elders were chosen, that is, ecclesiastical rulers, v/ho conducted and maintained the discipline of the church. To these pertained authority, reproof, and chastisement; and they, with the concurrence of the pastor, if they knew any who, by false opinions, troublesome errors, foolish * Defence against Cartwright, p. 638, 651. 107 superstitions, or vicious and profligate lives, were likely to bring a great public scandal on the church of God, and who could not approach the Lord's Supper without a manifest profanation, repelled them from the communion, and no more admitted them until, by public penitence, they gave satisfaction to the church." " Q. What is to be done ?" (when those who have been excluded from the church repent, and desire to be restored to its communion.) " A, That they may be received again into the church, and to the enjoyment of its holy mysteries, from which they have been deservedly cast out, they ought humbly to supplicate and pray. And, on the whole, there ought to be such moderation used in ad- ministering public penance, that neither by too much severity the offender may be reduced to despondency, nor by too much lenity the discipline of the church relaxed, its authority diminished, and others encour- aged and incited to similar offences. But when, in the judgment of the elders and of the pastor, proper satisfaction shall be made, by the chastisement of the offender for an example to others, he may be admitted again to the communion of the church."* Nothing can be more unequivocal or decisive than this testimony. In the opinion not only of the wi'iter of the catechism before us, but also of the leading clergy of the Church of England, v/ho sanctioned it, and enjoined its general use, there ought to be, in every church, besides the pastor, a bench of elders, or ecclesiastical rulers, whose duty it should be to preside over the discipline, and, in conjunction with the pas- tor, to receive, admonish, suspend, excommunicate, and restore members, — in a manner precisely agreeable to the well known practice of the presbyterian church. In truth. Dr. Nowell could scarcely have expressed in more distinct and unqualified terms his approbation of this part of our system, than in telling us what, in * See Bishop Eandolph's Enchiridion Theologicum, voli. 326, 327, third Edition. 108 his judgment, and that of his brethren, every well regulated church ought to have. Ursinus, a learned German divine, contemporary with Luther and Melancthon, speaks a language still more to our purpose. " Ministers," says he, " are either immediately called of God, or mediately, through the instrumentality of the church. Of the former class were prophets and apostles. Of the latter class there are five kinds, viz, evangelists, bishops, or pas- tors, teachers, ruling elders, and deacons. Evangel- ists are ministers appointed to go forth and preach the gospel to a number of churches. Bishops are ministers ordained to preach the Word of God and administer the sacraments in particular churches. Teachers are ministers appointed merely to fulfil the function of teaching in particular churches. Ruling elders are ministers elected by the voice of the church to assist in conducting discipline and to order a variety of necessary matters in the church. Deacons are ministers elected by the church to take care of the poor and distribute alms."* In the Confession of Saxony, drawn up by Melanc- thon, in 1551, and subscribed by a large number of Lutheran divines and churches, we find this class of officers recognized, and represented as in use in those churches. Speaking of the exercise of discipline, in its various branches, they say : — " That these things may be done orderly, there be also consistories ap- pointed in our churches." Of these consistories, a majority of members, it is well known, were ruling elders. Szegeden, a very eminent Lutheran divine, of Hungary, contemporary with Luther, also speaks very decisively of the apostolic institution of ruling elders. The following passage is sufficient to exhibit his sen- timents. " The ancient church had presbyters, or elders, of which the apostle speaks, 1 Corinth, v. 4. * Ursini Corpus Doctrinse. par. iii. p. 721. 109 And these elders were of two kinds. One class of them preached the gospel, administered the sacraments, and governed the church, the same as bishops ; for bishops and presbyters are the same order. But another class of elders consisted of grave and upright men, taken from among the laity, who, together with the preaching elders before mentioned, consulted respecting the affairs of the church, and devoted their labour to ad- monishing, correcting, and taking care of the flock of Christ.'* The Magdeburgh centuriators, who were eminently learned Lutheran divines, contemporary with Melanc- thon, and who have been regarded, for three hundred years, as among the highest authorities on questions of ecclesiastical history, speak in the following decisive terms with regard to the office in question. And al- though the extract has been given in a former page, yet, as it is brief and pointed, it may not be improper to assign it a place in this connexion. Speaking of the third century, they say : — " The right of deciding respecting such as were to be excommunicated, or of receiving, upon their repentance, such as had fallen, was vested in the elders of the church."f The learned Francis Junius, a distinguished divine and professor of theology of the Church of Holland, who lived at the commencement of the Reformation in that country, and was, of course, contemporary with Martyr, Bucer, Melancthon, &c., wrote very fully and explicitly in favour of the office of ruling elder. In his work entitled Ecclesiastici, he decisively, and with great learning, maintains that pastors, riding elders, and deacons, are the only three spiritual orders of church officers ; that pastors, or ministers of the word and sacraments, are the highest order, and of course are invested with the power of ordaining; that the * Szegedeni Loci Communes, p. 197. edit, quint, folio — Basil. 1608. f Cent. iii. cap. vii. p. 152. 110 second class are men of distinguished piety and pru- dence, chosen from among the members of the church, to assist the pastor in the government of the church ; and that the deacons are appointed to collect and dis- tribute the alms of the church. He affirms that these three orders are set forth in scripture, and existed in the primitive church : and that the disuse of ruling elders, as well as the introduction of prelacy, is a depar- ture from the primitive model.* The Protestant churches of Hungary and Tran- sylvania, although in organizing their churches they did not actually adopt and introduce the office of rul- ing elder, yet in the preface, and other statements, published with their ecclesiastical formularies, they spoke in the most unequivocal terms both of the value and the early origin of this class of officers. The following extract may be considered as a fair specimen of their testimony on this subject: — " Most other nations, belonging to the evangelical confession, have been in the habit of choosing and constituting elders in every village and city, agreeably to the prac- tice of the old church, and also of the New Testament: men sound in the faith, blameless, the husbands of one wife, having faithful children, chargeable with no crime, grave, prudent, &c. It is made the official duty of these men diligently to watch over the lives and conversation of all the members of the church, to rebuke the dissolute, and, if need be, to refer their cases to the pastors and to the whole eldership, &c." Here they make a clear distinction between these elders and the pastors of the churches, and represent the former as assistants to the latter in the spiritual concerns of the church. They then proceed to state why a class of officers so useful, in most cases so necessary, and which they also considered as having existed in the apostolic church, was not received among them.f * Ecclesiastici, sive de nat. et administrat. Ecclesise, &c. Lib. ii. cap. 2, 3, 4. f See G. Voetii Polit. Eccles. par. ii. lib. ii tract, iii. Ill The character of Jerome Zanchius, a learned divine of Italy of the sixteenth century, who greatly distin- guished himself among the Reformers, is so well known, that a detailed account of his great accomplishments and reputation is unnecessary. On the subject before us, he speaks thus : — " The whole ministry of the Christian church may be divided into three classes. The first consists of those who dispense the word and sacraments, corresponding with those who, under the Old Testament, were called priests and Levites, and under the New Testament, apostles, pastors, and teachers. The second consists of those whose peculiar office it is to take care of the discipline of the church, to inspect the lives and conversation of all, and to take care that all live in a manner becoming Christians; and also, if at any time there should be a necessity for it, in the absence of the pastor, to instruct the people. There were such under the Old Testament in the synagogue ; and such also were the senators who were added to the bishop in the administration of the New Testament church. These officers are styled presby- ters, (presbyteri,) and elders, (senior es^) of which the apostle speaks, besides other places, in 1 Timothy, v. IT; Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine. In this passage the apostle mani- festly speaks of two sorts or classes of elders, as he was understood by Ambrose and others, among the ancients, and by almost all our modern Protestant divines, as Bullinger, Peter Martyr, &c. &c,* The most cursory reader of this extract will not fail to take notice, not only that Zanchius evidently ap- proved of this office, but that he thought it of divine appointment ; that he interpreted as we do the famous passage in Ambrose, which the opposers of ruling elders have expended so much ingenuity in labouring to explain away ; and that he considered almost all * Zanchii Opera. Tom. iv. In Quartum Prseceptum, p. 727. 112 the reformed divines as being of the same opinion with himself. The high reputation of Parseus, a learned and pious German divine, contemporary with Melancthon and Zanchius, is also well known. His testimony respect-* ing the office under consideration is very explicit. In his commentary on Romans xii. 8, he observes: — " Here the apostle understands the function of that class of elders who, united with the pastors, watch over and correct the morals and discipline of the church. For there were two classes of elders, as may be gathered from 1 Timothy v. 17. Some who laboured in the word and doctrine, who were to be ac- counted worthy of double honour ; such as teachers, pastors, or bishops; the others, such as laboured in conducting discipline, who are here called govern- ments." And in his commentary on 1 Corinthians xii. 28, he says : " The apostle here undoubtedly speaks of the elders who presided in the administration of discipline. For the primitive church had its senate, who attended to the morals of the congregation, while the apostles and teachers were left at leisure to preach. This the apostle indicates very clearly in the first Epistle to Timothy, v. 17, where two classes of pres- byters are represented as constituted. The govern- ments here spoken of were not of princes or praetors, armed with the sword, but grave, experienced men, exercising authority over others, chosen out of the church, by the consent of the church, to assist the pas- tors in conducting discipline, and to alleviate their burdens." The celebrated Piscator, who held a distinguished place among the divines who adorned Germany, and maintained the Protestant cause in the sixteenth cen- tury, is equally decisive, as an advocate of the office under consideration. In his commentary on 1 Tim. V. 17, he says: — " The apostle distributes elders into two classes — those who preside in maintaining ecclesi- astical discipline but did not publicly teach, and 113 those who both taught and co-operated in ruling, and were therefore worthy of a great honour, and a more liberal support than the others." Few ministers of the Church of England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, were more distinguished for talents, learning, and piety, than Thomas Cart- wright, professor of divinity in the University of Cam- bridge, the opponent of the high prelatical claims of Archbishop Whitgift, and concerning whom the cele- brated Beza pronounced, that he thought " the sun did not shine upon a more learned man." This eminent divine, commenting on Matthew xviii. 17. Tell it unto the church, &c., thus remarks : — " Theo- phylact upon this place interpreteth. Tell the church, that is many, because this assembly taketh knowledge of this and other things by their mouths: that is, their governors. Chrysostom also saith, that to tell the church is to tell the governors thereof. It is there- fore to be understood that these governors of the church, which were set over every several assembly in the time of the law, w^ere of two sorts ; for some had the handling of the word; some other watching against the offences of the church, did, by common counsel with the ministers of the word, take order against the same. Those governing elders are divers times in the story of the gospel made mention of under the title of ' rulers of the synagogue.' And this manner of government, because it was to be translated into the church of Christ under the gospel, our Saviour, by the order at that time used among the Jews, de~ clareth what after should be done in his church. Agreeably hereunto, the apostle both declared the Lord's ordinance in his behalf, and put the same in practice, in ordaining to every several church, beside the ministry of the word, certain of the chiefest men which should assist the work of the Lord's building. This was also faithfully practised of the churches after the apostles' times, as long as they remained in any good and allowable soundness of doctrine. And being 2 K 114 fallen from the churches, especially from certain of them, the want thereof is sharply and bitterly cast into the teeth of the church's teachers, — by whose ambi- tion that came to pass."* And as proof of this, the author quotes in the margin that very passage of Ambrose cited in the preceding section, and which has alwa3^s given so much trouble to Prelatists and Independents. The same writer, in his second reply to Whitgift, speaking of the class of elders under consideration, expresses himself thus : — " For proof of these church elders, which being occupied in the government had nothing to do with the word, the testimony of Am- brose is so clear and open, that he which doth not give place unto it must needs be thought as a bat, or an owl, or some other night-bird, to delight in darkness. His saying is, that the elders fell away by the ambi- tion of the doctors ; whereby opposing the elders to doctors which taught, he plainly declareth that they had not to do with the word : whereupon it is mani- fest that it was the use, in the best Reformed churches, certain hundred years after the times of the apostles, to have an eldership which meddled not with the word, nor administration of sacraments.f The testimony of the Rev. Richard Greenham, a divine of the Church of England, who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and who was greatly revered both for his learning and piety, is very une- quivocal and pointed on this subject. It is in these words: — "The Apostle St. Paul doth notably amplify the honour due to the true and faithful minister. The elders that rule well, (saith he,) let them be had in double honour, specially they which labour in the word and doctrine, 1 Timothy v. 17. As if he should say, let those elders which are appointed to watch and look to the manners and behaviour of the children of God, * Cartwright's Commentary on the New Testament — against the Rhemists. f Second reply. Part second, p. 44. 4to. 1577. 115 if they execute this charge faithfully, be had in double honour ; but above all let the faithful ministers, such as labour in the word be honoured : for why ? the other are overseers of your outward behaviour, but these have another manner of office ; they watch over your souls which tendeth to the salvation both of body and soul." And again, — " The rulers of the church are called the church to whom discipline appertaineth. Not the whole campany of the Jews, but the rulers of the Synagogue are called the church of the Jews."* The celebrated Estius, the learned Popish expositor and Professor at Douay, in his commentary on 1 Tim. V. IT, delivers the following opinion : — " From this pas- sage it may manifestly be gathered that in the time of the apostles there were certain presbyters in the church who ruled well, and were worthy of double honour, and who yet did not labour in the word and doc- trine; neither do the heretics of the present day (mean- ing the Protestants) deny this." And in speaking of the establishment of this class of elders in Geneva, about half a century before he wrote, he seems only to blame Calvin for considering and styling them laymen. He expresses a decisive opinion that the elders spoken of by Paul in this place were ecclesiastical men, set apart by ecclesiastical rites, and devoted to eccle- siastical duties ; but they did not preach. And he explicitly acknowledges that Ambrose, in the fourth century, speaks of such elders as having existed long before his day. It is worthy of remark, that the same learned Romanist, in another work, not only avows, in the most distinct manner, his belief in the apostolic appointment of non-preaching elders, and quotes 1 Tim. V. 17, in support of his opinion ; but he also refers to Jerome and Augustine as witnesses to the same fact.f The opinion of the learned Professor Whitaker, a * Works, pp. 352. 842. fol. 1612. f Estii Sententiarum Commentaria. Lib. iv. Par. 2. Sect. 21. 116 divine of the Church of England, who flourished in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as to the true meaning of 1 Tmothy v. 17, was given at length in a preceding page. The same distinguished divine, in writing against Dury, expresses himself thus concerning the office under consideration : — "Art thou so ignorant as not to know that in the Church of Christ there ought to be elders who should devote themselves to the work of government alone, and not to the administration of the word or sacraments, as we are taught in 1 Tim. V. 17?"* To these testimonies might be added many more, from learned men of the same distinguished character with those already mentioned, and to the same effect. Chemnitius of Germany; Salmasius of Holland; Marloratus and Danaeus, of France ; Hemmingius of Denmark, f — with a long list of similar names, might all be cited as warm advocates of the class of elders under consideration, and almost all of them decisive advocates of its divine authority. Nor are these individual suffrages, though numerous and unequivocal, all that can be alleged in favour of our cause. The great body of the Protestant churches, when they came to organize their several systems in a state of separation from the Papacy and from each other, differing as they did in many other respects, were almost unanimous in adopting and maintaining the office of ruling elder. Instead of this office being confined, as many appear to suppose, to the ecclesias- tical establishments of Geneva and Scotland, it was generally introduced with the Reformation, by Lu- therans as well as Calvinists, and is generally retained to the present day in almost all the Protestant churches excepting that of England. Those of France, Ger- many, Holland, Switzerland, &c., received this class * Contra Durseum, Lib. ix. p. 807. f See these writers, as well as a nurabor of others, referred to in the Politicse Ecclesiasticae of Voetius, par. ii. lib. ii. tract, iii. 117 of elders early, and expressly represented them in their public confessions, as founded on the word of God. It is probably safe to affirm, that at the period of the Reformation, more than three-fourths of the whole Protestant world declared in favour of this office, not merely as expedient, but as warranted by Scripture, and as necessary to the order and edification of the church. Does all this, it may be confidently asked, look like the office in question being a mere Genevan innovation ? How shall we reconcile with this extraordinary position the undoubted fact that Lutherans and Reformed in every part of Europe, those who never saw Calvin as well as those who were within the sphere of his ac- quaintance and influence ; nay, some of those who died before the illustrious Reformer of Geneva ever appeared at all, either as a writer or preacher, — are found among the decisive, zealous advocates of the office in question, and quoting, as of conclusive authority in its favour, the principal passages of Scripture, and the principal Father, relied on by Presbyterians to establish its apostolical warrant, and its actual existence in the early ages of the ancient church ? Truly it is difficult to conceive how any one who seriously and impartially weighs these facts, can resist the impression that an Institution, in behalf of which so many eminently learned and pious men of different and distant countries, without concert with each other, and without any com- mon interest to serve, in reference to this matter, have so remarkably concurred in opinion, must have some solid foundation both in the inspired volume, and in the nature and necessities of the church. CHAPTER VII. TESTIMONY OF EMINENT DIVINES SINCE THE TIME OF THE REFORMERS. While we justly attach so much importance to the persons and services of the Reformers, and recur with the deepest reverence to their opinions, we owe scarcely less respect to the judgment of a number of other men who have lived since their time, and of whom the world was not worthy; — men whose testimony can never be quoted but with veneration, and whose charac- ters give an ample pledge of research, at once profound and honest. To the decision of a few of these illustrious men on the subject before us, the attention of the reader is respectfully requested. The decisive opinion of Dr. Owen, undoubtedly one of the greatest divines that ever adorned the British nation, in favour of the scriptural warrant of the office of ruling elder was given in a preceding section, and need not now be repeated. I may however add, that the more weight ought to be attached to this opinion on account of Dr. Owen's ecclesiastical connections, which, as is well known, were by no means adapted to give him a bias on the side of Presbyterian order. The venerable and eminently pious Richard Bax- ter was no Presbyterian. Yet he expresses himself in 119 the following very unequivocal language on the subject under consideration. When I plead that the order of subject presbyters (or lay-elders) was not instituted in Scripture times, and consequently that it is not of divine institution, I mean that, as a distinct office, or species of church ministers, it is not a divine institution, nor a lawful institution of man ; but that among men in the same office, some might prudentially be chosen to an eminency of degree, as to the exercise ; and that, according to the difference of their advantages, there might be a disparity in the use of their authority and gifts, I think was done in Scripture times, and might have been after, if it had not then. And my judgment is, that ordinaril}', every particular church (such as our parish churches are) had more elders than one, but not such store of men of eminent gifts, as that all these elders could be such. But as if half a dozen of the most judicious persons of this parish were ordained to be elders of the same office with myself; but be- cause they are not equally fit for public preaching, should most employ themselves in the rest of the oversight, consenting that the public preaching lie most upon me, and that I be the moderator of them, for order in cir- cumstantials. This I think was the true Episcopacy and presbytery of the first times."* Although it may be doubted whether this venerable man be correct in his whole view of this subject, yet it will be observed by every attentive reader, that in main- taining the existence of a plurality of elders in each church in primitive times, and that a great part of these elders were not in fact employed in preaching, but in inspecting and ruling, he concedes every thing that can be deemed essential in relation to the office which we are considering. The Puritan Congregationalists of England, about the year 1605, in the summary of their faith and order, entitled English Puritanism, drawn up by the * Disputations of Church Goyernment. — Advertisement, pp. 4, 5, 4to. 1659. 1^0 venerable Mr. Bradshaw, translated into Latin for the benefit of the foreign Protestants by the learned Dr. Ames, and intended to express the sense of the general body of the Puritans, speak thus on the subject of ruling elders. " Since even in the best constituted churches, they know that not a few enormous offences will arise, which, if not timely met, will do injury both to those who believe, and those who are inquiring; while, at the same time, they see that the authority of a single per- son in a parish, resembling the papal, is contrary to the will of Christ : they think, as the case itself re- quires, and as appointed of God, that others also should be selected from the church, as officers, who may be associated with the ministers in the spiritual government." " These are inspectors, £?r/r/^>jTa/, a kind of censors, whose duty it is, together with the ministers of the word, as well to watch over the conduct of all the brethren, as to judge between them. And they think that this office is instituted that each may take the more heed to himself and his ways, while the ministers enjoy more leasure for study and devotion, and obtain, through the assistance of their coadjutors, a more accurate view of the state of the flock ; since it is the peculiar duty of the inspectors to be always watchful over the manners and conduct of all the members of the church." " To this office they think that none should be pre- ferred but men very eminent for gravity and prudence ; established in the faith; of tried integrity; whose sanc- tity of life and upright example are well known to the whole society." In the choice of these elders, respect should always be had to their outward circumstances. They should be able to support themselves in some repectable manner; though it will not be an objection to them 121 that they pursue some mechanical art, provided they be morally qualified."* Nor were these venerable men the only Independents who declared, in the most decisive manner, in favour of this class of officers. The celebrated Dr. Thomas Goodwin, oneof the Westminster Assembly of Divines, and who is styled by Anthony A. Wood, a very " atlas and patriarch of Independency," is well known to have been one of the most learned and influential Independents of the seventeenth century, and one of the most voluminous and instructive writers of his class. In his " Church Order explained, in a way of Catechism," the following passage occurs; — " What sort of bishops hath God set in his church ?" Answer. Two; some pastors and teachers; some ruling elders, under two heads ; some labour in word and doctrine, and of those, some are pastors, some teachers ; others rule only, and labour not in the word and doctrine." Again ; What is the office and work of the ruling elder ? Answer. Seeing the kingdom of God is not of this world, but heavenly and spiritual, and the government of his kingdom is notlorldly, but stewardly and ministerial ; and to labour in the ministry of ex- hortation and doctrine is the proper work of the pas- tors and teachers ; it remaineth, therefore, to be the office and work of the ruling elders to assist the pas- tors and teachers in diligent attendance to all other aids of rule besides exhortation and doctrine, as be- cometh good stewards of the household of God. As, first, to open and shut the doors of God's house, by admission of members, by ordination of officers, by ex- communication of notorious and obstinate offenders. Secondly ; to see that none live in the church inordin- atety, without a calling, or idle in their calling. Thirdly ; to prevent and heal offences whether in life or doctrine, that might corrupt their own church, or other churches. Fourthly; to prepare matters for the * Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 44.9. 4to. edit. L church's consideration, and to moderate the carriage of all matters in the church assemblies. Finally, to feed the flock of God by a word of admonition, and, as they shall be called, to visit and pray with their sick brethren. The ground of all this is laid down in Romans xii. 8. where the apostle, besides him who exhorteth and teacheth, maketh mention of another officer, who ruleth with diligence, and is distinct from the pastors and teachers, and that is the sum of his work to rule with diligence. Thus you see the whole duly of these ruling elders, and how they are to assist the pastors and teachers in all other acts of rule besides word and doc- trine. Use 1. From hence observe the great bounty of God unto pastors and teachers, that God hath not left them alone in the church, as Martha complains to Christ that Mary had left her alone to serve : the min- isters of the church have no such cause to complain : for, as he gave the Levites to the priests to help them in their service, so hath he given ruling elders to such as labour in the word and doctrine, that they might have assistance from them in ruling the church of God. Use 2. It may serve to answer a cavil that some have against this office, who say, that if God hath given these officers to the church, he would then have set down the limits of these officers, and not have sent them forth with illimited power. To which it is answered, that their power is strongly limited, as a stewardly or ministerial power and office. It is the power of the keys, which Christ hath expressed in his word, and it consisteth in those things that have been spoken of God's house, to open and shut the doors of God's house, by admission of members, &c. This is such a rule as is no small help to the spirits and hearts of those who labour in doctrine ; and no small help it is also to the whole church of God ; and when they are wanting, many evils will grow, and those without the possibility of redress and amendment, much idleness, much con- fusion, many offences. Though other ministers have 123 been in the church, we may see how much, in the want of these officers, the churches have been corrupted."* The character of the Rev. Thomas Hooker, one of the most learned and pious fathers of New-England, and a distinguished advocate of Independency, is too well known to require remark. In his work entitled *' A Survey of Church Discipline," &c., he speaks thus of the office under consideration : — " We begin with the ruling elder's place, for that carries a kind of sim- plicity with it. There be more ingredients required to make up the office of pastor and doctor; and therefore we shall take leave to trade in the first, quo simplicius ac prius. That there is such an office and officer ap- pointed by Christ, as the Scriptures are plain to him whose spirit and apprehension is not possessed and fore- stalled with prejudice, the first argument we have from Romans xii. 7, which gives in witness to this truth, where all these officers are numbered and named expressly. The second argument is taken from 1 Cor. xii. 28. The scope of the place, and the apostle's in- tendment is, to lay open the several offices and officers that the Lord hath set in his church, and so many chief members out of which the church is constituted as an entire body." And after making some other remarks for the right discovery of the apostle's proceed- ing and purpose, he adds: — " From which premises, the dispute issues thus : — As apostles, prophets, and teachers are distinct, so are helps and governments distinct : for the spirit puts them in the same ranks, as having a parity of reason which appertains to them all. But they were distinct offices, and found in persons as distinct officers, as verse 30 — Are all apostles ? Are all teachers ? Therefore, the same is true of gover- nors. A third argument is taken from the famous place, 1 Timothy v. 17, which is full to our purpose in hand, and intended by the Holy Spirit of the Lord to make * Church order explained, &c., pages 16, 19, 22; to be found in the 4th vol of his Works, four vols. fol. London, 1697. 124 evident the station and office of ruling elders, unto the end of the world."* The praise of the Rev. John Cotton, one of the most distinguished of the first ministers of New-England, was in all the churches in his time. In a small work entitled " Questions and Answers on Church Govern- ment, begun 25th Nov. 1634," the following passages occur :^ — " Q. What sorts of ministers or officers hath God set in his Church ? A, The ministers and officers of the Church are some of them extra ordinary, as apos- tles, prophets, evangelists ; some ordinary, as bishops, and deacons. Q. What sorts of bishops hath God ordained in his Church ? A, There are three sorts of them, according as there be three sorts of elders in the Church, though under two heads ; some pastors, some teachers, some ruling elders. That is to say, such elders as labour in the word and doctrine, and such as rule in the Church of God ; 1 Tim. i. 13 ; 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; Rom. xii. 7, 8 ; 1 Tim. v. 17. Q. What is the work of a ruling elder ? A. Seeing the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, but heavenly and spiritual; and the government of his kingdom is not lordly, but stewardly, and ministerial ; and to labour in the ad- ministration of exhortation and doctrine, is the proper work of pastor and teacher ; it remains to be the office of the ruhng elder to assist the pastor and teacher in all other acts of rule besides, as becomes good stewards of the household of God. And, therefore, to put in- stances, as, First; To open and shut the doors of God's house, by admission of members, by ordination of officers, by excommunication of notorious and obstinate offenders. Secondly; To see that none live in the Church inordinately, without a calling, or idly in their calling. Thirdly; To prevent or heal offences. Four- thly; To prepare matters for the Church's considera- tion, and to moderate the carriage of all things in the Church assemblies. Fifthly; To feed the flock of God * Survey &c., part ii. pp. 6, 8, 10, 11 ; 4to London, 1648. 125 with the word of admonition, and, as they shall be called, to visit and pray over the sick brethren."* The venerable John Davenport, it is well known, held a distinguished place among the early lights of the Massachusets and Connecticut churches. In a treatise entitled " The Power of Congregational Churches asserted and vindicated, &c.," although his plan did not require, or even admit, that he should treat expressly and at length on the officers of the church; yet he repeatedly, and in the most unequivocal manner alludes to the office of ruling elder, as belonging to the church by divine appointment ; as altogether distinct from the office of both teaching elder and deacon ; and as being of indispensible importance to the edification of the church.f Nor are these the sentiments of detached indivi- duals merely. They were adopted and published, about the same time, by public bodies, in the most solemn manner. In a work entitled, "Church Govern- ment, and Church Covenant Discussed, in an answer of the elders of the several Churches of New-England, to two-and- thirty questions sent over to them by divers ministers in England, to declare their judgment thereon," — in this treatise ruling elders are spoken of as of divine institution, and as actually existing, at the time, in the churches of New-England. The fifteenth question is : — " Whether do you give the ex- ercise of all church power of government to the whole church, or to the presbyters thereof alone?" To which it is answered : — " We do believe that Christ hath ordained that there should be a presbytery or eldership, I Tim. iv. 14 ; and that in every church, Titus i. 5 ; Acts xiv. 28 ; 1 Cor. xi. 28 ; whose work is to teach and rule the church, by the word and laws * A Treatise, 1. Of Faith; 2. Twelve Fundamental Articles of Christian Reli^on ; 3. A Doctrinal Conclusion ; 4. Questions and Answers on Church Government, — pp. 20, 21. f The power of Congregational Churches, &c. pp. 56, 81, 94, 115. 12mo. London, 1672. 9 T U6 of Christ, 1 Tim. v. 17, and unto whom, as teaching and ruling, all the people ought to be obedient, and submit themselves; Heb. xiii. 17. And, therefore, a government merely popular, or democratical, (which divines and orthodox writers do so much condemn, in Morillius, and such like,) is far from the practice of these churches, and, we believe, far from the mind of Christ." The twenty-third question is, " What au- thority or eminency have your preaching elders above your sole ruling elders ; or are they both equal ? Answer. It is not the manner of elders among us, whether ruling only, or ruling and teaching also, to strive for authority or pre-eminence one above another. As for the people's duty toward their elders, it is taught them plainly in that place, 1 Thess. v. 12, 13, as also in that of 1 Tim. v. 17 ; and this word (especially) show^s them that, as they are to account all their elders worthy of double honour, so in special manner their teaching or preaching elders."* But there is another testimony of the same class, of still higher authority. In a volume entitled, " The Result of three Synods, held by the Elders and Mes- sengers of the Churches of Massachusets Province, New-England," there is -abundant evidence to the same effect. .These Synods met in 1648, 1662, and 1679. Each of them was called by the general court, or legislature of the province, and the results published by the court, with their sanction. The Synod of 1648, consisting of the divines of Massachusets and Connecticut, and which drew up what is commonly known as the Cambridge Platform, distinctly recognized the office under consideration as of divine aJDpointment. It speaks as follows, (chapter vii.) " The ruling elder's office is distinct from the office of pastor and teacher. Ruling elders are not so called to exclude the pastors and teachers from ruling: because ruling and government is common to these * The Power of Congreg-ational Churches, &c. p. 47, 48, 76, 1^7 with the other : whereas attending to teach and preach the word, is pecuhar unto the former; Romans xii. 7, 8, 9; 1 Timothy v. 17; 1 Corinthians xii. 27; Heb- rews xiii. 17." The Synod of 1679 gave its sanction most unequivo- cally to the same doctrine ; not only by unanimously renewing their approbation of the Platform of 1648, but also by new acts of the most decisive character. Two questions proposed to the Synod of 1679 were, first, What are the evils that have provoked the Lord to bring his judgments on New-England? Secondly, What is to be done, that so many evils may be removed ? In their answer to the second question, the Synod say, ' It is requisite that the utmost endea- vours should be used, in order to a full supply of offi- cers in the church, according to Christ's institution. The defect of these churches on this account, is very lamentable ; there being, in most of the churches, only one teaching officer for the burdens of the whole con- gregation to lie upon. The Lord Christ would not have instituted pastors, teachers, and ruling elders, (nor the apostles ordained elders in every church,) if he had not seen that there was need of them for the good of his people. And, therefore, for men to think they can do well enough without them, is both to break the second commandment, and to reflect upon the wis- dom of Christ, as if he did appoint unnecessary offices in his church."* It may not be improper to add, that this Synod, assembled in consequence of the " general court of the colony having called upon all the churches therein to send their elders and messengers, that they might meet in form of a Synod, in order to a most serious inquiry into the questions propounded to them; and that the result, when proposed, was read once and again, each paragraph being duly and distinctly weighed in ' the balance of the sanctuary,' and then. * Result of Three Synods, &c., p. 109. 128 upon mature deliberation, the whole unanimously voted, as to the substance and scope thereof."* It is well known that in the Westminster Assembly of Divines there was a small number of learned and zeal- ous Independents, who opposed some of the most prominent features in the presbyterian form of govern- ment with much ardour and pertinacity, and who pro- tracted the debates respecting them for many weeks. But it is equally well known, that all the most able of those divines were warm advocates of the office of ruling elder, not only as a useful office, but as of divine institution. The recorded opinion of one of them, the Rev. Dr. Goodwin, has been already stated. No less pointed in maintaining the same opinion were Messieurs Bridge, Burroughs, and Nye, form- ing, with Dr. Goodwin, a majority of the whole num- ber. And, acccordingly, in their "Reasons against the Third Proposition concerning Presbyterial Govern- ment," they admit, that " the scripture says much of two sorts of elders, teaching and ruling; and in some places so plain, as if of purpose to distinguish them ; and, further, that the whole Reformed churches had these different elders. "f The following very explicit extract from the well known work of the learned Herbert Thorndike, (a divine of the Church of England,) on "Religious As- semblies," chapter iv. p. 117, will show his opinion on the subject before us. Speaking of the language of the apostle in 1 Cor. xii. 28, he says: — " There is no reason to doubt that the men whom the apostle here calleth doctors, are those of the presbyters which had the abilities of preaching and teaching the people at their assemblies ; that those of the presbyters that preached not, are here called by the apostle govern- ments." The following remarks of the Rev. Cotton Mather. * Preface, pp. 5, 6. t Reasons, &c. pp. 3, 40. 129 well known as an eminent congregation alist of Mas- sachusets, and author of the Magnalia Christi Ame- ricana, have too much point, and convey too much instruction, to be omitted in this list of testimonies. " There are some who cannot see any such officer as what we call a ruling elder, directed and appointed in the Word of God; and partly through a prejudice against the office ; and partly, indeed chiefly, through a penury of men well qualified for the discharge of it : as it has been heretofore understood and applied, our churches are now generally destitute of such helps in government. But unless a church have divers elders, the church government must needs become either prelatic or popular. And that a church's needing but one elder, is an opinion, contrary not only to the sense of the faithful in all ages, but also to the law of the scriptures, where there can be nothing plainer than elders who rule well, and are worthy of double honour, though they do not labour in the word and doctrine : whereas, if there were any teaching elders, who do not labour in the word and doctrine, they would be so far from worthy of double honour, that they would not be worthy of any honour at all. Towards the adjusting of the difference which has thus been in the judgments of judicious men, some essays have been made, and one particularly in such terms as these. Let it be first recognized, that all the other church officers are the assistants of the pastor, who was himself intrusted with the whole care of all, until the further pity and kind- ness of our Lord Jesus Christ joined other officers unto him for his assistance in it. I suppose none will be so absurd as to deny this at least, that all the church officers are to take the advice of the pastor with them. Upon which I subjoin, that a man may be a distinct officer from his pastor, and yet not have a distinct office from him. The pastor may be the ruling elder, and yet he may have elders to assist him in ruling, and in the actual discharge of some things which they are able and proper to be serviceable to him in. This 130 consideration being laid, I will persuade myself every pastor among us will allow me, that there is much work to be done for God in preparing of what belongs to the admission and exclusion of church members ; in carefully inspecting the way and walk of them all, and the first appearance of evil with them ; in preventing the very beginnings of ill blood among them, and in- structing of all from house to house, more privately, and warning of all persons unto the things more peculiarly incumbent on them: in visiting all the afflicted, and informing of, and consulting with the ministers, for the welfare of the whole flock. And they must allow me, that this work is too heavy for any one man ; and that more than one man, yea all our churches, do suffer beyond measure, because no more of this work is thoroughly performed. More- over, they will acknowledge to me, that it is an usual thing with a prudent and faithful pastor himself to single out some of the more grave, solid, aged brethren in his congregation to assist him in many parts of this work, on many occasions in a year ; nor will such a pastor, ordinarily, do any important thing in his government without having first heard the counsels of such brethren. In short, there are few discreet pastors but what make many occasional ruling elders every year. I say, then, suppose the church, by a vote, re- commend some such brethren, the fittest they have, and always more than one, unto the stated assistance of their pastor in the church rule, wherein they may be helps unto him, — I do not propose that they should be biennial, or triennial only, though 1 know very famous churches throughout Europe have them so; yea, and what if they should by solemn fasting and prayer be commended unto the benediction of God in what service they have to do, — what objection can be made against the lawfulness? I think none can be made against the usefulness of such a thing. Truly, for my part, — if the fifth chapter of the first epistle to Timothy would not bear me out, when conscience, 131 both of my duty and my weakness, made me desire such assistance, I would see whether the first chapter of Deuteronomy would not."* After these strong attestations in favour of the office of ruling elder from the most pious and learned of the early Independents, or Congregationalists, of New-England — it will naturally occur to every reader, as an interesting question, how it came to pass that churches which once unanimously held such opinions, laid so much stress on them, and practised accordingly, for about three-fourths of a century, should have long since as unanimously discontinued the office ? The first company of emigrants in 1620, brought a ruling elder with them ; and the office was universally re- tained for many years afterwards. Yet in 1702, when Dr. Cotton Mather published the first edition of his Magnalia, it had been, as would seem from the quotation just made, in a great measure laid aside; and before the middle of the eighteenth century, it had entirely disappeared from the churches of New- Eng- land. A well informed and discerning friend has suggested that the chief reason of this remarkable fact is probably to be traced to another fact alluded to in the following extract. In a small volume printed in Bos- ton, in 1700, and entitled, "The Order of the Gospel, professed and practised by the Churches of Christ in New-England, &c.;" by Increase Mather, President of Harvard College, and teacher of a church in Boston, — in this work, one of the questions discussed is, " Whether or not our brethren, and not the elders of the churches only, are to judge concerning the qualifications and fitness of those who are admitted into their communion?" In answering it, he says: — "If only elders have power to judge who are fit to come to the sacrament, or to join to the churches, then, in case there is but one elder in a church, (as there are very few churches in New-England that have more elders * Magnalia, &c. Book v. part ii. p. 206, 207, 8to. edition, p. 1820. 182 than one,) the sole power will reside in that one man's hands."* On this passage, the friend above referred to remarks, " I am inclined to think that he here means ruling elders; for, 1. Several churches (whether in consequence of the recommendation of the Synod of 1679, I do not know) had then two ministers. 2. This question and answer of Dr. I. Mather's is annexed to a reprint in Boston (now lying before me) of ' A Vin- dication of the divine authority of ruling elders in the Church of Christ asserted by the ministers and elders, met together in a provincial assembly, Nov. 2d. 1649, and printed in London, 1650.' But whether this was his meaning or not, it is abundantly evidentfrom various other sources, that the churches of New-England, while they retained the office of ruling elder, had but one such elder at a time, and his business was especially to attend to discipline. The office was, of course, an unwelcome one ; and it became more and more difficult to find men wiUing to assume it." It appears, then, that our excellent brethren, the Puritan Independents, while they zealously maintained the divine warrant, and the great importance of the ruling elder's office, misapprehended its real nature, and placed it under an aspect, before the churches, evidently adapted to discredit and destroy it. Instead of appointing a plurality of these ruling elders, they seldom or never had more than one in each church; and instead of uniting the pastor with him, and forming a regular judicial bench for regulating the affairs of the church, they seemed to have placed each in a sphere entirely separate and independent of each other ; nay, to have made the offices of teacher and ruler wear an appearance of being rivals for influence and power. Certain it is, that the views entertained by each of his proper department of duty often, in fact, brought them into collision, and made the situation of the ruler both uncomfortable and useless. Can it be matter of surprise, * Order of the Gospel, &c, p. 25. 133 that, in these circumstances, the office of ruling elder in the congregational churches of New-England gained but little favour with the body of the people, that it came to be considered as at once odious and useless, would be undertaken by few, and, at length, fell into entire disuse ? The testimony of the Rev. Dr. John Edwards, an eminently pious and learned divine of the Church of England, who flourished during the latter half of the seventeenth century, is equally decisive in favour of this office. His language is as follows : — " This office of a ruling elder is according to the practice of the church of God among the Jews, his own people. It is certain that there was this kind of elders under that economy. — There were two sorts of elders among the Jews, the ruling ones, who go- verned in their assemblies and synagogues, and the teaching ones who read and expounded the Scriptures. Accordingly Dr. Lightfoot, in his harmony of the New Testament, inclines to interpret 1 Timothy v. 17, of the elders in the Christian congregations, who answer to the lay-elders in the Jewish Synagogue. For this learned writer, who was well versed in the Jewish customs and practices, tells us, that in every synagogue among the Jews, there were elders that ruled chiefly in the affairs of the synagogue, and other elders that laboured in the word and doctrine." " And so it was in the Christian Church ; there was a mixture of clergy and laity in their consults about church matters, as we see frequently in the Acts of the Apostles. The Christian Church retained this usage, for which they quote St. Augustine's 137th Epistle, where he mentions the clergy and the elders, and the people. So in his third book against Cresco- nius, he mentions deacons and seniors, that is lay- elders, for he distinguishes them from other presby- ters. One of his Epistles to his Church in Hippo is thus superscribed, ' To the Clergy and the Elders.* See chapter 56th, in the fore-named book against Cres- M 134 conius, where he mentions Peregrinus the Presbyter, and the Elders (Seniores.)* And nothing can be plainer than that of St. Ambrose — ' Both the syna- gogue and, afterwards, the church had their elders, without whose counsel nothing was done in the church, &c.' Further, we read of these seniors in the writings of Optatus p. 41, and in the epistles annexed to him, which the reader may consult. Thus it appears that this was an ancient office in the church, and not invented by Calvin, as some have thought and writ."f " And then as to the reason of the thing, there should be no ground of quarrelling with this office in the church seeing it is useful. It was instituted for the ease of the preaching elders, that they might not be overburdened with business, and that they might more conveniently apply themselves to that employment which is purely ecclesiastical and spiritual. Truly if there was no such office mentioned in the Scripture, we might reasonably wish for such a one, it being so useful and serviceable to the great purposes of religion. What can be more desirable than that there should be one or more appointed to observe the conversation of the flock in order to the exercising of discipline. The pastor himself cannot be supposed to have an eye on every one of his charge; and, therefore, it is fitting that out of those who are fellow-members, and daily converse with one another, and therefore are capable of ac- * It will not escape the notice of the discerning- reader that these testimonies from Augustine Ambrose, and Optatus, which some have ventured very unceremoniously to treat with con- tempt, whenbroug^ht forward on this subject, are regarded by this very learned Episcopalian as evidence of the most conclu- sive character. f The old and hacknied allegation, which has been the theme of high-toned Episcopalians and Independents for more than two hundred years, that Calvin invented and first intro- duced ruling elders, it will be observed is confidently rejected by this truly learned Episcopal Divine, who, from his ecclesi- astical connection, cannot be supposed to have had any other inducement to adopt the opinion which he has expressed than his love of truth. 135 quainting themselves with their manners and behaviour, there should be chosen these elders I am speaking of, to inspect the carriage and deportment of the flock."* The judgment of the Rev. Dr. Jerome Kromayer, a very learned Lutheran divine, and Professor of Di- vinity in the University of Leipsic, who lived in the seventeenth century, is very decisive in favour of the apostolical institution of ruling elders. " Of presby- ters, or elders," says he, " there were formerly two kinds, those who taught, and those who exercised the office of rulers in the church. This is taught in 1 Timothy v. 17 : Let the elders that rule well be accounted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. The latter were the same as our ministers ; the former, were like the members of our consistories."f A similar testimony may be adduced from Frede^ ric Baldwin, another distinguished Lutheran divine and professor of the same century, who is no less decisive in favour of the class of officers under consi- deration. J The celebrated John Casper Suicer, an eminently learned German divine and professor, in his The- saurus Ecclesiasticus, after speak'ing particularly of teaching presbyters or elders, in the first place, pro- ceeds to speak of another class of elders, who (he says,) " chosen from among the people, (or laity,) are united with the pastors, or ministers of the word, that they may be guardians of the discipline of the church. To these the Apostle Paul refers in 1 Timothy v. IT, where, by the elders who labour in the word and doctrine, he evidently understands that class of elders of which we have spoken in the preceding section ; and * Theologia Reformata, vol. i. Ninth Article of the Creed, pp. 526, 528. f Historia Ecclesiastica, auctore Hieronymo Kj'omayero, D.D. S.S. T. D. in Acad. Leips. 4to. p. 59. % Fred. Balduini Institut. Ministrorum, Verbi cap. 10. 136 by those who rale well, he plainly refers to the class of which we now speak. For if he had intended to speak of only one class, why did he add, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine ? This class are also designated by the term Tc^oigrocf^suovg, in Romans xii. 8, and by the term y^vfBs^vweis, in 1 Corinthians xii. 29."* The very explicit testimony of Dr. Whitby, of the Church of England, was produced in a preceding chapter, when we were discussing the scriptural evi- dence in favour of the office under consideration. It need not, therefore, here be repeated, excepting simply to remind the reader of its decisive character. The concessions also of Bishop Fell, the Rev. Mr. Marshall, and the celebrated Mr. Dodwell, of the same church, will also in this connection be borne in mind. They may be found in the fourth chapter, in connection with the testimony from the fathers. The pious and exellent Dr. Watts, though not a presbyterian, must be considered as indirectly doing homage to this part of the presbyterian system, when he says, (in his Treatise on the Foundation of the Christian Church, p. 125,) " If it happens that there is but one minister or presbyter in a church, or if the ministers are young men of small experience in the world, it is useful and proper that some of the eldest, gravest, and wisest members be deputed by the churchy to join with and assist the ministers in the care and management of that afFair, (the admission and exclu- sion of members.") The Rev. Dr. Doddridge, universally known as an eminently learned and pious divine of England, of the Independent denomination, in reference to the office in question speaks thus : — " It seems to be solidly argued, from 1 Timothy v. 17, that there were in the primitive church, some elders who did not use to preach. No- thing very express is said concerning them : only it seems to be intimated, James v. 14, that they prayed * Suiceri Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus, Art. n^sffCi/rg^of. 137 with the sick. It may be very expedient, even on the principles of human prudence, to appoint some of the more grave and honourable members of the society to join with the pastor in the oversight of it, who may constitute a kind of council with him, to deliberate on affairs in which the society is concerned, and prepare them for being brought before the church for its decision, to pray with the sick, to reconcile dif- ferences, &c."* The same distinguished WTiter, in his commentary on 1 Timothy v. 17, has the following remark : — " Es- pecially they who labour, &c. This seems to intimate that there were some who, though they presided in the church were not employed in preaching, Limborch, indeed, is of opinion that y-oTriauTsg signifies those who did even fatigue themselves with their extraordinary labours, which some might not do, who yet in the general presided well, supposing preaching to be a part of their work. But it seems to be much more natural to follow the former interpretation." The celebrated Professor Neander, of Berlin, was mentioned in a preceeding chapter as probably the most profoundly learned Christian antiquarian now living. In addition to the quotation from him pres- ented in that chapter, the following, from the same work, is worthy of notice. " That the name i'TriTKOTrog, was of the same significa- tion with '7r^i(r(ivr^o?, is manifest from those places in the New Testament where these words are exchanged the one for the other; Acts xx. 17, 28. Tit. i. 5, 7; and from those passages where, after the office of bishop, that of deacon is mentioned ; so that no other office can be imagined between them. If the name t'^iaKOTTog had been used to distinguish any of these elders from the rest, as a ruler in the church senate, a primus inter pares this use of it interchangeably with 'TT^sfffBvrs^og would not have obtained." * Lectures on Divinity, Proposition 150, Scholinm 5th. 2 M 138 " These presbyters, or bishops, had the oversight of the whole church, in all its general concerns ; but the office of teaching was not appropriated exclusively to them ; for, as we have above remarked, all Christians had a right to speak in their meetings for the edifica- tion of the members. It does not follow from this, however, that all the church members were capable of giving instruction : and it is important to distin- guish a faculty for instruction which was under the command of an individual, from the miraculous and sudden impulses of inspiration, as in prophecy, and the gift of tongues; and which might be bestowed upon those not remarkably favoured by natural gifts. The care of the churches, the preservation and extension of pure evangelical truth, and the defence of it against the various forms of error, which early appeared could not be left entirely to depend upon these extraordinary and often transient impulses. The weakness of human nature to which was committed the treasure of the gospel, as in ' earthen vessels,' seemed to render it necessary that there should be, in every church, some possessed of the natural endowments necessary to in- truct their brethren in the truth, to warn and exhort them against error, and lead them forward in the way of life. Such endowments pre-suppose a previous course of instruction, clearness and acuteness of thought, and a power to communicate their ideas; and when these were present, and the Spirit of God was imparted to animate and sanctify, the man became possessed of the ' xcc^taf/^u, oi6a,(TK<^^i^f^ix. lihocQTOMTvtocg, and the situation of teachers, {liloi'ax.ctkiot,) who were distinguished by this gift, was represented as something entirely distinct and peculiar. (1 Cor. xii. 28. xiv. 6. Ephes. iv. 11.) All members of a church could, at times, speak be- 139 fore their brethren, either to call upon God, or to praise him, when so inclined ; but only a few were hlectrxxT^oi, in the full sense of that term." " It is very clear, too, that this talent for teaching, was different from that of governing, (i. e., yc^-^tafcet, x,v(is^unaiug,^ which was especially necessary for him who took his seat in the council of the church, that is for a T^iofQvri^og or sTrtcfKOTog. One might possess the know- ledge of external matters — the tact, the Christian pru- dence necessary for this duty, without the mental qualities so peculiarly desirable in a teacher. In the first apostolic church, from which every thing like mere arbitrary arangements concerning rank were very distant, and all offices were looked upon only as they promised the attainment of the great end of the Christian faith, the offices of teacher and ruler, hlcivKot.-Kog and '^oif^Yio were separated. For this distinc- tion, see Romans xii. 7, 8. In noticing this well defined distinction, we may be led to the opinion, that originally those called, by way of preference, teach- ers, did not belong to the class of rulers, or overseers. Also, it is not clearly proved that they did always belong to the class of '^^so^vrs^ot. Only this is certain — that it was considered as desirable that, among the rulers there should be those capable of teaching also. When it is enjoined upon the presbyters in general, as in the farewell of Paul to the Church of Ephesus, (Acts XX.) to watch over the church and preserve its doctrine pure, it does not necessarily follow that the duty of teaching, in its strict sense, was insisted on ; but rather a general superintendence of the affairs of that body. But when, in the epistle to Titus, it is de- manded in an s'^naKO'TrQs that he not only ' hold fast the form of sound words ' in his private capacity, but that he should be able to strengthen others therein ; to overcome opposers, and * convince gainsayers,' it seems to be implied that he should possess the ' gift of teach- ing.* This must have been, in many situations of the churches, exposed as they were to errors of every kind, 140 highly desirable. And on this account, in 1 Tim. v. 17, those among the ■7r^s(r^vrs^oi, who united the gift of teaching (B/&ao-;6aA;«t) with that of governing, (y^vfis^vmi?) were to be especially honoured. This distinction of the two gifts shows that they were not constantly or necessarily united."* - The same writer says ; — " We find another office in the apostolic times — that of deacons. The duties of this office were from the first only external, (Acts vi.,) as it seems to have taken its rise for the sole purpose of attending to the distribution of alms. The care of the poor, however, and of the sick, and many other exter- nal duties were, in process of time, imposed upon those in this station. Besides the deacons, there were also deaconesses appointed, who could have free access to the female part of the church, which was, on account of the peculiar manners of the east, denied, to a great extent, to men. Here the female had an opportunity of exercising her powers for the extension of the true faith, without overstepping the bounds of modesty and propriety, and in a field otherwise inaccessible. It was their duty, too, as experienced Christian mothers, to give advice and support to the younger women, as seems to have been the case from Tertullian, De Vir- gin. Veland. c. 9."f Only one authority more shall be adduced on this subject, and that shall be from the pen of our vener- able and eloquent countryman, the Rev. Dr. D wight, whose character for learning, talents, and piety, needs no attestation from the writer of this essay. Though himself a congregationalist, and without any other inducement to declare in favour of ruling elders, than * It is worthy of notice that this profound ecclesiastical his- torian, in another place, quotes Hilary (Ambrose) as speaking of the ruling- elders, in the synagog^ue, and in the church, and interprets him as plainly teaching- the distinction here made be- tween teaching and ruling elders, substantially as we have done in a preceding chapter. •f Kirchengeschichte. 141 that which the force of truth presented, he expresses himself concerning their office in ttie following une- quivocal terms : — " ruling elders are, in my apprehen- sion, scriptural officers of the Christian church ; and I cannot but think our defection, with respect to these officers, from the practice of the first settlers of New- England, an error in ecclesiastical government."* This array of witnesses might be greatly extended, were it proper to detain the reader with further ex- tracts. But it is presumed that those which have been produced are abundantly sufficient. It will be ob- served that no presbyterian has been cited as an au- thority in this case. The names, indeed, of multi- tudes of that denomination, might have been produced, equal to any others that can be shown on the catalogue of piety, talents, and learning. But the testimony of more impartial witnesses may be preferred. Re- course has been had, then, to those who could not possibly have been swayed by a presbyterian bias. And a sufficiency of such has been produced, it is hoped, to make a deep impression on candid minds. Romanists, Protestant Episcopalians, Lutherans and Independents, have all most remarkably concurred in vindicating an office, the due admission and scriptural use of which are, perhaps, of more importance to the best interests of the church of God, than this, or any other single volume can fully display, * Theolog-y explained and defended, vol. iv. p. 399. CHAPETR VIII. RULING ELDERS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY IN THE CHURCH. By this is meant, that the laws which Christ has appointed for the government and edification of his people, cannot possibly be executed without such a class of officers in fact, whatever name they may bear. But that which is the necessary result of a divine in- stitution, is of equal authority with the institution itself. All powers or instruments really indispensable to the faithful and plenary execution of laws which an infinitely wise Governor has enacted, must be con- sidered as implied in those laws, even should they not be formally specified. Now, all serious impartial readers of the Bible be- lieve, that, besides the preaching of the gospel, and the administration of the sacraments, there is veiy much to be done for promoting the order, purity, and edi- fication of the church, by the maintenance of a scriptural discipline. They believe that the best in- terest of every ecclesiastical community requires, that there be a constant and faithful inspection of all the members and families of the church ; that the negli- gent be admonished; that wanderers be reclaimed 143 that scandals be removed ; that irrregularities be cor- rected; that differences be reconciled; and every pro- per measure adopted to bind the whole body together by the ties of Christian purity and charity. They consider it as vitally important that there be added to the labours of the pulpit, those of teaching " from house to house," visiting the sick, conversing with serious inquirers, catechising children, learning as far as possible the character and state of every member, even the poorest and most obscure of the flock, and endeavouring, by all scriptural means, to promote the knowledge, holiness, comfort, and spiritual welfare of every individual. They believe, in fine, that none ought to be admitted to the communion of the church, without a careful examination in reference to their knowledge, orthodoxy, good moral character, and hopeful piety; that none ought to be permitted to re- main in the bosom of the church, without maintaining, in some tolerable degree, a character proper for pro- fessing Christians ; that none ought to be suspended from the enjoyment of church privileges but after a fair trial ; and that none should be finally excommuni- cated from the covenanted family of Christ, without the most patient inquiry, and every suitable effort to bring them to repentance and reformation. It is no doubt true, that the very suggestion of the necessity and importance of discipline in the church is odious to many who bear the Christian name. The worldly and careless portion of every church consider the in terpositionofecclesiastical inspection and authority, in reference to the lives and conversation of its mem- bers, as officious and offensive meddling with private concerns. They would much rather retain their ex- ternal standing as professors of religion, and, at the same time pursue their unhallowed pleasures without control. They never wish to see a minister, as such, but in the pulpit ; or any church officers in any other place than his seat in the sanctuary. To such persons, the entire absence of the class of officers for which we 144 are pleading, together with the exercise of all their appropriate functions, will be matter rather of felicita- tion than regret. Hence the violent opposition made to the introduction of ruling elders into the church of Geneva, by the worldly and licentious part of her members. And hence the insuperable repugnance to the establishment of sound and scriptural discipline, manifested so repeatedly and to this day, by some of the largest national churches of Europe. But I need not say to those who take their views of the Christian church and its real prosperity from the Bible and from the best experience, that enlightened and faithful discipline is not only important but absolutely essential to the purity and edification of the body of Christ. It ought to be regarded as one of the most precious means of grace, by which oifenders are humbled, softened, and brought to repentance; the church purged of unworthy members ; offences re- moved; the honour of Christ promoted; real Christians stimulated and improved in their spiritual course; faithful testimony borne against error and crime ; and the professing family of Christ made to appear holy and beautiful in the view of the world. Without wholesome discipline for removing offences and excluding the corrupt and profane there may be an assembly, but there cannot be a church. The truth is, the ex- ercise of a faithful watch and care over the purity of each other in doctrine, worship, and life, is one of the principal purposes for which the Christian church was established, and on account of which it is highly prized by every enlightened believer. And, I have no doubt, it may be safely affirmed, that a large part of all that is holy in the church at the present day, either in faith or practice, may be ascribed, under God, as much to sound ecclesiastical discipline as to the faithful preach- ing of the gospel. And if the maintenance of discipline be all important to the interests of true religion, it is a matter of no less importance that itbe conducted with mildness, prudence, 145 and wisdom. Rashness, precipitancy, undue severity, malice, partiality, popular fury, and attempting to en- force rules which Christ never gave, are among the many evils which have too often marked the dispensa- tion'of authority in the church, and not unfrequently defeated the great purpose of discipline. To conduct it aright is undoubtedly one of the most delicate and arduous parts of ecclesiastical administration, requiring all the piety, judgment, patience, gentleness, maturity of counsel, and prayerfulness which can be brought to bear upon the subject. Now the question is, by whom shall all these multi- plied, w^eighty, and indispensable services be performed ? Besides the arduous work of public instruction and exhortation, who shall attend to all the numberless and ever-recurring details of inspection, warning, and visita- tion, which are so needful in every Christian commun- ity ? Will any say it is the duty of the pastor of each church to perform them all ? The very suggestion is absurd. It is physically impossible for him to do it. He cannot be every where, and know every thing. He cannot perform what is expected from him, and at the same time so watch over his whole flock as to fulfil every duty which the interest of the church demands. He must " give himself to reading ;" he must prepare for the services of the pulpit ; he must discharge his various public labours ; he must employ much time in private, in instructing and counselling those who apply to him for instruction and advice; and he must act his part in the concerns of the whole church with which he is connected. Now, is it practicable for any man, how- ever diligent and active, to do all this, and at the same time to perform the whole work of inspection and go- vernment over a congregation of the ordinary size ? We might as well expect and demand any impossibil- ity ; and impossibilities the great and merciful Head of the church requires of no man. But even if it were reasonable or possible that a pastor should, alone, perform all these duties, ought he 146 to be willing to undertake them ; or ought the church to be willing to commit them to him alone ? We know that ministers are subject to the same frailties and im- perfections with other men. We know, too, that a love of pre-eminence and of power is not only natural to them, in common with others; but that this principle very early after the days of the apostles, began to mani- fest itself as the reigning sin of ecclesiastics, and pro- duced, first Prelacy, and afterwards Popery, which has so long and so ignobly enslaved the Church of Christ. Does not this plainly show the folly and danger of yielding undefined power to pastors alone ? Is it wise or safe to constitute one man a despot over a whole church? Is it proper to intrust to a single individual the weighty and complicated work of inspecting, trying, judging, admitting, condemning, excluding, and restor- ing, without control ? Ought the members of a church to consent that all their rights and privileges, in reference to Christian communion, should be subject to the will of a single man, as his partiality, kindness, and favour- itism, on the one hand, or his caprice, prejudice, or passion, on the other, might dictate ? Such a mode of conducting the government of the church, to say no- thing of its unscriptural character, is, in the highest degree, unreasonable and dangerous. It can hardly fail to exert an influence of the most injurious charac- ter both on the clergy and laity. It tends to nurture in the former a spirit of selfishness, pride, and ambition ; and instead of ministers of holiness, love, and mercy, to transform them into ecclesiastical tyrants. While its tendency, with regard to the latter, is gradually to beget in them a blind implicit submission to clerical domination. The ecclesiastical encroachments and despotism of former times, already alluded to, read us a most instructive lesson on this subject. The fact is, committing the whole government of the church to the hands of pastors alone, may be affirmed to carry in it some of the worst seeds of Popery ; which though, under the administration of good men, they may not 147 at once lead to palpable mischief, will seldom fail in producing in the end the most serious evils, both to those who govern and those who obey. Accordingly, as was intimated in a preceding chapter, we have no example in Scripture of a church being committed to the government of a single individual. Such a thing was unknown in the Jewish synagogue. It was unknown in the apostolic age. And it continued to be unknown, until ecclesiastical pride and ambition introduced it, and with it a host of mischiefs to the body of Christ. In all the primitive churches we find a plu- rality of " elders," and we read enough in the early records, in some particular cases, to perceive that these " elders" were not only chosen by the members of the church, out of their own number, as their representa- tatives, to exercise over them the functions of inspection and ruling; but that, whenever they ceased to discharge the duties of their office acceptably, they might be re- moved from its actual exercise at the pleasure of those by whom they were chosen. Thus plainly evincing that the constitution of the primitive church was emi- nently adapted to guard against ecclesiastical tyranny; and that if that constitution had been preserved, the evils of clerical encroachment would have been avoided. Accordingly, it is remarkable that the pious Ambrose, a venerable father of the fourth century, quoted in a former chapter, expressly conveys an intimation of this kind, when speaking of the gradual disuse of the office of ruling elder. " Which order," says he, " by what negligence it grew into disuse, I know not, unless, per- haps, by the sloth, or rather by the pride of the teachers, who alone wished to appear something." " It is a vain apprehension," says the venerable Dr. Owen, *' to suppose that one or two teaching officers in a church, who are obliged to give themselves unto the word and prayer, to labour in the word and doctrine, to preach in and out of season — would be able to take care of, and attend with diligence unto, all those things that do evidently belong unto the rule of the church. 148 And hence it is, that churches at this day do live on the preaching of the word, and are very Httle sensible of the wisdom, goodness, love, and care of Christ in the institution of this rule in the church, nor are partakers of the benefits of it unto their edification. And the supply which many have hitherto made herein, by per- sons either unacquainted with their duty, or insensible of their own authority, or cold, if not negligent in their work doth not answer the end of their institution. And hence it is, that the authority of government, and the benefit of it, are ready to be lost in most churches. And it is both vainly and presumptuously pleaded, to give countenance unto a neglect of their order, that some churches do walk in love and peace, and are edified without it; supplying some defects by the prudent aid of some members of them. For it is nothing but a preference of our own wisdom, unto the wisdom and authority of Christ; or at best an un- willingness to make a venture on the warranty of his rule, for fear of some disadvantages that may ensure thereon."* If, in order to avoid the evils of the pastor standing alone in the inspection and government of his church, it be alleged that the whole body of the church members may be his auxiliaries in this arduous work; still the difficulties are neither removed nor diminished. For, in the first place, a great majorty of all church members, we may confidently say, are altogether un- qualified for rendering the aid to the pastor which is here contemplated. They have neither the knowledge, the wisdom, nor the prudence necessaryfor the purpose; and to imagine a case of ecclesiastical regimen, in which every weak, childish, and indiscreet individual, who, though serious and well-meaning enough to enjoy the privilege of Christian communion, is wholly unfit to be an inspector and ruler of others, should be associated * True Nature of a Gospel Church, pp. 177, 178. 149 with the pastor, in conducting the delicate and arduous work of parochial regulation, is too preposterous to be regarded with favour by any judicious mind. Can it be believed for a moment, that the all-wise Head of the church has appointed a form of government for his peo- ple in which ignorance, weakness, and total unfitness for the duty assigned them, should always, and almost necessarily, characterize a great majority of those to whom the oversight and guidance of the church were committed ? Surely this is altogether incredible. And if this consideration possess weight in regard to old and settled churches, established in countries which have been long favoured with the light and order of the gospel, how much more to Pagan lands, and to churches recently gathered from the wilds of Africa, the degraded inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands, or the miserable devotees of Hindoo idolatry ? If in the best instructed and best regulated churches in Christendom, a majority of the members are utterly unqualified to participate in the government of the sacred family, what can be expected of those recent, and necessarily dubious converts from blind heathenism, who must, of course, be babes in knowledge and experience, who are surrounded with ignorance and brutality, and have just been snatched themselves from the same degradation ? Surely, if we may say with propriety of some nations who have recently thrown off the chains of slavery, to which they had long been accustomed, that they were not prepared for arepublican formof govei'nment, with still more confidence can we maintain, that, whoever may be prepared to take part in the government of the church, the poor novices in the situation supposed, are totally unqualified. Even if the popular form of eccle- siastical polity could be considered as well adapted to the case of a people of more enlightened and elevated character, which may well be questioned, it must be pronounced altogether unfit for a church made up of such materials. Now it is the glory of the gospel that it is adapted to all people and all states of societv. Of 2n 150 course, that form of ecclesiastical government which is not of a similar stamp, affords much ground of suspicion that it is not of God, and ought to be rejected. But further ; if the greater part of the members of the church were much better qualified than they com- monly are for co-operating in its government, would their co-operation be likely to be really obtained in a prompt, steady, and faithful manner ? All experience pronounces that it would not. We know that there are few things in the government and regulation of the church, more irksome to our natural feelings, than doing what fidelity requires in cases of discipline. When the ministers of religion are called upon to dis- pense truth, to instruct, to exhort, and to administer sacraments, they engage in that in which we may sup- pose pious men habitually to delight, and to be always ready to proceed with alacrity. But we may say of the business of ecclesiastical discipline, that it is the " strange work," even of the pious and faithful. It is, in its own nature, an unacceptable and unwelcome employment. To take cognizance of delinquencies in faith or practice ; to admonish offenders ; to call them, when necessary, before the proper tribunal ; to seek out and array proof with fidelity ; to drag insidious error and artful wickedness from their hiding places ; and to suspend or excommunicate from the privileges of the church, when the honour of religion, and the best interests of the body of Christ call for these measures, — is painful work to every benevolent mind. It is work in which no man is willing to engage, unless constrained by a sense of duty. Even those who are bound by official obligation to undertake the task, are too apt to shrink from it; but where there is no par- ticular obligation lying on any one member of the church more than another to take an active interest in this work, the consequence will probably be, that few will be disposed to engage in the self-denying duty. Where all are equally bound, all may be equally back- Ward, or negligent, without feeling themselves charge- 151 able with any special delinquency. And, what is worthy of notice, those who will be most apt to go forward in this work, and profer their aid with most readiness, will generally be the bold, the vain, the ardent, the rash, the impetuous, — precisely those who are, of all persons living, the most unfit for such an employment. But even if it were otherwise ; if all the members of the church were equally forward and active, what might be expected in a religious com- munity, when every member of that community was equally a ruler, and when the most ignorant and childish busy-body among them might be continually tampering with its government, and fomenting disturb- ances with as much potency as the most intelligent and wise ? The truth is, in such a community, tran- quility, order, and peace could scarcely be expected long together to have any place. We could scarcely have a more instructive comment on these remarks than the practice of those churches which reject ruling elders. Our Episcopal brethren reject them. But they are obliged to have their vestry- men and church-wardens, who, though no divine warrant is claimed for them, and they are not set apart in the same manner or formally invested with the same powers with our ruling elders, yet they per- form many of the same functions in substance, and are in fact official counsellors and helps. True, in- deed, these officers are not clothed with the power, and seldom perform any acts of ecclesiastical discipline, properly so called ; yet they may be^ and sometimes perhaps are, consulted on subjects of this nature. And where this is not the case, we may say without impropriety, that in churches of that denomination no discipline is exercised. In the Church of England, as is confessed on all hands, no scriptural discipline exists. The most profligate and vile are not excluded from the communion of the establishment. This is deeply lamented b}^ many of the pious members of that establishment ; and at an early period, after the com- 152 mencement of the Reformation in that country, it was earnestly wished and proposed, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, to introduce ruling eldei-s, as a principal means of restoring and maintaining discipline. And although the absence of discipline does not exist to the same extent, in the churches of the Protestant Episcopal denomination in the United States, yet it may be altogether wanting, as to any pure and effi- cient exercise, in all those Episcopal churches in which some leading pious laymen are not habitually consul- ted and employed in maintaining it. A pious minis- ter, indeed, of that denomination may, and does, con- form to his rubrics, in giving the people proper in- struction and warning, as to a suitable approach to the communion which he dispenses. But here he is com- monly obliged to stop ; or, at any rate, does in prac- tice, usually stop. All efficient inspection of the moral condition of the whole church, admonishing the care- less, bringing back the wanderers, and causing those who persist in error or in vice to feel the discipline of ecclesiastical correction, is notoriously almost un- known in the churches of the denomination to which we refer. And this deficiency is manifestly not owing to the want of intelligent and conscientious piety in many of the ministers of those churches; but, beyond all doubt, to the entire want of an organization which alone renders the exercise of a faithful and impartial discipline at all practicable. Our congregational brethren also reject ruling elders. Yet it is well known, that while they adopt a form of government which in theory allows to every member of the church an equal share in the exercise cf discipline, their most judicious pastors, warned by painful experience of the troublesome character and uncertain issues of popular management in delicate and difficult cases which involve Christian character, are careful to have a committee of the most pious, intelligent, and prudent of their church members, who consider each case of discipline before-hand in private, 153 and prepare it for a public decision ; and thus perform, in fact, some of the most important of the duties of ruling elders. This is what the venerable Dr. Cotton Mather doubtless means, when he says, as quoted in a preceding chapter, that " there are few discreet pastors but what make many occasional ruling elders every year ;" and when he gives it as his opinion, in the same connection, that without something of this kind, churches must suffer unspeakably with respect to discipline. And where nothing of this kind is done, the experience of Independent and Congrega- tional churches in conducting discipline, it is well known, is often such as is calculated to give give deep and lasting pain to those who love the peace and order of the church. Strife, tumult, and division of the most distressing kind, are often the consequence of attempt- ing to rid the church of one corrupt member. But perhaps it will be said, let the pastor habitually call to his aid, in conducting the discipline of the church, a few of the most judicious and pious of his communicants; those whom he knows to be most conscientious and wise in counsel. But neither is this an adequate remedy. The pastor may consult such, if he please; but he may choose to omit it, and be governed entirely by his own counsels. Or, if he con- sult any, he may always select his particular friends, who he knows will encourage and support him in his favourite measures; thus furnishing no real relief in the end. How much better to have a bench of assis- tant rulers, regularly chosen by the people, and with whom he shall be bound to take counsel in all impor- tant measures. Thus it is that those churches which reject the class of officers which it is the object of this essay to recom- mend, do practically bear witness that it is impossible to conduct discipline in a satisfactory manner, without having a set of individuals virtually, if not formally, vested with similar powers. Where no such efficient substitute is employed, discipline is either in a great 154 measure neglected, or its maintenance is attended with inconveniences of the most serious kind. In other words, the opponents of ruhng elders are obliged either to neglect discipline altogether, or, for main- taining it, to have recourse to auxiliaries of similar character and power, while they deny that there is any divine warrant for them. Now, is it probable, is it credible, that our blessed Lord and all-wise King and Head of his church, and his apostles, guided by his own Spirit, should entirely overlook this necessity, and make no provision for it ? It is not credible. We must, then, either suppose that some such officers as those in question were divinely appointed, or that means, acknowledged by the practice of all to be indis- pensable in conducting the best interests of the church, were forgotten or neglected by her divine Head and Lord. Surely the latter cannot be imputed to in- finite wisdom. There are some, however, who acknowledge that there ought to be, and must be, in every church, in order to the efficient maintenance of discipline, a plu- rality of elders. They confess that such a body or bench of elders was found in the Jewish synagogue ; that a similar eldership existed in the primitive church; and that the scriptural government of a Christian con- gregation cannot be conducted to advantage without it. But they contend that these presbyters or elders ought all to be of the teaching class ; that there is no gi'ound for the distinction between teaching and ruling elders ; that every church ought to be furnished with three or more ministers, all equally authorized to preach, to administer the sacraments, and to bear rule. It requires little discernment to see that this plan is wholly impracticable ; and that if attempted to be car- ried into execution, the effect must be, either to de- stroy the church, or to degrade, and ultimately to pro- strate the ministry. It is with no small difficulty that most churches are enabled to procure and support one 155 qualified and acceptable minister. Very few would be able to afford a suitable support to two ; and none but those of extraordinary wealth could think seriously of undertaking to sustain three or more. If, therefore, the principle of a plurality of teaching elders in each church were deemed indispensable, and if a regular and adequate training for the sacred office were also, as now, insisted on ; and if it were, at the same time, considered as necessary that every minister should re- ceive a competent pecuniary support, the conse- quence, as is perfectly manifest, would be, that nine- teen out of twenty of our churches would be utterly unable to maintain the requisite organization, and must of course become extinct. Nay, the regular establishment of gospel ordinances, in pastoral churches, would be physically possible only in a very few great cities or wealthy neighbourhoods. Surely this cannot be the system enjoined by that Saviour who said — " to the poor the gospel is preached." The only remedy for this difficulty would be to reduce the preparation and acquirements for the ministry — to make choice of plain illiterate men for this office; men of small intellectual and theological furniture, dependant on secular employments for a subsistence, and, therefore, needing little or no sup- port from the churches which they serve. This is the plan upon which several sects of Christians pro- ceed ; and it is easy to see, that upon this plan the feeblest churches may have a plurality of such mini- sters as these, and, indeed, any number of them, without being burdened by their pecuniary support. But, then, it is equally evident that the execution of this plan must result in degrading the ministerial character, and in finally banishing all well qualified ministers from the church. They could no longer be " able ministers of the New Testament — workmen that need not be ashamed." They could no longer " give themselves wholly " to the labours of the sacred office. They could no longer " give themselves to 156 reading," as well as to exhortation and teaching. In short, the inevitable consequence of maintaining, as some do, that there must be a bench, that is a plur- ality of elders in every church, for the purpose of in- spection and government, as well as of teaching ; and, at the same time, that all these elders must be of the same class, that is, that they must all be equally set apart for teaching and ruling, — cannot fail to be, to bring the ministerial character, and of course ulti- mately the religion which the ministry is destined to explain and recommend, into general contempt. The Sandemanians, and a few other sects, have substan- tially held the opinion, and made the experiment here stated, and invariably, it is believed, with the result which has been represented as unavoidable. To obviate these difficulties, some have said, let deacons, whom all agree to be scriptural officers, be employed to assist the pastor in conducting the government and discipline of the church. This pro- posal, together with some principles connected with it, will be considered in a subsequent chapter. All that it is deemed necessary or proper to say in this place is, that an entirely different sphere of duty is assigned to deacons in the New Testament. No hint is given of their being employed in the government of the church. For this proposal, therefore, there is not the shadow of a divine warrant. Besides, if we assign to deacons the real office, in other words the appropriate functions of ruling elders, what is this but granting the thing, and only disputing about the title ? If it be granted that there ought to be a plurality of officers in every church, whose appropriate duty it is to assist the pastor in inspecting and ruling the flock of Christ, it is the essence of what is contended for. Their proper title is not worth a contest, except so far as it may be proper to imitate the language of Scripture. If, then, the maintenance of discipline be essential to the purity and edification of the church; if en- lightened, impartial, and efficient inspection and disci- 157 pline, especially over a large congregation, cannot pos- sibly be maintained by the pastor alone ; if it would be unsafe, and probably mischievous in its influence on all concerned, to devolve the whole authority and responsibility of conducting the government of a church on a single individual ; if it would, especially, in all probability essentially injure the clerical char- acter to be thus systematically made the depository of so much power, without control and without appeal; if every other mode of furnishing each church with a plurality of rulers besides that for which we contend would either deprive a great majority of our churches of the means of grace altogether, or, by bringing ministers within their reach, reduce and degrade the ministerial office far below the standard which the scriptures require ; if these things be so, then we are conducted unavoidably to the conclusion, that such officers as those for which we contend are absolutely necessary; that although a church may exist, and for a time may flourish without them, yet, that the best interests of the church cannot be systematically and steadfastly pursued without those, or some other officers of equivalent powers and duties. But all the difficulties which have been supposed are obviated, and all the advantages referred to, attained by the plan of employing a judicious class of ruling elders in each church to assist in counsel and in government. In this plan we have provided a body of grave, pious, and prudent men, associated with the pastor, chosen out of the body" of the church mem- bers, carrying with them, in some measure, the feel- ings and views of their constituents ; capable of coun- selling the pastor in all delicate and doubtful cases; counteracting any undue influence or course of measures into which his partiality, prejudice, or want of information might betray him; exonerating him at once from the odium and the temptation of having all the power of the church in his own bauds ; con- ducting the difficult cases which often arise in the o 158 exercise of discipline with the intelligence, calmness, and wisdom, which cannot be expected to prevail in a promiscuous body of communicants ; and, in a word, securing to each church all the principal advantages which might be expected to result from being under the pastoral care of four or five ministers, vested with plenary preaching as well as ruling power; without at the same time burdening the church with the pecuni- ary support of such a number of ordinary pastors. In a word, the insuperable difficulty of doing without this class of officers on the one hand, the great and mani- fest advantages of having them on the other, and the perfect accordance of the plan which includes them with that great representative system which has per- vaded all well regulated society from its earliest exis- tence, and received the stamp of divine approbation — form a mass of testimony in favour of the office be- fore us, which, independently of other considerations, seems amply sufficient to support its claims. I shall close this chapter with the following extract from Dr. Owen, when speaking of the importance and necessity of the office of ruling elders in the church. " It is evident," says he, " that neither the purity nor the order, nor the beauty or glory of the churches of Christ, nor the representation of his own majesty and authority in the government of them, can long be preserved without a multiplication of elders in them, according to the proportion of their respective mem- bers, for their rule and guidance. And for want here- of have churches of old, and of late, either degenera- ted into anarchy and confusion, their self-rule being managed with vain disputes and janglings unto their division and ruin ; or else giving up themselves unto the domination of some prelatical teachers, to rule them at their pleasure, which proved the bane and poison of all primitive churches ; and they will and must do so in the neglect of this order for the future."* * Owen's True Nature of a Gospel Church, 4to, p. 1 78. 159 We have thus completed our view of the first part of the inquiry before us, viz. our w^arrant for the office of ruling elders. If this office were found in the Old Testament economy — if it plainly had a place in the apostolic church — if a number of the early fathers evidently recognize its existence in their day — if the witnesses for the truth in the darkest times, and the great body of the Reformers sanctioned and retained it as of divine appointment; if some of the most learned Episcopal and Independent divines since the Reformation, have borne decisive testimony to this office as of apostolical authority; and if some such office be manifestly indispensable to the purity and order of the church, — we may confidently conclude that our warrant for it is complete. CHAPTER IX. THE NATURE AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE. HxWiNG considered, so much at large, the warrant for the office of ruhng elder, chiefly because there is no part of the subject more contested; we now pro- ceed to other points connected with the general in- quiry. And the first of these which presents itself, is the Nature and Duties of the office in question. The essential character of the officer of whom we speak is that of an ecclesiastical ruler. He that ruleth let him do it with diligence, is the summary of his appropriate functions as laid down in Scripture. The teaching elder is indeed also a ruler. In addi- tion to this, however, he is called to preach the gos- pel and administer sacraments. But the particular department assigned to the ruling elder is to co-operate with the pastor in spiritual inspection and government. The Scriptures, as we have seen, speak not only of " pastors and teachers," but also of " governments ;" — of " elders that rule well, but do not labour in the word and doctrine." There is an obvious analogy between the office of ruler in the church, and in the civil community. A I6l Justice of the Peace in the latter has a wide and impor- tant range of duties. Besides the function which he discharges when called to take his part on the bench of the judicial court in which he presides, he may be, and often is, employed every day, though less publicly, in correcting abuses, compelling the fraudulent to do justice, restraining, arresting, and punishing criminals, and, in general, carrying into execution the laws formed to promote public tranquility and order, which he has sworn to administer faithfully. Strikingly analogous to this are the duties of the ecclesiastical ruler. He has no power, indeed, to employ the secular arm in restraining or punishing offenders against the laws of Christ. The kingdom under which he acts, and the authority which he ad- ministers, are not of this world. He has, of course, no right to fine, imprison, or externally to molest the most profligate offenders against the church's purity or peace, unless they be guilty of what is technically called, " breaking the peace," that is, violating the civil rights of others, and thus rendering themselves liable to the penalty of the civil law. And even when this occurs, the ecclesiastical ruler, as such, has no right to proceed against the offender. He has no other than moral power. He must apply to the civil magistrate for redress, who can only punish for break- ing the civil law. Still there is an obvious analogy between his office and that of the civil magistrate. Both are alike an ordinance of God — both are necessary to social order and comfort^ — and both are regulated by principles which commend themselves to the good sense and the conscience of those who wish well to social happiness. The ruling elder, no less than the teaching elder, or pastor, is to be considered as acting under the authority of Christ, in all that he rightfully does. If the office of which we speak was appointed in the apostolic church by infinite wisdom ; if it be an ordi- nance of Jesus Christ, just as much as that of the o2 16^ minister of the gospel, then the former, equally with the latter, is Christ's officer. He has a right to speak and act in his name; and though elected by the members of the church, and representing them in the exercise of ecclesiastical rule, yet he is not to be con- sidered as deriving his authority to rule from them, any more than he who " labours in the word and doctrine" derives his authority to preach and ad- minister other ordinances from the people, who make choice of him as their teacher and guide. There is reason to believe that some, even in the Presbyterian church, take a different view of this subject. They regard the teaching elder as an officer of Christ, and listen to his official instructions as to those of a man appointed by Him, and coming in his name. But with respect to the ruling elder, they are wont to regard him as one who holds an office instituted by human prudence alone, and, therefore, as standing on very different ground in the discharge of his official duties from that which is occupied by the " am- bassador of Christ." This is undoubtedly an errone- ous view of the subject, and a view which, so far as it prevails, is adapted to exert the most mischievous influence. The truth is, if the office of which we speak be of apostolic authority, we are just as much bound to sustain, honour, and obey the individual who fills it and discharges its duties according to the Scriptures, as we are to submit to any other officer or institution of our Divine Redeemer. We are by no means, then, to consider ruling elders as a mere ecclesiastical convenience, or as a set of councillors whom the wisdom of man alone has chosen, and who may, therefore, be reverenced and obeyed as little or as much as human caprice may think proper; but as bearing an office of divine ap- pointment — as the "ministers of God for good" to his church — and whose lawful and regular acts ought to command our conscientious obedience. The ruling elders of each church are called to 163 attend to a public and formal, or to a more private sphere of duty. With regard to the first, or the public and formal duties of their office, they form, in the church to which they belong, a bench or judicial court, called among us the " church session," and in some other Presbyterian denominations, the "consistory;" both expressions importing a body of ecclesiastical men, sitting and acting together as the representatives, and for the benefit of the church. This body of elders, with the pastor at their head, and presiding at their meetings, form a judicial assembly, by which all the spiritual interests of the congregation are to be watched over, regulated, and authoritatively determined. Ac- cordingly, it is declared in the ninth chapter of our Form of Government — " The church session is charged with maintaining the spiritual government of the congregation, for which purpose they have power to inquire into the knowledge and Christian conduct of the members of the church, to call before them offenders and witnesses, being members of their own congregation, and to introduce other witnesses, where it may be necessary to bring the process to issue, and when they can be procured to attend; to receive members into the church ; to admonish, to rebuke, to suspend, or exclude from the sacraments, those who are found to deserve censure; to concert the best measures for promoting the spiritual interests of the congregation, and to appoint delegates to the higher judicatories of the church." This general statement of the powers and duties of the church session, it will be perceived, takes in a wide range. Or rather, to speak more properly, it embraces the whole of that authority and duty with which the great Head of the church has been pleased to invest the governing powers of each particular con- gregation, for the instruction, edification, and comfort of the whole body. To the church session it belongs to bind and loose ; to admit to the communion of the 164 church, with all its privileges; to take cognizance of all departure fi'om the purity of faith or practice ; to try, censure, acquit, or excommunicate those who are charged with offences ; to consult and determine upon all matters relating to the time, place, and circum- stances of worship, and other spiritual concerns; to take order about catechizing children, congregational fasts or thanksgiving days, and all other observances, stated or occasional; to correct, as far as possible, every thing that may tend to disorder, or is contrary to edification; and to digest and execute plans for promoting a spirit of inquiry, of reading, of prayer, of order, and of universal holiness among the mem- bers of the church. It is also incumbent on them, when the church over which they preside is destitute of a pastor, to take the lead in those measures which may conduce to a choice of a suitable candidate, by calling the people together for the purpose of an election, when they consider them as prepared to make it with advantage. Although, in ordinary cases, the pastor of the church may be considered as vested with the right to decide whom he will invite to occupy his pulpit, either when he is present, or occasionally absent; yet, in cases of difficulty or delicacy, and especially when ministers of other denominations apply for the use of the pulpit, it is the prerogative of the church session to consider and decide on the application. And if there be any fixed difference of opinion between the pastor and the other members of the session, in re- ference to this matter, it is the privilege and duty of either party to request the advice of their presbytery in the case. In the church session, whether the pastor be pre- sent and presiding or not, every member has an equal voice. The vote of the most humble and retiring ruling elder, is of the same avail as that of his minis- ter. So that no pastor can carry any measure unless he can obtain the concurrence of a majority of the 165 eldership. And as the whole spiritual government of each church is committed to its bench of elders, the session is competent to regulate every concern, and to correct every thing which they consider as amiss in the arrangements or affairs of the church, which ad- mits of correction. Every individual of the session is, of course, competent to propose any new service, plan, or measure, which he believes will be for the benefit of the congregation, and if a majority of the elders concur with him in opinion, it may be adopted. If, in any case, however, there should be a difference of opinion between the pastor and the elders, as to the propriety or practicability of any measure proposed, and insisted on by the latter, there is an obvious and effectual constitutional remedy. A remedy, however, which ought to be resorted to with prudence, caution, and prayer. The opinions and wishes of the pastor ought, undoubtedly, to be treated with the most re- spectful delicacy. Still they ought not to be suffered, when it is possible to avoid it, to stand in the way of a great and manifest good. When such an alternative occurs, the remedy alluded to may be applied. On an amicable reference to the presbytery, that body may decide the case between the parties. And as the members of the chmxh session, whether assembled in their judicial capacity or not, are the pas- tor's counsellors and colleagues, in all matters relating to the spiritual rule of the church, so it is their official duty to encourage, sustain, and defend him in the faithful discharge of his duty. It is deplorable when a minister is assailed for his fidelity by the profane or the worldly, if any portion of the eldership either take part against him or shrink from his active and deter- mined defence. It is not meant of course, that they are to consider themselves as bound to sustain him in every thing he may say or do, whether right or wrong : but that when they really believe him to be faithful both to truth and duty, they should feel it to be their duty to stand by him, to shield him from the arrows of 166 the wicked, and to encourage him as far as he obeys Christ. But besides those duties which pertain to ruling elders with the pastor, in their collective capacity as a judicatory of the church, there are others which are incumbent on them at all times in the intervals of their judicial meetings, and by the due discharge of which they may be constantly edifying the body of Christ. It is their duty to have an eye of inspection and care over all the members of the congregation, and for this purpose to cultivate a universal and inti- mate acquaintance, as far as may be, with every family in the flock of which they are made "overseers." They are bound to watch over the childern and youth, and especially baptized children, with paternal vigilance, recognizing and affectionately addressing them on all proper occasions; giving them and their parents in reference to them seasonable counsel, and putting in the Lord's claim to their hearts and lives, as the children of the church. It is their duty to attend to the case of those who are serious, and disposed to inquire concern- ing their eternal interest; to converse with them, and from time to time, to give information concerning them to the pastor. It is their duty to take notice of, and admonish in private, those who appear to be growing careless, or falling into habits in any respect criminal, suspicious, or unpromising. It is their duty to visit and pray with the sick as far as their circumstances admit, and to request the attendance of the pastor on the sick and the dying when it may be seasonable or desired. It is incumbent on them to assist the pastor in main- taining meetings for social prayer, to take part in con- ducting the devotional exercises in those meetings; to preside in them when the pastor is absent ; and, if they are endowed with suitable gifts, under his direction oc- casionally to drop a word of instruction and exhortation to the people in those social meetings. If the officers of the church neglect these meetings, (the importance of which cannot be estimated,) there is every reason 167 to apprehend that they will not be duly honoured or attended by the body of the people. It is the duty of ruling elders also to visit the members of the church and their families with the pastor, if he request it, without him if he do not, to converse with them, to instruct the ignorant, to confirm the wavering, to caution the unwary, to reclaim the wandering, to en- courage the timid, and to excite and animate all classes to a faithful and exemplary discharge of duty. It is incumbent on them to consult frequently and freely with their pastor on the interests of the flock committed to their charge ; to aid him in forming and executing plans for the welfare of the church ; to give him from time to time such information as he may need, to enable him to perform aright his various and momentous duties, to impart to him with affectionate respect their advice, to support him with their influence, to defend his reputation, to enforce his just admonitions, and in a word, by every means in their power to promote the comfort, and extend the usefulness of his labours. Although the church session is not competent to try the pastor, in case of his falling into any delinquency either of doctrine or practice ; yet, if the members observe any such delinquency, it is not only their privilege, but their duty to admonish him, tenderly and respectfully, yet faithfully, in private; and, if necessary, from time to time : and if the admonition be without effect, and they think the edification of the church admits and demands a public remedy, they ought to represent the case to the presbytery, as before suggested in other cases, and request a redress of the grievance. But the functions of the ruling elder are not con- fined to the congregation of which he is one of the rulers. It it his duty at such times, and in such order as the constitution of the church requires, to take his seat in the higher judicatories of the church, and there to exercise his official share of counsel and authority. In every Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly of 168 the Presbyterian church, at least as many ruling as teaching elders are entitled to a place; and in all the former, as well as the latter, have an opportunity of exerting an important influence in the great concerns of Zion. Every congregation, whether provided with a pastor or vacant, is entitled besides the pastor, (where there is one,) to be represented by one ruling elder, in all meetings of the Presbytery and Synod ; and as in those bodies vacant congregations and those which are supplied with pastors are equally represented each by an elder, it is manifest that if the theory of our ecclesiastical constitution be carried into effect, there will always be a greater number of ruling elders than of pastors present. In the General Assembly accord- ing to our constitutional plan, the numbers of each are precisely equal. In these several judicatories the ruling elder has an equal vote, and the same power in every respect with the pastors. He has the same privilege of ori- ginating plans and measures, and of carrying them, provided he can induce a majority of the body to con- cur in his views ; and thus may become the means of imparting his impressions, and producing an influence greatly beyond the particular congregation with which he is connected, and indeed, throughout the bounds of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. This consideration serves to place the nature and the impor- tance of the office in the strongest light. He who bears it, has the interest of the church as a spiritual trust as really and solemnly, though not in all respects to the same extent, committed to him as the elder who " labours in the word and doctrine." He not only has it in his power, but is daily called, in the discharge of his official duties, to watch over, inspect, regulate, and edify the body of Christ ; to enlighten the ignor- ant, to admonish the disorderly, to reconcile differences, to correct every moral irregularity and abuse within the bounds of his charge; and to labour without ceasing for the promotion of the cause of truth, piety. 169 and universal righteousness in the church to which he belongs, and wherever else he has an opportunity of raising his voice, and exerting an influence. But when it is considered that those who bear the office in question are called upon in their turn to sit in the highest judicatories of the church, and there to take their part in deliberating and deciding on the most momentous questions which can arise in conducting ecclesiastical affairs — when we reflect that they are called to deliberate and decide on the conformity of doctrines to the word of God; to assist as judges in the trial of heretics, and every class of offenders against the purity of the gospel ; and to take care, in their respective spheres, that all the ordinances of Christ's house be preserved pure and entire ; when, in a word, we recollect that they are ordained for the express pur- pose of overseeing and guarding the most precious con- cerns of the church on earth — concerns which may have a bearing, not merely on the welfare of a single indi- vidual or congregation, but on the great interests of orthodoxy and piety among millions, we may surely conclude, without hesitation, that the office which they sustain is one, the importance of which can scarcely be over-rated, and that the estimate which is com- monly made of its nature, duties, and responsibility, is far, very far from being adequate. If this view of the nature and importance of the office before us be admitted, the question very natu- rally arises, whether it be correct to call this class of elders lay elders, or whether they have not such a strictly ecclesiastical character as should prevent the use of that language in speaking of them ? This is one of the points, in the present discussion, concerning which the writer of this essay frankly confesses that he has, in some measure, altered his opinion. Gnce he was disposed to confine the epithet clerical to teaching elders, and to designate those who ruled only, and did not teach, as lay elders. But more mature inquiry and reflection have led him first to p 170 doubt the correctness of this opinion, and finally to persuade him that so far as the distinction between clergy and laity is proper at all, it ought not to be made the point of distinction between these two classes of elders, and that when we speak of the one as clergymen, and the other as laymen, we are apt to convey an idea altogether erroneous, if not seriously mischievous. Some judicious and pious men have, indeed, ex- pressed serious doubts whether the terms clergy and laity ought ever to have been introduced into our theological nomenclature. But it is not easy to see any solid reason for this doubt. It is wise to contend about terms, when the things intended to be expressed by them are fully understood and generally admitted ? The only question, then, of real importance to be decided here is this, Does the New Testament draw any distinct line between those who hold spiritual offices in the church, and those who do not ? Does it represent the functions pertaining to those offices as confined to them, or as common to all Christians? Now, it seems impossible to read the Acts of the Apostles, and the several apostolic epistles, especially those to Timothy and Titus, and to examine, in con- nection with these, the writings of the " apostolic fathers," without perceiving that the distinction be- tween those who bore office in the church, and private Christians, was clearly made, and uniformly main- tained, from the very origin of the church. That the terms clergy and laity are not found in the New Testament, nor in some of the earliest uninspired writers, is freely granted. But is not the distinction intended to be expressed by these terms evidently found in Scripture and in all the early fathers? Nothing can be more indubitably clear. The titles of " rulers" in the house of God, '' ambassadors of Christ," "stewards of the mysteries of God," "bishops, leaders, overseers, elders, shepherds, guides, ministers," &c., as distinguished from those to whom they minis- 171 tered, arq so familiar to all readers of the New Testament, that it would be a waste of time to attempt to illustrate or establish a point so unquestion- able. If the inspired writers every where represent certain spiritual offices in the church as appointed by God, if they represent those who sustain these offices as alone authorized to perform certain sacred functions, and teach us to consider all others who attempt to perform them as criminal invaders of a divine ordi- nance, then surely the whole distinction intended to be expressed by the term clergy and laity is evidently and most distinctly laid down by the same authority which founded the church. The word ^?^J5go?, properly signifies a lot. And as the land of Canaan, the inheritance of the Israelites, was divided among them by lot, the word, in process of time, came to signify an inheritance. In this figu- rative or secondary sense, the term is evidently em- ployed in 1 Peter v. 3. Under the Old Testament dispensation, the peculiar people of God were called (Septuagint translation) his ^'^yi^og, or inheritance. Of this we have examples in Deuteronomy iv. 20, and ix. 29. The term, in both these passages, is manifestly applied to the whole body of the nation of Israel as God's inheritance or peculiar people. Clemens Ro- manus, one of the " apostolic fathers," speaking of the Jewish economy, and having occasion to distinguish between the priests and the common people, calls the latter y^otiKOi. Clemens Alexandrinus, towards the close of the second century, speaks of the Apostle John as having set apart such persons for " clergymen " (»Ai7^o/) as were signified to him by the Holy Ghost. And in the writings of Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian, the terms " clergy" and " laity" occur with a frequency which shows that they were then in general i:^se. Jerome observes, that ministers are called clerici, either because they are peculiarly the lot and portion of the Lord, or because the Lord is their lot, that is, their inheritance. Hence that learned and pious father 17^ takes occasion to infer — " That he who is God's portion ought so to exhibit himself that he may be truly said to possess God, and to be possessed by Him/'* And as we have abundant evidence that ecclesiastical men were familiarly called clerici, or " clergymen," from the second century, so have the same evidence that this term was employed to designate all ecclesias- tical men. That is, all persons who had any spiritual office in the church, were called by the common name of clerici