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CHAPTER III.

EVIDENCE IN FAVOR OF THE OFFICE FROM THE

NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES.

In this chapter it is proposed to show, that the office in question is mentioned in the New Testament, as existing in the apostolic Church; that it was adopted from the Synagogue; and that it occupied, in substance, the same place in the days of the Apostles, that it now occupies in our truly primitive and scriptural Church.

The first assertion is that this class of officers was adopted in the Church of Christ, under its New Testament form, after the model of the Synagogue. Some have said, indeed, that the Apostles adopted the model of the Temple, and not of the Synagogue service, in the organization of the Church. But the slightest impartial attention to facts, will be sufficient, it is believed, to disprove this assertion. If we compare the titles, the powers, the duties, and the ordination of the officers of the Christian Church, as well as the nature and order of its public service, as established by the Apostles, with the Temple and the Synagogue systems respectively, we shall find the organization and service of the Church to resemble the Temple in scarcely any thing; while they resemble the Synagogue in almost every thing. There were Bishops, Elders, and Deacons in the Synagogue; but no officers bearing these titles, or performing similar functions in the Temple. There was ordination by the imposition of hands in the

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Synagogue; but no such ordination in the Temple. There were reading the Scriptures, expounding them, and public prayers, every Sabbath day in the Synagogue; while the body of the people went up to the Temple only three times a year, and even then to attend on a very different service. In the Synagogue, there was a system established, which included a weekly provision, not only for the instruction and devotions of the people, but also for the maintainance of discipline, and the care of the poor; while scarcely any thing of this kind was to be found in the Temple. Now, in all these respects, and in many more which might be mentioned, the Christian Church followed the Synagogue model, and departed from that of the Temple. Could we trace a resemblance only in one or a few points, it might be considered as accidental; but the resemblance is so close, so striking, and extends to so many particulars, as to arrest the attention of the most careless inquirer. It was, indeed, notoriously, so great in the early ages, that the heathen frequently suspected Christian Churches of being Jewish Synagogues in disguise, and stigmatized them as such accordingly.

And when it is considered that all the first converts to Christianity were Jews; that they had been accustomed to the officers and service of the Synagogue during their whole lives; that they came into the Church with all the feelings and habits connected with their old institutions strongly prevalent; and that the organization and service of the Synagogue were of a moral nature, in all their leading characters, proper to be adopted under any dispensation; while the typical and ceremonial service of the Temple was then done away--when these things are considered, will it not

appear perfectly natural that the Apostles, themselves native Jews, should be disposed to make as little change in converting Synagogues, into Christian Churches, as was consistent with the spirituality of the new dispensation? That the Synagogue model, therefore, should be adopted, would seem, beforehand, to be the most probable of all events. Nor is this a new or sectarian notion. Whoever looks into the writings of some of the early Fathers; of the Reformers; and of a large portion of the most learned men who have adorned the Church of Christ, subsequently to the Reformation, will find a very remarkable concurrence of opinion that such was the model really adopted in the organization of the apostolic Church. Most of the distinguished writers whose names are mentioned in the preceding chapter, are, as we have seen, unanimous and zealous in maintaining this position.

Accordingly, as soon as we begin to read of the Apostles organizing Churches on the New Testament plan, we find them instituting officers of precisely the same nature, and bestowing on them, for the most part, the very same titles to which they had been accustomed in the ordinary sabbatical service under the preceding economy. We find Bishops, Elders, and Deacons every where appointed. We find a plurality of Elders ordained in every Church. And we find the Elders represented as "overseers," or inspectors of the Church; as "rulers" in the house of God; and the members of the Church exhorted to "obey them," and "submit" to them, as to persons charged with their spiritual interests, and entitled to their affectionate and dutiful reverence. The following passages may be considered as a specimen of the New Testament representations on this subject. And when they had ordained them ELDERS

in every Church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed; Acts 14, 23. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the Church, and of the Apostles and ELDERS. And the Apostles and ELDERS came together to consider of this matter; Acts 15, 4, 6. And from Miletus, he (Paul) sent to Ephesus, and called the ELDERS of the Church; and when they were come unto him, he said unto them, take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you OVERSEERS; Acts 20, 20, 28. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the ELDERS of the Church, and let them pray over him, &c.; James 5, 14. The ELDERS which are among you I exhort, who am also an ELDER, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God that is among you, taking the OVERSIGHT THEREOF, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the fiock; 1 Peter v. 1, 2, 3. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain ELDERS in every city, as I had appointed thee; Titus i. 5. Obey them that HAVE THE RULE OVER YOU, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account; Hebrews 13, 17. And we beseech you, brethren,, to know them which labor among you, and are OVER YOU in the Lord, and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake; 1 Thessalonians v. 12, 13. Let the ELDERS that rule well be accounted worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the

word and doctrine; 1 Tim. v. 17. To whatever. Church our attention is directed, in the inspired history, we find in it a plurality of Elders; we find the mass of the Church members spoken of as under their authority; and while the people are exhorted to submit to their rule, with all readiness and affection; these rulers are commanded, in the name of Christ, to exercise the power vested in them by the great Head of the Church, with firmness, and fidelity, and. yet with disinterestedness and moderation, so as to promote most effectually, the purity and order of the flock.

The circumstance of our finding it so uniformly stated. that there was a plurality of Elders ordained in every Church, is certainly worthy of particular attention here. If there had been a plurality of these officers appointed only in some of the more populous cities, where there were probably several worshipping assemblies; where the congregations may be supposed to have been unusually large; and where it was important, of course, to have more than a single preacher; then we might consider this fact as very well reconcileable with the doctrine of those who assert, that all the Elders in the apostolic Church were official teachers. But as both the direction and the practice were to ordain Elders, that is, more than one, at least, in every Church, small as well as great, there is, evidently, very strong presumption that it was intended to conform to the Synagogue model; and if so, that the whole of the number so ordained could not be necessary for the purpose of public instruction; but that some were rulers, who, as in the Synagogue, formed a kind of congregational Presbytery, or consistory, for the government of the Church. The idea that it was considered as necessary, at such a time,

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