ple with such effect, that many who heard it believed, and the number of men at one time was about five thousand"; and upon the death of Ananias and Sapphira, believers were the more added unto the Lord, multitudes both of men and women; the impossibility of assembling so many persons in one place, when the disciples usually met in a private house, immediately after the Jewish governor had forbidden the Apostles to speak in the name of Jesus P, and on an affair of such notoriety, and of such importance, as would naturally excite the jealousy of the chief priest, and dispose him to use his utmost vigilance to prevent it; the improbability of the immediate agreement of so many men on the merits of seven individuals, and the little necessity of collecting so many votes on so simple an occasion. To the latter interpretation, it may be objected, that while our Lord confined his personal ministry, and, by necessary consequence, that of the seventy disciples, to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and forbade his Apostles to go into the way of the Gentiles 4, he should adopt into his immediate service a proselyte of Antioch, or any such persons as should be naturally qualified, to take an affectionate interest in the case of the Grecian widows; that the Apostles should require new testimony in favour of those, whom the Lord himself had previously chosen to be his ministers; and that men, who were already invested with ministerial power, should choose out of themselves certain persons, to exercise a new and inferior office. It will not however violate the sense of the original, if the words be translated, Look ye out men bearing a good character n. Acts iv. 4. • Acts v. 14. P Acts v. 40. 9 Matt. x. 5. among you; men whose virtue is tried and known. among you nor is it necessary to confine their choice to the persons then actually present, and addressed by the Apostle, without extending it to others, whom they could recommend, from an intimate knowledge of their ability and integrity; or to suppose, that the persons addressed were to make the election from among themselves exclusively, and that they were to recommend not only approved men, but men among themselves most highly approved. The election is indeed conceded to the people by ecclesiastical writers, notwithstanding the unequivocal testimony of Epiphanius, that the election was made out of the seventy. The Deacons of a later period were to be tried, and not admitted to the office except they were found blameless; and if the trial of this blamelessness was reserved to the discretion of the person admitting them to the office, who, as in the case of ordination, would probably concur with those immediately under him, the form of the succession may illustrate the form of the original institution of the Diaconate, and the seventy may be received as the electors of those whom the Apostles approved. But whatever was the quality of the electors on this occasion, their privilege did not extend beyond giving a testimony to character, and nominating and recommending persons, of whose qualifications for the Deaconship they had adequate information: and their choice was limited to men of a certain description, to men full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom; and it does not appear that the extraordinary gifts, such as Stephen r Acts vi. 3. 1 Tim. ii. 10. t Acts vi. 3. Χ and Philip possessed, had yet been conferred on any, besides those who were present with one accord on the day of Pentecost, and who were the same with the hundred and twenty, who were assembled at the election of Matthias". The conclusion therefore, which is liable to the least exception, is, that the Apostles proposed the election, and stated the qualifications of the candidates; that the seventy, or some of the seventy disciples, were the persons addressed, who made the election; and that the election was made out of the hundred and twenty, who were full of the Holy Ghost, and had partaken of the effusion on the day of Pentecost: and they set them before the Apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands upon them. The power of ordination by the laying on of hands, a rite borrowed from the Jewish ritual, and denoting the entire dedication of the creature to the service of God, was on this occasion first exercised by the Apostles, whose commission had been ratified by the descent of the Spirit, and who having received power from on high, now acted with supreme authority in the Church, and not as disciples, or elders in a subordinate capacity, under the inspection and control of the Lord. From this view of the institution of the Deaconship, it may be concluded that it is an ordinance of the Apostles, made after the ascension of the Lord and the effusion of the Holy Spirit, when the number of the Apostles was complete, and they were authorized in their own persons to administer the affairs of the Church; secondly, that the election of the multitude of the disciples was no more than a testimony to character, and whether it was given by Acts viii. 6, 13. y Acts ii. 1. z Acts i. 15. a Acts vi. 6. ministers or by people, the practice is still retained ; and lastly, that the ordination of the Deacons was preceded by prayer, and conferred by the laying on of hands, practices which are also retained. Timothy was ordained by St. Paul with the same ceremonies, though the circumstances of his ordination are not matter of historical record, but must be collected from detached passages in the Acts, and in the Epistles of St. Paul. It is worthy of distinct observation, that St. Paul in his Epistles to Timothy refers to the prophecies, which went before on him", that he by them should war a good warfare; to the gift which was given him by prophecy, to the good profession, which he had professed before many witnesses, and to the things which he had heard of him. Now eminent as were the virtues of Timothy, and the services which he rendered personally to St. Paul, and generally to the Church of Christ, they hardly appear worthy of prophecy, in its general and ordinary acceptation; nor are there any instances of such private and personal predictions, except the imprisonment of Paul and the martyrdom of Peter; nor can prophecy, which is itself a gift, be properly considered as the means of conveying any other gift. It remains therefore to inquire, whether there is any other peculiar sense of the word. Prophecy or prophesying (the same word is used in the original) frequently denotes in the Apostolic writings the preaching of the pro c 1 Tim. iv. 14. d 1 Tim. vi. 12. John xxi. 18, 19. h 1 Cor. Compare 1 Cor. xiv. 1, 3, 4, 5, 24, b 1 Tim. i. 18. e 2 Tim. ii. 2. f Acts xxi. 10. xiv. 6, 22. 1 Thess. v. 20. phets or ministers of the New Testament, such as Silas and Barnabas'; and it does not appear unreasonable, to assign this sense to it in the prophecies concerning Timothy, that they were public discourses on the office, or private testimonials to his character, delivered either by the Apostle, or by the prophets, or presbyters, who acted in concert with St. Paul at his ordination, and which he himself, when he was first attached to the service of St. Paul, received from the brethren at Lystra and Iconium, among whom the Presbyters or Prophets, whom Paul and Barnabas had previously ordained', held a principal place, and which he himself was at a future period enjoined to require, that he might do nothing by prejudice or partiality, and not be a partaker of other men's sins". If this interpretation be admitted, it will throw considerable light on the election of the Deacons, and define the capacity of those, who nominated them to the Apostles and the order of Timothy's ordination will be, the public profession of his faith before many witnesses, the recommendation of the prophets, and the imposition of the Apostle's hands with those of the presbytery. To what degree of the ministry he was originally ordained, is not mentioned; and, without any distinct account of his investiture to a specific office, we find him indiscriminately acting under St. Paul in the capacity, and denominated by the title of, a Deacon"; united with St. Paul and Silvanus or Silas, the prophet, in a regular gradation of order, in the two Epistles to the Thessalonians; and with Acts xv. 32. 1 Cor. xii. 28. Ephes. iv. 11. 1 Acts xiv. 23.. • 1 and 2 Thess. i .. kActs xvi. 2. " Acts xix. 22. |