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REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCES IN SOME DETAILS.

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to various classes of persons, and various in which these objects are, in each case, occasions. Our sacred writers have not to be promoted, are left, one can hardly recorded their Creeds, their Catechisms doubt, studiously left-undefined. for the elementary instruction of converts, -their forms of Public Prayer and Psalmódy, or their modes of administering the Sacraments;—they have not even described the posture in which the Eucharist was received, or the use of leavened or unleavened bread; (two points on which, in after ages, bitter controversies were raised,) nor many other things which we are certain Paul (as well as the other Apostles) "set in order, when he came" to each Church.

§ 11. Many of the omissions I have alluded to, will appear even the more striking in proportion as we contemplate with the more minute attention each part of the sacred narrative. For instance, it is worth remarking that the matters concerning which the Apostle Paul's Epistles do contain the most detailed directions, are most of them precisely those which every one perceives to have relation only to the times in which he wrote; such as the eating or abstaining from "meats ofBut, on the other hand, it is plainly fered to idols," and the use and abuse of recorded that they did establish Churches supernatural gifts. He was left, it should wherever they introduced the Gospel; seem, unrestrained in recording — and that they ordained elders in every city," hence hè does record,-particular direcand the Apostles again delegated that of- tions in those cases where there was no fice to others; that they did administer danger of those his directions being apthe rite of Baptism to their converts; and plied in all Ages and Countries, as bindthat they celebrated the communion of ing on every Church for ever. Again, the Lord's Supper. And besides the gene- almost every attentive reader must have ral principles of Christian Faith and Mo-been struck with the circumstance, that rality which they sedulously set forth, there is no such description on record of they have recorded the most earnest ex- the first appointment of the higher Orders hortations to avoid "confusion"* in their of Christian Ministers as there is (in Acts public worship; to do "all things de-vi.) of the ordination of the inferior Class, cently and in order;" to "let all things the Deacons. And this consideration be done to edifying," and not for vainglorious display; they inculcate the duty of Christians "assembling themselves together" for joint worship; they† record distinctly the solemn sanction given to a Christian Community; they inculcate due reverence, and obedience to those that "bear rule" in such a community, with censure of such as walk "disorderly" and " cause divisions ;" and they dwell earnestly on the care with which Christian Ministers, both male and female, 'should be selected, and on the zeal, and discretion, and blameless life required in them, and on their solemn obligation to "exhort, rebuke, and admonish:" yet with all this, they do not record even the number of distinct orders of them, or the functions appropriated to each, or the degree, and kind, and mode of control they exercised in the Churches.

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alone would lead a reflecting mind to conclude, or at least strongly suspect, that the particular notice of this appointment of Deacons is incidental only, and that probably there would have been as little said of these, as of the Presbyters, but for the circumstance of the extraordinary effect produced by two of these Deacons, Stephen and Philip, as preachers: the narrative of their appointment being a natural, and almost necessary, introduction to that of two most important events, the great outbreak of persecution consequent on Stephen's martyrdom (which seems to have led, through the dispersion of the Disciples, to the founding of the first purely Gentile Church, at Antioch,* and the conversion of Samaria.

But this conclusion is greatly strengthened, when, on a closer examination, we find reason to be convinced that these, so-called, first seven Deacons, who are usually assumed (for I never met with even any attempt at proof) to have been the first that ever held such an office, were, in reality, only the first Grecians

* See Encyclop. Metrop. (Ecclesiastical History) on the designation of Christians first given to the Disciples at that place.

+ Hellenist, or "Grecian," is the term constantly used for the Jews who used the Greek

Deacons, and that there were Hebrew
Deacons before.

Grecians, unless they had already had some in office interested in looking after their rights. With these presumptions in favour of a previous appointment of deacons, it would seem then, that these seven were added to the former number, because of the complaint.

The following extract from an able Article in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana on Ecclesiastical History, will make this point, I think, perfectly clear. "Meanwhile within the Church itself were displayed some slight symptoms of "All that is thus far intimated of their discontent, which deserve to be noticed office is, that they were employed in the particularly, on account of the measure daily distribution of the alms and the to which they gave rise. The complaint stipends due from the public fund. Wheis called a murmuring of the Grecians ther, even at the first, their duties were (or foreign Jews) against the Hebrews, limited to this department of service, may (or native Jews,) because their widows be reasonably doubted. Of this portion were neglected in the daily ministration." of their duties we are now informed; Who these widows probably were has obviously, because to the unsatisfactory already been suggested; and if the sug- mode in which this had been hitherto gestion, that they were deaconesses, be performed it was owing, that the new admitted, the grounds of the complaint appointment took place, and that the may be readily surmised. As the greater subject was noticed at all. It is, howshare of duty would at this time devolve ever, by no means improbable, that the on the Hebrew widows or deaconesses, young men who carried out the dead they might have been paid more liberally, as their services seemed to require; and hence the discontent.

ministry, the seniors and the juniors, (the πρεσβύτεροι διάκονοι and the νεώτεροι dánovo;) the two orders, in short, which at length received the fixed and perpetual titles of presbyters and deacons.

bodies of Ananias and Sapphira, and who are described as 'ready' in attendance, were of the same order; in other words, "This, it is true, supposes that the deacons by office, if not by name. What order of deacons and deaconesses already may serve to confirm this view of it is, existed, and may seem at first to contra- the opposition between what would seem dict the statement of St. Luke, that in to have been their original title, and anconsequence of this murmuring, deacons other order in the Church. They are were appointed. It does not, however, called 'juniors' and 'young men,' (vrereally contradict it; for evidently some go avixos,) terms so strongly opposed dispensers there must have been, and if to presbyters or elders as to incline one so, either the Apostles must have offi- at the first glance to consider them as ciated as deacons, or special deacons expressive of the two orders of the there must have been, by whatever name they went. That the Apostles did not officiate, is plain from the tenor of the narrative, which indicates that the appeal was made to them, and that they excused themselves from presiding person- "Accordingly, there is no just ground ally at the ministration," (as was pro- for supposing, that when the same term bably desired by the discontented party,) deacon occurs in the Epistles of St. Paul, alleging that it was incompatible with a different order of men is intended: first, their proper duties. 'It is not reason because an office may preserve its original that we should leave the word of God, name long after the duties originally and serve tables.' This very assertion, attached to it have been changed; and, then, is proof certain that they did not secondly, because, whatever duties may officiate. Again, on reading over the have been added to the office of deacons, names of the seven deacons, we find it is certain that the duty of attending to them all of the Grecian or Hellenistic the poor was for several centuries attached party; Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nica- to it. Even after the deacons ceased to nor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, the last of whom is expressly described as "a proselyte of Antioch." Now this surely would have produced, in turn, a murmuring of the Hebrews against the

hold the office of treasurers, and the Bishops began to receive the revenues of their respective sees, the distribution of that portion which was allotted to charity still passed through the hands of the deacons. Hence, in a still later period, the title of cardinal deacon; and hence,

language; as distinguished from Hellen, a Greek too, the appropriation of the term dia

or Gentile by nation.

conia to those Churches wherein alms

used to be collected and distributed to him consider that, however unimportant the poor. in itself, it is one which throws much ad"Not that it is possible to point out, ditional light on the subject now before with any thing like precision, the course us. We not only find few and scanty of duty which belonged to the primitive records of those details of the Churchdeacons. That it corresponded entirely government established by the Apostles, with that of our present order of deacons is very unlikely, whatever analogy be allowed from their relative situation in the Church. As the Church during the greater part of the first century was a shifting, and progressive institution, their duties probably underwent continual change and modification. If we were to be guided, for instance, by the office in which we find the young men,' (Eavioxo,) engaged, when the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira were removed, we should say that they performed the business which in the present day would devolve on the inferior attendants of our churches. If again, we were to judge of their character from the occasion on which we find them acting as stewards of the Church fund, a higher station would be doubtless assigned to them, but still, one not more nearly connected with the ministry of the word, nor approaching more to the sphere of duty which belongs to our deacons. On the other hand, the instances of Stephen and Philip prove, that the title was applied to those who were engaged in the higher departments of the ministry, although not in the highest.

"After all, it is most likely that the word deacon was originally applied, as its etymology suggests, to all the ministers of the Gospel establishment. But the Apostles having from the first a specific title, it more properly denoted any minister inferior to them,-any, however employed in the service of the Church. Between these, also, there soon obtained a distinction. If we suppose, then, that the seniors, or superior class, were distintinguished by the obvious title of Elder deacons, (goBurgos diánovo,) the generic and unappropriated term deacon' would devolve on the remaining class. And thus the present Order in the Church, to which that name is applied, may be truly asserted to be deacons in the apostolical and primitive sense of the word; and yet, nevertheless, much may be said about deacons, both in the New Testament and in the writings of the early fathers, which will not apply to them."

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If any one should be disposed to think it a question of small moment whether Stephen and his companions were or were not the first Deacons ever appointed let

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which, if they had designed to leave a
model absolutely binding on all Christians
for ever, we might have expected to find
fully and clearly particularized, but also
we find that a part even of what the in-
spired writers do record, is recorded inci-
dentally only, for the elucidation of the
rest of the narrative; and not in pursu-
ance of any design to give a detailed
statement of such particulars.
Thus a
further confirmation is furnished of the
view that has been taken; viz., that it was
the plan of the Sacred Writers to lay down
clearly the principles on which Christian
Churches were to be formed and governed,
leaving the mode of application of those
principles undetermined and discretionary.
§ 12. Now what did the Holy Spirit
design us to learn from all this?
first place "he that hath ears to hear"
may draw from it, as has been already
observed, a strong internal evidence of
the genuineness and of the inspired cha-
racter of our Sacred Books; inasmuch as
they do not contain what would surely
have been found in the works of men
(whether impostors or sincere) left to
themselves to record whatever seemed in-
teresting and important.

In the

And this point of evidence presents itself to the mind at once, before we have even begun to inquire into the particular object proposed in the omission; because we may be sure, in this case, that what did not come from Man must have come from God.*

But besides this we may fairly infer, I think, that what is essential is to be found clearly laid down in Scripture; and that those points which are either wholly passed over in silence, (when they are such that we are certain from the nature of the case, the Apostles must have given some directions relative to then,) or are slightly mentioned, imperfectly described, and incidentally alluded to, must belong to the class of things either altogether indifferent, or so far non-essential in their character that "it is not necessary (as our 34th Article expresses it) they should be in all places one and utterly alike;"such in short that divine wisdom judged it best they should be left to the discre

* See Appendix, Note (E.)

tion of each Church in each Age and which might have been expected to appear Country,* and should be determined ac- in that, supposing it of human origin; cording to the principles which had been but which are expressly excluded from distinctly laid down by divine authority; it. It may be worth while however to while the application of those principles in particular cases was left (as is the case with our moral conduct alsof) to the responsible judgment of Man.

It was designed in short that a Church should have (as our 34th Article expresses it) "authority to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies and rites resting on Man's authority only:" (this, be it observed, including things which may have been enjoined by the Apostles to those among whom they were living, and which, to those persons, had a divine authority; but which are not recorded by the sacred writers as enjoined universally) "so that all things be done to edifying" but that "as no Church ought to decree any thing against Holy Writ, so besides the same ought it not to enforce the belief of any thing as necessary to salvation."

§ 13. And we may also infer very clearly from an attentive and candid survey of the Sacred Writings, not only that some things were intended to be absolutely enjoined as essential, and others left to the discretion of the rulers of each Church, but also that some things, again, were absolutely excluded, as inconsistent with the character of a Christian Community. It is very important therefore, and, to a diligent, and reflective, and unprejudiced reader, not difficult, by observing that the Sacred Writers have omitted, and what they have mentioned, and in what manner they have mentioned each, to form in his mind distinctly the three classes just alluded to: viz., 1st, of things essential to Christianity, and enjoined as universally requisite; 2dly, those left to the discretion of the governors of each Church; and 3dly, those excluded as inconsistent with the character of the Gospel religion.

These last points are not least deserving of a careful examination; especially on account of the misconceptions relative to them, that have prevailed and still prevail, in a large portion of the Christian World. It would lead me too far from the subject now immediately under consideration, to enter into a full examination of all the features that are to be found in most religions except the Christian, and

* See Appendix, Note (F.)

advert to a few of the most remarkable.

The Christian Religion, then, arose, be it remembered, among a People who not only looked for a temporal Deliverer and Prince in their Messiah, but who had been accustomed to the sanction of temporal rewards and judgments to the divine Law;*-whose Laws, in religious and in secular matters alike, claimed to be an immediate revelation from Heaven-whose civil Rulers were regarded as delegates from "the Lord their God, who was their king," and were enjoined to punish with death, as a revolt from the Supreme Civil Authority, as a crime of the character of high-treason,-any departure from the prescribed religion. It arose in a Nation regarding themselves as subjects of a "Kingdom of God" that was, emphatically, a kingdom of this world: and its most prominent character was its being "a Kingdom not of this world;" it was in all respects the very reverse in respect of the points just mentioned, of what might have been expected, humanly speaking, from Jewish individuals, and of what was expected by the Jewish Nation; and it may be added, of what many Christians have in every Age laboured to represent and to make it. While the mass of his own People were seeking "to take Jesus by force to make Him a king," (a procedure which has been, virtually, imitated by a large proportion of his professed followers ever since) He Himself and his Apostles, uniformly and sedulously, both in their precepts, and in their conduct, rejected, as alien from the character of the Gospel, all employment of secular coercion in behalf of their religion,—all encroachments on "the things that be Cæsar's;" and maintained the purely spiritual character of that "Kingdom of Heaven" which they proclaimed.

On this, every way most important point, I have treated at large in the first Essay in this volume, and also, in the Essay on Persecution, (3d Series,) and the Essays on the Dangers to Christianity, (4th Series.)

§14. Moreover the Gospel religion was introduced by men, and among men— whether Jews or Gentiles, who had

* See Essay I., 1st Series: " On the Peculiarities," &c. And also Discourse "On National

† Essay on Abolition of Law. Second Series. Blessings."

never heard of or conceived such a thing reflection, both as important in reference as a religion without a Sacrificing Priest, to a right knowledge of the true character without Altars for Sacrifice, without of the religion of the Gospel, and also as Sacrifices themselves, without either a Temple, or at least some High Place, Grove, or other sacred spot answering to a Temple;- -some place, that is, in which the Deity worshipped was supposed more especially to dwell.*

The Apostles preached, for the first time-the first both to Jew and Gentilea religion quite opposite in all these respects to all that had ever been heard of before:-a religion without any Sacrifice but that offered up by its Founder in his own person; without any sacrificing Priest (Hiereus)† except Him, the great and true High Priest, and consequently with no Priest (in that sense) on Earth; except so far as every one of the worshippers was required to present himself as a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God;" and a religion without any Temple, except the collected Congregation of the Worshippers themselves.||

Let any one but contemplate the striking contrast between the confined-the local character of the Mosaic system, and the character of boundless extension stamped on the Gospel of Christ. "In the place which the Lord shall choose" (says Mo**" to set his Name therein, there shalt thou offer thy Sacrifices." "The hour cometh" (says Jesus††) "when men shall neither on this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father;"

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"wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." "In his Temple" (says the Psalmist;§§ i. e. in his temple at Jerusalem) "doth every one speak of his glory:" "there will " (Jehovah) "dwell, for I have a delight therein :" "Ye are the Temple" (says the Apostle Paul)" of the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in you."

Now all this is deserving of attentive

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furnishing a strong internal evidence as to its origin. For not only is it inconceivable that any impostor or enthusiast would have ever devised or dreamed of any thing both so strange, and so unacceptable, as must have seemed, in those days, a religion without Priest, Altar, Sacrifice, or Temple, (in the sense in which men had always been accustomed to them;) but also it is no less incredible that any persons, unaided by miraculous powers, should have succeeded-as the Apostles did-in propagating such a religion.

But what is most to our present purpose to remark is, that the Sacred Writers did not omit the mention of these things, and leave it to the discretion of each Church to introduce them or not; but they plainly appear to have distinctly excluded them. It is not that they made. little or no mention of Temples, Sacrifices, and sacrificing Priests; they mention them and allude to them, perpetually; as existing, in the ordinary sense of the terms, among the Jews, and also among the Pagans; and again, they also perpetually mention and allude to them in reference to the religion of the Gospel, invariably, and manifestly, in a different sense. Jesus Christ, as the Christian Priest, and Christian Sacrifice,-Christians themselves as "living Sacrifices,”—the sacrifice of beneficence to the Poor,*-the Temple composed of the Christian Worshippers themselyes; who are exhorted to "build up" (or edify, oixodou) one another, as “living stones" of the Temple of the Holy Ghost;-all these are spoken of and alluded to continually; while, in the primary and customary sense, the same terms are perpetually used by the same writers, in reference to the Jewish and to the Pagan religions, and never to the Christian.

I cannot well conceive any proof more complete than is here afforded, that Christ and his Apostles intended distinctly to exclude and forbid, as inconsistent with his religion, those things which I have been speaking of. It being the natural and inherent office of any Community to make by-laws for its own regulation, where not restricted by some higher Authority, these under that restriction; being distinctly expoints are precisely those which come

To do good and to distribute, forget not, for with such sacrifices, (Ovría,) God is well pleased." † 1 Peter ii. 5, &c.

.

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