the poor, for strengthening the common interest, and warding off unforeseen dangers. These funds consisted of voluntary contributions of every kind, brought by individuals, according to their abilities, to their public meetings, and usually called oblations. § 7. Among all members of the church, whatever might be their account or condition, there was the most perfect equality. This they manifested by their love-feasts, by calling each other brethren and sisters, and in other ways. Nor in this first age was there any distinction between the initiated and candidates for initiation. For whoever professed to regard Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, and to depend on him alone for salvation, was immediately baptized, and admitted into the church. But in the process of time, as Christianity extended, it was deemed advisable, if not necessary, to distribute the people into the two classes of faithful and catechumens. The former, being such as had been solemnly taken into the society by baptism, might be present at all the parts of religious worship, and enjoy the right of voting in meetings of the church. The latter, being yet unconsecrated by the lustral sacrament, were neither admitted to the common prayers, nor the sacred supper, nor to the meetings. § 8. The presiding officers of the church were denominated, sometimes presbyters or elders, a designation borrowed from the Jews, and indicative rather of the wisdom than the age of the persons; and sometimes, also, bishops; for it is most manifest, that both terms are promiscuously used in the New Testament for one class of persons. These were men of gravity, and distinguished for their reputation, influence and sanctity." Some of them, it is commonly inferred from St. Paul's words 3, taught the people, others rendered public services in some other way. If, however, this distinction between teaching and ruling elders, ever existed at all, which I neither affirm nor deny, it certainly does not seem to have been of long continuance, for St. Paul requires of all presbyters or bishops, that they be able to teach and instruct others. 4 § 9. As few among the first professors of Christianity were learned men, and fit for imbuing with a knowledge of heavenly things minds unprepared for it, God saw the necessity of raising up, in many churches, extraordinary teachers, to discourse, when the Christians met, on things pertaining to religion, and reason with the people in his own words. These are! the persons who in the New Testament are called prophets.5 The functions of these men are limited too much, by those who make it to have been their sole business to expound the Old Testament scriptures, and especially the prophetic books." Whoever professed to be such a herald of God was allowed publicly to address the people; but there were present among the hearers divinely constituted judges, who were at no loss to distinguish true prophets from false ones. The order of prophets ceased, when the necessity for them was past. § 10. That the church had its public servants or deacons, from its first foundation, he will not doubt who recollects that no society can be without such persons, but least of all, bodies like the first ones, formed among Christians. Those young men, accordingly, who carried out the corpses of Ananias and his wife, were, without question, the deacons of the church at Jerusalem, attendant upon the apostles, when it met, and awaiting their commands. These first deacons of that body were 4 1 Tim. iii. 2.-See, concerning the word presbyter, Camp. Vitringa, de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. p. i. cap. i. p. 609. and J. Bened. Carpzov. Exercit. in epist. ad Hebræos, ex Philone, p. 499. On the thing itself, or rather the persons designated by this title, see J. Fr. Buddeus, Ecclesia Apostol. cap. vi. p. 719, and Christoph. Matt. Pfaff, de Originibus juris eccles. p. 49. 5 Rom. xii. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28; xiv. iii. 29. Ephes. iv. 21. See Mosheim's Diss. de illis, qui prophetæ vocantur in N. T. [in the 2nd vol. of his Diss. ad Hist. Eccl. pertinentes, p. 125, &c. also Witsius, Miscell. Sacra, tom. i. Koppe, Excurs. III. in Epistolam ad Ephes. and Schleusner, Lexicon in N. Test. art. рophτηs, no. 10. Tr.] 7 Acts v. 6. 10. Those who may be surprised, that I should consider the young men, who interred the bodies of Ananias and Sapphira, to be the deacons of the church at Jerusalem, are desired to consider, that the words verepo and veaviokol, young men, are not always indicative of age; but often, both among the Greeks and Latins, indicate a function or office. For the same change is made in these words, as in the word presbyter, which every one knows, is indicative, sometimes of age, and sometimes merely of office. As, therefore, the word presbyter often denotes the rulers or head men of a society or association, without any regard to their age; so also the terms young men and the younger not unfrequently denote the servants, or those that stand in waiting; because ordinarily men in the vigour of life perform this office. Nor is this use of the word foreign from the New Testament. The Saviour himself seems to use the word veάTepos in this sense, Luke xxii. 26, δ μείζων ἐν ὑμῖν, γενέσθω ὡς ὁ νεώτερος. The word μείζων, he chosen from Jews born in Palestine, and as they were thought by individuals of the nations who came from foreign parts to show party-spirit in distributing benefits, the apostles caused seven other public servants, or deacons, to be appointed for that portion of the church at Jerusalem which consisted of Jews who had lived or were born abroad. Six of these were complete foreigners, as their names bear witness; but one was taken from the proselytes, a class of persons that supplied many of the first Christians at Jerusalem, and hence could as fairly claim attention as Jews who had lived in other countries. The exam ple of the church of Jerusalem being followed by all other Christian bodies, in obedience to the injunctions of the apostles, they likewise appointed deacons. There were also, in many churches, and especially in those of Asia, female public servants or deaconesses; who were matrons or widows of unquestionable character, that attended to the poor, and discharged other duties. 1 § 11. In this manner Christians managed ecclesiastical affairs so long as their congregations were small, or not very numerous. Three or four presbyters, men of gravity and holiness, placed over those little societies, could easily proceed with harmony, and needed no head or president. But when, as himself explains by youuevos, so that it is equivalent to ruler or presbyter: and instead of veάTEpos, he in the next clause uses ὁ διακονῶν, which places our interpretation beyond all controversy. So that μείζων and νεώτερος are not here indicative of certain ages, but of certain offices; and the precept of Christ amounts to this: "Let not him that performs the office of a presbyter or elder among you, think himself superior to the public servants or deacons." Still more evident, is the passage 1 Peter ν. 5, ὁμοίως νεώτεροι ὑποτάγητε πρεσβυτέροις. It is manifest from what goes before, that presbyter here is indicative of rank or office, denoting teacher or ruler in the church: therefore its counterpart, VETEPOs, has the same import, and does not denote persons young in years, but the servants or deacons of the church. Peter, after solemnly exhorting the presbyters not to abuse the power committed to them, turns to the deacons and says, "And likewise ye younger, i. e. ye deacons, despise not the orders of the presbyters, but perform cheerfully whatever they require of you."-In this same sense, the term is used by Luke, Acts v. 6. 10. where νεώτεροι οι νεανίσκοι are the deacons of the church at Jerusalem, the very persons, whom, a little after, the Hellenists accused before the apostles of not distributing properly the contributions for the poor. I might confirm this sense of the term young men, by numerous citations from Greek and Latin writers, both sacred and profane ; but this is not the place for such demonstrations. 8 Acts vi. 1. For an account of the deacons and deaconesses of the ancient churches, see Casp. Ziegler, de Diaconis et diaconissis, Wittemb. 1678, 4to. Sam. Basnage, Annales polit. eccles. ad ann. 35, tom. i. p. 450. Joseph Bingham, Origines Ecclesiast. book ii. ch. 20. [and Mosheim, de Rebus Christ. ante Constant. M. p. 118, &c. where he defends, at great length, his somewhat peculiar views, respecting the seven deacons of the church at Jerusalem.] churches grew larger, there was an increased number not only of presbyters and inferior ministers, but also of labours and occupations varying in character, it became necessary that the council of presbyters should have a president, a man of distinguished gravity and prudence, who should distribute among his colleagues their several tasks, and be as it were the central point of the whole society. He was at first denominated the angel2, but afterwards, the bishop; that word> in Greeks being indicative of his principal business. It would seem, that the church of Jerusalem, when grown very numerous, after the dispersion of the apostles among foreign nations, was the first to elect such a president; and that other churches, in process of time, followed the example.1 § 12. Those, however, who judge of bishops in the first and golden age of Christianity from their successors in the following centuries, blend and confound characters that are very different. For in this century and the next, a bishop had charge of a single church, which might ordinarily be contained in a private house; nor was he its lord, but in reality its minister and servant; instructing the people, conducting all parts of public worship, and attending on the sick and necessitous in person. Undoubtedly, such things as he could not manage and perform he committed to the presbyters; but he had no power to decree or sanction any thing until it was approved by the presbyters and people.5 2 Apoc. ii. iii. [The title of angel (E. H. l. ii. c. i.) Some have identified occurs only in the Apocalypse, a highly him with James, the son of Alpheus, poetic book. It was not, probably, the thus making him one of the twelve common title of the presiding presbyter; apostles: but Eusebius (i. 12.) places him and certainly was not an older title among the seventy disciples. His imthan that of bishop, which is so often portance in the church of Jerusalem used by St. Paul in his epistles, which appears to have been established at least were written long before the Apocalypse. as early as the third year after St. Paul's See Schlegel's note here.—Tr.] conversion. (Gal. i. 19.) Subsequently, Scripture makes him leader in the settlement of that question respecting Mosaic obligations, which occupied what is called the council of Jerusalem. (Acts xv. 13.) Unless ancient profane authority had been correct in designating him Bishop of Jerusalem, the scriptural accounts of his prominence there, are far from intelligible. Ed.] * ['Eяiσкожоs, an Inspector, or Overseer, with which the Latin Episcopus is identical, and from which the word expressive of that officer in all European languages, is derived. Ed.] [Dr. Mosheim, de Rebb. Christ. ante C. M. p. 134, has a long note, in which he argues from the traditional accounts of a longer catalogue of bishops in the church of Jerusalem than in any other church, during the first ages, that the church of Jerusalem must be supposed to have had bishops earlier than any other. Tr.]-The first in the series of bishops of Jerusalem is said by Eusebius to have been James, known as our Lord's brother, and surnamed the Just. [All that is here stated, may be clearly proved from the records of the first centuries; and has been proved, by Jos. Bingham, Origines Ecclesiast. W. Beverege, Coder Canon. primit. ecclesiæ, and others. Mosheim, de Rebb. Chr., &c. p. 136.] The emoluments of this singularly laborious and perilous office were very small. For the churches had no revenues, except the voluntary contributions of the people, or oblations; which, moderate as they doubtless were, were divided among bishop, presbyters, deacons, and poor. § 13. It was not long, however, before the extent of episcopal jurisdiction and power was enlarged. For the bishops who lived in cities, either themselves, or through their presbyters, gathered new churches in the neighbouring towns and country. As these churches continued under the protection and care of the bishops by whose ministry or procurement they received Christianity, ecclesiastical provinces were gradually formed, which the Greeks afterwards denominated dioceses. The persons to whom the city bishops committed the government and instruction of these village and rural churches, were called chorepiscopi, that is, bishops of some country place or district. They were a sort of intermediate class between bishops and presbyters, being inferior to the former, superior to the latter." 14. All the churches of primitive time were independent bodies, no one of them owing subjection to any other. If they were, indeed, founded by an apostle, they had often the honour of being consulted in difficult and doubtful cases; yet they had no judicial authority, no control, no power of giving laws. On the contrary, it is clear as the noon-day, that all Christian churches had equal rights, and were in all respects on a footing of equality. Nor does there appear in this first age, any vestige of that consociation of churches in the same province, which gave rise to councils and metropolitans. Rather is it established, that, in the second century, a custom of holding councils took its rise in Greece, and thence extended into other provinces. 8 • [Τῆς χώρας ἐπίσκοποι, episcopi rurales, seu villani. Murd.] [Learned men, who have written largely on the subject, have debated whether the chorepiscopi ranked with bishops, or with presbyters. See J. Morin, De sacris eccles, ordinatt. pt. i. exerc. iv. D. Blondel, de Episc. et Presbyt. sec. iii. W. Beverege, Pandect. Canon, tom. ii. p. 176. C. Ziegler, de Episcopis, 1. i. c. 13, p. 105, &c. Peter de Marca, de Concordia sacerd, et imperii, 1. ii. cap. 13, 14. Boehmer, Adnott. ad Petrum de Marca, p. 62, 63. L. Thomassin, Dis ciplina eccles. vet. et nova, pt. i. I. ii. c. 1, p. 215. But they did not belong entirely to either of those orders. Mosheim, de Rebb. Christ. ante Const. M. p. 137.] 8 It is commonly said, that the meeting of the church in Jerusalem, which is described Acts xv. was the first' Christian council. But this is a perversion of the import of the term council. For that meeting was a conference of only a single church, called together for deliberation: and if such meetings may be called ecclesiastical councils, a multitude of them were held in those primi |