The warrant, nature, and duties, of the office of the ruling elder, in the Presbyterian Church

Front matter

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THE WARRANT, NATURE, AND DUTIES,

OF THE OFFICE OF

Chapter I

Introductory Remarks — Nature of the Church — Visible and Invisible Church — Unity of the Church — A form of government for the Church appointed by Christ — Nature and limits of ecclesiastical power — Summary of the doctrine of Presbyterians on this subject — The proper classes of officers in a Church completely organized — Positions intended to be established, as affording a warrant for the office of Ruling Elders. — p. 1—16.

Chapter II

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.

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Chapter IV

Testimony of the Christian Fathers — Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, Origen, Gesta Purgationis, &c., Optatus, Ambrose, Augustine, Apostolical Constitutions, Isodore, Gregory — Facts incidentally stated by the Fathers concerning 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 Centurjators, Junius, Zanchius, Paraeus, Piscator, Cartwright, Greenham, Estius, Whitaker — Ruling Elders generally established 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, Kromayer, 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. 14*2 — 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 XI

The qualifications proper for the office of Ruling Elder — It is not necessary that they be aged persons — It is of the utmost importance that they have unfeigned and approved piety — That they possess good sense and sound judgment — That they be orthodox, and well informed in gospel truth — That they have eminent 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 XII

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 vthem. — p. 252 — 258.

CHAPTER V.

The advantages of conducting discipline upon the Presbyterian 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 energy— 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 assiduously 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 presiding 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 orin 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 respecting 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, scattered 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 preference. We must regard our union with the Christian church as the loftiest privilege which we possess; and we must cleave to it with unyielding tenacity, whatever 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 living 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 system of control or of government which he has established in his kingdom. Living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, even the saints themselves are liable to be seduced into sin; and too frequently, 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 indispensably 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 person 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 somewhere, 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 person?

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who have borne the Christian name. During the period when the sway of the 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 generally 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 punishments with disobedience to spiritual authority: the Protestants followed the fatal example which the adherents 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 prevailed at the period referred to, that penal statutes were the proper weapons by which uniformity of religious 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 observations. 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 Church 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 Puritans taemselves 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 bitter 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 renounce 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 history. 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 himself the judge of his neighbour's faith.

When these facts are considered, it will be readily acknowleged, that the prejudice which many entertain 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; anditneed 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

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Vlll 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 disorderly 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 conditions of membership which are fundamentally and radically 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 members a greater punishment than exclusion from her

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communion, yet the nation may, and ought to exclude from civil privileges all persons who fall under the displeasure 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 of inflicting 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 implored 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 consigned 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 excommunication 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, not upon 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 independently 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, unrestricted in their choice, and voting for whom they please. The character of Parliament must be determined 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 pernicious : 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 persons alone are qualified to rule, the course 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 privileges 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 pure and un defiled 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 practical 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-

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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 enactment, of all who differ from them, is wrong in principle, seeking fruit where the seed has not been sown ; and it must prove utterly unavailing to stem the torrent 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 imperceptibly 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 wrant of exclusive laws to shut out Catholics and Infidels, labour to leaven the mass of society with the knowledge of the truth. Christianity, in reforming 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 influence, 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 character, and leads to the fatal idea that the Christianity of the statute book, may be regarded as a sufficient substitute for the Christianity of the country. The kingdom 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 excommunication as laid down in the word of God. It imports exclusion simply from the religious privileges of the society whose fundamental laws have been despised, 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 altogether 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 disposed 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 consequence 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 which 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

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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 establishes, the representative character of its elders, and the subordination of its courts, are excellent safeguards 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 control, 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 previously appointed to it. The difference, again, between the Presbyterian and the Independent forms of church government is this, 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 together, and their office-bearers or representatives are formed into a judicature, to which there lies an appeal from the decision of each particular church.