Conformity of the ecclesiastical discipline of the Reformed churches of France with that of the primitive Christians written by M. La Rocque ... ; render'd into English by Jos. Walker.

CONFORMITY.

Having treated of Ministers, and the Schools where they ought to study to attain to the Office of the Holy

Ministry, it follows in order, to speak of those which partake with them of the care in Governing the Flock; That is, of Deacons, and Elders, which amongst us are Secular persons, serving in the Church, and distin∣guished from Ministers; or to speak with the Fathers, from the Clergy; it is then of these two sorts of Per∣sons, and of their Election, that I am to treat, in examining this Article, according to the design and in∣tention of the Compilers of our Discipline.

I'll begin with the Deacons, which as every body knows, are of Apostolical institution; In effect, we find in the 6th Chapter of the Acts, That the Apostles giving themselves up wholly to the Preaching of the Gospel, they desir'd the Church of Jerusalem to chuse out certain persons of good repute for Wisdom and Piety, that they might commit unto them the care of the Poor, which they express, by serving of Tables, that by this means they might the more conveniently attend to Prayer, and Preaching of the Word. St. Chrysostom observes on this place, that this was the first establishing of Deacons, the very name not being till then known, that is, in the Christian Church; as for the Jewish Church, they had their Deacons, as Epiphanius writes in the Heresie of the Ebeonites, which is the 30th, they were called Azanites; and thence probably 'twas that the Apostles took the Original of Christian Deacons; and they called them so, because they served at Tables, and at the distributing of Money to the Poor; It was to that time, those which followed St. Chrysostom, and wrote of the first institution of Deacons, writing on the Acts of the Apostles, as Beda and Orcumenius, have refer'd it.

As for Lay-Elders, such as ours be, I do not find their institution in Scripture, as that of the

Deacons is found; as for the Elders of the Christian Churches, whereof there is mention made in several places in the New-Testament, I am fully persuaded that by them is to be understood Pastors themselves, which were called indifferently Elders, or Priests, and Bishops; I do not except that famous passage, chap. 5. vers. 17. of the 1st Ep. to Timothy.

It is certain that these Elders were all of the same Or∣der, that is to say. They were all Pastors; but because there were several in the same Church, and that some were sitter for Preaching the Word than others, they gave them different employments, according to the di∣versity of Gifts; in my judgment there needs no other proof of this Truth, than the right of Precedency which St. Paul attributes indifferently to all, which he would not have done, had they not been all of one Or∣der; the Greek word also, which he uses, ordinarily imports a precedency which is due only to Pastors, which the Ancients frequently design by this name, particularly Justin Martyr.

But notwithstanding this, I make no question, but the Original of our Elders is very Ancient, and that it ap∣proaches very near to the Apostles days, if they be not rather themselves the Founders of them; and what con∣firms me in this Opinion is, that they establish'd in the Church a Government like that of the Synagogue, a Christian Presbytery, instead of a Jewish one; and as there were Elders amongst the Jews, which had share in Governing the Synagogue, it is very probable that there were also Elders amongst the Christians, People which had part in that of the Church, if not at the very first birth of Christianity, at least there was as soon as the number of them was increased in so great a manner; for then it was there was need of establishing this sort

of Government I have spoke of, and of which the Holy Pen-men have not mentioned the time of its settlement; because it may be they had no particular occasion of doing it, as St. Luke had of writing the History of the Institution of Deacons, which probably might also have been unknown to us, if the murmuring of the Greeks against the Jews, because their Widows were neglected at the ordinary Service, had not oblig'd him to transmit it in writing.

However it be, That it may not be imagin'd I only insist on meer conjectures, and conjectures utterly desti∣tute of the Authority of Tradition, I'll produce the for∣mal Testimony of Hillary, Deacon of Rome, a Writer of the 4th Century, who speaks in this manner. * 1.1 The Synogogue, and the Church afterwards, had Elders, without whose advice nothing was done in the Church; and I can't tell by what negligence the same has been abolish'd, if it be not probably by the slothfulness of Doctors, or rather through their Pride, to make it be believ'd they are some-bodies: It appears plainly by these words of the Deacon Hillary, That the Church had her Elders, as well as the Syno∣gogue, and that very early she began to make use of them, when he began to write his Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles; for he complains of the abolishing this holy Custom, which in all likelihood held a consi∣derable time after its first institution, and in the very place it self where it was extinct by the negligence and malice of vain and ambitious Men; which doth justify, as I take it, what I have said of its Antiquity, that is to say, That the first establishing of it was by the Apostles, or at least by their immediate Successors, if it were so that we could not find the Footsteps in the Monuments of Ecclesiastical Writers, that immediately followed the Age of the Apostles.

Nevertheless, who knows but Claudius, Ephebius, Va∣lerius, Biton, and Fortunatus, which St. Clement, Disciple of the Apostles, sent to the Church of Corinth, with the Excellent Letter which he wrote to appease the troubles wherewith it was agitated; who, I say, can tell but they were of those Elders whose original In∣stitution we seek for? for he says nothing at all which may induce us to think they were either Pastors, or Deacons. Moreover, in the third Century, Firmilli∣an Bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia, and one of the most celebrated Prelates of his time, makes mention of El∣ders, which he joyns with Pastors, for the treating of affairs which concerned the good and edification of the Churches, * 1.2 We meet together, saith he, every year, El∣ders and Ministers, to settle and order matters committed to our care, and with common consent to treat of the weigh∣tiest and most important affairs. About fifty years after, Mensurius Bishop of Carthage, having received orders to follow the Emperor's Court, he committed to the trust of certain Elders, saith Optatus of Milvetan, se∣veral Ornaments of Gold and Silver, which appertain∣ed to the Church: But afterwards he made a Note of them, which he gave to an old Woman, with orders to give it to his Successor, if it hapned that he died in his Journey, as it fell out he did; so that Cecilian having been Established in the place of Mensurius, the Woman failed not to give him the Note she had, by vertue of which he called for those Elders to whom Mensurius had committed this trust, in the belief he had that they were good honest men; but these perfidious persons, willing to satisfie their own covetous desires, converted the Gold and Silver to their own private uses, Cecillian was frustrated of his expectation; and as he was going about to compel them, they rent from the

Communion of the Church a good part of the People, and began the Schism of the Donatists, which prov'd so destructive to the Churches of Africa. And what in∣vincibly proves they were Lay-Elders like ours, is, that Optatus expresly distinguishes them from Botrus, and Celesius, which were of the Clergy of the Church of Carthage, and who not attaining to the Degree of Bi∣shops, to which their ambition made them aspire, they herded with these corrupt Elders, together with Lucilla, a factious and powerful Woman, who of a long time endeavoured the ruin of Cecilian.

See here already sufficient Arguments of the truth of the matter we examine; nevertheless because many do imagin that our practise in regard of Elders, is new and unknown to the ancient Church, it will not be a∣miss to insist a little longer on this subject, and to al∣ledg farther proofs, the better to establish the Antiquity of the practise which we defend. I'le begin with the Acts of Justification of Cecilian, and of Foelix of Ap∣tonge, his Ordainer, which are at the end of Monsieur de Laubespine Bishop, of Orleans, his Notes on Optatus Bishop of Mileva in Numidia. In these Acts, which are ancienter than the Council of Nice, there are se∣veral things which directly regard our Subject, as what is said on occasion of Money given by Lucilla a Woman of Quality, to have made Majorinus Bishop, * 1.3 That all the Bishops, the Priests, the Deacons, and the El∣ders, had knowledg of it. And some lines after, a Bishop called Purpurius, writes to Silvanus Bishop of Cirthe, who was accused of several things, To employ those of his Clergy, and the Elders of the People, which are Ec∣clesiastical persons, to the end they might give an ac∣count of the nature of these dissentions; and in the following page there is mention made of a Letter writ to

the Clergy, and to the Elders; and six pages after, one Maximus saith, * 1.4 I speak in the name of the Elders, and Christian People of the Catholick Law.

St. * 1.5 Austin in his third Book against Cresconius, speaks of a stranger Priest, and the Elders of the Church of the Country of M••slitan▪ The Title of his 137th. Let∣ter is conceiv'd in these terms: To my beloved Brethren, the Clergy, th•• Elders, and all the People of the Church of Bonne, * 1.6 or Hippone, whom I serve in the Love of Jesus Christ. There is in this same Father's Sermons on the Psalms, a Synodal Letter of the Cabarsussitan Coun∣cil, which speaking of Primian the Donatist, saith, He was given to be Bishop to the People of Carthage, ac∣cording to the request made of the Elders of the Church by Letters. And in the next Page, there is again mention made of Letters, and Deputies of the Elders of the Church. In the Nineteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord, which is the third in the Appendix of the 10th. Tome, he makes appear wherein consisted one part of the Duty of their Employments. The 100th. Canon of the African Code, attributed to the Council of Carthage in the year 407, speaks three several times of the Elders at Nova Germania; and because there had been some difference betwixt this Church and Mau∣rentius its Bishop, and that nevertheless the Elders de∣puted in this affair to the Synod, appeared not, the Council assigned to Maurentius, the Judges he desired, and left to the choice of the Elders, tho absent, the nomination of those that should be needful to compleat the number; and what is very remarkable in this con∣juncture is, that these Elders defended the right of the People, which were the Bishops opposite party, who complained of their outrage and calumnies.

What I have hitherto writ, does clearly shew, that when the Deacon Hillary complained that the use of El∣ders was abolished, he had a regad to Italy, where it had indeed hapned in sundry places, though the same practise continued elsewhere, as I have justified by many Examples after the time in which this Roman Deacon wrote. I now proceed on farther, and do say, this custom was not extinct in France and Sicily at the end of the Sixth Century; I say first of all in Sicily; for Pope Gregory the First writ to John Bishop of Palermo, * 1.7 and recommends two things to him, one was, To esta∣blish a Receiver by consent of the Elders and Clergy, to give an account yearly, to take away all suspition of fraud: The other was, not to give easie credit to reports that might be made to him of his Clergy, but carefully to examine the truth in presence of the Elders of his Church. I say in the second place, this same practice was obser∣ved in France. In effect, Gregory of Tours has transmit∣ted to us the Letter of an Assembly of Bishops held at Poictiers by the King's Command, to take course a∣bout the disorders of the Monastry of St. Radegonda; * 1.8 and in this Letter the Abbess confesses amongst other things, that she received Earnest for the Marriage of her Neece which was an Orphan; that she received it in presence of the Bishop, the Clergy, and the El∣ders. And in the year 585. King Goutran makes ex∣press mention of the Elders of the Church, which he di∣stinguishes from the Clergy, in the Edict which he addresses to the Bishops and Judges of his Kingdom. Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 391. I can't say but Agobard Bi∣shop of Lions in the ninth Century might design these same Elders, * 1.9 when complaining of Persons of Quality that abused Priests they had in their Houses: He saith, That by reason of these Domestick Chaplains, They

forsook the Churches, the Elders, and the publick service.

Now it follows, I must treat of the form and manner of Electing our Deacons and Elders. The Establish∣ment I examin, distinguishes the places where the Dis∣cipline is not yet setled, from those where it is already received; in the former it requires Election should be made by the Votes of the People and Pastors: In the other, it appoints, that nomination shall be made in the Consistory, and that it shall be signified to the People, to have either their consent, or their refusal; because their Establishment depends on the liking and approba∣tion of the People; the nomination made in the Con∣sistory, no way depriving the People of their Right, seeing the most part of those which do it, that is to say, the Elders and Deacons, do represent the People, and are invested with its power and rights. It is therefore of the People, either mediately, or immediately, that de∣pends the Establishing of Elders and Deacons amongst us. And herein our Discipline has Religiously follow∣ed the practice of the holy Apostles, who referred to the liberty of the People, the Election of the Seven Dea∣cons; the History whereof is mentioned by St. Luke in the 6th. Chap. of the Acts. And 'tis not only in regard of Deacons the Apostles proceeded in this manner, they would also that the whole Church of Jerusalem should have share in Establishing Matthias, * 1.10 who by common consent was added to the Number of the Eleven Apo∣stles; and when they Ordained ordinary Pastors, doubt∣less they did it by the advice of the Assemblies of the People, to the conduct of whom they intended to com∣mit them. Which example the succeeding Christians imi∣tated very exactly, as we have made appear on Artic. 4. of the first Chap. Our Discipline does not therefore prescribe any thing as to what regards the Election of

our Elders and Deacons, but what is very conformable to the practice of the Apostles, and to that of the Pri∣mitive Christians; in short, if in the first Ages of Chri∣stianity the People had a good share in the Vocation of Ministers, of greater reason had they in Establish∣ing of Elders, which were, if it may be so said, the Executors of their Will, and the dispencers of their Rights. And if our Ministers by the ninth Article of the first Chapter, are obliged to sign our Confession of Faith, and Ecclesiastical Discipline, agreeable to what was practiced in the Primitive Church, it cannot be thought strange, that we should also oblige our Elders and Deacons to sign them, because they make up one body with the Ministers of each Church, and do par∣take with them of the conduct of the same Flocks.

Notes

• * 1.1

  In 1 Tim. 5. 1, 2. apud. Ambrose Tom. 3. p. 582.
• * 1.2

  Seniores & Praepo∣siti. Apud Cy∣pri. pag. 144. Optat. l. 1. p. 41. Par. 1631.
• * 1.3

  Pag. 268.
• * 1.4

  Pag. 276. Inst.
• * 1.5

  Tom. 7. Pag. 191. c. 56. Tom. 2. p. 250.
• * 1.6

  Tom 8. in Psal. 36. Conc. 2. p. 119. Extr.
• * 1.7

  Tom. 2. lib. ••1. Ind. 6 Ep. 49. p. 1083
• * 1.8

  Hib. l. 1••. c. 16.
• * 1.9

  Lib. de Jure Sa∣cerd. pag. 135. Tom. 2.
• * 1.10

  Acts 1.