DISCOURSE XXI.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS ENJOINED AND ENFORCED.

1 PET. v. 1-5.-The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock: and when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.

IN the preceding portions of this Epistle, the Apostle has instructed those to whom he wrote in many of their religious and moral duties in their individual capacity, and also in many of their duties as members of domestic and civil society. In the paragraph which comes now before us, he writes to them that they "may know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God." He gives them a directory for their conduct, as office-bearers or private members of a Christian church. The duties of office-bearers in the church to those committed to their charge, and the duties of the members of the church, both to their officebearers and to each other, are here very succinctly stated, and very powerfully enforced.

With regard to the office-bearers of the church, here termed "the elders," the whole of their duty is represented

as consisting in acting the part of shepherds and overseers of that portion of the flock or family of God committed to their care; the temper or disposition in which this duty must be discharged is described, both negatively and positively, "not by constraint, not for filthy lucre, not as lords of God's heritage," but "willingly, of a ready mind, as ensamples to the flock;" and to secure a conscientious performance of this duty, besides employing his personal influence with them, as being himself "also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory which shall be revealed,” the Apostle turns their attention to the peculiar character of the church as "the flock" and "heritage of God," and to the rich reward which shall be conferred on the faithful under shepherds and overseers, by the chief Shepherd and Overseer at his "glorious appearing," and their "gathering together to him.”

With regard to the members of the church, who, with a reference to their office-bearers being termed "elders,”1 are, we apprehend, described by the cognate appellation "younger," or juniors, just as if the office-bearers had been termed fathers, they would have been termed children; their duty to their office-bearers is described under the general word, "submission."

The duty of all connected with the Christian church, whether as officers or private members, is enjoined under the expression, mutual subjection. Humility is enjoined as necessary in order to the right discharge of all these classes of duties; and the cultivation of this disposition, so requisite to the prosperity and good order of the church, is recommended by a strong statement, couched in the language of Old Testament scripture, of the peculiar complacency with which God regards the humble, and the contemptuous reprobation with which he regards the proud. Such is a brief analysis of the paragraph, which we will find of use in guiding our thoughts in our subsequent illustrations. The

peculiar duties of the rulers of the Christian church, the peculiar duties of the members of the Christian church, and the duties common to both, these are the important topics to which in the sequel your attention shall be successively directed.

I. OF THE DUTIES OF THE RULERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

And first, of the duties of the rulers of the Christian Church. For the right illustration of this part of our subject, it will be requisite that we consider first the appellation here given to those who rule in the Christian Church, and to whom that appellation properly belongs; secondly, the duty which they are required to perform; thirdly, the manner in which that duty ought to be performed; and lastly, the motives by which the performance of this duty in this manner is enforced.

CHAP. I. THE APPELLATION HERE GIVEN TO THE RULERS

OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, "ELDERS."

§ 1.—The origin and meaning of the appellation. The appellation here given to the rulers of the Church, those who were to act the part of shepherds to it, as the flock of God, the part of overseers to it as the family of God, is that of "elders," or presbyters, which is just the Greek word with an English termination. "The elders, or presbyters, who are among you, I exhort." The word in its literal signification describes the person to whom it is given as of comparatively advanced age. As rule ought to be committed only to those who are characterised by knowledge and wisdom; as in ordinary circumstances these are not to be expected in a high degree in very young persons, since both qualifications are generally understood to be of somewhat difficult acquirement and slow growth; and as in the simplest form of human government, the domestic, the elder members

of the society are the ruling members in it, and as, where the ruling orders in civil society are elective, they are generally chosen from among those of at least mature age, it is not at all wonderful that the appellation, primarily significant merely of superior age, should have been very generally employed to denote superior dignity and authority. The Hebrew ordinary civil rulers are termed "the elders of Israel." The assembled magistrates of Rome were termed the senate or meeting of elders, and its individual members senators. In some of the most extensively spoken continental languages, the title expressive of dignity and rule, and which we would render by the word lord, actually signifies just elder;1 and the English term alderman, descriptive of municipal authority and power in many cities, is just an antiquated form of the word elder man.

It has been the opinion of some of the most judicious and learned students of the history of apostolical and primitive Christianity, that the constitution of the Christian church was, under apostolic guidance, " modelled for the most part after that religious community with which it stood in closest connexion, the Jewish synagogue; such modifications, however, taking place as were required by the nature and design of the Christian community, and the new and peculiar spirit by which it was animated." In this case it would have been strange if the designation by which managers of the affairs of the Jewish synagogue, elders, had not been transferred to the superintendents of the Christian church. And we cease to wonder that we have no particular account of the formal establishment of the office of elders, the existing order of things in the synagogues for religious instruction and discipline, very probably originally organized by inspired men, silently, under apostolic superintendence and with apostolic sanction, without the formality of express legislative enactment, being transferrred to the meetings of the disciples, the churches of Christ.

1 Senor, seigneur.

2 Vitringa, Whately, Neander.

With the exception of "the deacons," a term signifying ministers or servants, who obviously as deacons had no part in the government of the church, "the elders" appear to be the only ordinary set of office-bearers in the apostolic and primitive churches. In an inspired account of the constitution of the Christian church, we are informed, when her only Lord and King ascended on high "he gave," that is, he appointed, and qualified, and commissioned "some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ." The office of the Apostles was altogether peculiar, and they who filled it were intended for the benefit of the church in all ages. They were the accredited messengers of Christ. They had his mind. He spake by them, and wrought by them; and though they have long left this world, in their inspired writings they are still in the church, according to the promise of their Lord, "sitting on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of the spiritual Israel ;" and in the same writings they are still "going into all the world, proclaiming the gospel ;" and their Lord by his Spirit is with them, and will continue to be with them till the end of the world. The prophets necessarily disappeared when the prophetic spirit was withdrawn. The evangelists seem not to have been properly office-bearers in the church, but messengers from the church to the world lying under the wicked one; and the missionary, in the later ages of the church, seems to fill a place similar to that occupied by the evangelist in the primitive age. The pastors and teachers, which terms do not seem to denote two distinct classes of men, but two functions of the same general class, seem to be the only permanent ordinary office-bearers appointed for the putting and keeping in fit order, for that is the meaning of the word rendered "perfecting the saints," those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, the disciples, the brethren ;