ph 4'6, that the Church is, under Christ, self- roverning and self-edifying, that the manifold unctions of administration and instruction exer- cised in it belong to and exist for the body as a whole, however Todgred in this member or that; the body, as such, must press the powers of every limb into its service.
(d) Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.—The apostle refers to the two sacraments incidentally, and without bringing them into connexion with each other, unless it be by allusion in 1 Co 104. Their established observance is assumed, in accordance with the story of their institution, — expressly related for the Lord’s Supper in 1 Co 11%, where there is no need to suppose that ‘received from (ἀπό) the Lord’ signifies more than tradition from the fountain-head. These rites mark respectively the believer’s entrance upon, and continuance in, the Christian life. They signalize, each of them, his relation to the Church as well as to Christ Himself, to the body with the Head (1 Co 124 10”). The ‘one baptism’ is a visible token of the ‘one Lord’ and the ‘one faith’ (Eph 4°); the ‘one loaf’ of which ‘we all partake,’ pictures the ‘one body’ to which ‘the many’ belong. The ‘blessing’ and ‘thanksgiving’ pronounced over the elements at the Lord’s Table (1 Co 1016 11%) impress their character on the whole rite, which is analogous to the post-sacrificial feasts of ancient religion (10!""-), being a symbolic act of grateful and Joyal communion with men in the supreme gifts of God.
These ordinances are no arbitrary signs of Chris- tian faith and fellowship, having a value conferred by the bare fact of their appointment; they are parables of the spiritual acts which they accom. pany. Baptism, in its most complete and pic turesque form of immersion, is strikingly eanlied in Ro 6‘ to set forth a Christian conversion : as the baptized sinks into the water, remains there for @ moment, and emerges a new man, he re-
PAUL THE APOSTLE
PAUL THE APOSTLE
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hearses the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus
—he dies to sin, is severed from the past, and rises to live with Christ unto God. St. Paul’s argument PERE that baptism is the expression on the candidate’s part, and the recognition on the Church’s part, of the faith that alone joins the soul to Christ; its eflicacy lies in the uttered ‘word’ of faith attending the ceremonial act (Eph 5%, ἐν ῥήματι ; cf. Ro 10%"). A like interpretation of the Lord’s Supper is indicated in 1 Co 10 and 11. The bread and the cup represent ‘the body and the blood of the Lord’ (11%), so that he who desecrates the former outrages the latter; while the sharing of each in the same cup and loaf exhibits the ‘ fellowship’ of Christians in the incarnate and crucified Redeemer (1016: 17), whose ‘death’ is thus evermore ‘proclaimed’ and kept in remembrance (11*-**), Such public representations are, in the nature of the case, binding professions of faith, covenant transactions (see 1Co 10!-*, and the pales there adduced). The expression ‘seal of aith,’ which Paul Spplies to Abraham’s sacra- ment in Ro 4", is equally appropriate to the new ordinances. The person by whom the rite is administered (1 Co 13:17), matters but little ; every- thing depends upon (a) the institution of Christ, and (δ) the intention and spirit of those engaged, the faith and fellowship by which they are actu- ated. Notas matters of official prerogative, but of stated communion between Christ and His people, did Paul exalt the sacraments. See, fur- ther, arts. BAPTISM, LORD’s SUPPER, SACRAMENT.
(e) Church Organization.—In respect to Church order and organization there is a contrast between the first and last Epp., so extreme that it raises grave difficulties in regard to the authenticity of the latter. 1 ΤΊ and Tit are devoted to matters which occupy only a line in 1 Th. In the fifteen years’ interval a great development had taken lace. On the first missionary tour in S. Galatia, aul and Barnabas ‘appointed elders in every chureh’ (Ac 14%), resembling in their functions, mutatis mutandis, the elders of Jewish communi- ties. A like office probably belonged to ‘those who preside’ in the Thessalonian Church (1 Th 5"; cf. 1 Ti 5”). In the letters to Corinth we have no traces of local Church office; from the silence of 1 Co 5 on this point, and from the scenes indicated in ch. 14, we may infer that official elders did not as yet preside here: ‘helps, governments’ —corresponding to deacons and bishops—are re- ferred to in the abstract (12%; otherwise in Ro 127-8) ; ch 11“ intimates better regulation to come. In the salutation of Philippians, four years later, the ‘ bishops and deacons’ are distinctly addressed, and these two orders figure conspicuously in the Pastorals—the former as directing, the latter as assistant officers. The apostle is anxious about the character and true piety of these ministers, wishing to fence out from office unworthy candi- dates. The term ‘bishop’ in Tit 1 is synonymous with ‘elder’ (Lgtft. Christian Ministry; but ef. Hort, Eccl. 212), and is now preferred by Paul as it denotes the work of the office (1 Ti 3'), while ‘elder’ suggests status and dignity. ‘Bishop’ (ἐπίσκοπος, overseer, superintendent) appears first in Ac 9035. ®, where Paul tells the Ephesian ‘elders’ that ‘the Holy Spirit made’ them ‘ bishops, to shepherd the Church’ (cf. Eph 4", ‘shepherds and teachers’ ; also 1 P 2% 5'*), It is not unlikely that Paul then introduced the term and gave it vogue. Hatch (Organization of the Early Christian Churches) traced the e ssa to a Greek, as the presby- terate to a Tews origin ; he supposed that these were distinct institutions amalgamated in post- apostolic times—a theory, in its extreme form contrary to Ac and 1 P as well as to the Pastora Epistles. The charities of the Church and the main-