1. All that can be done in the determination of the polity of the apottolic ChunA is to trace the practice of tlie aposties as recorded in their acts and writings. This polity is not presented as legislative enactments, hot simply as facts, showing how the aposties acted in given cases. In the first account we find the Church composed of the aposties and other disciples, and then of the aposties and ** the multitude of them that be- Heved.** Hence it appears that the Church was at first composed entirely of members standing on an equality with one another, and that the apostles alone Iteld a higher rank, and exercised a directing influ- ence over the whole, which arose ftom the original position in which Christ had placed them in relation to other believers (Neander, Planting and Training, ^ 32). The aposties, as necessity required, created otiwr offices, the first of which we have mention is tJ^at of dtaam (fiaKovid) (Acts vi, 1), followed soon Jftw by that of dder (vpi<r(i{,T(poc) (Acts xi, 80). The wme of the creation of the office of elder or presby- ^ is not given, from which it is not clear whether it «oee before or after the diaoonate. The fir# refer- ^i^ to elders assumes their existence. The office of
elder and that of Usbop are generally oonoeded to be identicaL The aposties, deacons, and elders, with the whole body of believers in every place, constito- ted the membership and government of the Church. See Bishop. The deacons were overseers of the poor, and probably eonducted religious worship and administered the sacraments (Acts viii, 38). The cler- ical function of the deacon is disputed (see Americcm Prttb. and Theol. Review^ vol. v, p. 184). The elders were appointed not only to teach and administer the sacraments, but also to govern the Church or church- es in the absence of the aposties (Acts xx, 28, etc). The ministry, however, was not ocmfined to these or- ders ; it was rather a gift which any one possessing could exercise under due regulations. By reference to 1 Cor. xU, 4-12, ahio 28, it will be seen that ''apos- ties," ''prophets,*' "helps," and ''governments," all pertain to the ministry; also in the corresponding passage, Ephes. iv, 11, 12, the ministerial office is as- cribed to the dfarect agency of the Holy Ghost: "He gave some, aposties ; 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 e^fjring of the body of Christ" '• These pais- sages establish nothing respecting the ministerial cffice$ of the apostolic age ; what they do teach us is that the spiritual endowments necessaiy for the office of an apoetie, a pastor, a teacher, or a governor of the Church, whether these frmctions were united in the same person or not, flow directiy firom Christ, and are a part of the standing spiritual constitution of the Church" (Litton, p. 874). The manifold gifts of the Spirit were termed generically ckarismata (xaphfuz- Ta)y and were either a natural endowment, sanctified and applied under the influenoe of the Holy Spirit to the edifying of the Church, or a supernatural ^ft of a miraculous character, in the exercise of which the di- vine agent was more conspicuous than the human. Another division is into those which displayed them- selves in word, and those which had a more particular referehce to action (Litton ; Neander, Planting and Traimngf Olshausen, Hooker, etc.). These gifts, it appears, were not confined to any particular class, but were bestowed as the Spirit saw fit to distribute them. See Gifts, SpiRrruAL. The priest^ function pertained to the ministerial office only in the sense that all believers were priests, to offer up sphitual sacrifices to God by Christ (1 Peter ii, 4, 6, etc.); and in no sense was there a sanctity attaching to the minister which did not attach to the ordinary believer, except, perhaps, to the apiities, whose office was not to be permanent in the Church. No human media.- tion is represented in the New Test, as necessary to the soul seeking the forgiveness of sins and the fhiits of the Spirit except such as may (Mstitt Imowledge and fruth, but never as inditpensabh, Christ and his sal- vation are equally accessible to minister and people, and on the same terms.
The di$e^Mne of the apostolic Church comprehended four particulars in its exercise : 1. Nothing scandalous or ofiFensive unto any, especially onto the Church of God, could be allowed (1 Cor. x, 32); 2. AU tiihigs were to be done with seemliness and in order (1 Cor. xiv, 40); 8. All unto edification (1 Cor. xiv, 26); 4. All unto the glory of God (1 Cor. x, St). The sphere of its government was strictiy spiritual. The apos- ties honored the civil authority as a divine institution, and enjoined obedience in the days of Claudius and Nero, as did our Saviour in all temporal matters ren- der obedience to Herod, and command that " the things which belong to Cesar should be rendered to CsDsar." But in the spiritual calling the rule was " to obey God rather than man," and for this principle they were ready to die.
Since the apoetoHc times Iher-f^onstitution of the Christian Choardi has undergone various modifica- tions. The first of these changes is the distinction be-