SECT. II.—Our next position is, that this same principle is found as the basis of the most minute details of a system, appointed by God for the church, in its mode
1st—of edification;
2ndly—of government;
3rdly—of discipline.
1. We have indeed but one account in Sacred Scripture of a church meeting under ordinary circumstances, which can be quoted in proof that the Spirit's presence among the members, the spring of mutual dependence, is the basis on which church edification should rest—yet it will be sufficient, because 1st., a very full account in itself; and, 2ndly—this, its grand feature of peculiarity, springs not from anything accidentally present, but from that which is most essential in the structure of a church, viz. the Spirit; and it may therefore fairly be considered a property of all the churches.
See 1 Cor. 14:22-33.
See also Eph. 4:1-16. So perhaps 1 Thess. 5:11, “Wherefore comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do.”
Thus is embodied, in practice, the mind of. Jesus concerning the regulation of congregational meetings, and this is the only recognized mode of edification; Glorious privilege, indeed, for the Holy Ghost Himself to be the teacher in the congregation, speaking now by the mouth of one, now by the mouth of another, as seemeth good to Himself, and exercising among them the various powers Himself has bestowed! The works of the elders were the helps and governments (1 Cor. 12:28); and, as sacred history testifies, were not as such for the edification of the assembly.
II. Again, in government, the same principle is found as the basis of judgment; even the Spirit's presence among the members, the spring of mutual dependence.
Correctly speaking, the government is an absolute monarchy, the Holy Ghost in the churches being sovereign. The idea, therefore, common among many, that the principle is that of a democracy, is totally wrong; although, of course, as a number of those who (not being prepared by the Spirit, either for helps or governments) exercise no office in the congregation, far exceeds that of those so gifted; and as all are supposed to have the apprehension of the Spirit's mind (see 1 Cor. 5 and 10:15, “I speak as unto wise men, judge ye what I say,” 1 John 6, &c.).. the responsibility rests mainly with the many, even though God inform their judgments through the few. The only officers, found in the churches, are elders and deacons; for the apostles were for the building, and not continued dwelling, in these congregations. In each of these two offices, then, we shall find the same principle of mutual dependence preserved by the appointment of a plurality of the officers.
1st, elders. This office, in some sort, is of very long standing. Ere the Israelites came out of Egypt, we read of their elders. Ex. 3:16; Deut. 27:1; they are mentioned up to the captivity, and again after it, Ezra 10:7, 8.
Throughout the Gospels they are mentioned as an ecclesiastical government, though a wicked one; as also occasionally in the Acts; and afterward, as officers appointed by the Holy Ghost among the saints. (Acts 11:30; 14:23; 15:2, 4, 6, 22.)
See also chap. 16:4; and chap. 21:18; and 1 Tim. 4:14; 5:17—Compare 1 Thess. 5:12, 13; Heb. 13:7, 17, 18, 24; 1 Tim. 5:17, 19; Titus 1:5; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1.
The word translated “overseer,” Acts 20:28, occurs moreover in Phil. 1:1 in the plural number, and 1 Tim. 3:2, where it evidently corresponds with the bishop, or overseer.. (1 Tim. 3:1.)
2ndly, Deacons. The first nomination of such individuals we find in Acts 6:1-6. (See also Phil. 1:1; 1 Tim. 3:8-10.)
III. Again, in discipline, the basis is the very same; mutual dependence in the Spirit's presence among the members. (See Matt. 18:17-20; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:6-11.)
A panegyric on this, the Lord's plan, would be needless; yet we may draw near in admiration of the lovely effect, as to the power of service it is able to supply to the redeemed, whilst in their weakness, as set forth in Acts 32, 33, 34.
How lovely also is the mutual subjection pointed out in Acts 15:2, 22 Cor. 11:33; 1 Thess. 5:11; Heb. 10:24, 25; James 2:1-9. 1 Peter 4:8-11;
How strongly also is this equality set forth by the fact that such was the relative position of the members and officers-bearers in the church, as that the epistles are addressed not to the pastors but the whole body. Note this especially in the case of a controversy about carnal things (1 Cor. 6:1—8). See also the marked pre-eminence of the body to any one or two (Acts 15:1-4 Cor. 16:3; 2 Cor. 8:18, 19, 23; Philem. 2-25).
The wisdom of this arrangement, as bearing upon the glory of God, is manifest; the power and splendor of the Spirit are not concentrated in one, but seen among many, each in himself like one out of many staves, weak, feeble; by himself unfit to contain anything, associated with others and bound by the golden ring of eternal love, a vessel fit to bear the presence of God; thus it is still true, that no flesh can glory before Him. So also, in reference to the experience of the individual saints, will the same pre-eminence of wisdom be obvious, if we consider the object, concerning them, of a church. A church then is the field ordained by the Lord for the Christian initiation into, and exercise in, the science and art of the spiritual warfare: it is God's first class, for the braising of self, and development of love. The gospel finds man buried in carnal selfishness and forgetfulness of God, and there meets his cry, “What must I do to be saved?” But as the great object of God is, to lead His saints from this, to the perfect likeness of Jesus, “in loving the Lord God with all the heart, and all the mind, and all the soul, and all the strength, and loving our neighbors as ourselves,” that is, the total annihilation of self, by the restoration of the creature to its true place of dependence on its Creator—self (as unconnected with the glory of God and our fellows) is not recognized in the church. In our separate identity, the rudiments of God's character can be communicated. We may be required to learn and to enunciate the alphabet of the language of God, the religion of Jesus; but He teaches not and hears not His children their lessons beyond the first rudiments separately: the lesson is ordained for a class, and though each may have his own peculiar part in the repetition, the effect produced is of one whole. No man ever understood the Epistles, none ever felt their power, and the force of their contents, without standing in a church. Without it, love and forbearance, the great Christian duties, are not (we may say, cannot be) displayed; for where this is not, men do not, and will not, save with very few exceptions, take up the infirmities and weakness of the feeble. And lastly, as a witness to the world, though preaching is profitable as the publication by word of the love of Jesus, a church is more profitable; because it is the publication in action of the beauty, and glory of that gospel lived out. The beams of the sun of righteousness are not only bright and beautiful in themselves, but they have overcome the accidental fogs and mists, which hide their glory from the earth, and have found, in the still waters of a church, a spot whence their splendor is reflected. True indeed, that every saint has some light and some heat from the love of Jesus, but most true also that the celestial caloric, like the natural, may be so widely disseminated as to give neither light nor warmth. In the kingdom of nature, as in that of the Spirit, every isolated existence contains caloric, the wood, the iron, the flint, &c.; yet, for light, and warmth, unless it be concentrated, what its value? what its use?
To say that all this was only binding in the then circumstances is little less than infidelity; for it is magnifying the changing and accidental trifles of time and country above the unchanging realities of the spiritual world. Our circumstances are in truth exactly what theirs were; in ourselves as feeble as were they; foes the very same in person and artifice; the object of the conflict the same; the same Spirit, the same Captain of Salvation, the same prize. If the order founded by divine wisdom included strength and mutual support (as it did), it is nothing but madness to have left it; for our only difference in circumstance from them is, that in the increase of the power of the flesh, the strength of the Spirit has been withdrawn, and the strength of Satan in subtlety and malice fearfully augmented.
Oh! that saints had grace to try God's own plan. The effort, though in feebleness, would be blessed—the very position would call out a sympathy of love, a subjection of self, and a harmony, which would be God's testimony of approval, and the church would again become as some conservatory filled with evergreens, and redolent with scent, laden with fruit, even in the midst of the winter of cold selfishness around. Its walls would again become lively stones, knit together by the cement of the Spirit of love; and again would a dwelling-place be found on the earth for the Holy Spirit of the blessed Jesus, in a family at peace and harmony as a witness of the love and holiness of the risen First-Begotten, and men should praise the Lord for the gift of Jesus, saying—(Psa. 133:1, 2), “Behold how good and pleasant (it is) for brethren to dwell together in unity. (It is) like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard; that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, (even) life for evermore.”
G.V.W.