were selected and appointed to the apostolate by our blessed Lord himself, and by none other; as also were the first presbyters.* Subsequently the officers of the church, that is to say, the bishops, presbyters and deacons, were in the appointment of those who had already held apostolic rank. The seven deacons were thus appointed. + The

avτŵv, and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered συγκατεψηφίσθη with the eleven.”

The following is the observation of Barnes, a Dissenting expositor, upon the second clause of the 26 verse-"and the lot fell etc." "This" he says, "is an expression applicable to casting lots, not to voting." And again of the expression-" he was numbered, etc," the same the commentator remarks that—" It means, that by the result of the lot he was made an apostle."

And, therefore, if the appointment to the apostolate was by lot, then certainly it was not by vote.

Comp. Jonah i. 7. With the expression now from pos—a pebble, compare the Latin calculare from calculus. The Arabs employed small feathered arrows for a similar purpose. Hence, as Jerome tells us, the Greeks called it Beloμavτiav or paßdoμavτiav, comp. Koran Sur. iii. 39, Ezek. xxi. 26.

* Luke x. 1, 7.

Acts vi. 1-8. Here let it be observed that the Hellenists only nominated the seven : nor did they do this of their own authority. It was not until they had been commissioned by the twelve that they even undertook thus much. Then there were special and peculiar reasons why they should exercise the right of nomination. The whole affair arose out of a dispute between "the Grecians" and the "Hebrews."

But, as we have seen, a nomination does not constitute an election. The true power of election was vested in the Apostolic

first bishops of Ephesus, Philippi, and Crete, were thus appointed. In short the government of the church was in the hands, not of the people, but of the apostles, and their immediate successors in the apostolic office. Paul in speaking of his own vocation to the apostolate tells us that he was "an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who" he adds, " * separated me from my mother's womb." The appointment of pastors in the churches of Asia Minor by SS. Paul and Barnabas, is thus recorded by the historian of the Acts "when they had ordained them presbyters in every church and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord." + In like manner we read of no such thing as

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college, without whose approval and sanction and ordination the nominees could not possibly have attained to the diaconate. "Look ye out, etc.," said the Apostles, seven men" the number was even prescribed of honest report, etc.,-whom we may appoint over this business."

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* Gal. i. 1, 15.

+ Χειροτονήσαντες δὲ αὐτοῖς πρεσβυτέρους κατ' ἐκκλησίαν κ. τ. λ. It is said by some that the verbχειροτονεῖν employed in this verse means to elect by show of hands; and, therefore, that the passage before us shows "congregational election," to have "been instituted by the Apostles." "Geneva Bible" thus renders it-" When they had ordained them elders by election in every church :" and similarly, Tyndale, and Cranmer.

The

Now to all this the objection is valid that xeipoToveîv can only have one or at most both of two meanings.

1st. The verb xeiрoτoveîv may mean to ordain by the imposition of hands, in which case it = χειροθετεῖν.

"Congregational election" in the appointment of presby ters and deacons to the numerous churches of the Cretan cities. In fact, in the New Testament,-whatever the subsequent practice of the church may have been in given. cases, there is no warrant whatsoever for any exercise of suffrage on the part of the people in the appointment over themselves of their spiritual instructors.

Moreover while there is upon the one hand no scriptural authority which can be pleaded in justification of such practice, there is most indubitably upon the other hand a long concatenation of independent considerations, which may be urged, with no little cogency, in its absolute and final condemnation.

A primary consideration is, that in the exercise of any such right of vote by the people, discords, dissensions, strifes, bickerings, and divisions, must inevitably arise. The whole history of Independency is a mournful illustration of this painful truth. When a minister is removed," wrote the late John Angell James, "the choice of a succes

2nd.—It may mean to select or appoint, as #poxepoτovεîv in Acts x. 41.

But it never could mean "to constitute those whom others have elected." In the text in question it is said that Paul and Barnabas elected, ordained, or appointed presbyters in every church,not the churches themselves,-so that which so ever of the two senses of XeipoToveîv is here understood, Paul and Barnabas, and they only, can be regarded as having appointed to the prespyterate or priesthood.

sor always brings on a crisis in the history of the church. No event that could happen, can place the interests of the society in greater peril......... We have been accused of wrangling about a teacher of religion till we have lost our religion itself in the affray; and the state of many of our congregations proves that the charge is not altogether without foundation." *

Another important consideration is that the people are incompetent to the proper exercise of such a privilege. The many-the "profanum vulgus" are they, among whom virtue is ever at its minimum. The whole history of the past is constituted of the biographies of but a few. The multitude are prone. The heroic, the noble, and the great The world has never been at

are in but a scant minority.

a loss for a crowd, but her geniuses have been born only here and there in the lapse of the ages. The Homers and Miltons, the Newtons and Bacons, the Hannibals and Scipios the Wycliffes and Luthers have arisen indeed, but only like morning stars to shine in solitary splendour, and that in separate and sometimes remote epochs of secular history. Such as these are the natural rulers of mankind, and to these, and such as these only, can there safely be committed the solemn responsibilities of government, whether it be in church or state. The multitude, as

* Church Members' Guide. The same author further confesses, -“Distraction and division of churches have frequently resulted from the election of ministers.........At this 'perilous crisis, secret canvassings, cabals, intrigues, and the most disgusting tyranny, take place." Ib. 1st Edit. p. 146.

such, is inherently disqualified, if by nothing else, then certainly by its proverbial fickle-mindedness and vacillancy for the exercise of any such functions :—so much so, that one eminent poet and thinker of antiquity esteemed it as a constituent part of public and social virtue neither to accept nor resign the duties of civil administration at the whim of popular caprice. The educated reader will

And if these sentiments are true of merely secular offices and duties, how much more true are they of those which are by pre-eminence, spiritual.

But the people, that is, the constituent members of the church are incompetent in an equal degree on the score of ignorance. As is well known, the members of religious communities are in ordinary unable to make a wise selection out of several candidates for the pastorate. How can they? What sort of judges are they of clerical competence? What can they be presumed to know of theology, biblical criticism, homiletics, and cognate subjects? Many of such church members are utterly incapable of discriminating

* Horatii Carm. lib. III., 2, 17-24.