.No. 8.]

For the Christian Spectator.

LAY PRESBYTERS, NO. XIX. AURELIUS AUGUSTINUS was born at Tagaste, in Numidia, A. D. 354; taught rhetoric at Carthage, Rome, and Milan; and being of dissolute morals, adopted the errour of the Manichees. Convinced by Ambrose, he became a Christian, in his thirty-second year, and returned from Milan to his native city. Five years afterwards he was ordained presbyter by Valerius, at Hippo Regius; and in 395 was received into the episcopate. Of his contemporaries, Ambrose died in the fourth century; Chrysostom and Jerom in the fifth; the former he survived more than twenty, and the latter about ten years. These with Nornus, Synesius, Sulpicius, Severus, and Paulinus, were deemed orthodox writers; Socrates the historian and Pelagius were of the opposite character. He died in Hippo, in 430, whilst it was beseiged by the Vandals. His works are contained usually in ten tomes and a supplement. His confessions constitute an edifying history of his early life, and of his views at different periods. His retractations should be consulted with the parts of his works, which they correct. His knowledge of the Greek, deemed by himself defective, was obviously competent; but he excelled in the Latin language, and could not have been ignorant of the Puaie. His comparative proficiency in 1826.-No. 8.

48

[1826.

Theology was unusual, for so late a convert. Possessing a masculine understanding, his decisions were often too prompt, but readily abandoned for the sake of the truth. His opinions were in high repute, and of great utility at the reformation, where also some of his errours were adopted. In ecclesiastical government, he professed conformity to the canons and customs of the church. Thus when he nominated Eradius the presbyter to become his successor, and obtained the vote of the people, he observed, that he had been ordained bishop in the life time of Valerius, contrary to a canon of the council of Nice, but of which neither of them had had knowledge; the reprehension he had received on that occasion, he wished Eradius to escape; but the vote he caused to be recorded, and subscribed by the people, and introduced the young man into a portion of his labours.*

That the office of bishop was founded upon the custom of the church, he acknowledges in a letter to Jerom; "I entreat you to correct me faithfully when you see I need it; for although according to the titular distinctions which the custom of the church hath introduced, the office of bishop may be greater than an eldership, nevertheless in many respects Augustine is inferiour to Jerom." To suppose

*Tom. II. 515. Epist. 110.

+"rogo ut me fidenter corrigas, ubi mihi hoc opus esse peropexeris. Quan

he meant hereby the abandonment of a known scriptural superiority, and the depreciation of a divine right into a mere titular pre-eminence, is an impeachment of the piety of Augustine. The language jam ecclesia usus obtinuit is a plain acknowledgment, that episcopal superiority was not original, but merely founded on the custom of the church, and no prevention of the precedence due to Jerom for his distinguished learning and knowledge. Had Augustine's compliment been made at the expense of truth, it would have been also an imputation of ignorance and vanity to Jerom. That canonical distinctions originated in custom, and were ratified by mere human authority was then known; and when truth demanded from the bishop an acknowledgment of his personal inferiority to the presbyter, it was fit also, that he should wave the distinction, which custom had introduced in opposition to the word of God.

He has on the question, whether those charged with false doctrines be in the church or not, discarded the authority of the most venerable of the fathers, and the obligation of the decrees of councils, and affirmed that the question can be decided by the sacred scriptures alone.* But on the order of the church he sided with Jerom, and like him acquiesced in its government, apprehending no possible advantage from opposing the customs of the church, the canons of councils, and the laws of the empire. The ecclesiastical administration was not then a matter of controversy. "The bishops, who are this day throughout the world, whence sprung they?

The

quam enim secundum honorum vocabula, quæ jam ecclesia usus obtinuit, episcopatus presbyterus major sit, tamen in multis rebus Augustinus Hieronymo minor est." Tom. II. Epist. ad Hierou.

*De unitate ecclesia. Ch. 19, p. 5.

church herself calls them fathers, she has borne them, and she has placed them in the seats of the fathers."* He acted as a christian should do; the church of Christ was then, and still is such, though the original form of government may not exist in the world. The investigation of truth is rarely unimportant; but on these points necessary only, when errour would unchurch those whom God accepts; or where primitive truth is denied, and its advocates arraigned by the ignorant.

An argument has been attempted for lay presbyters from an epistle which Augustine wrote to his church at Hippo, commencing with these words; "Dilectissimis fratribus, clero, senioribus et universæ plebi ecclesiæ Hipponuisis." To the brethren greatly beloved, the clergy, the elders, "and all the people of the church at Hippo." The next epistle is directed to the same church, and begins with “ Dilectissimis fratribus, conclericis, et universæ plebi; To the brethren most beloved, the clergy, and all the people, &c. These two letters were written to the same church, consequently the same officers and people were addressed in both. The two first terms "dilectissimis fratribus," occurring in each salutation, may have been intended of all the worshippers, or of the clergy only. Clero the clergy in the one epistle corresponds to conclericis, in the same sense, in the other. senioribus, the elders, expressed in the first, are included in the universæ plebi of the second. The conclericis of the second being precisely equivalent to the clero of the

"Hodie, episcopi qui sunt per totum mundum, unde nati sunt? Ipsa ecclesia patres illos appellat, ipsa illos genuit, et ipsa illos constituit in sedibus patrum."

Tom. VIII. 417.

+ Tom II. 661. Epist. 139.

Clerus has been improperly translated a clergyman."

66

first, of which the senioribus being expressed, constituted no part, there elders could not have been implied in the conclericis. If they were not of the clergy, they were not officers; because had they been such, they must have been treated with disrespect, either by a total omission, or the including of them in the plebi. If they were not officers, the term senioribus was taken appellatively, in that letter in which it occurs, and meant nothing more than the aged men of the congregation, who have been often thus distinguished, because of their experience and gravity; but are nevertheless really a part of the plebs, or common people. This interpretation is also, corroborated by the circumstance, that senioribus not presbyteris, is used; the latter being the ordinary official term, and the other generally appellative; a discrimination, which, though neglected by Tertullian and Cyprian, is carefully followed by Optatus and Augustine, who observes "omnis senex etiam presbyter, non omnis presbyter etiam Every old man is an elder, not every elder also an old man. These seniores, who sometimes occur in the Christian writers of Africa, are in no instance to be deemed of the clergy, they administered no ordinances, never sat as presbyters, and neither excommunicated nor restored, but were placed after the deacons, and consulted merely for their knowledge and prudence, or introduced because of their interest. The

senex."*

*Tom. IV. 99.

+ Vitringa (de Synag. 115.) has written fully on this subject, and denies that the seniores plebis were either geo Bulego της εκκλησίας, οι προεσίωτες πρεσβύτεροι; and says they were merely yɛgovles, and no part of the ecclesiastical body to whom the care and the ministry of the church were delivered. Casanbon distinguishes between seniores urbium and seniores ecclesiacum; these last, he says were quadamtenus ecclesiastici, yet laici and guar

captions of these letters of Augustine are conclusive proof, that the seniores of whom he speaks were not clerical, and so not even on an equality with deacons, and consequently upon no construction, the gwelwles ruling presbyters of the new testament, or any officers in the gospel churches. That these were never such in the churches of Africa, may be fairly also inferred from the omission of them, both in the enumeration of the officers of a particular church, and in the catalogues given in the councils of Carthage, where they are thus enumerated; bishop, presbyter, deacon, subdeacon, acolyth, exorcist, reader, door-keeper, and chorister. If such a class of officers as seniores had existed next after the deacons, they must have been enumerated in such catalogues, but nothing of the kind has occurred. Augustine describes the orders of his day in Africa, which no one better knew, in the same manner. "A higher order contains in and with itself that which is less, for the presbyter performs also the duty of the deacon, and of the exorcist and of the

reader. Also that a presbyter is to to be understood to be a bishop, the Apostle Paul proves, when he instructs Timothy, whom he had ordained a presbyter, what kind of a bishop he ought to create; for what is a bishop but a primus presbyter, that is a high priest, and he calls them no otherwise than his co-presbyters and co-priests, and may not the bishop also call his deacons his fellow-servants?" But he had immediately before professed not to know by what law, by what custom or what example "the deacons were made equal with presbyters," "presbyteris ministros ipsorum pares, ""as if deacons were ordained from presbyters, and not presbyters from deacons."

The expression peregrinus prcsbyter et seniores ecclesiæ musticanæ regionis, &c.* have been alleged in proof, that the church in the city Mustica had not only a preaching presbyter, but lay elders also; and consequently that here is at least one example of the existence of elders, such as are formed in some of the presbyterian churches. But this semblance of an example of lay elders in an ancient church, is too slight to sustain an examination. The distinction made between Peregrinus and the seniores ecclesia was, that he was a presbyter, and they were not presbyters: if not presbyters, consequently not the ruling elders of the New Testament, for these were presbyters, *gosolwles #ger Bulsgo. Being neither presbyters nor deacons, and no intermediate grade ever having existed in the church, these Seniores consequently had no office. Also if they were not presbyters, the word seniores must necessarily be understood in its appellative sense, old men ; and the whole expression seniores ecclesiæ can mean no more than the aged men of the church. This passage describes the prosecution of a petition before

*Tom. VII. 270.

the tribunal of the prætor at Carthage by the presbyter Peregrinus, and the senior members of the church at Mustica, against Felicianus, who detained possession against the sentence of an ecclesiastical assembly, which pronounced him a heretic. That the aged members, in whom the possession at least, and it may be the legal title of the church had been vested, should join with a presbyter in such petition was naturally to be expected; and no more is here expressed.

The state of the church in North Africa, excluding Egypt and Cyrenaica was in the days of Augustine very different from that of other countries. As every city had its bishop, so every parish was a diocese, and every pastor a bishop. The episcopate of Carthage had the superintendence of Africa, and the bishop of Hippo Regius, instead of Cirta, (Constantina) for the most part next to the Metropolitan of Carthage, had precedence over those in Numidia; but in the Mauritanias, and generally in Africa, this depended upon seniority in office, and not upon the civil dignity of the city, as in other parts of the empire.

The greatest respect was paid to old men both among Jews and Gentiles. Polybius observes that among the Lacedæmonians under the regal authority all things which respected the commonwealth were transacted by and with the concurrence of the old men.* The Christian churches also adopted a wise conformity to such usages. To be consulted was the claim of the aged, when their interests were concerned, in religious as well as in civil matters of importance. Thus in the "Gesta Cæciliani et Felicis," usually bound up with Optatus, mention is made of epis

* Γεροντες—δια ὢν και μετα ὧν πανία χειρίζεται τα κατα την πολιτειαν. Ροlyb. hist. lib. vi. p. 681.