e Christian commonwealth,
might have done many things on their own authority, yet, even in
concerns comparatively trivial, as well as in affairs of the greatest
consequence, they were guided by the wishes of the people. When an
apostle was to be chosen in the place of Judas, the multitude were
consulted. [244:2] When deputies were required to accompany Paul in a
journey to be undertaken for the public service, the apostle did not
himself select his fellow-travellers, but the churches concerned,
proceeded, by a regular vote, to make the appointment. [244:3] When
deacons A or elders were to be nominated, the choice rested with the
congregation. [244:4] The records of the apostolic age do not mention
any ordinary church functionary who was not called to his office by
popular suffrage. [244:5]

But though, in apostolic times, the communicants were thus freely
entrusted with the elective franchise, the constitution of the primitive
Church was not purely democratic; for while its office-bearers were
elected for life, and whilst its elders or bishops formed a species of
spiritual aristocracy, the powers of the people and the rulers were so
balanced as to check each other's aberrations, and to promote the
healthful action of all parts of the ecclesiastical body. When a deacon
or a bishop was elected, he was not permitted, without farther ceremony,
to enter upon the duties of his vocation. He was bound to submit himself
to the presbytery, that they might ratify the choice by ordination; and
this court, by refusing the imposition of hands, could protect the
Church against the intrusion of incompetent or unworthy candidates.
[245:1]

Among the Jews every ordained elder was considered qualified to join in
the ordination of others. [245:2] The same principle was acknowledged in
the early Christian Church; and when any functionary was elected, he was
introduced to his office by the presbytery of the city or district with
which he was connected. There is no instance in the apostolic age in
which ordination was conferred by a single individual, Paul and Barnabas
were separated to the work to which the Lord had called them by the
ministers of Antioch; [245:3] the first elders of the Christian Churches
of Asia Minor were set apart by Paul and Barnabas; [245:4] Timothy was
invested with ecclesiastical authority by "the laying on of the hands of
the presbytery;" [245:5] and even the seven deacons were ordained by the
twelve apostles acti