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| Elucidation.
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Elucidation.
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(Albeit they be laics, p. 54.)
In the tract on
Baptism575
| 575 Chap. vi. vol. iii. p.
672, this series. | Tertullian uses
language implying that three persons compose a Church. But here
we find it much more strongly pronounced,—Ubi tres,
Ecclesia est, licet Laici. The question of lay-baptism we may
leave till we come to Cyprian, only noting here, that, while Cyprian
abjures his “master” on this point, his adversary, the
Bishop of Rome, adopts Tertullian’s principle in so far.
But, in view of Matt. xix.
20, surely we may all
allow that three are a quorum when so “gathered together
in Christ’s name,” albeit not for all purposes. Three
women may claim the Saviour’s promise when lawfully met together
for social devotions, nor can it be denied that they have a share in
the priesthood of the “peculiar people.” So, too,
even of three pious children. But it does not follow that they
are a church for all purposes,—preaching, celebrating
sacraments, ordaining, and the like. The late Dean Stanley was
fond of this passage of Tertullian, but obviously it might be abused to
encourage a state of things which all orderly and organized systems of
religion must necessarily discard.576
| 576 Hooker, Eccl.
Polity, b. iii. cap. i. 14. | On p. 58
there is a reference, apparently, to deaconesses as “women
in Ecclesiastical Orders.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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