A.D. 230, Demetrius of Alexandria “gathered a council of bishops and of certain presbyters, which decreed that Origen should remove from Alexandria.” [619:3] About the middle of the third century, “during the vacancy of the see of Rome, the presbyters of the city took part in the first Roman council on the lapsed.” [619:4] At the council of Eliberis, held about A.D. 305, no less than twenty-six presbyters sat along with the bishops. [619:5] In some cases deacons, [619:6] and even laymen, were permitted to address synods, [619:7] but ancient documents attest that they were never regarded as constituent members.  Whilst the bishops and elders sat together, and thus proclaimed their equality as ecclesiastical judges, [619:8] the people and even the deacons were obliged to stand at these meetings.  The circular letter of the council of Antioch announcing the deposition of Paul of Samosata is written in the name of “bishops, and presbyters, and deacons, and the Churches of God,” [620:1] but there is reason to believe that the latter are added merely as a matter of prudence, and in testimony of their cordial approval of the ecclesiastical verdict.  The heresiarch had left no art unemployed to acquire popularity, and it was necessary to shew that he had lost the influence upon which he had been calculating.  It is obvious that the pastors and elders alone were permitted to adjudicate, for why were they assembled from various quarters to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the Church, if the people who were themselves tainted with heresy or guilty of irregularity, had the liberty of voting?  Under such circumstances, the decision would have been substantially, not the decree of the Church rulers, but of the multitude of the particular city in which they happened to congregate.

The theory of some modern ecclesiastical historians, who hold that all the early Christian congregations were originally independent, cannot bear the ordeal of careful investigation.  Whilst it directly conflicts with the testimony of Jerome, who declares that the churches were at first “governed by the common council of the presbyters,” it is otherwise destitute of evidence.  As soon as the light of ecclesiastical memorials begins to guide our path, we find everywhere presbyteries and synods in existence.  Congregationalism has no solid foundation either in Scripture or antiquity.  The eldership, the most ancient court of the Church, commenced with the first preaching of the gospel; and in the account of the meeting of the Twelve to induct the deacons into office, we have the record of the first ordination performed by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery of Jerusalem.  A few years afterwards the representatives of several Christian communities assembled in the holy city and “ordained decrees” for the guidance of the Jewish and Gentile Churches.  The continuous development of the same form of ecclesiastical regimen