d to lift them
up_, &c., and this office is here distinctly laid down from all other
ordinary and extraordinary offices in the text. So they are
distinguished from all ordinary officers reckoned up, Rom. xii. 7, 8:
under _prophecy_, there is the _teacher_ and _pastor_; under _ministry_,
the _ruling elder_, and the _deacon_, verse 8. This officer was so well
known, and usual in the primitive churches, that when the apostle writes
to the church at Philippi, he directs his epistle not only to the
saints, but to the officers, viz. _to the overseers, and deacons_,
Philip, i. 1. The occasion of the first institution of this office, see
in Acts vi. 1, 2, &c. At the first planting of the Christian Church, the
apostles themselves took care to receive the churches' goods, and to
distribute to every one of their members _as they had need_, Acts iv.
34, 35; but in the increase of the church, the burden of this care of
distributing alms increasing also, upon some complaints of the Greeks,
_that their widows were neglected_, the office of deacons was erected,
for better provision for the poor, Acts vi. 1-7; and because the
churches are never like to want poor and afflicted persons, there will
be constant need of this officer. The pastor and deacon under the New
Testament seem to answer the priests and Levites under the Old
Testament.

2. The qualifications of deacons are laid down by Christ in the New
Testament, at large: 1 Tim. iii. 8-14, _Deacons also must be grave, not
double-tongued_, &c., and Acts vi. 3, 5.

3. The manner also of deacons' vocation or calling unto their office is
delineated, viz: 1. They must be chosen by the church; "Look ye out
among you seven men of honest report," &c., "and they chose Stephen,"
&c., Acts vi. 3, 5. 2. They must first be proved and tried by the
officers of the church, before they may officiate as deacons; "and let
these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon,
being blameless," 1 Tim. iii. 10. 3. They must be appointed by the
officers of the church to their office, and set apart with prayer, Acts
vi. 3, 6: "Look ye out men--whom we may appoint over this business--whom
they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their
hands on them."

4. Deacons have by Scripture their work and employment appointed them.
Their work is, _to serve tables_, (hence the name deacon seems derived,)
Acts vi. 2, 3. To be an help, no hinderance in the church; called
_helps