Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Tertullian: Part Fourth/On Exhortation to Chastity/Elucidation

Elucidation.

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(Albeit they be laics, p. 54.)

the tract on Baptism Tertullian uses language implying that three persons compose a Church.&#160; But here we find it much more strongly pronounced,&#8212;Ubi tres, Ecclesia est, licet Laici.&#160; The question of lay-baptism we may leave till we come to Cyprian, only noting here, that, while Cyprian abjures his &#8220;master&#8221; on this point, his adversary, the Bishop of Rome, adopts Tertullian&#8217;s principle in so far.&#160; But, in view of Matt. xix. 20, surely we may all allow that three are a quorum when so &#8220;gathered together in Christ&#8217;s name,&#8221; albeit not for all purposes.&#160; Three women may claim the Saviour&#8217;s promise when lawfully met together for social devotions, nor can it be denied that they have a share in the priesthood of the &#8220;peculiar people.&#8221;&#160; So, too, even of three pious children.&#160; But it does not follow that they are a church for all purposes,&#8212;preaching, celebrating sacraments, ordaining, and the like.&#160; 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. &#160; On p. 58 there is a reference, apparently, to deaconesses as &#8220;women in Ecclesiastical Orders.&#8221;