A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

ECLECTICS. A sect which arose in the Christian Church towards the close of the second century. They professed to make truth the only object of their inquiry, and to be ready to adopt from all the different systems and sects such tenets as they thought agreeable to it; and hence their name, from ἐκλεγω, to select. They preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the Christian doctrine. One of the principal patrons of this system was Ammonius Saccas, who at this time laid the foundation of that sect, afterwards distinguished by the name of the New Platonists, in the Alexandrian School.—Broughton.

ECONOMICAL. The economical method of disputing was that in which the disputants accommodated themselves, as much as possible, to the taste and prejudices of those whom they were endeavouring to gain over to the truth. Some of the early Christians carried this condescension too far, and abused St. Paul’s example. (1 Cor. ix. 20.) The word is derived from οἰκονομία, dispensatio rei familiaris, the discretionary arrangement of things in a house according to circumstances.

ECONOMIST. (Œconomus.) An officer in some cathedrals of Ireland, chosen periodically by the chapter out of their own body, whose office is to manage the common estate of the cathedral, to see to the necessary repairs, pay the church officers, &c.—Jebb.

ECONOMY ESTATE, or FUND. In some Irish cathedrals the common fund, for the support of the fabric, the payment of the inferior church officers, and sometimes certain members of the choir, is so called. It is not divisible among the cathedral body themselves. About half the cathedrals in Ireland are destitute of any common or corporate fund whatever.—Jebb.

ECUMENICAL. (From οἰκουμένη, the world.) A term applied to general councils of the Church, to distinguish them from provincial and diocesan synods. (See Councils.)

EDIFICATION. Literally, a building up; and in the figurative language of the New Testament, a growing in grace and holiness, whether of individuals or of the Church.

A pretence of greater edification has been a common ground of separation from the Church; but most absurdly, for “edification,” says Dean Sherlock, in his resolution of some cases of conscience which respect Church communion, is building up, and is applied to the Church, considered as God’s house and temple; and it is an odd way of building up the temple of God, by dividing and separating the parts of it from each other. The most proper signification of the word which our translators render by “edification,” is a house or building; and this is the proper sense wherein it belongs to the Christian Church: “ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building,” that is, the Church is God’s house or building. Thus the same apostle tells us that in Christ, “the whole building” (that is, the whole Christian Church) “fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.” (Ephes. ii. 21.) Hence the governors of the Church are called builders, and the apostles are called “labourers together with God,” in erecting this spiritual building; and St. Paul calls himself a “master builder.” Hence the increase, growth, and advances towards perfection in the Church, is called the building or edification of it. For this reason, St. Paul commends prophecy, or expounding the Scriptures, before speaking in unknown tongues without an interpreter, because by this the Church receives building or edification.

All those spiritual gifts, which were bestowed on the Christians, were for the building and edifying of the Church. The apostolical power in Church censures was “for edification, not for destruction” (2 Cor. x. 8); to build, and not to pull down; that is, to preserve the unity of the Church entire, and its communion pure. And we may observe, that this edification is primarily applied to the Church: “that the Church may receive edifying;” “that ye may excel to the edifying of the Church;” “for the edifying of the body of Christ.” (1 Cor. xiv. 5, 12; Ephes. iv. 12.) And it is very observable wherein the apostle places the edification of the body of Christ, viz. in unity and love: “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (Ephes. iv. 12, 13.) Till we are united by one faith unto one body, and perfect man, and “speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.” (Ephes. iv. 15, 16.) This is an admirable description of the unity of the Church, in which all the parts are closely united and compacted together, as stones and timber are to make one house; and thus they grow into one body, and increase in mutual love and charity, which is the very building and edification of the Church, which is edified and built up in love, as the apostle adds, that “knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.” (1 Cor. viii. 1.) This builds up the Church of Christ; and that not such a common charity as we have for all mankind, but such a love and sympathy as is peculiar to the members of the same body, and which none but members can have for each other. And now methinks I need not prove that schism and separation are not for the edification of the Church; to separate for edification is to pull down instead of building up. But these men do not seem to have any great regard to the edification of the Church, but only to their own particular edification: and we must grant that edification is sometimes applied to particular Christians in Scripture, according to St. Paul’s exhortation, “Comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.” (1 Thess. v. 11.) And this edifying one another, without question, signifies our promoting each other’s growth and progress in all Christian graces and virtues; and so the building and edification of the Church, signifies the growth and improvement of the Church in all spiritual wisdom and knowledge, and Christian graces. The edification of the Church consists in the edification of particular Christians; but then this is called edification or building, because this growth and improvement is in the unity and communion of the Church, and makes them one spiritual house and temple. Thus the Church is called the temple of God, and every particular Christian is God’s temple, wherein the Holy Spirit dwells; and yet God has but one temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells only in the Church of Christ; but particular Christians are God’s temple, and the Holy Spirit dwells in them as living members of the Christian Church; and thus by the same reason the Church is edified and built up, as it grows into a spiritual house and holy temple, by a firm and close union and communion of all its parts: and every Christian is edified, as he grows up in all Christian graces and virtues in the unity of the Church. And, therefore, whatever extraordinary means of edification men may fancy to themselves in a separation, the apostle knew no edification but in the communion of the Church; and indeed, if our growth and increase in all grace and virtue be more owing to the internal assistance of the Divine Spirit, than to the external administrations, as St. Paul tells us, “I have planted and Apollos watered, but God gave the increase; so then, neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase” (1 Cor. iii. 6, 7); and if the Divine Spirit confines his influences and operations to the unity of the Church, as the same apostle tells us that there is but “one body and one spirit,” (Eph. iv. 4,) which plainly signifies that the operations of this one spirit are appropriated to this one body, as the soul is to the body it animates;—then it does not seem a very likely way for edification, to cut ourselves off from the unity of Christ’s body.

ELDERS. (πρεσβύτεροι, hence Presbyterians.) Presbyterian sects have supposed that the order of lay-elders, as they denominate some of their officers, is sanctioned by Holy Scripture. It appears certain, however, that the “elders” mentioned by St. Paul (1 Tim. v.) did not hold the same office as those in the Presbyterian sects, but “laboured in the word and doctrine.” In this place the apostle means only ministers, when he directs that double honour should be paid to the elders that rule well, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine; and the distinction does not appear to consist in the order of officers, but in the degree of their diligence, faithfulness, and eminence in laboriously fulfilling their ministerial duties. It is said that Calvin admitted lay-elders into Church courts, on what he conceived to be the sanction of primitive practice, and, as an effectual method of preventing the return of inordinate power in a superior order of the clergy. To this it is answered by Catholics, that neither the name nor office of lay-elder was ever known to any general or provincial council, or even to any particular Church in the world, before the time of Calvin. (See Presbyterians.)

ELECTION. (See Predestination, Calvinism, Armininnism.) There are three views taken of election, all parties agreeing that some doctrine of election is taught in Holy Scripture,—the Calvinistic, the Arminian, and the Catholic.