MOSHEIM says of the first century: "In those primitive times, each Christian Church was composed of the _people,_ the presiding _officers,_ and the assistants, or _deacons._ These must be the component parts of every society. The principal voice was that of the _people,_ or of the whole body of Christians." "The assembled people, therefore, elected their own rulers and teachers." Of the second century, he adds: "One president, or bishop, presides over each church. He was created by the common suffrages of the people." "During a great part of this century, all the churches continued to be, as at first, _independent_ of each other. Each church was a kind of small, independent republic, governing itself by its own laws, enacted, or at least sanctioned, by the people." _Eccl. Hist., Cent. 1, Part 1, Ch. 2, Sec. 5, 6; Cent. 2, Ch. 2, Sec. 1, 2._ COLEMAN says: "These churches, wherever formed, became separate and independent bodies, competent to appoint their own officers and administer their own government without reference or subordination to any control, authority or foreign power. No fact connected with the history of the primitive church is more fully established or more generally conceded." _Prim. Christ. Exemp., Ch. 4, Sec. 4, p. 95._ Archbishop Whately, Doctor Barrow, Doctor Burton, Doctor Waddington--all of them Church of England Divines--fully agree with this testimony, and confirm the evidence cited: GEISELER, the historian, says, concerning early changes: "Country churches, which had grown up around some city, seem, with their bishops, to have been usually, in a certain degree, under the authority of the mother church. With this exception, all the churches were alike independent, though some were especially held in honor, on such grounds as their Apostolic origin, or the importance of the city in which they were situated." _Ch. Hist., Period 1, Div. 1, Ch. 3, Sec. 52._ Further discussion on this subject is not needed. The point is proved, and the independent form of church government is manifestly primitive and apostolic, as advocated and practiced by Baptists. +CHAPTER XIV+ CHURCH OFFICERS How many, and what are the Scriptural officers of a Christian church? For a church, being a society, must have not only laws, but officers to execute them. How many orders are there in the ministry? These are questions which have at times greatly divided the Christian world.