'As far as shall be consistent with a settled order': William White's 'Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination'
When the fifth question at the Ordering of Deacons sets forth the wider duties of the diaconate, William White - in his Commentaries Suited to Occasions of Ordination (1833) - raises the issue of a permanent diaconate as a means of providing for divine service, sermons, and Holy Baptism in communities where it would be impracticable to have an incumbent:
But the institution would be still more useful in places in which, because of the small number or the poverty of the people, there can be no permanent provision for a minister devoting his whole time to the service of the sanctuary; an evil, which would be in some measure remedied by the appointment to the deaconship of a proper character, wherever it should offer, with the view not only of his distributing to the poor, but further, for the reading of the Scriptures and discourses, and for baptizing. It cannot but be supposed, that his reading of prayers and of sermons of approved divines, would carry more weight than when it is done, as occasionally at present, by a lay-man; although this, where necessary, is commendable.
Readers of Frances Young's excellent Inferior Office? A History of Deacons in the Church of England (2015) will see in White's words a definite echo of the ministry of long-term deacons in the Elizabethan Settlement and beyond, with non-graduates being ordained deacon in order to provide smaller, rural parishes with divine service, homilies, Christenings, and funerals.
As White notes, this proposal is grounded in the how the Ordinal's fifth question addressed to those receiving the order of deacon provides authority for deacons to minister "in the Church where he shall be appointed to serve". Regarding Holy Baptism, the Ordinal here authorises deacons "in the absence of the priest, to baptize infants":
That a deacon might, at least in the case of an emergency, baptize not only infants, but an adult, appears within two chapters of the narrative of the institution of the order, where we read of the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch by Philip, recently appointed a deacon. The allowance of deacons to baptize is therefore lawful. When infants are specified, it may be supposed to be in reference to ordinary occasions; and grounded on the expediency of an approbation from a higher grade of the ministry, of the fitness of a presented adult. And when the matter is limited to times of the absence of the priest, it may be an intimation, that the office is more properly his, although lawfully permitted to the deacon.
Deacons, therefore, are "lawfully permitted" to administer the Sacrament of Baptism in the absence of a presbyter, following the same apostolic precedent which Hooker invoked against those Disciplinarians who insisted on a very narrow interpretation of the office of deacon:
These onlie beinge the uses for which Deacons were first made [i.e. to " serve tables", Acts 6:2], if the Church have sithence extended theire ministerie farther then the circuit of theire labor at the first was drawn, wee are not herein to thinke the ordinance of scripture violated except there appeare som prohibition which hath abridged the Church of that libertie (LEP V.78.5).
Likewise, White sees in the Ordinal's account of the duties of deacons - "to preach, if he be admitted thereto by the Bishop" - a similar recognition of the lawfulness of the deacon preaching:
In the preceding statement of the duties of a deacon, he is presumed not to preach, but by the permission of the bishop. Not withstanding the declared wish, that matters were brought to the condition, in which there would be some deacons not intending to be priests; yet as this does not apply at present, and as the exigencies of the Church make a claim for the extension of the permission to preach as far as shall be consistent with settled order, it is probably considered as given to every candidate who is ordained.
There is a very Hookerian character to White's statement that such an understanding of the deacon's ministry is permitted because it is "consistent with settled order". As Hooker stated:
Suppose wee the office of teachinge to be so repugnant unto the office of Deaconship that they cannot concurre in one and the same person? (V.78.5).
For deacons to regularly baptise, preach, and lead divine service in the absence of a presbyter, or for the purpose of assisting the presbyter's ministry, not only coheres with the account of the ministry of deacons given in the Ordinal, it also accords - as Hooker rightly insisted - with the example of the apostolic church:
Now tract of time havinge cleane worne out those first occasions for which the Deaconship was then most necessarie, it might the better be afterwardes extended to other services, and so remaine as at this present daie a degree in the clergie of God which thapostles of Christ did institute (V.78.5).
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