A42758:100
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of…
An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyterial government.An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of ruling-elders and of the authority of presbyteries and synods with a postscript in answer to a treatise lately published against presbyteriall government.
Edinburgh: printed for James Bryson, 1641Edinburgh: printed for Iames Bryson, 1641
Part 1 › Chapter 4: The second Argument taken from Matth. 18.17.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
OUR second argument we take from Matth. 18.17. Tell the Church. Let an obstinate offender, whom no admonition doth amend, be brought and judged by the Church. Where first of all, it is to be condescended upon, That though he speaketh by allusion to the Jewish Church, as is evident by these words, Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a Publican; Yet he meaneth of the Christian Church, when he saith, Tell the Church, as may appear by the words following, Whatsoever ye bind on earth, &c. which is meant of the Apostles and Ministers of •he Gospel, Joh. 20.23. so that he did not send them to the Synedrium of the Jews, when he bade them tell the Church: nor, 2. doth he mean of the Church universal; for then we should have none of our wrongs redressed, because we cannot assemble the Church universal; nay, nor the representative of it, which is an Oecumenicke Council: Nor 3. can we understand it of the collective body, of a particular ⟨p. 30⟩Church or Congregation; for he who is the God of order, not of confusion, hath committed the exercise of no Ecclesiastical jurisdiction to a promiscuous multitude. Nor 4. can it be taken of a Prelate, who being but one, can no more be called the Church, nor one can be called many, or a member be called a body. Non enim una persona potest dici Ecclesia, saith Bell. de Eccles. l. 3. c. 17. Cum Ecclesia sit populus & regnum Dei. It is plain, that the Church there spoken of, is a certain number met together, Where two or three are gathered together. 1&c. Nor 5. can we with Erastus and Bilson expound it of the Christian Magistrate; which exposition, beside that in a newfangled language, it calleth the Magistrate the Church, and goeth about to overthrow all Ecclesiastical jurisdiction. It is also utterly contrary to the purpose of Christ, and to the aim of that discipline which he recommendeth to be used, which is the good of our brother, and the gaining of him from his offence, whereas the exercise of civill jurisdiction of the Magistrate is not intended for te• good of the offender, and for the winning of him to repentance; but for the public good of the Common-wealth, and for the preservation of peace, order, and justice, therein according to the laws.