A42758:142
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 8: The testimony of Ambrose for ruling Elders vindicated.
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.
CHAP. VIII. The testimony of Ambrose for ruling Elders vindicated.
IF we look back beyond the times of declining unto the first and purest times of the Church, we shall find ruling Elders to be no new fangled device at Geneva; but that the primitive government and policy of the Church hath been in them restored. There is one place of Ambrose which cleareth it sufficiently. He writing on 1 Tim. 5.1. Rebuke not an Elder, saith, Unde & Synagoga, &c. Wherefore both the Jewish Synagogue, and after the Church had Senior or Elders, without whose counsel nothing was done in the Church: which by what negligence it grew out of use, I know not, except perhaps by the sloth, or rather by the pride of the teachers, whi•es they alone will seem to be something. This sentence is also cited in Glossa ordinar. And it showeth ⟨p. 58⟩plainly that as the Jewish, so the Christian Church had some Elders, who though they were not Teachers of the Word, yet had a part of the government of the Church upon their shoulders. But that this came into desuetude, partly through the sloth of the teachers and Ministers of the Word, whiles they were not careful to preserve the ordinances of God, and the right way of governing the Church; and partly through their pride whilst they would do all by themselves, and have no consorts, Utinam modo nostra redirent In mores tempora priscos.
IF wee looke backe beyond the times of declining unto the first and purest times of the Church, wee shall finde ruling Elders to be no new fangled device at Geneva; but that the primitive government and policy of the Church hath beene in them restored. There is one place of Ambrose which cleereth it sufficiently. He writing on 1 Tim. 5.1. Rebuke not an Elder, saith, Vnde & Synagoga, &c. Wherefore both the Iewish Synagogue, and after the Church had Senior or Elders, without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church: which by what negligence it grew out of use, I know not, except perhaps by the sloth, or rather by the pride of the teachers, whies they alone will seeme to be something. This sentence is also cited in Glossa ordinar. And it sheweth