An assertion of the government of the Church of Scotland in the points of…

Thus having cleared the place of Ambrose, come we now to other testimonies of the Ancients. Tertullian in his Apologetic against the nations,¹ speaking of the Meetings and Assemblies of Christians, ⟨p. 64⟩showeth, that besides other things done therein, they had also corrections, censures, and excommunication, and that in the exercise of this discipline. Praesident probati quique Seniors, honorem •stum non pretio sed testimonio adepti: with us do sit all the approved Seniors, as presidents or rulers, having obtained this honour not by price, but by a good testimony. Cyprian in his Epistles doth often protest,² that from the beginning of his Bishopric he did all things by common consent and advice both of his Clergy & people. Will any man think, that in ordination, excommunication, reconciliation of penitents, and such like things whereof Cyprian speaketh in these places, he sought the counsel and advice of the whole Congregation, and of all and every one therein? or rather that the people gave their counsel and consent by the Eldership representing them? Surely, this doing of all things with the advice and counsel of the whole, both Clergy and People▪ he otherwhere showeth to have been nothing else, but the doing of all things by the advice & counsel of the Presbytery; which had not been so, if there had not been in the Presbytery some of all sorts to represent the rest. Omni actu,