A42758:154
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
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.
Hierome upon that place of Isaiah, saith: Et nos habemus in Ecclesia Senatum nostrum, coetum Presbyterorum: cum ergo inter caetera etiam senes •udea perdiderit, quomodo poterit habere concilium quod proprie Seniorum est. And what sense shall we give to these words, unless we say it is imported that both the Jewish and the Christian Church had such an Eldership as we plead for. Else why did both he, and Basil make such a parallel betwixt the Jewish and the Christian Church in the point of Elders? Surely, if we understand by the Elders of the Christian Church whereof they speak, the Ministers of the Word alone, we must also understand by the Elders of ⟨p. 68⟩the Jewish Church, whereof they speak, the Priests, which no man will imagine.
Hierome upon that place of Isaiah, saith: Et nos habemus in Ecclesia Senatum nostrum, coetum Presbyterorum: cum ergo inter caetera etiam senes •udea perdiderit, quomodo poterit habere concilium quod proprie Seniorum est. And what sense shall we give to these words, unlesse we say it is imported that both the Jewish and the Christian Church had such an Eldership as we plead for. Else why did both hee, and Basil make such a parallell betwixt the Jewish and the Christian Church in the point of Elders? Surely, if we understand by the Elders of the Christian Church whereof they speake, the Ministers of the Word alone, wee must also understand by the Elders of ⟨p. 68⟩the Jewish Church, whereof they speake, the Priests, which no man will imagine.
1Eusebius in his History citeth Dionysius Alexandrinus, relating his disputes with the Chiliasts after this manner: When I was at Arsenoi•a where thou knowest this doctrine first sprung, &c. I called together the Elders and Teachers inhabiting those villages, there being present also as many of the brethren as were willing to come, and I exorted them publicly to the search of this doctrine, &c. By the Teachers here are meant the Pastors or Ministers of the Word, who are most frequently called by the Fathers Teachers, or Doctors: neither can it be supposed that there were any Teachers besides the Pastors in these rural villages, which notwithstanding we see had beside their Pastors or Teachers, Elders also.