A42758:180
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.
He who pleaseth may find this op••ion largely confuted by Beza de Presbyterio contra Erasmum, and by I. B. A. C. polit. civil. & Eccles. 1In the mean while I answer. First, T. C. had made a sufficient Reply hereunto (which Whitgift here in his defence should have confuted, but hath not) viz. That if the Seniors under a Tyrant had meddled with any Office of a Magistrate, then there had been some cause why a godly Magistrate being in the Church, the Office of a Senior, or at least so much as he exercised of the Office of a Magistrate should have ceased.
Hee who pleaseth may find this op••ion largely consuted by Beza de Presbyterio contra Erasmum, and by I. B. A. C. polit. civil. & Eccles. 1Jn the meane while I answer. First, T. C. had made a sufficient Reply hereunto (which Whitgift here in his defence should have confuted, but hath not) viz. That if the Seniors under a Tyrant had medled with any Office of a Magistrate, then there had beene some cause why a godly Magistrate being in the Church, the Office of a Senior, or at least so much as hee exercised of the Office of a Magistrate should have ceased.
- 1Reply p. 140
But since they did only assist the Pastor in matters Ecclesiastical, it followeth, that as touching the Office of Elders, there is no distinction betwixt times of Peace and Persecution. Secondly, There were Seniors among the Jews under Godly Kings, and in times of Peace: Why not likewise amongst us? Thirdly, The Ecclesiastical ⟨p. 89⟩power is distinct from the civill, both in the subject, object, and end; so that the one doth not hinder the other: The Magistrates power is to punish the outward man with an outward punishment, which the Presbytery cannot hinder, for he may civilly bind whom the Presbytery spiritually looseth, and civilly loose, whom the Presbytery spiritually bindeth, and that because the Magistrate seeketh not the repentance and salvation of the delinquent by his punishment (as the Presbytery doth) but only the maintenance of the authority of his laws, together with the quietness and preservation of the Common-wealth.