A42758:188
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.
And this he saith is the reason why the vulgar Latin hath not retained in that place the Greek word Presbyteri, but readeth Seniors. 2. We have ⟨p. 97⟩for us the example of Ecclesiastical Courts among the Jews, wherein the Jewish Elders had equal power of voicing with the Priests, and for this we have heard before, Saravia's plain confession. 3. The example of ancient Councils in the Christian Church. Constantine in his Epistle which he wrote to the Churches, concerning the Nicene Council saith; I my self as one of your number was present with them (the Bishops) which importeth that others of the Laity voiced there with the Bishops as well as he, and he as a chief one of their number. Evagrius lib. 2. cap. 4. saith, that the chief Senators sate with the Bishops in the Council of Chalcedon. And after he saith, The Senators decreed as followeth. The fourth Council of Carthage, c. 27. speaking of the transportation of a Bishop or of any other Clergy man,1 saith, sane si id Ecclesiae utilitas fiendum poposecrit, decret• Pro eo clericorum & laicorum Episcopis porrecto, in praesentia Synodi transferatur. The Decrees of the Synod of France holden by Charlemagne about the year 743. are said to have been made by the King, the Bishops, the Presbyters, and Nobles. Many such examples might we show, but the matter is so clear that it needeth not.2 4. The Review of the Council of Trent written by a Papist, ⟨p. 98⟩among other causes of the Nobility of that Council maketh this one, that Lay-men were not called nor admitted into it, as was the form of both the Apostolic and other ancient Councils, showing also from sundry Histories and examples, that both in France, Spain, and England, Lay-men used to voice and to judge of all matters that were handled in Councils: alleging further the examples of Popes themselves. That Adrian did summon many Lay-men to the Lateran Council, as members thereof, that in imitation of him Pope Leo did the like in another Council at the Lateran under Otho the first, and that Pope Nicholas in Epist. ad Michael Imperat. acknowledgeth the right of Lay-men to voice in Councils, wherein matters of faith are treated of, because faith is common to all.