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

First, then we shall take into consideration, the bounds of the power of particular Elderships, and how the same may be said to be independent, and how not, for this purpose, ⟨p. 124⟩I shall give four distinctions out of Parker, and to these I shall add other four of my own.¹

First, then we shall take into consideration, the bounds of the power of particular Elderships, and how the same may be said to be independent, and how not, for this purpose, ⟨p. 124⟩I shall give foure distinctions out of Parker, and to these I shall adde other foure of my owne.¹

1. 1de pol. eccl: lib, 3. cap. 20,

The first distinction is, betwixt things which are proper and peculiar to one Congregation,¹ and things which are common to many: the former pertaineth to the particular Eldership, the latter to the common Eldership: Whence it cometh that in Scotland the cases of ordination, suspension, deposition, and Excommunication, are determined in the greater Presbyteries, because it doth not concern one Congregation alone, but many, who be taken into the common Presbytery, and who be put out of the sam•, neither doth the Excommunication of a sinner concern only one Congregation, but the Neighbouring Congregations also, among whom (as is to be commonly supposed ▪ the sinner doth often haunt & converse. Cyprian speaking of the admission of some who had fallen, and who had no recommendation from the Martyrs to be received again, referreth the matter to a common meeting, and his reason is, because it was a common cause, and did not concern a few, nor one church only. See lib. 2. Ep. 14.