A42758:335
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.
You need not, my Masters be so curious in the notation of the name [Greek or Hebrew], which every smatterer in Divinity knoweth. But what of it? you say, the Elders (as such) are called, to wit, to their office of Eldership, but called out they are not, being themselves to call out the Church. It is true that the word [Greek or Hebrew] noteth not only a calling, or a gathering together, by virtue of verb [Greek or Hebrew], but also a separation by virtue of the particle [Greek or Hebrew]. But I hope it is no paradox to say, that the Elders are both called or gathered together unto the Eldership, and called out or separate from the rest of the Church to that office. And it is as far from a Paradox to say that they who are called out cannot call out others, especially the one calling out being to an office, and the other calling out being from nature to grace.
You need not, my Masters be so curious in the notation of the name 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, which every smatterer in Divinity knoweth. But what of it? you say, the Elders (as such) are called, to wit, to their office of Eldership, but called out they are not, being themselves to call out the Church. It is true that the word 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 noteth not only a calling, or a gathering together, by vertue of verb 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, but also a separation by vertue of the particle 〈non-Latin alphabet〉. But I hope it is no paradox to say, that the Elders are both called or gathered together unto the Eldership, and called out or separate from the rest of the Church to that office. And it is as far from a Paradox to say that they who are called out cannot call out others, especially the one calling out being to an office, and the other calling out being from nature to grace.
He cannot think that the name, Ecclesia, Church, hath been used by any Greek Author before the Apostles times, or in their days, or in the age after them, for the assembly of sole Governors in the act of their government. I shall first give Instances