A42758:350
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.
One word I desire to have cleared before we proceed.1 One of his grounds in his discourse about elections, is that the Church officers, as they are the servants of Christ Jesus, so also her servants for Jesus sake,2 2. Cor. 4.5. The professors of Leiden say well, that they are not properly the servants of the Church, but of God, and of Christ: They are not Lords of the Church neither, but Rulers, Guides, Bishops, and Pastors of the Church: yet not servants of the Church except, objective, that is, the servants of God in the Church, or for the Churches good. If this be his meaning, it is well. But I doubt he hath another meaning, and that is, that the Church doth give the power (which is hers) unto her officers, as her servants to exercise it in her name. If this be the matter, then let us mark with Baynes, 3that the Church doth not virtually and out of power make an officer, but she doth it in Stewardlike manner, ministering to the sole Lord and master of the house, so that he who is taken in doth not his office in her name, but in his masters name: as a Butler taken in by the Steward of the house, doth not execute his office in the stewards name, but ⟨p. 24⟩in his masters, who only out of power did confer it on him.
One word I desire to have cleared before wee proceed.1 One of his grounds in his discourse about elections, is that the Church officers, as they are the servants of Christ Jesus, so also her servants for Jesus sake,2 2. Cor. 4.5. The professors of Leyden say well, that they are not properly the servants of the Church, but of God, and of Christ: They are not Lords of the Church neither, but Rulers, Guides, Bishops, and Pastors of the Church: yet not servants of the Church except, objective, that is, the servants of God in the Church, or for the Churches good. If this bee his meaning, it is well. But I doubt he hath another meaning, and that is, that the Church doth give the power (which is hers) unto her officers, as her servants to exercise it in her name. If this bee the matter, then let us marke with Baynes,