A42758:362
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.
His seventh argument follows in my order,1 and it runneth after this manner. Such offices and callings without which the Church of God is con pleat and perfect for government, are superfluous and humane. But the Church of God may be complete & perfect for government, without Presbyterial and Synodical offices and callings. Ergo. I answer by a distinction. Such offices and callings without which the Church of God are according to the course of Gods ordinary providence, or at all times and in all cases, perfect and complete for government, are indeed superfluous and humane. But that such offices and callings without which the Church by the absolute power of God or at some times & in some cases is perfect & complete, are superfluous & humane, we utterly deny. Now for the point of Synods I shall produce no other witnesses then those which this Disputer here taketh to be for him.2 Whittaker acknowledgeth of ⟨p. 36⟩Councels that Secundum ordinariam providentiam necessaria sunt ad bonam ecclesiae gubernationem: 3according to ordinary providence they are necessary for the well governing of the Church. Parker acknowledgeth Synods to be sometime necessary in the Church, and he giveth example of the Council of Nice, without which the evils of the Church in the days of Constantine could not have bin remedied.
His seventh argument followes in my order,1 and it runneth after this manner. Such offices and callings without which the Church of God is cō pleat and perfect for government, are superfluous and humane. But the Church of God may be compleat & perfect for government, without Presbyteriall and Synodicall offices and callings. Ergo. I answer by a distinction. Such offices and callings without which the Church of God are according to the course of Gods ordinary providence, or at all times and in all cases, perfect and compleat for government, are indeed superfluous and humane. But that such offices and callings without which the Church by the absolute power of God or at some times & in some cases is perfect & compleat, are superfluous & humane, we utterly deny. Now for the point of Synods I shall produce no other witnesses then those which this Disputer here taketh to be for him.