A42758:80
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
Part 1 › Chapter 2: Of the function of Ruling Elders, and what sort of Officers they be.
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.
CHAP. II. Of the function of Ruling Elders, and what sort of Officers they be.
1Notwithstanding, of all the multiplicity of Popish orders, yet Peter Lombard treading the vestiges of the primitive simplicity, did observe that the Apostles left only two sacred orders to be perpetual in the Church, the order of Deacons, & the order of Elders. The administration of Deacons is exercised about things bodily. The administration of Elders about things spiritual. The former about the goods: the latter about the government of the Church. Now Elders are of three sorts. 1. Preaching Elders, or Pastors. 2. Teaching Elders or Doctors. 3. Ruling Elders. All these are Elders, because they have voice in Presbyteries, and all assemblies of the Church, and the government of the Church is incumbent to them all: nor only to the Pastor and Elder, but to the Doctor also. The Bishop of Dune in his examen conjurationis Scoticae, p. 35. allegeth, that our Church of Scotland did never yet determine whether Doctors and Deacons have right of voicing in the Consistories & ⟨p. 9⟩Assemblies of the Church. But had he read our book of Policy, he might have found, that it excludeth Deacons from being members of Presbyteries and Assemblies, Cap. 8. but admitteth Doctors into the same, Cap. 5. The Doctor being an Elder, as said is, should assist the Pastor in the government of the Kirk; and concur with the Elders, his brethren, in all Assemblies, by reason the Interpretation of the Word, which is only Judge in Ecclesiastical matters, is committed to his charge. But they differ, in that the Pastor laboureth in the word of exhortation, that is, by the gift of wisdom applieth the word to the manners of his flock, and that in season and out of season, as he knoweth their particular cases to require. The Doctor laboureth in the word of Doctrine, that is, without such applications as the Pastor useth, by simple teaching he preserveth the truth and sound interpretation of the Scriptures, against all heresy and error. The ruling Elder doth neither of these, but laboureth in the government and policy of the Church only. The Apostle hath distinguished these three sorts of Elders,