A42758:83
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.
But when we speak of Elders, Non personatos, &c. we will not have disguised and histrionical men, puffed up with titles, or idols dead in sins, to be meant, but holy men, who being endued with faith in God, and walking in his obedience, God authorising them, and the Church his Spouse choosing and calling them, undertake the government thereof, that they may labour to the conservation and edification of the same in Christ, 1saith Junius. A ruling Elder should pray for the Spirit and gifts ⟨p. 11⟩of his calling, that he may do the duties of his calling, and not be like him that played the Soldan, but a Souter; he must do his office neither [Greek or Hebrew] and pro forma, he himself being Parcus Deorum caltor & infrequens; nor [Greek or Hebrew], doing all through contention and strife about particulars.2 Si duo de nostras tollas pro nomina rebus, praelia (I may say Jurgia) cessarent, pax sine lite foret: Nor [Greek or Hebrew], Empiring and Lording among his brethren and fellow Elders;3 Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant, saith the only Lord and Head of the Church: Nor yet [Greek or Hebrew], setting himself only to do a pleasure, or to get preferment to such as he favoureth; Nay, nor [Greek or Hebrew], only by establishing good orders, and wholesome laws in the Church, but he must carry himself [Greek or Hebrew], serviceably and ministerially: for as his Function is Officium and Jurisdictio, so it is Munus, a burdensome service and charge laid upon him.
But when we speake of Elders, Non personatos, &c. we will not have disguised and histrionicall men, puffed up with titles, or idols dead in sinnes, to be meant, but holy men, who being indued with faith in God, and walking in his obedience, God authorising them, and the Church his Spouse chusing and calling them, undertake the government thereof, that they may labour to the conservation and edification of the same in Christ, 1saith Iunius. A ruling Elder should pray for the Spirit and gifts