A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many useful questions and cases of conscience are…A treatise of miscellany questions wherein many usefull questions and cases of conscience are…

5. Luke doeth usually mention the Churches suffrage in making Church Officers, or in designing men to sacred employments, as Acts 1. 23. 26. Acts 13. 3. Acts 15. 22. So doth Paul, 1 Cor. 16. 3. 2. Cor. 8. 19. 1 Tim. 3. 7. So that it is not likely there should be no mention of the Churches election here, where professedly and intentionally mention is made of planting Elders, the prayer and fasting, as Acts 13. 2, 3. so likewise, Acts 14. 23. was common to the Church; they prayed and fasted cum discipulis, jej•nantibus ⟨p. 14⟩saith the Gloss) all being one work, why was not the [Greek or Hebrew] common to the Churches also. 6. Protestant writers draw from [Greek or Hebrew] the Churches suffrage; Magdebur: cent. 1. lib. 2. cap: 6. Zanchius in 4. Prae. Beza, Cartwright and others, on the place, Bullinger Decad: 5. Ser. 4. Junius contro: 5 lib. 1 cap. 7. And others against Bellarmine, de Cler cap. 7. Gerhard, tom. 6. pag. 95. Brochmand: Systhem: tom: 2. pag. 886. Danaeus in 1 Tim. 5. Walaeus in his treatise, quibusnam competat vocatio Pastorum, and loose: pag. 474. Of Papists, also Salmeron expoundeth this place by, Acts. 6. And saith the Apostles gave the Election to the Churches, here of Elders, as there of Deacons, Bel: de cler: cap. 7. and Esthius in 2. Cor. 8. 19. confess that if we look either to the Etymology of the word, or the use of Greek authors, it is to choose by votes. If it be objected to me that [Greek or Hebrew] being referred to the people, will invest them with a judicial power; and a forensicall, or juridical suffrage; and where is then the authority of the Eldership. Ans. 'Tis like enough (though I confess not certain) that no Elderships were yet erected in those Churches,