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…

It remaineth to answer some objections. And first it is objected, That this is a tenet of Anabaptists, Independents, and Separatists. Ans: 1. But shall we condemn these truths which either they, or Papists, or Arians doe hold? Quid est, saith Cyprian, quia hoc facit Novatianus ut nos non putemus esse faciendum? We may go one mile with the Scriptures, though we go not two miles with the Independents, or three miles with the Anabaptists, or Separatists. 2. Neither in this same point of Elections do we homologate with them, who give to the collective body of the Church (women and children under age only excepted) the power of decisive vote and suffrage in Elections, we give the vote only to the Eldership or Church representative, so that they carry along with them the consent of the Major or better part of the Congregation. Gamachaeus in primam secundae quaest: 15 tells us out of Thomas this difference betwixt consent and election: that though every choosing be a consenting, yet every consenting is not a choosing: The liberty of consent is one thing; counsel or deliberation another thing: The power of a decisive voice in court or judicatory a third thing. I speak of a constituted Church (for where there is not yet an Eldership, there can be no such distinction: yet however be there an Eldership or be there none, the Churches consent must be had.) The first of these we ascribe to the whole Church, without whose knowledge and consent Ministers may not be intruded. The second to the ablest and wisest men of the Congregation, especially to Magistrates, with whose especial advice, privity, and deliberation the ⟨p. 25⟩matter ought to be managed. The third which is the formal, and consistorial determination of the case of election, consisteth in the votes of the Eldership: Their way is much different from this, who would have the matter prepared by the conference, and deliberation of the Eldership, (as we use to do in Committees) but determined and decided by the votes of the whole Congregation. 3. Let them speak for us who have particularly written against the Separatists and Independents. Laget in his defence of Church-government, part. 1. cap:

It remaineth to answer some objections. And first it is objected, That this is a tenent of Anabaptists, Independents, and Separatists. Ans: 1. But shall we condemne these truthes which either they, or Papists, or Arrians doe hold? Quid est, saith Cyprian, quia hoc facit Novatianus ut nos non putemus esse faciendum? We may goe one myle with the Scriptures, though we goe not two myles with the Independents, or three myles with the Anabaptists, or Separatists. 2. Neither in this same point of Elections doe we homologat with them, who give to the collective body of the Church (women and children under age onely excepted) the power of decisive vote and suffrage in Elections, we give the vote onely to the Eldership or Church representative, so that they carrie along with them the consent of the Major or better part of the Congregation. Gamachaeus in primam secundae quaest: 15 tells us out of Thomas this difference betwixt consent and election: that though every choosing bea consenting, yetevery consenting is not a choosing: The liberty of consent is one thing; counsell or deliberation another thing: The power of a decisive voice in court or judicatory a third thing. I speak of a constituted Church (for where there is not yet an Eldership, there can be no such distinction: yet however bee there an Eldership or bee there none, the Churches consent must be had.) The first of these we ascribe to the whole Church, without whose knowledge and consent Ministers may not be intruded. The second to the ablest and wisest men of the Congregation, especially to Magistrates, with whose especiall advice, privity, and deliberation the