A Vindication of the Presbyteriall-Government and Ministry

by Ministers and Elders of the London Provinciall Assembly

And therefore we conclude, that by Church, must needs be meant, the Minister and Ruling-Elders, which are the Officers we are enquiring after.

And this is no new interpretation, but agreed unto by ancient and modern Writers. Chrysostome saith[63], by Church, is meant the προεστωτες, the Rulers of the Church, Camer.[64] the Colledg of Presbyters; others, the Ecclesiacall Senate. These are called a Church, for four Reasons:

1. Because it is usual in the Old Testament, (to which our Saviour here alludeth, as appears by the words Publican and Heathen,) to call the Assembly of Princes and Elders a Church, Numb. 35.12, 24, 25. with Deut. 1.16. 1 Chron. 13.2, 3. with 28.1, 2. & 29.1, 6. Deut. 31.28, 30. 1 King. 8.1, 2, 55. Num. 5.2. compared with Levit. 13.15.

2. Because they manage Church affaires in the name of Christ, and of the Church, and are servants of the Church, as well as of Christ.

3. Because they are, as it were, the eyes and ears of the Church; and therefore as the body is said to see or hear, when as the eyes and eares alone do see and hear; so the Church is said to see, hear, and act, that which this Senate Ecclesiasticall doth see, hear, and act.

4. Because they represent the Church; and it is a common form of speech, to give the name of that which is represented, to that which represents it; as we say, that to be done by the whole Kingdome, which is done by a full and free Parliament. Hence we might further argue:

If the Colledge of Presbyters represent the Church, then it must be made up of Ruling-Elders, as well as Ministers. For Ministers alone cannot represent the Church; the Church consisting not of Ministers alone, but of Ministers and people, who are part of the Church as well as Ministers, and are so called, Act. 15.3, 4.

This is all we shall say, for the Scriptural part.

As for the Primitive times of the Church, we should have wholly waved the mention of any thing about them, were it not for the base calumnies & reproaches which the Prelatical party cast upon the Ruling-Elder, in saying, That it is the new fangled device of Calvin at Geneva; and never known in the Church of Christ before his dayes. There is a Bishop |Episcopacy by Divine right.|that makes offer to forfeit his life to justice, and his reputation to shame, if any man living can shew, that ever there was a Ruling-Elder in the Christian world, till Farell and Viret first created them. But he hath been abundantly answered by Smectymnuus, insomuch, that whereas in his Episcopacy by Divine Right, he boldly averreth, that the name of the Elders of the Church, comprehendeth none but preachers, [65]and that therefore none but they may be called Seniores Ecclesiæ, Elders of the Church; though some others haply may have the title of Seniores populi, Elders of the people, because of their civill Authority. Yet notwithstanding afterward, the same Bishop in his [66]reply to Smectymnuus acknowledgeth, that besides Pastors and Doctors, and besides Magistrates and Elders of the City, there are to be found in Antiquity, Seniores Ecclesiastici, Ecclesiastical Elders also; only he alledgeth, they were but as our Church-Wardens, or rather, as our vestry-men; whereas in truth, They were Judges in Ecclesiasticall controversies, and did assist the Pastor in ruling and governing the Church; witnesse that famous place in [67]Ambrose, which testifies, that both in the Jewish and in the Christian Church, there were these Ecclesiasticall Rulers. This is also the judgment of [68]Tertullian, [69]Origen, [70]Basil, [71]Optatus, [72]Hierome, [73]Augustine, [74]Gregory the great, and divers others cited by Justellus in his Annotations in Can. Eccl. Affricanæ, and by Voetius, and by Smectymnuus, and by the Author of the Assertion of the Scotch Discipline, some of which are rehearsed in the Margent. We will conclude this Discourse, with the confession of Archbishop Whitgift, a great Writer against the Presbyterial-Government; I know (saith he) that in the Primitive Church, they had in every Church Seniors, to whom the Government of the Church was committed, but that was before there was any Christian Prince or Magistrate.

And therefore, let not our respective Congregations suffer themselves to be abused any longer with a false belief, that the Ruling-Elder is a new device, and an Officer never known in the Church of God, nor Word of God. For we have sufficiently (as we conceive) proved it to be warranted by the Word, and to have been of use in the purer times of the Church.