THE FIFTH BOOK
OF THEIR CONSISTORIES.
CHAP. I.
Their Courts of Judgment, especially their Ecclesiastical Consistory.
There were in Israel distinct Courts, consisting of distinct persons, the one principally for Church-businesses, the other for affairs in the Commonwealth; the one an Ecclesiastical Consistory; the other a Civil Judicatory:[517] Of these, and their several censures, and punishments, it remaineth now to be spoken.
[517] Junius Analys. Expos. Deut. 17.
These different Consistories, or Courts of Justice, we find first distinguisht, Deut. 17. 12. He which will not hearken unto the Priest, nor unto the Judge. Where the people of Israel are directed, in what cases, and to what persons they should make their Appeals from inferiour Courts; namely, the Priests, in matters spiritual, or ceremonial, and to the Judges, in matters civil or criminal. These two Courts are more plainly distinguished, 2 Chron. 19. where Jehosaphat, reforming many abuses in Church and Commonwealth, first appointed thorow-out all the fenced Cities of Judah, secular Judges to determine criminal causes, ver. 5. And at Jerusalem he appointed a Spiritual Court, consisting of Levites, Priests, and the chief Fathers of Israel, vers. 8. And in causes spiritual for the Lord, Amariah the High priest was chief: in causes criminal for the King, Zebadiah was chief, ver. 11. Likewise the Prophet Jeremiah is condemned to die by the Consistory of Priests, Jer. 26. 8. But by the Consistory of Princes, or secular Judges sitting in the gate, he was absolved and discharged, vers. 16. Yea, although the tyranny of Antiochus, and the troublesome times insuing had bred such a confusion in matters of Government among the Jews, that an evident distinction can hardly be found in the New-Testament, yet some foot-steps, and imperfect tokens of both Courts are there observable, principally, Matth. 21. 23. It. Matth. 26. 3. The Chief Priests and the Elders, of the people, are named as two distinct Consistories: and each Consistory seemeth to be differenced by its proper name: The secular Consistory termed συνέδριον, A Councel: the spiritual termed συναγωγὴ, a Synagogue. They will deliver you up to the Councels, and they will scourge you in their Synagogues, Matth. 10. 17. Hence that great Assembly of Prophets and holy men called together by Esra, for the reformation of the Church, after their return from Babylon, is called Synagoga magna, A great Synagogue.
The Office of the Ecclesiastical Court, was to put a difference between things holy and unholy, and between clean and unclean, Levit. 10. 10. and to determine Appeals in controversies of difficulty. It was a representative Church. Hence is that Dic Ecclesiæ, Mat. 18. 16. Tell the Church, because unto them belonged the power of Excommunication, the several sorts of which censure follow in the next Chapter.
Only here take notice, that as in the Civil Consistories, consisting of seventy Judges, which was the supreme Court, there were two sate as Chief; namely, one whom they termed Nasi, The Lord Chief Justice; and the other whom they termed Abbeth din, the Father of the Senate: so in the Ecclesiastical Consistory the High-priest and his Sagan, or second High priest sate chief there, 2 King. 23. 4. That the High priest sate in the Sanhedrim necessarily, is an errour;[518] for he was not elected into that Company, except he were a man of extraordinary wisdome. Again, note, that sometimes both Consistories assembled together, as often as the matters to be determined were partly ceremonial, partly civil, partly belonging to the Church, partly to the Commonwealth: which being not noted, causeth the Courts not to be distinguished by many Expositors. This meeting and joyning of both Consistories often appeareth in the Gospel. The chief Priests and Elders meet together.
[518] Moses Kotsen. in Sanhedrin.