Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, Part 1 · Chapter 1
CHAP. I. Of the words Elder, Lay Elder, Ruling Elder.
THE word Elder answereth to Zaken in the Hebrew, & foreign in the Greek. It hath foure different significations, 1. It noteth Age. 2▪ Antiquity. 3. Venerability. 4. An office. In the first signification, Elder is opposed to younger, as 1 Tim. 5.1. Rebuke not an Elder, but intreat him as a father, & the younger men as brethren, 1 Pet. 5.5. Likewise ye younger submit your selves unto the Elder. In this sense was the Apostle Iohn called the Elder, because hee outlived the other Apostles, 2 Iohn 1. and 3. vers. 1. In the second signification Elder is opposed to Moderne, Mat. 15.2. Why doe thy Disciples transgresse the tradition of the Elders. That is, of them of old time, Mat. 5.21. In the third signification we finde the word, Isa. 3. where the Lord saith, that he would take away from Israel the prudent and the ancient, vezaken; that is, the worthies among them, and such as were respected for wisedome. The same word, (and peradverture in the same sense) is turned Elder, Exod. 2.16. Eth-zikne Israel, the Elders of Israel. So the Spanish Seijor, the French Seigneur, the Italian Signore, all comming from the Latine Senior, signifie a man of respect, or one venerable for dignity, gifts, prudence, or piety. Contrariwise, men of no worth, nor wisedome, men despicable for lacke of gifts and understanding, are called Children, Isa. 3.4.12. Ephes. 4.14. But it is the fourth signification which we have now to do withall, and so an Elder is a spirituall officer, appointed by God, and called to the government of the Church, Acts 14.23. When they had by voyces made them Elders in every Church. They have the name of Elders, because of the maturity of knowledge, wisedome, gifts and gravity, which ought to be in them: for which reason also the name of Senators was borrowed from Senes.
Before we come to speake particularly of those Elders of which our purpose is to treat, it is fit we should know them by their right name, lest wee nick-name and mis-call them. Some reproachfully and others ignorantly call them Lay Elders. But the distinction of the Clergie & Laity, is Popish and Antichristian; and they who have narrowly considered the records of ancient times, have noted this distinction as one of the grounds whence the mystery of iniquity had the beginning of it.Catal. test. verit. lib. 2. col. 98. O…iand. cent. 1. p. 8. The name of Clergie appropriate to Ministers, is full of pride and vaine-glory, and hath made the holy people of God to be despised, as if they were prophane and uncleane in comparison of their Ministers.Loc. theol. ….6. n. 37. Gerard likeneth those who take to themselves the name of the Clergie, to the Pharisees, who called themselves by that name: for that their holinesse did separate them from the rest of the Jewes: for this Etymologie of the name Pharisee, hee citeth Tertullian, Origen, Epiphanius, Ambrose, and confirmeth it from Luke 18.10. Hence was it that some Councels discharged the Laity from presuming to enter within the Quire,Synod. Turon. 2. Can. 3. Syn. Constant. 6. can. 69. or to stand among the Clergie neere the Altar. Two reasons are alleadged why the Ministers of the Church should bee called foreign. First, because the Lord is their Inheritance: secondly, because they are the Lords inheritance. Now both these reasons doe agree to all the faithfull people of God: For there is none of the faithfull, who may not say with David, Psal. 16.5. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance; and of whom also it may not bee said, that they are the Lords inheritance, or lot: for Peter giveth this name to the whole Church,Of Episcop. by divine right, pag. 2.12. 1 Pet. 5.3. Where (if it were needfull) we might chalenge Bishop Hall, who borroweth a glosse from Bellarmine and Gregorius de Valentia, telling us, that Peter chargeth his fellow Bishops not to dominier over their Clergie; so shutting out of the Text, both the duty of Pastors, because the Bishops onelyonly are meant by Elders; and the benefit of the people, because the inferiour Pastors are the Bishops flocke, according to this glosse: for Peter opposeth the Lording over the foreign, to being ensamples to the Flocke. Surely, if this Popish Glosse bee true, Protestants in their Commentaries and Sermons, have gone wide from that Text. But Matthias the Apostle was chosen by lot.Act. i.26. What then? By what reason doth the Canon law draw from hence a name common to all the Ministers of the Gospell?d. 21. ca. cleros Let … then banish from us such Popish names, and send them home to Rome.D… clerie. lib. 1. cap. 1. Bellarmin thought we had done so long ere now: for he maketh this one of his controverted heads: Whether wee may rightly call some Christians the Clergie, and others the Laity, or not, ascribing the negative to Protestants, the affirmative to the Church of Rome.
Yet beside the Clergy and the Laity,B…ll. prae fat. ante lib. de clerie. Papists hold that there is a third sort in the Church distinct from both, whom they call Regulares. These are such of their religious orders, as are not taken up with contemplation alone (like the Monkes) but with action;Bell. lib. 2. de mon. cap. 1. such as the Dominicans, Franciscans, &c. Who helpe and assist the Clergy in their Ecclesiasticall imployments, though they themselves bee not admitted into any particular charge in the Church. Now hee who will needs side with the Papists in the distinction of Clergy and Laity, may also with them admit a third member of the distinction▪ and make ruling Elders of that sort; especially since the reason why the regular Chanoins are assumed as helpers to Parish Priests,In 2.2.4.88. …t. 4. is propter multitudinem fidelis populi, & difficultatem inven…endi curatos sufficientes & idoneos, saith Cardinall Cajetan, adding further, male consultum populo Christiano invenitur sine hujusmodi supplemento. Which reasons agree well to ruling Elders. For 1. Parishes containe so many, that the Minister cannot oversee all, and every one without helpe. 2. Sufficient and fit Ministers shall hardly bee every where found. 3. It is found by experience, that sinne and scandall are never well taken neede to, and redressed, where ruling Elders are not. To let all this passe, if any man will needs retaine the name of Lay Elders,De gub. ec…l. pag. 28. yet saith Gersomus Bucerus, What aspersion is that to our Churches? is it any other thing then that which Papists object to us for admitting Lay men into Councels? They who have place in the highest and most supreame assemblies of the Church, wherein the weightiest matters are determined, ought much more to be admitted into inferiour meetings, such as Presbyteries are.
But if we will speake with Scripture, wee shall call them Ruling Elders, Rom. 12.8. he that ruleth, 1 Tim. 5.17. Elders that rule well. They are called ruling Elders, non quia soli sed quia solum praesunt. Pastors rule the Church even as they doe; but Pastors doe something more, from which they may bee designed. Whereas the Elders of which wee are to speake, have no other imployment, which can give them a designation, except the ruling of the Church onelyonly. That wicked railer Lisim…chus Nicanor, who assumed the name, but forgot to put on the vizorne of a Jesuit, in his congratulatory (I should say calumniatory) Epistle pag. 61. alledgeth that they are called ruling Elders, because the Ministers are their ruled Elders. If he were a Jesuit, he may remember that in their own society, besides their Priests, Doctors, Preachers, Confessionaries, &c. They have also Rectores, M. Elias Hasen mullerus. Hist. ordin. Je…. pag. 68.or Regentes; whose office it is to see the rules of their order kept, to observe the behaviour of every one, & when they perceive any seeds of Heresie, to signifie the same to the Provinciall, and hee to the Generall. Yet are these Rectores among the lowest rankes of their officers, so that Jesuites need not stumble when wee call our Eldersruling Elders.