Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, Part 2 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II. Of the independencies of the Elderships of particular Congregations.
WEE have now rolled away one stone of offence, but there is another in our way. It were most strange, if the collective body of a Congregation, consisting it may bee of 10, 20, 30, or 40 persons, according to the grounds of these with whom we deale, should bee permitted to exercise independently all Eccleasisticall Jurisdiction: but it is almost as great a Paradox, to say, that the representative of every Congregation, which is the Eldership therof, consisting it may be of a Pastor, and two or three Ruling Elders, ought independently to exercise the foresaid jurisdiction in all points.
I am debtor to D. Field, for answering one of those questions before propounded, concerning Ruling Elders, and here it falls in my hand. He asketh whether the power of Church-government and jurisdiction, doth belong to the Pastor and Elders of every Congregation, or to the Pastors and Elders of many Congregations joyned together in a Common Presbytery. I beleeve his expectation was, that while as we would sayle through betwixt the Caribdis of Episcopall tyranny, and the Scylla of popular Anarchy, wee should not know ho… to direct our course, but should certainly either bee swallowed up in the waves of mighty difficulties, or split our selves upon hid Rockes of division. Our danger, I hope, is not so great as he did imagine; for we hold that the particular Elderships of severall Congregations have their owne power and authority of Church-government, but with a subordination unto the common or greater Presbytery, whose power is superior and of a larger extent.
First, then we shall take into consideration, the bounds of the power of particular Elderships, and how the same may be said to be independent, and how not, for this purpose, I shall give foure distinctions out of Parker, and to these I shall adde other foure of my owne.de pol. eccl: lib, 3. cap. 20,
The first distinction is, betwixt things which are proper and peculiar to one Congregation,The Elders & Deacons of Ro…e writing to Cyprian concerning some publicke offenders. s…y Per. quam … his & i… vidus…m & on…rosum videtur, … p…r multos examin…e quod per multos …omm…ssum videatur fu…sse, & un … d… cere, c…nt…m grande …imen per multos dis fusum … exisse quont…m nec fi…mum decret…m potest esse quod non plur…m…rum vide bit…rh…bu…sse … Cypr Epist 31. …. and things which are common to many: the former pertaineth to the particular Eldership, the latter to the common Eldership: Whence it commeth that in Scotland the cases of ordination, suspension, deposition, and Excommunication, are determined in the greater Presbyteries, because it doth not concerne one Congregation alone, but many, who be taken into the common Presbytery, and who be put out of the sam…, neither doth the Excommunication of a sinner concerne onelyonly one Congregation, but the Neighbouring Congregations also, among whom (as is to be commonly supposed ▪ the sinner doth often haunt & converse. Cyprian speaking of the admission of some who had fallen, and who had no recommendation from the Martyrs to be received againe, referreth the matter to a common meeting, and his reason is, because it was a common cause, and did not concerne a few, nor one church onelyonly. See lib. 2. Ep. 14.
The second distinction is betwixt Congregations, which have a competent and well-qualified Eldership, & small Congregations, who have but few office-bearers, and those (it may be) not sufficiently able for Church-government. In this case of insufficiencie, a Congregation may not independently, by it selfe, exercise jurisdiction, and not in re propria, saith Parker.
3. He distinguisheth betwixt the case of right administration, and the case of aberration: whatsoever liberty, a Congregation hath in the former case, surely in the latter it must needs be subject and subordinate. If particular Elderships doe rightly manage their owne matters of Church-government, the greater Presbytery shall not need for a long time (it may be for some yeares) to intermeddle in any of their matters, which wee know by experience in our owne Churches.
4. Hee maketh a distinction betwixt the case of appellation and the case, de nulla administratione mala praesumpta. Though the particular Eldership hath proceeded aright, though it consist of able and sufficient men, and though it bee in re propria, yet if one think himselfe wronged, and so appeale, then is it made obnoxious to a higher consistory, for saith Parker, as the Councill of Sardis ordaineth audience must, not bee denyed to him who entreateth for it.
de pol. eccl. lib. 3. cap. 2.So saith Zepperus, speaking of the same purpose, cuivis integrum quoque sit ad superiores gradus provocare, si in inferioris gradus sententia aut decreto aliquid desideret.
5. Adde unto these a distinction betwixt a Congregation, lying alone in an Iland, Province, or Nation, and a Congregation bordering with sister Churches. If either there be but one Congregation in a Kingdome or Province, or if there be many farre distant one from another, so that their Pastors and Elders cannot ordinarily meete together, then may a particular Congregation doe many things by it selfe alone, which it ought not to doe, where there are adjacent neighbouring Congregations, together with which, it may, and should have a common Presbytery.
6. Let us put a difference betwixt the subordination of one Congregation to another, or of ore Eldership to another, and the subordination of any Congregation, and of the Eldership thereof to a superior, Presbytery or Synod made out of many Congregations, as one provinciall Synod is not subject to another Provinciall Synod, yet all the Provinciall Synods in the Nation are subje…t … the Nationall Synod, so it is also with the ordinary consistories, one particular Eldership is not subject to another, yet all the particular Elderships within the bounds of the common Presbytery are subject to the same. So that there is a vast difference betwixt this subordination which we maintaine, and the subordination of all the Parishes in a Diocesse to the Praelate and his Cathedrall. Where Douname doth object that all the Parishes of Geneva are Hierarchically subject to the Presbytery in the city, Parker denieth this, nisi quis &c. vnlesse saith he,De pol. Ec. lib. 3. c. 23. peradvēture one may be subject to himselfe, for the Parishes, each for their owne part, and that alihe, are this same Presbytery. And after, Consistorium &c. for the Consistory of the Cathedrall Church is an externall meeting, divers distinct and separate from the rurall Churches, which are no part thereof, this cannot be said of the Presbytery of Geneva.
7. Wee must distinguish betwixt a dependance absolute, and, in some respect, a Congregation doth absolutely depend upon the holy Scriptures alone, as the perfect rule of faith and manners, of worship and of Church-government, for we accurse the tyranny of Prelates, who claimed to themselves an autocratoricke power over Congregations,Spotswood Serm. at Perth. assemb. to whom they gave their naked will for a Law. One of themselves told a whole Synod that they ought to esteeme that best which seemeth so to Superiors, and that this is a sufficient ground to the conscience for obeying, though the thing be inconvenient. We say, that Congregations ought indeed to be subject to Presbyteries and Synods, yet not absolutely, but in the Lord, and in things lawfull, and to this purpose the constitutions of Presbyteries and Synods are to bee examined by the judgement of Christian discretion, for a Synod is Iudex Iudicandus, and Regula regulata, so that it ought not to be blindly obeyed, whether the ordinance be convenient or inconvenient.
Last of all we are to distinguish betwixt the condition of the Primitive Churches, before the division of Parishes, and the state of our Churches now after such division. At the first when the multitude of Christians in those great cities of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, &c. was not divided into severall Parishes, the common Presbytery in the city did suffice for the government of the whole, and there was no need of a particular consistory of Elders, for every assembly and Congregation of Christians within the city, except perhaps to admonish, rebuke, exhort, or to take notice of such things as were to be brought into the common Presbyterie. But after that Parishes were divided, and Christian Congregations planted in the rurall villages, as well as in the cities, from henceforth it was necessary that every Congregation should have at hand within it selfe, a certaine Consistory for some acts of Church-government, though still those of greater importance were reserved to the greater Presbyterie. And thus have J, out of desire to avoid unnecessary questions, set downe my conceptions concerning the Elderships of particular Congregations, and the power of the same.
If it be said, that I seeme to deny the divine right of the same, or that they have any warrant from the patterne of the Apostolike Churche. I answer. I acknowledge the conformity of the same with the patterne thus farre. 1. It is to bee suposed that in some small cities (especially the same not being wholly converted to the Christian faith) there was but one Christian Congregation, the Eldership whereof did manage matters of jurisdictiō proper thereto. 2. Even in the great cities, at the first there was but one Congregation of Christians, and so but one particular Eldership. 3. After that the Gospell had spread, and Christians were multiplied in those great cities, it is true, they were all governed by a common Presbytery, but that Presbytery was not remote, but ready at hand among thēselves. Now in this we keepe our selves as closse to the patterne, as the alteration of the Churches condition by the division of Parishes will suffer us, that is to say, we have a common Presbytery for governing the Congregations within a convenient circuit, but withall our Congregations have, ad manum, among themselves, an inferior Eldership for lesser acts of Government; though in respect of the distance of the seate of the common Presbytery from sundry of our Parishes, they can not have that ease and benefit of nearenesse, which the Apostolique Churches had, yet by the particular Elderships they have as great ease of this kinde as conveniently can be.