The Due Right of Presbyteries, Chapter 10 · Section 1 · Objection 1
It is first objected by our reverend brethren, The extent of the power of jurisdiction in the Elders of a classicall Presbytery must be proved by Gods Word, which cannot be.
For if many classicall Elders have power over many Congregations, possibly twenty or thirty Churches, then they beare the relation of Elders to these thirty Congregations, and they must all be Elders of these Churches, as the Scripture saith, the Elders of Ephesus, the Angel of the Church of Pergamus, the Angel of the Church of Thyatira; now this cannot be: for then, First, Deacons must be Deacons of many Congregations, and Deacons might meet in one Colledge to dispose of the Treasury of these thirty, and yet these thirty Churches should not be consulted with, nor could they all convene in one to give their consent and judgement concerning their Treasury. Now though Deacons be inferiour to Pastors, yet are they no l…sse Officers in their owne sphere, having power, then the Pastors; and Paul writing to the Church of Philippi, writeth to the Deacons as to the Bishops, insi…uating that Deacons are Deacons in relation to that Church, no lesse then Pastors.
Answ. I deny the Proposition, to wit, If many Elders be one Presbytery ruling many Congregations, then doe they beare the relation of Elders to these many Congregations, as proper Pastors to every Congregation, of, or within that Presbyteriall Church: nor doe they beare that relation of watchmen and proper Pastors to every one of these Congregations, that a Pastor of a particular Congregation beareth to his particular flock, that is to be …oved. It is true they are called the Elders of the presbyteriall Church of Ephesus, the Colledge of the Angells of the Church of Pergamus; but this is a generall and different relation from that which each Pastor, doth carry to his owne flock in those respects. 1. The Presbytery are Elders to the classicall Church foreign …; not in things proper to each Congregation but in things common to all, or in that which is the proper object of government, to wit, those things which rather concerne the consociation, and combination of those thirty Churches then the thirty consociated, and combined Churches in particular. 2. The Presbytery doth rather take care of the reg…lation of the acts of governing in all these Churches, then the governed Churches: for they are to heed to the Pastors ordained, and to lay h…nds suddenly on no man, to commit the Word to faithfull m…n, to see that Pastors preach sound Doctrine, and exercise Discipline according to the rule, but they doe not feede as speciall Pastors the particular flocks, but every one is to feede his owne flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath set him, Acts 20, 28. 3 The Elders of the classicall presbytery are Elders to all these Churches, as the Elders themselves are, in Collegio Presbyteriali, in the Colledge of Presbyters and properly as they are in the Court, but not separatim, and oct of Court, so this and this Archippus is not an Elder, or Pastor to all these Congregations, so as he hath to answer to God and to watch for the Soules of them all, but hee hath a charge of them onelyonly in Collegio; and if he doe any thing, as a classicall Elder, as if hee lay hands on a Pastor ordained to bee the Pastor of such a Congregation, hee doth it as the hand and instrument and deligate of the Presbytery, or if hee pronounce the sentence of excommunication in a Congregation, hee is virtualitèr in Collegio, when he doth that act, in respect he doth it as the deligate of the Presbytery. And this our Brethren may see in their owne particular Eldership of their independent flock, if an Elder occasionally rebuke any of the flock, never convened before the Church, he doth not in that exercise an act of Church Jurisdiction, because he is not now in a Court, and when hee is not in the Court hee cannot excommun…cate, Yet …iting in Court hee doth, in Collegio, with the rest of the Eldership exercise Church Jurisdiction. And separatim, and not joyned in the Court they cannot exercise Church Jurisdiction. 2. The presbytery hath a Church-Relation to all these 30. Churches not taken distributively, but collectively as all those are united in one Church classicall under one externall and visible government, even as the Elders of an independent Church are not Elders of their single Congregation, being separated from their Court, and extra coll…gium Presbyteriale, in the notion of the relation of a Church-Jurisdiction, for they are Elders by reason of Church Jurisdiction only in their Court. 3. Classicall Elders in the Court have power of Jurisdiction in relation to this presbyteriall, or classiciall Church, but they have not properly an ordinary power of order to preach to them all and every one, and to administrate the Sacraments to them. The Elders of a particular Congregation, have power of order and power of Jurisdiction without the Court, but they have not power of Church jurisdiction, but in the Court; for there is a difference betwixt a power of jurisdiction which Elders have as Watchmen, and a power of Church-Jurisdiction which Elders have not but in foro Ecclesiae, in the Court of Church-Jurisdiction. So the great Sanedrim beare rule over all the Tribes of Israel. But this Judge of the Tribe of Dan a member of the Sanedrim is not a Judge of the Tribe of Benjamin, or a Judge to a thousand of that Tribe, as the Captaine of that thousand. 2. I distinguish the proposition, if the Elders of the Presbytery be Elders of the Presbyteriall Church, then are they Elders in relation to the many Congregations in that Church, if they bee Elders in these common affaires which concerne government in generall, then are they Elders in feeding, by the word of knowledge, and in governing in all the particulars which concerne the government of each Congregation. That I deny, for their oversight in governing in things belonging to all the consociated Churches, doth not make them Elders of all those particular Congregations. 3. Deacons in some cases are also Deacons in relation to all the particular Churches in some reserved cases: if all the Deacons of Macedonia, Corinth and other Churches, should meete in one and take course for supplying the distressed Saines at Jerusalem, what inconvenient were in this?