1

THE THIRD PART.

ON LAY-ELDERS.

SECT. 1.

The Appellation of Lay-Elders, and the State of the Question concerning them.

THE question concerning the LAY-PRESBYTERY is not easily stated. The thing itself is so new, that we are not yet agreed of

the name.

Presbyter, we know, in the Greek, as also Zachen, in the Hebrew (whence the use of it is borrowed), is a word importing age, and signifies a man elder in years: now, for that years should and do commonly bring knowledge and experience, and carry gravity and authority; therefore it is traduced from that natural sense, and used to signify a man of some eminence in place and government. So we have, in the Old Testament, Elders of the House; Gen. 1.7: Elders of the Congregation; Lev. iv. 15: Elders of the City; Deut. xix. 12: Elders of the Land; Gen. 1. 7: Elders of the People; Matt. xxi. 23. And these, sometimes matched with the highest offices: so we have Elders and Judges; Deut. xxi. 2: Princes and Elders; Ezra x. 8: Priests and Elders; Lam. i. 19. And all these were titles of civil authority.

But, when we come to the days of the Gospel, under the New Testament; now we find the Elders of the Church; Acts xx. 17. Acts xi. 30. and xiv. 23: a name, which comprehended all those sacred persons, who were employed in the promulgation of the Gospel, as Calvin well observes, whether Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Doctors; and, indeed, none but them: and, in vain shall we seek for any other Presbyters or Elders in the Acts or Epistles of the blessed Apostles, or in all following Antiquity.

What to make therefore of those Elders or Presbyters which are now in question, which, saith Travers, if you will speak properly, are only them that rule, he were wise that could tell. Merely civil, they would not be; for they take upon them ecclesiastical charges: merely sacred and spiritual, they are not; for they are neither

Bishops, Priests, nor Deacons: merely laic, they would not be *; Clergymen they deny to be. Those, of old, that served at the altar, were wont to be described by their linen vestures; other men, by woollen these are neither of both, but a mixture of both; a linsey-woolsey contexture; a composition, which as God (in type of what, I now say not) forbad under the Law, so he never had use of it, never acknowledged it under the Gospel. How, therefore, in this fag-end of the world, they should come to have any new being in the Church, it is enough for me to wonder. If they affect to be Seniores Populi, we would not grudge them this title: but, if Seniores, or Presbyteri Ecclesiæ, they have no more right to that, than we Bishops have to crowns and scepters.

Lest any doubt should seem ungrounded, Beza, who will not yield these Elders Laics; to grace them the more, ascribes † to them some kind of spiritual cure: they feed the flock, by governing they are Sidánlino, and preach, after a sort, in the reproof of sin in their Consistory: and, yet, he is fain to contra-distinguish them from teaching Elders; and their style, forsooth, is xußeρvýces, 66 governments."

But, tell me, I beseech you, Dear Brethren, you, that are so apt to affect and receive a foreign Discipline; tell me, in good earnest, can you think this to be the feeding of the flock of Christ, which St. Paul requires of the Elders at Ephesus? Acts xx. 28. Can you think these men to be such, as the Apostle there speaks of: In quo Dominus vos constituit Episcopos? encharging them with the flock, over which Christ hath made them Bishops? Was ever any Lay-Elder styled by that name? Doth not Calvin himself confess, that the Presbyters, both there mentioned and Titus i. 5, are no other than Doctors and Teachers; because, in both places, they are styled Bishops? And was there ever heard of a Lay-Bishop in the world; those sacrilegious excepted, in some parts of Germany, who retain nothing of that divine order, but lands and name?

Yea, my Brethren, why are ye willing to be deceived? who ever spake or heard of a Lay-Presbyter in all the Church of God, till' this age? Take the term as it is. We are forced upon this epithet, for distinction sake; not out of any scornful intent of discouraging God's people. We know, that, in a general acception, they are all the Lord's inheritance; but because there is a necessary difference to be put betwixt them, whom God hath separated to his own immediate service in the Ministry, and those Christians which are under them in their ministerial charge; we make use of these terms, wherewith the greatest Antiquity hath furnished us.

The old Canons, named Apostolical, make frequent mention of it. The blessed Martyr, old Ignatius, as in other places, so especially in his Epistle to them of Smyrna, which we have already

Bez. Resp. ad Sarav. negat esse Laicos. + Ubi suprà.

‡ Abrah. Henric. Thes. Genev. The administration of the Word is given to the Elders, but to another end &c. Ut, judiciis Ecclesiasticis præeuntibus, pastoribus præsunt.

cited, is clear, oi λaïnoì n. T. a. : “Let the Laics be subject to the Deacons, the Deacons to the Presbyters, &c *." And, before him, the holy Martyr Clement, Bishop of Rome; as we have formerly alledged: "A layman is bound to laic precepts." And, yet before him also, I, for my part, am confident, that St. Peter, whom this man succeeded, both in his Chair and Martyrdom, meant no other, when he charged his fellow Bishops that they should feed their Hock, μὴ κατακυριεύοντες τῶν κλήρων, not domineering over their Clergy; 1 Pet. v. 3: for the word is plural; not as if it were Clero, but Clericis. And, in the verse before, it is, éxIGNOTνTES, the very act of Episcopacy: those, which would have it taken otherwise, are fain to add a word of their own to the text; reading it, "God's heritage;" whereas the original is merely uλpwv, perfectly to this sense. Neither is there any Ataxy to be feared, in bringing in this distinction, betwixt pastors and flock it is an Eutaxy, rather; and such as, without which, nothing could ensue, but confusion.

If these men then be spiritual and sacred persons, why do they not challenge it? If laic, why are they ashamed of it? If betwixt both, let them give themselves that title which Bernard gives himself, upon the occasion of his forced forbearance of his canonical devotions: Ego tanquam Chimera quædam mei seculi.

Hear, then, ye seduced Brethren, that go all upon trust for the strong belief of a Lay-Presbytery: your credulity hath palpably abused you. It is true, this advantage you have, that the first authors of this late device were men of great note in their times; but men, still. And, herein, they shewed it too well: that, for their own ends, they not only invented such a government, as was never heard of in any Christian Church, throughout the whole world, before them; but also found out some pretence of Scriptures, never before so understood, whereupon to father their so new and (now) plausible erection.

SECT. 2.

No Lay-Elder ever mentioned or heard of, in the Times of the Gospel, in all the World, till this present age. The texts of Scripture particularized, to the contrary.

AND, that you may not think this to be some bold, unwarranted suggestion from an unadvised adversary; let me tender this fair offer to you. It is a hard and long task, for a man to prove negatives. Let any of your most learned and confident teachers produce but the name of any one Lay-Presbyter, that ever was in the Church, from the times of Christ and his Apostles, until this present age, I shall yield the cause, and live and die theirs.

*This passage is not found in the genuine text of Ignatius. See p. 576 of this vol. Note*. EDITOR.

We find, in common experience, that we apprehend things according to our own prepossession. Jaundiced eyes seem to see all objects yellow; blood-shotten, red. It is no marvel, if those, who have mancipated their minds to the judgments of some whom they over-admire, and have lent their eyes out of their own heads, wheresoever they find mention of an Elder in the New Testament, think presently of a Lay-Presbytery: like that man in Erasmus, who persuaded himself he saw a strange dragon in the air, because his friend confidently pointed to it, and seemed to wonder at his not seeing it. But those, who, with unpartial and unprejudiced hearts, shall address themselves to the Book of God, and with a careful sincerity compare the Scriptures, shall find, that, wheresoever the word Elder or Presbyter is, in an evangelical sense, used in the holy Epistles, or the History of the Acts, except it be in some few places where eldership of age may be meant, it is only and altogether taken for the Ministers of the Gospel.

There are, if I reckon right, some two and twenty places, where the word is mentioned. Were it not too long to take them into particular examination, I should gladly scan them all: some, we will.

Let us begin with the last. The Elder unto the well-beloved Gaius; 2 John i. And, the Elder to the elect lady; 3 John i. What Elder is this? Is it not the holy and dear Apostle, St. John?

The Elders, which are among you, I exhort, who am also an Elder &c. Feed the flock of God, which is among you; saith Saint Peter; 1 Pet. v. 1. Lo, such an Elder as St. Peter, such were they whom he exhorts! Their title is one: their work is one. I suppose no Lay-Elder will take upon him this charge of feeding the flock of Christ, with St. Peter: and, if Beza would fain, out of favour to their new erection, strain the word so far as to feeding by government; yet, it is so quite against the hair, that Calvin himself, and Chamier, and Moulin, (and who not?), do every where contradistinguish their Pastors to their ruling Elders. And, for the place in hand, Calvin is clear ours: "The flock of Christ," saith he, "cannot be fed, but with pure doctrine, que sola spirituale est pabulum."

Is any man sick among you? saith St. James: Let him call for the Elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick; James v. 14. Are these Lay-Elders, think we, whom the Apostle requires to be called for: who must comfort the sick; cure him by their prayers; anoint him with their miraculous oil, for recovery? Let me ask, then: were there no spiritual Pastors, no Ministers among them? And, if there were such, was it likely or fit they should stand by, while Laymen did their spiritual services? Besides, were they lay-hands, to which this power of miraculous cure, by anointing the sick, was then committed? Surely, if we consult with St. Mark, we shall find them sacred persons: such lips, and such hands must cure the sick.

So, then, the Elders of St. John, St. Peter, St. James are catainly Pastors and Ministers.

And what other are St. Paul's? For this cause, saith he to Titus, I left thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain Elders in every city. What Elders are those? The next words shall tell you: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, &c. For a Bishop must be blame less, as the steward of God. Lo, St. Paul's Elder here, is no other than a Bishop! Even then, as the Fathers observe, every Bishop was a Presbyter: and though not every Presbyter a Bishop, yet every Presbyter a sacred and spiritual person; such a one, as is ca pable of Holy Ordination.

Thus might we easily pass through all these texts, wherein there is any mention of Presbyters.

One only place there is, that might, to a fore-inclined mind, seem to give some colour, (and, God knows, but a colour) of a Lay-Presbytery: Let the Elders that rule well, saith St. Paul to Timothy, be counted worthy of double honour; especially they, who labour in the word and doctrine; 1 Tim. v. 17. A place, which hath been so thoroughly sifted by all, who have meddled with this illraised controversy, as that no human wit can devise to add one scruple of a notion, towards a farther discussion of it. I dare confidently say, there is scarce any one sentence of Scripture, which hath undergone a more busy and curious agitation. The issue is this: That never any expositor, for the space of fifteen hundred years after Christ, took these Presbyters for any other than Priests or Ministers of eleven or twelve several expositions of the words, each one is more fair and probable than this, which is newly devised and obtruded upon the Church:-That the text is so far from favouring these Lay-Presbyters, that we need no other argument against them: for, where was it ever heard of, or how can it be, that mere Laics should be poe@TES? Bishops and Pastors have had that style, as in Scripture; so, in following Antiquity, that passage of Clemens Alexandrinus, cited by Eusebius, concerning St. John, that he at Ephesus committed the charge of his young man to an old Bishop, whom he calls Tov poeta, besides that of Justin Martyr already cited, and others, shew it plainly. And if, as some, our appellation of Priest come from @poews, as it well may, how can a Layman be so? Or if from Prestre, as the more think, let us have Lay-Priests, if Lay-Presbyters. And what better commentary can we have of St. Paul's nas poísada, than himself gives of himself, in his exhortation to the Elders or Pastors, at Ephesus? who interprets it, by carefully attending to themselves and their flocks; which even their own authors are wont to appropriate to Pastors. And what can that double honour be, which the Apostle claims for these Elders or Presbyters; but respect, and due maintenance? To whom is this due, but to those, that serve at the altar? As for Lay-Presbyters, was it ever required, that they should be maintained by the Church? And what can those noires be,