Lay-Elders and this were agreeable to the word of God the power of the keyes or of Ecclesiasticall Authority being given to the Apostles and their Successors Apostles and Ministers not Lay-Elders I say the power of the keyes being given to all the Apostles in generall not to Peter only as is affirmed by Cajetan in his book de primatu Romanae Ecclesiae cap. 5. and by Jerome in his first booke against Jovinianus quod sine dubio emnes Apostoli a Christo non a Petro susceperunt claves And the Holy Ghost is plaine in it whatsoever yee shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven Math. 18.18 and the 1 of the Corinth 5.4 In the name of our Lord Jseus Christ when yee are gathered together and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan c. And Joh. 20.23 Christ came and stood in the midst of his Disciples after his resurrection and said peace be unto you receive yee the Holy Ghost whose soever sinnes yee remit they are remitted unto them c. All which places of Scripture plainely shew that the keyes were given to all the Apostles in generall though in the 16 of Mathew they were given to Peter alone that is to be understood saith one that Peter was to have power over the rest of the Disciples but as to others their power was all alike And Christ in the 28 of Math. 19. dielegating this power unto the Apostles in generall bid them goe and teach all Nations and verse the 20. Loe I am with you even unto the end of the world he promising his spirit to be with them that is in their succession to the worlds end their Successors though ordained by men having the same power of jurisdiction the Apostles had as Augustine in his first booke de Doctrina Christiana cap 18. plainely affirmes Potestas data Apostolis successoribus non data suit propter meos sed propter Ecclesiaem qua propter perseverante Ecclesia potestas data Apostolis aebet perseverare I have been a little too tedious in this particular but Reader your pardon it was only to shew who have Ecclesiasticall power and are to medle in the Church and it is plaine they are the Apostles and their Successors men lawfully ordained and having a lawfull calling thereunto 1 Tim. 3.7.4.14 by the laying on of hands of the presbytery of the first borne of Israel the representative Church Acts 6.6 Hebrewes 12.23 not rashly 1 Tim. 5.22 but consultly instating such in holy Orders as are blamelesse apt to teach not covetous not a Novice lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the Devill 1 Tim. 3. he must upon examination likewise be found to be one which may be able by sound Doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers Titus 1.9 and such as these being admitted into holy Orders to teach and instruct others have Apostolicall power in their Assemblies to binde and loose upon earth and so dic Ecclesiae expressed in the 18 of Mathew the 16. is to be understood of men in holy Orders assembled together to binde and loose upon earth 1 Cor. 5.4 as I have already shewed you It doth not follow that every Presbyter in his Parish with his Classe of Elders hath this power it were absurde to alledge it I have shewen you that this power was given to the Apostles in generall and their Successors and the spirituall Consistory must consist of such 1 Cor. 5.4 Now Lay-Elders can no waies be said Successors to the Apostles they neither being instated in holy Orders nor within the rules prescribed by St. Paul to be admitted thereunto unlesse wee must in this topsiturvy time of ours send our grave wise Doctors to the Scoole againe to be taught by silly Lay-Elders which scarce know their A. B. C. not fit to exhort much lesse to convince such and so tread Antipodes to the practise of the Primitive Churches obtruding as Laiety no waies claming from Levi to be Rulers and Governours in our Church such a Laiety as I may justly say are meere Idols in our Church so that wee have wrought a priâ—y worke and brought about a fine Reformation instead of Pictures and Crucifixes in stones and windowes which with much zeale were demolished wee have placed in our Churches walking Images things that represent Elders and which the people worship as Elders but really and truely are none in the litterall sence they are not Elders grave wise and expert as I have shewed you and admit they were yet they are Lay-men not truely Church Officers as spirituall Elders and are not to joyne with spirituall Elders in any Church affaires so that for the people to worship them as Elders or to rise up before them is to commit Idolatry to prevent the occasion of which good King Hezekiah caused the brazen Serpent which was set up for a good end to heale the people that were bitten of Serpents Numbers 21. to be broken in peeces 2 of Kings 18.4 In imitation of which good Act as also in commiseration of the free borne people of England groaning under the Tyranny and slavery of this worse then high Commission Court I hope our happy Parliament who hitherto have shewen themselves ready and willing to redresse grievances will not in this time of necessity crying loude unto them for helpe forget their wonted practise of goodnesse to relieve distressed people and take off the heavy pressures of the Kingdome but will rid the people of this one and only grievance in the Kingdome neither warranted by Gods Law nor the Lawes of this Kingdome any further then it is their pleasures to continue it And they will ingage a multitude of prayers for their prosperous proceedings in all their undertakings the which that they may speedily doe the Almighty God of Heaven who art a present remedy in all distresses and a ready helpe at hand for them that are in misery the only wise God the great Counsellour and ruler of all mens hearts dictate this to his servants in the Parliament that wee may be freed from this intollerable slavery to Gods glory the Parliaments honour and our owne joy and comfort in the Lord Jesus Amen Thus have I briefely couched together some collections and short meditations of mine owne which to the indifferent and not forestalled judgement will give some satisfaction in the businesse I have treated of that these fine feathered Buzzards Lay-Elders deckt with Ecclesiasticall Plumes are meere counterfeits Semiramis Elephants which were but stuffed oxe hides which had a gallant undaunted Army in suspence counterfeit Diamonds not such as Christs Spouse lookt comely with Cant. 1 9. Bolton halfe crownes not lawfully stampt with Caesars Image Scotch twenty-pences the base coyne of a copper Nation not currant English but such as every one may lawfully deny and I am confident the wise and judicious Reader seriously considering this will not with the yong Dotterell Birds be inticed with chaffe to be caught in this net though never so privily laied but will beare off and keepe himselfe free till he see them fall in their owne mischiefes and themselves caught in the share which they have privily laid for others and if unadvisedly through ignorance he hath suffered himselfe to be drawen in to consent unto this government yet he will in time unintangle himselfe from the bondage thereof As for the perverse and obstinate Presbyter which hath wedded the government together with some fat Benefice and cannot divorce himselfe from the one without leaving the other having vowed perpetuall incumbency to himselfe I know his heart is hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sin and I cannot diswade him from his Classicall beneficiall cure Let him that is uncleane be uncleane still spoken to obstinate and wilfull sinners for my part I doe not seeke to wash Blackmoores I 'le give him leave at his Sunday dinners and spirituall pig-feasts when none is by but his Lay-Elders to raile against me and would extreamely thanke the pontificall Parson would he but write any thing subscribed with his owne hand in contradiction to what I have here writ that I might have further occasion to anatomize the tyranny of him and his Elders In the meane time what I have heere writ shall suffice hoping shortly to heare that this Government will be abolished so that wee shall neither neede to wrestle any longer against it in words nor with Peter to draw the sword to cut off the High Priest servants care Malcus who had he lived till now would have beene Crop the leader in this teame of Lay-Elders but I say I hope to see these Hobby-Horses unyoked againe before they run to woode with the Church for they must needs goe whom the Devill drives And having loosed them out of their Ecclesiasticall Tresses wee will turne the Jades to their old Rustich drudgeries againe which will be the better for them the sooner it is because they will the more easily come to themselves againe and it cannot be worse for us to see them reclaimed from their wincing conditions and our selves freed from the evill thereof So that I conclude this worke with an earnest desire that this may speedily come to passe and Quo citius to Melius FINIS
THE INFANCY OF ELDERS A Short Treatise composed for Vindication of the Christian liberty of Free-borne denizens of England OR A Refutation of the Tyrannicall unlawfull misgovernment of our Church by Lay-Elders Written by J.S. Minister of the Word in Lancashire Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled againe with the yoke of bondage Printed in the Yeare 1647. The Infancy of Elders I Have long time exercised my patience in forbeareance to write something of this Subject tryfling away many dayes in a tedious expectation that some one better able would have prevented me who more fully and accurately then I know my self able to performe might have perfected this worke but seeing the daily incroaching tyranny of our new moduled Church Officers spreading like Gangrenes over the whole body of the Kingdome and none offering neither for safety to himselfe and his hereditary freedome nor for prevention of evill to his brethren to calterize or take up a veine in them to obstruct this new dangerous hot disease in our Ecclesiasticall body some though convinced in judgement that they are pernicious mischiefes in a Kingdome yet basely fearing man more then God forbeare to write against them others partly Classicall partly Episcopall but really nothing hovering aloofe with the reare-Mouse to see the battell betwixt birds and beasts with resolution to joyn with the stronger party and now perceiving the Classes headily run on forbearing to stop their proud carreer like bruit beasts creepe into some crib and there stop their mouths with meat and thinke with dumbnesse to fatten themselves without giving testimony to the world of their humane reason and indeed generally lulling themselves in a sottish silence have made themselves guilty thus farre of betraying their owne freedomes to the irreverend censures of our new stamped Elders I thought it my duty to shoot this poore paper bullet at them which if it take no impression upon them yet I hope at the rebound it may be taken up by some who perceiving the softnesse of my Ammunition will prepare harder ware against these impetuous furies however it will be some evidence to future ages to procure a non-guilty upon my name for traiterously consenting to the subversion of the furdamentall Lawes of this Kingdome and betraying that liberty and freedome which as a Free-borne childe of God I ought to enjoy into the hands of ignorant Tyrants and like wise serve to free me from a brand of instability or wandring in my principles suffering my selfe to bee tossed too and fro with every puffe of wind Know Reader I am not of such a Weather-cock temper as to bee moved from my well-grounded station though the North wind bluster high let others who lately were of my opinion till the magneticke force of earthly preferment withdrew them turne Hyperborean dotterells and imitate the fashions prescribed them by holy Highlanders whom the unseasonablenesse of some late winters forced Southward more to succour themselves in a warmer clime then out of any good intended to us natives let such I say play the Apes after them setting up their holy forme of worship and Church-government use the learned perswasions which a proud Presbyter lately reputed a good man whilest ten pound per annum at a private Chappell could satisfie him but now having betroathed a Parliament mans sister is by the strong cordage of attractive Apron-strings drawne up a hill to a benefice of five hundred pound labouring to draw his Auditory to the subscription hereof told them whose bare assertions with his rusticke Auditory passe for Oracles it was a government used in the Jewish Church and therefore to be followed by us Christians Oh rare Pulpit Rhethoricke It pities my heart to thinke how the poore Country people are misled by these blinde guides who poore Simpletons perceiving the current of the times are many of them troubled having plumbeous head-peeces to shape their Pulpit stuffe according to the humor thereof in which they take more paines for saving their benefices then their peoples soules you can scarcely goe to heare a Sermon but the subject thereof is obedience to this godly government and the Presbyterian fatlings will blatter out and quote almost every verse in the Bible that hath but the word Elder in it to prove its lawfulnesse thereby these silly quondam Sur-Johns but now Presbyter or Prester Johns Parochiall Princes doe more Lord it over Gods heritage then ever Becket Wolsey or Laud did instead of feeding leading their flocks into captivity forcing submissions to their imperious rules contrary to the doctrine and late professions of most of them and avouch Authority from the Parliament for to justifie their proceedings herein and proclaime commission for each one to be summus sacerdos sui Classis and the Eldership to bee Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ by Authority of both Houses of Parliament and who dare say against it I am loath to set perine to paper to clash against any thing debated and concluded in that High and Honourable Court having hitherto laboured to my power to propagate their cause which Cause was protested to bee and expresly set downe in the Covenant that it was the defence of his Majestics person the Protestant Religion the fundamentall Lawes and liberty of the Subject and to endeavour Reformation of Religion in the Church of England according to the holy word but now they having set up a Government not agreeable to Gods word nor consistant with the fundamental Lawes of this Kingdome as I shall shew you anon I resolving with my self that it was better to obey God then man did for prevention of further misleading captive poore soules for satisfaction of some men wavering in opinion for discharging of my owne conscience and for instructing not correcting the Honourable Parliament in hopes to adde some good soules to the number of those honest Patriots who were but by few out-voted in the setling of this Antichristian government and in hopes to worke heereby a peaceable and legall quashing of the same adventure to publish this paper wherein I shall endeavour to anatomize this giddy government and shew its illegality which undertaking if I erre through ignorance I will upon convincement from better judgement grounded upon sound divinity and reason willingly recant my mistakes and subscribe to and allow of a warrantable Eldership In the meane time I crave pardon for a little freedome of language It may perchance be wondered at by some that I being not of very grave yeares my selfe should dare to write any thing against the Grandees Seniors of our times but we have a Proverb amongst us That old men are twice children and truly such are many of our Elders they may perchance as babes desire the sincere milke of the word but I am sure many of them are not as yet growne thereby sed nucibus relictis I intend to have about with them armed to their best advantage
admitting them their sage and politique capacities as Elders and yet will take them off their feet and throw them upon their backes ere I leave them In prosecution whereof though it be not my custome to play with words yet for method sake I will first insist upon the definition of the word Elders Omnis enim qui de re aliqua instituitur sorme debes à definitione proficisci ut intelligatur quid fit de quo disputatur and prove that our Lay-Elders are no waies to be understood the things signified by the word Secondly of Civill Elders in generall and that here in England our Lay-Elders are not within that notion Thirdly of Spirituall Elders in generall and that they cannot be rightly taken for such Fourthly that Civill Elders are not to joyne with Spirituall in Ecclesiasticall affaires For the definition of the word Elder Verstegan and divers others affirme that it is an abreviation of a word which we borrow from the Saxons called Salden ealder which word is used for grave wise and expert men men which for their deserving parts excellent above others were made choice of to be Officers in the Common-wealth or else for such their noble deservings were promoted to dignity and honour And hence hath that custome growne in England That out of the Nobility were selected the most discreet and grave Barons and were made above the ranke of Barons Ealdermen In the Danish tongue Eorles in English Erles a name we continue to this day And indeed Erles and Elders are both one in the literall sense So likewise we have in every ancient Burrow a Court of Ealdermen that is to say Elders men of most sufficiency and discretion and these men were to bee honoured of others for their worthy and Noble vertues according to which Mr. Purchase in his booke called His Pilgrimage fol. 125. faith The Iewes have an affirmative precept to wit rise before thine Elder the word Elder being expounded in that place by Rabbi Jose saith it signifieth a wise man though young in yeares and to him the people were to rise at foure cubits distance and being past to sit downe againe according to this interpretation my Lord Cooke that grave and reverend Judge of the Law in the first part of his Institutes fol. 168. saith Aldermani non ita dicuntur propter aetatem sed propter sapientiam dignitatem adolescentes exim essent juris periti experti But stay I must not digresse too far from my businesse for what doth this concerne our reverend Coblers Websters Taylors Skinners c the Ruling-Elders of this age to whom I am sure the sense of this word is not applicable unlesse in reference to their Trades and Handicrafts and yet these filly upstart fellows now made Lay-Elders begin to puffe and swell already with pride and conceit themselves by a wonderfull providence to be exalted above their former equalls expecting submission from the people as unto Rulers for my part I shall acquit them of this crime and give my voice that the poore simple bumpkins are not to be blamed for it it being according to their education and tutoring for sith their Minister or High Priest tells them that their government was used amongst the Jewes well may they expect the circumstance or concomitance of their office to follow along with the office it selfe to wit that according to the Jewish custome the people should rise up before them But this is not all that causeth this timpany of pride in them they are further instructed that they shall reap profit by their places the same or more their territories considered as Bishops formerly exacted from the people Now this considered me thinkes the people have very much betrayed their liberty who gave any consent to this government for that whereas formerly the greedy gripings of Bishops and their officers were censured for high incroachments upon the peoples priviledges and freedomes and propriety in their goods they must needs now expect a huge multiplication of extortion from a numerous rable of Lay-Elders poore and meane fellowes put into Office who being called from their Trades and Handicrafts which was their livelihood must now of necessity live upon the people But I will proceed to a further explanation of the word The word Elder is sometimes taken for aged and hoary headed men as Levit. the 19. cap. the 32. ver our English translation renders it thou shalt rise before up the hoary headed And the 1 of Tim. 5.1 It is used for a word of Age not Office and all translations of such places render it Senior not Presbiter rebuke not an Elder translated by Beza by Junius Tremelius seniore non increpato by Erasmus seniorem ne savius objurges but all seniorem not Presbiterem Intreate him as a Father the yong men as Brethren It is likewise a word of age the 1 of Pet. the 5.1 The Elders which are among you I exhort c. and ver 5. likewise yee yonger submit your selves unto the elder but in this latter place it is a word both of Office and Age. Peter bidding them feed the flocke and therefore is the word there rendred Presbyteri as it is alwaies where it signifies Church Officers but not comprehensible of lay Elders of which anone in all other places it is rendred seniores Reader what is in other Countryes I cannot tell but in this County of ours in which these Master-ships Country Lay-Elders are leapt into Authority upō a private petitiō of some lordly Pastors mē never heard of by many thousands till the Ordinance came downe I know not any one particular man of them that is comprised within the sence of the word that is to be a hoary headed man but they are generally as non-sensically called Elders in this interpretation as they come short for challenging the name in the first to wit grave wise and expert Since God hath set these fellowes over us as a punishment for our sins and a meere reproach unto the Nation that men should rule over us that are not endowed with any thing to be honoured in them no not so much as with this which their Muse Dame nature amongst the rest of their Arts she hath quallified them with might easily have bestowed upon them but I will proceed a little further in expression of the Word and see if it will any wise concerne them The word Elder sometimes is a word of Ecclesiasticall Office and not of age and is as much as to say Priest or Bishop and is scarce mentioned in the new Testament in any other sence unlesse Mathew the 26.3 Math. 16.21 Jo. 11.47 where it is rendred Elders of the people which all Translators render seniores in other places it is translated Presbyter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the Greeke signifies seniores aetate Magis prisci qui Ecclesia presunt the word being derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Legatus mittor to be sent an Embassadour and this
opportunity to warmehis fingers at an English fire which is likely to come to passe if these malapart Officers be not quickly supprest Nor can their wisdomes blame the Christians who for defence of their just freedomes and liberty of conscience without any sinister ends shall cause new stirs and in defence of their liberties and Religion endeavour to chase this new tyrany forth of the Kingdome And I am assured would their wisdomes but duely examine their businesse heere they would plainely find it is for no other end And withall would their grave judgements but seriously poize the validity of their passe to come and settle here they would finde it altogether insufficient and no warrant either by Gods Law or the Law of Nations for such people by people of other Nations directed hither to settle and make a constant abode heer And I am confident their Honours upon due consideration hereof would either send them from Constable to Constable backe into Scotland or else whip them quite home to Geneva which that they may doe The Lord who is Ruler of all mens hearts dictate this to his servants in the Parliament that they may put their helping hands to this worke and then the Lord prosper the worke of their hands Oh prosper thou ô Lord their handy worke I will but adde one reason more why the Lay-Elders are not to meddle in the spirituall consistory and that is because they were never included within the power of the keyes given to the Apostles and their Successors which power hath from them devolved into our Church Some affirme the Gospel to have been preached heere by Paul the Apostle but I cannot learne any certainety of that But the Apostles being under the persecution of Nero I finde that Philip and divers of the godly fled into France who severed themselves asunder the better to propogate the Gospel about the 64 yeere after Christ he sent over into Brittaine one Josephus together with one Simon Zelotes to preach unto the Britaines and administer the Sacraments according to the Rites of the Church of Greece which Josephus saith William Malmesbury in his booke de Antiquitate Glasconici Monasterii was buryed at Glassenbury and John Bale following the Authority of Gyldas and other English Writers saith that it was Joseph of Arimathea and about this time did divers of this Nation receive the Christian faith and were baptized Not long after all Authors agree that Lucius King of this Isle sent to Eleutherius Bishop of Rome Anno Christi 177 not promising any subjection to his See that not being desired only obtruded upon King Henry the second in Beckets businesse but to say with such as were pricked in minde Acts 2.37 Men and Brethren what shall wee doe to be saved Eleutherius understanding the desires of King Lucius to be baptized and to professe and maintaine the Christian Religion and withall perceiving the able parts and sufficiency of those two Britaines Lucius had for this purpose sent over to him did consecrate them Bishops and sent them backe into Britaine And withall he taking into consideration that the converting of some and establishing of all of this Isle in the Christian Faith was a taske too great for two to undergoe Though he had knowledge of their faire progresse herein yet for their ease helpe and incouragement in so great a worke he sent over more labourers after them into this Harvest who for the better propogating of the faith and winning of soules unto Christ and that all might be instructed they divided the Kingdome into Circuits amongst them There being by Lucius and his Nobles appointed three superintendents or Arch-bishops instead of three Arch-Flamins which ruled before in time of Paganisme placed over the rest one at London another at Yorke another at Carleon in Monmouth-shire This Bishopricke of Carleon was after removed thence to St. Davids in Wales thence into Normandy Yorke continues Metropolitan still London was translated to Canterbury by Austine the Monke Lambert in his perambulation of Kent fol. 63. And although the English Saxons had not received the Gospel till Ethelberts time in whose Raigne Gregory the Pope upon occasion of seeing sweet faced boyes to be sould in the Market and inquiring of them of what Nation and Countrey they were he was told they were Angli and of the Province of Deira their Kings name being Alla to which Gregory replied well may they be called Angli à Dei ira liberandi to sing Hallelujah unto the Lord whereupon Austin the Monke was sent over and preached in Ethelbert his Kingdome to the English Saxons at Canterbury Anno Christi 596. Yet reverend Bede and divers others testifie that the Britons who by the impetuous fury of the Saxons were beaten hence into Wales embraced the Christian faith many hundred yeeres before Austins time Lambert Perambulation of Kent 19. Holinshead History of England 51 and had their Church government by convocations assemblies of the most learned and best Divines which in some course and order continued amongst us till this new fashioned Presbyters started up but never had any Lay-men to joyne with them in that action it being conceived not to be warranted by Gods word Some perhaps will wonder at me that I should digresse so far from my purpose for vindication of Bishops affirming them to be by Lucius our first Christian King established in this Land I might say they were ordained by the Apostles themselves Act. 20.28 but this is no part of my purpose only laid in the way to prove our Church by the Apostâ—â—s planted heere some say by Paul but certaine by Philip and by the Church of Rome in after times which then was a true Church much pâ—â—â—â—â—â—ted I say it is not my purpose to vindicate Episcopacy I am too weake a prop to uphold such a tottering and reeling Fabricke Yet armed inwardly with truth outwardly with argument I will boldly tell you Reader I care not who wonder at me let them be wondring still and in their wonder snarle at me I would rather be subject to moderate Episcopacy then our Classicall Presbytery such Episcopacy as should not Lord it over Gods Heritage for wee know our Saviour rebuked James and John Mar. 10.42 Luke 22.25 When the one desired to sit to his right hand the other on his left in his Kingdome saying The Kings of the Gentiles beare rule over them and their great ones exercise Authority upon them but it shall not be so amongst you Such Episcopacy as should have no temporall honour or office to withdraw them from their spirituall function there being appointed in every County one Superintendent or Bishop who with his Assembly of Divines of that County should governe the Church and decree Ecclesiasticall Causes I say such Episcopacy I would rather embrace and submit unto it then a company of ignorant Elders for better it were to be governed with prudence and knowledge then with pride and ignorance two things incident to our