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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62171	The infancy of elders a short treatise composed for vindication of the Christian liberty of freeborne denizens of England, or A refutation of the tyrannicall unlawfull mis-government of our church by lay-elders / written by J.S. minister of the Word in Lancashire.	J. S., Minister of the Word in Lancashire.	1647 (1647)	Wing S68; ESTC R8376	22,428	29

consideration of our wise Parliament in hopes their wisdomes will take due care to prevent the impending miseries of our Nation for very many thousands will rather have moderate Episcopacy up then this senselesse government of Lay-Elders which are indeede no Rulers but meere stalking Horses or Asses or a disguise wherein the Presbyters may plunder the people of liberty of conscience pretending it is not the Art of Cleargy only pritty judgling but no more of this stultum est obsurdas opiniones accuratius refellere I will proceede to treate of that part or division of this worke lies next in order to wit of spirituall Elders in generall and that our Lay-Elders may not rightly be taken for such Every Bishop Presbyter Pastor or other grave and reverend Divine is rightly and truely called a spirituall Elder and to prove this my assertion I neede not wander far to fetch authority from rare Authors the Apostles themselves have saved me a labour as Peter the 1.5.1 The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder c. John in his 2. and 3. Epistles stiles himselfe and Elder in the second thus The Elder unto the elect Lady in the third The Elder unto the welbeloved Gains and wee may reade Acts 6.6 because the word of God should not be left and the people to serve tables wherefore the Apostles desired the people to looke out among themselves 7 men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and of wisedome whom they admitted into holy Orders by praying and laying on of hands who were called Elders so Paul Acts 14.23 when he passed through severall Countries upon his being stoned at Lystra in Licaonia ordained them Elders in every Church Elders in that place by all Translators being rendred Presbyters or Bishops men of holy Orders to succeed the Apostles who being thereunto thus lawfully called have Gods promise to let his holy spirit rest upon them even unto the end of the world Math. 28.20 It being promised to such as teache his people to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you even to such who had Commission to teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost Wee may reade likewise Iames 5.14 If any be sicke among you let him send for the Elders of the Church and let him pray over him anointing him with oyle in the name of the Lord the word Elder being there translated Presbyter which is of the same signification with us as Sacerdos was under the Law There are many more places of Scripture to prove spirituall Elders in the Church But I will briefely shut up this point with the 20 of the Acts where it appeares how Paul at Melitum called the Elders from Ephesus verse the 27. and telling them that they must see his face no more he charges them verse the 28. that they should take heede unto themselves and to all the flocke over which the holy Ghost had made them Bishops to feede the Church of God by all which and other Texts of Scripture it is evident that the word Elder generally in the new Testament signifies feeding and praying Ministers not loytering lazie Lay-Elders Officers no more requisite in a Church then a company of drones are usefull in a hive of Bees unnecessary evills meere horseleeches to sucke the peoples bloud who have no neede of Phlebotomy but I leave the Jewish Laiety which I hope will no waies arrogate this Office unto themselves though their holy Fathers their high Priests endued with great store of impudence and ignorance tells them they are instated into holy Orders by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when with hands lifted up at their elections they tooke the Covenant by which Covenant I would have them to understand they are to degrade themselves from their Office for it being on foote in Scotland is no warrant for them to continue it heere in England the words of the Covenant being That wee shall endeavour the reformation of Religion in the Church of England according to Gods holy word and I cannot finde one Text in Scripture to warrant their calling in the Church they being Lay-men nor will that argument which some frame from the Levites having severall places of trust about the Temple serve to prove their Office and Government It is true that in Moses time Gershon Cohath and Merari Levy his three Sons had the Office to pitch to take downe and to beare up and downe the Tabernacle and the vessells thereof the Gershouites charge was to carry the coverings and hangings of the Tabernacle the Cohathites the chiefe things within the Sanctuary and the Merarites had charge of the wood-workes and the rest of the instruments of the Tabernacle This was their Office during their abode in the Wildernesse whilst they were on their Journey but afterwards when they were setled in the promised Land David changed their Office some being appointed to have charge of the Treasure of the Temple 1 Chron. 26.20 others to be Overseers and Judges others to be Porters and Singers 1 Chron. 23.4 The Singers were to be clad in linnen robes 2 Chron. 5.12 hence doe some argue that the government by Elders is no more then what was in Davids time when the Levites were The Levites were Judges and Overseers to which objection I give this answer God by his divine and eternall decree had appointed the Tribe of Levi to serve at his Alter and minister unto the people as wee finde it recorded in the 10 of Deut. verse 8. God seperated the Tribe of Levi to beare the Arke of the Covenant of the Lord and to stand before the Lord to minister unto him and to blesse in his name even to this day And Deut. 11. and the 5. The Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy Tribes to stand and minister in the name of the Lord him and his sons for ever And Moses in the 33 of Deut. verse 8. prayes That the Vrim and Thummim of the Lord be with thine holy One meaning in that place one of the Tribe of Levi who verse the 10 shall teach Jacob thy Judgements and Israel thy Law they shall put insense before thy face and burnt offrings upon thine Altar It is manifest by those places of Scripture that it was Gods holy will that the Tribe of Levi should serve at his Altar all of them being instated in holy orders by imposition of hand and although amongst them there were certaine degrees according to which Paul writ in the 1 to Tim. 3.13 that they that have ministred well get themselves a good degree as Godwyn in his Jewish Antiquities fol. 22 observes as when they had been a moneth initiated they were to be presented unto God Numb 3.15 and they were consecrated by imposition of hands at 25 yeeres old Num. 8.24 And they were to carry the Tabernacle up downe from 30 to 50 and afterwards they were to oversee and

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