Series 5 > Religious Controversy in Scotland 1625-1639

BAILLIE,‘DISCOURSE ANENT EPISCOPACY’
161
the question is only about the major. We must prove it by parts, for the acts of
ecclesiasticall jurisdiction are many.They may be reduced to three sorts—either
they are critick, diatactick, or dogmatick.The first are in judging of church causes
and executions of censures, the next in setting downe lawes and constitutions in
church assemblies, the third in censuring of doctrine. All thir three scriptures
ascrives to presbyters, at least to men who are not bishops. For the first, see Mat¬
thew 18:17-18,44‘Ifhe shall neglect to heare them,tell it to the church;but ifhe
neglect to heare the church, let him be to thee as an heathen man and a pubfican.
Verily, I say to you, whatever yee shall bind in earth it shall be bound in heaven....’45
Heere the power of judging of ecclesiastick causes and the power of executing
church censures the right of the keyes is given by Christ to the church, which is
not nor can be understood of the bishop of the diocese for he is alwayes one, but
the church whereof Christ speaks heere is necessar[il]y a multitude as both the
text and the ancients on it puts out of doubt, for Christ directs to admonish first
alone, then before one or two witnesses, then before the church which hath mo
then two or three, thus Chrysostom on the place:46 ‘he commaunds by admoni¬
tion to cure his disease, once, twyse, thryse, and now his alone to admonish, then
with two, then with mo’; he bids ‘tell the church’, that is, the governours. So
Jerome47 on this place,‘But ifhe will not hear, a brother is brought. Ifhe will not
hear him, a third is brought... Hereafter ifhe will not hear them, then it is to be
said to many ...’ Basil in his Asketicks, question 86, expounds this place the same
way, giving the power of the keies to all the apostles as well as to Peter, and to all
pastours as well as to them:48 ‘To all posteriour pastours and doctours giving a
like power; a proofe hereof is that all doeth bind and loose as well as Peter. Now,
that what Christ said to the aposdes he made [29r] it a law to all the pastours of
the church after them, it may be proven by many and undoubted testimonies of
the holy writt.’That Basil by his kathegesomenon understands all pastours is cleir,
for he is speaking of these of whom the aposde, Hebrews 13, sayes,49 ‘these
hegoumenoi ar all who watch for people’s soules and are to give account for them’.
44 MS has 18:19.
45 AVThe phrase ‘tell the church’ became a great source of contention between presbyterians and
independents in the 1640s, the latter following a more congregational, i.e. democratic, line.
46 Greek text omitted. See Saint Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint Matthew (A Select Li¬
brary of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, vol. x, ed. P. Schaff, repr. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1956),
373.
47 Jerome, Commentarium in Matthaeum,in Opera, vi, 38.The NLS copy attributes this quotation to
Hilary, but the NC copy, while obscure, seems to give Jerome.
48 Greek text omitted.The cited material does not appear in Question 86 of Regulae Brevius Tractatae,
but at least some of it is to be seen in PG, xxxi, 1404, Constitutiones Monasticae.
Greek text omitted.