He doth therefore presuppose indistinctly the very particular church where the brother offending and offended are members.  And if they be not both of one church, the plaintiff must make his denunciation to the church where the defendant is. 3.  As Christ doth speak it of any ordinary particular church indistinctly, so he doth by the name of church not understand essentially all the congregation.  For then Christ should give not some, but all the members of the church to be governors of it. 4.  Christ speaketh it of such a church to whom we may ordinarily and orderly complain; now this we cannot to the whole multitude. 5.  This church he speaketh of then doth presuppose it, as the ordinary executioner of all discipline and censure.  But the multitude have not this execution ordinary, as all but Morelius, and such democratical spirits, do affirm.  And the reason ratifying the sentence of the church, doth show that often the number of it is but small, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name;” whereas the church or congregations essentially taken for teachers and people, are incomparably great.  Neither doth Christ mean by church the chief pastor, who is virtually as the whole church.—­Mr. Bayne’s Diocesan’s Trial.]

[Footnote 104:  Timothy received grace by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.  For that persons must be understood here, is apparent by the like place, when it is said, by the laying on of my hands, he noteth a person, and so here a presbytery. 2.  To take presbytery to signify the order of priesthood, is against all lexicons, and the nature of the Greek termination. 3.  Timothy never received that order of a presbyter, as before we have proved. 4.  It cannot signify, as Greek expositors take it, a company of bishops; for neither was that canon of three bishops and the Metropolitan, or all the bishops in a province, in the apostle’s time; neither were these who were now called bishops, then called presbyters, as they say, but apostles, men that had received apostolic grace, angels, &c.  Finally, it is very absurd to think of companies of other presbyters in churches that Paul planted, but presbyteries of such presbyters as are now distinguished from bishops, which is the grant of our adversaries.—­Bayne’s Diocesan’s Trial, page 82.]

[Footnote 105:  See Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, Part I. Chap. 2, p. 122, &c.]

[Footnote 106:  Mr. Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, book i. chap. iii. pages 8-38.]

[Footnote 107:  Vid.  Joannis Seldeni de Anno Civili, and Calendario, &c.  Dissertationem in Praefat., page 8.  See also Mr. John Lightfoot’s Commentary upon the Acts, c. x. 28, pages 235-239.]

[Footnote 108:  John Cameron, Praelect. in Matt. xviii. 15, page 143 ad 162, and Mr. G. Gillespie’s Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, &c., book i., chap. 3, page 8, &c., and book ii., chap. 9, page 294-297; and book iii., chapters 2-6, handling this elaborately, pages 350-423.]