e power of
mission (which is _ordination_) belongeth to the presbytery. _Scriptura_,
saith Balduine,(1031) _ordinationem tribuit toti presbyterio, non seorsim
episcopo_. With whom say the Professors of Leyden in like manner.(1032)
Now when the divines of Germany and Belgia speak of a presbytery, they
understand such a company as hath in it both those two sorts of elders
which we speak of, viz., some who labour in the word and doctrine, whom
the Apostle calleth bishops, and others who labour only in discipline. The
apostolic and primitive times knew neither parishional nor diocesan
churches. Christians lived then in cities only, not in villages, because
of the persecution; and it is to be remembered, that in Rome, Corinth,
Ephesus, Colosse, Philippi, Thessalonica, and such other cities inhabited
by Christians, there were more pastors than one. The Apostle called unto
him the elders (not elder) of the church of Ephesus, Acts xx. 17; he
writeth to the bishops (not bishop) of the church at Philippi, Phil. i. 1;
he biddeth the Thessalonians know them (not him) which laboured among
them, 2 Thess. v. 12. Now that number of pastors or bishops which was in
one city, did in common govern all the churches within the city, and there
was not any one pastor who, by himself, governed a certain part of the
city particularly assigned to his charge, to which purpose the Apostle
exhorteth the elders of the church at Ephesus, to take heed to all the
flock, {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH YPOGEGRAMMENI~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER MU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH YPOGEGRAMMENI~}, Acts xx. 28. And to the same purpose it is said by
Jerome,(1033) that before schemes and divisions were, by the devil's
instigation, made in religion, _communi presbyterorum consilio ecclesiae
gubernabantur_.

This number of preaching elders in one city, together with those elders
which, in the same city, laboured for discipline only, made up that
company which the Apostle,(1034) 1 Tim. iv. 14, calleth a presbytery, and
which gave ordination to the ministers of the church. To the whole
presbytery, made up of those two sorts of elders, belonged the act of
ordination, which is mission, howbeit the right,(1035) whi