l. 1. Presbyterial, consisting of the ministers
and elders of several adjacent or neighboring single congregations, or
parish churches, ruling those several congregations in common; this kind
of assembly is commonly called the presbytery, or, for distinction's
sake, the classical presbytery, i.e. the presbytery of such a rank of
churches. 2. Synodal, consisting of ministers and elders, sent from
presbyterial assemblies, to consult and conclude about matters of common
and great concernment to the church within their limits. Such was that
assembly mentioned, Acts xv. These synodal assemblies are either, 1. Of
ministers and elders from several presbyteries within one province,
called provincial. 2. Or of ministers and elders from several provinces
within one nation, called therefore national. Or, 3. Of ministers and
elders from the several nations within the whole Christian world,
therefore called ecumenical: for all which assemblies, congregational,
presbyterial, and synodal, and the subordination of the lesser to the
greater assemblies respectively, there seems to be good ground and
divine warrant in the word of God, as (God willing) shall be evinced in
the xii., xiii., xiv., and xv. chapters following.

CHAPTER XII.

_Of the Divine Right of Congregational Elderships or Kirk Sessions, for
the government of the Church._

Touching congregational elderships, consisting of the ministers and
ruling elders of the several single congregations, which are called the
lesser assemblies, or smaller presbyteries, and which are to manage and
order all ecclesiastical matters within themselves, which are of more
immediate, private, particular concernment to their own congregations
respectively; and consequently, of more easy dispatch, and of more daily
use and necessity. Concerning these congregational presbyteries, we
shall not now take into consideration either, 1. What are the members
constituting and making up these elderships; whether ruling elders by
divine warrant may be superadded to the pastors and teachers, and so be
associated for the government of the congregation. For the divine right
of the ruling elders, distinct from the preaching elder for the
government of the church, hath been evidenced at large, Chapter XI.,
Section 1, foregoing. And if any acts of government in the church belong
to the ruling elder at all, sure those acts of common jurisdiction, to
be dispatched in these least assemblies, cannot of all oth