-21, seems to hold
forth notably both single congregational elderships, and their power.
And this, whether we consider the Jewish form, unto which our Saviour
seems to refer; or whether we observe the matter of his discourse.

1. As for the Jewish form of church government (unto which our Saviour
here seems to allude) we may observe it was managed by two, if not three
sorts of ecclesiastical courts, viz: By the Sanhedrin, presbytery, and
synagogue, (much like to the evangelical synod, presbytery, and
congregational eldership since Christ.) 1. They had their
ecclesiastical,[106] as well as their civil Sanhedrin, for high and
difficult affairs of the church; which seems first to be constituted,
Exod. xxiv. 1, and after decay thereof, it was restored by King
Jehoshaphat, 2 Chron. xix. 8; and from this court that national church's
reformation proceeded, Neh. vi. 13. 2. Again, it is very probable they
had between their Sanhedrin and their synagogue a middle ecclesiastical
court called _The Presbytery_, Luke xxii. 66, and Acts xxii. 5, _and the
whole presbytery_. Let such as are expert in Jewish antiquities and
their polity, consider and judge. 3. Finally, they had their lesser
judicatories in their synagogues, or congregational meetings: for, their
synagogues were not only for prayer, and the ministry of the word, in
reading and expounding the Scriptures, but also for public censures,
correcting of offences, &c., as that phrase seems to import, "And I
punished them oft in every synagogue," Acts xxvi. 11. His facts and
proceedings, it is true, were cruel, unjust, impious. But why inflicted
_in every synagogue_, rather than in other places, and that by virtue of
the _high priest's letters_, Acts ix. 1, 2; but there the Jews had
judicatories, that inflicted public punishments upon persons
ecclesiastically offending? Besides, we read often in the New Testament
of the _rulers of the synagogue_, as Mark v. 35, 36, 38; Luke viii. 41,
and xiii. 14; and of Crispus and Sosthenes the chief _rulers of the
synagogue_, Acts xviii. 8, 17; whence is intimated to us, that these
synagogues had their rule and government in themselves; and that this
rule was not in one person, but in divers together; for if there were
chief rulers, there were also inferiors subordinate unto them: but this
is put out of doubt, in Acts xiii. 15, where after the lecture of the
law and the prophets, _the rulers of the synagogue sent unto
them_--_synagogue_ in the s