Page 164
II.
Ministers shall bring along with them one or two Elders at the most, chosen by the Consistory, and the said Mini∣sters and Elders shall shew their Deputations. If a Mini∣ster comes alone, no heed shall be taken of the Certificates he brings along with him, no more than there shall be of those an Elder shall produce if he comes alone without a Pastor; which Rule shall be of force in all Ecclesiastical Assemblies: If they cannot come, they shall make their excuse by Let∣ters, of the which the Brethren there present shall be Judges, and shall send their Memoirs signed by a Pastor, and an Elder. Those who shall fail of being present at Colloques, and at Provincial Synods without lawful Excuse, shall be sensur'd, and the said Colloques and Provincial Synods, may finally judge their Cause, and dispose of their Persons.
There are in this Establishment several things to be consider'd, in the first place, the deputing of our Elders with the Pastors to Synods, which is very agreeable to the practice of the Antient Church, which admitted the Layity into their Synods after the Example of the Apo∣stles, who in the Synod of Jerusalem make mention of the Church, in distinguishing it not only from them∣selves, but also from ordinary Persons, which they de∣sign by the term of Elders, Acts 15.22. to shew, that by the Church they meant the faithful People which assisted at that Holy Assembly, according to which, the Fathers in the Council of Antioch, distinguishes also the Churches of God, * 1.1 from Bishops, Priests and Deacons, in the Letter wrote to Dennis Bishop of Rome, to Maxi∣mus