Page:The Leveller movement; a study in the history and political theory of the English Great Civil War (IA levellermovement01peas).djvu/74

 The internal life of an Independent church was felt to be regulated by a law past the church’s power to change. The offices of the church had authority by divine right inherent in them and beyond the power of the people to diminish. The eldership or presbytery in an Independent church had power coördinate with that of the congregation. The congregation could no more cast out the presbytery, or any member of it without the assent of the others, than the presbytery itself could cast out of the church the whole congregation. Independent ecclesiastical polity was a balance of authorities regulated by a supreme law.