A42757:1058
Aaron's rod blossoming, or, The divine ordinance of church-government vindicated so as the present…Aarons rod blossoming, or, The divine ordinance of church-government vindicated so as the present…
Aaron's rod blossoming, or, The divine ordinance of church-government vindicated so as the present Erastian controversy concerning the distinction of civill and ecclesiastical government, excommunication, and suspension, is fully debated and discussed, from the holy scripture, from the Jewish and Christian antiquities, from the consent of latter writers, from the true nature and rights of magistracy, and from the groundlessness of the chief objections made against the Presbyterial government in point of a domineering arbitrary unlimited power / by George Gillespie ...Aarons rod blossoming, or, The divine ordinance of church-government vindicated so as the present Erastian controversie concerning the distinction of civill and ecclesiasticall government, excommunication, and suspension, is fully debated and discussed, from the holy scripture, from the Jewish and Christian antiquities, from the consent of latter writers, from the true nature and rights of magistracy, and from the groundlesnesse of the chief objections made against the Presbyteriall government in point of a domineering arbitrary unlimited power / by George Gillespie ...
London: printed by E.G. for Richard Whitaker, 1646
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The other distinction which he gives us, is of a twofold sealing. But by the way he tells us that Baptism and the Lords Supper are termed Sacraments and Seals, without any Text of Scripture to warrant it. Hereby as he gratifiethq the Socinians not a little (who will not have the Lords Supper to be called ⟨p. 499⟩either seal or Sacrament, but an obediential act and a good work of ours, and tell us that we make the Lords Supper but too holy to delude the vulgar) So he correcteth all Orthodox Writers, Ancient and Modern. The Apostl• ▪ describeth Circumcision to be [Greek or Hebrew] a seal of the righteousness of faith, Rom. 4. 11. Whence Divines give the name of seals to all Sacraments Rectè autem (saith Aretius Theol. Probl. Loc. 76.) speciebus imis & intermediis generibus eadem •ssignantur in definiendo genera. Circumcision is a seal, therefore a Sacrament is a seal: as well as this, Justice is a habit, therefore virtue is a habit. Man is a substance, therefore a living creature is a substance. And further, if Circumcision was a seal; the Lords Supper is much more a seal; as we shall see afterwards. The honourable Houses of Parliament, after advice had with the Assembly of Divines have judged this point (which Mr. Prynn so much quarrelleth) to be not only true, but so far necessary and fundamental, that in their Ordinance of October 20. 1645. for keeping back the ignorant and the scandalous from the Sacrament, this truth, That the Sacraments are seals of the Covenant of grace, is enumerate among those points of Religion, which all persons who shall be admitted to the Lords Supper ought to know, and of which whosoever is ignorant shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper. I hope Mr. Prynn shall not be willing to fall within the Category of ignorant persons, and such as ought not be admitted to the Sacrament: which yet by that Ordinance he must needs do; if he will not know the Lords Supper to be a seal of the Covenant of grace. Wherefore though he leaneth much that way, both here, and pag. 30. yet I shall expect he will rectify himself in this particular. His words are these. There is a double sealing (if we admit this Sacrament or Baptism to be seals, though never once styled seals in any Scripture Text) And in the Margin, they are termed Sacraments and seals of the Covenant, without any Text to warrant it. Now Quaeritur whether Mr.