A42757:1075
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.
Now if Baptism it self (which is the Sacrament of our initiation) supposeth (according to the tenor and meaning of Christs institution) that the party baptized (if of age) doth actually convert and believe, and (if an infant) supposeth an interest in Jesus Christ and in the Covenant of grace (for if he be a child of an Heathen or an Infidel although taken into a Christian Family, yet the Synod of Dort. Sess. 19. adviseth not to baptize such a child, till it come to such age as to be instructed in the principles of Christian Religion.) How much more doth the Lords Supper, necessarily, by Christs institution, suppose that the receivers are not unconverted and unbelieving persons? The previous qualifications which are supposed in Baptism, must be much more supposed in the Lords Supper.
Now if Baptisme it self (which is the Sacrament of our initiation) supposeth (according to the tenor and meaning of Christs institution) that the party baptized (if of age) doth actually convert and beleeve, and (if an infant) supposeth an interest in Jesus Christ and in the Covenant of grace (for if he be a child of an Heathen or an Infidel although taken into a Christian Family, yet the Synod of Dort. Sess. 19. adviseth not to baptize such a child, till it come to such age as to be instructed in the principles of Christian Religion.) How much more doth the Lords Supper, necessarily, by Christs institution, suppose that the receivers are not unconverted and unbeleeving persons? The previous qualifications which are supposed in Baptisme, must be much more supposed in the Lords Supper.
Thirdly, That which gives us the new food, supposeth that we have the new birth and spiritual life, and that we are not still dead in sins and trespasses. But the Sacrament of the Lords Supper gives us the new food. Ergo it supposeth we have the new birth. The proposition I prove thus. sA man must first be born by the new birth, before he can be fed with the new food: and how can a man eat the flesh, and drink the blood of Christ, and yet be supposed not to have a spiritual life before that act, but to get a spiritual life in that very act? Doth a man get life because he eats and drinks, or doth he not rather eat and drink because he lives? The Assumption is a received and uncontroverted truth. And hence do Divines give this reason why we are but once baptized, but do many times receive the Lord Supper; because it is enough to be once born, but not enough to be once nourished or strengthened. See the Belgic confession. Art. 34. and D. Parei Miscellanea Catechetica pag. 79. I shall strengthen my Argument by the Confession of Bohemia Cap. 11. The Sacraments cannot give to any such (which before was not inwardly quickened by the holy Ghost) either grace or justifying and quickening faith, and therefore they cannot justify any man,