A42757:1120
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.
2. I deny his Proposition as he frames it, for the plain English of it is this; If it be a sealing, comforting, confirming Ordinance, then it is a converting Ordinance, which I clear thus. He takes his Medium from his Antagonists concession, for they accord (saith he) that we have more immediate communion with God in this Ordinance then in any other, for as much as in this Sacrament Christ is more particularly applied, and the remission of our sins more sensibly sealed to us then in ⟨p. 527⟩any other Ordinance: from whence I thus infallibly conclude against these opposites. Then follows his Argument, which is no other then a putting of the converted in the condition of the unconverted, or the unconverted in the capacity of the converted▪ or to prove it converts, because it seals.
3. If this Sacrament be the most powerful and effectual Ordinance of all others, to humble, regenerate, convert, and beget true grace: it will follow that we ought (at least may) give the Sacrament not only to the most ignorant and scandalous within the Church, but to Turks, Pagans, Jews, and to excommunicated persons, as I said before.
3. If this Sacrament be the most powerful and effectual Ordinance of all others, to humble, regenerate, convert, and beget true grace: it will follow that we ought (at least may) give the Sacrament not onely to the most ignorant and scandalous within the Church, but to Turks, Pagans, Jews, and to excommunicated persons, as I said before.
4. He challengeth his Antagonists for crying up and magnifying this Sacrament above the Word preached, and by way of opposition tells them that he hath in some former Tractates proved Gods presence and Spirit to be as much, as really present in other Ordinances as in this. Vindic. pag. 37 yet now I see no man who doth so much as himself, magnify the Sacrament above the Word.