A42757:167
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 first institution of an Ecclesiastical Sanhedrin appeareth to me to be held forth Exod. 24. 1. where God saith to Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou and Aaron, Nad• and Abihu, and seventy of the Elders of Israel. It is a controversy among Interpreters who those seventy Elders were. fTostatus maketh it clear, that they were not the seventy Elders chosen for the government of the Common-wealth, Num 11. Nor yet the Judges chosen by the advice of Jethro, Exod. 18. Nor yet any other Judges which had before time Judged the people. These three negatives Willet upon the place holdeth with Tostatus. Not the first: for this was done at Mount Sinai, shortly after their coming out of Egypt. But on the twenty day of the second month, in the second year, they took their journey from Sinai to the Wilderness of Paran, Num. 10. 11, 12. and there ⟨p. 10⟩pitched at Hibroth-hattaavath Num. 33. 16. where the seventy Elders were chosen to relieve Moses of the burden of Government. So that this election of seventy Exod. 24. was before that election of seventy Num 11. Not the second: for this election of seventy Exod. 24. was before that election of Judges by Jethro's advice Exod. 18. Jethro himself not having come to Moses till the end of the first year, or the beginning of the second year after the coming out of Egypt, and not before the giving of the Law: which Tostatus proves by this argument, The Law was given the third day, after they came to Sinai; but it was impossible that Jethro should in the space of three days, hear that Moses and the people of Israel were in the wilderness of Sinai, and come there unto them, that Moses should go forth and meet him, and receive him, and entertain him; that Jethro should observe the manner of Moses his government, in litigious judgement from morning till evening, and give counsel to rectify it; that Moses should take course to help it; how could all this be done in those three days, which were also appointed for sanctifying the people against the receiving of the Law? Therefore