A42757:195
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.
Pauls letters from the high Priest, for binding and bringing to Jerusalem the Disciples of the Lord Acts 9. 1, 2. also the imprisoning and condemning to death the Saints Acts 26. 10. Unto all this I answer out of nJosephus, that in that degenerate age the high Priests and such as adhered to them, did use a great deal of violence, whereby they did many things for which they had no just nor lawful power. So that the Letters and Warrants given out to Saul, and the execution of the same by a cruel and bloody persecuting of the Saints, can not prove the [Greek or Hebrew] the power and authority which was allowed to the Sanhedrin, but only the [Greek or Hebrew] the present prevalent power of the high Priest and his faction in that confusion of affairs; and their extreme malice against the Saints, to have been such as made them to do things for which they had no legal power nor warrant. And this one Animadversion breaks all the strength of Mr Prynnes argument vindic. page 5. that the Council of the Jews had power (which no mere Ecclesiastical consistory can do) to scourge, imprison, torture, and out-law offenders, if not to condemn, put to death. (Where he citeth divers Texts, none of which proveth either torturing, or out-lawing, and the most of which, prove not so much as that the Council of the Jews at that time had authority to scourge or imprison, as Matth. 5. 22. & 10. 17. Mark 13. 9. Acts 6. 12, 13, 14. & 24. 20. & 25. 15.) The imprisonment of the Apostles was not without the authority of the Captain of the Temple Acts 4. 1, 3. This captain of the Temple, is thought by the best interpreters, to have been the Captain of the Garrison which the Romans placed in the catle Antonia hard by the Temple, and that to prevent tumults and uproars when the people came to the Temple, especially at the solemn feasts in great multitudes. But that the Captain of the Temple was a civill Magistrate of the Jews, or one d putted with authority and power from the Sanhedrin, will never be proved. When the Council thought of slaying the Apostles