A42757:361
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.
But if I should grant (which will never be proved) that by the Fathers are understood the men only, yet it cannot be said that as all the men of Israel were Baptized in the Cloud and Sea, and all of them drank of the same spiritual drink which came out of the Rock, so all of them did eat the Passover▪ for even of the males divers were excluded from the Passover, as the unclean, the hired Servant, the Child, the sick, &c. so that this would make the Apostles argumentation running upon a fivefold all to hang ill together. I had not insisted at all upon this, but to show the weak grounds of Mr. Prynnes strong confidence. ⟨p. 127⟩3. If this argument of his hold good, he must grant by Analogy that all Baptized persons must be admitted to the Lords Table, though they be Idolaters, fornicators, &c. which as it is contrary to the Ordinance of Parliament, so to his own professed Tenets, for he professeth otherwhere, he is not for the admission of scandalous persons to the Sacrament, and that he would have them in case of obstinacy, not only suspended from the Sacrament, but excommunicated from all other Ordinances, till public satisfaction given for the scandal, and till external symptoms of repentance appear. So the Antidote animadverted tells us and his own vindication pag. 50. If this be his mind, then it is incumbent to him to loose his own knot, all circumcised persons though Tainted with gross scandalous sins, as Idolatry, and Fornication, were admitted to the Passover, and so it ought to be under the Gospel. If he say that those scandalous sinners in the wilderness had not been admonished, were not obstinate, or that they professed repentance, and promised amendment, and did not in the mean while persevere in their wickedness, but satisfied for the scandal: first how proves he that? next, in so saying he will answer for us as well as for himself, and his argument (if all granted) cannot prove that such scandalous sinners as have manifest symptoms of impenitency, or do not confess and forsake their sin, may be admitted to the Lords Table. 4. The Manna and the water out of the Rock, though they had a spiritual and evangelical signification, and di• typify Jesus Christ, yet they were also the ordinary Food and Drink of the people in the wilderness:
But if I should grant (which will never be proved) that by the Fathers are understood the men onely, yet it cannot be said that as all the men of Israel were Baptized in the Cloud and Sea, and all of them drank of the same spirituall drink which came out of the Rock, so all of them did eat the Passeover for even of the males divers were excluded from the Passeover, as the unclean, the hired Servant, the Child, the sick, &c. so that this would make the Apostles argumentation running upon a fivefold all to hang ill together. I had not insisted at all upon this, but to shew the weak grounds of Mr. Prynnes strong confidence.