A42757:407
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.
13. Object. But neither in the old Testament nor in the Talmudists can there be found any Ecclesiastical Excommunication properly so called.
13. Object. But neither in the old Testament nor in the Talmudists can there be found any Ecclesiasticall Excommunication properly so called.
Answ. I deny both, yea I have disproved both. Moreover, as touching the Excommunication used in the Jewish Church I shall add here these following Testimonies of Maimonides. In libro [Greek or Hebrew] Tract. Talmud Torah Cap. 6. sect. 10. He that revileth a wise man, though after his death, shall be excommunicated by the Sanhedrin, by whom also after repentance he shall be absolved. Ib. sect. 11. He who is excommunicated in his own Town, ought also to be esteemed in all other Cities and Towns, as a person excommunicated. Answerable hereunto were the ancient Canons, which did appoint that a person excommunicated in his own Church should not be received to communion in another Church. The 24. causes of excommunication (above mentioned) he there reckoneth forth from sect. 13. to the end of that Chapter. Again, Cap. 7. sect. 2. What is the manner of a simple excommunication or Niddui? He that doth excommunicate saith: Let that person N. be in (or under) an excommunication or separation. If the person excommunicated be present, they who do excommunicate say unto him, Let this person N. be separated or excommunicated. And when Cherem or the greater excommunication is inflicted, what is the manner? They say, Let N. be devoted and accursed, let an execration, adjuration and separation be upon him. But how do they loose the person excommunicated, and how do they free him from the separation or the curse? they say, Be thou loosed, be thou pardoned. If the guilty party be absent, they say. Let N. be loosed, and let him be pardoned. In the same Chapter sect. 8. Neither is there any certain space of time predetermined, before which the bond of the excommunication inflicted may not be loosed. For immediately and at the same time when excommunication is inflicted, it may be loosed if the guilty party do immediately repe•t, and come to himself. Which doth further set forth the great difference between the nature and scope of Excommunication, and the nature and scope of corporal or civill punishments. For how soon soever an excommunicate person giveth good signs of true repentance, he is to be loosed from the bond of excommunication. But he that is punished in his body or estate for any crime, is not freed from the punishment, because he is known to be penitent; The repentance of a criminal person is no supersedeas to civill Justice.