A42757:446
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.
for clearing whereof take these five Considerations. 1. We can do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth: and the power which the Lord hath given u•, is to edification and not to destruction 2 Cor. 13 8 10. All Presbyterial proceedings must be levelled to this end, and squared by this rule. 2. Presbyters and Presbyteries are […] to the Law of the Land, and to the corrective power of the Magistrate; Quatenus Ecclesia est in Republica, & Reipub. pars, non Respublica Ecclesiae: In so far as the Church is in the Common-wealth, and a part of the Common-wealth; not the Common-wealth a part of the Church, saith Salmasius appar. ad lib. de Primatu pag. 292. for which, pag. 300. he cites, Optatus Milivitanus lib. 3. Non enim Respullica est in Ecclesia, sed Ecclesia in Republica. Ministers and Elders are Subjects and Members of the Common-wealth, and in that respect punishable by the Magistrate, if they transgress the Law of the Land. 3. Yea also as Church-Officers, they are to be kept within the limits of their calling, and compelled (if need be) by the Magistrate to do those Duties which by the clear Word of God and received principles of Christian Religion, or by the received Ecclesiastical Constitutions of that Church, they ought to do. 4. And in corrupto Ecclesiae statu, I mean, if it shall ever happen (which the Lord forbid, and I trust shall never be) that Presbyteries, or Synods shall make defection from the Truth to Error, from Holiness to Profaneness, from Moderation to Tyranny and Persecution, censuring the innocent and absolving the guilty, as Popery and Prelacy did, and there being no hopes of redressing such enormities in the ordinary way by intrinsical Ecclesiastical remedies, that is, by well-constituted Synods, or Assemblies of Orthodox, holy, moderate Presbyters: In such an extraordinary exigence, the Christian Magistrate may and ought to interpose his Authority to do diverse things which in an ordinary course of Government he ought not to do; for in such a case, Magistracy (without expecting the proper intrinsical remedy of better Ecclesiastical Assemblies) may immediately, by it self, and in the most effectual manner, suppress and restrain such defection, exorbitancy, and tyranny, and not suffer the unjust, ⟨p. 177⟩heretical, tyrannical Sentences of Presbyteries or Synods to be put in execution.