A42757:458
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.
Our sixth Concession is, That in extraordinary cases, when Church-government doth degenerate into tyranny, ambition, and avarice; and they who have the managing of the Ecclesiastical power, make defection and fall into manifest Heresy, Impiety, or Injustice, (as under Popery and Prelacy it was for the most part:) then, and in such cases (which we pray and hope we shall never see again) the Christian Magistrate may and ought to do diverse things in and for Religion, and interpose his Authority diverse ways, so as doth not properly belong to his cognizance, decision, and administration, ordinarily, and in a Reformed and well constituted Church. For extraordinary diseases must have extraordinary remedies. More of this before.
Our sixth Concession is, That in extraordinary cases, when Church-government doth degenerate into tyranny, ambition, and avarice; and they who have the managing of the Ecclesiastical power, make defection and fall into manifest Heresy, Impiety, or Injustice, (as under Popery and Prelacy it was for the most part:) then, and in such cases (which we pray and hope we shall never see again) the Christian Magistrate may and ought to do diverse things in and for Religion, and interpose his Authority diverse wayes, so as doth not properly belong to his cognizance, decision, and administration, ordinarily, and in a Reformed and well constituted Church. For extraordinary diseases must have extraordinary remedies. More of this before.
A seventh Concession is this: The Civil Sanction added to Church-government and Discipline, is a free and voluntary Act of the Magistrate. That is, Church-government doth not ex […] […], necessitate the Magistrate to aid, assist, or corroborate the same, by adding the strength of a Law. But the Magistrate is free in this, to do or not to do, to do more or to do less, as he will answer to God and his conscience: it is a cumulative Act of favour done by the Magistrate. My meaning is not, that it is free to the Magistrate▪ in genere morris; but in genere entis. The Magistrate ought to add the Civil Sanction hic & nunc, or he ought not to do it. It is either a duty, or a sin; it is not indifferent. But my meaning is, The Magistrate is free herein from all coaction, yea from all necessity and obligation; other then ariseth from the Word of God, binding his conscience. There is no power on Earth, Civil or Spiritual, to constrain him. The Magistrate himself is his own Judge on Earth, how far he is to do any cumulative Act of favour to the Church. Which takes off that calumny, that Presbyterial Government doth force or compel the conscience of the Magistrate. I pray God we may never have cause to state the Question otherwise, I mean, concerning the Magistrate his forbidding what Christ hath commanded, or commanding what Christ hath forbidden: in which case we must serve Christ and our consciences, rather then obey