A42757:475
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.
The seventh difference stands in the Adjuncts: For 1. the Ecclesiastical power in Presbyterial or Synodical Assemblies, ought not to be exercised without prayer and calling upon the Name of the Lord, Matth. 18. 19. There is no such obligation upon the Civil power, as that there may be no Civil Court of Justice without prayer. 2. In divers cases Civil Jurisdiction hath been and is in the person of one man: But no Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is committed to one man, but to an Assembly in which two at least must agree in the thing, as is gathered from the Text last cited. 3. No private or secret offence ought to be brought before an Ecclesiastical Court, except in the case of contumacy and impenitency, after previous admonitions: This is the ordinary rule, not to dispute now extraordinary exceptions from that rule. But the Civil power is not bound up by any such ordinary rule: For I suppose, our opposites will hardly say (at least hardly make it good) that no Civil injury or breach of Law and Justice, being privately committed, may be brought before a Civil Court, except first there be previous admonitions, and the party admonished prove obstinate and impenitent.
The eighth difference stands in their correlations. The Correlatum of Magistracy is people embodied in a Common-wealth, or a Civil corporation. The Correlatum of the Ecclesiastical power is people embodied in a Church, or Spiritual corporation. The Common-wealth is not in the Church, but the Church is in the Common-wealth, that is, One is not therefore ⟨p. 192⟩in or of the Church, because he is in or of the Commonwealth, of which the Church is a part; but yet every one that is a Member of the Church, is also a Member of the Commonwealth, of which that Church is a part. The Apostle distinguisheth those that are without, and those that are within in reference to the Church, who were notwithstanding both sorts within in reference to the Common-wealth, 1 Cor. 5. 12, 13. The Correlatum of the Ecclesiastical power may be quite taken away by persecution, or by defection, when the Correlatum of the civil power may remain. And therefore the Ecclesiastical and the civil power do not see mutuò ponere & tollere.