A42757:520
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.
My next answer was, that the Apostle speaks of such Governors, as the Church had at that time; but at that time the Church had no Godly nor Christian Magistrates. Mr. Hussey answereth that it cannot be proved that the Apostle speaketh of such Officers as were in the Church in his time only. He addeth, I shall urge some few arguments to the contrary. To the contrary of what? I did not say that the Apostle speaketh of such Officers as were in the Church in his time only: but that the Church at that time had all those Officers whom the Apostle speaketh of. One would think that he who censureth others so much for want of skill in disputations, should not so far mistake his mark. But we know what he would have said though he hath not hit it. Let us hear his arguments. First, he tells us that the word [Greek or Hebrew] will signify proposuit or decrevit, so that where we read God hath set in the Church, it may be read God hath appointed to his Church, so to take in those Governments which should afterward by Gods appointment come to the Church. He clears it by John 15. 16. Act. 19. 21. Answ. Then the Apostle saith no more to the Corinthians, then might have been said to the old world before the flood, for if the meaning be that God hath ordained and purposed, all this Text had been true, if delivered in terminis terminantibus, to the old World, God hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, &c. 2. The context showeth that the Apostle speaketh only of such administrations, as the Church had at that time, for all this is spoken in reference to the preventing ⟨p. 220⟩of a Schism in the Church of Corinth, and that every member of that body might discharge its own proper function without usurping another's. 3. He confuteth himself, for he addeth, This cannot be a Catalogue of such Officers as are at all times necessary to the Church, for th•n Apostles might not be mentioned. Therefore it must be said, that [Greek or Hebrew] in this place is posuit or collocavit (according to the more usual signification of [Greek or Hebrew]) and doth relate to that present time, as well as Act. 20. 28. The holy Ghost hath made or set you overseers [Greek or Hebrew]: In like manner here God hath set (or placed) in the Church, and so it will agree both to ordinary and extraordinary officers.