A42757:638
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.
Thirteenthly, A corrective Ecclesiastical government in the Churches of Galatia seemeth to be intimated, Gal. 5. 12. I would they were even cut off ([Greek or Hebrew]) which trouble you. Which many understand of Excommunication. See Esthius in lib. 4. Sent. Dist. 19. Sect. 6. 7. Also Salmeron, Menochius, Vasquez, Novarinus, and (of ours) B•za, Diodati, Gomarus, all upon the place, beside diverse others. Musculus upon the place doth parallel this cutting off, with delivering to Satan, 1 Cor. 5. 5. 1 Tim. 1. 20. and explaineth excindantur by abalienentur which best suits to excommunication. Certainly the words will easily admit this sense, or rather invite to it: for ⟨p. 286⟩[Greek or Hebrew] is not properly perdo, destruo, consumo, but amputo, abscindo, also minuo, because that from which any thing is cut off, is diminished and made less: also repello, abjungo, separo, ahstraho. And so [Greek or Hebrew], abscindor, excindor, separor, abstra•or. Hunters and such as trace the Vestiges, but cannot find them, are said [Greek or Hebrew], to be cut off or abstracted. H•sych. [Greek or Hebrew]. So [Greek or Hebrew], abscissus, is not he who is cut off by death or destruction, but he that hath his members cut off: Which seems to have been the ground of Augustine his mistake of this Text, conceiving the Apostles wish to be, that those men should be made Eunuchs. The Septuagints have sometimes [Greek or Hebrew], circumcido, and [Greek or Hebrew], demitto, as synonymous with [Greek or Hebrew]. Now from the phrase, to the purpose of the Text. That it is meant of Excommunication, I have these reasons which confirm me: 1. Because vers. 9. a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, are the very same words which he useth 1 Cor. 5. 6. where he presseth the excommunication of the incestuous man; as there, one unclean person in life; so here, some few seducers (especially that one who is singularly pointed at vers. 10.) is meant by the little leaven, which was to be purged out, lest it should leaven the whole Church. 2. Interpreters do generally agree, that the Apostle here alludeth to Circumcision, which those Judaizing teachers pressed upon the Galatians as necessary: wishing that they who would so fain have the Galatians circumcised, were themselves cut off and cast out of the Church as rotten members, or as a Gangrene out of the body.