A42757:667
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.
First, Here is a power and authority to assemble Synodically, and it is an intrinsical power within the Church it self, not adventitious or extrinsical from the Magistrate. Whence the soundest Protestant writers prove, that though the civil Magistrate hath a power of convocating Synods, and he ought to do it when the Churches necessity or danger doth call for such a remedy; yet this power of his is positive, not privative, cumulative, not destructive, And that if the Magistrate be an enemy and persecutor of the Church and of true Religion, or cease to do his duty, that is to wit, in a manifest danger of the Church, the Church notwithstanding ought not to be wanting to her self, but ought to use the right and authority of convocation, which first and foremost remaineth with the Rulers of the Church; as may be seen Act. 15. So say the Professors of Leiden in Synops. purior. Theol. Disp. 49. Thes. 24. beside diverse others whom I might here cite, but that is not now my business.
First, Here is a power and authority to assemble Synodically, and it is an intrinsecall power within the Church it self, not adventitio•s or extrinsecall from the Magistrate. Whence the soundest Protestant writers prove, that though the civil Magistrate hath a power of convocating Synods, and he ought to do it when the Churches necessity or danger doth call for such a remedy; yet this power of his is positive, not privative, cumulative, not destructive, And that if the Magistrate be an enemy and persecuter of the Church and of true Religion, or cease to do his duty, that is to wit, in a manifest danger of the Church, the Church notwithstanding ought not to be wanting to her self, but ought to use the right and authority of convocation, which first and for•most remaineth with the Rulers of the Church; as may be seen Act. 15. So say the Professors of Leyden in Synops. purior. Theol. Disp. 49. Thes. 24. beside diverse others whom I might here cite, but that is not now my businesse.