A42757:818
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.
Haee anathema quidem faciunt, ne possit obesse: Utile, lex, humile, res ignorata, necesse.
Utile, as when a man seeketh payment of debt from an excommunicate person. Lex, because the law alloweth husband and wife to company together, though the one of them be excommunicate. Humile, because children may and ought to do the duties of children, and servants the duty of servants, and subjects the duty of subjects, and vassals the duty of vassals, and soldiers the duty of soldiers, in companying with submitting unto, honouring and obeying of their excommunicated Parents, Masters, Kings, Lords, Commanders. R•s ignorata, when he that companieth with an excommunicate person, doth not know that he is excommunicate. Necesse, as when a man passeth through the Land or is under the power of excommunicate persons, or some such way is drawn into a necessity of speaking and companying with them. All which is most agreeable to this expression, Let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican, and to the nature of Excommunication, which doth not break asunder natural or moral, but spiritual and ecclesiastical bonds. If it be asked why then are we forbidden to eat with an excommunicate person, or to bid him God ⟨p. 384⟩speed; I answer, these things are not forbidden but under a spiritual notion and for a spiritual end, that the offender may be ashamed and humbled, that others may not be deceived by countenancing of him or companying with him, and that our eating with him or saluting of him may not be interpreted as a conniving at, or complying with his sins, or as a sign of Christian fellowship with a scandalous person formerly called a brother▪ finally that God may be the more glorified, wickedness the more ashamed, others the more edified, the sinner the more abased, our selves the better kept from snares by avoiding of all appearance of evil. Otherwise setting aside these and such like spiritual considerations and respects, I do aver that Excommunication hath nothing to do with the avoiding of civill company qua civill, that is under a civill or politicalln otion.