A42757:873
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
Book 3 › Chapter 6: Of the power of binding and loosing Matth. 18. 18.
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.
It maketh the more against him (I am sure) that its spoken ⟨p. 415⟩to and of Christs Disciples, for this proveth that the Church vers. 17. is not the Jewish Sanhedrin, but the Christian Presbytery, then instituted, and afterwards erected: and that the thing which makes one as an Heathen and a Publican, is binding of his sins upon him. And for the context, immediately after Christ had said, If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee, &c. he addeth, Verily I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, &c. The dependency is very clear. A Christian having first admonished his brother in private, then having taken two or three witnesses, after this having brought it to the public cognizance of the Ecclesiastical Consistory, and after all that, the offender being for his obstinacy excommunicate; here is the last step, no further progress. Now might one think, what of all this? what shall follow upon it? Nay, saith Christ, it shall not be in vain, it shall be ratified in Heaven. And as the purpose cohereth, so that form of words, Verily I say unto you, is ordinarily used by Christ to signify his continuing and pressing home the same purpose which he had last mentioned, as Matth. 5. 26. Matth. 6. 2. Matth. 8. 10. Matth. 10. 15. Matth. 11. 11. Matth. 18. 3. Matth. 19. 23, 28. Matth. 21. 31. Matth. 23. 36. Matth. 26. 13. Matth. 24. 34, 47