A42757:878
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.
Fourthly, this binding and loosing can not go without the Church, it is applicable to none but a Church member or a Brother. So the thread of the Text goes along from vers. 15. If thy Brother trespass against thee, and vers. 16. thou hast gained thy Brother. And when it is said, Tell the Church, it is supposed that the offender is a member of the Church, over whom the Church hath authority, and of whom there is hope that he will hear the Church. And when it is said, Let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican, it is supposed that formerly he was not unto us as an Heathen man and a Publican. For these and the like reasons Tostatus in Matth. 18. quaest. 91. and divers others hold that this rule of Christ is not applicable to those who are without the Church. But if the binding and loosing be meant only of preaching the Gospel, as Master Prynne would have it, then it were applicable to those that are not yet baptised nor made Church members, for unto such the Gospel hath been and may be preached. The binding and loosing which is proper to a Brother or to a Church member, must be a juridical power of censures, of which the Apostle saith, 1 Cor. 5. 12. What have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within? Therefore Chrysostom Hom. 61. in Matth. (according to the Greek Hom. 60.) doth parallel Matth. 18. with 1 Cor. 5. proving that this rule of Christ is not applicable to one that is without, but only to a brother. Which Paul also saith in these words, What have I to do to judge them also that are without? But he commandeth us to convince and reduce brethren, [Greek or Hebrew] and to cut off the disobedient: this he (Christ) doth also in this place. Theophylact also on Matth. 18. noteth the same restriction of this rule of Christ to a Christian Brother.
Fourthly, this binding and loosing can not goe without the Church, it is applicable to none but a Church member or a Brother. So the threed of the Text goes along from vers. 15. If thy Brother trespasse against thee, and vers. 16. thou hast gained thy Brother. And when it is said, Tell the Church, it is supposed that the offender is a member of the Church, over whom the Church hath authority, and of whom there is hope that he will heare the Church. And when it is said, Let him be unto thee as an Heathen man and a Publican, it is supposed that formerly he was not unto us as an Heathen man and a Publican. For these and the like reasons Tostatus in