A92138:1062
The divine right of church-government and excommunication
The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peaceable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justified, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examined; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.The divine right of church-government and excommunication: or a peacable dispute for the perfection of the holy scripture in point of ceremonies and church government; in which the removal of the Service-book is justifi'd, the six books of Tho: Erastus against excommunication are briefly examin'd; with a vindication of that eminent divine Theod: Beza against the aspersions of Erastus, the arguments of Mr. William Pryn, Rich: Hooker, Dr. Morton, Dr. Jackson, Dr. John Forbes, and the doctors of Aberdeen; touching will-worship, ceremonies, imagery, idolatry, things indifferent, an ambulatory government; the due and just powers of the magistrate in matters of religion, and the arguments of Mr. Pryn, in so far as they side with Erastus, are modestly discussed. To which is added, a brief tractate of scandal ... / By Samuel Rutherfurd, Professor of Divinity in the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Published by authority.
London: printed by John Field for Christopher Meredith, 1646
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
Ans. Erastus is seldom happy in his Logic, his Syllogisms are thin sown, all Gods laws are most wise, but if this be a good Argument, was not their Church, their Religion, their Ceremonies, their judicial Laws, all wise and righteous? Then the Christian Church should be conform yet to the Jewish, we should have those same bloody sacrifices, judicial laws, Ceremonies that they had. The Judicatures and officers are positive things, flowing from the positive will of God, who doth appoint one jurisdiction for them, most wise, and another to Christians different from them, and in its kind, most wise. 2. We give two judicatures in the Church of the Jews, concerning manners, one civil, acknowledged by Erastus; another spiritual & Ecclesiastic, ordaining Ecclesiastic and Spiritual punishments upon the unclean, Lev. 10. 10. As to be removed out of the camp, and such like, and Deut. 17. Thou shalt come to the priests, the Levites, and the Judge, that shall be in those days, according to the sentence which they of that place (which the Lord shall choose) 1shall show thee, and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee, ver. 12. And the man that vvill do• presumptuously, and vvill not hearken [Greek or Hebrew] to the Priest, (that standeth there to minister before the Lord thy God) or unto the judge, [Greek or Hebrew] even that man shall die, and thou shalt put away evil from Israel. There is here an evident disjunction that clearly holdeth forth, that both the Priests and the civill judge judged in matters of manners, and that he that presumptuously despised the sentence of either was to die: a judicature of the Priests is evidently ⟨p. 384⟩here, and a judicature of the civill judge, Erastus cannot deny, and that the Priest judged in subordination to the civill judge, is refuted by the words, which saith the Priest was immediately subordinate to God, not to the Magistrate: He that will not hear the Priest (that standeth to minister before the Lord thy God) shall die: Ergo, He is the Minister of the Lord; and God called and separated Aaron and his sons, to stand before the Lord, and to minister, and he did call the Levites, the Magistrate called them not to office.