A92138:116
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.
Religious polemic › Introduction › Section 1 › Conclusion 1: 1. Conclusion.
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.
But because I said that circumstances of time and place have a1 threefold consideration, Physical, Moral, and Mixed: and I have spoken only of these circumstances in a Physical or natural consideration; therefore in the other two considerations there being involved some Moral goodness, and because there is no Moral goodness imaginable, but it must have its essential form and being from a Law or word of God; therefore all the former circumstances, as they are clothed with either moral conveniency and expediency, or with some Religious positive goodness, must be warranted by the Word of God, or the Rules of sinless and spiritual Prudence, which cannot deviate from the word of God: For circumstances clothed with Religious Positive goodness, such as are the Sabbath day, the holy of Holiest, the Temple; these are not mere circumstances, but worship it self: So a Religious habit, as an Ephod or a Surplice, is not a mere circumstance, or a mere habit, but a worship, or such a part or limb of worship as must be warranted by the word of truth, else it is nothing but a will-device, and a forgery, and so to be rejected. And as touching things of Prudence, they are things properly mixed, as at what hour Sermon shall begin in such a Church, at eight, or nine, or ten of the clock; how the worship shall be ordered, whether you should begin the Worship with a word of Prayer, or a word of Praising, or a word of Exhorting to stir up for the duty of the day, is a matter of Prudence; and because God hath not laid the band of a Precept on us, to begin with either of the three; therefore it would seem, that though the things themselves be Moral, and must be warranted by a Word of God; yet the order is not Moral, but Prudential, and so cannot fall under a command of the Church; for to me it is hard, that men and the Church should lay on a tie or bond of a Precept where God hath laid on no such bond; The Church, in these mixed things, where the Morality is not clear, at farthest, can but go on to directive advises, as Paul doth, 1 Cor. 7. 6. 12. Not to imposing of Laws, nor to injunctions or Commandments under the pain of Church-censures; for Christ must bind and ratify in Heaven, all Church-censures on earth, and so the Church cannot command nor censure, but as Christ himself would command or censure.
But because I said that circumstances of time and place have a1