A92138:119
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.
to say, that the word teacheth the Church to abstain from blood, is a part of the1 perfection of the Scripture, and yet the Scripture teaches that abstinence from blood, not as an eternal, and unalterable Law, for we are not now tied to abstain from blood, therefore the Scripture may make the man of God perfect in some works that are alterable2 and changeable: This (I say) is no Answer, for saying that God should now make abstinence from blood, and things strangled, indifferent, as he made them in that interval of time, Acts 15. When the Ceremonies were mortal, but not deadly and unlawful, as is clear in that Paul, Act. 16. 1, 2, 3. circumcised Timothy, that Rite being then indifferent; and yet he writeth in another case, when the Gospel is now fully promulgated, that to be circumcised maketh a man a debtor in conscience, to keep the whole Law of Moses, and so to abstain from eating of blood, and things strangled, must be a falling from the Grace of Christ, and an Apostasy from the Gospel, Gal. 5▪ 1, 2, 3. 4, 5, 6▪ 7. The like I say of observing of days, which, Rom. 14. 5, 6. were indifferent, and in another case, Gal. 4. 9, 10. Col. 2. 16, 17. Deadly, unlawful, and not necessary, so the matter, Acts 15. which in the case of scandalizing the weak, is abstinence from things indifferent, say that they are indifferent, bindeth as a perpetual Law to the end of the world, and bindeth us this same very day, Rom. 14. 20. In the Morality of it, as abstinence from murdering, One for whom Christ died,