A92138:1311
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.
Erastus. Christ either understandeth by the Church the whole multitude1 of Jerusalem, or then the Magistrates: But he understandeth not the multitude, 1. Because Christ would not change the Government of heathens, far less of that which his Father had appointed in Judea, in which the people did never Govern: Yea, the Apostles to ⟨p. 479⟩their death did nothing against Moses his Law, and how they take Christ to speak of a Church to be founded of new after his resurrection who believed not he should die and rise again; and after his resurrection knew not what a kingdom, whether worldly, or spiritual, he was to •ave, cannot be conceived.
Erastus. Christ either understandeth by the Church the whole multitude1 of Ierusalem, or then the Magistrates: But he understandeth not the multitude, 1. Because Christ would not change the Government of heathens, farre lesse of that which his Father had appointed in Iudea, in which the people did never Governe: Yea, the Apostles to ⟨p. 479⟩their death did nothing against Moses his Law, and how they take Christ to speak of a Church to be founded of new after his resurrection who beleeved not he should die and rise againe; and after his resurrection knew not what a kingdome, whether worldly, or spirituall, he was to •ave, cannot be conceived.
- 1Page 324. 325.
Ans. 1. Many will deny the Major, for he understood the rulers of the Christian Church, not excluding the consent of the Christian Church of believers in the matter of Excommunication. 2. I deny that Christ doth here re-establish a Synedry, and bid them Tell the Scribes and Pharisees, and those that were to crucify himself, and to persecute the Apostles to the death. Christ knew those to be miserable healers of scandals between brother and brother. 2. He knew this Sanhedrin to be the Disciples of Christs capital enemies, he warned the Disciples to beware of the leaven of their corrupt Doctrine, he prophesied this Sanhedrin should be destroyed as a degenerated plant, that his heavenly father had not planted, and was it like Christ would direct them a perishing and degenerate remedy against scandals, that he would have removed by his Church, even till the end of the world? 2. It is most false, that the Apostles did keep to death the institutions and ordinances of Moses,