A92138:1363
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. 1. Erastus taketh ever for confessed, without any probation, that it is rectus usus, the right use of the holy things of God, that men with bloody hands use them, which is [Greek or Hebrew]: a most false principle, for he that killeth his children to Molech, and that same day cometh into the Sanctuary of God, is so far from the right using of the holy things of God, that the Lord saith expressly, his coming in in that condition to the Sanctuary is, (saith the Lord,) the profaning of my Sanctuary, Ezek. 23. 39. is this rectus usus Ceremoniarum? the right use of the holy things of God? It is not: 1. It is a forbidden use of holy things, Isa. 1. 13. Mat. 7. 6. Mat. 5. 23. 2. It is a rebuked use of holy things,1 Jer. 7. 9, 10, 11. Isa. 66. 3. 3. It is a profaning of holy things, Ezek. 23. 38, 39. 4. It is such a use as bringeth damnation to the party that useth it, 1 Cor. 11. 27, 29. and it is all these quoad externa, in external things. 2. Erastus could yield they be debarred, but by the Magistrate, not by Imaginary Presbyters. But all his Arguments, (as I show before) do prove they should be debarred, à recto usu, from the right use of holy things by no man, no more then they should be debarred from giving of alms, or reading the word, this is Erastus his own Argument; I pray you may the Magistrate, or any on earth by any authority inhibit a Malefactor, or a Murderer, who ought to die by the Magistrate, to read the Word, ⟨p. 499⟩to give alms, to pray for mercy to God, because he hath killed a man? 3. If heretics, apostates, open idolaters are to be debarred, by whom shall they be debarred: Erastus, pag. 207. thinketh they ought