A92138:1889
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.
True it is also, if my brother be scandalized, and so his soul in hazard, if I eat any at all, in that case, the scandal is merely passive, for though my brothers salvation be of greater consequent and necessity then my temporal life, yet my total abstinence from meat is a killing of my self and heinous murder, and so forbidden in the sixth Commandment, and so a destroying of my own soul. And eating for conscience sake is necessary, though eating of this or this meat be not necessary.
True it is also, if my brother be scandalized, and so his soule in hazard, if I eat any at all, in that case, the scandall is meerly passive, for though my brothers salvation be of greater consequent and necessitie then my temporal life, yet my totall abstinence from meat is a killing of my selfe and heynous murther, and so forbidden in the sixt Commandement, and so a destroying of my own soule. And eating for conscience sake is necessarie, though eating of this or this meat be not necessary.
But there be other things that are instruments of idolatry and subservient thereunto, in a Common and Physical influence, as a Temple builded to the honour of a Saint, and for the adoring of Images, and for the reading and opening the word of God in the New and old Testament, though in a corrupt way, these are not properly monuments of Idolatry. Now the house or Church, as such is no monument, nor useless instrument in worship, such as is a Surplice, a humane holy day, for it hath, as such, being a thing of walls and timber, no other, then that very same physical influence in worshipping either the true God, or a Saint, that it hath in civill use, in our ⟨p. 64⟩ordinary dwelling, to wit, to fence our bodies, in religious, in natural, in civill actions, from injuries of heaven, clouds, and sin. The adjuncts of the Church, as Crucifixes, Images, Altars, Ravels, Mass-clothes, and the like, are properly Monuments, and instruments of Idolatry, because these are not necessary, as is the material house, nor have they any common and physical influence in the worship, as the Temple hath, yea all the necessity or influence that they have in the worship, is only religious and humane flowing from the will of men, without either necessity from our natural Constitution of body, or any word of Scripture, and therefore they are to be removed upon this ground, because they are unnecessary snares to Idolatry.