A92138:1899
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.
Conclus. 2. As some things Physically necessary must be abstained1 from, when the unseasonable using of them is a stumbling block to our weak brother, in the case of the moral indifferency of the thing, as it was in the eating, or not eating of meats once forbidden by Gods law, but then indifferent. Rom. 14. 14. 1 Cor. 8. 8. for then it was true, (But meat commendeth us not to God▪ for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not, are we the worse▪ ) So in the case of physical indifferency, but of Moral and Theological necessity, when an Evangelic law of Christian liberty has passed a determination upon eating, or not eating; Then to abstain from eating upon a pretended fear of not offending a weak Jew, is actively to •ay a sinful stumbling block before a weak Jew, and to harden him in Judaism, and here using of such meats, and the affirmative, to wit, to eat is lawful and necessary, the things being now morally necessary, not morally indifferent, where as before▪ the negative, to wit, not to eat was lawful and necessary. Hence to eat▪ Rom 14. 1 Cor. 8. before a weak Jew, was unlawful and an active scandal, the eating or not eating then of the own nature being morally indifferent, and to abstain from eating before a weak Jew, Col. 2. 16. 17. Gal. 2. v. 5. 11. 12. Gal. 5. 1. 2. 3. is unlawful and an active scandal, because now eating is morally necessary, and a standing in, and an asserting of the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And upon the same ground, for the Jews, when the Ceremonial law stood in vigour, to make use of Baals Temple, for a Synagogue to the worship of the true God, was unlawful and against a Ceremonial Command of God, as was the sacrificing of the Amalekites cattle to the Lord, and the using of the Silver and Gold of the Caites Idols,