A92138:613
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.
WE are not to conceive that there was nothing Moral in the Laws that God made to his people of Israel, to ⟨p. 241⟩debar the unclean, from the society of Gods people, and from communion with them in the holy things of God, Numb. 5. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: 2. Command the children of Israel that they put out of the Camp every leper, and every one that hath an issue, and whosoever is defiled by the dead, Lev. 5. 2. If a soul touch any unclean thing, whither it be a carcass of an unclean beast, or the carcass of unclean cattle, or the carcass of unclean creeping things, and if it be hidden from him, he also shall be unclean and guilty—6. And he shall bring his trespass-offering unto the Lord for his sin, which he hath sinned, Lev. 7. 20. But the soul that eateth of the sacrifice of the peace offerings that pertaineth to the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from the people: 21. Moreover 1the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace-offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people. In the which observe, that here the soul that shall touch any unclean thing is to be cut off; but Num. 5. 2. He is only to be put out of the Camp; now these were not killed that were put out of the Camp, and therefore to be cut off from the people must be a moral cutting off by Excommunication, not by death; also the word [Greek or Hebrew] signifieth to make a Covenant, to cut off, either by death or any other way▪ as by banishment, by which a thing leaveth off to be in use, though it be not destroyed, as when a branch is cut off a tree, 1 Sam. 31. 9. Yea, we have Isa. 50. 1