A92138:616
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.
Hence for this cause it is said, as 2 Chron. 23. 19. Jehoiada appointed the officers of the Lords house, so he set porters at the gates of the house of the Lord, that none which are unclean in any thing, might enter in; so Ezra 9. 21, 22. None did eat the Passover, but such as were pure, and had separated themselves from the filthiness of the Heathen of the land; for this cause doth the Lord complain of the ⟨p. 243⟩Priests, Ezech. 22. 26. Her Priests have violated my law, and have polluted my holy things, they have put no difference between the holy and the profane; neither have they showed the difference between the unclean and the clean, Ezech. 44. 6. And thou shalt say to the Rebellious, even to the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord God; O ye house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations: 7. That ye have brought into my sanctuary, strangers uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary to pollute it, even my house, when ye offered my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my Covenant, because of all your abominations: 8. And ye have not kept the charge of my holy things: But ye have set keepers of my Charge in my Sanctuary for your selves. 9. Thus saith the Lord God, no stranger uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel: Here is a complaint, that those that have the charge of the holy things, should suffer the holy things to be polluted: I grant it cannot bear this sense, that none should be admitted to be Members of the Visible Church under the New Testament, but such as are conceived to be regenerate; except it can be proved that the Sanctuary was a type of the visible Church: 2. That the Apostles constituted their Churches thus; but we read not in all the New Testament of any admission of Church Members at all: but only of baptizing of those who were willing to be baptized, and from this resulted the capacity of a Church Relation in all Churches visible: Nor, 2. Do we find any shadow in all the word of God, of trial of Church Members, by way of electing and choosing of such and such, as qualified by reason of a conceived regeneration in the persons chosen, or of rejecting and refusing others as conceived to have no inward work of grace in them; this I believe can never be made good out of the word of God.