Aarons Rod Blossoming, Book 1 · Chapter 5
CHAP. V. Of the cutting off from among the people of God, frequently mentioned in the Law.
IT hath been much controverted, what should be the neaning of that commination, so frequently used in the Law of Moses: that soule shall be cut off from among his people. The radix foreign signifieth properly such a cutting off, as is like the cutting off a Branch from the Tree: and foreign cutting off, is applied to divorcement, Deut, 24. 1. a bill of divorcement, in the Hebrew, of cutting off. So Isa. 50. 1. Ier. 3. 8. It is certaine that foreign carath doth not necessarily signifie to cut off by death, destruction, or a totall abolition of the very existence of him that is cut off, but any cutting off, by whatsoever losse or punishment it be. The Septuagints render it, not seldome, by such words as signifie the losse or punishment of the party, without destroying him, as by foreign, abscindo, amputo, succid…, excindo, foreign avello, abstraho, foreign, demitto foreign, circumcido, foreign, aufere, foreign percutio, foreign verbero. Sometime they render it by foreign contero, extero, terendo excutio: to strike out, (sometime, to wash out, or, to wipe off spots or filth, as H. Stephanus tels us: thence foreign, the cloth wherewith we wipe our hands when we wash them) Numb. 19. 13. that soule shall be cut off from Israel. The Septuagints foreign. Yea where they render it by foreign, that foreign or cutting off is sometimes meant of captivity Amos 1. 5. sometimes of the decay and dissolution of a Monarchy Ezech. 31. 12. Sometimes of the deposition or repudiating of Priests. 1 Sam. 2. 33. the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine Altar. Sometimes generally for a judgement or punishment, Isa. 22. 25. The English translators in some places where it is foreign in the originall and foreign, render it to faile, 1 Kings 2. 4. to loose 1 Kings 18. 5. Sometime they render the same originall word to hew, 1 Kings 5. 6. to hew timber, Jer. 66. Sometime simply to cut, Ezech. 16. 4 thy navell was not cut. In other places where the Septuagints have foreign aufero, the English hath to faile, 1 Kings 8. 25. & 9. 5. 2 Chro. 7. 18. This foreign is the word used by the Apostle in the case of Excommunication, 1 Cor. 5. 13.
There are five different opinions concerning that cutting off mentioned in the Law. First, Augustine in divers places, understands the meaning to be of the second death or eternall condemnation. But this is not sutable to the infancy of the Jewish Church; for whiles they were bred under the paedagogy of the Law, things eternall and invisible were not immediately and nakedly propounded unto them, but under the shadows and figures of temporall and visible things. So that if eternall death were the ultimate intendment of that commination (as I verily believe it was) yet it must needs be acknowledged, that there was some other punishment in this life, comprehended under that phrase, to resemble in some sort, and to shadow forth that everlasting cutting of.
2. Some understand that cutting off to be when a man dieth foreign, without children, having no off-spring or posterity behind him to preserve the memory of him; for he that left children behind him, was esteemed to live in some sort after he was dead. But the cutting off in the Law, is privative, not negative, it is a depriving of a man of what he hath, not the deniall of what he would have. Neither was that of the preserving of ones name in the posterity, applicable to women, but to their husbands onelyonly; whereas their cutting off was threatned to all that were guilty, whether men or women. Finally, if that were the sence, then the cutting off did neither belong to such as choosed voluntarily to live unmarried, nor to men who being married had children to preserve their memory after their death. But all that committed such or such a sinne, were to be cut off, whether married or unmarried, whether having children or wanting children.
3. Others understand capitall punishment to be inflicted by the civill Magistrate. But if all the offences for which cutting off was threatned in the Law, had been punished by death, the Mosaicall lawes, no lesse then those of Draco, might have been said to be written in blood, saith iDe gubern. Eccl. pag. 57.Gersomus Bucerus. Is it credible that all and every one, who did by any chance, eate the fat, or the blood, or did make a perfume for smell like to the holy perfume, or did touch a dead body, or a grave, or a tent wherein a man had died, or any thing which an unclean person had touched; and had not been thereafter sprinkled with the water of separation; were without mercy to die for any of these things? Yet these were cut off from among their people Exod. 30. 38. Lev. 7. 15, 17. Num. 19. 13. 20. Another reason I take from Mercerus on Gen. 17. 14. We nowhere finde either in Scripture, or in the Jewish writings, that such of the seed of Abraham, as did neglect circumcision, were punished by the Sword of the Magistrate, yet by the Law such were to be cut off. Now without all controversie such were excluded from communion with the Church of Israel, and being so excluded they were said properly to be cut off from among their people, saith Mercerus. And moreover the cutting off in the Law, is expressed by such a word, as doth not necessarily signifie that the person cut off ceaseth to have any being, but it is used to signifie a cutting off from a benefit, relation, or fellowship, when the being remains, as was noted in the beginning.
4. Many of the Hebrews whom M. Ainsworth annot. in Gen. 17. 14. Exod. 31. 14. Numb. 15. 30. followeth, understand by that cutting off, untimely death, or the shortning of life, before the naturall period. This interpretation I also dislike, upon these reasons, 1. That which is taken for a foundation of that opinion, namely, that the cutting off in the Law is meant onelyonly as a punishment of private sinnes known to God alone, and which could not be proved by witnesses; this (I say) is taken for granted which is to be proved. 2. Yea, the contrary appeareth from Levit. 17. 4, 5. the end of that cutting off was, that the children of Israel might feare to doe that thing which they saw so punished. But how could they make this use of a Divine judgement inflicted for some private sinne, they knew not for what? 3. The commination of Divine judgements is added in a more proper place Deut. 28. Lev. 26. and in divers places, where wrath and punishment from God is denounced against all such as would not observe his Commandements, nor keepe his Statutes and Judgements. But the cutting off is a part (and a great part) of the corrective or penall Mosaicall Lawes, which containe punishments to be inflicted by men, not by God; which makes Piscator almost everywhere in his Scholia to observe, that exscindetur is put for exscinditor, that soule shall be cut off for, let that soule be cut off. 4▪ The cutting off was a distinguishing punishment; they that did such and such things were to be cut off, and in being cut off, were to beare their iniquity, Lev. 18. 29. Numb. 15. 31. But we cannot say that Abijah the sonne of Ieroboam, or King Iosiah, being taken away by an untimely death, were thereby marked with a signe of Gods wrath, or that they were cut off from among their people, and did beare their iniquity. 5. And whereas they object from Levit. 17. 10. & 20. 5, 6. that the cutting of was a worke of God, not of men, it is easily answered from that same place, it was onelyonly so, in extraordinary cases, when men did neglect to punish the offenders. Levit. 20. 4, 5. And if the people of the land hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off. Which giveth light to the other place Levit. 17. 10. What I have said against the third and fourth opinion, doth militate against Erastus, for he expoundeth the cutting off these two waies, that is either of capitall punishment, or of destruction by the hand of God, yet he inclineth chiefly to the last. See lib. 3. c. 6. He toucheth this cutting off in divers places but valde jejunè. And because he is pleased to professe he had no skil of the Hebrew, he appealeth to the word foreign. Of which before.
There is a fifth exposition, followed by many both Popish and Protestant writers, who understand by the cutting off, excommunicating or casting out from the Church, and of this opinion are some very good Hebritians, as Schindlerus lexic. pentagl. pag. 655. Cornelius Bertramus de republica Ebraeorum. cap. 2. Godwyns Moses and Aaron lib. 3. cap. 4. The Jewish Canons of Repentance printed in Latin at Cambridge, anno 1631. where the Hebrew hath foreign the Latin hath ordinarily Excommunicatio. So doe divers of our soundest writers take the cutting off in the Law to be excommunication. Synops. pur. Theol. Disp. 48. Thes. 24. 39. There are these reasons for it.
1. The cutting off had reference to an Ecclesiasticall corporation or fellowship. It is not said, that soule shall be cut off from the earth, or cut off from the Land of the living, but, cut of from his people: more plainly, from Israel, Exod. 12. 15. Num. 19. 13. but most plainly, that soule shall be cut off from the Congregation (or Church) of Israel, Exo. 12. 19. that soule shall be cut off from among the Congregation (or Church) Num. 19. 20. intimating somewhat Ecclesiasticall. So Lev. 22. 3. that soule shal be cut off from my presence. The Septuagints foreign from me. The Chaldee, from my face. And this was the very cutting off or excommunication of Cain from the Church, by God himselfe Genes. 4. 14. from thy face shall I be hid. and vers. 14, and Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. It is another and much different phrase, which is used to expresse cutting off from the world, or from the land of the living Ezech. 25. 7. I will cut thee off from the people, and will cause thee to perish out off the Countreys, Jerem. 11. 19. Let us cut him off from the land of the living. Zeph. 1. 3. I will cut off man from off the Land.
2. He that in his uncleannesse did eate of an unholy thing was to be cut off Levit. 7. 20, 21. yet for such a one was appointed confession of sinne, and a trespasse-offering, by which he was reconciled and atonement made for him, as M. Ainsworth himselfe tels us on Levit. 5. 2. whence I inferre, that the cutting off such a one was not by death inflicted, either from the hand of the Magistrate, or from the hand of God, but that the cutting off was Ecclesiasticall, as well as the reception or reconciliation. I know M. Ainsworth is of opinion that the cutting off was for defiling the Sanctuary presumptuously, or eating of an holy thing presumptuously, when a man was not cleansed from his uncleannesse: and that atonement by sacrifice was appointed for such as defiled the Sanctuary ignorantly. But that which made him thinke so, was a mistake; for he supposeth, that for sinnes of ignorance or infirmity onelyonly, God did appoint Sacrifices; but that for wilfull or malicious sinnes there was no Sacrifice. See his annot. on Levit. 4. 2. Which Faustus Socinus also holdeth praelect. cap. 22. p. 144. But to me, the contrary is plaine from Levit. 6. 1. to 8. where we have atonement to be made by Trespasse offerings, for wilfull lying, perjury, fraud, robbing, or violence, which made the Septuagints, V. 2. for commit a trespasse, to read, despising despise the commandements of the Lord. And whereas M. Ainsworth confirmeth his opinion from Heb. 10. 26. for if we sinne wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more Sacrifice for sinnes; I answer with Calvin, Beza, Hemmingius, and others upon the place, it is not meant of all sinnes done wilfully, (which to hold were a most dangerous and despairing Doctrine,) but of a totall defection from Christ and the truth. And now to returne, there is nothing Levit. 5. 2. to exclude a Trespasse-offering for one who should in his uncleannesse wilfully goe to the Sanctuary, or touch an holy thing: but there is this reason, why it should not be excluded, because in that very place Verse 1. he that did wilfully, for favour or malice, conceale his knowledge, being a witnesse in judgement, was yet admitted to bring his Trespasse-offering.
3. The Apostle 1 Cor. 5. gives us some light concerning the cutting off; for as Vers. 6, 7, 8. most manifestly he pointeth at the purging of all the congregation of Israel from leaven▪ Exod. 12. so Vers. 13. when he saith, therefore put away from among your selves▪ that wicked person, he plainly alludeth to Exod. 12. 15, 19. Whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soule shall be cut off from the Congregation, (or Church) of Israel. Theophylact on 1 Cor. 5. 13. observeth the Apostles allusion to the old Law of cutting off: and Maccovius (otherwise no very good friend to Church-discipline and Government) loc. com. disp. 22. proveth that Excommunication was transferred from the Jewes to us, by Christ himselfe Matth. 18. and that the cutting off mentioned in the Law, is no other thing than that which the Apostle meaneth, when he saith, put away from among your selves that wicked person.
4. The cutting off soule from among his people did typifie or resemble eternall death and condemnation; In which respect Peter doth some way apply it to the daies of the Gospell, that every soule which will not heare Christ the great Prophet, shall be destroyed from among his people, Acts 3. 23. So Vatablus on Gen. 17. 14. that soul shall be cut off, that is, shall not be partaker of my promises, and of my benefits. So that as I. Coch. annot▪ in Sanhedrin. cap. 9. saith well, death inflicted by the hand of God is lesse then foreign cutting off. Nam exterminii post mortem poena luitur. The same thing Guil. Vorstius confirmeth out of Maimonides, annot. in Maimon. de fundam. legis pag. 127. And Abrabanel de capite fidei cap. 8. saith that the greatest reward is the life of the world to come, and the greatest punishment is the cutting off of the soule. Now this could not so fitly be resembled, and shadowed forth by the cutting off from the land of the living, either by the hand of God, or by the hand of the Magistrate, as by cutting off from the Church, and from the communion of Saints, by excommunication, which is summum futuri judicii praejudicium, as Tertullian called it, and fore-sheweth that the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous, Psal. 1. 5. But Gods taking away of a man by death in the phrase of the Old Testament, is not a cutting off from, but a gathering of him unto his people; yea kGen. 25▪ 17.it is said of wicked Ishmael when he died, he was gathered unto his people. And as for the abbreviation of life, and the untimelinesse of death in youth, or middle age, that both is now, and was of old, one of the things which come alike to all, to the good as well as to the bad. As touching the capitall punishment of malefactors by the hand of the Magistrate, it being founded upon the very law of nature, and common to all Nations, without as well as within the Church, (so that very often those from whom a malefactor is cut off, are not so much as by profession the Church and people of God:) it cannot so fitly resemble the separation or casting out of a man from having part or portion of the inheritance of the Saints in light.
5. Dr. Buxtorf lexic. chald. Talm. & Rahbin. page 1101. tels us that this difference was put between him that was guilty of cutting off, and him that was guilty of death. Reus▪ mortis, ipse tantum, non semen ejus: paena excidii comprehendit ipsum & semen ejus. Now if the punishment of death was personall one… ▪ and the punishment of cutting off, comprehensive not onelyonly of them but of their seed, how can this agree so well, to any thing else, as to Excommunication; especially if that hold which Godwyn in his Moses and Aaron lib. 5. cap. 2. tels us, that the children of excommunicate persons were not circumcised.
6. M. Selden de jure nat. & Gent. lib. 7. cap. 10. tels us, that the Hebrew Doctors themselves doe not agree concerning that cutting off in the Law. He saith that R. Bechai and others, make three sorrs of cutting off. i. a cutting off, whereby the body onelyonly is cut off, which they understand by that phrase Levit. 20. 6. I will cut him off from among his people: and this is untimely death Palm 55. 23. Bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out half their daies. 2. They say there was another cutting off, which was of the soule onelyonly, Levit. 18. 29. the souls that commit these things …all be cut off from among their people. By this cutting off (they say) the soule ceaseth to have a being, the body not being taken away by death, before the naturall period. 3. They make a third kind, whereby both soule and body is cut off, Num. 15. 31. That soule shall be utterly cut off, his iniquity shall be upon him. Whereby (say they) both the body is destroyed before the naturall time, and likewise the soule ceaseth to have a being. But whatsoever any of the Hebrews fancied in their declining latter times, concerning that second kinde of cutting off, (which M. Selden doth not approve, but relate out of them) I am confident it was onelyonly the degenerating notion of Excommunication; and that very fancy of theirs, is a footstep thereof; which may make us easily believe that the more ancient Hebrews in purer times, did understand that such a cutting off was mentioned in the Law, by which a man in respect of his Spirituall being was cut off from the Church of Israel, whiles his naturall life and being was not taken ftom him. Yea Gul…elmus Vorstius annot. in Maimon. de fundam. legis pag. 60. sheweth us, that some of the Hebrewes acknowledge nothing under the name of the cutting off, but that which is the cutting off of the soule onelyonly. But if there be so much as some cutting off mentioned in the Law, which concerneth a mans Spirituall estate onelyonly, it doth abundantly confirme what I plead for: and I shall not need to assert, that everywhere in the Law Excommunication must needs be understood by cutting off. Some understand the cutting off in the Judiciall or Civill lawes, to be meant of capitall punishments: and the cutting off in the ceremoniall Lawes (which were properly Ecclesiasticall) to be meant of Excommunication, or cutting off from the Church onelyonly. If anywhere the cutting off be Excommunication, it sufficeth me. Or what ever it may signifie more, or be extended unto, if Excommunication be one thing which it signifieth, then they who thinke it signifieth some other thing beside Excommunication, are not against me in this question.
I shall conclude with that in the Dutch Annotations upon Gen. 17. 14. that soule shall be cut off from his people. The Annotation Englished saith thus, that man shall be excommunicate from the fellowship of Gods people. This kind of expression implies also (as some doe conceive) a bodily punishment to be i…sticted withall by the Magistrate. They hold determinately and positively that it signifieth Excommunication. Whether it signifie some other thing beside, they judge not to be so cleare, and therefore offer it to be considered.
It is but a poore argument, whereby Bishop Bilson, of the Government of the Church, chap. 4. would prove the cutting off not to be meant of Excommunication, because it is applyed even to capitall offences, such as the Law elsewhere appointeth men to be put to death for. As if it were any absurdity to say, that one and the same offence, is to be punished sub formalitate scandali with excommunication, and sub formalitate criminis with capitall punishment. And who knoweth not that a capitall crime is a cause of excommunication, which is also sometimes the sole punishment, the Magistrate neglecting his duty. If a known blasphemer or incestuous person be not cut off by the Magistrate as he ought by the Law of God: shall he therefore not be cut off by excommunication? If he had proved that all the causes of cutting off in the Law were capitall crimes, he had said much: but that will never be proved.