Aarons Rod Blossoming, Book 2 · Chapter 2
CHAP. II. Some Postulata or common Principles to be presupposed.
FOr a foundation to the following discourse, I shall premise the particulars following, which I hope shall be condescended upon, and acknowledged, as so many foreign
1. There must be a most conscientious and speciall care had, that there be not a promiscuous admission of all sorts of persons (that please or desire) to partake in all the publike Ordinances of God: but a distinction is to be made of the precious and the vile, the clean and the unclean; I mean those who are apparantly and visibly such. This was a principle and rule among the Heathens themselves, thereforedProcul, hinc procul ite prophani, Conclamat vates, totoque absistite luco. Et illud, foreign Et illud, Tu Genitor cape sacra manu patriosque penates. Me bello extento digressum & caede recenti Attrectare nefas, donec me flumine vivo Abluere— when they came to doe sacrifice, the prophane were bidden be gone, and eCaesar lib. 6. de bello Gallico, Si quis privatus aut publicus eorum decreto non steterit, sacrificijs interdicunt. Haec poena est apud eos gravissima Quibus est interdictum, ij numeroimpiorum ac sceleratorum habentur. Ij omnes decedunt (others read) ab ijs omnes decedunt) adinim sermonemque defugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant.Caesar tells us, that of old the Druides (the Heathnish French Priests) did interdict the flagitious from their sacrifices and holy things. These Druides France had from England, if the observation of Francis Holy-Oke out of Tacitus, hold.
2. That censures and punishments ought to be appointed and inflicted, as for personal and private injuries between man and man, so much more for publike and scandalous sins, whereby God is very much dishonoured, and the Church dangerously scandalized. Tyberius his slighting maxime, Deorum injurias Dijs curae esse, may be entertained among Atheists, but is exploded among all true Christians. foreign, is the Christian maxime. Care is to be first taken of things pertaining to God.
3. It is requisite and necessary, that he who hath given publick scandall and offence to the Church, and hath openly dishonoured God by a grosse notorious sin, should honour God, edifie others, and (so far as in him lyeth) remove the offence by a publike confession of the sin, and declaration of his sorrow and repentance for the sa…ne; and of his resolution (through the grace of Christ) to do so no more: As many of the Beleevers at Ephesus did publikely confesse and shew their deeds: Act. 19. 18. The Syriack addeth their offences. A patterne of this confession we have in the Law of Moses, and Jewish policie (whereof else-where) as likewise in the Baptisme of Iohn, Matth. 3. 6. Of this publike Confession of sin, see Festus Honnius disp. 51. Thes, 2. Mr. Hildersham on Psal. 51. Lect. 34. & 37. and diverse others. Both the Word of God, and the example of the best Reformed Churches, leadeth us this way. The Centurists Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 4. observe four kinds of confession in the New-Testament: First, a Confession of sin to God alone. 1 Iohn 1. 9. Secondly, a confession coram Ecclesia, before the Church, when men acknowledge publikcly their wicked and scandalous deeds, and do professe their repenting and lothing of the same: And for this they cite Act. 19. 18. Thirdly, a confession one to another of particular private injuries and offences, chiefly recommended to those who are at variance, and have wronged one another. Iam. 5. 16. Fourthly, the confession or profession of the true Faith. 1 Iohn 4. 2.
4. That publick shame put upon a scandalous sinner, and the separating or casting out of such an one, as the vlle from the precious, is the fittest and most eff…ctual means which the Church can use to humble him, to break his heart, and to bring him to the acknowledgement of his offence.
5. That there may be and often are such persons in the Church, whom fErastus lib. 4. cap. 7. Horum debetis vitam & mores observare, & quos impuros esse cognovistis vitare, ne vos quoque inficiamini; ipsi autem pudefiant & in viam redeant.we must avoid, Rom. 16. 17. Withdraw from them. 1 Tim 6. 5. 2 Tim. 3. 5. 2 Thes. 3. 6. Have no company with them. 2 Thes. 3. 14. Not eat with them. 1 Cor. 5. 11. Nor bid them God speed. 2 Epist. John, vers. 10. 11.
6. That since there must be a withdrawing from a brother that walketh disorderly and scandalously, its more agreeable to the glory of God, and to the Churches peace, that this be done by a publick authoritative Ecclesiastical judgement and sentence, than wholly and solely to trust it to the piety and prudence of each particular Christian, to esteem as heathens and publicans, whom, and when, and for what he shall think good, and accordingly to withdraw and separate from them.
7. That there is a distinction between Magistracy and Ministery, even Iure Divino. That the civil Magistrate hath not power to abolish or continue the Ministery in abstracto at his pleasure; nor yet to make or unmake Ministers in concreto, that is, to ordain or depose Ministers, as he thinks fit.
8. As the Offices are distinct gSalmasius appar. ad lib. de prim. pag. 303. Cum sit ut jam vidimus duplex potestas Ecclesiastica, altera interna, external altera tam peccant qui utramque principi, vel magistratui civili tribuunt, quam qui utramque denegant ministre Ecclesiastico.so is the power; Magistrates may do what Ministers may not doe: and Ministers may doe what Magistrates may not do.
9. It is Iuris Communis, a principle of common equity and naturall reason, that the directive Judgement in any matter doth chiefly belong to such as (by their profession and vocation) are devoted and set apart to the study and knowledge of such matters, and (in that respect) supposed to be ablest and fittest to give Judgement thereof. A consultation of Physitians is called for, when the Magistrate desires to know the nature, symptomes, or cure of some dangerous disease. A consultation of Lawyers, in Legal questions. A Councell of War in military expeditions. If the Magistrate be in a ship at Sea, he takes not on him the directive part of Navigation, which belongs to the master, with the mates and pilot. Neither doth the master of the ship (if it come to a Sea-fight) take on him the directive part in the fighting, which belongs to the Captain. And so in all other cases, Artifici in sua arte credendum. Wherefore though the Judgement of Christian prudence and discretion belongs to every Christian, and to the Magistrate in his Station; and though the Magistrate may be, and sometime is learned in the Scriptures, and well acquainted with the principles of true Divinity, yet ut plurimum, and ordinarily, especially in a rightly Reformed and well constituted Church, Ministers are to be supposed to be fittest and ablest to give a directive Judgement in things and causes Spiritual and Ecclesiastical: with whom also other ruling Church. Officers do assist and joyne, who are more experimentally and practically (they ought also, and diverse times are more Theoretically) acquainted with the right way and rules of Church-government and censures; then the civil Magistrate (when he is no ruling Elder in the Church, which is but accidentall) can be rationally or ordinarily supposed to be.
10. There is some power of Governement, in the Church given to the Ministery by Christ: else why are they said to be set over us in the Lord, and called Rulers and Governours, as we shall see afterwards?