The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2)Gillespie, George
Religion
The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2)
Gillespie, George
Church of Scotland -- History; Gillespie, George, 1613-1648
Then, in his judgment, order is not to the rites of the church a general
kind, but only a concomitant circumstance; neither are the rites of the
church comprehended under order as particulars under the general kind to
which they belong; but order belongeth to the rites of the church as an
adjunct to the subject. And, I pray, must not the rights of the church be
managed with decency and order? If so, then must our opposites either say
that order is managed with order, which is to speak nonsense, or else,
that the rights of the church are not comprehended under order. But if
not, then it followeth that the rites of the church are to be managed with
levity, confusion, and scandal; for every action that is not done in
decency and in order must needs be done scandalously and confusedly. 2.
Order and decency, whether taken _largo_ or _stricto sensu_, always
signify such a thing as ought to be in all human actions, as well civil as
sacred; for will any man say, that the civil actions of men are not to be
done decently and in order? The directions of order and decency(828) are
not (we see) _propria religionis_, but as Balduine showeth(829) out of
Gregory Nazianzen, order is in all other things as well as in the church.
Wherefore sacred significant ceremonies shall never be warranted by the
precept of order and decency, which have no less in civility than in
religion.
_Sect._ 4. Now to the particulars. And first, that which Christ did, Matt.
xix. 13, 15, cannot commend unto us the bishopping or confirmation of
children by prayer and imposition of hands; for as Maldonat saith
rightly,(830) _Hebreorum consuetudinem fuisse, ut qui majores erant et
aliqua polle bant divina gratia, manuum impositione inferioribus
benedicerent, constat ex_ Gen. xlviii. 14, 15, _hac ergo ratione adducti
parentes, infantes ad Christum afferebant, ut impositis manibus illis
benediceret_. And as touching this blessing of children and imposition of
hands upon them (saith Cartwright),(831) it is peculiar unto our Saviour
Christ, used neither by his disciples nor his apostles, either before or
after his ascension, whereunto maketh that the children being brought,
that he should pray over them, he did not pray for them, but blessed them,
that is to say, commended them to be blessed, thereby to show his divine
power. These being also yet infants, and in their swaddling clouts, as by
the word which the evangelist useth, and as by our Saviour Christ’s taking
them into his arms, doth appear, being also, in all likelihood,
unbaptised. Last of all, their confirmation is a notable derogation unto
the holy sacrament of baptism, not alone in that it presumeth the sealing
of that which was sealed sufficiently by it; but also in that, both by
asseveration of words, and by speciality of the minister that giveth it,
it is even preferred unto it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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