Aaron’s Rod Blossoming

George Gillespie's first book, the anonymously published Dispute against the English Popish Ceremonies, propelled him to the forefront of the Second Reformation of the Scottish Kirk. He was then appointed to be an ecclesiastical commissioner to attend the Westminster Assembly of Divines in London. There he produced his most famous work, Aaron's Rod Blossoming, in order to refute the Erastians, who argued for church subordination to the civil government. Gillespie divides his treatise into three sections: (1) "Of the Jewish Church Government," (2) "Of the Christian Church Government," and (3) "Of Excommunication from the Church, and of Suspension from the Lord's Table." This new edition was created by comparing the texts of 1646 and 1844. The bibliography contains over six hundred entries, and all references have been traced. An exhaustive index is provided for all the Scripture references and authors cited, and the many Latin quotations have been translated in the notes. With the publication of this title, all of George Gillespie's works now will have appeared in new critical editions.