A26858:39
Against the revolt to a foreign jurisdiction, which would be to England its perjury,…
Against the revolt to a foreign jurisdiction, which would be to England its perjury, church-ruin, and slavery in two parts ... / by Richard Baxter ...Against the revolt to a foreign jurisdiction, which would be to England its perjury, church-ruine, and slavery in two parts ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1691
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.
§ V. In all the old Contests it never came into the mind of the Emperors or the Councils, to set up a Government over all the World, but only in the Empire: They never Summoned the Bishops of all the World but only of the Empire (and not most of them.) As I have oft said, The Subscriptions yet tell us that it was the Bishops of the Roman Provinces. But the Empire being large, they used sometime the swelling phrase of totius Orbis, meaning Orbis Romani: And the Greek Patriarchs never dreamed of a Jus Divinum, or Establishment by Christ, or his Apostles, much less of an Universal Power: For they all knew that Constantinople had no such pretence, being a new Erected Seat; And they were not so impudent as to profess to set a Humane Law against a Divine: And the Roman Bishop long went no higher, nor ever used that Argument against Constantinople [My Power is of God and yours but of Men] which had been most obvious and unresistible, and therefore would have been used, had it been true and then believed.
But at last, from the Name of Saint Peter's Successor, the Pope began a double new Claim. 1. TO A DIVINE RIGHT. 2. TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ALL THE WORLD (of Christians at least.) And the breaking of the Empire necessitated him to this pretence which ⟨p. 6⟩his ambition had obscurely before begun. For else, 1. His old power had died, when he was no Member of the Empire, and so from under the ancient Government and Laws: And all must have been built on a new uncertain Foundation. 2. And when all the old Eastern Empire was gone, his Power and Primacy would have been confined to a narrow compass. Wherefore he served his present interest; 1. By setting up the French Empire, and 2. By pretending to a right of Universal Sovereignty over the World as the Successor of St. Peter.
But at last, from the Name of Saint Peter's Successor, the Pope began a double new Claim. 1. TO A DIVINE RIGHT. 2. TO THE GOVERNMENT OF ALL THE WORLD (of Christians at least.) And the breaking of the Empire necessitated him to this pretence which ⟨p. 6⟩