A26860:148
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical…
An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlock, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal sovereignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.An answer to Mr. Dodwell and Dr. Sherlocke, confuting an universal humane church-supremacy aristocratical and monarchical, as church-tyranny and popery : and defending Dr. Isaac Barrow's treatise against it by Richard Baxter ; preparatory to a fuller treatise against such an universal soveraignty as contrary to reason, Christianity, the Protestant profession, and the Church of England, though the corrupters usurp that title.
London: printed for Thomas Parkhurst, 1682
Chapter 4: My words of Gods Collation of Ministerial Authority, Vindicated from the forgeries and…
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.
17. Therefore it is not in the power of the Electors, Approvers, or Investors, to alter any of the Power established by God. If both the woman and the Priest say, that the man shall be her Husband, but shall have no government of her, it is a nullity; Gods Law shall stand. If the City and the Recorder say, You shall be Lord Mayor, but not have all the power given by the Kings Charter, its vain, and he shall have all that the Charter giveth him. If the A Bp crown the King, and say, You shall be King, but not have all the power stated by the Constitution on the King, this depriveth not the King of his power, (unless he give away that which God hath not stated on him, but men) so if an Ordaining Prelate, Patron, or Parish say, This is a true Parish Church, and we choose, and Ordain you the true Pastor of it, but you shall have but part of the true Pastoral Power stablished on the office by God, it's null: Gods Institution shall be the measure of his power.
18. But I confess, that if God had left Church-Officers as much to the will of men as he hath done the Civil, the case had been otherwise; for Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, are all lawful: And the King, or other supreme power may make new Species of Judges, and Magistrates, and Officers, and alter them as they see cause. And it would have been so in the Church, if as the Italians at Trent would have carried it, Christ had immediately Instituted only the Papacy, and left it to the Pope to make Bishops, and to Bishops to make Priests: And yet I would not wrong the worst. I cannot say, that they would have empowered the Pope to change the Species of Priests or Bishops. But God hath fixed the Species, by making a settled Law for all the work, and all the Authority to do it, though Accidentals may be altered in work and Office.
18. But I confess, that if God had left Church-Officers as much to the will of men as he hath done the Civil, the case had been otherwise; for Monarchy, Aristocracy, and Democracy, are all lawful: And the King, or other supreme power may make new Species of Judges, and Magistrates, and Officers, and alter them as they see cause. And it would have been so in the Church, if as the Italians at Trent would have carried it, Christ had immediately Instituted only the Papacy, and left it to the Pope to make Bishops, and to Bishops to make Priests: And yet I would not wrong the worst. I cannot say, that they would have empowered the Pope to change the Species of Priests or Bishops. But God hath fixed the Species, by making a setled Law for all the work, and all the Authority to do it, though Accidentals may be altered in work and Office.