A26860:262
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.
4. And he that knoweth the intention of the Ordaining Diocesan, is never the better if he know not the intention of the Supreme. And what if the intention of the Supreme, and of the Diocesan are contrary?
5. But by your Hypothesis the Governors may alter the very species of the Priesthood as they please; and what ever God saith of it in his Institution or Law, it must be to us no other in kind or extent, than the Governors intend. If they say, I ordain thee to baptize, but not to teach; or to do both, but not to celebrate the Lords-Supper; or to do that, but not to pray or praise God; or not to use the Keys of the Church, our power is limited accordingly; Then if the Prelates make Mass-Priests, their intention is the measure of their power. Answer the Papists then that ask, Was it ever the intention of the Pope and his Prelates, that the English Bishops should disclaim the Pope, or the Mass, or reform without them as they did?
5. But by your Hypothesis the Governours may alter the very species of the Priesthood as they please; and what ever God saith of it in his Institution or Law, it must be to us no other in kind or extent, than the Governours intend. If they say, I ordain thee to baptize, but not to teach; or to do both, but not to celebrate the Lords-Supper; or to do that, but not to pray or praise God; or not to use the Keys of the Church, our power is limited accordingly; Then if the Prelates make Mass-Priests, their intention is the measure of their power. Answer the Papists then that ask, Was it ever the intention of the Pope and his Prelates, that the English Bishops should disclaim the Pope, or the Mass, or reform without them as they did?
6. Seeing the English Bishops, by you, derive their succession from Willfred, and Augustine, and Rome, is not the Church of Rome the ittest Judg of the extent of their power, as knowing their own intentions? Nay, if they were so blind as to intend them power to pull down themselves, may they not recall it?