As for that party of men among us, Archbishops, Bishops and Doctors, that have made it their office and interest to set up as for Christ, 1. A Catholic Church, formed by a vicarious Universal Government, viz. A General Council, or a feigned Universal College of Bishops; 2. And the Patriarchal ⟨image 4⟩power, which was in the Roman Empire; 3. And the Pope as the President, or Principium unitatis Catholicae; 4. And the same Pope as our Western-Patriarch; and the six or eight first General Councils as the Laws or Rule of Government; and so would bring us under a foreign Jurisdiction, and turn the orders of a Catholic Empire into those of the Catholic Church through the World. 6. And that pretend that the Papists Churches have an uninterrupted valid succession, and therefore are true Churches; and that the Protestant Churches, that have no uninterrupted, Canonical, Episcopal succession, are no true Churches, nor have valid Sacraments, or any ordinary title to salvation; I say, as for this party of men (whose Writings and Names I need not tell you of), we profess that we have no hope that ever they will be reconciled to us; because it will not stand with their desired reconciliation (described by themselves) with a more powerful and numerous party which they prefer before us: And though as much as in us lieth, we must live peaceably with all men, we can never receive their unpeaceable principles and terms. And it much more alienateth us against the Church of Rome, to find, that the nearer any are to them, the more they are for uncharitableness and cruelty, and trust not to the Church-Keys, but to the Sword, as if blood, banishment, or destroying conscionable Christians that are not of their minds, were the strength of their Religion and Church; and still cry, Strike home, and execute the Laws: Abate nothing: Tolerate none of them: Let them make their task, and have no straw: Away with them, as pestilent fellows and movers of seditions, just contrary to the Christian Nature, and Interest, and Law: And if he that dwells in Love, dwells in God, and God in him, who dwells in them that dwell in wrath, and imitate Cain, and bear thorns and thistles, and devour the flocks which they should gather and feed, and show that they love their brethren by destroying them.
As for that party of men among us, Archbishops, Bishops and Doctors, that have made it their office and interest to set up as for Christ, 1. A Catholick Church, formed by a vicarious Universal Government, viz. A General Council, or a feigned Universal Colledge of Bishops; 2. And the Patriarchal ⟨image 4⟩power, which was in the Roman Empire; 3. And the Pope as the President, or Principium unitatis Catholicae; 4. And the same Pope as our Western-Patriarch; and the six or eight first General Councels as the Laws or Rule of Government; and so would bring us under a foreign Jurisdiction, and turn the orders of a Catholiok Empire into those of the Catholick Church through the World. 6. And that pretend that the Papists Churches have an uninterrupted valid succession, and therefore are true Churches; and that the Protestant Churches, that have no uninterrupted, Canonical, Episcopal succession, are no true Churches, nor have valid Sacraments, or any ordinary title to salvation; I say, as for this party of men (whose Writings and Names I need not tell you of), we profess that we have no hope that ever they will be reconciled to us; because it will not stand with their desired reconciliation (described by themselves) with a more powerful and numerous party which they prefer before us: And though as much as in us lyeth, we must live peaceably with all men, we can never receive their unpeaceable principles and terms. And it much more alienateth us against the Church of Rome, to find, that the nearer any are to them, the more they are for uncharitableness and cruelty, and trust not to the Church-Keys, but to the Sword, as if blood, banishment, or destroying conscionable Christians that are not of their minds, were the strength of their Religion and Church; and still cry, Strike home, and execute the Laws: Abate nothing: Tolerate none of them: Let them make their task, and have no straw: Away with them, as pestilent fellows and movers of seditions, just contrary to the Christian Nature, and Interest, and Law: And if he that dwells in Love, dwells in God, and God in him, who dwells in them that dwell in wrath, and imitate Cain, and bear thorns and thistles, and devour the flocks which they should gather and feed, and shew that they love their brethren by destroying them.
