A26898:1409
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by B. Griffin for Thomas Simmons, 1680
Church-History OF BISHOPS And their COUNCILS ABRIDGED, &c. › Chapter 10
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.
The 12. Can. Princes as profane men be not spectators of that which holy persons do, and therefore Councils be held without them. Either I understand them not,1 or it is in despite of truth that they say [Unde nec alias reperimus Oecumenicis Conciliis unquam interfuisse: Neque enim fas est ut prophani Principes, rerum quae sacris hominibus gerundae sunt, gerunturve, spectatores fiant.] Binnius noteth [ex praescripto nempe Canonum] turning an assertion de facto into one de jure, and an universal into a particular, by which licence of expounding what lye or blasphemy may not be justified! And why then have so many thousand been cursed from Christ by Councils for unskilfulness in words?
The 12. Can. Princes as prophane men be not spectators of that which holy persons do, and therefore Councils be held without them. Either I understand them not,1 or it is in despite of truth that they say [Vnde nec alias reperimus Oecumenicis Conciliis unquam interfuisse: Neque enim fas est ut prophani Principes, rerum quae sacris hominibus gerundae sunt, gerunturve, spectatores fiant.] Binnius noteth [ex praescripto nempe Canonum] turning an assertion de facto into one de jure, and an universal into a particular, by which licence of expounding what lye or blasphemy may not be justified! And why then have so many thousand been cursed from Christ by Councils for unskilfulness in words?
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§ 59. The 14th. Can. secureth the Bishops admirably in despite of the old reforming honest Canons decreeing that [A Lay-man (not excepting Kings or Parliaments) shall have no power to dispute by any reason of Ecclesiastical Sanctions, or to oppose the universal Church or any general Synod; for the difficulty of these things, and agitating them on both sides, is the office of Patriarchs, Priests and Doctors, to whom only God hath given power of binding and loosing. For though a Lay-man excel in the praise of piety and wisdom, yet he is a Lay-man and a Sheep and not a Pastor. But a BISHOP though it be manifest that he is destitute of ALL VIRTUE of Religion,