A26947:1479
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all…A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all…
A key for Catholics, to open the juggling of the Jesuits, and satisfy all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part showeth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholic Church is not united in any merely humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholic Christian and Pastor of a church ...A key for Catholicks, to open the jugling of the Jesuits, and satisfie all that are but truly willing to understand, whether the cause of the Roman or reformed churches be of God ... containing some arguments by which the meanest may see the vanity of popery, and 40 detections of their fraud, with directions, and materials sufficient for the confutation of their voluminous deceits ... : the second part sheweth (especially against the French and Grotians) that the Catholick Church is not united in any meerly humane head, either Pope or council / by Richard Baxter, a Catholick Christian and Pastor of a church ...
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
Quest. Whether the way to heal any Divisions in the Churches of Chr… › Chapter 3
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.
8. By what Justice shall any people be required to send Delegates, on such terms as these to Councils, or to stand to their definitions when they have done? When our faith and souls are preciouser things then so boldly to cast upon the trust of a few Delegates so to be chosen and employed? What Bishops other Countries will choose, we know not. And for our own, 1. In almost all Countries it is the Princes that choose, or none must be chosen but who they will, which is all one. 2. If the Bishops choose, its those that are highest with the secular power that will have the choice, who perhaps may choose such as are contrary to the judgement of most of that Church that is thought to choose them. Most Nations have a Clergy much at difference. The Remonstrants and Contramonstrants in Holland would not have chosen like members for the Synod. In the Bishops days men of one mind were chosen here in England to Convocations: The next year we had a Learned Assembly that put down the Prelacy, for which a Convocation had formed an Oath to be imposed on all Ministers but a little before. And why should the judgment of the Prelates be taken for the judgement of the Church of England, any more then the other, when for number, learning and piety (to say the least) they had no advantage (laying aside ignorant, ungodly men, in point of number.) Till the Spanish match began to be treated on, the Bishops of England were ten, if not twenty to one Augustinians, Calvinists, or Antiarminians: Now the Arminians would be thought the Church of England, and their doctrine, agreeable to the doctrine of that Church. Would they not accordingly have differed, if they had been sent to a General Council? How bitterly are the Articles of the Church of Ireland decried by the Arminian Bishops since sprung up both in Ireland and England? so that if Delegates be sent to any Council, they may speak the minds of those that sent them, (which perhaps is the King, or a small prevailing party,) but not of the rest: (which perhaps may the best and most.) If Jeremiah of Constantinople be of a Council, he will go one way. If Cyril be of a Council, he will go another way: And his counterfeit Successor undo what he did.
8. By what Justice shall any people be required to send Delegates, on such terms as these to Councils, or to stand to their definitions when they have done? When our faith and souls are preciouser things then so boldly to cast upon the trust of a few Delegates so to be chosen and employed? What Bishops other Countries will choose, we know not. And for our own, 1. In almost all Countries it is the Princes that choose, or none must be chosen but who they will, which is all one. 2. If the Bishops choose, its those that are highest with the secular power that will have the choice, who perhaps may choose such as are contrary to the judgement of most of that Church that is thought to choose them. Most Nations have a Clergy much at difference. The Remonstrants and Contramonstrants in Holland would not have chosen like members for the Synod. In the Bishops days men of one mind were chosen here in England to Convocations: The next year we had a Learned Assembly that put down the Prelacy, for which a Convocation had formed an Oath to be imposed on all Ministers but a little before. And why should the judgment of the Prelates be taken for the judgement of the Church of England, any more then the other, when for number, learning and piety (to say the least) they had no advantage (laying aside ignorant, ungodly men, in point of number.) Till the Spanish match began to be treated on, the Bishops of England were ten, if not twenty to one Augustinians, Calvinists, or Antiarminians: Now the Arminians would be thought the Church of England, and their doctrine, agreeable to the doctrine of that Church. Would they not accordingly have differed, if they had been sent to a General Council? How bitterly are the Articles of the Church of Ireland decryed by the Arminian Bishops since sprung up both in Ireland and England? so that if Delegates be sent to any Council, they may speak the minds of those that sent them, (which perhaps is the King, or a small prevailing party,) but not of the rest: (which perhaps may the best and most.) If Jeremiah of Constantinople be of a Council, he will go one way. If Cyril be of a Council, he will go another way: And his counterfeit Successor undo what he did.