A26947:1500
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.
The plain truth is, Christ hath left them none of that work to do which belongeth to a Head or Sovereign, but they make work for themselves, that there may seem to be a Necessity of a power to do it. The Church needeth none of their Laws. Let us have but the Holy Scriptures, and the Law of Nature, and the civil Laws of men, and the guidance of particular Pastors pro tempore, and the fraternal Consultations and Agreements of Councils, not to make any more work, but to do this foresaid work unanimously, and the Church can bear no more; there is nothing left for Legislators Ecclesiastical to do. We can spare ⟨p. 425⟩their Laws, and therefore their power and work. Their business is but to make snares and burdens for us; and therefore we can live without them, and cannot believe that the felicity, or unity, or essence of the Church consisteth in them.
The plain truth is, Christ hath left them none of that work to do which belongeth to a Head or Soveraign, but they make work for themselves, that there may seem to be a Necessity of a power to do it. The Church needeth none of their Laws. Let us have but the Holy Scriptures, and the Law of Nature, and the civil Laws of men, and the guidance of particular Pastors pro tempore, and the fraternal Consultations and Agreements of Councils, not to make any more work, but to do this foresaid work unanimously, and the Church can bear no more; there is nothing left for Legislators Ecclesiastical to do. We can spare ⟨p. 425⟩their Laws, and therefore their power and work. Their business is but to make snares and burdens for us; and therefore we can live without them, and cannot believe that the felicity, or unity, or essence of the Church consisteth in them.
Argum. 7. All the inferior officers do derive their power from the supreme. All the other officers of the Catholic Church do not derive their power from the Pope or a General Council: therefore a Pope or General Council are not the supreme.