A26975:354
Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied…
Of national churches their description, institution, use, preservation, danger, maladies and cure, partly applied to England / written by Richard Baxter for promoting peace ... and for the fuller explication of the Treaty for Concord in 1660 and 1661, and of the Kings gracious declaration about ecclesiastical affairs ... and for further explication of his treatise of episcopacy ...
London: printed by T. Snowden for Thomas Parkhurst, 1691
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.
§ 17. VI. There is great difference between what the Apostles did as Segregate or Dis-junct each one in his Province, and what they did as an Aristocratical Person or College unitedly. They Ordained Elders, gave the Holy Ghost, settled Churches, decided Controversies, wrote Books and Epistles, singly each one in his Province, and met not to write any one Book or Epistle by a Major College-Vote in one Body. And though their Books now oblige all the Church that have them, yet, 1. At the first writing they obliged only the Churches or Persons to whom they were written, and only after by parity of Reason bind others that have them. And every ordinary Pastor that writeth a Book that is sound Divinity, bringeth an Obligation on all that read it, to obey it according to the Evidence of truth. The Obligation of the Apostles Books and theirs, is Extensively, Indefinite or Universal to all that read or hear it: But the Degree of the Obligation Intensively is greater from the Apostles Writings, because of their extraordinary Spirit.
§ 17. VI. There is great difference between what the Apostles did as Segregate or Dis-junct each one in his Province, and what they did as an Aristocratical Person or College unitedly. They Ordained Elders, gave the Holy Ghost, setled Churches, decided Controversies, wrote Books and Epistles, singly each one in his Province, and met not to write any one Book or Epistle by a Major College-Vote in one Body. And though their Books now oblige all the Church that have them, yet, 1. At the first writing they obliged only the Churches or Persons to whom they were written, and only after by parity of Reason bind others that have them. And every ordinary Pastor that writeth a Book that is sound Divinity, bringeth an Obligation on all that read it, to obey it according to the Evidence of truth. The Obligation of the Apostles Books and theirs, is Extensively, Indefinite or Universal to all that read or hear it: But the Degree of the Obligation Intensively is greater from the Apostles Writings, because of their extraordinary Spirit.
§ 18. VII. The decision, Acts 15. was not by a General Council nor a Pope; No such Council was called: But they