A27045:160
The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members…
The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members I. defended against the opposition of Mr. William Johnson, II. proved by many arguments / by Richard Baxter ; whereunto is added 1. an account of my judgement to Mr. J. how far heretics are or are not in the church, 2. Mr. Js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, 3. an appendix about successive ordination, 4. letters between me and T.S., a papist, with a narrative of the success.The successive visibility of the church of which the Protestants are the soundest members I. defended against the opposition of Mr. William Johnson, II. proved by many arguments / by Richard Baxter ; whereunto is added 1. an account of my judgement to Mr. J. how far hereticks are or are not in the church, 2. Mr. Js. explication of the most used terms, with my queries thereupon, and his answer and my reply, 3. an appendix about successive ordination, 4. letters between me and T.S., a papist, with a narrative of the success.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1660
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.
Though therefore you do account ⟨p. 45⟩them all parts of the Catholic Church, yet you cannot make them in your principles one Congregation of Christians. Secondly, your position is not true; the particulars named by you neither are, nor can be parts of the Catholic Church, unless you make Arians, and Pelagians, and Donatists, parts of the Catholic Church: which were either to deny them to be Heretics and Schismatics; or to affirm, that Heretics and Schismatics, separating themselves from the communion of the Catholic Church, notwithstanding that separation, do continue parts of the Catholic Church. For who knows not that the Ethiopians to this day are *Eutychian Heretics. And a great part of those Greeks and Armenians, who deny the Popes Supremacy, are infected with the Heresy of Nestorius, and all of them profess generally all those points of faith with us against you, wherein you differ from us; and deny to ⟨p. 46⟩communicate with you, or to esteem you other then Heretics and Schismatics, unless you both agree with them in those differences of faith, and subject your selves to the obedience of the Patriarch of Constantinople, as to the chief Head and Governor of all Christian Churches next under Christ; and consequently as much a vice-Christ, in your account, as the Pope can be conceived to be. See, if you please, Jeremiah Patriarch of Constantinople, his Answer to the Lutherans, especially in the beginning and end of the book; Acta Theologorum Wittebergensium, &c. and Sir Edwin Sands, of this subject, in his Survey, p. 232, 233, 242, &c.
Though therefore you do account ⟨p. 45⟩them all parts of the Catholike Church, yet you cannot make them in your principles one Congregation of Christians. Secondly, your position is not true; the particulars named by you neither are, nor can be parts of the Catholike Church, unless you make Arians, and Pelagians, and Donatists, parts of the Catholike Church: which were either to deny them to be Hereticks and Schismaticks; or to affirm, that Hereticks and Schismaticks, separating themselves from the communion of the Catholike Church, notwithstanding that separation, do continue parts of the Catholike Church. For who knows not that the Ethiopians to this day are