A27045:165
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.
(k)The Bishops of the Greek, or Eastern Church, who sided with Arius, before they declared themselves to be Arians, sent their Legates to Julius Bishop of Rome to have their cause heard before him against Saint Athanasius:2 the same did Saint Athanasius to defend himself against them: which Arian Bishops having understood from Julius, that their Accusations against Saint Athanasius, upon due examination of both parties, were found groundless and false, required (rather fraudulently, then seriously) to have a fuller Trial before a General Council at Rome: which (to take away all show of excuse from them) Pope Julius assembled. Saint Athanasius was summoned by the Pope to appear before ⟨p. 51⟩him and the Council in Judgement:3 which he presently did, (and many other Eastern Bishops unjustly accused by the Arians aforesaid, had recourse to Rome with him,) and expected there a year and a half: All which time his Accusers (though also summoned) appeared not, fearing they should be condemned by the Pope and his Council. Yet they pretended not (as Protestants have done in these last ages of the Kings of England) That Constantius, the Arian Emperor of the East, was Head, or chief Governor over their Church in all Causes Ecclesiastical; and consequently that the Pope had nothing to do with them, but only pretended certain frivolous excuses to delay their appearance from one time to another. Where it is worth the noting, that Julius, reprehending the said Arian Bishops (before they published ⟨p. 52⟩their Heresy, and so taking them to be Catholics) for condemning Saint Athanasius in an Eastern Council, gathered by them before they had acquainted the Bishop of Rome with so important a cause, useth these words, An ignari •stis hanc consuetudin•m esse, ut primum nobis scribatur; ut •inc quod justum est, à•finiri possit, &c. Are you ignorant, saith he, that this is the custom, to write to us first, That hence that which is just may be defined, &c. where most clearly it appears, that it belonged particularly to the Bishop of Rome to pass a definitive sentence even against the Bishops of the Eastern, or Greek Church; which yet is more confirmed by the proceedings of Pope Innocent the first, about 12. hundred years since,