A27045:275
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.
And it is undeniably evident, that the Church of Constantinople and all the Greek Churches did believe that Universal Primacy which in the Empire was set up, to be of humane right, and new, and changeable, as I prove not only by the express testimony of the Council of Chalcedon, but by the ⟨p. 132⟩stating of the Primacy at last in Gregory's days on Constantinople it self, whose pretence neither was nor could be any other then a humane late institution. And if the Greek Churches judged so of it in Gregory's days, and at the Council of Chalcedon in Leo's days, we have no reason to think that they ever judged otherwise; at least not in Flavian's days, that were the same as Leo's, and the business done about 449. This Argument I here set against all your instances at once; and it is unanswerable.
And it is undeniably evident, that the Church of Constantinople and all the Greek Churches did believe that Universal Primacy which in the Empire was set up, to be of humane right, and new, and changeable, as I prove not only by the expresse testimony of the Council of Chalcedon, but by the ⟨p. 132⟩stating of the Primacy at last in Gregories dayes on Constantinople it self, whose pretence neither was nor could be any other then a humane late institution. And if the Greek Churches judged so of it in Gregories daies, and at the Council of Chalcedon in Leo's daies, we have no reason to think that they ever judged otherwise; at least not in Flavians dayes, that were the same as Leo's, and the businesse done about 449. This Argument I here set against all your instances at once; and it is unanswerable.
3. Your next instance is of Pope Leo's restoring Theodoret, upon an appeal to just judgement] Reply. 1. Every Bishop hath a power to discern who is fit for his own Communion; and so Leo and the Bishops of the West perceiving Theodoret to be Orthodox, received him as a Catholic into their Communion; and so might the Bishop of Constantinople have done. But when this was done, the Council did not hereupon receive him, and restore him to his Bishopric, no nor would hear him read the passages between Pope Leo and him, no nor make a Confession of his faith, but cried out against him as a Nestorian, till he had expressly Anathematized Nestorius and Eutiches before the Council, and then they