A27054:664
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness…
The true and only way of concord of all the Christian churches the desirableness of it, and the detection of false dividing terms / opened by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
§. 30. XI. To the eleventh case I answer, That the Priests or people sin who disobey a lawful command of the King (and not otherwise.) But sin or not sin, it nullifieth not the Ordination or Priesthood, merely that it is against the will of the Prince. All the Bishops and Priests in the world (or most) were made against the will of Princes for three hundred years: And Christ gave the Keys to other hands.
§. 30. XI. To the eleventh case I answer, That the Priests or people sin who disobey a lawful command of the King (and not otherwise.) But sin or not sin, it nullifieth not the Ordination or Priesthood, meerly that it is against the will of the Prince. All the Bishops and Priests in the world (or most) were made against the will of Princes for three hundred years: And Christ gave the Keyes to other hands.
§. 31. XII. and XIII. To the twelfth and thirteenth cases I answer together, If a heretic whose denial of an essential of Christianity is notorious and maketh him equal to an Apostate, ordain, his Act is null as without all authority; And the mans Priesthood or Episcopacy is null, if he have not a sufficient cause and proof of it besides or without this: The same I say of one excommunicate for such a cause.
§. 31. XII. and XIII. To the twelfth and thirteenth cases I answer together, If a heretick whose denyal of an essential of Christianity is notorious and maketh him equal to an Apostate, ordain, his Act is null as without all authority; And the mans Priesthood or Episcopacy is null, if he have not a sufficient cause and proof of it besides or without this: The same I say of one excommunicate for such a cause.
But if the Heresy be only a schism or some lower error consistent with Christianity and Priesthood, or the excommunication only on such a cause, then the ordination (in sensu passivo) is not null, merely on that account that it was done by such a heretic or excommunicate man (As is commonly agreed on).