Which is the true church? the whole Christian world, as headed only by Christ…

To this he rejoineth, that by the word respectively he did not mean all Priests, but all that are Pastors to that man; for there are some Priests that have no care or cure of souls committed to them; but a private Christian rejecting the authority of his Parish-Priest, Bishop, Archbishop, Metropolitan, Primate, Patriarch, or supreme Bishop, becomes a Schismatic, and casts himself out of the Church.

To this he rejoineth, that by the word respectively he did not mean all Priests, but all that are Pastors to that man; for there are some Priests that have no care or cure of souls committed to them; but a private Christian rejecting the authority of his Parish-Priest, Bishop, Archbishop, Metropolitan, Primate, Patriarch, or supreme Bishop, becomes a Schismatick, and casts himself out of the Church.

Ans. 1. He is a strange Priest that hath no Cure of Souls, what then is his office? If he be not affixed to a particular charge, sure he hath an indefinite cure of Souls in the Church Universal. 2. Then one of the next Parish may take our Parish-Priest and all the Parish-Priests in the Country save his own, for Heretics, Fornicators, Traitors, and such as must be rejected, and yet be no Schismatic but a Church-member: But if I reverence all other Priests, and take our own Parish-Priest for an ignorant sot, or a knave, or a wicked man, and contemn him, I am cut off from the Church. This tells us more reason than I knew of before, for our Canon against going from our own Parish-Churches when we have no Preacher there And this ells me how great the power of Patrons is, who can make an ignorant wicked man so absolute a Lord of all his Parishioners, though they be the greatest Lords, that to contemn him shall cost them their damnation.

Ans. 1. He is a strange Priest that hath no Cure of Souls, what then is his office? If he be not affixed to a particular charge, sure he hath an indefinite cure of Souls in the Church Universal. 2. Then one of the next Parish may take our Parish-Priest and all the Parish-Priests in the Country save his own, for Hereticks, Fornicators, Traytors, and such as must be rejected, and yet be no Schismatick but a Church-member: But if I reverence all other Priests, and take our own Parish-Priest for an ignorant sot, or a knave, or a wicked man, and contem him, I am cut off from the Church. This tells us more reason than I knew of before, for our Canon against going from our own Parish-Churches when we have no Preacher there And this ells me how great the power of Patrons is, who can make an ignorant wicked man so absolute a Lord of all his Parishioners, though they be the greatest Lords, that to contemn him shall cost them their damnation.