A53732:293
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government ... by the late pious and learned minister of the Gospel, John Owen ...
London: printed for William Marshall, 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
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.
NEC sibi plebs blandiatur, quasi immunis esse a contagio delicti possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans, & ad injustum & illicitum Praepositi sui Episcopatum consensum suum commodans. Propter quod plebs obsequens praeceptis Dominicis & Deum metuens, a peccatore praeposito separare se debet; nec se ad Sacrilegi Sacerdotis Sacrificia miscere; quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes, vel indignos recusandi; quod & ipsum videmus de Divina Authoritate descendere.
FOR this cause the people obedient to the Commands of our Lord, and fearing God, ought to separate themselves from a wicked Bishop, nor mix themselves with the Worship of a Sacrilegious Priest. For they principally have the power of choosing the worthy Priests, and rejecting the unworthy; which comes from Divine Authority or Appointment; as he proves from the Old and New Testament. Nothing can be spoken more fully representing the Truth which we plead for. He assigns unto the people a Right and Power of separating from unworthy Pastors, of rejecting or deposing them, and that granted to them by Divine Authority.
AND this Power of Election in the people, he proves from the Apostolical Practice before insisted on. Quod postea secundum Divina Magisteria observatur in Actis Apostolorum, quando in Ordinando in locum Judae Episcopo, Petrus ad plebem loquitur. Surrexit, inquit, Petrus in medio discentium, fuit autem turba in uno. Nec hoc in Episcoporum tantum & Sacerdotum, sed in Diaconorum Ordinationibus observasse Apostolos, de quo & ipso in Actis eorum Scriptum est. Et convocarunt, inquit, duodecim, totam plebem Discipulorum, & dixerunt eis, &c.