The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

THE pretence also of Bellarmine, and others who follow him, and borrow▪ their conceits from him, that this liberty of the people in choosing their own Bishops and Pastors, was granted unto them at first by way of Indulgence or Connivance; and that being abused by them, and turned into disorder, was gradually taken from them, until it issued in that shameful mocking of God and Man, which is in use in the Roman Church, when at the Ordination of a Bishop or Priest one Deacon makes a demand, Whether the Person to be Ordained be approved by the people, and another answers out of a corner That the people approve him, have been so confuted by Protestant Writers of all sorts, that it is needless to insist any longer on them.

THE pretence also of Bellarmine, and others who follow him, and borrow▪ their conceits from him, that this liberty of the people in choosing their own Bishops and Pastors, was granted unto them at first by way of Indulgence or Connivence; and that being abused by them, and turned into disorder, was gradually taken from them, until it issued in that shameful mocking of God and Man, which is in use in the Roman Church, when at the Ordination of a Bishop or Priest one Deacon makes a demand, Whether the Person to be Ordained be approved by the people, and another answers out of a corner That the people approve him, have been so confuted by Protestant Writers of all sorts, that it is needless to insist any longer on them.

INDEED, the Concessions that are made, that this Ancient Practice of the Church, in the peoples choosing their own Officers (which to deny, is all one as to deny that the Sun gives Light at Noon-day) is, as unto its Right, by various degrees transferred unto Popes, Patrons and Bishops, with a Representation in a mere Pageantry, of the peoples liberty to make Objections against them that are to be Ordained, are as fair a concession of the gradual Apostasy of Churches from their Original Order and Constitution, as need be desired.

INDEED, the Concessions that are made, that this Ancient Practice of the Church, in the peoples choosing their own Officers (which to deny, is all one as to deny that the Sun gives Light at Noon-day) is, as unto its Right, by various degrees transferred unto Popes, Patrons and Bishops, with a Representation in a meer Pageantry, of the peoples liberty to make Objections against them that are to be Ordained, are as fair a concession of the gradual Apostacy of Churches from their Original Order and Constitution, as need be desired.