The due right of presbyteries, or, A peaceable plea for the government of the…

6. Arg. If this Church-covenant be the essence and form of a visible Church, which differenceth betwixt the visible and invisible Church, then there have been no visible Churches since the Apostles days, nor are there any in the Christian World, this day, save only in New England and some few other places, for remove the form and essence of a thing, and you remove the thing it self: now if this be true, and if Ministers have Ministerial or pastoral power over people, and the people no relation unto them as to Pastors, except they mutually enter into this Church-covenant, then are they no Pastors to the people at all, and so all Baptised in the reformed Churches, where this covenant was not, are as Pagans and Infidels, and all their Baptism no Baptism, and all their Church Acts no Church Acts, and they all are to be Rebaptized.

6. Arg. If this Church-covenant be the essence and forme of a visible Church, which differenceth betwixt the visible and invisible Church, then there have beene no visible Churches since the Apostles dayes, nor are there any in the Christian World, this day, save only in New England and some few other places, for remove the forme and essence of a thing, and you remove the thing it selfe: now if this be true, and if Ministers have Ministeriall or pastorall power over people, and the people no relation unto them as to Pastors, except they mutually enter into this Church-covenant, then are they no Pastors to the people at all, and so all Baptised in the reformed Churches, where this covenant was not, are as Pagans and Infidels, and all their Baptisme no Baptisme, and all their Church Acts no Church Acts, and they all are to be Rebaptized.

The Author of the Church-covenant ^asaith, there is a real, implicit, and substantial coming together, and a substantial professing of faith and agreement, which may preserve the essence of the Church in England, and other places, though •hers be not so express and formal a covenanting, as need were; The eternity of the covenant of God is such, that it is not the interposition of many corruptions, that may arise in after time, that can disannul the same, except they wilfully break the covenant, and reject the offer of the Gospel, which we persuade our selves England is not come unto, and so the covenant remaineth which preserveth the essence of the Churches to this day; and he giveth this answer from learned Parker