Five disputations of church-government and worship

If they say that they are of Ecclesiastical Episcopal Institution, not by inspired Apostles, but by Ordinary Bishops, then 1. They make all Presbyters to be jure Episcopali, and Bishops only and their Superiors to be jure Divino, as the Italians in the Council of Trent would have had all Bishops to depend upon the Pope: But in this they go far beyond them; for the Italian ⟨p. 42⟩Papists themselves thought Presbytery jure Divino. 2. Either they may be changed by Bishops who set them up, or not: If they may be taken down again by man, then the Church may be ruined by man; and so the Bishops will imitate the Pope▪ Either they will Reign, or Christ shall not Reign, if they can hinder it: Either they will lead the Church in their way, or Christ shall have no Church: If man cannot take them down, then 1. It seems man did not Institute them; for why may they not alter their own institutions? 2. And then it seems the Church hath universal standing, unchangeable Institutions, Offices and binding Laws of the Bishops making: And if so, are not the Bishops equal to the Apostles in Law making, and Church Ordering? and are not their Laws to us as the word of God, and that word insufficient? and every Bishop would be to his Diocese, and all to the whole Church, what the Pope would be to the whole.

If they say that they are of Ecclesiastical Episcopal Institution, not by inspired Apostles, but by Ordinary Bishops, then 1. They make all Presbyters to be jure Episcopali, and Bishops only and their Superiours to be jure Divino, as the Italians in the Council of Trent would have had all Bishops to depend upon the Pope: But in this they go far beyond them; for the Italian ⟨p. 42⟩Papists themselves thought Presbyterie jure Divino. 2. Either they may be changed by Bishops who set them up, or not: If they may be taken down again by man, then the Church may be ruined by man; and so the Bishops will imitate the Pope▪ Either they will Reign, or Christ shall not Reign, if they can hinder it: Either they will lead the Church in their way, or Christ shall have no Church: If man cannot take them down, then 1. It seems man did not Institute them; for why may they not alter their own institutions? 2. And then it seems the Church hath universal standing, unchangeable Institutions, Offices and binding Laws of the Bishops making: And if so, are not the Bishops equal to the Apostles in Law making, and Church Ordering? and are not their Laws to us as the word of God, and that word insufficient? and every Bishop would be to his Diocess, and all to the whole Church, what the Pope would be to the whole.