A97353:624
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…
The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their principles about civil and ecclesiastical authority and obedience ... : mostly written many years past, and now published to save our lives and the kingdoms peace, from the false and bloody plotters ... / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for John Hancock, 1680
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.
6. The Universal Church as Believing or as Professing (mystical or visible) hath no universal Head but Christ: who is an Invisible Head as he is unseen to us in Heaven, but Visible as he is there now seen (as the King by his Courtiers) and as he was seen on earth, and will be shortly seen of all the world. But as for the Pope or any other pretended head, 1. No man giveth us any proof that ever Christ appointed and authorized any such Head: and it's Treason against him to usurp such a power.
6. The Vniversal Church as Believing or as Professing (mystical or visible) hath no universal Head but Christ: who is an Invisible Head as he is unseen to us in Heaven, but Visible as he is there now seen (as the King by his Courtiers) and as he was seen on earth, and will be shortly seen of all the world. But as for the Pope or any other pretended head, 1. No man giveth us any proof that ever Christ appointed and authorized any such Head: and it's Treason against him to usurp such a power.
2. No mortal man hath Natural capacity of such an office. An Universal Head must relate to the Church in all parts of the world, not only as it is now extended, but as it shall be at any time: and no man is able to do the work of a real Governor and Guide at the Antipodes, and in all Nations of the earth, even in the Kingdoms where Princes by wars or Infidelity deny access to foreigners, and subjects of their enemies: and where cases that require a speedy decision ⟨p. 135⟩may wait half an age till the parties are dead, before it can be dispatched at Rome, and witnesses cannot go so far: And when Church Government extends no farther, than to judge who shall be in the Ministry and in Church Communion, and to decide particular cases of faith and Life in order to this end, Princes and People are unhappy men, if they must be without Teachers or Sacraments, or without a certain Faith in Abyssinia, Armenia, at the Antipodes and in all the world, till they receive a just determination from Rome.
2. No mortal man hath Natural capacity of such an office. An Vniversal Head must relate to the Church in all parts of the world, not only as it is now extended, but as it shall be at any time: and no man is able to do the work of a real Governour and Guide at the Antipodes, and in all Nations of the earth, even in the Kingdoms where Princes by wars or Infidelity deny access to foreigners, and subjects of their enemies: and where cases that require a speedy decision