Owen - BX5085 O84x 1681

(i3) what he hath commanded, Matth; S. 20 Hë /wills his own Houfe , and he is over his own [Ioufe, Heb. 3. 3, 4, 5, 6. He both conftitutes its State , and gives ;.Laws for its Rule. The 'Diforder, the Confufioh; 'the turning of the King- dom of Chrifi upfide down, which have eniùed upon the Ufurpation of men, taking upon them a Legi{iative Pow- er, in, and over the Church, cannot eafily be declared : For upon a flight Pretence, no. way fuited or ferviceable unto their ends, of the Advice given, and Determination made by the Apoftles,with the Elders and Brethren of the Church ofie- rufalem, in a temporary Conftitution about the ufe of Chri ftian Liberty, the Bifhops ofthe 4th and 5th Centuries, took upon themfelves Power to make Laws, Canons, and Confli- lutions for the ordering of the Government, and the Rule of the Church, bringing in many new Inflitutions , on a Pretence of the fame Authority. Neither did others who followed them ceafe to build on their fandy Foundation, un- til the whole frame ofthe Church-State was altered, a new Law made for its Government, and a newChrifi or Antichrift of umed in the head of its Rule by that Law : For all this pretended Authority of making Laws and Conftitutions for the Government ofthe Church, iffued inthat Sink ofAbo - minations, which they call the. Canon-Law. Let anyman , but ofa tolerable underftanding, and freed from infatuating prejudices, but read the Reprefentation that is made of the Golpel Church-State, its Order, Rule, and Government in the Scripture on the one hand, and what Reprefentation is madeon theother, of a ChurchState, its Order, Rule and Government, in the Canon-Law, the only effedt ofmens af- fuming to themfelves a LegiflativePower with refpedt unto the Church ofChrift, ifhe Both not pronounce them to be contrary, as Light and Darknef's, and that by the latter the former is utterly deftroyed, and taken away, I null never trufc

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