COROLLARIES FROM THE PRECEDING ACCOUNT. 223 unjust laws, or tyrannically abusing his power, may and ought to be rejected from communion. 9. Such a patriarch is to be judged by a free synod, if it may be had. 10. If such a synod cannot be had by consent of princes, each church may free itself from the mischiefs induced by his perverse doctrine or practice. 11. No ecclesiastical power can interpose in the management of any affairs within the territory of anyprince, without his concession. 12. By the laws of God, and according to ancientpractice, princes may model the bounds of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, erect bishoprics, enlarge, diminish, or transfer them, as they please. 13. Wherefore, each prince, having supreme power in his own do- minions, and equal to what the emperor had inhis, may exclude any foreign prelate from jurisdiction in his territories. 14. It is expedient, for peace and public good, that he should do thus. 15. Such prelate, according to the rules of Christianity, ought to be content with his doing so. 16. Any prelate exercising power in the dominion of any prince is " eatenus" [so far] his subject; as the popes and all bishops were to the Roman emperors. 17. Those joints of ecclesiastical discipline established in the Roman empire, by the confirmation of emperors, were, as to neces- sary continuance, dissolved by the dissolution of the Roman empire. 18. The power of the pope in the territories of any prince sub- sisted by his authority and favour. 19. By the same reason as princes have curbed the exorbitancy of papal power in some cases, of entertaining legates, making appeals, disposing of benefices, &c., by the same they might exclude it. 20. The practice of Christianity does not depend upon the sub- sistence of such a form, instituted by man.* Having shown at large that this universal sovereigntyand juris- diction of the bishop of Rome over the Christian church has no real foundation, either in Scripture or elsewhere, it will be requisite to show by what ways and means so groundless a claim and pretence should gain belief and submission to it from so considerable a part * The powers here assigned to princes may be considered, by Episcopalians as well as others, to exceed those allowed to civil rulers by " the laws of God," however ac- cordant they may be with "ancient practice." But though, as general principles, some of these corollaries may admit of dispute, yet, as applied to the church of Rome, it is not easy to resist their force. In truth, all general reasonings on the respec- tive jurisdiction of church and state are out of place, when the question is with a church which claims an authority co- extensive in its objectswith that of the state, and subversive ofall due allegiance to civil rulers.ED.
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