Baxter - BX1765 B39 1691

is in General Councils. If fo; .their Laws are dead a thoufand years; and we cannot·difobeyor– obey dead men: Therefore why do you prefs, us to obey their Laws? · Arg. 5. IfGod·would have had fu~h Councils to be the Univerfal Soveraigns,he would have no– tified this plainly in his Word, or in Nature ; it being fuppofed the Confiitutive Form of the Church, or at leafi neceffarily •tO be known for the common Dt~ty and Concord of Chrifiians : Our oppo0 r5 fay, [ There u no Concord nor avoid– ing damnaGle Schi[m, but by obeying tht: fJniverfat · Governing Church.] But' God hath·,riotified no fuclt thing in Nature or Scripture. .Arg. 6. If God would have his Church Uni...· verfal to have had (uch a Soveraign, 'he would have empowered fome one or more to call fuch a Council, and told us who hath the power to call them, that we may know which have Au– thority and are to be obeyed : For there have been many falfe and heretical General Councils ( fo .called ; ) and they have curfed and condemn– ed one another. But G(i)d hath given us no notice of any empowered to call fuch aCouncil, nor any means how to know \vhich of them is true, and which falfe, whi~h to obey, and which not; what– ever the Pope pretendeth. Arg. 1· All the Inferior Officers derive their Power· from the Supreme: But all the particular Bi!hops and l?resbyters do not derive their Power from Gene1:al Councils; ergo they are not Su~ preme. The Major is undoubted with all Politick Writers: It is one o£ the Jura· Majejfatis to be the Founra· _ .. of Inferior Power~ · The

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