Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5151 .B3 1659

(42 ) Papifls themfelves thought Presóyterie jure Diviuo. 2. Either they may be changed by Bithops who fet themup, or nót If they may be taken down again by man, then the Church may be ruined by man ; and fo the Bithops will unit"te the Pope ; Either they will Reign,or Chriff íhall not Reign,if they can hin- der it : Either they will lead the Church in their way or Chrift fhall have no Church : If man cannot take them down, then r. It feerras man did not Intlitute them ; for why may theynot alter their own inflitutions ? 2. And then it feems the Church bath univerfal (landing , unchangeable Inflitutions, Offices and binding Laws of the Bithops making : And if fo, are not the Bifhops equal to the Apoftles in Law making, and Church Or- dering ? and are not their Laws to us as theword of God and that word infuficient ? and every Bifhop would beto his Dio- refs, and all to the whole Church , what the Pope would be to . the whole. 3. Moreover how do they prove that ever the Apoilles. gave power to the Bithops to inflitute theorder of Presbyterie? I knowof no text ofScripture bywhich they can prove it And for Tradition, wewill not take every mans word that faith he bath tradition for his conceits, but we require the proof. The Papifls that are the pretended keepers of Tradition, do bring forth none as meetlyunwritten, but for their ordines inferiores, and many of them, for Bithops as diflin& from the Presbyters; but not for Presbyters themfelves..-.nd Scripture they can plead. none ; For if they mention fuch texts where Paul bids Titus ordain Elders inevery City, &c. theydeny this to be meant of Eldersas now,but ofPrelates whom 7itus as the Primate or Me- tropolitane was to ordain: And if it be meant of Elders,, then, they are found in Scripture, andof Divine Apoflolical Inílitu don; 4.If they were inftituted by Bifhops after the Scripture was written , was it by one Ilfhop, or by many ? If by one then how came that one tohave Authority to impofe a new Inflituti. on on the univerfal Church ? If by many , either out ofCoon cïl,or in if out ofCouncil, it was by an accidental falling into one mindaad way, and thenthey are but as tingle men to the Church and therefore ffill weask,how do they bind us? Ifby many in Council, I, Then let them tell us whatCouncil it was that

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