Baxter - BX1763 B28

Clio) I3attel was over, and then give the flatteringLetter and the Prefent to him whoever that got the better. But though frill fince the world came into the Church; and theGreatnefs, Power, andHonour of Prelacy made that Office a very alluring bait to the defires of the molt worldly flefhly men, yet God kept up forte that main- tained their integrity, and bare their teflimony againír the pride and carnality of the rat ., and though the fcan- dals of the Catholicks turned many to the Novatians, and otherSees that profeft more frritrefs, (yea Salvian makes the Arrians, Gothes, and Vandals themfelves to be men of more honefty and temperance than theCa- tholick Clergie) yet found Do&rive had frill fomeholy Men that did maintain it. But what were the Popes doing all this while ? Sound Dotrine by theadvantage ofthe foundnefs of the Weft- em Emperour as is faid, yet kept out Arrianifm, Pelagia- nifme and fuch other Herefies there : but they were frill ftriving to be theGreatefl : Leo one of thebell ofthem was one of the firfI that laid claim to an Univerfal Head- fhipwithin the Empire : I told youhow zofamia and his Followers flrove with the Africans, to have Appeals made to Rome from the African Bifhops andCouncils: which the Africans ffifly oppofed as contrary to the Ca- nons, to Cufrom, and to thereafon ofDifcipline, which required that Cafes íhould be judged and ended where perlons and things wereknown, and not by Strangers a- far off, where Witnefles could not without intolerable charge and troublebebrought beyond Sea toprofecute the fuite. The words of theAfrican Council tranflated are thefe: [ Let your Holinefs, as befeemeth you, repel the "wicked refuges ofPresbyters and the Clergie that follow 4z them, becaufe this isnot takenfrom theAfricanChurch by

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