Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

(75) áut Metropolitani nomen in Chrjianorum eccleffir auditum eft] Ile might haveadded, Leg.plu- aut Diocefani, for they were built by the fame hand on the fame foundation. Gra apud I do not mean that an Apoftolical General Miniftry was fo new, but a Dio- arf2 cefane of many Churches, as È i io us infirm radus. Multitudes of Pa efts 232, Y and Proteftants atteft the novelties of there for f id ranks. Two teflimhies 234, 235, of the Papifts are fo notable, as that I will not pafs them by. Cardinal Cufanus ( that Learned Prelate, and proud enough ) li. de Con- cord. 1. 2. C. 13. faith, [ Omnes gradus Majoritatis & Minoritatis in eccleffa ju- ris pofitivi eJe. j Andtherefore concludedthat the Papacy is removeable from Rome. Nay the veryCanon Law it fell, faith, Decret. Par. r. dif. 22. c. t. C. manes, COmnesfive Patriarchii cujuflibet apices, five Metropole an primatus, nut Epifeopa- tttumCathedras, vel ecclef:arum ceejufceengue ordinis dignitates, inftituit Roman ecclefia.1 what need we more witnefs ? It is from P. Nicolaus his decretal. And though a man might fufpea that hemeant onlyof theperfonal Inftitution of the particularPatriarchs, Metropolitans, &c. yet the context theweth the contrary,and that it is thefpecies,office or place that he fpeaketh of,Becaufe the oppofite affertion is,that theRoman Churches dignity was founded by God him- felf: And the next Cap. 2. is that, not the Apodles, but the Lord himfelfgave the Roman Church its primacy. XX. The next evidence is, That we rarely read ofany Bithops preaching` in anyChurchbut One, unlefs he was driven out of it by perfecution, or un- lets it were in another Bithops Church. If I Ihould except only the great PatriarchalChurches out ofall the world, and that only as late as 400 or Soo years after Chrift, when Emperours had helpt to increafe the Churches, no impartial man would take that for any debilitation of my proof. And yet I {hall not eafily yield to that exception. In Antioch and jerufalem I think it will hardly be affirmed, that the Bifhop ufed to preach to any Congregation but One : In Great Conftantinople ( equalled to Rome) when find you Chry- faftame any where'butin" oneChurch, except whenviolence hindred him, and then the fame Congregation followed him? Indeed the Novatians had aChurch there, and perhaps there was -Come bye Congregation or two of Chriftians, whoall communicated in the Bit-hops Church, and therefore were but as Chap- pels. But go into all the tell of ttie world, and the cafewill be plainer, (ex- cept Rome and Alexandria. ) Even Bail an Archbilhop is not found a Teacher ordinarily anywhere but to his Church at Cufarea ; nor Gregory but at Nazian- zum ( when he wentfrom Conftantinopleand fromSafimis ;) and fo of the reft, no not Ambrofe in the great city of Milan: And let it move none that Milanand fome other Cities had more Temples than one, for as Baroniesbefore cited tells us, there were then many Temples built as Monuments in honour of the Martyrs, -that were not 7ituli, nor had anyParith or Congregation belonging to them. When find you AuguJtine teaching in any Church but one (in Flippo I aspart ofhis charge ? Of Epiphanius I need not fpeak, feeing it is confet that in Cyprusno City had twoChurches in -his days, and that it was K 2 their

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=