Your whole bóoke is groūded vpon the sands, yt is vpō foūdatiōs not proued, as this is. For you should first haue proued, that Christ hath so cōmaunded equalitie of Mini∣sters in gouernment & ecclesiastical pollicie, that one of them may not be aboue the o∣ther: the contrary is to be sene in scripture, both in words & examples, as I haue after declared, so far of is it, that you can shew any cōmaundement to the contrary. Thys text of ye. 15. of. Mat. did the Anabaptistes, obiect vnto Zuinglius in the like case, as it ap∣peareth in his boke de Baptismo. But he answered thē as I must answere you, I speake* 1.1 not as you feyne me to speake, I speake only of external & indifferent things, wherof there be many which are neither cōmaunded nor forbidden by any expresse worde of God. &c. & againe, for this that we speake of is not necessarrie vnto saluation, but it is external, of the which things many may be foūd omitted in the scriptures. &c. Wherfore except you can proue, that we bring into the Church some thing as necessary vnto saluation which is not expressed in the scriptures, this text is no more aptly applyed by you against me, than it was by the Anabaptists, against Zuinglius.
The wordes of Tertullian are true, and make nothing for your purpose, for you must first proue that these degrées be against the truth.