A26898:177
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part…
Church-history of the government of bishops and their councils abbreviated including the chief part of the government of Christian princes and popes, and a true account of the most troubling controversies and heresies till the Reformation ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London: printed by B. Griffin for Thomas Simmons, 1680
Church-History OF BISHOPS And their COUNCILS ABRIDGED, &c. › Chapter 1
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. Because it altereth the ancient Office of a Bishop and of a Presbyter, and setteth new ones in the stead: As a Bishop was the Bishop of one Church, so a Presbyter was his Assistant, Ejusdem Ordinis, in the Government of the Church, who now is turned into a mere Usher, or Worshipping-Teacher, or Chaplain.
4. Because it altereth the antient Office of a Bishop and of a Presbyter, and setteth new ones in the stead: As a Bishop was the Bishop of one Church, so a Presbyter was his Assistant, Ejusdem Ordinis, in the Government of the Church, who now is turned into a meer Usher, or Worshipping-Teacher, or Chaplain.
5. Because it certainly divideth the Churches: For Christians would unite in a Divine Institution, and the exercise of true Discipline, that will never unite in a humane Policy which abrogateth the Divine, and certainly destroyeth commanded necessary Discipline.
§. 35. The very work also of the Bishop, and so the Office came thus to be changed: Christ having appointed no other Church Governors (besides Magistrates) but such (as Philosophers in their Schools) who were appointed to set up Holy Societies for Divine Doctrine, Worship, and Holy Living, and to Guide them accordingly, by Teaching, Worship, and Government by the Word, forbidding them the Sword or Force, they are said to have the Keys of the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven, because as Grace is Glory in the seed, the Church is Heaven in the seed, and the Pastors were the Administrators of Sacraments and Church-privileges, and therefore the Judges who were fit for them, who should be Baptized, who ⟨p. 14⟩should Communicate, and in what rank, and who should be denied these, admonished or excluded, and who should, as far as belongeth to others, be judged meet or unmeet for Heaven: And so the Christian Societies were to be kept clean, and not to be like the polluted World of Infidels. And the Pastors had no other power to use; but were to judge only those within, and leave them without to Gods own judgment, and to the Magistrate, who was not to punish any one for not being in or of the Church, or for departing from it, which is a grievous punishment it self.