A26911:657
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter of their nonconformity against Mr. J. Cheney's answer called The conforming nonconformist, and The nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benjamin Alsop, 1680
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.
2. Then the Bishop or Pastor, hath no Church but while Assembled: And he hath no Duty to perform for his Church, but while Assembled.
3. This is quite contrary to our Diocesans, who say (as honest Mr. Cawdry himself) that a Diocese is the first particular Church, and that it is no matter how many Assemblies it consist of, and that there is no Church without a Bishop, and so that ⟨p. 164⟩we have no more Churches than Bishops.
3. This is quite contrary to our Diocesans, who say (as honest Mr. Cawdry himself) that a Diocess is the first particular Church, and that it is no matter how many Assemblies it consist of, and that there is no Church without a Bishop, and so that ⟨p. 164⟩we have no more Churches than Bishops.
4. If a Bishop build a Temple on London Road, where Travellers shall be his ordinary Hearers, whom he shall never see again, this is a Temporary Transient Church; but verily it is another sort Church that is described in Scripture, and by Ignatius, Cyprian, and all Church-writers. And when the Bishop was to visit the Sick, and take care of the Poor, and to exhort from House to House, it was as for a Church, and not merely as for Christian Neighbours: And do you think no more consent was necessary to his special Duty to these more than to others, and theirs to him, than bare Assembling? Atheists, Infidels, Heretics, may Assemble with the rest; and Catechumens ordinarily did so, and were never made themselves the judges, whether and when they should be Baptized and admitted to Communion; but the Pastors were the judges.