A26924:441
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated…
The English nonconformity as under King Charles II and King James II truly stated and argued by Richard Baxter ; who earnestly beseecheth rulers and clergy not to divide and destroy the land and cast their own souls on the dreadful guilt and punishment of national perjury ...
London: printed for Tho. Parkhurst, 1689
Chapter 26: Point XXIII. Of Publishing the Seventh Canons Excommunications.
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.
M. You may easily know what, by what is already said; 1. I have fully proved as aforesaid in my Treatise of Episcopacy, that if Episcopacy were never so certainly of Divine Institution, this Form of Diocesan Prelacy deposeth quantum in se, the old Church Form, the old Episcopacy, the old Presbytery, and almost all true Discipline, and in stead of each, sets up that which is repugnant to the Word of God. And must we all confederate to maintain this Church Corruption; and all agree to renounce Reformation, or any Conviction tending to Repentance? 2. I have told you what it is for Lay-men and Courts to arrogate the Decretive Power of the Church Keys, and for single Priests and Officials to rule all the Clergy and People as under them; And for our Prelate to undertake to be the sole Bishop over many Hundred Clergy; And then to Govern per alios, in a secular manner, even by Lay-men, that do that in his Name which he knows not of, and this in order to Gaols and Ruin. If all this be agreeable to God's Word, what is contrary to it? 3. I have told you what it is to make every Church Officer so necessary, as that it should be Excommunication to say Any one of them is sinful, when as Learned good Men as most the World hath, have written to prove almost all of them sinful corrupt Inventions of Arrogance; and that it's far worse for Men to presume to make new Forms and Offices of Church Government, than new Ceremonies. 4. The Parliament of England condemned the Oath called the & caetera Oath in the Canon of 1640. And the late long Parliament of 1662. never restored it, nor any since. And was it not formed according to this Canon? What's [&c.] but [And the rest that bear Office therein] (reliquos ad ejusdem gubernaculum constitutos) For my part, tho' I have oft read over Cousins Tables, and the Canons, I do not yet know and remember all the Church Governing Courts and Offices? How many there be besides the Bishop, the Chancellors Court, the Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Arch-deacons, Commissaries, Officials, Surrogates, I know not. And are every one of these become as necessary to be taken for lawful as the twelve Apostles, or the Articles of our Creed. For my part I am far from thinking that those Bishops and Doctors should be Excommunicated or Damned, who by Faction are drawn to deny the Ministry and Churches that have ⟨p. 114⟩not Prelatical Ordination and Government;
M. You may easily know what, by what is already said; 1. I have fully proved as aforesaid in my Treatise of Episcopacy, that if Episcopacy were never so certainly of Divine Institution, this Form of Diocesan Prelacy deposeth quantum in se, the old Church Form, the old Episcopacy, the old Presbytery, and almost all true Discipline, and in stead of each, sets up that which is repugnant to the Word of God. And must we all confederate to maintain this Church Corruption; and all agree to renounce Reformation, or any Conviction tending to Repentance? 2. I have told you what it is for Lay-men and Courts to arrogate the Decretive Power of the Church Keys, and for single Priests and Officials to rule all the Clergy and People as under them; And for our Prelate to undertake to be the sole Bishop over many Hundred Clergy; And then to Govern per alios, in a secular manner, even by Lay-men, that do that in his Name which he knows not of, and this in order to Gaols and Ruine. If all this be agreeable to God's Word, what is contrary to it? 3. I have told you what it is to make every Church Officer so necessary, as that it should be Excommunication to say Any one of them is sinful, when as Learned good Men as most the World hath, have written to prove almost all of them sinful corrupt Inventions of Arrogance; and that it's far worse for Men to presume to make new Forms and Offices of Church Government, than new Ceremonies. 4. The Parliament of England condemned the Oath called the & caetera Oath in the Canon of 1640. And the late long Parliament of 1662. never restored it, nor any since. And was it not formed according to this Canon? What's [&c.] but [And the rest that bear Office therein] (reliquos ad ejusdem gubernaculum constitutos) For my part, tho' I have oft read over Cousins Tables, and the Canons, I do not yet know and remember all the Church Governing Courts and Offices? How many there be besides the Bishop, the Chancellors Court, the Arches, the Prerogative Court, the Arch-deacons, Commissaries, Officials, Surrogates, I know not. And are every one of these become as necessary to be taken for lawful as the twelve Apostles, or the Articles of our Creed. For my part I am far from thinking that those Bishops and Doctors should be Excommunicated or Damned, who by Faction are drawn to deny the Ministry and Churches that have