A26965:95
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things…
The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacify such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.The nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of their judgment in certain things in which they are misunderstood written to reconcile and pacifie such as by mistaking them hinder love and concord / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benj. Alsop, 1679
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.
Sect. XIV. It being the Divine Institution of the Office of this second Order of Presbyters, which we are unsatisfied about; and these Reverend men confessing that de facto they were not in being (as can be proved by any evidence) in Scripture-times, and those times extending to ⟨p. 16⟩about the hundredth or ninety ninth year after Christs Nativity (when St. John wrote the Revelation) we must confess that we know not how that Order or Office can be proved then to be of God's institution. 1. As to the Efficient; who should do it as the certain authorized Instruments of God. 2. Or how it shall be certainly proved to us to be of God, when Scripture telleth it not to us; and what Records of it are infallible; And whether such pretended proofs of Tradition as a supplement to Scripture, be not that which the Papacy is built on, and will not serve their turn as well as this.
Sect. XV. And whereas it is said that the Bishops made in Scripture-times had authority given them to make afterward that second Office or Order of Presbyters: 1. We cannot but marvel then that in such great Churches, as that at Jerusalem, Ephesus, Corinth, &c. they should never use their Power in all the Scripture times. And when they had so many Elders at Jerusalem, so many Prophets and Teachers at Antioch and Corinth, that Paul was fain to restrain their exercises, and bid them prophesy but One by One; and one said, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollo, &c. there should yet in that age be none found meet for Bishops to ordain to this second sort of Presbyters, as well as men to make Deacons of.
Sect. XV. And whereas it is said that the Bishops made in Scripture-times had authority given them to make afterward that second Office or Order of Presbyters: 1. We cannot but marvel then that in such great Churches, as that at Jerusalem, Ephesus, Corinth, &c. they should never use their Power in all the Scripturetimes. And when they had so many Elders at Jerusalem, so many Prophets and Teachers at Antioch and Corinth, that Paul was fain to restrain their exercises, and bid them prophesie but One by One; and one said, I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollo, &c. there should yet in that age be none found meet for Bishops to ordain to this second sort of Presbyters, as well asmen to make Deacons of.