A27050:1072
A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort…
A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiors, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiours, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1681
Part 2 › Chapter 5: The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity.
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.
And further, [Aquam adituri itidem, sed & aliquando prius in Ecclesia sub antistitis manu contestamur, nos renunciare Diabolo & pompae & angelis ejus.]
In all these words (and many more such in Tertullian) it is evident, 1. That then a Church was a Congregation met for holy Worship, and not many hundred ⟨p. 30⟩Congregations making one Church primae ordinis. 2. That this Church had ordinarily a Bishop present (not present in one Congregation and many hundred without.) 3. That the Bishop baptized, and took the Confessions of the Baptized, and performed the ordinary Worship, and administered the Lords Supper. (Doctor Hammond himself maintaineth that it is the Bishop that Tertullian speaketh of.) 4. That Discipline was exercised in those Church Assemblies, and therefore the Bishop was present.
In all these words (and many more such in Tertullian) it is evident, 1. That then a Church was a Congregation met for holy Worship, and not many hundred ⟨p. 30⟩Congregations making one Church primae ordinis. 2. That this Church had ordinarily a Bishop present (not present in one Congregation and many hundred without.) 3. That the Bishop baptized, and took the Confessions of the Baptized, and performed the ordinary Worship, and administred the Lords Supper. (Doctor Hammond himself maintaineth that it is the Bishop that Tertullian speaketh of.) 4. That Discipline was exercised in those Church Assemblies, and therefore the Bishop was present.
5. They took the Sacrament from none but the Bishops hand (save that the Deacon distributed it as from him) which proveth that the Bishop was present, when ever the Sacrament was administered. 6. They had these Assemblies every Lords day. All which set together plainly showeth that then every Church had a present Bishop, (ordinarily) and was no more than one Congregation, met for such Communion as is described.