A27050:1088
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.
VII. And here I think I may seasonably cite the Constitutions called Apostolical; which if not written by Clement, were certainly for the most part of them very ancient, as being before Athanasius who mentioneth them. And the Learned and Sober Albaspinaeus, Observ. Lib. 1. p. 38. saith, [De constitutionibus istis nemini dubium esse debet, quin probus juxta & antiquus liber sit; certoque affirmare possum trecentis primis eo ecclesiam Graecam, tanquam ritually & Pontificali usam esse; Quique eas attente legerit, eadem de illis quae de canonibus judicabit, additas, viz. decursu temporum primis novas, quemadmodum & novae leges & constitutions in regimine Ecclesiae, novis occasionibus enatis, factae sunt.] that though they were not written by Clement or the Apostles, yet they were that Summary of Apostolical or Christian Discipline, which the Greek Churches much used for the first three hundred years; and that Additions were made by degrees. But I cite them for nothing but the History, wherein they are of great account to acquaint us with the state of the Church in those times.
VII. And here I think I may seasonably cite the Constitutions called Apostolical; which if not written by Clement, were certainly for the most part of them very ancient, as being before Athanasius who mentioneth them. And the Learned and Sober Albaspinaeus, Observ. Lib. 1. p. 38. saith, [De constitutionibus istis nemini dubium esse debet, quin probus iuxta & antiquus liber sit; certoque affirmare possum trecentis primis eo ecclesiam Graecam, tanquam rituali & Pontificali usam esse; Quique eas attente legerit, eadem de illis quae de canonibus judicabit, additas, viz. decursu temporum primis novas, quemadmodum & novae leges & constitutiones in regimine Ecclesiae, novis occasionibus enatis, factae sunt.] that though they were not written by Clement or the Apostles, yet they were that Summary of Apostolical or Christian Discipline, which the Greek Churches much used for the first three hundred years; and that Additions were made by degrees. But I cite them for nothing but the History, wherein they are of great account to acquaint us with the state of the Church in those times.
Lib. 2. cap. 18. It is said, that [Omnium Episcopus curam habeat, & eorum qui non peccarunt, ut non peccent, & eorum qui in peccatis sunt, ut peccasse poeniteat: ait enim Dominus, Videte ne contemnatis unum ex pusillis istis. Item poenitentibus condonare oportet peccata.—Quocirca curam omnium suscipe tanquam rationem de pluribus redditurus: Ac sanos quidem conserva, lapsos vero mone, & qui in jejunio premens, leva in remissione, & eum qui luxit recipe, cuncta Ecclesia pro eo deprecante, &c.] And much more works he adds: Whereby it appeareth that the Bishopric was no greater than that he could take a personal care of every member, over the meanest, sound and unsound: And that it was one Assembly where all did intercede for the restoring of the Penitent.