A27050:1107
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.
The Can. 32. saith, [Siquis Presbyter contemnens Episcopum suum, seorsim collegerit & altar aliud erexerit, nihil habens quo reprehendat Episcopum in causa pietatis, aut justitiae, deponatur, quasi principatus amator existens.—Haec autem post unam & secundam & tertiam Episcopi obsecrationem fieri conveniat.] The same is in the Can. 5. Concil. Antioch. And to set up aliud Altar, & Altar contra Altar is the Phrase used then by many Writers, and Councils, to signify a dividing and separating from the Church, and setting up an Antichurch; All which showeth that then a Bishops Church had but one Altar.
The Can. 32. saith, [Siquis Presbyter contemnens Episcopum suum, seorsim collegerit & altare aliud erexerit, nihil habens quo reprehendat Episcopum in causa pietatis, aut justitiae, deponatur, quasi principatus amator existens.—Haec autem post unam & secundam & tertiam Episcopi obsecrationem fieri conveniat.] The same is in the Can. 5. Concil. Antioch. And to set up aliud Altare, & Altare contra Altare is the Phrase used then by many Writers, and Councils, to signifie a dividing and separating from the Church, and setting up an Antichurch; All which sheweth that then a Bishops Church had but one Altar.
IX. Dionysius (whoever or whenever he wrote) doth so describe the Bishops work as showeth that he had but one Church and Presbytery to assist him. Cap. 4. de Eccles. Hier. he tells us that [The Prefect did baptize those that were converted,] and the Presbyters and Deacons did but assist him: And it is a very long manner of baptizing which he there describeth, and all the Church were called together to it, and joined in it. And this was in times when the Infidels were to be brought in, and converted, and baptized at Age, where Examinations, Professions and Circumstances made it so long a work, as this alone would have proved his Church to be no greater than aforesaid: much more with the rest of the work which he describeth.
IX. Dionysius (whoever or whenever he wrote) doth so describe the Bishops work as sheweth that he had but one Church and Presbytery to assist him. Cap. 4. de Eccles. Hier. he tells us that [The Prefect did baptize those that were converted,] and the Presbyters and Deacons did but assist him: And it is a very long manner of baptizing which he there describeth, and all the Church were called together to it, and joyned in it. And this was in times when the Infidels were to be brought in, and converted, and baptized at Age, where Examinations, Professions and Circumstances made it so long a work, as this alone would have proved his Church to be no greater than aforesaid: much more with the rest of the work which he describeth.