A27050:1108
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.
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.
X. But Councils give the surest testimonies to such matter of fact: Concil. Agath. Can. 4. Siquis etiam extra Parochias, & ubi legitimus est ordinariusque conventus, Oratorium habere voluerit, reliquis festivitatibus ut ibi missam audiat, propter fatigationem familiae, justa ordination permittimus. Pascha vero, Natali Domini, Epiphania, Ascensione Domini, Pentecoste, & natali Sancti Johannis Baptistae, & siqui maxim dies, in festivitatibus habentur, non nisi in civitatibus, aut Parochiis audiant. This being decreed so late, when Christians were increased in the Countries, alloweth them, to avoid weariness in travelling with their Families too far, to have Chapels or Oratories in the remote parts of the Country (but so that they come all to the City or Parish Church on all the greatest Festivals.) Which showeth that then the Church was but one Assembly which all could join in to hear the word.