A27050:1243
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 6: The same further confirmed by the Ancients.
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.
XXIV. Sozomen's Testimony (even so late) is very observable; lib. 7. cap. 15. who mentioning the differences of the East and West about Easter, and inferring that the Churches should not break Communion for such Customs, saith, [Frivolum enim & merito quidem judicarunt, consuetudinis gratia a se mutuo segregari eos qui in praecipuis Religionis capitibus consentirent: Neque enim easdem traditiones per omnia similes in omnibus Ecclesiis quamvis inter se consentientes, reperire posses.] And he instanceth in this, [Etenim per Scythiam cum sint Civitates multae, unum d•ntaxat hae omnes Episcopum habent (I told you the reason of this Rarity before) Apud alias vero nationes reperias ubi & Pagis Episcopi ordinantur: Sicut apud Arabes & Cyprios ego comperi.] He speaketh of his own knowledge: No wonder then if Epiphanius be to be interpreted as Petavius doth, when in Cyprus not only the Cities had but one Church, but also the ⟨p. 55⟩Villages had Bishops. To these he addeth the Novatians and the Phrygian Montanists. And let none think their instances inconsiderable. For the Montanists were for high Prelacy, even for Patriarchs, as in Tertullian appeareth. And the Novatians were for Bishops, and had many very Godly Bishops, and were tolerated by the Emperors even in Constantinople, as good People and Orthodox in the Faith: And Novatus was martyred in Valerian's Persecution, as Socrates, l. 4. c. 23. saith.
XXV. Even Clemens Roman. or whoever he was that wrote in his name, Epist. 3. showeth that Teaching the People is the Bishop's Office, and concludeth (in Crab, p. 45.) Audire (Episcopum) attentius oportet & ab ipso suscipere doctrinam fidei; Monita autem vitae a Presbyteris inquire, a Diaconis vero ordinem Disciplinae: By which Partition of Offices it is evident, that the Bishop only and not the Presbyters then used to preach to the Church, and that the Presbyters (though ejusdem ordinis, and not Lay-Elders) used to instruct the People personally, and give them Monita vitae: and that they were all in one Church together, and not in several distant Churches.