A27050:1244
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.
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.
XXV. Even Clemens Roman. or whoever he was that wrote in his name, Epist. 3. sheweth 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.
XXVI. Paul himself telleth us that Cenchrea had a Church, and the Scripture saith, They ordained Elders in every Church: And though Downame without any proof obtrude upon us, that it was under the Bishop of Corinth, and had a Presbyter of his to teach them; yet of what Authority soever (in other respects) the Constitutions called Clements or the Apostles be, they are of more than his in this; where lib. 7. cap. 46. in that old Liturgy, Lucius is said to be Bishop of Cenchrea, ordained by the Apostles.
XXVII. Gennadius de viris illustr. l. 1. c. 10. saith, that Asclepius was Vici non grandis Episcopus, Bishop of a Village not great.