A27050:128
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
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.
17. At the same time many Heresies arose, which occasioned Divisions in the Churches, and sometimes among the Officers themselves.
18. And the Ministers being, though holy, yet imperfect, as well as other Christians, the remnants of self-conceitedness and pride, occasioned also the trouble of the Churches: For when the Apostles themselves while Christ was with them strove who should be the Greatest, and have the highest place, it is no wonder if they did so afterward, who had not so great a measure of Grace as they.
19. Besides all this, when the Apostolical Virtues ceased, there were few Philosophers or Learned men that turned Christians, and few that had excellent Gifts of Oratory, fit to be Teachers of the Churches; And the most of the Elders were good men but of inferior parts; Like the better sort of our unlearned godly Christians. By which means it came to pass, that some one of the Clergy in every Church, (when there were many) having so much Knowledge, and Oratory as to overtop the rest, he was ordinarily more esteemed than the rest.
19. Besides all this, when the Apostolical Virtues ceased, there were few Philosophers or Learned men that turned Christians, and few that had excellent Gifts of Oratory, fit to be Teachers of the Churches; And the most of the Elders were good men but of inferiour parts; Like the better sort of our unlearned godly Christians. By which means it came to pass, that some one of the Clergy in every Church, (when there were many) having so much Knowledge, and Oratory as to overtop the rest, he was ordinarily more esteemed than the rest.