A27050:1295
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 7: More Proofs of the aforesaid Limits of Churches.
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.
And I may add as to the former Evidences, To. 5. Serm. 52. pag. 705. when he had showed that in the Church there must be no division, he expoundeth it by [[Greek or Hebrew].] [Qui seipsum ab hoc conventu sejunxerit.] So that the Assembly was the Church, and not a thousandth part of the Church only.
And I may add as to the former Evidences, To. 5. Serm. 52. pag. 705. when he had shewed that in the Church there must be no division, he expoundeth it by [〈non-Latin alphabet〉.] [Qui seipsum ab hoc conventu sejunxerit.] So that the Assembly was the Church, and not a thousandth part of the Church only.
See more of the Churches feasting together in Baronius ad an. 57. pag. (ed. Plant.) 543. to spare me more labour about this.
VI. Another Evidence of the Limits of the ancient Churches is (that which I oft mentioned in the particular Testimonies) that every where all the People either chose, or expressly consented to their Bishops, and they were ordained over them in their sight. And this no more could do than could meet in one place; and one part of a Church hath no more right to it than all the rest. The Consequence is evident: And for them that say, that it was only the Parishioners of the Cathedral Church that voted; I answer, Now Cathedrals have no Parishes, and heretofore the Cathedral Parish was the whole Church. The Testimonies fully prove that it was All the Church or People that were the Bishop's Flock: And for some hundreds of Years there were no Parishes in his Diocese but one, and therefore no such distinction. Pamelius's heap of Testimonies, and many more, for the matter of fact I have already cited: And however some talk now to justify the contrary course of our times, it is so clear and full in Antiquity that the People chose their Bishops, at first principally, and after secondarily after the Clergy, having a Negative Voice with them, and their Consent and Testimony ever necessary, even for eight hundred Years at least, that it would be a needless thing to cite any more Testimonies of it to any versed in the Ancients. Papists and Protestants are agreed de facto that so it was. See Cyprian, lib. 4. Epist. 2. of Cornelius; lib. 1. Epist. 2. of Sabinus; and lib. 1. Epist. 4. Euseb. Hist. lib. 6. cap. 29. tells us that Fabian by the People was chosen to succeed Anterus. And Cyprian saith it was Tradition Apostolica, vid. & Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 14. & lib. 2. cap. 6. & lib. 7. cap. 35. & Sozomen. lib. 6. cap. 24. & lib. 8. cap. 2. of Chrysostom; & lib. 6. cap. 13. vid. & Augustin. Epist. 110. & Theodoret, Hist. lib. 1. cap. 9. in Epist. Concil. Nicaeni ad Alexandr. The Bloodshed at the Choice of Damasus was one of the first occasions of laying by that custom at Rome. And yet though they met not so tumultuously, they must consent. Leo's Testimony I gave you before with many more. Theodor. lib. 5. cap. 9. of Nectarius showeth that Bishops were then chosen, Plebe praesente & universa fraternitate, as Cyprian speaketh of Sabinus.