A27050:1371
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.
And first let it be remembered in what predicament the things in question are, a Church and a Bishop: That is, They are relations. Then let it be remembered what goeth to the essence and definition of a Relation, that is, The Relate, the Correlate, the Subject, the Fundamentum (or as some speak the Ratio fundandi also) and the Terminus. Now where these are not the same, or any of these, then the Relation is not the same: because where an essential ingredient is wanting, the essence is wanting.
And first let it be remembred in what predicament the things in question are, a Church and a Bishop: That is, They are relations. Then let it be remembred what goeth to the essence and definition of a Relation, that is, The Relate, the Correlate, the Subject, the Fundamentum (or as some speak the Ratio fundandi also) and the Terminus. Now where these are not the same, or any of these, then the Relation is not the same: because where an essential ingredient is wanting, the essence is wanting.
Again it must be remembered that many Natural Relations are so founded in an act past, that the Relation resulteth from it without depending on any thing future. As God is Creator quia jam creavit, Pater est qui genuit. But there are other Relations which are founded in mere Undertaking, Mandate authority, and obligation to future actions: As he is a Tutor, a Schoolmaster, a Judge, a Chancellor, a Pilot, a Bishop, a Husband, &c. who by mandate and undertaking is authorized and obliged to such and such works, implied in the names. And in these cases, there is nothing more specifieth the offices than the work of the office, which is, its nearest End. And these nearest ends are ever essential to such Relations; whether you will call them the Termini or End, or by what other name, we contend not.
Again it must be remembred that many Natural Relations are so founded in an act past, that the Relation resulteth from it without depending on any thing future. As God is Creator quia jam creavit, Pater est qui genuit. But there are other Relations which are founded in meer Undertaking, Mandate authority, and obligation to future actions: As he is a Tutor, a Schoolmaster, a Judge, a Chancellor, a Pilot, a Bishop, a Husband, &c. who by mandate and undertaking is authorized and obliged to such and such works, implyed in the names. And in these cases, there is nothing more specifieth the offices than the work of the office, which is, its nearest End. And these nearest ends are ever essential to such Relations; whether you will call them the Trmini or End, or by what other name, we contend not.