A27050:1377
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.
1. Quando Circumstantia novam conformitatem, aut deformitatem actui tribuit; ita ut peculiariter conveniat vel repugnet rectae rationi, novam speciem constituit: Rat. Quia in hoc casu circumstantia transit in rationem objecti—2. Quotiescunque circumstantia non respicit specialem ordinem rationis in bono vel malo nisi praesupposita alia circumstantia a qua actus moralis habet speciem boni vel mali quam solam intra eandem speciem auget, vel diminuit, reddendo actum illum meliorem aut pejorem, toties circumstantia illa aggravans vel diminuens, non autem speciem mutans, censenda est: ut quantitas v. g. magna vel parva in furto.
Note also that though Relatio in forma relationis, non recipit magis & minus; e. g. Titius non est magis Pater quam Sempronius; Yet quoad subjectum, & aliquando quoad fundamentum & correlatum, it may recipere magis & minus, so that magis vel minus shall change the species. This is in such cases, wherein the alteration of Quantity altereth the Capacity of the subject quoad finem essentialem. For as in Physics, besides the Matter, the Dispositio materiae (which Aristotle calls Privation) is necessary ad formam recipiendam (which is commonly called A third Principle; but I would call it, the Conditio necessaria of the Material Principle;) so in Relations there must be the Dispositio necessaria subjecti, or else there can no relation result. E. g. to the being of a house, some quantity is necessary to the End, that is, habitation; And therefore it is no house, except equivocally which is no bigger than an egg-shell: So to the being of a Ship, of a Church, &c. that which is no bigger than a nutshell is no Ship or Church, though you call it so or Consecrate it, &c. And on the other side, It is not a spoon, a dish, a ladle, a pen, which is as big as a Church, a Ship, a House. Yea a Ship and a Boat do differ in specie, though both have the same End, (safe passage over the waters by portage) by the circumstantial differences of the End and Subject.
Note also that though Relatio in forma relationis, non recipit magis & minus; e. g. Titius non est magis Pater quam Sempronius; Yet quoad subjectum, & aliquando quoad fundamentum & correlatum, it may recipere magis & minus, so that magis vel minus shall change the species. This is in such cases, wherein the alteration of Quantity altereth the Capacity of the subject quoad finem essentialem. For as in Physicks, besides the Matter, the Dispositio materiae (which Aristotle calls Privation) is necessary ad formam recipiendam (which is comonly called A third Principle; but I would call it, the Conditio necessaria of the Material Principle;) so in Relations there must be the Dispositio necessaria subjecti, or else there can no relation result. E. g. to the being of a house, some quantity is necessary to the End, that is, habitation; And therefore it is no house, except equivocally which is no bigger than an egg-shell: So to the being of a Ship, of a Church, &c. that which is no bigger than a nutshel is no Ship or Church, though you call it so or Consecrate it, &c. And on the other side, It is not a spoon, a dish, a ladle, a pen, which is as big as a Church, a Ship, a House. Yea a Ship and a Boat do differ in specie, though both have the same End, (safe passage over the waters by portage) by the circumstantial differences of the End and Subject.