A27050:171
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 that Episcopacy which was set up to prevent Heresy and Divisions, did afford the Heads of most of the Heresies and Divisions that befell the Churches. How few of all the Heresies mentioned by Epiphanius, after that Prelacy was in force, were not Headed and carried on by Prelates? And when the Arian Heresy sprung up by a Presbyter, the Prelates so numerously received it, that they seemed to be the far greater part, if not the1 main body of the Imperial Church: Witness the perverting of many Emperors; the many Councils at Sirmium, Ariminum, &c. And the many new Creeds which Socrates and Hilary so shamefully enumerate and declaim against. So that it was said that the World groaned to find it self turned Arian.
And that Episcopacy which was set up to prevent Heresie and Divisions, did afford the Heads of most of the Heresies and Divisions that befell the Churches. How few of all the Heresies mentioned by Epiphanius, after that Prelacy was in force, were not Headed and carried on by Prelates? And when the Arian Heresie sprung up by a Presbyter, the Prelates so numerously received it, that they seemed to be the far greater part, if not the1 main body of the Imperial Church: Witness the perverting of many Emperours; the many Councils at Sirmium, Ariminum, &c. And the many new Creeds which Socrates and Hilary so shamefully enumerate and declaim against. So that it was said that the World groaned to find it self turned Arian.
- 1Theodoret Eccles. Hist. l. 1. cap. 10. Leg. Valentiniani & Valentus; Legem seu Literas in Theodoreti Eccl. Hist. l. 4. c. 7. & Hestor. Andaeanorum, c. 9. & Messalianorum c. 10. cum interpretatione D. Hookeri, li. 7. p. 66. de Audio.
And their feuds and inhumane contentions were so many and odious, that it is a shame to read them. Multitudes of Cities had Bishops set up against Bishops, and some Cities had more than two, or three: The people reviling and hating each other, and sometime fighting tumultuously unto blood, for their several Prelates. The Christian World was made as a Cockpit, and Christian Religion made a scorn, by the Contentions of the Bishops. Constantine's wisdom, conscience and interest, engaged him to use all his skill, his kindness and his power, to reconcile them: And if he had not done what he did, how unspeakably wretched would their odious contentions have rendered them? And yet he professeth his heart almost broken by their dissensions; and while he chid them bitterly and exhorted them kindly, he could not prevail. His Sons that succeeded him laboured to unite the Bishops, (though in different ways) and could not do it. Jovianus the little time he reigned, declared his hatred of their contentions, and how much he loved a peaceable man: but that did not cure them, even when they came new from under a Julian. I will look no lower, to the more degenerate Prelacy; but recite the doleful words of Eusebius, even of those that were not at the worst, and came but newly