A27050:238
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.
53. If any acknowledging the Pastors of each Church to have the whole Pastoral Office, and power of the Keys of that Church which he overseeth, shall yet affirm that the aforesaid superior General Bishops (or Arch-Bishops) have a superior power of the Keys, and therefore shall have the decision of controversies that arise in particular Churches between the Pastors and the People, and that appeals may be made by the people to them, and that they may visit the particular Churches at their pleasure, and have power to censure the particular Bishops (or Pastors) when they deserve it, or to Ordain Ministers, remove them, and depose them as there is just cause, (by bare sentence, and the peoples consent,) and all this jure divino, as Successors to the Apostles in their Government, or ⟨p. 38⟩to such Archbishops (or General Bishops) as Timothy and Titus. I shall not contend against any of this, for the reasons aforesaid, being uncertain of the thing in question. But if I must be put to subscribe, that I believe all this to be true, (as if it were an Article of my Faith) the same uncertainty would forbid me.
53. If any acknowledging the Pastors of each Church to have the whole Pastoral Office, and power of the Keys of that Church which he overseeth, shall yet affirm that the aforesaid superiour General Bishops (or Arch-Bishops) have a superiour power of the Keys, and therefore shall have the decision of controversies that arise in particular Churches between the Pastors and the People, and that appeals may be made by the people to them, and that they may visit the particular Churches at their pleasure, and have power to censure the particular Bishops (or Pastors) when they deserve it, or to Ordain Ministers, remove them, and depose them as there is just cause, (by bare sentence, and the peoples consent,) and all this jure divino, as Successors to the Apostles in their Government, or ⟨p. 38⟩to such Archbishops (or General Bishops) as Timothy and Titus. I shall not contend against any of this, for the reasons aforesaid, being uncertain of the thing in question. But if I must be put to subscribe, that I believe all this to be true, (as if it were an Article of my Faith) the same uncertainty would forbid me.