A27050:275
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 I must note how great a charge he layeth on the Bishops, when, Resp. ad N. p. 10. Art. 12. He saith that [the Bishop is aequè imo magis proprius singularum Ecclesiarum sua Dioceseos Pastor, illis qui ibi praesunt & resident, utpote ad quem cura praecipua illorum locorum pertineat: The Bishop hath more Charge or Care of all the Parishes in his Diocese than the present Pastors have: (O dreadful undertaking.) Ad quem prima & praecipua Cura omnium incumbet: ita ut, ipse suum agnoscit gregem, & singulis quibus manus imponit, &c. How many hundred thousand individuals then hath the Bishop of London this particular Charge of, whose names he never heard, and whose faces he never saw? Oportet enim Episcopum omnes quantum fieri potest, qui ipsius curae commissi sunt, nosse. The Bishop must know all his Flock, if possible; And must he have a Flock then which he cannot possibly know, nor never saw one of a hundred or thousand of them, with any particular knowledge at least?
And I must note how great a charge he layeth on the Bishops, when, Resp. ad N. p. 10. Art. 12. He saith that [the Bishop is aequè imo magis proprius singularum Ecclesiarum sua Dioceseos Pastor, illis qui ibi praesunt & resident, utpote ad quem cura praecipua illorum locorum pertineat: The Bishop hath more Charge or Care of all the Parishes in his Diocess than the present Pastors have: (O dreadful undertaking.) Ad quem prima & praecipua Cura omnium incumbet: ita ut, ipse suum agnoscit gregem, & singulis quibus manus imponit, &c. How many hundred thousand individuals then hath the Bishop of London this particular Charge of, whose names he never heard, and whose faces he never saw? Oportet enim Episcopum omnes quantum fieri potest, qui ipsius curae commissi sunt, nosse. The Bishop must know all his Flock, if possible; And must he have a Flock then which he cannot possibly know, nor never saw one of a hundred or thousand of them, with any particular knowledge at least?
And Cont. quaest. & Resp. Beza, p. 103. He approveth of Zanchy's judgment [that Ceremonies and things indifferent be left free] [and the Churches free in them.]