A27050:305
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.
I grant him that (Rom. 16. 1.) the word signifieth the Church of a Village or Town; But he will never prove that it is not meant of a Church of the same Species as City Churches were. And as to the House or Family Churches which he mentioneth, Rom. 16. 5. 1 Cor. 16. 19. Col. 4. 15. Phil. 2. Dr. Hammond▪ expoundeth, Col. 4▪ 15. of the Church that did meet in his house, and so some do all the rest: But that we stand not for, nor doth it concern us.
But when he addeth a multitude of Texts, as using the word Church indefinitely, not defining the place, Society of a Nation or City, quantity, &c. most of the instances brought are of Churches definite, as to place, and of the same Species as the Apostles Instituted; though when the Church of such a place is said to do a thing, it's no determination what number of the members did it. His first instance is Acts 4. 31. and next Acts 15. 3, 9, &c. The Churches had rest through all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria: Acts 15. 3. Speaks of the Church of Antioch, which v. 27. it's said they gathered together: v. 4. mentioneth the Church at Jerusalem, v. 11. mentioneth the Churches of Syria and Cilicia. Acts 18. 22. Speaketh of the Church at Caesarea.