A27050:308
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.
So p. 5. He concludeth that the Christian People of one City, and Country adjoining, whether Province or Diocese are one Church; yea of any Nation or part of the World, not because under one Spiritual Government or Priest-hood, but because one People or Commonwealth ruled by the same Laws, professing the same Religion. All this is de nomine only. But are we not likely to dispute well, when we never agree of the Subject, or terms of the Question? We have no mind to contend about Names: Let him call the World, or a Corporation, or Kingdom, or Ecclesiam Malignantium by the name of a Church if he will, so that we first agree what Church we dispute of. We talk not of any accidental meeting or Community, but a Society before defined, constituted of the pars gubernans and pars subdita. And of this sort we know of Divine Institution, ⟨p. 56⟩an Universal Church Headed by Christ, and particular Churches headed under him by their Bishops or Pastors: A Church without a Head, (in Fair, Ship, or Temple) we talk not of: Nor yet of a Church that hath but an Accidental, Extrinsic, and not an Essential Constitutive Head, to them, as they are Churches of Christ's Institution: Whether it be the Emperor of Germany, or of Constantinople, Mahometan, Christian, Papist, or Protestant, we believe that every Sovereign is so the Head, that is the Ruler of the Church, that is, of the Christians in his Dominions. We denominate â formâ: Bishop Downame may denominate whence he please, à materiâ or ab accidente, &c. and say, They are one Church that are under one Prince, Law, of one Religion. Do with your Equivocals what you will; But forget not that it is a Pastoral particular Church of the Holy Ghost's Institution that we Dispute about. Otherwise I deny not Diocesan, or Patriarchal Churches, nor deny that the Papal Kingdom is a Church of a certain species right or wrong.
So p. 5. He concludeth that the Christian People of one City, and Country adjoyning, whether Province or Diocess are one Church; yea of any Nation or part of the World, not because under one Spiritual Government or Priest-hood, but because one People or Commonwealth ruled by the same Laws, professing the same Religion. All this is de nomine only. But are we not likely to dispute well, when we never agree of the Subject, or terms of the Question? We have no mind to contend about Names: Let him call the World, or a Corporation, or Kingdom, or Ecclesiam Malignantium by the name of a Church if he will, so that we first agree what Church we dispute of. We talk not of any accidental meeting or Community, but a Society before defined, constituted of the pars gubernans and pars subdita. And of this sort we know of Divine Institution,