A27050:312
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.
There were no such things as Appendant Country Churches from the beginning of the City Churches: But it's true, that from the beginning of the Country Peoples Conversion, when they were not enow to make Churches themselves, they belonged to the City Churches as Members (Even as now the Anabaptists and Independent Churches consist of the People of Market-Towns, and the adjoining Country Associated into one Assembly.) After that the Country Meetings were but as Oratories or Chapels: And when they came to be enow to make distinct Churches of, some good Bishops had the Wit and Grace to help them to Chorepiscopi, Bishops of their own; but most did choose rather to enlarge their own Possessions or Powers, and set Subject Presbyters only over the People.
There were no such things as Appendant Country Churches from the beginning of the City Churches: But it's true, that from the beginning of the Country Peoples Conversion, when they were not enow to make Churches themselves, they belonged to the City Churches as Members (Even as now the Anabaptists and Independent Churches consist of the People of Market-Towns, and the adjoyning Country Associated into one Assembly.) After that the Country Meetings were but as Oratories or Chappels: And when they came to be enow to make dinstinct Churches of, some good Bishops had the Wit and Grace to help them to Chorepiscopi, Bishops of their own; but most did choose rather to enlarge their own Possessions or Powers, and set Subject Presbyters only over the People.
And that these new Bishoprics must be by the old Bishops consent, is apparently a point of Order to avoid inconveniences (if not of Usurpation:) For what power had the old Bishop to keep any Church of Christ without a Bishop of their own, when it was for there good?
And that these new Bishopricks must be by the old Bishops consent, is apparently a point of Order to avoid inconveniences (if not of Usurpation:) For what power had the old Bishop to keep any Church of Christ without a Bishop of their own, when it was for there good?