A27050:321
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.
2. I deny his Minor Propos. If by [Country Parishes] he mean [the Bishops of Country Parishes] they had the Power of Ordination: And all that he saith against it, is only to prove, that de facto, they had not the Exercise of it in the times he mentioneth, and that de jure humano, it was ⟨p. 59⟩not allowed them by Canons. But, 3. We grant so much of the Conclusion, as that de facto, few Country Parishes had a Bishop and Presbytery: Because there were but few Country Parishes in the World, till the third Century, that were really Christian Churches, or fixed Societies of Christians that had ordinary Church-communion together in the Sacrament, or had an Altar. But our Case is, About single Churches, now called Parish Churches, and not about [Country Churches.] For they might be but single Parish Churches, though they were in Cities only, and the Country Members joined with them in the Cities.
2. I deny his Minor Propos. If by [Country Parishes] he mean [the Bishops of Country Parishes] they had the Power of Ordination: And all that he saith against it, is only to prove, that de facto, they had not the Exercise of it in the times he mentioneth, and that de jure humano, it was ⟨p. 59⟩not allowed them by Canons. But, 3. We grant so much of the Conclusion, as that de facto, few Country Parishes had a Bishop and Presbytery: Because there were but few Country Parishes in the World, till the third Century, that were really Christian Churches, or fixed Societies of Christians that had ordinary Church-communion together in the Sacrament, or had an Altar. But our Case is, About single Churches, now called Parish Churches, and not about [Country Churches.] For they might be but single Parish Churches, though they were in Cities only, and the Country Members joyned with them in the Cities.
And his own Confession is, page 35. that besides Rome and Alexandria, that had many Churches in the City, there is not the like evidence for multitude of Parishes in other Cities, immediately after the Apostles times.] I suppose by his Citations, he meaneth till the third Century. And if this be granted us of all the great Cities of the World, that they cannot be proved to have many Churches, we have no great reason to look for many in the Country Villages.