A27050:373
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.
Ans. 1. This openeth the former case: These were not Diocesans, deposing all the Episcopos gregis, and become sole Bishops, but Archbishops that had under them Bishops in each particular Church. Yet note, that it is the French Synod of Bishops which Euseb. ib. l. 5. c. 23. Iren. is said to oversee, as it's said, ibid. that Palmas did so among the Bishops of Pontus in their Synod, and that Victor was President in the Bishops Synod at Rome, and Theophilus of Caesarea, and Narcissus of Jerusalem in the Palestine Synod: Which is nothing to our case.
Ans. 1. This openeth the former case: These were not Diocesanes, deposing all the Episcopos gregis, and become sole Bishops, but Archbishops that had under them Bishops in each particular Church. Yet note, that it is the French Synod of Bishops which Euseb. ib. l. 5. c. 23. Iren. is said to oversee, as it's said, ibid. that Palmas did so among the Bishops of Pontus in their Synod, and that Victor was President in the Bishops Synod at Rome, and Theophilus of Caesarea, and Narcissus of Jerusalem in the Palestine Synod: Which is nothing to our case.
It is further said, that Optatus saith, that in Rome were 40 Churches, and that Theodoret had 800.
Ans. 1. It is granted, that in Optatus's days Rome had 40, which is nothing to our case in hand. 2. In those 40 so late, there were no half Presbyters, but as this Doctor confesseth, they had not only a joint power in Governing the Flocks, but in Ordination too. 3. I confess Theodoret's case seemeth strange, and though of late date is so incredible as contrary to the case of other Churches, that I do the rather for that clause believe that Epistle to Leo to be a forgery, or corrupted at least. And besides this Reason, I have these also for it. 1. Because he himself saith, that Cyrus, where he was Bishop, was but two days journey from Antioch, Hist. Sanct. Patr. de Juliano. And he that knoweth how great the Diocese of Antioch was, will not easily believe that a Town within two days journey (to Monks that went on foot) was like to have eight hundred Churches in it at that time. 2. And we know out of whose shop Theodoret's Epistles come. Nicephorus saith, he read above 500 of his Epistles. Baronius saith there is a Book in the Vatican containing 150 of them: Metius translated these into Latin. But saith Rivet. Crit. Sacr. l. 4. c. 21. p. 455. the Reader must remember that they have been kept all this while in the Adversaries Cabinets, and by them are brought into light and into Latin, so that they have no authority, further than other History confirmeth them. 3 Especially seeing Leontius de Sectis saith, as Baronius confesseth, that Heretics feigned Epistles in Theodoret's name; And Bellarmine de script. Eccl. mentioneth one that hath his name in Concil. Ephes. that neither Theodoret nor any Christian is to be charged with. 4. And that this one Epistle to Leo should be culled out of all the rest to be alone Printed after Theodoret's Works, showeth the design, and what credit is to be given to it. 5. And I shall anon cite much out of Theodoret himself, to show the improbability that Dioceses had then so many Churches.