A27050:384
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.
Chap. 3. v. 1. Was it the Bishop of Sardis only that had a name to live and was dead, and that was warned to be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, whose works were not perfect before God? that must remember how he had received and heard—that had a few Names in Sardis, &c. And so of the rest.
Obj. But it is said, Chap. 1. v. 20. The seven Stars are the Angels of the seven Churches; and the seven Candlesticks are the seven Churches.
Ans. And what can a man gather hence to satisfy himself in this point? whether the sense be [As the heavenly Angels, are the Guardians of the Churches, so these Stars are those Angels, in whose Person I speak to the Churches themselves that are signified by the Candlesticks:] Or [As the Angels are the Guardians of the Churches, so by that title, I signify the whole Ministry that guide them, and by the Candlesticks the Churches, and I write to the whole. For as every Message begins with [To the Angel,] so it endeth with [To the Churches.
Ans. And what can a man gather hence to satisfie himself in this point? whether the sense be [As the heavenly Angels, are the Guardians of the Churches, so these Stars are those Angels, in whose Person I speak to the Churches themselves that are signified by the Candlesticks:] Or [As the Angels are the Guardians of the Churches, so by that title, I signifie the whole Ministry that guide them, and by the Candlesticks the Churches, and I write to the whole. For as every Message begins with [To the Angel,] so it endeth with [To the Churches.