A27050:386
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. 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.
Obj. The Bishop was to deliver it to the Churches.
Ans. This is precarious. 1. The Apostle wrote it, that both Pastors and People might immediately read it, and did not intrust it as an unwritten tradition to one, to be delivered to the rest. 2. All the Pastors were to deliver or teach it to the People, and not one Bishop only. This therefore is no cogent Argument.