A27050:414
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.
That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination; and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial power. 10. That this vain separating Power of Order and Jurisdiction ⟨p. 75⟩is the whole Foundation of Popery. §. 7. p. 36. & passi•• 37, &c. 21. He frequently calleth that [the Essential power] in which Bishops and Presbyters are equal, and so taketh the rest but for Accidental. 12. He thus describeth the Bishops power of Jurisdiction, c. 3. p. 39. §. 13. [About those things which are constituted in the Church, only by Humane Ecclesiastical Right, there is in the Church true Jurisdiction not necessarily depending on the Sacred Order it self, if there be any at all separate from Order. Such as Licensing a Bishop to Ordain in another's Diocese, &c. For these acts are not Actus Sacri neque spirituales, neque attingunt directè quicquam supernaturale, sed sunt merè temporales, & circa rem externam & temporalem qua est mera applicatio, &c. These are not Sacred nor Spiritual, nor touch any thing directly that is Supernatural, but are merely Temporal, and about an External and Temporal matter, Et his solis verum est, &c. So that it is most evident, that as God hath left to Humane Prudence the Ordering of some Modes and Circumstances of Worship and Discipline and Church Order, and by his General Laws, so Spalatensis thought that all the Bishops proper Jurisdiction lay in these things, which were of Humane Right, and that all things of divine appointment were equally belonging to the Presbyters. Where again I desire it may be observed. 1. That Magistrates may determine of such things, and so make void or needless such an Episcopacy. 2. That it is most certain that many things of External Order belong to a Presbyter to determine, as to one that is the Conductor of the Sacred Assemblies: As what Text to preach on, what Method to use, what Chapter to read: where and at what hour the People shall meet, how long they shall stay, what Tune to sing a Psalm in, and abundance of the like. So that even that Jurisdiction which he excepteth to the Bishop is common to him with the Presbyter that officiateth: And all that can be pretended is that it belongeth to him, to determine such Circumstances as equally belong to many Churches (which yet Synods of Presbyters may do as effectually for Concord.) 3.
That this equal power of the Bishop and Presbyter floweth from Ordination; and is the Essential Ordinary Ministerial power. 10. That this vain separating Power of Order and Jurisdiction