A27050:418
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.
§. 22. p. 472. He saith, that Confirmation is neither a true Sacrament, but a part of the Ceremonies of Baptism; nor is it at all of Divine, but of humane Ecclesiastical Institution; nor doth it suppose any special power given by God to him that administereth it, for any special supernatural effect▪ But the Church for honour reserveth this Ceremony to the Bishop.
§. 22. p. 472. He saith, that Confirmation is neither a true Sacrament, but a part of the Ceremonies of Baptism; nor is it at all of Divine, but of humane Ecclesiastical Institution; nor doth it suppose any special power given by God to him that administreth it, for any special supernatural effect▪ But the Church for honour reserveth this Ceremony to the Bishop.
And §. 24. He saith, [And why are Bishops so rigid that they will not permit to their Parish Ministers the Faculty of Confirming, specially when they themselves come very seldom †into those Parishes to visit. And verily those Bishops which have large Dioceses of Christians in the Turkish Dominions, as my Arch-Bishopric of Spalato, ought (if this Ceremony were of any great account) to give their Parish Ministers there living free power of Confirming: Yea, if the Bishops deny it them, the Parish Ministers may and ought to exercise this Ceremony by their own Authority.
And §. 24. He saith, [And why are Bishops so rigid that they will not permit to their Parish Ministers the Faculty of Confirming, specially when they themselves come very seldome †into those Parishes to visit. And verily those Bishops which have large Diocesses of Christians in the Turkish Dominions, as my Arch-Bishoprick of Spalato, ought (if this Ceremony were of any great account) to give their Parish Ministers there living free power of Confirming: Yea, if the Bishops deny it them, the Parish Ministers may and ought to exercise this Ceremony by their own Authority.