A27050:585
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.
6. Had this form been settled as they Pretend (in Cities only and Dioceses) there would have been uncertainty and contentions what places should have Bishops and Churches, and what places should have none. For it is uncertain and litigious, what place is to be taken for a City and what not. For [Greek or Hebrew] sometimes signifieth any great Town, and some times strictly Towns incorporate, and sometimes more strictly eminent Corporations now called Cities with us here in England. And how great would the difficulty have been to determine when a Town was big enough to pass for a City, or when it had privileges enow for that title. If it be said, that the account and name then and thus used was the directory, they will then make Gods Church to depend for being upon a Name with heathen people. If they will call Ceucbrea a City, it shall have a Church; otherwise it shall have none. But there was no such controversy in those times.
6. Had this form been setled as they Pretend (in Cities only and Diocesses) there would have been uncertainty and contentions what places should have Bishops and Churches, and what places should have none. For it is uncertain and litigious, what place is to be taken for a City and what not. For 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 sometimes signifieth any great Town, and some times strictly Towns incorprate, and sometimes more strictly eminent Corporations now called Cities with us here in England. And how great would the difficulty have been to determine when a Town was big enough to pass for a City, or when it had privileges enow for that title. If it be said, that the account and name then and thus used was the directory, they will then make Gods Church to depend for being upon a Name with heathen people. If they will call Ceucbrea a City, it shall have a Church; otherwise it shall have none. But there was no such controversie in those times.
7. According to their model Churches shall be mutable and dissolvable at the will of the Magistrate, yea of every Heathen Magistrate: For ⟨p. 117⟩if he will but change the privileges and title of a Town and make it no City, it must have no Church or Bishop: And if he will remove the privileges and title, the Church and Bishop must remove: And if he will endow a big Village or Town with City privileges and name, a Church and Bishop must be then made anew. But who can believe that Christ thus modelled his Churches in his institution?