A27050:596
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.
18. Our English Bishops have been for the most part of another mind till Dr. Hammond and others turned this way of late: Not only Jewel, Bilson, and many others have asserted that Patriarchs, Metropolitans and Primates, and such like are of human right, and mutable, but few if any were found heretofore to contradict them. And at this day many Bishops ordinarily dwell in their Country houses, (As the Bishop of Lincoln did at Bugden, the Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, (formerly) at Eccleshall Castle; the Bishop of Chester (now) at Wigan, and so of others). And I think that is the Bishops Seat where usually his dwelling is, and not where a Lay-Chancellor keeps a Court, or where a Dean and Chapter dwell who are no Bishops.
18. Our English Bishops have been for the most part of another mind till Dr. Hammond and others turned this way of late: Not only Je•el, Bilson, and many others have asserted that Patriarks, Metropolitans and Primates, and such like are of human right, and mutable, but few if any were found heretofore to contradict them. And at this day many Bishops ordinarily dwell in their Country houses, (As the Bishop of Lincolne did at Bugden, the Bishop of Coventree and Lichfield, (formerly) at Eccleshall Castle; the Bishop of Chester (now) at Wigan, and so of others). And I think that is the Bishops Seat where usually his dwelling is, and not where a Lay-Chancellor keepes a Court, or where a Dean and Chapter dwell who are no Bishops.
19. There have (as Dr. Hammond hath well proved) been of old several Churches in one City; one of Jews and one of Gentiles, with their several Bishops and Clergy. Therefore one City with its territories is not jure Divino the measure or boundaries of one only Church.
20. If the Church Government must be modelled to the Civil, then in every Monarchy or Empire there must be one Universal Pastor to rule all the rest as there is one King: And in every Aristocracy, there must be a Synod of Prelates in Church Supremacy; and in every Democracy—who or what—But then the Papacy will be proved not only lawful, but of Divine institution, as the Head or Church Sovereign of the Roman Empire (though not of all the world) (at Rome first and at Constantinople after) And indeed I know no word of reason that can be given to draw an impartial man of Judgment to doubt, but that Metropolitans, Primates, Patriarchs, and the Pope as Head of the Churches in the Empire, stood all on the same ground, and had the same Original; as all Fathers Councils and History show, which truly proveth that (as an Universal Papacy is a Treasonable Usurpation, so) an Imperial Papacy (that is, through the Roman Empire) is but a human Creature, and Metropolitans, Patriarchs, &c. are the like; and they that will feign the one to be of Gods institution or necessary, must say that the other is so to.