A27050:622
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.
4. Because when a Church is settled, a strange preacher that cometh ⟨p. 124⟩after, yea one that hath a charge elsewhere, may convert many neighbours, that were not Converted, and yet it will not follow that he must come, and set up another Church there for that, nor that they must remove their dwelling to follow him.
5. Because a man may (and abundance of excellent preachers have1 done it) convert many souls in many Countries where they go at great distances from each other: But he cannot be the Bishop of so many people or Churches so far dispersed.
- 1Yet I confess that he that converteth many caeteris paribus is fittest to be chosen for their Pastor: on which account Greg. Nazianz. was chosen at Constantinople, for the Success of his Ministry against Arianism: And in my Church-History, I have told you of a Council that decreed, that if a Bishop neglected to turn any of his City from heresy, he that converted them should have them for his flock: which showeth that there might on just cause be then more Bishops and Churches than one in a City; and that they were not necessarily measured by the compass of ground, but Churches might be mixed among each other as to habitation, on such occasions.Yet I confess that he that converteth many caeteris paribus is fittest to be chosen for their Pastor: on which account Greg. Nazianz. was chosen at Constantinople, for the Success of his Ministry against Arianism: And in my Church-History, I have told you of a Council that decreed, that if a Bishop neglected to turn any of his City from heresie, he that converted them should have them for his flock: which sheweth that there might on just cause be then more Bishops and Churches than one in a City; and that they were not necessarily measured by the compass of ground, but Churches might be mixt among each other as to habitation, on such occasions.