A27050:703
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.
Moreover either the Bishop pro hic &. nunc was himself obliged to do that Act which he committeth to another, or not he but the other was by office obliged to do it. If he himself was obliged to do it he sinned in not doing it. If he were not it was not truly his act or part of his office work: nor did he do it by another, but that other did only his own work; for which not the Bishop, but he shall have the reward.
Obj. But doth not he that sendeth his servant to pay a debt, himself in Law sense pay it per alium? what another doth as his Instrument, reputatively he doth himself.
Obj. But doth not he that sendeth his servant to pay a debt, himself in Lawsense pay it per alium? what another doth as his Instrument, reputatively he doth himself.
Ans. I grant it; because it is none of the debtors proper work, nor is he at all obliged to it, to bring the money and deliver it himself, but to cause it to be delivered: Therefore in sending it, he doth all that he is obliged to do, and when another is his instrument, it is supposed that he is not obliged himself to do that which his instrument doth but only to cause the doing of it, by himself or an Instrument, as he please: so that still this is nothing to the case of a work that is proper to the Bishops Office.
Ans. I grant it; because it is none of the debtors proper work, nor is he at all obliged to it, to bring the money and deliver it himself, but to cause it to be delivered: Therefore in sending it, he doth all that he is obliged to do, and when another is his instrument, it is supposed that he is not obliged himself to do that which his instrument doth but only to cause the doing of it, by himself or an Instrument, as he please: so that stil this is nothing to the case of a work that is proper to the Bishops Office.