A27050:785
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.
2. And as to the first ordination of a Minister as such, if there must be a Diocesan to do it, this is gathered either from the nature of the thing, or from divine institution.
1. As to the nature of the thing, it showeth no such necessity, but rather contradicteth it; for 1. As to Efficiency, if a Bishop or Arch-Bishop or Primate or Patriarch may be made without the agency of any one of a higher order, then so may a Presbyter. For the reason is the same.
1. As to the nature of the thing, it sheweth no such necessity, but rather contradicteth it; for 1. As to Efficiency, if a Bishop or Arch-Bishop or Primate or Patriark may be made without the agency of any one of a higher order, then so may a Presbyter. For the reason is the same.
2. And as to the object; 1. The first object of the sacred Ministry as such, is the Infidel world, to whom they are to Preach the Gospel, and offer Christ and Salvation, and beseech them in Christs stead to be1 reconciled to God, to call them from darkness to light, and the power of Satan unto God. And to think that none but Apostles should do this, and that all the world must be left to the Devil when the Apostles were dead, is an unchristian thought: To those that must do this, Christ promised his presence to the end of the world. Now. 1. The Infidel world is no more under the power of a Diocesan than of a Presbyter: If it be, it is either. 1. As he is a Prelate. 2. Or as a Diocesan. 1. Not as a Prelate in general. For if the world be the object of the Ministers office, it can be no more of the Prelates as such. 2. Not as a Diocesan: For ⟨p. 157⟩the Infidel world, [Egypt, Tartary, Japan, China, Persia, &c.] is no part of any Bishops Diocese. 2. And as to the work of a Preacher to the Infidels, it is the very fame whether it be done by a Bishop or a Presbyter: There is nothing to do for them but preach and baptize, and neither of those is a work proper to a Bishop.