A27050:9
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.
But in 1640. I was removed to Brignorth, and the Canons newly made, imposed on us an Oath, which had these words, [I A. B. do swear that I do approve of the Doctrine, and Discipline, or Government of the Church of England, as concerning all things necessary to Salvation—Nor will I ever give my CONSENT to alter the Government of this Church, by Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Deans, and Arch-Deacons, &c. As it stands now established, and as by right it ought to stand—And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to the plain and common sense and understanding of the same words, without any equivocation, or mental evasion, or secret reservation whatsoever; And this I do heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the Faith of a Christian: So help me God in Jesus Christ.]
But in 1640. I was removed to Brignorth, and the Canons newly made, imposed on us an Oath, which had these words, [I A. B. do swear that I do approve of the Doctrine, and Discipline, or Government of the Church of England, as concerning all things necessary to Salvation—Nor will I ever give my CONSENT to alter the Government of this Church, by Arch-Bishops, Bishops, Deans, and Arch-Deacons, &c. As it stands now established, and as by right it ought to stand—And all these things I do plainly and sincerely acknowledge and swear, according to the plain and common sence and understanding of the same words, without any equivocation, or mental evasion, or secret reservation whatsoever; And this I do heartily, willingly, and truly, upon the Faith of a Christian: So help me God in Jesus Christ.]
Though every Minister in the Country, as well I, was for Episcopacy, yet this Oath so startled them that they appointed a meeting at Brignorth to consult about it. It fell out on my Lecture day, and at the meeting, it fell to my lot to be the Objecter, or Opponent, against Mr. Christopher Cartwright (a good Man, incomparably beyond me in Learning, the Defender of K. Ch. 1. against the Marquess of Worcester, and the Author of the Rabbinical Commentary on Gen. whose Papers of Justification, I since answered) He defended the Oath; and though my Objections were such as were none of the strongest, the Ministers thought he failed in answering them, and we broke up more dubious than before.