A27050:947
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.
5. And that there was no Church then without a Bishop (one or more) is evident from Act. 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church; compared with other Texts that call them Bishops: And Doctor Hammond showeth that these Elders were Bishops. And indeed it was not a Church (in a proper political sense) that had no Bishops formally or eminently. No more than there can be a Kingdom without a King, a School without a School-master, or a family without a Master.
5. And that there was no Church then without a Bishop (one or more) is evident from Act. 14. 23. They ordained them Elders in every Church; compared with other Texts that call them Bishops: And Doctor Hammond sheweth that these Elders were Bishops. And indeed it was not a Church (in a proper political sense) that had no Bishops formally or eminently. No more than there can be a Kingdom without a King, a School without a School-master, or a family without a Master.
Object. They are called Churches Act. 14. 23. before they had ordained Elders.
Answ. 1. It is not certain from the Text, for the name might be given from their state in fieri or which they were now entering into. 2. If it were so, it is certain that the appellation was equivocal, as it is usual to distinguish the Kingdom from the King, the School from the School-master, the Family from the Master, but not in the strict political sense of the words, for that comprehendeth both. 3. The truth is, they were true political Churches before. For they had temporary unfixed Bishops, even the Apostles and Evangelists, that converted them, and officiated among them. Otherwise they could have held no Sacred Assemblies for holy Communion and the Lords Supper, as having none to administer it. The fixing of peculiar Bishops did not make them first Churches, but made them settled Churches in such an order as God would establish.