A27050:954
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.
1. Among all Christians, the Papists are the highest Prelatists; And among1 all Papists the Jesuits; and among all the Jesuits Petavius, who hath written against Salmasius, &c. on this Subject. Petavius, Dissert. Ecclesiast. de Episcop. dignit. & jurisd. p. 22. concludeth his first Chapter in which he had cited the chiefest of the Fathers; [Hactenus igitur ex antiquorum authoritate conficitur primis temporibus, Presbyterorum & Episcoporum non tantum appellationes, sed etiam ordines, in easdem concurrisse personas, iidem ut essent utrique.] i. e. Hitherto it is proved by the Authority of the Ancients, that in the first times, not only the Names, but the Orders, of Presbyters and Bishops did concur into the same persons, so that both were the same men.] And if so, I shall show the consequents anon.
1. Among all Christians, the Papists are the highest Prelatists; And among1 all Papists the Jesuits; and among all the Jesuits Petavius, who hath written against Salmasius, &c. on this Subject. Petavius, Dissert. Ecclesiast. de Episcop. dignit. & jurisd. p. 22. concludeth his first Chapter in which he had cited the chiefest of the Fathers; [Hactenus igitur ex antiquorum authoritate conficitur primis temporibus, Presbyterorum & Episcoporum non tantum appellationes, sed etiam ordines, in easdem concurrisse personas, iidem ut essent utrique.] i. e. Hitherto it is proved by the Authority of the Ancients, that in the first times, not only the Names, but the Orders, of Presbyters and Bishops did concurr into the same persons, so that both were the same men.] And if so, I shall shew the consequents anon.
- 11. Petavius.
And pag. 23. He thus beginneth his third Chapter, as opening the only necessary way to avoid the Scripture Arguments against Episcopacy, [Si quis amnia illa scripturae loca diligenter expendat, id necessario consequens ex illis esse statuet, eos ipsos, qui ibi Presbyteri vocantur, plus aliquid quam simplices fuisse presbyteros, cujusmodi hodieque sunt: nec dubitabit, quin Episcopi fuerint iidem, non vocabulo tantum, sed re etiam & potestate.] i. e. [If any one will diligently weigh all those places of Scripture, he will conclude that this is the necessary consequent of them, that those that are there called Presbyters were somewhat more than simple Presbyters, and such as now they are: and he will not doubt but the same men were Bishops, not only in name, but in deed and in power.]