A27050:964
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 Petavius proceedeth [Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in urbibus, &c. I doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more (than one) Titles within the bounds (or Liberties) when within the same Walls, they would not be contained and meet together; and so had Presbyters put on the several Churches. But in the smaller and less frequented Cities, there was one only Church, into which they all did come together. Of which sort were the Cities of Cyprus. And therefore Epiphanius noteth the custom of Alexandria, as a thing strange to his Countrymen and unusual. Hence was the original of Parishes; which word was transferred from the Country Churches to the City Churches. And adding the [Greek or Hebrew] with ⟨p. 16⟩their Bishops or Curators settled in Rome by Servius Tullius he saith, Quibus Christianorum in agris Paroeciae quam simillimae fuerunt; Nam & illic [Greek or Hebrew] &c. To which the Parishes of the Christians in the Countries were most like: For there also were Bishops, or rather (Chorepiscopi) rural Bishops placed of old: which some Latin interpretations of the Canons call the Vicars of the Bishops, but others far more rightly than they, the Country, or Village (Bishops) (of which more after.)
But Petavius proceedeth [Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in urbibus, &c. I doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more (than one) Titles within the bounds (or Liberties) when within the same Walls, they would not be contained and meet together; and so had Presbyters put on the several Churches. But in the smaller and less frequented Cities, there was one only Church, into which they all did come together. Of which sort were the Cities of Cyprus. And therefore Epiphanius noteth the custom of Alexandria, as a thing strange to his Countrymen and unusual. Hence was the original of Parishes; which word was transferred from the Country Churches to the City Churches. And adding the 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 with ⟨p. 16⟩their Bishops or Curators setled in Rome by Servius Tullius he saith, Quibus Christianorum in agris Paroeciae quam simillimae fuerunt; Nam & illic 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 &c. To which the Parishes of the Christians in the Countries were most like: For there also were Bishops, or rather (Chorepiscopi) rural Bishops placed of old: which some Latine interpretations of the Canons call the Vicars of the Bishops, but others far more rightly than they, the Country, or Village (Bishops) (of which more after.)