A27050:984
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
Part 2 › Chapter 5: The same proved by the full Testimony of Antiquity.
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. In that Cities and Countries are made the Seats of these Bishops: for though some would make them to be mentioned only as the places where the Apostles preached, the obvious plain sense of the words is connexive of preaching and constituting Bishops: by preaching they made believers in Cities and Countries, and over those believers they placed Bishops and Deacons; which implieth it to be in the same places. And whereas some would strain the word [[Greek or Hebrew]] to signify Provinces, and not Country Villages, it must then, as distinct from Cities, have meant [many Cities] and so have settled Bishops and Arch-Bishops, ⟨p. 20⟩intimating Subject-Presbyters under them: But here is no such word or intimation: Yea, when the Countries are made first the Place of the Apostles preaching (as they confess) let any impartial man judge whether this be like to be the sense [They preached in Provinces, that is, in the Cities of Provinces, and in Cities.] And if there were Country Churches and Bishops serried by the Apostle's, its easy to see that each particular Church-Assembly had a Bishop, when even the City Churches themselves were no bigger than Petavius and others mention.
2. In that Cities and Countries are made the Seats of these Bishops: for though some would make them to be mentioned only as the places where the Apostles preached, the obvious plain sense of the words is connexive of preaching and constituting Bishops: by preaching they made believers in Cities and Countries, and over those believers they placed Bishops and Deacons; which implieth it to be in the same places. And whereas some would strain the word [〈non-Latin alphabet〉] to signifie Provinces, and not Country Villages, it must then, as distinct from Cities, have meant [many Cities] and so have stled Bishops and Arch-Bishops, ⟨p. 20⟩intimating Subject-Presbyters under them: But here is no such word or intimation: Yea, when the Countries are made first the Place of the Apostles preaching (as they confess) let any impartial man judge whether this be like to be the sense [They preached in Provinces, that is, in the Cities of Provinces, and in Cities.] And if there were Country Churches and Bishops se•ied by the Apostle's, its easie to see that each particular Church-Assembly had a Bishop, when even the City Churches themselves were no bigger than Petavius and others mention.