A27069:445
Which is the true church? the whole Christian world, as headed only by Christ…
Which is the true church? the whole Christian world, as headed only by Christ ... or, the Pope of Rome and his subjects as such? : in three parts ... / by Richard Baxter ...
London : Printed, and are to be sold by Richard Janeway ..., 1679
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.
R. B. Will any Diocess suffice ad esse? What if it be but in particular Assemblies?
R. B. Will any Diocess suffice ad esse? What if it be but in particulor Assemblies?
W. J. It must be more than a Parish, or than one single Congregation, which hath not different inferior 1Pastors, and one who is their Superior, &c.
- 1Sect. 14.
R. B. 1. How ambiguously and fraudulently do you answer? No man can tell by this whether you unbishop all that had but one Parish or Congregation; or only all that had not Presbyters ⟨p. 41⟩under them? Which ever you mean, it is notoriously false, and a nullifying of the ancient Episcopacy. Ignatim tells you, that in hi• days one Church was known by one Altar, and one Bishop, with the Presbyters and Deacons. And though I think not as Dr. Hamond, that all the first. Bishops in Scripture-times were settled as the sole Pastors of single Congregations, without any Presbyters under them; yet when you consider with whom he agreeth in this, viz. Dionysius Petavius, and what St. Clara saith for it, fathering it on Scotus, we think you should not so far differ from your own Doctors, as to deny all those to be true Bishops of the Scrip•re-times, who they think were the only Bishops. You have a custom of calling the Apostles Bishops, even Peter Bishop of Antioch and Rome; Did not those first Bishops then make all the Presbyters that were under them? Qu. Whether they were no Bishops till they had made those Presbyters? If no, then those first Presbyters had not Episcopal ordination: If yea, then habetur quaesitum.