A69533:1058
Five disputations of church-government and worship
Five disputations of church-government and worship by Richard Baxter.
London: printed by R.W. for Nevil Simmons, 1659
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.
§. 4. Where there are more Pastors in such a Church, then one, I know of no Necessity that one should have any superiority over another: nor can I prove that it was so from the beginning. Some Divines of the Prelatical Judgement think that this was an Ordinance of the Apostles, at the first planting of such Churches; Others of them think that it was of their appointment, but not actually existent till after Scripture times. Others of them think, that as Hierom saith, it began when factions rose in the Church, not by Divine Ordination, but Ecclesiastical agreement, for the preventing or cure of schism.
§. 5. The first Church that we find it in, in History, is that of Alexandria. And Alexandria was a place exceedingly given to sedition, tumults, and divisions: the contentions between Cyril and Orestes, the murder of Hypatia by Peter and his company, the assault made upon Orestes by Ammonius & the other Nitrian Monks, and many such feats in the days of Theophilus, Dionysius, and up to the beginning, do show what they were. And Socrates saith of them expressly, li. 7. cap. 13. that [The people of Alexandria above all other men, are given to Schism and contention; for if any quarrel arise at any time among them, presently heinous and horrible offences use to follow, and the tumult is never appeased without great blood-shed.] such were the Alexandrians.
§. 5. The first Church that we find it in, in History, is that of Alexandria. And Alexandria was a place exceedingly given to sedition, tumults, and divisions: the contentions between Cyril and Orestes, the murder of Hypatia by Peter and his company, the assault made upon Orestes by Ammonius & the other Nitrian Monks, and many such feats in the dayes of Theophilus, Dionysius, and up to the beginning, do shew what they were. And Socrates saith of them expresly, li. 7. cap. 13. that [The people of Alexandria above all other men, are given to Schism and contention; for if any quarrel arise at any time among them, presently hainous and horrible offences use to follow, and the tumult is never appeased without great blood-shed.] such were the Alexandrians.