A69533:1081
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. And 3. I pray you consider how your Passion and partiality maketh you contradict your selves. Do you not use to […] the Presbyters, that they would all be Bishops, and they ⟨p. 318⟩would have a Bishop in every Parish, and so are against Bishops, that they may be Bishops themselves? And what! is a Parish Bishopric so great a prize for our Ambition, and yet is it so contemptible to yours? Are we proud for seeking to be Parish Bishops, and do you take it as an empty name or shadow? At least then confess hereafter, that your Pride is so much greater, then ours, that the Mark of our Ambition is taken by you to be a low dishonourable state.
§. 4. And 3. I pray you consider how your Passion and partiality maketh you contradict your selves. Do you not use to 〈…〉 the Presbyters, that they would all be Bishops, and they ⟨p. 318⟩would have a Bishop in every Parish, and so are against Bishops, that they may be Bishops themselves? And what! is a Parish Bishoprick so great a prize for our Ambition, and yet is it so contemptible to yours? Are we proud for seeking to be Parish Bishops, and do you take it as an empty name or shadow? At least then confess hereafter, that your Pride is so much greater, then ours, that the Mark of our Ambition is taken by you to be a low dishonourable state.
§. 5. And 4. I would entreat you impartially to try, whether the Primitive Apostolic Episcopacy fixed in particular Churches were not a Parochial Episcopacy? Try whether I have not proved it before? And if it were, will you pretend to antiquity, and Apostolic institution, and yet despise the primitive simplicity, and that which you confess was settled by the Apostles? Let the Eldest carry it without any more ado.
§. 5. And 4. I would intreat you impartially to try, whether the Primitive Apostolick Episcopacy fixed in particular Churches were not a Parochial Episcopacy? Try whether I have not proved it before? And if it were, will you pretend to antiquity, and Apostolick institution, and yet despise the primitive simplicity, and that which you confess was settled by the Apostles? Let the Eldest carry it without any more ado.