A69533:392
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
Whether it be Necessary or Profitable to the right order or the Pea… › Section
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.
Nor is it possible that one Bishop should with so long a way of Baptism as is there described, be able to Baptize all the persons in a Diocese such as ours, or the twentieth part of them, much less in those times, when besides the Infants of Believers, the most eminent sort of Baptism, and greatest labour, was about the multitudes of Adult Converts, that by the Gospel were daily added to the Church.
Nor is it possible that one Bishop should with so long a way of Baptisme as is there described, be able to Baptize all the persons in a Diocess such as ours, or the twentieth part of them, much less in those times, when besides the Infants of Believers, the most eminent sort of Baptism, and greatest labour, was about the multitudes of Adult Converts, that by the Gospel were daily added to the Church.
Gregory Thaumaturgus was as by force made Bishop of Neocesarea: and yet his whole Diocese or City had but seventeen Christians in it at his entrance, though when he died he found upon enquiry but seventeen Pagans, so great a change was made by the Gospel and by Miracles: But by this Diocese of seventeen souls we may conjecture what the Churches were in those times (though we should allow others to be an hundred times as great, they would not be so great as the tenth part of many Parishes in England.) See the truth of this passage in Greg. Nissen Oratio in Greg. Thaumatur. twice over he recites it. And Basil. Mag. l. de Spir. Sanc. c. 19. And Roman. Breviar. Die 15. Novemb. And the Menolog Graec. mentioned before Greg. Neocesar. works Printed ad Paris 1622. But I shall return to some before Gregory.
Gregory Thaumaturgus was as by force made Bishop of Neocesarea: and yet his whole Diocess or City had but seventeen •hristians in it at his entrance, though when he died he found upon enquiry but seventeen Pagans, so great a change was made by the Gospel and by Miracles: But by this Diocess of seventeen souls we may conjecture what the Churches were in those times (though we should allow others to be an hundred times as great, they would not be so great as the tenth part of many Parishes in England.) See the truth of this passage in Greg. Nissen Oratio in Greg. Thaumatur. twice over he recites it. And Basil. Mag. l. de Spir. Sanc. c. 19. And Roman. Breviar. Die 15. Novemb. And the Menolog Graec. mentioned before Greg. Neocesar. works Printed ad Paris 1622. But I shall return to some before Gregory.