Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

(83) eft, injfruit. 3 It was then thought a Bilhops duty to be intimately acquainted with the minds of his flock, and exactly enquire after ever,. ene of them, even menfervants and maidfervants by name, faith Ignatius, as cited bet'ore. All this was then the Bifhops work : Almott all this ( except the Ceremo- nies) Dr. Hammond proveth indutirioufly belonged to the Bishop. Let him faithfully do it all, and let his Diocefe then be as big as he pleafe. I might have added Concil.Arelat. i. c. 16. that people are to be abfolved in the fame place where they were Excommunicated, which intimatelh it muff be only in the Bifhops Church. And in Synod. Hybernic. Patricü (in Spelman p. 5z.) Allthat was more than neceffary to a poor man that had a Colleéti- on was to be laid on the Bithops Altar, ] which implyeth that each Church had one Bithop and one Altar. And c. 25. [ & non in Ecclefam rot ibi ex- amineturcaufa] And c. 25, 26, 27. no Clergy-man but the Bishop to -lirpofe C. 4, 5. of Church offerings ; & Clericus Epifcopi in Plebe novus ingrfli laptizare & eTerre non licet, &c. with much more which intimateth what Churches wereof old. But fo much (hall fufficefor proofof the Minor of the firftArgument, that our Diocefane Form, t. taketh down the Church Form of Gods Intlitu- tion, and the primitive Churches poffetiion : 2. And fetteth up a humane form in its head, yea one only Church insteadofa thoufand or many hundred. And therefore I add CHAP. VIII. That the Diocefans caufe the errour of the Separatifis, who avoid our Churches asfalfe in their Confiitution; andwouldutterly difable us to confute then. Hen the Brorvni(fe fay that our Churches are no true Churches, they do not mean that they are not Societies of mens deviling ; but that they are not Societies ofGods Instituting. And this they prove upon the prin- ciples of the Diocefansthus : Ifyour Churches be ofGods Inftitution (de fpe- ele) it is either the Parith Churches, or the Diocefane Churches that are fo : But neither the Parith-Churches, nor the Diocefane: Ergo. a. That the Parith Churches are not fuch, they prove becaufe by the Dio- cefans own confeslion, they are no Churches at all, except equivocally fc called: It is one of their own principles, ( and we grant it) that Epifeopus & Plebs Conflitute a Church, as a King and Subjeeis conftitute a Kingdom, and as a L 2 Schoolmafter

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