Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

(178) inomnibus oppidis Coucìonari ; quum hodie una civitas quamplures requirit Eccle- fi:ifles: HGw much lets will one perform all the refit of the Bishops work? Saith t1?uflulus Loc. Comm;tn. de Minif?. p. mihi 43S. [Q are viderint E- pifcopi, &c. [Let Bifhops look to it, who. when they cannot (or do not) rightly Minifter to one Church, extend their power, not to forte few Churches, but to wbde Provinces. La them read Chrföflome on Tit r. Per civitates, in every City, &e, Thefe things made Luther fay adverf.fzlf'o nominátum ordinern E- pifcop.To.2. p.3 io. Perinde habet, &c. It is with thefe wicked ungodly Bi- fhops all one as if the Devil himfelf,-fhould mitred and ringedfit in thechair and hiznfelf rule the people, AndBilhopRioter in ßprecep. faith, Et cute f jam vigeret antiquus it'e er- .ga populum amor, If theyhad the ancient Lo'te to the people, they would them- !elves confefs that there ismore work in one( ity, than the belt men can eafily. do, They kyozv well enough that the Primitive Church had-no !itch Bifhfps till the timeof Silvetter thefirj.(I cite this ex Altar.Damafcen. having not theBookat hand. £ilefeecuc tells us, exConcil.Triburienfi c. 26. Relata elt coram fän&a Synodo qu.eremonia plebiunz, eoquod flott quidam Epifopi nolentes ad predicandunz, vet ad tonftrmandnm funs per annumpar<eeias cireaire, de Crig. Parse. p. 537. What. would they have done it they had been in our times. See Ifidore Pelztf: Ep,2¢6. 1.2.p 236. teaching BishopEufhiss, (andTheo- dofins) wl-at a Church is, who had lb far loll the trueEpifcopacy, as to take walls for men, and to abufe and fcorn the true Church or godly' people while the Walls were adorned, as if Chrill had come from Heaven snore for [Walls than Solds] env. of which before. In aword, nothing is more evident than that true Difcipline was- flea out at the times and in the degrees as Diocefes were enlarged ; and that in Africk, and other places where the Churches or Dioceffcs were more (Mall and numerous, difcipline was bat preferved. II. The fecond fort of experience is, that of almoll all the Reformed. Churches, who have found the Pafioral work and Difcipline particularly to be fo great,as that lets than all the Parifh Miniflers concurring could not perform it. r. Thofe Churches which with Calvin feu up Presbytery, ex- clude noPatter from the Governing part ; but tookin Elders of the people to help them, becaufe experience had told them that all the MiQrifters were too few : what then would oneBrihop and Chancellour or Vicar havebeen able to do ? 2. The Lutherans who fet up fuperintendants, commonly fo let them over the Paflors as not to take away the true Falloral powerof governing thcir particular flocks, as finding by experience, that the old way of Pie lacy would not do it : And ufually they join Magif rates with them, as they allo in the Palatinatedid. And it is fuch a IT ederate fuprioritywhich is exercifed in Hungary,Tranfilvaiiia, and in Poland till the Papilts rooted, thcinout thence. 3. The Helvetian Divines extreife a certain meafure of power in keep- ing the unfit from the Sacrarrient, but not what they judge to he the Churches.:

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