their Councils abridged. Town, one ofeight or twelve Furlongs in compafs. Andfo the number of Chri_ jlians on this account, will be now?". than might well meet for Worship in one place. If the Reader will perule Epiphanies Hiftory of the Fraftion between Alexander and the Followers of Meletius in Alexandria, how Alexander was impatient with their feparate Meetings, when 4leletius was dead (though till then two Bifhops and Churches lived quietly in oneCity) be- - caufe they carne not to his Church with the reft of the ftory, he will easily fee what a Church wasthen even inAlexandria. Thus you fee the difference of a just computation, and the hasty ac.- counts ofmen, that judgofPlaces and Perfons as they are in their ruffled imaginations, and notas they were indeed and truth. Mr. Dodwell in a Let- ter to me layeth fo much on the number of theOfficers andPoor before mentioned, as if it proved undoubtedlya Diocefane Church, when the con_ clufion arifeth from an erroneous comparing their Cities and times with ours, and their Presbyters with our Parifh-Priefts and Curats. And when all's done a grand Patriarchal Church is not the meafure of a Diocefane, or of every Bifhops Church : their Presbyters had other work than our Curates have: They met in the fame Affembly with the Bithop, and fate in a Semicircle on each fidehim, and were as a Colledge ofGovernours to rule one Church, and that only by the Word (applyed by the Keys) and not by the Sword, till Cyril firft ufurped it, for which by Hiftorians he is noted. Hour times tempt you to marvel how fo many Officers or Clerks were maintained by fo few People., Church-Hiltory affordeth you matter enough to resolve your doubt. 4. 3 T. But if thefe two great Cities had indeed hadyet more Altarsand Churches, Orbis major eft Vrbe, faith Hierome-: Twofingular Cities may not over-weigh the contrary cafe of all the Churches If any other had been like them it would have been Antioch the third. Patriarchate, when as in Ignatius time, as is aforefaid, the Churches unity there and elfe. where was notified * by [`iv Sunnçíe ov he inínzonoc, One Altar (or Altar- +* That .e place) andOne' Bijhopwith bis Presbyters andDeacons.] local Altai^ And hence carne it to be the note of a Schifra, to fet up Altare contra Pr here Altarebecaufe one Bithop and Church had but one Altar. Mr. Mede (no B`ant'a injudicious nor Fafiious man) 'faw this, and afferteth it from the plain proveae words of Ignatius. gainffthem §. 32. How the cafe came to be altered it is eafie to know : But whe- that fay it ther it was well orill done, is all the controverfie, or the chief. os but one 1 confefs there want not force that think that the Apostles had their fe- gmnBo_ veral affigned Provinces, and that theyleft them to twelve Succeffours, and dy adhear- this is the foundation of Patriarchal or Provincial Churches, with fuch un- ins to one proved Dreams : I. We doubt not but that the Apostles wifely di- Bofhop. Itributed their Labours : But we believe not that they divided the Countreys into their feveral Diocefes, or Provinces: nor that two of theta (e.g 7ohn and -Faul, Peter and Paul, ,games and other tlpoltles) might C a Lot
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