I2 Church-Hiftory of Bithops and not and did not do the work of an Apoftle in the fame Country and City. Much lefs do we believe that oneof theta (e.g. fames at 7erufalem, whe. ther an Apoftle, or not I contend not) was a Bifhop over the Apoftles when they refided there. 2. Nor dowebelieve that they left any fuch divided Provinces to their Succeffors : If theyhad, it's ftrange that we had not twelve or thirteen Patriarchal or Provincial Churches hence noted. Which were they and how camethey fofoon to be forgotten and unknown ? And why had we firft but three Patriarchs, andone of thofe (Alexandria) accounting from no Apoftle, but from S. Mark, and the other two reckoning from one and the fame Apoftle, fave that Rome reckoned from two atonce, Peter and Paul, when as one Citymuff (fay they) have but oneBifhop ? f. 3 ;. The cafe is known; that, r. When Chriftians fo multiplyed, that oneAffembly wouldnot ferve, but they became enough for many, the Bifhops greatnefs and wealth increafing with the People, they conti- nued them all under their own Government, and fo took them all to be their Chapels, fetling divers Altars but notdivers Bifhopsin one Church. 2. And herewith their work alto, by degrees, was much changed; and they that at, firft were molt employed in Guiding the whole Church in Gods publick worihip , and exercifed prefent difcipline before them, and were the fole ufual Preachers to them all, ( the reft of the Elders Preaching but when the Bifhop could not, or bid them,) did after become diftant Judges, and their Government, by degrees, degenerated to a fi- militude ofCivil Magiftracy. ;. And then they fet up the old exploded queftion, which of them fhould be the chief or greateft : And then they that had the greateft Cities being the richeft and greatelt Bifhops in intereft, becaufe of the greatnefs and riches of their Flocks, they got the Church Governmentto be diftributed, much like the Roman Civil Go- vernment within that Empire ; And wherethe Civil Magiftrate had molt and largeft command, they gave the Ecclefiaftical Bifhop the like : And fo they fet up theBifhops of the three chief Cities as Patriarchs, Rome being the firft, becaufe it was the great Imperial Seat, as the Chalcedon Council giveth the true reafon. Afterwards Conflantinople and Terufalem being added, they turned them into five: And Carthageand otherplaces, not called Patriarchal Seats, had exempt peculiar JurifdiCtions with a power near to Patriarchs. And the reft of the Bifhops Itrove much for precedency, and got as large Territories as theycould, andas numerous Flocks and many Parifhes, though ftill the name Partecia was ufed for the whole Epifcopal Church when it was turned into a Diocefs. §. 34.. I conceive that this Change of One Altar into a Diocefane Church of many Altars and Pares was not well done, but is the thing that hath confounded the Chriftian World, and that they ought to have increafed the number of Churches as the numberofChriftians didincreafe, as the Bees fwarm into another Hive. My Reafons are, i. Chrift and theHoly Gholt in the Apoftles having fetled a Church Species and Order (like
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