their Councils abridged. (likethat of the Synagogues, and not like that of the Temp:e,) no man ought to have changed that Form : Becaufe theycan prove no power to do it : and becaufe it accufeth the Inftitution of Chrift and the Holy Ghoft of infuffieiency or errour, which muff fo foon be altered by them. Perfeftive addition, as an Infantgrowethup to Manhood, we deny nor. But who gave them power to abrogate the very Species of the firft Infti- tuted Churches ? That the Species is altered, is certainly proved by the different ufes and Termini of the Relation. For a Church of the first In- flitution was a Society joynedfor perfonal Communion in Doiline, Worfhip, and holy living: But a Diocefs confifting of many fcore or hundred Pa- riffles that never fee or know or come near one another, are uncapable of any fuch prefent perfonal Communion, and have none but Mental, and by Officers or Delegates. 2. By this means, all the Parifh-Churches being turned into Chapels and un-Churched, areall robbed of their Right ; feeing each one ought to have a Bifhop andPresbyters,and thebenefit ofthat Office and Order,which isnow denied them, and many hundred fuch Parifhes turned into Chapels haveno Bifhop to themfelves but one among them all to the Diocefs. 3. Becaufe by this means true Difcipline is become impotfible and un- pra&icable ; by the diftanceandmultitude ofthe people, and the diftance and paucity of Bifhops: What Chrift commandeth, Mat. IS. being as impoffible to be done in many hundred Parifiies, by one Bifhop and his Confiftory, as the Difciplineof fo many hundred Schools by one School matter (though each Schoolhave anMier), or the careofmany hundred Hofpitals by one Phylician, perhaps at twenty, or forty, or eighty, or an hundred miles diftance. 4. Becaufe it altereth the antient Office of a Bithop and of a Presbyter, and fetteth new ones in the ftead: As a Bifnop was the Bifhop of one Church, fo áPresbyter was his Afliftant, EjufdemOrdinis, in the Govern_ wentof theChurch, who now is turned into a meer tither, or WorJhrpping- Teacher, or Chaplain. 5. Becaufe it certainly divideth the Churches : For Chriftians would unite in a Divine Inflitution, and the exercife of true Difcipline , that will never unite in ahumane Policy which abrogateth the Divine, and certainly deftroyethcommanded neceffary Difcipline. S. 35. The veryworkálfo of the Bifhop, and fo the Office came thus tobe changed : Chrift havingappointed noother Church Governours (be- fides Magiftrates) butfuch (as Philofophers in their Schools) who were appointed to fet up Holy Societies for Divine Dottrine, Worfhip, and Holy Living, and toGuide themaccordingly, by Teaching,Worlhip, and Government by theWord, forbidding them the Sword or Force, they are faid tohave the Keys of the Church and the Kingdom of Heaven, becaufe as Grace is Glory in the feed,the Church is Heaven in the feed,and the Paftors were the Adminiftrators ofSacraments and Church-priviledges, and there- fore the Judges who were At for them , who lhould be Baptized, who Mould
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