(9c) adwarnAblare ; adunion7efum Chrifitum] So the old Latine in 7Jfñer to the fame purpofe. And in the words beforegoing he bids them [ Come all to oneplacefor prayer ] Here is no room for Bithop Dammam, conceit , tbat its Chrift thats meant by 6urssa4psop : For they are plainly put as diflin& things : as if he fhould fay, comeall to one Altar, as to one Chrift. i. e be caufe it is but one Chriffthat is there to be party ed of. All this doth fo evidentlyprove that in thofedayes a Bìíhop with his Pref. bytery arid Deacons, had but one Congregation meeting at one Altar for Church Commnnion in the Eucharift, that it canted Mr. Mead (in his Difcourfe of Churches pag. 48, 49, 5o Cent. 2. ) to fay as followeth, having cited there words of Ig- natius L Loe here a Temple withan Altar in it, whether the Mug.. nefians areexhorted togather themfelves together to pray: To come together in oneplace, &c. For it isto be obferved that in tbefe Pri- mitive times they hadbut one Altar ha a Church, as a Symbole, both that they wortippedbut one God through one Mediator 7efas Chrifi, andago of the 7lnity'the Church ought to have in it felf. Whence Ignatius not only here, but alfa in his Bpillle to the Phila- delphians urgeth theunity of the Altar for a motive to the Con° gregation to agree together in one: For unumAltare (fai` h he ) omni Ecclefiæ; & unus Epifcopus cum Presbyterio & Diaconis confervis mein. Thiscuftome of one Altar isfill retainedby the Greek Church: Thecontrary safeis a tranfgrefon ofthe Latines, not on y Symbolically implying, but really introducing a n uPE1a, &c. Nay more then this itfhould teem that in thofe firff times, before Dioreffét were divided into thofe lefer and'fubirdï- nate Churches, wecal now Parifhes, and Presbyters agigned to them, they hadnot onlyone 4 ltar in one Church or Dotninicum, but one Altar to a Church, taking Church for the company" or Corporation of the f aithftall, united under one Bifhop or Pairior, and that wui in the City or "place where the Eafhop had his See andRefidence,like as the Yews had but one Altar and Tensp 1e for the whole Nation united under one high Prief. Andyet as the Yews had their Synagogues, fo perhap; might they have more Ora= tori:v thenone, though their Airar werebut one; there naivelywhere the Bífhop was. Die folisfaih Junin Martyr, omnium qui'vel in oppidis vet ruri degunt, in eundem locum conventus fit : Namely as he there tells us, to celebrate, andparticipate the holy N 2 Euchariff.
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