Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

( 107 Book, which I thought an underftandingReader needeth an an1Wer to.- There is yet the fame Authors Vindicationofhis Differtations tobe cbhfidered : But I find nothingnew in them " to be anfwered by me, nor that 1 am concerned for theCaufe inhand any further than togive you there fewObfervations. r. That again, p. 5. he faith, [?hatby obferving the paucity of Relic-veers in ma- ny Cities in the fxrfil Plantations, whichmade it unneceffary that there ft;culd by the A- peflles be ordained any more than a Bop andDeacon (one, or snore) in each City, and that this was accordinglydone by themat thefr/l, is approvedby. the mofl tendenyahleancient Records. 2. That p. 7. he again well averreth that the Jewifh andGentile Congregations occafioned feveral Churches and Bifhops in the fame Cities. Anddp. 14. 15. That Timothy was placed by Pau!, BifhopoftheGentiles atEphefus,and S.john, and ano- ther after him, Bifhopofthe 7ews. Pag. 16. Hethinketh that Timothy was Bifhop ofEphefus (or Angel) whenRev. z. was wrote. Paz. 17. From Epiphanies he reckon.. , eth above 5o years from theRevelationof john, Rev. 2. to the writingof E. piffles. By which we may Calculate the time when the Officeofhalf-Presbyters b . gan tobe invented, according tohis own Computation. Thatpag. 21. &paJfm, his fùppofitionofthe 24Bifhops of7udaa, fitting about the Throne of names Bifhop of Yerufalem,and his other fuppofitionof their being fo ordinarily there. And of.the Bifhops of Provinces in other Nations, being fo frequently many fcore, if not hundred Miles off their people in the Metropolitan Cities, when the people had noother Prieft to Officiate, doth tend to an Arheiflical conceit, that the Or dinary ufe ofSacred Affemblies and Communion is no very needful thing, when in the belt timesby the belt men, in wholeCountreysat once, they were fo much for- . born. Fag. 26. Again you have his full and plain Afl'ertion, [That there were not in the fpace within rompafs of which all the Boons of the new Teflament were written, qny Presbyters, in our modernNotionofthem, created in the Church, though foon after certainly in Ignatius time, whichwas above so years after theRev.) they were]. Pag. 6o. He liippofeth that whoeverfhould fettle Churches under a Heathen King a- mongHeathens, mull accordinlymake theChurches gathered fubordinate toone another, as the Cities in which they are gatheredwere (though Heathen) fubordinate to one another, of which more indue place. Pag. 76, 77. He faith that [AsCongregations, and Parishes are Synonimous it' their Style, fo7yield that Believers ingreat Cities werenot at fire divided into Parifhes, while the number of Chriftians ina City wasfo[mall that they might well affèmble in the fame place, andfo needed noPartitions, or Divifion,,. But what difadvantage is this to us, who affirm that one Bifhop, not aColledge of Presbyters, prefided in that one Congregation, and that the Believers in the Regionsand Villages about did belong to the care of that jingle Bi- fhop, or CityChurch] ABifhop andhis Deacon were fufficient at the frit (totow) theirPlan- rations [Forwhat is aDiocefs but aChurch ina City with the Suburbs and Territories, or Region belonging to it? Andthiscertainly might beandremain under the Government ofa tingle Bifhop. Of any Churchfo bounded there may be aBifhop, and that whole Church fhall be his Diocefs, andfobe aDiocefan Bithop, though asyet this Church be not fubdivided into morefeveralAffemblies.] So that you fee now what a Diocefs is. And that you may know that we contend not about Names, while they call the 13i`hop of one Con

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