(15) And ibid. Can. 19. Concil. Cotfant. in Trullo, [The Church Preftdents muff every day, but efpecially the Lords day, teach allthe Clergy and people, the things that belong to piety , gathering from the Scriptures the fentences and judgments of verity.] Andp. 149. heciteth Coned. Lateran.feb'Innoc.3.c.ro. allowing Bishops to take helpers in preaching when bufinefs or ficknefs hindred them. And p. 150,152,-153. he mentioueth it as fomewhat rare, that at Alexandria Pref byters preached, and at Antioch Chryfoliom, and at Hippo Auguffine, while Fla- vianus and Valerius were Bishops. I do not cite all this now as toprove the fenfe of Antiquity, but the fenfe of Petavius, who plainly intimateth that the Churches were no larger of a long time, than that a Bithop might preach to all the Clergy and People every, Lords day ; and that in Scripture tines all or near all the Presbyters were Bi- fhops (which k it that we contend for ; ) and confequently you may judge what the Churches were. And though it gill look much farther than Scripture times, I will fnew you what Petavius thought ofthe Magnitude of City-Churches, even near four: - 'hundred years after Chrift, in Epiphanius's days, in his Animadverf. on Epi- phan. ad Hoer. 69. p. 276. [Singularem tune temporis Alexandrioe morons huncfuifJe, vel faltem paucis in Ecclefla ufurpatum, &c. i.e. That this was a (ingular outlast; afAlexandria, or at leaf ufed in few Churches, you may hence conjeOure, becaufe- hefo expreymentioneth this cuflom as peculiar to the Alexandrian Church : to wit, that in thefame City there fhould be many Titles, to each of whichfhould be affign- eda proper Presbyter, who fhould there perform the Church Offices. But yet the fame wasformerly elfewbere infituted; that is, at Rome : where the Presbyters did every one rule his own people, being doffributed by Titles (that is, Celled Sub-Al2, femblies.) 7o them the Bifhops on the Lords daysfont Leaven, or hallowed Bread in token ofCommunion.] See what a fhift they were at firft put to, left the feveral:? Affemblies íhould Ceem feveral Churches. For it is not tobe imagined that this was done to fgnifie that common Chriftian'Communion which theyhad with other Chriftian Churches, but that neareft Communionwhich belongeth to thofe that are embodied under one Paftor, or the fame Pallor in Common, that is,one particular Church Evenas if there divers Altars or Tables wereat a diftance in the fameChurch,and theBishop would fignifie the Union of the fe- veral Companies in the fame Society, by fendingTome of theBread which he had bleufed to them all. But Petavius proceedeth [ Non dubito majoribus duntaxat in terbiboos,.&c.. doubt not but that it was in the Greater Cities only that there were more (than one) Titles within the bounds (or. Liberties) when within the fame Walls, they would not be contained and meet together ; andfo had Presbytersput on thefeveralChurches. - But in thefmaller and lets frequented Cities, there was one only Church, into which they all did come together., Ofwhichfort were the Cities of Cyprus. And there-- fore Epiphanius noteth the cuf}om of Alexandria;, as a thinggrange to his Country.. men-and unufual. Hence was the original ofParifhes ; which word was transferred ferns the..Country Churches to the City Churches, And adding the oreyot with their .
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