(47) Churches were far extended before Gregory lent Afine, and that our Bithops and Religion are derived from them :) Even at Tours inFrance in the daysof Saint Martin, notwithftandingall his Miracles, the Chriftians were not fo ma- ny as the Heathens, at leali till one publick Miracle towards his later time convinced tome. CHAP. VI. Thefame further confirmed by the Ancients. I. ¡ Vfebiur Demon lrat. Evangel, pag. 138. faith, [When he confidered the Li Power ofChrift's Word, how it perfwaded innumerable Congregati- onsof Men, andby thofe Ignoble and Rullick Difciples of Jefus, Zwgexvd6Qot Etu tÀnefat nurnerofiffime Ecciefa were conftituted, not in certain unknown and obfcureplaces, but ereéied in the moll famous Cities, (Rome, Alexandria and Antioch) through all Egypt and Lyeia,throughEurope and Afla, idle v4toctc 7e sìß xW is vravToíots Viveotin Villages and Countries or Regions andall forts of Nations.] By this it appeareth that Villages had Churches then. II. Though of later date, confider the Hiftory of Patrick's Plantation of Churches in Ireland : who is Paid himfelf in his own time tohave three hundred fixty fiveChurches, andas many Bithops, and three thoufand Presbyters ; as Ninius reporteth.. Not onlyThorndike taketh notice of this, but a -better Au- thor, Vfber de. Ecclef. Brit. Primord. pa. 95o. And Belden in his Comment on Eutychius OriginesAlex. pag. 86. fromAntoninur-and Vincentius, thus mention- eth it, [ Certe tantum in orbe terrarum tune temporio Epifeoporum figetem mirará forfn definet, Of-quid crediderit, quad de B. Patricia Hibernenfi Antoninuc & centius tradunt ; Eum fcálieet (alum Ecclefias fundaffe 365. totidemque Epifcopos ordinaffe, prater Presbyterorum 3000. Quade re confulas plura apud pr.eflantifi- mum virum JacobumUffcrium, *c.] So that here was to everyChurch a' Bifhop and near ten .Presbyters. (No Man will doubt but theBithops them- felves were taken out of the better fort of the Laity, and the Presbyters of the. -fecond fort ; and all below many private Chriftiabs now among us.) And were there three hundred fixty five Cities think you in Ireland ? Yea, or Corporations either ? It's eafre to conjeéture what Churches thefe were. IlI. All Hiflory,Fathers, and Councils confent, that every City was to have a Bilhop and Presbytery to govern and teach the Chrillians of that City and the Country people near it ; which is but a Pari(h or Presbyterian Church. For the word aóNts fignifieth in the old common ufe, any big Town, yea little
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