(62) Oppidum, and molt fuch Towns had City-privileges too, which was no more than to be Corporations, and not to have a Nominal Eminency, as now fòme fmall places have above greater (as Bath rather than Plimoutb, Ipfiricb, Shrewf- bury, &c.) Next to this, the Emperors being Chriftians, and defiring without force to draw all the People from Heathenifm to Chriftianity, they thought it the bell way to advance the Chriftians in worldlyrefpeds, which ever win on com- mon minds. And fo they endued the Churches and Bifhops with fuch Ho- nours and Powers heretoforedefcribed as were like to theHonour and Power of the Civil Governors in their kind. And the Bithops being thus lifted up, did firft enlarge their own Diocefes as far as they could, and advance their Power ; and theWorld came unchanged into the Church, both in Cities and Villages, (where the Chriftians werebefore fo few, that many think the Hea- thens were called Pagani in diftinFkion from the Citizens, who were Chri- ftian.) And then the Bishops put down theChorepifcopi, as prefuming too much to imitate their Power : And next to that, left every Corporation or Market-Town having a Bifhop, their Diocefes fhould not be great enough, and ne vilefceret nomen Epifcopi, leftá Bilhop's Name fhould not be honoured enough, but become cheap by reafon of the number, and of the finallnefs ofhis Church,they firft ordered that no fuch fmall Cities or other places as had People enough for but one Presbyter,thould have a Bishop; and afterward by degrees put down many fmaller Bishops Churches, and joyned them to their own : And fo proceeded, by the advantage of Civil Alterations on Cities Naines and Privileges, to bring themfelves to the fiate that they are in, wherein one Bi- shop inlimi ordinis (that is no Arch Bishop) hath many hundred or above a thou- fand Churches and multitudes ofCities, called now but Corporations, Bur- roughs or Market-Towns. I have repeated fo much of the Hiftory, left the Reader forget what it is that I amproving ; and that he may note, that if I prove now that in later Ages they kept but the Veefigia , or Reliques of the former to prove how it was before their times, and if I prove but a Church of Presbyterian Magnitude to have fo long continued, it futficeth againft that whichwe now call a Diocefs : And that we do not playwith Names, nor by a Diocefane Church, mean the fame, thing with a Parochial or Presbyterian ; but we mean fuch as our Diocefes now are, where a Bifhop alone with a Lay-Chan- cellor's Court, or with force finall help of an Arch-Deacon, Surrogate, or Dean and Chapter, without all the Parifh-Minifters befides, doth rule a mul- titude ofdiftant Congregations, whohave no proper Bithop under him. And now I proceed. I. The Chn-epifcopi which were at firft placed in Country Churches where were many Chriftians, do thew what extent the Churches were then of : That thefe were really Bithops at firft (whatever the aforefaid Parenthefis in Leo or -Damafus fay) molt Writers for Epifcopacy, Papifts and Proteftants do now grant ; and therefore I may fpare the labour of proving it : And-whereas it is faid
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