Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

( 63) faid that they were bit the Bi(hop's Deputies : I anfwer, even as Bithops are vid. the Arch-Bi(hops Deputies ; that is, they were under them, but were really viúm, in Bithops themfelves : For if a Bithopmay depute one that is no Bi(hop to be his Epip. ha- Deputy, either a Presbyter alto may depute one that is no Presbyter to admi- ref. 69. p. nifter the Sacraments, or not. Ifyea, then Lay-men {hall come in and all be 276, 7," levelled, (For a Deacon alto may deputehis Office.) If not, then either a Bi- 7h a;bid fhop cannot do it, or elfe the Presbyter's Office is much holier than the Bi- champion chop's. of Prelacy And that thereChorepifcopi Country-Bifhops were not flach Rarities as to in- lerongry validate my Proof, but very common, betides what is before laid, is evident thatethe by the Subfcriptions of many Councils, where great fiore of Chorepifcopi. are Chorepif- found.. And befides the llames in our common Collections of the Councils, copi were,. how it was in the Egyptian. and Neighbour Churches at leaft (ifnot how it trbue si -. was at Nice) you may fee in theArabick Subfcriptions publithedby Selden in his Comment on Eutych.Orig. Alex. pag. 93,94, 95, &c. Num. 29, 31, 55, á4, 68, 219,122, 128, 131,179, 193, 215, 237, 241, 278. Thereare fevente'en named. And the Canons made to curb and fupprefs them, (hew that they. were ordinary before ; as, Coned. Laodic. Can. 5.7. But they.thould rather have increafed them, that Bithops might have multiplied as Churches or Chri- ítiaus increafed, which was decreed here in England in the cttp. 9. ofthe Council at Hertford, per Theodor. Cantuar. referente Beda, lib. 4. FliJì. Ecc1 f ; cap. 5. I1. The very naine Ecclefta which was first ufed before Faroe-Ha or Dieecefi , . and (till continued to this day, doth (hew what the form ofa Church then= was, efpeciallyif you withal confider, that the name was communicated to the Temples or sacred Meeting-Places, which arealfoordinarily called Ecc!efe;- which no Man doubteth was in a fecondary fenfe; as derived from thePeople, who were the Ecclefia in the primary Conk. And fo even in our Tongue, the word Church is ufed for both to this day, as it is in many other. Languages.. Now it is certain that a part, efpeciallya finali part, (a hundredth or a thou- fandth part) of the Church is not the Church (unlefs equivocally.) Why then thould the Temple be fo called from the Church, when noChurch at al], butaParticle only ofa Church doth meet there? (For that the word Churcb]in our .Qefiion is nut taken for any Community or Company ofChriftians, but for a governed Societyconfiding of the governingand governed part, I have;. -before (hewed.) But, r. A Church in its deft and proper Notion being Cie-- tue Evocator, An Affembly, or Convention or Congregation ; (as diftinguith- eci;from the Univerfal Church, which is fo called becaufeit is called out of the World to Chrift the Head, and with him thall make one glorious Society,) how. are thofetwenty or an hundred-Miles off, any more a part of the Affem-- bl y where I live, than thofe at the Antipode , may be ? If you fly to one Go- ,vernor, I anfwer ; 1. So the Pope claimeth a Government at the Antipode:... 2. A Governor ofmany Affemblies -may make them one Society, as toGo--- vexnutent, but not one A(fembly. o. Audi

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