or 50. miles ofhim ? Doubtlefs an impartial Reader will think, that it was but a Bifhop of the fame City-Church which he defired Communion with, to whom theCertificate wasto be (hewn. See what Albafpineus faith ofthefe Letters, ex Cond. Laodic. c. Coned. Antioch. ca. Coned; Agath. can. 52. Concil. Eliber. e. 58. in hisobfervat. p.254, 255. XII. Another evidence is the ancient phrafe defcribing a Schifin by Altare And erigere, to fet upanother Altar, or to fet up Altar againft Altar. And to feparate from that Altar was to feparate from that Church : which implyeth, that there was but one Altar in aChurch; and multiplyingAltars was multi- plyingChurches. XIII. Another evidence was the latedivifion of Parifhes : The idle Rory ofso sr.Hen Evariffus dividing Parifhes-at' Rome, Gerf. Racer hath fully confuted. It is Spelman moft certain that except at Alexandria and Rome, it was long before they were C$ t¡àich. divided. Sir Rog.7wifden Hear. Vindicar. c. 3.p. 9, ro. faith that it was under 1.17-7; odor: Theodore A. B. C. that Parochial Churches began ( nark Began ) to be ere&ed time aboi here inEngland, and the Bithópof Rome greatly reverenced in this nation &c. An.672.. out of a MS. in Trinity Hall Cambridge. And it was 668 as Berke tells us Pari(Ji di" before Theodore was Ordained Bifhop. The evidence in.hiftory. of the Latenefs began.hera of Parifhdivifons is pall doubt. Seld. of And whereas the natal anfwer is, that there may be Diocefes without Pa- Tytbespro. tifhes ; I abfwer, It is not theName [ Dioaefe 3 that is the thing in gneflion, ibedoh - but the Church-fiate. While there was but one Altar, there was but one place on of rar of ordinary Church Communion in the Lords Supper. And when there ri/bes in were more places withAltars ereóted, they couldnot be, for werelong with- Englánd out their proper 'adl eed:Presbyters (as Arius his Cafe fheweth and as is con- began but. felled ) And when that was done, they were Parifhesin our fenfe : And till ÿóár; ft o that was done, fome one Presbyter was Pent from the Bifhop : as he pleafed , cheoß and then all the Parifhes inthe Diocefe mull needsbe under one Presbytery as Aed Dr well as one Bifhop. There were no fetled Congregations for ordinary Church Ttuéftlÿ Communion, betides theBithops Church-meeting, till Parifhes were divided , deny the if not by(paceofground, yet by the diftinelinn of Temples and. People, which is time, bat the thing intended. There could beno fuch thing as a Diocefane Church thinð in the fenfe that we oppofe it in, that is, One Church with a Blihop inftmi Patransgh ordinir ( havingnoneunder him) made up ofa multitude ofCommunicating asselden.. Churches with their Subpresbyters, yea fuch as are no part ofthe Bishops Con- faith ) Mies or Presbytery, for the Government ofthat Church. ] mighrpra- bably be- XIV. The next evidence is, the ancient cuftom of All his Presbyters fitting gan this, J f $yet Bi;l)nps in one feat with the Bifhop in a femi-circle in loco eminentiore on each hand of lije alfo hai a and the Deacons flanding under or below them: which is fo ordained by Councils hand in it... ( asCarth. 4. Can. 3 5. &c.) And the thing is commonly reported in the anti- ems. And this being put ufualfy as of his Presbyters in common, who were his afliftants_and colleagues, and with whom he Governed the Churches,. w-ithout;:
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