Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

( 74) near them. At firff there was but ONE CHURCH haevery J UR I.S- "D I C T I ON, whereitito no man entered to pray, but, with force ob'.ation " towards the maintenance of the Paftor And for this occafron they were "built very huge and great : for otherwife they were not capable of fuch mul- titudes as came daily to them, to hear the word and receive the facraments: tC But as the number of Chrifîians increafed, fo firft Monafteries, then finally " Parifh Churcheswere builded, in every jurifdition ; from which I take our " Deanry Churches to have their original, now called Mother Churches, and " their Incumbents Archpriefls ; And the reft being added frnce theConqueft, " either by the Lords of every Town, or zealous men loth to travail far, " and willing to have force eafe, building them near hand unto thefe Dean. " ry Churches, all the Clergie in old time of the fame. Deanry wereappoin- ted to repair at fundry feafons, there to receive wholfome ordinances, and "to confnit of the neceffary affairs of the whole jurifdiéfion, if neceflity fo " required : And Come imagethereof is yet to be feen in the North parts. But " as the number of Churches increafed , fo the repair of the faithful to theCa- thedral, did diminith, whereby they are now become, efpecially in their " nether parts, rather Markets and (hops for merchandize, than folemn places of prayer , whereunto they were ftrfi erefed. ]. I need to fay no more of this. XIX. The next evidence is, That when Churches firfl became Diocefane ( in the fenfe oppofed) they were fitted to the form of the Civil Govern- ment ; And Diocefes andMetropolitanes, and Patriarchs, carne in at the fame door : The very name (Rob:mats was longunknown in a facred fenfe, and . was after borrowed from the Civil divifions, when the Church was "formed according to them. And as Altare Pamafc. p. 290. faith, Vox dtwwats ut refretar ad. Fpifcopum,ignotafuit Eufebio& fuperioribusfeeulis : And the word Párifh was alfo before ofed in our narrower fenfe, fora vicinity of Chrittians. And as Grynaus faith in eufeb.p. i s not. 3. Evfeb. promifcue tzfurpat hac duovo- cabala naçoiuix ;id ixv,A1;aícc. And that a Diocefane as fuch (thus formed to the Romane Civil form) and a Metropolitane and Patriarch, yea, and the Pope as the Prime Patriarch in the Empire, are all of Humane inflitution, and all of the fame original andright, there are few Pr_ote(lants that do deny. r. The rea(on ofthe thingplainly (hew- eth it. 2. Theirbeginningat once (heweth it. 3. And that they werenever any ofthfrn fetled out of the boman Empire, where that form obtained, except that theyfetled here and there one on the verge of the Empire to have tome care of the neighbour countreys, till after that the Roman name and power in- vited finall countreys adjoyning to them to imitation. And Bithop Bilfon .of. Chr. Subjell. often tells us that Metropolitans and Patriarchs are of Humane in -- llitution. Godwin a Bithop, in theLives of the Englifh Bithops, de Converf. Brit.c.3. p.3 0.- faith5 gLtis tam imperitus di ut non intelligat, polt mortem 7iberii fluxifjé multo: annos, ne dicam f eculum. -unum. axt. alterum priufquam Cardinalis, Patriarchze, ant-.

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