7: While they ftayed in thefe newly.planted Churches they were them- (elves the chief Guides of the People And- alfo' of their fixed Bi. íhops. 8. This abode in fettling the particular Churches and their particu- lar Bifhops or Elders, occafoned Hiftorians, afterward to call. both A- pofties and EvangeliTs ( fuch as Timothy, Titus, Silas, Silvanos, Lulu, Apollo, ac.) the Bifhops ofthofe Churches-, though they were notfuch as the fixed Bithops were, who undertook a fpeciat Charge and care of one particular Church alone, or above all other Churches. 9. On this account the fame Apoftle is faid to be the firft Bilhop of many Churches; (as Peter of Antioch, andRome; Paul of Corinth, Ephefus Philippi, &c.) When indeed the Apoftles, were the particular fixed Bi- íhops of no Churches, but theBithops equally of many, as. a fort of un- fixed Epifcopacy is included in Apoftlefhip. to. On. this account : allo it is that Timothy is laid to be BifhopofEphe fur, becaufe he was left there for a time to fettle. that and other Chur- ches. of Afaa near it, as ah Afliftant of the Apoftles : And foTitus is cal- led the Bithop of Crete, becaufe he ftaid in that Bland (which was faid to have an hundred Cities) on this work, which belonged not to a particu- lar Bithop, but to.themore indefinite Miniftry. Li. How 'many filch. fixed. Bithops, Elders, Paftors, or Teachers,each particular Church.muft have, -the Apoftles. never determined by .a Law But did de falto fettle them according to the numberof fouls, and (tore of qualified perlons : In fome Churches it ispoffible there might be but one (with Deacons.:) In others. it is evident that. there were many ; as at Yerufalem,. Corinth, 6-c. ra. The particular Churches which-were, the charge of there fixed Bi- Chops or Elders-were Societies of C hriftians conjoyned for Perfonal Com- munion in God's Worfhip, and mutual ajflance in holy living : And though for want of convenient room, or liberty, they did not always meet all in the. fame place, yet were they ordinarily no more than couldmeet in one place when they had liberty : andnever more than could hold perfd- nal Communion, ifnot.at once, yet at feveral times in publick worfhip: (As it is now in thofe places where one part of the Family goeth to Church one part of the day, and another on theother part.) And thofe by.Meetingswhich any had that came not conftantly to thepublick.Affem- blies, were but as our Houle-Meetings, or Chapel-Meetings, but never as. another Church : Nor were their Churches more numerous than our Rarifhes, nor near fo great. r;. At the firft they had noConfecrated' nor Separated places for their Church-Meetings, but Houles or Fields, as.neceflity and.opportunity di- rested them. But as loon as they could, even nature taught them to ob- ferve the fame appointed and Stated places for fuch Affemblies :- Which asSoon as the Churches had peace and. fettlement, they appropriated to thofe facred ufcs only,, though they had not. yet the fhape or name of Temples:. 14, Thougti.
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