(Is) over them, as the chief Pallor of the Parilh hath ; fo that the people themfelves are againft an equality of power, where there is not an equa- lity of worth. 24. Though we cannot prove that this fixed Epifcopacy was either fet upby the Apoftles, or countenanced by them, nor yet that it was begun and in being intheir days ; yet it could not be long after their days that it begun ; And if Hierome miftake not it began at Alexandria fome years before the deathof St. yobn theApoflle. 25. All this while the Bifhop was not fuppofed to be of a diftinft Office, or fpecies of Miniftry, (nowcalled An Order) but only an Over- feer and chief of perfons in the fameOffice with him ; being in common with the reft, Epifcopur plebis, and eXtraordinarily, Epifcoput Cleri eel E pifceporum feu Presbyterorum. As one of theMonks is made Abbot in a Monaftery, or as one Janice among many is of the uorum, or one judge on the Bench is the chief Juftice : Oras the Prefident inanA cade- mick College. 26. The chief thing in which a fpecial power was given to theBifhops above their fellow Presbyters was in Ordination, that none thould beOr- dained without them; It being a matter ofexceeding great confequence to the Churches, what Minifters were fet over them, and therefore put, chiefly in the power of thefe chofen men. And the next part of their power was in having the chief difpofal of all Church affairs, as our Parilh Paftors have now among their Curates : fo that nothing was to be done in the Church without and againft their confent and plea.. Lure. 27. This Epifcopacy did fo univerfally obtain, that I remember not to have read of any fort of Chriftians, Orthodox or Heretical, Catho- lick or Schifmatical, who ever refufed it, or fpake againft it, till r.&riu,'s time. And even he fpake not againft it as flatly unlawful, but as unne- ceflàry, as far as I can gather from Epiphanias. Andafter him all forts- and Sees of Chriftians 11111 ownedit: Eves the Donati(fs and Novatians, who had their Bitops as well as others. 28. In Scripture times we read not of any meer fixed Bithops of par- ticular Churches, who Ordained either Bifhops or Presbyters ; but only Apoflles and their unfixed Afliftants, who had an equal charge of many Churches. Not that the Office of the Indefinite unfixed Miniftry was not the famewith the Office of the fixed Bifhops in fpecie: (For both had pow- er to do all the Minifterial work, as they had a call and opportunity to exercife it.) But- becaufe it being the employment,: of the Indefinite or unfixed Minifters to Gather and plant Churches; before they could be Governed, the Ordinationof Elders over then', was part of the planting taf them ;. and fo fell to their lot, as part of their conftituting work. 29. How it came to pafs that the Itinerant or Indefinite excrcife of the Miniftry for planting Churches, fo quickly almoft seared after the A- pofi:ies days, is a matterworthy tobe enquired after : For whereas fame think,
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