Baxter - BV669 B3 1681

Ì1 (6o) forthe Peoples Converfion, before there be any Churches at all. 3. This distribution is a meerprudential Orderingof an accident orcircum$ànce and therefore not the Divine Institutionof a Church Form or Species. 4. Neither Scripture nor prudence fo diftributeth Circuits or Provinces to Preachers, in order to converfionofInfidels, asthat other Preachers may not come and Preach there, as freely as one that claimeth it as his Pro- vince. For, i. Chrilt fent out hisApoftles by two and twoat first. 2. Paul had Barnabaa or fome otherEvangelift or General Preacher ufuallywith him. And Peter and Paul are both laid tobe at Rome; at Antioch, and a. Cher places : And many Apoftles were long together at 7erufalem, even many years after Christ's Refurredion. Chrift that bid them go into all the World,nevercommanded thatone fhould notcome where another was, nor have power toPreach to Infidels in that Diocefs. And what is the Epifcopal power over Infidels, which is claimed? Itis not apower toOrdain, or toExcommunicate them. It can be no other than apower toPreach to them, and Baptize themwhen converted. And this is confefled tobelong to Presbyters. Ifthe Bithops would divide theWorld into Dioceffes, and be the only Preachers in thofe Diocefles, it would be no wonder if theWorld be unconverted. It isnot Bifhops that are fent by the Papifts themfelves to convert the Indians. But perhaps you may fay that the Bifhops rule thofePresbyters thatdo it. I anfwer, s. It's an imperfeft kindofGovernment,which a Bifhop in Eng. land can exercife over Presbyters thatdaily Preach, as Mr. Elias his hel- pers to the Natives inaWildernefs many thoufand Milesfrom them. 2. But if theydo rule the Preachers, that maketh not the Soil nor the Heathens tobe anypartsof their Church, but the Preachers only. Thereforea Dio- cefs with them, anda Church, must bedifferent things. His first Reafon therefore, page 36. from the Circuit is vain. His fe- cond, page 37. that the CityBishops hada right from the beginning over manyChurches, (that had noother Bifhops) and did not after ufurp it, he proveth not at all : For thewordsof Men three or four hundred years after Christ, alledging arrient cufiome are noproof: When the 25 Can. Trull. cited by himfeif, maketh thirty years polleflïon enough against all that would queft ion their Title. And abundance of things had Cuftome and Antiquity alledged for them fo long after, that were known Innova- tions. His thirdReafon is from the Chorepifcopi, as the Bishops fuffragan,which iheweth nomore, but that the CityBishops (whether justly or byufurpa- Lion) were at lait really Archbifhops, or Rulers of Bithops : But of this before. His fourth Reafon, from Succefon will begood, when he that affirm- eth that no Church was governed by the Parish Difcipline, bath proved that all, many, }"ea, or any Bithops from the Apoftles days, had many Churches urder them that hadno Bifhops of their own. Till then he faith nothing. As

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