C 62 ) or the placeand Country : nor did they themfelves ever appoint any fuch bounds to anyone Church, and fay fo far it fhall extend: Nordid they ever take anybut Chriftians in any Circuits for Members ofthe Church. And I fhall prove that all Churches were but fuch as I defcribed, fingle Churches with their Bifhops at the firft, and that force Villages hadBifhops four or five hundred yearsafter : And his ownReafon that Churches fol- lowed the Civil Form, proveth the mutability oftheir bounds, Peeing the Civil Forms were mutable. His next Reafon is becaufe [that divifion of Churches which was 3o0 or 400 Tears after Chrifi, with their Limits and Circuits, were ordinarily the fame which had been from the beginning, as divers Councils teftifie. Anf. Thofe Councils mean no more, than that it had been anold or ret- ied Cuftome, (as many Learnedmen haveproved.) And if they couldbe proved to mean that from theApoftoiical:plantations the bounds ofall theDioceffs were Pet, I marvel that anyman could belies-c them. But they fayno fuch thing, aswere it not tedious tothe Reader, an examination of eachparticular would Phew. Elfe nonewChurches and Bifhops muft be fet.. led in the World, but thofe that the Apottles converted in any Cities be- tweenor near them; For the unconverted Citiesin the inter-fpaces, were as much thofe Bifhops DiocefTesas the Villages of equal diftance: And then themakingof newCities would havemade one a Bithop of many Cities, contrary to the Canons. His third Reafon is, that the Difiribution of the Cleurchesufually followed the divifionof the Commonwealth. Anf. r. Iffo (as is faid) they muff bevarious and mutable. All the World was not divided juft as the Roman Empire was: And the Imperial divifions had great changes. z. I think it loft labour todifpute with him that holdeth this aflimilaringtheChurch to the Civil Form, was ofDivine Apoftolical [nftitution. If anycan think fo, lethim giveus hisproof that theChurch Conftitution muft vary asMonarchical, Ariltocratical and De- mocratical States do ; AsEmpires and free Cities do : And that from the King to theConftable, we muft have a correfpondent Officer : And that the Papacy as Capital in the RomanEmpire, was ofGods Inftitution. And that an Emperour, King, or popular State may change the Form ofthe Churches, as oft as they may the Formof their fubordinate Governments. Are not thefefmall Reafons to prove, that when the Apoftles planted Bi.. chops in all fingle Churches, they intended thattholeBifhops Mould be the foie Bifhops ofmany hundred Churches, when they Mould be railed in the Circuit ofground, which now is called their Dioceffes. But moreofthis in due place. But next heappealethtotnensconfcienees, Whether it be not unlilo.ellythat there wásbut one Congregation.belonging totheft famous Cities towardsthe end of the Apoflles days. Ofwhich more afterward. In Chap. 4. p.69. Heargueth, [The Presbyteries ordained by the Apoflles, were appointedfor Dioceffes, and not to Panther: ThereforetheChurches endued with
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