(Sa) C HA P. V. The S ate of the Firf Churches after the +files to the end of the Second Century. INConfirmation of the foregoing Argument, we urge the Prefident and Example of the Primitive Churches, that fucceeded unto th.ofe which were planted by theApoílies themfelves, and fo may well be judged to have walked in the fame way and Order with them. And that which we alledge is, That in no approved Writers for the fpace of zoo years, after C hrifl there is any mention made of any other Organical, vifbly profefing Church, but that only which is Parochial, or Congregational. A Church of any other Form, State, or Order, Pa- pal or Oecumenical, Patriarchal, letropolitical, Diocesan or Clafjical, they knownot Neither Name nor thing, nor any of them appear in any of their Writings. ` Before I proceed unto the Confirmation of this Aflerti- on by particular Teftimonies, I than premife force things which are needful unto the right underftanding of what it is that I intend to prove by them. As I. All the Churches at firft planted by the Apoftles, whether inthe greateft Cities as yerufalem, Antioch, Corinth, 'Rome,&c. or thole inthemeaneft Villages of 'Judea, Galilee, or Samaria, were, as unto their Church State, in Order, Power, Priviledge, and Duty eve,y way equal, not Su- perior or Inferior, not ruling over, or fubje& unto, one another. No Agitation ofany Inequality between them,. no Inftance of any Pratiice Supposing it,, no Virtciion for any compliance with it, no one word of intimation of ir, can be produced from the Scripture; nor is it confiflent with
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