I 12 The State of the fir. ff Churches, &c. morationem, &c. Defigning to declare, as hedoth in par. ticular, Negotia Chriftiant faCtionis, as he calls them, or the Dudes of Chriflian Religion, which in their Chur- ches they did attend unto,he lays the foundation in their meetings in thefame Affembly or Congregation. In thefe Affemblies there pretided the Elders, that up- on a Tellimonyof their meetnefs unto that Office, were chofen thereunto. Prefident probati quiquefeniores, ho- norem ifium nonpretiofed reftimonio adepti. And in the Church thus met together in the fame place, Affembly, or Congregation , under the rule and conduá of their El- ders, among other things they exercifed Difeipline, that is, in the pretence and by the content of the whole. Ibi- demetiam exhortationes, cafligationes, & cenfura divi- na. Nam , ; judicatur magno cumpondere , ut aped cer- tos de Dei confpeCtu; fummumquefuturi judicii prejudi- ciuns eft, i psis ita deliquerit, ut á communicatione Orati- nis & conventus , d onenislanai cornmercii relegetur. The lots of thisDifcipline, and the mannerof its Admini- ftration, hathbeen one of the principal means of the A- poftacy of Churches from their Primitive Inthitution. To the fame purpofe doth Origen give usan account of the way of thegathering and eftablithing Churches under Elders of their own choofing, in the dole ofhis Taft Book against Celf#s. And although in the days of Cyprian, in the thirdCentury, the diftinion between theBithop in any Church eminently Co called, and thole who are only Presbyters, with their imparity , and not only the prece- dency, but fuperiority of one over others began general- ly to beadmitted yet it is fufficiently manifef1 from his E- pitf:les, that the Church wherein he did prefide, was fofar a particular Church, as that thewholeBody or Fraternity of it, was admitted unto all advice in thingsof common concernment unto the wholeChurch, and allowed the ex- ercife
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