11 1 r 6 The State of the firfi Churches, &c. were chofen, as he tells us, by theChurches, wherein they were to prefide,and thereon did govern them by the Rule of Gods Word alone. Hereby was the Original Conflitution and Rate of the firft Churches for a good feafon preferved. Nor was there the leaít abridgment of the power either ofthefe Churches or of their Officers , becaufe it maybe they were fore of them planted in poor Country-Villages. For as no man in the world canhinder, but that every trueChurch hath de jure all the Rights and Powers that any other Church in the world hath or ought to have, or that every true 0f- cer, Bithop, Elder, or Pallor, bath not all the power, that Chrift bath annexedunto that Office, (be theyat Rome or Eugubi) fo therewas no abridgment of this power in the meanettof them, as yet attempted, But this courte and duty in many places not long after became to be much omitted; whether out of Ignorance or Negligence, or unwillingnefs of men to undertake the Pafioral Charge in poor Country- Churches , I know not. But fo it was , that Believers in the Regions round about any City, cv ryr..pap, were look'd on as thofe which belong- edunto theCity-Churches, and were not fetled in parti cular Congregations for their edification, which they ought to have been. And the Councels that afterwards enfued, made Laws and Canons that they fhould be under the Government of the Bithops of thofe City-Churches. But when the number of fuch Believers was greatly in- creafed, fo as that it wasneedful to have forealways at- tending the Miniftry among them they came I know not how to have Ghorepifêopi among them and over them. The firft mention of them is in the SynodofAncyra in Galatia , about the year 314, Can. 13. and mention is againmade of them in a Synodof Antioch, An. 341. and fomewhat before at the Council of Neaceefarea, Can. 13. and
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