but that my Author continues to abuse his Reader after the same manner in another Chapter which conteins for the most part such allegations as he had produced before but something more being added it seemed necessary to add some brief reflections (e) Prim. ep p. 217. When the Bishop could not be content with a moderate charge but extended it to such a largeness that it became ungovernable by him This pretended ruling was no longer government but anarchy as Isidore speaks of a Bishop of his time l. 3. cap. 319. That this is said of a Bishop does by no means appear from that Epistle but the circumstances direct us to understand it rather of a Civil Judg than of a Bishop Vnder such a ones government says Isidore which was anarchy rather than government punishment went before accusation for being an unreasonable man it is no wonder he should act so preposterously and pervert all methods of Justice But that this was a Bishop or had a large Bishoprick and would not be content with a moderate charge but extended it to such a largeness to be ungovernable Mr. Clerkson did not find in Isidore but in his sleep for surely his Conscience must be a-sleep when he knowingly perverts the words of ancient Authors to impose upon the World With the same integrity he useth Basil 's words Through this ambition of governing all all Church government came to nothing de Sp. S. c. ult This governing all which makes the passage look as if it were directed against large Bishopricks is not in Basil but without this addition Mr. Clerkson might think the citation would not be to his purpose The place deserves to be taken notice of and when I have represented it as it is in the Author let the World judg who is most concerned in that reproach Every one says that Father (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will be a Divine tho his Soul be blemished with ten thousand spots Hence it is that those who are given to change strengthen their Faction Impatient ambition invades the high places of the Church without call or ordination despising the Oeconomy of the Holy Ghost and all the precepts of the Gospel (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hence it is that there is so much rushing upon the Offices of the Church every one intruding into those sacred places and through that ambition Anarchy hath seized the Church and the people are left without government Hence it is that the exhortations of the Bishops are vain and ineffectual because every one is more forward to rule others than to obey his ignorance and his pride possessing him with a vain opinion of his own abilities (h) Bas l. de Sp. S. c. 30. p. 225. Here is not the least notice taken whether the Bishopricks were litle or great much less is this confusion charged upon their too great extent It is ambition only that is here reproved and the impatience of those who when they could not in a regular way advance themselves to the government of the Church became Bishops of their own making Upon a supposition that a Primitive Bishop had but one Congregation Mr. Clerkson proceeds to shew that every Congregation which is always adequate to a Church in his notion had a right of ordering it self and appointing what rites it thought fit And to that purpose he observes out of Socrates and Sozomen that in several parts of the World there were different usages and customs But is there any instance in antiquity of people that separated from their Bishop and their own Church because they would not comply with the customs and rites received there For instance in Rome it was customary to fast on Saturday In other Countries they fasted the day before Now did any Roman Christian forsake his Church because they did not fast on Friday Or did any African part Communion because the Saturday was not observed there as it was in Rome S. Augustin's judgment in this point is well known and universally approved He directs every Christian to comply with the rites and customs of the Church where he happens to be tho he find some things different from the usage of his own Church The reverence which the Primitive Christians had for the Forms in which they were brought up raised in them some scruple when they came to observe those of other Churches to be different But as to their own particular rites and usages proper to each respective Country they were so peaceably and religiously observed that they were never made a pretence of Separation or so much as the occasion of a Controversy Some differences indeed did arise very early between Churches of different Countries about the time of Easter and rebaptizing of Hereticks but in the conclusion every one adhered to his own way which he thought the best and he was generally blamed who took upon him to prescribe to the rest Let us suppose therefore in this case an African Christian who had lived some time in Rome and taken a liking to the peculiar usages of that Church should after his return home disparage the received order of his own Church and to shew how much he had improved by Travel indeavour to introduce foreign Customs What treatment think you would such a one have received from S. Augustin or S. Cyprian Such a troubler of the peace and order of the Church would soon find himself cast out by the severest censures unless they might think it more advisable to send him to the Exorcist This was plainly the case between the Church of England and the first Dissenters Some of the English Exiles took I know not what fondness to the usages of some Protestant Churches abroad and a strange dislike to their own way They returned home with foreign manners and set them up in opposition to the order of their own Church and at last parted Communion upon this pretence It is not here a place to enquire into their reasons or to make a comparison between what they chose and what they rejected This only I may be bold to say that their Schism is without example either in ancient or later ages For who ever separated from the Church of Geneva in favour of some peculiarities he might have seen in Zurich Or what French-Man forsook the Communion of the French Churches because they had some Ceremonies different from those of Holland Or did a Hollander ever run out of the Church because the Preacher was uncovered out of pure zeal to the custom of France where the Preacher took the same liberty with the Congregation of being covered too Our Church does not pretend to prescribe to any other nor does she think it reasonable any other should prescribe to her but as all other Churches use their discretion in appointing what rites they think most meet so does she and is the only Church in the World that I know forsaken upon that account Yet Mr. Clerkson (i) Prim. ep p.
223. tells us that we ought to be cautious of charging one another with Schism for such things wherein the ancient Churches are like to be involved in the same Condemnation As tho ancient Churches had any thing parallel to the case of our Dissenters or indeed any other Church Sure I am that the instances alledged by Mr. Clerkson are very wide of it as I have shewed already For we charge no other Churches with Schism because they have not the same rites that we use nor do we so much as condemn the Dissenters upon that account But in this we charge them with Schism that they have departed from the Communion of our Church upon the account of rites and they indeed condemning us by their Separation upon that reason do truly involve the ancient Churches in the same condition To make the end answer the beginning Mr. Clerkson concludes with a manifest calumny Hereby says he (l) Prim. ep p. 226. it appears with what judgment and charity some among us will have none to be true Churches that want Diocesan Bishops they hereby blast all the Churches in the Apostles times and the best Ages after as no Churches Herein they are as wise and friendly as if one to secure the height of his own Turret should attempt to blow up all the Houses in the best part of the world nay they blow up their own too It is neither wise nor friendly to charge men with absurd opinions of which neither they nor perhaps any other were ever guilty What witness what evidence of this matter What Books or conversation ever betrayed so great a weakness I never yet heard of any man who made it essential to a Bishop to have many Congregations under them The Papists have several Bishops with a very small flock and such as one Parish-Church may contain They have others who have not so much as one Congregation nor perhaps one Christian within their Diocese But we may guess at the men our Author intends they indeed distinguish with all the ancient Churches between a Bishop and a Presbyter But for the measure of Episcopal Churches They willingly subscribe to S. Jerom's (m) Ep. ad Evagr. judgment that the Bishop of Eugubium is no less a Bishop than he of Rome and the Bishop of Tanis is as much a Bishop as he of Alexandria since it is not the greatness of the City but the Ordination that makes a Bishop In the Primitive times and those next succeeding the extent of Dioceses were very different In Scythia (n) Soz. l. 7. c. 19. there was but one though many Cities and in some places there were Bishops in Villages Some Cities had very large Territories belonging to their Bishops others but small yet all this while these Bishops accounted themselves all of equal authority though their Dioceses might be very unequal and never broke Communion upon that account But if some Presbyters should attempt then to separate from their Bishops and to set up Altar against Altar they incurred the censure (o) Can. Ant. 5. of all Christian Churches and were shut out of Catholick Communion by universal consent As to matter of fact it is plain that in the Primitive times there were no Churches without Bishops such as were acknowledged different from Presbyters And Ignatius (p) Ign. Ep. ad Traâ— is bold to say that without a Bishop Presbyters and Deacons it cannot be called a Church But as for those who separate from their Bishops whose doctrin they acknowledge to be sound and set up Churches and make Ordinations in opposition to them and the whole establishment of a National or Provincial Church These I shall not scruple to Unchurch since in this I have not only the suffrage of antiquity but the consent of all Protestant Churches on my side In France while the Reformed Religion stood there if any departed from the established order of those Churches they were excommunicated and if they should attempt to set up separate Congregations they would have been accounted no Churches (q) Hist Eccles de Bez. T. 2. l. 6. How zealous they were of the Orders appointed in their Synods will sufficiently appear from the case of Morelli and the proceedings against him Nor is it otherwise in Holland or Germany or where-ever the Reformed Religion is received they unchurch all who upon such frivolous pretences as our Dissenters use against us would leave their Communion By this notion of Primitive Episcopacy Mr. Clerkson (r) Prim. Ep. p. 23â— thinks that some mistakes concerning Episcopal Ordinations of ill consequence may be rectified A Bishop in the best ages was no other than the Pastor of a single Church a Pastor of a single Congregation now is as truly a Bishop Why they should not be esteemed to be duly ordained who are set apart by a Pastor of a single Church now I can discern no reason after I have looked every way for it It is the hardest thing in the world for some men to see a reason that makes against them and the fear of finding it makes them commonly look where they are not likely to meet it However it does not seem to be so difficult a matter to assign a reason in the case proposed It is not the being Pastor of one or many Congregations that makes a Bishop but the Order For a Presbyter may be the Pastor of a Congregation and in the Primitive times there were many such but this does not make him a Bishop Nay the Chorepiscopi were Pastors of many Congregations and yet these were not Bishops If these in ancient times should have proceeded upon Mr. Clerkson's grounds and presumed to ordain Presbyters or Deacons or Bishops the Church of those times would have made no difficulty to pronounce the Ordinations null Ischyras pretended to be a Presbyter because Colluthus had ordained him but Athanasius represents it as monstrous that one should esteem himself a Presbyter who was ordained by one who died himself a Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria Nor was Ischyras so absurd as to think that the Ordination received from a simple Presbyter would be valid For in Truth that Colluthus was made a Bishop by Meletius and his name is still in the Catalogue of his Ordinations but renouncing his Schism and those Orders he was received into communion as Presbyter for so he was before he joyned with Meletius and in that degree he died Nor can I find in all Antiquity any one instance of Presbyters making Ordinations without a Bishop nay the Hereticks and Schismaticks of old among all their irregularities are not charged by any of this presumption In the Diocese of Alexandria there were many Presbyters who were the Pastors of single Congregations and so it was in most of the ancient Dioceses as we have shewed before In the Province of Scythia there must be yet a greater number of such Parish Pastors Yet none of these are found to have claimed any right to
A DEFENCE OF Diocesan Episcopacy IN ANSWER to a BOOK OF Mr. DAVID CLARKSON Lately Published ENTITULED Primitive Episcopacy By HENRY MAURICE D. D. LONDON Printed by Hannah Clark for Iames Adamson at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church Yard 1691. Imprimatur Carolus Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris Nov. 4. 1690. THE PREFACE AS in many of his Actions the Devil expresses an Emulation of the divine power and greatness and affects to resemble the most high In the production of Schism he tries to counterfeit the Creation For as God produced this world out of nothing his power operating without any matter So the Devil too creates a Schism from colour or the shadow of a pretence or whatever else may be thought to stand in a nearer degree to nothing Now it is the common way to judge of the nature of Schism by the quality of the pretence if this be slight and frivolous they conceive the other cannot be dangerous and must be in a near disposition to admit a Cure But common experience proves this to be a mistake For on the contrary where the occasion of difference seems to be most trifling there we may observe the animosities to be highest And the reason is plain enough for he who is resolved to force a quarrel will lay hold on any pretence and the more frivolous it is the more bitterness and rancour it discovers in that Spirit that lusteth to envy And at the same time it is a good testimony of the integrity and exactness of the party against which the quarrel is affected that those who were resolved to break are forced to take up with so mean Cavils When you have done all you can to remove occasion from those who seek offence the Prediction of our Lord and his Apostles will continue to be accomplished Offences will come and Heresies and Schisms must be and those who are sincere will be made manifest and those who are otherwise will not be hid The Enemy of Christian peace does confirm the Gospel while he endeavours to destroy it by divisions as the Jews fulfilled the Prophets by condemning the Messiah While the Church remained under the conduct of the Apostles in the simplicity of the Christian Faith and exactness of Discipline it might be expected there should be no Dissenters But those golden times for our comfort have left us their complaints that then there were railings evil surmises and perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth even then there were false Apostles deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ Then as well as now there were some who separated themselves and forsook the Assemblies of the faithful S. Paul the popular and complying Apostle who became all things to all men had no small struggle with this spirit of Separation Some were such proficients in a free censoriousness as to think of him as though he walked according to the flesh some disparaged his Gifts and despised his bodily presence as weak and his speech contemptible detracting from him doubtless to add to themselves the character of more acceptable and more edifying Teachers Some were puffed up despised his authority and made divisions in the Churches under his care He who healed all manner of diseases who raised the dead and could cast out a Heathen spirit of Divination found it a harder matter to deal with the spirit of separation that operated in the such false Prophets as bore the forms and titles of Christianity The Divine providence permitted many Demoniacks in our Saviour's and the Apostles time when God conferred miraculous abilities to dispossess them but seems to have shortned the chain of evil Spirits in succeeding ages in the same proportion that he lessened the gifts by which they were mastered But the Spirit of separation was still suffered to practice his Arts of deluding and to break the peace of the Church by infinite variety of pretences Sometimes it was too pure for the mixed society of the Church sometimes it was exalted with new Revelations and those who would not receive them were carnal and in short was so diligent in inventing reasons and in snatching occasions of dividing Communion that all the Topicks of Schism seemed to be exhausted But this Spirit it seems will not be stinted nor confine its self within its own ancient Precedents For in these last times it is become nice in taking offence beyond former examples and beyond all measure acute in assigning causes of dissatisfaction The old Church-dividers swallowed many things that our Dissenters strain at as fundamental corruptions and most of the things which they object as the causes of their departure from us were never known before to have made any difference between Christians For who I pray before our Dissenters separated from a Church for having a set Form and Order of Divine Service Who before our times ever took offence at the use of the Prayer that Christ taught his Disciples What sect from the beginning forsook the Assemblies of the faithful for using the sign of the Cross as the common Ensign of the faith of Christ crucified upon the solemn admission of Church-members Who ever divided the Communion of any Church because it had a Bishop Aerius indeed pretended to see no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter but this was not the reason but only the effect of his separation for having no Bishop of his Communion he was forced to represent them as unnecessary though he durst not condemn their Institution It is strange that these blemishes should so long deform the Church and no Greek or Latin Sectary have the sagacity to discern them that so palpable motives of separation should escape the spirit of Maximilla and the acuteness of Tertullian that the Novatians reputed skillful men in observing faults should be so little perspicacious as not to discover such gross abominations Or that the Donatists should puzzle themselves so long with a story of Cecilian that they could never make out and leave such Topicks as these untouched I cannot think the people of former ages so gross as some of our Virtuosi may represent them From the principles they chose they reasoned as well as we and their Sectaries wanted no wit to find out such objections of Nonconformity as our Dissenters have advanced But as I am apt in some things to be favourable to Antiquity so in this case I cannot but commend the judgment of ancient Schismaticks for not using such frivolous pretences as must unavoidably expose them to the scorn of all discerning men who seeing through such miserable shifts must conclude that no ingenuous mind could use them and nothing but consummate and hardened Hypocrisie persist in them But of all the Pleas preferred by Dissenters against the Church of England none looks more new or more affected than that which concerns Diocesan Episcopacy The old quarrel about the preheminence of Bishops above Presbyters seems in a
greater part might be far from liking it We have instances of this nature fresh in our remembrance and perhaps too odious to be mentioned Besides there were Jews and Novatians and Arrians here and so there might be very great numbers and yet twenty Churches not be sufficient to receive the Christians of the established Religion It must be confessed that all other Cities must be delivered up to the Congregational pretensions if Constantinople may be reduced to a single Church And Mr. Clerkson fancied he had discovered the weakness of the Christians of this place by a passage in Theodoret. (n) Prim. ep p. 87 88. In Alexander 's time the Christians were no more than could all meet together so Theodoret informs us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 1. c. 14. i. e. the Bishop of the place performed divine service with all the Brethren what with all the brethren of Constantinople No but with all the brethren there assembled The import of this expression has been considered already and this very passage has received (o) Vindicat. Prim. Ch. pref an answer long since But afterwards he observes many falling off to Arrianism the remainder made but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little flock This does not prove but before this defection the Bishop of Constantinople's flock was very great and required many Churches to assemble in And after this defection the Arrian Bishop whom most of the Christians followed had many Churches and Congregations under him For the people in many places not understanding the danger of the Arrian Communion did not think it necessary to separate and therefore continued to repair to those Churches whither they used to resort before So that the Episcopacy of the place remained Diocesan though it happen'd to be placed in wrong hands And soon after the people were recovered from these wolves and delivered to faithful shepherds Yet even then Mr. Clerkson can find but one Congregation there for in the time of Theodosius Junior it seems all amounted to no more than one Church could contain if Socrates deceive us not l. 4. it should be the 7th c. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. all the City became but one Church It is a dangerous thing I see to venture upon a figure if men will be such rigid exactors of litteral sense The Historian might fancy he had spoken eloquently when instead of saying that there was a great confluence of people to the Church he chose to express himself thus that the whole City became one Church But the poor man is taken up short at his word and if he do not make it out that the greatest City then in the world was not litterally one Congregation he must pass for an extravagant Writer and one that deceiveth us Yet though it should happen that all the City or all the Christians had not been there to a man it is not Socrates that deceives us while he uses a form of speech generally (p) Prim. ep p. 88. allowed and understood but it is Mr. Clerkson deceives himself when he snatcheth such expressions as this against all fair ways of understanding to give evidence to his notion Those who give themselves up to serve an opinion are apt to catch at any thing they meet for a weapon to defend it and this Tyrant is so absolute and the Slave so fond that there is no place left for examination or doubt nor can that pertinent question of the Prophet (q) Is 44.20 is there not a lie in my right hand obtain any hearing I have already shewed the greatness of this City which our Author would reduce to a single Congregation that even in Constantine's time it was equal to the greatest of the Empire I have shewed that this was a Christian City from the foundation and the people generally devoted to the Religion of their Founder That in Constantine's time Sectaries could not lessen the Church of the Bishop in that place since they were not only discountenanced in that reign but by the Edicts of the Emperour obliged to go to Church which they generally did observe some sincerely and the rest by outward compliance The Arrians or Eusebians had then no separate Congregations they made then indeed a faction but not a schism in the Church and laboured with all their interest to restore those to Communion who had been cast out by the censures of the Church upon the account of those opinions I have shewed how that Emperour built (r) Theod. H. C. l. 1. c. 6. very great and many Churches there because few were not sufficient to receive the multitude And now if so great a City so affected to Christianity can make but one Church after all what Preacher (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Polit. l. 2. can there be found what voice sufficient for such an assembly what Temple capacious enough to receive it S. Sophia is accounted the greatest of Christian Churches that the Sun ever shined on And I remember to have (t) Sub Bajazethe triginta sex millia qui illud religionis ergo adirent numerata fuisse Ant. Maevanius autor est Geo. Dousa de Itin. C. P. no. p. 37. read that in Bajazets reign six and thirty thousand Turks visited that Church in one day though I can scarce believe as vast as that Church was that it could hold so many together Yet even this number comes far short of the Christians in Constantine's time and much shorter yet of the Christians of Constantinople under the younger Theodosius when Paganism was every where expiring if not quite extinguished and the Arrians and other sects reduced to the Church and that City arrived to its highest point of greatness yet even then our Author can afford the Bishop but one Congregation (u) Prim. ep p. 88. At Ancyra the chief City of Gallatia our Author takes notice that there were many sects by which that Church was torn in pieces All this may very well be and yet more than one Congregation remain to the Bishop The same thing may be said of several of our Cities inferior perhaps to Ancyra and yet those of the established Religion notwithstanding the variety of the Sects require many Churches to assemble in (x) Prim. ep p. 89. The like may be said of Caesarea the chief City in Mauritania the reason here is like the rest because St. Augustin desired a publick Conference with the Donatist Bishop of that place (y) Suis omnibus civibus praesentibus Possid vit Aug. c. 14. i. e. frequentissima plebe praesente Aug. gest cum Emer init all the Citizens being present I wonder our Author has not reduced all the World to a Congregation since it is usual to say that a thing is done before all the World in the face of the World and the like and therefore what need all our Independent Congregations since these expressions may reduce the whole World to a single Conventicle When our
house in which there is not one dead and I would to God there were but one dead in a house However we Christians cast out and persecuted and put to death even then kept the Feast For the place of every ones affliction was to him a place of solemn assembly the open field the wilderness the ship the inn the prison where each happened then to be in this time of dispersion was to him a Church If I had a mind to trifle I might urge this for proof that the Christians of Alexandria had several panegyrical assemblies if it may be said without solecism at the same time and in the several places mentioned by Dionysius But I have neither inclination nor forehead to follow our Author in this way of discourse nor is it in every ones power to recommend for fair probabilities what he cannot but know to be nothing to the purpose (a) Prim. ep p. 97. But Athanasius in his Apology to Constantius about Anno. 355 makes it evident beyond all contradiction he being accused for assembling the people in the great Church before it was dedicated makes this part of his defence That the confluence of the Pascal Solemnity was so great that if they had met in several assemblies the other Churches were so little and streight that they would have been in danger of suffering by the crowd And it was better for the whole multitude to meet in that great Church being a place large enough to receive them all together This passage hath been often urged and answered by several hands so that I might spare my self the labour of any farther reply than referring to those books in which it has been examined especially since our Author has thought fit to add nothing new but words of assurance and ostentation that it is evident beyond contradiction and to take notice of nothing that hath been offered to impeach this irrefragable evidence However to avoid cavil I am content here again to take it into examination And first tho' it should be yeilded to our Author that it is certain from this passage that all the Christians in Alexandria were present in this assembly yet will it not be of that service to his notion as he might imagin Suppose then the flock of Athanasius reduced so low that one great Church might receive it all If this should proceed from some late accident and be owing to such separations as had been lately made from the Communion of the Church it can be of no use either for the proving of Congregational Episcopacy in elder times or for the discovering of the proportion of Christians in other Cities Suppose the Dissenters should prevail so far in some one Diocese with us as to leave the Bishop no more people than might be crowded into one of the greatest Cathedrals of the Kingdom it would surely be but a sorry argument that the constitution of our Episcopacy is Congregational or that we have no Diocese greater than may assemble in one Church This according to Mr. Clerkson (b) No Evidence for Dioces Episc p. 47. was the case of Alexandria in Athanasius his time At the first breach Meletius had many more adherents than Peter and from that time to Athanasius the Meletians had such encouragements that their numbers were not like to be impaired And as for the Arrians if we may take the measure of the people by their Officers they were more numerous than the Catholicks in this City for (c) Theod. H. E. l. 4. c. 22. Soz. l. 1. c. 15. of nine it should be nineteen Presbyters and Deacons which the Church of Alexandria had eleven embraced Arrianism There are many mistakes in what is here advanced concerning the Meletians and the party of Arrius but the course of the argument must not be interrupted In these circumstances the Arrians might well out-vie the followers of Athanasius in numbers and these declined as the others increased Now if the party of Athanasius which in Mr. Clerkson's judgment was inferior in number to the Arrians was yet so great as to fill all the Churches in Alexandria and could not have met in any one Church before that vast fabrick was erected by Constantius the Arrians surely who are supposed to be the greater party must divide into many Congregations and live in the Diocesan way especially in the time of Gregory who seems to have joyned the Arrian and Meletian party for by Epiphanius (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. Haer. 69. n. 2. he is stiled both Arrian and Meletian For tho' that Sect divided from the Church upon a point of Doctrin yet did they not pretend to make any alteration in Discipline and had but one Bishop in a City how great soever it might be So that our Author while he lessens the Catholicks of Alexandria does unawares make the Arrians not a Congregation but a Diocese Nor is it any advantage to the Congregational fancy to streighten the Catholick Christians within the walls of one Church while his indulgence to other Christian Sects permits them to increase beyond his Rule and to grow up into a Diocesan stature Having considered the consequence of this passage of Athanasius upon a kind supposition that it proved the thing for which it was produced I proceed to shew that this Testimony does not certainly evince that the Christians of Athanasius his Communion were no more than could meet or actually assembled in that great Church Mr. Baxter (e) Ch. Hist p. 10. is not so rigid in his inference from this Testimony as to contend that every Christian of Alexandria was present in that assembly I do not hence gather says he that every man woman and child was present And to him this only seemeth hence plain that the main body of them could meet and hear in one assembly But all things are not equally plain to all people For if all the other Churches in Alexandria could not receive this Congregation I am afraid they could not all hear unless it were the Amen which they all pronounced aloud and that indeed might be heard from far For in Alexandria besides this great Church Epiphanius (f) Epiph. Haer. 69. n. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 names nine more and adds that there are other Churches besides which he had probably named with the rest if they had been but few Nor can they well be conceived much fewer than twenty for in Rome (g) Optat. l. 2. there were above forty in the beginning of Constantine's reign Suppose then a Congregation that twelve Churches could not contain which though much inferiour to this new Cathedral yet had some of them served the Bishop of the greatest City in the world after Rome and his Congregation It will be scarce possible to conceive how all that multitude should hear especially since I do not find that in those days any Church had scaffolds or galleries but all the people stood in the Area and nothing raised above the
this diffidence and caution does that Learn'd Man propose his Opinion which together with the testimonies upon which it is grounded (a) Vindic. of the Prim. Ch. p. 34. and Seq has been considered at large in another place and I am not willing here to transcribe Yet that I may not seem to decline an Answer in this place I will give the sum of what is there answer'd and add something for future explication First then Altar in the primitive sense signify'd not only the Communion Table but the whole place where the Chair of the Bishop and the Seats of the Presbyters were plac'd and in this sense there was but one Altar in one Diocese as there is now but one Consistory This is explain'd by passages out of Ignatius Cyprian and Arch-Bishop Vsher and to be within the Altar which is Ignatius his phrase is no other than to be in Communion with the Bishop and his Clergy And the one Altar is no more than one Communion which may be held in different places and at several Tables Besides some passages cited out of Ignatius about one Altar are only allusive to the Jewish Temple and Altar and therefore are not to be urg'd too strictly Lastly the name of Altar might be appropriated to that of the Bishop's Church upon another account and that is in respect of the oblations of the Faithful which were presented there only and from thence distribution was made according to the occasions of the Church Among other oblations was the Bread and the Wine which were to serve for the Sacrament these were always bless'd at the Bishops Altar though not always consecrated there Concerning these oblations preparatory to the Sacrament Mr. Mede has given a judicious account in his Treatise of the Sacrifice where he shews these Offerings were in the nature of a Sacrifice and upon the account of these gifts the Table might receive its name of Altar For as the Jews had but one Altar on which their Sacrifices were offer'd and sanctify'd yet were they eaten at several Tables so the Bishops Altar might serve to the same purpose at least within the same City to receive those Oblations which were to be communicated in different places This was the practice of Rome in Pope Innocent (a) Innoc. Ep. ad Decent the first his time who sent the Bread allready consecrated to all the Churches of the City but did not send any to such Presbyters as were plac'd in remote Cemiteries since they might consecrate themselvs and as for Country Parishes he did not think it convenient the Holy Consecrated Bread should be sent to them for it was not fit it should be carry'd to places remote So all though not present in the same place did yet partake of one Altar and eat of the same Spiritual Bread And to this purpose perhaps may most commodiously be understood that noted passage of Justin Martyr concerning the administration of the Eucharist in Christian Assemblies where he says that the Deacons distribute it to all that are present and carry it to those who are not present For to all who were not present as they were dispers'd in their several dwellings it could not conveniently be carry'd by the Deacons besides that in numerous Congregations it was not easy to know who was not present Nor is Valesius (a) Annot. in Euseb l. 5. c. 24. his conjecture very probable who would send it to persons of other Dioceses So that it seems most probable that it was carry'd from the Bishop's Church to other Assemblies in the same City Nor will this look strange for those times that the Holy Bread should be sent from the Bishops Altar to other Churches of the same City when it was usual to send it into remote Countries and Dioceses as a symbol of Communion The old Bishops of Rome before (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb H. E. l. 5. c 24. Victor's time us'd to send such presents and (c) Act. Lucian ap Metaph. 7. Jan. Lucian the Martyr sent them from his Prison So Paulinus (d) Paul Ep. 1. did to Severus This practice was forbid by the Synod (e) Can. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Ladicea that the holy Mysteries should not be sent abroad into other Dioceses which Zonaras observes to have been a very ancient custom And this forbidding it to be carry'd into other Dioceses seems to allow its being carry'd from the Bishop's Church to other places of the same Diocese After Mr. Mede (a) Prim. Ep. p. 16. Dr. Hammond is brought in a witness of this notion of one Altar (b) In re incomperta non est audacter nimis pronunciandum Ham. Diss 3. c. 8. s. 15. He mentions it indeed as the opinion of some learned Men but he himself makes no judgment concerning it leaving the matter as uncertain and declining to pronounce any thing in a point so obscure Bishop Taylor (c) Episc Assert is likewise forc'd to appear in this cause meerly because he cited Damasus in the life of Pope Marcellus who is said to have made twenty five Titles as so many Dioceses for Baptism and Penance From whence the Bishop is said (d) Prim. ep p. 16. to infer that there was yet no preaching in Parishes and but one pulpit in a Diocese And further Damasus and the Doctor out of him leaves us evidently to conclude that there was no Communion Table but in the mother Church And this three hundred and five years after Christ and at Rome too It is not very advisable to conclude any thing too hastily upon the authority of this pretended Damasus it costs such counterfeits nothing to build twenty Churches in a day and to consign them to what use they please But this Impostor as he had little wit so in this instance his luck was very bad to make so many Converts and to erect so many Titles in the year three hundred and five when the Roman Emperors were persecuting the Christians to utter extirpation and when there was not a Church or Title standing in Rome This was the third year of the Persecution according to (a) Baluz Chron. Mart. ex Lact. Dodw. Di. 8. Cypr. XI Lactantius or the second according to Eusebius and therefore a sorry time for Converts and making of Titles and Baptistries So that the relation being fabulous and forg'd by one who had no knowledg of those times the inferences made from it must drop It was surely not very well contriv'd to multiply Churches for Baptism and to leave but one Communion Table for all the Christians of Rome For one Baptistry may serve the greatest City because men are baptiz'd but once and that not all together but at several times and in ancient times no City had more unless where the magnificence of Emperors or Bishops made as it were many Cathedrals And at this time in the City of Florence (b) Pflaumern Merc. Ital. Lasselina reckon'd among
the chief of Italy all the children are christen'd in one Font in the old Church of St. John Which Leandro Alberti (c) Gloss v. Baptisterium says was a Temple of Mars which Dufresne observes Tanquam veteris moris Institutum It being the old way for all who liv'd in or near the same City to be baptiz'd in one Church i. e. the Cathedral But the use of the Altar was more general and more constant for every Lord's day in the primitive times all the Faithful receiv'd the Sacrament And the administration of it does require more time and more room than any other office of Christian Religion For more may pray together or hear the Scriptures or a Sermon with convenience than can receive the Sacrament which was delivered (a) Eus H. E. l. 6. c. 43. with a form of words to every person that receiv'd it to which the receiver answered Amen So that in a numerous Congregation it must grow inconvenient and soon stand in need of several other Churches Wherefore it seems most probable that the Christian Assemblies were first parted on this account and Titles or parish-Churches erected as supplements of the chief Altar Let a man but consider the state of the Church of Rome under (b) Eus H. E. l. 6. c. 43. Cornelius when above fifteen hundred persons were maintain'd from the publick stock of the Church what numbers of believers there must be in that City and then let him conceive if he can how so many thousands could meet every Lord's day in one Church and receive the Communion at one Altar And in Lions c where in Severus his time there are said to have been eighteen thousand Christians it is not easy to conceive how one Altar could be sufficient We are told indeed that we have many thousands in a Parish that hath but one Altar but if our Communions (d) Irenaeus martyrizatus est cum omni populo Christianorum XVIII M. Thron S. Benig ap Dacher T. 1. were as frequent and as numerous as those of the Primitive Church many Altars I am sure would be necessary to such Parishes To conclude the words of the counterfeit Damasus now under debate do not deny to those Parish-Churches the administration of the Eucharist for when he appoints them for Baptism and Penance he doth not exclude all other Christian Offices such as Prayer reading of the Scripture or the Communion but names those of Baptism and Penance because even in his time they were not allow'd to every parish-Parish-Church But this Damasus liv'd later than to think of a Church without Mass or without an Altar and he had taken care not only for such Churches but for the Sepulchres of Martyrs that they should have Altars raised over them and Masses celebrated long before the time of Marcellus and ascribes the ordering of that matter to (a) Pseud Damas in Felix 1. Felix 1. And (b) Baron An. 275. Baronius seems to be troubled that this Author had not done it sooner and therefore thinks fit to let the Reader know that all this had been provided before And lastly the expression quasi Dioceses referring to Baptism and Penance import that those services indeed belong'd only to a Cathedral and therefore the granting of those priviledges to Parishes made them seem like Dioceses whereas * Innoc. Ep. ad Dacen Aug. Conf. c. 2. vid. Euseb H. E. l. 7. c. 11. l. 9. c. 2. every Martyrium every Cemitery and common Title had the priviledge of the Communion That there was no preaching in the Parishes of Rome may very well be granted without reducing the Christians to a single Congregation For if (a) Soz. l. 7. c. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sozomen was not misinform'd there was no preaching in any Church in Rome not in the Bishops for in Rome neither the Bishop nor any other taught in the Church And Valesius takes notice that we have no Homilies of any Roman Bishop before Leo 1. and to confirm this of the Historian he observes that Cassiodore who was well acquainted with the customs of the City had translated this passage which he would scarce have done and publish'd it in Rome it self if he had not known it to be true (b) Prim. Ep p. 16 17. To carry on this notion of but one assembly of Christians in the greatest Cities (c) Petav. Animad in Epiph. p. 276. Petavius is cited with an ample character that he had no superior for learning among the Jesuits nor any to whom Prelacy is more oblig'd But our Author is as much oblig'd to him as the Prelats if while other Witnesses speak doubtfully and with reserve He is positive that in the fourth Age there was but one Church or Title ordinarily in a City and proves it by Epiphanius who speaks of more Titles in Alexandria as a thing singular and peculiar to that City there being no instance thereof but in Rome I am willing to believe our Author did not read that place himself but took it upon trust For Petavius affirms there the direct contrary to that for which our Author makes him so positive For these are his Words You may guess says he that this was a singular manner of Alexandria or at leastwise in use in very few Churches that Epiphanius makes so particular mention of this way of Alexandria as if it had been peculiar to that Church but the same thing had been long before ordered elsewhere particularly in Rome I do not doubt but there were many Titles or Churches within the pomaeria of the greater Cities since the people could not all meet within the Walls of one Church and therefore had Presbyters appointed for those Churches into which the Christians were distributed In smaller and lesse populous Towns there was but one Church in which all were assembled together such as the Cities of Cyprus were upon which account Epiphanius observes the manner of Alexandria as an unusual thing and strange to his People This is what Petavius delivers there You may guess says he as our Author fancies that this was peculiar to Alexandria but the same thing was ordered elsewhere and he did not doubt but it was so in all the greater Cities But that Petavius should prove this also by the Council of Neocaesarea can 13. is an oversight yet stranger For though Petavius cites that Canon yet it is not to prove this or any thing like it but having entred into a discourse about Chorepiscopi he shews from that Canon that they were Bishops and not Presbyters because they had the priviledge of officiating in the City-Church in the presence of the Bishop or his Presbyters whereas that priviledge is expresly deny'd the Country-Presbyters But how our Author came to fancy this passage to be for his purpose I will not undertake to divine I have hitherto only shew'd what Petavius had observ'd concerning the Alexandrian Parishes but whether his Observation be just is another question
For my part I cannot find any reason to believe that all the Cyprian Cities were so small or if they were that Epiphanius would upon that account have made such a frigid Observation as to take notice of that as a singularity in Alexandria which was common to every great City That which was peculiar to Alexandria was this that the Parishes were assign'd to fix'd Presbyters which has been elsewhere observ'd (a) Vind. of Prim. ch p. 65 66. The Titles of Rome were serv'd by the Presbyters in common as (b) Val. Annot. in Sozom. l. 1. c. 15. Valesius observes out of Innocent 1. Epistle to Decentius And what he adds of his own as more proper to shew that in (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athan. Ap. 2. T. 1. p. 739. Julius 1. his time there were Parishes appropriated to certain Presbyters has but a slight foundation For the expression of Athanasius though it may bear the sense of Valesius seems to be more naturally and simply render'd by Nannius that Vito the Roman Presbyter assembled fifty Bishops and not that fifty Bishops assembled in Vito 's Church or the place where he assembled the people This Periphrasis seems too frigid and affected when every Church had its proper name by which it was call'd It may perhaps seem strange that a Presbyter should assemble and preside over Bishops It were strange indeed if he should do it in his own right but when he acts as the Deputy of the Bishop of Rome this will be no wonder for the Legats of Bishops always sate in the place that belong'd to those they represented tho' themselves were but Presbyters or sometimes Deacons And that Vito should be appointed to preside in this Synod is answerable to the character and employments he had born before For he seems to be the person (a) Sozom. l. 1. c. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phot. Ep. 1. de 7. Syn. Niceph Cal. l. 8. c. 14. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sent by Sylvester to the council of Nice with Vincentius for though the Latin writers often call him Victor yet the Greeks constantly write Vito and the Latins sometimes Vitus the fittest person surely to moderate in a Synod where the Council of Nice was concern'd in which he had so eminent a part There is one thing more observable in the distribution of Parishes and Presbyters in Rome which I cannot omit because I do not know that hath been taken notice of by any It is that every Church in Rome had two Presbyters to attend it and not one only as the Churches of Alexandria This information we have from Hilary the Roman Deacon in his Comment on (b) Ambr. in 1 Tim. c. 3. Nunc autem septem Diaconos esse oportet aliquantos Presbyteros ut bini per Ecclesias unus in Civitate Episcopus Omni enim Hebdomada offerendum est etsi non quotidie peregrinis incolis tamen vel bis in Heb. domada etsi non desint qui prope quotidie baptizentur aegri 1 Tim. c. 3. which is published among the works of St. Ambrose but observ'd long since by learned men to be the work of this Luciferian Deacon This Author speaking of the order of the Roman Church and comparing it with part of the Jewish Temple notes that they had twenty four courses of Priests but now we must have but seven Deacons and Rome had no more as Sozomen (a) Sozom. l. 7. c. 19. observes whereas other Churches confin'd themselves to no definite number And besids these Deacons there must be such a number of Presbyters that there may be two for every Church For the inhabitants Communicate twice a week (b) Vid. Hieron Apol. adv Jovin et August Ep. 118. ad Januar. and their Sick are to be Baptiz'd almost every day who according to the practice of those times were to receive the Communion upon which account they are mention'd in this place But to put this matter beyond all doubt it is evident from several Writers cotemporary with Epiphanius that it could not be noted as a singularity in Alexandria to have many Parish Churches in it since the same thing is occasionally reported of most great Cities in that time in Rome (c) Opt. Milev l. 2. con Parnen Optatus informs us that there were above forty Churches when Victor Garbiensis came thither which was long before his time And it will be as much to our purpose if Optatus be understood of the state of Rome in his own time since he wrote under Valens (d) Hieron in Catal. in Opt. as St. Jerom informs us who dy'd in the year three hundred seventy eight But Optatus wrote about the year three hundred seventy as may be gather'd from his own words (a) Opt. l. 1. v. 3 where he reckons but sixty and odd years from the beginning of Dioclesian's Persecution to the time of his Writing But Epiphanius (b) Epiph. in prolog Panor began his work against Heresies in the year three hundred seventy four When he wrote of the Manichees (c) Epiph Haer. 66. n. 20. Anim. Petav. 1. it was the year seventy six The Arian Heresy comes afterwards at some distance where he speaks of this custom of Alexandria So that making the largest allowance that can be requir'd for Optatus his words he must be granted to have wrote before Epiphanius In Milan there were many Churches at the same time for St. Ambrose (d) Ambr. Ep. 33. id Ep. 85. names several for example Portiana Nova Vetus Ambratiana Romana Faustae In Constantinople we have an account of many Churches before Epiphanius his time (e) Euseb l. 3. de vit Const c. 48. for Constantine built there many Oratories and vast Churches as well within the City as the Suburbs (f) Socr. l. 1. c. 16. Socrates names two that of Irene and the Apostles the former was afterwards joyn'd to Sophia (g) Id. l. 2. c. 16. by Constantius tho' it was from a small Church rais'd by Constantine to be very magnificent and large yet his Son building a great Church hard by it concluded both in one enclosure and under one name (a) Theoph. in Chron. Niceph. Hist l. 7. c. 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophanes and Nicephorus Calistus reckon others as three to the Honour of Christ under several denominations of Wisdom Peace and Power One bore the name of the Apostles And besides these he built Martyria for Mocius Acacius Agathonicus and Menas In (b) An. 342. Constantius his time there is mention of the Church of St. Paul in Constantinople (c) Socr. l. 2. c. 12. In short the Historians who speak of that City from Constantin the Great downward speak of the Churches of the City as familiarly as we should of those of London without taking any notice of it as an unusual thing So the Bishop of C. P. is sometimes styl'd from the Church sometimes from the
Churches of that (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 2. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. l. 2. c. 27. Socr. l. 4. 1. City So Socrates speaks of Alexander who was Bishop there in Constantin's time so Macedonius is said to possess himself of the Churches of that City Instances of this kind there are without number but I will conclude with (e) Greg. Naz. orat coram 150. Ep. in fine Gregory Nazianzen's Apostrophe to the Churches of Constantinople when he took his leave of them Farewel Resurrection thou auspicious name for thou hast rais'd up my speech when it was yet contemn'd thou happy field of common victory in which I first pitch'd my Tent. And thou that great and celebrated Temple now become a new accession to the faith and made greater by the doctrin preach'd in thee than by the vastness of thy pile which from a profane Jebus I have consecrated into a Jerusalem And all ye other Churches which after this adorn every part of this City by your several beauties and tye them together like so many bands each taking to its own proper resort that which is next to it You whom not I but the grace of God working by my weakness has fill'd beyond what could be hop'd Farewel you Apostles fair habitation masters of my labours although I have not often preach'd within your Walls This passage is too bright to need a comment and those who cannot discern the Parish-Churches of C. P. by these Expressions will scarce know a Church when they see it Carthage is known to have had a great number of Churches about the time of (a) Unreason of Separ p. 249. Epiphanius for we have several of their names in the titles of (b) Aug. Serm. 359. Ed. Ben. Praef. ad Hilar. fragm p. 49. Aug. Serm. 156. Serm. 26. vid. not Bened. in Ser. 156. Serm. 53. St. Augustin's Sermons And to those observ'd already by a learned hand we may add the Church call'd Florentia which Nicolaus Faber places in Carthage though the Benedictins seem to make some doubt of it There was Basilica Gratiani and Theodosiana and Honoriana and Tricillarum and many more doubtless of which there is no mention The Christians of Antioch were much to blame if they had not many Parish-Churches before Epiphanius his time for surely their numbers did require them For Julian the Apostate who was not forward to magnifie the strength of the Christians reproaches them for being in a manner all of them so (a) Julian in Misapogon Many of you I had almost said all the Senate the rich the people for the greater part or rather all together have chosen Atheism that is Christianity And that they had many Churches in Constantius his time appears by the discourse that happen'd between that Emperor and Athanasius in Antioch The Emperor desired of that Bishop that now upon his restauration he would allow one of those many Churches he had in Alexandria to such as were of the Arian perswasion (b) Soz. l. 3. c. 20. The Bishop reply'd That he was very ready to comply with his request provided the Orthodox might have the same favour in Antioch to have one Church of the many which are said to be there in the same place And (c) Socr. l. 3. c. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euzoius the Arian is said to be master of the Churches of Antioch while Paulinus had but one of the least within the Town And at the same time when (d) Theodor. Hist Relig. in Aphrate Meletius was driven out it is said that all the Clergy were likewise turn'd out of the sacred Temples and out of every Church And to come to Cities of a lower rank (e) Soz. l. 6. c. 8. Cyzicus had many Churches in Epiphanius's days and so had (f) Soz. l. 6. c. 18. Edessa so had (g) Soz. l. 5. c. 4. Caesarea in Cappadocia and many more especially such great Cities as are taken notice of for being altogether Christians of which I shall have occasion to speak in another place when I come to consider the evidence of our Author for the paucity of Believers even in the greatest Cities of the Empire In the mean while I hope I have sufficiently cleared this point that it could be no singularity in Alexandria in the time of Epiphanius to have many parish-Parish-Churches parish-(a) Prim. Ep. p. 17. The last Testimony our Author produces on this head is from (b) p. 27. Dr. Stillingfleet now Bishop of Worcester's Sermon against Separation Although when the Churches increased occasional meetings were frequent in several places yet still there was but one Church and one Altar and one Baptistry and one Bishop with many Presbyters assisting him All this may very well be and Diocesan Episcopacy remain primitive for one Bishop's Church may have several dependent Congregations one Altar may consist with many subordinate Communion Tables one Baptistry may serve the greatest City and one Bishop may supervise several Parishes and the occasional meetings spoken of might not be destitute of the priviledge of the Sacrament But I must remember my measure and not take upon me to explain the notion of so learned a person who might have many things in his view which I may not have observ'd Yet I cannot but take notice that the Champions of the Congregational way must needs be distressed when they betake themselves to that Sermon to make out the antiquity of their notion where it is exploded (a) p. 28. as a novel and late fancy that hath not age enough to plead prescription And the same learned (b) Unreas of Separ from p. 228 to p. 262. Prelate has made it sufficiently appear that even in Africk which was fancy'd to come nearest to the Congregational standard several Bishops had in ancient times and immemorially very large Dioceses In conclusion our Author comes to sum up his evidence and to assure his performance (c) Prim. Ep. p. 17. That this is not barely delivered by persons of excellent learning and intimate acquaintance with antiquity but prov'd by those records which are most venerable in their account and the evidence reaches not only the Apostles times but divers ages after What has been deliver'd or prov'd by the witnesses produced by him in this Chapter has been fairly laid down and considered and I desire that all may be judg'd by the merit and pertinence of the evidence and not by the confidence of the Advocate CHAP. II. SECT II. IT has pleas'd Mr. Clerkson to fancy that those who maintain Diocesan Episcopacy would be very much distress'd if he could prove that of old several Bishops had their seats in Villages and therefore observes (a) Prim. Ep. p. 19. That those who are concern'd to extend the ancient Bishops to the modern pitch will not endure to hear nor would they have any believe that it was usual of old to have Bishops in Villages And that
to some other Diocese it was not to be denied them Another time it is ordered that where a Diocese was divided between a Catholick Bishop and a Donatist and the later with his people returned to Catholick Communion (g) Aug. Gest cum Emer Cod. Afr. c 112. they might both be Bishops of that Diocese and upon the death of one the other was to succeed to the whole or if the people should be offended with this unusual sight of two Bishops in one Diocese then both should resign and the Diocese left to a new choice But after the Decree of Marcellinus and the confirmation of it by the Imperial Rescript the case was alter'd For then (h) Col. Carth. in fin Cod. Theod. l. 55. de Haeret. Anno 414. Cod. Afr. c. 12. Ed. Zon. 99. ap Bin. 102. Ed. Til. every Innovation of the Donatists was declared void and those Dioceses of theirs which had been branches of others and torn from them in the schism were now to revert to the first dependance The Donatists therefore are not to come into the number of the African Bishops by vertue of that Canon for at the end of the Canon it self the Imperial Law was afterwards added as an advertisement of its being repeal'd The Canon then was made before the Conference and consequently before the computation of S. Augustin But after the Conference and the Law the door was shut and the Donatist Bishopricks if they had been parts of others were restored to them and no provision made for the Bishops though they should happen to be converted After the time of S. Augustin we do not find the African Bishopricks much increased For within fifty years of the death of that Bishop we have an account (i) Not. Afr. apd Sirm. Miscel of all the Dioceses in that Country which amounted to 466. out of which must be deducted eight for Sardinia which did not belong to the Roman Africk But I am afraid the Proconsular Africk is imperfect in the Notitia if Victor Vitensis (l) Vict. Persec Vand. l. 1. his account may be taken or there be not some Error in the Copy But not to insist much upon small matters and uncertain let us calculate the Bishopricks of such Provinces of Africk of which we have a more distinct account In the two Mauritanias in the African Notitia we have 173 Bishopricks of which six were then void Now both these Provinces according to Pliny are 839 miles long and 480 broad The Country must surely be very ill peopled if every sorry Village had a Bishop nay if every Bishop had not 60 or 70 Villages in his Diocese Nay if we consider the extent of the whole Roman Africk we shall have little reason to conclude that Congregational Episcopacy should follow from the great number of Bishops in that Country Procopius (m) Proc. p. Vand. l. 1. who was acquainted with the Country having attended Bellisarius in his African Expedition tells us that the Roman Africk was ninety days Journey in length and that we might better understand his reckoning he tells us that a days Journey was 210 Stadia or 26 miles and a quarter which amounts to above 2360 miles The breadth was unequal in both the Mauritanias near five hundred miles in the Proconsular Africk two hundred This Province was so populous (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herodian l. 7. ss 9. and so fertile that Egypt cannot be thought to surpass it And for Bizacena the account Pliny (o) Iâ—in l. 5. c. 4. gives of its fertility is prodigious for the Husbandman there receiv'd a hundred-fold Now in this Country so vast and so populous let us take a low estimate of the number of Villages that might be there and reckon them at forty thousand and these divided into 500 Dioceses every Diocese will have fourscore Towns That this may not seem an extravagant Calculation let us compare it with other Countries France is not half so big as the Roman Africk and yet in Lewis 13 his time it had above two and thirty thousand Parishes as Bertius reckons And in Henry the third's time by a Tax laid on every Parish they were found (p) Bodin de Rep. to be near five and twenty thousand the Provinces of Burgundy and Poictou not reckoned which may make up the remainder Now it is well known that there as well as here there are many more Villages than Parishes and therefore I conceive I cannot over-reckon them when I set a Country for extent double to France and of which a great part was more populous at almost an equal number for Villages But suppose the number yet less by one half every Bishoprick will have forty Villages which is too much yet for the Congregational way especially since upon this reckoning Towns must be thin and at greater distance and so less fitted for personal Communion with their Bishop Nay though they had at last been reduced by the Iniquity of times and the Opposition of parties to the measure of our Parishes yet the condition of those Churches would move our pity rather than our desire of imitation and condition so different from all other Countries and so unlike that of Africk it self when Cyprian lived For all the African Bishops of his time could not have supplied the Dioceses of one Province at the time of which we are speaking But for all this when Mr. Baxter or Mr. Clerkson will have it so what is last must be primitive what sprung from the unfortunate divisions of one Country must be a Precedent to all And that must be received as Apostolick practice which was introduced by one of the most heady and desperate and Hypocritical Sects that ever divided the Church of Christ But I am afraid we may say with too much truth that our Country has out-done Africk in Monsters of this nature Yet after all this distraction there remain'd in Africk several large Dioceses which has been fully proved in other Books (q) Unreasonabl of Separ 249 250. and Sequ. Vindic. of Prim. Ch. p. 524 525. c. and needs not be repeated in this place though I shall not omit to take notice before I have done of those exceptions which Mr. Clerkson has made in another Book against the Evidence for Diocesan Episcopacy in Africk In the end of this Chapter our Author thinks fit to engage Bishop Taylor who answering an Objection concerning Asclepius (r) Gennad Catal. Script Bishop of a small Village in the Territory of Vaga or Baga shews that he was a Bishop of a Territory as well as of a Village and for this cites Trithemius (s) Trithem de Script Eccles I confess that the expression of Trithemius does not conclude either for the largeness or straitness of that Bishoprick which may be very large though the Episcopal seat be a Village or narrow though it have a City to give it denomination unless our Author thinks that because there were
receive all the people Suppose therefore in Rome for instance a million of Souls which I think is the lowest estimate that was ever made of that People If for the three first ages but a tenth part was Christian not twenty Churches such as the Christians were provided of at that time could suffice In London tho' those of the Communion of the Church of England be much the greatest number and make up the gross of the People yet the Dissenters were they willing to joyn in one Congregation would not be able to meet in one place And their way of service makes them more capable of great Congregations than the Primitive Christians since generally speaking they seem to have no other publick act of Religious Worship but to hear Nay there is scarce any one Sect of them so mean but would think themselves Persecuted should all of that Sect within the compass of London be stinted to one place of meeting Amsterdam may exceed London in number of Sects tho' it be inferior to it in number of people the Jews there inhabit one good quarter the Papists are so numerous that I have heen inform'd they have near thirty Chappels within that City the Lutherans there have several Churches to say nothing of other Sects that are very numerous Yet those of the establish'd Religion are reckon'd the greater part and require many Churches for their Worship But to return to the Primitive Christians That we may better conceive the state of the Christians in the first three ages let us consider how it was possible for them to thrive and at last to become Masters of the Roman Empire under all those great discouragements to which they were all the while subject They had seldom any friends in Court and there are but two Reigns in all that time in which they had any countenance but were frequently set upon by the Emperors and persecuted with full intent of utter extirpation They could make no Faction in the State for the roots of popular government had been pluck'd up and the government of the Empire was too absolute to bear any thing of that nature They had no power in the Army for there were but few of them employ'd that way and generally speaking they did not like the service Yet for all this in less than three ages they possessed themselves of the Empire and gave laws to the Heathen Now if we speak humanly of this matter we can resolve it into no other cause than the great number of the Christians It must be confessed that the providence of God was wonderful in preserving and raising this meek and simple people but the means he chose were the same he had taken before in Egypt for the deliverance of Israel he increased them exceedingly and so made them stronger than their enemies The numbers of the Christians were great from the begining And what was said of our Saviour in Judaea became true in a great part of the World that all the World did run after him This Tacitus and Pliny do affirm early This Tertullian sets out with great ostentation towards the begining of the third Century But these Testimonies with several others have been urg'd already (r) Vindicat. Prim. ch p. 54. 55 458 499 500. c. and need not to be insisted on in this place I will add only one passage more to the same purpose out of Maximin's (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb H. E. l. 9. c. 9. Letter to Sabinus where he sets out the occasion of that great Persecution under Dioclesian Dioclesian says he and Maximian my Fathers and my Lords seeing all people almost to have forsaken the worship of the Gods and to have joyned themselves to the Christians had rightly ordered that those who had forsaken the Religion of their Gods should undergo exemplary punishment Now this being the confession of an Enemy ought to have the greater weight and we cannot doubt but in the beginning of that Persecution the Christians were become the greater part of the Roman Empire And therefore in the great Cities they could not meet in one Assembly and in the chief Cities they could not have so few as twenty Congregations But you know the Fable the Toad could not conceive an Elephant any bigger than the stretch of his own skin Mr. Clerkson (t) Prim. ep p. 69. could meet with but one City small or great for three hundred years after Christ whose inhabitants were generally Christians and that was Neocaesarea of whose Conversion Gregory Thaumatargus was the instrument (u) P. 70. But for all this it does not appear that the Christians in that City were more than could meet together in one place And to make it probable that all the City made but one Congregation he offers two things First That we saw before that this place was not very populous And then that Gregory built but one Church there he would doubtless have erected more if more had been needful The first reason has been rejected already and they must be very easy that admit it because eleven Egyptian Bishops were banished to this place therefore it had no more people than could meet in one Church Yet as weak as this is the other is no wiser because Gregory built but one Church therefore there were no more Nay tho' he might have built several Parish-Churches yet the Cathedral which by the ancients is called the Church by way of Eminence might be only mention'd and in the great Cities where we are sure there were many Churches they speak of the Church that is the Bishops as if there were no other in the place and there was but one Church in any City for some uses of Religion that is for Baptism and Penance So that to speak properly and after the manner of ancient times there was in a City but one Church the other being but Parish-Chappels and Oratories Gregory therefore might build but one Church and yet his City might have many Parish-Congregations But for Neocaesarea we have greater probabilities that it was too populous for one Religious Assembly For first it was the Metropolis of Pontus and that long before it was converted by Gregory as Holstenius (x) Luc. Holsten in Steph. v. Neocaes proves by a Medal of Severus which had upon the reverse the age of this City In the next place it was eminent for liberal Studies which little Towns never were And Basil (y) Bas ep 64. relates with what earnestness the Magistrates pray'd him to take upon him the instruction of their Youth And lastly the character which the same Father gives (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ep 75. it of being the most Illustrious of Cities cannot agree with that meaness under which Mr. Clerkson does represent it There is another City in Phrygia whose inhabitants are said to have been all Christians Euseb H. l. 8. c. 25. (a) C. 11. Ed. Vales and all with the City burnt together but
if our Author may have his way Rome and Constantinople are a great way off and the times of which our Author speaks were very remote from ours But let us try whether we may not comprehend this matter without travel or much reading and make London the Scene of our Discourse for as great and populous as it is it may receive no disparagement by the comparison with old or new Rome Now in London there is a Sect or two ambitious of being thought to have some resemblance to the Novatians and that they may not be displeased let them be more numerous instead of three Churches let them have ten Meetings The other Sects who can speak of numbers too may have their assemblies as convenient as they please and not crush or hurt one another for want of room yet the Bishop of the place will scarce be able to assemble his flock even of the City in any one Church tho' Pauls were finished For if you should happen to be late on Sunday morning go to St. Clements and there 's no room go to St. Martins and its all full go to the Abby and you can scarce come within hearing and at St. Gile's you will be throng'd and if you walk to St. Andrews you may have no seat I might add near a hundred Congregations more within the lines of which many are as considerable as these I mentioned and all this in a City which is much inferior for number of people to those old ones of which our Author speaks You may see therefore by this how much thinner a multitude of Sects and some of them numerous will render the Bishops flock in such great Cities as we have been speaking of and what mighty abatements are to be made in the number of the Church Christians upon the account of three Conventicles of the Novatians in a City that wanted not much of a million of Souls But we have made no allowance for Heathen which in the fourth Century were numerous and now are grown rare But the sluggish and irreligious brutes in our greatest Cities may be reconed against them and our account remain as it was and I am afraid that about London there may be more of these than there were Heathens in Constantinople I need not shew says our Author (e) Prim. ep p. 83. how predominant Arrianism was in the greatest part of the Christian World Ingemuit totus orbis Arrianum se esse miratus est When it possessed the whole Orient having none to oppose it but Athanasius and Paulinus Adv. Joh. Hierosol That the Arrian party or faction was very great under Constantius and Valens is certain but that the Sect was very numerous I find no reason to believe I am sure the passage of St. Jerom which is much oftner cited than understood intends no such thing but the quite contrary For Jerom l speaking of the Council of Rimini endeavours to shew that the Bishops there were Orthodox that they confirmed the Nicene Faith that they condemned Arrianism that they left out the word Consubstantial not because they condemned the sense of it but for accomodation and because it seemed to give offence that they pronounced anathema on all those who denyed Christ to be eternal God or affirmed him to be made of nothing Wherefore thinking they had done well and wisely they return home in great hopes that the East and West were now reconciled and that this small alteration had begot an eternal Peace But when the Arrians had obtained their point and had excluded the word Substance out of the Creed they began to proclaim (g) Sine conscientia Haeretici ferebantur their Conquest and to triumph as if the Nicene Faith had been abolished Then the Bishops began to perceive the trick So that the whole World wondred to see it self become Arrian not that they were really so but only that they had been imposed upon by fair pretences to give the Arrians some advantage for which they were sensibly grieved and therefore as soon as they (f) Usiae nomen quia in Scripturis aiebant non invenitur multos simpliciores novitate sua scandalizat placuit auferri Non erat curae Episcopis de vocabulo cum sensus esset in tuto Hieron adv Lucif found their mistake some immediately joyned Communion with the Confessours in Banishment the rest as soon as they had opportunity renounced all Communion with the Arrians and were received into the Church not as Hereticks returned for they never had been Hereticks but as persons deceived by fair words to joyn with those who were indeed secretly Hereticks But their expressions (h) Sonabant verba pletatem nemo venenum insertum putabat Hieron adv Lucif bore a fair construction and their words were Catholick and it seemed (i) Cur damnassent eos qui Arriani non erant Id. unreasonable they should be condemned for Arrians who had never been so This passage then of Jerom is brought in by Mr. Clerkson directly against the intention of the Author Nor is it any more to the intent of the present question or any way serviceable to our Author's purpose which is to render the flocks of the Bishops of those times thinner for the flocks of these Bishops did all adhere to them and when (l) Cum omnes populi Sarcedotes suos diligentes paene ad lapides interemptionem deponentium eos convaluerint Hieron adv Lucif some persons of more zeal than discretion attempted to depose some of them and ordein others in their place their people were so concerned that they were ready to stone those obtruders The same answer is to be made to the other passage of St. Jerom that in the East there were but Athanasius and Paulinus to oppose the Arrians Not that all the rest or the greater number were Hereticks or would not oppose the Doctrin of Arrius but those two only did in an eminent manner oppose the designs of these Hereticks which were covered over with specious pretences of peace and sincerity of belief so as to impose in a manner upon the whole Church But the number of that Sect is no more to be taken from the party they once prevailed upon to joyn with them against a few Bishops whom they traduced as Authors of all those publick distractions which they themselves had caused and pretended that the Faith was not concerned than the numbers of our Sects are to be estimated from the interest which upon some occasions they can make against some great men who seem to stand most in their way and to give the greatest obstruction to their designs In all Constantine's time the Arrians had no separate Congregations excepting what the Author of the Sect made for a little while in Alexandria And when Bishops and whole Provinces took parties in this quarrel the separation was of one City or Province from another and not of the people from their respective Bishops and in a little time all
Alexandria And thus perhaps may Cornelius his expression in Eusebius be best understood that in the Catholick Church there ought to be but one Bishop For although in one City there may be many Parish-Churches appointed for the use of the several quarters where they are placed yet is there but one common or general or Catholick Church in one City Rome had many Churches when the schism of Vrsicinus happened to divide it and long before that time there were no less than forty Yet Socrates (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. l. 4. c. 29. speaking of the ordination of Vrsicinus observes that it was not done in the Church but in a private place of the Church called Sicine or Sicininus (m) Ammian Marcell l. 27. c. 3. that is in the Church of Sicininus which was but an obscure place in comparison of the great Church In Constantinople there were many Churches from the beginning Yet in Constantius his time Socrates (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. l. 2. 16. speaks of the Emperours order to drive Paul out of the Church of that place and to put Macedonius into possession of it Wherefore (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. ibid. after Paul was sent to banishment the Prefect took Macedonius and brought him toward the Church and when they came near to the Church and the people strove to get into the Church Though all the while it is notorious (p) Socr. l. 2. c. 12. there were many Churches in the place though this was then the Cathedral Or if our Author may fancy this City still to have but one Church yet we have the same language long after even in Chrysostom's time who upon his return is said (q) Socr. l. 6. c. 16. Pallad Vit. Chrys p. 15 16 24 25. Chrys Ep. ad Innocent to be brought by the people to the Church And by this time sure there must be many Churches in that City or some unkown destruction must have befaln those magnificent houses of God in that place so much celebrated by some of the Writers of that age So the inference our Author draws from this expression the Church of Berytus to the exclusion of all other Churches proves a mistake But he proceeds to observe farther (r) Prim. Ep. p. 85. that Tyre was one of the most illustrious Cities of the East yet Paulinus Bishop there in Constantine's time had but so many under his Episcopal charge (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 276. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 285. as he could take a personal notice of their souls and accurately examine the inward state of every one acquainting himself thoroughly with the condition of all those souls that were committed to him And that you may be sure that all this is just and exact without Hyperbole he quotes his Author as the Panegyrist in Eusebius informs us l. 10. c. 4. It is usual in Panegyricks to raise things beyond nature and the strictness of truth and it is allowed as long as the proportions and resemblance of the things so represented are preserved What therefore if Eusebius by all this citation should intend only to commend the diligence and the penetration of that Bishop of Tyre that he had the gift of discerning spirits and of judging aright whose repentance was sincere and therefore to be received into communion whose conversion was unfeigned and therefore to be admitted to baptism who was best qualified for the respective offices of the Church If he should mean no more by these high expressions he would not exceed much the allowances given to such kinds of discourse and I think they are more to blame that would force a complement into a Syllogism It is scarce worth the while to say so much as is necessary for the illustration of this passage only to shew at last to how little purpose it was alledged Yet since this instance of Tyre comes in among the rest because he esteemed it more satisfactory than ordinary I m st beg the Reader 's patience to explain the matter Eusebius (t) Euseb E. H. l. 10. c. 4. p. 376. in his Panegyrick delivered at the Dedication of the Church of Tyre commends not only the fabrick but the spiritual Church or the Christians of that City And this Temple says the Panegyrist is very great indeed and worthy of God The inside of this Temple who can describe who can look into it but the great high Priest who alone has authority to enter into this Holy of holies and to search the secrets of the heart And happily it may be given to one more in the second place and by way of substitute that is to him who sits there the leader of this noble Army To him therefore as a high Priest after Christ it may be lawful to look into the most secret parts of your souls or as Mr. Clerkson translates to take a personal notice of your souls and to examine the inward state of every one Now Eusebius says not the least word that Paulinus had but so many under his charge that he could look into all their souls but (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 10. c. 4. p. 385. that it was lawful for him to do so to be an inspector or Bishop of their souls And this to be understood with respect to the Bishops office who received the publick confessions in the Church and was the Judge of the sincerity of the profession as far as Ecclesiastical Discipline was concerned And all this might be said although he had had forty Parish-Churches within his City Valesius mentions a marginal note of some Greek set against this place in a Manuscript that he had seen detesting it as a wicked and blasphemous passage He thought Eusebius had spoken those things of Christ which he directed to the Bishop But though there are some expressions below the majesty of Christ yet are there others that are something too high to be offered to man The other passage out of the same Oration that speaks of Paulinus as thoroughly acquainting himself with all those souls committed to him will appear as little to our Author's purpose if we do but observe what goes before it For Eusebius speaking to those who had defiled their consciences in the Persecution by complying with the wicked decrees of the Persecutors And you says he whose consciences a little while ago were polluted and overwhelmed by profane commands have your minds now cleansed by the terrours of God's law and are by him committed to the Bishop who as he is otherwise of excellent judgment so hath he a singular sagacity in judging of the thoughts of souls These words then are directed to such as had fallen in the late Persecution and were now in the state of Penitents or had lately been so And it is with respect to them that the discretion of the Bishops is commended that he can see into the very secret of their hearts
Author observes that this was the chief City in Mauritania and might have taken notice that it was (z) Oppidumque ibi celeberrimum Caesarea Plin. l. 5. c. 2. a renowned place from its first foundation by Claudius and grew up to be one of the chiefest Cities in Afric and had (a) In Ecclesia majori congregat Aug. Gest cum Emer init at this time many Churches of the Catholick Communion he should have a little mistrusted such a phrase as this that implies no more than that the Conference should be publick and that all who would might be present at it Tiberias and Diocaesarea and Sepphoris which our Author mentions because they had each but one Church have been already considered They consisted only of Jews who would suffer no other Nation or Religion to mix with them (b) Prim. ep p. 86. At Diocaesarea in Cappadocia which in Nazianzen is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was but one Church Ep. 49. But Nazianzen (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Ep. 49. says no such thing He uses all the credit he had with Olympius the Governor of that Province to spare this City which had extreamly offended him and to that degree that he was resolved to disfranchise and destroy it And among other arguments he makes use of his own liberality towards that City having lately built a Church there and therefore prayed that the Temple he had so lately erected there might not become a receptacle of wild Beasts But gives not the least intimation that this was the only Church in that great City (c) Prim. ep p. 90. At Constantia the Metropolis of Cyprus and other Cities of that Island there was no plurality of Churches For this he cites Petavius whose inference has been already examined and there is nothing new added here to require further reply At Neocaesaria and other Cities in those parts but one Church This he proves from the thirteenth Canon of Neocaesarea that forbids a Chorepiscopus to officiate in a City Church from which Petavius would infer the Cities had but one Church But there might be a hundred Churches there for ought that expression may imply We are at last come to the end of this Chapter in which our Author has taken all ways to diminish the Christians He has been very bountiful to Schismaticks and Hereticks that the Bishop's Flock might not increase beyond his new model But we must not wonder at his liberality towards these to the detriment of the Bishop But rather than any City should have more Congregations than one of the same Communion he gives the rest to the Devil And to that purpose he is beyond measure bountiful towards Heathen and Jews Heightens their number as if he were of the faction especially in Julian's time having perhaps some secret respect for them because they generally took the part of Schismaticks and Hereticks against the Catholick establish'd Church CHAP. V. THe unjust Steward in the Gospel being called to give up his accounts and then to be discharged provided for himself at the expence of his Lord and cutting off considerably from the summ owing to his Master procured himself a retreat among the debtors Yet in this unrighteous contrivance he observed some measure and reduced a hundred but to fourscore and fourscore to fifty But Mr. Clerkson in the account he makes of his Master's substance in ancient Cities is much more profuse towards the debters and in some places of a hundred does not leave ten But in this he has chosen to follow the injustice rather than the wisdom of the Steward for when his defalcations come to be so unlikely and extravagant it is impossible the reckoning should pass Had he insisted only on lesser Cities that for three or four ages the Christians in them might not exceed one Assembly the account might have passed without any suspicion tho' the evidence even for this be defective But when in the greatest Cities of the World he sets down but one Congregation to the account of Christ and will not allow scarce five of a hundred to belong to our Lord the misreckoning is too manifest and does not carry so much as the appearance of truth The increase of Christianity is represented by the Scripture of the New Testament and by the Writers of the ages immediately succeeding as wonderful and unexampled and considering the supernatural abilities it pleased God to confer upon the first Preachers it might be expected that their Doctrin should make a greater progress than those that come recommended only by ordinary and human means of perswasion Yet if we take Mr. Clerkson's reckoning of Christians for the three first ages and compare it with the growth of Sects among our selves within this last age we must conclude that there is scarce a Sect within our remembrance which has not proportionably to time and place made much better progress than the Christian Religion ever did Since in the greatest Cities there are few Sects but make several Assemblies for Worship tho' the greatest Cities with us are much inferior to the greatest in ancient times And if the Quakers a Sect scarce forty years standing in the World are yet grown so numerous that in London they have several places for meeting it would seem to be a strange and incredible disparagement to the Christian Religion not to have prevailed so much in Rome for the space of three hundred years tho' St. Paul preached there for a considerable time and there was a flourishing Church before he was brought thither However our Author to leave no exception against the Congregational Rule (a) Prim. ep p. 91. 92. finds enough to make it seem probable that the greatest of those Cities had no more Christians under one Bishop than are in some one of our Parishes And to begin with Rome about the year 236 (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the faithful in Rome did meet together in one place to chuse a Bishop in the place of Anterus Euseb l. 6. c. 29. I have already upon other occasions shewed the import of these expressions all the people all the brethren all the City c. and how unreasonable it is to require exactness of testimony from phrases of amplification If we must conclude that all the faithful in Rome without any allowance or exception did meet in one place in the third Century to chuse a Bishop and therefore there were no more than could Assemble in one place It will follow from the very same phrase that in the fourth fifth and sixth Centuries and so forward there was but one Congregation in Rome after it was become Christian For in the fourth age Felix and all the Roman Clergy (c) Praesente populo Romano Marcel Faustin L. 16. Prec in the presence of the people of Rome swore they would not chuse any other Bishop while Liberius lived In the next (d) Dataque oratione respondit omnis populus Amen Lib. Pont. in
that were maintained by the Church were but a small part in comparison of the whole number of the poor For exhorting the rich men to contribute towards the maintenance of the poor he observes how easy it would be to provide for them For the Church says he (t) Chrys Hom. 66. in Matth. p. 421. 422. maintains many Widows and Virgins and Prisoners and Sick and Clergy the number of those upon the role maintained by the publick stock of the Church is about three thousand Now the income of the Church is scarce equal to one of the lowest of those accounted rich If therefore but ten such rich men would dispose of their Estates as the Church does there would not be a poor man in all Antioch unprovided Nay if all the rich men would but give a tenth part to Charity it would answer all occasions So that upon the computation of Chrysostom the Church did not relieve above a tenth part of the poor And yet this must be more in proportion than the Roman Church can be supposed able to do in Cornelius his time when it had no other revenue than the oblations of the Faithful whereas in Chrysostom's time besides these it was endowed with great possessions and was maintained from the rents or product of her Estate the Capital remaining undiminished as he observes in the same place Our Author having laid this false foundation proceeds to build upon it in this manner That at Constantinople Chrysostom computes the poor to have been half as many as all the other Christians there At Antioch the same Father supposes the poor a tenth part The first is unreasonable and without example in any City the latter multiplies the poor that stand in need of relief I think beyond what we can find in any rich City such as Antioch was yet upon this foot let us reckon The fifteen hundred Roman poor we will suppose according to Chrysostom to be the tenth part of the poor Christians of the place The sum will be fifteen thousand These multiplied by ten will make an hundred and fifty thousand And this may be supposed about a seventh part of the inhabitants in Rome of all ages and conditions And considering the great ostentation which Tertullian makes of the numbers of the Christians in the beginning of this age and the great increase they received in the time intervening between Tertullian and Cornelius under Alexander Severus and Philip I cannot but think I set their proportion too low when I reckon them but a seventh part I cannot pass by one passage in the same Homily of Chrysostom that I cannot reconcile with his supposition that makes the poor of Antioch the tenth part of the City When he had divided the people into ten parts he makes one to consist of rich Men another of very poor Men the other eight to consist of such as had competence of estate and were neither very rich nor very poor Yet having made this distribution he says that if the poor were divided between those who were rich and those who were not poor there would not one poor Man fall to the share of fifty or a hundred whereas according to his distribution there will be a poor Man left between nine I cannot think Chrysostom so little skilled in Arithmetick as to commit a mistake in so obvious a reckoning I had rather suspect the reading in this place of the tenth part which with small variation may be reconciled with the following computations But having not the countenance of any Critick nor the authority of any Copy I am content to leave it as I find it However as it stands it does but small service for the diminishing of Christians in ancient times Alexandria follows dressed up in a magnificent character (u) Prim. ep p. 96. the greatest after Rome the Mart of the World and the top of Cities But presume not ye Christians to take too much upon you for these glorious things belong to Jews and Heathens and it is but a small skirt of this Macedonian cloak that comes to your share Nay since you are found so inconsiderable in so great a place this very instance will preclude all your pretensions to number and greatness in all other Cities Here our Author undertakes to shew that the Christians were not more than could meet in one place and thinks fit to skirmish at first with arguments so slight that he himself does not think fit to insist on them In the latter end of the third age Dionysius calls the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a scrupulous member of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot but commend his discretion for not insisting upon such things as these tho' I think the alledging of them argues more of diligence than judgment For tho' this critical observation should be allowed that the Church of Alexandria is sometimes called a Synagogue the consequence that our Author makes that therefore there was but one Assembly of Christians in that City is invisible But the misfortune is that Dionysius says no such thing For he calls not the whole Church of Alexandria by that name But relating the case of a person who was troubled in conscience concerning his Baptism says (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 7. c. 9. he did partake of the Communion of the Faithful and assembled with them But whether there was then but one Church or Congregation in Alexandria or several cannot be deduced from that expression and all it imports in that place is only that the person was in full and entire Communion and so the same Author uses the word in his Epistle (y) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb l. 7. c. 7. to Philemon a Roman Presbyter when he speaks of Hereticks who did outwardly communicate with the Church The other passage which our Author will not insist upon seems to surpass the former in impertinence The place of their panegyrical assembly which was their greatest of all was in his time a place of no great reception not only a field and a desert but a ship an inn or a prison Wonderful that a field and a desert should not be places of great reception and that the Christians must be accounted few because they chose such places for their assembly where not only the Church of one City might assemble but Nations might inhabit But to let this pass and to consider the pertinence of this allegation Dionysius speaking of the calamitous estate of the Christians of Alexandria scattered by persecution from the Heathen and at the same time visited with a pestilence and comforting his brethren from the consideration of the approaching festival of Easter To others says he (z) Euseb H. E. l. 7. c. 22. this may scarce seem a Festival and to the Heathen neither this nor any other can be accounted such tho' it might have a greater appearance of happiness For now grief and lamentation fill every place and there is not a
floor but the Bishop and Presbyters seats and such places from whence any of the Church Officers spoke or read to the people It is not therefore so plain as it seemed to Mr. Baxter that all could hear in such an assembly as this Now where a multitude is so numerous that the greater part cannot be partakers of the service for which they are assembled it seems to be no longer one Congregation since it cannot attain that purpose which brings them together And therefore is a Congregation for shew and solemnity and not for edification and religious service Nor can any bounds be assigned to such an Assembly for a Nation may be brought together in that manner And therefore when a multitude though crowded together in one place becomes uncapable of attaining the end of Religious Assemblies it has out-grown the Congregational standard as much as if it were dispersed in forty distant places At a Coronation all the people in Westminster Abby may be thought but one Congregation yet the greatest part hear no more of what is said than those who are ten miles off They may joyn in one common acclamation as that Alexandrian Assembly did in an Amen so they might though they were twenty times as many So that such a notion of a Congregation runs on to infinite And that of which we are speaking being in all probability of this sort it exceeded the bounds of the pretended Primitive Episcopacy and is of no use in the present question However the whole multitude met in the great Church which was large enough to receive them all But what multitude all the Christians of the City No Mr. Baxter will not say that Or all that were willing or had opportunity to attend the publick devotions of the day Athanasius says not that neither but that there was so great confluence that the Parish-Churches could not hold them But there was no other Congregation of Athanasius his Communion in Alexandria on that Easter-day beside this great one for the universal Harmony and Concurrence of the people had not been so visible if (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they had met in parcels and therefore there were no such meetings Still the question recurs what people all the Alexandrians of his Communion Nothing he says can be extended so far or made to comprehend any more than the multitude assembled at that time with intention to be present with the Bishop This is all the people and all the multitude that he mentions in this part of his defence But these were all his flock for universal Harmony of all the people was visible This may be said of any general Congregation assembled from all parts though all individuals nor perhaps half of them do not appear For Leo the Great about the middle of the fifth Century speaks to his Congregation in the same manner though in all probability not the twentieth part of the Christians of Rome were present In you says he (i) In vobis pietatem Christianae unitatis agnosco sicut enim ipsa frequentia testatur Intelligitis enim honorem totius gregis celebrari per annua festa Pastoris Leo. Serm. Anniv 3. I can plainly see the piety of Christian unity as your confluence does declare and you understand that the honour of the whole flock is celebrated in the Anniversaries of the Pastor Now to make up this image of Christian unity it was not necessary all the people of the City should flow to the Bishops Church but only that the Congregation should be very great though not so as to exclude all others Notwithstanding this expression there might be several other Assemblies in that City at the same time Nor was it otherwise at Alexandria as we may judge by a passage in the Bishops Defence He was accused for having dedicated a Church which the Emperour had built without his order because the holding of the Pascal Assemby there was a sort of Dedication But the Bishop protests (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apol. ad Const p. 682. to the Emperour that he was so far from any such design that this very Assembly was altogether accidental for he had given the people no notice nor summons to meet there Now the Parish Presbyters of Alexandria cannot well be supposed to leave their Churches unsupplied upon a presumption that all the people would assemble with the Bishop and they could not but know that his Church could not hold a tenth part of them for all the Churches in the City could not receive them all and this new Church not yet finished or dedicated they could not think of Therefore in all probability they assembled their Parishes then as they did on other times unless we may fancy that on Easter they always attended the Bishop and so for all the Easters before this left much the greatest part of the people without any service on that solemn time For but few of them could crowd into the Bishops Church before that great one was built and the number of the Catholick Christians had been greater than were at this time of which we are speaking To conclude all the Alexandrians of the Catholick Communion were not present with their Bishop in the new Church Those that came made a very great multitude and such as the other Churches could not hold considering they had each a Congregation already These could not be dispersed in the other Churches without danger These were proper to represent Catholick unity and in short were a Congregation suitable to the time though it might not comprehend all the Christians of that great City Our Author goes on to prove the Church of Alexandria no more than could meet in one Congregation (m) Prim. ep p. 98. Alexander the Predecessour of Athanasius assembled the whole multitude in the Church called Theonas the other Churches being all strait and little But still this multitude is not said to be the whole of the Alexandrine Church but only of the Bishops Congregation There is yet another kind of proof which he thinks might be as satisfactory to some and refers to Mr. Baxter's Ch. History p. 9 10. Here I must own my self of his opinion for both are equally satisfactory and this to which he refers has been (n) Vindic. Prim. Ch. p. 58. sufficiently answered He thinks the Premises so evident that there is no need of Dionysius 's observation that Alexandria in his time was not by much so populous as of old the old men being more in number formerly than both old and young in his days If there was no need of this observation he is the more inexcusable for attempting to put upon his Reader without any necessity If any one should undertake to prove that London is not so populous now as it was a hundred years ago because a great Mortality happened there about five and twenty years since and at the end of that pestilence all sorts of Inhabitants might not then equal even the
offer themselves to Martyrdom what couldst thou do with so many thousands of people when Men and Women every sex every age and condition should offer themselves What fires what swords would be sufficient to destroy them How much must Carthage suffer which then would be decimated by thee Every one would suffer in his Relation or his Friend and there might appear among the sufferers persons of thy own rank and of the highest quality If thou wilt not spare us spare thy self if thou wilt not spare thy self spare Carthage All this must appear very absurd and provoke the derision of the Heathen if this multitude so populously set out might be summed up in one assembly and that no great one Since the Christians had not the convenience of great and capacious Churches at that time and might not be very willing to raise extraordinary Fabricks lest they should expose themselves too much to the observation and envy of their enemies He who is not yet perswaded that there was no more than one Congregation of Christians in Carthage when Tertullian wrote this let him if he thinks fit make himself the Advocate of some Sect in London that makes but one Congregation and plead their cause in this Harangue and then see how well it will fit them Now if the Christians in Carthage were so numerous in the beginning of the third Century that it is incredible they could meet in one Church and such a Church as the condition of those times could bear the forty years that follow must exceedingly increase their numbers since they were the most favourable that the Church met with in the three first ages And in Afric especially where Mr. Dodwell (c) Dissert Cypr. xi ss 48. 52. finds no Persecution from the tenth year of Severus Anno 202 to the first of Decius Anno 250. And in general Origen observes the increase of Christians within this time to be extraordinary and much greater than it had been in former times (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. Cont. Cels p. l. 3. p. 120. because they were not then oppressed by the Emperours as they had been formerly (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rigours of the Heathen against them had for a long time ceased This long peace tho' it corrupted the manners of the Christians yet it added much to their numbers as Cyprian (e) Disciplinam longa pax corruperat populi aliquando numerosi lamentanda jactura Cypr. de laps p. 123. observes who speaking of the Christians of Carthage before Decius his Persecution extols their numbers while he bewails the ruin of those who yielded to the enemy Yet (f) Prim. ep p. 104. In Cyprians time in all Church administrations and transactions of moment in the Church and Bishoprick of Carthage all the people were to be present Tota fraternitas plebs Universa stantes Laici as he declares every where in his Epistles And how all could be present if they were more than could meet together is not intelligible Alas how difficult is it for some men to understand the plainest things in the World when they have no mind to it It is an incomprehensible figure of speech it seems to say that what is transacted in an Assize is done before the whole County and yet there is scarce any Hall so large as to hold the people of one Hundred much less a whole County and still people will talk after this unintelligible rate But of this Topick we have said more than enough To the same effect is that of Optatus concerning the Election of Caecilian suffragio totius populi And the deductions he makes upon the account of the Donatists in Carthage so as to leave the Catholick Christians but one Congregation are by much too liberal to the Schismaticks For it is known to every body that has but looked into St. Austin that those of the Catholick Communion in that City had many and great Churches for their assemblies in the fourth Century To the four greatest Cities of the Empire our Author (g) Prim. ep p. 106. thinks fit to add Jerusalem altho ' far inferiour in greatness because of the many thousands converted there by the Apostles But I have shewed that of those five thousand Converted the twentieth part cannot in reason be accounted inhabitants of the City What he has said of this matter hath been examined at large In Jerusalem many accessions of Converts are mentioned in the beginning of the Acts which he does account for and all this in a few years before the calling of the Gentiles and the Conversion of St. Paul Nor did the progress of Christianity in Jerusalem stop where St. Luke breaks off his relation of the numerous Conversions but before the destruction of that City and the Jewish Nation we are told by Hegesippus (h) Apud Euseb l. 2. c. 23. that the Scribes made an uproar and cried that the whole City was in danger of becoming Christian Their apprehensions had been very childish if the Christians had not yet increased beyond one Congregation when the Rabbins will have near five hundred Synagogues to have been in Jerusalem at that time About forty years after this Church consisted of no more than Pella a small City could entertain together with its own inhabitants What might happen to this Church a few years before the destruction of Jerusalem is altogether unknown But that not long before it was very flourishing we learn from the Acts and Hegesippus If Persecutions or Apostacies had diminished it a little before that fatal Revolution we are not to take the measures of it from such a calamitous state Nay this story of the transmigration to Pella comes from no certain Authority And Valesius (i) Annot. in Euseb l. 3. c. 5. hints his mistrust of it when he observes that Eusebius quotes no Author and probably took all this matter from Tradition which is no very certain way of conveying any thing to posterity Nor is it unlikely (l) Epiph. Haer. Nazar n. 7. Id. de Pond Mens n. 15. Joseph Scalig. Anim. in Euseb p. 212. that this story should come from the Nazarens who dwelt about Pella and in the Region of Decapolis who to give themselves greater credit might pretend to be the remainder of the Apostolick Church of Jerusalem (m) Prim. ep p. 107. Not long after they setled in the ruins of a part of that desolate City no fit place to entertain multitudes where they had a few houses and a little Church and therefore one would judg they could not be very many The story of these houses and Church and several Synagogues in Mount-Sion that escaped in the first desolation are all Jewish Fables and inconsistent with our Saviours Prophesie of that City that one stone should not be left upon another as Scaliger (n) Animadv in Euseb Chron. has observed and any one may see it who will but read the story in Epiphanius who
about limits the Apostles made no new distributions but followed the form of the Empire planting in every City a compleat and entire Church that consisted not only of the Inhabitants of the City but of the Region belonging to it If any were converted and if their distance or number made them incapable of repairing to the City-Church upon all their Religious occasions they had Congregations apart and subordinate Officers to attend them as it was in the civil disposition our Saviour having appointed several Orders in his Church and the Apostles propagating those and appointing some new as occasion required Only as in greater causes the Country people sued in the City Courts so likewise in such causes of Religion that concerned the whole community such as that of receiving in and turning out of the communion the Christians of the Territory were under the authority of the city-City-Church Hence it is that the Canons of ancient Councils mention a Territory belonging to every City Bishop The thirty fourth Canon (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Ap. 34. of those called Apostolick forbids a Bishop to do any thing without the concurrence of his Metropolitan but what related to his own Diocese and the Territories under it And the ninth of Nice that provides so favourably for the Puritans when they should return to the communion of the Church supposeth Bishops to have a considerable Diocese besides their City For by this it is ordered that if a Bishop of the Puritans should embrace Catholick Communion and there were another Bishop of the Catholick Church in the same City that then (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Nicen. 8. the Puritan should either retain the title of a Bishop in the same City if the other did think fit or else be received as a Presbyter But least this may have the appearance of two Bishops in the same Town some place is to be provided for him that he may be either a Chorepiscopus or a Presbyter in the Country The Synod of Antioch forbids the Presbyters of the Territories to send Canonical letters and in another gives the Bishop of the City full authority (y) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Antioch 9. to order Ecclesiastical affairs not only in his City but in the whole Territory that belongs to it to ordain Presbyters and Deacons to exercise Jurisdiction within the extent of his Diocese And in the next Canon forbids (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. Antioch 10. the Chorepiscopi to ordain Presbyters or Deacons in the Country without the consent of the Bishop of the City to which they and the Territory did belong The Council of Elvira speaks of Deacons (a) Diaconus regens plebem Can. Eliber 77. that had Country cures and that the Bishop to whom they belonged was to perfect those who were baptized by these Curees by confirmation Basil (b) Basil ep 192. salutes the Country Clergy of the Diocese of Nicopolis distinct from those of the City and Theodoret who had a Diocese forty miles square reckoned (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theod. ep 42. his Episcopacy of divine institution and that his large Territory as well as his City was committed into his hands by God Theodosius Bishop of Synnada is said to drive the Macedonian Hereticks not only out of his City but (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. l. 7. c. 3. out of all his Territories And Eustathius (e) Basil ep 73. overthrew all the Altars of Basilides in all the Territory of Gangrae And Synesius writing to the whole Church of Ptolemais addresseth to the people of the City and to those of the Country Parishes that belonged to it It would be an endless labour to alledge all the instances of this nature since nothing is more obvious and occurs more frequently in Ecclesiastical Writers I have shewed how great Territories belonged anciently to the Greek and Roman Cities how unlike their constitution was to ours and especially in this respect I have also shewed that the civil and Ecclesiastical Territories were the same and Mr. Clerkson confesses it His demands therefore concerning this matter receive a full answer and the proof which he (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes ep 11. required not without intimation of despair made good and beyond all reasonable exception To make this matter yet more clear I will instance in some Bishopricks whose extent are known or so much at leastwise as discovers them to be Dioceses consisting of many Country Parishes besides the City Churches I will begin with the Bishoprick of Theodoret because the limits of it have been described with greatest exactness and particularity The Diocese of Cyrus was forty miles in length and as much in breadth And Theodoret (h) Theod. ep 42. proceeds to describe it so minutely that he sets down the number of acres together with the condition and tenure of the land There were fifty thousand free from any service ten thousand belonging to the Fisc about fifteen thousand more subject to taxes but unable to pay according to the proportion then set So that this instance seems clear beyond all exception And as to the Ecclesiastical state of this Territory in his Epistle to Leo he says (i) Theod. ep 113. there were eight hundred Churches in it all belonging to his care Yet some have endeavoured to take off the evidence of this Epistle to Leo when it was urged by the learned Bishop of Worcester Mr. Baxter suspects it because it came from the Vatican Library and Mr. Clerkson (l) No evid of Dioc. Ep. p. 39. suggests the same suspition But this frivolous cavil hath been answered by the same hand that alledged the instance I will take the liberty to add only this that it happens fortunately to this Epistle that it hath an ancient voucher and a clear testimony in the next age after it was written For Liberatus (m) Quos secutus Theodoretus Papae suggessit quanta mala pertulerit rogans ut tali causae subveniretur Liber Brev. c. 12. makes mention of it and informs us that Theodoret wrote to Leo suggesting how much he had suffered of Dioscorus and desiring that for the remedy of these evils another Council might be called And (n) Constat ex ep p. 113 116. Garner in Liber p. 83. Garnerius in his observation upon this place directs us to this Epistle to Leo. Mr. Clerkson instead of eight hundred Churches constantly reads eighty without so much as giving notice that it is only his conjecture But be the number how it will we must lay aside all thoughts of Congregational Episcopacy in this Region Another exception against this instance is offered by Mr. Clerkson (o) No evid of Dioc. p. 39. that this was not a Diocese but a Province and that Theodoret was a Metropolitan And for this he quotes the learned Author whose testimonies he pretended to answer although he expresly says that this is not to be
says that holy Bishop (d) Aug. ep ad Marcellin 159. (d) Germanicenses ad curam humilitatis nostrae pertinent Aug. ep 251. Ed. Bened. or that I may not seem to pass the bounds of my own dispensation this will be most advantagious to the Church of the Diocese of Hippo. And speaking of a place called Germanicia in that Diocese affirms e that it belongs to his care and in another place that (f) Visitandarum Ecclesiarum ad meam curam pertinentium necessitate profectus sum Vide ep 74 212 236. he had Churches under his care which he was obliged to visit To diminish this Bishoprick of Hippo yet farther Mr. Clerkson shews that St. Austin was so far from having all the Region under his Jurisdiction that he had not the whole Town the Donatists had a Bishop there This indeed is true of the former part of St. Augustin's Episcopal administration but after the Imperial Rescript which followed the Conference at Carthage Hippo had no Donatists for all returned to the communion of the Church For so I think St. Austin in his Epistle to Vincentius may most commodiously be understood where speaking of his former opinion which was against using any compulsion for reducing men to the communion of the Church he confesseth that experience hath altered his judgment in that point (g) Aug. ep 48. The instance of my own City was urged against me which was once wholly Donatist but now converted to Catholick unity by the fear of the Imperial Laws which now so utterly detests your pernicious animosity that she might seem never to have been infected with it So that after all these exceptions St. Austin's Diocese remains undiminished Caesarea in Cappadocia had a Diocese of so vast extent that few of our Northern Bishopricks can equal it For Basil the Bishop of that City had (h) Greg. Naz. Carm. de viti sua fifty Chorepiscopi in his Diocese who were his deputies for the administration of discipline in lesser causes in the remoter part of his Diocese Cappadocia was (i) Strab. l. 12. about four hundred miles in length according to Strabo and above two hundred in breadth Caesarea was placed in the middle of this great Country and was at first the Metropolis of the whole and when the Country was divided into two Provinces the greatest share remained under the ancient and greatest Metropolis Yet in this tract which cannot be conceived less than two hundred and fifty miles there were but (l) Colligere feci Episcopos sub me constitutos sunt enim duo Ep. Capp pr. ad Leon. two Bishopricks besides that of Caesarea i. e. Thermae and Nyssa Basil (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas ep 264. excuses himself to Eusebius Bishop of Samosata for not writing to him by some great Persons who had been in Caesarea because he was then upon his visitation And in another place speaks of a Country Parish of his Diocese called Venesa where he ordained one Glycerius a Deacon to assist (n) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ep 412. the Presbyter of that Parish And he reproves the Chorepiscopi of his Diocese for suffering the Presbyters of Country Parishes to make what inferiour Church-officers they pleased and therefore orders (o) Ep. 181. a list of all the inferiour Officers of Country Churches to be brought to him and that none be made thereafter without his consent There is likewise another Village called Dacora mentioned by Sozomen (p) Soz. l. 7. c. 27. in the Territory of Caesarea where Eunomius (q) Philostorg l. 10. was born and buried and Julian ordered (r) Soz. l. 5. c. 4. a search to be made for all the goods not only of the Churches in Caesarea but of all the Churches of the Diocese Tyana the Metropolis of the second Cappadocia had a considerable Diocese belonging to it Euphrantas Bishop of that City mentions (s) Praedium autem quod dicitur Pasa duodecim milliarijs distat Tyanensis Metropoleos sub eadem Civitate est usque hodie Ap. Conc. C. P. 2. Coll. 5. one George of Pasa who lived in Gregory Nazianzen's time and notes that Pasa was a Country place twelve miles from Tyana and belongs to that City says he to this very day But this Diocese must be much more considerable than this passage speaks as well as the rest of Cappadocia The whole Country as I noted before was about four hundred miles in length and two in breadth which makes a summ of eight hundred square miles Now in all the Country there were in the middle of the fifth age but eleven Bishopricks and then it was all Christian So that every Bishop one with another may have a Diocese that wants not much of a hundred miles square which can be matched by but few in our Country besides Lincoln But because the division of Dioceses is generally unequal as the Territories of Cities were some of these will fall out to be vastly great and others but of moderate extent Nor is there any place for suspicion that Bishopricks were sunk or united in this Country for it was so far from that that several of these few were erected in the fourth Century Sasima was made a Bishoprick by Basil which before belonged to Caesarea or Tyana for Gregory's expression is ambiguous From Tyana it was two and thirty miles distant from Caesarea above a hundred And upon second thoughts it seems to me rather to belong to the first for it was nearer to it and within its Province and given up by Basil who desires (t) Bas ep 88. Anthimus the new Metropolitan to take care of it Nazianzus too was a Bishoprick raised in the fourth Century as we may learn from Nazianzen (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Naz. Or. 19. in Patr. who says that the place had but one Bishop before his Father In the Council of Ephesus one John subscribes (x) Johannes Episc totius Lesbi Iren. Traged Contest quorund Ep. sub 28. himself Bishop of all Lesbus The Island according to Strabo (y) Strab. l. 13. was eleven hundred furlongs which wants not much of seven score miles in compass Nor had this Bishop summed up all his titles for his Successour Florentius in the Council of Chalcedon writes (z) Florentius Episcopus Lesbi Tenedi Prosilenes Aegialorum per Euelpistum Chorepiscopum subscripsi Conc. Chalc. Act. 1◠himself Bishop of several other Islands Now if one City cannot have Territory enough in the judgment of the Congregational Antiquaries to make a large Diocese two ancient Cities with their Territories may surely yield a Diocese of many Congregations And in the Council of Ephesus (a) Conc. Eph. par 2. Act. 1. there were several Bishops who had two Cities within their Diocese Timothy was Bishop of Fermissus and Eudocias Athanasius was Bishop of Diveltus and Sozopolis And in Europa there are many instances of this nature and the Bishops of that Province