Five disputations of church-government and worship

Reason 4. The contrary opinion feigneth the Apostles to have allotted to each Bishop a space of ground for his Diocese, ¹and to have measured Churches by such spaces, and not by the number of souls: But this is unproved, & absurd. 1. Unproved, For there is no place in Scripture that giveth the Bishop charge of all that space of ground, or of all the Christians that shall be in that space during his time. Indeed they placed a Bishop in each City, when there was but a Church in each City: But they never said▪ there shall be but one Church in a City, or but one Bishop in a City; much less in all the Country region. 2. And its absurd: For its the number of souls that a Church must be measured by, and not a space of ground, (so they do but co-habit:) For if in the same space of Ground, there should be twenty or an hundred times as many Christians, it would make the number so great as would be uncapable of personal communion, and of obtaining Church Ends. If a Schoolmaster have a School in the chief City or Town of this County, and there come as many from many miles compass as one School can hold, and there be no more there: so long all that space may belong to his School, not for the space sake, but the number of Scholars: For if there be afterward an hundred times as many in that space to be taught, they must set up more Schools, and it were no wise part in the old Schoolmaster to maintain that all that Country pertaineth to his School, because that it was so when there were fewer. So that to measure our the matter of Churches by space of ground, and not by number of souls, is plainly against the Reason of the Relation.

Reason 4. The contrary opinion feigneth the Apostles to have allotted to each Bishop a space of ground for his Diocess, ¹and to have measured Churches by such spaces, and not by the number of souls: But this is unproved, & absurd. 1. Unproved, For there is no place in Scripture that giveth the Bishop charge of all that space of ground, or of all the Christians that shall be in that space during his time. Indeed they placed a Bishop in each City, when there was but a Church in each City: But they never said▪ there shall be but one Church in a City, or but one Bishop in a City; much less in all the Country region. 2. And its absurd: For its the number of souls that a Church must be measured by, and not a space of ground, (so they do but co-habite:) For if in the same space of Ground, there should be twenty or an hundred times as many Christians, it would make the number so great as would be uncapable of personal communion, and of obtaining Church Ends. If a Schoolmaster have a School in the chief City or Town of this County, and there come as many from many miles compass as one School can hold, and there be no more there: so long all that space may belong to his School, not for the space sake, but the number of Schollars: For if there be afterward an hundred times as many in that space to be taught, they must set up more Schools, and it were no wise part in the old Schoolmaster to maintain that all that Country pertaineh to his School, because that it was so when there were fewer. So that to measure our the matter of Churches by space of ground, and not by number of souls, is plainly against the Reason of the Relation.