Five disputations of church-government and worship

^*Clemens Alexandrinus hath divers passages to the purpose ⟨p. 96⟩now in hand. Stromat. li. 7. in the beginning, he mentioneth the Church and its officers, which he divideth only into two sorts, Presbyters and Deacons. But I will name no more particular persons, but come to some intimations of the point before us from customs or Practices of the Church and the Canons of Councils.

^*Clemens Alexandrinus hath divers passages to the purpose ⟨p. 96⟩now in hand. Stromat. li. 7. in the beginning, he mentioneth the Church and its officers, which he divideth only into two sorts, Presbyters and Deacons. But I will name no more particular persons, but come to some intimations of the point before us from customes or Practices of the Church and the Canons of Councils.

1. *Very many passages in Cyprian do intimate that then the Dioceses were small, perhaps having yet but unum Altar: As when he saith that [à primordio Episcopatus mei statuerim nihil sine concilio vestro & sine consensu plebis meae, privata sententia gerere, &c. And [Prohibeantur offerre, acturi apud nos, & apud confe••ores ipsos, & apud plebem universam causam suam] And [Haec singulorum tractanda sit & limanda plenius ratio, non tantum cum] collegis meis, sed & cum plebe ipsá universá] And [Vix plebi persuadeo, immo extorqueo, ut tales patiantur •dmitti, & justior factus est fraternitatis dolor, ex eo quod unus atque alius obnitente pl•be & […], mea tamen facilita e suscepti, pejores extiterunt—] How the Universa pleb• of many Congregations or a Diocese like ours, should be consulted and hear and do any thing to admission or exclusion from Communion, and be advised with by Cyprian in all such affairs, is not easy to conceive. See his Epist. 3.6.10.13, 14, 26, 31, 27, 28, 33, 40, &c. Peruse all the citations of Bloudwell de jure Plebis in Regim. Eccles. and see whether they intimate not the smallness of their Dioceses. (Though I believe they prove no such thing as proper Government in the people.) Yet peruse all the Authors cited by him there to prove that […] Eccleiae Mth. 18. refers to the Congregation of Pastors and people together; and it will much confirm the point in hand. I shall not recite any of them, because you may there find them in the end of Grotius de Imperio Sum. Potest.