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Communion of their National Church, and to heal the Breach made by that Excess of the Pope's Supremacy, which no fober Man on this Side the Alps will own. It is ftrange to Own it in Fact, and yet deny it in Words. Whoever own this Bull of Pius V. for breaking Commu nion in England, must also own the full Extent of the Bulla in Cena, which has his Authority, in a particular Manner, as well as of all the Popes fince. And it Damns almost all the Pa pifts, as well as all who are not Papists.

(27.) L. We defire not to be called Pa-* pifts, we think it a Word of Contempt, as if we were only Partifans for the Pope, and of that Party or Faction of Chriftians who would Raife his Power above the Church and every thing elfe.

G. I am glad Your Lordship thinks fo, and indeed the Church of France (where you were Bred) are not Papifts in this Senfe. They are got free, in a good Measure from the Servitude of the Pope. But they are still Roman Catholicks.

L. We do not delight in that Word neither, as if our Catholicifm were tyed only to Rome; we term our felves Catholicks in General, as Members of the Catbolick or Univerfal Church.

G. We call our felves fo too, and in the fame Senfe, and Pray every Day for the Catholick Church in our Liturgy. Therefore, we call not you Catholicks, because it would not Diftin-"

guish you from us. But Roman Catholicks is calling a Part the Whole.

L. You know the Meaning, not that the Particular Church of Rome is all the Churches in the World, but the is called Catholick, as being the Head and Principle of Unity and Communion to all other Churches.

G. If this be the Frame of the Catholick Church, it must have been fo always.

L. Yes furely, for ther was always a Catholick Church, that is, fome particular Church, fo called, in the fame Sense as Rome is now.

G. Pray then, My Lord, tell me what Particular Church was fo called, in this Sense, before there was a Chriftian in Rome? And how came that Church to lose it? And how was it transferred to Rome?

Every Bishop, every Church, and every Member of it, may be called Catholick, and were so called, as being included in the General Notion of the Catholick Church; but in the Senfe you have Mentioned, as Head and Principle of Unity to all Churches, no Bishop or Church ever had it, till taken up in the latter times by the Bishop and Church of Rome.

(28.) L. But how came the Bishop of Rome to that great Sway he has long obtained in the Church?

G. It is very Obvious, becaufe Rome was the Metropolis of the Empire: And consequently her Bishop must be more Confpicuous than any other, have more Refpect pay'd him, and more Applications

Applications made to him, especially after the Emperors became Chriftian. And for the fame Reason, when the Seat of the Empire was tranflated to Conftantinople, the Bishop of that Church took upon him, and Aspired further to an Univerfal Supremacy, but was Opposed by Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome. Ther was no other Confideration then for the Superiority of one Bishop or Church, but the Secular Dignity of the Place; for which Reason the Patriarch of Jerufalem (which was Uncontestably the Mother Church of all) was poftponed, and made the Lowest of all the Patri archs. But for Divine Right, and Chrift having Named any one Bishop or Church as Head and Superior to all others, there is not a Word. And it could not be Rome before Rome was Christian; and Chrift never Named her upon any Occafion whatfoever, or gave the leaft Hint towards her, or that poffibly can be applyed to her. Strange and Unaccountable! If he meant to Build the whole Chriftian Faith upon her, and to make her the Catholick Church, as Including all other Churches of Chriftians, and in all Ages throughout the whole World !

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But, My Lord, Fact (as I said before) is the surest way to give us a true Light of Things. And the Frame or Government of the Church is a Fact, which must be Determined by Hiftories and Records, not Criticifing upon Words that afford no Certainty, Let us look there fore into the Frame of the Church from the

Beginning,

Beginning. I hope I have made it Plain from the Hiftory of the Acts of the Apostles, that ther was none of them Appointed as Sovereign over the others, whatever Words may be ftrained in favour of St. Peter; for if he was called a Rock or Foundation, so were all the others, they are called the Thelve Foundations of the Church. Which is faid to be Built upon the Foundation of

Rev. xxi. 14.
Eph. ii. 20.

the Apostles, and Prophets, Jefus Chrift Himfelf

being the chief Corner Stone.

Matth. xvi. 19.

And not any

particular Prophet or Apostle. And if the Keys of Heaven

were promised to Peter, this was fulfilled in

Joh. xx. 23.

any Mark of

Matth. xxviii. 19.

them all. And

giving them to him Jointly with all the others, without Superiority in him.

As in

The Commiflion to Teach all Nations, it was Equal to we find in Fact that it was Exercised by them all with equal Authority.

And all the Regimen of the Church which the Apostles appointed was that of Bishops in their several Diftrids, without any Head or Sovereign Bishop over them all, as Supreme Judge of Controverfy Of which ther is not the leaft Title to be found in any of the Hiftories or Writings of thofe Ages next after the Apostles; though ther were many Controverfies even in Faith among them, which an Appeal to this Judge had speedily

ended;

ended; but no fuch thing appears, which could not have been miffed had it been known. Metropolitans were Early, that is, the Bishop of the Metropolis or Chief City of a Province, who did Prefide in the Synods of that Province, and had other Ecclefiaftical Privileges granted him, by the Common Consent of the Bifhops of the Province, for Order Sake, and greater Harmony of Difcipline. But a Patriarch with Jurifdiction over feveral Metropolitans or Provinces was never heard of in the Church till the Council of Chalcedon,450 Years after Chrift. And many Provinces were not put under thefe Patriarchs, but had Exempt Jurifdiction of their own as before, of which Britain was one; for the Patriarchat of Rome extended only to Italy and the Ifles adjacent. But the first Pretence to Universal Supremacy was set up by John, Bishop of Conftantinople, after the Seat of the Empire was tranflated this ther, against whom Gregory the Great wrote, and faid that though his See of Rome had always the Precedence of Conftantinople, yet that none of his Predeceffors, the Bishops of Rome, had ever aflumed fuch an Arrogant Title, which he calls a Luciferian Pride, and declares him who fhould take it to be the Fore-runner of Anti-Chrift. Next Succeffor but One, that is Boniface III. did take it, being given him by Phocas, that Traitor and Ufurper, who Murdered his Mafter Mauricius, the Emperor, and Seized his Throne,

H

Epift. Lib. ii. Ep. 32

36.38 Lib. vii. Ep. 30. 36, &c.

And yet his

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