374 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
by the laiu of the land, the superiority of bishojjs over ministers, as though these things were the same, or had any relation one to an- other; whereas we have showed the former, in your sense, to be de- structive to the latter. Truth never put any man upon such subter- fuges; and I hope the difficulties that you find yourself perj)lexed withal may direct you at length to find that there is a *' deceit in your right hand." But let us hear your own words: —
" As for the gosjDel, the Lord, who had been visible governor and pastor of his flock on earth, when he was now to depart hence, as all the apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed him in his care, so did he, notwithstanding his own invisible presence and providence over his flock, publicly appoint one. And when he taught them that he who was greatest among them should be as the least, he did not deny but suppose one greater, and taught, in one and the same breath, both that he was over them, and for what he was over them, — namely, to feed, not to tyrannize; not to domineer and hurt, but to direct, comfort, and conduct his flock in all humility and tender- ness, as a servant of all their spiritual necessities. And if a bishop be otherwise affected, it is the fault of his person, not his place."
And what is it that you would prove hereby? Is it that bishops are above ministers? which, in the words immediately foregoing, you asserted, and in those next ensuing confirm from the law of the land. Is there any tendency in your discourse towards any such purpose ? Nay, do not yourself know that what you seek to insinuate, — namely, the institution of one supreme pastor of the whole catholic church, one of the apostles to be above and mler over all the rest of the apostles, and the whole church besides, — is perfectly destructive of the hierarchy of bishops in England as established by law; and also at once casting down the main if not only foundation that they plead for their station and order from the gospel? For all " prelate Protestants," as you call them, assert an equality in all the apostles, and a superiority in them to the seventy disciples; whence, by a parity of reason, they conclude unto the superiority of bishops over ministers to be continued in the church. And are you not a fair advocate for your cause, and well meet for the reproving of others for not consenting unto them ? But, waiving that which you little care for, and are not at all concerned in, let us see how you prove that which we know you greatly desire to give some countenance unto ; that is, a universal visible pastor over the whole catholic church, in the place and room of Christ himself First, j'ou tell us that " the apostles expected one to be chosen to succeed Christ in his care." But to have one succeed another in his care infers that that other ceased to take and exercise the care which formerly he had and exercised ; which in this case is highly blasphemous once to imagine.
CHEIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. 375
I wish you would take more care of what you say in things of this nature, and not suffer the impetuous bias of your interest to cast you upon expressions so injurious to the honour of Christ and safety of his church. And how do you prove that the apostles had any such expectation as that which you mention ? Our Saviour gave them equal commission to teach all nations; told them that as his Father had sent him so he sent them ; that he had chosen them twelve, but that one of them was a devil, — never that one of them should be j)ope. Their institution, instruction, privileges, charge, calling, were all equal. How, then, should they come to have this expectation, that one of them should be chosen to succeed Christ in his care, when they were all chosen to serve imder him in the continuance of his care towards his church ? That which you obscurely intimate from whence this expectation of yours might arise, is the contest that was amongst them about pre-eminence : Luke xxii. 24, " There was a strife amongst them which of them should be accounted the greatest." This, you suppose, was upon their persuasion that one should be chosen in particular to succeed the Lord Christ in his care ; whereupon they fell into difference about the place. But, — ] . Is it not somewhat strange unto yourself how they should contest about a succession unto Christ in his absence, lulio had not once thought that he woidd ever be absent from them, nor could bear the mention of it without great sorrow of heart when afterward he began to acquaint them with it ? 2. How should they come in your apprehension to quarrel about that which, as you suppose and contend, was some luhile before determined'^ for this contest of yours was some while after the promise of the keys to Peter, and the saying of Christ that he " would build his church on the rock." Were the apostles, think you, as stupid as Protestants, that they could not see the supremacy of Peter in those passages, but must yet fall at variance who should be pope? 3. How doth it appear that this strife of theirs who should be greatest did not arise from their apprehension of an earthly kingdom, a hope whereof, ac- cording to the then current persuasion of the Judaical church, to be erected by their master, whom they believed in as the true Messiah, they were not delivered from until after his resurrection, when they were filled with the Spirit of the New Testament ? Acts i. Certainly from that root sprang the ambitious desire of the sons of Zebedee after pre-eminence in his kingdom; and the designing of the rest of them in this j)lace, from the manner of its management, by strife, seems to have had no better a spring. 4. The stop put by our Lord Jesus unto the strife that was amongst them makes it manifest that it arose from no such expectation as you imagine ; or that at least if it did, yet your expectation Avas irregular, vain, and groundless: for, — (L) He tells them that there should be no such greatness in his