trifling cavils and exceptions of the Romanists, may consult the large and copious annotations of the learned Dr. Beveridge, bishop of St. Asaph, upon it, where they will receive ample satisfaction.

Thus was the government of the catholic church, in the primitive times, distributed among the several chief bishops or primates of the provinces, neither of them being accountable to the other, but all of them to an oecumenical council, which was then held to be the only supreme visible judge of controversies arising in the church, and to have the power of finally deciding them. Hence the case of the bishop of Alexandria, before mentioned, was not brought before the bishop of Rome, or any other metropolitan, but referred to the Fathers of the Nicene council, to be finally determined by them.

The universal pastorship or government of the catholic church was never claimed by any bishop till towards the end of the sixth century, and then it was thought to be challenged by John, patriarch of Constantinople, assuming to himself the title of œcumenical or universal bishop; whom Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, vehemently opposed, pronouncing him the forerunner of Antichrist, who durst usurp so arrogant a title. And it is worthy observing how passionately the same Gregory expresseth his detestation of the pride and arrogance of the patriarch of Constantinople, in his letter to Mauritius, the emperor: "I am forced to cry out, "O the times! O the manners! All things in the parts of Europe are delivered up to the power of barbarous people. Cities are destroyed, castles demolished, provinces depopulated, &c., and yet "the bishops, who ought to have lain prostrate on

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"the ground, covered with ashes and weeping, even they covet to themselves names of vanity, and glory in new and profane titles h." And yet this name of vanity, this new and profane title of universal bishop, was afterwards accepted by Boniface III. bishop of Rome, when it was offered him by that bloody miscreant Phocas the emperor; and the same title hath been owned by the succeeding bishops of the Roman church, and that as due to them by divine right. Indeed, it may be questioned whether John of Constantinople, by assuming the title of œcumenical bishop, meant that he had an universal jurisdiction over all other bishops and churches: but this is certain, that Gregory opposed the title under this notion; this appearing abundantly from his epistle to John the patriarchi; and it is as certain, that under the same notion the bishops of Rome afterwards assumed that title, and do claim it to this day. Nay, the universal pastorship and jurisdiction of the Roman bishop over all bishops and churches is now no longer a mere court opinion, maintained only by the pope's parasites and flatterers, but is become a part of the faith of the church of Rome; it being one of the articles of the Trent creed, to which all ecclesiastics are sworn themselves, and which, by the same oath, they are obliged to teach the laity under their care and charge,

h Exclamare compellor ac dicere, O tempora! O mores! Ecce cuncta in Europæ partibus barbarorum juri sunt tradita, destructæ urbes, eversa castra, depopulatæ provinciæ, &c. et tamen sacerdotes, qui pavimento et cinere flentes jacere debuerunt, vanitatis sibi nomina expetunt, ac novis et profanis vocabulis gloriantur. Greg. 1. IV. epist. 32. [al. V. 20.]

i Lib. IV. epist. 38. [al. V. 18.]

as hereafter will appear. So that now there is no room for that distinction, wherewith some have soothed and pleased themselves, between the church and court of Rome; for the court is entered into the church of Rome, or rather the court and church of Rome are all one.

III. 2. The church of Rome hath changed the primitive canon, or rule of faith, by adding new articles to it, as necessary to be believed in order to salvation. Look to the confession of faith, according to the council of Trent: it begins indeed with the primitive rule of faith, as explained by the council of Nice and Constantinople; and happy had it been for the church of Christ, if it had ended there. But there are added afterwards a many new articles; and with reference to them, as well as to the articles of the old creed, it concludes thus: "This "true catholic faith, without which none can be "saved, which I now willingly profess and un

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feignedly hold; the same I promise, vow, and "swear, by the help of God, most constantly to keep "and confess, entire and inviolate, even to my last "breath; and to endeavour moreover, to the utmost "of my power, that it may be kept, taught, and professed by all my subjects, or by those that are "any way under my care. So help me God, and

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"these his holy gospels k."

k Hanc veram catholicam fidem, extra quam nemo salvus esse potest, quam in præsenti sponte profiteor, et veraciter teneo, eandem integram et inviolatam, usque ad extremum vitæ spiritum, constantissime (Deo adjuvante) retinere et confiteri, atque a meis subditis, vel illis quorum cura ad me spectabit, teneri, doceri, et prædicari, quantum in me erit, curaturum ego idem N. spondeo, voveo ac juro: sic me Deus adjuvet, et hæc sancta Dei evangelia.

Now, if you examine those articles that follow after the Constantinopolitan creed, you will find they are not merely explicatory of any article or articles of the old canon of faith, (such as that of the oμooúσios, or same substance in the Nicene confession, which was virtually contained in the ancient canon, and by good consequence deducible from it, and was apparently also the sense of the catholic church before the Nicene council,) but they are plain additions to the rule of faith. Now if these articles were true, yet they ought not presently to be made a part of our creed; for every truth is not fundamental, nor every error damnable. We deny not but that general or provincial councils may make constitutions concerning extra-fundamental verities, and oblige all such as are under their jurisdiction to receive them, at least passively, so as not openly and contumaciously to oppose them. But to make any of these a part of the creed, and to oblige all Christians under pain of damnation to receive and believe them, this is really to add to the creed, and to change the ancient canon or rule of faith. But, alas! these superadded articles of the Trent creed are so far from being certain truths, that they are most of them manifest untruths, yea, gross and dangerous errors. To make this appear, I shall not refuse the pains of examining some of the chief of them.

The first article I shall take notice of is this: "I "profess, that in the mass is offered to God, a true, 66 proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and "the dead; and that in the most holy sacrament of "the Eucharist there is truly, and really, and sub"stantially the body and blood, together with the "soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ; and

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"that there is wrought a conversion of the whole "substance of the bread into the body, and of the "whole substance of the wine into the blood, which "conversion the catholic church calls transubstan"tiation." Where this proposition, ("That in the "mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead,”) having that other of the "substantial presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist" immediately annexed to it, the meaning of it must necessarily be this, that in the Eucharist the very body and blood of Christ are again offered up to God as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of men. Which is an impious proposition, derogatory to the one full satisfaction of Christ made by his death on the cross, and contrary to express Scripture, Heb. vii. 27, and ix. 12, 25, 26, 28. and x. 12, 14. It is true the Eucharist is frequently called by the ancient Fathers Tрóo popa, Ovoía, an oblation, a sacrifice. But it is to be remembered, that they say also it is Ovoía Xoyikn Kai ȧvaiμakтos m, a reasonable sacrifice, a sacrifice καὶ ἀναίμακτος without blood: which, how can it be said to be, if therein the very blood of Christ were offered up to God?

They held the Eucharist to be a commemorative sacrifice, and so do we. This is the constant lan

1 Profiteor in missa offerri Deo verum, proprium, et propitiatorium sacrificium, pro vivis et defunctis, atque in sanctissimo Eucharistiæ sacramento esse vere et realiter et substantialiter corpus et sanguinem, una cum anima et divinitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi, fierique conversionem totius substantiæ panis in corpus, et totius substantiæ vini in sanguinem, quam conversionem catholica ecclesia transubstantiationem appellat.