Excommunicate them, he fhould go back Exa communicated himself. Si Excommunicaturus veniret, Excommunicatus abiret. Now what is that Head can be Excommunicated by its Members? What is that Supremacy can be Limited and Controuled by its Subjects, and of which they are the Judges, and can fay to it, as God to the Sea, Hitherto halt thou come and no farther, bere fhall thy proud Waves be Stayed?

(8.) L. The Church of France place the abfolute Supremacy and the Infallibility, not in the Pope or Church of Rome, but in a General Council.

"

G. Which, as I told you, never was, and it is next to impoffible ever fhould be.

And this gives up your whole Foundation for the Popes and not Councils pretend to be the Succeffors of St. Peter, and Heirs of all the Promifes made to hiin..

In the next place, you are not Agreed among your felves concerning General Councils. Bellarmin (de Concil. 1. 1. c. 6.) gives a lift of General Councils which are to be Rejected, Concilia Generalia reprobata, fome for not being Approved by the Pope, fome for Herefy, and fome (he might have faid All) as not being Received by the Universal Church, but he meant only the Church of Rome. And chap. 7. is of General Councils, partly Confirmed, and partly Reprobated. And chap. 8. is of a General Council neither Manifeftly Approved, nor Manifeftly Rejected. This is going through all the Degrees of Uncertainty. And c. 5. and de Rom. Pont., 4. c. 11. he fays, The feveral things in those Councils allowed to be were

foifled in by Hereticks, he knows not how. This was to get rid of fome Objections against thefe Coun

cils

cils he could not Answer otherwife. And (de Ecclef. Milit. c. 16.) he Quotes the laft Council of Lateran Condemning the Council of Bafil, which he fays was at firft a true ŒEcumenical Council, and Infallible, but afterwards turned to a Schifmatical Conventicle, and was of no Authority at all. The Church of France receive the Councils of Bafil and Conftance wholly and throughout: But the Church of Rome reject both in part. So that they who place the Infallibility in Councils, will need another Infallible Fudge to determin thefe Difputes concerning the Coun cils; which are truly General, and which not; and which are partly fo, and which throughout; and what Part of thofe that are throughout have been Corrupted by Hereticks, if that can be called true throughout which is Corrupted in any Part. And when one Council condemns another, which shall we Believe? And if we must not believe every Council that calls it felf Oecumenical, we can believe no other Council against it, for the fame Reifon. The Second Council of Epbefus is generally Condemned in your Church yet it called it felf Oecumenical, and was as much fo as any of the others. And what a thing is it to fay, that a Council is partly right and partly wrong? And who is judge of that? Is there any Certainty in this, far lefs Infallibility? And we must have an Infallible Method too to preserve the Acts of thefe Councils, that they be not Adulterated, as Bellarmin fays they have been, and they continue fo to this day in the Volumes of their Councils. Why then are they

not

not Amended, and thefe Suppofitions and Adul terated parts (thefe are Bellarmin's own Words) ftruck out? But the feveral Editions of their Councils are in the Hands of other Churches, and therefore they can make no Alteration in them without being Detected.

So that the Scheme of the Infallibility you place in your Councils ftands thus; the Church of Rome makes her felf the Univerfal or Catbolick Church, infomuch that all who are not of her Communion (which are by far the greatest part of the Christian Churches in the World) are out of the Pale of the Catholick Church: And Schifmaticks and Hereticks are no Parts of a Ca tholick Council: Thus a fmall part of the Latin Church (exclufive of the Greek and all other Churches) are the whole Catholick Church, and thefe little Party Councils, under the Direction of the Pope, are Univerfal and Infallible! But, as is fhewn, the Church of Rome has no Right to the Title of the Latin Church it felf, far lefs of the Univerfal. And fhe has now but a small part of the Latin Church left her. The Refor med, with Ruffia, and the Greek Church, will out-number her in Europe, and she has no National Church in herCommunion any-where else. L. But there are fome of her Communion in moft Countries.

:

G. Not fo many as of the Jews, who by this are more Univerfal than your Church, and fo more Catholick. And e of the Scattered Se minaries of Rome in other Chriftian Churches can be faid to Represent thofe Churches in a General

Council

Council, more than two or three Titular Popi Bishops in England could Represent the Church of England as it now ftands. But, on the contrary, their living in a feparate Communion in other Chriftian Churches, fhew's thofe Churches not to be of their Communion; and therefore cannot be Represented in any of their Councils. And these calling themfelves Oecumenical, as the Roman Empire did, fhews only how little Criticisms upon Words will avail against plain Matter of Fact; which I have fhewed to be the Cafe as to thofe Texts urged for the Supremacy of St. Peter. And that if Words would do it, there are more, nay and Facts too, for the Univerfal Supremacy of St. Paul, at leaft over all the Chriftian Churches of the Gentiles, which are all now in the World.

(9.)L. But there must be an Infallibility fome where in the Church, and if it be neither in Pope nor Council, or that as you fay, there never was, nor well can be a General Council, truly fo called, that is, of all the Churches in the World, where do you place the Infallibility?

G. No where, my Lord, nor can it be among Men who are all Fallible.

L. We truft not in Men, as Men, but Affisted by the Infallible Spirit of God. And this He has Promised fhall never depart from His Church, as He has faid, Ifa. lix. 21. My Spirit that is upon thee, and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth, fhall not depart out of thý Mouth, nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed, nor out of the Mouth of thy Seeds Seed, faith the

Lord,

Lord, from benceforth and for ever. And He has faid, that the Priefts lips fhould keep know→ ledge, and they fhould feek the Law at his Mouth, for he is the Meffenger of the Lord of Hofts. Mal. ii. 7.

G. Read the next Words, But ye are depars ted out of the way: ye have caufed many to Stumble at the Law: ye have corrupted the Covenant of Levi, faith the Lord. The firft is what they fhould or ought to have done, the fecond is what they did do, which was quite contrary.

O

And notwithstanding the Promife made in the firft Text you quoted, yet they were all gone out of the way, they were together become abominable, there was none that did good, no not one that all the World might become guilty before God, as well the Church as the rest of the World. Rom. iii. 12, 19. And of the Church it is faid, The whole Head is fick, and the whole Heart faint from the fole of the foot even unto the Head, there is no Soundness in it, but Wounds and Brufes and putrifying Sores. Ifa. i. 5, 6. And God fays, Mine Heritage is unto me as a Lion in the foreft, it cryeth out againft me, therefore have I hated it, Mine Heritage is unto me as a fpeckled bird-&c. Jer. xii. 8, 9.

And we have now long fince feen that Church of the Jews, to whom these Promifes were made, quite thrown off, and the Church of the Gentiles come in its place.

L. Thefe Promifes were ultimatly intended to the Christian Church.

C

G. But

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