XXI. vantage were referved to the See of Rome; but the points of ART. power and jurifdiction were generally given up to the Princes. The temporal authority has by that means prevailed over the fpiritual, as much as the fpiritual authority had prevailed over the temporal for feveral ages before. Yet the pretence of a General Council is ftill fo fpecious, that all thofe in the Roman communion that do not acknowledge the infallibility of their Popes, do ftill fupport this pretenfion, that the infallibility is given by Chrift to his Church; and that in the interval of Councils it is in the community of the Bishops and Paftors of the Church; and that when a Council meets, then the infallibility is lodged with it; according to that, It seemed good to the Acts xv. 28. Holy Ghost and to us. The first thing to be fettled in every queftion, is the meaning of the terms; fo we must begin and examine what makes a General Council; whether all the Bishops must be present in perfon, or by proxy? And what fhare the laity, or the Princes that are thought to represent their people, ought to have in a Council? It is next to be confidered, whether a general citation is enough to make a Council general, were the appearance of the Bifhops ever fo fmall at their first opening? It is next to be confidered, whether any come thither and fit there as representing others; and if votes ought to be reckoned according to the numbers of the Bifhops, or of the others who depute and fend them? And whether nations ought to vote in a body as integral parts of the Church; or every fingle Bishop by himself? And finally, whether the decifions of Councils muft be unanimous, before they can be efteemed infallible? or whether the major vote, though exceeding only by one, or if some greater inequality is necefiary; fuch as two thirds, or any other proportion? That there may be just cause of raising fcruples upon every one of thefe, is apparent at firft view. It is certain, a bare name cannot qualify a number of Bifhops fitting together, to be this General Council. The number of Bishops does it not neither. A hundred and fifty was a small number at Conftantinople: even the famous three hundred and eighteen. at Nice were far exceeded by thofe at Arimini. All the first General Councils were made up for the most part of Eastern Bifhops; there being a very inconfiderable number of the Western among any of them; fcarce any at all being to be found in some. If this had been the body to whom Chrift had left this infallibility, it cannot be imagined but that fome definition or defcription of the conftitution of it, would have been given us in the Scripture and the profound filence that is about it, gives juft occafion to think, that how wife and how good foever fuch a conftitution may be, if well purfued, yet it is not of a divine infti S 4 tution; ART. tution; otherwife fomewhat concerning fo important a head as this is, muft have been mentioned in the Scripture. XXI. The natural idea of a General Council, is a meeting of all the Bishops of Christendom, or at least of proxies inftructed by them and their Clergy. Now if any will ftand to this defcription, then we are very fure that there was never yet a true General Council: which will appear to every one that reads the fubfcriptions of the Councils. Therefore we must conclude, that General Councils are not conftituted by a divine authority; fince we have no direction given us from God, by which we may know what they are, and what is neceffary to their conftitution. And we cannot fuppofe that God has granted any privileges, much less infallibility, which is the greatest of all, to a body of men, of whom, or of whofe conftitution, he has faid nothing to us. For fuppofe we fhould yield that there were an infallibility lodged in general in the Church diffufive, so that the Church in fome part or other fhall be always preserved from error; yet the reftraining this to the greater number of such Bishops as fhall happen to come to a Council, they living perhaps near it, or being more capable and more forward to undertake a journey, being healthier, richer, or more active than others; or, which is as probable, because it has often fallen out, they being picked out by parties or princes to carry on cabals, and manage fuch intrigues as may be on foot at the Council: the reftraining the infallibility, I fay, to the greater number of fuch perfons, unlefs there is a divine authority for doing it, is the transferring the infallibility from the whole body to a felect number of perfons, who of themselves are the least likely to consent to the engroffing this privilege to the majority of their body, it being their intereft to maintain their right to it, free from intrigue or management. We need not wonder if fuch things have happened in the latter ages, when Nazianzen laments the corruptions, the ambition, and the contentions that reigned in thofe affemblies in his own time; fo that he never defired to fee any more of them. He was not only present at one of the General Councils, but he himself felt the effects of jealoufy and violence in it. Further, it will appear a thing incredible, that there is an infallibility in Councils because they are called General, and are af fembled out of a great many kingdoms and provinces; when we see them go backward and forward, according to the influences of courts, and of interefts directed from thence. We know how differently Councils decreed in the Arian controverfies; and what a variety of them Conftantius fet up against that at Nice. So it was in the Eutychian herefy, approved in the fecond Council at Ephefùs, but foon after condemned at Chalce don. don. So it was in the business of images, condemned at Con- ART. ftantinople in the Eaft; but foon after upon another change at court maintained in the fecond at Nice; and not long after condemned in a very numerous Council at Francfort. And in the point in hand, as to the authority of Councils, it was afferted at Conftance and Bafil; but condemned in the Lateran; and was upon the matter laid afide at Trent. Here were great numbers of all hands; both fides took the name of General Councils. It will be a further prejudice against this, if we fee great violence and diforders entering into the management of fome Councils; and craft and artifice into the conduct of others. Numbers of factious and furious monks came to fome Councils, and drove on matters by their clamours: fo it was at Ephesus. We fee grofs fraud in the second at Nice, both in the persons fet up to reprefent the abfent patriarchs; and in the books and authorities that were vouched for the worship of images. The intrigues at Trent, as they are fet out even by Cardinal Pallavicini, were more subtile, but not lefs apparent, nor less scandalous. Nothing was trufted to a feffion, till it was firft canvaffed in congregations; which were what a committee of the whole houfe is in our Parliaments; and then every man's vote was known; fo that there was hereby great occafion given for practice. This alone, if there had been no more, fhewed plainly that they themselves knew they were not guided by the fpirit of God, or by infallibility; fince a feffion was not thought fafe to be ventured on, but after a long previous canvaffing. Another question remains yet to be cleared, concerning their manner of proceeding; whether the infallibility is affixed to their vote, whatsoever their proceedings may be? Or whether they are bound to difcufs matters fully? The firft cannot be faid, unless it is pretended that they vote by a fpecial inspiration. If the second is allowed, then we muft examine both what makes a full difcuffion; and whether they have made it? If we find opinions falfely reprefented; if books that are spurious have been relied on; if paflages of Scripture, or of the Fathers on which it appears the ftrefs of the decifion has turned, have been manifeftly mifunderstood and wrefted, fo that in a more enlightened age no perfon pretends to juftify the authority that determined them, can we imagine that there fhould be more truth in their conclufions, than we do plainly fee was in the premises out of which they were drawn? So it muft either be faid, that they vote by an immediate infpiration, or all perfons cannot be bound to fubmit to their judgment till they have examined their methods of proceeding, and the grounds on which they went: and when all is done, the question comes, concerning the authority of fuch decrees after they are made, whether it follows immediately upon their being made, or muft stay XXI. AN EXPOSITION OF ART. ftay for the confirmatory bulls? If it must stay for the bull, then the infallibility is not in the Council: and that is only a more folemn way of preparing matters in order to the laying them before the Pope. If they are infallible before the confirmation, then the infallibility is wholly in the Council; and the fubfequent bull does, inftead of confirming their decrees, derogate much from them: for to pretend to confirm them, imports that they wanted that addition of authority, which destroys the fuppofition of their infallibility, fince what is infallible cannot be made stronger: and the pretending to add strength to it, implies that it is not infallible. Human conftitutions may be indeed fo modelled, that there must be a joint concurrence before a law can be made: and though it is the last consent that fettles the law, yet the previous confents were neceffary fteps to the giving it the authority of a law. And thus it is not to be denied, but that, as to the matters of government, the Church may caft herself into fuch a model, that as by a decree of the Council of Nice, the Bishops of a province might conclude nothing without the confent of the Metropolitan; to another decree might even limit a General Council to ftay for the confent of one or more Patriarchs. But this muft only take place in matters of order and government, which are left to the difpofal of the Church, but not in decifions about matters of faith. For if there is an infallibility in the Church, it must be derived from a special grant made by Chrift to his Church and it must go according to the nature of that grant, unless it can be pretended that there is a clause in that grant, empowering the Church to difpofe of it, and model it at pleafure. For if there is no fuch power, as it is plain there is not, then Chrift's grant is either to a fingle perfon, or to the whole community: if to a fingle perfon, then the infallibility is wholly in him, and he is to manage it as he thinks beft: for if he calls a Council, it is only an act of his humility and condefcenfion, to hear the opinions of many in different corners of the Church, that fo he may know all that comes from all quarters it may alfo feem a prudent way to make his authority to be the more eafily borne and fubmitted to, fince what is gently managed is beft obeyed: but after all, thefe are only prudential and difcreet methods. The infallibility must be only in him, if Chrift has by the grant tied him to fuch a fucceffion. Whereas on the other hand, if the infallibility is granted to the whole community, or to their representatives, then all the applications that they may make to any one See, muft only be in order to the execution of their decrees, like the addreffes that they make to Princes for the civil fanction. But ftill the infallibility is where Chrift put it. It refts wholly in their decifion, and belongs only to that: and any other confirm ation that they defire, unless it be reftrained fingly to the ex- ART. ecution of their decrees, is a wound given by themselves to XXI. their own infallibility, if not a direct disclaiming of it. When the confirmation of the Council is over, a new difficulty arifes concerning the receiving the decrees: and here it may be faid, that if Chrift's grant is to the whole community, fo that a Council is only the authentical declarer of the tradition, the whole body of the Church that is poffeffed of the tradition, and conveys it down, muft have a right to examine the decision that the Council has made, and fo is not bound to receive it, but as it finds it to be conformable to tradition. Here it is to be supposed, that every Bishop, or at the least all the Bishops of any national Church, know beft the tradition of their own Church and Nation: and fo they will have a right to re-examine things after they have been judged in a General Council, This will entirely destroy the whole pretenfion to infallibility: and yet either this ought to have been done after the Councils at Arimini, or the fecond of Ephefus, or else the world muft have received Semi-Arianifm, or Eutychianifm, implicitly from them. It is alfo no fmall prejudice against this opinion, that the Church was conftituted, the Scriptures were received, many herefies were rejected, and the perfecutions were gone through in a course of three centuries; in all which time there was nothing that could pretend to be called a General Council. And when the ages came in which Councils met often, neither the Councils themselves, who must be supposed to understand their own authority beft, nor those who wrote in defence of their decrees, who must be fuppofed to be inclined enough to magnify their authority, being of the fame fide; neither of thefe, I fay, ever pretended to argue for their opinions, from the infallibility of thofe Councils that decreed them. They do indeed speak of them with great refpect, as of bodies of men that were guided by the fpirit of God; and so do we of our reformers, and of thofe who prepared our Liturgy: but we do not ascribe infallibility to them, and no more did they. Nor did they lay the ftrefs of their arguments upon the authority of fuch decifions; they knew that the objection might have been made as strong against them, as they could put the argument for them; and therefore they offered to wave the point, and to appeal to the Scripture, fetting afide the definitions that had been made in Councils both ways. To conclude this argument. If the infallibility is fuppofed to be in Councils, then the Church may juftly apprehend that she has loft it: for as there has been no Council that has pretended to that title, now during one hundred and thirty years, fo there is no great probability of our |