A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

Because the King is the only supreme Head of all his people, doth it therefore follow that if he appoint Constables to rule in every parish, with that allotment of power which by his Laws he gives unto them, and Justices of Peace to rule over them in an whole County, that therefore every Constable in effect is a Justice of Peace, or that there is a sameness in their office? Christ is the head of every man that is in the Church, be he Bishop, or Minister, or private man: and when the Ministers are said to head the people, or the Bishops to head them, the expression is improper; an inferior Ministerial subordinate rule being expressed by the name of that which is supreme and absolute: or they head them not absolutely, but in some respect only, as every one of them dischargeth the Authority over and towards them wherewith he is entrusted. This assertion of Christs sole absolute Headship, and denial of any Monarchical state in the Church Catholic but what ariseth from thence, doth not as every child may see, concern the difference that is about the superiority of Bishops to Ministers or Presbyters. For notwithstanding this, there are degrees in the Ministry of the Church, and several orders of men are engaged therein, and whatever there are, there might have been more, had it seemed to our good Lord Christ to appoint them. And whatever order of men may be supposed to be instituted by him in his Church, he must be supposed to be the Head of them all, and they are all to serve him in the Duties and Offices that they have to discharge towards the Church and one another. This headship of Christ is the thing that you are to oppose, and its exclusiveness to the substitution of an absolute Head ⟨p. 391⟩over the whole Catholic Church in his place because of his bodily absence from the earth. But this you cast out of sight, and instead thereof, fall upon the equality of Bishops and Ministers, which no way ensues thereon. Both Bishops and Presbyters agreeing well enough in the Truth we assert and plead for: This, you say, is contrary to the Gospel and the Law of the Land. What is I pray? that Christ is the only absolute Head of the Catholic Church? No; but that Bishops and Ministers are in effect all one. But what is that to your purpose? will it advantage your Cause what way ever that problem be determined? Was any occasion offered you to discourse upon that Question?

Because the King is the only supream Head of all his people, doth it therefore follow that if he appoint Constables to rule in every parish, with that allotment of power which by his Laws he gives unto them, and Justices of Peace to rule over them in an whole County, that therefore every Constable in effect is a Justice of Peace, or that there is a sameness in their office? Christ is the head of every man that is in the Church, be he Bishop, or Minister, or private man: and when the Ministers are said to head the people, or the Bishops to head them, the expression is improper; an inferiour Ministerial subordinate rule being expressed by the name of that which is supream and absolute: or they head them not absolutely, but in some respect only, as every one of them dischargeth the Authority over and towards them wherewith he is intrusted. This assertion of Christs sole absolute Headship, and denial of any Monarchical state in the Church Catholick but what ariseth from thence, doth not as every child may see, concern the difference that is about the superiority of Bishops to Ministers or Presbyters. For notwithstanding this, there are degrees in the Ministry of the Church, and several orders of men are engaged therein, and whatever there are, there might have been more, had it seemed to our good Lord Christ to appoint them. And whatever order of men may be supposed to be instituted by him in his Church, he must be supposed to be the Head of them all, and they are all to serve him in the Duties and Offices that they have to discharge towards the Church and one another. This headship of Christ is the thing that you are to oppose, and its exclusiveness to the substitution of an absolute Head