A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

And I desire your pardon, if in my so doing, any thing be spoken that suits not so well your interest and designs, neither expecting nor desiring any, if ought be delivered by me not according to Truth.

To make our way the more clear, some of the ambiguous expressions which you make use of to cloud and hide your intention in your enquiry after the Head of the Church, must be explained.

1. By the Church, you understand, not this, or that particular Church, not the Church of this of that Nation, Kingdom, or Country, but the whole Catholic Church throughout the world. And when you have explained your self to this purpose you endeavour by six Arguments, (no less, p. 67, 68.) to prove that no King ever was or can be Head of it. He said well of old, In causa facili quemvis licet esse disertum. I wonder you contented your self to give us six Reasons only, and that you proceeded not at least unto the high hills of eighteenthly and nineteenthly, that you talk of in your Fiat Lux where you scoff at the preaching of Presbyterians; it may be you will scarcely ever obtain such another opportunity of showing the fertility of your invention. So did he flourish who thought himself secure from adversaries.⟨p. 402⟩ Ca•ut altum in praelia tollit, Ostenditque humeros latos, alternaque jactat Brachia protendens, & verberat ictibus auras. But you do like him, you only beat the air; Do you think any man was ever so distempered as to dream that any King whatever could be the absolute Head of the whole Catholic Church of Christ? we no more think any King in any sense to be the Head of the Catholic Church, then we think the Pope so to be. The Roman Empire was at its height and glory when first Christianity set forth in the world, and had extended its bounds beyond those of any Kingdom that arose before it, or that hath since succeeded unto it. And yet within a very few years, after the Resurrection of Christ, the Gospel had diffused it self beyond the limits of that Empire, among the Parthians, and Indians, and unto Britannorum Romanis inaccessa loca, as Tertullian calls them. Now none ever supposed that any King had power or Authority of any sort in reference unto the Church, or any members of it, without or beyond the precise limits of his own Dominions. The Enquiry we have under Consideration about the Power of Kings, and the obedience due unto them in Ecclesiastical things, is limited absolutely unto their own Kingdoms, and unto those of their subjects which are Christians in them. And this Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta Pulveris exigui jactu concussa quiescunt.