The second part of The nonconformists plea for peace being an account of their…

6. As for General Councils I have elsewhere proved at large, 1. That there never was such a thing in the world (unless the Apostles may be called such): but that those ⟨p. 139⟩called General Councils, were but General Councils of one Empire, and now and then two or three neighbours, or such as were lately cut off from the Empire as aforesaid. 2. That a true General Council is morally impossible, 3. And so unlawful, as to be a pernicious form of Headship to the Church: because some Bishops must be many years coming, and will likely die before they come and return, and have not a language which the rest understand; nor can there be any equality of members, while those of Mexico, Abyssinia, Armenia and the Antipodes send but few, and the nearer parts a multitude; and so (as at Trent) it will be but an Italian Council: And it will be sinful to rob the Churches of them, and to cast away the lives of old weak worthy men in such Voyages and Travels of many years. And interposing enemies will not let them pass through their countries, with many such reasons. So that a General Council is a non Ens, and a name made for a Papal cheat. 3. And should it be the constitutive head of the whole Church, how little a while hath there been any Church on earth since Christ? For when a constitutive essential part ceaseth, the essence ceaseth; and so Christ hath had no Church on earth since the mockery of Trent; where in the beginning there were 42 Bishops with counterfeits and all, and 4 Arch-Bishops, if you will take the counterfeits Wancop of Armagh and Olaus Magnus for two; but indeed by the seventh Session there were 52 Bishops counterfeits and all, and in Session 8. 29 besides 6 Arch-Bishops, such as they were, whenas the Provincial Synods in Afric were wont to have many hundred Bishops; but how many thousand must a Synod of the whole world have in proportion to the Italian number at Trent?

6. As for General Councils I have elsewhere proved at large, 1. That there never was such a thing in the world (unless the Apostles may be called such): but that those ⟨p. 139⟩called General Councils, were but General Councils of one Empire, and now and then two or three neighbours, or such as were lately cut off from the Empire as aforesaid. 2. That a true General Council is morally impossible, 3. And so unlawful, as to be a pernicious form of Headship to the Church: because some Bishops must be many years coming, and will likely die before they come and return, and have not a language which the rest understand; nor can there be any equality of members, while those of Mexico, Abassia, Armenia and the Antipodes send but few, and the nearer parts a multitude; and so (as at Trent) it will be but an Italian Council: And it will be sinful to rob the Churches of them, and to cast away the lives of old weak worthy men in such Voyages and Travels of many years. And interposing enemies will not let them pass through their countries, with many such reasons. So that a General Council is a non Ens, and a name made for a Papal cheat. 3. And should it be the constitutive head of the whole Church, how little a while hath there been any Church on earth since Christ? For when a constitutive essential part ceaseth, the essence ceaseth; and so Christ hath had no Church on earth since the mockery of Trent; where in the beginning there were 42 Bishops with counterfeits and all, and 4 Arch-Bishops, if you will take the counterfeits Wancop of Armagh and Olaus Magnus for two; but indeed by the seventh Session there were 52 Bishops counterfeits and all, and in Session 8. 29 besides 6 Arch-Bishops, such as they were, whenas the Provincial Synods in Africk were wont to have many hundred Bishops; but how many thousand must a Synod of the whole world have in proportion to the Italian number at Trent?