Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 1.djvu/125

 by the laws of God and the Church to obey him; that they were subject to him; and that they had no right to separate from him, and were guilty in doing so, and that accordingly they have involved the people of England in their guilt; and, at all events, that they cannot complain of their flock disobeying and deserting them, when they have revolted from the Pope. Let us consider this point.

Now that there is not a word in Scripture about our duty to obey the Pope, is quite clear. The Papists indeed say, that he is the Successor of St. Peter; and that therefore he is Head of all Bishops, because St. Peter bore rule over the other Apostles. But though the Bishop of Rome was often called the Successor of St. Peter in the early Church, yet every other bishop had the same title. And though it be true, that St. Peter was the foremost of the Apostles, that does not prove he had any dominion over them. The eldest brother in a family has certain privileges and a precedence, but he has no power, over the younger branches of it. And so Rome has ever had what is called the primacy of the Christian Churches; but it has not therefore any right to interfere in their internal administration; not more of a right, than an elder brother has to meddle with his younger brother's household.

And this is plainly the state of matters between us and Rome, in the judgment of the Ancient Church also, to which the Papists are fond of appealing, and by which we are quite ready to stand or fall. In early times, as is well known, all Christians thought substantially alike, and formed one great body all over the world, called the Church Catholic, or Universal. This great body, consisting of a vast number of separate Churches, with each of them its own Bishop at its head, was divided into a number of portions called Patriarchates; these again into others called Provinces, and these were made up of the separate Dioceses or Bishopricks. We have among ourselves an instance of this last division in the Provinces of Canterbury and York, which constitute the English Church, each of them consisting of a number of distinct Bishopricks or Churches. The Head of a Province was called Archbishop, as in the case of Canterbury and York; the Bishops of those two sees being, we know, not only Bishops with Dioceses of their own, but having, over and above this, the place of precedence among the Bishops in the same Province. In like manner, the Bishop at the head of a Patriarchate was called the