HEAD. VIII. Lastly, Concerning the necessary Amplitude of a lawful General Council,

*IN which the Supreme Judgment of this united Body is placed.

1. It is not necessary to the composition of a lawful General Council that all the Clergy of the Christian world be assem∣bled therein; or all the Bishops of this Clergy; or amongst the Bishops, some sent thither (the Delegates by the rest) from all particular Churches professing Christianity. For 1 upon these terms, the four first Councils cannot be allowed General. 2 Again; Thus it would be in the power of any particular Church, in detaining its Bishops, to hinder the Being, and the Benefit of a General Council. 3 Again, He∣retical or Schismatical Churches being no part of the Church Catholick, the absence of their Bishops hinders not, but that the representative of the Church Catholick in such Council may be still compleat.

[ 2] 2. The Presence of the Delegated Bishops of all particular Catholick Churches, or Provinces, is not necessary in such Council to denominate it lawfully General; (it being pro∣vided, that all are called to it, and none that come, excluded:) because this Absence of some may either be necessitated, from Poverty, distance of Place, Lets of temporal Magistrate; or voluntary also, out of some unlawful respect. Which Ab∣sence of some few in comparison of the whole, if it can hin∣der the necessary Generality of the Council, it is probable, that there will never want, within the Confines also of the Church Catholick, now spread thro the Dominions of several Princes of contrary interests, some either Bishops or Secular Governours that are averse from the meeting of such Council in respect of some Circumstances belonging to it; at least those of time, place, &c.

[ 3] 3. For these reasons therefore 3 such Council seems to be un∣questionably Page  13General (not to say here, that none less their such can justly be so) where are present in person or by his Legates, the Bishop of the Prime Apostolick See; (without whom no such Council can be held) and by their Lieutenants at least, all or most of the other Patriarchs, such as are in Be∣ing, and have some considerable part of the Church Catholick subjected unto them; [It is said most of them; for the pre∣sence and concurrence of all of them was not thought necessa∣ry neither in the third nor fourth of the allowed General Coun∣cils.] And the Representatives of a considerably major part of the Catholick Provinces; and more especially the Repre∣sentatives of the largest and most dignified of these Provinces.

[ 4] 4. In the Absence of some Patriarchs, or chief Churches in such Council, or in the presence there only of a smaller num∣ber of Delegates from the greater, and more numerous Pro∣vinces, and of a greater number from other less (as five or six Bishops only delegated from the Western Churches were present in the Council of Nice); or in any other deficiency of the representment of the greatest part of the Church Ca∣tholick in this Assembly; yet when the Decrees, and Acts of such smaller part being sent and made known to the Absent, are both confirmed by the Bishop of Rome the Primate of the Patriarchs, and of the universal Church, and accepted also by the much major part of the Catholick Provinces, tho these be not accepted by some others of them, such Council ought ei∣ther to be received as General, or as equivalent thereto, and the Acts thereof are obligatory to the whole Church Catho∣lick. For seeing that if all the Provinces had convened in one Place and Body; the disagreeing votes of some Provinces in such Councils being fewer, and lesser could not have justly hindred, but that the contrary votes of the other much major part would have stood in force and obliged all to obedience, then neither can their dissent out of the Council be rationally pretended to hinder the same. And what engagement the several Provinces of the present Age have to such Council, the same also all future seem to have for the same reason till an equal Authority to that which established such Ecclesiasti∣cal laws reverse them (which in matters of necessary Faith will never happen.) So the Arian Churches of the fifth Age Page  14are as much obliged to the Definitions of the Nicene Council as those of the fourth: And in any Age what means can there be of Preservation of Unity for matter of Faith in the Church Catholick, if a few, in comparison, will neither be regulated by any one Person or Head; Nor yet concluded by the much major part? Here by acceptation of the much major part of Catholick Provinces is understood none other necessary, then only a peaceful acquiescence in, and conformity to the De∣crees of such Councils; and a not declaring against them, tho such Acceptation proceed not so farr, as to the passing of an Act to this effect in Provincial or National Synods. For, this last hath not been done to those Acts of Councils universally held General.

[ 5] 5. To go yet a little further. Considering the present Con∣dition both of the Eastern Churches, and of such Patriarchs as are yet left (besides the Roman) such now rather in name, than in power, the paucity, poverty, and illiterature (necessi∣tated by their great oppressions) of their Clergy, their in∣capacity to assemble themselves even in lesser Synods for con∣sultation (to say nothing here whether any of these Churches have declined from the former Definitions of the Church Ca∣tholick, and so are become Heretical, and so uncapable of sitting in Ecclesiastical Synods) in these times a General Coun∣cil such as ought to oblige may be well apprehended to re∣ceive narrower bounds than formerly: And such a Council, where those who are Catholick in Eastern Churches, are wished for, invited, and if any come, not excluded; and to which all the Western Provinces yet flourishing in Religion, and not obstructed from meeting, are called, and in which the Representatives of the greatest part of them, joined with the Prime Patriarch are assembled; such Council I say, ought ei∣ther to receive the denomination of General (especially as to these Doctrines wherein the Eastern Churches consent) or of the most General that the present times will afford; or at least of a Patriarchal and lawful Superiour Council: and so in the same measure accepted obligeth all the Provinces of the West to yield obedience thereto; and therefore in such an Age, for any Person or Church, that is a Member of this Western Body, to call for a larger Council than can be had, is only an Artifice Page  15to decline Judgment, and for any to Appeal to a future Coun∣cil, which can be no larger than that past, to whose sentence they deny Submission, what is this but to renounce the Au∣thority they appeal to? To which may be added that any Ap∣peal to a future Council concerning such Controversies, where∣in one knoweth the unanimous Doctrine of the much major part of the present Christian Churches, as well Eastern as Western, to be against him, seems bootless and affording no relief. Because such Council can consist only of the Gover∣nours, and so of the judgments of such particular Churches put to together; and therefore such as the present Doctrine is of the major part of these Christian Churches, and of the several Bishops presiding in them, especially now after the cause, reasons, pretended demonstrations, of the dissenting Party for so many years, divulged, pleaded, considered, such we may presume will be that of the Council: For what can effect a Mutation of opinion in these Persons joined, which altereth nothing now, in them severed?