the building up of the body of Christ. But a woman in the degrees of the church is not called to be an apostle, nor evangelist; nor to be a pastor, nor a teacher, nor a preacher; therefore she cannot be supreme head of Christ's church, nor yet of any part thereof. For this high government God has appointed only the bishops and pastors of his people; as St. Paul plainly witnesseth in these words spoken to the pastors of the church of Ephesus: Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to govern the church of God, Acts,

XX. v. 28.

"And thus much I have here said, right honorable and my very good lords, against this act of supremacy, for the discharge of my poor conscience, and for the love, and fear, and dread that I chiefly owe unto God, to my sovereign lady the queen's majesty's highness, and to your honors all; whereas otherwise, without mature consideration of all these premises, your honors will never be able to shew your faces before your enemies in this matter; being so strange a spectacle and example in Christ's church, as in this realm is only to be found, and in no other christian realm."

This plain discourse lays fully open the absurdity of making a woman the supreme head. of a church in spirituals. And indeed the Church of England became by it the subject of derision and laughter in all the Christian kingdoms upon the earth, as it justly deserved. She abolished (says a modern Protestant wri

ter) the supremacy the Pope, and assumed that title to herself, which at first seemed a jest to the rest of the world, by reason of the incapacity of her sex for the ministerial function, p. 259. Calvin himself, though a wellwisher to all sorts of reformations, could not forbear making his satirical jests upon it; and Dr. Heylin had reason to say, that the thing seemed to be abhorrent to nature and policy, that a woman should be declared supreme head, on earth, of the Church of England.

In the house of lords, there was not a bishop, not excepting Kitchen of Landaff himself, who conformed afterwards, but voted against it. And in the house of commons, though the duke of Norfolk and earl of Arundel, in hopes of gaining the queen's favour, with several others, had used their utmost skill and industry in managing the elections in their several counties, for the returning of such persons for parliament-men, as they conceived most likely to comply with their intentions for a Reformation, (as Dr. Heylin tells us, p. 107;) yet the struggle was so great, that it was carried in favour of the court party by a very small majority.

The act and the oath annexed to it, are worded thus: "And that also it may please your highness, that it may be established and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities and preeminences, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority has heretofore been or may lawfully be ex

ercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation, order and correction of the same, and of all manner of heresies, errors, schisms, &c. shall for ever, by authority of this present parliament, be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." And the oath annexed to the act is as follows: "I, A. B., do utterly testify and declare in my conscience, that the queen's highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things and causes, as temporal."

Now if this act and oath did not fix the supreme ecclesiastical authority and jurisdiction in queen Elizabeth, and declare her supreme head, in spirituals, of the Church of England, then words must lose their obvious and known signification. For I observe,

1st. That the act itself gave the queen all such spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction in general, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical authority had ever been, and can lawfully be exercised. And was not this declaring her supreme head or governess, call it by what name you please, of the Church of England in spirituals? Was it not vesting in her person all the jurisdiction, which any ecclesiastical person of what rank soever, had ever exercised in the dominions of Great Britain.

2dly. It gave her a special power or authority to visit, reform or correct all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, &c. All which are