1 h !1 fre7 158 SACRILEGIOUS ARROGANCE OF THE POPE. Guide, Father of Christians, prohibiting us to acknowledge any other for such : " Ye are all brethren: and call ye not anyone father upon earth; for one is your Father, even he that is in heaven : neither be ye called masters; for one is your Master, even Christ," Matt. xxiii. 8, 9. Good Pope Gregory (not the seventh of that name) took this for a good argument ; for, " What, therefore, dearest brother," said he to John of Constantinople, " wilt thou say in that terrible account of the Judge who is coming, thou who dost affect to be called not only Father, but General Father in the world ? "1 The Scripture represents thechurch as a "building," whereof Christ himself is the " chief Corner-stone ;" as a " family," whereof he being thePaterfamilias, all others are fellow-servants; as "one body," hav- ing "one Head," whom " Godhath given to be head over all things to the church, which is his body."' He is the One Spouse of the church (John iii. 29; Eph. v. 23); 2 Cor. xi. 2, iv; dcvSpi,.[" One Husband: "] which title, one would think, he might leave peculiar to our Lord, there being no vice husbands; yet hathhe been bold even to claim that, as may be seen in the Con- stitutions of Pope Gregory X., in one of their general synods.' It seems, therefore, a sacrilegious arrogance, derogating from our Lord's honour, for any man to assume or admit those titles of " Sove- reignof the Church," " Head of the Church," " Our Lord," "Arch - pastor," " Highest Priest," " Chief Doctor," " Master," " Father," "Judge of Christians," upon what pretence or under what distinc- tion soever. These " pompatic [pompous], foolish, proud, perverse, wicked, profane words," these " names of singularity, elation, vanity, blasphemy" (to borrow the epithets withwhich Pope Gregory I. brands the titles of Universal Bishop and C cumenical Patriarch, not less modest in sound, and far more innocent in meaning, than those now ascribed to the pope), are therefore to be rejected; not only because they are injurious to all other pastors, and to the people of God's heritage, but because tley encroach upon our only Lord, to whom they onlybelong. Much more to usurp the things which they naturally signify is a horrible invasion upon our Lord's prerogative. Thus has that great pope taught us to argue, in words expressly condemning some, and consequently all of them, together with the things which they signify. " What," says he, writing to the bishop of Constantinople, who had admitted the title of Universal Bishop 3 Quid ergo, frater charissime, in illo terribili examine venientis Judicis dicturus es, qui non solum pater, sed etiam generals pater in mundo vocari appetis Y Greg. D1., Ep. iv. 38. S Eph. ii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 4; Heb. iii. 6; Matt. x. 25; Eph. iv. 4, ii. 16; Rom. xii. 5; 1 Cor. xii. 13 ; Eph. i. 22, iv. 15, v. 23; Col. i. 18; " One Head," Hos. i. 11. 3 Sext. Decret, lib. i. tit. 6, cap. 3; Baron., an. xxxiv. § 208. Vid. Greg. I., Epist. lib. iv., Hp. 32, 34, 36, 38, 39; lib. vi., Ep. 24, 28, 30, 31; lib. vii., Ep. 70.
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