PREFERABLE CLAIMS OF OTHER APOSTLES. 129 universal authority than the pope, having a nearer relation to him than he (although his successor in one charge), or upon other equit- able grounds. For instance, St John, or any other apostle, who survived St Peter: for if St Peter was the father of Christians (which title yet our Saviour forbids any one to assume), St John might well claim to be his eldest son; and it had been a very hard case for him to have been postponed in the succession. It hadbeen a derogation to our Lord's own choice, a neglect of his special affection, a disparage- ment of the apostolical office, for him to be subjected to any other; neither could any other pretend to the like gifts for management of that great charge. 11. The bishop of Jerusalem might with much reason have put in his claim thereto, as being successor of our Lord himself, who un- questionably was the High Priest of our profession and Archbishop of all our souls; whose see was the mother of all churches, wherein St Peter himselfat first resided, exercising his vicarship. Ifour Lord, upon special accounts, out ofcourse, had put the sovereignty into St Peter's hands, yet after his decease it might be fit that it should re- turn into its proper channel. This may seem to have been the judgment of the times when the author of the Apostolical Constitutions wrote, who reports the apostles to have ordered prayers to be made first for James, then for Clement, then for Euodius. 12. Equity would rather have required that one should by com- mon consent and election of the whole church be placed in St Peter's room, than that the bishop of Rome, by election of a few persons there, should succeed into it. As the whole body of pastors was highly concerned in that suc- cession, so it was reasonable that all of them should concur in de- signation of a person thereto. It is not reasonable to suppose that either God would institute, or St Peter by will should de- vise, a course of proceeding in such a case so unequal and unsatis- factory. If therefore, the church, considering this equity of the case, to- gether with the expediency of affairs in relation to its good, should undertake to choose for itself another monarch (the bishop of another see, who should seem fitter for the place), to succeedunto the prero- gatives of St Peter, that person would have a fairer title to that office than the pope; for such a person would have a real title, grounded on some reason of the case, whereas the pope's pretence only stands upon a positive institution, whereof he cannot exhibit any certificate. This was the mind of a great man among themselves, who says that " possibly the bishop of Treves might be chosen for VOL L 9
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