FACTS IRRECONCILABLEWITHPAPAL SUPREMACY. 155 inimitable] argumentation, " I, the supreme doctor of the church, and judge of controversies, assert thus; and therefore you are obliged to yield your assent!" 27. It is matter of amazement, if the pope were such as they would have him to be, that, in so many bulky volumes of ancient fathers, living through many ages after Christ, in those vast trea- suries of learning and knowledge, wherein all sorts of truth are dis- played, all sorts of duty are pressed, this momentous point of doc- trine and practice should nowhere be expressed in clear and peremp- tory terms! I speak so, [I say, clear and peremptory terms;] for by wresting words, by impertinent application, by straining conse- quences, the most ridiculous positions imaginable may be deduced from their writings. It is strange that somewhere or other, at least incidentally, in their commentaries on the Scripture, wherein many places concern- ing the church and its hierarchy invite to speak of the pope; in their treatises about the priesthood, about the unity and peace of the church, about heresy and schism; in their epistles concerning eccle- siastical affairs; in their historical narrations about occurrences in the church; in their concertations [disputes] with heterodox adver- saries, they should not frequently touch it, they should not some- times largely dwell upon it! Is it not marvellous that Origen, St Hilary, St Cyril, St Chrysos- tom, St Jerome, St Augustine, in their commentaries and tractates upon those places of Scripture, Tu es Petrus, Pasce oves, on which they now build the papal authority, should be so dull and drowsy as not to say a word concerning the pope? [Is it not strange] that St Augustine, in his so many elaborate tractates against the Donatists, in which he discourses so prolixly about the church, its unity, communion, discipline, should never in- sist upon the duty of obedience to the pope, or charge those schis- matics with their rebellion against him, or allegehis authority against them? Ifwe consider that the pope was bishop of the imperial city, the metropolis of the world ;that he thencewas most eminent in rank, abounded in wealth, lived in great splendour and reputation, had many dependencies and great opportunities to gratify and relieve many of the clergy; that of the fathers whose volumes we have, all well affected towards him, several were personally obliged to him for his support in their distress, as Athanasius, Chrysostom, Theo- doret; or as to their patrons and benefactors, as St Jerome; divers could not but highly respect him, as patron of the cause wherein they were engaged, as Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Gregory Nyssen, Ambrose, Augustine; some were his partisans in a corn-
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