[ 583 J If they fay that God only giveth the Power, and the EleCtors do bur choofe the Receiver, and the Coniecrators invefi him: . I anfwer, I[ is fo in– deed in the true Collation' of Church-offices, and Povver ( Whether Mr. Dodwill and fuch others will or not ). But that's here all one as to our un– certainty Who is the Man. 2 . And this is no feigned cafe : when in fuch a multitude of Schifms,there have been two or three -" Popes at once (and once fix alive at once that were or had been Popes) : And thefe made Bi– lhops and Cardinals,and thofe l3ilbops made Priefis, and no man yet knows which of them (if either) had the right. · 3· And is it the ~.Tame of a Roman Bia1op, or the Thing that is neceffary to the being ofan Uni– verfal Paftor ? If the Name, aHundred may be fo called; And bare Names give not fo great Power: If the Thing, how were thofe Bia1ops of Rome,that divers Score Years did dwell in'Fra1fce, and never did any Bifhop's Work at Rome, nor had Romls Confent? Might not one in Armenia have been as truly .called the Biiliopof Rome ? But if it be Pojfeffion that gives validity to the claim, then the firongefi bath the befi title. And they that have by turns driven out each other were all true Popes : And who was Po!feffor, when one was at Rome, and another (that carried it at lafi:) at Avignion or in Germany ? 20. Tying an ·unifying Head of all the Church on Earth to Rome , cloth leave it in the Power of any Infidel , or Arian that can get Rome to fet a Head of the Chrifiian Religion on 1 the Church r that is, To un-church ic, defiroy it or. corrupt it. For all that know the World, know how ordina- - · ri1y '.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=