A53737:213
A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux
A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux wherein the principles of the Roman church, as to moderation, unity and truth are examined and sundry important controversies concerning the rule of faith, papal supremacy, the mass, images, &c. discussed / by John Owen.
London: printed for Ph. Stephens, 1664
A Vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat Lux. › Chapter 8
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
And when it comes to make an enumeration of all the ⟨p. 166⟩Offices appointed by Christ in his Church, Eph. 4. 11. should pass over the Prince and his Office in silence, on which all the rest were to depend? You see what a Foundation you begin to build upon; a mere imagination, and groundless presumption which hath not the least countenance given unto it by Scripture or Antiquity. What a perplexed condition must you needs cast men into, if they shall attend unto your persuasions to rest on the Pope's unerring guidance for all their Certainty in Religion, when the first motive you propose unto them to gain their Assent, is a Proposition so far destitute of any cogent Evidence of its Truth or innate Credibility, that it is apparently false, and easily manifested so to be.
And when it comes to make an enumeration of all the ⟨p. 166⟩Offices appointed by Christ in his Church, Eph. 4. 11. should pass over the Prince and his Office in silence, on which all the rest were to depend? You see what a Foundation you begin to build upon; a meer imagination, and groundless presumption which hath not the least countenance given unto it by Scripture or Antiquity. What a perplexed condition must you needs cast men into, if they shall attend unto your perswasions to rest on the Pope's unerring guidance for all their Certainty in Religion, when the first motive you propose unto them to gain their Assent, is a Proposition so far destitute of any cogent Evidence of its Truth or innate Credibility, that it is apparently false, and easily manifested so to be.
3. Were it never so true, as it is notoriously false, yet it would not one jot promote your design: It is about Peter the Apostle, and not the Pope of Rome, that we are yet discoursing. Do you think a man can easily commence per saltum, from the imaginary Principality of Peter unto the Infallibility of the present Pope of Rome? Quid Pape cum Petro? what relation is there between the one and other? Suppose a man have so good a mind unto your company, as to be willing to set out with you in this ominous stumbling at the threshold, what will you next lead him unto? You say.