A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

VI. That the Bishop of Rome is the man that thus succeeds Peter in his Episcopacy, which though it were settled at Rome, was over the whole Catholic Church. So you say, and so you profess your selves to believe. And we desire that you would not take it amiss if we desire to know upon what grounds you do so; being unwilling to cast away all Consideration that we may embrace a fanatical Credo in this unlikely business. We desire therefore to know, who. appointed that there should be any such succession; who, that the Bishop of Rome should be this Successor, Did Jesus Christ do it? we may justly expect you should say. He did: but if you do, we desire to know when, where, how; seeing the Scripture is utterly silent of say such thing. Did St Peter himself do it? Pray, manifest unto us that by the appointment of Jesus Christ he had ⟨p. 181⟩power so to do; and that secondly he actually did so: Neither of these can you prove, or produce any Testimony worth crediting in confirmation of it. Did it necessarily follow from hence, because that was the place where Peter died: But this was accidental, a thing that Peter thought not of: for, you say, that a few days before his death he was leaving that place. Besides according to this insinuation, why did not every Apostle leave a Successor behind him in the place where he dyed, and that by virtue of his dying in that place? or produce you any Patent granted to Peter in especial, that where he dyed there he should leave a Successor behind him. But it seems the whole weight of your faith, is laid upon a matter of fact accidentally falling out, yea and that very incertain whether ever it fell out or no. Show us any thing of the will and institution of Christ in this matter: As, that Peter should go to Rome, that he should fix his seat there, that he should dye there, that he should have a Successor, that the Bishop of Rome should be his Successor, that unto this Successor I know not what, nor how many Privileges should be conveyed: All these are arbitrary [Greek or Hebrew], Inventions that men may multiply in infinitum at their pleasure: For what should set bounds to the imaginations of men, when once they cast off all Reverence of Christ and his Truth? Once more;

VI. That the Bishop of Rome is the man that thus suecceds Peter in his Episcopacy, which though it were settled at Rome, was over the whoee Catholick Church. So you say, and so you profess your selves to believe. And we desire that you would not take it amiss if we desire to know upon what grounds you do so; being unwilling to cast away all Consideration that we may embrace a fanatical Credo in this unlikely business. We desire therefore to know, who. appointed that there should be any such succession; who, that the Bishop of Rome should be this Successor, Did Jesus Christ do it? we may justly expect you should say. He did: but if you do, we desire to know when, where, how; seeing the Scripture is utterly silent of say such thing. Did St Peter himself do it? Pray, manifest unto us that by the appointment of Jesus Christ he had