A vindication of the Animadversions on Fiat lux

And yet this is the sum of all that you can plead with them, if there be any sense in the Argument you make use of against our relinquishment of the opinions and practises of the Church of Rome, because we or our forefathers were at any time members thereof, or lived in its communion. But you would have this the special Privilege of your Church alone. Any other Church a man may leave, yea all other Churches besides; he may relinquish the principles wherein he hath been instructed, yea it is his duty to renounce their Communion; only your Church of Rome is wholly sacred; a man that hath once been a member of it must be so for ever; and he that questions any thing taught therein, may on the same grounds question all the Articles of faith in the Christian Religion. And who gave you leave to suppose the only thing in Question between us, and to use it as a medium to educe your Conclusion from? is it your business to take care,⟨p. 343⟩ bullatis ut tibi nugis Pagina turgescat, dare pondus idonea fumo We know the condition of your Roman Church to be no other then that of other Churches, if it be not worse then that of any of them. And therefore on what terms and reasons soever, a man may relinquish the opinions and renounce the Communion of any other Church, upon the same may he renounce the Communion and relinquish the Opinions of yours. And if there be no reasons sufficiently cogent so to deal with any Church whatever, I pray on what grounds do you proceed to persuade others to such a Course, that they may join with you? —Dicisque facisque quod ipse Non Sani esse hominis non sanus juret Orestes. To disentangle you out of this Labyrinth whereinto you have cast your self, I shall desire you to observe, that if the Lord Christ by his Word be the Supreme Revealer of all Divine Truth; and the Church, that is any Church whatever, be only the Ministerial proposer of it, under and from him, being to be regulated in all its propositions by his Revelation, if it shall chance to propose that for Truth, which is not by him revealed, as it may do, seeing it hath no security of being preserved from such failures, but only in its attendance unto that Rule, which it may neglect or corrupt: A man in such a Case cannot discharge his Duty to the Supreme Revealer, without dissenting from the Ministerial proposer.

And yet this is the summ of all that you can plead with them, if there be any sense in the Argument you make use of against our relinquishment of the opinions and practises of the Church of Rome, because we or our forefathers were at any time members thereof, or lived in its communion. But you would have this the special Priviledge of your Church alone. Any other Church a man may leave, yea all other Churches besides; he may relinquish the principles wherein he hath been instructed, yea it is his duty to renounce their Communion; only your Church of Rome is wholly sacred; a man that hath once been a member of it must be so for ever; and he that questions any thing taught therein, may on the same grounds question all the Articles of faith in the Christian Religion. And who gave you leave to suppose the only thing in Question between us, and to use it as a medium to educe your Conclusion from? is it your business to take care,