*]0 LIBERTY OP REASONING 



and would they make it their prime concern, to labour 

 with united powers to chufe as foon as poffible another 

 Rome, and proceed to elect a new fucceflbr to St. Pe- 

 ter, in the chair where St. Peter never fat ? Would 

 they not rather — I fpeak humanly, but I hope not 

 foolifhly — have great reafon patiently to acquiefce in 

 this aweful difpenfation of heaven ; and, all things well 

 confidered, fee caufe at length to be thankful, that, 

 by this unexpected event, all farther contention and 

 Urife about their rites would ceafe, and that they were 

 ieitored to that liberty and refpective independency 

 which is their due by the moft antient ecclefiaftical 

 conftitution ? — But, I hear it faid, what becomes of 

 the centrum unitatis efteemed fo neceflary ? — Does 

 then this point of union cleave of neceftity to one tingle 

 perfon, or to one particular chair ? or precifely to 

 thefe ? Is not the chriftian name, is not the apoftle's 

 creed a fuflicient point of union ? And if there were 

 no longer any Rome, whofe defpotic fpirit is folely in- 

 terefted in the utmoft poffible uniformity of its fub+ 

 jedls: who is then concerned in an uniformity dif- 

 avowed by all nature and only enforced by unnatural 

 violence ? Cannot concord and order very well contifl; 

 with diverfity ? Does not harmony arife from divertity 

 with order ? and is not harmony more pleating than 

 monotony ? —However, let us fee — without dwelling 

 any longer on an objection, which at length muft die 

 away of itfelf, — what the confequences of this great 

 event would be. 



If there be np longer any pope, then the papal fyf- 

 tem, with all its excrefcencies and accefTories, falls to 

 pieces of itfelf. The fheep of Chrift now find them- 



felves 



