Two Addresses. N. Rigby
on these points, and asked them, about all this strange rigmarole of words and of phraseology, they would tell you, it is only a certain necessary form in law, and that although it may appear strange to other people, still, it is perfectly understood by all, who are versed in the laws of the land.[D] Why cannot these gentlemen, therefore, have the good sense to extend this explanation to the Pope's Bull, and then they would find this parcelling out the land by the Pope's Bull, and this delegation of spiritual power, of Archbishops, and Bishops, as if extending to Protestants, was a mere phantom of their own imagination, and that in reality, it regarded none, but the spiritual subjects of the Pope in this kingdom, and that it did not regard even them, only in a spiritual, and not in a temporal point of view, either directly or indirectly.
I observe, in your public notice for your meeting, two Dissenting Ministers, put their names to the requisition. Now, although the Protestant Church may honour these gentlemen, with the name of Reverend, does it consider them to be ministers? It certainly does not.[E] And I will prove it to you. If these Ministers were to go over to the Protestant Church, it would ordain them, and by that act, tell them that before, they were mere phantoms of Ministers, and that they had never had any spiritual power, or jurisdiction whatever. If therefore the orthodox Protestant gentleman, whose name stands so conspicuously between these two Dissenting Reverends, were to be asked, why he styled them Reverends, when his own Church, considers them as mere phantoms of Ministers, what would he say? Of course he would tell us, it was a mere matter of courtesy, for he was obliged to agree with his Church, that they were mere phantoms of Ministers. Now, gentlemen, just apply this to the Pope's Bull in your regard. You read the Pope's Bull, and erroneously imagine that the spiritual powers, which it asserts, really regards (or is to regard) you Protestants. Whereas you ought to consider it, as a mere phantom of spiritual power in your regard, and I moreover add, you ought to consider it, as a mere phantom in any temporal point of view, even as it regards the Catholics. Do this, gentlemen, and then, you will perceive, that the idea of it extending to you Protestants, either in any spiritual, or temporal point of view, whatever, is a mere chimera of your own imaginations.
But after all, I know many of you will still urge, that the Pope may gradually extend his spiritual power over you, and then, by degrees extend his temporal power over you, until at last, he has completely established over you his spiritual and temporal domination. Gentlemen, I will answer this argument shortly indeed, but I hope satisfactorily, and I feel confident that, unless you are as the poet says,
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