Page:History of the Nonjurors.djvu/339

Rh calmly sail through the ocean of this life, and without difficulty pass over the waves of heresy, till we arrive within the haven of salvation. But he who is the fifth part, being separated from the entire sail, and remaining by himself in a small piece of the torn sheet, is unable to perform his voyage, and therefore we behold him at a distance tossed with constant waves and tempest till he return to our Catholic, Apostolic, Oriental, immaculate faith, and be reinstated in the sail from whence he was broken off: for this will make him secure, and able to weather the spiritual storms and tempests that beset him. Thus therefore the holy Church of Christ with us subsists on four pillars, namely, the four Patriarchs, and continues firm and immoveable. The first in order is the Patriarch of Constantinople. The second the Pope of Alexandria. The third of Antioch. The fourth of Jerusalem."

They grant however:

"If those who are called the remains of the primitive orthodoxy, out of any particular affection of piety to the holy and Apostolical throne of Jerusalem, would prefer and esteem it above the rest, we have no objection to it: for we ourselves,, though for order's sake we number it in the 4th place, yet pay it the utmost reverence and respect, and honour it as the place where the light of religion and salvation arose, where the redemption of man and the preaching of the Gospel shone out into all the world, and because there our Lord suffered for us, and there shed his precious blood. And if this be the desire of the pious remnant in Britain, we grant and allow it, only let them not despise the ancient order, nor accuse it of error, nor reject it."

They add further on this point: