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Christ, not with reference to His Person, but with reference to His kingdom : and here that must especially be considered, which the venerable Lange excellently teaches in the Preface to Sherlock’s Antidote against Popery, that the doctrine concerning the Person of Christ retained more soundness, on account of the (Ecumenical Councils ; but that the doctrine respecting the office and kingdom of Christ was most openly and flagrantly corrupted.
Prop. 7. The founder of the papal kingdom is Hildebrand , or Gregory VII,
a) The Epicrisis distinguishes between the commencement of the kingdom and its height : p. 379. He especially traces back the commencement of the Papacy to Boniface III., whose ecumenical name I have not passed over, p. 462, comp. pp. 445, 446, 548 ; although Magnif. Pfajjius shows, in a peculiar dissertation, that the affair itself was not then great.
b) The Epicrisis does not deny the height in Hildebrand, in the same place : But the height carries with it the decision, wrhen any kingdom, after having overcome the former one, seizes upon the first place. See Erkl, Offenb. p. 675.
c) The Epicrisis remarks, that in Proposition 6, and afterwards, I do not use the term, beast, but, the Papacy: p. 380. I reply : That is done according to the law of method ; for Proposition 5 showed, that the beast is the Pope : now, as the demonstration advances, the Pope , from the predicate, becomes the subject, to which further pre- dicates are joined in the Propositions which follow. Such terms ought not to be used promiscuously, 'while there is any point in question ; but the question being decided, the style becomes more compressed, as we have observed on Proposition 1.
d) In this particular passage I have commended Vitringa , having well weighed his arguments and those of Lange. The one, in other places, regards as already fulfilled many things which still remain to be fulfilled ; the other regards almost all things which are already fulfilled, as still to be fulfilled : I follow the middle and true course, together with the order of the text. Where Vitringa is in error, or defends an opinion which is true by arguments which are not true, and the Divine of Halle is either opposed to him or agrees with him, whether correctly or incorrectly, I look on as one not concerned. Wherefore he is not right in comparing my system of arrangement with that of Vitringa ; p. 381. The epoch of Gregory indeed main- tains its place, as demonstrated by Vitringa and by me. The argu- ment, of wThich mention is made in the same place, has been refuted
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