to reply but only this whch is meerly a bold Affirmation and as absurd as all the rest they were indeed all of them the Heads Governors and Pastors of the Church universal but not after the same manner as Peter was of * Bellarm. l. 1. de Pontif. Rom. cap. xi Why so For they had the highest and most ample Power as Apostles and Ambassadors but Peter also as an ordinary Pastor As much as to say They had indeed the highest Power in the Church and as large as he but not so high a Power as his Let any Man try if he can make any other Sense of those words that is find any Sense at all in them For was this Power of being an ordinary Pastor greater than that of the Apostles or no If it were greater then it is not true which he affirms that the Apostles had the highest Power †Habuerunt summam Potestatem If it were less than the Power of the Apostles then they were all greater than he as he was an ordinary Pastor and then it is non-sense to say they so had a plenitude of Power as that St. Peter was notwithstanding the Head of them and they all depended on him For he rather depended on them as an ordinary Pastor if that was less than the Power of the Apostleship and if it were not but greater than it then as I said it is false that the Apostles had the highest Power This is sufficient to shew into what Absurdities Men run when they go about to maintain a Falshood and what wretched shifts they devise to obscure the clear Truth which shines in their Eyes Which when they have done they walk as in Darkness and cannot be perswaded to see or acknowledg their Error Nay one Error grows out of another and having begun to wrest the Holy Scripture they go on to strain it so far as to extend it to any purpose they have to serve by it For having presumed that Peter and he alone is promised to be made the Governour of the whole Church by these Words of our Saviour they immediately presume without the shew of a proof that the Bishops of Rome succeed him in this Authority Which is a very large Step or rather Leap from Peter to the Popes of Rome between whom there is such a vast distance that it is impossible to make out the Claim to which they pretend from him For there is no evidence that St. Peter was Bishop of Rome but only that he founded that Church and setled a Bishop there For if he was Bishop of Antioch it was against all antient Rules to leave that and go to another See. The truth is he was properly Bishop of neither but planted a Church in each and first at Antioch before he came to Rome And who can think he did not settle one to take care of that Church of Antioch when he left it who may be called his Successor as well as he whom he is supposed to have placed afterwards in Rome Which two things being allowed as unquestionable Matters of Fact there is no reason can be given why all the Power and Jurisdiction which is claimed upon the account of Succession should not devolve by the Right of Primogeniture upon the Bishop of Antioch since it is confessed he first fat there and sat there seven Years which is more than can be proved he did at Rome where he was not when St. Paul came thither Act. xxviii nor when he first answered before Nero nor when he was ready to be offered 2 Tim. iv 6 11 16. nor can any certain time be assigned when he was there as we are sure St. Paul was who is acknowledged to be a Founder of that Church and had as much or rather more right to leave a Bishop to succeed him there as St. Peter who could transfer to no body neither there nor any where else what was personally vested in him as all the Priviledg here granted him was Or if he was to have any Successor in his supposed Dominion there were others had a better Title to it than the Bishop of Rome particularly St. John who it is certain survived St. Peter L. 1. de Pont. Rom. c. ix Therefore all that Bellarmine dare say in this matter is that the Apostles being dead the Apostolical Authority remained in Peter 's Successor alone For which he gives us not one word of proof but only this notorious Falshood that the Roman Bishop alone is called by all the Apostolical Bishop and his See simply the Apostolical See. When all the World knows Jerusalem Constantinople and divers other Places are called by the same Name of Apostolical Sees or Churches and their Bishops called not only Apostolical but Catholick and said to be Bishops of the Catholick Church The meaning of all which is nothing else but that they held the Catholick Religion and Faith Epist pars 1. ad Franciscum Bonum as Launoy most ingenuously confesses and maintains the Roman Bishops themselves intended no more when they subscribed themselves Bishops of the Catholick Church Nay Bellarmine himself in the place now named is constrained to acknowledg that the Supreme Ecclesiastical Power was given not only to Peter but to other Apostles also For they might all say that of St. Paul 2 Cor. xi 28. My daily business the Care of all the Churches But it was given to Peter as an ordinary Pastor who should have perpetual Successors to others as Delegates who should have no Successors Which is a meer Invention a pure Figment of his own brain without the shadow of a ground for it in the Book of God or any ancient Authority and against his own Confession that all the Apostles had the highest Power which includes all Power both ordinary and extraordinary and a Power to appoint their Successors in the Places they converted There have abundance of other things been said by our Writers to shew that whatsoever may be supposed to have been promised in these Words the Bishops of Rome can thence derive no lawful Claim to the like Authority And yet as if there were nothing plainer than that Christ spake to the Roman Bishops when he said these Words to St. Peter they have the confidence from hence to entitle the Pope to the Priviledg of Infallibility as well as to a Supreme Dominion over the Church So Bellarmine who elsewhere alledges these Words L. iv de Rom. Pontific c. 3. to prove that the chief Bishop i. e. theirs when he teacheth the whole Church in things belonging to Faith can in no case err But this depends upon his former Suppositions that Peter is the Rock of the Church as its Supreme Governour and therefore every one of his Successors in like manner is the same which having no Foundation all his Superstructure upon them falls to the Ground And indeed it is so sandy that honest Men among themselves are ashamed to build any thing of this nature
shew that he taught this openly frequently and constantly in such plain words as may be understood by themselves without the help of an Interpreter I cannot well forbear to mention one of them because it affords us many considerable Remarks ‖ Aug. Enarratio in Psal cviii As some things says he are spoken which may seem properly to belong to the Apostle Peter and yet have not a clear Sense but when they are referred to the Church whereof he is acknowledged to have represented the Person in a Figure because of the Primacy he had among the Apostles as that is I WILL GIVE THEE THE KEYS OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN and if there be any like so JUDAS sustains after a certain manner the Person of the Jews the Enemies of Christ c. Here they of the Church of Rome are very forward to catch at these words which signify a place of Priority that Peter had among the Apostles which no body denies but are not willing to take any notice of all the rest which utterly overthrow that Primacy which they would advance him unto from this place For first he says some things do but seem to belong to Peter which in truth ought to be referred to the Church And secondly That their Sense is not clear or evident till they be carried beyond him Among which things thirdly he reckons what our Saviour here saith I will give thee the Keys c. which they would now ingross to St. Peter and have us believe this to be the plain and obvious sense of Christ's words which St. Austin says are not plain unless we refer them to the Church Whose Person fourthly he says he did bear or represent not by virtue of his Place or any Authority he had above the rest but in a Figure to signify Unity that is as the Ancients interpret it And it is farther remarkable fifthly that Christ did not promise him the Primacy in promising him the Keys for he had the Primacy here spoken of before and with respect to that Christ directed to him these words rather than any of the rest because he was already the first not in Office but in Order and so the fittest Person to be singled out to represent what Christ intended And to convince every one there is no Authoritative Primacy meant in these words of St. Austin he adds sixthly that Judas sustained the Person of Christ's Enemies as Peter did of the Church Will any body infer from hence that Judas had a Jurisdiction over all the wicked and left it to his Successors one of which hath now the same Let them forbear then to make such Inferences from what is said of St. Peter's Primacy which gave him no right to rule but only made him stand fairest being the first to be chosen to represent the rest If any will be still so perverse as to wrangle because St. Austin doth not mention Judas his Primacy as he doth of Peter's let them learn more Modesty by knowing that Prosper one of St. Austin's Scholars upon the very same Psalm says in express terms that * Judas primatum gessit inimicorum Christi Judas carried the Primacy of Christ's Enemies Which if they will not expound to signify a supreme Authority to govern Christ's Enemies let them no longer interpret St. Peter's Primacy to signify such an Authority over his Friends He had none here promised him is as certain as any thing can be but the Keys to commend Unity were promised him which were in truth given to all the rest This is the ancient Sense which drew this plain and pertinent Observation from another honest Writer in the Roman Communion * Rigaltius in Epist Firmiliani He said to Peter I will give thee the Keys but he did not say I will give them to thee alone Which is justified to be true by three other Passages in the holy Gospels In the first of which he promises as much to all in the very same words as he had done to him Matth. xviii 18. Verily I say unto you Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven which is the Explication as you heard before of the Power of the Keys in the same terms without the least difference but what is between the plural number and the singular wherein it was delivered to St. Peter And in the next Chapter he repeats it again only in other words when he saith Matth. xix 28. Ye shall sit upon XII Thrones judging i. e. ruling and governing the XII Tribes of Israel without any mention of one Throne peculiar and higher than the rest to St. Peter And thus far there is no more than a Promise to be met withal in the Gospel but no actual grant no words whereby our Lord makes a conveyance of this Power to them till after his Resurrection from the Dead When he gives out a Commission to them as large as can be made wherein there is nothing peculiar reserved to St. Peter but it runs in general terms to them all John xx 21 22 23. For he neither saith I send thee nor breathed upon him alone saying Receive Thou the Holy Ghost Whosoever Sins thou remittest c. But he saith to them being all save Thomas assembled together As my Father hath sent me even so send I you And when he had said thus he breathed on them and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whosoever Sins ye retain they are retained And accordingly it may be added when the Holy Ghost descended of which this breathing on them was an Emblem and Pledg they were all Thomas with the rest with one accord in one place and it was imparted to each of them alike without any mark of distinction For we read of no Flame that crowned the Head of St. Peter greater and more illustrious than that upon his Brethren but the Text saith the Tongues like as of Fire were divided and sat upon every one of them singly * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Acts ii 2 3. The mighty Wind also wherein this Flame came betokening the powerful Inspiration which was entring into them filled all the House where they were sitting and not only that Corner where St. Peter was placed And so this Promise was equally performed in common to them all as it had been made to them all Nay this very thing is no less than a demonstration that the Promise was intended to all because the Performance was to all That here his Promise was performed is very manifest to those who are desirous to understand the Truth for no other time can be named when it was performed to Peter nor any other words found wherein the thing promised was conveyed but these as my Father sent me so I send you And lastly this is the sense
these proud Pretensions But be not ye called Rabbi for one is your Master even Christ and ALL YE ARE BRETHREN And call no Man your Father upon the Earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ The repetition of one and the same thing so often in words of the same import argues it to be a matter of great moment which ought to be duly weighed And it is this that no Man no not any of his Apostles should take upon him to prescribe that as a part of Religion which God our Saviour hath not prescribed by his Laws and that we ought not absolutely to submit to any Man's Dictates as Children do to the Will of their Fathers nor pin our Faith as we speak upon any Man's sleeve i. e. let it depend intirely upon his Authority For this is a submission which is due only to God our Saviour who in this Sense of the words is our only Father and Master and Leader and therefore we cannot without the highest injury to him own any one else to be such nor give them these Names but as they teach not their own but Christ's Doctrine unto Men. And in this Office all the Apostles were equal and no one of them could claim an Authority over the rest of his Brethren There are many other places wherein we read of one Shepherd one Lord one Lawgiver who is able to save and to destroy from whence we may conclude that Peter himself had no Power to make but only to declare the Laws of his and our Lord and Lawgiver Jesus Christ So the words of Christ's Commission run when he saith not to him alone but to them all Go ye and disciple all Nations c. teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you Matth. xxviii 20. Here is their Authority to publish the Commands of their Master not what they pleased to command themselves Which Peter was so far from doing that he went not about the abrogation of the Ceremonial Law and the calling of the Gentiles till he was authorized by an heavenly Vision which discovered this Mystery to him as a part of the Counsel of God but no Law nor so much as a Thought of his own For being charged afterwards by the Jews for eating with Men uncircumcised he excuses himself by a long Apology wherein he relates how he was commanded to do it by God himself whom he could not withstand Acts xi 3 4 c. which was not done like a Lawgiver Nay after this Revelation made to him he was so weak as to observe this Law to the great Offence of the Gentiles for which he was reprehended by St. Paul who had the honour to abrogate the Law of Moses among the Gentiles while St. Peter who began that work was the Minister of the Circumcision Gal. ii 7 10 11 c. Nor doth the word Bind import a Power to impose Laws but only to tie Men to those Laws which are already made Thus it signifies in that very place which Bellarmine alledges to maintain his Sense of the word viz. to make Laws Matth. xxiii 4. For they bind heavy Burdens and grievous to be born and lay them on Men's Shoulders c. that is they were rigorous Interpreters of the Laws of God which it was their Office to expound according to the plain sense and meaning of them and not according to the Traditions of the Elders which had made them intollerable Burdens But suppose the word to signify what they please it will do them no service because this Power of Binding was not promised to Peter alone but to them all as hath been before proved And consequently he could do nothing which they could not do as much as he that is they were all Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God All of them like to Eliakim 1 Cor. iv 1. to whom the Key of the House of David is promised as the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter For by that very word which we translate Stewards or Dispensers is that Office * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to which Eliakim was advanced in the room of Shebna expressed by the LXX in Isa xxii 19 21. which was not a Supreme Power in the Court where all the rest of the Courtiers did not depend on him as their Lord and Prince but the Power of a prime Minister in the Royal Family which he governed not after his own Will but the King 's In like manner all the Apostles were Ministers by whom Men believed 1 Cor. iii. 5. Stewards of the heavenly Mysteries which they faithfully dispensed 1 Cor. iv 1 2. according to the Will of Christ who hath the Key of David that is is the sole Supreme Governour of the Church and gives Rules to it which the Apostles delivered but did not ordain themselves nor bind upon Men by their own Authority but by his For they were not Authors of the Divine Laws which they taught but the Publishers of them and equal Publishers of one and the same common Doctrine Which every Bishop in the Church hath as much Authority to bind upon Men as the Pope They being all of the same Merit and Priesthood as St. Hierom * Epist ad Evagrium speaks all Successors of the Apostles There are some other words of St. Hierom it may not be unfit here to note which are usually alledged to prove the contrary viz. That he thought St. Peter had some Supremacy of Power over the rest of the Apostolical Colledg from whence they hope to derive the like Power unto the Pope over all Bishops They are in his first Book against Jovinian where he saith One among the twelve was therefore chosen that an HEAD being constituted the occasion of Schism might be removed But they are unconscionably disingenuous who alledg this Passage and do not give us the entire Sentence but only this Conclusion of it which can have no such meaning as they pretend without making meer Nonsense of the words foregoing which are these But thou sayst the Church was founded upon Peter tho the very same in another place is done upon all the Apostles and they received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the strength of the Church is solidly bottom'd upon them EQVALLY And then follows the words now named Yet ONE was therefore chosen among the XII c. which makes it as clear as the Sun that he dreamt of no such HEADSHIP of ONE over all the rest as signifies a Supremacy of Power for what one Text he saith affirms of Peter another affirms of them all they all receiving the Keys which is the highest Power and the stability of the Church relying upon them equally I conclude this part of my Discourse with the Observation of a late Learned Writer of our Church * Dr. Hammond 's Dispatcher dispatch'd P. iii. c. 7. Sect. 2. n.