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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56699	A sermon preached upon St. Peter's day printed at the desire of some that heard it, with some enlargements / by a divine of the Church of England.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing P845; ESTC R4849	40,780	79

Imprimatur JO. BATTELY Oct. 14. 1686. A SERMON PREACHED UPON St. Peter's Day Printed at the Desire of Some that heard it WITH SOME ENLARGEMENTS By a Divine of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII A SERMON PREACHED UPON Saint PETER 's Day c. MATTH XVI 18. beginning And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church THE Text as we call it is part of the Gospel for this Day and according to the Interpretation which some give of it it is the whole Gospel of Christ These two Words PETER and CHURCH being so comprehensive that if they be well learnt there needs no further pains to come acquainted with all the rest of the Christian Religion For in PETER who they say is the Rock here spoken of all the Bishops of Rome in all succeding Ages are included who inherit the very same Prerogative which St. Peter had of being the Foundation of the Church Which CHURCH say they is nothing else but that Body of Men and Women who are united unto the Roman Bishop as their Head From whom all Ecclesiastical Power is derived unto all other Pastors of the Church Over whom and consequently over all Christians he hath a Soveraign Authority to declare the Rule of Faith to determine the Canonical Books of Scripture and the Traditionary Word In brief To be as infallible a Guide in the way to Heaven as Saint Peter was So that if any Man would know infallibly what the Christian Religion is he need be at no more trouble but only to enquire of that Church which adheres to him as the Foundation and resign up himself to the belief of whatsoever it teaches him because it cannot possibly teach him amiss These are wonderful things and we are highly concerned to examine whether there be ground enough in this Speech of our Saviour for the Church of Rome to raise upon it so large so high so glorious a Structure to it self as this is Because if it appear that our Lord did give not only to Saint Peter but to all the Roman Bishops and to them alone this Universal Pastorship and Power to Teach to Rule and Govern all Christians of whatsoever sort they be we must without any Contradiction obediently submit unto it and have not so much as this liberty left us To enquire whether the Roman Bishops do not extend their Power too far in commanding us to do those things which are directly contrary to the Commands of Him from whom all Power comes Because tho we think we see clearly that they do yet we must not believe our own eyes but them who tell us they do not On the contrary if it can be demonstrated that our Saviour in these Words to St. Peter did not confer any such power upon him much less upon all that succeed in the Roman See we shall discern how little reason we have to commit our selves to the Guidance of that Church which builds upon such a sandy Foundation And that it is our certain duty to adhere to the Constitutions of this Church of England whereof we are Members which not only teaches That no manner of Obedience and Subjection is due to any such Forreign Power but commands us who are Ministers in it To use the utmost of our Wit Knowledg and Learning purely and sincerely without any Colour or Dissimulation to teach manifest open and declare four times every Year at least that all such Power is for just Causes taken away and abolished In obedience to which Injunction which is the An. 1603. very first Canon of our Church I shall in this Discourse endeavour according to the best of my Understanding and most diligent Enquiry to give you the Genuine and Sincere Meaning of those Words which are the prime Foundation of that high Claim now mentioned and that as they were expounded in the first and best Times of the Church when the Doctors of it were not engaged in those unhappy Controversies which now disturb or rather distract the Christian World. And if I prove That neither the Apostles after they heard these Words from Christ no not St. Peter himself who is said to be most nay only concerned in them nor the Ancient Bishops that succeeded them no not the Bishops of Rome themselves when they on purpose treat of these Words did think of any such Monarchy it may be truly called as is now built upon them you will conclude that this is a new Doctrine and that the Asserters and Maintainers of it not we who oppose it deserve the Name of Innovators in Religion And for the clearer Exposition of them I think it will be necessary First To observe the Occasion upon which they were spoken and from thence proceed Secondly To show in what sense they were anciently understood And Lastly What Inferences and Deductions are necessarily to be made from their Interpretations PART I. The Occasion of the Words THE meaning of these Words of Christ will be better understood when we have well weighed the occasion on which they were spoken which was this The Opinion and Discourse of the Country concerning our blessed Saviour which was thus reported to him by his Disciples when he askt them about it vers 14. Some say that thou art John the Baptist some Elias and others Jeremias or one of the Prophets That is there were very various and uncertain Opinions conceived of him for tho they all agreed in general he was a great Man nay a Man of God as they called the Prophets yet they were not resolved much less setled in any particular determinate notion of him To try therefore the Proficiency of those who were constantly bred in his School he asks what their Opinion was vers 15. But whom say ye that I am Unto which Simon Peter makes this reply vers 16. Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God. The Question ye may observe is propounded to them all not to Peter alone He doth not say Peter whom dost thou say that I am But he saith unto them that is to his Disciples before mentioned Whom say ye that I am Unto the same Persons of whom he enquired Whom do men say that I am v. 13. He now saith But whom say ye that I am And yet the Answer to this Question is not returned by them all or by several of them as before but by one only Simon Peter answered and said c. What should be the reason of this The plainest and most undoubted answer is That there was no difference of Opinion among them as there was among the common People but they were all of one mind in this matter and therefore no more offered to speak but one because they had all but one thing to say That he was Christ the Son of the Living God. To the first Question one of them alone would not return an Answer

neither in Paul 's nor in Peter 's but in the name of Christ that Peter might be built upon the Rock not the Rock upon Peter The like we meet withal in another place † Tract CXXIV in evang Johannis The Church is founded upon the Rock whence Peter received his Name For the Rock is not denominated from Peter but Peter from the Rock * Non enim à Petro Petra sed Petrus à Petra directly contrary to Card. Baronius who confidently says non Petrus à Petra sed ipse Petra not Peter from that Rock but he is the Rock Ad An. 31. n. 24. as Christ hath not his name from Christian but a Christian from Christ for therefore the Lord said Vpon this Rock I will build my Church because Peter had said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. Vpon this Rock therefore saith he which thou hast confessed will I build my Church FOR THE ROCK WAS CHRIST upon which foundation even Peter himself is built For other foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus I will not trouble you with any more Authorities such as that of Venerable Bede † In Cap. XXI Johan who hath transcribed these last words of S. Austin into his own Book because I have a fourth exposition to add which will help to clear the rest especially the first IV. There are those who having what I have now said in their mind expound these words of all the Apostles and their Successors that is of all Christian Bishops who laid this foundation stone and continued to build upon it after it was laid Thus S. Cyprian * Ad Lapsos Epist XXXIII Edit Oxon. most expresly Our Lord whose precepts we ought to reverence and observe ordering the honour of the Bishop and the rule of his Church saith in the Gospel unto Peter I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. From hence through the course of times and successions runs down the Ordination of Bishops and the rule of the Church THAT THE CHVRCH MAY BE CONSTITVTED VPON BISHOPS and every affair of the Church be governed by those Overseers The very same is affirmed by S. Austin who in several places looks upon the whole order of Bishops as comprehended in S. Peter particularly in an Epistle to three † Epist CLXV vide Launoii Epist Par. V. ad Carolum Magisirum p. 47. c. ad Guliel●● Voellum p. 12. c. great persons where he saith Christ spake these words to him sustaining the figure of the whole Church It will not be fit to mention all the rest of the antient Writers who thus extend the sense of this place I shall only note that Paschasius Radbertus the founder of Transubstantiation was of this mind For thus he writes * L. IV. in Matt. v. 26. p. 18. The Church of God is not built upon Peter alone but upon all the Apostles and the Successors of the Apostles Unto these four Expositions I might add a fifth there being those who have understood every Christian Man and Woman by this Rock they being the stones and materials as I may call them of which the Church consists But I will pass this by though it have more great names to support it besides Origen because I have said enough already to expose the foul dealing and unworthy reasonings and conclusions of greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome which I shall represent in these following Considerations PART III. Reflections upon what hath been said concerning these Interpretations I. IF these things be certainly true as I assure you they are and themselves cannot deny that there are these several interpretations of this Scripture among the ancient Doctors then there can be no excuse made for their partiality who receive and adhere only to one of these interpretations as the Catholick Exposition and lay aside all the rest even those which are far more Catholick Thus doth Bellarmine * L. 1. de Pontif. Rom. C. X. who finding fault with Erasmus for contradicting their Exposition of the Church being founded upon Peter saith that all the Fathers teach it And thus doth Cardinal Baronius † Ad An. 33. n. XXVII to name no more who is not ashamed to say that it is an interpretation received and approved by the consent of the whole Catholick Church What truth can you expect from such Men or who can think it safe to give up himself to the conduct of such Guides who thus notoriously falsifie in a matter so evident that for one antient Father or Ecclesiastical Writer that by the Rock understands Peter himself there are two nay very near three that interpret it of the Faith which S. Peter confessed For to all those which a very learned and ingenuous Doctor of the Roman Church hath collected which are XLIV in number * V. Jo. Launoii Epist P. V. ad Guil. Voellum p. 18. c. others may be added besides Fortunatus and Epiphanius before mentioned For example Euagrius seems to have had this in his thoughts who speaking of Anastasius Bishop of Antioch where S. Peter sat before he was at Rome to whom such fierce assaults were given as if they thought in his overthrow to subvert the Church it self saith he manfully withstood them all † 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. IV. C. 40. for he stood firm upon the impregnable Rock of Faith. If the sense of the Antients be to be reverenced at all why not one sense as well as another And why not that most of all which hath the most to assert it With what conscience do they fix upon one and throw away nay detest all the other which are of more credit Is it not highly unjust to make Peter this Rock here spoken of rather than Christ our Lord when there are so many reasons as well as great Authority for the last more than for the other And yet they not only do this but most immodestly say all the Fathers are of their mind And which is worse they make this an Article of the Faith That the Church is founded upon S. Peter nay the prime Article of all unto which it is evident the Church hath never agreed but manifestly contradicted it Upon this Bellarmine grounds the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome because Peter is the Rock and the Foundation of the Church as the Supreme Governor of it and therefore every Successor of his is in like manner the Rock and Foundation of the Church And thus he saith all the Fathers have expounded it * L. IV. de Pontif. Rom. C. III. And hence proceeds so far as to say this is the summ of Christian affairs † Praefat. in illos Libros the whole frame of the visible Church depending so much upon the Roman Bishop that if he be taken away the Church falleth Upon this Foundation also they have raised to him such an Authority they make him by Christs