is no Supremacy or Dominion and that it had been an insolent and arrogant thing if he had assumed to himself any such Primacy 8. For the Fathers it must be next observed never understood these words exclusively but call all the Apostles by the very same names of Honour and Dignity that they do Peter and other Bishops afterwards by the same Names that they do the Bishop of Rome For Example I find one called Father of Fathers another Bishop of Bishops nay all of them called Vicarios Christi the Vicars of Christ whose place they here supplied Which Eminent Title the Popes of Rome heretofore were so far from appropriating to themselves that as their common Title was Vicars of St. Peter not Vicars of Christ to this last they themselves have honoured other Bishops withal as whole Councils have also done who exhort the People to honour the Governours and Pastors of Churches as Fathers and Christ's Vicars p V. Joh. Lanoii par 3. Epistol ad Michaelem Marollium p. 21 c. n. 36. But that perhaps which will be thought most to the purpose is this That as St. Chrysostome q Tom. v. p 992. 995. Edit Savil. in his Sermon upon those blessed pair as he calls them St. Peter and St. Paul gives them alike Titles and says God trusted them with the Souls of the whole World so speaking of all the Twelve Apostles he calls them expresly in the singular Number the Rock or Foundation of the Church Thus I show'd before St. Cyprian also discourses when he saith from these words of our Saviour is derived all the Power of Bishops and Governours in the Church who successively ordain Pastors that the Church may be constituted upon Bishops To whom I will only add Theodoret upon that known place in the Psalms lxxxvii 1. His Foundation is in the Holy Mountains which in the spiritual Sense being meant of the New Jerusalem he thus expounds The Foundations of Piety are the Divine Instructions which Christ hath given us the Holy Mountains upon whom he hath laid these Foundations are the Apostles of our Savioar Who are thence called themselves Foundations because they laid the Foundation of Christianity by the Divine Instructions which they gave from Christ according to that of St. Paul which he immediately adds Ye are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ himself being the chief Corner-Stone 9. And therefore when the Fathers treat of this very matter they give other reasons why Christ named Peter only when he spake these words not to give him any Prerogative much less Monarchy but to signifie the Unity he would have in his Church This St. Cyprian discourses of at large in words as express as can be desired Christ said to Peter Upon this Rock I will build my Church and tho he gave to all his Apostles after his Resurrection parem Potestatem equal Power yet ut Vnitatem manifestaret that he might declare the Unity he would have he spake first to him alone that on him he would build his Church Not making him by these words it is plain the Imperial Head of the Church but only a representative Type of its Unity For he immediately adds The rest of the Apostles were the very same that Peter was endued with equal Co-partnership both of Honour and of Power but the beginning proceeds from Vnity that the Church of Christ may be shewed to be one r De Unite Ecclesiae Cathol edit Rigalt p. 180. Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur And a little after he considers all the Bishopricks in the World as one Mass or Lump whereof every Bishop in the World hath an intire part The like I might add out of Pope Symmachus himself in a Letter to the Bishop of Arles s Baron ad An. 499. num xxxvi where he acknowledges that as the power of the Holy Trinity is one and undivided so there is one Bishoprick amongst divers Bishops But I have not room for more Authorities of this kind I will rather observe That there is another plainer reason of Christ's speaking thus to St. Peter which is that he was chosen by Christ to begin the glorious Work of gathering a Catholick Church and therefore he directed his Speech particularly to him as the Person who should be first imployed in this business telling him I will give thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven because he was first to open the Gate or Door of Faith to the Gentiles and let them into the Church of Christ This appears from the memorable History of Cornelius upon which he reflects when he tells the Apostles in the Council at Jerusalem Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my Mouth should hear the Word of the Gospel and believe Acts 15. 7. The words are more significant in the Greek which we translate a good while ago 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the ancient days or the first times God made choice of me from among the rest which may well refer to those of our Saviour whose times are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 1. 1. the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God which St. Peter first published among the Gentiles This was an Honour peculiar to him and bestowed on him it 's likely because of the forwardness of his Faith in Christ and the vehemency of his Affection to him as well as because he was first chosen to be an Apostle And with respect to this we readily acknowledg Christ promised something singular to him in these words which was that he should first lay the Foundation of the Church among the Gentiles Some add among the Jews also because we read he was the first Speaker upon the day of Pentecost Acts 1. 14. But those words sufficiently intimate that the rest of the Apostles then spake as well as he especially if we compare them with what goes before Vers 7 8 9. where it is said The Multitude heard them speak every Man in his own Language c. Tertullian s De Pudicitia C. xxi adds other instances of his first exercising the Power of the Keys but none of them prove more than that he had the Honour to be primus non supremus first not supream Princeps post quem alii deinceps the chief or beginning whom all the rest followed in equal Power and Authority For he was chief only in Order and Place not in Dominion or Jurisdiction 10. No We must after all this consider that our Lord when he spake these words did not lay the Foundation of the Church but only promises he would hereafter build his Church upon this Rock and give him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven For so the words are in the future Time I will build and I will give thee c. Now as he makes this Promise to them all I shewed
him and on them too he may be the Rock and they also in the same sense that it is meant of him And this appears to be true from a great many things that may be fit here to be observed 1. First the Apostles never thought themselves to be excluded but by their behaviour declared they took themselves to be equal to him Which Alphonsus Tostatus * In Matth. XVIII qu. VII and in Matth. XX. qu. 83. no longer ago than in the Fifteenth Century asserts most earnestly and with great concern alledges many undeniable arguments to prove they did not understand any supremacy to have been given to Peter by these words For after this saith he they contended for superiority disputing who should be the greatest Matth. XVIII 1. Mark IX 33. And again the two Sons of Zebedee who always seemed to be equal with him in our Saviour's favour have their desire of preference promoted by their Mother Matth. XX. 10. c. Nay this dispute was renewed at his last Supper as he understands Luke XXII 24 25. concerning which his words are remarkable Every Apostle saith he doubted which of them should be the greater and that doubt remained until the day of Christ's death for in the last Supper of Christ they began to inquire among themselves which of them should seem the greater and yet they would not have made this dispute publickly if they had thought Peter by the collating of the Keys to have been preferred above them Thus far then they thought themselves equal when they could not resolve which should be the greater 2. And after our Lords Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Ghost when they cannot be supposed ignorant of any thing concerning his Kingdom they still took themselves as much concerned in these words as Peter For not only S. Paul but S. John a Man exceedingly beloved of our Saviour and his bosome Disciple thought all the Apostles to be the Foundation on which the Church is built Read at your leisure Ephes II. 20. and Revel XXI 14. where you will find the Wall of the New Jerusalem that is the Christian Church had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb Not one Foundation and on that the name of Peter but twelve Foundations bearing the name of the twelve Apostles Peter was unum sed non unicum fundamentum one Foundation but not the only one He was one of the next stones which lay immediately upon the Rock Christ and so may be called a Foundation but so was S. John also another of those stones which immediately rely upon Christ and so were all the rest of the Apostles None of which were built upon S. Peter nor he on them but all on Christ Whom S. Austin †In Psalm LXXXVII calls fundamentum fundamentorum the Foundation of the Foundations that is of the very Apostles and Prophets upon whom the Church is said to be built because by their Ministry it was erected In this sense Peter was a Rock and so were all the rest of the Apostles as much as he equal in power alike intrusted with this great work of raising a Church upon him the living Stone 3. Whence it is that St. Paul giving an account of the several Orders and Ranks of Men which God hath placed in his Church makes the highest Power in it to be that which belongs unto them all For he saith God hath set these in the Church first Apostles c. 1. Cor. 12. 28. He doth not say first Peter as he should have done if by these words Thou art Peter c. he was set higher than the rest but the Apostles in general who were all the prime Ministers of Christ of equal Dignity among themselves without any one set over them in Superiority above the rest 4. Which appears farther from the Promise of bestowing the Keys upon him which here immediately follows Vers 19. and is acknowledged on all sides to be the highest Power conferred upon him which is promised to all the Apostles in the very next Chapter Matth. 18. 18. in the very same words without any alteration but only a change of the singular into the plural Here it is said Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth c. there Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth c. What reason then to fancy any difference between them Which the ancient Christians did not but look'd upon them all as having a joynt share in this Power Which is so evident that a Learned Man l Joh. Lanoi◠Epist ad Hadrianum Vallantium p. 27 c. Pa. 2. in the Roman Communion hath shown at large even by the Confession of Popes themselves that in Peter Christ gave the Keys or rather promised them to the whole Church 5 And the truth is Nothing was here given to him by these words of Christ Thou art Peter with respect to the Apostles but with respect to the Church only which was raised by the joynt Labour and Pains of the whole Number To whom another being afterwards added he laboured more abundantly than they all 1 Cor. 15. 10. 6. And was so far from thinking he had any Superiour though he was chosen last of all and look'd upon himself as a kind of Abortive 1 Cor. 15. 8. that he doubted not to say He was not a whit in nothing behind the very chiefest of the Apostles 2 Cor. 11. 5. 12. 11. The words are very significant in the Greek m 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying there were more very eminent or super-excellent Apostles than one called in other places Pillars Gal. 2. 9. and Chiefs n 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ib. vers 2 6. Peter no doubt was one of these but there were others as eminent and neither he nor they had a Preheminence of Power and Authority among them there being nothing wanting in St. Paul to make him equal to the most Eminent Apostles 7. Particularly to St. Peter with whom he contended openly opposing and reprehending his Error Gal. 2. 11. which he durst not have done if he had known any Superiority in Power and Authority to have been in St. Peter Nay here had been a fit occasion for St. Peter to have asserted his Authority if he had known any to have been in him which was not in St. Paul and not have suffered himself to be thus corrected by him for his Error Of which we have not one word nor did he tho our Lord chose him first and built his Church upon him challenge to himself any thing insolently or arrogantly so as to say he had the Primacy and therefore ought rather to be obeyed by those who were novel and later Persons They are the words of St. Cyprian o Epist lxxi edit Rigal whose Notes there a. f. are worth perusing who plainly hereby declares his sense to have been that these words of our Lord to St. Peter gave him no such Primacy as set him above Correction that
Christ as S. Paul speaks that is the Christian Religion though from less Circumstances than these some endeavour to prove the Monarchy of St. Peter Our Saviour say they speaks to him after such a particular manner as argues he intended to Object 2. bestow on him some particular Grace not common to him with others For he calls him by the Name he had before he came to him and mentions his Father's Name and the Name he himself had given him and then alludes to that Name of Peter in the word Rock and gave him a particular Blessing upon occasion of a particular Act of his confessing Christ's Divinity which God in particular revealed to him All these show that the Promise made to him after such a way and introduced with such peculiar Circumstances was not common to others but peculiar to himself But after this labourious heaping up of meer circumstantial things the Consequence they Answ would infer from hence falls to the ground Because we are informed by him who cannot deceive us that he did not design the great Power here promised particularly to him alone but to them all for what he promises here to him ver 19. he promises to them all in the next Chapter xviii 18. And besides this as the substantial part of this Discourse belongs to them all so most of the Circumstances which I have enumerated are common to others and not peculiar to him For others confessed his Divinity and were taught it by God and were blessed and designed also for Stones in the Fabrick of the Church as hath been already proved So that there is nothing left but Simon Bar-jona that is his own Name and his Fathers Name and the Name of Peter to support this weighty Foundation of St. Peter's Supremacy And they are very slender things For the mention of Barjona Son of Jona was necessary to distinguish this Simon from the other Simon Zelotes and Simon was necessary to be mentioned that this Son of Jona might be distinguished from Andrew who was his Son also And as for the Name of Peter tho we should grant it to be the very same with the Rock after mentioned it is very far from proving that he alone had the thing because he alone had the Name for they were all Rocks I have shown in the same sense that he was a Rock And the most we can gather from it or from the rest of these peculiar Circumstances is this that he had the Honour promised him of being the first that should lay the Foundation of Faith among the Gentiles Which St. Ambrose y Serm. xlvii de fide Petri Apostoli or some other old Homilist that assumed his Name makes the reason of his being called a Rock Petra dicitur eo quod primus in Nationibus fidei fundamenta posuerit He is said to be the Rock because he first laid the Foundations of Faith among the Nations Which notwithstanding did not give him a Supremacy over them but St. Paul was the Apostle of the Gentiles Rom. xi 13. and as God wrought so mightily with him that he made great Conversions among them so being brought to Christ he had upon him the Care of all the Churches 2 Cor. xi 28. Which if St. Peter had any where said of himself I am sure it would have been urg'd as an evident proof of his Universal Pastorship but we make no such Inference from it for St. Paul because we know Christ made no one Head of all Churches nor gave to any of the Apostles a Supremacy of Power and Universality of Jurisdiction V. But beyond all this there is still a higher Presumption that they are guilty of who extend the Prerogative supposed to be granted here to St. Peter unto all the succeeding Bishops of Rome whom they make the Heirs of his Authority In which there are a vast number of Suppositions that can never be proved as many Writers of our Church have shown and therefore I will not here repeat them It is sufficient to tell them that they themselves are forced to grant That some Speeches of our Saviour were so personally directed to St. Peter that he himself only was concerned in them and not his Successors z See Bellarm Q. 2. de Pont. Rom. c. xii Resp ad 5. Object Calvini Now if any there is great reason to look upon this as one of those Speeches which were limited to Peter's Person and cannot be thought to be intended to any body after him For 1. First the description of his Person by the personal adjuncts both of his Name and of his Parentage may most properly be urged to prove that this Speech is personal limited to him alone by express terms of individual difference And it is observable that both here when he saith he will build his Church upon him and when he bids him Feed his Sheep Joh. xxi 15 16 17. he uses the very same terms of individual difference calling him Simon Son of Jona So that of all the places upon which they of the Church of Rome chiefly ground the claim of their Bishops as his Successors there are none more personal than these two which most evidently restrain the words to Peter alone 2. And this appears farther from the impossibility that this Honour of founding the Church upon him should reach beyond his Person Because there can be no more Foundations of a Building than are laid at first All that comes after is built upon that and is as we call it Superstructure If St. Peter therefore were the Foundation of the Church his Successors cannot be intended in this Name because the Church is not still to be founded but all that come after him do themselves rely upon that Foundation 3. But the chief thing of all is That Christ did not lay such a Foundation of his Church as might fail and have need of the Succession of another which was also to fail it self and required another continued Succession of Foundations For as the Author to the Hebrews proves from hence the Infirmity of the Aaronical Priesthood that their High-Priests being mortal could not administer an Eternal Priesthood which belongs to Christ alone who remains for ever in like manner may we certainly argue in this matter If the Foundation of the Church must be constant and permanent they cannot be the Foundation of it who dying frequently make it necessary another should be substituted in their stead But it was absolutely necessary the Foundation should be perpetual immoveable and unalterable always remaining the same and never changing and therefore we may be sure they are not the Rock on which the Church is built who are in a perpetual change and cannot continue but must give way to others If we should allow such a Foundation of the Church we must allow as many several Foundations as there are Popes and so the Rock on which the Church is built cannot be said to be one and the same for
because they had not all met with the same Opinion but some with one some with another and therefore every one related what he had heard the People say about him But to this Question they had but one Answer to make being all agreed in one and the same Belief and therefore it was sufficient for one to speak the mind of every one to whom the Question was put But still the Reason is demanded why St. Peter rather than any of the rest made this Answer To which St. Chrysostom thinks it enough to reply When men are moved by the Spirit to do or say a Thing it is in vain to ask a Reason of it Yet he as well as others have given us divers Reasons which have a Foundation in the Holy Scriptures I. First Because he was more warm and forward than the rest of a zealous and active Spirit which made him ready in Speech and all other Motions as well as quick of Apprehension and ardent in his Affection Many of the Fathers a S. Hierom. in loc S. Cyril in Joh. 21. 15. S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 34. have given this account of it as well as St. Chrysostome who mentions it often and here particularly affirms it to be the reason why he stept or rather leaped forth as his word is and prevented the rest in this Confession And if they had not told us this the Story of the Gospel would have furnished us with ten or twelve Instances of his forwardness most of which are collected by b Matt. 14. 28. St. Hierom I will name but two or three The first of them is mentioned in this very Chapter v. 22. When our Lord acquainting his Disciples what things he should suffer Peter out of a certain heat which was natural to him and a vehement but imprudent love to our Lord as St. Chrysostoms words are takes upon him to chide our Lord for having such a purpose advising him to be more favourable to himself A second instance is in the 14th Chapter where we read of his forwardness to go unto our Saviour upon the Sea tho he had not Faith enough to support him there A thrid in his forwardness to draw his Sword on our Saviours defence when the Soldiers laid hold on him in the Garden 26. 51. These things show his temper to have been so warm and zealous that we need no other Reason for his speaking first the mind of them all II. But others add that he was the eldest of the Company being a married man when he entred into our Saviours Service His Brother Andrew indeed was first acquainted with our Saviour Joh. 1. 40 41. But when they were called to be his constant Attendants which was not till some time after Peter is mentioned before him as the Elder of the two St. Matth. iv 18. Mark i. 16. Epiphanius a Haeresi l. 1. indeed thinks otherwise making Andrew the elder Brother but it is unreasonable to follow his Opinion alone especially when he alledges no Tradition for it against the Sense of many other Ancient Writers who Baronius b Ad An. 31. n. xxiii confesses lookt upon Peter as elder than him Which St. Hierom gives as the Reason why St. Peter was preferred before St. John the beloved Disciple to be the first in the Order of the Apostles because he was the elder His words are very remarkable and worthy to be read of all in his first Book against Jovinian where he sets forth the Prerogatives of St. John as most dear to our Saviour because he was a Virgin and so continued to the end Unto which he brings in his Adversary objecting That the Church was founded upon Peter who was a married Man Tho in another place saith St. Hierom the very same is said of all the Apostles and they all received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the solidity of the Church was equally established on every one of them Yet among the Twelve one was therefore chosen that an Head being constituted all occasion of Schism might be taken away But why was not John being a Virgin chosen This was yielded to his Age for Peter was the Senior Otherwise he will have St. John to have had the Preheminence as it there follows Peter an Apostle and John an Apostle a Married man and a Batchelor But Peter only an Apostle John both an Apostle and an Evangelist and a Prophet III. To which may be added That he was the first of them all called to be Christs constant follower as appears from what was now observed That tho he was not the first that believed on Christ yet he was the first that our Lord called from his secular Employment to wait upon him and to be always with him And therefore called by some of the Ancients the first Fruits of the Apostles IV. For lastly upon such accounts as these he was made the first Apostle not in Power and Authority for therein as hath been said already and will appear more anon they were all alike but in orderly Precedence which is natural and necessary in all Societies And being the Foreman who so fit as he to speak for them all as he did not only now but upon other occasions Matth. xix 27 and Joh. vi 67 68 69. Upon which account St. Chrysostome fitly calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mouth of the Apostles Which he frequently repeats * In Matth. xvii 24. Act. i. 25. Galat. ii 2. and alledges this together with his heat and zeal as the Reason of his speaking rather than the rest For all of them could not make answer to the Question our Saviour here askt without Confusion and they all having but one thing to say therefore one spake for them all And who fitter to be their Speaker than he that was the Senior of all the leading man of the Company whose Age and forward Zeal and early entertainment into our Saviours family had given him the priority of place among the Apostles But observe then That if he spake because he was the Mouth of the rest as the Ancient Opinion was then as he spake the Sense of them all so he spake in all their Names And that which he said was the voice of all the Apostles For either he was not the Mouth of the Apostles or his Confession was the Confession of the whole Body of the Apostles who spake the same in him None of the Ancients that I can find doubted of this St. Hierom particularly hath this note upon these words Petrus ex persona omnium Apostolorum c. Peter in the Person of all the Apostles confesseth Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God. And the famous saying of St. Austin is now grown so familiar to all that I need only Translate it Peter answers one for all Thus St. Cyprian a Epist ad Cornel. and St. Ambrose b L. vi in S. Luc. c. 9. from whom this Sense is transmitted down
his Divinity upon which the Angels waited and attended just as they did upon the Divine Majesty in the Old Testament Gen. xxviii 12. And if all this do not seem sufficient to evince the Truth what think you of the Testimony which St. Peter bears to them all that they did believe and know that he was the Christ the Son of the Living God Joh. vi 69. To which may be added that our Blessed Lord and Saviour himself solemnly gives Praise and Glory to God for revealing those things which concerned his Kingdom of which this was the first unto them all Matth. xi 25 26. And lastly As this Opinion is against Reason and Scripture so it is most certainly against the Authority of the Ancient Fathers For as St. Hierom a In Matth. xiv 33. alledges the Confession of the Mariners against the Arians So the Orthodox commonly used this as an Argument against them That the very Devils had more Faith than they for they confessed what the Arians denied That Jesus was the true and natural Son of God. So they interpret those words Mark iii. 11. b V. Athanasium de Incarn Verbi p. 85. Which Maldonate himself acknowledges the Fathers are wont wonderfully to amplifie against those Hereticks which they could not have done if they thought less was meant by it than by this Confession of St. Peter's Who if he were the only Person that at this time understood this secret then the Quire of the Apostles as Basil calls them when he speaks of their Ignorance had less knowledg of the Saviour of the World than the Herd of unclean Spirits Which we cannot affirm without the greatest reproach to them they having been so long under our Saviours Discipline and seen his Power over those Spirits nay received Power themselves from him as it there follows to heal Sicknesses and to cast out Devils Mark iii. 15. But I need not laboriously inlarge upon this Argument St. Ambrose saith c L. vi in Luc. cap. 9. expresly they all knew what St. Peter alone spake And St. Chrysostom himself is of the same mind when he makes him here the Mouth of all and elsewhere d In Gal. ii 2. saith he was their Tongue and answered for them all which he could not have done if he had not known they were all of his belief And therefore we can learn nothing in this matter from such Doctors as Bellarmine but that they are resolved to affirm any thing to maintain their unjust Pretences The ambitious claim of the Bishop of Rome must by all means be supported else they would not prostitute their Consciences and their Reputations too in this manner by asserting things which are so apparently untrue that the smallest skill in the Holy Scripture is sufficient to confute them But of all the accounts of this Confession of St. Peter there is none so unaccountable as that of Cardinal Baronius who without the least Syllable in all Antiquity to countenance it adventures to say That now St. Peter Defined Decreed and made a Rule of Faith for all the World For he fancies our Blessed Saviour now to have held a Council with his Disciples in which St. Peter e Ad Annum 33. N. xvii talem fert sententium ut erudiat atque decernat ac fidei Canonem perpetuo per mansurum oonstituat Decreed and Constituted the Canon of Faith for ever to endure So that there was no need saith he our Saviour should consult the rest of the Apostles though the Text saith expresly he askt them all Whom say ye that I am What their Opinion was it being sufficient that Peter had spoken f Acquid de fide sentiendum esset clavam fixisse Ibid. and so struck the nail to the head that he had setled what was to be thought of Faith. Which is such an astonishing Instance of the Power of Prejudice Passions of all sorts and worldly Interest to corrupt and pervert the wisest Minds that it ought to be an admonition to us all to employ the strictest Care to discharge all these when we are seeking after Truth that they may not frame our Opinion for us For how could such a Thought as this without a strange Bias upon his Mind enter into any Mans head Or if it did how could it stay there or how should he be perswaded to publish such an absurdity to the Christian World Is it credible that in the Company where the Lord Jesus the Eternal Son of God was present any person though never so great should take upon him to teach nay to make an Article of Faith St. Peter certainly was no Master in this Assembly but a Scholar only not an Instructor but a Learner of Religion at this time and in this place Much less was he a Supreme Lawgiver and a Judg of Truth of which as yet he had not much Knowledg it appears by what follows in this Chapter where we read he so opposed our Saviour in another great point of Faith that he calls him Satan but barely pronounced what he had been taught to believe by our Lord himself and had heard as I have shown from John the Baptist and seen proved by such mighty Works as none could do but God alone If I seem to have stood too long in explaining this Confession let those who think so consider that it was to open the clearer passage to all the rest that follows which will be the more plainly and easily understood Particularly the next words of the Evangelist who tells us that upon this Confession of St. Peter our Lord answered and said unto him Blessed art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood that is man hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven v. 17. In which words he pronounces them all happy men this not being revealed peculiarly unto him but unto the whole Company who were all taught of God by such means as I have named as much as he For if Peter were their Mouth then as you have heard his Confession was their common voice in answer to a question put to them all and by the same reason our Saviours reply to him was the pronouncing a Blessing on them all who in him had made this worthy Confession and thereby demonstrated their proficiency in his School In one regard indeed St. Peter was more happy than the rest that as he was the first in the Colledg of the Apostles so he had the Honour as you shall hear to be the first employed in that glorious work unto which they were all chosen as much as he and in which they so laboured that they were partakers no less than himself in that Blessedness which is elsewhere pronounced to that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord hath made ruler over his houshold c. Matth. xxvi 45 46. Which words g Lib. ii de Concil c. 17. Bellarmin hath the confidence to apply peculiarly to St. Peter and the
before in the next Chapter so when he actually gives this Power which he saith here he will give he bestows it upon every one of them which was after his Resurrection John 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me even so I send you Here he speaks in the present Time and gives them in this Commission the Power which they had not before making them to be what they were ever after In token of which he breathed on them and said unto them Receive ye the Holy Ghost Whose soever Sins ye remit they are remitted c. Vers 22 23. Can any one who reads these words think that Peter was only sent and made the only Foundation and the only Gate to let Men into the Church when he hears such an Authority as this granted and sealed to them all He hath lost then the ancient sense of the Church which Theophylact * Mat. 16. 19. represents in these words Though it was said to Peter only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will give thee yet it was given to all the Apostles When Then when he said Whose soever Sins ye remit they are remitted to them For I will give denotes the future Time that is after the Resurrection Hear also how St. Austin t Enarratio in Psal 87. discourses upon these words of the Psalmist before-mentioned Why are they called the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets Because their Authority supports our weakness And why are they Gates Because by them we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For they preach to us and when we enter by them we enter by Christ Is it not plain by this that they did not think St. Peter to be the only Man that stands at the Gate as it were and with his Keys le ts Men into Heaven To say this is as much as to say he only preached Did not St. John preach also and St. James As for St. Paul he laboured more than them all Therefore I may truly say according to St. Austin's meaning by John and by James as well as Peter but especially by Paul we have an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven They all had equal Power they were all equally Gates whereby Men entred into the New Jerusalem they were all equally Foundations of the Church of Christ St. Peter laid the first Stone as he let in the first of the Gentiles but St. Paul let in more than he afterwards as appears by the whole Story of his preaching the Gospel of Christ To conclude this St. Peter himself it is manifest did not know of any such Authority as is now claimed residing in him For writing two Catholick Epistles he gives not the least intimation of any such Universal Pastorship as is now pretended to be derived from him but quite contrary calls himself Fellow Elder with the Pastors of the Church to whom he gives the same Exhortation that Christ did to him Feed the Flock of God 1 Pet. v. 1 2. which doth not differ in sense from Feed my Sheep or Feed my Lambs Joh. xxi 15 16. Nay more than this in the Gospel which the ancient Fathers say St. Mark wrote by St. Peter's direction he doth not so much as mention this Speech of Christ to him but only his own Confession Mark viii 29. which we may look upon as an Argument that he did not think it contained any Power peculiar to him which we may be sure he would not have forgotten Against so many weighty Reasons some think Object 1. it sufficient to argue for his Supremacy meerly from his being constantly named first when there is occasion to speak of him Five places are alledged for this purpose Matth. x. 2. Mark iii. 17. Luke vi 14. Acts i. 13. John xxi 2. Unto which I think fit to make a short Reply First That this is not such exact Truth as Answ to admit of no Exception For there are no less than four places where he is named with other Apostles and not set the first 1 Cor. iii. 22. ix 9. Gal. ii 9. Joh. i. 45. Secondly Supposing it was done designedly in those places where there is a Catalogue given of the Apostles the meer placing of a Name first will prove no Superiority of Power over those who are named after him as might be shown from a great many instances For any little advantage of Age Service Affection or the like may well be a Reason for such Precedence Thirdly The exact truth is when they were together as a Colledge it was necessary some one should be first in order but afterward when they were scattered abroad all over the World there was no such Precedence thought of For others I have shown are named before him and sometimes took place of him as St. James did at Jerusalem where he presided in the Council held there Peter indeed spake and delivered his Opinion first but the Decree is made by James who saith after he had taken notice of what Simeon had spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I determine or judg my Sentence is as we translate it That we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned unto God but write to them that they abstain from Pollutions if Idols c. Acts xv 19 20. And accordingly it was drawn up in his very words in that Letter which was written in the name of them all to the Gentile Christians Vers 28 29. This is no novel Criticism of Protestants but acknowledged heretofore by eminent Writers in the Roman Communion Alphonsus Tostatus r In Mat. 17. for instance observes that in this Council Peter did not produce the definition of the Church but James alone spake definitively as the Organ of the whole Church and greater than any of the Assessors And later than this Lorinus * Comment in Acta C. xv fol. 645. the Jesuite here notes that James seems to speak authentically and as a Judge when Peter is said simply to have spoken his mind How easie were it here if I durst take the liberty to strain several Observations beyond their true intention to bid you mark and observe how St. James declares himself in this Council the Head of the Church set over all his Brethren For first he being Bishop of Jerusalem the Mother-Church of the whole World thus begins his Speech Men and Brethren hearken unto me ver 13. as if he were the Successor of Christ of whom it was said Hear ye Him. Next ver 14. he calls him who had spoken before him bare Simeon not Peter now as if that Name signified Nothing to him who sate above him For he adds as I have said his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I judge or give this sentence And lastly when Peter had pleaded for an absolute and indefinite liberty from the burden of all Legal Rites ver 10. James thinks fit not to grant them an entire freedom but to tie them still to some necessary Observances ver 19 28. But we have not thus learned