upon it Particularly Launnoy who on set purpose demonstrates that Bellarmine neither obeyed the Decree of the Trent Council Epist pars v. Gulielmo Voello nor kept the Profession of Faith enjoined by Pius IV. when he drew this Conclusion of the Popes Infallibility from these Words Thou art Peter c. but was guilty of down-right Flattery of the Court of Rome for whose sake he in like manner falfied in the Citations he brings out of the Fathers to maintain the same Untruth But further than this the same Writer presses these words to prove that General Councils cannot err neither in believing nor teaching †L. 2. de Conc. Autor cap. i. Which is as much as to confess that what Christ said to Peter was intended to all Bishops of whom a General Council consists But here he endeavours to bring off himself by this Salvo if the Council be confirmed by the Pope as if they received their Infallibility from him who turns their doubtful Opinions into Oracles Whence it is that from the very same words Thou art Peter c. he proves the Pope to be above a Council * Ib. cap. xv immediately constituted by Christ the Pastor and Head not only of all particular Churches but also of the whole universal Church congregated together If this be to interpret the Scripture I know not what is setting it upon the Rack and stretching it as far as it pleaseth him who takes it in hand No Hereticks ever took so great a liberty as this which according to their way of reasoning makes it necessary to seal up the Bible quite that no body may look into it For if the danger of wresting the holy Scriptures be a just cause for denying the liberty of reading them to illiterate people it ought not to be granted to the most Learned who it appears by this great Cardinal are in as much or more danger of this than any other Men and so farewel the study of the Scriptures which neither Priest nor People must meddle withal But thanks be to God there is such a thing as Honesty and Integrity still remaining in the World which qualifies all Men for the wholsome perusal of them and hath preserv'd the minds of some in that Communion so uncorrupted as to make them disdain and reject these perverse and arrogant Interpretations or Distortions rather of Holy Scripture There is one hath lately declared his sense of this Promise to St. Peter in remarkable words with which I conclude this part of my Discourse †Du Pin de antiquae Eccles Discipl Dissert iv cap. 1. sect 1. Supposing Christ to have spoken these words and upon this Rock of the Person of Peter he meant nothing else thereby but that Peter should labour very much in the Edification of the Church that is in the Conversion of the Faithful and Administration of the Churches And therefore the most that can be deduced from hence is that he should be the first and the chief among those who were to preach the Gospel but it cannot from hence be gathered with Bellarmine that the Government of the whole Church was committed to Peter especially about Faith. II. The truth of this will further appear in the Explication of the next Words which expound those of which I have now treated And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth it shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven The sense of which is not so plain and obvious as Bellarmine pretends but we agree that they are a plain allusion to the Words of the Prophet Isaiah concerning Eliakim Isa xxii 23. I will give thee the Keys of the House of David i. e. make thee not High-Priest as he grossly mistakes but Steward of the Royal Family to take in and thrust out whom thou shalt think fit Such was the Power here promised to Peter by our Lord who saith of himself that he hath the Key of David Rev. iii. 7. i. e. of the House or Family of David which he alone governs by an absolute Power but tells Peter he intended to make him under himself his Supreme Lord and Master such a Steward in the Church as Eliakim had been in the Court. I say in the Church for by the Kingdom of Heaven I think no body now will dispute is meant the Family of Christ or the Christian Church in a great many places of the Gospel and most likely is so to be interpreted here But if any body be so minded as to understand by the Kingdom of Heaven not the Christian Society here below but the Company of the Blessed above let them consider that the sense will still be the same because by admission into the one and abiding in it we come to the other And Baptism is the Key which lets us into the Church out of which such as notoriously break their Baptismal Vow ought to be shut by the Censures of the Church and again received into it upon their hearty Repentance by granting them Absolution Thus the following Words expound it and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth c. That binding and loosing are one and the same with the Power of the Keys is acknowledged by the Roman Catechism * De Sacrament Paenitenn 44. and by Bellarmine himself who confesses the plain sense of these Words to be that first of all an Authority or Power is promised defined by Keys and then the Actions or Office of this Power is explained by those words loosing and binding So that to loose and to open to shut and to bind is altogether the same thing †L. 1. de Pont. Rom. cap. xii verùm And we need not further trouble our selves to inquire how far this Power extends for it is certain there is nothing here promised though we suppose it never so large which was intended to him alone but to them all except that of opening the door first to let the Gentiles into the Church This is apparent from what was said before concerning Christ speaking to them all in him as he spake for them all in answer to our Saviour's Question propounded to the whole Company Which produced this Promise from our Saviour not to him alone but to all them in whose Name he spake Which is no new Interpretation but as old as the Church it self for the Antients say with an unanimous consent that these Keys were given to the whole Church in the Person of Peter * Du Pin de antiqua Eccles Disc dissert iv c. 1. Sect. 1. as a late Writer in the Roman Communion honestly confesses St. Austin particularly inculcates this an hundred times as his words are a proof of which may be seen in another of his Brethren †Jo. Launoy Epist par 2. Hadriano Valantio p. 14. c. who hath made a Collection of xxvi places out of his Works to
of the Church as appears by St. Cyprian in ancient times who observes that our Lord who said to Peter Thou art Peter c. gave to all his Apostles equal Power * Parem Potestatem after his Resurrection when he said As the living Father sent me so I send you c. concluding from thence that all the Apostles were what St. Peter was †Hoc utique erant caeteri Apostoli quod suit Petrus pari consortio praediti honoris potestatis c. L. de unitate Ecclesiae Epist xxiii ad Jubianum And by Theophylact in later times who thus glosses upon Matth. xvi 19. Though our Lord said only to Peter I WILL GIVE THEE yet they were given to all the Apostles When at that time when he said Whosoever Sins ye remit they are remitted For the word I WILL GIVE denotes the future time that is after the Resurrection Then he said to them all As my Father hath sent me so I send you Which are words so large that they contain in them a plenitude of Power and confute the conceit of those who say that Christ indeed gave the Power of remitting and retaining Sins to all the Apostles but the Power of the Keys to Peter alone Whereby if they meant that to Peter it was given to open the Gate first to the Gentiles it ought to be allowed to be a true sense tho we are not certain it was the thing peculiarly intended by our Saviour in these words But understanding thereby a distinct Power from that of binding and loosing retaining and remitting which St. Peter exercised when he let the Gentiles into the Church it is certainly false that he gave him such a Power which he did not confer upon the rest For should we suppose binding and loosing to be distinct from the Power of the Keys yet this Power of the Keys be it what it will we may be sure is included in these comprehensive words As my Father hath sent me so I send you which were spoken unto them all And therefore as the Keys were not promised to him alone so not to him more than any other Apostle but only the use of them first before any other Apostle That 's the most as I have often said which can reasonably be conceived to be peculiarly promised to Peter in these words that he should first open the Door of Faith to the Gentiles as we read he did Acts x. and as some think to the Jews also Acts ii Tertullian * L. de Pudicitiae c. xxi seems to be of this mind and I shall not here dispute it who mentioning this place I will give thee the Keys c. thus proceeds so the Event teaches us the Church was first built on him that is by him He first handled the Key See what Key Ye Men of Israel hear these words Jesus of Nazareth a Man approved of God among you c. Acts ii 22 c. He in fine did first by the Baptism of Christ unlock the entrance of the Heavenly Kingdom c. He bound Ananias with the Bond of Death and he absolved the Man lame of his Feet from the weakness wherewith he laboured And in the Dispute which arose about the Obligation of the Law Peter first of all by the instinct of the Holy Ghost having told them how God made choice of him that the Gentiles should hear the Word from his Mouth said And now why tempt ye God to put a Yoke upon the Neck of the Disciples which neither our Fathers nor we were able to bear c. where he plainly makes the Power of the Keys and binding and loosing to be the same thing and from the scope of his Discourse it appears as Launoy †Epist par ii Hadriano Vallantio p. 6. hath observed that they then believed at Rome that in the Person of Peter the Keys were given to the Church that is says he the power of binding and loosing Which things if the late Catholick Scripturist had known or would have been pleased to mind how could he have had the Confidence to say that our Lord spake these words to Peter to signify that he was the Head and Chief in ordinary For tho the Power of binding and loosing was afterward given to the other Apostles yet the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are never in Scripture said to be given to any but to St. Peter * The seventh Point n. 6. By which Keys also he saith is signified the plentitude of highest Power For this vain Conceit is contrary to the common Opinion of the ancient Fathers whom they are bound by their Profession of Faith and Oath to follow contrary to their greatest Schoolmen such as Scotus Aquinas Alex. Alensis who affirm that the Keys promised to Peter in St. Matth. xvi were given to all the Apostles in St. John xx contrary also to their own Catechism as I have shown according to which he ought to have instructed his Followers The Sum of what hath been said is this 1. The Power which our Lord here promised to Peter was not meant to him alone 2. For he did but represent and sustain the Person of the Church as the Ancients speak to whom this Promise belongs 3. And therefore our Lord afterward promises the very same thing in the same words to all the Apostles which he here promises to Peter 4. And accordingly when he performed his Promise he gave this Power to every one of them equally 5. But Christ directed this Promise at the first singularly to him that he might commend Vnity 6. Or at the most he promised him the Honour of opening the Door of Faith first unto the Gentiles 7. From whence we can only gather that he was the first among the Apostles but not that he was promised any Power which the rest had not for the contrary is apparent 8. To all which I must add repeating briefly what I said upon the foregoing words that if we should grant our Saviour to have promised some Power to Peter when he said I will give thee the Keys which the other Apostles had not it would prove a personal Prerogative and cannot be shewn to have descended to any Successor much less to the Pope of Rome who Bellarmine saith is a true Prince who hath Power to make true Laws to bind the whole Church And this he proves from these words Whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. * L. iv de Rom. Pontif. c. xvi Concerning which it will be thought too sharp perhaps to say tho they are the words of one in the Roman Communion †Launoy ubi supra p. 77. simply to relate the words of this Author is simply to confute them they are so very contrary to Truth and Equity The Reader therefore may be pleased briefly to consider what our Lord himself saith to all his Apostles Matth. xxiii 8 9 10. which utterly overturns
13. If any Power or degree of Power was here promised to Peter more than to the rest of the Apostles it must be gathered either from the force of the Substance of the Promise or from the Circumstances wherewith it was delivered The Substantial part is nothing else but that of a Steward in the Church set forth by the Emblem of Keys and more explicitly declared by the Power of binding and loosing which carries in it no intimation of such a thing as a Supremacy over the whole Church but only of a ruling Power in some Family that is in that part of the Universal Church where his lot should fall For this very thing being presently after promised to all the Apostles it makes it evident there was no Supremacy here promised for then there must be not one but twelve Supremes As for the Circumstances wherein this part and the former of our Saviour's Promise was delivered which some are pleased to urge as very considerable they are of no strength to support so great a weight as they lay upon them For first It is very unreasonable that Circumstances should be thought of greater force to declare the meaning of this Promise than the very Substance it self is And secondly All these Circumstances save only that of his own Name and his Fathers joyned together are not peculiar to him but common to others who confessed Christ's Divinity and had it revealed from God and were blessed and designed for Stones in the Fabrick of the Church as well as Peter And further even that Circumstance of calling him Simon Bar-jona had a visible reason for it to distinguish this Simon from Simon Zelotes So that there is nothing left but the small Circumstance of calling him by his Name to be the grand Foundation of St. Peter's Supremacy Can any one be satisfied with such poor Proofs Which are no better than if we should argue in this manner our Lord said to Peter Follow me and so he did to the other eleven and by this made them his Disciples in common But had he said Simon Barjona Follow thou me as he might very well if any other Simon were then present he alone according to this way of discoursing had been taken into Discipleship and none after him enjoyed this Honour But I have said enough if not too much upon these Texts and must here end this Paper for fear of swelling it beyond the intended bulk The rest shall soon follow ERRATA PAge 81. line 21. for will be read were P. 83. l. 31. r. understood P. 85. l. 10. del of l. ult r. walk on P. 88. penult r. falsified P. 93. l. 29. del of before Peter's LONDON Printed by J. D. for Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1688. The Second Part. The TEXTS examined which Papists cite out of the Bible TO PROVE The Supremacy of St. PETER and of the POPE over the whole Church IMPRIMATUR Guil. Needham Febr. 14. 1687. III. NOw we are come to the last reserve of the Roman Church for the support of this Cause which lies in those Words of Christ to Peter John xxi 15 16 17. Feed my Lambs and feed my Sheep They are sensible of the truth of that which hath been oft repeated that in neither of the former places Christ gave any thing to Peter but only promised he would give him such things as are there mentioned Now they are hard put to it to find when he did perform this Promise and not find with all that he performed it to all the Apostles and therefore as I have said made it to them all Here is the only Place they rely upon here they would fain find what is no where else to be found something peculiarly granted to Peter which was conferred upon none of the rest Read the words say they and observe how they are peculiarly spoken to Peter So when they had dined Jesus said to Simon Peter Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou these me more than these He saith unto him Yea Lord thou knowest I love thee He saith unto him FEED MY LAMBS He saith to him again the second time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me He saith unto him Yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee He saith unto him FEED MY SHEEP He saith unto him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time Lovest thou me And he said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee Jesus saith unto him FEED MY SHEEP See say they with what Solemnity our Lord here speaks to Peter and to him alone calling him three times particularly by his Name and Relation and bidding him as oft feed his Lambs or Sheep whereby he instated him in the Office he had promised him and made him in a particular manner to be a Pastor even the Pastor of the whole Church with a Supreme Power over it First To which we reply That having seen and considered all this we can see nothing here that looks like a Grant or Commission nothing given to St. Peter by these words which are a plain Charge or Command requiring him to do his Office which was therefore conferred upon him before together with the rest of the Apostles when our Lord said As my Father hath sent me so I send you c. Receive ye the Holy Ghost c. Secondly And as here is no Commission no Conveyance of any thing made to him but a bare Precept to do his Duty So the Duty doth not concern him alone but belongs to them all as much as him It is at this time required in a Precept directed to him alone that 's true and Bellarmine might have spared all his Labour to prove that these words were spoken to Peter alone They were so if we understand thereby that he only by Name is now admonished of his Duty the reason of which we shall see presently but the Duty of which he was admonished was not peculiar to him and so the words do not belong to him alone as appears by many Arguments 1. From St. Peter himself who seems to have interpreted the Mind of Christ in this Speech to him in his words to the Elders of the Church to whom he wrote 1 Pet. v. 1. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am What the Monarch of the Church the Vicar of Christ Or Pastor of Pastors The Chief Apostle Or Supreme Bishop No such thing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your fellow Elder c. Feed the Flock of God which is among you c. And from whom did these Elders receive their Power and Authority From St. Peter No such matter but from the chief Shepherd or Pastor from whom he bids them expect their Reward ver 4. 2. In like manner St. Paul gives the very same Charge to the Elders of Ephesus to take heed to themselves and to all the Flock over which the Holy
they have this wise Note Peter saith St. Bernard walking upon the Waters as Christ did DECLARED himself the ONLY VICAR of Christ which should be Ruler not over one People but over ALL For many Waters are many People And from hence he deduceth the like Authority and Jurisdiction to his Successors the Bishops of Rome And a goodly Deduction it is for which they are mightily beholden to St. Bernard who could spy such a notable Declaration of St. Peter's sole Vicarship and draw from thence such a fine Argument for the Pope's Authority as no ancient Doctor besides himself was able to find in this place But must his Fancies pass for substantial Proofs of the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy which was raised to a great height in his days At this rate no body need want Proofs for the most detestable Heresies which he shall please to devise if such Conceits as these be allowed for Arguments And their second Annotation is like to this of which for ought I know they may have the honour to be the Inventors without the help of St. Bernard For because our Saviour when there were two Ships went in that which was Simon 's Luke v. 3. and thence taught the People they gravely conclude that undoubtedly he taught out of that Ship and not the other on purpose to signify the Church resembled by Peter's Ship and that in it is the Chair of Christ and only true preaching By which it is evident they intended the Reader should understand that as Peter was Owner of that Ship so he and his Successors are Rulers of the whole Church For upon the following Verses ver 7 10. they observe how Peter had so much work that he was fain to call for help and joyned those who were in the other Ship as Co-partners in the Preaching of the Gospel As much as to say the Work was committed to him alone who took in such help as he needed He was the only Pastor and all the rest as was said before his Curates For they tell us all this aforesaid did properly mean his Travels in the Conversion of the World and his Prerogative therein before all Men as is evident by Christ's special Promise made to him SEVERALLY and APART in this place that he should be made the TAKER OF MEN. What then became of all the rest Were they to sit still in their Ship and do nothing O no by no means He giveth to other say these Annotators the like Office as to Peter 's Co-operators and Coadjutors Before they said that Peter called them and joyned them to himself as Co-partners in the preaching of the Gospel but now having better it seems bethought themselves they say Christ appointed them to this Office yet still they are but as Peter's Co-operators and Assistants He was the Taker of Men and converted the World they only came in to his help and brought all the Fish into his Net. Their Ship signified nothing it was Peter alone that signified all Their Ship stands for a meer Cypher his Ship is the Figure of the whole Church where he governs and they are but helps in Government meer Co-adjutors unto him the great and indeed only Bishop over all Who can endure such Annotations as these in which Men play with the Holy Scriptures as they please and play with them in so saucy a manner as to interpret them directly against the Scriptures In which the Apostles call themselves Workers together with Christ 2 Cor. vi 1. imployed by him to be his Co-operators not St. Peter's who was so far from being the Converter of the World that his Travels and Pains were most bestowed in the least part of it Which Bellarmine I suppose saw well enough and therefore was so wise as not to mention such Allegories Which may serve to entertain the Fancies of silly People but are the just scorn of those that have any measure of Spiritual Understanding Who have heard perhaps that the Fathers sometimes resembled the Church of Christ to Peter's Ship but not that they ever dream'd of making him and the Bishop of Rome after him the Governour of the whole Church because he was Master of that Ship. There is nothing more unaccountable than such a Conclusion unless it be their pretence to Infallibility who are meer Triflers when they meddle with the Holy Scriptures which is the next thing I would have observed Secondly If the danger of wresting the Scriptures be a good reason why the common People should not read them then no body at all should look into them for their most learned Priests have wrested them more than the common People And that against their Oath whereby they are bound to interpret Scripture according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers who all agree that what was said to Peter in these three places belonged to all the Apostles whose Writings as the rest of the Scriptures have by none been more foully abused than by the Popes of Rome whose Interpretations and Applications of them should they be collected in a Book would make one of the most shameful pieces that hath been yet extant in the World. Thirdly And let the Reader observe once more how ill they of that Church are agreed about the Interpretation of these three places of Scripture which are the Subject of this Discourse There are four Interpretations of the first place Thou art Peter c. as hath been else-where observed which have had great Authors in the Roman Church as well as others Some by Rock understand Peter's FAITH in the Confession he had newly made which by the way Joh. Ekius * L. 1. contra Luther de Petri Primatu c. 13. says in the Age before us no body denied to be the sense and bids Luther name the Man that said otherways Others CHRIST himself whom Peter had confessed to be the Son of God others PETER and others ALL the APOSTLES which last is the Exposition of Paschasius Radbertus the famous Broacher of Transubstantiation whose words are these * L. iv in Matthaeum The Church of God is built not only upon Peter but upon all the Apostles Now they who follow the first and second sense can find no Prerogative here for St. Peter above the rest of the Apostles and they that adhere only to the third in opposition to the other as they now commonly do are confuted by those who assert the fourth that these words were spoken to all the Apostles And indeed they are all forced to confess that nothing is here promised which is not contained in the next words And I will give thee the Keys c. But what this is none of them can certainly tell For one sort such as Cajetan hold the Keys contain more than binding and loosing which Bellarmine says is false nay a thing never heard of in the Church And consequently this Power of binding and loosing being promised to them all Matth. xviii 18. the Power of the Keys was promised to
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