of the Christian People having all the same Authority over them but were not Equal amongst themselves St. Peter being Superior to the rest Out of these Answers and other their Writings concerning this Matter we may gather these three Differences betwixt St. Peter and the rest of the Apostles 1. In the Apostleship all the Apostles were Equal But Peter received this Plenary Power not as Apostle but as Ordinary Pastor and Bishop of the Church which was to continue to his Successours 2. The Apostles were Equal in respect of the Nations to be Converted by them but not in respect of Themselves All the Apostles had Supreme Authority over the Christian VVorld But Peter was so Supreme Head of all Christians that he was also Superior to the Apostles 3. All the Apostles had Equal Power of Executing what Christ commanded them But St. Peter only had Power of making New Orders and prescribing by his Successors what is alwayes to be done in the Church Which Pretences we shall now Examine and Confute First It is pretended that the Amplitude of Power which all the Apostles had in common the rest had only for themselves and as a Priviledge meerly Personal was to end with them But Peter had the same in such sort that he might leave it to his Successours So that that Power which in the rest was Apostolical and Temporary was Ordinary Pastoral and Perpetual in Peter Which were it True then every Pope is immediately Chosen by God not by the Cardinals Then they are all Consecrated and Ordained Immediately by Christ not by Bishops Then have they all Power to write Books of Canonical Scripture and are free from Danger of Erring whensoever they either Preach or Write Then can they confirm their Doctrine by Miracles and give the Holy Ghost by the Imposition of their Hands But since no Pope can pretend without great Impiety to any of these Preheminencies it is vain for them to urge That some part of that Dignity and Power that was in Peter is in Peter's Successours for so there is in the meanest Priest in the VVorld Secondly As for that other Shift That the Apostles were Equal towards the People but not amongst themselves inasmuch as they had no Superiour in respect of their Office of Teaching and Governing the VVorld but were subject to one Head in respect of their Personal Actions It is one of the strongest Paradoxes the VVorld ever heard of For who can imagine that God would trust the Apostles with the managing the weightyest Affairs of his Church and the Government of the whole VVorld without being any way accountant in respect thereof unto any one amongst them as Superiour and that he would appoint an Head and Chief and subject them to his Censure in their Personal Actions But this is not the only Absurdity this Doctrine runs them into For Thirdly They tell us That all the Apostles had Equal Power of Executing what Christ commanded them But St. Peter only had Authority to make New Constitutions and to prescribe by his Successors what is alwayes to be done in the Church But this is said without any Proof at all and indeed is a Matter of another Debate Of which I have now thus much to say That it doth not appear That Peter had Power of himself to Determine any Matter of Moment Else when he was question'd for going unto the Gentiles he needed not to have made his Defence before the Apostles and Brethren but would have strengthned his Practice by his own Authority And at the Great Council at Jerusalem he neither presided as Chief nor was his Vote more Requisite than any other Apostle's for the Confirmation of what they then Determined The Apostles were all Stars of the greatest Magnitude and had each of them a Light to guide men to Christ in the ordinary concerns of Christianity But when any momentous matter arises in debate They then are gathered together and make up a glorious Constellation which by its illustrious emanations of Light leads the Church in its darkest emergencies By whose Acts and Writings the Church is so secured from Error and directed into all Truth that it no longer needs the extraordinary ways of Guidance If men would submit to the Truths they find there is no want of any power of defining new Articles of Faith The Church cannot by her Approbation make those Assertions and Propositions to be Catholick Verities that were not so before She may indeed propose what was before not so throughly thought on But it is not the Authority of the Church but the clear deduction from the things which we are bound expressly to believe that maketh things of that Sort that they must be particularly and distinctly Known and Believed that were not necessarily so to be Believed before I conclude this part with the judgment of the magdeburgenses Cen. 2. lib. 2. cap. 7. who prove That there is no Supremacy given to St. Peter by this place because the Apostles Mat. 18. afterwards doubted who was the greatest among them And it is Reasonable to suppose that Christ would have commanded them to strive no more about it had he appointed St. Peter to be their Chief His silence herein is Argument enough II. I come now to the Ordinary Power Honour and Priviledges of St. Peter and the Apostles which were to be derived down to their Successors That it is Essential to the being and constitution of a Church not only that there should be a distinction of Clergy and Laity but that in the Clergy also there should be different Orders is demonstrable from Scripture Antiquity and the general Concurrence of the Church in all Ages Tho indeed for the Reasons before-given it is not necessary that the Ministers of the Gospel should in every Age have the same qualifications the Apostles had For as those were reserved as peculiar and proper unto the Apostles and not Communicated to any other in their time so are they not passed over to their After-comers by Succession But in place of Immediate Calling we have now Succession Instead of Infallibility of Judgment the direction of their Writings guiding us in the search of Truth There is now no general Commission but a particular Assignation to Bishops and Pastors of several Churches to rule and parts of Christ's Flock to Feed Instead of Miraculous Gifts and the Apostles Power to confer them there are planted and settled amongst us Schools and Universities fitting men for the Work of the Ministry In place of their Miracles wherewith they Appealed to the Senses of men in establishing the Christian Doctrine we are Educated and brought up in the Faith and have it by so many Generations recommended to us as confirmed at first by the Apostles Miracles So that we see how the Apostles extraordinary Gifts which were most necessary for the planting of the Church are changed in respect of their Successors But the standing and perpetual part of their Office was to Teach and
the rest of the Apostles from that Priviledge as is already said and shall be in its place proved Now should we grant as in this sense we may without any prejudice to our own Cause That St. Peter is the Rock on which the Church is built yet it availes the Gentlemen of Rome but little towards the Maintenance of their pretended Supremacy But there are other Opinions concerning this Rock Videsis St. Ignat. Ep. ad Philadelph St. Greg. Nyss de Trin. adversus Judaeos St. Isid Pelus Epist lib. i. ep 235. B. Theodoret in Can. St. Greg. Epist lib. 3. ep 33. Theoph. in Mat. 16. St. Aug. in Ep. St. Joh. Tract 10. St. Bas Seleuc. Orat. 25. St. Jacob. Liturg. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 26 c. And some which joyn the Person of St. Peter profess it is Propter Robur Confessionis Justin Martyr Dial. cum Tryph. St. Chrysost Hom. 2. in Psal 50. St. Ambros Lib. 10. in St. Luc. c. 24. And St. Gregory gives it for a Rule When Petra is read in the Singular Number and so it is here Christus est Christ is signifyed which will give us a more clear and perspicuous Sense of the Place One of them is Calvin's Instit Lib. That the Rock is Christ As if Christ had said Upon this Rock that is my Self pointing out as it were himself unto them as when he said Destroy this Temple Joh. 2.19 So that the Mistake of the Romanists in one Case seems not to be less Partial or Willful than that of the Jews in the other That this Rock is Christ is manifest sayes Chemnitius from divers places in Scripture in which the Name of a Rock is ascribed to Christ or to the Lord As Deut. 32.18 Psal 18.3 31.3 And Christ is called The only Foundation 1 Cor. 3.11 1 Pet. 2.6 That our Saviour seems to refer to these Words in Isaiah 28.16 Behold I lay in Sion for a Foundation a Stone a Tryed Stone a precious Corner Stone a Sure Foundation is the Judgement of Dr. Lightfoot Her Heb. in Locum So that when St. Peter first of all declared the Mystery of the Incarnation and Deity of Christ the Disciples were taught out of the Prophet who was that Stone that was laid in Syon for a Foundation never to be thrown down which was therefore so Firm because he was not a Creature but the Son of God Which Sir-name Peter obtained not that he was that Stone but that he should have great Concern in building the Church upon it The other Sense of the Rock is That the Church is built on the Faith of Peter and the Confession thereof then made Which Opinion is by Bellarmine ascribed to Luther and by his Confession stands Established by the AUthority of many Fathers Hil. lib. 6. De Trin. sayes Upon the Rock of this Confession the Church is built This Faith is the Foundation of the Church By this Faith are the Gates of Hell weakned This Faith hath the Keys of the Kingdome of Heaven Ambr. lib. 6. cap. 9. in Luc. Fundamentum Ecclesiae Fides est Chrysost Hom. 55. in Mat. Upon this Rock will I build my Church That is Upon this Faith and Confession Cyril Alex. lib. 4. De Trin. The Rock as I take it is nothing else but the firm and unshaken Faith of the Disciple In quâ Ecolesia Christi ita fundata firmata esset ut non laberetur c. For were the Church founded upon St. Peter and not rather upon the Confession he had made it had presently Faln For Peter stumbled at the Article of our Saviour's Passion immediately after the Text and was Rebuked by the Name of Satan And Matth. 26. he thrice denyed Christ But to proceed Because the Church is usually in Scripture called the Temple and House of God Ephes 2.20 c. 2 Cor. 6.16 which rests upon one unmovable Foundation and is raised by the joyning together of Living Stones Christ therefore uses the Metaphorical Word I will Build As he is said to destroy who alienates mens Minds from the Truth to believe a Lye and separates them from the Church so he is said to Build who reconciles men to it and gains Members thereto by Preaching the Word Were there so much Mystery in the Promise as they of Rome pretend that because Christ who always was and ever will be the Foundation and Head of the Church says in the future I will Build therfore St. Peter must needs be the Rock on which it will be Built It should have been added upon the same Reason Not my but thy Church Because Christ had a Church before this Promise should be accomplisht But there are better Reasons to be given why Christ says I will Build my Church I. Comparing it to the Church he had before because after Christ's Ascension the Light of the Gospel shone clearer those things were Revealed and brought to open view which before had been wrapt up in Darkness II. Because of the Gentiles who were to be called to the Knowledg of the Gospel of Christ and to be made one Sheepfold under the great Shepherd and Bishop of their Souls The next Phrase is And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it The Christian Church shall be so founded and so Built that the Power of Hell Death and the Grave shall not get the Victory over it It shall be so Planted and Watred by Peter and the rest of the Apostles that God shall give it an eternal Increase it shall never be destroyed The Church thus Establisht may be understood either as it signifies Particular Persons Believers true faithful Christians of which the Church consists and tho these shall die yet Death shall have no Dominion over them Christ shall break open the Bars and cast those Cords from them and shall rescue them by his Resurrection from the power of the Grave Or Secondly The Church may be taken for the whole Congregation of Christian Professors and then this promise secures it from the Gates of Hell so as it shall never perish totally or irrecoverably It is inexpugnable and shall remain for ever and whatever Change it suffers in the World it shall again lift up its Head which is truly and effectually performed if as it decays or perishes in one Branch or Part it revives or flourish in another Nay should it at some one time as Mr. Chillingworth observes tho neither he nor we lay any great stress upon it be quite extinct yet the Gates of Hell have not prevailed against it if it rises again Victorious As the Enemy is not said to have prevailed against a Town if it be ever recovered out of his Hands The 19. v. And I will give unto thee the Keys c. is capable of this Interpretation That the Keyes are the Word of God whereby the Kingdom of Heaven is opened i. e. Remission of sins and Eternal Life is promised to those that Believe and Repent or shut when Pardon
and Life are denyed to the Impenitent and Unbelievers Peter binds when he inflicts punishment as Excommunication Penance c. or refers to the dreadful Judgment of God he looses when he remits those Penalties and declares the sinner Absolved And this judgment past on Earth if according to the Rule proposed the Word of God is ratified and confirmed in Heaven To explain this Power here conferred Dr. Lightfoot gives us the Form of Ordination amongst the Jews which was in these or the like words Receive thou Power to Bind or to Loose So Christ when he confers on the Apostles the Ministerial Function Commands them to bind and to loose i. e. to Teach what is to be done or not to be done as will appear if you will observe with the same Author that this Power extends only to Things not to Persons So that according to him this is the sense of the Place The time is coming says Christ when the Law of Moses shall be in part abrogated and in part continued so that to Peter and the other Apostles Power is granted to confirm or abolish what seems good unto the Holy Ghost and unto them As they forbad Circumcision and other Rites Acts 15.28 29. and permitted Paul to purify himself Acts 21.24 and the same Author will not allow this power of Binding and Loosing to import as much as that given Joh. 20.23 of Remitting and Retaining sins For there sayes he it is treated of the Persons to be or not to be Punished Here of Doctrines and things Lawful or Prohibited that are subject to the determination of the Apostles But we must crave leave to differ from the judgment of this Learned and Reverend Author and declare with Calvin lib. Inst lib. 4. cap. 6. § 3. cap. 11. § 1. That Christ explained what He meant by binding and loosing when He gave the Apostles Authority to to remit or retain Sins He is said to remit sins who by Preaching the Gospel converts men to God he is said to Retain who declares that the obstinate sinner is reserved for everlasting Punishments From whence it follows To receive the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven is not to be promoted to any Principality or Power over others but the Ministry of the Word Which is approved by St. Hierom when he sayes That the Apostles do Loose men by the Word of God by the Testimony of Scriptures and by the Word of Exhortation Which Sense is safe and plain and with the Jurisdiction here implyed and by Calvin not excluded is the entire meaning of the Place For the Power of Administring and Ruling the Church of God the Family of Christ is hereby conferred on the Apostles This primarily and independently belongs to Christ the Holy and True who hath the Key of David Rev. 3.7 Keyes are confessedly an Ensigne of Power But that Power is not all of one kind it is Greater or Less Principal and Independent or Inferior and Derivative And several Keyes are Emblems of these several Powers David was a King and independent from any on Earth and consequently the Key of David notes an Independent Supreme Power and that applyed to the Church belongs only to Christ But the Keyes of the House of David mentioned Isa 22.22 to which the Text seems to refer notes an Inferior Power that of a Steward in David's Family who being perfectly subordinate to him hath yet the Administration of the Affairs of his Family intrusted to him Now Christ is the Original and Prime Fountain of all Power over the whole Church that Spiritual Kingdom of David as to whom was given by the Father all Power in Heaven and Earth particularly that of Loosing or Remitting Sin on Earth Mat. 9.6 And this is by Christ communicated to his Apostles and their Successours the Bishops in the Church as so many several Stewards As St. Chrysostome observes That the Bishops are those Faithful Servants in the Parable whom the Lord sets over his House The Sense of the Words on both Sides thus given our Passage is clear to the Third and Last Thing proposed which was to consider The Power Honour and Priviledges hereby conferred on St. Peter which are 1. Extraordinary or Personal 2. Ordinary or to be derived down to his Successours I. I begin with the Extraordinary Power Honour and Priviledges of St. Peter Which I also call Personal not as Excluding the rest of the Apostles but their Successours In Discoursing of which I shall lay down these Two Things 1. VVhat the Extraordinary Power Honour and Priviledges of an Apostle are of which the succeeding Church did not partake 2. That in these Things St. Peter hath no Superiority over the other Apostles But that they were all Equal First I am to shew what the Extraordinary and Personal Power Honour and Priviledge of an Apostle is Christ while he had his Residence on Earth did not commit the Government of his Church into the Hands of others but Exercised the Office of Apostle and Bishop in his own Person Which Stile is given him Heb. 3.1 1 Pet. 2.25 But that he might shew himself Faithful in the House of God before he was to leave the World and return back to Heaven he did Ordain and Constitute several Officers who might in his Absence Conduct and Over-see the Affairs of the Church accordingly therefore He gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers For the the gathering together of the Saints the Work of the Ministry and the Edifying of the Body of Christ Until we all meet in the Unity of the Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God into a Perfect Man even into the Measure of the Age of the Fulness of Christ Eph. 2.11 c. Amongst these the Apostles were Chief and Principal and as far in Office as Honour before all other Orders of the Church Having these Badges of their Power and Priviledges not communicable to any other Ministers of Christ Immediate Vocation and Election Infallibility of Judgement in delivering the Doctrines of the Kingdome of Heaven Generality of Commission comprehending all Places and Persons The Gift of Tongues enabling them to speak in all the Languages of the World and the Knowledge of all Secrets and Power to confirm their Doctrines by Signes and Miracles and by the Imposition of their Hands the Power of Bestowing the Miraculous Gifts of the Spirit to Others These Powers and Privileges even in the Times of the Apostles were not conferred on Any but Themselves The Evangelists and Prophets were not called Immediately by Christ but appointed by the Apostles neither were they led Infallibly into all Truth General Commission they had not but were taken into the Fellowship of the Apostles Labours to Assist their Presence and Supply their Absence to Build upon their Foundation and to Perfect what they Began And tho the Miraculous Gifts of Tongues and Working Miracles were not proper to the Apostles yet having them in such sort as by the
Instruct the People in the Principles and Duties of Religion to Administer the Sacraments to confer Orders by the Imposition of Hands to constitute and appoint Guides and Officers who should Bind and Loose Sinners by Ecclesiastical Censures and finally to exercise the Discipline and Government of the Church And in these they are Succeeded by the ordinary Rulers and Ecclesiastick Guides who are to super-intend and discharge the Affairs and Offices of the Church to the end of the World It is not my Business at present to defend the different Orders of the Church from the Cavils of those whose Interest or Malice would bury it in Confusion Neither am I concerned to prove the Succession of Pastors against them who by pretence of an immediate and extraordinary Call leap into and invade the Offices of the Church These are not the men with whom I now intend I shall prove That the Pope as St. Peter's Successor hath none of those Extraordinary Gifts which will qualifie him for the Oecumenical Pastorship For granting not only that St. Peter was at Rome but that he was Bishop there that for Five Twenty years together tho the Antients attribute the founding the Episcopacy and Government of that Church equally to Peter and Paul making the one as much concerned in it as the other yet what would this make for the unlimited soveraignty and universality of that Church unless a better Evidence could be produced than this Succession to St. Peter for its uncontroulable Supremacy and Dominion over the whole Christian World For had not the same Peter a Successor at Antioch and the other Apostles in their several Sees and yet none of these pretended tho they seem to have equal Right to this Power But here we are told That immediate Vocation the seeing Christ in the Flesh power to write Canonical Books of Scripture and other priviledges extraordinarily conferred on the Apostles were fitting to the first beginnings of Christianity and so not of Perpetual use and Necessity But that Universality of Jurisdiction and a kind of Infallibility of Judgment are perpetually necessary and therefore these were to pass from Peter to Others tho the rest of the Apostolick Pre-eminencies were not Which I shall examine and then conclude That the Roman is a Patriarchal Church and the Bishop of it hath Prime Place amongst other Bishops of the World would never be denyed him would he rest contented with that But it must by no means be granted that he is an Universal Bishop having Jurisdiction over the whole Church that is such a Bishop in whom all Episcopal Jurisdiction Power and Authority is Originally Invested from whom it is derived to Others and who may Limit and Restrain the Use of it in Others as seemeth good unto Himself For every Bishop hath in his place and keeping in his proper Station the Episcopal Power and Authority immediately from Christ which is not to be Limited and Restrained by any but by the Company and Suffrages of Bishops Wherein tho one be Chief for Order sake and to preserve Unity in the Church yet he can do nothing without the Concurrence of the Rest When the Constantinopolitan Patriarch affected this Title as I before hinted Gregory then Pope compares him to Lucifer who despising the Angels his Companions sought to climb up to that Heighth that he neither might seem to be Under any nor any be found Over whom he was not As for Infallibility of Judgement pretended to as perpetual and necessary in the Church and as they would have it derived down from St. Peter to his Successours at Rome If it be granted to them that there is a kind of Infallibility or Non-deficiency rather in the Universal Church they presently confound the Notion and apply it to whom they please Accordingly there is this Distinction of a Church 1. A Church Essential which is the whole Multitude of Believers 2. The Representative The Assembly of Bishops in a General Council representing the whole Body of the Church from the several Parts whence they come 3. The Virtual Church by which they understand the Bishop of Rome who being by Christ's Appointment as they suppose Chief Pastor of the whole Church hath in himself Eminently and Virtually as great Certainty of Truth and infallibility of Judgement as is in the whole Church upon whom dependeth all that Certainty of Truth that is found in it Of these we affirm That the Church in the first Notion cannot erre or fall away In the Second That it may Erre In the Third tho we also deny the Notion That it doth Erre And against Matter of Fact as I take it there can be no Proof Of which I could give many Instances were it not Loss of Time to do so The Supremacy of the Pope so much contended for and so meanly supported is the greatest Intrenchment in the Exercise of it that was ever made upon the Prerogative of Princes and the Authority of Bishops The Crown and Mitre being swallowed up in this Plenitude of Power So that it is the Interest as well as Duty of Church and State of Prince and People of Pastors and their Flocks to oppose what is so much against the Wellfare of all Civil and Christian Societies I shall not urge the Inconveniencies only but the Injustice of such a Subjection whereby all Bonds Natural Civil and Christian are broken if it please him who usurps such a Supreme Power over Mens Consciences It is the Prerogative of God alone to set up his Throne in the Conscience of Man and by the Laws of right Reason to lay such a Restraint upon it as all Humane Powers cannot be able to gain say or resist to cancel or disanul Nothing but an express Dispensation from God himself can acquit the Subject or Child from the Obedience he ows his Prince or Parent Nature which is God's Law being herein so plain and positive must never upon the Interposition of any Humane Power be transgrest So that we must be very earnest to assert our own Liberty and our Superiours Authority against that Forreign Prelate who by his Emissaries doth dayly disturb the Peace of this our Syon and draw off many from their Duty and Obedience to God the Church their Country and their Prince Our own Nation is at present the Theatre wherein most Hideous Villanies are Plotted and Designed and it is much to be feared that the Actors are not yet gone off the Stage And all this not without a manifest Respect to and in direct Pursuance of this most Pernitious Doctrine Which is a strong Argument to us how far blind Zeal can transport and what a wicked Principle can inspire into their Breasts who thus obstinately adhere to it For if by such a pretended Power a King be declared an Heretick upon that Declaration be Excommunicated upon that Excommunication be deprived of his Dominions and Condemned to Death And if his Subjects at the same time be not only absolved from all Allegiance to him but bound in Conscience to Depose and Destroy him and Execute that direful Sentence against his Life What Security can any Prince or People expect from those that maintain such Principles as tend in so direct a Consequence to the Confusion and Subversion of Church and State when-ever it shall please this Supreme Power to pronounce such a Sentence But some have gone farther and absolved all Subjects from their Allegiance if they are resolved in Conscience that their Prince is Heretical The other is bad enough I need not trace this any farther This Doctrine which by them that maintain it hath been sometimes accounted Scandalous is not confined to Theory but hath been often reduced to Practice It hath not only been Disputed of in Schools but Preach't in Pulpits maintained in Press and confirmed by Actions From hence is apprehended all our Danger and from hence springs all our Mischief That the Subjects of any Prince or whoever else shall come under the Protection of his Laws and Government who for the time are to be reckoned Subjects shall presume to own any Power under Heaven Superior to him and by vertue of Commission from that Forreign Power shall endeavour to disturb and subvert the Laws and Government Establisht This is the First Mover in the Roman Sphear that hurryes all Inferior Orbs The Spring that gives Motion to the Papal Machin When this is swallowed down there is nothing can oppose or hinder any of the Designs of Rome Wherefore tho other Doctrines are pitcht upon as more Absurd yet in my Judgement and I think I have the Experience of this Nation to confirm the Truth of it this is of most fatal and pernitious Consequence And with its Infallibility annext throws down all that can oppose it self against the Holy Chair The latter makes Men stick at no Absurdities The former encourages and commands them to commit all Villanies Let us therefore fortify our Reason against the One and strengthen our Arms against the Other Let us put on the whole Armor of God and with them joyn our Prince's too that we may be able to stand against these Adversaries of both And then we shall not only fight with Honour and Praise but come off with Success and Glory FINIS