else but this that the Church is built upon Christ by Faith in him which was professed and preached by Peter and by the rest of the Apostles Christ is in proper speaking the Rock and the Foundation upon which the whole Church relies Peter was an eminent Minister of his and so were the other Apostles to lay this Foundation that is to Preach and declare him to the World and perswade Men to believe on him upon whom they themselves were built as their Foundation They first believed on him and then were co-workers with him to bring others to the Faith and lastly after they were dead that Faith which they confessed and taught still remained to be preached by their Successors in all Ages as the Doctrine on which we must stand and to which we must hold if we intend to be owned by Christ as Members of his Church So all these Expositions agree very well and do not cross one another for when the Fathers use sometimes one word sometimes another they still mean the same thing If they say S. Peter is the Rock they mean only as a Minister that laid the Foundation-stone and then so was S. Paul too who calls himself a chief Master-builder If they say Faith is the Rock they mean a belief of this Doctrine that Jesus is the Son of the living God which is the first Principle of the Christian Religion And if they say the faithful are the Rock for so some of them have spoken they mean that being built upon this Faith in Christ they also profess maintain and support it For in effect as I said all these Interpretations meet in one Christ being the Principal cause of all Peter a Ministerial or Instrumental cause by preaching Christ while he lived and perswading Men to joyn themselves to him and become a Church and their belief of that which he and the rest of the Apostles preached concerning Christ Jesus was both then and after they were dead the means whereby they were joyned to Christ He and the Doctrine concerning him was the Foundation upon which all were built by the Ministry of Peter and his fellow Apostles who squared and fastened Men unto this living Stone upon whom being setled by Faith in him they became themselves living Stones as S. Peter speaks in the place before-mentioned and were built up a Spiritual House or Temple an Holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ I will conclude this with an excellent saying of S. Chrysostom * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. who speaking of S. Paul and what he had preach'd and done says When I mention Paul it is as if I had said Christ himself For Christ moved and inspired that blessed Soul Christ spake by him and his Voice was the Voice of Christ Which I may fitly apply to the present matter and say as truly of S. Peter when he is named Christ is named and nothing else is meant but that upon him that is upon Christ should by him or speaking in him the Church should be built Thus it is certain Tertullian understood these words which he thus interprets the Church is built on him that is by him †In ipso Ecclesia exstructa est id est per ipsum L. de pudicitia C. XXI But not on him that is by him alone III. For that is a farther piece of injustice to make these words spoken only to Peter who I have shown was the mouth of the Apostles in the confession he made and spake the sense of them all and therefore in all reason this reply of our Saviour's is to be thought intended to them all who were as much Rocks or foundations of the Church as he For did not our Lord propound the question to them all in those words whom do you say that I am v. 15. And if he askt them the question did he not expect their Answer Where then shall we find that Answer unless the Foreman delivered in the sense of the whole Body and in the name of the rest of his Brethren made this declaration Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Which is affirmed I have told you by S. Austin and others who say Peter answers one for all Now if they all made this confession then they were all concerned in our Saviours reply who tells him and in him tells them that upon this Rock that is himself which they confessed he would build his Church by their Ministry that is by their constant preaching what they had now confessed And thus Venerable Bede our Countryman understood this matter in his Homily upon S. Peter where he hath these very words Nam sicut interrogatis generaliter omnibus c. For as when all were askt in general who he was Peter answered one for all So what our Lord answered to Peter in Petro omnibus respondit in Peter he answered to all the Apostles Thus even common reason taught Men to expound words when it was not swayed by prejudice interest or any private affection Which when we suffer to intermeddle they prevent our judgment and make strange glosses upon Gods word casting a mist before our eyes when the light of divine truth clearly shines into them An instance of which we have in the Rhemists Annotations on these words who could not but see that the Fathers do some time say if they could have spoke out they would have siad do very often or rather most commonly say the Church is bult on Peter 's Faith But immediately as if darkness had come on a sudden upon them they add the Fathers meant not that it should be built upon Faith either separate from the Man or in any other Man as we they say unlearnedly take them but upon Faith as in him who here confessed that Faith. Which is as much as to say the Church is built upon Peter's Faith alone and not upon the same Faith in any other Apostle If this be Christian learning it is very new never thought of till of late as will more fully appear in the following Considerations IV. If we should grant that thèse words of Christ were spoken only to him yet it is very unjust to understand them exclusively of all the rest For we may as well argue that Christ intended S. Peter only should draw Men to him by preaching the Gospel and so the rest of the Apostles have nothing to do because he said to him alone and not to James and John who were his Partners Simon fear not from henceforth thou shalt catch men Luke V. 10. as that he intended him alone to be the Rock because he said only to him Thou art Peter c. without any mention of the rest of the Apostles Who ought not to be thought excluded unless there had been some such word of restriction as limited the sense to S. Peter only and barred their claim to a joynt share in this grant for the Church may be built on
Roman Bishop but directly against the sense of the Ancient Fathers whom he was bound by solemn Oath to follow who as a learned Man h Iv. Launoy Epist ad Raimundum Formentinum pars 2. of the Roman Communion hath largely proved understand hereby every faithful Pastor in the Church of Christ Who according to the way and method of the Divine Counsels which is to give unto those that have to bestow more on those who make a good use of what they have already received immediately hereupon opens to the Apostles his purpose of gathering a Church and drawing more disciples to him besides themselves who should perpetually keep and preserve this Confession and withal declares that he would use Peter as an eminent instrument in this great undertaking 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and I also or moreover say unto thee beside what I have said already I tell thee further Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church His Speech is directed to Peter but it is evident from what hath been said that in him he comprehends all the Apostles as they were all comprehended in his Confession Who knew already that he was Christ the Son of the Living God but did not understand his intention of gathering a Church by their means This Name of Peter we met withal before Matth. x. 2. being given him at his first coming to our Saviour John i. 42. Where he told him Thou shalt be called Cephas which is by interpretation a stone or Peter Concerning which Justin Martyr a Dialog cum Tryh p. 333 334. See also Tertullian L. iv adv Marcionem c. 13. hath this Excellent Observation That it was to show our Saviour was the very same God who in the beginning had given new Names to Abraham and Sarah to Jacob and Joshua And for the same reason he called other two Disciples by the name of Boanerges to signify that he had the same Authority by which names were anciently changed and that he was their Lord and Soveraign of which the imposing a name on any person was a mark So that the Words of our Saviour in this place are to be understood as if he had said Thou art he to whom when thou first camest to me I gave a new Name and called Peter a Stone and truly my Church shall be built on a bottom as firm as any stone or rock It was the custom of our Lord when he was about to declare any Divine Truth to lay hold on some sensible similitude then near at hand the better to represent it to the minds of those that heard him As discoursing with the Woman of Samaria at the Well-side he takes occasion to tell her of living water that he had to bestow upon her Such as should be in those that drank it a well of water springing up into everlasting life John IV. 10 14. And at another time feeding a Multitude miraculously with a few Barly Loaves and Fishes he thence lays hold of the opportunity to discourse of the bread of life which came down from heaven which he admonishes them to labour after because if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever John VI. 26 27 50 51. In like manner here from the Name he had given Peter he takes the occasion of representing the stedfastness of that Foundation on which his Church should be built saying on this rock will I build my Church There was something in Peter no doubt which was the motive to the bestowing this Name upon him and that was the forwardness of his Faith which carried him to Christ meerly upon the report which his Brother Andrew gave of him Which was the reason S. Gregory Nyssen thinks that though Abraham's Name was not changed till after long acquaintance with God and many Divine Apparitions to him Peter's was changed at the very first sight of our Saviour he at the same time hearing his Brother and believing on the Lamb of God was consummated by Faith and being knit to the rock viz. Christ was made Peter * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. XV. in Cantic Canticorum p. 691. For our Lord intended to imploy him though not him alone as an eminent instrument to bring others to the Faith and build them on the same Rock that he himself was built till they became a Church The word CHURCH signifies the whole company of Believers united unto Christ as their Lord and Master who are here compared to a House The building of this Church is nothing else but the joyning these Persons with their Pastors into Company and Society one with another in such good order as the Stones which make an House are laid in upon their Foundation All the difficulty is about the Rock or the Foundation upon which this Society stands and by holding fast to which it remains a Church Which is the second thing I undertook to treat of unto which I now proceed PART II. What is here meant by the Rock COncerning this there are various expositions among the ancient Fathers as is manifest to every one that hath read their Writings though in truth as you shall see before I have done they differ rather in words than in sense and quite overthrow all the pretensions of the Church of Rome from this place of Holy Scripture I will name four I. It is confessed by all Protestants that some of the ancient Fathers by the Rock do understand Peter No Body that I know of disputes about this but only about their meaning when they say he was this Rock on which Christ said he would build his Church Which undoubtedly is not such as they of the Church of Rome would have it because other Persons far more in number and of as eminent rank in the Christian Church expound it of the Faith which S. Peter confessed So that he was the Rock and the Foundation only as he preached this Faith which is the second interpretation and shall be made appear to be the meaning of those who call Peter the Foundation of the Church II. If numbers are to be followed there are most I am sure for this sense of these words that by the Rock we are to understand that faith which S. Peter now confessed It is mentioned by Fortunatus an African Bishop in a Council at Carthage * De Baptizanâ—is Hareticis apud Cyprian p. 233. edit Oxon. where he saith the Lord hath built his Church Supra petram non super haeresin upon a Rock not upon Heresie In which words Rock being opposed to Heresie without all doubt he understood our Saviour to speak of a sound and solid Faith in him when he said he would build his Church upon this Rock Which is exactly the sense of Epiphanius also who by the Gates of Hell understanding all sorts of Heresies adds immediately †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Haeres LXXIV n. 14. but they cannot prevail against the Rock that is against the Truth To whom I
neither in Paul 's nor in Peter 's but in the name of Christ that Peter might be built upon the Rock not the Rock upon Peter The like we meet withal in another place †Tract CXXIV in evang Johannis The Church is founded upon the Rock whence Peter received his Name For the Rock is not denominated from Peter but Peter from the Rock * Non enim à Petro Petra sed Petrus à Petra directly contrary to Card. Baronius who confidently says non Petrus à Petra sed ipse Petra not Peter from that Rock but he is the Rock Ad An. 31. n. 24. as Christ hath not his name from Christian but a Christian from Christ for therefore the Lord said Vpon this Rock I will build my Church because Peter had said Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. Vpon this Rock therefore saith he which thou hast confessed will I build my Church FOR THE ROCK WAS CHRIST upon which foundation even Peter himself is built For other foundation can no Man lay than that is laid which is Christ Jesus I will not trouble you with any more Authorities such as that of Venerable Bede †In Cap. XXI Johan who hath transcribed these last words of S. Austin into his own Book because I have a fourth exposition to add which will help to clear the rest especially the first IV. There are those who having what I have now said in their mind expound these words of all the Apostles and their Successors that is of all Christian Bishops who laid this foundation stone and continued to build upon it after it was laid Thus S. Cyprian * Ad Lapsos Epist XXXIII Edit Oxon. most expresly Our Lord whose precepts we ought to reverence and observe ordering the honour of the Bishop and the rule of his Church saith in the Gospel unto Peter I say unto thee thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. From hence through the course of times and successions runs down the Ordination of Bishops and the rule of the Church THAT THE CHVRCH MAY BE CONSTITVTED VPON BISHOPS and every affair of the Church be governed by those Overseers The very same is affirmed by S. Austin who in several places looks upon the whole order of Bishops as comprehended in S. Peter particularly in an Epistle to three †Epist CLXV vide Launoii Epist Par. V. ad Carolum Magisirum p. 47. c. ad Gulielâ—â— Voellum p. 12. c. great persons where he saith Christ spake these words to him sustaining the figure of the whole Church It will not be fit to mention all the rest of the antient Writers who thus extend the sense of this place I shall only note that Paschasius Radbertus the founder of Transubstantiation was of this mind For thus he writes * L. IV. in Matt. v. 26. p. 18. The Church of God is not built upon Peter alone but upon all the Apostles and the Successors of the Apostles Unto these four Expositions I might add a fifth there being those who have understood every Christian Man and Woman by this Rock they being the stones and materials as I may call them of which the Church consists But I will pass this by though it have more great names to support it besides Origen because I have said enough already to expose the foul dealing and unworthy reasonings and conclusions of greatest Doctors of the Church of Rome which I shall represent in these following Considerations PART III. Reflections upon what hath been said concerning these Interpretations I. IF these things be certainly true as I assure you they are and themselves cannot deny that there are these several interpretations of this Scripture among the ancient Doctors then there can be no excuse made for their partiality who receive and adhere only to one of these interpretations as the Catholick Exposition and lay aside all the rest even those which are far more Catholick Thus doth Bellarmine * L. 1. de Pontif. Rom. C. X. who finding fault with Erasmus for contradicting their Exposition of the Church being founded upon Peter saith that all the Fathers teach it And thus doth Cardinal Baronius †Ad An. 33. n. XXVII to name no more who is not ashamed to say that it is an interpretation received and approved by the consent of the whole Catholick Church What truth can you expect from such Men or who can think it safe to give up himself to the conduct of such Guides who thus notoriously falsifie in a matter so evident that for one antient Father or Ecclesiastical Writer that by the Rock understands Peter himself there are two nay very near three that interpret it of the Faith which S. Peter confessed For to all those which a very learned and ingenuous Doctor of the Roman Church hath collected which are XLIV in number * V. Jo. Launoii Epist P. V. ad Guil. Voellum p. 18. c. others may be added besides Fortunatus and Epiphanius before mentioned For example Euagrius seems to have had this in his thoughts who speaking of Anastasius Bishop of Antioch where S. Peter sat before he was at Rome to whom such fierce assaults were given as if they thought in his overthrow to subvert the Church it self saith he manfully withstood them all †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. IV. C. 40. for he stood firm upon the impregnable Rock of Faith. If the sense of the Antients be to be reverenced at all why not one sense as well as another And why not that most of all which hath the most to assert it With what conscience do they fix upon one and throw away nay detest all the other which are of more credit Is it not highly unjust to make Peter this Rock here spoken of rather than Christ our Lord when there are so many reasons as well as great Authority for the last more than for the other And yet they not only do this but most immodestly say all the Fathers are of their mind And which is worse they make this an Article of the Faith That the Church is founded upon S. Peter nay the prime Article of all unto which it is evident the Church hath never agreed but manifestly contradicted it Upon this Bellarmine grounds the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome because Peter is the Rock and the Foundation of the Church as the Supreme Governor of it and therefore every Successor of his is in like manner the Rock and Foundation of the Church And thus he saith all the Fathers have expounded it * L. IV. de Pontif. Rom. C. III. And hence proceeds so far as to say this is the summ of Christian affairs †Praefat. in illos Libros the whole frame of the visible Church depending so much upon the Roman Bishop that if he be taken away the Church falleth Upon this Foundation also they have raised to him such an Authority they make him by Christs
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