to the Churches they never bid them be subject unto him much less to his Successors but only to those that rule over them to those that admonish them and watch for their Souls that is to their own Pastors and Governors in those places where they lived II. Since therefore we are undoubtedly a true Church of Christ though we have no dependance on him and should have been so though we had never heard there was such a Bishop in the World let us be mindful of the Exhortation of the Apostle St. Jude ver 20 21. which contains the properest Use of what hath been said 20. But ye Beloved building up your selves on your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost 21. Keep your selves in the Love of God looking for the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto Eternal Life First Build up your selves on your most holy Faith. Do not think of building upon the Successor of St. Peter as the Priests of the Church of Rome would perswade you but upon that Christ and that most holy Faith on which St. Peter himself was built There are three things which the Apostles of our Lord speak concerning Faith. First They speak of laying the Foundation of it which I hope is done already so that there is no need to exhort you to it but I may say as the Apostle doth to the Hebrews Ch. vi 1. Let us go on unto perfection not laying again the Foundation of Repentance from dead Works and of Faith towards God. Secondly They speak of continuing in the Faith for by that we continue in the Church the Body of Christ Rom. xi 20. Thou standest by Faith 2 Cor. i. ult by Faith ye stand Thirdly Of continuing stedfast in it Col. ii 5. I rejoyce beholding your order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ 1 Cor. xvi 13. Stand fast in the Faith. And here St. Jude adds an Exhortation to building up our selves on it to endeavour that is to increase and grow strong in Faith by understanding all the Grounds and Reasons on which it relies by observing all the Testimonies which God hath given to his Son Jesus Christ for this is the very Foundation of Religion to use the words of St. Chrysostom the original of Righteousness the head and fountain of Sanctity the beginning of all true Devotion the light of the Soul and the gate of Eternal Life But we need not go to Rome for any of these and particularly we may know this great thing St. Chrysostom speaks of and be sure without consulting them that the Son of God is come as it is in the last Verse but one of the first Epistle of St. John and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true i. e. the true God whose Nature and Will is declared by him and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ that is Children of the true God or his chosen People in or by his Son Jesus Christ that is by hearty Faith in him who is his only Begotten of one substance with the Father full of Grace and Truth Of all this I say we may be sure and this as it there follows is the true God and Eternal Life though we never know whether there be such a place as Rome and such a Bishop as the Pope of whom many Christians no doubt in several parts of the World never heard so much as one word And therefore let us not be so weak as to think we must needs use any of his Tools and Instruments for the laying the Foundation or for the building up our selves in the Christian Faith. Which relies upon the Testimony of all the Apostles whose words we have recorded in the holy Books and no where else and which all the Ministers of Christ have as much Authority to expound as they and can give as good reason for what they say as appears by what hath been said upon this place which is the Principle from whence they would wring for derive they cannot so great a Power as they challenge To which if you submit it is to undo all that you have done to lay again the Foundation of Faith or rather to overturn it and build upon Human Authority instead of Divine Which is one thing that would prevail with you if it were considered not to give up your selves to their Directions whose great labour it is to unsettle your Faith not to strengthen it to make you doubtful of every thing in the Christian Religion not to build you up on the Faith of Christ Secondly But besides this he would have us pray in the Holy Ghost That is ardently and with such devout Affections as the Holy Ghost sometimes inspires and for such things as the Holy Ghost teaches us to ask in the holy Gospel which is the Mind of the Spirit of God and especially to pray thus in the Christian Assemblies For the Apostle here opposes these things to the practice of those that separated themselves being sensual having not the Spirit ver 19. Our Lord would have us pray always and in our Closet especially in the Assemblies of our Christian Brethren where we must take heed of being frigid or luke-warm of praying to gratify any of our Carnal Desires especially that of Revenge as St. James teaches us ch iv 1 2 3. and of praying in the Name of St. Peter or St. Paul or any other Saint or Angel for which the Holy Ghost hath given no direction but quite contrary told us by the Mouth of his holy Apostles that to us there is but one God and one Lord 1 Cor. viii 6. One God and one Mediator between God and Man 1 Tim. ii 5. So that to use any other is to fall into a Schism to spoil the Unity and break the Communion of the Church of Christ as they of the Church of Rome have done both by this and by changing the ancient Government Discipline and Faith of the Christian Church which believed nothing heretofore concerning St. Peter and his Successor's Supream Power over all the Bishops in the World who took themselves to be the Vicars of Christ as much as the Bishop of Rome Take a Review of what I have said and you will see that it is they who have separated themselves from the rest of the Christian World by usurping this Universal Jurisdiction as well as by many other things and so broken that Charity and quenched that loving and kind Spirit which gives the greatest efficacy to our Prayers and makes them most fervent and most prevalent Joyn not therefore your selves to them but as the Apostle adds in the third place Thirdly Keep your selves in the Love of God. Our Lord Christ tells you how Joh. xv 10. If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my Love c. adding ver 12. This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you which he repeats again Verse 17. These things I command
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
ever All which shows how true it is that Peter himself was not that Rock on which Christ promised to build his Church unless we understand thereby only his Ministerial Function which he did not exercise solely but had all the rest Co-workers with him VI. But let us in the last place suppose once more that he was the Rock more than the rest yet it is a strange Conclusion from hence that Christ made him the Lord and sole Governour of his Church For what relation hath a Rock to Power Government and Dominion We may as soon draw Water out of a Pumice as any such Doctrine out of this word Rock which hath relation only to Solidity Firmness Stedfastness or something of that kind as appears from the very nature of the word and the use of it in all Authors where it never imports any thing of that which is now so much pleaded for and made the Subject of the greatest Contests And therefore those Writers who expound these words of Peter say nothing of his Dominion much less of the Dominion of the Popes of Rome for which there is now so much stickling but they give us quite another reason why he is called the Rock Because of the solidity of his Devotion saith one because he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as hard as a Rock or stone in the Faith saith another because of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the firmness of his Faith saith a third because of his Faith in the true Rock saith a fourth because also he laid the first Foundation of Faith among the Gentiles and because that this Faith which he professed viz. That Jesus Christ is the Son of God is the first Principle of our Religion the beginning of Christianity the Foundation and Bottom of all that we believe In which Faith he was so stedfast that he did not fluctuate in uncertainty like the rest of the Jews some of which said he was Elias others Jeremias others John the Baptist but was setled in this constant Perswasion that Jesus was the Son of God which he as constantly preached unto others and converted unto this Faith. I have not thought it necessary to quote the Authors where all these things may be found I will only name Epiphanius a Haeres lix num 7 8. who speaking of St. Peter whom he calls the most principal of the Apostles he adds Who truly was to us a firm Rock founding the Faith of the Lord upon which the Church is altogether built First when he confessed Christ to be the Son of the Living God and heard our Saviour say Vpon this Rock of an unshaken Faith will I build my Church And again he was a firm Rock the Foundation of the House of God when denying Christ he returned and had those words said unto him Feed my Sheep For Christ saying this draws us to Repentance that on him may be built again a well-grounded Faith which doth not deny Life to those that truly repent Who doth not see that this Father thought he was the Rock because he laid the Foundation of Faith in us And there are those who think he had the Name of Peter given him to show also the Difficulties and Dangers he was to go through in that Imployment unto which he was called of preaching the Faith. But more than such things as these is not to be drawn out of these words No such thing as the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome which is another Presumption built upon this word Rock For supposing Peter to be the Rock that is saith Bellarmine the Foundation of the Church thence it follows he could not err because then the Foundation would prove ruinous and the Church which is the Building would fall to the ground And consequently his Successors cannot err for the same reason because they are what he was the Foundation upon which the Church relies and if they should fail the Christian Religion might come to nothing Which is so wretched a sort of reasoning that it shows the greatest Wits were not able to say any thing considerable in this cause For it supposes that which hath no proof at all that Peter was the sole Foundation of the Church If he were not then if this reasoning be good it proves all Bishops who are the Successors of the Apostles and frequently so called by ancient Writers to be infallible But I shall say no more of this for there are so many flaws in such Discourses as derive to the Successors all that was in Peter or the rest of the Apostles that they are not easily numbred and I have said enough I hope to show that all the pretensions of the present Church of Rome grounded upon this place are weak and without any bottom They fall to the ground when we come to touch them with one rational thought and prove like a Building that hath no Foundation Or they are not like a Structure built on a Rock but like a House that Men build on the Sand. There is nothing of solidity nothing of strength in their Arguments upon this Subject but after much pains to connect a great many things together they fall asunder like a Rope of Sand. There is no solid reason to make us think that our Lord spake here of Peter and not of Himself Or if he spake of Peter that he meant his Person and not that Doctrine which he preached And no reason in the Earth that he spake concerning himself or his Doctrine only to Peter and not to them all Or if we should make this large grant that he spake only of Peter there is not the least shadow of reason to make us think he spake of his Dominion and supream Power but only of his stedfastness in the Faith and his being the first Instrument in gathering a Church among the Gentiles tho he was not the prime Instrument if we thereby understand the chiefest and greatest for that was St. Paul. Some Vses of what hath been said I. And therefore we are a true Church though we have nothing to do with the Bishop of Rome This is no part of the definition of a Church that it is united to him as its Head but it is intire without it The Bishop of Rome makes all his claim from St. Peter who it is plain had no Universal Jurisdiction granted or promised in these words and therefore the Pope can get nothing by them Faith in Christ Jesus Communion with our Christian Brethren and Subjection to those Pastors who are over us in the Lord are sufficient to make us a Church whether the Pope will or no. Though there were no such Bishop in the World though the Chair of St. Peter were overturned and no where to be found the Church of Christ would be where it was built upon the Foundations of the Apostles and Prophets There is not one of the Apostles that say a word in their Writings of the Prerogative of St. Peter Among all their Admonitions
to later times for Dionysius Carthusianus follows it whose words are these in our language Peter as the Principal gives the answer for them all And there are two Reasons the Fathers give for this the one is a moral Reason the other a mystical The Moral is To avoid Confusion it being unseemly and disorderly for all to speak at once therefore he being first spake the mind of them all The Mystical is To denote the Unity that should be among the Apostles and consequently the Unity of the Church and of all that believe according to the Prayer of our Saviour when he was about to leave the World Joh. xvii 21. That they all might be one as He and the Father were one That speaking the same thing and perfectly agreeing in the Doctrine they preached the World might believe that the Father had sent him This was much in the thoughts of St. Cyprian in more places than I can easily number and other African Fathers who followed after him But I do not find any of those Ancient Writers mention this as the reason of Peters speaking and not any of the rest which Bellarmine a L. 1. de Pontif. Rom. C. xix makes his peculiar Prerogative Because he alone knew at this time that Jesus was the Eternal Son of God. St. Hilary in the Latin Church and Basil of Seleucia in the Greek were the first and only Persons of any account who by the Rule of the Roman Church ought not to be followed against the stream of ancient Interpreters that had in their minds this conceit For Euthymius who follows them is of no consideration for his Antiquity What Advantage they that contend for it can make of this notion I do not see because if Christ did now reveal this to St. Peter alone it was that it might be known to them all yet I do not think fit to grant it because it is apparently against common Reason and against the History of the Gospel and against the best and most ancient Authority 1. In reason we cannot think the Apostles to have been such dullards to use no harder word as in two years time and more when they had been in our Saviours School heard his words and seen his wonderful Works not to have learnt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Athanasius b Orat. III. contra Arianos calls this Confession the peculiar and principal Article of our Christian Faith that he was God Incarnate the Word made Flesh Especially when they had been introduced into this belief by John the Baptist who had told them as much before they were admitted Christs Disciples Andrew it is certain was not ignorant of it who thereupon sought his Brother Simon and told him we have found the Messias i. e. Christ Joh. 1. 40 41. For John the Baptist had reported how he saw the Spirit descend on our Saviour and had heard the voice from Heaven and therefore bare record saying This is the Son of God v. 34. Nay he bare witness that he was Gods only begotten for he cryed saying No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him v. 15 18. By this Testimony they were drawn to our Saviour who at the very beginning manifested forth his Glory that is his Divine Majesty by such illustrious Miracles That his Disciples believed on him Joh. 2. 11. That is did not doubt of the truth of what John had said and which as you shall see presently the very Devils themselves openly acknowledged and confessed Who then can believe after all this that they were ignorant of the very first thing in our Religion With other points we find them unacquainted but to fancy them not to have known this is to make them as insensible as so many stones and in no other sense to have deserved the Name of Stones and Pillars whereby they are afterward called but only because they were so hardned in stupidity that nothing would enter into them no more than our words will into the hardest Flint in the World. What wretched Christians do we make them if after such means of Instruction we suppose them to have learnt nothing of the very foundation of Christianity 2. But besides this it is directly against the express Testmiony of the Holy Scriptures which informs us that several Persons had before this time made as full a Confession of the Faith as St. Peter himself They for instance who were with our Saviour in the Ship when it was tossed on the Sea by a contrary Wind and when St. Peter's heart had failed him as he walkt with our Saviour on the Water came and worshipped him after he had made the Sea calm saying Of a truth thou art the Son of God Matt. xiv 33. Nay more early than this as soon as ever St. Peter was acquainted with our Saviour Nathanael who is thought not without some reason to be the Apostle Bartholomew made as distinct and clear a Confession as his Thou art the Son of God thou art the King of Israel Joh. 1. 49. I shall not insist on the Confession of Martha Joh. xi 27. because it was afterward towards the Conclusion of our Saviours life The plain acknowledgment of the Mariners and Passengers in the Ship who were the persons St. Hierom thinks that came and worshipped him and made the foremention'd Confession is a sufficient proof that this was not a secret known to St. Peter alone by a special Revelation St. Chrysostom indeed is of Opinion That there is more in these Words of St. Peter than in theirs or in Nathanael's Who only confessed him to be the adopted Son of God but St. Peter went further and confessed him his Son by Nature But the reason he gives is insufficient which is only this That our Lord here pronounces Peter blessed which he doth not say to the rest For there might be other Reasons for pronouncing him blessed Particularly this That the Shipmen perhaps made that Confession only in a great transport of Passion but he upon a setled and deliberate Perswasion and that notwithstanding the various opinions that were in the Country about him which might have distracted the Apostles minds if they had not been attentive Considerers of the Testimonies our Lord gave of his Divinity Besides he seems in effect to have called Nathanael blessed tho he does not use the word For because he believed upon such a small and single Testimony of his Divinity as his seeing him under the Figtree He tells him he would reward his Faith with stronger Confirmations of it Joh. i. 50. Thou shalt see greater things than these Which is a promise containing much of his Grace and Favour toward him and is thus inlarged v. 51. And he saith unto him Verily I say unto you Hereafter ye shall see Heaven open and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man That is more manifest tokens of
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-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