S2 THE PROMISE PROSPEO IVE ITS TRUE MEANING. more than once alleged this place : yet could he not take them in their sense to signify exclusively ; for he did not acknowledge any imparity of power among the apostles or their successors. He, in- deed, plainly took these words to respect all the apostles and their successors; our Lord taking occasion to promise that to one which he intended to impart to all, for themselves and their successors. " Our Lord," says he, " ordering the honour of a bishop, and the order of his church, says to Peter, ` I say to thee,' &c. Hence, through the changes of times and successions, the ordination of bishops and theorder ofthe church runs on, so that the church should be settled upon the bishops, and every act of the church should be governed by the same prelates."' As, therefore, he conceived the church to be built, not on thepope singularly, but on all thebishops; so he thought our Lord intended to build his church, not upon St Peter only, but on all his apostles. 6. It is not said that the apostles, or the apostolical office, should be built on him; for that could not be, seeing the apostles were con- stituted, and the apostolical office was founded, before that promise. Thewords only, therefore, can import, that, according to some mean- ing, he was a rock, upon which the church, afterward to be collected, should be built; he was " a rock of the church to be built, ' a as Ter- tullian speaks. The words, therefore, cannot signifyany thing avail- able to their purpose in relation to the apostles. 7. If we take St Peter himself for the rock, then, as I take it, the best meaning of the words imports that our Lord designed St Peter for a prime instrument,' the first mover, themost diligent and active at the beginning, the most constant, stiff, and firm, in the support of his truth and propagation of his doctrine, or conversion of men to the belief of the gospel; the which is called building of the church, according to that of St Ambrose, or some ancient homilist under his name, " He is called a rock, because he first laid in the nations the foundations of faith : " in which regard, as the other apostles are called foundations of the church (the church being founded on their labours), so might St Peter signally be so called, who, as St Basil says, allusively interpreting our Saviour's words, " for the excellency of his faith took on him the edifying of the church."6 Dominus noster episcopi honorem, et ecclesise sure rationem disponens, dicit Petro, Ego tibi dico, &c. Inde per temporum et successionum vices episcoporum ordinatio, et ecclesiec ratio decurrit, ut ecclesia super episcopos constituatur, et omnis actus ec- clesise per eosdem prsepositos gubernetur. Cypr. Ep. xxvii., et de Unit. Eccl. 2 Latuit aliquid Petrum aedificandse ecclesise Petrum dictum.Tertull. de Prmscr., cap. xxii. npo; iv visoeróiorç arpmro; inñpubsrñv Xpíaror.Chrss. " Peter first of all the apostles preached Christ." 4 Petra dicitur eo quod primus innationibus fidei fundamenta posuerit.Ambr. de Santis., Serm. ii. 5 'O Slá ariamsaç áarvpazñv if iauróv r%v oix5oopaÿv rñ; ixxXneíaç Mápsvnç. .Bas. contra Eunom., lib. ii. Petra sedificandee ecclesite.Tertull. de Prcescr., cap. xxii.
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