cfl Declaration of the Glorious My s z nit Y where: Here is fixed the root ,of the tree, which is grown great, like that in Nebuchadnezzár's dream, until it is become a receptacle for the beafts of the field, and the fowls of the air, fenfual men and unclean fpirit9. I lhall therefore briefly lay an ax unto the root of it, by evidencing that it is not the perfon of Peter who confeffed Chrift, but the 1erfen of Chrift whom Peter confeffed, that is the rock on whom the church is built. r. The variationof the expreffions proves undeniably that our Saviour intended we Pould not underftand the perfon of Peter to be the rock. He takes öccafion from his nine to declare what he defigned, but no more. And IAy alfo unto thee, thou art Peter. He had given him this name before, at his firft calling, Yoh. i. 42. Now he gives the reafon ofhis fo doing, namely, becaufe of the illuftrious confeflion, that he lhould make of the rock of the church. As the name of God under the old tefta- ment, was called on perfon, and things, and places, becaufe of fonte efpectal relation unto him. Wherefore the .expreffion is varied on pur- pofe to declare, that whatever be the fignification of the name Peter, yet the perfon fo called was not the rock intended. The words . are Fù 116-0.. Dyhad Triúrnrk rW e. Had he intended the perfon of Peter, lie would have expreffed it plainly, ak ei rrlreS, ,ÿ Edri ant ; Thoúart a rock, and on theewill I build. At least the gender had not been, altered, but he would havefaid, Fri Tira Ti rllrgr whichwould have given force colour to this imagination. The exception which they lay hereunto, from the ufe ofCephas in the Syriack, which was the name of Peter, and lignifies a rock or a Clone, lyes not only againft the authentick authority of the Greek original, but of their own tranflation of it, which reads the words, Tu es Petrus, & fuper have Petram. a. Ifthe church was built on the perfon of Peter, alien when he died the church muff utterly fail. For no building can poffibly abide when its foundation is removed and taken away. Wherefore they tell us they do not intend by the perfon of Peter, that fingular individual perfon a= lane tobe thisrock; but heandhisfuccefforo, the bifhhoes ofRome, are fo. But this Rory of his fucceffors at Rome is a shameful fable. If the pope of Rome be a true believer, he fucceeds in common with all other believers into the privileges which belong unto this confeffion : If he he not, he bath neither lot not portion in this matter. But the pretence is utterly vain on another account alfo. The Apoftle Chewing the infaffhciency of the Aaronical ppriefhoód, wherein there was a fucceíron of God's own appointment, afìrins that it could notbring thechurch unto a perfe&Pate, becaufe the high-priesdied one after another, andfo weremany, Heb. vii. $ ag, 24. And thereon he thews that the church cannot be confum- mated or perfekted, unlefs it reft wholly in andon him, who livesforever, and was made a priefi after the power of a,, endlefs life. And if the Holy Ghoft judged the lute of the Jewifb church to be weak and im- perfekt, becaufe it refted on high-priefts that died one after another, al- though their fuccefhon was exprefly ordained of God himfelf; Pall we fuppofe that the Lord Chrift, who came to confummate the church, and to bring it unto the molt perfekt eílate whereofin this world it is capable, fhould build it on a fucce ion of dying men, concerning which fuccefiion there is not the leaft intimation that it is appointed of God. And as to the matter of fail, we know what interruptions it bath received, what monfters it bath produced, both fufficiently manifefting that it is not of God. 3. There is but one rock, but one foundation. There is no mention in the fcripture of two rocks of the church. In what others invent to this
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=