Chap. I. The foundation of the whole is laid in the vindication of those words of our blessed Saviour, wherein he declares himself to be the rock whereon the church is built: (Matt. xvi. 18:) "And I say also unto thee. That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The pretended ambiguity of these words hath been wrested by the secular interests of men, to give occasion unto that prodigious con- troversy among Christians, viz., whether Jesus Christ or the Pope of Rome be the rock whereon the church is built. Those holy men of old unto whom Christ was precious, bemg untainted with the desires of secular grandeur and power, knew nothing hereof Testimonies may be — they have been — multiplied by others unto this purpose. I shall mention some few of them.
OuTog idriv rj vphc rov Uarspa ayovsoc odog, yj v'srpa, r\ xXslg, 6 Toi/jjriv, &c., saith Ignatius: Epist. ad Philadelph. — "• He" (that is, Christ) "is the way leading unto the Father, the rock, the key, the shepherd" — wherein he hath respect unto this testimony. And Origen expressly denies the words to be spoken of Peter, in Matt. xvi. : (Tract, i. :) " Quod si super unum ilhim Petrum tantum existimes totam eccle- siam asdificari, quid dicturus es de Johanne, et apostolorum unoquo- que ? Num audebimus dicere quod adversus Petrum unum non pre- valiturse sunt portae inferonun ? " — " If you shall think that the whole church was built on Peter alone, what shall we say of John, and each of the apostles ? What ! shall we dare to say that the gates of hell
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shall not prevail against Peter only ?" So tie [held,] according unto the common opinion of the ancients, that there was nothing peculiar in the confession of Peter, and the answer made thereunto, as unto him- self, but that he spake and was spoken unto in the name of all the rest of the apostles. Euseb. Prceparat. Evang., lib. i. cap. 3: "Hrs ovo/jjaeri 'TrpohS'TnahTsa sxytXriffia avrov sGrriTH zara (3d&ovg sffiyoj/Mivri, xai
fjus^pig ohpavioiv a-^iboiv svy^aTg oaiuv zai '^sotpiXZv dvdpojv /isrswp/^o/xsi'7)
Bid fjjiav sxiivT^v, yjv avrog d'7:i<prjvaro Xe^/c, j/Vwi', 'Et/ rriv 'Tr'srpav o/xoSo/jC^cw f/,ov TYjv s'/,KXy}s!aVj -/.ai -xvXai oidou ov xariff^virousiv aurrig. He proves the verity of divine predictions from the glorious accomplishment of that word, and the promise of our Saviour, that he would build his church on the rock, (that is, himself,) so as that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. For " Unum hoc est immobile fundamentum, una hsec est felix fidei Petra, Petri ore confessa, Tu es filius Dei vivi," saith Hilary de Trin., lib. ii. — " This is the only immovable founda- tion, this is the blessed rock of faith, confessed by Peter, Thou art the Son of the living God." And Epiphanius, Hger. xxxix. : 'Ett^ rf ir'srpa, ra-jryj rrjg deipaXovg TyVrswg oixodo/x'^ffuj fiou r^v sxxXrigiav. — " Upon this rock " of assured faith " I will build my church." For many thought that faith itself was metonymically called the Rock, because of its object, or the person of Christ, which is so.
One or two more out of Augustine shall close these testimonies : " Super banc Petram, quam confessus es, super meipsum filium Dei vivi, aedificabo ecclesiam meam. Super me sedificabo te, non me super te : " De Verbis Dom., Serm. xiii. — "Upon this rock which thou hast confessed — upon myself, the Son of the living God — I will build my church. I will build thee upon myself, and not myself on thee." And he more fully declareth his mind : (Tract, cxxiv., in Johan. :) " Universam significabat ecclesiam, quae in hoc seculo diversis tenta- tionibus, velut imbribus, fluminibus, tempestatibusque quatitur, et non cadit; quoniam fundata est supra Petram; unde et Petrus nomen accepit. Non enim a Petro Petra, sed Petrus a Petra; sicut non Christus a Christiano, sed Christianus a Christo vocatur. Ideo quippe ait Dominus, ' Super banc Petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam,' quia dixerat Petrus, 'Tu es Christus filius Dei vivi.' 'Super banc ergo' (in- quit) 'Petram quam confessus es, sedificabo ecclesiam meam.' Petra enim erat Christus, super quod fundamentum etiam ipse sedificatus est Petrus. Fundamentum quippe aliud nemo potest ponere, prseter id quod positum est, quod est Jesus Christus." — "He (Christ) meant the universal church, which in this world is shaken with divers tempta- tions, as with showers, floods, and tempests, yet falleth not, because it is built on the rock (Petra) from whence Peter took his name. For the rock is not called Petra from Peter, but Peter is so called from Petra the rock ; as Christ is not so called from Christian, but
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Christian from Christ. Tlierefore, said tlie Lord, 'Upon this rock will I build my church ;' because Peter had said, ' Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' Upon this rock, which thou hast con- fessed, will I build my church. For Christ himself was the rock on which foundation Peter himself Avas built. For other foundation can no man lay, save that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."
Chap. II. Against this rock, this foundation of the church — the person of Christ, and the faith of the church concerning it — great opposition hath been made by the gates of hell. Not to mention the rage of the pagan world, endeavouring by all effects of violence and cruelty to cast the church from this foundation; all the heresies wherewith from the beginning, and for some centuries of years ensu- ing, it was pestered, consisted in direct and immediate oppositions unto the eternal truth concerning the person of Christ. Some that are so esteemed, indeed, never pretended unto any sobriety, but were mere effects of delirant [raving] imaginations ; yet did even they also, one way or other, derive from an hatred unto the person of Christ, and centred therein. Their beginning was early in the church, even before the writing of the Gospel by John, or of his Revelation, and indeed before some of Paul's epistles. And although their beginning was but small, and seemingly contemptible, yet, being full of the poison of the old serpent, they diffused themselves in various shapes and forms, until there was nothing left of Christ — nothing that related unto him, not his natures, divine or human, not their properties nor actings, not his person, nor the union of his natures therein — that was not opposed and assaulted by them. Especially so soon as the gospel had subdued the Roman empire unto Christ, and was owned by the rulers of it, the whole world was for some ages filled with uproars, confusion, and scandalous disorders about the person of Christ, through the cursed oppositions made thereunto by the gates of hell. Neither had the church any rest from these conflicts for about five hundred years. But near that period of time, the power of truth and religion beginning universally to decay among the outward professors of them, Satan took advantage to make that havoc and destruction of the church — by superstition, false worship, and profaneness of life — which he failed of in his attempt against the person of Christ, or the doctrine of truth concerning it.