OBSERVATIONS.

Mr. Lock often repeats it, That the Confession made by St. Peter, St. Matth. 16. 16. was the Rock on which Christ would build his Church. We have it in his Reasonab. of Christian. not only in the Pla∣ces already alledg'd, but also in p. 102, 103, and 104, 105. If he would inferr thence, that this Article alone, That Jesus is the Messiah, is necessary to make Men Christians; or, that only these two Articles, That he is the Messiah, and, That he is the Son of God, are so necessary, he may know that this can∣not be deduced from it. If he argue thus, The Page  121 Church is founded upon these Articles, as upon a Rock, therefore only the Belief of them is necessary to make a Man a Member of the Church; I deny his Consequence, for more than the believing the first Foundation of the Church may be necessary to make a Man a Member of it.

As to the Words, This Rock, it is acknowledged that sundry of the ancient Expositors have inter∣preted it to be the Faith which St. Peter confess'd. Upon this Rock will I build my Church, i. e. the Faith which thou hast confess'd; so St. Chrysost. in St. Matth. Homil. 55. Christ called this Confession a Rock, &c. For it really is the Rock of Godliness; so St. Basil. Seleuc. Orat. 25. What is this, upon this Rock I will build my Church? Upon this Faith on that which is said, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God; so St. August. Tract. 10. in primam Joannis. I may add Theophylact: Peter having confess'd the Son of God, he ( i. e. Christ,) saith, This Confession which thou hast confess'd shall be the Foundation of Believers. Thus Theophyl. in loc.

But tho' these and other ancient Writers do by this Rock understand the Faith which was confess'd, yet there want not among them those who make it to be the Author and Finisher of our Faith, viz. Christ. Upon those Words, 1 Cor. 3. 11. Other Foundation no Man can lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus the Christ. Theodoret says thus, Bles∣sed Peter laid this Foundation, or rather the Lord himself: For Peter having said, Thou art the Son of the living God, the Lord said, On this Rock I will build my Church: Be not ye therefore denominated from Men, for Christ is the Foundation. The Inter∣lineary Gloss in St. Matth. 16. 18. says, This Rock, i. e. Christ, in whom thou believest. And our Anselm, Ibid. as plainly, On this Rock, i. e. upon my self I will build my Church, q. d. Thou art so Peter, from me (Petra) the Rock, as that yet the Dignity of being Page  112 the Foundation is reserv'd for me. But St. Austin, tho' he was alledged as favouring the former Expo∣sition, yet is otherwhere as clearly and fully for this as you can desire. Therefore the Lord saith, On this Rock I will build my Church, because Peter had said, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. Therefore, says he, on this Rock which thou hast con∣fess'd, I will build my Church. Christ was the Rock upon which Foundation even Peter himself was built; for other Foundation no Man can lay than that which is laid, to wit, Christ Jesus. The Church therefore which is founded on Christ, &c. St. August. Tratat. 124. in Joannem. And again, Thou art Peter, and on this Rock which thou. host confessed, on this Rock which thou hast known, saying, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, I will build my Church, i. e. upon my self, the Son of the living God, I will build my Church; I will build thee upon me, not me upon thee. Men that were willing to be built upon Men, said, I am of Paul, I of Apollos, I of Cephas, i. e. Peter; but others who would not be built upon Peter, but upon Petra a Rock, said, I am of Christ. Thus St. August. de Verbis Domini; see Matth. Serm. 13. These plainly make this Rock to be Christ him∣self.

Besides these already mention'd, there occurrs in the Writings of some of the Fathers a third Inter∣pretation of the Rock here spoken of, viz. That which makes St. Peter to be the Person to whom Christ makes Promise of so great a Dignity, that he would build his Church upon him. The Romish Writers abound with Citations to this purpose, and tho' because some of them are out of Writings that are not judg'd to be of sufficient Authority, and in others of them they have not shew'd that Fide∣lity they ought to have done, many of them are of no weight, yet it is granted that some of the Anci∣ents have inclin'd to this Sense of the Place; and Page  113 therefore there is no Necessity that I should give my self the trouble to transcribe their Words. Mr. Lock may perhaps say, that this Exposition is so much for the Advantage of the Papal Interest, and in favour of the Bishop of Rome's Universal Pastorship, that Protestants must not admit of it. But I answer, Why is it more for the Advantage of the Papal Interest that St. Peter should be the Rock on which Christ would build his Church, than it is that he would give him the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven? Why do they who say that these Words, On this Rock I will build my Church, were spoken personally of Peter, more favour Popery than they who will have those Words, To thee I will give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, to be said personally to Peter? For why may we not argue as strongly for the universal Pastorship from the latter Words, as from the former? And yet Mr. Lock himself tells us expresly, that the latter Words were said personally to Peter; see his Rea∣sonab, of Christian. p. 105. I think it not amiss here to transcribe the Words of Episcopius, in loc-Concedi atque indulgeri posse putaverim Pontificiis, quod per Hanc Petram intelligatur ipsa persona Pe∣tri, idque quia probabilibus valde nituntur argumen∣tis. At vero dicet quis, sic datur Pontificiis quod vo∣lunt. Id vero pernegatur consequi. Etsi enim Petro hic aliquid promittatur, aut de eo aliquid futurum affirmetur, id tamen non fit cum aliorum Discipulorum aut Apostolorum exclusione. Aliud enim longe est Petro hoc dici, aliud soli Petro ea dici quae aliis non competant, aut eodem saliem jure aliis Discipulis tri∣bui nequeant. Prius concedi posse putamus, posterius vero negamus, id enim sufficit plusquam satis ad Pri∣matum Petri, & quae ei (si quis fuisset) ridicule ad∣modum & stolide superstruitur Pontificis Romani Prae∣rogativa, evertendum. Thus Episcopius. And there are Protestant Divines of great Esteem for their Page  124 Learning and Judgment, and who have engaged as zealously as any other against the Papal Interest, who have gone farther, have not only made the Person of St. Peter to be meant by the Rock, but also somewhat peculiar to be granted him, and yet shew that this affords not the least Advantage to the Pope's Pretensions that he is Universal Pastor. To omit some of our English Divines, they that please may consult Cameron either in his Praelections, in St. Matth. 16. 18. or in the great Criticks.

Episcopius says that this, That the Church should be built on him as on a Rock, was granted to Peter in common with the other Apostles. And to the same purpose speaks Origen, Tractat. 1. in Matth. If thou thinkest that the whole Church was built up∣on Peter alone, what wilt thou say of John the Son of Thunder, and every one of the Apostles? Shall we dare to say that the Gates of Hell could not prevail against St. Peter only, but could prevail against the rest? And a little after, If that saying, To thee I will give the Keys, was common to the other Apostles, why was not the rest which was then said as to Peter common to them too? So that this may be a fourth Exposition, that by the Rock is meant St. Peter, not alone but together with the other Apostles. As he made that Confession, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, not for himself only, but also in the Name of the other Apostles; so, according to this Sense, he receiv'd this Grant for the rest of the Apo∣stles as well as for himself.

I have alledged the foresaid Testimonies to satis∣fie Mr. Lock, That Persons of approved Piety as well as Learning, have judged our Saviour's Words, On this Rock I will build my Church, capable of other Interpretations than that which is mention'd by him, viz. That the Faith which was confessed by St. Pe∣ter, 〈◊〉 those Articles, That Jesus is the Christ, and, That he is the Son of the living God, are the Rock Page  125 on which the Church is built. This is the only In∣terpretation that can do Mr. Lock any Service, and therefore he takes no notice of the rest. But he should not be himself guilty of that which he con∣demns so much in others, i. e. the imposing his In∣terpretations of Scripture upon us. And therefore he must not be displeas'd, if we do not grant that which Mr. Lock here affirms without any Proof, that this Proposition, That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the living God, was that Rock on which our Lord said that he would build his Church.

Mr. Lock says, that the Evidence that we deceive not our selves in ascribing a Revelation to God, can never be so great as the Evidence of our own intui∣tive Knowledge; where, if his Meaning be, that we can never be so certain that any Revelation (sup∣pose the Scripture) is from God, as we are of the Object of our intuitive Knowledge, I must deny it; for I firmly believe that there have been and may now be those, who are as certain that the Scrip∣tures are the Word of God, as they can be of that which they clearly see, and distinctly perceive by any other of their Senses. And I am confirm'd in this Belief by the Words of Mr. Chillingworth, c. 1. §. 9. To those (says he) that believe and live accord∣ing to their Faith, God gives by degrees the Spirit of Obsignation and Confirmation, and to be as fully and resolutely assur'd of the Gospel of Christ, as those which heard it from Christ himself with their Ears, which saw it with their Eyes, which look'd upon it, and whose Hands handled the Word of Life.