Rome, as head of the church? As he is appointed by Jesus Christ to be the supreme head and pastor of the church under him, to be the spiritual father and teacher of all Christians, with full power to govern and feed the whole flock: therefore he is the supreme judge and lawgiver, in all things relating to religion, whether as to faith, manners, or discipline. The primacy both of honour and jurisdiction, over all other bishops, belongs to him and all the members of the church are obliged to pay the greatest respect, veneration, and obedience, to his decrees and orders, in all things belonging to religion."

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In a confession of faith drawn up by the Jesuits, and imposed on converts to Popery in Hungary, they are compelled, among other things, to confess as follows:

"We confess and believe that the pope of Rome is the head of the church, and that he cannot err. We confess and believe that the pope of Rome is the representative of Christ, and has full power to forgive and retain sin arbitrarily, and to cast into hell, and to excommunicate whomsoever he pleases. We confess that every new thing instituted by the pope, whether it be contained in the Scriptures or not, whatsoever he has commanded, is true, divine, and saving, which the common man has to value

* The same doctrine concerning the supreme power of the pope was authoritatively taught by the decrees of the Council of Trent: "Pro suprema protestate sibi in ecclesia universa tradita."

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more than the commandments of the living God. We confess that the most holy pope is to be honoured by every one with DIVINE HONOUR, and with the profoundest reverence, just as it is due to the Lord Christ himself," &c.*

In what manner this assumed supremacy of the popes of Rome has been abused will hereafter be shown at present it will be necessary to examine the grounds on which it is claimed. In support of the doctrine that Christ gave to St. Peter, and to the bishops of Rome as his successors, supreme power over the whole church, several passages of holy Scripture are adduced. The principal text is that in St. Matthew xvi. 13-19: especially the words" I say unto thee, thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." The opinions as to what our Lord meant by the rock are various. Papists understand our Lord as referring to Peter himself, this is also the opinion of some Protestant writers. Assuming even the correctness of this sense of the words, and that Christ made a more special use of St. Peter in laying the foundation, and raising the building of the church, yet this can hardly be reconciled with the idea of Peter himself being its foundation. Such an idea is at variance with all those scriptures

* The whole of this confession is published in the "Protestant Journal" for May, 1831, p. 208, 209.

which declare Christ himself to be the only foundation of the church. "Other foundation," says

St. Paul, "can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. iii. 11.). If it be said the apostles are also represented as the foundation of the church, as in that scripture in which Christians are said to be "built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets," &c.; it is evident, that not the persons, but the doctrines of the apostles and prophets, are intended. Such declarations, even taken literally, would afford no countenance to the dogma of Peter's primacy and supremacy. This is still clearer, from another passage-" The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and, in them, the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." (Rev. xxi. 14.) "This," it has been justly observed," refers to no personal and exclusive prerogatives on the part of one above the rest; there is no allusion to the apostle Peter as possessing any pre-eminent authority. If he had been the foundation of the church in any sense, different from that in which they were all its foundation, we might have expected to meet with this distinction clearly asserted in such passages as these." By the rock, therefore, on which Christ promises to build his church, we are to understand, not Peter, but that grand and essential truth of Christianity which he had confessed--" THOU THOU ART THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD!" This doctrine is that firm foundation on which the church is so securely

built, that the gates of hell (Hades) shall not prevail against it.

In this sense, as referring not to Peter, but to Peter's confession, the words of our Lord to that apostle were understood by the early Fathers of the Christian church. St. Hilary says " Therefore there is one immoveable foundation of faith; this one blessed rock, confessed by the mouth of Peter, Thou art the Son of the living God.'

Upon this rock," says Chrysostom; "that is, on the faith of his confession.” And again-" On this rock, not upon Peter, for he did not build his church on the man, but upon his faith."+ St. Augustine thus explains his words" Upon this rock, which thou hast confessed; upon this rock which thou hast known, saying, 'Thou art Christ the Son of the living God;' will I build my church, upon myself, who am the Son of the living God, will I build my church; upon me will I build thee, not me upon thee."

It is urged, in proof of Peter's supremacy, that Christ invested him with the supreme government

* "Unum ergo est immobile fidei fundamentum, una hæc felix Petra, Petri ore confessa, tu es," &c.

† πέτρα, τουτεστι τη πιστές της ὁμολογιας-ουκ ειπεν επι τῷ πετρῳ ουτε γαρ επι τῳ ανθρωπῳ, αλλα επὶ την πιστιν την εαυτού εκκλησίαν ώκοδομήσε.

"Super hanc Petram, quam confessus es, super hanc Petram quam cognovisti, dicens, Tu es Christus filius Dei Vivi, ædificabo Ecclesiam meam, super me ipsum, qui sum filius Dei Vivi ædificabo ecclesiam meam, super me ædificabo te, non me super te."

of the whole church. The following words of the passage of holy Scriptures, on which we have been remarking, are quoted as supporting this notion"I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 19.) There is nothing in this declaration of the Saviour to sanction, in the least degree, that monstrous exercise of prerogative claimed by the Roman pontiffs, as successors of St. Peter. Our Lord does not hereby make St. Peter and his successors the doorkeepers of the kingdom of heaven, or invest them with that absolute authority to which his pretended successors have laid claim, not only over the church, but over the rulers of the earth. The terms in which this declaration is conveyed are clearly figurative, and refer to that ministerial authority with which Peter and the rest of the apostles were invested, to open, by their preaching of the gospel, the kingdom of heaven to their hearers, and of exercising a scriptural and godly discipline in the churches established by them. "It may, indeed," remarks the late Archdeacon Daubeny, "be readily admitted, without conceding any thing in support of the boasted supremacy of St. Peter, that on account of his noble confession, to St. Peter might have been granted the distin guished privilege of first opening the kingdom of heaven to the Jews, at his first publication of the