SERM. As the church is spoken of under difVI. ferent figures, fo he who is its only Lord and Saviour, the object of its faith and worship, must be propofed under different fimilitudes. If the church be a body, then Chrift Jefus is the HEAD; or if it be a kingdom, he is its KING. If then it be a building, he must be the foundation and chief corner-flone; for That, tho' lowest in pofition, is firft in dignity as well as in the order of building; and of greatest moment to the ftrength and duration of the structure that is raised upon it. To this purpose the prophets had defcribed him as that ftone, which however human builders might refufe, yet God would make the head of the corner, by laying him in Sion as a chief corner-ftone elect, precious, and able to fupport all that should rely on him, and preserve them from fhame and confufion. We have the fame character applied to him in the new teftament; and if by this we should explain the Rock in the Text, here is nothing abfurd or inconfiftent with the catholick faith, nothing foreign or unusual to the style of fcripture. 'Tis certain if we take it ftrictly for the very basis or fubftratum of the church, that character can no more be applied to any other perfon under the figure of a building, than that of Head or King under the other me taphors. taphors. For other foundation (as the A- SERM. poftle argues) can no man lay, than that is VI. laid, which is Jefus Chrift *. And if it be thought lefs natural that he should speak of himself under this figure of a rock, without fome clearer explication of his meaning, that explication might be easily supplied to the perfons who were present, by fome motion of his hand towards his own body; at least the form of expreffion is undoubtedly agreeable to that fign he gave the Jews of his Meffiahfhip, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raife it upt; where, tho' the Jews misunderstood him of the Temple of Jerufalem, yet the Evangelift affures us he spake of the temple of his body. Once more, 3. Thirdly, there is yet another interpretation of this paffage, which applies it to the perfon of St. Peter, and underftands him to be that rock upon which our Lord here promised to erect his church. And it must be confefs'd, there are divers confiderations which argue for this sense as more natural than any other. As (1.) That our Lord is here extolling that faith of St. Peter, which had prompt ed him to fo noble and generous a confeffion; Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven; and ↑ John ii. 19, &c. therefore * 1 Cor. iii. II. SERM. therefore it is reasonable to expect he should VI. go on to explain the privileges of St. Peter, and particularize the bleffings he had pronounced in general. Accordingly it is to be observ'd, (2.) That he proceeds to call him by that furname which himfelf had given him, and whereby he had meant to diftinguish him from the reft of the Apoftles; and 1 Say alfo unto thee, that thou art Peter, I fpeak it to thee feparately whom I have formerly diftinguit'd by that name; and then he immediately fubjoins, and upON THIS ROCK I will build my church. Which will be better understood when it is added, (3.) That here is in this expreffion a manifeft allufion to his name beforemention'd, for what we tranflate a rock in Englifh, is erga in the Greek; and if we have recourfe to the Syriac, which is the very language our Saviour ufed, we fhall find that Cipha, which fignifies a rock or a stone, was without any change of termination the very name he gave to this Apoftle. And perhaps it was not without fome view to this future promife, that our Lord gave him that firname at the firft, when he said to him (as St. John informs us) Thou art Simon the fon of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas, which (fays the Evangelift, because he wrote his gofpel in Greek) is by inter pretation pretation Peter, or a stone *. If then we SERM. confider this Text as it is in the original, VI. I fay unto thee that thou art Petros, and upon this Petros I will build my church, or yet more appofitely in the Syriac version, I fay thou art Cipha, and upon this Cipha I will build my church, it will be difficult to suppose this should have no relation to St. Peter's perfon, but only to his confeffion of faith, or to the LORD he had confeffed. To all which it may be added, (4.) That our blessed Lord continues in the verse next following to foretell the privilege and power of St. Peter [And I will give unto THEE the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatfoever THOU shalt bind on earth, fhall be bound in heaven, &c.]` And tho' the fame commiffion was afterwards granted to the whole college of Apoftles, yet no one will difpute but the words are in this place directed fingularly to St. Peter. From whence it may be thought reafonable to take him for the rock in the foregoing declaration, to which thofe words are immediately connected. I do not take upon me to pronounce in this variety of opinions, which was the direct and immediate intention of our bleffed Saviour. But I am bold to fay, that even if we understand him in the last sense, which * John i. 42. looks SERM. looks more favourable to the Popish caufe VI. than any of the reft, there will yet be no rational argument from hence for this Apoftle's fupremacy, if thereby we underftand any right of jurisdiction or authority over the other Apoftles, or the whole church of Chrift. And to this purpose let it be observ'd, 1. First, That the figure of a rock as the foundation of a building, does not neceffarily imply any authority or jurisdiction. For tho' the metaphor of a building may serve to express the effects of ftrength and uniformity in the church, yet good government and difcipline, the immediate cause of those effects, fhould rather be illuftrated by other metaphors. Befides, the church, it is observable, is here cor îder'd not as built already, but to be built hereafter upon this foundation. And therefore the allufion in this place ought not to be ftrain'd farther than its firft defign, not fo much to relate to the beauty of the building already erected, as to the labour that is ufed in building it, the beginning or laying of the firft ftones for the foundation of a future fabrick. Thus all the Apoftles acted (as St. Paul fpeaks of himfelf) like wife Mafter-builders, in laying the foundation; and St. Peter, among the reft, deferves to be confider'd, as first and foremoft in preaching thofe doctrines of the gofpel |