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Again, if Christ had faid to his Apoftles, Up- Chap. 3. on you I will build my Church, and the Gates Queit 14 of Hell fhall not prevail against it, we might have rightly concluded from thence, that the Apostles were the Vicars of Christ, and had a Superior Jurifdiction to all Christian Pastors.

But Chrift faid to St. Peter, Thou art Cephas that is a Stone, a Rock, S. Jo. 1. v. 42] or, Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell fhall not prevail against it, S. Mat. xvi. v. 18. For it is

the same, as if he had faid, Thou art a Rock, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, &c. Which evidently denotes S. Peter's Perfon, as Dr. Hammond, a Divine of the Church of England, rightly observes.

His Paraphrafe on the Text is [1] The Name by which thou art Styl'd, and known by me, is that, which fignifies a Stone or Rock: and fuch fhalt thou be in the Building of the Church; which accordingly fhall be fo built on thee, founded in thee, that the Power of Death, of the Grave, fhall not get Victory over it: the Christian Church now to be planted, fhall never be destroy'd.

And in his Note [2] on the fame Text; the Name, fays he, ofre Signifying a Stone bere, fuch an one, as for the Firmness and Validity is fit to bear the greater Stress and Weight in the Building, is applicable to the Perfon of S. Peter, in refpect of the Church.

In the fame manner Bishop Pearfon, When Peter, fays [3] he, had converted three thoufand Souls, Acts ii. v. 41, which were added to the hundred

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(1) Paraph, on the N. T. p. 89. an. 1653. (2) pag. 91. col. 1. (3) Expofition of the Creed. p. 336. Edit. 4. an. 1676.

Chap. 3. Nothing then is more certain, than that, when Queft14 Juftinian faid, that (79) Constantinople was the Head of all other Churches, his Meaning was only this, that all the chief Churches of the Oriental Empire were Subject to Conftantinople, in the Opinion of this Emperor. For, tho' the Pope did not confent to this Change of the ancient Difcipline in Favour of Conftantinople; yet the Bishops of Alexandria, of Antioch, and all the Oriental Prelates did. And as these were the only Perfons concern'd; the Greeks imagin'd, that the Pope's Confent was not neceffary.

Fourteenth QUESTION.

Are the modern Greeks the Catholick Church?

ANSWER, THEY are not. My Reafon is,

because they are not in Communion with the Bishop of Rome, S. Peter's Succeffor, whom the Catholick Church has always own'd to be her Head by divine Inftitution. Be pleas'd to read the Treatife of Supremacy, in the fecond Tome of the true Church of Chrift, against Mr. Lefley, an 1715,

II. Chrift faid to St. Peter without Exception, S. Jo. xxi. v. 15, 16, 17, Feed my Lambs, Feed my Sheep. Either then the other Apotles were not any Part of Chrift's Flock, or they were here committed to S. Peter's Charge. Again,

(79) Conftantinopolitana Ecclefia omnium aliarum e Caput. in Co. L. 1. Tit, 2, §. 24. P. 15.

Again, if Chrift had faid to his Apostles, Up- Chap. 3. on you I will build my Church, and the Gates Queit 14 of Hell fhall not prevail against it, we might have rightly concluded from thence, that the Apostles were the Vicars of Christ, and had a Superior Jurifdiction to all Christian Pastors.

But Chrift faid to St. Peter, Thou art Cephas [that is a Stone, a Rock, S. Jo. 1. v. 42] or, Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, and the Gates of Hell fhall not prevail against it, S. Mat. xvi. v. 18. For it is the fame, as if he had faid, Thou art a Rock, and upon this Rock I will build my Church, &c. Which evidently denotes S. Peter's Person, as Dr. Hammond, a Divine of the Church of England, rightly obferves.

His Paraphrafe on the Text is [1] The Name by which thou art Styl'd, and known by me, is that, which fignifies a Stone or Rock: and fuch fhalt thou be in the Building of the Church; which accordingly fhall be fo built on thee, founded in thee, that the Power of Death, of the Grave, fhall not get Victory over it: the Christian Church now to be planted, fhall never be deftroy'd.

And in his Note [2] on the fame Text 3 the Name, fays he, of mrs Signifying a Stone bere, fuch an one, as for the Firmness and Validity is fit to bear the greater Stress and Weight in the Building, is applicable to the Perfon of S. Peter, in refpect of the Church.

In the fame manner Bishop Pearfon, When Peter, fays [3] he, had converted three thousand Souls, Acts ii. v. 41, which were added to the hundred

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(1) Paraph. on the N. T. p. 89. an. 1653. (2) pag. 91. col. 1. (3) Expofition of the Creed. p. 336. Edit. 4. an. 1676.

Chap. 3. hundred and twenty Difciples Acts. i. 15; ther Queft14 was there a Church, and that built upon Peter, according to our Saviour's Promife.

III. And if Chrift inftituted that Form of Church-Government, which was to continue in After-ages; we cannot doubt, but as S. Peter was [under Chrift] the Head of the vifible Church, as long as he liv'd, fo his Succeffors have been fince his Death, and will continue to the end of the World. In the middle of the third Age when Rome had receiv'd no Privileges from any Christian Emperor, S. Cyprian call'd it [4] the Chair of Peter, and the PRINCIPAL CHURCH, FROM WHICH THE UNITY OF PRIEST-HOOD IS RISEN; or the Center of Christian Unity. And a Spiritual Supremacy is nothing else.

IV. But was not the Greek Church, at her Separation from Rome in the ninth or in the eleventh Age, in Communion with the four Eastern Patriarchs, of Conftantinople, of Alexandria, of Antioch, and of Jerufalem? was She not then the main Body of Chriftians?

I ANSWER, The Schifm in both Cafes began at Conftantinople: and, when complete, involv'd the other Eastern Patriarchs. But it does not appear, that the Greek Church was then the most numerous Society of Chriftians: and, being feparated from the Head, or Root, 'tis plain that it was not the Catholick Church. Branches, when cut off, may be greater than the Stem: But their Bulk deceives no one. Every Child

(4) Petri Cathedram, atq; Ecclefiam principalem, unde Unitas facerdotalis exorta eft. S. Cypr. Epift. Iv, ad Cornelium.

Child will tell you, which is, which is not the Chap. 3. Tree. The Catholick Church in Fact has al-Quest 14 ways been more numerous, than any one Society or Communion of Chriftians befides. But, tho' She were not, She would be known infallibly by this Mark; that She is, and always was, the Church of all Nations, at least in a limited Senfe, and that She adheres to the Head instituted by Christ.

V. The Greek Church, how large and populous foever She had been formerly, was extremely reduc'd and leffen'd before the Schifm.

First, by the Turks, who had destroy'd or perverted the greatest Part of it. Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, with the Patriarchal Sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerufalem, were Subject to them. So was all Arabia, Perfia, Chaldaa, Mefopotamia, and Africa. Jerufalem was taken by the Perfians an. 614. Antioch, now a small Village, was taken by the Turks an. 638. Alexandria, an. 640; above two hundred Years, before Photius's Schifm, and have continued, without any great Interruption, in the fame Slavery ever fince. Conftantinople stood out the longeft: but is now the Head of the Turkish Empire; and fhews us, how great a Defolation there is of Religion, where ever those Infidels prevail. The Laity is thin, and the Clergy titular. Conftantinople had formerly fix or seven hundred Bishops, now only about a hundred and fifty, under it: and 35 of these are titular Arch-Bishops without any Suffragans, as a late Greek [5] Writer obferves. Africa is another Inftance, in what a prodigious

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(5) Chrift, Angelus, Frankford, an. 1655.

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