St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy ScriptureAllies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Religion
St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy Scripture
Allies, T. W. (Thomas William)
Peter, the Apostle, Saint
But as inequality may be manifold, as of age, calling, honour,
order, jurisdiction and power, its nature and its degree must be
sought in that property which belongs to one over the rest. So that
we must determine, by the authority of the Scriptures, from those
gifts which were promised to Peter alone, the nature and the degree
of that inequality which subsisted between him and the other
Apostles.
The gifts promised to Peter alone, are contained in these words of
Christ, recorded by Matthew: and therefore, from their nature and
inherent qualities, we must judge of the sort, and the extent of
inequality, put by Christ between Peter and the rest.
These are summed up in the four following: I. That Peter is the
rock, on which the Church was to be built by Christ, the Chief
Architect. II. That the impregnable strength which the Church was to
have against the gates of hell, depended on its union with Peter, as
the divinely laid foundation. III. That by Christ, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords, Peter is marked out as next to Him, and
after Him, the Bearer of the keys in the Church's heavenly kingdom:
IV. And that, accordingly, universal power of binding and loosing is
promised to him, leaving him responsible to Christ alone, the
supreme Lawgiver and Judge. Therefore the nature of the prerogatives
expressed in these four terms must be our standard both of the
character and degree of inequality between the Apostles and Peter,
and of the power of the Primacy promised to Peter.
But these terms mark authority, and plainly express jurisdiction
and power; the inequality, therefore, is one relating to
jurisdiction and power; and Peter's pre-eminence likewise such.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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