11.]

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UPON CHRIST THE ROCK.

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high commission with which he was intrusted. Upon this rock that thou hast confessed," said Jesus Christ to Peter, (such is the interpretation of St. Augustine',) "upon this rock that thou hast known by saying, Thou art Christ the Son of the living God, I will build my Church, that is to say, upon Myself, who am the Christ of the living God I will build upon Myself and not upon thee, for those men who sought to build upon men, said I am of Paul, I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, which is Peter; but they who would not be built upon Peter, but upon the rock, said, but I am of Christ. And the apostle Paul, seeing that they would choose him and neglect Christ, said, is Christ divided? Has Paul been crucified for

you, or have you been baptized in the name

of Paul? And it has not been in the name of Paul, neither has it been in the name of Peter, but in the name of Christ, in order that Peter should be built upon the rock, and not the rock upon Peter." In the same spirit, and nearly in the language of St. Augustine, one of our eminent reformers and martyrs spoke before his judges, "This is the foundation and beginning of all Christianity, with word, heart, and mind, to confess that Christ is the Son of God. Whosoever believeth not this, Christ is not in him,

Vide Augustin. Opera, Serm. lxxvi. in Tom. V. par. i. p. 415. Edit. Paris, 1683. Distrib, in xii. tom. folio.

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CHRIST IS THE ROCK.

LECT.

his

and he is not in Christ. Therefore Christ said to Peter, that upon this rock, that is, upon confession, that he was the Christ the Son of God, he would build his Church, in order to declare that without this faith, no man can come to Christ; so that this belief, that Christ is the Son of God, is the foundation of our Christianity, and the foundation of our Church. Here you see upon what foundation Christ's Church is built, not upon the frailty of man, but upon the stable and infallible word of God'." As the apostles were the first propagators of this great doctrine, so they were the first stones laid upon the foundation of the spiritual building, and to this building every lively member of Christ's Church is added in order, nor is there any thing more beautiful to behold than it is, when fitly framed together. St. Paul gives this animated description of it: "Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone, in Whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together

1

1 Bishop Ridley's defence before the commission at Oxford, September 30th, 1555. See Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography, Vol. III.

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THE KEYS COMMITTED TO PETER. 153

for an habitation of God through the Spirit." This, my brethren, is worthy of our best attention, let us not trouble ourselves with other foundations on which some build; nor with the combustible materials which others lay upon a right foundation, but let this be our care, to ascertain whether we form a part of that spiritual edifice, which the apostle describes as built on Christ, and as an habitation for the Spirit of God in our hearts; and thus much we have to say concerning the rock and the building which Jesus declared he would rear so firmly, that the powers of hell and darkness should never prevail against it. We shall now endeavour to explain in what sense St. Peter received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and then compare the manner in which he discharged his high functions.

To open the door of faith and to enter into the fold by the door, and such like metaphor, is familiar to every reader of the Scriptures, and when any soul hath so entered in, and become a faithful subject of the king Messiah, he hath entered into His kingdom, which is not of this world but of heaven,—there is only one way by which any one may so enter. And this is proclaimed by the Redeemer himself, who saith, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe; that is to say, the instru

154

THE KEYS COMMITTED TO PETER. [LECT. ment by which the kingdom of God is opened, is the preaching of the word: this is the blessed key of truth. Our Lord on one occasion thus rebukes the Jewish teachers, "Woe unto you lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered :" but to St. Peter he saith, I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Those lawyers whom Christ rebukes, had taken away the key, that is, they kept the oracles of God to themselves, (they permitted not the people to see them, they dealt out sparingly as much of them as they thought proper, and if any one attempted to go beyond what they were pleased to dictate—them they hindered from entering into the truth.) Far otherwise did Peter act; far otherwise did he use the keys with which he was entrusted; he opened liberally and fully the truth as it is in Jesus. It was an honour which the Saviour had conferred upon him, "to handsel," as Tertullian saith, "the first key'," and to which he alluded with pious delight in the synod at Jerusalem;

1 Qualis es evertens atque commutans manifestam Domini intentionem personaliter hoc Petro conferentem. Super te, inquit, ædificabo Ecclesiam meam et dabo tibi claves, non Ecclesiæ, sic enim et exitus docet: in ipso Ecclesia exstructa est, id est, per ipsum, ipse clavem imbuit. Tertullian. de Pud. cap. 21.

II.]

PETER'S FIDELITY.

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but this brings us to the Scripture narrative, to see the prominent part he took in establishing Christ's Church upon the rock of ages: I shall merely recur to the sermon on the day of Pentecost, for the purpose of pointing out the boldness and fidelity of Peter. Standing up with the eleven, he had the courage to lift up his voice against the mocking multitude, and after reasoning from the prophets, and making use of the Hebrew Scriptures, you will observe, he came to that very conclusion which constituted his enlightened testimony to his Lord and Master.

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Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ :" when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. It will be enough to compare this with Peter's confession, to judge of the foundation on which the first assembly of believing Jews was built; and thus St. Peter opened the kingdom of heaven to the dwellers at Jerusalem. In effecting this, he made free use of the Scriptures; for, be it remarked, that his sermon, to prove that Jesus was the Christ, is all grounded upon the prophets and the Psalms; and so he used well the keys of the kingdom of heaven. After this, in conjunction with all the apostles, he ceased not to exhort the people to search the Scriptures, for they alone were the infallible guides to testify of Jesus