62

SECTION III.

Of St. Peter, from his election to the Apostolate till the confession which he made of Christ.

OUR Lord being now to elect some peculiar persons as his immediate vicegerents upon earth, to whose care and trust he might commit the building up of his church, and the planting that religion in the world for which he himself came down from heaven; in order to it, he privately, over night, withdrew himself into a solitary mountain,' (commonly called the mount of Christ, from his frequent repairing thither; though some of the ancients will have it to be mount Tabor,) there to make his solemn address to heaven for a prosperous success on so great a work. Herein leaving an excellent copy and precedent to the governors of his church, how to proceed in setting apart persons to so weighty and difficult an employment. Upon this mountain we may conceive there was an oratory, or place of prayer, (probably intimated by St. Luke's πρоσενxǹ, for such proseuchas, or houses of prayer, usually uncovered and standing in the fields, the Jews had in several places,) wherein our Lord continued all night, not in one continued and entire act of devotion, but probably by intervals and repeated returns of duty.

2. Early the next morning his disciples came to him, out of whom he made choice of twelve to be

1 Luke, vi. 12.

his apostles,' that they might be the constant attend-
ants upon
his person, to hear his discourses, and
be eye-witnesses of his miracles; to be always con-
versant with him while he was upon earth, and
afterwards to be sent abroad, up and down the
world, to carry on that work which he himself had
begun; whom, therefore, he invested with the power
of working miracles, which was more completely
conferred upon them after his ascension into hea-
ven. Passing by the several fancies and conjec-
tures of the ancients, why our Saviour pitched upon
the just number of twelve, (whereof before,) it may
deserve to be considered, whether our Lord, being
now to appoint the supreme officers and governors
of his church, which the apostle styles the 'com-
monwealth of Israel, might not herein have a more
peculiar allusion to the twelve patriarchs, as foun-
ders of the several tribes; or to the constant heads
and rulers of those twelve tribes, of which the body
of the Jewish nation did consist: especially since he
himself seems elsewhere to give countenance to it,
when he tells the apostles that when the Son of
Man shall sit on the throne of his glory,' that is, be
gone back to heaven, and have taken full posses-
sion of his evangelical kingdom, which principally
commenced from his resurrection, that then 'they
also should sit upon twelve thrones, judging the
twelve tribes of Israel;3 that is, they should have
great power and authority in the church, such as
the power of the keys, and other rights of spiritual
judicature and sovereignty, answerable in some pro-
portion to the power and dignity which the heads
and rulers of the twelve tribes of Israel did enjoy.

Matt. x. 1; Mark, iii. 14; Luke, vi. 13.
2 Ephes. ii. 12.
3 Matt. xix. 28.

3. In the enumeration of these twelve apostles, all the evangelists constantly place St. Peter in the front, and St. Matthew' expressly tells us that he was the first; that is, he was the first that was called to be an apostle: his age also, and the gravity of his person more particularly qualifying him for a primacy of order amongst the rest of the apostles, as that without which no society of men can be managed or maintained. Less than this, as none will deny him, so, more than this neither Scripture nor primitive antiquity do allow him. And now it was that our Lord actually conferred that name upon him which before he had promised him. 'Simon he surnamed Peter.'2 It may here be inquired, when and by whom the apostles were baptized. That they were is unquestionable, being themselves appointed to confer it upon others; but when or how the Scripture is altogether silent. Nicephorus, from no worse an author, as he pretends, than Euodius, St. Peter's immediate successor in the see of Antioch, tells us, that of all the apostles Christ baptized none but Peter with his own hands; that Peter baptized Andrew and the two sons of Zebedee, and they the rest of the apostles. This, if so, would greatly make for the honour of St. Peter. But alas! his authority is not only suspicious but supposititious, in a manner deserted by St. Peter's best friends, and the strongest champions of his cause. Baronius himself, however, sometimes willing to make use of him, elsewhere confesses that this epistle of Euodius is

5

1 Matt. x. 2.

2 Mark, iii. 10.

5 Ad. An. 71, num. 13.

3 Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. c. 3, p. 134. 4 Ad. An. 31, num. 40.

altogether unknown to any of the ancients. As for the testimony of Clemens Alexandrinus, which to the same purpose he quotes out of Sophronius,' (though not Sophronius but Johannes Moschus, as is notoriously known, be the author of that book,) besides that it is delivered upon an uncertain report, pretended to have been alleged in a discourse between one Dionysius, bishop of Ascalon, and his clergy, out of a book of Clemens not now extant; his authors are much alike, that is, of no great value and authority.

2

4. Amongst these apostles our Lord chose a triumvirate, Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, to be his more intimate companions, whom he admitted more familiarly than the rest unto all the more secret passages and transactions of his life. The first instance of which was on this occasion:-Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, had a daughter desperately sick, whose disease, having baffled all the arts of physic, was only curable by the immediate agency of the God of nature. He therefore, in all humility, addresses himself to our Saviour; which he had no sooner done but servants came post to tell him that it was in vain to trouble our Lord, for that his daughter was dead. Christ bids him not despond; if his faith held out there was no danger. suffering none to follow him but Peter, James, and John, he goes along with him to the house; where he was derided by the sorrowful friends and neighbours, for telling them that she was not perfectly dead. But our Lord entering in, with the com

And

1 Vid. Jos. Moschi Prat. Spir. c. 176; Bibl. P. Græc. L. tom. ii. p. 1133.

2 Mark, v. 22.

VOL. I.

F

manding efficacy of two words, restored her at once both to life and perfect health.

5. Our Lord after this preached many sermons, and wrought many miracles; amongst which none more remarkable than his feeding a multitude of five thousand men, besides women and children, but with five loaves and two fishes;' of which, nevertheless, twelve baskets of fragments were taken up. Which being done, and the multitude dismissed, he commanded the apostles to take ship, it being now near night, and to cross over to Capernaum, whilst he himself, as his manner was, retired to a neighbouring mountain, to dispose himself to prayer and contemplation. The apostles were scarce got into the middle of the sea, when on a sudden a violent storm and tempest began to arise, whereby they were brought into present danger of their lives. Our Saviour, who knew how the case stood with them, and how much they laboured under infinite pains and fears, having himself caused this tempest for the greater trial of their faith, a little before morning (for so long they remained in this imminent danger) immediately conveyed himself upon the sea, where the waves received him, being proud to carry their master. He who refused to gratify the devils, when tempting him to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, did here commit himself to a boisterous and instable element, and that in a violent storm, walking upon the water as if it had been dry ground. But that infinite power that made and supports the world, as it gave rules to all particular beings, so can, when it pleaseth, countermand the laws of their

1 Matt. xiv. 17.