A SERMON OF S T. PETER Preach'd before HER MAJESTY THE Queen-Dowager In Her Chappel at Somerset-House on the Twenty ninth of June 1686. BEING St. PETER and St. PAVL's Day By THOMAS GODDEN D. D. Preacher in Ordinary to Her Majesty Published by Her Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel 1686. A SERMON OF S T. PETER Preach'd before Her Majesty the Queen Dowager On St. Peter and St. Paul's Day 1686. Et Ego dico tibi quia Tu es Petrus super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam Matth. 16. 18. And I say unto thee that Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church TWO Years were now elaps'd from the time of their first Vocation that Peter and the rest of the Disciples had been constant Auditors in the School of the Word made Flesh conversing daily with him hearing the Sacred Oracles which distill'd from his Gracious Lips and beholding the great Miracles he wrought for the Benefit of Mankind And now it was high time they should give some Account of what they had learn'd under so Divine a Master In order to this our Lord designs a solemn Examination and having led them into the Coasts of Caesarea Philippi proposes two Questions to them The First Preliminary only to open the way and lead them as it were by the Hand into the Knowledge and Confession of the Truth Quem dicunt homines esse Filium hominis Whom do Men say that the Son of Man is The Second the Substantial Point and which was to be the Test of their Proficiency Vos autem quem me esse dicitis But you Whom do you say that I am To the First of these Questions the Answer was easie because the Judgments of the World are every where to be met with and so without any demurring upon the matter they readily answer'd Some said that He was John the Baptist some that He was Elias others Jeremias or some one of the Prophets These were the Judgments the World made of him But why not one Word of the Messias among the rest since they knew the term of Years was now expir'd and his Coming daily expected No sooner did the Baptist appear out of his Solitude but presently a solemn Embassy of Priests Levites was sent from Jerusalem to ask him if he were not the Christ who was to come But when the Messias himself appears the best Title they can afford him is of a John the Baptist or an Elias or a Jeremias or some one of the Prophets but no mention at all of the Messias O false and deceitful World how Erroneous art thou in thy Weights and Unequal in thy Measures giving to one what is due to another and always deviating from Truth either by Excess or Defect That these Judgments the World made of his Person were such that is Erroneous our Lord sufficiently intimated by leaving them and addressing himself to his Disciples with the Second Question Vos autem quem me esse dicitis But you My Disciples who now for two Years together have been daily Witnesses of my Life and Conversation and seen the great Works I have done Whom do you say that I am Here the rest of the Apostles not knowing what to answer for this Doctrine as St. Cyril says was above their reach remain'd silent Only Peter whom the same Holy Father calls there the Prince of the Apostles and Sovereign Herald of the Church not of his own Invention or induced by Humane Reason but illuminated in his Soul by God the Father answered and said Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God that is not by Adoption as others but by Nature of one and the same Substance with thy Eternal Father And now what was the Reward as St. Hilary calls it of this so Noble and Generous a Confession First He declar'd him Blessed in having been so highly favour'd by God And then as it follows in the Words of my Text and the Sequel of the Gospel He said unto him Et ego dico tibi quia Tu es Petrus And I say also to thee that Thou art Peter which is by Interpretation a Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give to thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Had these been the Words of a Chrysostom or some other fam'd Orator in a Panegyrick of St. Peter they might have been look'd upon as Hyperboles or Exaggerations of Rhetorick For if they be understood to mean as they sound never was such Honour and Dignity as this conferr'd upon any of the Sons of Adam from the Creation of the World But now that the Eternal Word who is Truth it self has been pleas'd to be the Encomiast of our Saint and to pronounce them with His own Blessed Mouth in so solemn a Manner our Faith is exempt from all suspicion of Hyperboles and the Honours given to St. Peter must be his very True and Proper Elogium And because this is what God willing I shall endeavour to make out in my following Discourse I shall divide my Text and it into Two Parts In the First I shall let you see the great Honour conferr'd upon our glorious Saint by our Lord 's confirming to him on this occasion the Name of Peter that is of a Rock Et ego dico tibi quia Tu es Petrus And I say to thee that Thou art Peter In the Second That this Name was not only a Title of Honour but suppos'd or carried with it a real Communication of the Dignity and Authority imported by it which was to be the Rock or Foundation-stone upon which the Church should be built super hanc Petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam And upon this Rock I will build my Church That I may treat worthily of them Let us implore the Assistance of the Divine Spirit by the Intercession of that Sacred Virgin who was chosen before all to be the Mother of him whom St. Peter confessed to be the Son of the Living God Ave Maria. The First Part. Et ego dico tibi And I say unto thee that Thou art Peter IN the First Book of Kings or as some call it of Samuel chap. 2. vers 30. God was pleas'd to make a gracious Declaration in favour of his Servants or rather to enter into a Solemn League or Covenant with them That if they should Honour him he would Honour them Quicunque glorificaverit me glorificabo eum Whosoever shall Honour me I will Honour him Now among all the Honours with which he has been pleas'd to Honour them who Honour him that of foretelling the Name by which they should be call'd or changing the Name given
depart in their unbelief is a convincing Argument that both he spake and they understood him to speak of the giving his true Flesh to be eaten by them This being so our dearest Lord solicitous now for the Twelve whom he had chosen to be constantly with him and to send them forth as occasion serv'd to Preach to others Addresses himself to them with those words full of Tenderness and Love Numquid vos vultis abire And will you also you not only my Disciples but my Apostles and Domesticks will you also go and leave me upon the same Accounts as these others have done When Peter stepping forth with his wonted fervour cries out Domine ad quem ibimus Lord to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of Eternal Life As if he should have said Thou hast promis'd Everlasting Life to those who believe in thee and if that be not to be obtain'd but by eating thy Flesh and drinking thy Blood tho' we understand not how or in what manner it can be done since thou hast said it be it to us according to thy word For we have believ'd and are sure that thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God and therefore canst make good whatever thou hast said as well in this as in all other things how hard and absurd soever they may appear to Sense and Reason Thus did St. Peter give Honour and Glory to Christ by his stedfast belief and Confession of the Truth of what he had said of the necessity of eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood in very deed for the obtaining of Everlasting Life In like manner as Martha afterwards did when being ask'd by our Saviour if she believ'd him to be the Resurrection and the Life she answered with the words of St. Peter Vtique Domine Yea Lord I believe that thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God and consequently as being true God canst by thy Power raise Lazarus again to Life But why was not St. Peter then presently Honoured by our Saviour with a Beatus es Simon Barjona Blessed art thou Simon the Son of Jonas To this Theophylact answers That our Lord suspended praising him then tho' he deserv'd it least being at a time when others deserted him it might seem done out of design and a piece of Artifice to retain him with him but Euthymius more probably thinks it was because he answer'd not for himself only but in the name of all among whom there was one so far from being worthy of praise that our Saviour presently after Emendans Petrum says a learned Expositor to rectifie Peter's mistake told them He was a Devil The Second Confession he made was that of my Text when our Saviour demanding of the Twelve Whom they said that he was He alone answer'd not in the name of the rest or as delivering the Faith of them all as he had done before and found he had been mistaken but as delivering his own proper Sentiment a Sentiment Inspir'd by a particular Revelation from God the Father to him alone but to serve as a Formulary of Confession to the rest Tu es Filius Dei vivi Thou art Christ the Son of the living God Begotten from all Eternity by the Father coequal coeternal and consubstantial with him And This is that full and generous Confession which justifies the Wicked Confirms the Just triumphs over the World confounds the Devil rejoyces the Angels and opens the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers This is that Confession which encourag'd the Martyrs to undergo their Torments the Confessors to have their Conversation in Heaven even whilst they liv'd upon Earth And the Virgins to run after the Odours of the Perfumes of all sorts of Vertues which this Divine Bridegroom of Souls left behind him in this World whilst he Conversed in it In a word This Faith and Confession of S. Peter that Christ was the Son of God begotten of his Father from all Eternity and born in time of his Virgin-Mother is in the Language of S. Ambrose no less than a General Definition or Prae-condemnation of all the Heresies that should ever arise in the Church Adversus omnes Haereses Generalis est ista Fides Thus it was that St. Peter vindicated the Honour of his Master by confessing him to be the very true and Natural Son of God And what did our Lord do or rather what did he not do to recompense him for it and to comply with the Condition of the Covenant on his Part that is of Honouring those who honour him First He proclaim'd him Blessed whilst yet upon Earth Beatus es Simon Barjona Blessed art thou Simon the Son of Jonas Then confirm'd to him the Name of Peter which is as much as to say a Rock or solid Foundation-Stone such an one as on it he would not doubt to build his Church and that so firm that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it Lastly He promis'd to deliver the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven into his hands with so full and ample a Commission that Whatsoever he should bind upon Earth should be bound in Heaven and whatsoever he should loose upon Earth should be loosed in Heaven And had not St. Hilary then great reason to exclaim upon this Passage as he do's with these words O in nuncupatione novi Nominis felix Ecclesiae Fundamentum O happy Foundation of the Church in having this new Name of PETER imposed on thee and worthy Rock for Christ to build his Church upon which should destroy the Laws of Hell and break in sunder the Gates of the Abyss and the Prisons of Death O BEATVS COELI JANITOR O Blessed Door-keeper of Heaven into whose hands the Keys of the Entrance into Eternity are committed and whose Judgment upon Earth shall have the Authority of a Rule or prejudging Sentence in the Court of Heaven Thus St. Hilary with whom the rest of the Fathers both Greek and Latin agree as to the substance of the thing For tho' some of them especially after the Council of Nice chose rather to affirm the Church to be built upon St. Peter's Faith or Confession than upon his Person yet their meaning was to assign the Reason why our Saviour made choice of him above the rest to build his Church upon and not to exclude him from being the Rock on which the Church is built any more than it was the meaning of St. Peter himself to deny that God had made him the Instrument of curing the lame Man at the Gate of the Temple when he said that not he and John by their own Power or Holiness had made him to walk but the Faith which is by Jesus Christ Or than it was the meaning of St. Jerom to deny that the same St. Peter really walk'd upon the Sea when he said Super aquas non corpus ambulasse sed Fidem that his Body walk'd not upon the Waters but his
by others into another more noble is set forth to us in the Holy Scripture as a Particular mark of his Favour to his greatest Servants In the first of these ways he Honour'd the Son of Abraham with the Name of Isaac which is by Interpretation Laughter to signifie that he should be the Joy of his Parents The Son of Amon King of Juda with the Name of Josias that is The Fire of the Lord to fignifie the Zeal with which he should take away the High Places and burn Men's Bones upon the Altars as also the Son of Zachary with the Name of John that is Gracious to signifie that he should be fill'd with the Holy Ghost even from his Mother 's Womb. In the Second way he Honoured the Father of the Faithful by changing his Name from that of Abram into Abraham which signifies A Father of many Nations In like manner his Wife by changing her Name from that of Sarai into Sara which signifies as much as Absolute Lady and lastly his younger Grandson by changing his Name of Jacob into that of Israel which signifies A Prevailer with God But in both these ways he was pleas'd to Honour the Great and Illustrious Subject of my Text Simon the Son of Jonas first by foretelling when he first beheld him that he should be called Cephas or Peter which is by Interpretation a Rock then by giving him that Name when he chose his Twelve Apostles and lastly by confirming it to him anew after the Confession he had made of his being the true and natural Son of the living God with the solemn Asseveration of my Text Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus And I say unto thee that thou art Peter And may we not then here make use of those words and with far greater advantage to our Saint with which Haman was commanded to Proclaim the Honour done to Mardochaeus by King Assuerus Sic honorabitur quemcunque voluerit Rex honorare Thus shall the Man be honour'd whom the King delighteth to honour For if it were a particular Mark of Honour to the most Elect Servants and Favourites of the King of Glory that himself was pleas'd either to design or foretel the Name by which their Memory should be had in Benediction through all Generations or change that which had been given them into another more Noble and Excellent with how much more advantage do's this Honour shine glorious upon the Memory of our Saint on whom the Son of God was pleas'd to confer both these Signs of his Favour First Tu vocaberis Cephas Thou shalt be called Cephas or Peter And then again Et ego dico tibi quia tu es Petrus I say unto thee that thou art Peter Such Honour as this have not all the Saints This as St. Ambrose says speaking of St. John is a Priviledge proper to the Merits of the most Eminent among them Vt a Deo nomen accipiant to receive their Name from God and in a more especial manner of the great St. Peter And why but because he comply'd with the condition of the Covenant in the Honour he gave to Christ in a more eminent manner than the rest Two things there were at which the World was scandaliz'd in our Saviour above all others The first that he had told them That to obtain Eternal Life they must eat his Flesh and drink his Blood which they could not hear without Horrour The Second That he made himself the Son of God which they look'd upon as the greatest of Blasphemies And by whom was his Honour vindicated in both these Points but by St. Peter in the two most Illustrious Confessions he made of these two great Mysteries of our Faith The First of the necessity of the true and real eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood for the obtaining of Everlasting Life The Second Of his being the True and Natural Son of the Living God That the Confession he made of the Real Manducation of the Body of our Lord was first in time is manifestly evinc'd from the series of the Acts of our Saviour's Life Recorded by the Evangelists For before his coming into the Coasts of Caesarea Philippi where he propos'd the Question to his Disciples Whom do you say that I am he had fed five thousand Men besides Women and Children with sive Loaves and two Fishes which Miracle St. Chrysostom says he purposely wrought before hand by it to prepare them to believe what he should afterwards teach concerning the giving them his own Body and Blood at his last Supper Propterea id prius fecit miraculum c. and accordingly seeing the Multitudes follow him from place to place because they had eaten of the Loaves and were filled that is with expectation of being still so fed and entertain'd by him he took occasion from thence to exhort them to labour for a much better Bread which camedown from Heaven and which he would give them viz. His own Flesh which he would give for the Life of the World At this you know how not only the Jews strove among themselves saying How can this Man give us his Flesh to eat but many of his own Disciples also were so scandaliz'd that they withdrew themselves from his Company and would have no more to do with a Teacher of so absurd a Doctrine and Commander of so horrible a Practice And this too after they had heard him say The Flesh profiteth nothing The words that I speak unto you are Spirit and Life Rather it was upon hearing these very words and understanding them to be a confirmation of what he had said before that they went back and walked no more with him And is not all this an evident Sign that they understood him to speak of giving them his very true Flesh to eat Otherwise certainly they would not have quitted him nor call'd it a hard Saying that he should say his Flesh was Bread any more than they did when they heard him say He was a Vine or a Door Nor was it a less evident Sign that our Lord himself also meant as he said that is to give them his Flesh to eat in very deed how easie had it been for him and how would his Goodness that Goodness which brought him down from Heaven to save Sinners have mov'd him in this as in other Occasions it had done to have bid them not to be scandaliz'd at what he had said of giving them his Flesh to eat for that it was spoken only in a Parable and that he intended no more by it than to give them Bread and Wine as a Figure of his Body and Blood in remembrance of him This I say had been very easie for him to do and surely well becoming him who came down from Heaven to seek what was lost and not to drive away what was found And his not doing it but reprehending them for not believing and permitting them to