also condemn, reject, and anathematize all things contrary thereto, and all heresies whatsoever, condemned, rejected, and anathematized by the Church."

The Popish rule of faith, then, is Scripture, including the Apocrypha, Tradition, Canons, and Decrees of Councils; and all as interpreted by the Clergy. The tradition itself is in the hands of the Clergy; and its correctness is to be determined by the writings of the Fathers, and especially by the Bulls of Popes, and the Decrees of Councils. The warrant the people have for receiving them is, the infallibility of the Church. The foundation. of this superstructure is baseless: the Apostles were infallible in their teaching, but there was no promise that their successors in the ministry should be, only so far as they abide by apostolic truth. The Scripture passages on which the claim to infallibility rests, are insufficient to afford proof; and there are scriptural and historical facts which completely annihilate the Popish construction put upon them. Our Saviour's address to Peter in his confession of faith is adduced: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."* Instead of the church being built upon the doctrine of *Matt. xvi. 18.

Christ's deity, which Peter had confessed, it is contended that it was upon Peter's person, as a reward for this confession; that he was thus constituted the supreme Pastor in the church of Christ, and that a plenitude of authority to determine matters of faith and discipline was vested in him and his successors; and that the gates of hell not prevailing against it, alludes to the infallibility which would always characterize the church under this pastorate. That this view was never intended by our Saviour, or understood by the Apostles, is evident, from the fact, that after this circumstance, the dispute arose who should be the greatest; and our Saviour emphatically condemned such ideas of lordship, and asserted their equality under him as their sole Master. An allusion is also made to our Saviour's address to Peter after his resurrection ::- "Lovest thou me more than these? feed my lambs; feed my sheep." It is argued, that his chief pastorship required a larger amount of love, and that he was set over Pastors and people. The address, however, had evident allusion to his self-confident assertion, "Though all men forsake thee, yet will not I." Peter, instead of being flattered, was grieved at this pointed and repeated challenge of his love, because he felt its allusion to his grievous fall. It was

his personal restoration to office as an Apostle and Pastor in the church. It would be a monstrous application of the language to consider the rest of the Apostles as sheep, and the church as lambs. We are expressly informed that Judas, by transgression, fell from his apostolate. Peter, by transgression, fell also; but, in this instance, we have his formal restoration to office.

That Peter never assumed the supremacy, is evident from the Acts of the Apostles. James presided at the meeting of Apostles at Jerusalem, and gave the decision in the case respecting the Gentiles, although Peter was there, and spoke on the occasion. The other Apostles sent Peter and John forth on a mission; they called Peter to account for preaching to the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul says, he was not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles; and alludes to Peter, James, and John, as seeming to be pillars. He withstood Peter to the face, and reprehended him for his momentary weakness, and unfaithfulness in dissimulating.

And while there was no supremacy ceded, it must not be from that passage we date Peter's personal infallibility; for, immediately after, he erred so grossly on a matter of faith, that our Lord rebuked him strongly for the worldliness

of his conceptions. We allow that Peter was infallible on the day of Pentecost, and, in accordance with his constitutional temperament, a prominent Apostle of the Lord; but it was in connexion with his brethren, and by virtue of a common commission, the signatures of which were evident, to give binding importance to their testimony.

That the churches planted by the Apostles were not infallible in their Pastors, although the immediate successors of the Apostles, and only could be preserved from heresy by a faithful adherence to apostolic teaching, might be illustrated by every epistle addressed to them. The Galatian Churches are charged with being turned aside to another gospel. The Thessalonian Church had erred respecting the second coming of Christ. The Colossian Church is warned to beware, lest any man spoil them through philosophy and vain deceit, after the traditions of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Apostle in addressing the Bishops of the Church at Ephesus, predicts that of their own selves men should arise speaking perverse things. Was the Church of Rome less fallible? Read the eleventh chapter of St. Paul's Epistle, and you will discover that the apostasy of the Jewish Church is alluded to in terms of emphatic

The

warning; and the Apostle declares that nothing but faithfulness can preserve her from a similar apostasy, and dreadful abandonment. The seven Churches of Asia, in the Apocalypse, are addressed, not as being under one chief pastorate, but as separate and independent Churches, under their one Master, Christ, who is head over all things to his church; and they are all either charged with defection, or warned as liable to it.

If we leave the word of God, and investigate the channels through which the stream of infallibility is said to flow, we shall find a mass of contradictions, displaying the utter falsehood of the claim. The Church of Rome knew nothing of any superiority in her Bishop in the first ages of the Church. St. Jerome, in his Epistle to Evagrius, speaks of the Church of Rome as merely occupying a place amongst the other churches, and declares the Bishops of each to have equal authority he strongly condemns practices which had crept into the Church at Rome. He refers to the Presbyters of Alexandria from the time of Mark the Evangelist, as choosing their own Bishop, and ordaining him, in order to maintain unity in their midst; Stillingfleet adduces a passage from Eutychus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, to the same effect.