Chapter VIII

SUMMARY OF THE PROOF GIVEN FOR S. PETER'S PRIMACY.

Points in question, generally, inequality in the Apostolic College:

specially, the appointment of one over the rest; resolution of these tried

by four examinations:—1. Into the words and acts of Christ; which relate

to the Apostles.—2. Into those which seem to mark the institution of

a singular authority.—3. Into the mode of writing used by the

evangelists.—4. Into the history of the rising Church.—A

concurrence of these four points would prove the two questions200

The analysis of what has been written shows this concurrence201

Twelve arguments from what has been written, proving the inequality of

the Apostolic college, and Peter's Primacy203

What is the force and nature of the Primacy.—Six proofs establishing

this to consist in superior jurisdiction209

Enquiry into the end and purpose of the Primacy: for the knowledge of

the intention and purpose equivalent at least to a negative rule,

ascertaining what must be given to it212

Three classes of reasons, typical, analogical, and real, ascertain for us this

purpose.—1. Typical. Parallel of Peter with Abraham and its results213

Parallel of Peter with Judah and its results214

ii. Analogical. Analogy of body, house, kingdom, city, and fold, and its

results.—And of universal, and each particular Church on one hand,

and Primate and bishops on the other217

iii. Real, whether educed from texts containing the institution of the

Primacy, or from the inherent properties of the Church.—1. Educed

from texts219

2. Educed from properties of the Church; first, its identity; secondly, its

unity; thirdly, its catholicity; scriptural setting forth of unity220

Further illustration from Protestant opinions of the Church's unity.—

A. First, that of Anglicans, of unity in particular Churches, but not in

the universal Church, represented by Dodwell222

B. Second opinion, set forth by Vitringa, of distinction between the

necessity of internal and that of external unity225

C. Third opinion, of agreement in fundamentals232

Two causes of this being held, one theoretical, the other practical.—The

former stated233

The practical cause234

Reasons educed, thirdly, from the Catholicity of the Church, with which

the Primacy is bound up.—Catholicity has two parts, one material and

one formal236

The material part, amplitude and extension.—The formal part, not only

negative, but affirmative.—Negative, as expelling from the one true

Church all heretics and schismatics: testimonies to it237

Affirmative, at making a coherent body with members and articulations238

Testimonies to the mode of this coherence, in Irenæus, Cyprian, and

Tertullian, and the other Fathers, summed up in S. Leo239

Hence answers to the question whether the doctrine of S. Peter's Primacy

is contained in the creed.—It is involved in one Catholic Church243