Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

26 rOPERT CONDEMNED BY
church has been provided many ages
before hisexistence.
The R. indeed says, " If Christianity be
" founded on the apostles because they taught
*' the Christian religion, it must be founded
" in the first place on Peter, because he first
" of all men confessed Christ to be by na-
" ture the Son of the living God *.'* But
why does he overlook the prophets, in specifying
the foundation of the church It has been always
a received opinion in the churchy that
Christian religion,
the
or the religion of Christ, was
published, in the v/orld, a few thousand years
before the days of the apostles : and had the R.
been as well acquainted with the scriptures as
he pretends, he would have also known, that
Peter's confession was merely the testimony
of his faith, concerning what the prophets had
taught. The first chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews
will show him what views the church under
the Old Testament entertained about the
Sonship of Christ.
Should the R. still
recur to Christ's words to
Peter, I have no objections at all to meet him
on that ground. Peter's excellent confession,
he must acknowledge, produced this declaration
of the Saviour. Upon what authority, then,
does he overlook the apostle's confession, and
fix upon his person as the basis of the church ;-
* P. 3- CO.
especially,