The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

228 APOSTOLICITY, OR PETER'S PRIMACY.same office," says Barrow, in his incomparable treatise on thesupremacy of the Pope, " certainly did belong to all the apostles,who (as St Hierom speaketh) were the princes of our disciplineand chieftains of the Christian doctrine ; they at theirfirst vocation had a commission and command to go unto thelost sheep of the house of Israel, that were scattered abroadlike sheep not having a shepherd ; they, before our Lord'sascension, were enjoined to teach all nations the doctrinesand precepts of Christ, to receive them into the fold, to feedthem with good instruction, to guide and govern their convertswith good discipline. Hence all of them (as StCyprian saith) were shepherds. But the flock did appearone, which was fed by theapostles with unanimous agreement.Neither could St Peter's charge be more extensivethan was that of the other apostles, forthey had a generaland unlimited care of the whole Church. They wereoecumenical rulers (as St Chrysostom saith), appointed byGod, who did not receive several nations or cities, but all ofthem in common were entrusted with the world.""* Theproofs of what is here asserted are not difficult to seek for.The very same charge here given by Christ to Peter, onwhich the Romanists have reared so stupendous a structureof exclusive and universal jurisdiction, does the HolyGhost, through the instrumentality of Paul, give to theelders of the Church of Miletus. The apostle bids them" take heed to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hathmade them overseers, to feed the Church of God."-f" Nay,we find Peter himself, the holder, according to the Romanidea, of this universal pastorate, writing to the Asiaticchurches thus :— " The elders I exhort, who am also anelder : feed the flock of God.""^ Nor can we mistake theimport of the last solemn act of Christ on earth, which wasto commit the evangelization of the world— to whom? ToPeter ? No ; to all the apostles. " Go ye into all the* Barrow's Works, vol. i. pp. 586, 587. t Acts, xx. 28.t1 Peter, v, 1, 2.