He
also speaks of the whole
city frequenting each
church, as if the festival
was kept very generally and
with great solemnity. St.
Augustine, St. Leo, and
several others of the
Fathers have left sermons
preached on the day of St.
Peter and St. Paul; and no
doubt the two, from their
relative positions as the
chief Apostles of the Jews
and the Gentiles, from their
joint ministrations at Rome,
and from their martyrdom
together there on the same
day, have always had this
day dedicated in their
united names. Bishop Cosin
restored the title " Saint
Peter's and Saint Paul's
Day" in his Durham
Prayer Book, and
added to the Collect, so
that- it should read ". . .
. commandedst him earnestly
to feed Thy flock, and
madest Thy Apostle St. Paul
a choice vessel to bear Thy
name before the Gentiles,
make, we beseech Thee,
all Bishops and all other
ministers of Thy Church,
diligently to preach Thy
holy Word . . . ." He also
altered the Epistle to 2
Tim. iv. 1—9; but none of
these changes were adopted.
St.
Peter was one of the
first-called of our Lord's
disciples [John i. 35—42],
and as soon as he had come
to follow Christ, he was
marked out by a new name,
that of Cephas, the Syriac
equivalent of the one by
which he has since been so
familiarly known to the
Church. Our Lord did nothing
without a meaning, and in
giving this new name to His
disciple, He appears to have
prophetically indicated the
strong, immoveable faith in
Him which that disciple was
to exhibit; and the firmness
of which is not contradicted
even by that temporary want
of courage which led him to
try and save his life by
denial of his Master in the
bitter hour of His Passion.
Such instances of faith as
St. Peter's attempt to walk
on the water, and his
confession of Christ as the
Son
of the living God,
seem to set him at the head
of the Apostles, as one whom
no shock could move from his
belief in the Lord; and the
striking words of our Lord
which are recited in the
Gospel for this day show
that a special revelation
had been vouchsafed to the
Apostle to give him that
knowledge of Christ on which
his faith rested. It was,
perhaps, because St. Peter's
faith was stronger than that
of the other Apostles that
he had to undergo greater
temptation. Satan desired to
"sift him as wheat," as he
had desired to tempt Job;
but one look from Jesus
brought him to himself and
counteracted the temptation.
A similar temptation is said
to have assailed him just
before his martyrdom, as our
Lord's agony was a kind of
second temptation. St. Peter
too desired that the cup
might pass from him, and
endeavoured to escape from
Rome. But as he was leaving
the city he had such a
vision of his Master as St.
Paul had on his way to
Damascus. "Lord, whither
goest Thou?" were the words
of the Apostle, and the
reply was a question whether
that Master must go to Rome
and again suffer, since His
servants were afraid to die
for His sake. As when Jesus
had "looked on" the Apostle
years before in the hall of
Pilate, so now, the trial of
faith ended in a victory,
and the servant returned to
follow the Master by being
girded by another than
himself, and led whither he
would not at the first have
gone, to the Cross. At his
own request he was crucified
with his head downwards to
make the death more
ignominious and painful; and
as being unworthy to suffer
the same death as his Lord.
This was in the year 63; and
while St. Peter was being
crucified at the Vatican,
St. Paul was being beheaded
at Aqua Salviae,
three miles from Rome.
Our
Lord's remarkable words, "I
will give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven,"
do not seem to be wholly
explained by saying that St.
Peter represented all the
Apostles, and that these
words represented the power
given to all. But if they
implied any distinction of
authority between St. Peter
and his brethren, they do
not give any foundation
whatever to the claims which
the Bishops of Rome have
made as successors of St.
Peter: for (1) there is no
evidence that they are in
any special sense successors
of St. Peter, and (2) if our
Lord's words cannot clearly
be applied to the other
Apostles, much less can they
be applied to Bishops of
later days who were not
Apostles. There is nothing
in the Scriptural account of
St. Peter's Apostolic work
which adequately explains
these words; nor does the
tradition of the Church
respecting that work show
any thing that at all helps
to do so. He presided over
the Church at Antioch for
some time,—a fact
commemorated by the festival
of St. Peter's Chair at
Antioch,—assisted, as it
appears, in evangelizing
Chaldaea, and was probably
some years at Rome before
his death. During these
years it seems most likely
that he was all the while
acting chiefly as the
Apostle of the Circumcision,
having charge of Jewish
Christians: and, while great
works were undoubtedly
assigned to the other
Apostles, there are evident
traces of a providential
disposition of duties by
which Jewish Christianity
became the field of St.
Peter's labours; Gentile
Christianity that of St.
Paul's (the successor of St.
James); and the general
government of the Church,
when Jewish and Gentile
Christianity were merging
into one, the work of St.
John, when the others had
passed away from their
labours.
Introit.—Now I know
of a surety that the Lord
hath sent His angel, and
hath delivered me out of the
hand of Herod, and from all
the expectation of the Jews.
Ps. And when Peter was come
to himself he said. Glory
be.
