Still, however, I was dissatisfied, and still longed to know positively from whence the priests had derived their vain system.  This desire filled my mind for some days, and at last it struck me that the Pope must have been the inventor of it.  I then naturally began to wish to discover who the Pope was, and what right he had to impose such a doctrine.  I had often read and heard, both in conversation and from the pulpit, that St. Peter was the chief and head of the Apostles; that he had been the first pope at Rome; and that all succeeding popes had inherited his rights and prerogatives.

I conceived a wish to know what the New Testament said upon this subject, and I immediately undertook a second perusal of it; in the same state of mind as before, that is to say, absorbed by one sole object, and having nothing in view but to find out whether St. Peter had really been set over all the other apostles, and placed at Rome as head of all the churches.

This examination, which was pursued with a degree of attention of which I should now be scarcely capable, ended in convincing me that the supremacy of St. Peter was no better established by the New Testament than the first doctrine which I had sought for, and that undoubtedly the papacy was without scriptural authority.

I found in St. Matthew the calling of Simon, who was afterwards called Peter; Matt. 4:18, 19,20; but it did not appear to me to differ from that addressed to Andrew his brother, and all the other apostles.

In the tenth chapter of the same Gospel, I also observed that the first mission which Jesus Christ gave to his apostles, was given to all, without any particular prerogative to Peter.  It is true that Peter is the first named, but this is merely an accidental priority, which implies neither distinction nor superiority; one must have been mentioned first.  I made the same observation on the last mission which they received on the day of their Master’s ascension, and which is related by St. Matthew, 28:19, 20; by St. Mark, 16:15; and in the Acts of the Apostles, 1:8.  This mission, though variously expressed in the three places, is the same in substance.  It is given indiscriminately to all; the promises by which it is accompanied are for all; and on all, the same powers are, equally conferred.

The 18th and 19th verses of chapter 16 of St. Matthew, where it is said, “Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my church,” startled me for a moment, and I was on the point of mistaking the true meaning of this declaration.  But having reflected that Jesus Christ asked the question in the 15th verse, of all his disciples, and that Peter expressed the sentiment of all in his animated reply in the 16th verse, I considered that the words which Christ addressed to Peter, were applicable to all disciples; and that no supremacy could be attributed to him from this passage, more than from any of the preceding.