"For if thou thinkest that heaven is still closed, remember that the Lord left here the keys' thereof to Peter, and, through him, to the Church; which keys, every one that is here put to the question, and confesses, shall carry with him."-Scorpiace, x. p. 496.*

for by the Jews? For although we, who have by God's grace attained to the understanding of His mysteries, acknowledge that this name also was destined for Christ, yet, for all that, the fact was not known to the Jews, from whom wisdom was taken away. To this day, in short, it is Christ that they are looking for, not Jesus; and they interpret this to be Christ rather than Jesus...In the Christ of the Creator, however, both will keep their place, for in Him a Jesus too is found. Do you ask, how? Learn it then here, with the Jews also who are partakers of your heresy. When Auses, the son of Nun, was destined to be the successor of Moses, is not his old name then changed, and he begins to be called Jesus? It is true, you say. This, then, we first observe, was a figure of Him who was to come. For inasmuch as Jesus Christ was to introduce a second people-we being born in the desert of the world-into the promised land which flows with milk and honey, that is, into the possession of eternal life, than which nothing can be sweeter; inasmuch, too, as this was to be brought about not by Moses, that is to say, not by the discipline of the law, but by Jesus, by the grace of the Gospel, our circumcision being effected by a knife of stone, that is, by the precepts of Christ, for Christ is a rock (or stone), therefore that great man, who was prepared as a type of this mystery, was inaugurated with the figure of the Lord's name, being called Jesus."-C. Marcion, iii. 16, p. 406.

* In the same treatise we read: "At Rome, Nero was the first who stained with blood the rising faith. Then is Peter girt by another, (John, xxi. 18), when he is made fast to the cross. n. 15, p. 500.

Tertullian applies the term "Satan," to the devil and not to Peter, in Christ's reproof; "He (Valentinus or Prodicus). would have immediately heard from the servant of God, what the devil heard from the Lord: 'Get behind me, Satan; thou art a scandal to me. It is written, the Lord thy God thou shalt adore, and Him only shalt thou serve.' (Matt. xvi. 23; iv. 10.)"-Scorpiace, n. 15, p. 415.

(Of the apostles) "I find, by the mention of his mother-in-law, Peter the only one married. I presume him a monogamist, by the Church, which, built upon him, was about to confer every grade of her Order on monogamists."-De Monogamia, n. 8, p.

529.

"So also he (Satan) asked in the case of the apostles an opportunity to tempt them, having it only by permission; since the Lord in the Gospel says to Peter, 'Behold, Satan has asked that he might sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,' (Luke, xxii. 31, 32); that is, that so much should not be allowed to the devil, as that faith should be endangered. Whereby it is shown, that both things belong to God, the shaking of faith, as well as the protection of it; when both are sought from Him-the shaking by the devil, the shielding by the Son."-De fuga in persecut. n. 2, p. 537.

"But, thou sayest, The Church has the power of forgiving sins.'...I now ask, concerning thy opinion, whence wilt thou assume this right to the Church? If, because the Lord may have said to Peter, 'Upon this rock I will build my Church; to thee I have given the keys of the kingdom of heaven; or, whatsoever thou shalt bind or loose on earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven' (Matt. xvi. 18.); thou, therefore, presumest that the power of binding and loosing has been derived to thee also, that is, to every Church akin (or near) to Peter,* who art thou, overthrowing and changing the Lord's manifest intention, which confers this on Peter personally? Upon thee,' He says, 'I will build my Church; and, I will give to thee the keys,' not to the Church; and, whatsoever thou shalt bind or loose,' not what they shall bind or loose. For so

* Ad omnem ecclesiam Petri propinquam.

also the event teaches; in him the Church was built, that is, through him; he handselled the key; see which; Ye men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man sent of God to you,' and the rest, (Acts, ii. 22.) He, in fine, unlocked the entrance of the kingdom of heaven in the baptism of Christ, by which offences, heretofore bound, are loosed, and those not loosed are bound, according to true salvation. And Ananias he bound with the chain of death; and him that was weak in his feet he delivered from a diseased state of health. But also in that dispute, whether the Law should be kept or not, Peter, first of all, instinct with the Spirit, and having first spoken of the call of the Gentiles; 'And now,' he says, why have you tempted God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the Gentiles, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? But, by the grace of Christ, we believe that we shall be saved, even as they.' (Acts, xv. 10, 11.) This sentence, both loosed those things of the Law which were given up, and bound those which were retained."-De Pudicitia, n. 21, p. 574.*

* This treatise is by Tertullian, when he became a Montanist, and his interpretation and reasoning are such as that system forced him to; but they point plainly to the meaning and interpretation prevalent in the Church. This, and some other interpretations which arose from the prevalence of various heresies, will be noticed later, under St. Hilary of Poitiers.

THE CLEMENTINES, G. C. 230.-" Clement to James, the Lord's brother, and Bishop of Bishops, and who rules Jerusalem, the holy Church of the Hebrews, and the Churches everywhere excellently founded by the Providence of God, with the elders and deacons, and the rest of the brethren, peace be always. Be it known to thee, my Lord, that Simon, who, on account of the true faith, and the most secure foundation of his doctrine, was set apart to be a (or the) foundation of the Church, and who, on this very account, had his name, by the mouth of Jesus which deceives not, changed into Peter; the

ORIGEN. G. C. 216.-"I think that there is a certain limit to human nature, even though the man be Paul, of whom it is said, "This man is to Me a

first fruits of our Lord; the first of the apostles; to whom first the Father revealed the Son; whom Christ justly proclaimed blessed; the called and the elect; His associate at table, and on His journeys; that excellent and approved disciple; the one commended as the most competent of all to enlighten, and best able to set in order, that darker portion of the world, the West.........this same Peter, through his undaunted zeal for men, in spite of the wicked one who opposed him, made known the King that was to be a blessing to the whole world, and having come even here to Rome, saving men by his teaching well-pleasing to God, he by violence exchanged the present existence for life. And during the days that his end was at hand, the brethren having been, assembled, suddenly taking hold of my hand, he rose up, and thus spoke in the face of the Church: Hear me, brethren and fellow servants. Seeing that, as I have learnt from Him that sent me, the Lord and Master Jesus Christ, the day of my death is near at hand, I ordain (lay hands on) this Clement as your bishop, to whom I entrust this my chair of discourses......wherefore I communicate to him the power of binding and loosing, in order that with regard to whatever he shall ordain on earth, it may be decreed in the heavens. he will bind what ought to be bound, and he will loose what ought to be loosed, as one who knows the rule (canon) of the Church. Him, therefore, hear ye, as men who know that he who grieves him, that presides over truth, sins against Christ, and exceedingly angers the Father of all. Therefore, shall he not live. And it behoves him who presides to hold the place of a physician, and not to have the violence of an irrational animal."-Ep. Clem. ad Jacob. p. 611, 612, Galland. ii.

For

"If thou, Simon Magus, hast been made an apostle, love the apostles, and fight not against me who was with Him. For against me, who am a solid rock and foundation of the Church, thou hast resisted as mine adversary."-Hom. 17, n. 19, p. 758, ib.

The Clementines, as well as the Recognitions, are now universally acknowledged not to he by St. Clement of Rome,

vessel of election,' (Acts ix. 15); or Peter against whom the gates of hell prevail not,' (Matt. xvi. 18); or Moses that friend of God: yet not one of these could sustain, without some ruin to him

but it is also pretty generally admitted that, as a whole, they date from about the time named above; and it is on this account, and also for the completeness of this essay, that they are quoted. The first extract is from the much debated letter of Clement to James. Besides Rufinus's translation of that piece, (A.D. 410), Gallandius's edition gives us the Greek. Rufinus, in his preface to the book of Recognitions, addressed to Bishop Gaudentius, says, "The Epistle in which the same Clement, writing to James, the Lord's brother, informs him of the death of Peter, and that he had left him his successor in his chair and teaching, and in which also the whole subject of Church order is treated of, I have not prefixed to this work, both because it is of later date, and because I have already translated and published it. But I do not think it out of place to explain here, what in that letter will perhaps seem to some to be inconsistent. For some ask, since Linus and Cletus were Bishops in the City of Rome before this Clement, how could Clement himself, writing to James, say that the chair of teaching was handed over to him by Peter? Now, of this we have heard this explanation, that Linus and Cletus were indeed bishops in the city of Rome before Clement, but during the lifetime of Peter; that is, that they undertook the care of the episcopate, and that he fulfilled the office of the apostleship; as is found also to have been the case at Cæsarea, where, when he himself was present, he yet had Zacchæus, ordained by himself, as bishop.

"And in this way both statements will appear to be true, both that these bishops are reckoned before Clement, and yet that Clement received the teacher's seat on the death of Peter."-Galland. ii. p. 218.

It may be as well to observe, that in the Apostolical Con stitutions, L. vi. c. 5, we meet with St. Luke, xxii. 31 and 32, as follows: "And he (Satan) oftentimes sought to sift us, that our faith might fail....He will now say, as He said formerly of us, when we were assembled together, 'I have prayed that your faith fail not.' (Luke, xxii. 82.)”—Galland. i. p. 141,