St. Peter, His Name and His Office Part 5

Ephrem Syrus, "the candle, the tongue of the disciples, and the voice of preachers;" [57]S. Cyril of Jerusalem, "the prince of the Apostles, and the highest preacher of the truth." In these and such like continually recurring expressions we recognise his chiefs.h.i.+p in the episcopate of faith, his being the standard of faith, and his representing the Catholic faith, as the branches are gathered up in the root, and the streamlets in the fountain.

V. Our [58]Lord has most solemnly declared, and S. Paul repeated, that no one shall be saved without maintaining the true and uncorrupt faith. Of this Peter's faith is the standard and exemplar.

Accordingly by the law of Christ unity with the faith of Peter is necessary to salvation. This law our Lord set forth in the words, "Confirm thy brethren." And to this the Fathers in their expressions above quoted allude.

VI. The true faith and the true Church are so indivisibly united, that they cannot even be conceived apart from each other, faith being to the Church as light to the sun. But the true faith neither is, nor can be, other than that which Peter, "the first disciple of G.o.d," "the teacher of the world," "the mouthpiece of the disciples,"

and "the confirmer of his brethren," holds and proposes to others.

No communion, therefore, called after Christ, which yet differs from that faith, can claim either the name or dignity of the true Church.

VII. If any knowledge have a special value, it is surely that by which we have a safe and ready test of the true faith and the true Church. It is of the utmost necessity to know and embrace both, and the means of reaching them are proportionably valuable. Now that test abides in Peter, by keeping which before us we can neither miss the true faith nor the true Church. For no other true faith can there be than that which he delivers, who received the charge of confirming his brethren, nor other true Church than what Christ built, and is building still. Hence the expression of S.

Ambrose,[59] "where Peter is, there is the Church;" and of Stephen[60] of Larissa, to Pope Boniface II. (A.D. 530.) "that all the churches of the world rest in the confession of Peter."

VIII. With all these agrees that famous and most early testimony of S. Cyprian,[61] that men "fall away from the Church into heresy and schism so long as there is no regard _to the source of truth, no looking to the head_, nor keeping to the doctrine of our heavenly Master. If any one consider and weigh this, he will not need length of comment or argument. It is easy to offer proofs to a faithful mind, because in that case the truth may be quickly stated." And then he quotes our Lord's words to Peter, Matt. xvi. 16, and John xxi. 17, adding, "upon him being one He builds His Church."

Therefore that Church can neither be torn from the one on whom she is built, nor profess any other faith, save what that one, who is Peter, proposes.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Pa.s.saglia, p. 68.

[2] Eph. i. 10.

[3] 2 Pet. i. 14.

[4] Pa.s.saglia, p. 69.

[5] 1 John v. 6, 7.

[6] Luke ix. 32.

[7] Matt. xxviii. 36.

[8] Mark v. 35.

[9] Pa.s.saglia, p. 72.

[10] Matt. xvii. 23.

[11] On Matt. Hom. 58, n. 2.

[12] Origen on the text, in Matt. Tom. xiii. 14.

[13] S. Chrysostome on the text, Hom. 58, Tom. 7, p. 587.

[14] Pa.s.saglia, p. 77, note 38.

[15] Luke xviii. 34.

[16] Pa.s.saglia, p. 78.

[17] Matt. xviii. 2.

[18] Luke xxii. 25.

[19] Pa.s.saglia, p. 77.

[20] Matt, xx. 20.

[21] Hegoumenos.

[22] John xiii. 13.

[23] Pa.s.saglia, p. 82.

[24] Matt. xxiii. 8.

[25] John chps. x., xiii., xvii.

[26] Dialog. cont. Lucif. n. 9.

[27] St. Cyprian, Ep. 46.

[28] Pa.s.saglia, p. 89.

[29] Exetesato. The word in cla.s.sic Greek has this force.

[30] Serm. 4, c. 3.

[31] Rom. xvi. 25; 2 Cor. i. 21; 1 Pet v. 10.

[32] Col. ii. 6; 1 Cor. i. 7; 2 Thess. ii. 16.

[33] John xvi. 13; xiv. 16, 26; Eph. iii. 16.

[34] Pa.s.saglia, p. 563.

[35] 1 Pet. v. 10.

[36] Apoc. iii. 2.

[37] Rom. xvi. 25; 1 Thess. iii. 13; 2 Thess. ii. 17; 1 Pet. v. 10.

[38] Rom. i. 11.

[39] Apoc. iii. 2.

[40] S. Cyprian, Ep. 55.

[41] As far as the _words_ by themselves go, it is the opinion of the best commentators that they may be equally well rendered, "And thou, when thou art converted," or, "And thou, in thy turn, one day," &c. But as it is impossible to bring a discussion turning on a Hebrew idiom conveyed in a Greek word before the English reader, we must here restrict ourselves to the proof arising from the _sense_ and _context_. And here one thing alone, among several which may be urged, is sufficient to prove that the sense preferred in the text, "And thou in thy turn one day confirm thy brethren," is the true one. For the other rendering supposes that the time of Peter's conversion would also be the time of his confirming his brethren; whereas this was far otherwise. He was converted by our Lord looking on him that same night shortly after his denial, and "immediately went out and wept bitterly." But he did not succeed to the charge of confirming his brethren till after our Lord's ascension. It must be added that the collocation of the original words kai su pote epistrepsas sterixon is such as absolutely to require that the joint action indicated by them should belong to the same time, and that an _indefinite_ time expressed by pote. Now this would be false according to the rendering, "And thou, when thou art converted, confirm thy brethren," for the conversion was immediate and definite, the confirmation distant and indefinite; whereas it exactly agrees with the rendering, "And thou in thy turn one day confirm thy brethren."

Those who wish to see the whole controversy admirably drawn out may find it in Pa.s.saglia, b. 2, ch. 13.