St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy Scripture
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Title: St. Peter, His Name and His Office, as Set Forth in Holy Scripture
Author: T. W. Allies
Release date: November 27, 2011 [eBook #38147]
Most recently updated: January 8, 2021
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ST. PETER, HIS NAME AND HIS OFFICE, AS SET FORTH IN HOLY SCRIPTURE ***
Produced by Steven Giacomelli, Dianne Nolan, Jeannie Howse
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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ST. PETER,
HIS NAME AND HIS OFFICE,
AS SET FORTH IN
HOLY SCRIPTURE.
BY
THOMAS W. ALLIES, M.A.
AUTHOR OF "THE SEE OF ST. PETER, THE ROCK OF THE CHURCH,"
"A JOURNAL IN FRANCE," &c.
LONDON:
RICHARDSON AND SON, 172, FLEET STREET;
9, CAPEL STREET, DUBLIN; AND DERBY.
MDCCCLII.
TO PETER,
PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES,
THE ROCK OF THE CHURCH,
AGAINST WHICH THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL,
THE BEARER OF THE KEYS,
THE BINDER AND LOOSER ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN,
THE CONFIRMER OF HIS BRETHREN,
THE SHEPHERD OF THE FOLD.
PREFACE.
The present work took its rise, and is largely drawn, from the very
learned Father Passaglia's "Commentary on the Prerogatives of St.
Peter, Prince of the Apostles, as proved by the authority of Holy
Writ," which was published in Latin, in 1850. The eighth and ninth
chapters are, indeed, translations, respectively, of the
twenty-seventh of his first book, and the first of his second book.
And as to the rest, my obligations are more than I can specify. I
owe, on the other hand, many excuses to Father Passaglia, for while
I have only partially observed his order in treating the subject, I
have considered his whole work as a treasure-house of learning,
whence I might draw at my pleasure "things old and new," adapting
them, as I thought good, to the needs of the Protestant mind, as
familiar to me in England. Thus I have not scrupled to translate, to
omit, or to insert matter of my own, according to my judgment. It
seemed to me of paramount importance to present to the English
reader the whole chain of scriptural evidence for the Primacy and
prerogatives of St. Peter. This chain of evidence is so strong,
that, when I first saw it completely drawn out, it struck my own
mind, brought up in the prejudices of Protestantism, with the force
of a new revelation. I put to myself the question; is it possible
that they who specially profess to draw their faith from the written
Word of God, would refuse to acknowledge a doctrine set forth in
Holy Scripture with at least as strong evidence as the Godhead of
our Lord itself, if they could see it not broken up into morsels,
like bits of glass reflecting a distorted and imperfect image,
according to the fashion of citing separate texts without regard to
the proportion of the faith, but presented in a complete picture on
the mirror of God's Word? This picture is thus complete and perfect
in Father Passaglia's work. Yet the form of that work, no less than
its bulk, the scrupulous minuteness with which every opposite
interpretation of so many adversaries in modern times is answered,
as well as the fulness with which every part of the subject is
treated, made me feel that a simple translation would not be
tolerated by the impatience of a population, which has little time
and less mind for studies of this character. I have pursued,
therefore, the humble task of _popularising_, so far as I could,
Father Passaglia's work, omitting, as I trust, no essential part of
the argument, and grouping it under different combinations, each of
which might be in turn presented to the eye, and so more readily
embraced.
The importance of the argument, as it affects the Papal Supremacy,
which is but a summary of the whole cause at issue between
Protestantism in every shape, and the Church of Christ, cannot be
overrated. If St. Peter be already set forth in Scripture as the
Head and Bond of the Apostolic College, if he be delineated as the
supreme Ruler who succeeds our Lord Himself in the visible
government of His Church on earth, there becomes at once the
strongest ground for expecting that such a Ruler will be continued
as long as the Church herself lasts. Thus a guiding clue is given to
us among all the following records of antiquity. Tradition and
history become illuminated with a light which exhibits all objects
in their due proportion and true grouping, when they are shown to be
but the realisation of what the Incarnate Word, His Church's one
only Lawgiver, decreed from the beginning, set forth not only in
prophetic image, but distinct command, and stored up in words of
such exceeding power, that they bear the whole weight of the kingdom
of God, stretching through all ages and nations, without effort or
pressure. And if ancient writers speak in no doubtful tone of St.
Peter's prerogatives, yet clearer, more emphatic, and soul-piercing,
as we should expect, are the words of God Himself, appealing in
man's form to the mind and heart of man, whom He had created, and
was come to redeem, and to knit into one eternal monarchy.
A subsequent part of the argument, namely, that the Bishop of Rome
_is_ successor of St. Peter, has been treated by the author in
another work, "The See of St. Peter the Rock of the Church, the
Source of Jurisdiction, and the Centre of Unity," specially in the
fifth section, which ought, logically, to be preceded by this
treatise. It is there proved that not only the Christian Fathers, as
individual writers and witnesses, but the ancient Church in her
universal Councils, did, with one voice, from age to age, regard the
Pope as sitting in St. Peter's chair, which is proof enough, and all
that can in reason be demanded, that the prerogatives given to St
Peter as Head of the Church were, in the belief of the Church, and
in full accordance with our Lord's own promise,[A] continued on to
his successors, and are as imperishable as the life of the Church
herself.
21, North Bank, Regent's Park,
September, 1852.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Matt. xvi. 18.--"Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," _i.
e._, as founded on that rock. The foundation and the superstructure
coexist for ever.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
THE NAME OF PETER PROMISED, CONFERRED, AND EXPLAINED.
The Church the finished work of the Word Incarnate 1
Unity and visibility enter into the Church's idea, as set
forth in its several types 2
Visible headship also part of this idea 5
Christ on earth in two capacities, as founder and
ruler,--Double selection among the disciples, first of
twelve, then of one 6
Statement of the question at issue in this treatise 7
First mention of Peter, the name promised 8
Meaning of the name, stone 9
The name conferred 11
Name explained, and promises attached 12
Classes of names given in Scripture 16
Parallel between Abraham and Peter 17
Source of pre-eminence in both, association with Christ 23
Instances of such association 26
Interpretation of S. Chrysostome 27
Summary 28
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION AND FINAL DESIGNATION OF PETER TO BE THE RULER
WHO SHOULD CONFIRM HIS BRETHREN.
Education of Peter in the Theology and Economy 29
Preference shown to him in witnessing the Transfiguration 30
Also in the Agony; and the raising the daughter of Jairus 32
The receivers of the didrachma come to Peter 34
The answer of Christ, and what is involved in it 35
Interpretation of our Lord's action by Origen and S. Chrysostome 36
Question of the Apostles to which it leads 37
Answer of our Lord, designating a thief 38
Our Lord in two capacities;
1, as Founder, 2, as Ruler of the Church 43
The Church unchangeable in her form 44
She had one ruler from the beginning.--Immense and
continually growing importance of this our ruler 45
The Primacy which He designated, one of real power 47
Translation of the discourse to Peter 48
Confirming used of the three Divine Persons 51
Nature of the charge, Confirm thy brethren 52
Meaning of the term confirm 53
Scope and harmony of our Lord's discourse in Luke xxii 56
Corollaries from the charge to confirm the brethren 59-63
CHAPTER III.
THE INVESTITURE OF PETER.
What our Lord had done up to His resurrection 64
Further disposition of powers after His resurrection 65
Special care to prove the resurrection to Peter 66
Fulfilment of the Lord's promises to the Twelve, in the
bestowal of their legislative, judicial, and executive powers 68
Subsequent exercise of these powers by the Twelve 69
Fulfilment of the special promises to Peter in the bestowal of the
legislative, judicial, and executive powers of the Primacy 70
Force of the Lord's title, the Shepherd 72
Importance and extent of the charge conveyed by this title 74
Force of the circumstances under which it is conveyed 76
S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostome, Theophylact, S. Leo, and S. Basil
on the text 79
S. Cyprian adds the Primacy to the Apostolic equality 81
Force of Follow thou Me 82
CHAPTER IV.
CORRESPONDENCE AND EQUIVALENCE OF THE GREAT TEXTS CONCERNING PETER.
Difference in the mode of speaking of persons indicates a
difference of rank--The phrase, a person "and they that were
with him." 84
S. Peter first in all the Apostolic catalogues 86
Synthetical view of the whole evidence 89
Distinct spheres of S. Peter and S. John 91
Peter wrought into the whole Gospel history 92
The Primacy defined by the three great texts: first,
Matt. xvi. 18 94
Paraphrase of Matt. xvi. 18 95
Corollaries from it 96
Our Lord's answer to the question, who was the greatest? 100
The text, confirm thy brethren 101
Our Lord's conduct to Peter, after His resurrection, the
counter part to that before it.--Comparison of what is given to
the Apostles, and what to Peter 102
The joint force, identity, and reciprocal relations
of the three texts 104
1. They are appropriated to Peter only.
2. Priority of time is assigned to him.
3. Their equivalence.
4. They indicate a sovereign and independent authority.
5. Their definiteness.
6. The ordinary government of the Church contained in them.
7. Peter made in them the _continuous_ principle of power.
8. Peter made the type and efficient cause of visible unity.
These conclusions borne out by Cassian in Gaul 111
By Maximus of Turin, in Italy 112
By S. Isidore in Spain, and summed up by Pope Gregory II. 113
CHAPTER V.
PETER'S PRIMACY AS EXHIBITED IN THE ACTS.
Division of the Acts into history of the Church universal, and
of S. Paul in particular 114
Gospels, history of the Head; Acts, of the Body 115
Execution of Christ's promises declaratory of their enactment 116
General proof of this as to the Primacy in the Acts 117
1. Peter oftener mentioned than all the rest put together.
2. The leading part assigned to him.
3. Peter mentioned directly; the rest obliquely 118
4. Peter answers for all the Apostles 119
5. Luke records Peter's actions and speeches in full.
6. The first part of the Acts may be called the
history of Peter 120
I. Particular proof--Election of a new Apostle 122
S. Chrysostome's comment on this 124
Peter's conduct in defending the rest on the day of Pentecost 125
Third and fourth speech of Peter.--Summary of the first
four chapters 128
II. Proof from junction of authoritative teaching and miracles 129
Resemblance between Peter's miracles and Christ's 131
Peter the chief figure among the Apostles as Christ before 133
III. Peter presides over the different steps in propagating
the Church 134
Peter's part in the conversion of Samaria 135
IV. Peter receiving the Gentiles in the person of Cornelius 137
Things to be noted in this reception concerning Peter.--Peter
murmured against by some of the circumcision 142
S. Chrysostome and S. Gregory upon his conduct 143
V. S. Peter exercising supreme judicial power over Ananias 144
VI. S. Peter exercising supreme visitatorial power 145
VII. S. Peter's supreme legislative authority in council 147
The consent and joint action of others do not impugn the
supremacy 148
Tertullian's testimony as to his authority here, and that of
S. Jerome and Theodoret 150
VIII. Contrast between the mode in which the imprisonment of
Peter, and that of James and Paul is mentioned 151
Summary of the testimony to Peter in the Acts 153
His Primacy magisterial, judicial, and legislative.--Its
institution compared with its exercise 154
No opposition offered to it 155
The mystical headship contrasted with the visible 157
CHAPTER VI.
TESTIMONY OF S. PAUL TO S. PETER'S PRIMACY.
Detailed mention of the Primacy not to be expected in S. Paul's
Epistles: but an incidental one occurs often 159
Four notices of Peter in 1 Ep. to Cor. 160
Paul's visit to Peter Gal. i. 16 162
Theodoret, Chrysostome, Tertullian, Mar. Victorinus,
Ambrosiaster, S. Jerome, S. Thomas Cant. on this passage 163
Paul's second visit.--Parallel between Peter with James and John
on the one hand, and Paul with Barnabas and Titus on the other 165
The censure of Peter by Paul, Gal. ii. 169
S. Chrysostome's and S. Jerome's remarks 170
Misuse of this passage by ancient and modern heretics 171
Contrast of the three ancient interpretations with those of
modern heretics 172
Fundamental opposition between the Fathers and the Reformers 176
CHAPTER VII.
THE PRIMACY OF PETER INVOLVED IN THE FOURFOLD UNITY OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.
The person of the God-man the principle of headship
in the Church 178
Testimony of the Fathers to this 179
Fourfold unity resulting from this headship 181
First unity of mystical influx 182
The second unity of charity, whose efficient principle is the
Holy Spirit.--Third unity of faith, whose efficient principle
is the Holy Spirit acting through the visible hierarchy 183
Set forth by S. Paul also 185
Headship of mystical influx does not obviate the creation of an
external hierarchy 188
Fourth unity of visible headship.--This the root and efficient
principle of the visible hierarchy 190
The one body is complete 192
The unity of a college not sufficient to express our Lord's
personal unity 193
Positive teaching corresponds to the inherent notion of
the Church 194
The Father in the holy Trinity what Peter's see is in the
Church 195
Summary of this fourfold unity 196
Importance of S. Peter's office hence resulting 197
CHAPTER VIII.
SUMMARY OF THE PROOF GIVEN FOR S. PETER'S PRIMACY.
Points in question, _generally_, inequality in the Apostolic
College: _specially_, the appointment of one over the rest;
resolution of these tried by four examinations:--1. Into the words
and acts of Christ; which relate to the Apostles.--2. Into those
which seem to mark the institution of a singular authority.--3. Into
the mode of writing used by the evangelists.--4. Into the
history of the rising Church.--A concurrence of these four
points would prove the two questions 200
The analysis of what has been written shows this concurrence 201
Twelve arguments from what has been written, proving the
inequality of the Apostolic college, and Peter's Primacy 203
What is the force and nature of the Primacy.--Six proofs
establishing this to consist in superior jurisdiction 209
Enquiry into the end and purpose of the Primacy: for the
knowledge of the intention and purpose equivalent at least to
a _negative_ rule, ascertaining what _must_ be given to it 212
Three classes of reasons, typical, analogical, and real,
ascertain for us this purpose.--1. Typical. Parallel of Peter
with Abraham and its results 213
Parallel of Peter with Judah and its results 214
ii. Analogical. Analogy of body, house, kingdom, city, and fold,
and its results.--And of universal, and each particular Church on
one hand, and Primate and bishops on the other 217
iii. Real, whether educed from texts containing the institution
of the Primacy, or from the inherent properties of the Church.
1. Educed from texts 219
2. Educed from properties of the Church; _first_, its
_identity_; _secondly_, its _unity_; _thirdly_, its
_catholicity_; scriptural setting forth of unity 220
Further illustration from Protestant opinions of the Church's
unity.--
A. First, that of Anglicans, of unity in particular Churches,
but not in the universal Church, represented by Dodwell 222
B. Second opinion, set forth by Vitringa, of distinction between
the necessity of internal and that of external unity 225
C. Third opinion, of agreement in fundamentals 232
Two causes of this being held, one theoretical, the other
practical.--The former stated 233
The practical cause 234
Reasons educed, _thirdly_, from the _Catholicity_ of the
Church, with which the Primacy is bound up.--Catholicity has
two parts, one _material_ and one _formal_ 236
The _material_ part, amplitude and extension.--The _formal_
part, not only negative, but affirmative.--_Negative_, as
expelling from the one true Church all heretics and schismatics:
testimonies to it 237
_Affirmative_, at making a coherent body with members and
articulations 238
Testimonies to the _mode_ of this coherence, in Irenaeus,
Cyprian, and Tertullian, and the other Fathers, summed up
in S. Leo 239
Hence answers to the question whether the doctrine of
S. Peter's Primacy is contained in the creed.--It is involved
in one Catholic Church 243
CHAPTER IX.
THE NATURE, MULTIPLICITY, AND FORCE OF PROOF FOR S. PETER'S PRIMACY.
Different sorts of proof.--1. The principal here used, and the
subsidiary.--Their joint force 246
Hence, I. The nature of the answer required to it.--2. The
proof, if unanswered, demonstrates the Primacy to be revealed 247
3. Enquiry into the _certitude_ of the proof used 248
I. Force of the proof _in itself_ and _absolutely_.--Two
conditions requisite, and here found, authenticity of the
documents, and clearness of their evidence.--Number
and harmony of scriptural testimonies to the Primacy 249
The parallel of Julius Caesar 250
Collateral proof, supporting that of the holy Scriptures, so
that the whole consists in the harmony of these four:--1.
Scriptural documents.--2. Ancient witnesses.--3. Analogy.--4.
Facts of Christian history, in fourteen distinct classes 251
Prodigious force of this compound proof 256
No counter religious system producible by Greek, Anglican,
or pure Protestant, but mere negation and objection 257
II. Force of the proof _comparatively_ with other doctrines:
comparison with the texts on which Anglicans, Lutherans,
and Calvinists severally rely 259
Retort that all but Catholics are opposed to our interpretation;
answer, that from Catholics alone we are to gather the truth 260
Yet all protestants not agreed in opposing our interpretation
and reasons why their opposition is of little moment 261
Compare, likewise, opposition to the Church in the fourth,
fifth, and sixth centuries 264
And again the conduct of Lutherans and Anglicans in maintaining
their own distinctive texts.--But what, then, are the true
criteria of documentary evidence? They are four:--
Internal {and immediate {4. Verbal.
{ {2. Real.
{and remote 3. Analogical.
External 4. Agreement of witnesses 265
1. Comparison carried through _verbal_ criterion, between the
texts alleged by us, and those of Lutherans, Anglicans,
and Calvinists 266
2. And through the _real_ criterion, or that of the subject
matter, greater in the proofs for Peter's prerogatives than in
those for the real presence, or the Divinity of Christ, on
account of the difficulty of grasping the object in the
latter cases 267
As to the superiority of bishops over presbyters, the proof
severed from that of the Primacy sinks into nothing: considered
with it, it is of the same character, but weaker 268
Accordingly, the criterion from the subject matter is
stronger for Peter's Primacy, than for the superiority of
bishops over presbyters, for the real presence, and for the
Divinity of Christ.--Sum of both these criteria, verbal and
real, in favour of Peter's Primacy, over these three doctrines 270
Appeal hence arising to Lutherans, Anglicans, and
Calvinists.--Comparison with the inferior evidence for other
received doctrines 271
3. The third _criterion_ of analogy: force of this in favour
of Peter's Primacy from three heads:--1. The divine institution
of bishops.--2. The unity of the Church.--3. The Catholicity
of the Church 272
4. Fourth criterion of witnesses.--Immense force of this
criterion, both as stated by the fathers, and shewn by
Protestants in their own conduct 274
Witnesses unanimous in favour of the Primacy 277
ST. PETER,
HIS NAME AND HIS OFFICE,
AS SET FORTH
In Holy Scripture.
* * * * *
CHAPTER I.
THE NAME OF PETER PROMISED, CONFERRED, AND EXPLAINED.
Our Lord tells us that He came upon earth to "finish a work;" and He
likewise tells us what that work was, the setting up a living
society of men, who should dwell in Him and He in them; on whom His
Spirit should rest, with whom His presence should abide, until the
consummation of all things. For, the evening before His passion,
"lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said: Father, the hour is come. *
* * I have glorified Thee on the earth: I have finished the work
which Thou gavest Me to do. * * I have manifested Thy name to the
men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world. Thine they were, and
to Me Thou gavest them; and they have kept Thy word. * Holy Father,
keep them in Thy name, whom Thou has given Me; that they may be one,
as We also are. While I was with them I kept them in Thy name.--And
now I come to Thee.--I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of
the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from evil. * * As Thou
hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
And for them do I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified
in truth. And not for them only do I pray, but for those also who
through their word shall believe in Me; that they all may be one, as
Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in Us;
that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. And the glory
which Thou hast given to Me, I have given to them, that they may be
one, as We also are one. I in them, and Thou in Me; that they may be
made perfect in one; and the world may know that Thou hast sent Me,
and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me. * * And I have made known
Thy name to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith
Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."[1]
In these terms the Eternal Word condescends to declare to us that
the fruit of His Incarnation, the "finished work" which His Father
had given Him to do, was the establishment of a society whose unity
in "truth" and "love" should be so perfect, that He exemplifies it
by the indwelling in each other of the Divine Persons; which should
be perpetual and visible for ever, so that the world by it and in it
should recognise His own mission, and believe in the Sender; and
that the dowry of this society, thus perpetually visible, should be
the equally perpetual possession of truth--the revelation of God's
will--and of love, which is conformity to it. And He based these
unexampled promises on no less a guarantee than the Almighty Power
and ineffable Goodness of His Father, witnessed by His own dwelling
amongst us in our flesh.
Elsewhere He termed this society His Church, declared that He
would [2]"build it on a rock, and that the gates of hell should not
prevail against it."
He told those whom He had set over it to go forth in His name, and
to teach all nations whatsoever He had commanded them, adding the
solemn engagement on His own part, [3]"Behold, I am with you all
days, even to the consummation of the world."
His whole teaching is full of reference to it, setting forth its
nature with every variety of illustration, enfolding it, as it were,
with an exuberance of divine charity.
But two conceptions run through every illustration, and are involved
in its primary idea, nay, as this was the finished work of His
Incarnation, so are they found in His adorable Person, from which
His work springs. These conceptions are Unity and Visibility.
As the mystery of the Incarnation consists in the union of the
divine and human natures, in one Person, and in the assumption of a
body, that is, matter, by the one uncreated, incomprehensible, and
invisible Being, whereby He becomes visible, so Unity and Visibility
are the unfailing marks of His Church, and enter into every image of
it, in such a manner that without them the image loses its point and
significancy.
Accordingly He proclaims the Church which He was founding to be "the
Kingdom of God," and "the Kingdom of Heaven," thus bringing before
us the conceptions of order, government, power, headship on the one
hand, dependence on the other, and a host of mutual relations
between the Sovereign and the people, significantly remarking that
"a kingdom which is divided against itself must fall." Now, a
kingdom without unity is a contradiction in terms, and a kingdom of
God on earth, which cannot be seen, would be for spirits and not for
men.
So He calls it a [4]"city seated on a mountain," which "cannot be
hid," answering to His prophet's words, "the city of the great
King," "His rest, and His habitation for ever." Here again are
embodied the notions of order, government, conspicuous majesty,
impregnable strength.
Thus He inspires His apostle to call it[ 5]"the house of God, the
pillar and ground of the truth." The house must have its head, the
family their father; the knowledge of that father's will is the
truth which rests upon the family as its support and pillar. Outside
of the family that knowledge may be lost, together with the will to
obey the father and to love him; but within it is a living
tradition, "familiar to the ear as household words." As long as the
Master and the Father is there, a perpetual light from His face is
there too upon His children and His servants. Divide the house, or
corrupt its internal life, and the idea of the house is destroyed;
while an invisible house is an absurdity.
Again, the Lord, calling Himself [6]"the Good Shepherd, who giveth
His life for the sheep," terms His Church the sheepfold, and
declares that as there is one shepherd, so there must be one fold.
But, rising yet in nearness to the Divine Person of the Word
Incarnate, from whose side sleeping on the cross she is moulded, the
Church is called His Spouse, as united to Him in eternal wedlock,
[7]"a great Sacrament," or mystery; and even yet more, His Body, as
supported by the continual influx of her Head; and all her members
are called "flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bones."
It is evident, then, that in these promises and illustrations are
set forth, as belonging to their object, a visible unity, a
perpetual possession and maintenance of the truth, and the closest
union with God, founded upon a most supernatural indwelling of the
Godhead in a society of men on earth, the founding of which was the
"finished work" of God the Word Incarnate. _Were these promises to
fail in any respect_, which is utterly impossible, for while heaven
and earth shall pass away, no word of their Maker can pass away--_it
is plain that our ground for trusting in any promises of Holy Writ
whatsoever would be demolished_. The whole Christian revelation
rests on the imperishable life of the Church; because the corruption
or division of the Church would falsify the written records of our
faith, in which, after the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity, and the
Godhead of our Lord, no truth is so deeply embedded as the perpetual
existence and office of the Church.
We have seen the idea of King, Lord, Master, Father, Shepherd,
Husband, and Head, running through the delineation of the Church.
And no society is complete without its ruler. Such was our Lord,
while on earth--the _visible_ ruler of a _visible_ Church. "While I
was with them I kept them in Thy name." He went forth from His
baptism to win souls. The water became wine in His presence. He bade
men follow Him, and they followed. Power went forth from Him, and
healed diseases. Grace flowed from His lips and conquered hearts. An
innumerable multitude surrounded Him, of all ages and conditions.
[8]"And going up into a mountain He called unto Him whom He would
Himself; and they came to Him. And He made that twelve should be
with Him, and that He might send them to preach."
Here, then, the true Israel chooses the future princes of His house,
who should sit with Him on thrones, judging the twelve tribes.
Already, while yet with His Church, He is preparing for her future
government, when His visible presence shall be taken from her. In
three years all should be accomplished, but when [9]"the covenant
should have been confirmed with many in one week, and in the half
of the week the victim and the sacrifice should fail;" when His
Apostles should see Him no longer; was any one ordained to take that
all-important place of supreme ruler which He had filled? For upon
earth He had been in two relations to His Church, her Founder, and
her Ruler. The former office belonged to His single Person; in its
nature it could not pass to another; the work was finished once and
for ever. But the latter office was, in its nature likewise,
perpetual. How, then, should the charge of visible ruler, as man
among men, be executed, when His Person was withdrawn, when He
ascended up on high, when all power in heaven and earth was indeed
given into His hands, and so the headship of spiritual influence and
providential care; but when, nevertheless, that sacred Body was
withdrawn into the tabernacle of God, and the Bridegroom was taken
away for a time, and the voice and visible presence [10]"what they
had seen, and heard, and handled, of the word of life," "was with
them and kept them" no longer. Should His Church, which had been
under one visible ruler from the beginning, now have her government
changed? Or had He marked out any one among the Twelve to succeed to
His own office of visible headship, and to be [11]"the greater," and
"the ruler" among His brethren. His own special representative and
vicar?
To answer this question, we must carefully observe and distinguish
what is said and what is given to the Apostles _in common_, and what
to any one of their number _in particular_; the former will instruct
us as to their equality, the latter as to the pre-eminence which any
one enjoyed over the rest, and in what it consisted.
Just, then, as at a certain period of His ministry, our Lord, out
of the multitude who followed Him, selected twelve, to be His
special attendants upon earth, and, when He should be taken up, to
be the heralds of His Gospel among all nations, so out of the twelve
He from the beginning distinguished one, marked him out for a
peculiar and singular office, connected him with Himself in a
special manner, and after having through the whole of His ministry
given him tokens and intimations of his future destination, at last
expressly nominated him to take His own place, and preside among his
brethren. His dealing with this Apostle forms one connected whole,
in which there is nothing abrupt or inharmonious, out of keeping, or
opposed to what He said to others. What is at first obscurely
intimated is afterwards expressly promised, again in fresh terms
corroborated, and at last, in yet other language, but of the like
force, most significantly [12]conveyed, while it is attested by a
number of incidental notices scattered through the whole Gospel
history. Thus [13]it becomes necessary to consider each particular,
as well as the whole sum of things said, _proper_ and _peculiar_ to
this Apostle; to weigh first their _separate_ and then their _joint_
force, and only at last to form an united judgment upon all.
We are searching into the will of the Divine Founder of our faith,
which He has not only communicated to His Church in a living
tradition, but in this case likewise ordered to be set forth in
authentic written documents. These alone we are here considering,
and the point in question is whether He decreed that all the Twelve
should share equally in that divine mission and authority which He
had received from the Father, or whether while bestowing on them all
very high and distinctive powers, He yet appointed one, namely
Simon, the son of Jonas, to preside over the rest in His own place.
We have, then, to consider all in these documents which is said
peculiar to such apostle, pointing out singular gifts and
prerogatives, and carrying with it special authority of government.
And we must remember that where proofs are numerous and complex,
some which in themselves are only probable and accessory, yet have
their force on the ultimate result. But this result must be drawn
from a general view of the whole, and will collect in one the sum of
proof both probable and certain.
Again, where many various causes concur, some more and some less, to
produce a certain effect, the force of such effect is the force of
all these causes put together, not of each by itself alone. Or where
many witnesses are examined, whose evidence differs in value,
although the testimony of some be in itself decisive, yet the
verdict must be given after a consideration and review of all.
Now the first mention which we have of the Apostle Simon is full of
signification. Our Lord had only just begun His ministry; he had
been lately baptized, and as yet had called no disciples. But two of
John the Baptist's disciples hearing their master name Jesus "the
Lamb of God," follow Him, are kindly received by Him, and one of
them being Andrew, Simon's brother, finds Simon, and says to
him, [14]"we have found the Messias. And he brought him to Jesus.
And Jesus looking on him said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonas; thou
shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter:" as if He would
say, by birth thou art Simon, son of John; but another and a higher
lot is in store for thee. I will give thee another name which thou
shalt bear, a name in itself signifying the place which thou shalt
hold in my Church. Thou shalt be called, and thou shalt be, the
Rock.
For why, when a vast multitude of our Lord's words and actions have
been omitted, was this recorded for us, save that a deep meaning lay
in it? Or what could that meaning be when our Lord, for the first
time looking on Peter, promised to him and to him alone, a new name,
and that a name given in prophecy to Himself, a name declaring by
its very sound that he should be laid by the builder, as a
foundation of the structure about to be raised? So in the fourth
century S. Chrysostome comments on the text, calling him "the
foundation of the Church, he that was really Peter" (the Rock) "both
in name and in deed:"[15] and a little after S. Cyril, of
Alexandria, "with allusion to the rock He transferred His name to
Peter, for upon him He was about to found His Church." The Creator
of the world does not give a name for nothing. His word is with
power, and does what it expresses. Of old, "He spake and they were
made; He commanded and they were created." Now, too, He speaks, at
the first dawn of His great spiritual restoration. When as yet
nothing has been done, and not a stone of the divine building
reared, He who determines the end from the beginning looks upon what
seemed a simple fisherman, and at first beholding him, He takes
Simon, the son of Jonas, out of the roll of common men; He marks him
for a future design; He wraps him in a prophetic title; He
associates him with His own immovable power. Of Himself it had been
said,[16] "Behold I will lay a stone in the foundation of Sion, a
tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, founded on the
foundation. He that believeth, let him not hasten." And again, "the
stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of
the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is wonderful in our
eyes." And again, "A stone was cut out of a mountain without hands;
and it struck the statue upon the feet thereof that were of iron and
clay, and broke them in pieces. But the stone that struck the statue
became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." And again,
"Behold the stone that I have laid before Jesus: upon one stone
there are seven eyes; behold I will grave the graving thereof, saith
the Lord of Hosts; and I will take away the iniquity of that land in
one day." In reference to which S. Paul said of Christians, that
they are "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the
building, being framed together, groweth up into a holy temple in
the Lord." It is plain, then, that our Lord "both by the Old and New
Testament,[17] is called a stone."
But this which He had of Himself, and by virtue of His own divine
power, as the Word of God, He would communicate in a degree, and by
dependence on Himself, to another. This is no modern interpretation,
but the very words of St. Ambrose, "Great is the grace of Christ,
who bestowed almost all His own names on His disciples. I, said He,
am the light of the world, and yet He granted to His disciples the
very name in which He exulted, by the words, Ye are the light of the
world. Christ is the Rock, but yet He did not deny the grace of this
name to His disciple, that he should be Peter, because he has from
the Rock firm constancy, immovable faith."[18]
In the third century, Origen, on this very text, observes: "He said
he should be called Peter, by allusion to the Rock, which is Christ,
that as a man from wisdom is termed wise, and from holiness holy, so
too Peter from the Rock." And in the fifth, S. Leo paraphrases the
name thus: "While I am the inviolable Rock, the Corner-stone, who
make both one, the foundation beside which no one can lay another;
yet thou also art the rock, because by My virtue thou art
established, so as to enjoy by participation the properties which
are peculiar to Me."[19]
Here, then, we have three facts: i. That our Lord having twelve
Apostles whom He chose, loved, and honoured, above all His other
disciples, yet promised to one[20] only a new name; and, ii., this a
name in the highest degree significative, and most deeply
prophetical of a particular office; and, iii., a name peculiar to
Himself, as the immovable foundation of the Church. This happened in
the first year of His ministry, before, as it would appear, either
Peter or any other apostle was called.
The promise thus emphatically made to Simon, "Thou shalt be called
the Rock," our Lord fulfilled in the second year of His ministry,
when He distinguished the twelve Apostles from the rest of His
disciples, giving them authority to teach, and power to heal
sicknesses and to cast out devils. Then, says S. Mark "to[21] Simon
He gave the name of Peter;" and S. Matthew, "the names of the Twelve
Apostles are these; the first, Simon, who is called Peter;" and S.
Luke, "Simon whom also He named Peter." And by this name He marked
Him out from amongst all his brethren, and united him to Himself.
"He changes, too," says Tertullian, "Peter's name from Simon,
because also as Creator He altered the names of Abraham, Sara, and
Oshua, calling the last Jesus, and adding syllables to the others,
but why did He call him Peter? If for the strength of his faith,
many solid substances would lend him a name from themselves. Or was
it because Christ is both the Rock and the Stone? Since we read that
He is set for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. I omit the
rest. And so it was His pleasure to communicate to the dearest of
His disciples, in a peculiar manner, a name drawn from the figures
of Himself, I imagine, as being nearer than one drawn from figures
not of Himself."[22]
It is, then, setting a seal on His former acts, drawing out and
corroborating their meaning, that He once more, and in the most
emphatic way of all, recurs to this name, attaching to it the most
signal promises, and establishing its prophetic power. In the third
year of His ministry our Lord "came into the quarters of Cesarea
Philippi: and He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that
the Son of Man is? But they said, Some John the Baptist, and others
Elias, and others Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus saith to
them, But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and said, Thou
art Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to
him, Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonas, because flesh and blood hath
not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say
to thee that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my
Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I
will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in
heaven."
When we reflect that the first act of our Lord to Peter was to look
upon him, and to promise him this name, a token of His omnipotence
to Simon yet knowing him not, as that seeing him under the fig-tree
was to Nathaniel of His omniscience; and that when He chose His
twelve apostles, it is said markedly "to Simon He gave the name of
Peter," the force of His reply cannot well be exceeded. The promise
of our Lord answers part by part to the confession of His apostle.
The one says: "Thou art the Christ," that is, the anointed one; the
other, "Thou art Peter," that is, the Rock, the name which I gave
thee myself: my own title with which I invested thee. The one adds,
"the Son of the living God;" the other, "And upon this rock I will
build my Church," that is, as it is true what thou confessest, that
I am "the Son of the living God," so my power as such shall be shown
in building my Church upon thee whom I have long named the Rock,
"and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Not only this,
but I will unfold to thee the full meaning of thy name, and declare
the gifts which accompany it. "And[23] I will give to thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven." That is, "The root and the offspring of
David," "the holy one and the true one, He that hath the key of
David; He that openeth and no man shutteth; shutteth and no man
openeth;" as He gave to thee to share His name of the Rock, so He
shall give to thee to bear in His name His own symbol of supreme
dominion, the key which opens or shuts the true city of David; all
ages shall own thee, all nations acknowledge thee, as _The Bearer of
the Keys_; as long as my Church shall last, against which the gates
of hell shall not prevail, thy office shall last too; as long as
there are souls to be saved, they shall pass by thy ministry into
the gate of the Church. And further, as long as there need in my
spiritual kingdom laws to be promulgated, precepts issued, sins
forgiven, "whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound
also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall
be loosed also in heaven."
Who, indeed, can adequately express the gifts which the world's
Creator and Redeemer here promises to His favoured servant? Thus in
the fourth century S. Chrysostome labours to set them forth. "See
how He raises Peter to a higher opinion of Himself; and reveals and
shews Himself to be the Son of God by these two promises. For what
belongs to God alone, to loose sins, and to render the Church
immovable in such an assault of waves, and to make a fisherman more
solid than any rock, when the whole world was at war with him, these
are what He promises to give him; as the Father addressing Jeremias,
said: 'I have made thee an iron pillar and a wall,' but him to one
nation, whereas the other to the whole world. Willingly would I ask
those who wish to diminish the dignity of the Son, which are the
greatest gifts, those which the Father gave to Peter, or those which
the Son. For the Father bestowed on Peter the revelation of the Son;
but the Son disseminated that of the Father and of Himself through
the whole world; and _put into the hands of a mortal man power over
all things in heaven, when He gave the keys to him_ who extended the
Church through the whole world, and showed it to be firmer than the
heaven."[24] And not many years later S. Leo says, "That which the
Truth ordered remains; and blessed Peter persisting in that strength
of the rock which he received, has not deserted the guidance, once
undertaken, of the Church. For thus was he set before the rest, that
while he is called the Rock, while he is declared to be the
foundation, while he is appointed the door-keeper of the kingdom of
heaven, while he is advanced to be the judge of what shall be bound
and what loosed, with the condition that his sentence shall be
ratified even in heaven, _we might learn through the very mysteries
of the names given to him, how he was associated with Christ_."[25]
This association passed, indeed, into the very mind of the Church,
for among all the titles given by fathers and councils and liturgies
to Peter, and expressing his prerogatives, the one contained in this
name is the most frequent. Thus he is termed, [26]"the rock of the
Church," [27]"the rock of the Church that was to be built,"
[28]"underlying the building of the Church," [29]"receiving on
himself the building of the Church," [30]"the immovable rock,"
[31]"the rock which the proud gates of hell prevail not against,"
[32]"the most solid rock," [33]"he to whom the Lord granted the
participation of His own title, the rock," [34]"the foundation
second from Christ," [35]"the great foundation of the Church,"
[36]"the foundation and basis," [37]"founding the Church by his
firmness," [38]"the support of the Church," [39]"the Apostle in whom
is the Church's support," [40]"the support of the faith," [41]"the
pillar of the Church," and by an authority sufficient alone to
terminate all controversy, the great Council of Chalcedon,[42] "the
rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the basis of the
orthodox faith."[43]
Thus, then, we have the name of Peter first promised, next
conferred, then explained. And further light will be shed on this by
the consideration of the purpose for which names in Holy Writ were
bestowed by divine command on individuals, or their former names
changed.
Now[44] of names imposed in Scripture there would seem to be three
classes. The first and most common are _commemorative_, and are for
the purpose of recording and handing down to posterity remarkable
facts. Such are Peleg, "because in his days the earth was
_divided_;" Isaac, from the _laughter_ of his father and mother;
Issachar, a _reward_; Manasseh, "God hath made me to _forget_ my
labours;" Ephraim, "God hath made me to _grow_;"[45] and a multitude
of others.
The second class may be termed _significative_, being imposed to
distinguish their bearers from others by some quality. Such are
Jacob, the supplanter; Esau; Edom, the red; Moses, the taken or
saved; Maccabaeus; Boanerges.[46]
The third and highest class are _prophetic_, and as such evidently
can be imposed by God alone, who foresees the future. They are
two-fold: i. Those which foresignify events concerning not so much
their bearers as others; such are Shear-jashub, "the remnant shall
return;" Jezrael "I will visit;" Lo-ruhamah, "not pitied;" Lo-ammi,
"not my people." ii. Those which point out the office and destiny
of their bearers; such as Noah, rest; Israel, a prince before God;
Joshua, Saviour; Sarah, princess; John, in whom there is grace; and,
after the divine name of Jesus, "who saves His people from their
sins,"[47] Abraham, and Cephas, or Peter, which two neither
commemorate a past event, nor signify a quality or ornament already
possessed, but are wholly prophetic, inasmuch as they shadow out the
dignity to which the leaders of the two covenants are divinely
marked out by the very imposition of their name.
For it will perhaps bring out the pre-eminence and superior
authority of Peter, if we consider the very close resemblance and
almost identity of the dispensation into which God entered with
Abraham, and that which Christ gave to Peter. But first we must
observe how the more remarkable things occurring in the New
Testament were foretold by types, images, parallelisms, and distinct
prophecies in the Old. How[48] both our Lord, the Evangelists, and
the Apostles, take pains to point out the close agreement between
the two covenants; how the ancient ecclesiastical writers do the
like in their contests with early heretics, or in recommending the
truth of the Christian faith either to Jew or Gentile. They
considered scarcely any proof of the Gospel superior to that which
might be drawn by grave and solid inference from the anticipation of
Christian truths in the old covenant. Now, among such truths, what
concerns Peter is surely of signal importance, as it affects the
whole judgment on the form of government which our Lord instituted
for His Church.
Again, it may be taken as an axiom that, as a similitude of causes
is inferred from a similitude of effects, so a resemblance of the
divine counsels may be inferred from a resemblance of exterior
manifestations. As effects are so many steps by which we rise to the
knowledge and discernment of causes, so divine manifestations are
tokens which unfold God's eternal decrees. Thus if the series of
dealings which constitute God's dispensation to Abraham be very much
like that other series in which the Scriptures of the New Testament
set forth the dispensation given to Peter, we may conclude, first,
that the two dispensations may be compared, and, secondly, that from
their resemblance, a resemblance in the divine purpose may be
deduced.
First,[49] then, "God at sundry times, and in divers manners,
speaking to the Fathers" of that covenant of grace, into which He
had already entered with our first parents, said to Abram, "Go forth
out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and out of thy father's
house, and I will make of thee a great nation." But when in the last
days He began to fulfil that covenant, and to declare His will by
His Son, Jesus said to Simon and Andrew, "Follow me, and I will make
you to become fishers of men," and to Simon specially, "Fear not,
for henceforth thou shalt catch men."[50]
Abram hearkened to God calling him: "So Abram went out as the Lord
had commanded him;" and Simon as readily obeyed Christ's vocation:
"And immediately leaving their nets they followed Him."[51]
God rewarded Abraham's obedience by the promise of a new name:
"Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram, but thou shalt be
called Abraham." So Christ honoured Simon, saying, "Thou art Simon,
the son of Jonas, thou shalt be called Cephas."[52]
No sooner had God unfolded the dignity shadowed forth in the
promised name, and bestowed that dignity on Abraham, than He
required of him a signal instance of faith and love: "God tempted
Abraham, and said to him, Take thy son, thine only begotten, whom
thou lovest, and offer him for a holocaust." So Christ required of
Simon a proof of faith and of superior love before He either
unfolded the excellence of the promised name, or adorned him with
that excellency: "He saith to them, Whom say ye that I am?" "Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these?"[53]
And both were no less ready to show the fortitude of their faith and
love than they had been ready to follow the divine calling. For,
"Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the sword to sacrifice
his son;" and "Simon Peter answering, said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God;" and again, "Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I
love Thee."[54]
Then, as the bestowal of the new name was the reward of the
obedience with which each had followed his vocation, so God, moved
by their remarkable ensuing faith and charity, explained the dignity
contained in that name, and bestowed it when so explained. The
following refers to the explanation; "By myself have I sworn,
because thou hast done this thing," and "Because flesh and blood
hath not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I
say unto thee."
But as to the dignity bestowed, it should be remarked that it is
divine, and communicated to each with this resemblance: _First_,
that Abraham thereby becomes the source and parent of all the
faithful, and Peter their base and foundation; the one, the author
of a seed which should equal in number the stars of the heaven and
the sand of the sea; the other, the Rock of the Church, which should
embrace all nations, tribes, and languages. God says to Abraham,
"And multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and
as the sand which is on the sea-shore." But Christ to Peter, "and
upon this rock I will build my Church." _Secondly_, the blessing
thus bestowed from above upon each was not one which should rest in
their single persons, but from them and through them should be
extended to the universal posterity and society of the faithful; so
that all who should believe, to the consummation of time, should
gain through them blessing, stability, and victory over the assault
of enemies and the gates of hell. The promise to Abraham is clear:
"thy seed shall possess the gate of their enemies, and in thy seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed:" nor less so to
Peter, "And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
But the high excellence of this dignity, embracing, as it does, the
whole company of the faithful, was presignified in the very meaning
of the name imposed. For of Abraham's name we read, "And thy name
shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee."
Exactly resembling is what is said of Peter's appellation, "Thou art
Peter, the Rock, and upon this rock I will build my Church."
Nay, we may put in parallel columns the two promises, thus--
1. Thy name shall be 1. Thou art Peter,
Abraham,
2. For a father of many 2. And upon this rock I
nations have I made thee: will build my Church.
And just as in the former, the second clause contains the reason of
the first, so in the latter likewise the two clauses cohere, as the
name and its explanation. Again, the dignity of the one is expressed
as that of the Father; of the other as that of the Rock. Further,
those alone can share the blessing of Abraham, who are born of his
spirit: and those alone the stability divinely granted to Peter, who
refuse by any violence, or at any cost, to be separated from him.
But Abraham was thus raised to be the friend of God, associated in
the divine Fathership, and made the teacher of posterity; and
therefore, as being such, God would show him His counsels, that
through him they might descend to his children. "And the Lord said,
Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? for I know that he
will command his children and his household after him to keep the
way of the Lord." In a precisely similar way, when God would call
the Gentiles to the light of the Gospel, He shewed it by a special
revelation to Peter alone: "There came upon him an ecstasy of mind;
and he saw the heaven opened; and this was done thrice." And the
reason of so preferring Peter was God's decree, that through him all
other Christians, even the Apostles themselves, might be informed,
and convinced. "You know that in former days God made choice among
us that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel
and believe." "And thou, when thou art converted, confirm thy
brethren."[55]
Finally, as God pronounces Abraham blest, so Christ pronounces
Peter; and as He made Abraham the source and fountain-head of
blessing and strength to all others, so no less did Christ make
Peter. Of the first we read, "I will bless thee, and will make thy
name great, and thou shalt be a blessing;" of the second, "Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar Jonah;--and upon this rock I will build My
Church."
In one word, the parallel is as follows between Abraham and Peter.
Both receive a remarkable call, and follow it; both are promised and
receive a new, and that a prophetical name; of both signal instances
of faith and love are required; both furnish these, and therefore do
not lose the increase of their reward; to Abraham his prophetical
name is explained, and to Peter likewise; Abraham understands his
destination to be the Father of all nations, and Peter that he is
made the Rock of the universal Church; Abraham is called blest, and
so Peter; to Abraham it is revealed that no one, save from him, and
through him, shall share the heavenly blessing; to Peter that all,
from him, and through him, shall gain strength and stability; it is
only through Abraham that his posterity can promise itself victory
over the enemy, and only through being built on Peter, the Rock,
that the Church will triumph over the gates of hell; in fine, if
Abraham, as the teacher of the faithful, is instructed in the divine
counsels with singular care, not less is shown to Peter, whom Christ
has made the doctor and teacher of all believers.
The gifts thus bestowed on Abraham and Peter are _peculiar_, for
they are read of no one else in the Holy Scriptures; they are not
only _gifts_, but a _reward_ for singular merit; and in their own
nature they cannot be _general_. As by them Abraham is put into a
relation of _Fathership_, so that all the faithful become his
children, so Peter being called and made the Rock and _Foundation_
of the Church, all its members have a dependence on him.
And if these gifts are _peculiar_, no less do they convey a singular
_dignity_ and _pre-eminence_. For it follows that, as S. Paul
says,[56] that all the faithful are children of Abraham, being heirs
not of his flesh, but of his spirit and faith; so no one is, or can
be, a part of the Church's building, who rests not on Peter as the
foundation. For the same God who said to Abraham, "Thy name shall no
longer be called Abram, but Abraham shall be thy name," said also to
Simon, "Thou shalt not be called Simon, but Cephas;" the same God
who said to the former, "In thee shall all families of the earth be
blessed," said to the latter, "Upon this Rock I will build my
Church."
What is the source of this pre-eminence in both? To both the same
objection may be made, and for both the same defence.
How should blessing and adoption be propagated from Abraham, as a
sort of head, into the whole body of the faithful? Because Abraham
is considered as joined with that mighty Seed his offspring, whence
_in chief_ and _primarily_ the salvation of all depends; because
Abraham is made by _participation_ partner of that dignity which
_naturally_ and _substantially_ belongs to the Seed that was to
spring from him. God Himself has told us this, and His Apostle S.
Paul explained it. For as we read that it was said to Abraham, "In
thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed," so God Himself has
told us that _in thee, by thee_, means _in, by thy seed_. Hence S.
Paul:[57] "To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed. He
saith not, seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which
is Christ." So that the divine words, "In thee shall all nations of
the earth be blessed," give this meaning: "As thou shalt give flesh
to my only begotten Son whom I cherish in my bosom, whence He shall
be called at once 'the Son of God and the Son of Abraham,'[58] so He
makes thee a partner of His dignity and excellence, whence, if not
the source and origin, yet thou shalt be a broad stream of blessing
to be poured out on all nations."
Now just in the same manner is Peter the Rock of the Church, and the
cause next to Christ of that firmness with which the Church shall
remain impregnable to the end. For therefore is he the Rock and
Foundation of the Church, because he has been called into a sort of
unity with Him of whom it is said, "Behold I lay in Sion a chief
corner stone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on it shall not
be ashamed:" and in whom, as Paul explains, "the whole building
fitly framed together increaseth unto a holy temple in the
Lord."[59] Therefore is he the Church's Rock, because as he, by his
own confession, declared the Godhead of the Foundation in chief,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," so from Him, who
is the chief and substantial Foundation, he received the gift of
being made partner in one and the same property: "And I too say unto
thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church;" one with Me by communication of My office and charge, My
dignity and excellency. Hence the stability of Peter is that of
Christ, as the splendour of the ray is that of the sun; Peter's
dignity that of Christ, as the river's abundance is the abundance of
the fountain. Those who diminish Peter's dignity may well be charged
with violating the majesty of Christ; those who are hostile to
Peter, and divorced from him, stand in the like opposition to
Christ.
Now this parallel is an answer[60] to those who object to Peter's
supereminence as the Foundation, that this dignity is entirely
divine, surpassing by an almost infinite degree the capacity of man.
For is not that a divine dignity which consists in the paternity of
all the faithful? Is not that prerogative beyond man's capacity by
which one becomes the author of a blessing diffused through all
nations? Yet no one denies that such a dignity and such a
prerogative were granted to Abraham. In divine endowments,
therefore, their _full_ and _natural possession_ must be carefully
distinguished from their _limited_ and _analogous participation_.
The one, as inherent, cannot fall to the creature's lot; the other,
as transferable, may be granted as God pleases. For what further
removed from man than the Godhead? Yet it is written, "I have said,
ye are Gods."[61]
Not weightier is the other objection, that the office of being the
Foundation is too important to be entrusted to human care. Was there
less difficulty in blessing being diffused from one man among all
nations? Rather we must look on man not as he is by, and of,
himself, apart from God, and left to his own weakness, but as
upborne by divine power, according to the promise, "Behold, I am
with you all days, until the consummation of the world." Who can
doubt that man, in union with God, may serve for a foundation, and
discharge those offices in which the unity of a structure consists?
It is confidently and constantly objected, that "other foundation no
man can lay beside that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ."[62]
As if what has been laid by Christ Himself, and consists in the
virtue of Christ alone, can be thought other than Christ; or as if
it were unusual, or unscriptural, for things proper to Christ to be
participated by men. Therefore the chief difficulties against
Peter's pre-eminence, and character as the Foundation, seem to
spring from the mind failing to realise the supernatural order
instituted by God, and the perpetual presence of Christ watching
over His Church.
Thus it is no derogation to Abraham's being the Father of the
faithful, or to the hierarchy of the Church instituted by Christ
Himself, that our Lord says,[63] "Call none your father upon earth,
for one is your Father who is in heaven;" inasmuch as Scripture
abundantly proves that divine gifts are richly conferred upon men.
What more divine than the Holy Spirit? Yet it is written,[64] "And I
will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that
He may abide with you for ever." What a higher privilege than filial
adoption? Yet it is said, [65]"Ye have received the spirit of filial
adoption, by which we cry, Abba Father." What a greater treasure
than co-inheritance with Christ? Yet we read, [66]"but if children,
also heirs: heirs of God, but joint heirs with Christ." What higher
than the vision of God? Yet S. Paul bears witness, [67]"We see now
through a glass darkly, but then face to face." What more wonderful
than the power of remitting sins? Yet this very power is granted to
the Apostles, [68]"Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven
them." What further from human weakness than the power of working
miracles? Yet Christ establishes this, [69]"Amen, amen, I say unto
you, he that believeth on Me, the works which I do, shall he do
also, and greater works than these shall he do." Indeed, the
participation and communion of heavenly gifts have the closest
coherence with that supernatural order, which God in creating man
chose, and to which He called fallen man back through His only
begotten Son; with that dispensation of Christ by which He loved the
Apostles as He Himself was loved by the Father, by which He called
them, [70]"not servants, but friends," and gave them that glory
which He had Himself received from the Father. And the tone of mind
which denies Peter's prerogative as the Foundation of the Church,
under pretence that it is an usurpation of divine power, tends to
deny some one or all of the privileges just cited, and, as a fact,
does deny some of them. It is [71]wonderful to see how only common
and vulgar things are discerned by modern eyes, where the Fathers
saw celestial and divine gifts. Those without the Church have fallen
away as well from the several parts and privileges, from what may be
called the standing order, of the Incarnation, as from its final
purpose and scope; and it is much if they would not charge with
blasphemy that glorious saying put forth by the greatest of the
Eastern, as by the greatest of the Western Fathers, "that God became
man, in order that man might become God."[72]
Was, then, S. Chrysostome wrong when he said that our Lord, in that
passage of Matthew, showed a power equal to God the Father by the
gifts which He bestowed on a poor fisherman? "He who gave to him the
keys of the heavens, and made him Lord of such power, and needed not
prayer for this, for He did not then say, I prayed, but, with
authority, I will build my Church, and I will give to thee the keys
of heaven."[73] Was he wrong when he called him "the chosen of the
Apostles, the mouth-piece of the disciples, the head of the band,
the ruler over the brethren?"[74] Or where he saw these prerogatives
in the very name of Peter, observing, "When I say Peter, I mean the
impregnable rock, the immovable foundation, the great apostle, the
first of the disciples?"[75]
To sum up, then, what has been hitherto said, we have advanced so
far as this; first the promise, and then the bestowal of a new name,
expressing a singular pre-eminence, and in its _proper_ sense
befitting Christ alone, have distinguished Simon from the rest of
the apostles. But much more the power signified by that name, and
explained by the Lord Himself, carries far higher Peter's privilege,
and indicates him to be the possessor of authority over the
Apostles. For if Simon is the Rock of the Church, and if the
property of Foundation, on which the structure of the Church rests,
belongs to him immediately after Christ, and analogously with
Christ, there arises this relation between Christ and Simon, that as
He is first, and chiefly, and by inherent power, so Simon is
secondarily, by participation and analogy, that which underlies,
holds together, and supports the Apostles and the whole fabric of
the Church.
Now such a relation carries with it not merely precedency of honour,
but superior authority. The strength of the Apostles lay in their
union with Christ, and subordination to Him. The like necessity of
adhering to Peter is expressed in his new name. Take away that
subordination, and you destroy the very image by which the Lord
chose to express Peter's dignity; and you remove, likewise, Peter's
participation in that property which the Lord communicated to him in
the name of the Rock. For if the Apostles needed not to be joined
with him, he had no title to be called the Foundation; and if he had
no coactive power over the Apostles, he did not share the property
by which Christ is the Rock and Foundation. Thus the name, and the
dignity expressed by the name, show Peter to have been singly
invested by the Lord with both honour and power superior to all the
Apostles.[76]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] John xvii.
[2] Matt. xvi. 18.
[3] Matt. xxviii. 19, 20.
[4] Matt. v. 14; Psalm xlvii. 2; cxxxi. 13, 14.
[5] 1 Tim. iii. 15.
[6] John x. 11-16.
[7] Eph. v. 32, 30.
[8] Mark iii. 13.
[9] Dan. ix. 26.
[10] 1 John i. 1.
[11] Luke xxii. 26.
[12] Vid. John i. 42; Mark iii. 16; Matt. xvi. 18; Luke xxii. 32;
John xxi. 15.
[13] Passaglia, p. 35-7.
[14] John i. 35-42.
[15] S. Chrysostome on the text. S. Cyril on John i. 42.
[16] Isai. xxviii. 16; Ps. cxvii. 22; Dan. ii. 35; Zach. iii. 9;
Eph. ii. 20.
[17] Theodoret on Dan. ii. 34.
[18] Ambrose on Luke, Lib. 6, n. 97.
[19] Serm. iv. 2.
[20] For the name Boanerges, which in one place is given to the two
sons of Zebedy, is in the first place a joint name; secondly, it is
nowhere else referred to, and does not take the place of their
birth-names; thirdly, it indicates not an official dignity, but an
inward disposition. We cannot doubt that such a name bestowed on the
two brothers was a mark of great distinction, but, for the above
reasons, it cannot come into competition with the name of Peter. See
Passaglia, p. 44, n. 38.
[21] Mark iii. 14; Matt. x. 1; Luke vi. 14.
[22] Cont. Marcion. L. 4, c. 13.
[23] Apoc. xxii. 16; iii. 7.
[24] S. Chris. on Matt. 16, Hom. 54.
[25] S. Leo, Serm. 3 on his anniversary.
[26] Hilary of Poitiers on Matt. xv. n. 6; on Ps. cxxxi. n. 4; on
the Trinity, L. 6, n. 20. Gregory Naz. Orat. 26, p. 453. Ambrose in
his first hymn, referred to also by Augustine, Retract. lib. 1, c.
21, and Epiph. in ancor. n. 9.
[27] Tertullian de monogam. c. 8. Origen on Ps. 1, quoted by
Eusebius, Hist. I. 6, c. 25. Cyprian, Ep. 71, and Firmilian, among
Cyprian's letters, 75.
[28] Basil cont. Eunom. lib. 2, n. 4. Zeno. lib. 2, tract. 13, n. 2.
[29] By the same.
[30] Epiphan. haer. 59, n. 7.
[31] August. in Ps. cont. par. Donati. Leo, serm. 98.
[32] Theodoret, ep. 77.
[33] Maximus of Turin, serm. pro natali Petri et Pauli.
[34] Greg. Nazian. in hom. archieratico inserta.
[35] Origen on Exod. hom. 5, n. 4.
[36] Gallican sacramentary, edited by Mabillon, T. I. Mus. Ital. p.
343. Synod of Ephesus, act. 3.
[37] Peter Chrysologus, serm. 154.
[38] Ambrose on Virginity, c. 16.
[39] Ambrose on Luke, lib. 4, n. 70.
[40] Chrysostome, hom. on debtor of ten thousand talents, Tom. 3, p.
4.
[41] Philip, legate of the Apostolic See, in Act. 3 of Council of
Ephesus.
[42] Council of Chalcedon, act. 3. in deposing Dioscorus.
[43] For the above references see Passaglia, p. 400.
[44] Vid. Passaglia, p. 54, note 47.
[45] Gen. x. 25; xvii. 19; xxx. 18; xii. 51, 52.
[46] Gen. xxv. 26; xxvii. 36; xxv. 25; xxv. 30; Exod. ii. 10; 1
Macc. ii. 4; Mark iii. 17.
[47] Isai. vii. 3; Os. i. 4, 6, 9; Gen. v. 29; xxxii. 28; Numb.
xiii. 17; Gen. xvii. 15; Matt. iii. 1.
[48] Passaglia, p. 51.
[49] Passaglia, p. 52.
[50] Gen. xii. 1; Mark 1. 16, 17; Luke v. 10.
[51] Gen. xii. 4; Mark i. 18.
[52] Gen. xvii. 5; John i. 42.
[53] Gen. xxii. 1; Matt. xvi. 15; John xxi. 15.
[54] Gen. xxii. 10; Matt. xvi. 16; John xxi. 15.
[55] Gen. xviii. 17; Acts x. 10; xv. 7; Luke xxii. 32.
[56] Gal. iii. 7.
[57] Gal. iii. 16.
[58] Matt. i. 1.
[59] Is. xxviii. 16; Eph. ii. 21.
[60] Passaglia, p. 58.
[61] Ps. lxxxii. 6, with John x. 34.
[62] 1 Cor. iii. 11.
[63] Matt. xxiii. 9.
[64] John xiv. 16.
[65] Rom. viii. 15.
[66] Rom. viii. 17.
[67] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[68] John xx. 23.
[69] John xiv. 12.
[70] John xv. 9, 15.
[71] Passaglia, p. 442. n. 38.
[72] O tou Theou Logos enenthrhopesen hina hemeis
theopoiethomen. St. Athan. de Incarn. Factus est Deus homo, ut homo
fieret deus. St. Aug. Serm. 13, de Temp.
[73] S. Chrys. Tom. vii. 786. Hom. 82, in Matt.
[74] Tom. viii. 525. Hom. 88, in Joan.
[75] Hom. 3, de Poenitentia. Tom. ii. 300.
[76] Passaglia, p. 48, 9.
CHAPTER II.
EDUCATION AND FINAL DESIGNATION OF PETER TO BE THE RULER WHO SHOULD
CONFIRM HIS BRETHREN.
Having promised[1] and bestowed on Simon a new name, prophetic of
the peculiar position which he was to occupy in the Church, and
having set forth the meaning contained in that name in terms so
large and magnificent, that, as we have seen, the greatest saints
and fathers have felt it impossible to exhaust their force, our Lord
proceeded to _educate_ Peter, so to say, for his especial charge of
supreme ruler. He bestowed upon him, in the course of His ministry,
tokens of preference which agree with the title thus solemnly
conferred; and He instructed him with all the care which we should
expect to be given to one who was to become the chief doctor of
Christians. Such instruction may be said to consist in two things, a
more complete knowledge of the Christian revelation, and a singular
apprehension of its divine proofs.
Now, innumerable as are the particulars in which the Christian
revelation consists, they may yet be gathered up mainly into two
points, which meet in the Person of our Lord, and are termed by the
ancient fathers who have followed this division, the _Theology_, and
the _Economy_. There is the Divine Nature, that "_form of God_,"
which our Lord had from the beginning in the bosom of the Father;
and there is the human nature, that "_form of a servant_," which "in
the economy or dispensation of the fulness of times" He assumed, in
order that He might purchase the Church with His blood, and[2]
"re-establish all things in heaven and on earth." All, therefore,
in the Christian faith which concerns "the form of God" is termed
the Theology; all which contemplates "_the form of a servant_," the
Economy.
But the heavenly origin and certain truth of both these parts of
Christian faith are proved partly by the fulfilment of prophecy, and
partly by the working of miracles. To both our Lord perpetually
appealed, and His apostles after Him, and those who have followed
them. One, then, who was to be the chief ruler and doctor of
Christians, needed especial instruction in the Theology, and
Economy, especial assurance of the fulfilment of prophecy, and the
working of miraculous power. Now Peter was specially selected for
this instruction and that assurance.
The whole teaching of our Lord, indeed, and the innumerable acts of
power and words of grace with which it was fraught, were calculated
to convey these to all the Apostles. But while they were witnesses
in common of that teaching in general, some parts of it were
disclosed only to Peter and the two sons of Zebedy. Perhaps there is
no incident in the Gospel history, which set forth in so lively a
manner, and so convincingly proved, the mysteries concerning the
union of "the form of God" and "the form of a servant," as the
Transfiguration. The retreat to the "high mountain apart," and in
the midst of that solitary prayer, "the face shining as the sun,"
and "the robes white as light," the presence of Moses and Elias,
conversing with Him on the great sacrifice for sin, "the bright
cloud which encompassed them," and the voice from out of it,
proclaiming "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear
Him;" so impressed themselves on the great Apostle, that after long
years he appealed to them in proof that he and his brethren had not
taught "cunningly devised fables, when they made known the power
and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, but had been eyewitnesses of
His majesty, when He received from God the Father honour and glory,
this voice coming down to Him from the excellent glory, 'This is my
beloved Son, in whom I have pleased myself: hear ye Him.' And this
voice we heard brought from heaven, when we were with Him in the
holy mount." Among all the Apostle's experience of the three years'
ministry, by the shore and on the waves of the lake of Galilee, in
the cornfields, or on the mountain side, in the noon-day heat, or
midnight storm, even in the throng which cried 'Hosannah!' and
'Crucify Him!' this stood out, until "the laying aside of his
fleshly tabernacle," as "the Lord had signified to Him."[3] For[4]
what indeed was not there? the plurality of persons in the Godhead,
the Father and the Son, the true, and not adopted, Sonship of the
latter, His divine mission unto men; the new order of things
resulting from it, and the summing up under one head of all things
in heaven and in earth; the sealing up and accomplishing of the law
and the prophets, by the presence of their representatives, Moses
and Elias, a most wonderful and transporting miracle; and the
command implicitly to obey Him in whom the Father was well pleased.
Thus the Transfiguration may be termed the summing up of the whole
Christian revelation.
But now of this we read that "after six days Jesus taketh unto Him
_Peter_, and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into
a high mountain apart." These three alone of the twelve. Yet does He
not associate the sons of Zebedy with Peter in this privilege?
Needful no doubt it was that so splendid an act should have a
suitable number of witnesses, and that as His future glory should
have[5] three witnesses from heaven, and as many from earth, so
this, its rudimental beginning, should be attested by three as from
heaven, God the Father, Moses, and Elias, and by three from earth,
Peter, James, and John. Dear to Him likewise, next to Peter, and
most privileged after Peter, were the sons of Zebedy; yet a
distinction is seen in the mode in which they are treated even when
joined together in so great a privilege. For in all the three
accounts Peter is named first; "He taketh to Him Peter, and James,
and John." They likewise are called by their birth-name, he by his
prophetic appellation of the Rock; they are silent, but he speaks;
"Peter answering, said;" nor only speaks, but in the name of all;
"It is good _for us_ to be here," as if their leader. And, fifthly,
he is named specially, they as his companions; "but Peter, _and they
that were with him_, were heavy with sleep."[6] Thus even when three
are associated in a special privilege above the Twelve, Peter is
distinguished among the three.
But if there was one other occasion on which above all "the form of
the servant" was to be set forth in the most awful, and the most
endearing light, it was on that evening, "the hour" of evil men and
"the power of darkness," when "the righteous servant who should
justify many" was about to perform the great, central, crowning act
of His mediation. Then we read that "He said to His disciples, Sit
you here, till I go yonder and pray."[7] And then immediately
"taking with Him Peter, and the two sons of Zebedy, He began to grow
sorrowful and to be sad." Yet here again, even in the association
with the sons of Zebedy, Simon is distinguished, for he is named
first; and by the illustrious name of Peter, the Rock; and as the
leader of the others, for, says Matthew, Christ after His first
prayer, "comes to His disciples, and finds them sleeping, and _says
to Peter_, What, could _ye_ not watch with me one hour?" Why the
change of number, Peter in the singular, _ye_ in the plural? Why the
blame of Peter, involving the blame of the rest? Because the members
are censured in the head.
In these two signal instances our Lord, while preferring Peter and
the two sons of Zebedy to the rest of the Twelve, yet marks a
gradation likewise between them and Peter. And these two set forth
the Theology and Economy, in the most emphatic manner.
And as the supreme preceptor must not only be acquainted with the
truth which he has to deliver, but with the evidence on which it
rests, so is Peter specially made a witness of his Lord's "power and
presence" and "the works which no other man did." In that remarkable
miracle of raising to life the ruler of the synagogue's daughter we
read, "He admitted not any man to follow Him, but Peter and James,
and John the brother of James;"[8] where, as before, and always,
Peter is mentioned first, and by the prophetic name of his Primacy.
From[9] all which we gather four points; 1. Several things are
mentioned in the Gospels which Christ gave to Peter, and not to the
rest of the Apostles: 2. But nothing which He gave to them together,
and not to Peter with them. 3. What He seemed to give to them in
common, yet accrue to Peter in a special manner, who appears among
the Apostles not as one out of the number, but their destined head,
by the name, that is, of Peter, so markedly promised, bestowed, and
wonderfully explained by our Lord, of which, as we have seen, S.
Chrysostome, an eastern Patriarch, as well as a great Saint and
Father, observed, "When I say Peter, I mean the impregnable Rock,
the immovable foundation, the great Apostle, the first of the
disciples." 4. Either we are not to take Christ's dealing as the
standard of Peter's dignity, and destination, or we must admit that
he was preferred to the rest, and made the supreme teacher of the
faithful.
S. Matthew records the incidents of the officers asking for the
payment of the didrachma which all the children of Israel were bound
to contribute to the temple; and his words show us a fresh instance
of honour done to Peter, and a fresh note of his superiority. "When
they were come to Capharnaum, they that received the didrachma came
to Peter and said to him, Doth not your master pay the didrachma?"[10]
But why should they come to _him_, and ask, not if _his_ master, but
"your" master, the master of all the Apostles, paid the census, save
that it was apparent, even to strangers, that Peter was the first and
most prominent of the company? Why use him rather than any of the
others, for the purpose of approaching Christ? "As Peter seemed to be
first of the disciples," says S. Chrysostome, on the text, "they go to
him." The context naturally suggests this reason, and the ancient
commentators remarked it. But what follows is much more striking.
Peter answered, Yes, that is, that his master observed all the laws of
Moses, and this among the number. As he went home he purposed, no
doubt, to ask our Lord about this payment, but "when he was come
into the house Jesus prevented him," having in His omniscience seen
and heard all that had passed, and He proceeded to speak words
involving His own high dignity, followed by a singular trial of Peter's
faith, and as marked a reward of it when tried. "What thinkest thou,
Simon? The kings of the earth, of whom do they receive tribute or
custom? of their own children or of strangers? And he said, Of
strangers. Jesus said to him, Then the children are free." Slight
words in seeming, yet declaring in fact that most wonderful truth
which had formed so shortly before Peter's confession, and drawn
down upon him the yet unexhausted promise; for they expressed, I am
as truly the natural Son of that God, the Sovereign of the temple, for
whom this tribute is paid, as the children of earthly sovereigns, who
take tribute, are their sons by nature. Therefore by right I am free.
"But that we may not scandalize them, go to the sea and cast in a hook;
and that fish which shall first come up, take; and when thou hast opened
its mouth, thou shalt find a stater; take that and give it to them for
Me and thee." Declaring to His favoured disciple afresh that He is
the true, and not the adopted, Son of God, answering his thoughts by
anticipation, and expressing His knowledge of absent things by the
power of the Son of God, He tries his faith by the promise of a
fresh miracle, which involved a like exercise of divine power.
Peter, in proceeding to execute His command, must make that
confession afresh by deed, which he had made before by word, and
which his Lord had just repeated with His own mouth. How else could
he go to the lake expecting to draw at the first cast a fish in
whose mouth he should find a coin containing the exact amount due to
the temple for two persons? But what followed? What but a most
remarkable reward for the faith which he should show? "Take that and
give it to them for Me and thee." There are looks, there are tones
of the voice, which convey to us more than language. So, too, there
are acts so exceedingly suggestive, that without in any _formal_ way
proving, they carry with them the force of the strongest proof. And
so, perhaps, never did our Lord in a more marked manner _associate_
Peter with Himself than here. It was a singular distinction which
could not fail to strike every one who heard it. Thus S. Chrysostome
exclaims,[11] "You see the exceeding greatness of the honour;" and
he adds, "wherefore, too, in reward for his faith He connected him
with Himself in the payment of the tribute;" and he remarks on
Peter's modesty, "for Mark, the disciple of Peter, seems not to have
recorded this incident, because it pointed out the great honour
bestowed on him; but he did record his denial, while he was silent
as to the points which made him conspicuous, his Master perhaps
begging him not to say great things about him." Indeed, _how_ could
one of the disciples be more signally pointed out than by this
incident, as "the faithful and wise steward, whom the Lord would set
over His household, to give them their portion of food in due time?"
Other fathers, as well as S. Chrysostome, did not fail to see such a
meaning in this passage; but let us take the words of Origen as
pointing out the connection of this incident with the important
question following. His words are: "It seems to me that (the
disciples) considering this a very great honour which had been done
to Peter by Jesus, in having put him higher than the rest of His
disciples, they wished to make sure of what they suspected by asking
Jesus and hearing His answer, whether, as they conceived, He judged
Peter to be greater than them; and they also hoped to learn the
cause for which Peter was preferred to the rest of the disciples.
Matthew, then, wishing to signify this by these words, "take that
and give it to them for Me and thee," added, "on that day the
disciples came to Jesus, saying, Who, thinkest thou, is the greater
in the kingdom of heaven?"[12]
For, indeed, why should they immediately ask this question? The
preceding incident furnishes a natural and sufficient cause. The
Apostles, it seems, were urged by the plainness of Christ's words
and acts to inquire who among them should have the chief authority.
Who will not agree with S. Chrysostome: "The Apostles were touched
with a human infirmity, which the Evangelist too signifies in the
words, 'in that hour,' when He had honoured him (Peter) before them
all. For though of James and John one of the two was the
first-born," (alluding to an opinion that the tax was paid by the
first-born,) "He did nothing like it for them. Hence, being ashamed,
they confessed their excitement of mind, and do not say plainly, Why
hast thou preferred Peter to us? Is he greater than we are? For this
they did not dare; but they ask indefinitely, Who is the greater?
For when they saw three preferred to the rest, they felt nothing
like this; but when one received so great an honour, they were
pained. Nor were they kindled by this alone, but by putting together
many other things. For He had said to him, 'I will give to thee the
keys,' and 'Blessed art thou Simon Bar-jona,' and here 'Give it to
them for Me and for thee;' and also they were pricked at seeing his
confidence and freedom of speech."[13]
Thus their question, if it did not express, at least suggested this
meaning, "Speak more plainly and distinctly whether Peter is to be
the greater and the chief in the Church, and accordingly among us,"
and so they seem to have drawn from our Lord's act a conclusion
which they did not see in the promising or bestowing the prophetic
name of Peter, nor even in the promises conveyed in explaining that
name, and were vexed at the preference shown to him.
And if [14]any be inclined to conclude from hence that our Lord's
words and acts to Peter had not been of any marked significancy,
they should be reminded that the very clearest and plainest things
were sometimes not understood by the Apostles, before the descent of
the Holy Spirit on them. This was specially the case with the things
which they were disinclined to believe. Thus our Lord again and
again foretold to them His passion in express terms, but we are
told, "they understood none of these things."[15] He foretold, too,
His resurrection, yet they did not the least expect it, and they
became at length fully assured of the fact before they remembered
the prediction. Strange as these things seem, yet probably
everyone's private experience will furnish him with similar
instances of a veil being cast upon his eyes, which prevented his
discerning the most evident things, towards which there was
generally some secret disinclination.
But [16]how did our Lord answer their question? Did He remove at
once the ground of their jealousy by declaring that in the kingdom
of heaven no one should have pre-eminence of dignity, but the
condition of all be equal? On the contrary, He condemns ambition and
enjoins humility, but likewise gives such a turn to His discourse as
to insinuate that there would be one pre-eminent over the
rest.[17] "Jesus calling unto Him a little child, set him in the
midst of them, and said, Amen I say unto you, unless you be
converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven." Then He adds, "whosoever therefore shall
humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the
kingdom of heaven." Thus He did not exclude the pre-eminence of that
"greater one," about which they asked, but pointed out what his
character ought to be. But this will be much clearer from a like
enquiry, and the answer to it, recorded by S. Luke.
For even at the last supper, our Lord having told them that He
should be betrayed, and was going to leave them in the way
determined for Him, there was not only an enquiry among them which
of them should do that thing, but also, so keenly were their minds
as yet, before the coming down of the Holy Spirit, alive to the
desire of pre-eminence, and so strongly were they persuaded that
such a superior had not been excluded by Christ, but rather marked
out and ordained, "there was a strife among them which of them
should seem to be greater." Now our Lord meets their contention
thus: "The [18]kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they
that have power over them are called beneficent. But you not so; but
he that is the greater among you, let him become as the younger; and
he that is the leader, as he that serveth. For which is greater, he
that sitteth at table, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at
table? But I am in the midst of you as he that serveth. And you are
they who have continued with Me in my temptations; and I dispose to
you, as My Father hath disposed to Me, a kingdom; that you may eat
and drink at My table in My kingdom; and may sit upon thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Now [19]in this speech of our Lord we may remark four points:--
1. What is omitted, though it would seem most apposite to be said;
2. What is affirmed, if not expressly, yet by plain consequence;
3. What comparison is used in illustration;
4. What meets with censure and rejection.
1. First, then, though the Apostles had twice before contended about
pre-eminence, yet our Lord neither there, nor here, said openly that
He would not prefer any one over the rest, nor appoint any one to be
their leader. Yet the importance of the subject, His own wisdom, and
His love towards His disciples, as well as His usual mode of acting,
seemed to demand, that had it been His will for no one of them to be
set over the rest, He should plainly declare it, and thus extinguish
all strife. No less a matter was at issue than the harmony of the
Apostles with each other, the peace of the Church, and the success
of the divine counsel for its government. Moreover, the Gospels
represent Him to us as continually removing doubts, clearing up
perplexities, and correcting wrong judgments among His disciples.
Let us recall to remind a very similar occasion, when the mother of
the sons of Zebedy with her children came before Him asking "that
these my two sons may sit the one on thy right hand and the other on
thy left, in thy kingdom." He rejected their prayer at once, saying,
"To sit on My right or My left hand is not mine to give to you, but
to them for whom it is prepared by My Father."[20] The silence,
therefore, of Christ here, under such circumstances, is a proof that
it was not the divine will that all the Apostles should be in such a
sense equal that no one of them should hold a superior authority
over the rest.
2. But eloquent as this silence is, we are not left to trust to it
alone, for our Lord's words point out, besides, the institution of
one superior. "The kings of the Gentiles," He says, "lord it over
them; and they that have power over them are called benefactors. But
you not so: but he that is the greater among you, let him become as
the younger; and he that is the leader, as he that serveth." _A
greater_ and _a leader_, then, _there was to be_. Our Lord's words
contain two parallel propositions repeated. 1. There is among you
one who is the greater, let him, then, be as the younger. 2. There
is among you one who is the leader, let him be as he that serveth.
Thus our Lord's meaning is most distinct that they should have a
superior.
But in the very similar passage about the sons of Zebedy, lest any
should conclude that no one of the Apostles was to be superior to
the rest, He called them to Him and said, "You know that the princes
of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they that are the greater
exercise power upon them. It shall not be so among you, but
whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister;
and he that will be the first among you shall be your servant. Even
as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to
minister, and to give His life a redemption for many." Where He
tells them His will, not that no one of the Apostles should be
"great" and "first," but what the type and model should be which
that "great" and "first" one should imitate, even the Son of man who
came to minister.
3. For to make this quite certain, there, and here too, He directs
us to a particular comparison, by which He explains and concludes
His discourse, "For who is greater, he that sitteth at table, or he
that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at table? But I am among you as
he that serveth.--And I dispose unto you as My Father disposed unto
Me, a kingdom." Here our Lord sets Himself before His Apostles as
the exemplar both of the rule which the superior was to exercise,
and of the temper and character which he was to shew. As He had been
speaking of the kingdoms of the Gentiles, so He now points out to
them in contrast the true kingdom which He was disposing unto them.
The Church as it had been from the beginning, was to be the model of
what it should be to the end. Now all confess that in that Church
Christ had held the place of "the First," "the Great one," "the
Ruler." And now He explains that one of His Apostles should occupy
that place of His, and occupying it should be of a like temper with
Himself, who had been the minister and servant of all. And it may be
remarked that the same word is here applied to him who should _rule_
among the disciples, which expresses the dignity of Christ Himself
in the prophecy of Micah, quoted in Matt. ii. 6, "Out of thee shall
go forth[21] _the ruler_, who shall be shepherd over my people
Israel." For Christ says, "He that is the greater among you let him
be as the younger; and _he that ruleth_ as he that serveth. _For_,
who is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he who serveth? But I am
among you as he that serveth." "I dispose to you a kingdom: as My
Father disposed to Me:" let him who follows Me in place, follow Me
in character.
But, 4, what does our Lord censure and reject from His Church? It is
plain that He compares kingdom with kingdom, and the kingdom of
heaven, which is the Church, with human kingdoms, and, moreover,
that the negative quality as to which, in the clause, "But you not
so," the two are compared, is, _not_ the fact that there is
pre-eminence and rule in both, but a certain _mode_ of exercising
them. This is, the pomp and ambition expressed in the words,
"lording it," "exercising authority," "are called benificent." As
again is shewn in the repeated declaration that what had been most
alien from the spirit of His own ministry, should not appear in the
ministry that He would establish after Him. Now He had shown no pomp
and pride of dominion, but yet He had shown the dominion itself in
the fullest sense, the power of passing laws, enjoining precepts,
defining rites, threatening punishments, governing, in fine, His
Church, so that He had been pre-eminently "the Lord." Lastly, this
is shown in the words recorded by S. John, as said shortly after on
this same occasion. "You call Me Master and Lord, and you say well,
for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another's feet: _for I have given you an
example_, that as I have done unto you, so you also may do."[22]
Now nothing can show more strongly than this discourse the
pre-eminence and authority which our Lord was going to establish in
one of His Apostles over the rest. For here we have His intention
disclosed that in His kingdom, which is the Church's, some one there
should be "the Great," "the First," and "the Ruler," who should
discharge, in due proportion and analogy, the office which He
Himself, before He returned to the Father, had held. But before we
consider further who this one was, let us look at the subject from a
somewhat different point of view.
And [23]here we must lay down three points, the _first_ of which is,
that our Lord, during His life on earth, had acted in two
capacities, the one, as the Author and Founder, the other, as the
Head and Supreme Ruler of His Church. His functions in the former
capacity are too plain to need enlarging upon. He disclosed the
objects of our faith: He instituted rites and sacraments: He
provided by the establishment of a ministry for the perpetual growth
and duration of the Church. It was in this sense that He spoke of
Himself to His apostles, as "the Master," who could share His
prerogatives with no one: "But be not you called Rabbi, for one is
your Master, and all you are brethren."[24] Thus is He, "the
Teacher," "the Master," throughout the Gospel.
But He likewise acted as the Head of His Church, with the dignity
and authority of the chief visible Ruler. He was the living bond of
His disciples: the person around whom they grouped: whose presence
wrought harmony: whose voice terminated contention among them: who
was ever at hand to solve emergent difficulties. Thus it is that
prophecy distinguished Him as "the Lord," "the King," "the
Shepherd;" "on whose shoulders is the government," "who should
_rule_ His people, Israel." And His Church answers to Him in this
capacity, as the family, the house, the city, the fold, and the
kingdom.
Thus His relation to the Church was twofold, as Founder, and as
Supreme Pastor.
_Secondly_, the Church shares her Lord's prerogative of
unchangeableness, and as He is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
to-day, and for ever," so She, His mystical Body, in her proportion,
remains like herself from the beginning to the end. The Church and
Christianity are bound to each other in a mutual relation; the
Church is Christianity embodied; Christianity is the Church in
conception: the consistency and identity which belong to
Christianity belong likewise to her; neither can change their
nature, nor put on another form.
But, _thirdly_, the Church would be unlike herself, if, having been
from her very cradle visibly administered by the rule of One, she
fell subsequently, either under no rule at all, according to the
doctrine of the Independents, or under the rule of the multitude,
according to the Calvinists, or under the rule of an aristocracy, as
Episcopalians imagine. A change of government superinduces a change
of that substantial form which constitutes a society. But this holds
in her case especially, above all other societies, as she came forth
from the creative hand of her Lord, her whole organization instinct
with inward life, her government _directly_ instituted by God
Himself, in which lies her point of distinction from all temporal
polities.
For imagine, that upon our Lord's departure, no one had been deputed
to take the visible headship and rule over the Church. How, without
ever fresh revelations, and an abiding miraculous power, could that
complex unity of faith, of worship, and of polity, have been
maintained, which the[25] Lord has set forth as the very sign and
token of His Church? A multitude scattered throughout the most
distant regions, and naturally differing in race, in habits, in
temperament, how could it possibly be joined in one, and remain one,
without a powerful bond of unity? Hence, in the fourth century, S.
Jerome[26] observed, "The safety of the Church depends on the
dignity of the supreme Priest, in whom, if all do not recognise a
peculiar and supereminent power, there will arise as many schisms in
the Church as there are priests." And the repentant confessors out
of Novatian's schism, in the middle of the third century, "We know
that Cornelius (the Pope) has been elected Bishop of the most holy
Catholic Church, by Almighty God, and Christ our Lord.--We are not
ignorant that there is one God, one Christ the Lord, whom we
confessed, one Holy Spirit, and that there ought to be one bishop
in the Catholic Church."[27] And these words, both of S. Jerome, and
of the confessors, if they primarily apply to the diocesan bishop
among his priests and people, so do they with far greater force
apply to the chief bishop among his brethren in the whole Church.
Now, as our Lord willed that His Church should do without fresh
revelations, and new miracles, such as at first accredited it, and
that it should preserve unity; and as, when it was a little flock,
which could be assembled in a single room, it had yet one visible
Ruler, how can we doubt that He willed this form of government to
remain, and that there should be one perpetually to rule it in His
name, and preserve it in unity, since it was to become co-extensive
with the earth?
Again, we may ask, was the condition of fold, house, family, city,
and kingdom, so repeatedly set forth in Holy Scripture, to belong to
the Church only while Christ was yet on earth, or to be the visible
evidence of its truth for ever? Do these terms exhibit a temporary,
or a perpetual state? Each one of these symbols by itself, and all
together, involve one visible Ruler: therefore, so long as the
Church can be called with truth, the one house, the one family, the
one city, the one fold, the one kingdom, so long must it have one
visible and supreme Ruler.
But once grant that such a one there was after our Lord's departure,
and no one can doubt that one to have been Peter. It is easier to
deny the supreme Ruler altogether, than to make him any one but
Peter. The whole course of the Gospels shows none other marked out
by so many distinctions. Thus, even those who wish to refuse a real
power to his Primacy, are compelled by the force of evidence to
allow him a Primacy of order and honour.
But nothing did our Lord more pointedly reject than the vain pomp of
titles and honours. In nothing is His own example more marked than
in that He exercised real power and supreme authority without pomp
or show. Nothing did He enjoin more emphatically on the disciple who
should be the "Great one," and "the Ruler," among his brethren, than
that he must follow his Master in being the servant of all. A
Primacy, then, consisting in titles and mere precedency, is of all
things most opposed to the spirit and the precepts of our Lord. And
so the Primacy which He designated must be one of real power and
pre-eminent authority.
And this brings us back to the passage of S. Luke which we were
considering, where four things prove that Christ had such a headship
in view. First, the occasion, for the Apostles were contending for a
place of real authority. The sons of Zebedy expressed it by sitting
on His right hand and on His left, that is, holding the second and
the third place of dignity in the kingdom.
Secondly, the double comparison which our Lord used, the one
negative, the other affirmative: in the former, contrasting the
Church's ruler with the kings of the Gentiles, He excluded pomp and
splendour, lordship and ambition; in the latter, referring him to
His own example, who had the most real and true power and
superiority, He taught him to unite these with a meekness and an
attention to the wants of his brethren, of which His own life had
been the model.
Thirdly, the words "the First," "the Greater," and "the Ruler,"
indicate the pre-eminence of the future head, for as they appear in
the context, and according to their Scriptural force, they indicate
not a vain and honorary, but a real authority, one of them being
even the very title given to our Lord.
And, fourthly, this is proved by the object in view, which is,
maintaining the identity of the Church, and the form which it had
from the beginning, and preserving its manifold unity. As to its
identity, and original form, it is needless to observe that Christ
exercised in it not an honorary but a real supremacy, so that under
Him its government was really in the hands of one, the Ruler. As to
the preservation of its unity--and especially a unity so
complex--the very analogy of human society will sufficiently teach
us that it is impossible to be preserved without a strong central
authority. Contentions can neither be checked as they arise, nor
terminated when they come to a head, without the interference of a
power to which all yield obedience. And the living example of those
religious societies which have not this power is an argument whose
force none can resist. Where Peter is not, there is neither unity of
faith, nor of charity, nor of external regimen.
No sooner [28]then had our Lord in this manner pointed out that
there should be one hereafter to take His place on earth and to be
the Ruler of his brethren, expressing at the same time the toilsome
nature of the trust, and the duty of exercising it with the spirit
which He, the great model, had shown, than turning His discourse
from the Apostles, whom hitherto He had addressed in common, to
Peter singly, He proceeded to designate Peter as that one, to assure
him of a singular privilege, and to enforce upon him a proportionate
duty.
And first a break in the hitherto continuous discourse is ushered in
by the words, "And the Lord said," and what follows is fixed to
Peter specially, by the reiteration of his name, "Simon, Simon,
behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as
wheat:" to have _you_, that is not Peter alone, but all the
Apostles, the same you, whom in the preceding verses He had so often
repeated, "you not so," "but I am in the midst of you," "but you are
they that have continued with Me," "and I dispose to you a kingdom,"
"that you may eat and drink with Me;" and what follows? What was the
resource provided by the Lord against this attack of the great enemy
on all His fold? "But I have prayed for _thee_, that _thy_ faith
fail not: and thou being once converted confirm thy brethren." Not
"I have prayed for _you_," where all were assaulted, "that _your_
faith fail not," but I have prayed for _thee_, Peter, that _thy_
faith fail not! Nothing can be more emphatic than this change of
number, when our Lord throughout all His previous discourse had used
the plural, and now continuing the plural to designate the persons
attacked, uses the singular to specify the person for whom He has
prayed, and to whom He assures a singular privilege, the fruit of
that prayer. Nothing could more strongly prove that this address was
special to Peter.
Nor less evident is the singular dignity of what is here promised to
him. First of all, it is the fruit of the prayer of Christ. Of what
importance must that be which was solicited by our Lord of His
Father, and at a moment when the redemption of the world was being
accomplished, and when His passion may be said to have begun? Of
what importance that which was to be the defence of not Peter only,
but all the disciples, against the most formidable assault of the
great enemy, who had[29] demanded them as it were to deliver them
over to punishment? And this was "that thy faith fail not." How is
it possible to draw any other conclusion here than what S. Leo in
the fifth century expressed so clearly before all the bishops of
Italy? "The danger from the temptation of fear was common to all the
Apostles, and all equally needed the help of the divine protection,
since the devil desired to dismay all, to crush all; and yet a
special care of Peter is undertaken by our Lord, and He prays
peculiarly for the faith of Peter, as if the state of the rest would
be more sure, if the mind of their chief were not conquered. In
Peter, therefore, the fortitude of all is protected, and the help of
divine grace is so ordered, that the firmness which through Christ
is given to Peter, through Peter is conferred on the Apostles."[30]
And if such is the importance of the help secured, no less is the
charge following: "And thou, being once converted, confirm thy
brethren." To confirm others, is to be put in an office of dignity
and authority over them. And his brethren were those whom our Lord
till now had been addressing in common with him; to whom He had just
disclosed "a Greater" and "a Ruler" "among" them; that is, the
Apostles themselves. Among these, then, when our Lord's visible
presence was withdrawn, Peter was to be the principle of stability,
binding and moulding them into one building. For one cannot fail to
see how this great promise and prophecy answer to those in Matthew.
There our Lord, as Architect, promised to lay Peter as the
foundation of the Church, against which the gates of hell should not
prevail: here, being about to leave the world, when His own work was
finished, to ascend unto His Father, and to assume His great power
and reign, He makes Peter as it were the Architect to carry on the
work which was to be completed by _His_ grace and authority, but by
human co-operation. So exact is the resemblance that we may put the
two promises in parallel columns to illustrate each other:
Thou art Peter, and upon But I have prayed for
this Rock I will build My thee that thy faith fail not;
Church; and the gates of hell and thou, being once converted,
shall not prevail against it. confirm thy brethren.
But light is thrown on the greatness of this pre-eminence thus
bestowed on Peter of confirming his brethren, if we consider that
the term is applied to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as
bestowing by inherent power what is here granted by participation.
Of the Father it is said, "To Him that is able to _establish_ you
according to my Gospel--the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be
honour and glory." And again, "Now He that _confirmeth us_ with you
in Christ, and that hath anointed us, is God;" and again, "The God
of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory in Christ
Jesus, after you have suffered a little, will Himself perfect you,
_confirm_, establish you."[31] Of Christ likewise: "As therefore you
have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in Him, rooted and
built up in Him, and _confirmed_ in the faith." And "waiting for the
manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who also will _confirm_ you
unto the end without crime." And again: "Now our Lord Jesus Christ
Himself exhort your hearts, and _confirm_ you in every good word and
work."[32] And the Holy Spirit is continually mentioned as the
author of this gift, when, for instance, to Him is ascribed "the
teaching all truth," "the leading into all truth," "the bringing to
mind" all things which Christ had said. And S. Paul prays "that He
would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be
_strengthened_ by His Spirit with might unto the inward man."[33]
What, therefore, is proper to the most Holy Trinity, and given in
the highest sense by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, it was
the will of Christ should be shared by Peter, according as man is
capable of it. That is, it was His pleasure that the same man, whom
He had intimately associated with Himself by communicating to him
His prerogative to be the Rock, should be closely joined with the
Blessed Trinity by participating in that privilege, whereby,
together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, He is the confirmation
and stability of the faithful. But if any rule there can be whereby
to measure pre-eminence and dignity, it is surely that which is
derived from participation of divine properties and offices. And the
closer that by these Peter is shown to have approached to God, the
higher his exaltation above the rest of his brethren, who, as it has
been observed, are the Apostles. To them he is the Rock, and them he
is to confirm. Thus Theophylact, in the eleventh century, commenting
on this text, says: "The plain meaning of this is, that, since I
hold thee as the ruler of My disciples, after thou shalt have wept
over thy denial and repented, confirm the rest. For this belongs to
thee as being after Me the rock and support" (literally,
confirmation) "of the Church. Now one may see that this is said not
only of the apostles, that they are confirmed by Peter, but also
concerning all the faithful until the consummation of the world."
But looking more closely into the nature of this dignity, since
Christ, by the bestowal of heavenly gifts, caused Peter to be
conspicuous through the firmness of his own faith, and through the
charge of confirming the faith of his brethren, we can call it by no
fitter name than a Primacy of faith. For it has these two
qualities: it cannot fail itself; and it confirms others. And for
the authority which it carries, such a Primacy of faith cannot even
be imagined without at the same time imagining the office by which
Peter was bound to watch over the firmness and integrity of the
common faith. In this office two things are involved; first, the
right to, and therefore the possession of, all things necessary for
its fulfilment; and secondly, the duty by which all were bound to
agree in the profession of one faith with Peter. So that Peter's
dignity, rightly termed the Primacy of faith, mainly consists in the
supreme right of demanding from all an agreement in faith with him.
It[34] remains to explain the proper force of the word _confirm_.
Now this is a term of architecture, and as such is joined with other
terms relating to that art, as by S. Peter, "the God of all
grace--Himself fit you together" (as living spiritual stones,)
"confirm, strengthen, ground you."[35] It means, to make anything
fit so firmly that it cannot be shaken. Thus in Holy Writ it
frequently bears metaphorically a moral signification, such as
encouraging, supporting, as we say, confirming the resolution, as in
the passage just quoted; and again, "Be watchful, and _confirm_ the
things that remain, which are ready to die."[36] Now it cannot be
doubted that the phrase "confirm thy brethren," carries a moral
sense very like that in which the word _confirm_, when applied to
the spiritual building of the Church, is used of God and of
Christ,[37] from whom the Church has both its being and its
perseverance to the end, and again of the Apostles, who strengthen
the flock entrusted to them by the imparting spiritual gifts, as S.
Paul says, "I long to see you that I may impart unto you some
spiritual grace to strengthen you;"[38] or, again, of Bishops, who,
as sent by the Apostles, and charged by the Holy Spirit with the
government of the Church, are bid to be watchful, and see that those
who stand do not fall, and those who are in danger do not
perish.[39] Accordingly, when it is said to Peter, "And thou in thy
turn one day confirm thy brethren," _the charge and office are laid
upon him, as an architect divinely chosen, of holding together,
strengthening, and keeping in their place, the several parts of the
ecclesiastical structure_.
But what are these _parts_ to be confirmed, and what is the _nature_
of the confirmation?
As to the first question there can be no controversy, it being
determined by the words, "confirm _thy brethren_:" and it is plain
from what is said above, that, by brethren, are meant the Apostles.
He had, therefore, the Apostles committed to his charge
_immediately_: but likewise, the rest of all the faithful,
_mediately_. When a person has been named by Christ to confirm the
Apostles expressly, the nature of the case does not allow that the
whole congregation of believers be not in their persons committed to
him. The care of the flock is manifestly involved in the care of the
shepherds: and no one in his senses can doubt that the man who is
charged to support the pillars, is charged to keep in their place
the inferior stones.
And as to the _nature_ of the confirmation, it is for protection
against the fraud of the great enemy. And the danger lay in losing
the faith. Peter, then, is charged to confirm, in such sense that
neither the pillars of the Church, nor its inferior parts, may, by
the loss of faith, be moved from their place, and so severed from
the Church's structure. No charge can be higher than such an office
of confirmation; nor for any thing need we to be more thankful to
our Saviour; but, particularly, nothing can more distinctly shew the
divinely-appointed relation between Peter on the one hand, and on
the other, the rest of the Apostles, and the whole company of the
faithful; nothing define more clearly the special authority of
Peter; that is, to protect and strengthen the unity of the faith,
and to possess all powers needed for such protection.
This charge was given after that by the prayer of Christ the
privilege had been gained for Peter's faith, _that it should never
fail_. Hence, that faith is become, in virtue of such prayer, the
infallible standard of evangelical truth: as S. Cyprian expressed it
of old, "that faith of the Romans, which perfidy _cannot_
approach."[40] It follows that all the faithful owe to it obedience.
And Peter's authority rests on a double title, _external_ of
mission, _internal_ of spiritual gift: the former contained in the
words of Christ the legislator, "And thou,[41] in thy turn, one day
confirm thy brethren:" the latter, in the words of Christ, the
bestower of all gifts, "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not."
More than a thousand years ago two Easterns seem to have expressed
all this, one the Bishop Stephen, suppliantly approaching Pope
Martin I., in the Lateran Synod of A.D. 649, and speaking of "the
blessed Peter, in a manner special and peculiar to himself, having
above all a firm and immutable faith in our Lord God, to consider
with compassion, and confirm his spiritual partners and brethren
when tossed by doubt: inasmuch as he has received power and
sacerdotal authority, according to the dispensation, over all, from
the very God for our sakes incarnate."[42] And Theodore, Abbot of
the Studium, at Constantinople, addressing Pope Paschal I., A.D.
817, in the midst of persecution from the state, as if he were Peter
himself: "Hear, O Apostolic Head, O shepherd of the sheep of Christ,
set over them by God, O door-keeper of the kingdom of heaven, O rock
of the faith, upon which the Catholic Church is built. For Peter art
thou, who adornest and governest the See of Peter. To thee, said
Christ our God, 'and thou, in thy turn, one day confirm thy
brethren.' Behold the time, behold the place, help us, thou who art
ordained by God for this. Stretch forth thy hand as far as may be:
power thou hast from God, because thou art the chief of all."[43]
Now let us[44] view in its connexion the whole scope of our Lord's
discourse. We shall see how naturally the contest of the Apostles
arose out of what He had told them, and how well the former and the
latter part of His answer harmonize together, and terminate that
contest. We learn from S. John's record of this divine conversation,
that our Lord besought His Father, saying: "While I was with them in
the world, I kept them in Thy name--but now I come to Thee:" that
is, so long as I was with them visibly in the world, (for invisibly
I will always be with them, and nurture them with the spiritual
influx of the Vine,) I kept them united in Thy name: "but now I come
to Thee," I leave the world, I relinquish the office of visible
head. It remains, that by the appointment of another visible head,
Thou shouldst entrust him with My office, provide for the
conspicuous unity of all, and preserve them joined to each other and
to Us. So S. Luke tells us, that no sooner had our Lord declared to
the Apostles, "the Son of man indeed goeth according to that which
is determined," than they began to have a strife among them, "which
of them should seem to be the greater." For they had heard that
Christ would withdraw His visible presence, and they had heard Him
also earnestly entreating of the Father to provide for their visible
unity. Accordingly, the time seemed at hand when another was to take
this office of visible head; hence their questioning, who should be
the greater among them. Now our Lord does not reprove this inference
of theirs, but He does reprove the temper in which they were
coveting pre-eminence. For, engaged as they were in this strife, He
warned them that the person who should be "the Greater and the
Ruler" among them, must follow in the discharge of his office the
rule and the standard which _He_ had set up in His own conduct, and
not that which the kings of the Gentiles follow. Thus, setting these
in sharp contrast, He proceeds. "The kings, indeed, of the nations,
lord it over their subjects, and love high titles, and to be called
benefactors: but I, though Lord and Master amongst you, have dealt
otherwise, as you know. For I have exercised, not a lordship, but a
servitude: I have not sat at table, but waited: I have not cared for
titles, but called you friends and brethren. Let this example then
be before you all, but specially before him who is to be the greater
and the ruler among you. For I appoint unto you, and dispose of you,
as My Father hath disposed of Me; of Me He hath disposed that
through humiliation, emptying of Myself, ignominy, and manifold
temptations, I should gain the kingdom, reach the joys of heaven,
and obtain all power in heaven and on earth. So likewise dispose I
of you, that, through humility, sufferings, reproaches, hunger,
thirst, and all manner of temptations, you may reach whither I have
come, being worthy, after your hunger and your thirst, to eat and
drink at My table in My kingdom; after being despised and
dishonoured, to sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now, hitherto you have trodden with Me this royal way full of
sorrows, and have continued with Me in My temptations. But little
will it profit to begin, if you persevere not to the end. None shall
be crowned, save he who has contended lawfully; none be saved, but
he who perseveres to the end. Will you remain with Me still in your
temptations to come, and when I am no longer present with you visibly,
to protect and exhort, will you preserve your steadfastness? Simon,
Simon, behold! I see Satan exerting all his force to overcome your
purpose, and to destroy the fidelity which you have hitherto shewn Me.
I see the danger to your faith and your salvation approaching. But I,
who, when visibly present with you, left nothing undone to guard,
protect, and strengthen you visibly, so, too, when separated from
your bodily sight, will yet not leave you without a visible support.
Wherefore, Peter, I have prayed for thee, that thou fail not, and
thou, in thy turn, one day confirm thy brethren. Remember that thou
hast to discharge that part visibly towards thy brethren, which I,
while yet mortal, and visible, discharged: remember, that I
therefore had special care of thee, because it was My will, that
thou, confirmed by My prayers, shouldst confirm thy brethren, My
disciples, and My friends."[45]
Now from[46] what has been said, it appears that Peter in Holy
Scripture is set forth as the source and principle of ecclesiastical
unity under a double but cognate image, as Foundation, and as
Confirmer. Of the former we will here say nothing further, but a few
consequences of the latter it is desirable here to group together.
I. The unity, then, which consists in the profession of one and the
same faith, is conspicuous among those[47] modes of unity by which
Christ has willed that His Church should be distinguished. Now,
first, S. Paul declares that the whole ministerial hierarchy, from
the Apostolate downwards, was instituted by our Lord, for the sake
of obtaining and preserving this unity. "He gave some Apostles, and
some Prophets, and other some Evangelists, and other some pastors
and doctors, for the perfecting" (literally, the fitting in
together, the same word which S. Peter had used in his prayer, ch.
v. 10,) "of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying of the body of Christ; until we all meet into the unity of
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man,
unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ."[48] To this
living hierarchy he expressly attributes preservation from doctrinal
error, proceeding thus: "That henceforth we be no more children
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by
the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness by which they lie in
wait to deceive." And, secondly, this hierarchy itself was knitted
and gathered up into a monarchy, and its whole force and solidity
made to depend on association with Peter, to whom _alone_ was said,
"But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not;" to whom alone
was enjoined, "And thou, in thy turn, one day confirm thy brethren."
II. Accordingly the pre-eminence of Peter is well expressed by the
words,[49] "Primacy of faith," "chiefship of faith," "chiefship in
the episcopate of faith," meaning thereby a peculiar authority to
prescribe the faith, and determine its profession, and so protect
its unity and purity. This is conveyed in the words of Christ,
confirm thy brethren. Thus[50] S. Bernard addressed Innocent II.,
"All emergent dangers and scandals in the kingdom of God, specially
those which concern the faith, are to be referred to your
Apostolate. For I conceive that we should look especially for
reparation of the faith to the spot where faith _cannot_[51] fail.
That indeed is the prerogative of this see. For to whom else was it
once said, 'I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not?'
Therefore what follows is required of Peter's successor: 'And thou
in thy turn one day confirm thy brethren.' And this is now
necessary. It is time for you, most loving father, to recognise your
chiefship, to approve your zeal, and so make your ministry honoured.
In that you clearly fulfil the part of Peter, whose seat you occupy,
if by your admonition you confirm hearts fluctuating in faith, if by
your authority you crush those who corrupt it."
III. All who have received the ministry of the word, and the charge
of defending the faith and preserving unity, and are "ambassadors in
Christ's name," have a claim to be listened to, but he above all who
holds the chiefship of faith, and who received the charge, "Confirm
thy brethren." He therefore must be the supreme standard of faith,
which is just what S. Peter Chrysologus, in the fifth century, wrote
to Eutyches: "We exhort you in all things, honourable brother, to
pay obedience to what is written by the most blessed Pope of the
Roman city; for S. Peter, who both lives and rules in his own see,
grants to those who ask for it the truth of faith."[52]
IV. And in this prerogative of Peter, to be heard above all others,
we find the meaning of certain ancient expressions. Thus
[53]Prudentius calls him, "the first disciple of God;" [54]S.
Augustine, "the figure of the Church;" [55]S. Chrysostome, "the
mouthpiece of the disciples, and teacher of the world;" [56]S.
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 chiefship 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
God," "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] Passaglia, p. 68.
[2] Eph. i. 10.
[3] 2 Pet. i. 14.
[4] Passaglia, p. 69.
[5] 1 John v. 6, 7.
[6] Luke ix. 32.
[7] Matt. xxviii. 36.
[8] Mark v. 35.
[9] Passaglia, 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] Passaglia, p. 77, note 38.
[15] Luke xviii. 34.
[16] Passaglia, p. 78.
[17] Matt. xviii. 2.
[18] Luke xxii. 25.
[19] Passaglia, p. 77.
[20] Matt, xx. 20.
[21] Hegoumenos.
[22] John xiii. 13.
[23] Passaglia, p. 82.
[24] Matt. xxiii. 8.
[25] John chps. x., xiii., xvii.
[26] Dialog. cont. Lucif. n. 9.
[27] St. Cyprian, Ep. 46.
[28] Passaglia, p. 89.
[29] Exetesato. The word in classic 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] Passaglia, 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 Passaglia, b. 2, ch. 13.
[42] Mansi. Concilia, x. 894.
[43] Baronius, Annal. A.D., 817, xxi.
[44] Passaglia, p. 545.
[45] Passaglia, p. 547.
[46] Passaglia, p. 571.
[47] For which see hereafter, ch. 7.
[48] Eph. iv. 11.
[49] Petrus uti audivit, vos autem quid me dicitis? _Statim loci non
immemor sui, primatum egit_; primatum confessionis utique, non
honoris; primatum fidei, non ordinis. Ambros. de Incarn. c. 4, n.
32, Tom. 2, p. 710.
[50] Ep. 190, vol. 1, p. 649.
[51] Observe the exact identity with S. Cyprian's expression nine
hundred years earlier, quoted p. 55.
[52] Twenty-fifth letter among those of St. Leo.
[53] Con. Symmachum, Lib. 2, v. 1.
[54] Sermon 76.
[55] Hom. 88, on John.
[56] Encom. in Petrum et coeteros Apostolos.
[57] Cat. xi. n. 3. ho protosthates ton Apostholon kai tes
ekkleshias koryphaios kheryx.
[58] Mark xvi. 16; John iii. 18; Rom. iii. 3, &c.
[59] Ambros. in Ps. 1. n. 30.
[60] Mansi, Tom. viii. 746.
[61] De unitate Ecclesiae, 3.
CHAPTER III.
THE INVESTITURE OF PETER.
Our Lord has hitherto, while on earth,[1] ruled as its visible head
that body of disciples which He had chosen out of the world, and
which His Father had given Him. And this body He for the first time
called the Church in that famous prophecy[2] wherein He named the
person, who, by virtue of an intimate association with Himself, the
Rock, should be its foundation, and the duration of which until the
consummation of the world, He pronounced at the same time, in spite
of all the rage of "spiritual wickedness in high places" against it,
because it should be founded upon the rock which He should lay.
Secondly, He had, at that period of His ministry when He thought it
meet, the second year, selected out of the rest of His disciples,
after ascending into a mountain and continuing the night long in
prayer, twelve whom He named Apostles--as before and above all sent
by Him--for "He called whom He would Himself, and they came to Him,"
to whom "He gave authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
and to heal every disease and every weakness," whom He chose also
"to be with Him," His personal attendants, "and to send them to
preach;" to whom, moreover, He subsequently made a promise that
whatever they should bind on earth, should be bound in heaven, and
whatever they should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven.[3]
Thirdly, as at a certain time in His ministry, that is the second
year, He had selected twelve to be nearer His person than the rest
of His disciples, so at a yet later time, the third year of His
ministry, He had set apart one out of the twelve, to whom from the
very first, and before either he, or any one, had been called to be
an Apostle, or even, as it would seem, a disciple, He had given a
prophetic name; whom by word and deed, in correspondence with that
name, He designated to be the future Rock of His Church, to be the
Bearer of the keys, which opened or shut the entrance to His
mystical Holy City, to be endued with power _singly_ to bind and to
loose; and whom at last, on the very eve of His being taken away
from His disciples, He pointed out as the future "First one,"
"Greater one," or "Ruler," among them, having, as such, had given to
him a _special_ and _singular_ charge, after the departure of the
Head, to "confirm his brethren."
It is manifest that this was all which, before His offering Himself
up for the sin of the world, and the withdrawal of His visible
presence thereupon ensuing, He could do for the government of His
Church. For as long as He was there, the Son of Man among men, seen,
felt, touched, and handled, the sacred voice in their ears, and the
divine eyes gazing bodily upon them, He was not only the fountain of
all headship and rule, but He exercised in His own person the
highest functions of that headship and visible rule. He daily
encouraged, warned, corrected, taught, united them; in short, to use
His own words, "while He was with them, He kept them in His Father's
name."[4]
But now another time, and other dangers were approaching. The sword
was drawn which should "strike the shepherd," there was a fear that
"the sheep would be scattered," not only for a moment, but for ever.
To meet this the care of the divine guardian was necessary in a
further disposition of those powers which He received at His
resurrection from the dead. For henceforth His visits, as of a risen
King, were to be few and sudden, when He pleased, and at times they
expected not, "for forty days appearing to them and speaking of the
kingdom of God," and as soon as His final injunctions had been thus
royally given, "the heavens were to receive Him till the time of the
restoration of all things." The Apostles could no longer "be with
Him," as before, nor He "keep them," as in the days of His flesh.
How, then, does He complete the ministerial hierarchy which sprung
from His own divine Person on earth, and which is to rule His Church
and represent that Person from His first to His second coming?
Now, first, we must remark, that while great care is taken to make
known to all the Apostles the resurrection of the Lord, yet a
special solicitude is shown with regard to that one who was to be
"the Ruler." Thus the angels, announcing the fact to the holy women
at the sepulchre, "He is risen, He is not here, behold the place
where they laid Him," add, "but go, tell His disciples _and Peter_,
that He goeth before you into Galilee."[5] The expression indicates
his superior place, as when Peter, himself delivered from prison,
recounted to the disciples at the house of Mark his escape, and
added, "Tell these things to James and to the brethren," where no
one fails to see the pre-eminence given to James, by such a mention
of him, that apostle being the Bishop of Jerusalem, and so put over
the brethren, and, with himself, one of those who "seemed to be
pillars." Again, to Peter our Lord appeared first among the
Apostles. S. Paul exhibiting a sort of sum of Christian doctrine, as
he says "the Gospel which I preached unto you," begins, "I
delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that
He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to
the Scriptures; and that He was seen by Cephas, and after that by
the eleven." By him alone, first, then by them in conjunction with
him. And further, St. Paul's words seem to express a sort of
descending ratio, "Then was He seen by more than five hundred
brethren at once, of whom many remain until this present, and some
are fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the
Apostles. And last of all He was seen also by me, as by one born out
of due time. For I am the least of the Apostles."[6] And while they
were yet in doubt, and for joy could not receive the marvellous
tidings, when brought by the women, as soon as our Lord appeared to
Peter, their hesitation was removed, and the two disciples returning
from Emmaus--themselves full of His wonderful conversation with
them--"found the eleven gathered together and those that were with
them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon,"
as the Church in her exultation repeats, where philologists tell us
that the Greek _and_ bears what is often the Hebrew meaning, and
signifies "for," as if no doubt could remain any longer of their
happiness, when Peter had become a witness of it.
These are indications of superiority, slight perhaps in themselves,
if they stood alone, but not slight as bearing tacit witness to a
fact otherwise resting on its own explicit evidence. If one of the
Apostles was destined to be the head of the rest, this is what we
should have expected to happen to that one, and this did happen to
Peter, who is elsewhere made the head of the Apostles.
But now we come to those most important injunctions which our Lord
gave to His Apostles after His resurrection, concerning the
government of His Church. And here it becomes necessary to mark with
the utmost accuracy what He said and what He gave to all the
Apostles in common, and what to Peter in particular.
First of all, then, we may remark our Lord's care to redeem the
promises which He had made to the Twelve, and to convey to them
their legislative, judicial, and executive powers. These are
mentioned by each of the four Evangelists, in somewhat different
terms, but alike involving the distinctive apostolic powers of
immediate institution by Christ, and universal mission; as Apostles
they are _sent_, and they are sent _by Christ_. The form recorded in
S. Matthew is, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye, therefore, and make disciples all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;
and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the
world."
The form of S. Mark is, "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the
gospel to every creature."
S. Luke refers specially in two passages to the descent of the Holy
Ghost, as being Himself as well the Divine "Gift," and the immediate
worker of all graces in man, as the principle of the ecclesiastical
hierarchy. "And I send the promise of My Father upon you, but stay
you in the city till you be endued with power from on high." And
again, "Eating together with them, He commanded them that they
should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of
the Father, which you have heard," saith He, "by My mouth; for John,
indeed, baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy
Ghost not many days hence." "You shall receive the power of the Holy
Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost
part of the earth."
The form recorded by S. John is, "As the Father hath sent Me, I also
send you. When He had said this, He breathed on them; and He said to
them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they
are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained."[7]
Now, it may be remarked that these passages of the several
evangelists are _identical_ in their force; that is, they each
convey all those powers which constitute the Apostolate. These are
received by all the Apostles in common, and together; and in the
joint possession of them consists that _equality_ which is often
attributed by the ancient writers to the Apostles, as notably by S.
Cyprian, "He gives to all the Apostles an equal power, and says, 'as
the Father sent Me, I also send you.'" And again, "Certainly the
other Apostles also were what Peter was, endued with an equal
fellowship, both of honour and power."[8]
And these Apostolic powers, legislative, judicial, and executive,
are afterwards referred to as exercised; as in Acts ch. xv., where
the first council passes decrees which bind the Church, nay, which
go forth in the joint name of the Holy Ghost, and the rulers of the
Church, "It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us;"--which
are delivered by S. Paul to the cities to be kept: Acts xvi. 4--as
in Acts xx. 28, where bishops are charged to rule the Church, each
over his flock, wherein the Holy Ghost has placed him--as in 1 Cor.
v. 1-5, where S. Paul, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
excommunicates--as in 2 Cor. x. 6, where he sets forth his
apostolic power--as in the Epistles to Titus and Timothy, where he
sets them in authority, enjoins them to ordain priests in every
city, and commands them to "reprove," or "rebuke."
And all these powers S. Peter, of course, as one of the Twelve, had
received in common with the rest. The limit to them would seem to
lie in their being shared in common by twelve; as, for instance,
universal mission dwelling in such a body must practically be
determined and limited somehow to the different members of that
body, or one would interfere with the other. But there is nothing in
these powers which answers to the images of "the rock," on which the
Church is built, the single "bearer of the keys," and "confirmer" of
his brethren, which Christ had appropriated to one Apostle.
In like manner, then, as our Lord fulfilled His promises to the
Twelve, so did He those to S. Peter, and we find written the
committal of an authority to him exactly answering to these images;
an authority, which expresses the full legislative, judicial and
executive power of the head, which can be executed by one alone at a
time, and is of its own nature supreme, and responsible to none save
God. It remained for our Lord to find an image setting forth all
this as decisively as that of the Rock, the Bearer of the keys, and
the Confirmer of his brethren.
Once, as He passed along the shores of the lake of Galilee, He had
seen two fishermen casting their net into the sea, and had "said to
them, Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men, and
immediately leaving their nets, they followed Him." Once again, too,
He had gone into the ship of that same fisherman, and sitting,
taught the multitudes out of it. And then He bade that fisherman,
"who had laboured all the night and taken nothing, to launch out
into the deep," and in faith, "let down his nets for a draught,"
whereupon "he enclosed so great a multitude of fishes that the net
brake."[9] And, again, in after times, when the fisherman had become
an Apostle, that same ship waited on His convenience, and carried
Him across the lake. It was there He was asleep when the storm
raged, and His disciples in little faith awoke Him, saying, "Master,
save us, we perish," not yet knowing that the ship which carried the
Lord might be tost, but could not sink.[10] From it they beheld Him
walking on the sea, in the fourth watch of the night, when Peter, in
his fervour, desired to join Him, and going to meet his Lord on the
waves, his faith failed him, and he began to sink, till the Almighty
hand supported him, and drew him with it to the ship, which
"presently was at the land to which they were going."[11] And now,
Peter, and Thomas, and Nathaniel, and the sons of Zebedy, and two
others, were once more on that same ship and sea, but no longer with
Him who had commanded the winds, and walked on the waves. Once more,
too, they[12] toiled all the night, but "caught nothing:" when, lo,
in the morning light, Jesus stood on the shore, but yet unknown to
them, and bade them cast the net on the right side of the ship, "and
now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes." Thus
He revealed Himself to them, and invited them to eat with Him of the
fishes which they had caught. "Then Simon Peter went up, and drew
the net to land, full of great fishes, one hundred fifty-three. And
although there were so many, the net was not broken:" for, indeed,
that draught of great fishes, gathered by Peter at Christ's command,
betokened God's elect, whom the Church is to gather out of the sea
of this world, who cannot break from the net, which net, therefore,
Peter drew to land, even the everlasting shore whereon Christ
welcomes His own. And after that marvellous banquet of the disciples
with their Lord, betokening the never ending marriage feast, wherein
"the roasted fish is Christ in His passion,"[13] our Lord proceeds
to crown all that series of distinctions, wherewith, since imposing
the prophetic name, He had marked out Simon, the son of Jonas, to be
the Leader of His disciples; and thus He fulfils by the side of the
lake of Galilee what He foreshadowed when He first looked upon
Peter, what He promised in the quarters of Cesarea Philippi, and
what He repeated on the eve of His passion.
It was His will to appoint one to take His place on earth. Now He
had assumed to Himself specially a particular title, under which of
old time His prophets had foretold His advent among men, and which
above all others expressed His tender love for fallen man. It had
been said of Him, "I will set up one shepherd over them, and He
shall feed them, even my servant David: He shall feed them, and He
shall be their shepherd." And again: "Say to the cities of Judah,
behold your God.--He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall
gather together the lambs with His arm, and shall take them up in
His bosom, and He Himself shall carry them that are with young."
And, once more, in the very prophecy by which the chief priests and
scribes declared to Herod that He must be born at Bethlehem, "For
from thee shall go forth the ruler, who shall feed (or shepherd) My
people Israel." Appropriating these predictions to Himself, the Lord
had said: "I am the good shepherd.[14] The good shepherd giveth His
life for His sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this
fold; them also I must bring; and there shall be one fold and one
shepherd." And now it was His pleasure to give this particular
title, so specially His own, to Peter, and to Peter alone, and to
Peter in most marked contrast even with the best beloved of His
other disciples, and to Peter, thrice repeating the charge, and
varying the expression of it so as to include the term in its utmost
force. "When, therefore, they had dined, Jesus said to Simon Peter,
Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith to Him,
Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, Feed My
lambs. He saith to him again, Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me? He
saith to Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to
him, Feed My lambs. He saith to him the third time, Simon, son of
John, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He had said to him
the third time, lovest thou Me? And he said to Him, Lord, Thou
knowest all things: Thou knowest that I love Thee. He said to him,
Feed My sheep."
Our Lord had before addressed the seven disciples present in common,
"Children, have you any meat?" "Cast the net, and you shall find."
"Bring hither of the fishes which you have now caught." "Come and
dine." But now, turning to one in particular, He singles him out in
the most special manner, by his name, by asking of him a love
greater than that of any others towards Himself, by conferring on
him a charge, which, as we shall see, from its extension excludes
its being held in joint possession by any other, and by a prophecy
concerning the manner of his death, which is wholly particular to
Peter. If it is possible by any words to convey a power and a charge
to a particular person, and to exclude the rest of the company from
that special power and charge, it is done here.
But, secondly, it is a charge of a very high and distinguishing
nature indeed, for our Lord before conferring it demands of Peter,
as a condition, greater love towards His own person than that felt
for Him by any of the Twelve--even by the sons of Zebedy, whom from
their zeal He surnamed Boanerges, sons of thunder--even by the
disciple whom He loved, and who lay on His breast at the last
supper. What must that charge be, the preliminary condition for
which is a greater love for Jesus than that of the beloved disciple?
What shall be a fitting sequel to "Simon, son of John, lovest thou
me _more_ than these?" What, again, the importance of that office,
in bestowing which our Lord thrice repeats the condition, and thrice
inculcates the charge? The words of God are not spoken at random,
nor His repetitions without effect. What, again, are the _subjects_
of the charge? They are "My lambs," and "My sheep," that is, the
fold itself of the Great Shepherd. As He said, "If I wash thee not,
thou shalt have no part with Me," so those who are not either His
lambs or His sheep, form no part of His fold. Others, too, in Holy
Writ, are addressed as shepherds, but with a limitation, as, "Take
heed to the whole flock _wherein_ the Holy Ghost hath placed you
bishops," or "feed the flock of God _which is among you_." And, more
largely far it was said, "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples all
nations;" and "Go ye into the whole world and preach the Gospel to
every creature."[15] But they to whom this was said were yet
themselves sheep of the Great Shepherd, and in committing the world
to them, He did not commit _them_ to each other. Whereas here, they
too, as His sheep, are committed to one, even Peter; and very
expressly, in the persons of James and John, and the rest present,
"lovest thou Me more than these?" A particular flock is never
termed absolutely and simply "the flock," or "the flock of God," but
"the flock _which is among you_," "_in which the Holy Ghost hath
made you bishops_." And, again, the Apostles are sent in common to
the whole world, to preach to all nations, and to form one flock;
but they are twelve, and "power given to several carries its
restriction in its division, whilst power given to one alone and
over all, and without exception, carries with it plenitude, and, not
having to be divided with any other, it has no bounds save those
which its terms convey."[16] What are the terms here? "Feed," and
"be shepherd over" or "rule" "My lambs and My sheep." The terms have
no limit, save that of salvation itself. Such, then, are the
_persons_ indicated as subjects of this charge. But what is the
nature of the charge? Two different words of unequal extent and
force in the original, but both rendered "feed" in the translation,
convey this. One means "to give food" simply, the other, of far
higher and nobler reach, embraces every act of care and providence
in the government of others, under an image the farthest removed
from the spirit of pride and ambition. Such is even its heathen
meaning, and the first of poets termed Agamemnon by this word,
"Shepherd of the people." By this word, S. Paul, and S. Peter[17]
himself, express the power of the bishop over his own flock. And so
our Lord, here instituting the Bishop of Bishops, the one Shepherd
of the one fold, gives to Peter over all his flock, the very word
given to _Him_ in the famous prophecy, "Thou, Bethlehem, the land of
Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee
shall come forth the captain that shall _rule_ My people Israel:"
the very word, which used of Himself in Psalm ii. to express all His
power and dominion, in His revelation to S. John, is spoken of His
own triumphant career, as the Word of God going forth to battle, "He
shall _rule_ them with a rod of iron;" and, again, in the same book
is applied by Himself to set forth the honour which He will give "to
him that shall overcome and keep My works unto the end."[18] Thus,
just as in the _persons_ pointed out, the _subject_ of this charge
is _universal_, so in the _terms_ by which it is expressed, the
_nature_ of the power is _supreme_. What the bishop is to his own
flock, Peter is made to "the flock of God:" and this at once, in the
most simple, as well as in the most absolute and emphatic manner, by
institution from the chief Shepherd Himself, at the close of His
ministry, and by associating Peter singly with Himself in His most
distinctive title. If the fold of Christ is equivalent to "the
Church of Christ," and "the kingdom of heaven," so to feed and to
rule the lambs and the sheep of that fold is equivalent to being
"the Rock" of that Church, and "the Bearer of the keys," as well as
_the First, the Greater one, and the Ruler_ in that kingdom of
heaven.
Again, looking at the circumstances under which this charge is
received by Peter, it either conveys that special and singular
honour and power which we have here set forth, or _none at all_. For
Peter had _already_ received the full Apostolic authority: he had
heard together with the rest of the Apostles those words of power,
"As My Father sent Me, I also send you," and the charge following,
to bind and to loose. It could not therefore be this power which was
given him, for he had it already. All which James and John, the sons
of thunder, ever had given them, he also had before these words were
uttered. Besides a power which was to be shared by James and John,
and the rest of the Apostles, could not be given in terms which
distinguished him from them, "lovest thou Me _more than these_?" It
could not be the mere forgiveness of his denial, for not only did
the Apostolate, since conferred, carry that, but when our Lord
appeared to him first of all the Apostles after His resurrection, it
was a token of such forgiveness. There remained nothing else to give
him, but presidency over the Apostles themselves, the reward of
superior love, as was prophesied and promised to him in reward for
superior faith. For these two oracles of our Lord exactly correspond
to each other as promise and performance. Their conditions and their
terms shed a reciprocal light on each other. In the one there is the
great confession, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God;"
in the other as singular a declaration, "Lovest thou Me more than
these? Yea, Lord." In the one there follows the reward, "And I say
to thee, that thou art Peter," &c.: and in the other a like reward,
"Feed My lambs, be shepherd over My sheep." The one is future, "I
will build, I will give, thou shalt bind, thou shall loose:" the
other present, "Feed and be shepherd." What concerns "the Church and
the kingdom of heaven" in the one, concerns "the fold" in the other.
And the promise and performance are singularly restricted to
Peter--"I say unto thee, Thou art Peter"--"Simon, son of John,
lovest thou Me more than these?"
As then Peter received the promise of the supreme episcopate _before
all_ and _by himself_, under the terms that he should be the Rock,
by being built on which the Church should never fall, that he should
be the Bearer of the keys in the kingdom of heaven, and that
_singly_ he should bind and loose in heaven and in earth; so _after_
his own Apostolate, and that of the rest had been completed, _by
himself_, and as the crown of the divine work, he received the
fulfilment of that supreme episcopate, under the terms, "Feed My
lambs, be shepherd over My sheep." And as a part out of that
magnificent promise made to him _singly_, was afterwards taken and
made to the Apostles _jointly_ with him, for so "it was the design
of Jesus Christ to put first in one alone what afterwards He meant
to put in several; but the sequel does not reverse the beginning,
nor the first lose his place. That first word, 'Whatsoever thou
shalt bind,' said to one alone, has already ranged under his power
each one of those to whom shall be said, 'Whatsoever ye shall
remit;' for the promises of Jesus Christ, as well as His gifts, are
without repentance; and what is once given indefinitely and
universally is irrevocable:"[19] so when Peter and the rest already
possessed the whole Apostolate, the commission to go and preach to
the whole world, and to make disciples of all nations, a power was
added to Peter to make up what was promised to him originally; the
Apostles themselves, with the whole fold, were put under his charge;
he represented the person of the Great Shepherd: and the divine work
was complete.
Thus the powers of the Apostolate and the Primacy are not
antagonistic, but fit into, and harmonise with each other. In the
college of the Twelve, as before inaugurated, and sent forth into
the whole world, something had been wanting, save that, "by the
appointment of a head, the occasion of schism was taken away:"[20]
and Satan would have shaken the whole fabric, but that there was one
divinely set to "confirm the brethren." He who "kept them" once,
when "with them," by His personal presence, now kept them for
evermore by the word of His power, issued on the shore of the lake
of Galilee, but resounding through every age, clear and decisive,
amid the fall of empires, and the change of races, and heard by all
His flock to the utmost of the isles of the sea, till the day of the
Son of Man comes,--"Simon, son of John, lovest thou Me more than
these? Feed My lambs: Feed My sheep."
And that the universal and supreme authority over the Church of
Christ, was in these words committed to Peter by the Lord, is the
belief of antiquity. Thus, S. Ambrose, in the west: "It is not
doubtful that Peter believed, and believed because he loved, and
loved because he believed. Whence, too, he is grieved at being asked
a third time, Lovest thou Me? For we ask those of whom we doubt. But
the Lord does not doubt, but asks not to learn, but to teach him
whom, on the point of ascending into heaven, He was leaving, _as it
were, the successor and representative of His love_.[21] It is
because he alone out of all makes a profession, that _he is
preferred to all_. Lastly, for the third time, the Lord asks him, no
longer, _hast_ thou _a regard_ (diligis me) for Me, but _lovest_
(amas) thou Me: and now he is ordered to feed, not the lambs, as at
first, who need a milk diet, nor the little sheep, as secondly, but
the more perfect sheep, _in order that he who was the more perfect
might have the government_."[22] In the East, S. Chrysostome, "Why,
then, passing by the rest, does He converse with him on these
things? _He was the chosen of the Apostles, and the mouthpiece of
the disciples, and the head of the band._ Therefore, also Paul once
went up to see him rather than the rest. It was, besides, to shew
him, that for the future he must be bold, as his denial was done
away with, that _He puts into his hands the presidency over the
brethren._ And He does not mention the denial, nor reproach him with
what had past; but He says, if thou lovest Me, _rule the brethren_,
and show now that warm affection which on all occasions thou didst
exhibit, and in which thou didst exult, and the life which thou
didst offer to lay down for Me, now spend for My sheep." Again,
"thrice He asks the question, and thrice lays on him the same
command, showing at how high a price He sets _the charge of His own
sheep_." Again, "he was put in charge with the direction of his
brethren." "He made him great promises _and put the world into his
hands_." Thus John and James, and the rest of the Apostles were
committed to Peter, but never Peter to them: and he adds, "But if
any one asks, How then did James receive the throne of Jerusalem? I
would reply that He elected Peter _not to be the teacher of this
throne, but of the whole world_." And in another place, "Why did He
shed His blood to purchase those sheep _which He committed to Peter
and his successors_? With reason then said Christ, 'who is the
faithful and prudent servant whom his Lord hath set over His own[23]
house?'" Theophylact repeated, seven hundred years later, the
perpetual tradition of the East. "He puts into Peter's hands the
headship over the sheep of the whole world, and to no other but to
him gives He this; first, because he was distinguished above all,
and the mouth-piece of the whole band; and secondly, showing to him
that he must be confident, as his denial was put out of account."
And if S. Leo, a Pope, declares that "though there be among the
people of God many priests and many shepherds, yet Peter rules all
by immediate commission, whom Christ also rules by Sovereign
power,"[24] the great Eastern, Saint Basil, assigned an adequate
reason for this near a century before, when he viewed all pastoral
authority in the Church as included in this grant to Peter,
declaring that the spiritual "ruler is none else but one who
represents the person of the Saviour, and offers up to God the
salvation of those who obey him, and this we learn from Christ
Himself _in that He appointed Peter to be the shepherd of His Church
after_[25] _Himself_."
But especially must we quote S. Cyprian, because to that equality of
the Apostles as such, before referred to by us, by considering which
without regard to the proportion of faith some have been led astray,
he adds the full recognition of the Primacy, and urges its extreme
importance. Thus quoting the promise and the fulfilment, "Thou art
Peter, &c." and "Feed My sheep," he goes on, "Upon him being one He
builds His Church; and _though_ He gives to all the Apostles an
equal power, and says, "As the Father sent Me, I also send you,
&c.," yet in order to manifest unity He has, by His own authority,
so placed the source of the same unity as to begin from one.
Certainly the other Apostles also were what Peter was, endued with
an equal fellowship both of honour and power, but a commencement is
made from unity, that the Church may be set before us as one."[26]
That is, the Apostles were equal as to the powers bestowed in John
xx. 23-5, but as to those given in Matt. xvi. 18-19, Luke xxii.
31-3, and John xxi. 15-18, "the Church was built upon Peter alone,"
and he was made the source and ever-living spring of ecclesiastical
unity.
Yet clearly as our Lord in this charge associates Peter with
Himself, puts him over his brethren, the other Apostles, and fulfils
to him all that He ever promised, as to making him "the first," "the
greater one" and "the ruler or leader," by that one title of "the
Shepherd," in which is summed up all authority over His Church, and
the very purpose of His own divine mission, "to seek and to save
that which was lost," still a touch of tenderness is added by the
Master's hand, which brings out all this more forcibly, and must
have told personally on Peter's feelings and those of his
fellow-disciples, as the highest and most solemn consecration to his
singular office. For when the Lord spoke that parable, "I am the
good shepherd," He added, as the token of the character, "the good
shepherd giveth His life for His sheep." And so now, appointing
Peter to take His place over the flock, He adds to him this token
also: "Amen, amen, I say to thee, when thou wast younger, thou didst
gird thyself, and didst walk where thou wouldst, but when thou shalt
be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird
thee, and lead thee whither thou wouldst not." "When thou wast
younger, thou didst gird thyself," alluding, perhaps, to that
impulse of affection with which, just before, as soon as Peter heard
from John that it was the Lord standing on the shore, "he girt his
coat about him and cast himself into the sea," for his love waited
not for the slowness of the boat. Thus He taught Peter that the
chiefship to which He was appointing him, that "care of all the
Churches," as it required a different spirit to fulfil it from that
which prevailed among "the kings of the nations," so it led to a
different end, the last crowning act of a lifelong self-sacrifice,
which began by being the servant of all, ran through a thousand acts
of humiliation and anxiety, and was to be completed in the martyrdom
of crucifixion. And so in his death, as well as in his charge of
visible head of the Church, he was to be made like his Lord, and
after the manner of the Good Shepherd, whom he succeeded, should lay
down his life for his sheep. For "this He said signifying by what
death he should glorify God. And when He had said this, He saith to
him, Follow Me." With far deeper meaning now than when those words
of power were first uttered to him beside that lake. Then it was,
"Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men." Now it is, "Follow
Me, and I will associate thee with My life and with My death, with
My charge and with its reward. This shall be the proof of thy
greater love, to be obedient even to death, and that the death of
the cross." Such was the anointing which the first Primate of the
Church received to the triple crown. "Follow thou Me." Like his
divine Master, he was during the whole of his ministry to have the
cross set before his eyes, and laid upon his heart, as the certain
end of his course. And thus Peter "received power and sacerdotal
authority over all, from the very God for our sakes incarnate:"[27]
thus he followed in the steps of the Good Shepherd, as he succeeded
to His office. And, therefore, having accomplished his mission and
triumphed on the Roman hill, from Rome he speaks through the undying
line of his spiritual heirs, and feeds the flock of Christ.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Passaglia, p. 93.
[2] Matt. xvi. 16.
[3] Matt. x. 1; Mark iii. 13-15; Luke vi. 12-13; Matt. xviii, 18.
[4] John xvii. 12.
[5] Mark xvi. 6.
[6] 1 Cor. xv. 1-9.
[7] Matt. xxviii. 18; Mark xvi. 15; Luke xxiv. 49; Acts i. 4-8;
John. xx. 21.
[8] De unitate ecclesiae, 3.
[9] Mark i. 16; Luke v. 3.
[10] Mark iv. 38; Luke viii. 24.
[11] John vi. 21.
[12] John xxi. 1-14.
[13] St. Augustine's 122nd discourse on St. John, who has thus set
forth this chapter: "Piscis assus Christus est passus."
[14] Ezech. xxiv. 33; Isai. xl. 9-11; Mich. v. 2; Matt. ii. 6; John
x. 11, 14, 16.
[15] Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. v. 10; Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15.
[16] Bossuet, sermon on unity.
[17] Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. v. 10; Ps. ii. 9; Apoc. xix. 15; ii. 27.
[18] Poimahinein used in the text of John, and in all
these.
[19] Bossuet, sermon on unity.
[20] St. Jerome.
[21] Amoris sui veluti vicarium.
[22] In Lucam, Lib. 10, n. 175.
[23] St. Chrys. in Joan. Hom. 88, p. 525-7; and De Sacerdot. Lib. 2,
Tom. 1. p. 372.
[24] St. Leo. Serm. 4.
[25] St. Basil, Constit. Monas. xxii. Tom. 2, p. 573.
[26] St. Cyprian, de unit. 3.
[27] Stephen of Dora, in the Lateran Synod, A.D., 649. Mansi, x.
893.
CHAPTER IV.
THE CORRESPONDENCE AND EQUIVALENCE OF THE GREAT TEXTS CONCERNING
PETER.
Before we compare together more exactly what was said to the
Apostles in common, and what to Peter in particular, it is desirable
to consider briefly two other points, which will complete the
evidence furnished by the Gospels.
1. If, then, the[1] question to be decided by documents is, whether
several persons are to be accounted equal in rank, honour, and
authority, or whether one of them is superior to the rest, it will
be an unexceptionable rule to observe whether they are spoken of in
the same manner. For words are signs of ideas, and set forth as in a
mirror the mind's conceptions. A similarity of language, therefore,
will indicate a similarity of rank; a distinction of language,
especially if it be repeated and constant, will show a like
distinction of rank. Let us apply this rule to the mode in which the
Evangelists speak of Peter and of the other Apostles.
Now to express one of rank and his attendants, the Evangelists often
use the phrase, a person _and those with him_. Thus, Luke vi. 4,
"David and _those that were with him_;" and Matt. xii. 3 with Mark
ii. 25, "Have ye not read what David did, when himself was a
hungered and _those that were with him_?" Of our Lord and the
Apostles it is said, Mark iii. 11, "And He made twelve, _that they
should be with Him_:" and xvi. 10, "She went and told _them that
had been with Him_." And Acts iv. 13, the chief priests "knew them,"
Peter and John, "that _they had been with Jesus_." And Matthew xxvi.
69, Peter is reproached, "Thou also _wast with Jesus_." Now just so
the Evangelists speak of Peter. Our Lord having on one occasion left
the Apostles for solitary prayer, S. Mark writes, i. 36, "And Simon
_and they that were with him_ followed after Him." Again, the woman
with the issue of blood having touched the Lord, when He asked, 'Who
is it that touched Me?' S. Luke says, viii. 45, "all denying, Peter
_and they that were with him_ said," &c. And on the occasion of the
Transfiguration, "Peter and _they that were with him_," being James
and John. Just as after the resurrection Luke writes, Acts ii. 14,
"Peter standing up with the eleven;" verse 37, "They said to Peter
and to the rest of the Apostles;" v. 29, "Peter and the Apostles
answering said." And the angels to the holy women, Mark xvi. 7, "Go
tell His disciples and Peter."
It is then to be remarked that Peter is the _only_ Apostle who is
put in this relation to the rest. _Never_ is it said "James," or
"John and the rest of the Apostles," or, "and those with him." Peter
is named, and the rest are added in a mass, and this happens in his
case continually, never in the case of any other Apostle.
No adequate cause can be alleged for this but the Primacy and
superior rank of Peter, which was ever in the mind of the
Evangelists, and is sometimes indicated by the prophetic name; for
as often as Simon is called Peter, he is marked as the foundation of
the Church, according to the Lord's prophecy. And long before
contentions about the prerogatives of Peter arose, the ancient
Fathers attributed it to his Primacy, that he was thus named
expressly and first, the others in a mass, or in the second place.
According, then, to the rule above-mentioned, Peter, by the mode in
which the Evangelists speak of him, is distinguished from the other
Apostles, and his position with regard to the rest is described in
the very same phrase which is used to express the superiority of
David over his men, and even of our Lord over the Twelve. And for
this there seems no adequate cause, but that special association of
Peter with Himself indicated in the name, and the promises
accompanying it in Matt. xvi.
2. Again, four[2] catalogues of the Apostles exist,[3] and in each
of these Peter is placed first. And in the three which occur in the
Gospels, (that of Luke in the Acts being a more brief repetition of
his former one,) the prophetic name Peter is indicated as the reason
for his being thus placed first. So Mark. "And to Simon He gave the
name Peter. And James the son of Zebedy, and John the brother of
James; and He named them Boanerges, which is, the sons of thunder:"
for which reason, that the Lord had given them a name, though it was
held in common, and not, like that of Peter, expressive of official
rank, but personal qualities, Mark seems to set these two before
Andrew, whom both in Matthew and in Luke they follow. Again, Luke
says, "He chose twelve of them, whom also He named Apostles, Simon
whom He surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother," &c. "_The first_ of
all, and the chief of them, he that was illiterate and uneducated,"
says S. Chrysostome;[4] and Origen long before him, observing that
Peter was always named first in the number of the twelve, asks, What
should be thought the cause of this order? He replies, it was
constantly observed because Peter was "more honoured than the
rest," thus intimating that he no less excelled the rest on account
of the gifts which he had received from heaven, than "Judas through
his wretched disposition was truly the last of all, and worthy to be
put at the end."[5] But much more marked is Matthew in signifying
the superior dignity of Peter, not only naming him at the head in
his catalogue, but calling him simply and absolutely "the first."
"And the names of the twelve Apostles are these, The first, Simon,
who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James," &c. Now that
_second_ and _third_ do not follow, shows that "first" is not a
numeral here, but designates rank and pre-eminence. Thus in heathen
authors this word "first" by itself indicates the most excellent in
its kind: thus in the Septuagint occur, "first friend of the king,"
"first of the singers," "the first priest,"[6] i.e. the chief
priest. So our Lord, "whichever among you will be first;" "Bring
forth the first robe;" and S. Paul, "sinners, of whom I am
first,"[7] i.e. chief. Thus "the first of the island," Acts, xxviii.
7, means the chief magistrate; and "first" generally in Latin
phraseology, the superior, or prince.
Such, then, is the rank which Matthew gives to Peter, when he
writes, "the first, Simon, who is called Peter."
It should also be remarked that, whenever the Evangelists have
occasion to mention _some_ of the Apostles, Peter being one, he is
ever put first. Thus Matt., "He taketh unto Him Peter, and James,
and John his brother;" and Mark, "He admitted not any man to follow
Him, but Peter, and James, and John, the brother of James:" and
"Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew asked Him apart:" and "He
taketh Peter, and James, and John with Him:" and Luke, "He suffered
not any man to go in with him, but Peter, and James, and John, and
the father and mother of the maiden:" and "He sent Peter and John:"
and John, "There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, who is
called Didymus, and Nathaniel, who was of Cana in Galilee, and the
two sons of Zebedy, and two others of His disciples."[8] This rule
would seem to be invariable, though James and John are not always
mentioned next after him.
An attempt has been made to evade the force of these testimonies, by
giving as a reason for Peter being always thus named first, that he
was the most aged of all the Apostles, and the first called. Even
were it so, such reasons would seem most inadequate, but
unfortunately they are neither of them facts. For as to age,
antiquity bears witness that Andrew was Peter's elder brother. And
as to their calling, S. Augustine has observed, "In what order all
the twelve Apostles were called, does not appear in the narrations
of the Evangelists, since not only not the order of the calling, but
not even the calling itself of all is mentioned, but only of Philip,
and Peter, and Andrew, and of the sons of Zebedy, and of Matthew,
the publican, termed also Levi. But Peter was both the first and the
only one who separately received a name from Him."[9] As it may be
conjectured from the Gospels that Christ said to Philip first of
all, "Follow Me," Joh. i. 44, he has the best right to be considered
the first called.
Now the two classes of facts just mentioned, as to the mode in which
the Evangelists speak of Peter in combination with the other
Apostles, prove directly and plainly his _Primacy_, while they do
not _directly_ prove, save Matthew's title of _First_, nor are they
here quoted to prove, the _nature_ of that Primacy, which rests, as
we have seen, on other and more decisive texts.
At length, then, we have before us the whole evidence of the
Gospels, and having considered it piece by piece, may now take a
general view. It is time to gather up the several parts of this
evidence, and, claiming for each its due force, to present the sum
of all before the mind. For distinct and decisive as certain texts
appear, and are, even by themselves, yet when they are seen to fit
into a whole system, and perfectly to harmonise together, they have
much greater power to convince the mind, which really seeks for
truth. But moral evidences generally, and especially that which
results from a study of the Holy Scripture, is not intended to move
a mind in a lower condition than this; a mind, that is, which loves
something else better than the truth.
Thus, out of the body of His disciples, we see our Lord choosing
Twelve, and again, out of those Twelve, distinguishing One by the
most singular favours. This distinction even begins _before_ the
selection of the Twelve, and has its root in the very commencement
of our Lord's ministry: for, as we have seen, it was when Andrew
first led his brother Simon before Christ, that He "looked upon
him," and promised him the prophetic name which revealed his
Primacy, and his perpetual relation to the Church of God. The name
thus promised is in due time bestowed, and solemnly recorded by the
three Evangelists, at the appointment of the Apostles, as the reason
why he is invariably set at their head; Matthew, still more
distinctly expressing in it his primacy, "_the first_, Simon, who is
called Peter." And their whole mode of mentioning him, and
exhibiting his relation to the other apostles, shews that this
Primacy was, when they wrote, ever in their minds. It comes out in
the most incidental way, as when Mark writes, "Simon, and they that
were with him, followed after" Christ; or Luke, "Peter, and they
that were with him, said;" as naturally as they write, "David, and
those that were with him:" or of our Lord Himself, and the Apostles,
"those that had been with Him."[10] Again this preference of Peter
is shewn by our Lord, both at the Transfiguration and the Agony:
where, even when the two next favoured of the Apostles are
associated with Him as witnesses, yet there is evidence of Peter's
superiority in the mode with which the Evangelists mention him.
Great as the dignity was of the two sons of thunder, they are yet
ranged under Peter by Luke, with that same phrase which we have just
been considering. "Peter, and they that were with him were heavy
with sleep." And our Lord, at the agony, says to Peter, "could not
_you_," that is, all the three, "watch with Me one hour?"[11] Again,
how incidentally, yet markedly, does Matthew shew that this
superiority of Peter over others was apparent even to strangers,
when he writes, that the officers who collected the tribute for the
temple, came to _him_, and said, "does not _your_ master" (the
master of all the Apostles,) "pay the didrachma?"[12] Much more
significant is the incident immediately following, when our Lord
orders him to go to the sea, to cast a hook, and to bring up a fish,
which shall have a stater in his mouth, adding, "take that, and give
it to them for Me, and for thee:" a token of preference so strong,
and of association so singular, that it set the Apostles on the
immediate enquiry, who should be the greater among them: the answer
to which we will revert to presently.
And this designation of Peter to his high and singular office
becomes even more striking, if we contrast what our Lord did and
said to him with what He did and said to another Apostle, who _in
another way_ is even in some respects preferred to Peter himself.
For "the disciple whom Jesus loved," who lay on His breast at
supper, to whom was committed at the most sorrowful of all moments
the domestic care of the Virgin Mother, has in the affection of our
Lord his own unapproachable sphere. But as Peter does not come into
competition with him here, so neither in another view he with Peter.
His distinction is private, and in the nature of personal affection:
Peter's is public, and in the nature of Church government. To one is
committed the Mother of the Lord, the living symbol of the Church,
the most blessed of all creatures, and that, when her full dignity
and blessedness stood at length revealed in the full Godhead of her
Son, yet whose throne was intercessory, apart from rule on earth: to
the other is committed the Church herself, her championship in the
time of conflict, the rudder of the vessel on the lake, till with
Christ it should reach the shore. Each of these, so eminent and
unapproachable in his way, has that way apart; and when Peter, on
receiving his final commission, turned about and saw his best-loved
friend following, and ventured to ask, "Lord, and what shall this
man do?" our Lord replied with something like a reproof, "what is
that to thee? Follow thou Me." These distinct preferences of the two
Apostles were indicated by Tertullian, when he wrote, "Was anything
concealed from Peter, who was named the rock on which the Church
should be built, who received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and
the power to bind and loose in heaven and on earth? Was anything,
too, concealed from John, the most beloved of the Lord, who lay
upon His breast, to whom alone the Lord foresignified the traitor
Judas, whom He committed in His own place as Son to Mary?"[13]
But to return. Our Lord, after encompassing Peter during His whole
ministry with such tokens of preference, and a preference specially
belonging to his office, and designating it, appears to him first of
all the Apostles after His resurrection. And yet all the proofs
which we have been here summing up of Peter's pre-eminence, are but
collateral and subordinate: though by themselves ten-fold more than
any other can claim, yet Peter's authority does not rest _mainly_ on
them. And this likewise is true of another class of facts concerning
Peter, which yet carries with it much force, and when once remarked,
never leaves the thoughtful mind. It is his great predominance in
the sacred history over the rest of the Twelve. A single incident or
expression distinguishing him, is perhaps all that falls to the lot
of another Apostle, as when "Philip saith unto Him, Lord, show us
the Father and it sufficeth us;" and the Lord replies, "Have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip?" Or
as Thomas, at a moment of danger, "said to his fellow disciples, Let
us also go that we may die with Him."[14] But Peter's name is
wrought into the whole tissue of the Gospel history; he is
perpetually approaching the Lord with questions: "Lord, how oft
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven
times?" The rest suffer the Lord in silence to wash their feet, but
Peter is overcome at the sight. "Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Thou
shalt never wash my feet;" "Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head."[15] Thus in the whole New Testament, John, who
is yet mentioned oftener than the rest, occurs only thirty-eight
times; but in the Gospels alone, omitting the Acts and the Epistles,
Peter is mentioned twenty-three times by Matthew, eighteen by Mark,
twenty by Luke, and thirty by John.[16] More especially it is the
custom of the Evangelists, when they record anything which touches
all the Apostles, almost invariably to exhibit Peter as singly
speaking for all, and representing all. Thus when Christ asked them
all equally, "But whom say ye that I am? Simon Peter answered and
said." He told them all equally "That a rich man shall hardly enter
into the kingdom of heaven,"[17] whereupon "Peter answering said to
Him, Behold, we have left all things, and followed Thee: what
therefore shall we have?" And when "Jesus said to the twelve, Will
you also go away?"[18] at once we hear, "Simon Peter answered and
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life." And a very remarkable occasion occurs where our Lord had been
telling to His disciples the parable of the watchful servant, upon
which Peter said to Him, "Lord, dost Thou speak this parable to us,
or likewise to all?"[19] And the reply seems by anticipation to
express the very office which Peter was to hold. "Who, then, is the
faithful and wise steward, whom his lord setteth over his family, to
give them their measure of wheat in due season?" Now it looks not
like an equal, but a superior, to anticipate the rest, to represent
them, to speak and act for them. S. Chrysostome drew the conclusion
long ago. "What then says Peter, the mouth-piece of the Apostles?
Everywhere impetuous as he is, the leader of the band of the
Apostles, when a question is asked of all, he replies."[20] No
other cause can be assigned for the care of the Evangelists in
setting before us so continually his words and acts, in bringing him
out, as the second object, after Christ. But though his future place
in the Church is a reason for this, and this again, a token of that
singular pre-eminence, its decisive proof rests on declarations from
our Lord's own mouth, expressly circumscribed to him, of singular
lucidity, and of force which nothing can evade; declarations which
set forth, under different but coincident images, a power supreme
and without equal, and of its own nature belonging to but one at a
time. The proofs which we have hitherto mentioned take away all
abruptness from these declarations, and show that they embody a
great design which runs all through the Gospel; but the office
itself rests upon these, and by these is most clearly and absolutely
defined.
Thus, when our Lord, in answer to a great confession of His Apostle,
"Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," replies, "and I
too, say unto thee, Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build
My Church:" every one must feel how it adds to the cogency of the
reply, that the name, which He is explaining, was not the person's
natural name, but first promised, and then given, by that same Lord,
who now attaches other promises and prophecies to it. This fact
serves, among others, to fix the whole which follows to Peter
individually, and to introduce what follows, as part of a design,
which before had been intimated: for what follows no more belongs to
the other Apostles, than the name, Peter, belongs to them: and a
name, on the other hand, so promised, and so given, naturally looks,
as it were, to such a result. To say solemnly of a man, when first
seen, "Thou art called Simon, but thou shall be called The Rock,"
and to make nothing of him when so called, would be, if ascribed to
any one, a dull and pointless thing; but what shall we say, when the
speaker is God? It is a new thing for God the Word to speak with
little meaning, or to speak, and not to do: and so now He does what
He had long designed. And what is it that He does? He sets up a
governor who is never to be put down. He inaugurates a Church
against which Hell shall rage, but in vain: He establishes a
government at which the nations shall rage, the kings of the earth
set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, for ever, but
to their own confusion. He does what He alone could do, and so the
answer is worthy of the confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God."
"Blessed [21]art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas, for flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven. _And I, too,
say unto thee_, in return for what thou hast said to Me, and to
shew, like My Father, My good will towards thee, and what I say, as
the Almighty Word of the Father, by My power I fulfil, _that thou
art Peter_, the Rock, and so partaker with Me of that honour whereby
I am the chief Rock and Foundation; _and upon this Rock_, which I
have called thee, _I will build My Church_, which, therefore, with
Me for its architect, shall rest on thee, to thee adhere, and from
thee derive its conspicuous unity: _and the gates of hell_, even all
the powers of the enemy, _shall not prevail against it_, nor take
that, which, by My Godhead, is established upon thee, but rather
yield to it the victory. _And to thee_, whom, as Supreme Architect,
I have marked out for the Rock and Foundation of My Church, as King
and Lord _I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven_, and the
supreme authority over My Church, and will make thee sharer with Me
in that dignity, by which I hold the keys of heaven and of earth,
_and whatsoever_, in virtue of that authority and as associated in
My dignity, _thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound in heaven_,
and there shall be no matter relating to My Church, and the kingdom
of heaven, but shall be subject to thy legislative and judicial
power, which shall reach the heaven itself: for it is a power at
once human, and divine; human, as entrusted to a man, and
administered by a man; divine, as a participation of that right by
which I am, in heaven and on earth, Supreme Lawgiver and Judge; _and
whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed in heaven_."
Thus it is that the most famous Fathers and Bishops, the most
distinguished Councils, the most various nations, have understood
our Lord's words, and this is their meaning, according to the fixed
laws of grammar, of rhetoric, of philosophy, and of logic, as well
as by the testimony of history, and in accordance with the
principles of theology. Let us mention certain consequences which
follow from them.
These words[22] of Christ are, in the most marked manner, addressed
to Peter _only_ among the Apostles, and are, therefore, with their
meaning, _peculiar_ to him. And they designate pre-eminence in the
government of the Church. They have, therefore, the two qualities
which render them a suitable testimony to establish his Primacy
among the Apostles.
Now, if persons differ in rank and pre-eminence, they must be
considered not equals, but absolutely unequal. And such pre-eminence
Peter had, deriving from Christ, the Founder, a superior rank in the
Church's ministry. Therefore, the college of the Apostles must be
termed absolutely unequal, and all the Apostles, compared with
Peter, absolutely unequal.
But as inequality may be manifold, as of age, calling, honour,
order, jurisdiction and power, its nature and its degree must be
sought in that property which belongs to one ov
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