NO EXTRAORDINARY POWERS ASCRIBED TO ST PETER. 55 tioncommitted to St Peter, nor anyprivilege conferred onhimwhich was not also granted to the other apostles. Was St Peter an ambassador, a steward, a minister, a vicar, if you please, or surrogate of Christ? So were they byno less immediate and express warrant than he; for, " As the Father sent me, so also I send you," said our Lord presently before his departure; by those words, as St Cyprian remarks, " granting an equal power to all the apostles : "1 and, " We," says St Paul, 2 Cor. v. 20, " are ambas- sadors for Christ; we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God," and, " So let a man esteem us, as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God," 1 Cor. iv. 1; 2 Cor. vi. 4. Was St Peter a rock, on which the church was to be founded? Matt. xvi. 18. Be it so; but no less were they all : for the wall of Jerusalem (Rev. xxi. 10, 14), which " came down from heaven," had " twelve foundations, on which were inscribed the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb;" and, " We," says St Paul, Eph. ii. 20, "are all built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles, Christ himself being the chief corner-stone;" whence " equally," says St Jerome, "the strength of the church is settled upon them."' Was St Peter an architect ofthe " spiritual house," as himself calls the church, 1 Pet. ii. 5? So were also they; for, " I," says St Paul, " as a wise master builder, have laid the foundation," 1 Cor. iii. 10. Were the keys of the church (or of the kingdom of heaven) com- mitted to him? Matt. xvi. 19. So also were they unto them; theyhad a power to open and shut it by effectual instruction and persuasion, by dispensation of the sacraments, by exercise of discipline, by ex- clusion of scandalous and heretical persons. Whatever faculty the keys imported, the apostles used it in the foundation, guidance, and government of the church; and, as the fathers teach, imparted it to those whom they in their stead constituted to feed and govern the church. Had St Peter apower given him ofbinding and loosing effectually? So had they immediatelygranted by our Saviour, in as full manner, and couched in the same terms. " If thou shalt bind on earth, it shall be bound in heaven," said our Lord to him; and, " Whatsoever things ye shall bind on earth they shall be bound in heaven," said the same divine mouth to them,' Matt. xvi. 19, xviii. 18. Had he aprivilege to remit and retain sins? It was, then, by virtue I Et quamvis apostolis omnibus post resurrectionem suam parem potestatem tribuat et dicat, Sicut, &c. Cypr. de Un. Ecei., p. 195. a Ex æquo super eos ecclesiæ fortitudo solidatur. hier. in ¡ovin., i. 14. 8 °Ocra ys xai mois ei%) !xth,e s0 ápvseavzS, xasá Shaloxñv vrspnóafxn/.cávat ei ,'e' ca, Birr «letV vrpeoeiva, sag Seo¡.cci zee) xi,,, i ,uoia, ep. v. Phot. Cod. 280, p. 1600. "Those who, by succession from them (viz., the apostles), were endowed with episcopal authority, we believe to have the same power of binding and loosing."
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