84 THE POWER OF " THE KEYS" EXPLAINED. To this testimony we may apply divers of the same answers which were given to the former; for, - 1. These words are figurate [figurative], and therefore not clear enough to prove their assertion. 2. They admit, andhave received, various interpretations. 3. It is evident that the apostles themselves did not understand these words as importing a supremacy over them; that St Peter him- self did not apprehend this sense; that our Lord, upon occasions in- viting to it, didnot take notice of his promise according thereto. 4. The words, " I will give thee," cannot any wise be assured to have been exclusive of others, or appropriated to him. " He said to Peter," as avery learned manof the Roman communion notes, " I will give thee the keys;' but he said not, ' I will give them to thee alone. ' Nothing, therefore, can be concluded from them to their purpose. 5. The fathers affirm that all the apostles received the same keys. " Are the keys of the kingdom of heaven," says Origen, "given by the Lord to Peter alone, and shall none other of the blessed ones receive them ? But if this, `I will give thee thekeys of thekingdom of heaven,' be common, how, also, are not all the things common which were spoken before, or are added as spoken to Peter ? "' St Jerome says, in express words, that " all the apostles received the keys of the kingdom of heaven."' " He," says Optatus, " alone received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, which were to be communicated to the rest;" that is, as Rigaltius well expounds those words, " which Christ himself would also communicate to the rest."' Theophylact says, " Although it be spoken to Peter alone, ` I will give thee,' yet it is given to all the apostles."' It is part of St John's character in St Chrysostom: "He that has the keys of the heavens."' Dixit Petro, Dabo tibi claves ; at non dixit, Dabo tibi soli.Rigalt. in Ep. Firma. 2 "Apa D mm dumpy, pcóvó, aiaevmat úaó mov Kupiou ai xXs7Sts mr/ç may oúpavmv gesorxtiaç, see, ont)s imtpes °rmv 1..cazCpiwv aúmáç x114.67at; « as X0IVÓV icr, ,Ga1 orpóç iTipous, r lea cot mAç zxtTees ooh Base stets mmv o,pavmv, arms ot,x' sea srárres rein erpacfipn¡civa ccl rue i91.46p614tva ás erpñç IImpov Ae)eyp ivee Orig. in Matt. xvi. p. 275. 3 Quod Petro dicitur, apostolis dicitur.Ambr. in Ps. xxxviii. "What is said to Peter is said to the apostles." Licet id ipsum in alio loco super omnes apostolos fiat, et cuncti claves regni ccelorum accipiant. liier. inTor., i. 14. " Though the same thing in another place is done to all the apostles, and all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven." 4 Claves regni ccelorum communicandas cmteris Bolus accepit.Opt., lib. vii. Com- municandas cæteris dixit, quas ipse Christus communicaturus erat et cseteris.Rigalt. in. Cypr., de Un. Eccl. 6 El 1,úp sea srpis nimpoe poñvev e'pnmat mñ Use. ça, áxxá eta orç, rots áaoçmáxotç aáa:ma,. Theoph. in. loc. 6 'o rás xxtiç ï ,e, mi, , paomv. Cfrys. in Prmf. Evang. ¡oh.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=