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| In What Sense the “Keys” Are Given to Peter, and Every Peter. Limitations of This Power.
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14. In What Sense
the “Keys” Are Given to Peter, and Every Peter.
Limitations of This Power.
And after this let us see in what sense it is said to
Peter, and to every Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of
the kingdom of heaven.”5653
And, in
the first place, I think that the saying, “I will give unto thee
the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” is spoken in consistency with
the words, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against
it.”5654
For he is
worthy to receive from the same Word the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
who is fortified against the gates of Hades so that they do not prevail
against him, receiving, as it were, for a prize, the keys of the
kingdom of heaven, because the gates of Hades had no power against him,
that he might open for himself the gates that were closed to those who
had been conquered by the gates of Hades. And he enters in, as a
temperate man, through an opened gate—the gate of
temperance—by the key which opens temperance; and, as a righteous
man, by another gate—the gate of righteousness—which is
opened by the key of righteousness; and so with the rest of the
virtues. For I think that for every virtue of knowledge certain
mysteries of wisdom corresponding to the species of the virtue are
opened up to him who has lived according to virtue; the Saviour giving
to those who are not mastered by the gates of Hades as many keys as
there are virtues, which open gates equal in number, which correspond
to each virtue according to the revelation of the mysteries. And
perhaps, also, each virtue is a kingdom of heaven, and all together are
a kingdom of the heavens; so that according to this he is already in
the kingdom of the heavens who lives according to the virtues, so that
according to this the saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand,”5655
is to be referred,
not to the time, but to deeds and dispositions; for Christ, who is all
virtue, has come, and speaks, and on account of this the kingdom of God
is within His disciples, and not here or there.5656
But consider how great power the rock
has upon which the church is built by Christ, and how great power every
one has who says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God,” so that the judgments of this man abide sure, as if God
were judging in him, that in the very act of judging the gates of Hades
shall not prevail against him. But when one judges unrighteously,
and does not bind upon earth according to the Word of God, nor loose
upon earth according to His will, the gates of Hades prevail against
him; but, in the case of any one against whom the gates of Hades do not
prevail, this man judges righteously. Wherefore he has the keys
of the kingdom of heaven, opening to those who have been loosed on
earth that they may be also loosed in heaven, and free; and shutting to those who by
his just judgment have been bound on earth that they also may be bound
in heaven, and condemned. But when those who maintain the
function of the episcopate make use of this word as Peter, and, having
received the keys of the kingdom of heaven from the Saviour, teach that
things bound by them, that is to say, condemned, are also bound in
heaven, and that those which have obtained remission by them are also
loosed in heaven, we must say that they speak wholesomely if they have
the way of life on account of which it was said to that Peter,
“Thou art Peter;”5657
and if they are
such that upon them the church is built by Christ, and to them with
good reason this could be referred; and the gates of Hades ought not to
prevail against him when he wishes to bind and loose. But if he
is tightly bound with the cords of his sins,5658
to
no purpose does he bind and loose. And perhaps you can say that
in the heavens which are in the wise man—that, is the
virtues,—the bad man is bound; and again in these the virtuous
man is loosed, and has received an indemnity for the sins which he
committed before his virtue. But, as the man, who has not the
cords of sins nor iniquities compared to a “long rope or to the
strap of the yoke of a heifer,”5659
not even God could bind, in like manner, no Peter, whoever he may be;
and if any one who is not a Peter, and does not possess the things here
spoken of, imagines as a Peter that he will so bind on earth that the
things bound are bound in heaven, and will so loose on earth that the
things loosed are loosed in heaven, he is puffed up, not understanding
the meaning of the Scriptures, and, being puffed up, has fallen into
the ruin of the devil.5660
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