BUT if you prefer the authority of a greater person (although you ought
not to slight the authority of any one of either sex, on whom the
confession of the mystery confers weight–for whatever may be a person’s
condition, or however humble his position, yet the value of his faith is
not thereby diminished) let us interrogate no beginner or untaught
schoolboy, nor a woman whose faith might perhaps appear to be but
rudimentary; but that greatest of disciples among disciples, and of
teachers among teachers, who presided and ruled over the Roman Church, and
held the chief place(2) in the priesthood as he did in the faith. Tell us
then, tell us, we pray, O Peter, thou chief of Apostles, tell us how the
Churches ought to believe in God. For it is right that you should teach us,
as you were taught by the Lord, and that you should open to us the gate, of
which you received the key. Shut out all those who try to overthrow the
heavenly house: and those who are endeavouring to enter by secret holes and
unlawful approaches: as it is clear that none can enter the gate of the
kingdom save one to whom the key bestowed on the Churches is revealed by
you. Tell us then how we ought to believe in Jesus Christ and to confess
our common Lord. You will surely reply without hesitation: “Why do you
consult me as to the way in which the Lord should be confessed, when you
have before you my own confession of Him? Read the gospel, and you will not
want me myself, when you have got my confession. Nay, you have got me
myself when you have my confession; for though I have no weight apart from
my confession, yet the actual confession adds weight to my person.” Tell us
then, O Evangelist, tell us the confession: tell us the faith of the chief
Apostle: did he confess that Jesus was only a man, or God? did he say that
there was nothing but flesh in Him, or did he proclaim Him the Son of God?
When then the Lord Jesus Christ asked whom the disciples believed and
confessed Him to be, Peter, the first of the Apostles, replied-- one in the
name of all–for the answer of one was to the same effect as the faith of
them all. But it was fitting that he should first give the answer, that the
order of the answer might correspond to the degree of honour: and that he
might outstrip them in confession, as he outstripped them in age. What then
does he say? “Thou art,” he says, “the Christ the Son of the living
God.”(1) I am obliged, you heretic, to make use of a plain and simple
question to confute you. Tell me, I pray, who was He, to whom Peter gave
that answer? You cannot deny that it was the Christ. I ask then, what do
you call Christ? man or God? Man certainly without any doubt: for hence
springs the whole of your heresy, because you deny that Christ is the Son
of God. And so too you say that Mary is Christotocos, but not Theotocos,
because she was the mother of Christ, not of God. Therefore you maintain,
that Christ is only a man, and not God, and so that He is the Son of man
not of God. What then does Peter reply to this? “Thou art,” he says, “the
Christ, the Son of the living God.” That Christ whom you declare to be only
the Son of man, he testifies to be the Son of God. Whom would you like us
to believe? you or Peter? I imagine that you are not so shameless as to
venture to prefer your own opinion to that of the first of the Apostles.
And yet what is there that you would not venture on? or how can you help
scorning the Apostle, if you can deny God? “Thou art then,” he says, “the
Christ, the Son of the living God.” Is there anything puzzling or obscure
in this? It is nothing but a plain and open confession: he proclaims Christ
to be the Son of God. Perhaps you will deny that the words were spoken: but
the Evangelist testifies that they were. Or do you say that the Apostle
told a lie? But it is an awful lie to accuse an Apostle of lying. Or
perhaps you will maintain that the words were spoken of some other Christ?
But this is a novel kind of monstrous fabrication. What then is left for
you? One thing indeed; viz., that since what is written is read, and what
is read is true, you should finally be driven by force and compulsion (as
you cannot assert its falsehood) to desist from impugning its truth.
back at ya!
