ruption; and this, occasioning, rather than occasioned by, the abuse of the power of the keys. The source of the fears of the early writers, is the more remarkable, as it is entirely independent; they namely referring to the oral, as we to the written teaching of the Apostles. That independence obviously strengthens the belief in the accuracy of their tradition, and of the more awful and rigid interpretation of the Apostle's words; and both combine in the more solemn warning to ourselves. St. Irenæus[1], then, expressly referring for his authority to a Presbyter, who had learnt from the disciples of the Apostles, alleges the great danger which we should incur by sin after Baptism, as a ground why we should be reserved in blaming the sins of the old Fathers. "For[2] their history was written for our warning: for, if the ancients, who preceded us in gifts, for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered, if they failed in any thing, and served the desires of the flesh, were visited with such disgrace, what shall they now suffer, who have despised the coming of the Lord, and served their pleasures? And for those the death of the Lord was a cure and remission: but for those who now sin, Christ shall not now die; for death shall not now have dominion over Him; but the Son shall come in the glory of the Father, requiring from His stewards and dispensers, with usury, the money which He lent them: and to whom He gave much, of them He shall ask the more. We ought not, then, said that presbyter, to be proud, nor to blame the ancients; but ourselves to fear, lest after we have acknowledged Christ, if we do anything displeasing to God, we may have no more remission of sins, but be excluded from His kingdom." St. Hermas,[3] again, directly refers to older teachers. "'Now, also, Sir, I have heard from some teachers,
- ↑ "Audivi a quondam Presbytero, qui audierat ab his, qui Apostolos viderant, et ab his qui didicerant." The next chapter of Iræneus is on "the folly of those, who exaggerating the mercy of Christ, and omitting mention of the Judgment, looking to the greater grace of the New Testament, and forgetting the greater perfection required of us—strive to make out another God, different from the Creator."
- ↑ L. iv. c. 27. ed. Massuet. olim c. 45.
- ↑ L. ii. Mandat. 4. § 3.
