APPENDIX. WHILE I here subjoin a few passages from the Fathers, i. e. from the most celebrated teachers of the Church during the four first centuries, it is necessary that I inform the reader of the object of these quotations. The testimonies of these ancient teachers are not intended to prove, in any degree, the doctrines of the Gospel; for the Gospel requires no such testimonies, as the truth of the Church, and of the doctrines proposed by her teachers, rests upon the truth of the Gospel. Nor are these testimonies intended to shew, that the teachers of the four first centuries taught nothing but what is contained in the Gospel, or is conformable to it. For this, in truth, they did not do. But they lived and taught at a time, when there was certainly a Roman Bishop, but, as yet, no Pope-and when the Church had a perfectly different form from the present Roman-Papal hierarchy, and when nothing was known of the many doctrines and customs which have, in later times, been declared absolutely necessary. These quotations are meant to prove, how much the Gospel was still valued in the four first centuries, and how little foundation there is for the pretext, that the Church has taught from the beginning what the Pope and the Council of Trent have since established; and, consequently, how widely different, in many respects, the Roman Church is from the Church of the four first centuries. To such as are not versed in Ecclesiastical History, the following brief notices of the Fathers, whose opinions are here cited, may be useful. Clement of Rome, as he is called, a disciple of the Apostle St. Peter, and, finally, Bishop of the Christian Church at Rome. He is said to have died in the beginning of the second century. M Hermas, a disciple of the Apostles, whom St. Paul mentions in his Epistle to the Romans, (chap. xvi. 14.) and who has left us a work, under the title of The Shepherd, which many, however, ascribe to a later Hermas, who lived about the year 140. Papias, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, who bordered upon the time of the Apostle St. John. Hegesippus, in the latter part of the second century, wrote a history of the Church, a few fragments of which we still possess. Irenæus, who went from Asia Minor, where he had still heard the contemporaries of the Apostles, to Lyons in Gaul, became a bishop there in the year 177, and is said to have died in 202. Clement, to distinguish him from Clement of Rome, called Clement of Alexandria, was Presbyter of the Church of Alexandria, a teacher of the celebrated catechetical school there, and well acquainted with the Greek philosophy. He is said to have died about the year The most celebrated of his successors was 220. Origen, born in the year 185, at Alexandria, died at Tyrus in 254; likewise a Presbyter of Alexandria, superintendent of the school above mentioned, and one of the most copious writers among the fathers. Tertullian lived in the end of the second and the beginning of the third century; was Presbyter of Carthage in Africa, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. Towards the close of life he became a Montanist. Cyprian became, in the year 248 or 249, Bishop of Carthage, and died a martyr in 255. Arnobius, teacher of eloquence at Sicca, in Africa, lived in the beginning of the fourth century. Lactantius, born in Africa, was first teacher of eloquence in Nicomedia, and was called from thence, in the year 317, to Gaul, to be tutor to the son of Constantine, and he probably died there. Eusebius became, about the year 314, Bishop of Casarea, and was the author of the first Ecclesiastical History, which is still extant. The so called Apostolical Constitutions, or decrees, are directions concerning the constitution of the Church, her which, it is preBut they are of liturgy, and the lives of her members, &c. tended, were composed by the Apostles. later origin, and of uncertain date. They contain much that is ancient from the second and third centuries, together with much of a modern date. THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. I. Concerning Priestly Absolution. CLEMENT of Rome makes no mention of a priestly power which can open or shut heaven. In his second Epistle to the Corinthians, (chap. iv. 6.) he rather earnestly inculcates the principle, that they only can be saved, who continue in the amendment which they pledged at their baptism; and he adds, in the conclusion of the sixth chapter, "If we do not preserve baptism pure and undefiled, on what else can we depend for admission into the kingdom of heaven? or who will become our advocate, (rapákλntos,) if holy and upright actions be not found in us?" Origen, in his Homilies on Numbers, (Homil. xii. §. 6.) says, "If one of us sin, he is rejected (by Christ), although he be not rejected by the Bishop, who may not be acquainted with his offences, or may judge them partially; he is excommunicated by the consciousness of his sins. The favour of man avails such a person nothing, as Christ will not admit such a soul, (being a cast-away) into communion with him +. On the contrary, it may easily happen that a man may be excommunicated by the unjust sentence of a Bishop. But if he be not self-excommunicated, i. e. if he have done nothing to deserve excommunication, it is no injury to him (in the eye of Christ) that he appears excommunicated by the unjust judgment of man. And thus The translations of the Fathers are made from the German, as the original authorities were not at hand.-M. Homil. xiv. §. 3. |