CHAPTER V The great authority and honour of priests
CHAPTER V
The great authority and honour of priests
181. For if any one consider what it is, for him that is a man, and still composed of flesh and blood, to be able to approach that blessed and immortal nature, he will then see clearly what honour the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests; for by them these things are performed, and others not inferior to them, both as regards our dignity and our salvation.
182. For those who dwell upon earth and make their abode therein, have been commissioned to dispense things which are in heaven, and have received an authority such as God has not given either to angels or to archangels. For it has not been said to them, “Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose, shall be loosed.”
183. Those who rule upon earth, indeed, have authority to bind, but bodies only; whereas this bond takes hold of the soul itself, and reaches heaven; what priests execute below, God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the judgment of his servants.
184. And what is this, but that he has given them all heavenly authority? For he says, “Whose sins ye remit, they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain, they are retained.” What authority can be greater than this? “All judgment hath the Father committed to the Son;” but I see that they have been entrusted with all this by the Son, as if they had already been translated to heaven, and had got beyond human nature, and were released from our affections, to so great power have they been raised.
185. Moreover, if a king should confer upon one of his subjects this honour,—to cast into prison whom he would, and to release them again; the man would be envied and respected by all. But he who receives from God an authority as much greater as heaven is more precious than earth, and souls than bodies, seems to some men to have received so small an honour, that it is possible even to suppose that one of those entrusted therewith will despise the gift.
186. Away with such madness! for it is transparent madness to despise so great a power, without which we can acquire neither salvation nor the good things which have been promised us.
187. For if no one can enter the kingdom of heaven, except he be regenerate by water and the Spirit; and if he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord, and drink his blood, is excluded from eternal life; and if all these things are accomplished only by those holy hands, the priest’s I mean, how will any one be able without them to escape the fire of Gehenna, or to obtain the crowns which are in store?
188. For it is verily these who have been entrusted with the pains of the spiritual birth, and have had committed to them that nativity of ours which is by baptism; through these we are clothed with Christ, and are united with the Son of God, and become members of that Blessed Head.
189. Wherefore, they would not only be more justly venerated by us than rulers and kings, but more honoured than our fathers; for the one begat us by blood and the will of the flesh; but the others are the authors of our nativity which is from God; that blessed regeneration, true liberty, and adoption according to grace.