[117] Such as are [Greek: grammata koinônika], Euseb. H. E. lib. 7, c. 30. [Greek: epistolai koinônikai], Basil. Ep. 190, or [Greek: kanônikai], Ep. 224, letters of peace commendatory, ecclesiastical, &c.
[118] See especially Chrys. Hom. 30 on 1 Cor.
[119] Irenæus, Lib. 3, c. 3.
[120] Compare Jerome's often-quoted passage, Ep. 15, to Pope Damasus, "Whoso gathereth not with thee, scattereth; that is, whoso is not of Christ is of antichrist."
[121] For the meaning of "come together," see farther on, c. 40. "God hath placed in the Church Apostles, Prophets, Doctors, and all the rest of the operation of the Spirit, of which all those are not partakers who do not run together to the Church, but defraud themselves of life by an evil intention and a very bad conduct. For where the Church is, there is the Spirit; and where is the Spirit of God, there is the Church and all grace."
[122] See S. Cyprian's letters, 69, 55, 45, 70, 73. 40. Consider the force of the words, "Peter, upon whom the Church had been built by the Lord, speaking one for all, and answering with the voice of the Church, says, Lord, to whom shall we go?" Ep. 55, on which Fenelon (de sum. Pontif. auct. c. 12) remarks, "What wonder, then, if Pope Hormisdas and other ancient fathers says, "the Roman, that is, the Catholic Church," since Peter was wont to answer with the voice of the Church? What wonder if the body of the Church speaks by mouth of its head?"
[123] De Pudicitia, c. 21.
[124] This Montanist corruption (into which Ambrose on Ps. 38, n. 37, and Pacian in his three letters to Sempronian, state that the Novatians also fell,) induced some fathers, and especially Augustine, (Enarrat. on Ps. 108. n. 1, Tract 118 on John, n. 4, and last Tract n. 7) to teach that the keys were bestowed on Peter so far forth as he represented the person of the Church in right of his Primacy. By which mode of speaking they meant this one thing, that the power of the keys, as being necessary to the Church, and instituted for her good, began indeed in Peter, and was communicated to him in a peculiar manner but by no means dropt, or could possibly drop, with him.
[125] Tertull. De Præsc. c. 32.
[126] Pacian, ad Sempronium, Epis. 3, § 11.