Nicene/Post-Nicene, Series II, Volume 33

Hilary of Poitiers, circa 300/315 (?) - 367/368

... Praise God for the unshaken stability of your noble hearts, for your firm house built on the foundation of the faithful rock ... .
On the Councils, or the Faith of the Easterns, § 2

... Thus our one immovable foundation, our one blissful rock of faith, is the confession from Peter's mouth, Thou art the Son of the living God. On it we can base an answer to every objection with which perverted ingenuity or embittered treachery may assail the truth.
On the Trinity, Book II, § 23

... nor as if He was previously in being and afterwards born or created afresh to be a Son, a notion often condemned by thyself, blessed Pope*, publicly in the Church and in the assembly of the brethren....
On the Trinity, Book IV, § 12; also, Book VI, § 5
{* of Alexandria}

20. ... and blessed Simon, who after his confession of the mystery was set to be the foundation-stone of the Church, and received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and all his companions who spoke by the Holy Ghost ... .
33. ... Had ye seen, O holy and blessed men, who for the reward of your faith have received the keys of the kingdom of heaven and power to bind and to loose in heaven and earth ... .
36. ... whence, I ask, was it that the blessed Simon Bar-Jona confessed to Him, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God?... what was the revelation made to Peter, not by flesh and blood, but by the Father in heaven?... What then is this truth, which the Father now reveals to Peter, which receives the praise of a blessed confession?... he speaks words which the tongue of man had never framed before:—Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.... for confessing not Christ only, but Christ the Son of God. It would clearly have sufficed for a payment of reverence, had he said, Thou art the Christ, and nothing more. But it would have been a hollow confession, had Peter only hailed Him as Christ, without confessing Him the Son of God. And so his words Thou art declare that what is asserted of Him is strictly and exactly true to His nature. Next, the Father's utterance, This is My Son, had revealed to Peter that he must confess Thou art the Son of God, for in the words This is, God the Revealer points Him out, and the response, Thou art, is the believer's welcome to the truth. And this is the rock of confession whereon the Church is built. But the perceptive faculties of flesh and blood cannot attain to the recognition and confession of this truth. It is a mystery, Divinely revealed, that Christ must be not only named, but believed, the Son of God....
37. This faith it is which is the foundation of the Church; through this faith the gates of hell cannot prevail against her. This is the faith which has the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever this faith shall have loosed or bound on earth shall be loosed or bound in heaven. This faith is the Father's gift by revelation ... . The very reason why he is blessed is that he confessed the Son of God. This is the Father's revelation, this the foundation of the Church, this the assurance of her permanence. Hence has she the keys of the kingdom of heaven, hence judgment in heaven and judgment on earth. Through revelation Peter learnt the mystery hidden from the beginning of the world, proclaimed the faith, published the Divine nature, confessed the Son of God....
38. ... if that faith which confesses Christ as the Son of God, and that faith only, received in Peter's person every accumulated blessing ... .
On the Trinity, Book VI, §§ 20, 33, 36, 37, 38

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