124 SENTIMENTS OF THE FATHERS. herds, may collect the sheep of the Lord into the flock. "' And again, " Which thing it concerns us to look after and redress, dearest brother, who, bearing in mind the divine clemency, and holding the scales of church-government,' &c. So even the Roman clergy acknowledged: " For we ought all of us to watch for the body of the whole church, whose members are distributed through several provinces."' " Like the Trinity, whose power is one and undivided, there is one priesthood among divers bishops."4 So in the Apostolical Constitutions, the apostles tell the bishops that " an universal episcopacy is intrusted to them."' So the council of Carthage, with St Cyprian :" Clear and mani- fest is the mind and meaning of our Lord Jesus Christ, sending his apostles, and affording to them alone the power given him of the Father, in whose roomwe have succeeded, governing the church' of God with the same power."' "Christ, our Lord and our God, going to the Father, commended his spouse to us."' A very ancient instance of which administration is the proceeding against Paulus Samosatenus,* when "the pastors of the churches, some from one place, some from another, assembled together against him as a pest of Christ's flock, all of them hastening to Antioch,"e where they deposed, exterminated [expelled], and deprived him of communion, warning the whole church to reject and disavow him. " Seeing," [says St Augustine,] " the pastoral charge is common to us all who bear the episcopal office, although thou sittest in a higher and more eminent place."' ' Idcireo enim, frater charissime, copiosum corpus est sacerdotum, concordia mutua glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum, ut siquis ex collegio nostro hseresin facere, et gregemChristi lacerare et vastare tentaverit, subveniant cateri, et quasi pastores utiles et misericordes oves Domini in gregemcolligant.Cypr., Ep. lxvii. 5 Cui rei nostrum est consulere, et subvenire, frater charissime, qui divinam clemen- tiam cogitantes, et gubernanda ecclesiæ libram tenentes, &c.-Ibid. Omnes enim nos decet pro corpore totius ecclesiæ, cujus per varias quasque pro- vincias membra digesta aunt, encubare.Cler. Rom., apud Cypr., .Ep. XXX. 4 Ad Trinitatis instar, cujusuna est atque individuapotestas, unum esse per diversos antistites sacerdotium. P. Symmachus ad 1EoniumArelat. 5 Eis iorss rnp,yp.ìs issJv, ,- s 747, %aiga0U i,rro%o,rl, ,, 69rrorsu#dsssv:Const. Apost. vi. 14. 6 Manifesta est sententia Domini nostri JesuChristi apostolos suos mittentis, et ipsis sobs potestatem a Patre sibi datam permittentis, quibus nos successimus, eadem potes- tate ecclesiam Domini gubernantes.Conc. earth., spud Cypr. p. 405. Christus Dominus et Deus noster ad Patrem proficiscens, sponsam suamnobis com- mendavit, &c. Rid, p. 404. ' Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, who was the founder of a sect in the third century, and held heretical views on the doctrine of the Trinity. En. 8 Oi ).orcral rds iz%Xnormv 9rar"ív4o d).).or iaXSo, Ów5 É9íÌ A.vpEWYa .rei; Xfros'ov 9r'í ssos ouvis?av, of 9r,,so 19rì rì 'Avrróxerav oorcúvavms.Euseb. vii. 27. 5 Cum communis sit omnibus nobis, qui fungimur episcopatus officio, quamvis ipse in eo prsemineas celsiore fastigio, specula pastoralis, &c. Auq. adBonif, contraduos Epist. Pelag. i. 1.
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