REASONS AGAINST THE ROMISH NOTION OF UNITY. 397 members of which, though they be divided into many and different places, are yet cherished by one Spirit, that is, by thewill of God."' And Gregory the Great: " Our head, which is Christ, would therefore have us be his mem- bers, that by the joints of charity and faith he might make us one body in himself."' Clemens Alexandrinus defines the church, " A people gathered together out of Jews and Gentiles into one faith, by the giving of the testaments fitted into unity of faith."3 " This one church, therefore, partakes of the natureof unity, which heresies violently endeavour to divide into many; and therefore we affirm the ancient and catholic church, whether we respect its con- stitution or our conception of it, its beginning or its excellency, to be but one: which into the belief of that one creed which is agree- able to its own peculiar testaments, or rather to that one and the same testament, in times however different, by the will of one and the same God, through one and the same Lord, unites and combines together all those who are before ordained, whom God hath predes- tinated, as knowing that they would be just persons, before the foun- dation of the world."' / Many passages in the fathers applicable to this point we have alleged in the foregoing discourses.' 4. The constitution of such an unity involves the vesting some person or some number ofpersons with asovereign authority, subor- dinate to our Lord, to be managed in a certain manner, either ab- solutely, according to pleasure, or limitedly, according to certain rules prescribed to it. But that there was ever any such authority constituted, or any rules prescribed to it, by our Lord or his apostles, does not appear; and there are divers reasonable presumptions against ft. It is reasonable, that whoever claims such authority should, for assuring his title, showpatents of his commission, manifestly express Kai a a, sT,ar rñ, zado.Zrxñv aiTOh ixx7.noiav ßeßenatprecr Ps e1 xai T6 paáarvrce ,iÇ a'cb.- xabç zai Sicapápouç só9rovs is pipn Sgípesar, áb..1.' ápaaç iv) nrebpaasr, T,v -íe,, Try Oeic gouloj+ parr Sáb.9rerar.Const. M. in Ep. ad Eccles., Euseb. Vit. Const. iii. 18. 2 Caput nostrum, quod Christus est, ad hoc sua esse membra nos voluit, ut per com- pagem charitatis et fidei unum nos in se corpus efficeret.Greg. M., Ep. vii. 111. 3 'O iz vápaou zai i ithr.v eiç rh, psis, yremry esvayápsvoç Xecó;.Strom. vi. init. T, xasá TGLÇ haioixaç Sóvu exeuet ípssv,v Fig ivósnra eh, 9rivseroç. Ibid, vii. p. 516. 4 Tñ yob, Toh ivàç Oes, avyxb.npoüar ixoo) se a ñ poix, ñv sis sroxxá; zararápovery ß,si ovras aipierç xará es oúv b9,íeexçrv, xasá se iorivorav, xasá es ápxhv (principium), xasá es ápaxñv, póvnv eivar gxpoe, Tñv lepxaíav xai xxPob.rxh, ixzinviav si, isíenra viol..; teas ehç xará Tá, oizeias 1,xisixaç, paaab.or Si xasá ehv SraAvixnv rev poiav haQ pore Tots vows, ive4 Tot"; Oçoú eo fiauxspaarr Si isis rohKupiou vus4yoeoav sob, xxeaeseaypaevauç, oú; 9rpoov'pross, Srxalavç 1001141,04 97pÓ xasaßob.ñ; xóvpcou iyvoozo'ç.Strom. vii. p. 549. e Catholicam facit simplex et verus intellectus, intelligere singulare, ac verissimum sacramentum, et unitas animorum.Opt. L, p. 14. Ecclesia non parietibus consistit, sed in dogmatum ventate, &c. Hier. Ps. cxxxiii.
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