[17] S. Cyprian, Ep. 79.

[18] S. Jerome, Ep. 57.

[19] Matt. xvi. 18.

[20] Luke xxii. 31-2.

[21] John xxi. 15.

[22] Luke xxii. 26.

[23] Unity, John x. 16; xvii. 20-23; 1 Cor. xii. 12-31; Ephes. ii.

14-22; iv. 5; 1 Cor. i. 10.

[24] Catholicity. Luke xxiv. 47; Mark xvi. 20; Acts i. 8; ix. 15; Rom. x. 18; Colos. i. 8-23.

[25] For all the fathers hold the doctrine thus expressed by St.

Hilary of Poitiers on Ps. 121, n. 5. "The Church is one body, not mixed up by a confusion of bodies, nor by each of these being united in an indiscriminate heap and shapeless bundle; but we are all one by the unity of faith, by the society of charity, by concord of works and will, by the one gift of the sacrament in all." No notion of the Church's unity in England, it may be remarked, outside of Catholicism, goes beyond "the indiscriminate heap and shapeless bundle."

[26] t.i.t. ii. 11.

[27] Rom. i. 25.

[28] t.i.t. ii. 14, with 1 Pet. ii. 25.

[29] John xvii. 17.

[30] Eph. iv. 4.

[31] John xvii. 21.

[32] Gal. v. 20, 19.

[33] 1 Cor. xiv. 33.

[34] Eph. v. 27.

[35] Matt. xvi. 18.

[36] 1 Tim. iii. 15.

[37] Matt. xviii. 17.

[38] Luke xxii. 26.

[39] Luke xxii. 31-2.

[40] John xxi. 15.

[41] Acts i. 4-8.

[42] John xv. 26.

[43] Matt. xxviii. 20.

[44] Matt. xviii. 18.

[45] The first Reformers fell into this grievous error because they had no other way to defend their schism. They may be pa.s.sed over at present, as in most even of the Protestant confessions visibility is reckoned among the notes of the Church.

[46] 1 Cor. vi. 4; x. 32; xi. 22; xii. 28; Ephes. i. 22; iii. 10-21; v. 23, 24, 25, 27, 29, 32; Colos. i. 18-24; 1 Tim. iii. 15.

[47] Irenaeus, Lib. 1, c. 3, Lib. 3, c. 4.

[48] Tertullian, de Praesc. c. 4.

[49] Clement. Stromat. Lib. 7, 17.

[50] Origen in Cantic, Hom. 3.

[51] Hilary, De Trin. Lib. 7, c. 12.

[52] Jerome, adv. Lucifer.

[53] Concil. Laodic. Can. 9, 10.

[54] Concil. Carthag. 4, Can. 71.

[55] Concil. Constant. 2, act 3.

[56] De Praesc. c. 20.

[57] See in the sixth act of the second Nicene Council the quotations from the iconoclast synod of Constantinople.

[58] Adv. haereaes, Lib. 1, c. 3.

[59] Even the Puritan Cartwright observed, "if it be necessary to the unity of the Church that an archbishop should preside over other bishops, why not on the same principle should one archbishop preside over the whole Church of G.o.d?" Defence of Whitgift.

[60] Sacred observations, Lib. 5, c. 7, on the hypothetical external communion of Christians.

[61] See also the testimony of Mosheim, quoted above p. 197, note.

[62] Thus the universal belief of the Fathers from the beginning is charged with _audacity_. It is difficult not to be struck with the utter antagonism of feeling which separates Protestants from the whole body of the Fathers. The statements here ascribed, and truly, by Vitringa to them, would be viewed in modern English society, as the very insanity of bigotry.

[63] Because to rend Christ's mystical body, and to subvert that unity for which He had prayed the Father, was regarded by them as a crime of the deepest dye. In modern England it would be consecrated by the glorious principle of "civil and religious liberty."

[64] The unrestricted expression, "to preside over the Church," used by Cyprian of Novatian, who claimed to be Peter's successor, contains a clear indication that the fold entrusted to Peter was as wide as the Church itself. It is the same Church in the two clauses, but in the former it _must_ be understood universally.

[65] Ep. 69.