Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.207catholic" is known to be used, and it is appliedto the Church as its distinctive character, to con-r o attributes of unity and universalityin connection with the Person of Christ, exactlyas it has been used, an unique term for an uniqueobject, from that day to this. S. Ignatius furtherviews the Church in each place as having onefaith ; and not only so, but the same faith inevery place; one faith at Antioch, one at Rome,one at every city between them, beyond them,around them. Here, then, is a double unity, in-ward and outward. As the double unity of bodyand spirit makes the man, so the double unity ofgovernment and of faith makes the Church. Asneither mind nor body alone make the man, soneither faith nor government alone make theChurch, but the coherence of both. The Incar-nation is the joining a human soul and body withthe Person of the Divine Word ; after which patternthe Church, which is His special creation, isthe joining of one faith and one government ina moral unity. It is by this force, by the samehierarchy everywhere guarding the same faith, bythe principle of authority and tradition planted inthis one living organisation throughout the earth,that the attacks of heresy are everywhere resisted.*Polycarp, fifty " years -fc later, A describing K how after his martyrdom, ^^ r aw ro?sATRxrroAoiS Kal 7ra