11.07.2015 Views

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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THE THIRD AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.333one web consists. For Unity, Truth, and Grace,viewed as attributes <strong>of</strong> the Church, are blendedtogether in the light and warmth <strong>of</strong> the sun, inthe sap which vivifies every branch <strong>of</strong> the tree ,and gives it fruitfulness from the root, in the fountain<strong>of</strong> water, under which image our Lord has so<strong>of</strong>ten summed up His whole gift to man, in theflock which the Shepherd has chosen, and forwhich He cares, in the house where the masterdwells and collects his family, in the one robewhich encompassed and contained the virtue <strong>of</strong>the Wearer, in the prolific womb which givesbirth to the whole sacred race. <strong>The</strong> force <strong>of</strong>lese images lies in their unicity : pluralitywould not modify, but destroy them. Yet eventhese symbols are surpassed by that argumentfrom the divine Unity which he sets forth as thetype and cause <strong>of</strong> the Church's unity. Fromcreated likenesses-the fairest and choicest whichAthe world presents-he passes to the uncreatednature, and from the divine immutability, wherewiththese three, the Father, / the Son, I and theHoly Ghost, the divine Exemplar <strong>of</strong> Unity, Truth,and Grace, are one, deduces the Unity <strong>of</strong> theChurch their dwelling-place.I Cyprian, »/ JL then, cannot sever the Church <strong>of</strong> hisheart, the Church for which he lived and died,from Unity, or from Truth, or from Grace: andthis Church is to him founded on the Primacy <strong>of</strong>Peter, and developed from his person. <strong>The</strong> one

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