Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

334 THE THIRD AGE OE THE MARTYR CHURCH.Episcopate, whose golden chain he looks upon assurrounding the earth in its embrace, " of which apart is held by each without division of the whole,"wherein therefore joint possession is dependent onunity, would have no existence without the bondof the Primacy, from which it was developed andwhich keeps it one. Take away this, and the officeof each bishop is crystallised into a separatemass, having no coherence or impact with its like:bishops so conceived*would hold indeed a similaroffice, but being detached from each other wouldnot hold joint possession of one Episcopate. Separatecrystals do not make one body; nor a heapof pebbles a rock. But it was a Kock on whichChrist built and builds His Church, that Rockbeing O His own Person, ' from which He communi-cated this virtue, wherein the cohesion and impactof the whole Episcopate lies, to the See of himwhom He constituted His Vicar. Finally, Cypriancontrasts pointedly the people of Christ which cannotbe rent with the twelve tribes of Israel, whichwere torn asunder : as if he would beforehandrepudiate that parallel between the Synagogue andthe Church, in the question of unity, which hasbefore now been resorted to as a refuge by mindsin distress, who failed to see the tokens of theBride of Christ in the community to which theybelonged.In Origen and in Cyprian we put ourselvesback into the middle of the third century. In the