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| Christ First Delivered the Faith. The Apostles Spread It; They Founded Churches as the Depositories Thereof. That Faith, Therefore, is Apostolic, Which Descended from the Apostles, Through Apostolic Churches.
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Chapter XX.—Christ
First Delivered the Faith. The Apostles Spread It; They Founded
Churches as the Depositories Thereof. That Faith, Therefore, is
Apostolic, Which Descended from the Apostles, Through Apostolic
Churches.
Christ Jesus our Lord (may He bear with me a
moment in thus expressing myself!), whosoever He is, of what God soever
He is the Son, of what substance soever He is man and God, of what
faith soever He is the teacher, of what reward soever He is the
Promiser, did, whilst He lived on earth, Himself declare what He was,
what He had been, what the Father’s will was which He was
administering, what the duty of man was which He was prescribing; (and
this declaration He made,) either openly to the people, or privately to
His disciples, of whom He had chosen the twelve chief ones to be at His
side,2051
and whom He destined to be the teachers of
the nations. Accordingly, after one of these had been struck off, He
commanded the eleven others, on His departure to the Father, to
“go and teach all nations, who were to be baptized into
the Father, and into the Son, and into the Holy Ghost.”2052
Immediately, therefore, so did the apostles,
whom this designation indicates as “the sent.”
Having, on the authority of a prophecy, which occurs in a psalm of
David,2053
chosen Matthias by
lot as the twelfth, into the place of Judas, they obtained the promised
power of the Holy Ghost for the gift of miracles and of utterance; and
after first bearing witness to the faith in Jesus Christ throughout
Judæa, and founding churches (there), they next went forth into
the world and preached the same doctrine of the same faith to the
nations. They then in like manner founded churches in every city, from
which all the other churches, one after another, derived the tradition
of the faith,2054
and the seeds of
doctrine, and are every day deriving them,2055
| 2055 Mutuantur
“borrowing.” |
that they may become churches. Indeed, it is on this account only that
they will be able to deem themselves apostolic, as being the offspring
of apostolic churches. Every sort of thing2056
must necessarily revert to its original for
its classification.2057
| 2057 Censeatur or,
“for its origin.” | Therefore the
churches, although they are so many and so great, comprise but the one
primitive church, (founded) by the apostles, from which they all
(spring). In this way all are primitive, and all are apostolic,
whilst they are all proved to be one, in (unbroken) unity, by their
peaceful communion,2058
and title of
brotherhood, and bond2059
of
hospitality,—privileges2060
which no other rule
directs than the one tradition of the selfsame mystery.2061
| 2061 That is, of the faith,
or Christian creed. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
