Chapter 26.—37. To go on to what he says, "that a bishop should be ‘teachable,’"1562
| 1562 "Docibilis;" and so the passage (2 Tim. ii. 24) is quoted frequently by Augustin. The English version, "apt to teach," is more true to the original, διδακτικός.
|
adding, "But he is teachable who is
gentle and
meek to
learn; for a
bishop ought not only to
teach, but to
learn as well, since he is indeed the better
teacher who
daily grows and advances by learning better things;"
1563
| 1563 Cypr. Ep. lxxiv. 10.
|
—in these words assuredly the holy man, endowed with pious
charity, sufficiently points out that we should not hesitate to read his letters in such a sense, that we should feel no difficulty if the
Church should afterwards confirm what had been
discovered by further and longer discussions; because, as there were many things which the
learned Cyprian might
teach, so there was still something which the teachable Cyprian might
learn. But the admonition that he gives us, "that
we should go back to the
fountain, that is, to apostolic
tradition, and thence turn the channel of
truth to our times,"
1564
| 1564 Cypr. Ep. lxxiv. 10.
|
is most excellent, and should be followed without hesitation. It is handed down to us, therefore, as he himself records, by the
apostles, that there is "one
God, and one
Christ, and one
hope, and one
faith, and one
Church, and one
baptism."
1565
Since then we find that in the times of the
apostles themselves there were some who had not the one
hope, but had the one
baptism, the
truth is so brought down to us from the
fountain itself, that it is clear to us that it is possible that though there is one
Church, as there is one
hope, and one
baptism, they may yet have the one
baptism who have not the one
Church; just as even in those early times it was possible that men should have the one
baptism who had not the one
hope. For how had they one
hope with the holy and the just, who used to say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we
die,"
1566
asserting that there was no resurrection of the dead? And yet they were among the very men to whom the same apostle says, "Was Paul crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
1567
For he writes most manifestly to them, saying, "How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
1568
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