Rome. That the Church of God Is the House, Vineyard, and Kingdom of God; and the Body, Sheep-fold, and Spouse of Christ; a Mother and a Vrgin. The Second Sermon
I see you are assembled, brethren, with attentive minds to the exposition of those things which rest to be spoken of the catholic church of God; which we affirm to be one and unseparable, according to the holy oracles of the sacred scripture. Solomon in his Canticles saith: “One is my dove and my beloved.” Whereunto doubtless the doctor of the Gentiles had respect, when he said: There is one body, and one spirit; even as ye are called in one hope of your vocation, There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, which is above all, and through all, and in you all.” To these heavenly testimonies agree the testimonies of men. For Cyprian, the bishop and martyr, in hisbook De Simplicitate Clericorum, saith: “The church is one, which is spread further and further abroad by fertile increase: even as there are many beams of the sun and but one light, and many boughs of a tree, yet but one oak grounded upon a stedfast root; and whereas many brooks issue out of one spring, though the number seem to be increased by the abundance of store, yet is it but one at the head. Pluck a beam of the sun from the globe; that one once separated is void of light. Break a bough from the tree, it can bring forth no fruit. Cut a brook from the spring, and being cut off it drieth up. Even so the church, lightened with God’s light, spreadeth abroad the beams of her light through all the world; yet it is but one light, which is spread everywhere, neither is the unity of the body separated: she extendeth her branches with plenteous increase throughout all the earth, she sendeth out her plentiful rivers all abroad; yet is there [BULLINGER, 1V.] 2
but one head, and one spring, and one mother plentiful with fertile succession.” And so forth.
Moreover, where we read that divers names are given to the church, we must not imagine that there are many churches in the world, neither is that body to be separated which can bear or suffer no kind of division. Writers call the church catholic, which undoubtedly signifieth universal, because it is but one, neither can there be any more. For albeit this be distinguished into the church triumphant and militant; into the church of the old fathers, and the congregation of people of latter time; yet do all these members remain perpetually knit together in one body under one head, Christ. And even as the several conditions of bond and freemen separateth not a kingdom or commonwealth into parts; so neither doth the quiet rest or felicity of the blessed spirits triumphing in heaven, and the labours and sorrows wherewith we warring as yet in this world under Christ’s ensigns are exercised, make two churches. The holy angel saith to St John in the Apocalypse: “I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets.” He therefore acknowledgeth both the prophets and apostles to be the sons and servants of one God. Whereof we read in the gospel, that one only vineyard, not two or divers, was let out to husbandmen, though they were divers. For even so there is but one church of the old fathers which were before the coming of Christ, and ours or the new people since Christ’s coming taken out of the Gentiles. But what
[1 Ecclesia quoque una est, quae in multitudinem (Bullinger read]
[latitudinem) latius incremento feecunditatis extenditur. Quomodo]
[solis multi radii, sed lumen unum; et rami arboris multi, sed robur]
[unum tenaci radice fundatum; et cum de fonte uno rivi plurimi de-]
[fluunt, numerositas licet diffusa videatur exundantis copie largitate,]
[unitas tamen servatur in origine. Avelle radium solis a corpore, di-]
[visionem lucis unitas non capit; ab arbore frange ramum, fractus]
[germinare non poterit; a fonte preecide rivum, preecisus arescet: sic]
[ecclesia Domini luce perfusa per orbem totum radios suos porrigit,]
[unum tamen lumen est quod ubique diffunditur, nec unitas corporis]
[separatur; ramos suos in universam terram copia ubertatis extendit,]
[profluentes largiter rivos latius expandit; unum tamen caput est, et]
[origo una, et una mater feecunditatis successibus copiosa.—Cyprian.]
[Lib. de Unit. Eccles. (al. de Simplicitate Prelatorum.) Opp. p. 108.]
[Oxon. 1682.]]
they differ from us, or we from them, hath been said in the eighth Sermon of our third Decade. Again, there are mingled with the holy church evil men and hypocrites; but the church is not separated for evil men: for even as traitors mingled with citizens and not yet discovered make not two commonwealths; so although evil men cleave to good, yet are they both gathered into one church. And when hypocrites depart from the unity of the church, the church is not rent in pieces, but becometh purer. For excellently? saith St Augustine, that evil men or hypocrites are that in the church that chaff is amongst wheat, cockle in standing corn, traitors in a city, and runagates amongst soldiers. But it is plain, that wheat is the cleaner, standing corn the lustier, citizens safer, and soldiers the stronger, when runagates, traitors, cockle and chaff, are separated from them: yea, and except sometimes rotten members of the church be cut off from the ecclesiastical body, the church cannot be in safety. And particular or several churches are as towns or cities in a kingdom: the multitude of cities divideth not a kingdom. Of particular churches dispersed throughout all the world, as a body of many members, is gathered and compacted together the catholic and universal church, which is the fellowship of all the saints. Therefore most certain it is that there is but one only church of God, not many, whereof the only monarch is Jesus Christ; to whom be glory. The unity and united society of this church of God is so With great, that out of her fellowship is there no people found lighter acceptable unto God, any true salvation or safety, any light or truth; for without the pale of God’s church are no wholesome pastures found, all are infected with poison. No religion pleaseth God out of the church of God. If of old time any man had sacrificed to God himself without the tabernacle or temple, in the high places, he was accounted to have sacrificed to devils, and esteemed to have shed innocent blood. Rightly therefore the blessed martyr and bishop of Carthage, Cyprian, hath left in writing: Whosoever De separated from the church is joined to an adulterous church, torum. the same man is separated from the promises of the church: neither pertaineth he to Christ’s merits, which hath left the church of Christ. He is a stranger, he is unclean, he is an