is, making you cry. For it is we that cry; but in Him, that is, by His shedding abroad love in
our hearts, without which whoso crieth, crieth in vain. Whence he says again, “If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”2454 To which Person then in the Trinity
could the communion of this fellowship peculiarly appertain, but to that Spirit which is
common to the Father and the Son?
30. That they who have separated from the Church have not this Spirit, the Apostle Jude
has declared most plainly, saying, “Who separate themselves, natural, having not the Spir-
it.”2455 Whence the Apostle Paul reproving those even in the Church itself, who by the
names of men, though having a place in her unity, were raising a kind of schism, says amongst
other things, “But the natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis-
cerned.”2456 This shows his meaning, “doth not perceive,” that is doth not receive the word
of knowledge. These as having a place in the Church, he speaks of as babes, not yet spiritual,
but still carnal, and such as are to be fed with milk, not with meat. “Even,” he says, “as unto
babes in Christ, have I given you milk and not meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear
it, neither yet now are ye able.”2457 When we say, “not yet,” we must not despair, if that
which is “not yet” tends to be. For he says, “ye are yet carnal.” And showing how it is that
they are carnal, he says, “For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions,
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are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” And again more plainly, “For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I of Apollos, are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos,
but ministers by whom ye believed?”2458 These then, that is, Paul and Apollos, agreed to-
gether in the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace; and yet because the Corinthians
began to divide them among themselves, and “to be puffed up for one against another,” they
are said to be men—carnal and natural men, not able to receive the things of the Spirit of
God; and yet because they are not separated from the Church, they are called “babes in
Christ;” for indeed he desired that they should be either Angels, or even Gods, whom he
reproved because they were men, that is, in those contentions, “They savoured not the things
which be of God, but the things which be of men.”2459 But of those who are separated from
the Church it is not merely said, “perceiving not the things of the Spirit of God,” lest it
should be referred to the perception of knowledge; but it is said, “Having not the Spirit.”
For it does not follow, that he who hath it, should also by knowledge perceive what he hath.
2454 Rom. viii. 9.
2455 Jude 19.
2456 1 Cor. ii. 14.
2457 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2, 3, Vulgate.
2458 1 Cor. iii. 4, 5.
2459 Matt. xvi. 23.
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On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xii. 32, ‘Whosoever shall speak a word…