1. The Apostle in
his letter to the Ephesians, reviewing in its manifold aspects the full
and perfect mystery of the Gospel, mingles with other instructions in
the knowledge of God the following: As ye also were called in
one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, and through all, and in us all Eph. iv. 4–6.. He does not leave us in the vague
and misleading paths of an indefinite teaching, or abandon us to the
shifting fancies of imagination, but limits the unimpeded license of
intellect and desire by the appointment of restraining barriers.
He gives us no opportunity to be wise beyond what he preached, but
defines in exact and precise language the faith fixed for all time,
that there may be no excuse for instability of belief. He
declares one faith, as he preaches one Lord, and pronounces one
baptism, as he declares one faith of one Lord, that as there is one
faith of one Lord, so there may be one baptism of one faith in one
Lord. And since the whole mystery of the baptism and the faith is
not only in one Lord, but also in one God, he completes the
consummation of our hope by the confession of one God. The one
baptism and the one faith are of one God, as they are of one
Lord. Lord and God are each one, not by union of person but by
distinction of properties: for, on the one hand, it is the
property of Each to be one, whether of the Father in His Fatherhood, or
of the Son in His Sonship, and on the other hand, that property of
individuality, which Each possesses, constitutes for Each the mystery
of His union with the Other. Thus the one Lord Christ cannot take
away from God the Father His Lordship, or the one God the Father deny
to the one Lord Christ His Godhead. If, because God is one,
Christ is not also by nature divine, then we cannot allow that the one
God is Lord, because there is one Lord Christ: that is, on the
supposition that by their oneness’ is signified not the mystery,
but an exclusive unity. So there is one baptism and one faith of
one Lord, as of one God.