{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4283","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":4,"chapter_to":4,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":2,"verse_to":2},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Cyprian</b>: In reference, however, to the character of Novatian, dearest brother, of whom you desired that intelligence should be written you what heresy he had introduced; know that, in the first place, we ought not even to be inquisitive as to what he teaches, so long as he teaches out of the pale of unity. Whoever he may be, and whatever he may be, he who is not in the Church of Christ is not a Christian. Although he may boast himself, and announce his philosophy or eloquence with lofty words, yet he who has not maintained brotherly love or ecclesiastical unity has lost even what he previously had been. Unless he seems to you to be a bishop, who-when a bishop has been made in the Church by sixteen co-bishops-strives by bribery to be made an adulterous and extraneous bishop by the hands of deserters; and although there is one Church, divided by Christ throughout the whole world into many members, and also one episcopate diffused through a harmonious multitude of many bishops; in spite of God's tradition, in spite of the combined and everywhere compacted unity of the Catholic Church, is endeavouring to make a human church, and is sending his new apostles through very many cities, that he may establish some new foundations of his own appointment. And although there have already been ordained in each city, and through all the provinces, bishops old in years, sound in faith, proved in trial, proscribed in persecution, (this one) dares to create over these other and false bishops: as if he could either wander over the whole world with the persistence of his new endeavour, or break asunder the structure of the ecclesiastical body, by the propagation of his own discord, not knowing that schismatics are always fervid at the beginning, but that they cannot increase nor add to what they have unlawfully begun, but that they immediately fail together with their evil emulation. But he could not hold the episcopate, even if he had before been made bishop, since he has cut himself off from the body of his fellow-bishops, and from the unity of the Church; since the apostle admonishes that we should mutually sustain one another, and not withdraw from the unity which God has appointed, and says, \"Bearing with one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.\" He then who neither maintains the unity of the Spirit nor the bond of peace, and separates himself from the band of the Church, and from the assembly of priests, can neither have the power nor the honour of a bishop, since he has refused to maintain either the unity or the peace of the episcopate.<br/><i>— Epistle LI</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: Charity is the bond of brotherhood, the foundation of peace, the holdfast and security of unity, which is greater than both hope and faith, which excels both good works and martyrdoms, which will abide with us always, eternal with God in the kingdom of heaven. Take from it patience; and deprived of it, it does not endure. Take from it the substance of bearing and of enduring, and it continues with no roots nor strength. The apostle, finally, when he would speak of charity, joined to it endurance and patience. \"Charity,\" he says, \"is large-souled; charity is kind; charity envieth not, is not puffed up, is not provoked, thinketh not evil; loveth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, beareth all things.\" Thence he shows that it can tenaciously persevere, because it knows how to endure all things. And in another place: \"Forbearing one another,\" he says, \"in love, using every effort to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.\" He proved that neither unity nor peace could be kept unless brethren should cherish one another with mutual toleration, and should keep the bond of concord by the intervention of patience.<br/><i>— Treatise IX. On the Advantage of Patience.</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: He speaks of several forms of forbearance, each of which prevents them from being carried away or proud. Lowliness is first, then meekness. Lowliness consists in having a humble mind. Meekness is a curb on pride and cruelty. Patience consists in bearing any adverse circumstance that may befall them. With lowliness and meekness they learn not to be afraid to suffer. With patience they learn how to respond if they must suffer.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 1.4.2-4</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: Anyone who understands what it is \"forbear one another in love\" will understand that this is a precept appropriate to the faithful. It is not indeed saints who have any need to \"forbear one another.\" Rather it is those in the earlier stages of Christian life, who being human are still under the control of some passion. Nor is it strange that this should be said to the Ephesians. Among them there were surely some who still had to bear patiently with others.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 4:2</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"With all lowliness and meekness.\" The righteous, when they are in tribulations, are then especially more energetic, and when they are in bonds: for to suffer any thing for Christ's sake is the sweetest of all consolation.</p><p>Let us learn not to sink under affliction, nor to repine; for look at this blessed saint. He had been scourged, and sorely scourged, for it is said, \"When they had laid many stripes upon them.\" He had been bound too, and that again sorely, for the jailor cast him into the inner ward, and with extraordinary security. And though he was in so many perils, at midnight, when even the most wakeful are asleep with sleep, another and a stronger bond upon them, they chanted and sang praise unto the Lord. What can be more adamantine than these souls? They bethought them how that the holy Children sang even in fire and furnace. Perhaps they thus reasoned with themselves, \"we have as yet suffered nothing like that.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: But how is it possible to \"walk worthily\" of it? \"With all lowliness.\" Such an one walks worthily. This is the basis of all virtue. If thou be lowly, and bethink thee what thou art, and how thou wast saved, thou wilt take this recollection as a motive to all virtue. Thou wilt neither be elated with bonds, nor with those very privileges which I mentioned, but as knowing that all is of grace, thou wilt humble thyself. The lowly-minded man is able to be at once a generous and a grateful servant. \"For what hast thou,\" saith he \"that thou didst not receive?\" And again, hear his words, \"I labored more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.\"</p><p>\"With all lowliness,\" saith he; not that which is in words, nor that which is in actions only, but even in one's very bearing and tone of voice: not lowly towards one, and rude towards another; be lowly towards all men, be he friend or foe, be he great or small. This is lowliness. Even in thy good deeds be lowly; for hear what Christ saith, \"Blessed are the poor in spirit;\" and He places this first in order. Wherefore also the Apostle himself saith, \"With all lowliness, and meekness, and long-suffering.\" For it is possible for a man to be lowly, and yet quick and irritable, and thus all is to no purpose; for oftentimes he will be possessed by his anger, and ruin all.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 9</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"Forbearing,\" he proceeds, \"one another in love.\"</p><p>How is it possible to forbear, if a man be passionate or censorious? He hath told us therefore the manner: \"in love,\" saith he. If thou, he would say, art not forbearing to thy neighbor, how shall God be forbearing to thee? If thou bearest not with thy fellow-servant, how shall the Master bear with thee? Wherever there is love, all things are to be borne.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 9</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"1ae197c0b17ade8905f74f6796132b0661dc461b93415c6922d0d73a5993866b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4283,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"6fdcc4ff4fb0b93925e5c29840f4acb12142d934621c35e18b11248a47ccac79","translator":null,"work":null}