1. Since the Lord warns us, saying, “Ye are the salt of the earth,” and since He bids us to be simple to harmlessness, and yet with our simplicity to

 2. From which an example is given us to avoid the way of the old man, to stand in the footsteps of a conquering Christ, that we may not again be incau

 3. But, beloved brethren, not only must we beware of what is open and manifest, but also of what deceives by the craft of subtle fraud. And what can b

 4. If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion and arguments.  There is easy proof for faith in a short s

 5. And this unity we ought firmly to hold and assert, especially those of us that are bishops who preside in the Church, that we may also prove the ep

 6. The spouse of Christ cannot be adulterous she is uncorrupted and pure. She knows one home she guards with chaste modesty the sanctity of one couc

 7. This sacrament of unity, this bond of a concord inseparably cohering, is set forth where in the Gospel the coat of the Lord Jesus Christ is not at

 8. Who, then, is so wicked and faithless, who is so insane with the madness of discord, that either he should believe that the unity of God can be div

 9. Therefore also the Holy Spirit came as a dove, a simple and joyous creature, not bitter with gall, not cruel in its bite, not violent with the rend

 10. Hence heresies not only have frequently been originated, but continue to be so while the perverted mind has no peace—while a discordant faithless

 11. Against people of this kind the Lord cries from these He restrains and recalls His erring people, saying, “Hearken not unto the words of the fals

 12. Nor let any deceive themselves by a futile interpretation, in respect of the Lord having said, “Wheresoever two or three are gathered together in

 13. Thus, also, when He gave the law of prayer, He added, saying, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any that your Father

 14. Even if such men were slain in confession of the Name, that stain is not even washed away by blood: the inexpiable and grave fault of discord is n

 15. For both to prophesy and to cast out devils, and to do great acts upon the earth is certainly a sublime and an admirable thing but one does not a

 16. This evil, most faithful brethren, had long ago begun, but now the mischievous destruction of the same evil has increased, and the envenomed plagu

 17. Yet let not the excessive and headlong faithlessness of many move or disturb us, but rather strengthen our faith in the truthfulness which has for

 18. Thus Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, who endeavoured to claim to themselves the power of sacrificing in opposition to Moses and Aaron the priest, under

 19. These, doubtless, they imitate and follow, who, despising God’s tradition, seek after strange doctrines, and bring in teachings of human appointme

 20. Nor let any one marvel, beloved brethren, that even some of the confessors advance to these lengths, and thence also that some others sin thus wic

 21. Confession is the beginning of glory, not the full desert of the crown nor does it perfect our praise, but it initiates our dignity and since it

 22. For the Lord chose Judas also among the apostles, and yet afterwards Judas betrayed the Lord. Yet not on that account did the faith and firmness o

 23. I indeed desire, beloved brethren, and I equally endeavour and exhort, that if it be possible, none of the brethren should perish, and that our re

 24. The Holy Spirit warns us, and says, “What man is he that desireth to live, and would fain see good days? Refrain thy tongue from evil, and thy lip

 25. This unanimity formerly prevailed among the apostles and thus the new assembly of believers, keeping the Lord’s commandments, maintained its char

 26. But in us unanimity is diminished in proportion as liberality of working is decayed. Then they used to give for sale houses and estates and that

9. Therefore also the Holy Spirit came as a dove, a simple and joyous creature, not bitter with gall, not cruel in its bite, not violent with the rending of its claws, loving human dwellings, knowing the association of one home; when they have young, bringing forth their young together; when they fly abroad, remaining in their flights by the side of one another, spending their life in mutual intercourse, acknowledging the concord of peace with the kiss of the beak, in all things fulfilling the law of unanimity. This is the simplicity that ought to be known in the Church, this is the charity that ought to be attained, that so the love of the brotherhood may imitate the doves, that their gentleness and meekness may be like the lambs and sheep. What does the fierceness of wolves do in the Christian breast? What the savageness of dogs, and the deadly venom of serpents, and the sanguinary cruelty of wild beasts? We are to be congratulated when such as these are separated from the Church, lest they should lay waste the doves and sheep of Christ with their cruel and envenomed contagion. Bitterness cannot consist and be associated with sweetness, darkness with light, rain with clearness, battle with peace, barrenness with fertility, drought with springs, storm with tranquillity. Let none think that the good can depart from the Church. The wind does not carry away the wheat, nor does the hurricane uproot the tree that is based on a solid root. The light straws are tossed about by the tempest, the feeble trees are overthrown by the onset of the whirlwind. The Apostle John execrates and severely assails these, when he says, “They went forth from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, surely they would have continued with us.”33    1 John ii. 19.

IX. Idcirco et in columba venit Spiritus sanctus: simplex animal et laetum, non felle amarum, non morsibus saevum, non unguium laceratione violentum, hospitia humana diligere, unius domus consortium nosse; cum generant, simul filios edere, cum commeant, volatibus invicem cohaerere, communi conversatione vitam suam degere, oris osculo concordiam pacis agnoscere, legem circa omnia unanimitatis 0506C implere. Haec est in Ecclesia noscenda simplicitas, haec charitas obtinenda, ut columbas dilectio fraternitatis imitetur, ut mansuetudo et lenitas agnis et ovibus aequetur. Quid facit in pectore christiano luporum feritas et canum rabies et venenum lethale serpentum et cruenta saevitia bestiarum? Gratulandum est cum tales de Ecclesia separantur, ne columbas, 0507A ne oves Christi saeva sua et venenata contagione praedentur. Cohaerere et conjungi non potest amaritudo cum dulcedine, caligo cum lumine, pluvia cum serenitate, pugna cum pace, cum foecunditate sterilitas, cum fontibus siccitas, cum tranquillitate tempestas. Nemo existimet bonos de Ecclesia posse discedere: triticum non rapit ventus, nec arborem solida radice fundatam procella subvertit; inanes paleae tempestate jactantur, invalidae arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur. Hos execratur et percutit Joannes apostolus dicens: Ex nobis exierunt, sed non fuerunt ex nobis: si enim fuissent ex nobis, mansissent utique nobiscum (I Joan. II, 19).