prolonged paraphrase may serve to bring out the innumerable points
of interest in that rich passage in which St. Paul as it were gives the
reins to his imagination and his feelings in order to describe the
glory of the unity of the Church.

{150} I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk
worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness
and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;
giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
_There_ is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one
hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But unto
each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift
of Christ. Wherefore he saith,

When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.

(Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the
lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that
ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
And he gave some _to be_ apostles; and some, prophets; and some
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the
saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body
of Christ: till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of
the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no longer
children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of
doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of
error; but speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into him,
which is the head, _even_ Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed
and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according
to the working in _due_ measure of each several part, maketh the
increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.

{151}

In this great conception of church unity there are several points to
which special attention must be given.

i.

The Church is one, first of all, because a common inward life, the
Spirit, from a common source, Christ, flows in her veins and makes her
to be one body. What is this 'unity of Spirit?' says Chrysostom. 'As
in a body it is spirit which holds all together, and makes that to be a
unity which consists of different limbs, so it is in