“If it be asked who possess the virtue of the love of God, it will be found that they only have it who adhere to Unity. As we are seeking the Church of Christ, let us listen to him who redeemed her with his blood, and who said to the Apostles, (Acts i. 8.) you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judæa, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. He that does not communicate with this Church, thus diffused, communicates not with him whose words have been recited. And where can be greater folly than to partake of the sacraments of the Lord, and despise his words? These will say, In thy name we have eaten and drunk; and they will hear the reply, I know you not. In the sacrament they eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord; and they hold not with his members, spread, as the Gospel promises, throughout the world.” Contra Litteras Petilian. L. ii. c. 55. Ibid. p. 256. “The question between us and the Donatists is, where the Church of God is; with us, or with them? This Church is one, denominated by our ancestors Catholic,-) to denote, by the very name, that it is every where diffused. The Greek word signifies this. This Church is the body of Christ, as the Apostle says, (Coloss. 1.) whence it is manifest that he cannot obtain Christian salvation, a) who is not among the members of Christ. But these members are associated by the charity of Unity, and by the same cohere to the head, which head is Christ.” Ep. ad Catholicos, c. ii. Ibid. p. 338. He proceeds to shew, at great length, from all the Scriptures, new and old, that the Church of all nations, that is, the Catholic Church, one in faith wherever it was preached, could alone be the Church of Christ; and that the pretended Church of Donatus, separated from the body, and separated from the head, was schismatical, and in which there was no salvation.
