Holy Spirit, preaching the good news that the Kingdom of God is coming.
Through countryside and city they preached; and they appointed their
earliest converts, testing them by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons
of future believers. Nor was this a novelty: for bishops and deacons had
been written about a long time earlier. Indeed, Scripture somewhere says:
‘I will set up their bishops in righteousness and their deacons in faith’.”
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 3, 4, 1 (c. 180 AD)
“When, therefore, we have such proofs, it is not necessary to seek among
others the truth which is easily obtained from the Church. For the Apostles,
like a rich man in a bank, deposited with her most copiously everything
which pertains to the truth; and everyone who wishes draws from her the
drink of life. For she is the entrance to life, while all the rest are thieves and
robbers. That is why it is surely necessary to avoid them, while cherishing
with the utmost diligence the things pertaining to the Church, and to lay
hold of the tradition of truth...In the Church, God has placed apostles,
prophets and doctors, and all the other means through which the Spirit
works; in all of which none have any part who do not conform to the
Church. On the contrary, they defraud themselves of life by their wicked
opinion and most wretched behavior. For where the Church is, there is the
Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God, there is the Church and every
grace.”
Clement of Alexandria, Miscellanies 7, 17, 107, 3 (ante 217 AD)
“From what has been said, then, it seems clear to me that the true Church,
that which is really ancient, is one; and in it are enrolled those who, in
accord with a design are just...We say, therefore, that in substance, in
concept, in origin and in eminence, the ancient and Catholic Church is
alone, gathering as it does into the unity of the one faith which results from
the familiar covenants––or rather, from the one covenant in different times,
by the will of the one God and through the one Lord––those already
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