these factious fraternities. And I am not saying
anything of other discords in the papacy--among the monasteries and
in the parishes, and between these and the cloisters everywhere,
perpetual quarreling, rioting and bitter contention. Such is
inevitably the case when righteousness and divine worship are made to
consist in external self-devised works and forms, for then each
individual, pleased with his own ideas, thinks his way right; under
such circumstances, there can never be unanimity of opinion as to
what is right and the best.

17. "From these numerous sources of disunion and idolatry," Paul
would say to the Corinthians, "you are now delivered. You know you
embrace the real Word of God, the true faith. You worship one God,
one Lord, and enjoy the same grace, the same Spirit, the same
salvation. You need not seek other forms and ceremonies as essential
to salvation--wearing a white or a gray cowl, refraining from this or
that food, forbearing to touch certain things. No diversity of
external service, of persons, offices and conditions, destroys the
unity in Christ.

"But take heed to continue in unity, to hold fast to it.
Unquestionably, you should be made wiser by the experience you have
had with error; in the future you ought to be prudent, and watchful
against being allured from the unity of this settled mind and true
faith into your former blindness again. But so it will certainly
befall you if you forget such grace and seek your own honor and
praise more than the doctrine of the Holy Spirit and his gifts, and
come to despise one another and to conduct yourselves as if you had
many and not the same God, the same Christ, the same Spirit. God's
gifts cannot be different from, but must be one with his nature, and
hence he cannot give to one a better Gospel or a different baptism
from that given another."

In short, Paul teaches there must be unity in Christ, otherwise we
have no Christ, no God and Holy Spirit, no grace nor salvation; as
the next verse emphasizes.

"Wherefore I make known unto you that no man speaking in the Spirit
of God saith, Jesus is anathema [calleth Jesus accursed]; and no man
can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit."

18. "Why make divisions and differences," Paul inquires, "in the
doctrine and faith of the Church, which rests wholly upon the one
Christ? In him you are to be one if you are Christians at all; you
must harmoniously praise him, according to your individual gifts.