- K • 4 7/ $>- George Washington Flowers Memorial Collection DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ESTABLISHED BY THE FAMILY OF COLONEL FLOWERS FAITH, THE VICTORY; OR, A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW or THE PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES or THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. BY Rt. Rev. JOHN McGILL, D. D. BISHOP O* RICHMOND. '•This is the Victory, which overcometh the World, our Faith." 1 John v: 4. " In the Catholic Church itself, very great care is to be taken that we h%ld that which hath been believed every where, always, and by all." — Commonitorium of Vincent of Lirint. RICHMOND: J. W. RANDOLPH, 121 Main Street. % 1865. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by Rt. Rev. John McGill, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Confederate States of America, for the Eastern Dis- trict of Virginia. ■• Macfarlane & Fergusson, Printers. =# 3 ■/ DEDICATION. We presume to dedicate to our Father in Christ, His Holiness Pope Pius IX., this little volume, as an affec- tionate token of admiration of his eminent talents, ex- alted virtues, and benevolent character, and of humble submission to his supreme authority, as visible head of the Church, and vicar of Jesus Christ. The Author. PREFACE. The actual condition of the country, because of the deplorable and sanguinary war now waged, and of the blockade which is enforced, prevents us from procuring the many excellent works, which have been written and published elsewhere, for explaining and defending the doctrines of religion. Yet it is not only desirable, but even most necessary, that we should have some books of religious instruction for our people, and especially for the youth of both sexes, who, either in the schools, or under the paternal roof, are at present receiving their education. Moreover, 'among those not of our church, there appears to be a growing disposition to be- come acquainted with Catholic doctrines, and to exam- ine for themselves into the nature and grounds of our faith, and it is difficult for^them to obtain the necessary books, or for the priests, from whom they are asked, to furnish them. 'As in other cases, when men cannot obtain what is deemed ^necessary or very^important, they exert themselves to prepare a suitable substitute which may answer, I have been induced, in view of our manifest need,] to write and publish this volume, not- withstanding'thc/liflicultics attending suchjin enterprise in our 'present' circumstances. I entertain the hope that my § Right Reverend and Reverend Brethren of the Clergy, to whose enlightened criticism I submit it, be- ing prepared to receive and profit by their suggestions, VI PREFACE. will not find it unworthy of their approbation and pat- ronage, and that both for members of the church, and for candid and ingenuous readers of other denomina- tions, it will not be without interest and utility, even though they may have access to the standard works, which give expositions of the various points of our doc- trines. Many of these are in the catechetical form, not the most pleasing to some minds, and which I have not adopted, though I recognize and appreciate its advanta- ges. I have also aimed to condense as much as I have been able, without a sacrifice of perspicuity, in order to present a general view of our principal tenets in a small volume. I must, however, admonish the reader, that it was more my purpose to set before him a plain statement of the principal doctrines of religion, than to bring forward the various proofs from the Holy Scrip- tures and from the testimonies of early Fathers and Doctors, which might be adduced, and which manifest that they are divine revelations and Apostolical tradi- tions. I desired to show what is taught by the church, and what we have to receive with faith, giving on different points some of the proofs, but not to exhibit and controvert the various errors and objections, at different times, devised by the pride of human reason, in scrutinizing the mysteries of God, and the claims of his church. From the text of St. John, on the title page, will be perceived the reason why I call this book, " Faith, the Victory." The greatest victory, that man can achieve, is that by which he conquers his own passions, • and thus foils all his enemies, "the world, the flesh, and the devil," and merits the crown of glory and everlast- ing life. " To him who shall overcome, I will give to PJRKFAl Vll sit with me in my throne, ns 1 also have overcome, and am set down with my Father, in his throne." Apoe. iii. 21. But this victory, over self and over our spi- ritual enemies, can only be obtained by faith, which hears, believes, and obeys God. "An obedient man shall speak of victory." Prov. xxi. 28. When God reveals any thing, our duty is to believe and obey him. To begin to reason about what he has revealed is to act unreasonably. We should use our reason to examine if God has spoken, but not to inquire whether what he says is credible. The reason of God is infinitely su- perior to our reason, and he can reveal to us things above our comprehension. We can only know what God has said, in the sense he has said it, from his church. It is therefore only by " hearing the church,"' that avc can have faith, which will enable us to over- come ourselves, and secure salvation. Many, who have come into life to receive immediate- ly the blessing of the true faith by baptism, being born of Catholic parents, and having the opportunity to be instructed, lose the victory because of their ignorance of the principles and reasons of their faith. They ne- glect to study the motives of credibility, to understand exactly what the church has defined, and to ascertain upon what grounds and proofs she rests her teaching, and when their faith is misrepresented and denounced as absurd, they know not what to reply, become asham- ed of what should be their glory, and therefore they fall away in time of temptation. Had they been equal- ly ignorant on all other matters, they might have been secure in the humility which confides in the authority of the church, and asks only to know what it is n< ■> sary to believe and do in order to secure eternal life. VIII PREFACE. ^ But thinking themselves wise, they imagine that they should be able to defend all they should profess, without having, by study and reading, acquired the necessary science, which would qualify them to know precisely what the doctrines are, and to detect the misrepresen- tations and sophisms by which they are impugned. But it is almost impossible to induce men to interest themselves about that which is most important to them, their eternal destiny, and the means to ensure their happiness forever. Either they are unwilling to sub- mit their minds in obedience to farther unwilling, when they do believe, to " deny themselves and carry the cross," as Jesus Christ requires to be done by those who would follow him to his glory. As I have undertaken to treat of those"doctrines, upon which depend the destinies of men for eternity, and where it is of the utmost importance to present only what is true, it is a duty and satisfaction to sub- mit the whole, to the judgment of the Holy See, whose authority is supreme, and I do this with the ready will, to expunge any thing which it may find herein not con- sistent with Divine revelation and Catholic doctrine. I have, however, been as careful as I could be, to present as pertaining to faith, only that which is certainly re- vealed in the Word of God, and believed in the church. With this declaration, and noting that the last chapter is less complete than those preceding, because I had to condense three that were prepared, in order to avoid increased cost, I leave, the book to the considerate atten- tion and impartial judgment of the reader. Ricikmond/JFebruary, 1865. PRINCIPAL DOCTRINES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. CHAPTER I. The Existence of God. — The Nature of God. — The Unity of God. — The Trinity. " The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God;"* but this denial springs up in the heart from a corrupt will, and .is never the conclusion of the mind. The denial of the existence of God cannot in any sane mind find place, since in addition to the intimate sense of God's existence, whiah every one has, there are irre- sistible proofs, adduced from the principles of metaphy- sics, and from the experience of a Supreme Providence overruling the world and human affairs, superadded to the express revelation which the Deity has made of himself, that establishes the fact beyond all doubt. There never was a nation that did not worship some God ; for as the Fsalmist declares : " The light of thy countenance, Lord, is signed upon us." f The won- derful order of the different parts of the universe mani- festly declares the supreme architect. For as Cicero says : "No art, no hand, no workman can, by imitating attain the dexterity and skill found in nature." J Even the human body itself, with its wonderful conformation, and its co-ordination of so many delicate parts, proclaims its divine Maker. " The heavens show forth the glory of God, and the firmament declareth the work of hia i ... — - — ..—i ■ — ■ - ■ - - *■» ■ .^ — ■ ■ - *Ps xni. 1.- fPi. fr; 1 $De Nat, Deor. lib. 2. * 2 OF Got). hands,"* says the Royal Prophet ; and we read in wisdom : "For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen, so as to be known thereby." f The Nature of Crod. No words can more fitly express to our minds the divine nature, than those which Moses represents that he received from God himself: "I am who am." These words indicate a being, self-existing, depending upon no other being, and upon whom all other beings are de- pendent ; and whatever perfection can be thought or imagined must belong to this being, self- existent, in- dependent, and therefore infinite. To exist of himself, dependent upon no other, is to be eternal, infinite, and to have all possible perfections. God, being supremely perfect, is therefore a pure spirit, most simple in his nature, eternal, immense, im- mutable, knowing all things, omnipotent, and ruling all things. God is a pure spirit, and has not those things which are perceived by the human senses. He is sim- ple,' or without parts, and, .having neither commence- ment nor ending, exists always the same. Eternity is defined by Boetius : " The entire and perfect posses- sion of interminable life." X In God there is no before and afterwards, no succession, or distinction of past and future, but the plenitude of life. He is immense, be- cause circumscribed neither by place nor time, he exists everywhere, and fills all things. He is not subject to vicissitude or change, and all things are present to him, and he sees the past and the future at the same glance. There is nothing which involves power, that lies not within the reach of his omnipotence ; and if there be any thing he cannot do, it is only such things as involve imbecility, weakness, imperfection, or deficiency in the *Ps. xviii; 2. | Wisdom, ch.xiii: 5. iBoetius lib., 3, tie con- Bolfttiooe. OF GOD. 3 one who should do them. All things else depend on him, because he created, preserve?, and governs them according to hi3 own supreme will and pleasure. The Psalmist says: "He spoke and they were made ; He commanded, and they were created."* "When Thou openest thy hand, they shall all be filled with good. But if Thou turn away thy face, they shall be troubled : Thou shalt take away their breath and they shall fail, and shall return to the dust."f • • Of the Unit?/ of God. God is one. " If God is not one, there is no God," . gays Tertullian. Indeed the supreme, absolute, and in- finite could not be found in two or more beings.. The absolutely perfect and infinite admits of nothing equal to it. For supreme perfection is to have no equal. When 'the pagans worshipped many gods, they were sub- jected to gross blindness of mind and obduracy of heart, and " professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God, into the likeness of the image of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and of creeping things." X Not the common herd only, but the Philosophers and learned, because of sin, were given over to this reprobate sense ; "Because that when they knew God, they have not glorified him as God, or given thanks; but became vain in their thoughts, and their foolish heart was darkened." But even the pagans had the idea of the Supreme Deity. And they could never have supposed that those men and inferior crea- tures, so foolishly considered by them as gods, could be endowed with the infinite attributes and perfections, which can only be found in one being. " Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God is one God;"§ and again : " See ye that I alone am, and there is no other God besides me." || *Ps.cxlviii: 5. |Ps. ciii 28,29. JRom. 1 : 22, 23. §Deut. i: 4. ||Ib. xxxii: 39. OF GOD. The Most Holy Trinity, God, though one in his divine being and nature, ex- ists in. a trinity of persons. This article of divine faith is a sublime mystery, "which we are not bound to com- prehend, but to believe. "Teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."* The Constantinopolitan creed says: "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, and yet these are not three Gods, la.it on- ly one God." And "These three are one," says the Apostle St. John.t It follows from God's revelation that this is true, even though we may not comprehend it. Our reason is not able to comprehend the infinite. But our reason tells us, that the infinitely perfect being cannot teach us a falsehood. If we were required to be- lieve that God is one and three under the same respects, it might seem to us absurd, but we are taught that God is one in respect to his being and essence, but three under the respect of personality only — " one God in three persons." And if God tells us this is*so, we can only say : I do not comprehend how it is so ; but w r e cannot say, I do not believe it. Because God is worthy 4o be believed, and we ought " to bring into captivity our understanding unto the obedience of Christ."! The mystery requires us to believe that all the divine attri- butes, eternity, majesty, omnipotence, omniscience, and all absolute perfections belong equally to each of these three divine persons, because they are all one God, and one God only. The Father is the fountain and origin of the others, himself produced from no other, and called Father, be- cause from eternity and always, He generates the^Son coiiSubstantial with himself — that is, of the same sub- stance with Him. "God of God, light of light, true God of true God."§ The Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity, *Math. xxviii: 23. f I John v: 7. |2 Cor. x : §Nicene Creed. OF SOD. .S generated, not made, and is called the Word, the wis- dom of the Father. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one principle, but He is not generated. He is a person, and the term of the mutual love which the Father and the Son have for each other. In contemplating this mystery, we should not allowour imagination to seize upon it, as if we could picture it to ourselves. We cannot imagine that this generation and procession, require priority, because in God there is no succession of time, but the generation and proces- sion are always, as God exists always from eternity to eternity. To help us slightly to understand this, we may consider how light proceeds from the sun, and yet both are of the same antiquity of time. But God ex- ists in Eternity, and the three divine persons have the same antiquity, notwithstanding the generation of the Son, and the profession of the Holy Ghost. We* be- lieve this, because it is the revelation which God has made to us concerning himself. While the human mind cannot comprehend this mystery, yet having known it by revelation, it sometimes makes an effort to show, from the image thereof found in man, that it must of necessity be found in God. Of this we have an exam- ple in the Sixth Elevation of Bossuet, on the mystery of the Trinity. He writes : "We exist, we understand, we will. Now, to understand and to will is not abso- lutely the 'same tiling; tfere it absolutely the same thing, persons would not distinguish them. But they do distinguish them : for we understand what we do not will, what we do not love, although we cannot love or will what we do not understand. God understands and knows what he does not love — as for example,, sin ; and how many things do we understand and hate, and which we would neither do nor suffer, because we understand that they are hurtful to us ?" " We are therefore something intelligent, something which understands itself and loves itself ; Taduch loves only what it understands, but which can know and un- derstand what it does not love. Thus to imderstaud t> OF GOD. and to love are distinct things, but so inseparable, that there is no knowledge without some will. And if man, like the angel, knew all that he is, his knowledge would be equal to his being.: and loving himself in proportion to his knowledge, his love w^uld be equal to the one and the other. And if the whole of this were ■well or- dered, the whole together would constitute but one and the same happiness of the same soul, and, to speak truly, of the same happy soul ; in this, that by the up j Tightness of its will, conformed to the truth of its knowledge, it would be just. Thus, these three things well ordered, to be, to know, and to will, make one only happy and just soul, which could not be without being known, nor be known without being loved, nor separate from itself one of these things, without losing the wIioIg entirely, and with the whole its happiness. For what would it import to a soul to be, and yet not know itself? or to know itself, and not to love itself in the manner it should to be truly happy — that is, without loving it- self in reference to God, who is the whole foundation of our happiness." " Thus, in our imperfect and defective manner, do we present the image of an incomprehensible mystery. A created Trinity, which God has placed in our souls, represents to us the uncreated Trinity, which He only could reveal to us ; and to make us represent it the better, he has mingled in our souls, which represent it, something of the incomprehensible. . We have seen that to understand and to will, to know and to love, are acts very distinct from each other ; but are they so distinct that'they are entirely and substantially different? This cannot be : the knowledge is nothing else than our soul affected in a certain way ; and the will, but the sub- stance of our soul, affected in another way. When I change either thought or will, have I this thought or will without my substance entering therein ? Undoubt- edly it enters; and at bottom it is nothing else than my substance affected, diversified, modified in different ways, but in its base always the same. For in chang- ing thought, I do not change substance ; and my sub* / aoD. stance remains one, whilst my thoughts come and go, and whilst my will goes on distinguishing itself in my soul, whence it continues to proceed ; just as my knowl- edge goes on distinguishing itself from my being, from which likewise it proceeds, and whilst both, viz : my knowledge and my will, in so many manners distin- guish themselves, and successively direct themselves to diverse objects, my substance ever remains the same at bottom, although it enters entirely into all these man- ners of being-, so different from each other." " God ! In whose presence I contemplate myself, and to myself am an enigma I I have soon in myself three things : to be, to understand, to wrll. Thou dost will that 1 should forever be, since thou hast given to me an immortal soul, the happiness or woe of which shall be eternal ; and didst Thou will it, I should un- derstand and will always the same thing ; for it is thus thou wiliest that I may be forever, when thou shalt make me happy by thy presence. Did I will and un- derstand but the same thing, as I have but one only being, I should also lime but one only knowledge and will, or, if the expression be preferred, one only to un- derstand and to will. However, my knowledge and my love or my will would not for this be less distinguished from each other, nor less identified — that is to say, would not be the less one with the basis of my being, with my substance. And my love or my will could not but proceed from my knowledge ; and my love would be always a thing Which I should produce within my- self, nor should I the less produce my knowledge ; and there would always be in me three things, being, or to be, producing knowledge, 'knowledge produced, and also love produced by the one and the other. And if 1 were of a nature incapable of all accidents occurring to its substance, and in which everything must of ne- cessity be substantial, my knoivledge and my love would be something substantial .and subsistent; and I should be three subsisting persons in one only substance — that is, I should be Grod." H "But as things are not thus with me, I am only made ?<• 01 AKfGBLfi. to the image and likeness of God, and an imperfect sketch of that unique substance, which is at the same time Father, Son and Holy Ghost ; a substance which is incomprehensible in its triune divinity, at bottom but one same thing, sovereign, immense, eternal, perfectly one, in three distinctly subsisting persons, equal to each other, consubstantial ; to whom is due one only worship, one only adoration, one only love." The length of this citation will be forgiven us, on account of its beauty, and even sublimity. Bossuet considers the soul a created trinity, and avers that were it in finite,. its three faculties or powers would be three subsisting persons. No accident can occur to the divine substance, infinite and eternal; and knowledge and Jove in God must then be something substantial, subsistent, living, and therefore in God there must he three living subsistences in one only substance — subsis- tences called divine persons, not in the sense of person applied to men, but in a sense as incomprehensible as the essence of God, which is one and indivisible, and belongs entire to^each of the three persons, who are uncreated, and distinct from each other in personality only. We cannot comprehend this Trinity of persons, nor this unity of substance and essence; nor-can we comprehend our soul, one substance and three powers, but we can believe these mysteries, because God reveals them. CHAPTER II. J Of Creation. — Of Angels. — Of Good Angels. — Of Demons. * r God crated Heaven and Earth, and all things that they contain. These things are called the works of God. op INGELS. * 9 They are the works of God, as the one first cauSe of *all things, and the three divine persons alike in them manifested their glory and power. Yet, in considering these works, we attribute different operations to the different persons of the Holy Trinity. What. flows from Omnipotence, is attributed to the* Father ; what from wisdom, to the Son, who is the Word and wisdom of the Father ; and what from goodness and love, to the Holy Ghost." This attribution to the different persons of the Holy Trinity assists our understanding to contemplate them, aad appeals "to our admiration, gratitude and love. God created the heavens and the earth " in the beginning." Upon the earth he placed the first Man and woman, whom also He created. But besides man, He created beings superior to men — for the Scriptures often speak to us of his angels. m Of the Angels. •At what time God created man, we are told in the Scriptures ; but these do not tell us at what time pre- cisely he created the angels. St. Epiphanius and others infer from the Scriptures, that the angels were not created after God had given existence to the stars, since it said in the book of Job: "When the morning stars praised me together, (or were made,) and all the sons of God made a joyful melody."* Nor were they cre- ated before the heavens and the earth, since before the creation of these no created things existed, because God created tjiese "in the beginning." We are taught by the church, that "from the begin- ning, God, by His omnipotent power, created out of nothing both creatures, the spiritual and the corporeal, to wit, the angelic and the mundane, and then the hu- man, as if common, constituted out of spirit and body."f From which declaration some infer that the angels were created before mere corporal things ; which seems also to be the opinion of St. Augustine. The angels are spiritual, intellectual creatures, without bodies, as theo- ; +- •.Ti>!>. eh. xxxviii: 7. "fCounc. Later., ell. i: 1, tin. 1 '-2 1 - > . 10 OF ANGELS. logians commonly teach, although no definition has been made by the church that they have no bodies.* "Wher makest thy angels spirits : and thy ministers a burning fire."f They have the power to know and to under- stand in a degree far superior to man. A character- istic difference between the angel -and the human soui is, that the angel of his own nature exists as spirit, while the human soul of its nature tends to a connexion with a human body. The body is its compliment, and though for a time it be separated from it by death, it- is again, at the resurrection, to be re-united with it. The number of the angels has not been made known to us, but from the Scriptures we learn that their num- ber is very great. We also find mention made of dif- ' ferent "ranks or orders. We are told of the seraphim, cherubim, thrones, dominations, principalities, powers, the virtues of Heaven, archangels, and angels. These constitute nine choirs, and by theologians these nine choirs have been classed in three hierarchies, each con- sisting of three choirs. As God created the angels, that he might bestow upon them eternal felicity, we are assured that He liberally granted to them whatever was necessary to enable them to secure this happiness, which consists in knowing God as He is, in loving Him, and possessing him forever. Of the angels, some obtained eternal felicity, and some, by their own fault, lost it. The first are called holy angels, or simply angels, the last are called devils, demons, evil spirits, the powers of darkness. In the beginning all the angels were good, their nature was good. But being intelligences, and endowed with lib- erty, they had to be subjected to trial. God, giving to them grace, left them to choose their lot freely. If they were faithful, and under this trial persevered in grace, their destiny was fixed in eternal happiness ; but infidelity brought a loss of grace, and eternal reproba- *Some have held the opinion that angels are invested with a sort of subt^body, rather spiritual than material ; but the Psalmist, as above^iMl, declares : "Who makest thy angels spirits." f Ps. cm : 4. OF .ANGELS. 11 K tion. Unfortunately, many of them, exalted -with pride because of their own excellence, fell by sin and became demons. Wishing to be independent of God, they were consigned to everlasting misery. " Two cities being thus formed, according to St. Au- gustine's idea, the city of the holy angels and the city of demons, there was an eternal separation between them. But in creation nothing is isolated, and between this world and the' world of spirits, there are numerous points of contact. Relations exist between men and the angels, both good and bad, as we are taught to be- lieve by the church. The good Angels in their Relations roitli Men. The sublime and acceptable office of those intelli- gences who remained faithful to God, ami who enjoy his friendship, was shown fo St. John, as he informs us in the Apocalypse : " And all the angels stood round about the throne, and the ancients, and the four living creatures ; and they fell clown before the throne upon their faces, and adored God saying : Amen. Benedic- tion, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen.!" * But besides their presence before God, they are his messengers, as their very name of angel imports. They are the instruments of his providence over men. The Holy Scriptures are full of testimonies to this truth, and the church has always taught it. St. Paul asks : " Arc they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister for them, who shall receive the inheritance of salva- tion ?"f The fathers speak of the angel who presided at baptism ; of the angel who intervened in the obla- tion, and bore it up to the sublime altar, w r hich is Jesus Christ; of the angel of prayer, who presented to God the vows of the faithful. "The ancients," writes Bossuet, "were so affected by this ministry of the angels, that Origen publickly ►Apoo. vii. 11. u. fHeb. i: H. 12 OF ANGELS. and directly invokes the angel of baptism, and recom- mends to him an old man, who was about to become the child of Jesus Christ by this sacrament." . . . 1 * When," Bossuet continues, " when^ I behold in the prophets, in the Apocalypse, in the gospels themselves, that angel of the Persians, that angel of the Greeks, that angel of the Jews, (Dan. x. : 13, 20, 21 ; xii: 1,) the angel of little children, who undertakes their cause before God against such as scandalize them, (Mathew xviii. "10,) the angel of the waters, the angel of the fire, (Apoc. xiv: 18, xvi: 5,) and thus of others ; when, among all the angels, I behold him who places the in-, cense of prayers upon the celestial altar; (ibid, vizi: 3,) I recognize in these words a kind of mediation of holy angels ; I even see the grounds Avhich gave occasion to the pagans to distribute their divinities in the elements and in kingdoms to preside over them: for every error is founded upon some truth that is abused. "But God forbid that I should see, in all these expressions of the Scripture, any thing which injures the mediation of Jesus Christ, whom all the heavenly spirits recognize as their Lord, or anything which savours of pagan er- rors, since there is an infinite difference between recog-* nizing, as did the Pagans, a God whose action cannot extend to every thing, and who needs to be aided by subalterns, after the manner of earthly kings, whose power is limited ; and a God who doing all things, and able to do all things, honours his creatures by associa- ting them with his acHon when he pleases, and in the manner that he ^Zeases." * God's omnipotence suffices for the government of the universe, but, as Bossuet says, God is pleased to honour his creatures, in bringing them to take part in his ac- tion. He does this both for men and angels ; -feence the consoling and beautiful doctrine of guardian angels. Of the children our Saviour assures us: "that their angels in Heaven always see the face of my Father, who is in Heaven." f If the church has not expressly de- * Preface to the Apocalypse, xxvii. fMath. xviii: 10. OF ANGELS. 13 lined that every 'one has his guardian angel, it is the common sentiment of the fathers and theologians, that the just and faithful have each a particular guardian angel to watch over them, while many of them arc of opinion that the goodness of God has given such guar- dians to all men, even to the infidels. And when we' remember how frail and weak we are, and how sur- rounded by perils of all kinds, as well in the physical as in the moral order, it is consoling to think that we have such a celestial auxiliary to watch over and help us. The thought is capable not only to excite our grat- itude to God, but to stimulate our self-respect, as it manifests our present alliance with the celestial society, into which we hope one day to be introduced. It is particularly with reference to our eternal salva- tion that this guardianship is appointed ; but our inter- ests in the temporal order are also the subject of solici- tude to these generous guardians. Of the Demons in their Relations with Men. The demons are angels who have fallen through pride, of whom the chief is Lucifer, known commonly as the Devil. "And the angels who kept not their princi- pality, but forsook their own habitation, He hath re- served under darkness in everlasting #fcwns, unto the judgment of the great day."* Their ruin was irre- trievable and without hope, and their wills, .fixed in malignity, burn with desire to propagate rebellion against God. They hate men as aspirants for the places they have left vacant in Heaven, and strive to bring them into a similar rebellion and ruin. Though exiled to hell, and held in the bondage of everlasting chains, as represented by St. Jude, and also by St. Peter, in the 4th verse of the second chapter of his second epistle, there are many of them permitted by God to diffuse themselves through the air, under the influence of "the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now *Jude 1 . v. 6. 14: OF Ai\'GELS. worketh on the children of unbelief,"* seeking to ensnare men into sin for their- eternal ruin. These evil spirits, as shown in the 'holy scriptures, chiefly act by means of temptations and possessions. That they have been allowed to take possession of the bodies of men, is clear from several, places in the New Testament, and these persons wer*s said to be "possessed of the Devil." The* history of the casting out of the devil by our Saviour, recorded by St. Mark in his ninth chapter, is one of the most remarkable. It is needless to specify other instances." Of temptations, much is said to us in the Holy Scrip- tures. St. Peter tells us: "Be sober and watch; be- cause your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist ye strong in faith." f And St. Paul says: "Put ye on the armour of. God, that you may be able to stand against the deceits of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood ; but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this dark- ness, against the spirits of wickedness in the high places."! Before the death of Jesus Christ, these wicked spirits had more power than since, but Christ overcame them by his death and resurrection. At the end of the world, and during the persecution of Antichrist, they tfill make greater efforts through the increased wickedness of men ; but at all times they are restless in trying to seduce souls, by their deceits and snares. . They can only obtain empire over Christians, by leading them into mortal sin. But Christians must be proved by temptations, and God permits them to be tried. The Apostle, in his first Epistle, to the Corinthians, shows what is the nature of this trial by temptations : " Let no temptation take hold on you, but such as is human. And God is faithful, who will not suffer you. to be tempted above that which you are able ; but will make also with *Ephes., c. 2 : v. 2. |1 Pet., ch. 5 : v. 8, 9. JEpUes. vi.: 11, 12. - .Jfc OF MAN. 15 temptation issue, that you may be able to bear it."* If there were no temptations, there could be no victo- ries. But men can prevent being taken, or overpower- ed, by those temptations which are not liuman, but dia- bolical, if they use the grace given to them to keep free from grievous sin ; and though seized by mere human, or common temptations, they can always bear them, and even commonly overcome them, with the strength which God gives them, as lie will make the issue glorious for them, by rendering them victorious. Not indeed that they Will be able to preserve themselves from all sins, even venial sins, but that, with. God's aid, they will succeed to remain steadfast in his holy grace and friendship. 9 CHAPTER III. OF MAN — TIIE FALL OF MAN — THE UNITY OF THE HU- MAN RACE. God created man but little less than the angels. f Man is a rational creature, made to the image and like- ness of God. This likeness is in the soul of man, be- cause it is endowed with reason, intelligence, will and liberty. The human soul is a spirit, able to understand to choose, to know what it should do, and what it does. As the Scripture says : "And the Lord formed man of Ihe Blime of the earth :"ar.d breathed into his face the breath of .life, and man became a living soul."! Man is thus composed of body and soul, the connecting link between the visible and invisible world, between the world of intelligences and the world of matter. God also created the first woman ; but instead of taking the slime of the earth' to form her body, He cast Adam * 1 Cnr. x: 13., f Fs. viii : 6. } Gen. 2d chap. y. 6. 10 OF MAN. , into a deep sleep, or trance, and from his side, took one of his ribs: "And built the rib which he took from Adam into a woman."* By this he gave Adam to un- derstand a great mystery, for Adam said : " This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man: Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one "flesh." Adam understood and announced the design of God in the institution of -"marriage, which, as St. Au- gustine and other fathers tell us, represents the myste- ry of the union of Christ with human nature and with his church, l!he most strict anion was indicated for those who should form a society with each other in mar- riage. That God created the soul of man rational, spiritual, and immortal, is taught us both by faith and reason. The whole of the Christian religion is predicated on this truth. As matter oannot understand and reason, whatever thinks and reasons is spiritual, so also what- ever is spiritual is immortal, because, being without parts, it cannot be corrupted or separated. " For how can its substance perish," asks St. Ambrose, "when it Jfys the soul that infuses life ? To whom the soul is in- fused, life is infused ; from whom the soul departs, life departs : the soul therefore is life. For how can it re- ceive death, when it is the contrary to it? so also the soul which creates life, dots not receive death, and does not die. But the soul does not receive death, and therefore the soul does not die."f "The dust returns into its earth, from wlience it was, and the spirit'returns to God, who gave it," says the book of Ecclesiastes.J In .the book of wisdom, we read concerning the just, that : "in the sight of the unwise they seemed to die. their hope is full of immortality. "§ It is the common opinion of Catholic Theologians that God creates a soul for each person and unites it <9 * Gen. Hi. 2. v.21,22, 23. f De Bono Mortis, ch. 9, n. 42. % Ec- cles. xit. § Wisd. ch. 3, v. 2, 4. " OF MA!\. 17 ■with its appropriate body at the time he creates it, al- though St. Augustine seemed unwilling to define whe- ther God thus singly creates each soul, or created one spiritual and immortal soul, from which the spiritual and immortal souls of others are derived. Other fath- ers and theologians were, like him, doubtful as to thjs question, but the most of the fathers seem to have held the opinion, now commtyn, that God creates a soul for each human person. When it is asked, why Gcnl created man? The an- swer is that He created him, as He gave existence to all other creatures, for himself, for his own honour and glory.. But the end for which he created man consid- ered in hirnseif, was that man might enjoy an eternal beatitude, or, in other words, that he might know, love, serve, and enjoy God for all eternity/ This alone can constitute the supreme happiness of a rational, spiritu- * al, immortal creature. For no intelligent creature can be happy unless all his desires are satisfied, and there is left for him nothing to desire *or to dread. When- ever he desires or fears something, there is something wanting to his -happiness. But except God, there ex- ists nothing that- can satisfy all the desires of an intel- lectual creature. God alone is the supreme good, al^t other things are finite, subject to vicissitude, inconstant, fleeting, and cannot therefore satisfy their possessor, so that he may neither wish for anything, nor fear any- thing. "Thou hast made us for thyself oh Lord," savs St. Augustine, "and our heart is restless till it rest in /Thee."* To obtain eternal- beatitude Adam and Eve had the opportunity offered them. It was necessary for them to love God above all things else, and for God's sake to love other creatures in due order, first, those creatures in God's image and likeness classed as the neighbour^ ' and then, inferior creatures as the works of God. It was further necessary to serve and obey God, and espe- cially in the commandment, which he gave them saying: * Lib 1, Confes. c. 1, n. ! . 18 Oh' MA*. "But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death."* They could accom- plis this easily ; because while in their body and soul all was well regulated, they had all the instruction and aid necessary for this duty. They were blessed with health, and not subjected to infirmity,' or old age; they were provided with abundance for the wants of the body, and their souls, were in a state of perfect justice and innocence. They knew what was necessary for them to know, their judgment was correct, their minds were serene and unclouded, and they enjoyed perfect liberty. Their will, though free, because of the integrity and justice of their souls, tended rather to good than to evil, and they were able to do as they should choose. The inferior part of the soul was in due subjection to the * superior, and their senses were not excited by concu- piscence. And, even beyond the order of nature, they had received from God graces, to render the work of their salvation entirely easy for them. Besides, if they proved themselves faithful, they would transmit to their posterity all these blessings. * The Fall of Man. But man lost every thing by transgressing the com- mandment of God, and eating the forbidden fruit. His companion was first seduced by man's great adversary, the devil, who, tempting her in the appearance of a beautiful serpent, induced her to eat the forbidden fruit. She afterwards seduced Adam into the same disobedi- ence. They were promised, by the tempter, that "their eyes should be opened, and they should be ^ike gods, knowing good and evil,"f and hence they were led to sin. Pride, curiosity, and an inordinate appetite caused the fall of Eve, and the same, together with obsequious- ness to his wife, led Adam into the same misfortune. And what a sin! which brought with it such terrible * Gen. 2d ch. v. 17. f Gen. iii : •". OF MAiV 1$ consequences^ St. Augustine finds this sin immense and indescribable. He says: "Pride was there, be- cause man loved rather to be in his own power than un- der that of God ; and sacrilege, because he did not be- lieve God; and homicide, because he precipitated him- self into death ; and spiritual fornication, because the integrity of the human mind was corrupted by the per- suasion of the serpent ; and theft, because he usurped a prohibited food ; and avarice, because he desired more than was sufficient for him; and, if there is any thing else to be admitted in one, it can be discovered, by diligent consideration."* The facility with which so flight a precept could have been observed, the great re- ward attached to its observance, the great penalty await- ing its infraction, the freedom from concupiscence which they enjoyed who had to observe it, and the obligations of love and gratitude which they owed to Him, who gave the commandment, combine to enhance the malig* nit y and guilt of this fatal trangression. The punishment and effects of this sin to .our first parents may be thus summed up : 1. They immediately knew that they were naked ; and hence sought to conceal their shame with "aprons of fig leaves ,"f 2. They became obnoxious to all kinds of infirmities and sickness, and to the empire of death. 3. They were subjected to ignorance and concupis- cence. And though they did not lose freedom of will, they found it debilitated and diminished for that which is good. 4. They lost the empire over living creatures which had been given to them. 5. They were subjected to the power of the Devil. 6. To Adam God said : " Because thou hast heark- ened to the voice of thy Avifc, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat, cursed is the earth in thy work ; with labour and toil thou shalt eat thereof all the days of thy life. * Enchiriil. 4. r >, n. 13. f Gen. iii : 7. if MB i?F MAxV. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee ; and thou shat eat the herbs of the earth. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the earth out of -which thou wast taken."* To the woman God said: "I will multiply thy sor- rows, and thy conceptions :■ in sorrow shalt thou bring forth thy children, and thou shalt be under thy hus- band's power, and he shall have dominion over thee." 7. Both were expelled from the terrestrial paradise no more to enter it. &, The way to eternal life was obstructed, and they deserved etern'al loss and punishment. The concupiscence, which was one of the results of their transgression, is said by the Apostle St. John to be threefold in its nature ; viz: " the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride ^ of life."f The penalties of pride, curiosity, and an inordinate appetite for food, were visited upon them. They lost their former inclination towards good, and experienced a great propensity. to evil. .And for their long line ■ of descendants the same sad evils were made "their heritage of woe," because, in the incomprehensible providence of God, all were con- cluded in the first parent of the race, as we are taught by revelation : " By one man sin entered' into this world, and by sin death ; and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned."! Of the Unity 'of the Human Race. The teaching of faith has always been, that all men are the offspring of Adam and Eve, and the whole sys- tem of Christian doctrine is predicated upon this truth of the unity of the human race. There is only one human species, whatever speculations naturalists may indulge concerning the varieties and discrepancies which they discover among the inhabitants of the dit- ferent portions of the globe. The characteristics of * Gen. iii : 16, 17, &cj ' t 1 John i-i : 16. J Rom. V : 1?. MAN. 21 different nations, and. their different languages, afford important studies and investigations to the mere philos- opher, who thinks his time well employed in establish- ing theories of the philosophy of history, but the. chris- tian, who lives by faith, knows that all theories which conflict with catholic doctrine, however plausible, arc necessarily fake. Species is said to be " the succession of similar individuate that reproduce and perpetuate themselves." The individuals of the whole human fam- ily, however diverse in characteristics they seem, unite and reproduce by generation, with a continued fecun- dity, which establishes the unity of the human species, while -science shows that the variety, existing among the different inhabitants of the earth, -can be explained by natural causes. ■ So also has the comparative study of languages led to the discovery of points of con- tact and strict relationship and affinity among them, and, as Cardinal Wiseman says, this science in its pro- gress " began to discover new affinities where least ex- pected ; till by degrees many languages began to be grouped and classified in large families, acknowledged to have a common origin. Then, new inquiries gradually diminished the number of independent languages, and extended, in consequence, the dominion of the larger masses. At length, when this field seemed almost ex- hausted,, a new class of researches has succeeded, so far as it has been tried, in proving the extraordinary affinities between these families — affinities existing in the very character and essence of each language, so that none of them could ever have- existed, without those elements wherein the resemblances consist. Now, as this excludes all idea of one having borrowed them from the other, as they could not have arisen in each by. independent processes ; and as the radical differ- ence among the languages forbids their being consider- ed dialects or offshoots from one another, we are driven to the conclusion, that, on the one hand, these lan- guages must have originally been united in one, whence they draw these common elements essential to them all; and, on the other, that the separation between them, 2| 'OF ORIGINAL SIN. which destroyed other no less important elements of re- semblance, could not have been caused by any gradual departure or individual development — fur these we have long since excluded — but by some violent, unusual, and active force, sufficient alone to reconcile these conflict- ing appearances, and to account at once fur the resem- blances, and the differences. It would be difficult, rae- thinks, to sa}' what further step the most insatiable or unreasonable sceptic could require, to bring the resuks of this science into close accordance with the scriptural account."* ''Ami the earth was one tongue, and of the same ■ch,"| w< ired in Genesis, but God confoun- ded their tongue, and so scattered them, into all lands, and hence the diversity of languages. No diversity of racteristics and languages can ever prove a div< ty of the human ap< gainst the declaration of Scripture that the first woman was called /. cause sherwas the mother of all the living."! UTER IV. OF ORIGINAL SIN. That all the posterity of Adam, except thi Virgin mother of the incarnate God, are conceived under the guilt and penalties of the .-in of Adam and i doctrine of faith. Okioinal sin is then, as the name imports, the stain and disgrace in which we are bom, because of the sin of our first parents: and by which we are made obnoxious to sickness, infirmities death, ignorance ; to the threefold concupiscence before spo- .ence and Revealed Religion. D;s. 2d. p. • dnvei Ed. U f G-.'u. xi. J Gen. iii OF ORIGINAL SIN. ken of, and even slaves of the Devil, children of wrath, and subject to eternal perdition. "St. Paul tells the Ephesians thai they " were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."* "Behold," says the Psalmist, "I was conceived in iniquities, and in Bin did roy mother conceive 1110."! And holy Job asks : •" Who can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed ? Is it not thou, "who only art.VJ "l>y one man sin entered into this world, and by pin death ; and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned. "§ Original sin is a mystery, and one which we arc neith- er able nor required to comprehend. It being the will of Cod to conclude all their posterity under the respon- sibility of the first parents, it must have been right and just, since God cannot be otherwise than infinitely just and perfect. "How incomprehensible are his judg- ments, and how unsearchable his ways."j In the fifth and sixth sessions of the council of Trent, this doctrine is lucidly declared as always pertaining to Catholic faith. It is shown that Adam's fault is the cause and type of the sin, with which we ure born, and our atten- tion is called particularly to three things : 1st. The act of disobedience, by which our first parents transgress- ed the precept of God ; 2&Iy. The loss of the sanctity and justice in which they had been established, as the immediate result of their act of prevarication ; 3rdl}\ The consequences of this privation of sanctity and jus- tice, that is the degradation and disorder of nature, the degradation of soul and body, and finally death, which came as a visible and material avenger of this revolt. AVhat'ravages were produced in man by ..this primitive fault ! It was not the actual fault that passed to the descendants 'of Adam, for this was personal, but the direct and immediate effects of the actual fault, the loss of justice and sanctity ; and this loss or privation of justice and sanctity is sin, which is the death of the soul, for the soul is thus in the date of sin, and de- • Ephes. ii : 3. f Ps. L : 7. + Job xiv : 4. § Rom. v . 12. I! Rom. xi: 33. 21 or ORIGINAL SIN. privcd of the friendship of God, and of union with him, which constitutes the life of the soul. We air born, not in the act of Bin, but in the state of sin ; for we'are born in a state if .rupture and separation from -God, deprived of the justice and holiness by which he wished to unite man to himself. And this state or condition is propagated with our race, and is inherent with each individual of it: for the* human nature \ in its. head or fountain, deprH and holiness, and constituted in a state of separation from Go"d, which is a in cause. Who- ever descends from Adam is bom with a fallen nature, and in a i frojfi ( lod, i <■ of sin. itidhj infants are 1 .Hied by : - of purifying them the friendship of God, by investing them with and holiness, the life of thi for infants as well >r adults. Baptist that truly and prop- to the natur< those who Mere born "children of wrath," but not remove all th hat ring his friendsh all the privih ■prions he fil upon man, bl him to infirmities, Bufferings, and death, and • to that concupiscenc named *//>. " it i ind inch and which in- duoesso many combats, but which "can never hurt thote wh The council of teaches that the children of Adam can only recover justice and holiness, and merit i.al life through the merits and L'i'3' >ur, but that lost freedom of will, which was weakened though not d I by Bin, and that the actions of man in his fallen state, perfoi without grace, are not necessarily sin-, an 1 deserving of have falsely ta\,_ rftCXiSE Of A RBBEEMER, . %$ CHAPTER V, THE MERCIFUL PROMISE OF A REDEEMER, There remained no hope for the reparation of the evil consequences of sin, except in the mercy of God. Man, of himself, had ho means of adequate expiation, and no sufficient force to ri.-^ from his degradation. But God was merciful, as man had fallen under the se- duction of a power superior to himself; and God said to the serpent, the representative and instrument of that evil spirit: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed ; she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."* To Eve the mother of our race, God thus gave promise of victory and reparation. This promise concerned the whole human race, and hence with all the nations i f the earth, historians have found evidences of the expectation of a gage, a deliverer, a restorer, a redeemer. A universal tradition descend- ed everywhere among human generations, encouraging the hope of a saviour, who, by expiation, should re- store peaoe and happiness to men, and inaugurate the golden age. The ignorance and error, introduced by idolatry into different nations, obscured this tradition, among all except the people of God, but obliterated it among none of them. In their ignorance and blind- ness, most of them multiplied mediators between them- selv.es and the Deity ; they made the planets and stars the dwelling places of intelligences, who, as they sup- posed, regulated their motions, and whom they sought to propitiate by their vows and prayers ; but many also felt the insufficiency of such mediators, and, with more correct knowledge of the first traditions of the race, hoped that God himself would como to their aid, and enlighten them concerning the worship He desired, and • G o n ii'i : t6 PBOMI*E OF A &I»D£EM£ii. furnish the means of remedying tho evils of corrupted nature. " Among all nation?," Bays Prideux, " from the be- ginning, the expectation of a mediator between God and man was a reigning opinion."* Concerning the {'act of this tradition all arc agreed, and even infidel writers, such as Boulanger, Voltaire, Volney, and others, admil h universal existence. The subordinate God of the Egyptians, the chief of celes- tial spirits, called 71" i the Mithra of the 1 Bians, were but forms of tin- tradition. One of the ..: died the la viour ■ a. The Aral- expected . irho Mas to save the nations: and even in China, the belief, that the primi- tive religion, which had been corrupted, Bhould be re- stored by one ;<• come, has be< d found among tlie the- ological opinions of that | The impossibility of men, ematural track- er, to inform them what should he their sentiments to- wards God and I . was taught by Pla- to, who, in hia secoi I ' • the opinion in the mouth of Socratc | (j in his 4th Eclogue, re- fers to the sam< « i ctation of the advent of a divino infant, -who should rest) :■ order, efface crime, and de- liver the earth from fear ; so that the promised redeem- er wa? truly, as is declared in Genesis, "the expecta- tion of nations." And strange to say. a:- the moment approached. wh< n the earth should see all these ations fulfilled, tho themselves insensihly hecamo more act And especially among the Jews, about the timo of the advent of Jesus Chri ere such an exciten. about the coming of the Messiah, as to arouse the at- tention of the pagans to th< fact, that, through the * Hisl of t!i<^ Jews f D I X v ted liy 1 PROMISE 01 A RJT.ELMEK. -' Messiah, they hoped their nation should hold the em- pire of the world. r| ' I y, and Sue- tonias,t in his work on \ i ;pasian, show this fact. 1'ut centuries were to ela] ore this ; of God should be fulfilled. The earth was i men in- creased in •numbers and became daily more and more corrupt, until the anger of God was visited upon them by that universal deluge, the account of which is given to us in the book? of Moses, and of which, the early traditions of all nations, and tin 1 discoveries of science, bear indubitable testimony, in the ark, which Noah erected under the express command of God, eight hu- man beings were preserved from this dread catastrophe. This event occurred in the year 1<»-3G, from the cre- ation of the world. In the ark, besides Noah, his wife, his three sons and their w i bad caused two and two of all flesh, and living things, and fowls, and birds, and ci-eeping things, to be preserved. And from the ark, did all .these come forth after the deluge, and the earth was again repeopled by Noah and his descend- ants. Our race had so multiplied in a hundred and one years, that they proposed to separate, and divide themselves oyer the earth. But first they desired to erect a tower, which should reach to the heavens, as if they distrusted the pledge of God, when he set, in the clouds^ the rainbow of bis promise, not again to sub- merge the earth with a deluge. This tow T er received the name of Babel, because God descended, and confound- ed the audacity of men, by confusing their speech so that they could not understand each other. Thus a separation was rendered necessary; and nations, with different languages, began to be found in different parts of the earth. This chastisement did not cause men to become bct- * Pliirihns persuasio inerat nntiquis saoerciotum litteris c.ontine- ri, eo ipso tempore lore m valescerel Oriens, profectique Juilea. re- ruin potiientur. Hist. lib. v. No. \iii. t Percrebnemt Orient* toto. retus «'tcon5tau8 opinio esse in fatis, nt eo tewiperrs Ja>!eA profecti, re rum potirentur. Suet, in Vespasi- iiuum. r* PROMISE Of A gB&EJtfftft. zer. On the contrary, with a few exceptions, they be- came more or less forgetful of the truths traditional among them, and, falling into idolatry, began to adore creatines instead of God. Leaving them in their cor- ruption, God commenced to prepare for himself a cho- sen people. He selected Abraham, before sailed Abram., to be the father of believers, and made a covenant with, him, and appointed circumcision, the figure of baptism, as a sign for the consecration of his posterity as his peculiar servants. The Jews, or Israelites, the poster- ity of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, became the chosen people of God, the preservers of the traditions of the human race,'and of God's primitive revelations to men, and had the special mission to preserve the hope of man's redemption. But, excepting the patri- archs and some others who were figures of the expect- ed Messiah, the most of them lived so negligently and perversely, that God determined to renew the promul- gation of his law in a most striking manner. This oc- curred about the year of the world 2513, and about 1491 years before Jesus Christ. With great solemnity ypon Mount Sinai, God gave, to his servant Moses, his holy law, written on tablets of stone, to be promulga- ted to the people, and gave special directions to Moses as to the sacrifices, ceremonies, and rites of religion. These ceremonies and rites were to be shadows and fig- ures to be fulfilled under the new law of grace, which should be promulgated by the Saviour, when he should arrive ; as also th»e sacrifices were to be figures of his sacrifice. The people generally failed to correspond with the merciful designs of God, who, by favors and chastisements, endeavoured to conduct them in the paths of truth and virtue.. To effect this purpose, well as for the benefit of the nations of the future, V should be the inheritance of his divine Son, he raised up a long line of prophets, through whom he more di tinctly renewed his promises of a Saviour, and gave of him such detailed characteristics, that when he should come, he might be easily recognised. Of these proph- ets, greater and. less, there were sixteen who were thus PflOMISE Of A REDEEMER. 29 sent to instruct the people, and to predict to them fu- ture events, of which tho world has since beheld the fulfillment, Man's ingenuity has led him to enquire, why Cod so long delayed to fulfill his promise of sending the re- deemer? To this question, theologians give a satis- factory answer. They Bay that God had sufficient mo- tives for this delay. — First, he wished men to know, by a sad and long experience, the need they had of a teacher and Saviour ; 2dly, that knowing their need, they might ardently desire and sigh for his advent, and, with ardent prayers, beg this blessing from God, as did the patriarchs and prophets;' Srdly, that before his coming, he might make known, through his prophets, all the circumstances regarding him, and the changes he was to produce on the earth : lastly, that we Chris* 08 might be secure of the truth of our holy religion, seeing and believing that what was so long predicted, n so wonderfully and exactly fulfilled, and what v. as shown in figure has been accomplished in reality. All the Old Testament is full of figures, commencing with the fall of Adam and the promise of a redeemer in the beginning of the hit our race. ' The two children of Adam, Cain and Abel, are figures, Cain, of the Jewish people, and Abel, of Jesus Christ. Cain the senior, and the Hebrews were before Jesus Christ according to his temporal birth. Cain was a tiller of the soil, an image of the Jews attached to the goods of the earth. Abel had the office of shepherd, rist is " the good shepherd." Cain honor- ed God only with his lips, as did the Jews; "this | pie honors me with, their lips." Abel offered himself to God v ith bis ■; and his saci ifices, i I the 'ifice i caused death of Abel, and the dew- through envy, put t, their brother, The blood of \' ! oried on! For ven«K«.ncc . •■■ Oaii * 1 lood 80 PROMISE or A REDEEMER. of Jesus Christ cries out for vengeance against th© Jews, and against sinners, who, by their sins, render it useless. Cain, in chastisement, leads a vagabond life, and has a sign put on him that he might not be killed. And the Jews, exiled from their Kingdom, go w'ander- ing through the whole world, bearing the mark of cir- cumcision. But another question has also been asked, in view of this long delay of centuries in the coming of the Sa- viour of men. What possibility of salvation for all those men, who, born in the interval, with the guilt of original sin, and becoming guilty of other sins, are also incapable of satisfying divine justice ? To this question it is answered, that, according to Catholic teaching, from the very moment God made the promise of the redeemer, the most happy results commenced to flow from it, and, from that moment, the redeemer be- gan to aid man and to reconcile him with God. Jesus Christ takes rule over all time. "He is to day, yester- day and forever.'"* He is "the lamb that was slain from the beginning of the world. "f From the begin- ning, he offered himself to the divine justice to recon- cile men to his Father. " Let them cease their com- plaints," exclaims St. Leo the great, "who unworthily calumniate divine Providence, accusing it of so long having retarded the birth of the Saviour, as if anterior ages had not received the fruit of the mysteries, real- ized in the last ages of the world. For the incarnation of the Word, has, before its accomplishment, produced what it has produced since; and never, even in the most distant antiquity, was the mystery of salva- tion without its fruit. What the Apostles preached, the prophets have announced ; and that which has al- ways been believed, could not be regarded as accom- plished too late."! "It is not therefore by a new de- sign, or a tardy compassion, that God has provided for human affairs ; but, from the origin of the world, he * Heb. xiii: 8, f Apoc. xiii: 8. { "Nee sevo est iixipletttm, quod si inj et ■■•- i r< Jiluni."' PROMISE OF A REDEEMER. 31 has established for all men, one only and the same cause of salvation. The grace of God, by which the saints of all times have been justified, has, without doubt, increased by the birth of Jesus Christ, but it is not then that it commenced. * Instead of viewing Jesus Christ, as infidels do, as a sort of accident in the life of humanity, an extraordi- nary personage, appearing and disappearing on an iso- lated point iu history, Catholic doctrine considers him as occupying the whole history of humanity ; as the centre of all in the moral and religious order, and at- taching all to himself. "For in him," says St. Paul, "were. all things created, in heaven and on earth, visi- ble and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers ; all things- were created by Mm and in him. And he is before all, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body of the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead; that in all things he may hold the primacy ; be- cause in him it hath well pleased the Father, thai -'ill fullness should dwell: and through him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, both as to the things on earth, and the things thai are in heaven. "f The Saviour is then all in alJ, and, "through the blood of his cross," comes all recon- ciliation •t'twecn God and men. He is the head of the Church, which, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things, brings individuals into union with him; the source of all grace to fallen humanity. St. Paid testifies, that God "will have all men to be saved ;" and hence Catholic doctors teach, that he of- fers the moans of salvation to all rften. As St. Thom- as declares: " God wishes all men to be saved, and therefore grace is wanting to no one, but communi- cates itself to all, as far as is in it."| The necessity of • Sermo de Nativitatt Domini, Migne's Edition. t Col. ch. i : 16-20. | In Ep. ad Hu-br. c. 12, lect. 3. Dens vnlt orane? homines sal- Bon,' et ideo gratia nulli deest. sed omnibus, quantum in ss e^t, 32 PEOtMBE or A REDEEMER. faitli u the foundation and root of justification, is a ■ itliolic dpctrine, for "with" it faith it is im| eibla te ; ' But the faith, required of th who lived before Jesus Christ, appears from the defla- tion of St. Paul, to be faith in God. arder to t/iem that seek him. "He that cometfc to (rod must believe that he is, and is a rewardcr to them that seek hiro,"t says the Apor' A beltet in divine | rid :; belief in G as the liberator of mi : Leasing to himself, in in implicit faith in the medial by vliom only 1. and !.• i<:h the Jem had to b ■■ re and the Genl 1 by th( law, but according to the natural law, "written in their 1 To this natural law, tl " The light of thy countenam I pon us,"£ and by it of the natural law, and aided by the sufficient grace which l the merits of < Ihrist, only God, ereator of the ui rve, and love him : could love their neighbour as then all injustice, and live according to com 3dly. They could exp< i 1 the n him, in pro- portion •'. : "vs itli the trading, which sounivers b; the nations, and thus, abstain from the worship o^ idols, they were able to .secure vation, or the Bupremcg L: >nor m to every one te the Jew fir*t. ano* also to the Gre< b Bat how maw among ho prece com et that remain- with himself. It may be of utility, bei luding this chapter, to indicate some of the prophecies made regarding the *Heb. xi : 6. f He | : Rom. ii PR0MT8E 0] ^ I [KR. '■'■■'< . and which I Q so marvellously accom- plished in Jesus Christ. When the patriarch J. was about to die, he said to his sons: "The sceptre u away from Juda, i tiller from hi.-: thigh, till he come that is sent, and he Aall he the expectation of nations."* Eighteen centuries have passed since the authority, which Juda was to hold until the a. iii : 4. I I UK [JTl A RATIOS'. that refose to mingle vrith the ocean, and in desolation, becanse they have neither sacrifice nor altar, and fining that their Messiah, whom their nation has always ejected, is yet to come! They have even li\«l to dwell amid n people who consider it a glory and a boast that they themselves have "no sacrifice and no altar," which then d i t' ruin and desolation. CHAPTEB \ I. : -- -Tin: r\« LBVATIOH — I HOD, 01 IS \ IK'ilN Till. . 1 I < • N — TH1 The < latholic doctrine, rega : int.- chiefly : 1st. l\. . or " tl all the distinctive truth ■ believetb in him, iu:i\ -h. but d Use: "And the word was made flesh and dwelt among u "The word was made flesh." — Tl ii of the most h human nature and united it t. Also St. John's declaration: ••The Word was God; — The *John xiv . *'S. THE INCARNATION. 37 \Vord was made "flesh." Ch. 1. Also, "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." John 1 : 18. It was not as man, but as his Son in his bosom, that he knew him : he knew the Father, because he is God himself, and the true Sou of God. Again : " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke by the prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by his Son, by whom also he made the world.". Heb., ch. 1: v. 1, 2. It is then he who created all things. The apostle who, in his gospel, so sublimely states t the d»gma of the divinity of the Word, and that he be- came flesh, in his first epistle says : " That which was from|he beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life," — " We have seen and do bear witness and declare to you the eternal life which was with the Father, and hath appeared to us." That is to say: the Word, who is eternal life, hath appeared to us, and we declare him to you, " that you may have felloAvehip with us, and that our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." 1 John, ch. 1, 2, 3. " Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." 1 Ep., v. 5. Be- sides, Jesus declares to his friends that he is God :" " Flesh and blood hath not revealed it to you, but my Father, who is in 'Heaven." Math. xvi. He declares it to the multitude : " It is my Father who glorifieth me — Amen! .Amen! I say unto you before Abraham was made, I am;" and thus claims to be self-existent, and, therefore, God. John viii. He declares the same before the tribunals of the country, when adjured : " I adjure thee by the Jiving God, that thou tell us if thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus saith to him : Thou hast said it." Math, xxvi.: 63. And the answer in St. Mark is more direct. "And Jesus said to him : I am ; And you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coining with 88 TI1E INCARNATION. the clouds of Heaven." Marie xiv. : 62.. All his life and acts to the end "were in harmony with his claim to be equal to God. The Mother of God. — The Blessed Virgin Mary. - Having determined to manifest himself to man in the flesh with a real human body, God selected the most excellent of human creatures for his mother, a youDg and holy virgin, descended from the royal line of David, but poor and unknown. -From her womb, he assumed the substance of human nature, and united it, in* some incomprehensible manner, in his divine personality, with the divine substance, which he received -from all eter- nity by generation from the Father, and thus, being the only begotten Son of God the Father, in his divine nature, he became the only son of the Virgin Mary, in his human nature, and being at the same time God and man, but only one person, his virgin mother became truly " Mother of God." From her he received the body which fitted him to be the redeemer of the human race. The divine maternity of Mary, in whom only are found maternity and virginity, is then a capital tenet of Catholic faith, placing her with her divine Son in the centre of the circle of Christian dogmas. A creature privileged above all others, she is enrich- ed with all graces, endowed with glorious titles and pre- rogatives, and exalted above all creatures, above angels as well as saints. *• She not only justly bears the title of mother of God, but, in becoming mother, remained a virgin, and de- served and wears the title of ever a virgin. Though Jesus Christ, in the Scriptures, is represented as calling certain persons his brothers, yet it was only according to the Jewish custom of speech, which gave this name to cousins and other near relations, and not that his mother ever gave birth to other children. And the Scriptures themselves show who -were the mothers of v TMi; IN'' AliX.A 1 [ON. 89 these person?, thus designated as the brothers of Jesus. It is also the faith nf the Catholic church, that the Blessed Virgin Mary never sullied her soul with the stain of actual sin, even venial sin. This was a special privilege granted to the holy mother of Cod. It has also been generally of Catholic belief, and in our ovrn daya has been defined as an article of faith, that God gave to the Blessed Virgin Mary the extra- ordinary privilege of exemption from the Brain of origi- nal sin. It is defined, as of divine revelation, that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her con- ception in the womb of her mother, " by a special grace and privilege of God omnipotent, in view#f the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, has been preserved and exempted from all stain of original sin." This is the doctrine of the Immaculate CcnLcep- tion of the Virgin Mother of God." Before this definition was made, the doctrine of the Immaculate "Conception was in the same condition as the doctrine of her assumption into Heaven is, at pres- ent. It was believed by the children, of the church, and had its appropriate place in the Calendar of feasts ami its proper day and mass, just as the Assumption now has, and pious Catholics devoutly believed that Mary had received this extraordinary privilege, and prayed that a definition should be given to the world by the voice- of the church. When defined, they re- ceived no new point of faith, hut an authorized defini- tion- of what already they believed. As Mary is the mother of the Son of God, and was made so by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, she is rightly styled the spouse of the Eternal Father, and the sanctuary of the lloly Ghost. The mutual love of the Father and the Son, which in God is infinite and per- fect, and, therefore, personal, and who is the third pcr- * Defined in Dec'br. 1834. The Council of Trent, in its decree concerning original sin, declared : that it is not ita intention to in- etude the Blessed Virgin. — Sesa. v. 40 . Til L 1X<'U; NATION. son of the Adorable Trinity, came upon. Mary to asso- ciate her with the divine paternity of the father, that she might conceive a son, who, at the same time, should be his eternal and only begotten son. As Jesus Christ is engendered from all eternity from the sole substance of the Eternal Father, so in time is he engendered from the sole substance of his virgin mother, the wonderful offspring of two mysterious spiritual generations, the first eternaLand divine, the other in time and human. In the divine the Holy Ghost'proceeds from the Father and the Son as the spiration of love ; and in the human the Holy Ghost, the personal love of the Father and Son, consecrates the sanctuary, in which the son is to receive a neff birth from a virgin, with whom the Father shares his divine paternity. All divine operations ad extra are common to the three divine persons, yet the Scriptures and the Creed teaeh us that "Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of the Virgin Mary."' This mystery is attributed especially to the Holy Ghost as a most wonderful miracle of power and love. He did not gen- erate, but created the humanity of Christ; but the Vir- gin' Mary generated the body from her own substance by the power of the "Holy Ghost, and giving birth to him, who was never man a moment without being also God, she became truly mother of God, and could truly call Him son, whom the Eternal Father also called his only begotten son. Who can imagine the greatness of this dignity, the sublimity of this association of Mary with the three di- vine persons of the Godhead, the # highth and depth an-1 breadth of these fundamental mysteries of Christ- ianity 1 The Work of Redemption. — The Cross. The knowledge that the Son of God has become man, induces the question, why did he become man ? Cath- olic doctrine answers with the Creed : ' ; For us men, and for our salvation he descended from heaven," and THE JN CARNATION. 41 was made man. Under the title of Saviour of man- kind, lie is known, loved and adored; hence his name is Jesus. " She shall bring forth a son ; .ind thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his peo- ple from their sins."* "For God indeed was in Christ reconciling the world to himself." f Whether the general plan of divine Providence con- templated the holy mystery of the Incarnation as the end for which* God created the world, that he might communicate himself, and bring about the union of in- telligent; creatures with himself; or whether the ri, ous demands of divine justice rendered the. incarnation a necessity for «the manifestation of infinite mercy to our race, "that justice and peace might embrace," t it is distinctly taught as a tenet of Catholic faith, that the Eternal Son of God btcame man. in order to re- deem and save mankind. To suppose that God could not have accorded pardon to our race without the price paid for it by the Redeemer, had he willed to do so, would not be credible ; but to receive the satisfaction which his supreme justice required, at the same time that his infinite mercy displayed itself in forgiving, the mysteries of the incarnation and the cross became ih- dispensible. A substituted victim of infinite merit and value, and yet a victim of our race, and representing our race was needed, to the end that justice might be duly satisfied, and mercy be manifested. To blot out our sins, the satisfaction of Christ was therefore for us entirely necessary. By his death on the cross he redeemed us, and merited for us justifica- tion. "He was offered, because it was his own will," and " the Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all." § died for the salvation of all men. and if any perish, it will not be because ample satisfaction 1ms not been made for them, but because they have failed to secure an application to themselves of the merits of Christ. The just offered himself for the unjust, he offered - self freely, of his own will, and because of his love, •Math 1 : SI. +? Cor., v. ]'.>. +P*. Si . il. §Ieajti>, liii. •12 THE INCARNATION. and lie abundantly merited forgiveness for all, and by his obedience and humiliations m«ritcd, for himself man, an exaltation moat extraordinary, and a name above all names. "He is the propitiation for our pins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole wi rid." * II'- alone bears the title of Mediator : " ; there ia one God, and one mediator of God and man, the man Chri i, who gave himself o redemption for all." •!• He eh. the altar of his sacrifice, that life might ai i whence death had sprang, and that the devil? who fioin tin- tree hail conquered, Bhould in th< .He chose an ignominious and crael death on the cross, in order to heal in us the c • oce "f I and the pride of life. I i be CI Qcified amid ahan ny, in order us the deformity and atroc n, which demanded Mich an exl ■nt and • on. The following are : benefits which he has merited for us by th : 1. He ha- ii- -in.', i' •J. ted us from the servitude of the devil, and rescued us from the powers of darkness and the jaws of hell. 3« lie has transferred us int..) his kingdom, and op< ed for us the gates of heaven, which sin had cl 4. lie has pre- us the exemplar of all the virtues, the practice of which is nccc ing the kingdom of b merited for us all the graces, which ena hie us to practice virtues, and to secure eternal I We can do nothing without him, and his blood is the fountain from which all graces How. The supereminent science of salvation is the knowl- Christ, and him crucified; "to those who h a foil- are sav«d, the power of . : i .*. THE iNCARNAri'iN. 43 God."* But this ecience is hot a roero speculative) faith in Jesus Christ crucified. It is an active faith, which labors "to make up what is wanting in the sion of Christ," f which is the application of his merits. To effect the application of his merits to individuals, Jesus Christ established his Church, instituted his sac- raments, gave existence to his perpetual sacrifice, com- toned his apostles to go and preach his gospel, and the kingdom of God to all nations, to administer his sacramerits, and to set up his cross as "a standard to the peoples.":}; He declared to all that it is ncce.-sary for them, "to work out their salvation," and said : "he that will come after me let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. *'§ As he paid the pri< it was his right to place the conditions upon which he would share his merits and his glory with ethers. that none might entertain of his ability to ful- fil bis promises, in addition to the num his life, he arose triumphantly from among the dead, on the third day, as he had foretold, and. for forty days, gave numerous proofs of the reality of his n rection, and, finally, in sight of a multitude <>f wit- nesses, left the earth and ascended to the right hand of his Father. *i Cor. 1: 17. fCol. 1: 24. *[saias xlix : 22. § St Luke ix : 23. || "For you arc bought with a <;reat pr : ..-e : ' 1 Cor. vi : 20. "Christ died ior us: much more therefore, being now justified by his blood, sha II we be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of Jiis Son. much more beim; reconcile.!, we shall be saved by Ins life" Rom. v : 9, 10. It is necessary with faith to live tht Christ to obtain salvation, as his Apostle declarer : ''That he left us an example that we might follow his steps." 1 Pet. ii : 21. 4 t OF THE nuLT GHSOT. CHAPTER VII. OF THE HOLY QH08T — HI IS A TRUE PERSON — HI? DI- VINITY PROVED — HE IS TIAL WITH THE FATHER AND THE SON — THE HOL1 QHl -' 1' PROCEEDS PROM Tin: FATHER AND THE BO» — HIS OIFTfl AND FRUITS. At s very early period of Christianity, there appear- loctrines of faith : i Trinity, the The martyr, [gnatius, mentions Be ral, of whom some denie i th< the snme with the Father and ] about the Di • hich he denied, b all minds, and little men- trred in the 'i of the Holy vindieated and d< Arias and his It •■•• • rs. gain broached a the Holy who;.. : from thi to be ire of the Father and the Son. In - 'e. Th' it'u "in the Ho- and placed the three divine persons on ad glorifi Mi lonias did not deny the personality of tl :. but other Nazianzen, did so. pretending that he was a i / or quality. Again some of them con . him a mere • • different ■i "l ture from God, and of inferior dignity to the Father and Son. A council of ' ia in 362, over which Athanasi as heretics those who should assert that the Holy ■ a creature. A council in Iil'rieum, held i Theodoiet testi- fies, defined the divinity of the II' host- lv afterwards one, held at Roi >pe Dam i and the same substance with the Father. The Sociniana of more modern days differ from most of the ancient op- ponents of the Holy Ghost, who admitted Ids personal- ity, which they deny. The Socinians represent that the Holy Ghost is hut the power of God, a mere ener- gy or quality, as did some of the ancient heretics. It is of faith that the Holy Ghost is a person ; the third person of the Blessed m Trinity, God as the Fa- ther and the Son, God with the Father and the Son; that with them He is co-equal, and consubstantial; that these three persons are one God, as St. John says : " The Father, the Word, and Holy Ghost, and these three are one ;"* And that the Holy Ghost is to be adored and glorified together with the Father and the Son. Proofs that the Ilohf Grhmt is a T • Person, not a mere Quality. That the Holy Ghost is a person is proved from the Holy Scriptures first, because to him are attributed op- erations proper to persons. The Scriptures declare that he. teaches : M lie will teach you all things." John xiv : 26. Secondly, lie is represented as a witness : "He will give testimony of me." John xv: 26. Third- ly, He is represented as searching the deep things of God: "For the Spirit seareheth all things, yea the deep . of God." I Cor. iirl'O, Fourthly, He appoints to the ministry of the church; " The Holy Ghost said to them : separate me Saul and Barnabas, * 1st Epis. of St. John, ch. v: 7. 4() 01 THi; HOL* CHosT. for the work whereunto I have taken them." Acts xiii:2. Fifthly, He operates according to his own will, and bestows gifts; " But all these things one and the same Spirit xrorketh, dividing to every one accord- ing as he will." 1 Cor. xii: 11. Sixthly, lie is rep- resented as aiding our infirmities, and praying for us : " Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought : but the Spirit himself asketh for us with unspeakable groaning.?. " Rom. viii: 2<;. And when St. Paul ask- ecL&t Ephesus.of certain disciples: "Have you receiv- ed the Holy Ghost since you believed?"* They said : "We have not so much as heard whether there be a Holy Ghost," it is evident they understood a person to be spoken of, and not a mere quality, for they knew t hat God could bestow supernatural gifts, and would not have said : "we have not heard whether there be a Holy Ghost," as speaking of a virtue or quality. Secondly. The same is proved from passages, which show that He proceeds from the Father, is sent by the Father and the Son, and is another person than the Son. kl l will ask the Father and He shall give you another Paraclete." Johnxiv: 16. Again: ".Butwhen the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, He shall give testimony of me." John xv: 2G. Again : " It is expedient to yeu that I go; for if I go not. the Paraclete will not come to you: But if 1 go, 1 will send him to you. And wdien He is come, He will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judg- ment.' John xvi: 7, 8. These all clearly indicate a person. Thirdly. We read in the Scriptures, that the Holy Ghost assumed a visible appearance, as of that of a dove at the baptism of Jesus Christ, and of tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost. And we do not read of a mere quality or even a divine attribute assuming a visible form. In St. Luke iii: 22. we read: "And the * Acta x: ■ OF THE HULV GHOST. 47 Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon him." And in Acts ii: 3, 4, "And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of lire, and it Bat upon every one of them : And they were filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak." They received not merely gifts, but the Holy Ghost himself. This faith is also clearly shown in the writings of the fathers and doctors of the church. Proofs that the Holy Ghost is God. In the holy Scriptures, He is called God and Lord. Isaias represents that he "heard the voice of the Lord," (Jehovah.) Is. ch. vi: v. 8, and St. Paul tells us, "Well did the Holy Ghost speak to our fathers by Isaias the prophet,"* thus showing that the Holy Ghost is the Lord who spoke to Isaias, and therefore representing him as a person and as God. David also writes thus in the 23rd chapter of the second book of Kings : "The spirit of the Lord hath spoken by me. and his word by my tongue. The God of Israel said 1o me, the strong one of Israel spoke, the ruler of men,"' and St. Peter, in Acts ch. i : 16, represents that it was " the Holy Ghost who spoke befo're by the mouth of David." Therefore the Holy Ghost is the God of Israel, the strong one, the ruler of men. In the Old Testament, God, Jehovah, is represented as speaking by the pro- phets, and the New Testament declares that these pro- phets were inspired by the Holy Ghost. " For proph- ecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke inspired by the Holy Ghost," writes St. Peter, prince of the Apostles. 2 JEpistle, v. 21. The Holy Ghost is then truly God, the Lord. To Ananias St. Peter says: "Why hath Satan tempt- ed thy heart, that tho^u sh'ouldst lie to the Holy Ghost. * * * * Thou hast not lied to men, but to God."f To lie to the Holy Ghost is therefore to lie to God, and * Acts sxx iii t Ad v I. 48 ' OF THE HOLY QnOSl. the Holy Ghost is God. St, Paul asks the Corinthians t "Know you not that you are the .temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you'?"* The Holy Ghost in the heart of the Christian is God dwelling in his temple. And again: "Know you not that your members are the temple of the Holy Ghost, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body."f The Apostle then calls the body of the Christian, the temple of the Holy Ghost and the temple of God, as if the same thing, giving it to be known that the Holy Ghost is God. The Apos- tle also declares that whatever may be the diversity of graces, or of ministry, or of operations, there is but the same spirit, the same Lord, the same God, who "worketh all in all.| And to the Holy Spirit in various places the Scriptures attribute all the attributes which pertain to God. Hence, Christians have at all times confessed the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and glorified Him with the Father and the Son, distinguishing the three divine persons, but not dividing the substance or essence in God. The Tfiree Divine, Persons are Distinct as Persons, but One in Essence. It is a doctrine of Faith that the three divine per- sons are distinct from each other. The Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost ; the Son is not the Father nor the Holy Ghost-, the Holy Ghost is not the Father nor the Son. Yet these three are not distinct as to the substance nor as" to the absolute attributes, for all three have the same substance and absolute attributes — they are consubstantial, co-eternal, and co-equal in all thij because of the perfect unity of the divine substance which is common to them, and entire and individual in each of them. Without being*confounded, they are united in the same substance, so that they are truly in * 1 Cor. iii:l€ \ 4 Coj 20 kl Ccr. x OF THE HOLY GHOST. 49 each .other. " I am in the Father and the Father is in me," says Jetus Christ. It is in the personality only that there is a distinction. The relative properties of paternity, filiation and spiration constitute the only dis- tinction or difference between them. Paternity belongs only to the Father, filiation only to the Son, and spi- ration as received, or termed passive, only to the Holy Ghost. The Father is the principle from whom the Son from all eternity is begotten, and the Father with the Son is the principle from whom the Holy Ghost proceeds. It is a doctrine of faith, that the Son is be- gotten of the Father only, as expressed in the Creeds of Nice and Constantinople. It is a doctrine of faith, that the Holy Ghost proceeds eternally from the Fath- er and the Son, as from one principle, and one only spiration. Thus have the Fathers taught, and the Councils defined the doctrine as to the mystery of the Trinity. The Scriptures show this doctrine. Attri- butes belonging only to God are attributed to the Holy Ghost. " For the spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world." Wisd. i: 7. "They were filled w T ith the Holy Ghost." Acts ii. These apply to Him what cannot be said of any one less than God. His opera- tions can only result from the attribute of Omnipotence; he gives the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, the grace of healing, the working of miracles, the power of prophecy, the discerning of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, the interpretation of speeches, all "operations which the same spirit, the same Lord, the same God worketh." 1 Cor. xii. Omniscience is at- tributed to him: "But to us God hath revealed them, by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all things, yia, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ch. ii: 1.0. Again: "When He shall come he shall teach you all things." John xvi: 13. Supreme majesty and dignity must bo reckoned to be his, from this declaration of the Saviour in Mark iii : 28. " Amen I say unto you that all sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and the blas- phemies wherewith they shall blaspheme : But he that Bhall Blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, shall nsver 3 60 OF TJIE HOLY GHOST) have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting sin." Forgiveness of sin is an operation of the Holy Ghost, and who cap forgive sins against God except God him- self, either directly or indirectly ? " Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive, they are for- given." John xx. "You are washed, you are sanc- tified, you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God." 1 Cor. vi. " Unless a man is born again of water and the .Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John iii': 5. He anoints, signs, and adopts the children of God : "in whom also believing you were signed with the Ho- ly Spirit of promise ; who is the pledge of our inherit- ance." Ephes. i: 18,14. He diffuses charity: "Be- cause the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost, who is given to us." Rom. v : 5. !He attends to the government of the church : " Sepa- rate me Saul and Barnabas, for the work whereunto I have taken them." Acts iii: 2. Take heed to your- selves, and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you bishops to rule the church of God." Acts xx : 28. Here Christ is referred to as being God, and the Holy Ghost is declared to select and ap- point bishops to rule the church of God, Numerous testimonies from tradition and the Fathers might be adduced to show that the Holy Ghost is God, consub- stantial with the Father and the Son, but the -Scrip- tures are clear enough on this doctrine to dispense me from citing other testimonies. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son. That the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son, as from one principle, is also proved from the Scriptures. Procession may be two fold ; immanent, so called because its term remains within its principle; and transient, because its term is beyond or outside of its principle. The thouglit of the mind remaining in OV TH£ llul.Y »Huir. 51 it is an example of immanent procession. Procession may be perfect and imperfect. The perfect is when the term is subsistent, and of the same essence and nature with its principle. The in , is when the term is not subsistent, as thought in the mind, or when it is not of the same essence with its % prinpiple, as the Son among things created. To deny processions in God, one must deny the Trinity altogether, but to determine the mode in which they exist in God is not easy. The Scriptures prov$ that there are in God two processions. Jesus Christ says of himself: "For from God I pro- ceed." John viii : 42. "I came forth from the Fath- er and came into the world." John xvi . 28. Of the Holy Ghost also he Bays : " When the Paraclete com- eth — who proceedeth from the Father." John xv. 2(3, • The council of Nice declares belief " in the only be- gotten Son of God, born of the Father, and that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father." There must be among the three persons of the. Holy Trinity an or- der of subsisting and operating, and this order is con- stantly indicated in the Holy Scriptures, which name the Father in the first place, then the Son, and tho Holy Ghost after the Father and the Son, as in the for- mula of Baptism. Math, xxviii, and in 1 John v. -This order is constantly observed in thedoxologies and sym- bols of the church. This order can have its reason only in the processions, because it cannot have it in the nature, essence, or substance, which is common and the eame in the three divine persons. What therefore makes one to be distinct from the other is the relative opposition arising from the two processions, the first by gene.ation; and the second-by simple procession, called also, in the principle, oiration, and in the term passive Bpiration. Tho generation of the Son is admit- ted by all who receive the doctrine of the Blessed Tri- nity. There i- concerning the procession of Holy Ghost, the Catholic doctrine teaching that ho proceeds from the Father and the Son, while the schis- matical Greek church and others holding with it in faith, profess that h rt proreeds from the Father only. 5a Of THE HOLY GHOST. There are different texts of the, Scriptures, ■which prove the Catholic doctrine, and these are of three kinds. Texts of the first kind in which the Holy Ghost is said to receive from the Son. When the Son by that itself which he receives from the Father proceeds from Him, it is certainly understood that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son when he receives from him ; for one person in God cannot in any way receive from another . but by proceeding from Him. Of the Holy Ghost it is said : " But when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will teach you all truth. For He shall not speak of himself: but what things soever He shall hear, He shall speak." John xvi : 13. Again : " He shall glorify me : because He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you." lb. v: 14. And why he receives from Christ is declared: "All things whatsoever the Father hath, are mine ; therefore I said, He shall re- ceive of mine, and shew it to you." lb. 15. This shews clearly that there is nothing in the Father which the Son has not, except the relative opposition from the personality ; but the active spiration, which is in the Father, has no relative opposition with the Son, and must be common to the Father aiid the Son as the principle of the Holy Ghost, and the Holy Ghost there- fore proceeds from the Father and the Son. Secondly. Texts in which the Holy Ghost is said td be sent by the Son. It is evident that the mission of one person by the other supposes the procession of the one from the other. The Father is sent by no one ; the Son is sent only by the Father. Now the Scripture teaches that the Holy Ghost is sent by the Son: "But when the Paraclete cometh — whom I will send you from the Father-" John xv: 26. Again: "If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you ; but if I go, I will send Him to you.". John xvi : 7. When in the Scrip- ture, it is said Jesus Christ was sent by the Spirit of £rod, this is to be understood of him as man, since as God his mission was only from the Father. Thirdly. There are passages or texts which indicate the same truth, by saying that the Holy Ghost is the l>i I lib HOLY GriOSt. 5o Spirit of the Son : " And the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not." Acts xvi: 7. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Rom. viii: !». " God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying: Abba, Father." Gal. iv: 6. And in John xx. Jesus breathed upon his Apostles, saying: " Receive ye the Holy Ghost," " What," asks St. Au- gustine, " What other thing did that breathing signify, unless that the Holy Ghost proceeds also from Him- self?" Fathers and councils teach this doctrine, yet its obstinate denial is one of the two chief obstacles to a return of the Greek church to Catholic unity. With- out admitting that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son in conjunction with the Father, He could not be distinguished from the Son, as the relative opposition is what makes the distinction of the Divine persons from each other. In the regeneration of men by baptism they are bap- tized in one name, but belonging to three divine per- sons : "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The Third person is therefore proved to be God by his very name. For only God is " The Holy Spirit," by excellence, be- ing a pure Spirit, infinitely Holy, the source of holi- ness, and the creator of spirits. It is because each of the other divine persons has his appropriate designa- tion that the term Holy Spirit is used to desig- nate the third person, of the Holy Trinity7 which Jie dispenses. The church is the continuator of his work as teacher and saviour ; she is his voice, his organ, his representative ; and as no one can come to the Father except through Christ, so no one can come to Christ except through his church. As we confess that God made himself visible in Christ in the incarnation, so we believe that Christ manifests himself to the world in his visible church, which the * apostle calls " the church of God,'"* because Christ is God. For the sake of men, God became visible and made himself man; and to save men, He clothed super- natural truths and mysteries with languange, that they might be known to men ; for their sake, he appointed visible men to preach these truths and mysteries; to suit men and profit them, he placed his graces in sensi- ble ceremonies and rites, and commanded visible men to administer them, and said : " Upon," the chief or leader of these, whom he termed, " this rock, I will build my church."f It shall be " one fold under one shepherd," where the mere unity of the members shall convince the world, that I have been sent by my Father. J The church of Christ is, therefore, a visible society. How shall it be known and distinguished from all other so- cieties ? The Catholic doctrine answers from the creed: u I believe one JTol//, Catholic and Apostolical Church." These four marks, when found together, manifest the church which all ages have recognized and professed to be the church of Jesus Christ. They cannot be found together in any society, which is not the church of Christ. They are characteristics which grow up from that which they indicate, and they cannot be separated from the church which Jesus Christ founded for the benefit of " all nations, promising to be with it and to preserve it to the end of the world, "§ against "the gates of hell," or the efforts of its enemies to destroy it. Unity of the Church, the first 3Iark. It is certain that Jesus Christ speaks of his church, •l 'tun iii: 15. fMath.xvi: is. {Johnxvii: 21. §Math.xxviii OS . THE CHll'.Ui. as one. " On this rock I will found my. church,"* not many churches. There can, consequently, be only one society, which is his organ and represents him : " One body and one spirit," as "there is but one Lord, one faith, and one baptism — there is bat one God, the Father of us all."f The unity of the church is essen- tial to its nature and to its end. The church is the Christian religion embodied, and in action under an exterior, visible form. The Christian religion is one, teaches to mankind one faith, aggregates men together under Christ, and makes them members of one house- hold, termed by the apostle u the house of God." If a person is not a member of this one society, he is no* in union with Christ, the head, because the head pre*, sides only over the members of the body. The doc- trines, the spirit, the virtues of Jesus Christ are with his church, and cannot be claimed and dispensed by mere human societies and organizations. Hence, all Christendom, except such as from interest or passion,, were found separated from the society which Christ fcunded, has subscribed to the declaration of St. Cyprian: "He who leaves . the church will not obtain the recompense of Christ. He is a stranger, a profane person, an enemy. No one can have God for his Father who has not the church for his mother.^" Only one society has inherited the promises, the graces, and the merits of Christ. That society, which was in em- bryo 'under • the patriarchs, and shown to the world amid types and figures under the Jewish dispensation, and, in fulfilment of promises and prophecies, was " pur- chased by the blood of Christ" on calvary, and being orgafiized under the visible headship of St. Peter, re- ceived the Holy Ghost oil the day of Pentecost, in or- der to become as "a city upon the mountain," for the salvation of ail the nations of the earth, is the only society that can truly claim to be the church of Christ. It is a doctrine of faith, that there is only one church ♦Math., xvi: 18. fEph. iv : b, 6. " *• jCyprian tie Unitate Ecclesise. \ THE ClfURCH. ' 59 of Christ. The church is one only, or else there is no church of Christ, says St. Augustine — " Aut una, aut nulla." Sanctity, the Second Mark of the Church. Soilness or sanctity is a mark of the church. But we must remember thai Christ did not give it to be un- derstood, that all the members of his church would be actually holy. On the contrary, he compared his church to a net let down into the sea, and " taking fish of all kinds,"* good and bad, and again to a fiekVupon which, amid the good grain, the enemy had oversowed cockle or tare, and where both should be found growing together till the harvest, or " the end of the world."f Sinuers, and even public sinners, will then be found in the church. Nevertheless, sanctity is a mark of the church derived from its essential nature, because the church is holy in its founder, Jesus Christ; holy in the end for which it was instituted, the regeneration and sanotifieation of men ; holy in its doctrines, the reveal- ed truths of God ; holy in its means, divine grace dis- pensed in answer to prayer, and in the use of the sacraments ; holy in its spirit, the spirit of God, the Holy Ghost, sent to the church to be its comforter, its counsellor, its guide, and to abide, with it forever. Hence the church is different from a mere human so- ciety, and is emphatically a holy society, for it is "the spouse of Christ glorious, and without spot or blem- ish,' % the. rib formed from his own side, and endowed with the influence to sanctify his children, having with her the means of giving holiness to all who desire it and seek for it, and who do not, by their want of dis- positions, their disobedience, and their sins, prevent her fulfilling the mission given to her by her divine founder. Her members an- all "cleansed by the laver of water in the Word of life, '§ and by baptism are regenerated and made holy, ii* they keep this sanctifying grace ■ Math, xiii : 47-49. fMath. xui ; 24 -30. JEplies. v : 27. SEpti. v: '..'6. 60 " ' THE CMURCH. and preserve holiness, they deserve the name of saints. And the church has always beheld numbers of her children, in all parts of her vast domain, though their lives were not illustrated by miracles, yet giving to their fellow men assurances of their holiness by their irreproachable and exemplary lives, and their endeavor to imitate the model of the christian, the saint of saints. So also can the church ever confidently refer to her numerous confessors, virgins, martyrs, and saints of both sexes and of every rank and condition of life, whom she has taught and perfected in holiness. She cannot keep men from abusing their free will, and trampling on the graces of God by transgressing his commandments, but she continues to reprove their wickedness, holds up to them the mirror of God's law, his promises cf recompense and threats of punishment, and succeeds daily to convert sinners to repentance, and to wash them once more in the bitter, and salutary waters of penance. Being the body of Christ, and the organ and instrument of his action on mankind, all the sanctity, to' be found or tint is possible among men, is her sanctity, and this shows that she is the church of Christ. Catholicity the Third Mark of the Church. Since Jesus Christ died for all men, and established his church to apply the merits of his death to all men of all nations, it is clear that his church must essenti- ally be Catholic, or universal. Catholicity is the un- limited extension of the one society of Christ to all parts #f the world, through all suceeeding time from its origin until the end. The church is established to> be the id other, guide, teacher, and sanctifier of all the nations of the earth. The Christian is the Catholic or universal religion, and the church is the Christian reli- gion living and acting for accomplishing the work of redemption by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Sa- viour and mediator of all men, and " the church is his body," and therefore a universal society, a Catholic so- ' THE CHURCH. 61 ciety, and this society must hold in the embrace of its unity all whom Christ recognizes as his members. a The church is one," says St. Cyprian, "though ex- tended far and wide, and is further multiple.-! by the increase of her fruitfulness. As the sun has many rays, yet one light, and the tree many boughs, yet its strength is one, resting on the firmly clinging root; and as, when many streams How down from one fountain head, though a multiplicity of waters seemed to be dif- fused from the bountifulness of the overflowing abund- ance, yet is unity preserved in the common source. Tart a ray of the sun from its orb, this division of light the unity allows not ; break a branch from the tree, once broken it can bud no more : cut the stream from its source, the remnant dries up. Thus the church, flooded with the light of the Lord, puts forth her rays through the whole world ; yet the light is one, which is spread over every place, while its unity of body is preserved. In the luxuriance of her plenty, she stretches her branches over the universal earth, and spreads out far and wide her bountiful and onward streams. Yet is there one head and one source, and one mother abundant in the results of her fruitfulness. It is of her that we are born ; with her milk, we are nourished ; her breath is our life. The spouse of Christ cannot become adulterate, she is undefiled and chaste. She owns but one home m with spotless purity she guards the sanctity Of one chamber. She keeps us for God ; she appoints unto a kingdom the sons she has borne."* This.bcautiful passage shows the true mean- ing of Catholicity as a mark of the church. The unity of the church expanded throughout the universal world, and forbidding the existence of sepamted and indepen- dent societies, which are compared to "the adult efss," because the spouse of Christ, or his church, " guards the §anctity of one chamber." As the church is estab- lished for all nations it must necessarily be a Catholic or universal society ; but as God will not force individuals or * Cyp ds Unitais Evd- 62 IKE CHURCH. nations to receive his religion, but desires them to em- brace it with faith, voluntary and meritorious, the cath- olicity of his church must, in point of fact, be a moral and not a physical universality, since numbers of peo- ple, and even at times nations, may, in pride and pas- sion, exercise their liberty, and separate themselves from the church. But its catholicity of fact is its dif- fusion in greater or less degree, among all the nations and in nearly all the countries of the earth. Its perpetuity, or extension through time, is also clearly promised* by Jesus Christ — " The gates of Hell shall never prevail against it." " I am with you all days till the consummation of the world."* " I will pray my Father, and he will send you another comfor- ter, who will remain with you FORjBVER."f Time can never destroy the church which is intended to be the ark of safety to all nations. It is, as some one has well remarked, "the vessel zvhich fears no tempests." Apostolicitif, the Fourth Mark of 'the Church. Christ established his church by means of men whom he selected, instructed, ordained and commissioned, and whom he termed his apostles or envoys. "As my Father hath sent me, I also' send you."| Whatever the Apostles of Christ believed and taught, that the church of Christ believes and teaches, and this is apos- tolicity of doctrine. But the Apostles had a mission from Christ ; and they in time entrusted the same mis- sion to others ; and thus the church of Christ always had an apostolic succession and mission. .Therefore, as said by St. Paul, the church is "built upon the founda- tion of the Apostles and the prophets, Jesus Christ be- ing himself the chief corner stone." § The church then issues from Christ through the Apostles, and holds its ministry, its docrines, its means of sanctifying men, from succeeding to the Apostles of Christ. No one has a right to preach who has not been ordained and sent, • * Math, xxv iii. fJotfti xiv : 16. (John*xx: 21. gEphes. ii : 90., THE CHDRCH. 68 and no one has a right to preach another gospel than that given by Christ to his Apostles, and faithfully com- mitted by them to their successors, to be, in turn, en- trusted " to other faithful men."* This mark of the church is made up of two elements, apostolicity of ministry, and apostolicity trine. The bis! of the church are, successors of the Apostles in the ■work of the ministry, and the doctrines of the church art apostolical in their origin, and handed down pure and unchanged. Apostolical succession in the ministry is a pledge and sign of a faithful tradition of the doc- trines, given to the Apostles by Jesus Christ to be taught to all nations till the end of the .world. \ Either the church of Jesus OhriBt must, he interrupted. and fail, or it must he perpetuated by succession. If it fail not, but continue, it must be always able to show, that its ministry, for Christ, has its undisputed succession from the Apostles, who received it from Chri§t. And thus. it must cease to exist, or continue to have the mark of Apostolicity. But, having the apostolical succession in the ministry, it must also possess it in its doctrines, for the ministry was instituted for the preaching- of the doctrines of Christ, and for applying' his merits and means of sanctification to the souls of men. Hence apostolicity is an. essential mark of the church of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church alone possesses the whole of these Four Marks together. No other society pretends to possess these marks. Because they do not possess them, they maintain that they are not necessary. But the church of Christ must be clearly characterised and indicated to men by notes and features, which distinguish it from every thing else. Other societies, calling themselves the church of Jesus Christ, have no distinguishing and essential marks to make them known to the world. They all claim the * 2 Tim. ii : 2. t Mn:h. XXviii: 20. 64* THE CHURCH. same thing on precisely the same grounds, and yet dif- fer from one another in their doctrines and ordinances. There is no evidence that any one of them is the church of Christ, and there exists no means to determine which of them ought to be regarded -as his society. They do not "rest upon a rock," but upon the shifting sands of human caprice ; they do not have unity of faith, nor are they expanded over the universal world in unity ; they have not the means to sanctify souls, and are uncertain about the value of the sacraments which' they profess to administer ; and nearly all of them laugh to scorn the necessity of the apostolical succession, or where some pretend to it, by the evidence of history, they are proved not to be in the line. Their ministry is self sent, and their distinctive doctrines are made up of negations of doctrines" which existed be- fore their origin, and which have been perpetuated in the old society against which they protest. On the other hand, the four marks of unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostoltcity, are found together in the Roman Ca- tholic church only, and clearly manifest her to be the church which Jesus Christ established, to be the means of the salvation "of men. CHAPTER IX. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE CnURCH — ITS HIERARCHY — ITS INFALLIBILITY — ITS LEGISLATIVE AND COERCIVE AUTHORITY: — THE POPE, THE VISIBLE HEAD OF HIE CHURCH — THE NECESSITY OF THE CHURCH^ OR OUT THE CHURCH NO SALVATION— ITS MEMBERS NOT TO VISIT THE RELIGIOUS ASSEMBLIES OF OTHER DE- NOMINATIONS. Every society must have its constitution, or that which makes it what it is, and prevents it from being TUB cm Km. 83 something else different. The church of Christ is a visible, external society, and although composed of men, it was not founded by nlcn, but it was constituted by God, and is " the church of God."* Jesus Christ, God as well as man, calls it his church: "On this rock I will found my church, "f and his Apostle says that "the church is the body of Christ," meaning, not that it is his natural body, but that it is his myotic body. But Jesus Christ being Trod and man, and the church being His mystic body, it is like its head in this respect," that it consists, ;it the same time, of that which is di- vine and that which is human. The end for which it is constituted being supernatural, viz.: to teach the re- vealed truth of God to all nations, to apply the blood of redemption by means of the sacraments to individu- als, to keep its members together in unity of faith and communion, to prepare men by holiness for everlasting lite, and union with God, it was necessary that it should be elevated far above the condition of a mere human organization. Its founder, consequently, gave it a di- vine constitution, with powers, authority, and force su- perior to any that a mere human society could aspire to or obtain, without receiving them from God himself. It is composed of pastors and people ; a body, termed the clergy, to teach, guide and govern, the members of which are the ministers of Christ, his agents, his am- bassadors, who by a sacred rite arc ordained, and re- ceive a distinctive character ; and the people, for whom they are to labour, whom they are to instruct, to whom they are to dispense the supernatural aids purchased for them by Christ, and to be applied to them. Through his agents Christ designs himself to act, and thus the sovereign authority of Christ is represented, and exer- cised by this body, called "the Clergy," the Pastors, " the teaching church." The church herself declares that, in her hierarchy, there are three ranks, Bishop?, Priests, and ministers, or deacons ; but that the princi- pals or chiefs are the Bishops, who are the successors ' 1 Tun. iti : 15, an. I Acts xx : 28. y Math, xxri : 20. (JO THE OHUKOii. of the Apostles, and that they are all one episcopate under the headship or principality of the Pope, who is the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. The government of the church, as representing the sovereign authority of Christ its invisible head, is the body of bishops or chief pastors, with their visible head the Sovereign Pontiff, or the Pope. The mission to be accomplished by the church, demanded that she should be invested with the authority of Christ, to pre- serve, as well as to preach pure and unchanged the re- ligion of Christ; for the church of Christ is his reli- gion in action and, as it were, incarnate. The church then must always be the true, living expression of* his religion, or Christ acting upon the people for their sal- vation. The church is the way and means of salva- tion, and can be tlie way and mean's of salvation only as the agent of Christ, and exercising his authority, & divina and not a mere human authority. Infallibility of the Church. The church could not represent Christ in teaching the truths of revelation, and in presenting to mankind the standard of moral conduct, unless she were gifted with the prerogative of infallibility. If* her teaching were different from that of Christ, and could be false, she would be unfit for her mission. Her mission is to teach the truths of the religion of Christ, and to sanc- tify the souls of men/ For the fulfilment of her mis- sion, she must teach with unerring certainty, and the Holy Ghost was promised and given to her to abide with her forever, in order to enlighten, animate, and direct her in her work.* It is true the teachers are only men, but Christ, who is with them as a teaching hierarchy, is God ; the Holy Ghost is God ; and these teachers are continuing the work of God for the salva- tion of men. The chief mediator i&^ concealed, and the instrument is human, but the effect is to be produced *John xiv : 16. 26. / THE CHU&CH. GT by truth and grace, and therefore the medium of instru- ment though human, must infallibly dispense truth and grace, in order to secure the effect. The infallibility is the attribute of the concealed mediator, Jesus Christ, but it is the prerogative of his church, as representing him. He. continues to act through and with his church, for the salvation of men. "Behold I am with you all days" to assist you.* This prerogative of infallibility is with the church in all that is necessary for the ac- complishment of her mission. It does not give to in- dividuals .of the hierarchy exemption from sin, or guar- antee that they may not lose their souls, but it insures to the people, who are taught and governed, a knowl- edge of the trjje doctrines of Jesus Christ, and of his precepts for the conduct of their lives. In the matters which pertain to faith and morals, they are :;tade cer- tain, that they are taught and directed, Without error or mistake, according to Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit, The persons who are taught, hear the voice of the church, the teaching of the body of bishops in union with the sovereign pontiff, as 'the voice of Chrjst, for Christ is with his church "all days," for the very pur- pose of teaching by her voice. When Christ was on earth, he seemed to be merely man, in all things ap- pearing as man, yet he was God also, and he was infal- lible; so also the church, composed of men, seems to be merely a human society, but it is the church of Christ, founded by him, authorized by him, teaching and acting for him, and therefore it is niore than hu- man, it is divinely constituted, and has the prerogative to speak: and teach for Christ with" unerring certainty. But, as it must do this work until the consummation of the world, it can never fail or .fall away from Ohrist, but is indefectible. Christ promised- that error and crime or "the gates of Hell shall never prevail against it.''f "For tliis cause," pays St. Ignatius, "did the Lo.d take the ointment on his head, that he might breathe in corruption on the church, "t " Hence we 'Mtfib. xxviii : 20. tMail* xvi-18. JSt [gn. Kp ad Ephes. n. 1' 68 THE CHURCH, may understand," says St. Jerome, "that even to the end of the world, the church may be indeed shaken by persecutions, but never can be overthrown ; be tried, not conquered."* And St. Augustine remarks: " There are some who say: 'she, that was ike church of all nations, is already no more; she has perished.' This they say who are not in her. Impudent asser- tion ! Is she no more because thou art not in her ? Look to it lest thou, for that cause, be no more: for she will be, though thou be not."f Although the terra infallibility is not used in the profession of faith, made by those adults who are re- ceived into the church, and by members on certain oc- casions which require it, and it is not e^n used by the council' of Trent in her decree, yet that, which the term signifies, viz: inerrableness, or inability to err or teach falsely, or to decide falsely, when judging and decid- ing the sense of the Scriptures, and proposing what is of faith, is a dogma of faith, to which no Catholic can refuse to assent without the guilt of heresy. It is of faith, that the church proposing the faith cannot err. on account of the assistance of the Holy Ghost promised to her,! for "it is impossible for God to lie."§ The council says: the Holy synod "decrees that no one re- lying on his own skill, shall, in matters of faith, and of morals pertaining to the edification of Christian doc- trines, — wresting the sacred Scriptures to his own senses, presume to interpret the said sacred Scripture contrary to that sense which holy mother church, — whose it is to judge />f the true sense and interpreta- tion of the holy Scriptures, — hath held and doth hold; or even contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fa- thers'."|| The profession of faith says: I profess that I believe the authority of the Apostolic and Ecclesias- tical traditions, and of the Holy Scriptures, which we must Interpret, and understand only in the sense which * St. Jerom. in Amos. f St. Augf. on Ps. oi. J John xiv: 16— 2fi and xvi: 13. §'Heb. vi : t8. || Seas. IV. Decree on the use of the sacred books. THE CHURCH. our holy mother, the Catholic church, has held, and does hold." The unerring authority of the church, in the order for which it was conferred, can only cease to belong to her when she ceases to be the church of Christ and to have with her the Holy Ghost who was promised to be with her forever, or always. The Legislative and Coercive Authority of the Church. The church, being a permanent, constituted society, subjected to a hierarchy, has received from Christ a spiritual power to govern its members. The power is invested in the body of pastors united under their head, the pope, and is commensurate with the mission given to the church for the salvation of men. It is a tenet of Catholic faith, that this spiritual power is independent of the civil power, and that Christ gave authority to his church to pass laws for the spiritual welfare of the. members, and to punish, with lawful censures, those who rebel against them. These laws are binding on the members ; and the spiritual penalties, when really de- served, will be .enforced by God, whose authority is in- vested in his church. While the sacrifice of the new law and the sacraments in their essentials have been established by Christ himself, he has left to his church to pass the laws, which regulate the liturgy, the sacred rites of worship, the ceremonies pertaining to the ad- ministration of the sacraments, the institution of min- isters in the offices of the church, the abstinences and fasts, the observance of Sundays and feasts, the condi- tions of vows, and of the rules of religious orders, and what generally pertains to ecclesiastical discipline. And the ecclesiastical penalties arc, like the powers, spirit- ual, such as excommunication, suspension, interdict, privation of sacred functions, or of a spiritual office ; privation of the sacraments, deposition, degradation, and such like. TU THE CHUhCil, The Pope the Visible Head of the Church. Jesus Christ, in constituting his church, chose his twelve Apostles, and made St. Peter the chief or head. To him he gave "the keys of the kingdom of heaven,"* and under him placed the whole of his sheepfold, "the lambs and the sheep. "f It is a tenet of Catholic faith, that the Pope, the successor of St. Peter, is the head of the body of pastors, and visible head of the whole church. The Pope has not only the primacy of honour, „ but also of jurisdiction, or authority and power, over the whole body of bishops, and the whole visible church, and not by the result of circumstances, not by usurpa- tion, not by concession of kings and nations, but by di- vine right, and by the express institution of Jesus Christ. In virtue of his primacy, the Pope convokes and presides over general councils, confirms their de- crees, and decides with authority in matters of faith and morals. -He. enacts laws which oind all the mem- bers of the church ; and appoints bishops, assigning to them a portion of the vineyard o£ the Lord, or of the flock of Christ, and governs the whole flock, bishops, priests and people. "Whether the Pope, teaching as vicar of Christ, and ex cathedra in matters of faith and morals, is protect- ed from erring by a certain divine assistance, or," as it is termed, is infallible, is not a settled point, some the- ologians having maintained that he is not, while others have contended that he 13 infallible. All agree that speaking unofficially, and a3 a private doctor, he doe3 not possess this prerogative. But no point* of his teaching as head of the church, or ex cathedra, has been disputed by the body of bishops. And to any one who will impartially meditate on the institution of the church, on the promises of Christ to St. Peter, on the duty of his office to "confirm his brethren, "t and also reflect on the vast responsibility of the office of head of thfc church, •Math, xv: : 18, 19. f John sxi : 15, 16, 17. J St. Luke xxii: 32. I TIIE CHUftCH. 71 it must be manifest that Christ, for the preservation of truth and the welfare of souls, has really bestowed upon the Pope, as his representative and vicar, this high prerogative in all his official teaching on matters of faith and morals. Upon this point there has been no decision given by the churchytand therefore persons can choose the opinion which appears to have for it the best reasons and arguments. The following will show what all have to hold as of faith with respect to the authority of the Pope and the ■ primacy of tiie Holy See: ••I acknowledge the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Ro- man church as the mother and mistress of "all churches ; and I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman Pontif, successor of Blessed Peter prince of the Apos- tles, and vicar of Jesus Christ." — Creed of Pius IV. " The Holy Sjmod furthermore exhorts and-, by the most holy advent of our Lord and Saviour, conjures all pastors that, like good soldiers, they sedulously recom- mend to all the faithful all those things which the Holy Roman church, the mother and mistress of all churches, has ordained, as also those things which, as well in this council, as in the other oecumenical coun- cils, have been ordained, and to use all diligence that they be observant of all thereof." — Counc. Trent, Sess. sexv : p. 278, Wattertvprth's Translation. The council of Florence makes the following defini- tion: "We define that the Holy Apostolic See, and the Roman Pontif hold the primacy over the whole world, that the Roman Pontif is the successor of Blessed Pe- ter, prince of the Apostles, that he is true vicar of Christ and head of the whole church, and the Father and Teacher of all Christians, and to him in Blessed Peter was delivered by Christ full power to feed, rule, and govern the universal church, as' is also contained in "the acts of oecumenical councils, and in the sacred ca- nons."—^ Bulla Eug. IV. "Laitentur Cceli." "Also the Holy Roman church itself obtains supreme and full primacy and principality over the whole Cath- olic church, which he recoguioes truly and humbly that 72 THE CHURCH, it received^ with plenitude of power, from the Lord him- self in Blessed Peter, the prince or head of the Apos- tles, whose successor is the Roman Pontif." — Profes- sion of faith of Michael Palaxologus, as offered by him in the second general council of Lyons, in 1274. The Necessity of the Church, or out of the Church, no Salvation. Jesus Christ says of himself: "I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me."* Jesus Christ is the head of "the church which is his body," and hence the church is bound to :-ay : "no man cometh to Jesus Christ but by me." The church must maintain that she is necessary, and that no society, which men may organize and dignify with the name of church of Jesus Christ, will answer instead of her. She is forced to maintain that men cannot do without her, and cannot obtain salvation if they wilful- ly separate, -or stay separated, from her. The church is the religion of Jesus Christ organized and living, and is consequently the amy of saltation. To deny this truth is the same as to repudiate; all divinely revealed religion, and to pretend that there is no fixed "house of God," no "column to uphold the truth," no .defined way by which men. can know and practice the doctrines of Jesus Christ. All Catholics have to assent to this doctrine, that the church of Jesus Christ, one, holy, catholic, and apostolical, is the necessary and indispensable way of salvation, and that no person, who is ivilfully separated from this church, can be saved. As St. Cyprian says: "He, who has not the church for his mother, cannot have God for his Father, "f Again: " Whosoever he be, and whatsoever he be, he is no Christian, who is not in Christ's church.";}; A person, by his own will, being out of the church * John xiv : 6. f Cyp. de Unitate. % Cyp. Ep. LII. ad AtUonia- nuni p 156. THE CHURCH. 73 ^f Jesus Christ, is cut by his own fault. He believes differently from the church, and has not the one faith necessary. If he obstinately adheres to opinions con- demned by the church, he is guilty of heresy. If he holds all ffhat the church believes, but refuses to submit to her authority, he is guilty of schism, or of dividing tho unity of the church. The Scriptures clearly say that those guilty of heresy, schisms, and sects, cannot enter into the kingdom of Gcd. If a person is out of the church by accident, and without will of his own, and without his own fault, he will not be for this condemned; and if he possess the conditions for salvation which God requires from one in these circumstances, God will not reject him for not being in his church, which he did not know, but of which, without any fault, he was ignorant. But such •i person may be really of the church, by his disposi- tions, his good faith, and his endeavours, according to the lights and graces he has received, to do all that he thinks required of him by God. God, in his infinite mer- cy, will not allow such to perish, but, by means known to himself, will attract them into the way that ends in eternal life. But such persons can only be excused for not being in external union with the church, as long as their good faith and their ignorance endure. They become culpa- ble by a neglect to seek and enter the church, when God gives them light to suspect, or to know, that they are out of his church. All persons duly baptized, no matter by whom this sacrament was administered, are made members of the church of Jesus Christ, hence all infants, who are baptized, are children of the church. They continue* in the church, after they attain the use of reason, until, with knowledge and by their will, they take part with heresy or schism, and become separated from the church. " We must," says Pope Pius IX. in his encyclical of December 9th, 1854, "Wejnust, in i'tfet, admit as of faith, that out of the Roman, Apos- tolic church no one can be saved, that she is the only ark of salvatbu. and that, whoever shall not hare fn- .4 74 THE CHURCH. ' tered will parish by the deluge ; yet, on the other hand, we must recognize with certitude that those who, with respect to the true religion, are in an invincible igno- rance, do not carry the fault thereof before the eyes of the Lord. Now, in truth, who, in his arrogance, will pretend to mark the limit of this ignorance, according to the character and diversity of peoples, countries, mii.ds, and so many other things ?" We mu^t leave to pod to determine who are »ot in his church without any fault on their part, while we hold it as certain, that all who seek salvation through Jesus Christ, in order to secure it, are obliged to become members of his church, if it is in their power. The Members of the Church should avoid the Religious Assemblies of other Denominations. When any one reflects upon the evil of error and dissension in matters of religion, and considers for what end Jesus Christ instituted his church, and ''pur- chased it with his blood," he will at once feel that it is criminal, in one of it? members, hy word or example, to encourage those who belong to sectarian or separated churches, having their peculiar doctrines, prayers, and worship. The Apostle St. John says: '* Whosoever revolteth and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God." And he tells the faithful not to re- ceive such, or say to them "Geo spied." ''For he that saith to him God speed, eomraunicateth wi\h his kicked works."* It is necessary for the members of the church openly to confess their faith: "This is the word of faith, which we preach, that if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For, with the heart, we believe unto justice; but, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, "j "Whosoever, therefore, shall confess me before men, I * 8 Ep. St. Jebn, 9— II fBsn x 8,9. IRE CHL'ItCE. TO trill also confer him before my Father who is in hea- ven."* The externa] profession of the word of faith for to believe is not sufficient, when the external conduct conflicts with this faith : For, "not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, nter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of my Father who is in hea\en, he shall enter into the king- dom cf heaven."! A person may deny his faith, and thus deny Christ, as -well by means of signs, actions, and general conduct, as by words. " If a man should lose his life for Christ's sake," we are assured that "he ■will thereby save his soul," for this, hy his conduct., is a profession of faith in Jesus Christ, and love for him. But it is never lawful, even in order to save life ifse{f, to do any act in contradiction with faith in Christ; for thus a man will h?,e his soul, which is more valuable than all things else together. If he cannot be allowed to do such acts to save life, it is of course far more criminal to do them for less imperious reasons. Then what are we to think of persons weak enough to act thus from curiosity, indifference, huma*n respect, or still • ' ignoble motives ? If a erson, by his way of act? ihg, imp'.. truth of God; implies that doctrines, contrary to what God reveals and his church proposes, m*y be true; denies the absolute necessity and true claims of the church, by so conducting himself as to cause it to be supposed that he considers other churches shea of God, and other doctrines as possibly Christian doctrines, and members as really true Christians, no matter what their creed or condition ; he as truly denies Christ aa if .'is did so in as many words, and is guilty of the grievous sin, which the Apostle St, John calls: "communicating with the works," of those, of whom Christ said, '-beware," and whom Sc. John himself cautions the faithful to "avoid."]; The com- mand t«i beware of their., and to avoid them, regards particularly the affeiir of religion, for in mere social or tieal matters, there is not the same necessity, and -th. x: 3-2. f Math, vii : 21.. | Tit. Hi: 10. ft) HE CHUR'-ri "unless men went out of this world 1 '* altogether, they must need hold communication with persons . of all shades of religious opinions, for temporal affairs. But religion, there is no *uch necessity, and the prohi- bition is to be observed under pain of sin. "We charge you, therefore, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother walking disorderly" (contrj tablisbed order) " ; and not according to the tradition which they have received from us."t Order requires obedience to those "appointed by the Holy Ghost to rule the church of God." The faith is one, the body is one, the authority is one, and it is "disorderly," to set up another authority, or to constitute another body or church, and to bring in doctrines opposed "to the tradition." It Ls the Apostle's express injunctrbn, "to withdraw" from all such. Hie gives this command, "in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." For he asks in another place: "Know you not that a little leaven cor- ruptcth the whole lump f"J "Now I beseech you, bre- thren, to mark them who cause dissensions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and to avoid them."§ This is a command, "in form of an ear- nest entreaty, to Jo their acknowledged duty, and avoid all who cause or keep up dissent from the received and delivered doctrines of the church. If such persons art not in unity of belief, or not in unity of communion. is enough to make it a duty to avoid them. And cer- tainly, the most liberal interpretation of such a com- mand would be, to say, at the very least, that they should be avoided in all matters of religion. If not extended to this, the injunction means nothing at all, There are many reasons for this law. 1.- The fear of .perversion is one reason for it. "Take heed that no man seduce you, for many will come i:-. my name, saying, "I am Christ, and they will seduce many."| "Beware of false prophets," says the Sa- *1 Cor. v: 10. \2 Thes?. iii : 6. it CotTt: 6. gRpm. 16 i Vu1'- i §» tUK CHUfiCH, viour, that is, avoid them, do not listen to them. "Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of those things cometh the anger of God upon the chil- dren of unbelief. Be ye not partakers with them."* You may think that you hear an eloquent discourse, very beautiful indeed, and well delivered, but what does it amount to but "vain words," if from "the children of unbelief?" And you may be "deceived," and in- voke upon your head "the anger of God," who per- haps may permit you fondly to believe some opinion no better than "old wives fables." 2. The giving of scandal is another reason. Reli- gious indifference is the great evil of the age. The no- tion that any creed and any church will take a man to heaven, and if so, that a man can just as easily get there without church and creed, seems to be fashiona- ble ; and this false and fatal notion receives encourage- ment from the Catholic, who goes to the religious as- semblies.of the sects. Besides, his going, if he be of imy standing and influence, is an example, whieh weak- er and less instructed members may imitate to their ruin. It is the sin of scandal'. 3. It is, to say the least, a seeming denial of the faith, and of the exclusive right of the church to be regarded as the church of Christ. If the other churches are not- true churches, why encourage them by your pres'ence? If they are true, then the Catholic church has no right to .-lit exclusive claim of being the Church of Christ. But your going to them is a decision agains' her claim. You then deny her, and if she ie Christ's church, as you profess, you thereby deny Christ. In some places, for a Catholic to be seen at some other place of wor- ship, is by all considered as equivalent to abandoning his church, or at least, to be a sign that he is not very firm in his faith. We are told, that the virtuous Elea- zer would not save his life by seeming to do wha,t his persecutor required contrary to the law of God, al- though in reality his friends offered him the opportune • Ephei. v : 6 '{ a THK CilUECH- ty to avoid breaking the law, while seeming to do what the heathen king commanded. He preferred rather to die than dissemble, and thus give scandal to persons younger, who might think his dissimulation could be imitated, and "he preferred a glorious death to a hate- ful life." 2 Machab. iv: 19, 20, &c. If the mere attending other places of worship be wrong for a Catholic, how grievously sinful is it to take part in the worship, prayers, and other religious func- tions ; to Conform and act as if a member of such church! This is emphatically the sin of "communica- tion in divine things" with those not of the household of the faith. The translators of the New Tesrament, published iirst at Rheims, say in a note : " That in mat- ters of religion, in praying, hearing their sermons, j ence at their service, partaking of their sacraments, and all other communicating with them in spiritual things, it is a great and damnable sin." The ancient Apostolical canons have the following : "If any bishop, priest," or deacon, shall join in prayers with heretics, let him be suspended from communion. " Can. 44. Again : " If any clergyman or lay person, shall go into the synagogue of tbe Jews, or the meet- ings of heretics, to join in prayer with them, let them be deposed and deprived of communion." — Can. 6'6. The Council of Carthage, held in 398, thus speaks:. "None must either pray or sing Psalms with heretics; and whosoever shall communicate with those who are cut off from the communion of the church, whether clergyman or layman, let him be excommunicated.' — Civ: 72,73. To tbe English Catholics, in times of the existence .of the penal laws requiring them, from time to" time, to go to the law-established church, Pope Paul IV. wrote, commending their constancy in the faith in spite of ca- lamities and tribulations, and among other things, he thus wrote: " Urged by the seal of our pastoral- duty, and from the paternal solicitude with which we daily labor for the salvation of your souls, we are forced to admonish and ectojure -von. that on no account. SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. "79 you go to the churches of heretics, or hear their ser mons, or join in their rites, lest ye incur the wrath of God, for it is not lawful for you to do such things, without dishonouring God, and hurting jour own souls." This will apply to Catholics of all places and times. Though many, either thoughtlessly or with indifference, act contrary to the divine commands, and the laws of the church, and frequent other places of worship from curiosity, fashion, or for the sake, of friends, let them feel assured that they never do this without sin, and that they will have to give an account to God for ex- posing their faith, and giving scandal, as also for seem- ing to approve separated churches. The same principles and. reasons show that it is sin- ful to write, print, publish, sell, or read books, that are contrary to faith and morals. The ecclesiastical au- thorities have continued, from the days the converts burned their books at the feet of the Apostles, as nar- rated in Acts xix., to exercise censorship over books, and, under severe penalties, to prohibit such as were found false, or dangerous to virtue. The members of the church are bound to respect such censure and pro- hibition, under the risk of sin and excommunication. CHAPTER X. OF HOLY SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION — THE OLD TES- TAMENT — THE NEW TESTAMENT — TRADITION. The truths which we are to believe, and the morals which are to govern our conduct, are made known to us by the revelation of God. This revelation is known as the word of Q-od. God has spoken to men in two modes, viz: by the way of written books, and by Tra- dition. The written books are called the sacred Scrip- tureSf or the Scriptures, and, in their collection, the Bi- ble. But rnanv divine revelations were delivered orally. SO SCRIPTURE A:S'D TRAJHTlOX. as well under the old dispensation as under the new, or gospel law. Jesus Christ taught the divine truths of his religion to his Apostles orally, and he commissioned them so to preach them. Hence, his church, in teach- ing all nations, rests her teaching on the deposit of rev- elation as found in the Scriptures and Tradition. Her decisions in general council, or by her head in agree- ment with the bishops dispersed, define the points of Faith only, and do not make the doctrines. The Scriptures arc the collection of the divinely in- spired books, which have escaped the'injury of time, and have come down to us with complete genuineness and authenticity. They consist of the books of the Old and New Testaments, as avowed by the Catholic church. "What," asks St. Gregory the Great, "is the Holy > Scriptures but an epistle sent by the Omnipotent God to his creatures V* There are two testaments, the last the unveiling of the first. The difference existing between the Ancient and New law, may be summed up as follows : 1st, As to the author ; the authors of the old law are especially Moses, and afterwards the prophets; the author of the Gospel is Jesus Christ, true God and true man. 2. The ancient law is less perfect than the new. 8. The an- cient law is but the shadow of the new, the gospel is the manifest truth. 4. The ancient law was a law of fear ; the gospel is a law of love. 5. The ancient promised terrestrial and perishable goods; the gospel promises grace, heaven ; and it conducts to it. 6. The law was a galling yoke ; the gospel is a light burden. 7. The law was a road leading to Jesus Christ and the gospel ; the gospel and Jesus Christ are the term of the law, for Jesus Christ is the end of the law, as St. Paul says: Finis leg is Christ us. (Rom. x.) 8. The law was given to the Jews only ; the gospel is given to all nations.- 9. The law was only for a time : the gospel shall last forever; it shall be eternal. 10. The law was imperfect, the gospel is perfect, whether considered a3 * Lib. iv. En. Ixxxir. .SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. Si regards doctrine or morals. II. The ancient law was a law of servitude : the gospel is a law of liberty, of the spirit, of beneficence and charity. 12. The law gave onlv the precepts and what was conformed to nature : the gospel gives precepts and counsels, divine and su- pernatural thing.-, surpassing nature. 13. The law proposes to the understanding the command in its bar- renness ; the gospel, with the precepts and counsels, of- fers grace for the accomplishment of both. 14. The law never created an Apostle; the gospel has produced many of them.* The books, which the Catholic church holds as the inspired word of God, and places in the canon or cata- logue of inspired writings, are seventy-two in number, of which forty-five belong to the Old, and twenty-seven to the New Testament. The books of the Old Testament are ; the five books of Moses, viz: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy ; then Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 4 books of Kings, 1st and 2d of Paralipomenon, First of Es- dras, and the second of Esdras or Neheroias, Tobias, Judith. Esther, Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticle of Canticles, Wisdom, Ecclesiasiicus, lsaias, dffremias including Lamentations, Barueh, Ezechiel, Daniel, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Na- hum, Habaccuc, Sophonias, Aggeus, Za'charias, Mala- chias, and 1st and 2d Machabees. The books of the New Testament are : the four gos- pels, or St. Mathew, St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. John. The Acts of the Apostles, the fourteen Epistles of St. Paul, viz: Romans, 1st and 2d Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, two to the Thes*a- lonians, two to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, and He- brews, two Epistles of St. Peter, three Epistles of St. John, St. James, St. Jude, and the Apocalypse of St. John. Although some of the books of the Old Testament are termed Dcittero-Canonical, because not found in the * From Corn, a Lapide. S'2 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. canon drawn up by Esdras, some of them having been written after his time, they are by the Jews read with respect, and by the Catholic church declared sacred and canonical. Also some of the parts of the New Testa- ment were subject of discussion in the first ages, and more slowly admitted to be inspired, which shows how careful Christians were to examine the claims of these writings to be God's Word; and these disputed portions are also called Deutero-canonical ; yet, in settling the Canon, the Catholic church has decided that they are, like the rest, sacred and canonical. This is seen in the action of the Council of Carthage in 397, saying: "We receive these from our Fathers as to be read in the church." In 405, Innocent I. to Ex- uperius, Bishop of Toulouse; in 494, Pope Gela;»ius; and Pope Eugenius IV, in 1440, in his decree to the Armenians; 'give the list of sacred books as set forth by the Council of Trent. The Greek church agrees with the Latin as to the list of sacred and canonical books; and with the Fathers, it was regarded as the undisputed right of the church, to decide what writings are to be esteemed as the inspired word of God, since there were so many books in circulation claiming to be gospels and Apostolical writings, which were neither in- spired, nor true. St. Augustine says: "I would not believe the Gospel did not the authority of the church move me to do so."* The decalogue, as given by God in the ancient law, was again in the new dispensation promulgated by Jesus Christ, and while by his advent, his life, and death, he fulfilled the figures and promises of the Old Testament, and abolished the ceremonial sacrifices and usages, he did not destroy the testimony, which the ancient Scrip- tures give, as to what in man is pleasing or displeasing to God; For his Apostle writes: "All Scripture, in. spired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to cor- rect, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be I * St. Aug. Cont. Ep. Maniehaei, c. v. Evangeiio non crederem, ni9i me Ec^-Wise Catholicae comraoveret auctoritas. SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 83 perfect, furnished to every good work."* What is true, * must be always true, for as Cicero says: " Truth is the daughter of time."f The truths, shown to men in the revelation of the Old Testament, must harmonize with those revealed in the New, for the* gospel is the word of God from eternity. "The book of the holy Scrip- ture is one," writes Rupert the Abbot, "and is there- fore so culled; it is one book because it is written by one spirit; it is one treasury and one tabernacle of tho word of God. "| The council of Trent declares the faith on this sub- ject. It says : " The Synod, following the examples of the orthodox Fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety atfd reverence, all the books of the Old and of the New Testament — seeing that one God is the auther of both."§ It. is therefore of faith that the several books of the Old and New Testament are the inspired word of God, and as the Council pronounces anathema on any one -■who does not receive, as sacred and canonical, the s'aid books entire, with all their parts, as they have been used to be read in the Catholic church, and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition," it is fair to infer that by calling them sacred "in all their parts," it intends to maintain that "in all their parts," they are the inspired word of God. But the Council has not expressly said that " in all their parts" they are the inspired word of God, but that they are "sacred and canonical." We present the following considerations to show the truth of the Bible, not with the intention of setting forth the many arguments which might be adduced, but in a mere general way, following the views present- ed in the book of Argentan, entitled " Grandeurs de Jesus Christ.'' *2 Tim iii: 1G, 17. fCic. Lib. de Ofiic. +In Apoc. $Sess. iv. 84 SCRlPiURK AND TRADITION. 1st. — Of the Old Testament. 1. The Old Testament is anterior to all other books. No one has ever known or written anything more an- cient. It alone gives an account of the origin of the world, teaches us whence it came, and who created it as it is. It presents to us the Creator, in his stupendous work of six days or periods — shows the earth's inhabi- tants, and what they did. We have nothing which pre- cedes this narrative. 2. Moses, who wrote the first five little books, known as the Pentateuch, was not a # cotemporary of all that he relates, but he was sufficiently near to the events, to have credible witnesses, who themselves saw a part and obtained the rest from their fathers and ancestors. Though the period was over two thousand years, the chain of tradition is short, clear and strong. Before the deluge the life of man was prolonged for eight or nine hundred years, and consequently children lived so long with their parents, as to be able to learn from them correctly all they knew of the traditions of our race, especially, as they had little, in the order of the sciences and arts, to occupy their attention. The children, in their turn, becoming parents and living long with their children, even for centuries, could easily teach them all these great events. Thus only a few generations intervened between Adam and Moses, who could easily know what" was generally known am(*g the people, and in writing, would be necessarily able to re- cord in his books the facts as known and believed, and not mere fictions or fables, the falsehood of which every one would know a&d denounce. His books were re- ceived with veneration, and preserved with religious care," because the people recognized their correspond- ence with the traditions of the past$ and the facts of their own times. 8. The things related by Moses are not private af- fairs, but of a most public nature ; events of the most extraordinary character, and in themselves seeming to SCRIPI'URE ASD TRADITION. 85 be almost incredible, had not all known them to he cer- tain ; so that, had they not occurred as stated, it would be easy to show the imposture. For how could Moses devise a fable, that the whole earth was submerged by a deluge, and narrate it as true, no one having any knowledge of such a catastrophe? How could he imagine and tell of the captivity of Egypt ; the pas- sage of the Red Sea ; the manna sent down from hea- ven; the passage through the desert, and all the prodi- gies he has recorded, if he had to invent such events, since he tells them to those who ought already to know of them, and, if not true, would know that they were false and imaginary? The events did not concern some few individuals, but whole nations and peoples, and the truth of them must have been known and admitted, or they must have been recognised as false. How could a writer, who was him- self among the people, and held so high a rank, have published such extraordinary things as true, had they been fabulous ? 4. Then the character of Moses and his admirable qualities deserve to be considered. 1st. He was a great prophet; 2dly. He was a very holy person; 3rdly. He was the intimate friend of God, and had special com- munications with him. He predicted wonderful things, some of which occur- red soon after, as he had foretold, others at a later pe- riod. His sanctity was recognized, and the acts of his life were wonderful; and God made known his will to the people through him. Such a man could not be wicked enough to fill his writings with fictions and false- hoods. 5. Then also consider how later writers, who have followed him, and added portions to the holy book, have written in the conviction of the truth of iiis wri- tings. They too were prophets, ami divinely inspired, and their prophecies in many cases were fulfilled while they yet were among the people. Their writings are lime, containing grand and incomprehensible things. 86 SCRIPIUBB AtfD TuADITioST. and presented in a manner above the reach of the mere genius of man. They also were holy men, they taught the principles of a holy life, and denounced the vices and sins of men; and most of them exposed or laid down their lives for the glory of God. These were the men who wrote the books of the Old Testament, arid it is just to conclude that their writings must be authentic and true. 6. The preservation and integrity of the Old Testa- ment, during so many centuries, is itself miraculous. It always had numerous eiemies arrayed against it. It censures the world and its vanities, menaces severe punishments against those who live according to the maxims of the world, and condemns Paganism and its hosts of imaginary deities. The world was devoted to idols and superstitions, and only a little portion held by the people of Israel worshipped the one only God; and yet these writings wefe preserved with care, and maintained their integrity amid this state of things ; and the Jewish people cherished them with the greatest veneration and fidelity. How could this be, except that the Israelites were convinced of their truth and value, and that God himself watched over them as the records of his religion ? 7. Consider finally that this book is "not the work of one age, but of centuries — five or six centuries passed while it was being composed, and from Moses, who com- menced it, to the Machabees, under whom it was com- pleted, nearly twelve or thirteen centuries intervened, during which, a number of persons, of different degrees of intellect and condition of life, have added their parts to it, yet never could have seen each other, or compared their intentions and designs; and moreover, they all agree so perfectly in the truths which they teach, that it appears manifestly it was the Spirit of God who guided them. These'proofs and reasons would seem suffieient, without having recourse to numerous others, to prove incontestably the truth of the writings of the Old Testament. I SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 87 2d — Of the New Testament. 1. If the writings of the Old Testament, which con- tain the shadows, figures, and types of the truths which God promised, are true, those of the New Testament are no less true, because they contain the realities pre- figured and promised in the Old. The two testaments have a close connection with each other, the one is full of promises, and the other narrates their execuion. They are in fact but one book, at .once the most an- cient, venerable, and important in the world 2. If the fact, that Moses was a prophet, and the other holy men who wrote the books of the Old Testa- ment were prophets, gives such a character of truth to their writings, how much more firmly is the truth of the New Testament established by the fact, that the eternal Son of God madettnan, with his own lips dicta- ted the greater portion of it, especially of the four gos- pels; while to those who wrote the rest, he not only gave instructions himself, but also visibly sent, to them the Holy Ghost to inspire them? Their sanctity too is apparent not only from their holy lives, but from their many wonderful miracles, and from their having suf- fered death, in testimony of their faith. • 3. As the witnesses cotemporary with Moses were so numerous and so able to be well informed, as to pre- clude all possibility of his undertaking to record fables for tHKhs, especially events so extraordinary, that they must have passed as incredible, had not the truth of theai been publicly recognised by men, how much more apparent is it that the Apostles and Evangelists could not have written untrue things, since what they wrote wis so extraordinary, that men had never seen the like before — such as feeding five thousand persons with five loaves of bread, giving sight to the blind from their birth, raising the dead to life, as in- the case of Lazarus, win. was in the tomb tor four days, curing the lame, and the palsied, aiid the lepers, Lc. '.' To write and publish such things, in the very time and' place 88 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. where they are represented to have, occurred, is more than any writers could possibly venture to do, if the events were not true. The Jews* were too much inter- ested to confound them, to allow impostures so gross to pass upon the public unopposed and unrebuked. They could easily have confounded them, and they had every disposition to do so, were it not that they knew them- selves that the facts were really true. 4. Beside? the Apostles were not philosophers and learned men, but simple and unlettered, and instead of concealing what is bumbling to them or to their mas- ter, they bring these prominently under view, and yet in their writings they set forth almost unconsciously the most sublime things, matters far above the reach of the human mind, and which have caused the admira- tion of the most learned men of all ages since. They had no education, and yet, they had scarcely abandon- ed their former humble occupations, when they at once astonish the world with a tfoctrine so spiritual and so perfect, that even the greatest philosophers are con- founded in contemplating it ; and, in the writings which record it, arc forced to recognize a something which they discover nowhere else, a majesty which astonishes the mind, and a sanctity which affects the heart, even when they refuse to accept its lessons. 5. And although these Apostles wore without perso- nal credit or authority among their fellow-men, the whole power of the heathen world, and even its concen- trated power under tjie great emperors w!k> governed the world, succumbed before their teachings, arM men accepted from them a new law, which subjected their pride and passions, their cupidity, and love of pleas- ures, and all that is dear to self-luve and self-indulgence in man, and caused them to take up the cross of self- denial and voluntary mortification. It was a victory. achieved by the truth, which they boldly and fearlessly proclaimed, and a victory, over such a mass of lies and errors as made paganism dear to die pas-ions of men, is" an indisputable evidence that the truth, which achieved it, came from God. There is" no greater miracle, or : SCRIPTUBB ASb TRADITION. 8'< manifestation of the 1 power of God, tkan this conver- sion of the Pagan world to the doctrines of the gospel. 6. But look at the character of the New Testament, and the work which it undertook aa the censor of man- kind. Consider the numerous enemies it had to en- • counter, and the empire of authority it has assumed, and always maintained over men, and say if you can explain its power and influence thus perpetuated, ex- cept by admitting that its authority is that of God. It censures and denounces all abuses, all depraved incli- nations, all meanness, tricks, frauds, cunning devices — in a word, all the sins of men. It speaks alike to great and little — to kings and subjects — to masters and ser- vants. It corrects the faults of all. It not only condemns great crimes, but reproves lit- tle faults, and not only words and actions, but even criminal thoughts and desires. It looks into the sccresy of hearts, and unfolds the plies of consciences. At every point of conduct to which the passions may lead men in search of gratification, it presents itself with its text of eternal truth, to menace God's anger and an . endless punishment, as the penalty of disobedience to its admonitions. Its voice no other can silence, and it is recognized as superior to any other in the world, which proves that it represents the authority of God. Heresy has tried to change and corrupt it, to make it suit its fond devices and theories of pride, and has even gone so far a? to publish false writings with its title, as jLthey were genuine gospels, but it has still preserved its purity and integrity, without the loss of a single truth, and come down to us through the vicissitudes of time and change, unchanged and uncorrupted, Avhile those altered writings, with the errors they upheld, have sunk into obscurity and oblivion. 7. The Old Testament demands the New, and makes it necessary. God might have dispensed with figures and prophecies, and given the redeemer to the world without them ; but having given the Uld Testament, and it being proved to be his revelation promising the saviour of men, as ".the desired of nations," the simple 90 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. narrative of -what occurred when God fulfilled his pro- mises, and realized what he had prefigured, becomes a necessity; since otherwise the Old Testament would be still incomplete, «and yet the time for the fulfillment as indicated by itself, long since have passed.- The New Testament contains the realities promised in the Old, and manifests the realization as having taken place m time to correspond with the prophecies. They thus mu- tually prove each other. St. Paul tells us that he preached "the gospel of God which he had promised before by his prophets in thejioly Scriptures."* Although both Testaments are but one book, and contain the word of God, it is a very great error to suppose that men can know God's word by .a mere reading of the Scripture, as the Scriptures .may be understood either correctly or falsely. It is evident that they express God's word to man, only when understood as he intended. But every reader, no matter how high an idea he has of himself, is not qual- ified to understand the Scriptures merely on leading, or even studying them. The Apostles themselves needed something more, as we see in St. Luke, where Jesus Christ "opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, "f Jesus Christ is still found in his church, and will still " open the under- standings of men to understand the Scriptures," if they will take his interpretation of them, given by his church. The Scriptures are the book, seen by St. John the Evangelist, on the right hand of him that sat on the throne, " a book written within and without, sealed with seven seals," and "the lion of the tribe of Juda,. hath prevailed to open the book and loo?e the seven seals thereof."| St. Augustine says : " In these Scrip- tures I am ignorant of more than I know,' s for the profoundness of the Scriptures is wonderful. St, Pe- ter declares that in St. Paul's epistles, "there are cer- tain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned * Rom. i: 1, 2. t Luke xxiv: 45. J Apoc. v: 5. § Ej.'isi. CXJX- SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 91 and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruction."* But the wise will seek the wisdom of the ancients, and, from the lives of the saints,t and the doctrines of the church, will learn the signification of the holy Scriptures, that thoy may do as Timothy wai advised: "But continue thou in those things which thou hast learned, and which have been committed to thee : knowing from whom thou hast learned them." j And if they "know the Scriptures from their. infancy," like Timothy, so much the better, for they '* can instruct to salvation," when "the things committed" are kept faithfully, and we continue in the "things we have learned" from the church, which was commissioned to leach us. Tradition. Tradition, in its general meaning, signifies all doc- tripe communicated by one to another, - whether by wri- ting or orally; and in this sense it is used by St. Paul, when he says : " Therefore brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle. "§ In its strict sense, it signifies doctrine communicated orally by its author, whether afterwards reduced to wri- ting or not. Traditions may be divine or human, as they have Christ or the Holy Ghost for immediate author, or were introduced only by the Apostles from their gene- ral authority, or by the church after the time of the Apostles. When we speak of tradition as a source or fountain of doctrines, we mean by it a collection of revealed truths, which, taught by men inspired by God, are pre- served in the memory of men, in the principles of be- lief and conduct generally received, in the permanent and daily teaching of the ministers and chiefs of relv * 2 Peter iii: 10. fVita Sanrtormn Iiiterpretatip Scripttirartim. Si Jurome Ep. ad I*auHu. \ 2 Tiaa hi: 14. I 3 The- ii; 14. 92 fcCKlPIL.KE AND I'KAUiT ION. gion, though not expressly written in the sacred hooks of Scripture. It is very clear, that the men, whom £od inspired, could deliver revealed truths as well orally, as deliver them in writing. It is also certain, that revealed truths have been orally delivered for over two thousand years from Adam to Moses ; also from the time of Moses to that of Jesus Christ ; and from the time of Jesus Christ to our day. The history of the Jews, and the history of the Church, prove this. We will speak of divine traditions during the period between Jesus Christ and our time. In this period, besides the Scriptures, or written word of God, there have always been in the Church traditions, or a collection, or body of revealed truth*, which wove orally taught b} 7 the Apostles and iirst disciples of Jesus Christ, and not by the writers of the Christian Sriptures expressed in them, but which belonged to revelation, and were as entirely the w^>rd of God, and source of doctrine as what was expressed in the Scriptures. These truths were taught by the Apostles -to the churches which they founded, and to the ministers, the bishops and priests, whom they ordained. As they themselves had been instructed by Jesus Christ, eo they instructed the bishops whom they ordained ; these, in their turn, instructed and ordained others. Thus the truths, orally taught by the Apostles, were preserved in the church as a sacred deposit, which was religiously transmitted from one to another, from Jesus Christ to us. It is of Faith, that there exist in the church such divine traditions', and that these, as well those pertain- ing to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, are to be received and venerated equally. with the books of the Old and New Testament. If the truths come from the same source and have the same high origin, of course they are entitled to the same belief and veneration, They must have the same authority. I ■' i: i PTURfi AN D TB 1DITI0K. ^ :> ' The following texts are decisive upon this point : "And the things thou hast heard of me by many wit- s, the same commend t» faithful men, who shall i teach others also •-'i !;< i rethren, stand fast and hold the tradi- tions -which you have learned, whether by word or by ■ our epistle.' | - ; Now I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me, and keep my ordina ; delivered them to you. "J For "ordinances'' we have in the Greek, parafbs&is or traditions, in this last text. In the second, the Apostle places what is delivered by "word" and what by writing on the same terms. And in the first he in- dicates the method of teaching orally "to faithful men" the truths which he had taught, that they should also iX teach others," as the means proper for propagating the doctrines of faith. Timtthy no doubt followed these instructions of St. Paul, and thus from hand to hand, age after age, was the deposit of doctrines passed from faithful men to others instructed by them. In this manner have the doctrines descended to our times, for the preaching of gospel was the manner chosen by Christ, and in use b< fore a word of the New Testament was written. The time assigned to the composition of the books of I New Testament embraces a period of about fifty-seven years, from the eighth to the sixty-fifth year after the ascension of Jesus Christ. Many years more elapsed before the collection of these writings into one volume; and near four centuries before the church settled the this time tradition was the safe vehi- cle of doctrine; and the necessary interpretation of whal i forth in rtie inspired writings was the teaching i '!) of the the Saviour, d, would not have allowed a false teaching to lie first spread and believed, and then cause to appear writings in" contradiction — a written gospel Contrary to • " Tim. ii .. ' Phes. ii: 14, J 1 ('or. xi : 2. £i .'.CRiriURS AKD TE.iM.TI N the preached jgospel. St. John, in the conclusion of mi gospel, tells us that all that Jesus Christ did v not written,* and neither of course was all that he taught his Apostles recorded. Their, preaching and the instructions and rules, which they gave to the churches which they founded, were necessarily such as Christ commissioned them to teach to mankind, since he sent upon them, for this purpose, the Holy Gh the Spirit of truth. Their preaching or traditions were, therefore, to be received with faith equal to what .is due to inspired writings coining afterwards ; and when these writings ^ere silent on points which were in their tradi- tions, the word of God could only be known from these, last, and where the writings spoke on the sime subjects as their traditions, and the writings would seem to bear another meaning or interpretation than the one which the Apostles expressly taught, it must be concluded that the interpretation which is in harmony with their tradi- tions is the one intended by the Holy Ghost, since lie could not have inspired them to preach one set of doc- trines, and inspired them and other men to write doc- trines opposite and contradictory. 1 say other men, *Jo!in >:xi : 25. And not only was wli not written, but even some ot that which was written, his uat cuius down to us. For instance, in St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthian* he says : "I wrote to you in an epist e not to keep company with fornicators." l?i Cor.. eh. v : 9 ; and where is this epistle, which tin- Apostle wrote to the Corinthians, as he informs us in what wejiow name his Jjrst epis 1 - tie to the Corinthians., and which, therefore, w-is , ot me rir.-t? Again, in Col. iv.. 16, St. Paul says: "And when this epistie ahull have been read with you. cause a!.-o that it be read in tt:^ church of the Laodiceans; and thai you re - -v' thai vekUhit of the Laorfireans, ' An. I wiu-re is that epistle of the Laodireans, to which. St. Paul htire refers tix; Colossiansl Can readerf of the Bibie find it? Wliile I am directing attention to what has been lost to us f.otn the New Testament, it m iy be of interest to remind t'no>e. who place their confidence in the written word of Go i alone, as th*»y understand it in their private ju iirmem. fiat many books of the Old Testament are al.-o wanr.ua. Cotzeu.jn hia preTace to tin G tspels. e-ti liat-.-s the lo-t h«o B e at twenty in mi St. Justin Mirtyr, in his work against T . hon. says: •The ma le away with iqatty books i»f i!ie Old re.-tautei.t that the New might not be«ni to agree with it." Here we indicate some of these lest books, la Numbers xxi. 14, we read: " Wherefore it is enidin SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. 95 because St. Luke and St. Mark were not Apostles. Therefore, the preaching of the Apostles and their suc- cessors, or the teaching of the church of -Jesus Christ, must always remain the test for knowing the sense and meaning of what may be read in the Scriptures. Many of the Apostles delivered nothing in writing that has been preserved to the world. Even those of them, whose writings we posies*, delivered many things with- out writing. "These things also," writes St. Chrysos- tom, "are worthy of faith. It is the tradition: ask no more."* "If of these and similar traditions you ask for the law," writes Tertullian, "you will find no scrip- tures for them. Tradition will be pleaded to thee as the author, custom as the con firmer, and faith a* the observer of thorn." f ihe book of the wars ul the Lord/' But woe re are we to rind this bonk? Again: .In Joshua x 13, it is asked' " Is not this written in the book ot the jiifct." or in the Plot, version, "in the book of Jash- rr." Where is thi» book? In. 1 Kings x. U5. or Prot. vert , 1 Samuel, it is said: "-Then Samuel told the peo| le the manner of ihe King- dom, a i>il wrote it in a l>< ok, and laid it before tVie Lord." Tins book is lost. Again, in .". Kings, or Pro!, version, 1st Kings, it is ."aid: ''Solomon spoke threa thousand proverbs, and his poems (songs) were on thousand am! live." V. I : these proverbs and tongs? Again in 1st Paralipnmeno'n, or Pro!, vers. I Chron. xxix. W, it is ianl ; "The act- of 11a \ id, first and la>t. are written hi the books of Samuel, the seer and the br-t.k ol Kmhan, the Prophet, and the hook of Gail, the seer." \Yl - the book of Nathan, and the book of Gad • Again in *^d Paralip. or P. v., Chion. ix. *9. it is asked, .-peaking of the aets of Solomon : '' Are •they not written in the words of Nathan, the Prophet, and in the books- of Abias (Abijah), the Silonite, and in the vision of Addo, (Iddo ) the seer.' 9 Ihese pre lost books. Again in the same. ch. X't. 15: " Tho aets of Roboanrv, first and last, are written in the honks of Semeias (Shemeiah). th-3 prophet, and of Addo (Iddo.) tbe seer, and diligently recorded.'" But where are these books? As;ain in the same, xiii. 22: "And the rest of the aets of Abia. and of h'.e ways and works, are written diligently in the book f>f Addo. tbe prophet " And in chapter xx. 3-1. ol the tame, we are told that. the acts of Josaphat are written • in the words of Jehu, son of Hanaui, or in Prot. vers, in the bonk < f Jehu, t-on of Hanani " vVhere is this book to bo found 1 These books are no longer a part of the Bible, and he who relies only on the written word of God read and interpreted by himself, has only a part of God's word. Perhaps if he had some of these lost books, he might have to change some of his religious opinio* * Chrys- in Ep 8 Psul. t Tertuilian de Corona- 96 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. "But there is also need of tradition," says St; Epip- hanius, " for sill things cannot be sought from, the Scrip- tures. Therefore have the most holy Apostles left some things in writing and other things by tradition."* "Whatever," says St. Augustine, "the univeri church has held from the beginning, and was not insti- tuted by councils but always retained, is most justly believed to have been no otherwise transmitted than by apostolic authority." f ny fathers, from St. Ignatii , might be cited, but these suffice in conjunction with the plain ts from the Scriptures which we have given. Usage established the authority <>f tradition even with thi wlu> pretend to deny it. where it conflicts with their pe- culiar errors. Denominations of Christians, whi members admit infant baptism, have a difficult task to prove it conclusively by the Scriptures.; for though it i*, in certain texts, insinuated, and implicitly taught, it is not said in express terms, yet they have received it from the teaching and usage of the church, on the authority of tradition. All denominations have in the Sunday as the Lord's day, instead of the Sabbath I id commanded, and they cannot justify this chai by the Scriptures, but they have received it from the Catholic Church, on the authority of tradition. They neglect "the washing of the feet," commanded in the Scriptures, because the Catholic Church, on the au- thority of tradition, has not kept it before men as a precept or institution, although the Catholic Church, by her bead at Rome, and, in many otle . . by others, has it yearly observed, on Holy Thursday. They make no difficulty to eat blood or things strangled, al- though expressly forbid to do so in the Scriptures, be- cause the Catholic Church, on the authority of tr tion. has declared that the prohibition was only a rule of discipline, designed for a | ar time and cir- cumstances, and not for Jill nations and ages of the Church. *Epinh adr H<£: lib 11 Hast. 6" A L'c Bapt Con I ! i \ MPTURE AND TRADITION. ?7 The Catholic church consistently declares that the authority of divine tradition as God's word, is the same as if the Scriptures contained the record. It is his word delivered, and of the same weight and value a? his word written. And with as firm faith, she holds and teaohea these points of tradition. But. what con- sistency is there in people calling out daily "the Bible. the whole Bible, aud nothing but the Bible," and then believing and doing things contrary to what is express- ed in the Scriptures, and for which they can have no authority except Tradition, which they repudiate and condemn ? In every society, and the church is a great society made up of all nations, there must be traditions arising at the very origin of such society.* The only question, for the church and its members, is, does such or such tra- dition come unchanged from Jesus Christ and his Apos- tles? Or has it, in its progress, been changed or al- tered.? To this, question reason answers: "Whatever is generally taught and practiced throughout the whole church, without any one being ablo to show that it commenced at some time later, must have come from Jesus Christ and his xipostles." For considering man's nature, and the nature of doctrines affecting the con- duct of men, it is not possible, that the generality of Christians dispersed over all the different countries of the earth, and separated from each other by seas, by languages, and customs, different in manners and views about every thing except religion, could unanimously have fallen upon the same belief and usage in religion, if that doctrine and usage had not come to them from the samo source, or from the same master, who had sent his envoys to these different people, with the same les- sons and instructions. Also to the reason of man it appears, that whatever is universally believed qjid taught over the whole church, without a possibility to show that it began at any time later than Jesus Christ and his Apostles, can never be easily altered, changed or corrupted, because both teajChers and believers, take too lively an interest 5, rflB HULL OF lAIlji. in matters of religion, to allow of such change or alte- ration designedly, and too continually reduce their be- lief to daily practice to allow an unperccived change to occur, not to say, that it would be impossible that cither of such supposed alterations could ever be univer- sal over the whole church, and no notice thereof appear in history. Besides, such change in faith aad usage would also have required an alteration of the books and writings of the Fathers and Doctors of preceding ages up to the •lays of the Apostles, since for the doctrines of the church, which rest on tradition, we have the testimoj of the Fathers and writers of every century up to the very times of the Apostles. How impossible is sucii a change! No better sign then can any one have, thai: a doctrine came from Jesus Christ and his Apostles, than its being held by the universal church at all times, without the possibility to show that, at some* later period, it was introduced. A tenet believed at all times since the origin of Christianity, and believed every where, must have been taught by Jesus Christ himself, and by his Apostles according to his command. The Holy Scriptures and Tradition must therefore be equally revered as the sacred fountains of the faith de- livered by Jesus Christ. CHAPTER XI. OF FAITH — THE KILL OP FAITH. St. Augustine tells us, that "a man learns from the creed what is to be believed, from the Our Father what is to be hoped for, and from the commandments what is to be loved."* It is to what is to be believed, that I am chiefly inviting attention at present, and hence I * Enckirid, eh. 1 THE Bl LE OP FAITH. will leave the reader to peek elsewhere the teachings of "the Oar Father" and "the commandments," respect- ing the objects of hope and charity. The creed is but the summary of the principal doctrines of faith, and these are set forth first, in the symbol called '-the. Apostles' Creed,"' and afterwards, with more develop- ment, in that of Nice, of Constantinople) in the Atha- nasian Greed, an T Pius JV. Bat the. creed does not present all that flows from the fountain of di- vine faith, or all that God has revealed and promised, us contained in the Holy Scriptures and tradition; and •eriainly faith can be nothing less than a belief of alt that God has said, as far as ;; is known to us. St. Augustine further remarks, that there are two kinds of faith: "We speak now,'' says he, "of that faith which we use when we believe something; not of that which we give, when we promise something. For this also is called faith. But it is one thing, when we he gave no faith nor credit unto me, and another., when we say, he kept not faith with me. For the one is as much as to say: he did not believe what I said : the other, he performed nut what he said. By this faith, whereby we believe, we are faithful unto God; by. the other, whereby that is performed which is promis- ed, God also is faithful unto us. For the Apostle so says: "God is faithful wdio does not suffer you to be pted above what you are able."* Of the faith, or fidelity of God, no doubt can be entertained; it must therefore be held that whenever in the Scriptures, men- tion is made of man's faith alone, and in its own kind., it should be understood of that, whereby lie is faithful tod, or as St. Chrysostom expresses it, of that "faith by which man gives credit unto God's sayings and words,"f For explaining the words: "Abraham be- lieved God,' lie say- "he believed the sayings of God." lie gave credit to (rod's words. "What pertains to faith?" again asks St. Augustine; he answers: "to believe." " But what is it to believe, unless to con- • ,\ iic . ; II. mjt 31, in Gen. 100 THE RULE OF FAITH. pent that what is said is true ?" Faith, then, consider- ed in its own kind, may exist alone and separate from hope and chai'ity. Wicked men may have faith, for even "the devils believe and tremble," lut they neither hope nor love, says St. Augustine. This faith is the as- senting to and the Ixjlieving of what is revealed. Of this faith the Apostle speaks, when he tells us, that "faith without works is dead." It is perfect in its kind, being really believing, but it is not a saving faith ; because St. Paul declares : " For in Christ Jesus neither circum- cision availeth anything, nor uncircuinci.Mon ; tut faith ' workith by chanty."* From this declaration of the Apostle, St. Augustine deduces the following rule, that when we lind in the Scriptures faith comnic tded for justification or salvation, we should always una* istand ic to signify the faith which worketh by charity ;f "for the Apostle hath defined and determined this to be the faith required." lie who believes the word of God in hi* mind and professes it with his lips, but does not keep it in his actions, but transgresses its commands, will not be saved. His faith is true and perfect for believing, but not perfect for saving, for it is one thing to have the true faith in assent and profession, and another to have it in heart and affection, and with obedience and other necessary virtues. Faith alone may then exist, and does erdst in wicked pc-rsons and in devils also, but will not avail without other things.': "Without which," says St. Augustine, "it can- be, bui cannot profit. "% Yet this faith, which has its own natural and peculiar property of being an assent and belief of the mind to God revealing, though not sufficient of itself and when alone, is still necessary. We must give credit to God, and believe what lie says, Otherwise we impeach the ve- racity of God; and we cann"t do this without the great- impiety, even on the slightest points of 'what he says, for his veracity is, in all things, in little as well as great. * Gal. v : 6. ■ tAu^. T)e fide ct Oper. c. 14. De Spirit, et lit. eap 32. | St. Au>.'. dc Txiftitale lib, 15, cap. 18, e* hi EazbirxlT I THE RULE OF FAITH. 101 unimpeachable and unquestionable. However, to know what is said by God, we must understand his words correctly. What is said by God, or his word, as we have seen, is found in the Holy Scriptures and in tra- dition ; but these are both without life and animation, and on account of this, cannot tell us when we under- stand correctly what they contain as God's sayings or rev- elation, and, consequently, numerous disputes and con- troversies arise among men, about the meaning of differ- ent passages of the Holy Scriptures, and about the fact whether Mich a teaching or usajrc belongs to tradition from Christ and his Apostles. To explain difficulties, and to settle disputes, it was necessary to have a living teacher, who is able to say when the word of God is understood in its true sense, and what traditions arc of divine authority. God has provided this teacher and interpreter to settle all controversies in religion, and interpret his word with unerring authority, for ic has been always held as certain, and is a tenet of Cath- olic faith, as declared by the council of Trent, that it belongs to the church "to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the Holy Scriptures,"* in matters of faith and morals pertaining to the edification of Chris- tian doctrine. For rule of faith, therefore, besides Scripture and tradition, we need the church to propose, declare, and decide what are the t«uths which we are to assent to and believe on the word of God, and be- cause of his supr^e authority, This is summed up in the following rule^ u All that, and only that, is of Ca- tholic faith, which God has revealed, and the church proposes to the belief of all."t That a doctrine should be of Catholic faith, first, it must be revealed by God ; and secondly, it must be proposed by the church. Apostles had the commission to teach to all nations revealed truths of religion ; their successors in the sai ministry, or the church of Christ teaching, received au- thority to fulfill the same commission, and with the * Sess. IV. Decree on the use of the Sacred Buokf. f Sep Ye- Dii de Resula, Fidei CatlxoLieae, 102 THE RULE 01 1AII2I. promise of aid from CliriBt to the end ui' the world', and of aid from the Divine Spirit to suggest all truth to them, they were to continue to teach until all should have the opportunity to receive the one faith, which, says St. Paul, "cometh by hearing'"* those 'who are sent to preach it. He that refuses to credit this teach- ing, or "who believeth not, shall be condemned. "f Although supernatural, infused faith he one, as it is a, habit in the soul, faith is by theologians represented as twofold, yet both of them equally divine/and termed Catholic faith and thco!< aith. They define di- vine theological faith, to be that, by which we believe God revealing the n and truths of the Chris- tian religion; and divine Catholic faith, that teaching which proposes to the universal church the things that ire to be believed by all. Theological faith contains all the truths revealed by God, whether in his written or unwritten word; but for Catholic faith, the public prop- osition ofi the teaching church is necessary. A person, consequently, might before Cod be guilty of a heresy, in culpably denying or rejecting something by him revealed, and belonging to theological faith, without subjecting himself to the pains or punishments din v the church, as he did not come in conflict with what she taught by express proposition. Many articles of faith, formerly found in theological faith, hare become of Catholic faith in the course of time, by definitions made by the ch^bh ; while, other . equally of divine faith v are believed in the church, and arc not yet defined by express proposition. The church does not make the faith, but cxprc declares what it is, when the utility of the faithful and propriety of times and circumstances, require her to speak, as she does in her (Ecumenical Councils, or through her head, with the agreement of the bishops dispersed over the world,. When the Scriptures are ob- scure, her interpretation is to be received as the genuine * Bom. x: 17. fJM ' OF GRACE. 103 sense thereof. Her public teaching always is in har- mony with the Scriptures. If she has usages, which she declares to be apostolical tradition.-, these are to 1"' held as harmonious with what is taught in the Scrip- tures. Every doctrine decided and proposed by her, is to be held as a Catholic truth, for her decision is infal- lible in matters of faith and morals. By this rule, it can be known what arc those here and sects, which the Scriptures declare to us will ex- clude their followers from the kingdom of heaven. And though u faith comcth by hearing," yet the grace of God precedes its entrance into the soul ; it is also itself a grace, but when it is alone, in its kind and nature as mere belief or assent, it is not a saving faith, but may become so, if working by charity, there is obe- dience to the laws of Christ, for the remission of in his sacraments. For though faith be a gift of God, it requires the co-operation of the will of man for sal- vation. CHAPTER XII. CONCERNING GRACE — ITS NATURE — ITS DIVISIONS — ITS EFFECTS — I-'IT.ST EFFECT, JUSTIFIC LTION — SEC- OND EFFECT, THE MERIT OF GOOD WORKS — PREDES- TINATION — THE CONDEMNED PROPOSITIONS OF JAN- SENIUS. As some one has remarked, " the Christian religion is an immense grace." St. John the Apostle ■declares that: the Son of God was made man, and "dwelt amongst us full of grace and truth." His church and all his institutions are full of grace. "What arewe to understand by this term [/race? It expresses Hie gifts which God gratuitously confers upon man, especially in the order of salvation, and may be defined : A super- 10 i OF GRACE. natural and gratuitous gift, from the pure goodness of God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christj as the means to enable men to obtain eternal life. It is supern ral t because coming from God, its influence is to en man to attain a supernatural end. the vision and enjoy- ment of God; and gratuitous, because God Was not obliged to create man for a supernatural end-, nor to elevate him to ■> supernatural end after be bad fallen; and because it is a pure mercy of God that Tie restores man from bis fallen condition, and invites him to seek the vision and po >n < llii *elf, the Infinite Good, and offers <<» make bim partaker of the glory of heaven: Since the fall of Adam, gra< - from God to) man only in view of THE MERITS OF JESU8 CHR] ttu: Redeemer, who purchased it by making himself a victim of propitiation for all the human race. Towards attaining everlasting happiness, men can du nothing without tiic grace of God, although their natural forces are only impaired, and not entirely ruined by the fall of Adam. Grace is divided into habitual and actual grace. The first, which is also culled sanctifying grace, is a quality, which in a fixed and'permanent manner, abides in the soul, purifies it from sin, and renders it agreeable to God and worthy of the happiness Of heaven.* It re- mains in the soul as long as the Boul perseveres in jus- tice, but it is lost' by mortal sin. The second, or actual grace, may be either external or internal. Exterior * It is of fuiih that tanclifying grace which justifies exists; it is also of faith that it is mktrtnt in the loul, and not the mere favour of God and extrinsic, hut theologians say that it is not of Catholic faith, that it is in the soul in the form of a hnhit, or habitual, be- cause neither the Council of Trent nor any other general eon noil has defined it to be n habit. Yet it is the common opinion of the- ans that this justice or sanctity is a permanent quality or habit in the soul. Vasquez says : '-From the I nl it is collected with manifest reason, that infants and adults, who obtain the i't - by virtue of thi 't, are jusiifie I by a habit, and a permanent quality, and therefore that this opinion b that it cannot be denied without er- ror. " — Ditputali \ OF GRACE. grace consists in the preaching of the gospel, Hermans, exhortations, counsels, good examples, and the like, which incline the soul to good. Interior grace, consid- ered as actual, is the act of God interiorly enlighten- ing our understanding and fortifying our will, and thus is either grace" of the understanding, or grace of the will: This grace may be either preventive, concomi- tant, or subsequent, according as it induces us to Luow and will good, or aids us while Ave do so, or follows us to make us persevere in willing and doing good. Grace may he also cither sufficient or efficacious. It is sufficient, when it gives us the power to do good, al- though it is not followed by its effect. And it is effica- cious, when it is followed by its effect, or where with it we do what God wishes us to do. Men can resist grace, and when they do resist it, and it does not produce its effects, such grace theologians term sufficient, to distinguish it from grace which is not. resisted, but corresponded with, and which, producing its effect, is termed efficacious. Hut it is a doctrine of faith, that although efficacious grace infallibly produce iis effects, it does so without reducing the 'free will of man under any necessity, hut leaves it truly free, and able to resist the influence of grace. Theologians distinguish grace in general into two sorts, one of which they term grace given gratis, gratis data, and the other grace making agreeable, or gratum faciens : for although all grace is a gratuitous gift, they specially term that grace gratis data, which God gives to a person not precisely to sanctify him, but to convert and sanctify other men, such as the gift of miracles. The second sort, or grace gratum faciens, is also a gra- tuitous gift of (rod, but its object is to render the person to whom it is given holy and agreeable to God. To this kind of grace, our attention is now to be restricted. It is an article of faith that actual interior grace is absolutely necessary for salvation; for the commence- ment, the increase, and the perfection of faith; for the beginning and completion of good works; for the com- mencement and consummation of our salvation. ^ IOG OF CRACE. " Without mo you can do nothing,"* Jesus Christ lias Baid in the gospel, and St. Paul speaks thus : " not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselv* ourselves ; but our sufficiency is from God.Y' Again: " Being confident of this very thing, that he who hath begun a good work in you, will perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ.'*;}; Also: "For by grace you arc 1 through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of Gfod."% " Pot unto you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him/'|| Grace is therefore necessary for all that relates te ration, an*! in all respects it it gratuitous; men " being justified fi we of Jesus Christ. \\t we are to keep in mind, that the great for as, "eternal life.*" is promised as a recompense for our -_:<»<»« 1 use of other graces, and therefore men hav- ing grace, nmy merit other graces. The sense in which we must understand that grace is gratuitous is, that it is a free gift of God, ami can never be merited by the natural e id natural dispositions of man, though when man iis moved by God, and assisted by his gr be certain whether G<>d punishes the wickedness thaji they deserve, which, however, was the opinion of St. Augustine, and also of Bellarmine, as to the punishment awarded at. the judg- ment being milder than the evil deserts of the wicked. That God awards to the just beyond what is merited seems apparent from the texts: " Be glad and rejoice, for 3 T our reward is very great in Heaven." * "Give, and it shall be given to you : good measure and pressed down and shaken together and running over shall they give into your bosom." f "And Luke xix. 17, where ten cities having been given to him who gained ten tal- ents, and afterwards from the person who had not im- proved his pound, it was taken, and, as an extraordinary gift, bestowed upon him who had the reward of ten aties. "I In order that a person may merit, certain conditions are requisite. 1st. Man can only merit while still in the present life — He must "work wdiile the day lasts." idly. The actions must be under all respects good, with a supernatural goodness ; the object of merit being supernatural, viz : grace and eternal life, the actions must be in proportion with it, and be supernatural! v good. 3dly. The actions must be voluntary and free, having a liberty of choice, excluding all necessity absolute or relative. 4thly. To merit condignly, a man must be in the state of grace, or in union with Jesus Christ by charity ; and lastly, to merit condignly, there must be a promise of God to give* something, as recom- pense for our works. It is in virtue of His own en- gagements that He becomes out debtor. Without these • Math. v. IS. t Luko vi : :JS. . J Luke xix ■ 17-2-i. Ill 0» ftEACE. conditions, wc may hope for and obtain certain graces from tlie goodness of God, and ought even to expect the graces necessary for our salvation, but God does not owe them to us, and it is only by a sort of congrn- ity, that wc look for them from his infinite mercy and goodness. The question may be asked : What things can ive mefii by our good worlcs? We answer, it is of faith that man can, in no manner, merit the first grace, which is purely and absolutely gratuitous. 2dly. It is of faith, as may be seen in the canons which we have cited, that the just can truly merit an increase of grace, eternal life, and an increase of the glory of Heaven. 3dly. .The just cannot condignly 1 1 efficacious grace, or final perscverence, as God has not promised either, if we take the word promise in its strict signification. But the just, by correspond- ing with grace, can, by congruity or suitableness, merit more abundant graces, and even suppliantty the gift of perseverance; " Hoc itaquc donum suppliciter emereri potest," says St. Augustine. 4thly. The sinner can- not condignly, or as a matter of justice, merit sancti- fying grace, because, in order to merit condignly, he must be in union with Christ by charity, and in a state of grace. Yet, as God " docs not will the death of the sinner, but that he be converted and live," ::; if the sin- ner does what depends on him, he can obtain this favor from the mercy of God. In considering good works and their merit, wc must bear in mind, that it is not of the mere moral value of actions that we speak, but of their supernatural moral value, or their value in the order of salvation. The Apostle St. Paul says to all persons: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." f The Saviour says. : "Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven." $ The sovereign Judge says: "Behold I come quickly, and my reward is with me to render to every man ac- ch. xxxiii : 11. f Philip ii : 12. *J JUaih. vi : 20. cm . 115 cording to his works."" And. St. .Paul teaches that kt every man shall receive his own reward, according to his own labor."f Fqr although, without grace, men can do nothing to obtain eternal life, yet grace will not do every thing for them, but they must co-operate with it, and, "by their good works," give glory to God who g them.J The justification of an adult is comparatively only commenced by his translation from a state of sin, when God, in whom he believes, makes him a godly and just man by washing away his sins in baptism; for "he who is just, let him he justified still, and he who is holy let him he sanctified still. "§ For this, St. Augustjne rep- resents, when he says: "After that, by fighting with the vices, from the guilt of which we have been dis- charged," we must Make progress in justice. Nor will this even be enough without our justice shall be per- fected, "for not the hearers of the laws arc just before God; but the doers of the law shall be justified. "|j They who do the law "shall be justified" by the judg- ment of God, and their justice shall be perfected if they persevere in doing justice, for as St. Augustine also holds: "Our hope shall be fully accomplished in the resurrection of the dead; and when our hope shall be fulfilled, then shall our justification be fulfilled and ac- complished."^ NoW, for progress in justification, which is increase in grace and sanctity, and for the perfection of justifi cation; which is its accomplishment by the just judg ment of God, good works arc indispensable. St. Cy- prian says: " It is a small matter to be able to get something. It is more to be able to keep what is once gotten: as in faith itself and the salutary birth, it is not the receiving, but the keeping of it that giveth life, neither is it the attaining, but the perfecting, that pre- serveth a man to God. This our Lord taught by his Apoc. xxii : 12. tlCor. iii lath, vi : pi. §Apoc. xxii: || Rum. ii; ID.' ^ St, Aug. En. lUti, and s^yiuu. SI, de • 116 OF GRACE. own instruction,*. when He said : " Lo thou art made whole, sin now no more, lest some worse thing befall thee."t When Christ "gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity," the Apostle repre- sents that it was his purpose "to cleanse to himself a people acceptable, a pursuer of good works. "$ Where- fore the Apostle exhorts: "That you receive not the grace of God in vain,"§ which would be the case most certainly, if being "washed" in baptism, and justified, a man did not pursue good works, but still did the Avorks of the ilesh, since St. Peter declares': "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of justice, than after they have known it, to turn back from that holy commandment that was delivered to thcm."|| The unclean spirit may be cast out, and the house swept, . but if he is allowed to enter again, he goes in " with seven others worse than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. "^[ The order given by our Lord to the Apostles was to teach the people his gospel, and "to command them to observe" all his commandments; for the people whom he desired, and who, as foretold in the prophecy of Zachary. when he lv was filled with the Holy Ghost," should be granted to him, were a people, "who should serve him without fear, in holiness and justice before him, all (their) days."** The advice given in Ecclesiasticus is: "Let nothing hinder thee from praying always, and be not afraid to be justified even to death ; for the reward of God con- tinueth forever. "ft ^ ue good or bad works -which we do arc the seed we sow, " and what things a man soweth the same shall he reap, for he that soweth in his flesh, of the flesh also shall reap corrup- tion. But he that soweth in the spirit, of the spirit shall reap life everlasting . And in doing good let us not fail."|t "Wherefore, brethren, labour the more that by good works you may make sure your calling and election. "§§ It is evident, therefore, that a man's * John v. f Cyp. Lib. i. Ep. 5. J Tit. ii: 14. § 2 Cor. vi ; 1. 2 I'cier li: 2*: IT Matli. xii : 45. ** Luke i : 67-75. ft Ecc!. v viii : 22. %\ Gal. vi : 8, 'J. §§ 2 Pet. i : OF GRACE. 117 vocation and election can derive great benefit from good works, since St. Peter recommends them as the means to make election s>irc, or certain, and consequent- ly they must have an intrinsic value, and are not the -mere evidences of faith. St. Paul' represents "ever- lasting, or eternal life," as the product of a man's works or of what he sows, for he says, "he shall reap everlasting life," and it must therefore be, by the mer- its of his good works, that he obtains it, although not by. his works alone, since "eternal life is the grace of God," but by his works inspired and aided by divine grace. B?here never was a greater snare oC the devil to ruin souls than the notion, that man will be saved by faith alone as taught by Luther; and that good works are no more than a testimony to declare their faith, but are not deserving of any reward of life everlasting, as taught by Calvin, * This was not the invention of these reformers, for St. Augustine combated the same error, saying : " That is the most dangerous opinion of all, whereby men are made believe, that no matter how lewdly and shamelessly they live, and even continue in that kind of life, yet if they only believe in Christ, and receive his sacraments, they shall come to everlasting life.""] St. Augustine even shows the source of this error; he says : " For men, not understanding these words of the Apostle: We think a man to bejustijiid by faith with- out the works of tlie law, Horn, iii: 28, thought, he said, it is sufficient for a man to have faith although he live wickedly and do no good works. But God forbid that the chosen vessel should be of that opinion. "% The Apostle did not mean to exclude "the works of faith," but merely "the works of the law," for he declares ex* pro-sly: " Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircuiiK-isioii ; But faith that worketh by charity. "§ "It is not every faith," says St. Augustine, "whereby a * CrIv. Instl. Captde Just. Cap. 10. -j- \wj de Fi et Ope. Cap. .27. J Aug. de Gratia ot Liber Arb. c . 7. gGat. vi: '3. 116 OF GRACE. man bclieveth in God, that the Apostle dctermuieth to ))(• healthful and evangelical, l>ut it is that faith, saith ho, ' k through charity, whereupon he avoucheth that the faith, which some assume to he sufficient for their salvation, availeth nothing; in bo much that be declares: 'if I have ad faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, it profiteth me noth- ing.' "* If it be the faith that worketh by charity that availeth, it is conclusive that faith alone availeth noth- ing for salvation. And how then can faith alone justi- fy a man'.'' Justification is a great thing, and the faith that is alone without charity profiteth tiothing, much less can it avail to justify. Faith may lie in the wiA ed hut not charity, and therefore not an active working faith, for wherever there is charity it worketh, and charity cannot lie where faith is not, hut where charity rith it faith itself also worketh. Though their i; also a law for charity, yet it is not merely t- a work of the law," for it is a gift of the Holy Ghost, and the grace of (jrod; "the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to us."f No person can love God unless he believes in him; but no person also can love God and not keep his com- mandments, for the Saviour ny man love me he will k- ord, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him."]." Again: " God is charity : and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God. and God in hin who is it that loveth God'.''" Jesus Christ answers question: "He that hath my commandments and keep- '■lb then:: lie it is that loveth me. "|| What is it to lieve in Christ ? It is to dwell in Christ, and. not mere ly to ' of the mind that the Son of God c; On earth ami died for sinners, since the devils ana tremble, and yet they cannot profit by their belief. "Whoever shall confess that Jesus fs the Son of < • St. An t '. De Gratia ef lib. arbit. < I OF il!» God abidcth in hiin, ami he in God." But, as wo have sen, faith ;ilonc will not cause God to abide in any man, but "he that abideth in charity, abidcth in God, and God in him," ami therefore the confession of Christ must be in charity as -well as faith, and this charity must not be merely in words but in works, a charity that workcth ; it must be a love of God which ki his commandments, a charity which obeys: "And whereas indeed he was the Son of God, he learned obe- dience by the things which he suffered; and being con- summated, lie became to all that obey him, the cause of eternal Balvation."?* Did he become the cause of salvation to those who only believe in him, and who do not obey him ? Cer- tainly not. Yet the Apostle says, "by grace you are saved through faith, "f but he does not gay by faith alone; nor by a faith that excludes charity and obe- dience ; nor even by a faith which excludes hope, for lie says: "For we arc saved by hope"! A "I° a ^ so savs : "He saved us by the laver of regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Ghost," § which is, by baptism, .It is through hope and love that our faith must work, and by these three together man is conducted to God, through obedience, and with the use of the sacraments, which Jesus Christ has provided to be the channels for applying the merits of his blood, and conferring the graces which are necessary. For "being justilied by iiis blood, we shall be saved," || for "in him we hav redemption by his blood, the remission of sins,"^[ and therefore St. Augustine draws up a general conclusion as to the difference between the sacraments of the old law and those of the new ; the first "promise a saviour," but "the sacraments of the new l&w give salvation.' And why are these last so superior in excellence and efficacy? He says: "The side of Christ hanging on the cross was struck with a lance, and the sacraments of the church flowed out." ft The sacraments, thcre- *Heb. v: 6, 9. t Eph. li: 8. JRom. viii : 24. §Tit. 3: 5. Rom. v. '.i. li F.ph. i : 7, and Col i : II- *» Si. Aug. in Ps. 73. | ; Si \, ,.: p . n it the seal of her anathema. The second council of Orange, held in the year 529 ? say3 : " Not only do we not believe that God has pre- destined some to evil, but if there be any who wish to believe so wicked a thing, with the greatest detestation we say to them: Anathema."* The council of Va- /ence, held in 855, says: "That God foreknew, and eternally has foreknown that the good were to do good things, and that the wicked were to do evil things. . . We hold, and H pleaseth us to hold, that He foreknew that the good were to be good entirely through his grace, and through the same'grace to receive eter- nal reward;. : that He foreknew that the wicked were to be bad through their own malice, and to be condemn- ed to eternal punishment by his justice. "f The same council further declares that the prevision of God im- poses no necessity on any one; but that God, who knows all things before they occur, has foreseen that the wicked would be so by their owp will; that whoever is condemned is so by the desert of his own iniquity, and not by a decree anterior to the divine foreknow- ledge : if any perish, it is not because they were not able to be good, but because they were not willing to be good. The Council of Treat has the following ca- non: " If any one saith, that the grace of justification is only attained by those who are predestined unto life; but that all others who are callefl, are called indeed, but receive not grace, as being by divine power predes- tined unto evil; let him be Anathema."! The follow- ing sentence from St. Augustine, on the same point, is very clear: "God is good, God is just; He can libe= rate certain persons without good merits, because he 13 good; He cannot damn any one without evil merits, because he is just;"§ When Jesus Christ condemns the ♦Council of Urange, Can. xxii. flu Labbe. Counc. Tom Col. 135, cited bj ... JSesi VI. San. xvii. V^"' Cent. Julian. Op. xviii OF GRACE. 1_< wicked at the final judgment, he enumerates their de- merits as the cause ; and he says that M everlasting fire was prepared for the devil and his angels," but he does not say it was prepared for wicked men,* so also St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, chap, ii : 9, says : " Tribulation and anguish upon every soul that worketh ev>l." " Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that lie should be converted from Iris ways and live?"f " The Lord delayeth not his promise, as some imagine, but dealeth patiently for your sake, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should return to penance. "| "For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of tlie living. '*§ It is therefore a dogma of faith, that God does not decree anyone to reprobation and eternal punishment except after his prevision of their voluntary wickedness. If then, there be some whom God has not included in his decree of predestination to glory and eternal life, it is certain, that His prevision of their unwillingness to obey and serve him, and keep his com- mandments, went before his reprobation of them. As to infants, who die without baptism, even when their pa- rents are guilty of no neglect in frying to procure bap- tism for them, it must be admitted, that, by his general providence, God has afforded them the means of salvation, which would have become a special blessing to them, had all his laws and intentions been corresponded with freely by men ; but because of excesses and violations of his laws, which take place somewhere in the line of descent, and even at times are committed by the imme- diate ancestors, there are children with bodies so unfit- ted to endure, that they merely come into the world, breathe a few times, and fall immediately into the arms of death, before baptism can be administered to them. For such, it cannot be pretended that God is bound to suspend his laws and work miracles to sustain their lives, that they may receive baptism. Besides, who can • Math. xxv. fEzech. xviii: 23. J 2 Peter iii- 9, §Wisd. i: 13. 128 OF GRACE. say if God does not foreknow that these very infants, if left longer in life, would afterwards be in a worse condition during all eternity, than they will be from having died without baptism f Who knows, if left in life, that thoy would not, as so many do, abuse reason, grace and all the gifts of God, and daily "heap up for tliem- selves treasures of wrath" for eternity? It may then be a special mercy to them, for all we know, that they are taken away unbaptized, and without any actual sins to be expiated. Also many infants die unbaptized from the criminal unbelief and indifference of parents, al- though their lives are prolonged sufficiently, but no one can say that God should work miracles to make those parents carry their children to the font of baptism. There can be conceived no more flagrant absurdity than for a person to argue, as some are said to do, that because the mystery of predestination exists, and God. foreknows whether they will be among the elect or rep- robate, and whatever ne foreknows will necessarily oc- cur, they will continue to live as pleases them. It is absurd to argue and act thus about their most important affair, when they do not reason and act in the same way about other matters. All things that are to occur to us in the future, are as much foreknown to God as is our lot during eternity, and yet no man says: God knows whether I will have money or not, and therefore I will not work or act for obtaining it ; God knows whether or not I will have a crop, arfd therefore I will not trouble myself about preparing the ground, putting in the grain, or attending to it ; I am very sick, and God knows whether I am to get well, and I will not use remedies nor employ the skill of a physi- cian. • Why then should a man so reason about his lot in eternity ? Rather he ought to say : if God foresees that I am to be among the saVed, he also foresees that I am to keep his commandments, and pursue a holy life and good works, and if I am now living in this manner I must "take heed lest I fall," but I may hope for his grace to grow yet more holy, and to persevere to the end. But if I am leading a wicked life x and am OF GRACE. 129 unwilling to change my conduct, God no doubt has fore- seen the whole of this, and no doubt he foresees how it will terminate with me, as I may also be able- to foresee myself, from what has happened to others, and from what reason and God's revelation teach me ; and if I wish to avoid such an awful destiny, I had better pray to God to aid me with his grace, and change my life immediately, since . I cannot expect to die in the friendship and love of God, unless I strive to live as his servant and friend. I know that " God wills not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be convert- ed and live."* The Five % Propositions of Jansenius. We here present the noted five propositions of Jan- senius, as declared to be taught in his book under the title of Augustinus, in which Jansenius pretended to give the doctrine of St. Augustine on grace. Janse- nius, Bishop of Ypres, was born the 28th of October, 1585, and died on the 6th of May, 1638. His book, published after his death, caused great trouble and dis- pute. The bishops of France denounced it to the Holy See, and asked for the condemnation of the five propo- sitions, which show the errors he taught in his book. They were condemned by Pope Innocent X. on the 31st of May, 1653. They are as follows : I. — Some of the commandments of God are impos- sible to the just, even when they desire and exert them- selves to accomplish them, according to the forces they have at the time ; and the grace which would render them possible is wanting to them. Condemned as heretical. II. — In the state of fallen nature interior grace is never resisted. Condemned as heretical. • Ezecb. xxxiii : 11. 130 EXTERNAL WORSHIP. v III. — In order to merit or demerit in the state of fallen nature, the liberty in man, which excludes neces- sity, is nojt required, but the liberty, which excludes constraint, suffices. Condemned as heretical. ' IV. — The Semipelagians admitted the necessity of interior prevenient grace for each action in particular, even for the commencement of faith ; and they were heretics in this that they wished that this grace be such, that the. will of man can resist or obey it. Condemned as false and heretical. V. — To say that Jesus Christ died, or shed his blood generally for all men, is to fall into the error of the Semipelagians. • This proposition was condemned as false ; and, un- derstood in the sense that Jesus Christ only died for the salvation of the predestinated, it was condemned as impious, blasphemous, and heretical. CHAPTER XIII. OF EXTERNAL WORSHIP — RELIGION MUST BE EXTERNAL AND CORPORAL, AS WELL AS INTERNAL AND SPIRIT- UAL — SIGNS — CEREMONIES AND FORMS. Jesus Christ declared that in his religion men "should worship God in spirit and in truth." His religion then, being the relations between God and man, must be in accordance with the natures of both man and God. God is a pure spirit, but man is not. He is a compound or mixed being, consisting of body as well as of soul. The soul is the most excellent part of his being, but the body is an integral portion,and the soul does not act alone, but acts by the body, and with the body. The union of" these two substances is profound and intimate, and, EXTERNAL WORSHIP. 131 while life reniains, they depend oft each other. The soul needs and uses the senses in all the acts of man, artd hence in all our relations we need the sensible, material element, such as words spoken and written, Signs, ceremonies, forms, images, &c. The eourse of our life is made up of the constant use of the sensible and material, although the mind infuses into these the ideal and intelligible. " God is a spirit ; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth." * To worship God* in spirit, is not enough therefore, be- cause the truth of man's nature is not^ found in spirit only, but requires also the body, and, therefore, to wor- ship God in truth, and with the whole man, our worship must also be the worship of all the powers of the body, together with all the faculties of the soul. A religion purely spiritual, is a conceit imagined by the pride of those, who do not love to carry the yoke of God's ser- vice, since they are not able to do any thing purely spiritual, in order to manifest to their fellow men that they acknowledge their dependance on God, for their existence, and for all that they are and have. And even when they profess to have any religion at all, they are forced to use the sensible, material element to de- clare this, as their words are but signs, and are not things pu»ely spiritual. Hence their pretence, to love a purely spiritual religion, is a mere disguise for the absence of religion. Moreover,.-God, who is spiritual, chose to make him- self known to man, not as he is, a spirit, sicuti est, but in a manner suited to man's nature, and hence, " he fitted to himself a body,'' and made himself perceptible to - the senses of man, visible, and able to be handled by man, and to be heard |?y him, when he should teach him the truths and practices of his religion. The In- carnation, or God made man, is the great fundamental fact of Christianity. All, then, in the religion of Jesus •Christ, must be in conformity and harmony with this fact. Hence, the organization of a visible teaching * John it 24. 132 EXTERNAL WORSHIP. i church, informing the whole society of persons who are taught, and -who. believing, live according to 'their faith. Hence, in this society, the institution of a great, and pure external oblation or sacrifice for the worship of God. Hence, also, the institution of certain principal signs, termed" sacraments, visible, sensible elements, but differing from all mere signs, by the fact, that the power of God has made them the channels of His divine graces, and enabled them to convey, what they signify. Hence, finally, all the externals, the .forms, and cere- monies of religion, to serve as monitors of the ideal and spiritual, to be*the means to inspire religious sentiments and emotions, and to give expression to these not only in the sight of God, but even of men also, and thus to constitute the bond of fellowship in the great religious society of God's church. In external worship, besides the oblation of the great sacrifice, with its essential ceremonies, Jesus Christ has himself instituted certain signs for the application of the graces, which he has purchased for men, and which are called sacraments. These'consist of outward sensible signs or ceremonies, containing and conferring invisible graces. Such could only be instituted by the power of God. Besides these, however, under the direction of Jes^us Christ and hi£ Holy Spirit, the Apostles and the church hav^e appoint- ed numerous other ceremonies and signs, to signify and express the spiritual things of religion, and thus to keep, under different circumstances, before the minds of men, by appeals to their senses, the ideas, thoughts, senti- ments, and emotions, which pertain to God, their Sa- .viour, and lift up their minds and hearts above the mere material things of time and the world. Some of these signs or ceremonies pertain to the more solemn oblation of the sacrifice, and administration of the sacraments, and others, to minor offices and functions of private and public worship. Ceremonies, considered apart from those of greater dignity which contain and confer grace, may be regard- ed in the light of a language, empty forms, to those who know not their meaning, but full of utility to those EXTERNA!, WORSHIP. 133 acquainted with their signification. If the church has many ceremonies, it is, because, enriched with spiritual gifts and ideas, she has much to express to God and to her children. She needs a copious language in her worship, because God has placed in her the fountains of salvation, and 6he must converse, about these with the whole world of man, with all the nations of the •arth, and endeavour by all the avenues to man's mind and heart; by all the powers of his soul, and by all his senses, to attract him- to the waters of life, that he may obtain refreshment, and experience that " a day in the house of the Lord, is better than a thousand years in the tabernacles of sinners." The chjjrch, 'therefore, like the Royal Prophet, calling upon all the creatures of God to bless him, makes every creature, that she is able, tributary to the great office which she is commis- sioned to fulfil, and uses every thing in her service of God, and, therefore, she devotes the whole man and all things to the worship of God. She never loses sight of the spiritual, nor does she forget the fact that the soul of man acts through the body, and is acted on through the senses. If she failed to do this, men acted upon constantly by this world, by its spirit and its maxims, through its forms, ceremonies, signs, and images, would -seldom or never think of God, of their dirty to him, and of the eternal interests of their souls. Those who declaim against ceremonies and forms, real- ly desire to destroy those things which dwell in these forms, knowing that the truths signified will soon per- ish from the minds of men, when the forms that signify them, and are monitors thereof to men, are swept away. As well expect men' to be thinking beings without the words of a language, and the images in the mind of ex- ternal objects, as to hope that they will have and pre- serve a religion, that is destitute of external worship, and without signs, ceremonies and forms. 134 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL, CHAPTER XIV. OF THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. Grace, which is necessary for man's justification, is communicated to him through the sacraments. As grace is accorded to man in virtue of the merits of Jesus Ghrist, the sacraments owe their influence to His pas- sion and death on the cross. They are the authentic organs or channels by which Jesus Christ distributes and applies his^merits and graces. The price was paict on the cross, but the application to individuals is made in the sacraments. The church teaches that all true justice in men, "either commences by means of the sacraments, or .being commenced is increased bv them, or being lost is through them recovered." * A sacrament is defined : A sensible and sacred sign, instituted by Jesus Ghrist, for the sanctification of tlyj souls of men by his grace. To constitute a sacrament three things are necessary. 1st. There must be an outward sign, of which the senses may take note. 2d. This sign must be appointed by Jesus Christ, who only could give to it the power to bestow grace. 3dly. It must convey invisible grace, otherwise it might be a sign, but not a sacrament. It is of faith, that Jesus Christ instituted sacraments in his church, and that these are precisely seven in number, viz : Baptism, Confirmation, the Holy Euchar- ist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Jloly Order, and Ma- trimony. It is of Faith, that these seven symbols not only signify something spiritual, but actually of them- selves, where there is no obstacle in the receiver, di- rectly, immediately, and by their intrinsic efficacy, con- fer the graces which they signify. In them, Jesus Christ has placed a divine principle,, and this enables them by its efficacy to produce grace in the soul. They * Council Trent, Sess. vii : Commencement, THB SACRAMENTS IX c»KNKK\l.. 13o do not act merely in a moral manner, like other signs and ceremonies, which awaken sentiments of faith, con- fidence, and the like, but they carry into the soul divine grace, as channels conduct the waters that tlow through them, and thus grape is conferred upon the soul by the application of the external rites* or as theologians ex- press it, in virtue of ivhat is done, c.c opere operator and these rites or sacraments do not owe their efficacy in any manner, to the administrator ot them. It is suitable that the administrator of the sacraments should be himself holy, but if he be not, the sacraments ^tre not deprived of their efficacy which comes from the power of Jesus Christ. So also, the receiver should have suitable dispositions, but suitable dispositions only remove obstacles to the access of .God's grace, and do not constitute an efficient cause of grace. They pre- pare the soul, and remove what might prevent or retard the effect of the sacraments, but do not constitute the efficacy of the sacraments, which is intrinsic in the rites chosen by Jesus Christ. The better the disposi- tions of the receiver, the more abundant the grace re- ceived. And while the one who administers, does not, by his spiritual condition, increase or diminish the ef- ficacy of the sacraments, yet if he dispenses the holy things of God while in the state of sin, he is guilty of # still another sin, unless he be excused by the gravity and urgency of the -case % forcing him to administer some of the sacraments, when not in the state of grace. The sacraments are of two kinds. The first class is termed the sacraments of the dead] or sac- raments for such as are dead in sin, and these confer what is termed the first grace, or the life of giace. These are Baptism and reliance. The second class consists of the other five saei aurents, which are termed the sacraments of the living, because those who receive them should be in the state of grace, and with them, receive an increase of grace. They, ordinarily, confer what is termed second grace, though in extraordinary 138 THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. cases and accidentally, they may sometimes give the first grace. The sacraments have been instituted for special ends. By Baptism, we "are born again." By Confirmation, we grow and are strengthened. By the Holy Euchar- ist, we are fed and nourished. By Penance, we are h%aled or cured of our sins. By Extreme Unction, we receive strength to undergo death properly. By Holy Order, pastors and ministers are secured to the church. By, Matrimony, children are given to the church. These sacraments are the means of conferring on the soul a grace, appropriate to the end for which each was insti- tuted, and which is termed sacramental grace. It is of Faith, that three of these sacraments im- print in the soul an indelible mark or character, and can, therefore, be received only once. These three are Baptism, Confirmation, and Holy Order. The first makes us children of God ; the second soldiers of Jesus Christ ; the third gives to those who receive it the char- acter of minister of Jesus Christ. These characters, unlike grace, are received by all who voluntarily receive these sacraments, whether they are disposed properly or not. Of course, any person, who has attained the use of reason, * who had no wish to receive any of these sacraments, or who willed not to receive it, would not receive such sacrament, nor its character, if conferred against his will, but only a,null and inyalid rite. But a person, who thought there was no efficacy in the sac- * Infants, having incurred the necessity of baptism without their consent, are also regenerated by baptism without their consent, since, according to the order established by Jesus Christ, the church supplies it. But for adults it is different. Innocent III. says : "He who never consents, but contradicts entirely, neither rec-eives the character nor the thing (rem) of the sacrament." Chop. Maj. de Bapt. To the validity of the sacrament, the true faith.is not neces- sary; as remarked by St. Augustine: '"It may happeu that a man has the whole sacrament and a perverse faith." Lib. iii : De Bapt. The church does not reiterate certain sacraments received in other denominations, as for instance, baptism or order, unless there be doubt about the value of the rite. Jf the defect of faith rendered it impossible to have the contrition necessary as a part of penance, the sacrament would be thereby null. THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. 137 raments, and who came forward hypocritically, yet vol- untarily presented himself, and acted publicly like other recipients, would receive the character, though not the grace of the sacrament. Those persons who are by Holy Order prepared to be ministers of Jesus Christ, bishops and priests, are the ordinary and proper ministers of the sacraments. The bishops only are the ministers of the sacrament of Holy Order," and, except in very extraordinary cases, of Confirmation also. The bishops and the priests to- gether are the ordinary ministers of the other sacra- ments, though, of matrimony, many theologians hold that the parties themselves, under required conditions, are the real ministers. But it is held by the church that any person, no matter of which sex, or what his religious belief, may, in all cases, validly confer the sacrament of baptism, and in cases of necessity, may also lawfully administer this sacrament, and it is even a duty to do so. \ sportive, or jocular administration of these sacred rites, would only be a profanation. There must be in the minister at least the intention to do what the church does, or what the author of the •sacraments intended. * Even if the minister did not himself believe in the efficacy of the sacrament, he would confer that sacrament, supposing him otherwise qualified to administer it, if he had the intention se- riously to do that which the church regards as a sacra- ment. The sacraments were instituted for all of man- kind, yet all persons cannot receive all the sacraments. A woman is incapable of receiving Holy Order; a child before it has the use of reason, is incapable of receiv- ing the sacrament of Penance ; and a person in health of receiving Extreme Unction. 'An infidel might re- ceive the Holy Eucharist, materially, but baptism is necessary to fit a person to receive the other sacra- ments, and, if unbaptized, a man .would not receive any _ ______ - — * If any one saith, that, in ministers, when they effect (conficiunt) and confer the sacraments, Uiere is not required the intention at least of doinij what the churuAi does; let him be anathema. * Sets. •■•.>. Can. it, of the sacraments in general. 188 THE SACRA MENTS IN GENERAL. thins: from them if administered to him ; for baptism is the door to the rest of the sacraments. It is of faith that all the sacraments are necessary for salva- tion, in the arrangement which God has been pleased to make for saving men, but all the sacraments are not necessary for each person. Two of them, baptism and penance, are absolutely necessary for salvation, as the necessary means ; baptism for the unbaptized, and pen- ance for those who have fallen into mortal sin after baptism. The sinner absolutely needs these sacraments and cannot be saved without them. Ei'her he must receive them actually, or where this is impossible, he must have perfect charily, together with the express or implied desire to receive them, or be purified by mar- trydom. The other sacraments are not absolutely, but only morally necessary — that is, they are necessary by precept, for the person who is to receive them is sup- posed to be already in the state of grace, and recon- ciled with God, and they are intended to impart to him an increase of grace for some particular end. If, how- ever, any one, placed in certain circumstances, should refuse or neglect to receive some of these sacraments, as, for instance; Confirmation, Penance, the Holy Eucha- rist, when it is possible for him to receive them, he would lose his soul by refusing obedience to the divine precepts. The sacraments of Holy Order and Matrimony are necessary for the church, for the perpetuation of the priesthood, and of the society of the faithful, but they are not necessary for each individual. , In all the sacraments there must be found certain elements which compose them, and are indispensable to their existence. These are stated- by Pope Eugene IV, in his decree to the Armenians, as follows: "All the sacuiments are composed of three parts: of certain sensible things as n\a'ter, of certain words as form, and of the minister who confers thesacrament with the intention of doing what the church does; these three things are so essential, that if one be wanting, the sac- rament would not exist." This declaration ia a state* THK SACRAMENTS JH *8HERAL. 189 ment of the doctrine of the church. There must be found in that which is a sacrament the proper matter, the true form, and the qualified minister. These three things, daring the -whole period of the church, have been the necessary elements of the sacraments, although as Morinus thiriks, the use of these terms only com- menced about the year 1215, as previously, doctors and theologians contented themselves with saying, that in the sacraments are found the Sign and the sacred thing; understanding by the name of sign, what is perceived by the senses, and by the name of sacred thing, the invisible grace or effect of the sacrament. They un- derstood, as "tilings also required, that there must be a jit minister and a proper subject, and consequently, un- der different terms, held the same doctrine as is stated m the declaration to the Armenians, which was not only approved by the fathers of the Council of Flor- ence, but afterwards set forth with the consent of the whole church. The matter of the sacrament, being that which is per- ceptible to the senses, may be found in words, as well as in things, chosen for this end by the author of the sacraments, and it has been his will to use words as the sign or sensible thing in the sacraments of Penance and Matrimony. So also the form is to be found in words, but not as they are merely signs or perceptible to the sense of hearing, but in, the signification of those words, and in the consecrating force or energy which the au- thor of the sacraments gives to those words. Hence it is said the sacraments consist of things and words, " The word," says St. Augustine, " is joined to the el- ement and it becomes a sacrament,"* " By the words 'sensible thing,' therefore, the Fathers understood not only the matter or element, such as wator in baptism, chrism in confirmation, and oil in extreme unction, all of which fall under the eye ; but also the words which constitut. and whioh are addressed 10 the ear, the Apostle, when he says : * Aug. In Joan, trecl 140 THE SACRAMENTS IN &ENSRAL. * Christ loved the church, and delivered himself for it, that he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life.' (Ephes. v: 25.) Here the matter and form of the sacrament are expressly men- tioned. But in order to explain, more fully and clear- ly, the particular efficacy of each, the words which com- pose the form were to be added to the matter ; for of all signs words are evidently the most significant, and without them it would be difficult to comprehend what the matter of the sacraments may designate and de- clare."* So that we see, while the form is placed in words, words as signs may also belong to the matter, and the form of words being joined with the matter by the proper minister, the sacrament exists, and the words show clearly what is the thing signified and the grace conferred. . Each sacrament has its appropriate matteV and form which constitute its substance, and as the sac- raments are all of divine institution, the matter and form must have been determined by Jesus Christ. The things and the words necessary for the sacraments have been at all times necessary from their institution, and if not specially, at least in a general way, must have been indicated by the Saviour to his Apostles, and by them delivered to the church. The principal ceremonies with which the sacraments are solemnly administered, considered apart from those which pertain to the essence and are of divine institu- tion, have been nearly all used in the church from the very days- of the Apostles. They are designed as a protection to that which is essential ; and in order to instruct Christians as to the deplorable condition to which they were reduced by sin, and from which they are rescued by the grace of God ; and to impress them with sentiments of gratitude for the favors which they receive, and teach them how they should deport them- selves in their union of life with Jesus Christ. The great ends for which the Son of God became in- carnate, being the salvation of men to be effected by • Cat. Couuc. Trent. Tart. 2d on the Sacraments. THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL. 141 the immolation of Himself as victim, and b y the applica- tion to individuals of the merits of His passion and death, through graces that Avould cleanse and sanctify and OH them for the friendship of God, and for union with Him during eternity, the sacraments were institu- ted as symbols and channels of divine grace. Their final end, therefore, is eternal union with God. Man was entirely vitiated and depraved, that is to say, in his in- tellect, in his heart, and in his senses, or his body, and it was the purpose of the Saviour to restore him in all the parts of his being, and not only to unite his intel- lect with him by faith, and his heart by charity, but also to take possession of his body, by that ineffable mystery known as Holy Communion, in which the in- carnate God condescends to become one with the Chris- tian in the strictest possible union, by making him "'participator of the divine nature."* He wishes the Christian to be able truly to say with the Apostle: "And I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me."f "In the Eucharist," says Bossuet, "the Son of God, taking the flesh of each of us, communicates to our be- ing the divine qualities of his own, and thus attains the final end of religion on earth." Hence St. Thomas re- marks : " The Eucharist is as the consummation of spir- itual life, and the end of all .the sacraments. "| For, he tells us : " All the sacraments have reference to the Eucharist; Baptism renders us capable of the Eucha- ristic union ; confirmation maintains it, or makes us more worthy of it ; Penance effaces sin, which disrupts it, and replaces us in a condition to contract the alli- ance again ; Extreme Unction, the admirable supple- ment of Penance, removes all obstacles that might pre- vent it, or finishes to consolidate it at the hour of death ; Order and Matrimony perpetuate it, by perpet- uating the church, that is, the priests who keep Jesus Christ ever present on the earth, and the faithful who receive him." § For this end is all else in religion de- • 2 Pet. i: 4. f Gal. ii : 20. % St. Thorn. Part III. quest. 73, Art. 3. § Ibid, in loco. cit. \±-l 'IHK SACHAiiSXTS IS GENERAL. signed, to unite men to God in the church, that after death they may be united with him during eternity. How noble therefore are the sacraments! To wiiat a dignity do they elevate man, if lie properly appreci- ate and use them! And who can estimate their influ- ence upon the individual and upon society ? The mise- ries and disorders in society, the crimes and horrors, which render the history of humanity so dark and re- volting, may, in its ultimate reason, be found in man's want of proper respect for himself and for his fellow men. A proper respect for oneself prevents self deg- radation, and in consequence ■ protects the rights and dignity of others. • But when man ceases to care for himself, he readily sinks into every meanness and dis- grace, and respects no rights or interests in his fellow men, but even seems to have a malignant pleasure in bringing others down to the level of his own degradation.. When you know that any one has ceased to respect or care for himself, you are no longer astonished to learn that he has been guilty of any possible wickedness. But fallen man is restored by religion, and the es- sence of religion is man's redemption by the Passion and death of Jesus Christ, the merits of which are given to individuals through faith, hope, charity, and the sacraments. Man is rescued from the state of sin and condemnation, is washed, cleansed, and signed as child of God, is told that he is heir of heaven, is per- mitted to live on "the bread of Angels," and taught to restrain his passions, contemn perishable and transi- tory goods and pleasures, and aspire to the glory and happiness of God's kingdom. Called child of God, he is admonished to become holy like to his Father, holy in mind, holy in heart, h )mi iii : 5. or bapzisjt 147 necessary for salvation. It is of faith, that it is ah lutely necessary for salvation since the pro n of the Q-ogpeL This necessity extends to all persons, to infants as well as adults. The church only recognizes two exceptional cases, in which the want of actual bap- tism is supplied, when it is impossible to receive it, and these cases suppose at least an implicit desire to re- ceive it. The first case is, where a person, not being able to receive baptism actually, is at the point of death, and has the grace of perfect charity, with sorrow for his sins, and a desire to receive the sacrament of bap- tism. Many theologians consider that this desire should be explicit., others think that an implicit desire will suf- fice, but this is not certain ; and far less probable is that opinion, which some have held, that such implicit desire may possibly be found in those who bona fide re- fuse baptism, thinking falsely that it is only some sort of spiritual baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost, that is pleasing to God, and yet are disposed to do all that God requires. If such a case may have existed, there is no means by which men can determine whether the person secured salvation, but judgment thereon is with Him, who declared that regeneration by water and the Holy Ghost is necessary. An actual desire to comply with the law, when it is not possible to do so, is accept- ed by God for the act, but it seems a difficult, if not an impossible thing, for such a desire to exist simulta- neously with an actual rejection of baptism: The per- fect charity which should be found with this desire is an extraordinary grace, and places the person in a con- dition of friendship and reconciliation with God, and is a disposition to do the holy will of God in all things, and to detest and avoid all that gives Him offence and displeasure. This reconciliation, without baptism ac- tually received, is termed the baptism of desire, or bap- tisma flaminis, and is a compliance with the law of baptism, as far as possible in the circumstances. In the first centuries, when the church subjected cate- chumens to such a long probation before admitting them to baptism, such cases might and -did frequently 148 OF BAPTISM. arise, and have happened, and no doubt do still occur, in our own times, but it is very perilous for persons to neglect baptism when in their power to receive it, under a notion that its benefits may be thus supplied to them at their last moments. In the judgment of God, so inscru- table, they may be deprived of the grace of repentance and charity, afld their desire prove vain and insufficient.* The second exceptional case, in which the want of actual baptism is supplied, is martyrdom for the sake of Jesus Christ : " He that loseth his life for me shall find it."f This is an act of perfect faith and heroic devotion, the giving up of all things from love of God; an act of perfect charity, and includes a disposition to obey God in all that he requires. It is entirely differ- ent from the suffering of death because of pride of opinion, of which among heretics there have been ex- amples, and which are tributes paid by men to their own reason and courage, and not acts of devotion and love to Jesus Christ from the promptings of faith. In times of persecution, many were called by martyrdom to sal- vation and the crown of glory, by miiaculous and sud- den conversions, when witnessing the death of other martyrs, and, having no possibility of baptism, desired to do all that God required through his church, and, in their own blood, were washed, cleansed, baptized. Hence, this is called the baptism of blood, baptisma sanguinis. With these exceptions, the law rests upon all who have had the opportunity to know the gospel of Jesus Christ, and who are required " to believe and be baptized," or as St. Peter exhorts : They have to " do penance and be baptized, each one, for the remission of * Those who, in the early ages of the church, presented them- selves to be received, were placed under instruction, and called Catechumens, of whom there were three classes. Their time of probation was for eight months, one year, two years, and even, in some parts, three years. They had their special sponsors to see to their instruction, besides the catechists, and were allowed to be present at the first pan of the mass, and until after the sermon. Their lives were the subject of great scrutiny. When persecutions raged, the term of their probation was abridged, and baptism given sooner. fMath. x: 30, and J*ark viii : 3C>. OF BArTISM. 149 their sins."* And it is a law which reaches even to those who are yet unable to know and believe the gos- pel; it extends to infants, from the moment of their en- trance into this world, because they come into the world as "children of wrath," having the stain and guilt of original sin, and being in a state of separation from God, and subjected to the sentence of temporal and eternal death, which God decreed against all the pos- terity of the first transgressors of his commandment and will, and, notwithstanding the passion and death of Him who died for all, they must remain in this state of separation from God, until they receive the inestimable blessing of a new birth, by water and the Holy Ghost. Those who consult only their pride of reason, and are unwilling to accept the teachings of faith, reject the doctrine of original sin; and those who merely con- sult their sensibility and their false notion of the inno- cence of infants, think it cruel to suppose that they do not go immediately to heaven, even though dying with- out baptism. Infants are innocent of all actual trans- gression of God's law and of all actual sin; but because of that solidarity of the race, which God has made a law, they are held to be guilty, and will inherit the con- sequences of that guilt in an eternal separation from God, if parents will not suffer them to come to God by that spiritual birth, which he has provided for them in the waters of baptism. It is not merely the first par- ents who incurred the taint and forfeiture from rebel- lion against the sovereign, but the whole family of man is under the attainder and reached by the confiscation, and the door of restoration is thrown open on condition, of being "born of God,"f through the infusion of the blood of Jesus Christ by the channel of baptism. The Saviour wishes little children to come to him, and de- clares that of such is the Kingdom of God, but he re- cognizes it to be in the power of others to allow or prevent it : " Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of * Ads ii : 38, tJoh" i : *&• 150 OP BAPTISM. God." * They can " suffer them to come," by bringing them to the waters of baptism; they can prevent or " for- bid them," by neglecting to secure this blessing for them from their own indifference or unbelief, but they cannot, hj their opinions, change the law, which he has made, requiring them to be born again. Just as the infidel sneers at the idea of all the consequences of original sin being the result of "eating an apple," they say, what need for the use of a little water by sprink- ling, pouring, ©r immersion? What difference can such a ceremony make in the destiny of man for eternity ? As if obedience to God's positive command were nqt a thing of supreme importance, and a refusal to obey, a rebellion against the sovereign will of God. It is rea- sonable to ask, if God gave such a command, and im- posed such a condition, but it is very unreasonable to say, that any thing he has commanded is not of utility, not necessary, or, because we do not see its utility, to conclude that, therefore, God did not command it. If, according to revelation, we declare that the re- demption by Jesus Christ was necessary in order to rescue mankind from sin and hell, an infidel may not see this necessity, and in his opinion, may suppose that men could equally as well escape sin and hell without such redemption. If we declare that it is of faith, that the merits of this redemption must be applied to men by means of faith and the sacraments, a deist may not see the necessity of any such application, and suppose that men can go to heaven without it, and even those who claim to be Christians, may suppose that Jesus Christ lias done all for them, and that they can obtain all merely by putting their confidence in him, without trou- bling themselves about points of faith or the church. Also, many maybe of opinion that not only unbapti&cd infants are received into union with God and enjoy eter- nal beatitude, but also that it is a very illiberal and hart h creed which declares that they cannot enter the king- dom of God. But there remains the revelation of God, *Mark s : 1 1. OF BAPTISM. 1)1 saying, .that "there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved," than that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and no salvation except on the conditions he imposes, of which hefiias declared that one is, a new birth by water and the (Holy Ghost. The church has always understood that this law ex- tends to infants as well as to adults. Two (Ecumeni- cal Councils have expressed themselves clearly on this point, viz : the second Council of Lyons, and the Coun- cil of Florence ; the latter, in the decree for union, taking the words found in the confession of Faith of Michael Palaeologus made in the first named council, in the name of the Greek church: " We believe that the souls of those who die in mortal sin, or only in origi- nal sin, descend forthwith to hell, to be punished how- ever with unequal punishments," or pains, poenis tamen dixparibus puniendas. It is then of faith that unbap- tized infants go to hell, and it is also of faith that their punishment is unequal to what is inflicted on adult sin- ners. Unbaptized infants arc therefore lost because of original sin, and from not having been born again by baptism. As to what place in hell they hold, or what aro the pains they have to endure, or precisely what constitutes the disparity of their pains as compared with those of adult sinners, the decree does not say, and nothing has been proposed as of faith. Theolo- gians agreeing, as faith requires, that thoy are excluded from the kingdom of heaven and deprived of the vision and enjoyment of God, discuss the question whether these unbaptized infants suffer the pains of sense, that is whether besides the loss of God and of eternal beati- tude, they suffer from the fires of hell, prepared for the devil and his angels, and awarded by the justice of God as the portion of voluntary, unrcpenting sinners. Some, with St. Augustine and other fathers, have held the opinion that they do suffer something of the pains of sense, but that their suffering is the mil do at and slightest of all. Others, with St. Gregory Kazianzen and St. Gregory of Nyssa, have held that their pain is only that of the loss of God and privation of heaven, 152 OF BAPTISM. And, even among those who thought their punishment only consisted of the loss of God and heaven, there were different opinions as to how they are affected hy this loss. Some,,juth Bellarmine, thinking that they are afflicted with a certain sadness arising from the pri- vation of the beatific vision, while others, with St. Thomas, deny that they suffer sadness from such priva- tion. The opinion of some, with Sfrondratus, held that they are in a condition of natural happiness. This last opinion others have incorrectly classed with the error of the Pelagians, while it is very different, since Sfron- datus, and those of his way of thinking, taught that these children, though having a kind of natural felici- ty, really suffered the pain of loss, or underwent dam- nation because of original sin, while the Pelagian error attributed this natural beatitude, to infants dying un- baptized, as the natural condition # of these infants, ex- cluding the belief of the death of sin, and the belief that the privation of the vision of God is damnation. Therefore, Pope Pius VI. in his dogmatic constitution, Auctorem fidei, has declared that it is false and rash to pretend to confound with the error of the Pelagians, the opinion, which frees from the pains of hell fire, those who die without baptism, and guilty only of orig- inal sin. But opinions may exist where the church has not defined, and the church has only to defend what she teaches. Persons are free to consider existence 'a blessing to those unbaptized infants, although from not being baptized, they are deprived of that which cannot be estimated. They may, with St. Thomas, consider them as having certain natural goods and a sort of nat- ural love for God, and gladness, without suffering any pains of sense. But they must receive the teaching of the church, viz: that they are excluded from the king- dom of God and supernatural beatitude forever. "If," says St. Augustine, "you wish to be a Catho- lic, do not believe, do not say, do not teach, that in- fants, who die before being baptized, can obtain the re- mission of original sin;"* and elsewhere he writes: < •Lib. iii. de Orig. Animas. OF BAPTISM. 158 " Whoever says, that infants themselves are made alive in Jesus Christ, when they die without having partaken of the sacrament of baptism, opposes directly all that the Apostles have preached: he condemns the whole church, in which they hasten to baptize little infants, because they believe that these infants cannot otherwise have life in Jesus Christ."* Moreover, it has always been the practice of the church to baptize infants im- mediately after their birth ; which shows her belief that, because of original sin, they could not enter into hea- ven, if they should die without baptism. f Where the gospel has not been promulgated, and the law of bap- tism could not be known, persons cannot be in any worse condition than men were before the establishment of Christianity, but must have the same possibility and means of salvation as they had, but it is the office of the church to let all persons know the absolute neces- sity of baptism wherever she promulgates the gospel of salvation, and she announces this necessity in dis- tinct terms. How criminal then are parents who delay or neglect altogether the baptism of their children, and how foolish the persons who, despising this condition of salvation, even though they have read and heard the express words of Jesus Christ that : " unless a person is born again of water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven," live and die without caring to receive this sacrament ! Infants can receive baptism, which removes the stain of sin from their souls, just as they received the stain of sin without any co-operation' of their own ; but adults, or those who have sufficient reason, must wish and consent to be baptized in order to receive the sac- rament validly. To obtain its fruits they must have a sufficient knowledge of the principal truths of religion, and entertain sentiments of faith, of hope, of contrition for their sins, and some commencement of charity, or the love of God. * Letter OLXVI. J Co uric. Trent, Sess. VII, Can. V. 154 OF BAPTISM. Of the Effects of Baptism. The chief effects of the sacrament of baptism are the grace which regenerates us in Jesus Christ, and the character "which this sacrament imprints on the soul. The effect of the sanctifying grace, given in baptism, is the effacing of all sin, original and actual, and the remission of all penalty due to sin, with the infusion of virtues and spiritual gifts.* Sanctifying Grace the First Effect of Baptism. This sacrament confers sanctifying grace on those who receive it worthily, purifying them from all past ac- tual sins as well as from original sin, and rendering them agreeable to God. Besides effacing all previous sins, it removes all the penalty or spiritual pains due to those sins. The sanctifying grace received in bap- tism is accompanied with the infused virtues and gifts of the Holy Ghost, and there is also given the sacra- mental grace, which strengthens the soul to combat concupiscence, and fulfill the obligations of the Chris- tian. But ignorance, concupiscence, subjection to the miseries of life, and to temporal death, are not removed by baptism. _ Of the Character — The Second Effect -if Baptism. The character, imparted by baptism, is an indelible mark or invisible spiritual sign, which is as it were the seal of the children of God. To this the^postle re- fers, in writing to the Ephesians : " in whom (Christ) you also believing, you were signed with the Holy Spir- it of promise. "f And again : "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption."]; The sign tfeing indelible, baptism can only be received once. We can cease to be worthy * See Counc. Ttent, Sess. V. No. 0, on Orig. Sin. f Eph. i: 13. JEph. iv: 30. of baptism. 155 children of God by sin, but we can never cease to bear the seal, which He imprints on the souls of his children, begotten to Him through Jesus Christ. The Council of Trent pronounces anathema against any one who de- nies that in baptism there is imprinted in the soul a character, that is, a certain spiritual and indelible sign, on account of which it cannot be repeated.* The Minister and Mode of Baptism. As the commission to teach all nations, .and to "bap- tize them" was given by Jesus Christ to his Apostles, it is clear that their successors, the ministers of Jesus Christ, are the ordinary ministers of baptism; but it is of faith, that any person, male or female, Catholic or not Catholic, can validly, and in case of necessity, even lawfully, confer baptism. The church holds, that as baptism is absolutely necessary for salvation, God will- ed to facilitate its reception, and, choosing natural wa- ter as the matter thereof to be found every where, he allows it to be validly administered by every body, so that, if men should act rightly, few would die without baptism. As any one may find himself in the case to have to administer baptism, all should make it their study to know how to administer it. The essential part is, that the person who baptizes should say all the words of the form properly, and at the same time should himself pour the water on the head of the person as an ablution. The custom, used in the church, is to pour the water in the form of the cross three times, once while naming each of the persons of the Holy Trinity, and the greatest care is to be taken to use the w r ords : " I baptize thee," &c. The church recognizes, that the application of the water as an ablution may be made in three different ways for baptism, and yet the baptism be valid ; viz: by immersion, by pouring, and by aspersion or sprinkling. There must be enough water applied to the person to be an emblem of the washing or cleansing * Sess. VII., C;m. IX, on Sac. ia Gen. 156 OF BAPTISM. of the soul. Immersion seems, from the expression of the Apostle, of being "buried wjth Christ by baptism in the likeness of his death," and from testimonies in certain works of some of the early fathers, to have been 'the mode most commonly used at first, but at a very early day, the mode by pouring began to be found most convenient in many cases, and in the course of several centuries became of almost general observance.* At present it is not lawful, at least, in the Western por- tion of the church, for the individual minister to use any but this mode by pouring, which the church has * Some persons pretend, from the Greek w/>rd, baptizo, to derive an argument for immersion as the only mode of baptism proper and efficient. But the word means other modes of washing as well as that by plunging or dipping the body. In the book of Ecelesiasti- cus xxxir: 2$, it is used to signify the legal purification necessary after becoming unclean by touching a corpse, and this purification was effected by being sprinkled with the water of expiation, as may be seen in Numbers xix: 13. In the time of our Saviour, the Jews, on coming Irom the market place, were accustomed to bap- tize themselves, Mark vii: 4, most probably by dipping their hands in water. St. Paul calls the various kinds of legal purification bap- tisms, Heb. ix : 10, although several of thern were effected by mere aspersions. The same use of the word for washings, that were not immersions, can also be shown in Work ■ of profane writers. See Lexicon II. Slephani. Those in the early period of the church, who were baptized when lick in bed, and whs were called clinics, were not baptized by immersion, and yet were held to be validly bap- tized. No one ventured to re baptize audi Christians; and St. Cy- prian, in his Epistle LXXVI, replies to a question which some one had addressed to him to know if such baptism* were valid, calling it "the divine compendium," he averred that it is a true baptism, and confers all on belfevej*. Both modes were then in use in the early church, and the word in Greek allows both meanings, and therefore the Greek can furnish no proof, for an exclusive use of immersion in baptism. While the mode by immersion may have been the one most in use at first, when those baptized were most commonly adults, it is not certain that even at first it was the only mode. It is not probable that the Apostles immersed the three thousand persons whom they baptized in one day, nor i5 it proba- ble that St. Paul immersed the jailor and his family when he bap- tized them in prison ; and, when in progress of time, after the estab- lishment of the church, most of persons were baptized in their in- fancy, it happened that the mode by immersion was gradually dis- continued. The practice of the church, founded upon the ancient doctrine and usage in the administration of baptism, ought to be held as sufficient to clear up any supposed difficulty on this point. OF BAPTISM. 157 selected and prescribed. In this mode, there is applied a sufficiency of water to symbolize the washing of the soul, and it is easy to use it under all circumstances. Immersion is not, for persons under some circumstan- ces, or in some places, convenient, or safe, and in as- persion, there is danger of not applying to the body any water when the baptism would be invalid, or a suf- ficiency to be a type of washing, in which case the baptism would at best be doubtful. The church has then wisely adopted the mode by pouring, which is the one to be used when this sacrament is administered. Of the Ceremonies. The other ceremonies, prescribed and performed in the solemn administration of baptism, do not pertain to the essence of this sacrament, but are most impressive and instructive, and, as demonstrated from testimonies of the Fathers, arc of the highest antiquity, and to be referred to Apostolical tradition. In these ceremonies the church shows, with what dispositions, the unregen- erated are to seek to be enrolled among the children of God, by this sacred rite. She demands from the can- didate : " What dost thou ask of the Church of God?" to which his reply is: "Faith." And here, on the very threshold, by this inquiry, the church gives a pro- found instruction, in conformity with what is taught by the Apostle St. Paul, when he declares, that " faith cometh by hearing," viz : that it is, from the church of Jesus Christ, that men are to receive belief of the di- vine truths which God has revealed. It is the office of the church, through her ministers, to preach the gospel of salvation. The candidate is tnen asked : ." What will faith avail thee?" He answers: " Life everlast- ing." And he is then told, in the words of Jesus Christ : " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the com- mandments," and enjoined to love God with all his heart and soul, and his neighbour as himself. The ex- orcisms manifest to him the sad condition of his birth in a state of sin, and as " a child of wrath," while the 158 OF BAPTISM. other prayers with the signings of the cross, announce that, through the passion and death of Christ, he is to be restored. He is to receive the grace of God, of which the sacred oil is an emblem, and with it, on the breast and shoulders, heisanointed-in the form of a cross, to remind him that, with Gods grace and the strength that it will give him, he is to love as well as carry the cross daily, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. He is required to profess his faith by the recital of the creed drawn up by the Apostles, his belief in the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in whose name he is to receive a new birth. He is made to taste salt, the emblem of wisdom and preservation, while a prayer is offered for him, that, henceforward, he may thirst af- ter the heavenly foed, and in serving God, " be fervent in spirit and rejoicing in hope." He is signed with the sign of the cross in token of his faith in Christ cruci- fied, and also signed with saliva in memorial, that he, who, using this, cured the deaf and dumb, will also f< r him remove all spiritual deafness, and loosen his tongue in the praise of God. He is required to renounce the Devil, his works, and pomps, and earnestly take part with God, against whose honor and glory all the efforts of the devil are directed. " The laver of regeneration, with the Word of life," is then applied to him,' and he is renewed in life by the power of the Holy Ghost. As a sign of his being aggregated to the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ, he is anointed on the crown of his head with holy chrism, the white robe is placed on him, as an embrem of his robes washed white in the blood of Christ, and he is warned, " to carry it without stain before the judgment seat of ©ur Lord Jesus Christ;" and, to de- clare to him what is now expected from him, the lighted taper, the emblem of good works, is placed in his hand, and this light admonishes him that he must not only let his light shine before men, that they may see h : s good works, and glorify God, his Father, but that if he have not oil in his lamp, even though exempt from certain vices, he may be excluded from the feast of the bridegroom, as were the foolish virgins. Finally, he is told to "go OF BAPTISM. 159 in peace." It is thus, that an immortal being enters upon a new career, and, when already an adult at the time this transformation or renewal is accomplished, he is made able by faith and grace to behold, beyond the mists and darkness of the present life, the opened gates of God's celestial kingdom, and is filled with the high and consoling hopes of one day entering it, as co-heir of Jesus Christ, to possess endless joys and unfading glories as an eternal inheritance. ' Happy the one who can present to God the title of his baptismal innocence preserved ! Before concluding the present chapter, it may be of utility to say a few words concerning the sponsors re- quired to assist the candidate for baptism. The custom of having sponsors prevailed in the earliest ages of the church. Tertullian, in his book on baptism, makes mention of them, and refers to the responsibility which they assume. If they were customary in tWsa day*, when adults came forward able to answer for them- selves, they are still more necessary for infants, who cannot give promises of fidelity, but^stand in need of some one to watch over them and instruct them in the doctrines of faith and in the ways of virtue. The faith of the sponsors is received as that of the children for whom they stand, and it is their duty to see their God- children brought up according to tjie pledge they have given for them, and prepared and willing to renew their promises when able to do so. These sponsors were termed susceptores, receivers, because tliey received the baptized perspjj as he came forth from the waters, in which he was newly born. At first, several were al- lowed to act in this capacity, but the Council of Trent has restricted the number, saying: "One person only, whether male or female, or at most one male and one female shall receive in baptism the individual baptized." The reason for .this restriction is the impediment to marriage, which arises from the spiritual relationship or affinity produced by baptism. The council says : " between whom (the sponsors) and the baptized, and the father and mother thereof; as also between the 160 OF CONFIRMATION. person baptizing and the baptized, and the father and mother of the baptized ; and these only ; shall spiritual relationship be contracted." * This impediment of affinity, which may arise either from the sacrament of baptism, or from that of con- firmation, by ecclesiastical law prevents marriage from being valid, unless a dispensation has been obtained. The Council of Trent strictly enjoins upon priests who .have conferred baptism, " to register the names of the sponsors, and to teach them what relationship they have contracted, that they may not have any excuse on the score of ignorance." f CHAPTER XVI. OF CONFIRMATION — ITS MATTER AND FORM — ITS EF- FECTS — ITS MINISTER — ITS NECESSITY — ITS SUB- JECT. The Saviour, when about to leave his Apostles and ascend to his Father, promised to send the Holy Ghost upon them in order to give them strength to be fearless witnesses for him and his doctrines, and to teach them all truth, that they might be able to teach the same to the nations of the earth. The Holy Ghost descended upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, and gave to them numerous graces and miraculous gifts. These were of ttwo kinds ; some to qualify them to plant the church and to convert men, others to sanctify them still more, and make them models for a holy life. The Holy Ghost was conferred upon the Apostles in an ex- traordinary and exceptional manner. They represent- ed the church of Christ, and received the Charismata, or gifts of the Holy Ghost, such as the power of mira- *Ses». xxiv : ch.2d. f Ibid. OF CONFIRMATION. 161 cles, the gift of tongues, prophecy, &c, for the benefit of others. They also received graces for themselves personally. In the first period of the church, the Apostles, by means of " the imposition of hands," con- ferred the Holy Ghost, and these exterior and extraor- dinary gifts were also manifested in those upon whom they imposed hands, but they were gifts designed to as- sist in establishing the faith, and extending the limits of the church. They were less frequently bestowed in proportion as the need for them decreased. Yet the sacrament of the Holy Ghost, which is a visible, sensi- ble sign of invisible grace, continued to be adminis- tered for the growth and perfection of individual Chris- tians, a,s intended by the Saviour, when he instituted it; sanctifying grace to fortify and strengthen the soul, and not the Charismata, or gifts to persons for the ben- efit of others, was the ordinary effect contemplated. This sacrament is commonly known as confirmation. It may be defined : " A sacrament, instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ, which communicates to us the plen- itude of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, renders us per- fect Christians and soldiers of Jesus Christ, and gives us strength to confess the faith even at the peril of our lives." Upon the first converts, this sacrameat was conferred immediately after baptism, but it was held to be a different sacrament ; as remarked by the Cate- chism of the Council of Trent : " The diversity of the grace which each sacrament confers, and the diversity of the external sign employed to signify that grace, obviously constitute them different sacraments. As by the grace of baptism we are begotten to newness of life, and by confirmation grow to full maturity, having put away the things of a child,, we can hence sufficient- ly comprehend that the same difference which exists in the natural order between birth and growth, exists also in the supernatural, between baptism which regenerates, and confirmation which imparts full growth and perfect spiritual strength."* It is of faith that confirmation • Cat. Coun. Trent, on Confirmation. 162 OF CONFIRMATION. is a true sacrament, instituted by Jesus Christ. The holy Scriptures furnish proofs of this doctrine. In the Acts, c* viii : v. 14, we read: "Now when the Apos- tles, that were in Jerusalem, had heard that Samaria had received the Word of God, they sent to them Peter and John ; who, when they were come, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost. For, he was not, as yet, come upon any of them ; but they were only baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands upon them ; and they received the Holy Ghost." Also in the xix chap, of Acts, v. 5, &c, we read thus : " Having heard these things, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had imposed his hands on them, the Holy Ghost came upon them." Thus was this sacrament ad- ministered by the Apostles by a sensible sign, which conferred the Holy Ghost, showing that it is an institu- tion of Jesus Christ, who only could give to a sensible sign this power. It is, therefore, really a sacrament, and, as such, has been in constant use in the church since the days of the Apostles. The Council of Trent declares: "If any one saith, that the confirmation of those who have been baptized is an idle ceremony, and not rather a true and proper sacrament ; Let him be anathema."* The Matter and Form. This sacrament is conferred by an imposition of hands with prayer, and by an unction on the forehead of the recipient with chrism, composed of olive oiland fra- grant balsam blessed for the purpose by the Bishop, and applied with the words: "I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with the chrism of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Glfost." In his second epistle 1o the Corinthians, c. 1: v. 29, the Apostle is understood to refer to this sacrament when he says; "Now he that confirm eth us * Sess. vii : can. 1, on confirm. OF CONFIRMATION. 163 with you in Christ, and that hath anointed lis, is God, who also hath sealed us, and given the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts." The external unetion with chrism is the emblem of the internal unction of the Holy Ghost. "I* is necessary," writes St. Cyprian, "that he who has been baptized, should be moreover, anoint- ed ; in order that having received the ehrism, that is the unction, he may be anointed in God ; and possess the grace of Christ."* Again he says: "Our custom is that those who have been . baptized in the church should be presented to the bishops, and by our prayer and the imposition of the hand, receive the Holy Ghost, and be marked with the seal of the Lord."f The Fa- thers speak of this sacrament under different names, such as "the imposition of hands," "the imposition of the hand," "the sacrament of chrism," "the seal of spiritual unction," "the consummation of the Chris- tian," and "confirmation/' The act of the unction with chrism requires at the same time an imposition of the hand. Hence, while all agree as to the doctrine of the church, certain theologians differ from the common- ly received opinion as to the matter and form of this sacrament, imagining these to be found in the first im- position of hands and accompanying prayer, instead of in the imposition of the hand while making the unction with chrism, and the words: "I sign thee," &c, as be- fore cited. The catechism of the Council of Trent says : " The matter of confirmation is chrism, a word borrowed from the Greek language, and which although used by profane writers to designate any sort of oint- ment, is appropriated, by ecclesiastical usage, to signi- fy ointment -composed of olive oil and balsam, and sol- emnly consecrated by the Episcopal benediction. A mixture of oil and balsam therefore constitutes the mat- ter of confirmation. "J It also says: "The form of confirmation consists of these words ; 'I sign thee with the sign of the cross, and I confirm thee with tho chrism * Cyp. Ep. LXX. f Cyp. Ep. LXXUI. } Cat. C'ounc. Trent, p. L'ransUuiou. 164 OF CONFIRMATION; of salvation, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Pope Eugenius IV. in his decree to the Armenians, declares : "that chrism made from oil and balsam, blessed by the bishop, is the mat- ter of this sacrament." It is the common ©pinion that ' the sacred unction pertains to the essential matter of this sacrament, and the imposition of hands to the ne- cessary matter. Of the Effects of Confirmation. The effects of this sacrament are grace, and a dis- tinctive mark or character. It is of faith, that this sacrament, confers sanctifying grace, upon those "who receive it worthily, from the intrinsic virtue of the rite, ex opere operato. It is a grace which increases in us the grace of baptism, and makes us perfect Christians. To this grace is added a sacramental grace proper to this sacrament, the Holy Ghost communicating himself to us and spreading in our souls the interior graces with which he strengthened the first Christians, and particularly the seven gifts attributed to him, as St. Ambrose declares to the one confirmed : " Thou hast received the spiritual seal, the spirit of wisdom and un- derstanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of God."* Fortitude is the gift most needed by the Christian, strength to resist temptation, to endure persecution, to combat valiantly and obtain victory. "You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost com- ing upon you,"f wag the gift promised by the Saviour to his Apostles. Confirmation imprints on the soul an indelible sign or seal, and therefore this sacrament can only be received once. This is of faith. St. Paul re- fers to this sign in his epistle to the Corinthians, 2d Ep. c. i: 22, "who also hath sealed us," or marked us with a sign. Therefore St. Ambrose writes : "Thou . hast received the spiritual seal." The mark impressed * Lib. de Mysteriis, c. vii. f A.cts i : 8. OP CONFIRMATION. 165 9 by baptism is that of child of God, the mark given by confirmation is that of soldier of Jesus Christ. That confirmation imprints a character is declared by the Council of Trent, Sess. V. Can. V. Of the Minister of Confirmation. A bishop is the ordinary minister of the sacrament of confirmation, as proved by the constant practice of the church, and by various declarations of Popes and of the Council of Trent. With special powers from the sovereign Pontif, however, a priest may be the ex- traordinary minister of this sacrament. In these cases, he must use chrism which has been consecrated by a bishop. Confirmation administered by a priest, with- out having received authorization from the vicar of Jesus Christ, would be null. The Council of Trent de- clares : "If anyone s:iith, that the ordinary minister of confirmation is not the bishop alone, but any simple priest soever; Let him be anathema."* Of the Necessity of Confirmation. This sacrament is not absolutely necessary for salva- tion as a necessary means, for the person confirmed is supposed to be already in the state of grace, but it is necessary by command, and adults are, under pain of Bin, obliged to receive it when the occasion is afforded them. Hence, their neglect may be the cause of their missing salvation by the sin they commit, and because of their not having the graces which they could have received from this sacrament, and their falling away in time of trial and combat. i The Subject of Confirmation. Only persons who have been baptized can receive this sacrament. All baptized persons, even infants, • Sess. VII, Can. III. on Confirm. 1QQ THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. may validly receive it, but, in our times, it is consider- ed proper to wait till children have attained the use of reason, before admitting them to be confirmed. But few ceremonies accompany the administration of this sacrament. After the unction, the bishop gives to the person confirmed a slight blow on the cheek, using the words : "peace be with thee." This shows the na- ture of the Christian warfare in which the soldier of Jesus Christ is enlisted; it is one of suffering and en- durance. He must bear his cross and follow Jesus Christ with patience and fortitude. CHAPTER XVII. OF THE HOLY EUCHARIST — IT IS A SACRAMENT AND A SACRIFICE. The most excellent and wonderful of the sacraments is the Holy Eucharist. It not only confers grace but contains and gives the author of grace, Jesus Christ himself. It is the tree of Life, whose fruits confers immortality; more excellent than the manna, which also descended from heaven, it is the bread of life, and "he that eateth this bread shall live forever." To set forth the doctrines of the church regarding this sacra- ment, we shall observe that every thing depends on the dogma of the true, real, and substantial presence of Jesus Christ, the God-man, under what still appears to the senses to be only bread and Avine. And this real presence of Jesus Christ being revealed to the church and held as of faith, the Eucharist which contains him, is to be considered at the same time as a true sacrament and a true sacrifice, the ineffable " mystery of faith," and the "memorial of all the wonderful works of- God." The term Eucharist signifies thanksgiving, or good grace. It is sometimes called the Holy Communion, THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. 167 the Holy Sacrament, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Synaxis, the Viaticum, the Blessed Sacrament, and even " the LoreTs Supper," because it was instituted at the last supper of Jesus Christ with his disciples. Consid- ered comprehensively aa regards the doctrines of faith, tin' Eucharist is the sacrament, and sacrifice of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who under the forms and appearances of bread and wine is offered in sacrifice, remains present, and is given to be the spiritual food of nun. As the humanity and divinity of Jesus Christ are united in the divine hypostatw, or personality^ it must be true, that wherever the body of Jesus Christ is, there also must be his divjnity, and if his soul should be sep- arated from the body as in time of his death, the di- vinity must be with both soul and body, and hence in speaking of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, we mean that he is present as he is since his resurrection, the living Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity. At the time the Eucharist was instituted Jesus Christ saying: "Take, eat, this is my body," '• drink* ye all of this, for this is the new testament in my blood," caused his body and blood to be present as he then was before his death and resurrection, but when alter his resurrection his Apostles, in obedience to his command, did what he had done, and, as his ministers, consecrated ami offered the Eucharistic sacrifice, Jesus Christ became present as he is since his resurrection, his body being spiritualized and glorified. The Eucharist as a Sacrament — The Real Presence — Transubstantiation — Other Points in the Doctrine — Its Matter and Form — J(s Minister — Its Subject — Its Necessity — Its Effects. We may define this s icrament as follows: " The Eu- charist is a sacrament of the new law which, under the forms and appearances of bread and wine, contains truly, really, and substantially the body, blood, soul, and divinity'of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has himself 168 THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. instituted it to be the food and nourishment of our soul." That it is a sacrament, is admitted by nearly all religious denominations. The Catholic church de- clares this to be an article of divine Faith. It is also of Faith, that Jesus Christ himself instituted it, since he only could plaoe his body, blood, soul, and divinity under the forms and appearances of bread and wine. The fact of its institution by him is recorded in the gospels,* and declared by the Apostle St. Paul.f He commanded his Apostles, and (as he designed the insti- tution for the benefit of men till the consummation of the world) their successors, the Bishops, and all who should be ordained to be his priests and ministers, to " do for a commemoration of hirn^' what he had just done himself.J By this definition it is seen, that it is of Faith that what is contained under the forms and appearances, or accidental qualities of bread and wine is the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, and not the substance of bread and wine as before consecration. Hence the doctrine teaches : 1st. The real presence of Jesus Christ. 2dly. That transubstantiation has been effected by the power of Jesus Christ, and the substance of the bread and wine changed into the substance of his body and blood. The Real Presence. The doctrine that God Incarnate is, from love for men, really, truly, and substantially, present under the humble appearances of the ordinary articles of man's daily food, bread and wine, is so far above the compre- hension of reason, that many find it "a hard saying," and ask "how it can be so?" Reason also has refused to admit the mystery of the Trinity, and the affecting mystery of the Incarnation, and many other mysteries, but not wisely, because God, to whom all that he wills * John xiil: 26, &c. Math, xxvi : 26. Mark xiv : 22. Luke xxii: 10. flCcr. ju:84. % Luke xxii: 19. THE BBCHARIST A SACRAMINT. 169 to do is possible, lias revealed these mysteries. Men by varioms interpretations, have, tried to show that God never intended to give himself in the present life, sac- ramentally, to those to whom he promises to give him- self eternally in heaven. They imagine the bread and wine to be a mere figure of the body and blood of Christ, and feign a manducation or eating of the body by faith, rather than admit so much power and love in God, or accept such a great gift from his goodness. He who came to fulfill ancient figures by the reality, which was prefigured so splendidly in the rock of the desert, the manna which fell from Heaven, and the Paschal Lamb, by their contracted hearts and views, is, at the last moment of his exercise of love and power before his death, to be prevented, when making his last will and testament, from giving more to his friends and disciples than a similar and still more ancient figure, the bread and wine, such as Melchisedech offered in the presence of Abraham, because what he wills to give is himself, and they do not think he can possibly be able to give himself, really, truly, and substantially. The church understands bettor the omnipotence and intentions of her divine founder. She teaches, that, in this sacrament, his body, blood, soul and divinity arc "truly " present, and that the sensible sign is not a mere figure, such as the Jews had ; "she teaches, that they are "really" present; and not merely represented to be there by the faith of the Christian ; and she declares, that they are " substantially " present ; not merely pres- ent by a virtue or force acting on the soul of the re- ceiver, while themselves are absent in heaven, but pres- ent as substances are present under their properties. However wonderful this mystery may appear, there is no article of the Catholic creed more clearly an- nounced* and presented in the Scriptures ; and none, that, in all ages, has exerted such wonderful influence, and produced such wonderful effects in the lives of men, as manifested by the history of the church. The proofs, from the chapter of the promise, or tho sixth <&rpter of jSt". Johnf tail only be evaded Pj a 'c them bread from heaven to eat." 32. "Then Jesus said to them : Amen, Amen, I say unto you : Moses gave you not bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. 33. "For the bread of God is that which 'comcth down from heaven, and giveth life to the world." 35. " I am the bread of life," &c. .... 38. "be- cause I came down from heaven." The Jews murmur- ed because he said, 41. " I am the living bread which came down from heaven," and asked, 42. " Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know ? how then sayefh he, I came down from heaven ?" Jesus said: 48. "I am the bread of life." 49. "Your fathers did eat manna in the desert, and are dead." 50. " This is the bread which cometh down from hea- ven; that if any man cat of it, he may not die." 51. " I am the living bread which came down from heaven." 52. " If any man eat of this bread he shall live for- ever, and the bread which I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." 53. " The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying : how can this man give us his flesh to eat?" 54. Then Jesus said to them ; Amen, Amen, I say unto you : except you eat the flesh of the son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you!" 55. " He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life; and 1 will raise him up in the last day." E EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. 171 " For ray flesh is meat indeed and my blood ig drink indeed." It is cle;ir -in the above passage, that our Saviour 'speaks at first of a bread which has already been sent to men from heaven, and declares that he is that living ■bread which came down from heaven to give life to those believing in him ; and again he speaks of a bread that has not yet been given, but which is to be given to men in the future, and he makes a promise to give this bread, and says: "the bread which I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world." He first declares hinf- self " the living bread," and then declares that he will, at some future time, "give bread," which shall be his "flesh" for the life of the world. God had already furnished him with the seal of his authority, in the mir- acle of the multiplication of the five loaves, to feed five thousand people; "For him hath God, the Father, sealed." And having this seal, he wishes to give a meat that " endureth unto life everlasting." But to I have the benefit, men must be satisfied with the seal, and " believe in him," that he is able to give this super- excellent meat. He, being himself the living bread, will give bread, but bread which will not be bread as to itance, but be himself, his "flesh for the life of the world." How did his hearers understand what he said? They understood that he spoke of theb eating his flesh, for they asked: "How can this man'give" «s his flesh to lie did not deny that he meant a real eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood, but in stronger terms asserted the necessity that men should thus eat hia llesh and' drink his blood, if they wished eternal life. To make his words true, he must then, in a manner known to himself, present himself as bread, that when he gives this bread, tho§6 who eat it may, as he ex- presses it, w - eat him." " So he that eatetlt me, the same -hall live by me." He must give bread, which, while appearing to be bread,' shall be indeed bis' flesh and blood, lie has declared that " unless von cat the flesh 172 THE EUOHAMST A SACRAMENT, of the son of man, and drink his blood you shall not have life in you." And he therefore commits himself, as man's Redeemer and Saviour, to the necessity of rendering it possible for man to eat his flesh and drink* his blood. Man has not the difficult and impossible ob- ligation of devising hotv this can be done ; but he, •who requires it being God, will himself render it possible, and appoint the way. He says, this way does not yet exist, for he speaks in the sense of the future, and, therefore, it is not merely by faith in his incarnation, or belief that "he is the living bread which canae down fro» h«*ven," as some pretema, for this belief «lready existed with some of his hearers and followers, ajnd yet with respect to the participation of his flesh and blood, he looks to a future time, saying : " The bread which I will give is my flesh." They are able to believe in him, and believe his incarnation, just then while he is speaking, but they cannot yet eat the bread which ho promised to give in the future, and which in eating, they shall eat "his flesh as meat indeed," and drink "his ' blood as drink indeed." But many of his disciples and followers, hearing this discourse, said : " This saying is hard, and who can hear it?" &c. If the doctrine of the real presence be what Jesus Christ intended to convey, it is " a hard saying" to any one who wishes to understand every thing which he is required to believe; but in what sense can it be "a hard saying" under the interpretation of a mere figu- rative presence? These disciples, finding it hard and difficult, were "scandalized," or stumbled and fell, un- able to accept it. The Saviour asks : " Doth this scan- dalize you? If then you shall see the son of man as- cend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I have ppoken to you, are spirit and life/' In asking this question, he showed his divinity by reading their hearts, lor he "knew in himself that his disciples mur- mured at this." He appealed to his ascension, as a wonderful event, connected with this doctrine, and one calculated either to increase or diminish the difficulty THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. 178 and scandal. As if he said: If you see me ascend to heaven, will you not believe that I descended from hea- ven, and have therefore power to give you bread which shall be my flesh ? If you see me ascend to heaven and know my body has become celestial and spiritual, will you not believe it can be really given to you as if it Avere bread, and appearing to your senses to be bread? Or if you have such difficulty, when you see my body here present, to believe that I can give you bread that is truly, really and substantially my body, what greater scandal will you take, and what greater difficulty will you have, if required to believe that, when I have as- cended up to where I was before, I will still here on earth give bread, "which is my flesh" to be eaten by men? Why doth this scandalize? "It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing. Tho words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you that believe not." You hear my words according to the flesh, and not according to th§ spirit. You imagine that my flesh is to be distributed as meat in the shambles, but will not understand that I speak to you of mysteries the most high and spiritual, of a sac- rament in which the principal gift is hidden, but which you will not accept, because you will not believe. It would profit nothing to give my flesh to be eaten, ex- hibited as flesh, divided as flesh ; but to give it in the the manner I propose, in a sacrament, is to give spirit and life ; men shall really, truly, substantially eat my flesh and drink my blood, but not presented under ap- pearances proper to flesh and blood, but under the appearances of bread and wine. My flesh as offered in -sacrifice, on the crogs, redeems men, and profits every thing to them ; my flesh as "meat indeed," profits every thing to you, for I tell you unless you eat it " you shall not have life in you." But your reason, which has be- come carnalized, and cannot rise to accept spiritual things ; which judges things impossible because it does not comprehend them, and which hears my words as if I were but "the son of Joseph," will, stumble at my 174 THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. doctrine, and say it is a " hard saying, and who can hear it." That his words concerning "spirit and life" did not remove their difficulty to accept his doctrine, is plain from their leaving him after he said this, and therefore it is plain, that he in no-wise gave them to think that he spoke of a mere figure, a mere conventional memo- rial, an agreement that on certain occasions in eating hrcad and drinking wine, they should think of his flesh and blood. By no means. The great difficulty of the real presence confronted their pride and blindness of reason. Jesus Christ asserted that he would give his flesh as meat indeed, and his blood as drink indeed, and 67. "After this many of his disciples went back ; and walked no more "with him." . 08. " Then Jesus said to the twelve : will you also go away?" 69. "And Simon Peter answered him: Lord to whom shall wc go ? Thou hast the words of Eter- nal life." 'This departure of disciples was caused evidently by the difficulty of believing and accepting his doctrine. And the Saviour knew that their difficulty did not arise from a misunderstanding of his words, bitf from an un-' ■willingness to believe him to be God made, man, and, on his veracity, to accept this* wonderful mystery of his love for mankind, the real presence. Had they misun- derstood him, he could easily have removed their mis- take, and his goodness would prompt him to do this. ' But apart from their gross conception as to the manner in .which his flesh would be given to them, they under- stood that he literally required, as a condition of spir- itual life, that they should eat his body and drink his blood. This he said distinctly, and even asseverated most solemnly. They would not admit him to be more than the son of Joseph, and would not believe his words, and therefore left him. And on what terms did the Apostles remain. with Christ? On the only terms ia which salvation is possible for men. They accepted* the mystery on the word of Jesus Christ, because they believed him and knew him to be the Christ the Son of THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. 1?5 God. "Thou hast the words of eternal life." Thy ■word for us is enough. "We have believed and have known that thou art the Christ the Son of God." Besides the express promise of Jesus Christ to give himself as food, the proof of the real presence from the words which he used when instituting this sacra- ment, is of itself conclusive. The words of Christ, un- derstood in their proper and natural sense, declare his real presence in the sacrament. Three of the Evan- gelists, and St. Paul, state these words : " Take ye and eat; This is my body — Drink ye all of this; for this is my blood of the New Testament which shall be shed I'm- many unto the remission of sins." Math, xxvi: 2(1— 28. "Take ye: This is my body. This is my blood of the New Testament, which shall be shed for many." Mark xiv : 22-24. "This is my body which is given for you — This is the Chalice, the New Testa- ment in my blood, which shall be shed for you." Luke xxii : 19,- 20. "Take ye and eat, this is my body which shall be delivered (broken or sacrificed) for you. Thia cup is the New Testament in-my blood." 1 Cor. xi: 24, 2o. These are the plain words of the institution. If thej are to be understood in their proper and literal sense, they prove the dogma of the real presence. To give a figurative sense to the clear words of Scripture, and reject their proper and natural meaning, cannot lawfully be done, without some other grave and sufficient reason than the difficulty and mystery of the doctrine. The sense^ in which the Apostles and the church under- stood these words and the doctrine established in chris- " tendom, is their true meaning, and the one intended by Jesus Christ. But the Apostles declared it necessary to "discern" in this sacrament the body of Christ as present; they announced the chalice when blessed as, "the communion of the blood of Christ," and the bread as "the partaking of the body of the Lord." 1 Cor. i xi 16, andxi: 29. The church and all Christians, ex- ; the followers of the reformation, have through' all g understood these wordy literally, and believed the I doctrine of the real presence. Bcrcngarius, in t 1 1TC THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. eleventh century, first conceived the empty notion of a figurative presence, which places this sacrament in the category -with the sacraments of the Mosaic dispensa- tion, and banishes Jesus Christ from his sanctuary. The Saviour knew that the Catholic doctrine would be the faith which his church would establish over the whole earth, giving men to fondly believe that their God would condescend to dwell in their midst, and, like the vine nourishing its branches, would make them live of his very substance. The human mind never could have risen to imagine such a doctrine, or have presumed to hope 'for such a blessing, had the Saviour not taught it and taken measures to accomplish it. If it were an error, an illusion,»he could, and should, as the light of the world and the Saviour of mankind, have prevented his words from being so understood, and so cherished, by his church. lie did not. Therefore, he wishes mankind to believe this mystery of his real presence in the Eucharist. Moreover, he calls this institution his "testament in his blood." lie gives it on the eve of his death, and in it gives to his church all that is to enrich her and her children for time and -eternity. It is not a last will, leaving the mere plot or figure of the testator's (state; but it bequeathes the reality, the estate and in- heritance itself. "The Lord is my portion and inheri- tance,' writes the Royal Prophet. Tra nsu bstantiation. The doctrine of the church is, that "the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus Christ are present under the forms and a ppea ranees of bread and toine." It teaches therefore that only the accidents of bread and wine are in the sacrament, and that their substance has been changed or transubstantiated. Hence transub- stantiation is a substantial portion of the doctrine. In fact, the words of Christ, " this is nry body, this is my blood," cannot be true literally, unless transubstantia* tion be understood to have taken place. THE EUCIIARIST A SACRAMENT. 177 You must suppose the body of Christ present by im- panation, by consubstantiation, or by transubstantia- tion. The first two modes are inconsistent with the truth of the propositions : " This is my body," " this is my blood." Im^anation supposes such a union between the body of Christ and bread, as between the diviae and human natures in Jesus Christ, that is, a hypostatic or personal union ; Jesus Christ becoming bread as the Word of God became incarnate ; which was an absurd notion invented by Oseander, but denounced by the other reformers. Consubstantiation equally conflicts with the truth of the words of our Saviour, who says simply: "this," and not " in this," or " with this;" aifd his words could not be true in their simple signification, if, what he de- monstrated by the pronoun "this," was not limited to what he declared at the termination of the proposition. Besides, consubstantiation would present the extraordi- nary condition of two substances contained under pro- perties peculiar to only one of them, withotit any au- thority in the words of Jesus Christ to justify the ad- mission of such a doctrine. To say that a thing is an- other, different from what it appears, is to announce a change, especially when' that thing is not by nature suited to contain the other. A thing suited to contain another, and used for that purpose, may be demonstra- ted as that other; thus a man may show a purse and say " this is gold," because the purs£ is designed to contain money, but never can he demonstrate what is not by nature suited to contain something else, and say: "this is that 'other thing," without, at the same time, by the very force of the language announcing a, change. But bread is not by nature, nor by any agreement aiming men, conceived fitted to contain the body of Christ, and his showing it with the simple speech: " Take, eat, this is my body," shows a change of sub- stance, if his speech be true in its whole meaning. If he meant, not this, he was bound to manifest his real meaning by an explanation, since the usages of men could not explain his calling bread his body, as the like 178 THE EUCnAMST A SACRAMENT. ■was never heard or thought of among men. And it is to be remembered the speaker was God as well as man, ana that he was on the eve of his death, and moreover lie was establishing a great institution or sacrament for all mankind of all. ages of the -world* and he had the power to make his words literally true, which they could be only in the case that he by his power changed the substance, by the operative virtue of his words, and therefore consubstantiation cannot be maintained. Hence, most commonly, it is admitted, that if you do not regard the presence of Jesus Christ as merely figu- rative, but consider it true, real, and substantial, it is necessary from the very force of- these words, to receive the doctrine of fVansubstantiation. The doctrine of Faith is clear as to transubstantia- tion. " I believe and profess thai, in the most holy sac- ment of the Eucharist, there is made a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the - whole substance of the wine into the blood, which conversion the Catholic church calls transubstantiation." — Creed of Pius TV. "If any one saith, that in the sacred and holy sacra- ment of the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and wine remains conjointly with the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and denieth that wonderful and singular conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood — the species only of the bread and wine remaining — which conversion indeed the Catholic church most aptly calls transubstantiation ; let him be anathe- ma.'' — Counc. Trent, Sess. XIII, Can. 2d. "And because that Christ, our Redeemer, declared that which He offered under the species of bread to be truly his own body, therefore has it ever been a firm belief in the church of God, and this holy synod doth now declare it anew, that, by the consecration of the bread and wine, a conversion is made of the whole sub- stance of the bread into the .substance of the body of Christ our Lord, and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood; which con ver- THE EUCHARIST A SACRAMENT. 179 sion is, by the holy Catholic church, suitably and prop- erly called transubstantiation." — Ibid, ch. 3, on Tran- aubstajfttiation. , • These show precisely what is of faith, a! to this won- derful change, of which its author, in his first miracle at Cana of Gallilce, when he converted water into wine, when ' k his hour had not yet come," gave assurance by his exercise of omnipotence, for at the eve of his death, and when about to consummate his great work his hour had comr, and he exerts his omnipotence in^effecting this stupendous conversion of the substance of the bread and wine into the substance of hie body and blood. It is not of faith, that the substance of the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Jesus Christ, in the same way as these substances are transubstantiated into our bodies when we eat them as food. Nor is it of faith, that in any of the transub- stantiations which take place in nature, we can find something that is just like to this miraculous conver- sion, for this is