Chapter I. The Relation of the Holy Ghost to the Church

In this chapter my purpose is to show the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Church or Mystical Body of Jesus Christ. It is not by accident, or by mere order of enumeration, that in the Baptismal Creed we say, * I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church.' These two articles are united because the Holy Spirit is united with the Mystical Body. And this union is divinely constituted, indissoluble, eternal, the source of supernatural endowments to the Church which can never be absent from it, or suspended in their operation. The Church of all ages, and of all times, is immutable in its knowledge, discernment, and enunciation of the truth; and that in virtue of its indissoluble union with the Holy Ghost, and of His perpetual teaching by its living voice, not only from council to council, and from age to age, with an intermittent and broken utterance, but always, and at all times, by its continuous enunelation of the Faith, as well as by its authoritative dogmatic decrees.

In order to show that in what follows I am but repeating the language of the Scriptures, Fathers, and Theologians, I will begin by quotations, and afterwards draw out certain conclusions from them.

I. And first, the testimonies from Scripture, which, being familiar to all, shall be recited as briefly as possible.

Our Lord promised that His departure should be followed by the advent of a Person like Himself — another Paraclete — the Spirit of Truth, who proceedeth from the Father: * I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you for ever. The Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him: but you shall know Him; because He shall abide with you, and shall be in you.' l

'The Paraclete — the Holy Grhost — whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you.' 2

(It is expedient for you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.' 3

1 S. John xiv. 16, 17. 2 Ib. 26. 3 Ib. xvi. 7.

'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; and the things that are to come He shall shew you. He shall glorify Me; because He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it to you. All things whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine. Therefore I said, He shall receive of Mine, and shew it to you.' l

The fulfilment of this promise ten days after the Ascension, was accomplished on the day of Pentecost by the personal Advent of the Holy Grhost, to abide for ever as the Guide and Teacher of the faithful, in the name and stead of the Incarnate Son. I forbear to quote the second chapter of the book of Acts, in which this divine fact is not only recorded but declared by the Holy Spirit Himself.

S. Paul has traced out the events and succession in this divine order, connecting them with the creation and organisation of the Church, where he says, ' One body and one spirit: as you are called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all, who is above all and through all, and in us all. But to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Wherefore He saith, "Ascending on high

1 S. John xvi. 13-16.

He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men." Now that He ascended, what is it, but because He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors and doctors. For the perfection of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ: that henceforth we be no more children tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the Head, even Christ; from Whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly joined together, by what every joint supplieth, according to the operation of the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in charity.' *

The same delineation of the Church as the Mystical Body runs through the epistles to the Komans and

1 Ephes. iv. 4-16.

the Corinthians. ' For as in one body we have many members, but all members have not the same office; so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.' 1

Again to the Corinthians, after enumerating with great particularity the gifts and operations of the Holy Grhost he adds, that ' All these things one and the same Spirit worketh, dividing to every one according as he will. For as the body is one and hath many members; and all the members of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body^ whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free; and in one Spirit we have all been made to drink. For the body also is not one member, but many.... Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member.' 2

I will quote only one other passage. e According to the operation of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ, raising Him up from the dead, and setting Him on His right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality and power, and virtue and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And hath subjected all things under His feet; and

1 Kom. xii. 4, 5. 2 1 Cor. xii. 11, 12, 13, 14, 27.

hath made Him head over all the Church, which is His body, and the fulness of Him, who is filled all in all.' »

In these passages we have the interpretation of S. John's words: e As yet the Spirit was not given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.' 2

The Ascension — that is, the departure of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity — was hereby declared to be the condition ordained of (rod for the advent of and perpetual presence of the Third. And the coming of the Holy Grhost is likewise declared to be the condition of the creation, quickening, and organisation of the mystical body, which is the Church of Jesus Christ.

II. Next, for the teaching of the Fathers; and first, S. Irenseus, who may be said to represent the mind of S. John and of the Church, both in the East and in the West, paraphrases as follows the above passages of Scripture:—

In drawing out the parallel of the first creation and the second, of the old Adam and the new, and of the analogy between the Incarnation or natural body and the Church or mystical body of Christ, he says: 3 ' Our faith received from the Church, which

1 Eph. i. 19-23. 2 S. John vii. 39.

3 S. Iren. Cont. Hceret. lib. iii. cap. 24.

(receives) always from the Spirit of God as an excellent gift in a noble vessel, always young and making young the vessel itself in which it is. For this gift of God is intrusted to the Church, as the breath of life (was imparted) to the first man, to this end, that all the members partaking of it might be quickened with life. And thus the communication of Christ is imparted; that is, the Holy Ghost, the earnest of incorruption, the confirmation of the faith, the way of ascent to God. For in the Church (he says) God placed apostles, prophets, doctors, and all other operations of the Spirit, of which none are partakers who do not come to the Church, thereby depriving themselves of life by a perverse mind and by worse deeds. For where the Church is, there is also the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace. But the Spirit is truth. Wherefore they who do not partake of Him (the Spirit), and are not nurtured unto life at the breast of the mother (the Church), do not receive of that most pure fountain which proceeds from the Body of Christ, but dig out for themselves broken pools from the trenches of the earth, and drink water stained with mire, because they turn aside from the faith of the Church lest they should be convicted, and reject the Spirit lest they should be taught.'

Tertullian says, speaking of the Baptismal Creed: T ' But forasmuch as the attestation of (our) faith and the promise of our salvation are pledged by three witnesses, the mention of the Church is necessarily added, since where these are — that is, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost — there is the Church, which is the Body of the Three.'

S. Augustine, in expounding the Creed, remarks on the relation in which the article of the Church stands to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. He says: 2 eln like manner we ought to believe in the Holy Ghost, that the Trinity, which is God, may have its fulness. Then the Holy Church is mentioned;... the right order of the confession required that to the Trinity should be subjoined the Church, as the dwelling to the inhabitant, and as His temple to the Lord, and the city to its builder.'

Again he says:3 (For what the soul is to the body of a man, that the Holy Ghost is to the body of Christ, which is the Church. What the Holy Ghost does in the whole Church, that the soul does in all the members of one body. But see what ye have to beware of, to watch over, and to fear. In the body of

1 TertuL De Bapt. sect. vi. ed. Eigalt. p. 226.

2 S. August. Enchirid. de Fide, etc. cap. 56, torn. vi. p. 217. 8 S. August. Sermo in Die Pentecost, i. torn. v. p. 1090.

a man it may happen that a member, the hand, the finger, or the foot, may be cut off. Does the soul follow the severed member? While it was in the body it was alive; cut off, its life is lost. So a man is a Christian and a Catholic while he is alive in the body; cut off, he becomes a heretic. The Holy Grhost does not follow the amputated limb. If therefore ye would live by the Holy Grhost, hold fast charity, love truth, desire unity, that ye may attain unto eternity.'

And again: l ' Paul the Apostle says, " One body, one spirit." Listen, members of that body. The body is made up of many members, and one spirit quickens them all. Behold, by the spirit of a man, by which I myself am a man, I hold together all the members; I command them to move; I direct the eyes to see, the ears to hear, the tongue to speak, the hands to work, the feet to walk. The offices of the members are divided severally, but one spirit holds all in one. Many are commanded, and many things are done; there is one only who commands, and one who is obeyed. What our spirit — that is, our soul — is to our members, that the Holy Grhost is to the members of Christ, to the body of Christ, which is

1 S. August. Sermo in Die Pentecost, u. torn. v. p. 1091.

the Church. Therefore the Apostle, when he had spoken of the one body, lest we should suppose it to be a dead body, says: " There is one body." I ask, Is this body alive? It is alive. Whence? From the one Spirit. " There is one Spirit." '

To this may be added a passage which has been ascribed to S. Augustine, but is probably by another hand.1 (Therefore the Holy Grhost on this day (Pentecost) descended into the temple of His apostles, which He had prepared for Himself, as a shower of sanctification. (He came) no more as a transient visitor, but as a perpetual comforter and as an eternal inhabitant.... He came therefore on this day to His disciples, no longer by the grace of visitation and operation, but by the very Presence of His Majesty; and into those vessels, no longer the odour of the balsam, but the very Substance of the sacred Unction flowed down, from whose fragrance the breadth of the whole world was to be filled, and all who came to their doctrine to be made partakers of God.'

From these principles S. Augustine declares the Church to possess a mystical personality. He says: 3 'The Head and the body are one man, Christ and

1 S. August. Sermo in Die Pentecost, i. torn. v. Append, p. 308.

2 S. August. In Psal. xviii. torn. iv. pp. 85, 86.

the Church are one man, a perfect man; He the bridegroom, she the bride. "And they shall be two," he says, " in one flesh." '

And again he says: } ' Therefore of two is made one person, of the Head and the body, of the bridegroom and the bride.' And further: * If there are two in one flesh, how not two in one voice? Therefore let Christ speak, because in Christ the Church speaks, and in the Church Christ speaks, both the body in the Head, and the Head in the body.' 2 ' Our Lord Jesus Christ often speaks Himself — that is, in His own Person, which is our Head — oftentimes in the person of His body, which we are, and His Church; but so that the words are heard as from the mouth of one man, that we may understand the Head and the body to consist by an integral unity, and never to be put asunder, after the manner of that matrimony of which it is said " two shall be in one flesh." '

The following words of S. Gregory Nazianzen teach expressly the same doctrine: 3 ' But now the Holy Ghost is given more perfectly, for He is no longer present by his operation as of old, but is present with us, so to speak, and converses with us in a substantial

1 S. August. In Psal. xyy. pp. 147.

2 Ibid. In Psal. xL p. 344.

3 Orat. xli. in Pentecost, torn. i. p. 740.

manner. For it was fitting that, as the Son had conversed with us in a body, the Spirit also should come among us in a bodily manner; and when Christ had returned to His own place,, He should descend to us.'

S. Cyril of Alexandria likewise says:1 'What then is this grace? It is that pouring forth of the Spirit, as S. Paul says.' ' Therefore the Holy Ghost works in us by Himself, truly sanctifying us and uniting us to Himself, while He joins us to Himself and makes us partakers of the Divine nature.' ^

1 Thesaurus de Trin. Assertio xxxiv. torn. v. p. 352.

2 ' Sic igitur, cum fidelibus ac justis impertiri communicarique Spiritus Sanctus legitur, non ipsamet illius persona tribui, sed ejus efficientia videri potest; idque communis fere sensus habet eorum, qui in Patrum veterum lectione minus exercitati sunt. Quos qui attente pervestigare voluerit, intelliget occultum quemdam et inusitatum missionis communicationisque modum apud illos celebrari, quo Spiritus ille divinus in justorum sese animos insinuans, cum illis copulatur; eumque non accidentarium, ut ita dicam, esse, hoc est qualitate duntaxat ilia coelesti ac divina perfici, quam in pectora nostra diffundit idem ccelestium donorum largitor ac procreator Spiritus, sed ovffKatiir), hoc est substantialem, ita ut substantia ipsa Spiritus Sancti nobiscum jungatur, nosque sanctos, ac justos, ac Dei denique Filios effieiat. Ac nonnullos etiam an ti quorum illorum dicentes audiet, tantum istud tamque stupendum Dei beneficium tune primum hominibus esse concessum, postquam Dei Filius homo factus ad usum hominum salutemque descendit, ut fructus iste sit adrentus, ac meritorum, et sanguinis ipsius, veteris Testament! justis hominibus nondum attributes; quibus " nondum erat Spiritus datus, quia Jesus nondum fuerat glorificatus," ut Evangelista Joannes scribit.

' Verum, antequam testes in medium adducam Grsecps illos Latinos-

S. Gregory the Great, summing up the doctrine of S. Augustine, writes as follows: l — ' The holy universal Church is one body, constituted under Christ Jesus its Head.... Therefore Christ, with His whole Church, both that which is still on earth and that which now reigns with Him in heaven, is one Person; and as the soul is one which quickens the various members of the body, so the one Holy Spirit quickens and illuminates the whole Church. For as Christ, who is the Head of the Church, was conceived of the Holy Ghost, so the Holy Church, which is His body, is filled by the same Spirit that it may have life, is confirmed by His power that it may subsist in the bond of one faith and charity. Therefore the Apostle says, " from whom the whole body being compacted and fitly joined together maketh increase of the body." This is that body out of which the Spirit quickeneth not; wherefore the blessed Augustine says, "If thou wouldst live of the Spirit of Christ, be in the Body of Christ." Of this Spirit the heretic does not live, nor the schismatic, nor the excommunicated, for they are not of the body; but que Patres, teste utar optimo omnium ipsomet Spiritu; qui idipsum in sacris litteris tarn ssepe, tarn aperte prsedicavit, ut omnem hsesitationemsustulissevideatur.'— Petavius,Zte Trin. lib. viii. cap.iv.p. 128. 1 S. Greg. Expos, in Psal. v. Pcenit. torn. iii. p. 611.

the Church hath a Spirit that giveth life, because it inheres inseparably to Christ its Head: for it is written, " He that adhereth to the Lord is one spirit with Him." '

In this passage S. Gregory traces out:

1. The Head;

2. The body;

3. The mystical personality;

4. The conception;

5. The intrinsic and extrinsic unity of the Church, and the grace of sanctity and life, which is given by the Church alone.

Hitherto I have refrained from doing more than trace out the meaning of the passages of Scripture and of the Fathers above cited. I will now go on to draw certain conclusions from them.

And, first, it is evident that the present dispensation, under which we are, is the dispensation of the Spirit, or of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. To Him, in the Divine economy, has been committed the office of applying the redemption of the Son to the souls of men, by the vocation, justification, and salvation of the elect. We are, therefore, under the personal guidance of the Third Person as truly as the Apostles were under the guidance of the Second. The presence of the Eternal Son, by incarnation, was the centre of their unity; the presence of the Eternal Spirit, by the incorporation of the mystical body, is the centre of unity to us.

Again, it is evident that this dispensation of the Spirit, since the incarnation of the Son, and from the day of Pentecost, differs in many critical and characteristic ways from His presence and office in the world before the advent of Jesus Christ. It differs not only in exuberance of gifts and graces^ nor only in its miraculous manifestations, nor again in its universality, as if what was given before in measure was given afterwards in fulness, but in a deeper way, that is, in the office which He has assumed, and in the manner of His presence.

I. And, first, the Holy Grhost came before into the world by His universal operations in all mankind, but now He comes through the Incarnate Son by a special and personal presence.

As the Son of God has both an eternal generation and a temporal mission, — that is, His eternal generation from the Father,1 and His temporal advent by incarnation, — so the Spirit of God has likewise an eternal procession and a temporal mission from the Father and the Son. The eternal mission is the Passive Spiration, whereby the Person and relations 1 Petav. De Trinitate, lib. viii. cap. 2. E of the Holy Grhost to the Father and to the Son are eternally constituted. And this by the Fathers and Theologians l is called His eternal procession. The temporal mission of the Holy Grhost began from the day of Pentecost, when He came to us through the incarnate Son. S. Augustine teaches that this was signified by the material breath with which Jesus breathed upon His Apostles, when He said, (Eeceive ye the Holy Grhost.' 2 It was the symbol and pledge of the gift which He had promised to them. It was reserved till He should be glorified. Then, on His Ascension to the right hand of God, the Holy Grhost was sent from the Father and the Son incarnate. S. Augustine calls the day of Pentecost the Dies Natalis or Nativity of the Holy Grhost. The Spirit of God had wrought before throughout the whole race descended from the first Adam. He came now by a special and personal mission to work in the children of the second Adam. The first Adam by sin forfeited for himself and for us the presence and grace of the Holy Grhost; the second Adam has restored to His children the presence and the grace which had been lost; but with this difference — the first Adam was

1 Petav. De Trinitate, lib. vii. cap. 18, sec. 5, 6. 8 S. August. De Gen. ad Lit. torn. iii. p. 260. De Trin. lib. iv. torn. viii. p. 829.

man, the second Adam is (rod. The first, though sinless, was capable of sinning; the second, being God, could not sin. The Holy Ghost proceeds from the second Adam to us who are born again in the new creation of God.

What has here been stated is expressed by S. Thomas as follows: — On the question whether mission be eternal or temporal only, he says, (It is to be said that in those things which imply the origin of Divine Persons a distinction is to be observed. For some things, by their signification, imply only the relation to their principle, as procession and going forth; and some, together with the relation to their principle, determine the end for which they proceed. Of these some determine the eternal end, as generation and spiration; for generation is the procession of a Divine Person in the Divine Nature, and spiration, taken passively, implies the procession of love subsisting (in the nature of God). Other things with the relation to their principle imply the temporal end, as mission and gift; for a thing is sent for this end that it may exist in another, and given to this end that it may be possessed. But that a Divine Person should be possessed by any creature, or should be in it by a new mode of existence, is something temporal. Therefore mission and gift in things divine are predicated in a temporal sense alone; but generation and spiration are predicated only of eternity. But procession and going forth are predicated in things divine both eternally and temporally. From eternity He proceeds as God, but temporally as Man also by a visible mission; and also that he may be in man by a mission which is invisible.'1 And further, he adds, speaking of the mission of the Holy Grhost, ' But the visible mission was fulfilled to Christ in His baptism under the form of a dove — which is a fruitful creature— to manifest the authority of bestowing grace by spiritual regeneration which was in Christ.... But in the transfiguration, under the form of a shining cloud, to manifest the exuberance of His teaching.... But to the Apostles, under the form of breath, to manifest the power of the ministry in the dispensation of sacraments; wherefore He said to them, "Whosesoever sins you forgive they are forgiven unto them." But in tongues of fire to manifest the office of teaching, wherefore it is written, "They began to speak with various tongues." But to the Fathers of the Old Testament it was not fitting that the mission of the Holy Grhost should be visibly fulfilled, because it was fitting that the visible mission of the Son should first be fulfilled before that of 1 Divi Thomse Sum. ThcoL, prima pars, quaest. xliii. artic. 2.

the Holy Ghost, forasmuch as the Holy Ghost manifests the Son, as the Son manifests the Father. But visible apparitions of Divine Persons were made to the Fathers of the Old Testament, which, however, cannot be called visible missions, because they were not made, as S. Augustine says, to designate the inhabitation of a Divine Person by grace, but to manifest something else.' l

After profusely expounding these articles of S. Thomas, Suarez adds the following words, which are very much to our purpose: 2 ' And here a distinction may be noted between the mission of the Word... and this mission of the Spirit;... that the mission of the Word is without merit given by the charity of God alone, according to the words of S. John, — " God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son:" but the mission of the Holy Ghost is given through the merits of the Word, and therefore the Spirit was not given until Jesus was glorified. Which Christ Himself also declared, saying, " I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete." '

II. The second characteristic difference is, that the Holy Ghost came to create the mystical body of Christ.

1 Divi Thomse Sum. TheoL, prima pars, quaest. xliii. artic. 7.

2 Suarez, Comment, in Primam Partem D. Thoma, lib. xii. cap. 6, sect. 26, De Missione Personarum.

Until the day of Pentecost the mystical body was not complete. There could be no body till there was a Head. There was no Head until the Son was incarnate; and, even when incarnate, the completion of the body was deferred until the Head was glorified; that is, until the Incarnate Son had fulfilled His whole redeeming office in life, death, resurrection, and ascension, returning to enthrone the Humanity with which His eternal Person was invested, at the right hand of the Father. Then, when the Head was exalted in His supreme majesty over angels and men, the creation and organisation of the body was completed.

All that had gone before was but type and shadow. The people of Israel, organised and bound together by their Priesthood, and by the ceremonies and ritual of the Tabernacle and the Temple, had but (a shadow of things to come, but the body is Christ's.' l It was a Church after the measures and proportions of the times which then were. But it had no Incarnate Head, no Divine Person proceeding from that Head to inhabit and to guide it. Its sacraments were shadows, working ex opere operantis, by the faith of the receiver, not by the divine virtue which went out from them. Its sacrifices and priesthood 1 Col. ii. 17.

were real in relation to the order which then was, but only shadows of the sacrifice and priesthood of the Incarnate Son, and of His Church which is now.1

What has here been affirmed may be proved by the following propositions: —

(1.) That Christ, as Head of the Church, is the fountain of all sanctity to His mystical body. ' In Him it hath well-pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell.' 2 ' He hath made Him Head over all the Church, which is His body, and the fulness of Him who is filled all in all.' 3 S. Gregory the Great says: ' For the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has present always and in all things Him who also proceeds from Himself by substance, namely, the same Spirit. In the saints who declare Him He abides, but in the Mediator He abides in fulness. Because in them He abides by grace for a special purpose, but in Him He abides by substance and for all things.' 4 S. Augustine says: e Is there then any other difference between that Head and the excellence of any member beside, that all the fulness

1 I am aware that Tournelly appears to be contrary to this statement; but not only the stream of theologians is against him, but his argument, though perhaps not his words, may be shown to agree in substance with what is stated in the text, — De Ecclesia, qusest. i. art. 3.

2 Col. i. 19. » Eph. i. 22, 23. 4 S. Gregor. Moral, lib. ii. cap. ult. torn. i. p. 73.

of the Divinity dwells in that body as in a temple? Plainly there is. Because, by a special assumption of that Humanity, one Person with the Word is constituted. That assumption then was singular, and has nothing common with any men by whatsoever wisdom and holiness they may be sanctified.' l And again he says: ' It is one thing to be made wise by the wisdom of God, and another to bear the Personality of (rod's wisdom. For though the nature of the body of the Church be the same, who does not understand that there is a great distance between the Head and the members? ' 2

(2.) That the sanctification of the Church is effected by the gift of the Holy Ghost. Forasmuch as it is s built together into an habitation of God in the Spirit; ' 3 (and the charity of God is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given unto us.' 4

This proposition needs no further proof than the fact, that the Church is gathered from the world by baptism, and that into every soul rightly baptized the graces of Faith, Hope, and Charity are infused, together with the seven gifts, and a substantial union of the Holy Ghost with the soul is constituted. The

1 S. August, torn. ii. Ep. clxxxvii. 40, p. 691. - De Agone Christiana, cap. 22, torn. vi. p. 254. 3 Eph. ii. 22. 4 Eom. T. 5.

sanctification therefore of souls is effected, not only by the effusion of created graces, but also by the personal indwelling of the Sanctifier, and by their union with the uncreated sanctity of the Spirit of God. 4 Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?... For the temple of God is holy, which (temple) you are.' l S. Athanasius says: (We abide in God, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. But if by the presence of the Spirit who is in us we are made partakers of the Divine Nature, he is beside himself who shall say that this is done by a creature, and not by the Spirit of God. For the same cause He is in men, and they in whom He is are deified. But He who deifies, beyond all doubt, His nature is the nature of God.'2 Again, S. Cyril says: 'Christ is formed in us by the Holy Ghost imparting to us a kind of Divine form by sanctification and justification.' 3

(3.) That the Holy Ghost dwells personally and substantially in the mystical body, which is the incorporation of those who are sanctified. This follows from the last, and needs no further proof.

(4.) That the members of the mystical body who

1 1 Cor. iii. 16, 17.

8 S. Athan. Ep. I. ad Scrapionem, cap. 24, torn. ii. p. 672. 3 S. Cyril. Alex. In Isaiam, lib. iv. orat. 2, torn. ii. p. 591. Ed. Paris, 1638.

are sanctified, partake not only of the created graces, but of a substantial union with the Holy Ghost. This has been already proved above.

(5.) That this substantial union of the Holy Ghost with the mystical body, though analogous to the hypostatic union, is not hypostatic; forasmuch as the human personality of the members of Christ still subsists in this substantial union.1

I forbear to add more to this second distinction; but I would refer those who desire to see it fully treated, to the tenth chapter of the Sixth Book, De Incarnatione Verbi, in the Theologia Dogmatica of Thomassinus. We may therefore proceed to another distinction.

III. Thirdly, a further characteristic difference is constituted by the indissoluble union between the Holy Ghost and the mystical body. Before the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit wrought in the souls of men one by one, illuminating, converting, sanctifying, and perfecting the elect. But the union between His presence and the soul was conditional on the correspondence and fidelity of the individual. It was a dissoluble union, and in the multitudes who fell from grace it was actually dissolved. In the faithful, as in Enoch and in Daniel, that union was sustained to

1 Petav. De Trinitate, lib. viii. cap. 7, § 12.

the end. In the unfaithful, as in Saul and in Solomon, after their great graces, it was dissolved. We also are under the same law of individual probation. If we persevere in faith, hope, charity and contrition, the union between us and the presence of the Holy Spirit in us remains firm. If we fail, we dissolve it. It is therefore conditional, depending upon our finite, frail and unstable will. And yet such is the strange and superficial view of those who have been deprived of the perfect light of faith by the great spiritual anarchy of the last three hundred years. Having lost the conception of the Church as distinct from a multitude of individuals told by number, they suppose the union of the Holy Spirit with the Church to be also conditional and dissoluble.

It is manifest, however, that the union of the Holy Grhost with the Church is not conditional, but absolute, depending upon no finite will, but upon the Divine will alone, and therefore indissoluble to all eternity. For it is constituted (1) by the union of the Holy Grhost with the Head of the Church, not only as God but as Man, and in both these relations this union is indissoluble. It is constituted further (2) by His union with the mystical body, which, as a body, is imperishable, though individuals in it may perish. There will never come a time when that body will cease to be, and therefore there will never come a time when the Holy Grhost will cease to be united to it. The mystical body will exist to all eternity in the perfect number of the blessed. These Divine unions, namely, First, of the Head with the members; next, of the members with each other; and, lastly, of the Holy Grhost with the body, will be likewise eternal. And in the state of glory the perfect personal identity and perfect mutual recognition of the saints in all their orders will perpetuate that which here constitutes the symmetry and perfection of the Church. But that which shall be eternal is indissoluble also in time — the union, that is, of the Spirit with the body as a whole. Individuals may fall from it as multitudes have fallen; provinces, nations, particular churches may fall from it; but the body still remains, its unity undivided, its life indefectible. And that because the line of the faithful is never broken; the chain of the elect is always woven link within link, and wound together in the mysterious course and onward movement of truth and grace in the hearts and wills of the regenerate. The line of faith, hope, and charity is never dissolved. The threefold cord cannot be broken, and the ever-blessed Trinity always inhabits His tabernacle upon earth — the souls of the elect, who < are builded together into an habitation of God in the Spirit.' l The union therefore of the Spirit with the body can never be dissolved. It is a Divine act, analogous to the hypostatic union, whereby the two natures of God and man are eternally united in one Person. So the mystical body, the head and the members, constitute one mystical person; and the Holy Grhost inhabiting that body, and diffusing His created grace throughout it, animates it as the soul quickens the body of a man. From this flow many truths. First, the Church is not an individual, but a mystical person, and all its endowments are derived from the Divine Person of its Head, and the Divine Person who is its Life. As in the Incarnation there is a communication of the Divine perfections to the humanity, so in the Church the perfections of the Holy Spirit become the endowments of the body. It is imperishable, because He is God; indivisibly one, because He is numerically one; holy, because He is the fountain of holiness; infallible both in believing and in teaching, because His illumination and His voice are immutable, and therefore, being not an individual depending upon the fidelity of a human will, but a body depending only on the Divine will, it is not on trial or probation, but is itself the instrument of probation to mankind. 1 Epb. ii. 22.

It cannot be affected by the frailty or sins of the human will, any more than the brightness of the firmament by the dimness or the loss of human sight. It can no more be tainted by human sin than the holy sacraments, which are always immutably pure and divine, though all who come to them be impure and faithless. What the Church was in the beginning it is now, and ever shall be in all the plenitude of its divine endowments, because the union between the body and the Spirit is indissoluble, and all the operations of the Spirit in the body are perpetual and absolute.

The multitude and fellowship of the just who, from Abel to the Incarnation, had lived and died in faith and union with God, constituted the soul of a body which should be hereafter. They did not constitute the body, but they were waiting for it. They did not constitute the Church, which signifies not only the election but the aggregation of the servants of God; not only the calling out, but the calling together into one all those who are united to Him. Some of the Fathers do indeed speak of them as the Church, because they were to the then world what the Church is now to the world of to-day. They belong also to the Church, though it did not then exist, j ust as the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, though the sacrifice on Calvary was four thousand years deferred. All grace was from the beginning given through the Most Precious Blood, though as yet it had not been shed. So the mystical body had its members, though as yet it was not created. They were admitted to it when the kingdom of heaven was opened to them and the Incarnate Word was exalted to His glory as Head over all things to the Church.

As then till the Incarnation there was no Incarnate Head, so till the day of Pentecost there was no complete organisation. The members were not united to the Head, nor to each other, nor as a body to the Holy Grhost. But it is these three Divine unions which constitute the organisation of the mystical body. And these three unions were constituted by the mission of the Holy Grhost from the Incarnate Son, and by His descent and inhabitation in the members of Christ.

IV. The fourth difference is that whereas the Holy Grhost wrought invisibly before the Incarnation, He has by His temporal mission manifested His presence and His operations by the Visible Church of Jesus Christ.

1. The Church is the evidence of His presence among men. Before the Incarnation He wrought unseen, and by no revealed law of His operations. Now He has assumed the mystical body as the visible incorporation of His presence, and the revealed channel of His grace. The Visible Church is a creation so purely divine, and its endowments are so visibly supernatural, that it can be referred to no cause or origin below God.

(1) The Church witnesses to the presence of a Divine Person by its supernatural unity. The first formation of its unity by the assimilation of the intellects and wills of men who had never agreed before, and of nations, races, and kingdoms perpetually antagonist, and perpetually contending about everything but the faith, is a work self- evidently divine.

The wonderful world-wide coherence of this unity, resisting all the solvents of human subtlety and all the efforts of human strength, and perpetuating itself through all antagonisms and through all ages undivided and indivisible, is evidence of a power higher than man. S. Augustine asks: (What did the advent of the Holy Ghost accomplish? How did He teach us His presence? How did He manifest it? They all spoke with the tongues of all nations.... One man spoke with the tongues of all nations. The unity of the Church is in the tongues of all nations. Behold here the unity of the Catholic Church diffused throughout the world is declared.' l Again: ' Where- 1 Serm. in Die Pent., n. torn. v. p. 1091.

fore as then (Pentecost) the tongues of all nations, spoken by one man, showed the presence of one man, so now the charity of the unity of all nations shows Him to be here.' 2

(2) Secondly, it witnesses for a supernatural presence by its imperishableness in the midst of all the works of man, which are perpetually resolving themselves again into the dust out of which they were taken.

(3) Thirdly, the Visible Church witnesses to the presence of the Spirit of Truth by its immutability in doctrine of faith, and morals.

And all these truths point to the presence of a Divine Power and Person, by whom alone such gifts could be communicated to men. The visible incorporation of the Church therefore becomes the manifestation of His presence. * One body, one Spirit,' is not only a fact, but a revelation. We know that there is the Spirit because there is the body. The body is one because the Spirit is one. The unity of the Holy Grhost is the intrinsic reason of the unity of the Church. Because His illumination is one and changeless, its intelligence is one and immutable. Because His charity never varies,

1 Serm. in Die Pent. m. torn. v. p. 1094. F therefore the unity of its communion can never be suspended. He organises and unfolds the mystical body, His own presence being the centre of its unity and the principle of its cohesion. What the dove was at Jordan, and the tongues of fire at Pentecost, that the one visible Church is now; the witness of the mission, advent, and perpetual presence of the Spirit of the Father and of the Son.

2. It is, further, the instrument of His power.

And that, first, by the perpetuity and diffusion of the light of the Incarnation throughout the world and throughout all time.

Next by the perpetuity of sanctifying grace. And that by the perpetuity of the Seven Sacraments, which initiate and envelope the whole spiritual life of man from birth to death, sanctifying the soul in all its ages, and relations to (rod and to human life, and organising the Church perpetually, multiplying its members by baptism, renewing the body as it is diminished by natural death, propagating by the spiritual generation the line of its pastors, and giving to it a supernatural centre and solidity in the sacrament of the altar, which in the midst of the other sacraments, that are transient, abides for ever, the permanent presence of the Word made flesh in the tabernacle of God with men.

3. Thirdly, in virtue of the perpetual presence of the Holy Ghost united indissolubly to the body of Christ, not only the ordinary and sacramental actions of grace are perpetual, but also the extraordinary operations and gifts of miracles, visions, and prophecy abide always in the Church, not in all men, nor manifested at all times, but present always, distributed to His servants severally at His will, and for the ends known to His wisdom, sometimes revealed, sometimes hidden from us.

4. Lastly, the body of Christ is the organ of His voice.

Our Lord has said, e He that heareth you heareth me.' ' Ye shall be witnesses unto me.' (Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature.' 'He that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God.'1 How should these things be true, or rather how should not these words be most illusory and false, if the perpetual, living voice of the Church in all ages were not identified with the voice of Jesus Christ? S. Augustine asks, as we have already seen, with the point and power which is his own, — If the body and the head, Christ and the Church, be ' one flesh, how are they not also one voice? ' ' Si in carne una, quomodo non in voce una? '

1 1 Thess. iv. 8. F 2

To sum up, then, what has been said in the language of theology.

1. First, from the indissoluble union of the Holy Spirit with the Church flow the three properties of Unity, Visibleness, and Perpetuity.

Unity is the intrinsic unity of intelligence, will, and organisation, generated from within by the unity of the Person and the operation of the Holy Grhost. The property of Unity is not extrinsic and constitutional, but intrinsic and essential.

Next, the property of Visibleness is a necessary consequence of the constitution of a body or a society of men bound by public laws of worship and practice.

Lastly, Perpetuity is a necessary consequence of the indissoluble union of the soul with the body, of the Spirit with the Church.

2. From the same indissoluble union flow next the endowments of the Church; namely, Inde.fectibility in life and duration, Infallibility in teaching, and Authority in governing the flock of Jesus Christ.

These are effects springing from the same substantial union of the Holy Spirit with the Church, and reside by an intrinsic necessity in the mystical body.

3. Lastly, the four Notes: Unity, which is the external manifestation of the intrinsic and divine unity of which we have spoken. Unity, as a property, is the source and cause of unity as a note. Next, Sanctity, which also flows by a necessity from the union of the Holy Ghost, the Sanctifier, with the mystical body, to which a twofold sanctity is imparted: namely, the created grace of sanctity which resides in all the just; and the substantial union of the just with the uncreated sanctity of the Holy Grhost. Thirdly, Catholicity, or universality, that is, not mere extension, but also identity in all places; and, lastly, Apostolicity, or conformity with its original— the mission and institution of the Apostles.

These four notes strike the eye of the world, because they lie upon the surface. But the endowments and the properties are the ultimate motives into which the faithful resolve their submission to the Church of God. They believe, through the Church, in Him who is the fountain of all its supernatural gifts, God the Holy Grhost, always present, the perpetual and Divine Teacher of the revelation of God, ' the Truth as it is in Jesus.'

V. The fifth and last distinction I will note between the presence and manner of operation of the Holy Ghost before the Incarnation and His own Temporal Mission in the world is this: whereas, before that epoch of the Divine Economy, the Holy Spirit taught and sanctified individuals, and spoke by the Prophets by virtue of His light and power, but with an intermittent exercise of His visitations, now He is present personally and substantially in the body of Christ, and both teaches and sanctifies, without intermission, with a perpetual divine voice and a perpetual sanctifying power; or, in other words, the divine action of the day of Pentecost is permanent, and pervades the world so far as the Church is diffused, and pervades all ages, the present as fully as the past, to-day as fully as in the beginning; or, again in other words, both theological and conventional, the living Church in every age is the sole divine channel of the revelation of God, and the infallible witness and teacher of the truths therein revealed.

Before I enter further into the exposition and proof of this proposition, I will at once point out its bearing upon what is called the Eule of Faith, i. e. the test whereby to know what we are to believe. In the last analysis there can be conceived only three such rules; namely —

1. First, the voice of a living judge and teacher, both of doctrines and of their interpretation, guided by the assistance of the same Person who gave the original revelation, and inspired the writers of Holy Scripture, or, in other words, the same Holy

Spirit from whom in the beginning both the Faith and the Scriptures were derived, perpetually preserving the same, and declaring them through the Church as His organ:

2. Secondly, the Scripture, interpreted by the reason of individuals in dependence on their natural and supernatural light: or,

3. Thirdly, Scripture and antiquity, interpreted both by individuals, and by local or particular Churches appealing to the faith of the first centuries and to the councils held before the division of the East and West.

Now, it will be observed, that these three propositions resolve themselves into two only. They do not so much enunciate three rules, as two judges proceeding by two distinct processes. The first is the living Church proceeding by the perpetual presence and assistance of the Spirit of God in the custody and declaration of the original revelation.

The two last are resolvable into one; that is, the individual reason proceeding either by Scripture alone, or by Scripture and antiquity. But these are identical processes. The matter differs in its nature and extent, the process is one and the same.

There can be ultimately no intermediate between the Divine mind declaring itself through an organ of its own creation, or the human mind judging for itself upon the evidence and contents of revelation. There is or there is not a perpetual Divine Teacher in the midst of us. The human reason must be either the disciple or the critic of revelation.

Now I shall dismiss at once the rule which constitutes the individual as the judge of Scripture, or of Scripture and antiquity. It is already rejected even by many Protestants. They who hold it in either form are of two classes: either pious persons, who make a conscience of not reasoning about the grounds of their faith, or such as are still — as many were once — simply entangled in a circle which is never discovered until the divine fact of the presence and office of the Holy Grhost in the mystical body becomes intelligible to them.

The only form of the question I will now notice is as follows: — There are some who appeal from the voice of the living Church to antiquity; professing to believe that while the Church was united it was infallible; that when it became divided it ceased to speak infallibly; and that the only certain rule of faith is to believe that which the Church held and taught while yet it was united and therefore infallible. Such reasoners fail to observe, that since the supposed division, and cessation of the infallible voice, there remains no divine certainty as to what was then infallibly taught. To affirm that this or that doctrine was taught then where it is now disputed, is to beg the question. The infallible Church of the first six centuries — that is, before the division — was infallible to those who lived in those ages, but is not infallible to us. It spoke to them; to us it is silent. Its infallibility does not reach to us, for the Church of the last twelve hundred years is by the hypothesis fallible, and may therefore err in delivering to us what was taught before the division. And it is certain that either the East or the West, as it is called, must err in this, for they contradict each other as to the faith before the division. I do not speak of the protests of later separations, because no one can invest them with an infallibility which they not only disclaim for themselves, but deny anywhere to exist.

Now, this theory of an infallible undivided Church then and a Church divided and fallible now proceeds on two assumptions, or rather contains in itself two primary errors. It denies the indivisible unity of the Church, and the perpetual voice of the Holy Grhost. And both these errors are resolvable into one and the same master error, the denial of the true and indissoluble union between the Holy Ghost and the Church of Jesus Christ. From this one error all errors of these later ages flow.

The indissoluble union of the Holy Grhost with the Church carries these two truths as immediate consequences: first, that the unity of the Church is absolute, numerical, and indivisible, like the unity of nature in God, and of the personality in Jesus Christ: and secondly, that its infallibility is perpetual.

(1.) S. Cyprian says, ' Unus Deus, unus Christus, una Ecclesia.' And this extrinsic unity springs from the intrinsic — that is, from the presence and operations of the Holy Grhost, by whom the body is inhabited, animated, and organised. One principle of life cannot animate two bodies, or energise in two organisations. One mind and one will fuses and holds in perfect unity the whole multitude of the faithful throughout all ages, anfl throughout all the world. The unity of faith, hope, and charity — the unity of the one common Teacher — renders impossible all discrepancies of belief and of worship, and renders unity of communion, not a constitutional law or an external rule of discipline, but an intrinsic necessity and an inseparable property and expression of the internal and supernatural unity of the mystical body under one Head and animated by one Spirit. It is manifest, therefore, that division is impossible.

The unity of the Church refuses to be numbered in plurality. To talk of Koman, Greek, and Anglican Churches, is to deny the Articles, c I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church,' and the Divine relation constituted between them. The relation is a Divine fact, and its enunciation is a Divine truth. S. Bede says, with a wonderful precision and depth, 'If every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, for that reason the kingdom of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is not divided.' ' (2.) And next, as the unity is perpetual, so is the infallibility. Once infallible, always infallible: in the first, in the fifth, in the fifteenth, in the nineteenth century: the Divine Teacher always present, and the organ of His voice always the same. A truncated infallibility is impossible. To affirm that it has been suspended because of the sins of men, denies the perpetuity of the office of the Holy Ghost, and even of His presence; for to suppose Him present but dormant, is open to the reproach of Elias; to suppose His office to be suspended, is to conceive of the Divine Teacher after the manner of men. And further: this theory denies altogether the true and divine character of the

1 'Si autem omne regmun in seipsum divisum desolatur; ergo Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti regnum non est divisum.' — Horn. Ven. Bed. in cap. xi. S. Luc.

mystical body as a creation of God, distinct from all individuals, and superior to them all: not on probation, because not dependent on any human will, but on the Divine will alone; and, therefore, not subject to human infirmity, but impeccable, and the instrument of probation to the world. All these truths are denied in a mass by the assertion that the Church has been divided, and has, therefore, been unable to teach, as it did before, with an infallible voice. And not these truths only are denied, but many more, on which the true constitution and endowments of the Church depend.

We will now return to the fifth difference of which I began to speak, namely, the perpetual plenitude of the office and operations of the Holy Grhost in all ages, in and through the Church, both as the Author of all grace by ordinary and extraordinary supernatural operations, and as the Witness, Judge, and Teacher of all truth in and by the Church, the organ of His perpetual voice to mankind.

It is, I believe, admitted by all that the sacramental and sanctifying graces of the Holy Spirit continue to this day as they were in the beginning; or, in other words, that the office of the Holy Grhost as the Sanctifier is perpetual in all its fulness.

How is it that anyone can fail to perceive that the condition of our sanctification is Truth, and that the perpetuity of the office of the Sanctifier presupposes the perpetuity of the office of the Illuminator? These two prerogatives of the Holy Ghost are coordinate, and I may say commensurate — that is, both continue to this day in all fulness as at the first.

Now, the office of the Holy Spirit as the Illuminator has a special promise of perpetuity. It is under the character of this Spirit of Truth that our Lord promises that He should 'abide with us for ever.' l ' He shall bring all things to your mind,' 2 not to the Apostles only, but to all 'who should believe in their word.'

And this office of the Holy Grhost consists in the following operations: First, in the original illumination and revelation in the minds of the Apostles, and through them to the Church throughout the world.

Secondly, in the preservation of that which was revealed, or, in other words, in the prolongation of the light of truth by which the Church in the beginning was illuminated. The Light of the Church never wanes, but is permanent. (The city has no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God doth enlighten it; and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.' 3

Thirdly, in assisting the Church to conceive, with

1 S. John adv. 16. 2 S. John xiv. 26. 3 Apoc. xxi. 23.

greater fulness, explicitness, and clearness, the original truth in all its relations.

Fourthly, in denning that truth in words, and in the creation of a sacred terminology, which becomes a permanent tradition and a perpetual expression of the original revelation.

Lastly, in the perpetual enunciation and proposition of the same immutable truth in every age. The Holy Spirit, through the Church, enunciates to this day the original revelation with an articulate voice, which never varies or falters. Its voice to-day is identical with the voice of every age, and is therefore identical with the voice of Jesus Christ. (He that heareth you heareth Me.' It is the voice of Jesus Christ Himself, for the Holy Grhost ' receives ' of the Son that which f He shews to us.' 1

And this office of enunciating and proposing the faith is accomplished through the human lips of the pastors of the Church. The pastoral authority, or the Episcopate, together with the priesthood and the other orders, constitute an organised body, divinely ordained to guard the deposit of the Faith. The voice of that body, not as so many individuals, but as a body, is the voice of the Holy Ghost. The pastoral ministry as a body cannot err, because the Holy

1 S. John xvi.

Spirit, who is indissolubly united to the mystical body, is eminently and above all united to the hierarchy and body of its pastors. The Episcopate united to its centre is, in all ages, divinely sustained and divinely assisted to perpetuate and to enunciate the original revelation. It is not my purpose here to offer proof of this assertion. To do so belongs to the treatise De Ecclesia; but I may note that the promise of the Temporal Mission of the Holy Grhost was made emphatically to the Apostles, and inclusively to the faithful; and emphatically, therefore, to the successors of the Apostles in all ages of the Church. c He shall give you another Paraclete, who shall abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of Truth.' Again, it was to the Apostles as emphatically, and therefore to their successors with equal emphasis, that our Lord, when He constituted them the sole fountain of His faith and law and jurisdiction to the world, pledged also His perpetual presence and assistance — 'all days, even unto the consummation of the world.' And once more, it was to Peter as the head and centre of the Apostles, and for their sakes and for their support in faith, that our Divine Lord said, 6 1 have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when thou art converted confirm thy brethren.' It is needless for me to say that the whole tradition of the Fathers recognises the perpetuity of the Apostolic College in the Episcopate diffused throughout the world. S. Irenaaus declares it to be anointed with the the unction of the truth, alluding to the words of S. John, e You have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things.' ' And as for you, let the unction which you have received from Him abide in you. And you have no need that any man teach you; but as His unction teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie. And as it hath taught you, abide in Him.' l

And thus the revelation of God is divinely preserved and divinely proposed to the world. A Divine revelation in human custody is soon lost; a Divine revelation expounded by human interpreters, or enunciated by human discernment, puts off its Divine character and becomes human, as S. Jerome says of the Scriptures, when perverted by men.

So it might be said of the Church. But God has provided that what He has revealed should be for ever preserved and enunciated by the perpetual presence and assistance of the same Spirit from whom the revelation originally came. And this gives us the basis of divine certainty and the rule of divine faith.

1 S. John ii. 20-27.

(1) The voice of the living Church of this hour, when it declares what God has revealed is no other than the voice of the Holy Spirit, and therefore generates divine faith in those who believe. The Baptismal Creed represents at this day, in all the world, the preaching of the Apostles and the faith of Pentecost. It is the voice of the same Divine Teacher who spoke in the beginning, enunciating now the same truths in the same words.

(2) Holy Scripture, known to be such, and rightly understood, is certainly the voice of the Holy Grhost, and likewise may generate acts of Divine faith.

(3) Whatsoever Tradition is found in all the world, neither written in Scripture nor decreed by any Council of the Church, but running up beyond the Scripture and the General Councils, is, according to S. Augustine's rule, certainly of divine origin.1

(4) The Decrees of General Councils are undoubtedly the voice of the Holy Grhost, both because they are the organs of the active infallibility of the Church, and because they have the pledge of a special divine assistance according to the needs of the Church and of the Faith.

(5) The Definitions and Decrees of Pontiffs, speaking ex cathedra, or as the Head of the Church and

1 S. Aug. De Bapt. cont. Donat. lib. iv. 31, torn. ix. p. 140. G to the whole Church, whether by Bull, or Apostolic Letters, or Encyclical, or Brief, to many or to one person, undoubtedly emanate from a divine assistance, and are infallible.

S. Augustine argues as follows of the Head and the body: (Therefore as the soul animates and quickens our whole body, but perceives in the head by the action of life, by hearing, by smelling, by the taste, and by touch, in the other members by touch alone (for all are subject to the head in their operation, the head being placed above them for their guidance, since the head bears the personality of the soul itself, which guides the body, for there all the senses are manifested), so to the whole people of the saints, as of one body, the man Christ Jesus, the Mediator between God and man, is head.' 1

Now the Pontiffs, as Vicars of Jesus Christ, have a twofold relation, the one to the Divine Head of the Church of whom they are the representatives on earth, the other to the whole body. And these two relations impart a special prerogative of grace to him that bears them. The endowments of the head, as S. Augustine argues, are in behalf of the body. It is a small thing to say that the endowments of the body are the prerogatives of the head. The Vicar of Jesus

1 De Agone Christiano, cap. xxii. torn. vi. p. 254.

Christ would bear no proportion to the body if, while it is infallible, he were not. He would bear also no representative character if he were the fallible witness of an infallible Head. Though the analogy observed by S. Augustine between the head and the members cannot strictly apply to the Vicar of Christ and the members upon earth, nevertheless it invests him with a preeminence of guidance and direction over the whole body, which can neither be possessed by any other member of the body, nor by the whole body without him, and yet attaches to him personally and alone as representing to the body the prerogatives of its Divine Head. The infallibility of the Head of the Church extends to the whole matter of revelation, that is, to the Divine truth and the Divine law, and to all those facts or truths which are in contact with faith and morals. The definitions of the Church include truths of the natural order, and the revelation of supernatural truth is in contact with natural ethics, politics, and philosophy. The doctrines of the consubstantiality of the Son, of transubstantiation, and of the constitution of humanity, touch upon truths of philosophy and of the natural order, but being in contact with the faith, they fall within the infallibility of the Church. So again the judgments of Pontiffs in matters which affect the welfare of the whole Church, such as the condemnation of propositions. In all declarations that such propositions are, as the case may be, heretical or savouring of heresy, or erroneous, or scandalous, or offensive to pious ears, and the like, the assistance of the Holy Spirit certainly preserves the Pontiffs from error; and such judgments are infallible, and demand interior assent from all.

(6) The unanimous voice of the Saints in any matter of the Divine truth or law can hardly be believed to be other than the voice of the Spirit of God by the rule, (Consensus Sanctorum sensus Spiritus Sancti est.' l

And though there is no revealed pledge of infallibility to the Saints as such, yet the consent of the Saints is a high test of what is the mind and illumination of the Spirit of Truth.

(7) The voice of Doctors, when simply delivering the dogma of the Church, is identified with the voice of the Church, and partakes of its certainty. But in commenting on it they speak as private men, and their authority is human.

(8) The voice of the Fathers has weight as that of Saints and of Doctors, and also as witnesses to

1 Melchior Canus, De Locis TheoL, de Sanctor. Auct. lib. vii. cap. iii. concl. 5.

the faith in the ages in which they lived, and yet they cannot generate divine faith nor afford a divine certainty. As S. Gregory the Great says: ' Doctores Fidelium discipulos Ecclesise.' They are taught by the Church; and the judgment of a Council or a Pontirf is generically distinct from the witness or judgment of any number of Fathers, and is of a higher order, and emanates from a special assistance.

(9) The authority of Philosophers is still more evidently fallible, because more simply human.

(10) The authority of Human Histories is more uncertain still, and can afford no adequate motive of divine certainty.

(11) The Reason or Private Judgment of individuals exercised critically upon history, philosophy, theology, Scripture, and revelation, inasmuch as it is the most human, is also the most fallible and uncertain of all principles of faith, and cannot in truth be rightly described to be such. Yet this is ultimately all that remains to those who reject the infallibility of the living Church.

In conclusion, if the relation between the body and the Spirit be conditional and dissoluble, then the enunciations of the Church are fallible and subject to human criticism.

If the relation be absolute and indissoluble, then all its enunciations by Pontiffs, Councils, Traditions, Scriptures, and universal consent of the Church, are divine, and its voice also is divine, and identified with the voice of its Divine Head in heaven.

But that the relation between the body and the Spirit is absolute and indissoluble, the Theologians, Fathers, Scriptures, and the universal Church, as we have seen above, declares.

And therefore the infallibility of the Church is perpetual, and the truths of revelation are so enunciated by the Church as to anticipate all research, and to exclude from their sphere all human criticism.