ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



893 



their tone from the feelings of individuals. The 

 centre of the Catholic mysteries is the sacrament 

 of the Lord' supper, whereby believers join in real 

 communion with the Lord. For all conditions and 

 wants, she has made provision, and in her bosom 

 has prepared a suitable asylum for every one. A 

 man would greatly err, however, if he should 

 believe that the church favoured mysteries, and 

 attached herself to the arts, merely for the purpose 

 of attracting adherents, and concealing internal 

 defects. She needs it not. She offers words of life. 

 Her system of belief is pure and consistent, and 

 her morality is also pure. Indeed, the peculiar 

 faith of the Catholic church has so often been dis- 

 figured by Protestants, that it is not strange that 

 even the well-educated Protestant pities the honest 

 Catholic, on account of the doctrines and ordi- 

 nances falsely attributed to the Catholic church. 



III. The ecclesiastical Constitution of Catholi- 

 cism, or the Catholic Church. [It would be impos- 

 sible even to mention all the objections which have 

 been started against the organization of the Catholic 

 church in the present work ; but its historical im- 

 portance makes it necessary to be known ; and it 

 is but fair to let the Catholics give their own state- 

 ment on this subject. We therefore proceed with 

 the Catholic article.] It was the design of Christ 

 to establish a church, and certainly one which 

 should endure. The object of the church is, 

 through Christ, to reconcile fallen humanity with 

 God. The church, which is to accomplish this 

 object, is a spiritual and visible society. As a 

 spiritual society, it stands in relation to Christ. 

 As such, it is the union, the community, of all her 

 living members with God the Father, through one 

 Christ, in one Spirit of love. The apostle Paul 

 represents these ideas particularly under two 

 forms under the form of a body, and that of a 

 building. 1. He represents it under the form of a 

 body. (Eph. iv ; I Cor. xii, 4 30, xiii, 1 13, 

 xiv, 140.) According to this, the church is a 

 spiritual organization under one Head, Christ, in 

 which no member is to remain isolated from the 

 body, but each must necessarily make common 

 cause with the rest, to accomplish the objects of 

 the Spirit. 2. He represents it to us under the 

 form of a house, a palace, a temple, a divine build- 

 ing. (Eph. ii, 1922 ; 1 Tim. iii, 15.) Further, 

 the church is not merely a spiritual, but a visible, 

 society, since it exists upon earth as a society of 

 visible combatants, engaged in warfare ; and also, 

 according to the figures of the apostle, is compared 

 to a body, a temple, a palace, a house of God ; and, 

 finally, since Christ, though he operates invisibly 

 by his Spirit, must also operate through visible 

 organs, however named, whether apostles, teachers, 

 or pastors. The visible church of Christ, contem- 

 plated as the visible body of Christ, is necessarily 

 a union, a combination, a community, of all the 

 members under one visible head, which has no 

 other object than to effect and maintain a union 

 with Christ, and, through Christ, with God the 

 Father. This visible union of all the members in 

 the visible church of Christ, can be effected only 

 by the close connexion of individual churches with 

 their immediate pastors, and of these with their 

 superior pastors, who must also be connected with 

 the centre of union, and thus maintain a connexion 

 with Christ, the invisible Head, and, through 

 Christ, with the Father. This intimate connexion 

 with the centre of union necessarily presupposes 

 that the visible head of all the church is in posses- 

 sion of the pre-eminence in authority and jurisdic- 

 tion. This primacy, according to all the traditions 

 of the apostles, rests in the person of the Roman 



bishop, as the successor of St Peter, whom Christ 

 made the rock of his church, that is, the immoveable 

 centre of his visible church. (Matt, xvi, 16.) The 

 union of the church, by the connexion of individual 

 churches with their pastors, and of these with their 

 superior pastors, and of these last with the supreme 

 pastor and head of the church, presupposes a hier- 

 archy. This hierarchy is spiritual ; spiritual in its 

 origin, tendency, and mode of operation, though its 

 actions must be visible. It is not, however, to be 

 believed, because the Catholic church is a hierarchy, 

 that she has any other head than Christ. He who 

 is the Foundation of the world, is also the sure and 

 proper foundation of the Catholic faith. The con- 

 nexion which Christians have with the visible 

 centre of union has for its highest object a con- 

 nexion with Christ, the invisible Centre of union. 

 To the Catholic, Christ is all in all. (Col. iii, 2.) 

 For him there is salvation only in Christ. From 

 Christ he derives all his gifts. We shall now give 

 a more particular explanation of the points of dif- 

 ference between this and other ecclesiastical systems. 

 The church could not be one with the state. Reli- 

 gion was to be preached to all nations, and spread 

 to the farthest boundaries of the world. States are 

 subject to the vicissitudes of time. They may be, 

 and indeed have been, hostile to religion. It was 

 on this account that Christ said, " My kingdom is 

 not of this world." The church, therefore, cannot 

 recognise princes as bishops, as the Lutheran 

 church does. She can, in general, allow them no 

 influence in the management of church affairs ; and 

 where states have arrogated to themselves such 

 influence, a reaction has soon followed, which has 

 often passed as far to the opposite extreme. The 

 regulation of the church could, also, not be made 

 dependent on the religious communities. It is im- 

 possible for learners to define what instructions they 

 ought to receive. Faith, in the church, does not 

 originate with the low and pass to the high, but it 

 originates with the high and passes to the low ; not 

 through the investigations of the communities, but 

 through the instruction and the doctrines of salva- 

 tion communicated by the apostles and bishops. 

 The apostle Paul says, in the First Epistle to the 

 Corinthians, that he was commissioned as an 

 apostle by God, and by no means that he was 

 ordained by Christian communities, which he, in 

 fact, was just establishing. The apostles only, not 

 Christian communities, were commanded to go into 

 the world, and to teach all people. The former 

 only, not the latter, were promised assistance. The 

 Sacred Scriptures were by no means sufficient to 

 preserve the true doctrine unchanged. There was 

 need of the living Word, of the ministry, and of the 

 assistance of the Spirit. " Know this first," says 

 2 Peter, i, 20, " that no prophecy of the Scripture 

 is of any private interpretation." The apostles 

 exercised the power of the church. They held 

 their first council at Jerusalem. " It has pleased 

 the Holy Spirit and us," said they, when they sent 

 their decrees to Christian communities. This 

 power, however, was no prerogative of the apostles 

 individually, but a power which they possessed by 

 virtue of their office, and which was to be extended 

 to their successors, and that of necessity. This is 

 proved, not only by the express assertion of Jesus, 

 who says, in Matthew xvi, 18, that he will build 

 his church upon a rock, and the gates of hell shall 

 not prevail against it ; and, in another place, pro- 

 mises to remain with them, even to the end of the 

 world, by means of his Comforter (evidently refer- 

 ring to the power which preserves and governs the 

 churcli); but it also naturally follows, from the 

 plan of Christ, to establish a church universal, 



