again to be removed,―a prophet and law-giver (19), who is none other than the Redeemer promised to our first parents, and subsequently to the patriarchs. Nay, the separation of the people of Israel, which dates from the time of Abraham, was brought about by divine providence to facilitate the propaga tion of the one true religion among all the nations (15).

As the Messias was frequently represented by the prophets to the Israelites as the founder of a universal religion, so also, by the providence of God, at the time of Christ's coming, as we learn from Tacitus and other writers, the conviction prevailed in the heathen world that a new order of things, originating in Judea, should be propagated over the whole world. The Roman poet Virgil, with manifest reference to sacred books, sang the expected birth of a child who was to free the nations from misery and inaugurate a new golden age. The poet uses images and expressions which remind us of those by which Isaias expresses his longing for, and points to the coming of, the Messias (Is. ix. 6, 7 ; xi. 6–9; xlix. 13). In Greece, Plato expresses the general longing for a divine teacher who was to "teach us how to behave towards God and man." Even India and China bear witness to the yearning of mankind for a Redeemer. Whether we regard these manifestations as traces of the revelation given to man, or as indications of a divine providence influencing the inner life of nations, or as the expression of a general feeling of spiritual destitution, or as all these taken together,—in any case, we may conclude from them that the idea of a universal religion, as realized in Christianity, was altogether in keeping with divine providence, and in accord with the yearnings of the better portion of mankind.

II. If Christianity is destined to be the one religion of all nations and all individuals, it follows of necessity that every other so-called religion is false, and contrary to God's design. This is true not only of those religions which pretend to rest on a divine revelation (Mohammedanism), but also of natural religion (deism), which professes to worship God only as the author of nature. Also Judaism is now a false religion, since it was destined to exist only to the coming of the Redeemer, and refused to recognize Him in the person of Christ.

34. The Christian religion is to endure to the end of time. The Christian religion is destined to endure to the end of the world, not merely as a germ to be developed by divine influence, like the primitive revelation; but it is to continue to exist as it was promulgated in the beginning. With Christ

and the apostles the divine revelation was brought to a close; Christianity is, accordingly, not a phase of religious development; it is rather the completion, or the sum of the religious truths and institutions destined by God for mankind.

1. The primitive (12), as well as the patriarchal (16) nd the Mosaic revelation (19), points to Christ as to Him whc was once to restore the order of things intended by God in the beginning. Now if, through Christ and through Christianity, that bond wherewith God wished to unite mankind to Himself was restored, we must conclude that the intentions of God in regard to man have been fulfilled, and, consequently, that no new revelation, nor further new bond of union, was intended between God and man.

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2. Christ expressly declares that those truths which He taught, and which, after the descent of the Holy Ghost, His apostles fully understood-in short, that the revelation which He gave was to endure, and was not to be superseded by any other. For He sends forth His apostles with the words: "All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations; . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt. xxviii. 18-20). If unto the end of the world the entirety of the Christian truths is to be taught, it cannot be supplanted by other doctrines; nor is any other religion to take the place of that given by Christ. If that power which Christ gave His apostles is to remain unto the end of time, so also the religion for the preaching of which that power was given. And if Christ promised to be with His apostles, as the preachers of His gospel, to the end of the world, that gospel itself, in its identity, will continue to be preached to the end of time, since it is for the preaching of His doctrine that He promised them His assistance.

3. Different from Moses, who pointed to a new law-giver (19), the apostles not only do not promise the founder of a new religion, but clearly emphasize the fact that Christ inaugurated the last epoch of history, which was to terminate with the

general judgment (1 John ii. 18; 1 Thess. iv. 15). Whence it follows that those institutions which God designed for the salvation of man have reached their completion in Christianity.

Hence subsequent revelations, vouchsafed to the saints, form no part of the general Christian revelation, and are, consequently, called private revelations as distinguished from the public or universal revelation which is directed to all mankind. Therefore all those who in later times pretended to add new revelations to that already given-for instance, Montanus and his followers-have been ooked upon by the Church as fanatics.

Hence it is evident that Christianity is not the initial stage of a process of religious evolution by which man, either necessarily or by his own free action, is to develop to an ever higher state of intellectual life; nor is it an intermediate stage, in time to be superseded by a higher. Such a supposition would rob Christianity of its supernatural character.

35. The Christian religion is unchangeable.

The Christian religion is unchangeable in all its revealed doctrines -in all those precepts and institutions which are intended for all men. No article of faith (for of doctrine there is mainly question) can be added or subtracted; nor can any dogma receive a different meaning from that given it by Christ.

1. The Christian religion is unchangeable if the sum-total of its doctrine, as preached by the apostles, is to remain ever the same. That it will remain the same we are assured, on the one hand, by the commission given by Christ to His apostles and their successors; and, on the other hand, by the promise made to them (Matt. xxviii. 18, 20). Christ charges His apostles and their successors to preach to the end of time that doctrine which He had precisely defined, and which, bv the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they afterwards rightly understood; and to them and to their successors, as preachers of His doctrine, He promises His never-failing assistance. His intention was, therefore, that the entirety of His doctrine, which He had entrusted to them, should endure to the end of time; and by His assistance His intention continues to be realized.

2. For the unchangeableness of doctrine it is required that no dogma be set aside, no new article added, and no point of doctrine interpreted contrary to its original meaning. Now,

it is easy to show that these three conditions are verified in regard to the Christian doctrine.

a. No dogma can be set aside; for Christ would have His whole doctrine preached to the end of time; and for the fulfilment of His will He assured His assistance to His apostles.

b. No new dogma can be added; for with Christ, to whom the law and the expectation of the nations point as to the finisher of our religion, divine revelation is completed (34).

c. No dogma can be interpreted contrary to its original sense. For, doubtless, that meaning which the apostles, filled as they were with the Holy Ghost (Acts ii. 4), and instructed in all truth (John xiv. 26; xvi. 13), attributed to the various dogmas is the true one, and is, consequently, to be maintained to the end of time. If the meaning of the teachings of Christ could, owing to the progress of knowledge, change in the course of time, the commission of Christ to His apostles and their successors to preach His doctrine, and the promise of His assistance, would be illusory and meaningless, extending only to the bare wording, not to the substance of His doctrine. Hence the decision of the Vatican Council (de fide IV. can. 3): "If any one affirm it to be possible that dogmas at any time lefined by the Church may, in accordance with the progress of science, admit of another meaning than that which the Church understood and understands; let him be anathema."

While the revealed doctrines are unchangeable in themselves and can admit of neither increase nor diminution, yet our knowledge of them may be perfected, as we may infer certain implied truths from those that are manifestly revealed; as, for instance, from the divinity of Christ we infer His omnipotence, and from His humanity we conclude His passibility. Hence the divine revelation is not changed by new definitions of the Church, but only such revealed truths as were not expressly or with sufficient certainty known to the faithful are brought to the certain knowledge of all as revealed, and thus made an object of our belief. Therefore our knowledge, not the deposit of faith, is affected by such definitions. Hence they show a superficial knowledge of the Christian religion and of the Church who assert that dogmatic definitions affect revelation itself. This superficial plea, recently put forward by the so-called Old-Catholics, is as old as the history of heresy, and was advanced by the Eutychians against the fathers of the Council of Chalcedon.

36. The professors of the Christian religion, according to the intention of Christ, were to form a social organization, which is called the Church.

By a society we understand the association of several persons for one common end; or a number of individuals pursu ing a common end with united effort.

Three things are essential to a society: a number of individuals, a common end, and unity of effort. A number of individuals collected in one place do not compose a society. The union of such an assemblage is only material, while the union of rational beings as such must rest on intelligence and free will. What they thus consciously aim at is the object or the end of their efforts. According to the diversity of this end, a society may be scientific, political, religious, etc. The particular end is, therefore, what determines the character of the society. A common object must be pursued, since it is this alone which produces that union by which the many become one. But the end is pursued as a common object only when it is sought with united effort. If a number of learned men work at the solution of the same problem, they do not, on that account, form a society. They form such only when they pursue the end common in itself with united effort and with common means.

As individuals, however, differ greatly in their views and in their choice of means, in order to secure united effort and the use of common means some power is necessary to direct the minds and wills of individuals in the choice and application of means to the end proposed. This power is called authority-the power to impose obligations whether vested in one or in many. Where this element is wanting there is but an imperfect and transient unity. Authority, must be visible, i.e., it must reside in a visible subject, so that it may be recognized by all as a ruling power.

1. That the followers of the Christian religion from the outset actually formed a society or church (ecclesia) history plainly teaches. For no sooner was the New Law preached to the assembled people than we actually find a religious body with the apostles at its head teaching, dispensing the means of grace, issuing laws and precepts. The history of the Christian religion is henceforth the history of that society known as the Church. The very heresies which arose in the course of centuries show the endeavor to form separate societies, resembling, however remotely, that social body from which they seceded.

2. The relation of the Christian religion to the Mosaic law justifies the conclusion that the followers of the New Dispen