world as to give His only-begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in Him may not perish, but may have life everlasting" (John iii. 16). Now He teaches the same of baptism: 66 'Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John iii. 5). Again He says with regard to the commandments: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments" (Matt. xix. 17). The Church, accordingly, being the divinely appointed channel of religion, is also the. means of securing eternal salvation.

40. All who come to a sufficient knowledge of the Church of Christ are by divine precept obliged to become its members.

The fulfilment of an obligation may be necessary for salvation in two ways: either in consequence of a divine precept or as a means of salvation. Invincible ignorance will excuse a person from the non-fulfilment of a commandment, whereas without a necessary means of salvation not even the invincibly ignorant can be saved. Of the latter kind is, for instance, the necessity of baptism. We will not here discuss the question whether, and how far, it is necessary as a means of salvation to belong to the Church. The question in this place is only of the necessity arising from divine precept.

1. If the Christian religion is intended for all nations and individuals (33), and if it is Christ's will that its adherents form one society, or Church, of which He Himself is the founder (36, 37), it necessarily follows that all who wish to be Christians must belong to this society, i.e., must be members of the Church. For the Church is the embodiment of Christianity, or the visible form in which Christianity is to be practised (38). Therefore, as it is the duty of all to accept the Christian religion, because God, by the very fact that He revealed it, imposed on us the obligation of accepting it, so it is the duty of all to belong to the Church; for God by the very fact of its foundation made it an obligation for us to join it. His will is no more a law when He commands us to accept His religion itself than when He prescribes the par ticular form in which we are to practise that religion.

2. Every one is bound to pursue the way ordained by God for his salvation, if it is brought within his reach. Now, the

Church is the way of salvation intended by God (39).

All have therefore the same obligation of joining the Church as they have of pursuing the way of salvation.

3. Christ expressly declares the duty of submitting to the Church: "If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and publican" (Matt. xviii. 17). He, therefore, who will not hear the Church-i.e., the rulers of the Church, who, as the context shows, are invested with that authority conferred on the Church--is to be regarded as a heathen, who despises the means of salvation offered him, and as a publican, who wilfully persists in impenitence. But those who hear not the Church are, in the first instance, they who refuse even to belong to her (cf. Luke x. 16; Mark xvi. 16).

4. All are bound to submit to the authority established by God to represent Him on earth. The Church founded by Christ is by its very nature such divine authority; for Christ, as we have shown, has founded the Church by the creation of a representative authority which was to unite His followers in one body (37). By being members of the Church we submit to this authority; by refusing to do so we oppose it.

CHAPTER III.

CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.

41. Christ gave to His Church the triple office of teacher, priest, and pastor, comprised in the twofold power of orders and jurisdiction.

By power we here understand not only a passive right, but also an authority, which men are bound to respect and obey. Thus the apostles received the authority as well as the right to preach the gospel without let or hindrance; and, consequently, those to whom they preached were bound to accept their teaching.

The charge intrusted by Christ to His Church comprises the threefold office and threefold power of teacher, priest, and pastor. In virtue of the first the Church communicates the truths of revelation; in virtue of the second she administers the means of grace; in virtue of the third she efficaciously directs the faithful to their last end.

This threefold office and its attendant rights are reducible to two chief sources: orders and jurisdiction. The former (potestas ordinis) confers upon the priesthood of the Church the power of administering the sacraments, of dispensing the graces necessary for salvation; the latter (potestas jurisdictionis) confers the power of efficaciously directing the faithful to the attainment of salvation-guiding the understanding by the light of revealed truth, and the will by law and precept. The power of jurisdiction is required in the priest for the valid administration of the sacrament of penance, and for the lawful exercise of the other ministries; wherefore orders without jurisdiction are insufficient for the dispensation of the means of salvation.

1. That Christ gave extensive prerogatives to His Church appears from the fact that He conferred on His apostles the same power that He Himself possessed: "All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptizing them," etc. (Matt. xxviii. 18, 19). Christ was announced. by the prophets as teacher, priest, and king. As such He proved Himself by His preaching, by the unbloody sacrifice at the last supper and the bloody sacrifice on the cross, and by the institution of the New Law (24). Hence those to whom He transmitted His power are invested with the same prophetic, priestly, and kingly dignity.

2. As in the words quoted He summarizes the authority conferred on His Church, so on other occasions He describes it more in detail. He conferred on His apostles the priestly office when He said to them at the last supper: "Do this for a commemoration of Me" (Luke xxii. 19). The words, "As the Father hath sent Me, so also I send you. . . Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained " (John xx. 21-23), refer likewise to the priestly office. The pastoral office in its most comprehensive sense was contained in the words addressed to St. Peter: "Feed My lambs; feed My sheep" (John xxi; cf. Matt. xvi. 19). Christ, moreover, gives His apostles the charge "to preach the gospel to every creature;" whence the obligation for all to accept it: "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi. 15, 16). In this charge is, therefore, contained the teaching office, i.e., the right to teach with authority.

3. The power thus indicated in the gospel was exercised by the Church from the earliest times. The apostles discharged the teaching office by preaching the gospel, and demanding its acceptance in the name of God. They exercised the priestly office as often as they acted as "the dispensers of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. iv. 1), ordaining priests and bishops (Acts xiv. 22), celebrating the sacred functions of the Church (1 Cor. x. 16-29). They exercised the pastoral office as often as they issued laws or precepts (Acts xv. 29), or excluded criminals from the Church's communion (1 Cor. v. 5; 1 Tim. i. 20). Doubtless the apostles, who with the assistance of Christ and the light of the Holy Ghost propagated the Church, must have known the extent of the authority committed to them. We must, therefore, conclude that the authority exercised by them as rulers of the Church was actually given them by Christ.

42. The apostles, not the faithful, were directly invested by Christ with that power which He conferred on His Church. The power possessed by a social body may reside collectively in the members, to be deputed by them to appointed rulers; or it

may be vested in one or several individuals independently of the action of the inferior members. The question here arises, whether Christ conferred His power on the Church at large, or on individual members, to be exercised independently of the will of their inferiors. Luther, Calvin, Febronius, and the Gallicans maintained that Christ conferred His power on the body of the faithful. Whence they concluded that the pope was subject to a general council, as the latter represented the voice of the entire Church, as against its deputy. The Catholic doctrine, contained in Holy Scripture, is, that Christ conferred His authority immediately on the apostles, to be exercised by them independently of the faithful; consequently, that the Church is, by divine institution, an unequal society, consisting of superiors and subjects.

1. It was to the apostles (and their successors) alone that the power of binding and loosing was promised, since it was to them only that Our Lord addressed these words: "Amen, I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matt. xviii. 18). Now, if we are naturally led to conclude that the authority in question was promised to those, and those only, whom Christ addressed, this admission is forced upon us in the present case; for it is a well-known fact that in the Synagogue, the type of Christ's Church, not the people, but the high-priest, was invested with the governing power. Hence the words: "Say to the Church: he that will not hear the Church," etc., can only refer to the pastors of the Church, not to the faithful at large. In like manner it was to Peter alone, and not to the people at large, that Christ promised the supreme power when He declared that upon him He would build His Church, and that He would give Him the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xvi. 18, 19).

The question whether the power of jurisdiction was given immediately to St. Peter and mediately through him to the other apostles, and whether now this power is conferred immediately on the pope and through him on the bishops of the Church, does not enter our present investigation. Here we are only concerned to show that the power intrusted to the Church has not been conferred on the body of the faithful, but immediately on the apostles, including St. Peter, their head; and in like manner on the bishops, their successors, including the pope. This suffices for our present purpose.

2. The power promised was likewise conferred on the apos