Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

The Fathers and ecclesiastical writers teach with one voice that the Church preserves and dispenses the Christian religion in the name and by the command of Christ. Augustine: “Nor … has [Christ] ceased to baptize: but He still does this… Let Peter baptize, it is He [Christ] who baptizes; let Paul baptize, it is He who baptizes; let Judas baptize, it is He who baptizes.”¹ Chrysostom: “The Father sent the Son, who was to exhort in His name and to undertake the office of an embassy among the human race: but since He departed slain, we have succeeded to that embassy, and we exhort you in the name both of Him and of the Father. So great indeed is the worth of the human race in His sight, that He gave even the Son, and that knowing He would be slain, and for your sake made us apostles … For He exhorts not only through His own Son, but also through us, who have succeeded to His office.”²

Therefore the Church “continues the offices of the Savior for all time: the religion which He willed to be, as it were, incorporated in her, she alone presents to the human race complete in every respect.”³ Indeed, the Church in the concrete and the Christian religion are the same. In the Church Christ Himself is perpetually present to men and renders the work of His redemption perennial and everlasting. He therefore who is joined to the Church is joined to Christ, and indeed immediately; but he who separates himself from the Church is in no way joined to Christ, nor has he any part with Him. From this the remote end of the Church is also easily understood.