De Ecclesia Christi

After the preliminary remarks and general considerations on the Church of God that we have set down, we shall now throughout this whole treatise be concerned solely with the Church of Jesus Christ, acquired by his blood and established on earth in its own proper form as the embodiment of the New Testament, as God himself has set it forth in words and deeds. We shall first treat of the very institution of this Church of Christ.

« The Church of the New Testament, to be established by Christ from all nations as universal and perennial, was foretold in the prophecies of the Old Testament and described as one kingdom: a kingdom of power in its own governance, a kingdom of truth in its own magisterium, a kingdom of sanctification in its own priesthood; which whole power is, originally and as from a fountain, in Christ the Founder, and is communicated by participation to his ministers, to govern, to teach, and to sanctify the Church in its members. »

1°. Just as in the Old Testament types and prophecies have as their chief object the Messiah the Saviour himself, so almost everywhere his work is foreshadowed and foretold together with Christ: « Behold his reward is with him, and his work before him; as a shepherd he will feed his flock, in his arm he will gather the lambs » (Is. XL. 10; LXII. 11). This work of the Messiah in effect, at once the reward and fruit of the work that merits, which the prophets foresaw as intimately joined with the Redeemer of the human race himself and in unity with him, is his universal kingdom among all nations: « All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall adore in his sight; for the kingdom is the Lord's, and he shall rule over the nations » (Ps. XXI. 28, 29). « Give your judgment to the king, O God, and your justice to the son of the king... In his days justice shall spring up, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away; and he shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth¹... and all the kings of the earth shall adore him, all nations shall serve him » (Ps. LXXI. 1 ff.; Zach. IX. 10).

This kingdom to be founded by the Son of God, who is also the Son of man, is foretold as universal of all nations, and likewise as perennial for all times: « And in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will raise up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, and its kingdom shall not be delivered to another people (no other kingdom shall ever be substituted for it or succeed it, as the four worldly kingdoms will be substituted one for another and succeed one another); but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and itself shall stand for ever. In accordance with what you saw, that a stone was cut from the mountain without hands, and it broke the clay, and the iron, and the brass, and the silver, and the gold (the four worldly empires are counted, ascending from the clay and iron of the last Romans to the gold of the Assyro-Babylonians), the great God has shown the king what shall come hereafter. » « I beheld therefore in the night vision, and lo, with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of man came, and came even to the Ancient of days, and they presented him before him. And there was given him power and honour and kingdom, and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power, which shall not be taken away, and his kingdom which shall not be corrupted » (Dan. II. 44; VII. 13, 14, 27; Hag. II. 7, 8, 22, 23).

2°. This universal kingdom of all nations and perennial kingdom of all times is promised as one kingdom, so that, in the knowledge, adoration, and worship of the true God, there shall be one people, one holy city, as a new Israel and a new Jerusalem and a new temple on Sion. « Arise, arise, put on your strength, O Sion, put on the garments of your glory, O Jerusalem, holy city... for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem: the Lord has bared his arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God » (Is. LII. 1 ff.). « Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for your light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you... and the nations shall walk in your light... and your heart shall be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall be turned to you, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to you... and your gates shall be opened continually, day and night they shall not be shut, that the strength of the Gentiles may be brought to you, and their kings may be led... and they shall call you the city of the Lord, Sion of the Holy One of Israel »² (Is. LX. 1 f.; XL. 8–23). « And it shall come to pass in the last days,³ the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, and many nations shall hasten, and shall say: come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem... and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Sion from henceforth and for ever » (Mich. IV. 1 ff.; Is. II. 2 ff.; Zach. VIII. 3–8). « And it shall come to pass in that day, living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the hindmost sea (the western); in summer and in winter they shall be. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord shall be one, and his name one... And all who remain of all the nations which came against Jerusalem (formerly hostile to the Church) shall go up year by year, to adore the King, the Lord of hosts » (Zach. XIV. 8 ff.).

3°. This new people of Israel, new Jerusalem, city of the Lord, new Sion, as is promised in the prophets, shall be constituted in its own proper form of governance, of magisterium, and of priesthood, which is derived from one supreme king, teacher, and priest, Christ.

a) Christ will be the supreme king in this supernatural kingdom of peace; but since it is a perennial and visible kingdom on earth, other shepherds and princes will be constituted by him as participants in his empire, who in his name and by his power shall govern the people of God over the whole earth. « But I am appointed king by him over Sion, his holy mountain. The Lord said to me: you are my Son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the bounds of the earth for your possession » (Ps. II. 6). « A child is born to us, and a son is given to us, and the government is upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God, Mighty, Father of the world to come⁴, Prince of Peace; his empire shall be multiplied, and of peace there shall be no end; he shall sit upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom (the type transferred to the antitype), to confirm it and strengthen it with judgment and justice, from henceforth and for ever » (Is. IX. 6, 7). « And I will raise up over them (the sheep of the Lord) one shepherd, who shall feed them, my servant David; he shall feed them, and he shall be their shepherd; and I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David in the midst of them; I the Lord have spoken » (Ezek. XXXIV. 23 ff.; XXXVII. 24–28). « I will gather the remnant of my flock from all lands... and they shall grow and be multiplied; and I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them... Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will raise up to David a branch⁵ of justice, and a king shall reign, and shall be wise, and shall do judgment and justice » (Jer. XXIII. 3–6). In the wondrous Psalm XLIV, after the notable description of Christ the bridegroom and of his bride the Church, the words are addressed to Christ: « in place of your fathers⁶ sons have been born to you; you will make them princes over all the earth » (ib., 17).

b) The same king and shepherd, promised upon the throne and the everlasting kingdom of David, is also promised as the faithful prophet, whence his kingdom is as much a kingdom of peace as of truth and of justice. Already in the institution of the ancient and typical people of Israel, God promised to Moses, the legislator and prophet of the people: « I will raise up for them a prophet from among their brethren, like to you (by the likeness of the principal thing prefigured to the figure and the image shadowing it forth — the son in his house to the faithful servant in the house of God), and I will put my words in his mouth »; and Moses announced the promise to the people: « The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet of your nation and of your brethren, like to me; him you shall hear » (Deut. XVIII. 15–19; cf. Matt. XVII. 5; John VI. 14; Acts III. 22, 23; VII. 36). This prophet, promised to Moses and through Moses, is in view when, in the last stage of the old economy, the people committed the kingdom and the supreme priesthood to the family of the Asmoneans, « until there arise a faithful prophet »⁷ (1 Macc. XIV. 41).

« Sons of Sion, exult and rejoice in the Lord your God, because he will give you a teacher of justice, and will make to come down upon you the early and the latter rain (the autumn and the spring rain), as in the beginning » ⁸ (Joel II. 23). Hence « out of Sion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem » (Mich. loc. cit.⁹); and God promises the same Jerusalem: « I will make all your sons taught by the Lord, and a multitude of peace to your sons; and you shall be established in justice » (Is. LIV. 13; Jer. XXXI. 33, 34; XXXII. 38–40). Moreover, since this divine magisterium must be perennial, « I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed them with knowledge and doctrine... and all nations shall be gathered together to it in the name of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall not walk any more after the perverseness of their most wicked heart » (Jer. III. 15 ff.).

Wherefore the name of this new Jerusalem shall be city of truth, and Sion shall be called mountain of holiness. « I will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the sanctified mountain (in the Hebrew text mountain of holiness)... Behold I will save my people from the land of the east and from the land of the setting of the sun... and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them God, in truth and in justice » (Zach. VIII. 3, 7, 8).

c) As the Church is foretold as the kingdom of peace and the kingdom of truth in Christ and under Christ the supreme king and teacher, from whom men appointed by him shall perennially share in the power of the kingdom and of the magisterium, so the same kingdom has been announced as to be sacerdotal, through Christ the supreme priest and sanctifier, from whom a ministerial priesthood is derived to the men taken up by him.

α) From the visions of the prophets, in Christ the diadem of the king and the diadem of the priest are intimately united for his perennial kingdom; and therefore the union of both holds continually in this kingdom, so that it is sacerdotal. Jesus, son of Josedech, the high priest, is expressly called a type foreshadowing the Messiah: « Hear, Jesus, great priest, you and your friends... men that foreshadow: for behold I will bring my servant the East » (צֶמַח, branch, an undoubted name of the Messiah) (Zach. III. 8). Now in this man foreshadowing, the prophet is commanded to join the priestly diadem to the royal one, so that there may be continually « the counsel of peace », that is, of unity between the two powers. « You shall take gold and silver, and make crowns (cf. Apoc. XIX. 12), and put them on the head of Jesus, son of Josedech, the great priest; and you shall speak to him, saying: thus says the Lord of hosts: behold a man, the East is his name... and he shall build a temple to the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and he shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between those two¹⁰... and those who are far off shall come and build in the temple of the Lord » (Zach. VI. 11 ff.). St. Epiphanius, Heresy XXIX, nn. 2–4, discourses at length on the union of royal and priestly dignity in Christ, and through Christ in the Church.

β) Christ is foretold, in the proper sense, as priest, who by his bloody sacrifice was to acquire for himself the Church of all nations. « He was offered because he himself willed it, and did not open his mouth; he shall be led as a sheep to the slaughter... if he shall lay down his life for sin¹¹, he shall see a long-lived seed... by his knowledge shall my just servant justify many, and he shall bear their iniquities; therefore I will divide to him very many, and he shall divide the spoils of the strong, because he delivered his soul unto death » (Is. LIII). By this sacrifice of Christ all the ancient typical sacrifices are to be abolished. « Sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but ears you have perfected for me. Holocausts and sin offerings you did not ask: then I said, Behold, I come... I have declared your justice in the great Church... I have not hidden your mercy and your truth from the great assembly »¹² (Ps. XXXIX. 7 ff.)

γ) The priesthood of Christ is foretold as « eternal according to the order of Melchisedech », who as priest of the Most High offered bread and wine in a type (Ps. CIX. 4; Gen. XIV. 18). According to this order of Christ's priesthood there is foretold, in his Church, a future perpetual unbloody sacrifice « from the rising of the sun to its setting », for the glorifying of God's name « among the nations » (Mal. I. 11), a prophecy of which we treated in the Tract. de Euch. sacrif. th. X.

Hence it further follows, and is foretold by the prophets too, that there is also a perpetual priesthood in the Church, certainly instituted and derived from the supreme priest according to the order of Melchisedech. « I come to gather together with all nations and tongues (Heb. all nations and tongues), and they shall come and see my glory. And I will set in them a sign¹³, and I will send of them who shall have been saved to the nations, to the sea (תרשיש, Tartessus), to Africa, and Lydia drawing the bow, to Italy¹⁴ and Greece, to the far-off islands, to those who have not heard of me, and who have not seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory to the nations... And I will take from them priests and Levites, says the Lord. For as the new heaven and the new earth... so shall your seed and your name stand » (Is. LXVI. 18 ff.; Mal. III. 3, 4). « In those days and at that time I will make David to bud forth a branch of justice (the name of the Messiah; cf. Is. IV. 2; Jer. XXIII. 5; Zach. III. 8; VI. 12)... for thus says the Lord: a man of David shall never fail who shall sit upon the throne of the house of Israel; and of the priests and of the Levites a man shall never fail before my face (ministering before me), who shall offer holocausts and burn sacrifice and slay victims all days... If my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night can be made void, so that there be no day and night¹⁵ in their time, then my covenant may be made void with David my servant, so that there shall not be of him a son who reigns on his throne; and the Levites and priests, my ministers. As the stars of heaven cannot be counted, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the seed of David (those who are of Christ, whom he shall make to bud forth as the branch of justice for David), and the Levites my ministers. » (Jer. XXXIII. 15 ff.)

It is manifest that, as the eternal kingdom of Christ, of another and more sublime order than the typical kingdom of David, is here promised as foreshadowed, so in this kingdom there is promised a priesthood of another order, corresponding to the very nature of the kingdom: as there is a new earth and a new heaven, so a new priesthood, more sublime than the Levitical priesthood which was in the type (cf. Heb. VIII, IX; XIII. 10). As Paul (Heb. VII. 11–14) demonstrates, from this among other things, that Christ is not of the tribe of Levi, that his priesthood is of another order and not Levitical, so also the priests and Levites in the kingdom of Christ are promised by the prophets, in the passages cited, as future, not of the Levitical race but to be taken from all nations, to be multiplied, and to offer sacrifices until the consummation of the age, as long as there shall be day and night¹⁶. But since the priesthood is transferred and changed, it is necessary that there be a transfer and change of the law, of external worship, and in particular of sacrifice (Heb. VII. 12), which we have seen foretold elsewhere to be one, unique, according to the order of Melchisedech in the type. Therefore when Jeremiah seems to transfer to the priests in the kingdom of Christ¹⁷ the diverse species of the sacrifices of the old economy, in which the prophet himself and those to whom he was directly prophesying stood, nothing else is to be understood than that one sacrifice, foreshadowed through all those typical sacrifices, will succeed them all. « With the variety of carnal sacrifices ceasing, the one oblation of your body and blood fulfills all the differences of victims... so that as there is one sacrifice for every victim, so there is one kingdom from every nation » (St. Leo, sermon 59, c. 7; cf. sermon 68, c. 3). « The priest himself, the mediator of the New Testament, offers, according to the order of Melchisedech, the table of his body and blood; for this sacrifice has succeeded all those sacrifices of the Old Testament which were immolated in the shadow of the future. Wherefore we understand also that voice of the same mediator speaking by prophecy in Psalm thirty-nine: sacrifice and oblation you did not desire; but a body you have perfected for me; for in place of all those sacrifices and oblations his body is offered, and is ministered to participants » (Augustine, City of God, XVII, c. 20, n. 2). « The one true mediator... is also the priest, himself offering and himself the oblation. Of this reality he willed the sacrifice of the Church to be the daily sacrament; and the Church, since it is the body of that head, learns to offer itself through him¹⁸. Of this true sacrifice the manifold and various signs were the ancient sacrifices of the saints, so that this one thing was figured through many, as one thing is said in many words, so that it might be greatly commended without tedium. To this supreme and true sacrifice all false sacrifices (imperfect, in shadow and figure, cf. Heb. VIII. 7) gave way. » (Ibid., l. X, c. 20.)

The few passages we have cited suffice for us to understand that the indefectible kingdom of Christ on earth, cohering in itself with its own governance, magisterium, and priesthood, to be acquired by Christ the Redeemer himself with his blood, and to be founded from all nations for the eternal salvation of all nations, was most clearly announced in the prophets; so much so that this eternal and universal kingdom constitutes one of the most distinguished characters and most illustrious marks of the promised Messiah. Many other oracles of the prophets pertaining to this could easily be adduced, which shine with no less light: Is. XI. 1, 11, 12; XL. 2, 9; XLII. 6, 10; LI. 3–7; LIV; LXII; LXV. 16 ff.; Hos. II. 16 ff.; III. 5; Joel II. 27–32; III. 16–21; Amos III. 16 ff.; IX. 11; Zeph. III. 14; Zach. II. 10; XIV. 8, 9. A rule for distinguishing the prophecies which are referred, either in the immediate or in the typical sense, to Christ and¹⁹ to his Church, can be deduced from the manner of St. Paul's citation, Rom. XV. 8–12.

The prophecies of the promises and the completion of their execution cast light upon one another, and confirm one another by a manifest seal of divinity; so we must now pass to the consideration of that very completion.

« Although the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven are not always taken in one and the same sense in the Scriptures, in the Gospels, nevertheless, 1°, by this name is announced the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, as a society standing in itself and through itself in its own proper form, distinct and different from other societies: of an order, namely, not earthly but supernatural, although constituted on earth out of men; which same unity, constituted in itself and in the proper form of the kingdom, 2°, is described and announced by Christ the Founder under other names and symbols of parables. »

I. The kingdom of God is indeed also the kingdom of the Creator in the natural order. « The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof, the world and all that dwell therein; for he has founded it upon the seas » (Ps. XXIII. 1; XLIX. 12). « The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven, and his kingdom shall rule over all... bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion » (Ps. CII. 19, 22; CXLIV. 11, 12; 1 Par. XXIV. 11, 12; Tob. XIII. 1; Dan. III. 100; IV. 31). But the compound phrase kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, and kingdom simply in relation to God, in the New Testament is applied only to the supernatural kingdom, which Christ the Redeemer acquired with his blood and procured for men, and which, insofar as it is on earth, he himself formed by his own laws, institutions, and gifts, and « presented to himself as glorious. » This supernatural kingdom of Jesus Christ is considered under a threefold aspect.

1°. Directly regarded are the graces, virtues, gifts, and internal spiritual adornments; while their manifestation in the conspicuous institutions of the kingdom and in its external visible form is signified or presupposed only indirectly. To the Pharisees, who imagined the Messiah's kingdom as external, in prosperity and worldly glory, the Lord Christ replies: « The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor shall they say, Behold here, or behold there; for behold, the kingdom of God is within you » (ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν) (Luke XVII. 20, 21; cf. XII. 31). « For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but justice and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost » (Rom. XIV. 17¹; 1 Cor. IV. 20; cf. Matt. XIX. 12).

2°. Often the kingdom consummated in eternal life is directly signified, where God reigns in all the saints and all the saints reign with him; yet in very many passages the kingdom on earth is also included at the same time, as the preparation for the consummated kingdom itself. « Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom (the Jews, called first to the kingdom on earth) shall be cast into exterior darkness » (Matt. VIII. 11; Luke XIII. 28); « who has called you to his kingdom and glory » (1 Thess. II. 12); « that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which (ὑπὲρ ἧς) you also suffer » (2 Thess. I. 5); « he will save into his heavenly kingdom » (2 Tim. IV. 18; cf. Matt. V. 3, 10; VII. 21; XXVI. 29; Mark IX. 46; X. 23–25; Luke XXII. 16, 18, 29, 30; XXIII. 42; John III. 3, 5; Acts XIV. 21; 1 Cor. VI. 9, 10; XV. 50; Gal. V. 21; Eph. V. 5; Jas. II. 6; 2 Pet. I. 11; Apoc. V. 10).

Sometimes this kingdom is celebrated insofar as, with the number of the saints now complete and with bodies also glorified, the city of God will be perfect in all its parts. After describing his second coming « with great power and majesty », and enumerating its signs, the Lord adds: « When you see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is near » (Luke XXI. 31). « Then the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God and the Father... but he must reign (in the kingdom on earth), until he has put all his enemies under his feet » (1 Cor. XV. 23–28). « I charge you before God and Jesus Christ, who shall judge the living and the dead, by his coming and his kingdom » (2 Tim. IV. 1; Matt. XIII. 43; XXV. 34; Apoc. XXII. 5).

If the interpretation of several Fathers were true, of Matt. XVI. 28; Mark VIII. 39; Luke IX. 27, the bodily glorification of Christ himself in his still mortal life would be called the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of God. « Properly and significantly he had promised that some of the disciples standing by would not taste death before they saw the Son of man coming in his kingdom, that is, in royal splendour, which he willed to be seen by those three men (Apostles), belonging specially to the nature of the man he had assumed » (St. Leo the Great, sermon 51, c. 2; Chrysostom, in Matt. hom. 56, al. 57, n. 1, and others). But the meaning of the kingdom of God is to be preferred (as Mark and Luke have it), of which we shall speak immediately; so that it is understood, with St. Gregory the Great and others, that the kingdom of God is this Church of Christ, established and widely propagated on earth (St. Gregory, in Evang. hom. 32, n. 6).

3°. This meaning of kingdom of God, kingdom of Christ, kingdom of heaven is very frequent in the New Testament: it is used to designate directly by these names the visible kingdom of its own proper name and proper form, to be established by Christ among men and from men on earth, where the discourse is of the announcing promise, or established, where it is of a fact already accomplished. In this visible kingdom there is certainly included, as dowry and inner property, that which we saw designated in the first place by the name kingdom of God; and there is connected, as term and end, what we said was signified in the second place, namely the consummated kingdom of God. Yet the kingdom directly signified in this third sense is distinguished (by an inadequate distinction) from the former, as the whole from its formal part; while toward the other it stands as the begun toward the perfect, or as the means toward its end. Here we treat of the institution of the kingdom so considered, not as already accomplished but as announced in the Gospels.

II. Just as in the prophetic announcements of the coming Messiah we saw a universal and incorruptible kingdom designated as his work together with himself, so in the announcement of the execution and fulfilment is declared the end and work of the coming of Christ: the constitution of his kingdom, which is to endure perennially among men. This constitution of the kingdom of Christ therefore comprises in summary the whole work and end of the great mystery of the incarnation: the redemption of the world, the expiation of sin, the sanctification and salvation of the human race, and the supreme glorification of God in this kingdom, in the world redeemed, sanctified, and saved, which is the Church united to its head, Christ the Redeemer and Saviour.

1°. Indeed, in the angel's announcement of the incarnation, these three things are declared as the sum of the whole mystery: the person, who is the Son of the Most High, and the Son born at once of the Virgin Mother, and therefore God and man, Emmanuel, God with us, according to the prophecy of Isaiah declared in this very announcement in words and fulfilled in fact (see de Incarnat. th. XV.); then the name of Jesus, and in it, implicitly, the end and office of the Redeemer; finally, this office and this end, described explicitly in the eternal kingdom of the Redeemer, to be established among the redeemed and from the redeemed, according to the preceding types and prophecies in the old economy of preparation. « Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son (the Holy Ghost shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you); and you shall call his name Jesus; he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High (the Holy which shall be born of you shall be called the Son of God); and the Lord God shall give him the throne (τὸν θρόνον) of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end » (Luke I. 31–35). In the angel's declaration to St. Joseph, the very name Jesus, Saviour comprises all those things which are explicitly preached in the announcement to the most blessed Mother. Both announcements of the angel are further illuminated by the holy Evangelist, who expressly attests in them the fulfilment of the prophecy concerning Emmanuel: « That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost; and she shall bring forth a Son, and you shall call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done that the word might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: behold a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us » (Matt. I. 20–23).

That the throne of David and the kingdom in the house of Jacob directly signify the visible kingdom on earth as the completion of the preceding types in the people of Israel is clear from the very words, although the connection with the consummated kingdom in heaven is at the same time indicated. Hence also the duration for ever (εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας) for each form of the kingdom is to be taken according to the subject matter: in the one form it lasts until the consummation of the age and without end of corruption (Dan. II. 44; VII. 14), though not without end of perfection; in the other, simply without end, for ever.

The supernatural character of this eternal kingdom, and therefore its diversity and eminence over the kingdoms and societies of the natural order, and by this very fact its proper form and its standing in itself, is evident from the person of its founder and king, who is the Son of the Most High and the Son of man, God with us; and from its end and innermost reason, which is salvation from sins, so that it is the kingdom of sanctification in the fulness of time, and of holiness in eternity.

2°. The preaching of the forerunner to prepare the way of the Lord was this: « Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand » (Matt. III. 2). By the testimony of Christ himself, after the economy of preparation in the law and the prophets, from John onward begins the Gospel of the economy of fulfilment, which is called and is the kingdom of God. « The law and the prophets until John; from that time the kingdom of God is evangelized » (Luke XVI. 16; cf. Matt. XI. 12, 13). Hence the Gospel of Jesus Christ himself and of his disciples is comprised in this summary, that it is the Gospel, or the word of the kingdom. « Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying: the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand »; « Jesus went about preaching the Gospel² of the kingdom »; « he who hears the word of the kingdom »; « this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations »; « and I must evangelize the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this (εἰς τοῦτο) I was sent »; To the Jews who rejected the Messiah promised and sent, he himself said: « The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation (one nation, because one kingdom) that shall bring forth its fruit » (Matt. IV. 23; IX. 35; XIII. 11, 19; XXI. 43; XXIV. 14; Mark I. 14; Luke IV. 43; VIII. 1; IX. 2, 11, 60; XVIII. 17; Acts I. 3; VIII. 12; XIX. 8; XX. 25; XXVIII. 23, 31).

3°. The Jews, not only the carnal but all also the pious and spiritual, expected the kingdom of the Messiah on earth according to the predictions of the prophets; indeed this expectation of the kingdom coincided with the expectation of the coming of the Messiah. For one of the solemn names for designating the properties and marks of the Messiah was Son of David, or Israel (John I. 49; Matt. II. 2; XXVII. 11; John XIX. 19–22). Hence, to celebrate the prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth, these acclamations are held as synonymous: « blessed is he who comes, the king of Israel » (John XII. 13–16; Luke XIX. 38); « who comes, the Son of David » (Matt. XXI. 9); and « blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes » (Mark XI. 10).

This expectation of the Messianic kingdom, although it was erroneous in men of carnal mind as to its character, nonetheless as to the thing itself, namely of a visible kingdom and of its own constitution and form to be founded among men, by which the typical kingdom of the Old Testament would be perfected and transferred into the prefigured kingdom of the New Testament, is most manifestly approved and confirmed by Christ himself and by the sacred writers: both in the manner in which we saw Christ and the Apostles declaring their whole preaching to be the Gospel of the kingdom expected by the people; and in the manner in which they presented this kingdom, prefigured and promised in the Old Testament, as the throne of David, the eternal kingdom of the Son of David, the kingdom of Emmanuel; and in the manner in which they approve and describe the expectation of the Israelites. « Joseph of Arimathea himself also (like the other disciples, cf. Matt. XXVIII. 57) was waiting for the kingdom of God » (Mark XV. 43; Luke XXIII. 51); « that these two sons of mine may sit in your kingdom... he said to them: it is not mine to give, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father » (Matt. XX. 21); « will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them: it is not for you to know the times or the moments (of this restoration, certainly of a supernatural and universal kingdom); but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me... even to the uttermost part of the earth » (Acts I. 6).

4°. In the immediate preparation for the sacrifice of the cross, by which he was to acquire the kingdom, Christ the Redeemer professed himself a king, and a kingdom to himself, his kingdom, truly in this world; for the whole question, both of the Jews and of Pilate, was about the visible kingdom in this world; and this kingdom, which they denied, he claimed to be his own, but of another order than they imagined, namely of the supernatural order. « My kingdom is not of this world... but now my kingdom is not from hence. » Augustine comments on these words, which are sufficiently clear in themselves: « He did not say, My kingdom is not in this world, but is not of this world... he did not say, now my kingdom is not here, but is not from here; for here is his kingdom until the end of the age » (Augustine, in Ioan. tract. 115, n. 2). Of himself, the acquirer and founder of the kingdom, Christ said: « You are from beneath, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world » (John VIII. 23; XVII. 13–16). He was a true man in this world, but a man who, being a divine person, is God through his other, divine, nature; so also his kingdom, a radiant splendour and an expressed image of the God-man, is a true visible kingdom in this world, yet by all its causes and gifts a kingdom of the supernatural order; and in this sense, though visible, it is spiritual, constituted out of men and in men, a divine-human kingdom not of this world. And that the disciples, the citizens of the kingdom, should each reproduce in themselves this very image of the kingdom, expressed after the model of Christ, he himself commanded, and asked of the Father, in that testamentary prayer after the last supper: « When he had loved his own who were in the world... and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world » (John XIII. 1; XV. 19; XVI. 11, 12, 16).

Moreover, the supernatural order of his kingdom Christ declares in that answer to Pilate not only negatively, that it is not of this world, but also positively, as from the first and essential property of the kingdom: that it is a kingdom of truth; for he founds his kingdom on the truth, which he himself, the King of truth, brings from above to men in the world and reveals. « You say (that is, you say what is true, cf. Matt. XXVI. 64) that I am a king: for this I was born, and for this I came into the world (cf. John XVI. 28, etc.), that I should give testimony to the truth; everyone who is of the truth hears my voice » (John XVIII. 36, 37). As Jerusalem was foretold as the city of truth and Sion as the mountain of holiness (th. VI.), so this foundation of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, who is the truth and the life itself (ἡ ἀλήθεια καὶ ἡ ζωή) (John XIV. 6), is preached above all in the New Testament, as we shall see in its place. « Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ »; « he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of truth »; « the Spirit of truth shall teach you all truth »; « the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth » (John I. 17; XIV. 16; XVI. 13; 1 Tim. III. 15). This truth is what sanctifies the citizens in the kingdom of truth. « You shall be truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free »; « sanctify them in the truth » (ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ); « he begot us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creature » (ἀπαρχήν τινα τῶν αὐτοῦ κτισμάτων) (John VIII. 32; XVII. 17, 19; Jas. I. 18).

Thus, in the very beginnings of the Gospel and in the immediate preparation, the kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, kingdom of Jesus Christ, or even simply the kingdom, is declared to be established by the Redeemer himself from men and for men on earth, to be substituted for the imperfect kingdom of Israel which prefigured this kingdom of the New Testament; and thus a visible kingdom, subsisting in its own proper form and unity, to endure perpetually (« he shall reign for ever »); universal, from all nations (« the Gospel of the kingdom in the whole world »); a supernatural kingdom of truth and holiness, whose citizens are disciples and sons of the truth, just as the kingdom itself and its king and founder are: in this world but not of this world.

III. This same kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth is exhibited under another figure, of one flock to be constituted by Christ himself, the good shepherd, out of all nations, as his sheep to be redeemed by his blood and to be fed by himself, the great shepherd, also through shepherds as ministers, for the eternal salvation of Christ's sheep. Also by manifold parables the Lord himself wished to illustrate the Gospel of the kingdom, in which, as we saw, the summary of evangelical preaching and of the immediate preparation is comprised, and to set it as before the eyes, of what kind this kingdom of God on earth, one and universal, is to be.

1°. In the Old Testament the people of Israel, the peculiar people of the true God, is often described as the flock of sheep of the Lord. « He is the Lord our God, and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand » (Ps. LXXIII. 1; LXXVIII. 13; XCIV. 7; XCIX. 3; Jer. XXIII; Ezek. XXXIV; Mic. VII. 14, and often elsewhere). The Lord reproves the shepherds of Israel, namely the priests and princes of the theocracy of the Old Testament, who scattered the flock; and, having rejected them, he foretells that a new Israel, the flock of God from all nations, shall be substituted, over which the Lord of the sheep will raise up « one shepherd, his servant David, who shall feed them, and he himself shall be their shepherd. » « And my servant David shall be king over them, and there shall be one shepherd of them all... and I will make with them a covenant of peace, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them » (Ezek. XXXIV. 23; XXXVII. 24, 26; Zech. XI. 7). Under this one shepherd, who is « the branch of David », God promises: « I will raise up shepherds over them, and they shall feed them; they shall not fear any more, nor be dismayed » (Jer. XXIII. 4, 5). These shepherds are promised for the new Jerusalem, not of one people but of all nations. « And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine... In that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord (not the ark of the old covenant, but the new city of God shall be wholly the throne of the Lord), and all nations shall be gathered to it in the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem » (Jer. III. 15, 17). (See th. VI.).

Now Christ the Lord declares this one flock, this promised one fold from all nations, under one shepherd, to be his flock of sheep, and himself to be the one shepherd.

a) He announces himself as the good shepherd, because by the shedding of his blood for the salvation of his sheep he gathers them, indeed he makes them his own sheep. « I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep »; « and I lay down my life for my sheep »; « and I give them eternal life » (John X. 10, 11, 15, 28).

He gathers the sheep and feeds them by the doctrine of his magisterium, and rules them by the power of his empire; and thus men become the sheep of Christ, following his magisterium by the hearing of faith and his empire by the holiness of morals. « You do not believe, because you are not of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice; and I know them, and they follow me »; « I am the good shepherd, and I know mine, and mine know me » (John X. 14, 26, 27).

As there is one shepherd, so there shall be one fold, not only from the sons of Israel but equally also from the Gentiles, under one shepherd. « And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; and them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd » (John X. 16).

b) This one shepherd (ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλός, with the article) is Christ himself. But since he willed that his fold on earth, and one fold, should perpetually exist, for he promised that no one would snatch the sheep, at least as they are collectively one flock and one fold, out of his hand, which is the very hand or power of the Father (John X. 28–30); therefore by himself, by his own authority as the one shepherd, other shepherds are to be instituted for his ministry, who in relation to his fold feed in his name and by his authority, and in relation to Christ are fed as his sheep. There will therefore be other shepherds, but none by any authority other than his, who is the one divine shepherd. But what the form of the flock and of the shepherds will be, after the Lord and good shepherd has himself ceased to feed his own sheep visibly on earth, is to be treated much more fully and distinctly in the declaration of the execution itself, which does not belong to this place. We shall then understand how the divine shepherd committed his whole fold, which we have just seen announced by him as sanctified by the sacrifice of his life, governed by his doctrine and power, gathered from all nations so as to be one under one shepherd, with power communicated by himself, to one supreme shepherd, his vicar, so that by visible ministry the unity of the visible fold might be preserved perpetually: « feed my lambs, feed my sheep » (John XXI. 15–17). But just as for unity he instituted one supreme and universal shepherd of the whole flock, so, by reason of the unity and at the same time the universality of the flock, he willed that under that one shepherd there should be many shepherds, each of whom, indeed, does not feed the whole flock, but « feed the flock of God which is among them, providing for it » (ἐπισκοποῦντες) (1 Pet. V. 2). All the shepherds³ in the earth ministering to the one Christ are members, as St. Augustine speaks, of the divine shepherd whose sheep are his own; and thus one shepherd and one fold. « Let the fold of the Lord have prelates, both sons and hirelings. But the prelates who are sons are shepherds. If they are shepherds, how is there one shepherd, unless because they are all members of one shepherd, whose own sheep they are? » (Augustine, in Ioan. tract. 46, n. 5).

2°. While Christ the Lord announces the kingdom of God that he is to found on earth, he often describes in parables of what kind it will be; in these he either explicitly declares, or implicitly indicates by the very universality of his kingdom, that this kingdom of his is to be substituted for the old typical kingdom, conspicuous in its own proper form and constitution. In it not one peculiar people, as that typical economy instituted by God was, but all nations, the transformed world, without distinction of nation and race, are embraced.

The kingdom of God of the Old Testament is described by the prophets among a peculiar people under the symbol of a vineyard planted by the Lord God, which, separated from the forests and the wild deserts, or from all nations alien to it, constituted the kingdom of God, certainly visible in its own name and proper form. « You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you have cast out the nations, and planted it... you planted its roots, and it filled the land » (Ps. LXXIX. 9 ff.; Is. V. 1 ff.; Jer. II. 21; XII. 10; Ezek. XIX. 10 ff.). Now Christ the Lord takes up the same parable for his kingdom on earth, and to declare the transference of the kingdom of God to the nations, who will be one nation because one kingdom; and at the same time he describes the cause of this transference, or rather the removal of the kingdom from the Jewish people, foretold by the prophets: because « Christ shall be slain, and the people that shall deny him shall not be his... and he shall confirm the covenant with many » (Dan. IX. 26, 27). The Saviour's description is this: « There was a man, a householder (οἰκοδεσπότης), who planted a vineyard, and put a hedge round about it, and dug in it a winepress, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen. » Almost in the same words the founding of the kingdom of God among the people of Israel is described in Is. V. 2, concluding: « for the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel. » The master of the house, the Lord of the vineyard, which he had abundantly furnished with all defences and supports, sent his servants in a continuous succession (prophets and other faithful ministers), that he might receive fruit from the husbandmen. But they struck one, killed another, stoned another. « And last of all he sent to them his Son (having one most beloved Son, in Mark; his beloved Son, in Luke), saying: they will reverence my Son. But the husbandmen... seized him and cast him out of the vineyard and killed him »⁴. What will the Lord of the vineyard now do to those husbandmen? « He will destroy those evil men miserably, and will let out his vineyard to other husbandmen (he will give it to others, in Mark and Luke), who shall render him fruit in due season... Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation that brings forth its fruit » (Matt. XXI. 33 ff.; Mark XII; Luke XX).

With this parable of the vineyard there is intimately joined another, in which the kingdom of heaven on earth is represented as the marriage feast of the king's Son. We shall treat in its place of the marriage of the Son of God made flesh with the Church, and of the Church as bride; there we shall also see the espousal already described in the Old Testament with the one peculiar people of God, but so that the unfaithful bride was to be repudiated and replaced by « an everlasting espousal », in which the Lord says: « I will say to what was not my people: you are my people; and he shall say: you are my God » (Hos. II).

Each part of this symbol of the marriage corresponds to each part of the former parable, so that the one signification of both is manifest. « The kingdom of heaven is like to a king who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to call them that were invited (καλέσαι τοὺς κεκλημένους) to the marriage, and they would not come. Again he sent other servants... but they made light of it... and the rest laid hold on his servants, and having treated them contumeliously, killed them. » What the husbandmen, to whom the vineyard representing the kingdom of God on earth was first let out, did to the servants sent in succession to demand the fruit, the same thing the invited guests, who were first and before others invited and thus prepared by the king himself for the marriage, did to the king's servants sent in a similar succession. But what in the former parable is the sending of the Son whom they killed, here is the marriage of the Son which they despised. Hence, as there he will destroy those evil men miserably, the vineyard of the kingdom of God is given to others, and this kingdom is transferred to the nations; so all the same things are repeated in the marriage feast of the Son, which are the kingdom of heaven itself on earth. « But the king... destroyed those murderers and burned their city (Jerusalem, the centre of the typical kingdom)... Go therefore into the highways, and whomsoever you shall find, call to the marriage. And the servants going out into the ways gathered together all they found, both bad and good⁵, and the marriage feast was filled with guests. » To this is added that great distinction among the guests: that for the present state of the marriage feast of the kingdom, among those adorned with the wedding garment there are also those who have not the garment of justice; and among the just in one visible kingdom there are also sinners. « But the king went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment » (Matt. XXII. 2–14). But concerning this stage of the one, universal, visible kingdom of heaven on earth, in which there are sinners together with the just, the Gospels present another series of parables of Christ the Saviour, which the Bishops of Africa, following Augustine, pressed especially against the Donatists; wherefore those parables are to be reserved for another place, where we shall deliberately treat of the members of the Church.

That the vineyard let out to the nations, and the guests gathered from the streets and lanes who recline at the marriage of the King's Son, signify, this very thing is exhibited through the kingdom of heaven under the symbol of the grain of mustard seed, though shadowed in very few words: « The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed... but when it is grown it is greater than all herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in its branches » (Matt. XIII. 31, 32). The kingdom of heaven, to be founded on earth by Jesus Christ, from beginnings that by human estimation are very small and despised, grows far more sublime than all earthly kingdoms, embracing all nations for their life and salvation. Thus also the transformation of the world in the kingdom and through the kingdom of Jesus Christ is shadowed, while it is said: « the kingdom of heaven is like to leaven », which, though very small in quantity and hidden, pervades and transforms the whole mass of flour: « she hid it in three measures of meal (cf. Gen. XVIII. 6) until the whole was leavened » (Matt. XIII. 33).

Without going further, from what has been said in the thesis it is sufficiently clear in what form the Saviour Christ, from his manifestation in the flesh and from the first beginnings of his preaching and preparation, declared that his divine religion, the truth revealed by him, and the holiness prescribed by him, were to be instituted and founded. Namely, the divine plan was not merely to reveal religion as in the abstract, which individuals would follow privately, each by the persuasion of faith and by the morals of his life left to himself, bound by no bonds of authority, power, obedience, and subjection, as in a philosophical school; but rather, just as we saw it foretold by the prophets, so from the promised and sent Redeemer, at the very beginnings of the execution, it was announced that out of all nations there should be founded the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God on earth, one and universal; and this kingdom itself is to be formed by the faith and profession of the revealed truth, by the discipline and institutions of supernatural holiness; and thus in this kingdom, by social unity through authority and power, both the whole community and each individual by himself are to be preserved and governed in the profession of revealed truth and in the attainment of supernatural holiness. Therefore the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, whose foundation has been announced by him in the way we have seen, is in concreto the very religion of Jesus Christ, which cannot exist without and outside this form of kingdom.

« Christ the Lord, in the very form of his preaching, displayed as in a model the form of his Church; and this form, constituted in a visible and living authority on the one hand and in obedience of faith toward that same authority on the other, he transmitted into the Church, when he began its institution by calling faithful disciples, and from all of them by the choice of the twelve Apostles, to whom, constituted into one body under himself as one head, he communicated authority to claim the obedience of faith, while at the same time preparing a perennial participation in fuller power and a hierarchical unity under one visible head, for the time when his visible presence would be withdrawn. »

I. Christ the Lord, as is manifest from the whole Gospel, from the beginning of his preaching showed himself above all to be the divine legate and the Messiah promised, and expected by the Jews at that very time according to the oracles of the prophets (cf. P. Patrizi, In Evangel., diss. 26, n. 7, and diss. 27, c. 4, p. 4), who therefore was to complete in doctrine, in worship, and in the kingdom of God what had been foretold and prefigured about the Messiah and his kingdom throughout the whole patriarchal, Mosaic, and prophetic economy. After the supernatural manifestations of the promised Messiah at his very birth (Luke II. 8–19, 25–38; Matt. II. 1 ff.), John was sent, in the spirit of Elias and more than a prophet, to show that he was now present and to prepare the way of the Lord (Matt. III. 1–14; Mark I. 1–8; Luke I. 15–17, 68–79; III. 1–17; John I. 15, 36; III. 27 ff.). In the very solemn initiation of his preaching, the visible appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father declaring him to the whole people « his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased » (Matt. III. 16, 17; cf. XVII. 5; John XII. 28, 30); miracles, continuous throughout his whole public life and wrought with a manifest direction and even an express declaration to the same end, of winning faith in a divine mission ¹; prophecies fulfilled in his birth, life, and teaching ²; the divine holiness of his life, repugnant to falsehood of doctrine and to the grasping or usurpation of divinity (cf. Phil. II. 6); the very doctrine and manner of teaching, in which the light of truth shone in the holiness and sublimity of the mystery, majesty in ineffable sweetness, divinity in humanity ³; all these things (subsequently completed and confirmed through the passion and death foretold in each of its circumstances, through the resurrection, through the mission of the Holy Spirit and the building of the Church) were so many rays of external light illuminating the divinity of the doctrine and of the person, by which, with the inner light of grace added, Jesus of Nazareth was shown to be evidently credible and to be believed, as the Messiah promised and sent by the Father according to the prophecies of the Scriptures: king of Israel, savior and one shepherd of the people of God, sponsor of the new and eternal covenant, father of the age to come, desired by all nations, in whom all generations were to be blessed, the Son of God begotten in the eternal day, whose going forth was both from the beginning, from the days of eternity, and last of all from Bethlehem; God himself coming to save, Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Christ, by his mission from the Father and by the supreme authority thus demonstrated, demands full « obedience of faith » to his doctrine of truth and to his precepts and institutions of holiness, under the sanction of eternal life or eternal death. « For God so loved the world, as to give his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. He who believes in him is not judged; but he who does not believe is already judged, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God » (John III. 16, 18, 36). « If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love » (John XIV. 15, 21, 24; XV. 10, 14; 1 John II. 3, etc.).

II. This form of authority divinely given in teaching and in sacred rule, on the one hand, and of the « obedience of faith » answering to it, on the other, Christ willed not only for the time of his visible presence, in his divine person, in whom the divine authority of truth and of lawgiving in teaching and commanding was inherent originally and essentially « (the way, the truth, and the life); » but he willed the same form to be the inner and proper form of his whole kingdom on earth. He made this manifest at the very first initiation of his kingdom, both by preparing that form in deeds as it was to be, and by promising it in words.

1°. Indeed, when Christ the Lord first began to preach the kingdom of God to be established by him on earth, he at once called disciples and joined them in one society, by a lasting sharing of life, to himself as their « Lord and Master » (John XIII. 14), and from these he chose twelve, whom he constituted as one special college, distinguished by many prerogatives from his other faithful; and this with a solemnity expressly noted in the Gospel. « And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and he continued all night in the prayer of God. And when day was come, he called to him his disciples, and chose twelve of them, whom also he named Apostles: Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother » etc. (Luke VI. 12 ff.) ⁴ (cf. John VI. 67–69; Acts I. 21, 22).

It is most worth noting that from then on they are constantly called, by a collegial name proper to them, as one moral body: those twelve, with the article, οἱ δώδεκα (Matt. X. 1; XI. 1; XX. 17, 24; XXVI. 14, 20, 47; Mark III. 14; IV. 10; VI. 7; IX. 34; X. 32; XI. 11; XIV. 10, 17, 20, 47; Acts VI. 2). Indeed they retain the same name twelve as their proper name even after the death of the traitor and before the election of Matthias (John XX. 24; 1 Cor. XV. 5, in the Greek text), when elsewhere they are called eleven, οἱ ἕνδεκα (Matt. XXVIII. 16; Mark XVI. 14; Luke XXIV. 9; Acts I. 26). By this same name, οἱ ἕνδεκα, the college is called even when only ten are present (Luke XXIV. 33; cf. John XX. 24). Conversely the name twelve is kept to designate the whole college even at a time when, with Matthias and Paul assumed, there are already thirteen Apostles in the true sense (Matt. XIX. 28; Apoc. XXI. 14).

That these twelve were already distinguished from all the other disciples by a higher office is clear from the very fact and manner of their election; from the name given them, Apostles, that is, legates of Christ in his kingdom; from expressions that set this distinct college over against the other disciples and faithful of Christ, e.g. « the eleven and those who were with them » (οἱ ἕνδεκα καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτοῖς), cf. Luke XXIV. 9, 33; and from the way in which the office of the Apostles is explicitly marked off, as authentic testimony, even before the coming of the Holy Spirit, in opposition to any other witnesses however fit by faith and knowledge: « It is necessary that of these men who have been with us all the time ... one become a witness with us of his resurrection ... show whom you have chosen to take this ministry and apostleship (κλῆρον τῆς οἰκονομίας ταύτης καὶ ἀποστολῆς) ... and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles » (Acts I. 21 f.). But of all this there is no need, for the whole economy of Christ clearly shows the special relation the Apostles have in the kingdom of God, both to the Lord by whom they are sent, and to all the other disciples, whether united or to be united, for whom they are sent.

2°. Considering therefore the Apostles in this earlier stage of preformation, of which we are now speaking, we see first of all the Lord instructing these chosen twelve, beyond the rest of the multitude of disciples, in the mysteries of the kingdom of God for their ministry as legates, expressed by the very name apostleship. The whole Gospel story bears witness to this. « Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them in parables ... But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear » (Matt. XIII. 11, 16). « I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father (to be revealed to men), I have made known to you » (ἐγνώρισα ὑμῖν, either explicitly in itself or at least implicitly in the promise of the Holy Spirit) (John XV. 15; cf. XVI. 12). The purpose of this special institution is declared in the precept that what they heard apart, and as if in darkness, they should « speak in the light and preach upon the housetops » (Matt. X. 27).

Hence first of all we see them in the intimate company of Jesus as he goes through cities and villages preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God: « he went about ... preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God, and the twelve with him » (Luke VIII. 1). Then indeed the Lord sends the twelve themselves to « preach the kingdom of God, » enjoining on them the same form he used himself, namely that, the divine mission having been shown by signs and powers, to the authority of preaching and teaching there should correspond, on the other side, the duty of obedience of faith under the sanction of eternal damnation on the day of judgment. The form, the demonstration, the authority, and the sanction of the Apostles' preaching are the same as in the preaching of Christ himself; except that in Christ, as the only-begotten sent by the Father, the power and authority are as it were in the fountain, while in the Apostles they are the same but derived from Christ, since they are men sent by him. Of Christ's preaching it was said: « Then he began to upbraid the cities in which most of his mighty works were done, because they had not done penance ... It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you; and you, Capharnaum ... I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom at the day of judgment than for you » (Matt. XI. 20 ff.). Of the Apostles: « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them ... go, preach, saying: the kingdom of heaven is at hand; heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out devils ... and whoever shall not receive you nor hear your words (ἀκούσῃ – ἀκοὴ τῆς πίστεως?) ... amen I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah at the day of judgment than for that city » (Matt. X. 5–15; Luke IX. 1–6).

The divine Master established, as a general principle, the derivation of authority from Christ to his legates, as we have said. The first and most basic statement of it is found in the choice and mission of the twelve Apostles: « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them ... go, preach ... he who receives you, receives me; and he who receives me, receives him who sent me » (Matt. X. 5, 7, 40). But so that all power in the kingdom of Christ may be understood as derived by participation from the power that exists originally and as a model in Christ himself, the King, Teacher, and Priest, and so that the distinction of degrees of the hierarchy in the same kingdom may already be shown in outline, the Lord, after the college of the twelve Apostles had already been instituted in that authority of legates ⁵, « appointed also other seventy-two, and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place whither he himself was to come. » These men, though sent by him, he did not create as Apostles, nor did he make them equal to the Apostles; yet the same principle of derivation, and consequently the reference of authority back to its very fountain, Christ, certainly holds for them too: « He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me; and he who despises me, despises him who sent me » (Luke X. 1, 16).

3°. The college of the twelve Apostles itself, though not yet fully constituted in its final form and perfection, was nevertheless already being prepared by Christ the Lord, during his mortal life, for this full constitution, chiefly as regards the hierarchical order.

a) As long as the visible Lord and Master himself was living with the Apostles, there was neither place nor need for another visible head, or center and bond of unity. But on every occasion Christ himself warns and foretells that for the future time after his departure, one of them is to be set up over them and above them as greater, first, leader (ἡγούμενον) in the kingdom of God on earth. Whenever he speaks of his departure from the Apostles, almost always a question arises among them: « which of them seemed to be the greater? » They therefore did not yet know any « greater » among themselves, but they were quite certain that one would be such for the time of the constituted kingdom of Christ on earth. In the Lord's answers to these questions, three things are usually contained, explicitly or implicitly: that no one as yet is constituted greater among them, and that he alone is their leader and master (ὁ καθηγητής); that, however, someone from among them is to be constituted greater and leader in his place, when he will no longer be visibly with them; and that the ministry he gives, in the exercise of power, is very different from the ambitious domination of princes among the nations, so that the leader, although greater in power, nevertheless in humility feels himself the minister of all, after the example of the Lord and Master himself. That is, he exercises the power of the greater not for his own advantage and ambition, but for the common fruit and salvation in the kingdom of God. « And there was also a strife among them, which of them seemed to be the greater (for that time, namely, when what Christ said was to come to pass: the Son of man goes, according to what is determined; from which prediction this strife arose). And he said to them: the kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have power are called benefactors ⁶. But you not so; but let him that is greater among you become as the younger, and he that is the leader as the minister. For which is greater, he that sits at table, or he that serves? is not it he that sits at table? but I am in the midst of you as he that serves » (Luke XXII. 24 ff.; cf. Matt. XX. 24–28; Mark X. 42–45). « The Lord and Master » (John XIII. 13, 14, 16) sets himself up as the example in both respects, first with regard to true power and authority. There will therefore be in the kingdom of God someone among the Apostles who is greater and leader (ὁ μείζων, ὁ ἡγούμενος), together with power and authority; which also appears from the opposition between leader and minister, greater and lesser, for he who in fact will be greater and leader is to be as the lesser and the minister, not in fact and power but in the manner of his exercise. Lastly, this is clear from the comparison drawn between the greater and the leader in the kingdom of God and the true power with its perverse exercise among the kings of the nations. Therefore the Lord, secondly, sets himself up as the example as regards the exercise of power in his kingdom. The Lord often repeats the same promise and warning about the future primacy of one, and about the manner of its exercise: « If anyone wishes to be first (πρῶτος), he shall be the last of all and the minister of all » (Mark IX. 33, 34). He had spoken of the true authority of the Pharisees and scribes, insofar as « they sat on the chair of Moses »; from this he infers: « all things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you (ὅσα ἐὰν εἴπωσιν ὑμῖν τηρεῖν), observe and do. » Then indeed he rebukes their manner of exercising authority and their works: for they bind heavy and insupportable burdens, do all their works that they may be seen by men, love (φιλοῦσι, with ambition and pride) the first places at table, the first seats, greetings in the marketplace, and to be called Rabbi by men (καλεῖσθαι ῥαββί, ῥαββί). From this he passes to authority, and to the manner of exercising it in his own kingdom: « But you, do not be called Rabbi; for one is your Master (ὑμῶν ὁ καθηγητής), and all you are brothers; and call no one father upon earth, for one is your Father, who is in heaven; nor be called masters (καθηγηταί), for one is your Master (ὁ καθηγητής), Christ. He who is greater among you (ὁ δὲ μείζων ὑμῶν) shall be your minister » (Matt. XXIII. 8–11; cf. XVIII. 1; Luke IX. 46 f.). Thus there is one Master, Christ, in a twofold way: one visible Master for the time in which he spoke, of his visible presence on earth; and one Master for all future time, for which he chiefly spoke. For all authentic magisterium and all power (τὸ καθηγεμονικόν) in his kingdom is only a participation derived from him, and this external teaching has no efficacy except from his internal teaching; therefore « all shall be taught by God » (θεοδίδακτοι, cf. Tract. de Trad., ed. 2, p. 107 ff.). Just as there is one Master, Christ, so there is one Father in heaven, in the sense, namely, of eminence (καθ' ὑπεροχήν). This does not exclude but includes, just as in the natural order so in the kingdom of Christ, fatherhood and teaching through participation. Therefore the Lord adds, « He who is greater among you »; yet this very thing is not for pharisaic pride « (do not be called Rabbi) », but for ministry unto salvation « (shall be your minister). »

b) This greater, first, leader among and over the Apostles the Lord, in this stage of his mortal and bodily presence, had not yet constituted, but he clearly designated Simon, and prepared the very reality of this primacy, and declared its ground and manner.

This preparation is already contained in Simon's very first calling, when Jesus gave him the name Peter, or foundation: « Jesus, looking upon him, said: You are Simon the son of Jona; you shall be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter » (John I. 42). In the choice, and again in the mission of the twelve Apostles, this name Peter is noted more expressly; and by reason of this name and of the thing signified, Peter is not only everywhere placed first in order, but is also explicitly declared first among the Apostles. « He chose twelve of them, whom also he named Apostles: Simon, whom he surnamed Peter, and Andrew his brother, James, and John » etc. (Luke VI. 14). « And calling together his twelve disciples he gave them power over unclean spirits ... Now the names of the twelve Apostles are these: the first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, James ... These twelve Jesus sent » (Matt. X. 2 ff.; Mark III. 16). By the facts themselves the Lord set him apart from the other Apostles as leader. Not only among those whom he admitted to a special confidence is Peter everywhere noted as first, but the divine Master seems to act almost always with him alone, above the rest. At the raising of Jairus's daughter, « he did not allow anyone to enter with him but Peter, and James, and John »; at the transfiguration, « he took with him Peter, and James, and John ... But Peter and those who were with him (Πέτρος καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ) ⁷ were heavy with sleep; and waking they saw his majesty ... Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here »; at the agony on the Mount of Olives, « he took with him Peter, and James, and John ... and he came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter: Simon, are you sleeping? could you not watch one hour with me? watch and pray » (Luke VIII. 51; IX. 28 ff.; Mark XIV. 33 ff.). He bids Peter let down the nets for a catch of fishes, and when « astonishment had seized him, and all who were with him (πάντας τοὺς σὺν αὐτῷ), and likewise James and John ... Jesus said to Simon: Fear not; from now on you shall be a catcher of men » ⁸ (Luke V. 10). When the Apostles, seeing Jesus walking on the sea, were troubled and said it was a phantom, « Peter, answering (to the word of the Lord, It is I, fear not), said: Lord, if it is you, bid me come to you upon the waters; and he said: Come ... and immediately Jesus, stretching out his hand, took hold of him » (Matt. XIV. 28). When those collecting the didrachma (the temple tax) ask, « Does not your master pay the didrachma? », the Son of God works a miracle to pay it for himself and for Peter at once, as one juridical person together with him: take the fish, « and when you have opened its mouth you will find a stater; take that and give it to them for me and for you » ⁹ (Matt. XVII. 27).

These first outlines, as it were, of the greater, first, leader among the Apostles are not to be considered singly but all together, so that they may finally be understood as converging on the explicit declaration of this primacy. For the Lord Christ, in the last year of his preaching, when he first began to foretell to the disciples his departure, his passion and death (Mark VIII. 31–33), and a few days before he displayed his glorification in the transfiguration on the mountain, and again at the last supper, when he was about to pass from this world, promised in plain words and with solemn testimony that he would build his Church upon Peter alone, chosen from all the Apostles, a name then first used in the Gospels for the Church; and that in this one city of God, to be built so upon the rock that the gates of hell would never prevail against it, since it is an eternal kingdom which will not be given to another nation, and Christ himself will reign in the house of Jacob for ever, he would give to this same Peter the supreme power of the keys, to loose and to bind whatever pertains to that visible kingdom of heaven on earth, so that just as this kingdom itself, begun on earth, looks to the consummated kingdom in heaven, so also the power looks to that end and has force and value in relation to it (Matt. XVI. 18). The reason for the rock and for the promised power of the keys in the kingdom of heaven is explained according to one¹⁰ inner element at the last supper, when Christ, the corner stone and foundation, promises of himself that he will so strengthen Peter's faith that through Peter he will confirm the brethren, that is, the whole brotherhood in the world that is to be strengthened in faith (1 Pet. V. 9), that is, the whole Church; and thus the Church, founded upon the rock, will be the pillar and firmament of truth (Luke XXII. 32). But since these things are already a declaration of the inner reason of the kingdom of God on earth, according to its monarchical form, we must treat of them elsewhere, in the explanation of the very constitution¹¹ of the Church.

4°. When Christ promised and prepared the supreme power in the city of God, in the kingdom of heaven, to be future in one first and leader, and designated Simon Peter for this, he certainly did not dissolve the college of the twelve Apostles. But just as then it was one under Christ as visible head, so he willed its unity to be firm and to be preserved for all future time, as long as the Church persists against which the gates of hell will not prevail; and therefore also in apostolic succession, under one visible head substituted for himself, with vicarious and participated power. Hence, a short time after the promise of that supreme power of the keys made to Peter alone, before all and over all the Apostles, Christ also declares the power of sacred rule in the Church, insofar as it is to be constituted in the apostolic college, not separately from Peter, but together with Peter and in subordination under him, just as this subordination is already contained in the promise made earlier to Peter alone ¹².

It is manifest that by Christ the Lord, Matt. XVIII. 17, 18, judicial power and power of rule in general for and in the Church is designated as future; but the question is to whom in the Church that power is to be conferred, and what is, as they are wont to say, its determinate subject. The whole discourse of Christ in that chapter of Matthew (compare Mark IX. 34 ff.) is directed to the Apostles. « In that hour the disciples (οἱ μαθηταί) came to Jesus » (Matt.); « sitting down, he called the twelve » (τοὺς δώδεκα) (Mark). To this college of twelve disciples, in the course of his discourse, he announces among other things the matters that now concern us. « If your brother shall offend against you, go and rebuke him ... if he will not hear you, take with you yet one or two more ... And if he will not hear them, tell the Church; and if he will not hear the Church, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican. Amen I say to you, whatever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven. » In those words, tell the Church; if he will not hear the Church, there is signified a judgment and a juridical sentence to be pronounced by the Church, so that the obstinate may be excluded as heathens and publicans, in contrast to the private correction from the duty of charity, which is treated in the immediately preceding verses. But such juridical power already presupposes, of itself, not the whole Church as subject of power, but certain persons in the Church who are invested with that right and office, and this by no one other than the very author of the Church, who here speaks and announces the institution to come in the Church ¹³. But there is no need for this deduction, since the meaning of the name Church is clearly determined by the words themselves in the immediately following context: amen I say to you (to the Apostles, τοὺς δώδεκα), whatever you bind, whatever you loose upon earth, shall be bound, loosed in heaven. In the preceding verses the Church is indicated less explicitly as binding and loosing; here that power is explicitly promised to those twelve alone, the Apostolic college in the Church, that is, for all future times as long as the Church persists. So the question is about ordinary power, and power to be propagated to the succession of the Apostolic college, as already promised by Christ the founder to be ordained and disposed with Peter and under Peter; for extraordinary power, which was in the individual Apostles and does not pass to successors, must be established not from this and similar passages but from elsewhere. Moreover, the words of Christ, whatever you bind, whatever you loose, certainly refer also to the judicial power indicated in the immediately preceding verses, and include it, but they extend much more widely to the government of the Church, of which we shall speak in their proper places.

Therefore, just as the hierarchy under one visible head was prepared by Christ the Lord, while still living his mortal life with the Apostles, to preserve unity in the Apostolic college itself, as we saw a little while ago, so in the same stage of mortal life the whole Church was predisposed, so that the one Church itself, for the preservation of unity, is distinguished according to that part which has the power of binding and loosing, and according to that part which is not the subject but only the object and end of that same power. The Church that rules and the Church that is ruled are not two Churches but one Church, with members unequal in rights and duties, distinguished by Christ the founder himself.

III. The economy in the preaching of Christ the Lord appears manifestly so arranged that, just as hierarchical authority and unity in the Church, of which we have spoken, so also universality, the abolition of the synagogue of the one Jewish people, and the substitution of the Church of all nations, were prepared and preformed in the mortal life of Christ, yet not consummated before the sanction of the new Testament through the death of the testator and the effusion of his blood (cf. Luke XXII. 20; Heb. IX. 15 ff.). Of his own personal preaching the Lord declares: « I was not sent but to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel » (Matt. XV. 24). At the same time he declares, concerning his death: « I lay down my life for my sheep; and I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and them I must bring » (John X. 16). He prefigures this future universality of the fold in the facts and deeds of his mortal life: in the calling of the Magi to adore the King of the Jews, whose star they had seen in the east (Matt. II); in the commendation, confirmation, and hearing of the faith, both of the Samaritans (John IV; Luke XVII. 18), and of the Syrophoenician woman (Matt. XV. 28), and of the centurion asking the healing of his servant (Matt. VIII. 5 ff.), and of other Gentiles (John XII. 20, 23); in the first fruits of the confession of the Gentiles (the centurion and those with him), already in the very death of Christ, according to the symbolic preaching, in the languages of the Gentiles of the Roman world and through it of the whole world, inscribed on the standard of the cross (Matt. XXVII. 54; Luke XXIII. 38).

Moreover, during the time of his mortal life the Lord commends, by word and deed, the sanctity of the Temple at Jerusalem, the observance of the ceremonial law, and the authority of those teaching the law of Moses in the chair of Moses (Matt. XXI. 12, 13; XXIII. 2, 3, 17–21, 23; XXVI. 18; John II. 16; V. 35; XVIII. 20). But at the same time he announces that the time is near when the Temple at Jerusalem will no longer be the sanctuary of public worship and sacrifices; the house of that old economy will be deserted; the city, with its temple as the seat of Mosaic worship, will be destroyed by perpetual desolation; and the kingdom of God is to be taken from the Jews. Hence he declares and promises that a new, universal economy is to be substituted for the particular old one: for public worship will not be restricted to one place, but is to be celebrated everywhere; the kingdom of God will be given to a nation that bears its fruit; the Gospel will be preached as a testimony to all nations; many will come from east and west into the kingdom of heaven, while the children of the kingdom will be cast out into exterior darkness (Matt. VIII. 11, 12; XXI. 43; XXIII. 38; XXIV. 2, 14, 15; John IV. 21–24). What Christ foretells in words, he shows in particular deeds: the transformation of the synagogue. For the judicial Mosaic law he substitutes mercy ready for penitents, in the absolution of the adulteress (John VIII. 8, 11). He takes into his communion among the faithful the one cast out of the synagogue (John IX. 22, 35–38; cf. XVI. 2). He shows the old liturgical and ceremonial law as subject to himself as lawgiver, changeable and to be changed, because he is « greater than the temple, » and « the Lord also of the Sabbath » (Matt. XII. 6, 8).

By the same reasoning by which the preaching of the Savior himself, directed immediately to the sheep of the house of Israel, at the same time preformed the universal Church, the mission of the Apostles, too, though in this earlier stage still particular, contained the preparation of the future universal mission, after the redemption was accomplished, for establishing the kingdom of God among all nations. « These twelve Jesus sent, commanding them, saying: go not into the way of the Gentiles, and enter not into the cities of the Samaritans; but go rather to the sheep that are lost of the house of Israel. » This preaching is enjoined: « the kingdom of heaven is at hand »; but since this kingdom will be not only among the sheep of the house of Israel, but among the nations, and will be the promised kingdom of the Son of man, the Lord soon adds: « You shall be led before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the nations ... amen I say to you, you shall not finish the cities of Israel till the Son of man come » (Matt. X. 5–7, 18, 23). When he himself foretells his death for the redemption of the world, he declares that this coming of the Son of man is the coming of his kingdom: « Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom », or as in Luke, « till they see the kingdom of God », and in Mark, « till they see the kingdom of God coming in power » (Matt. XVI. 28; Mark VIII. 39; Luke IX. 27). « Because some of the disciples were to live so long in the body that they would see the Church of God built and raised against the glory of this world, by a consoling promise it is now said: there are some standing here who shall not taste death until they see the kingdom of God » (St. Gregory the Great, in Evang., hom. 32, n. 6).

IV. Just as the external form of authority and of hierarchical distinction, of the visible unity and universality of the Church, such as was to be constituted for all future time, was still contained in promise and preparation, so also the internal charisms and gifts of the Holy Spirit, whether considered in the individual Apostles or in all of them in unity, had not yet in this earlier stage been conferred in their fullness. They were still promised as the price of Christ's blood, and before the redemption was complete were only partly tasted in advance, as it were by way of a pledge. « For the Spirit was not yet given (in the promised fullness), because Jesus was not yet glorified » (John VII. 39). « 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 ... I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when that Spirit of truth comes, he will teach you all truth » (ibid. XVI. 7 ff.). St. Gregory Nazianzen declares this donation of the Holy Spirit, by certain stages, as follows: « The Spirit was given to the disciples in three ways, and as much as they could receive, according to three times: before Christ was glorified by the passion; after he was glorified by the resurrection; after his ascension into heaven. » The first donation, as Gregory continues there, was more hidden, for the expulsion of diseases and demons (Matt. X); the second more manifest, by insufflation for the remission and retention of sins (John XX); the third in a certain way substantial (οὐσιωδῶς, as one might say), namely in visible form, in tongues of fire on the day of Pentecost, and with the effect of the fullness of gifts (Gregory Naz., Orat. 41, al. 44, n. 11).

In the economy of redemption, then, Christ the Savior first merited, by the price of his blood, the very sanctification of the world and therefore the full constitution of his Church, which is the sanctified world; and therefore he reserved it to the work of the Holy Spirit, whose mission, as the proximate cause of the full building of the Church, is thereby understood as the principal effect of the merits of Christ, containing in itself, as in a beginning, all the other effects for the kingdom of grace and of truth. « As the Savior, coming, became the fulfilment of the law and the prophets, so the fulfilment of the Gospel is the Holy Spirit. Christ coming established what is from the Father, namely the things said in the law and the prophets; therefore Paul says, Christ is the fulfilment of the law. The Holy Spirit coming fulfilled the things of the Gospel. Whatever is in the law, Christ fulfils; whatever is in the teaching of Christ, the Spirit fulfils ... The Son fulfils the things of the Father, and does not speak of himself; the Spirit fulfils the things of the Son, and does not speak of himself » ¹⁴ (Serm. de Spir. S., among the works of Chrysostom, ed. Maurin., T. III, pp. 808, 809). Atonement for the world comes first, in the work of mercy through the death of the incarnate Son of God; the sanctification of the redeemed world, through the full constitution of the Church in all graces and gifts, follows from that death as a work of love, and is therefore appropriated to the Spirit of holiness and sanctification. « Why did the Spirit not come before he departed? Because the curse was not yet removed, sin not yet loosed, but all were still liable to punishment; for that reason he did not come. He himself (Christ) could do these things, but he allows him (the Spirit) to work miracles, so that they may learn his dignity ... For this reason he himself was made flesh, reserving the operation for the Spirit » ¹⁵ (Chrysostom, in John, hom. 78, al. 77, n. 3).

Thus from Christ himself as head, in his still mortal life and before his blood was poured out as the price of acquisition (Acts XX. 28), we see the institution of the Church begun and preformed, both according to its external and conspicuous form and according to its internal and spiritual form, or, as Paul says (Eph. IV. 4), according to the unity of body and spirit. The visible form is established by Christ himself in visible authority, which living men are to exercise, on the one hand, and thereby the obedience of faith (which is founded in faith and exercised by faith) toward that same authority, on the other, by which the whole body and society of the faithful is contained and ruled. For those who exercise the authority communicated to them by Christ are themselves, constituted together into one body, bound in turn to obedience of faith toward a higher authority. While Christ himself was still visible on earth, the one leader and master (εἷς ὁ καθηγητής) teaches, rules, and holds together the whole body of teachers and of the obedient by his supreme authority, and comprises all of it in himself, communicating to the Apostles only for particular ends and as it were at intervals. But by these very acts of communication, and by explicit promises, he prepares the Apostles and the whole Church for a fuller and perennial communication of his authority, by which, since he would no longer visibly converse with men, he would substitute both one vicar in the supreme power and, in hierarchically arranged power, all the Apostles and the Apostolic college joined in unity. By this substitution and communication it comes about that the one Master, Christ, through the visible authority instituted in his legates (2 Cor. V. 20), himself perennially teaches, rules, and holds together his Church. To this full institution of the Church of Christ, whose preparation we have considered so far, we are now led by the very order of doctrine.