De Ecclesia Christi

« According to the form prescribed and instituted by Christ the founder, the Church is presented to us as established by the Apostles: 1°. as one Church, first from the Jews, then without distinction from the Jews and the Gentiles; 2°. as a Christian Church altogether distinct and separated from the synagogue; 3°. cohering in itself by unity of profession of faith, of sacraments, and of communion; 4°. thereby disposed and governed by its own power of teaching and of rule. »

We have considered the personal efficiency of Jesus Christ, by which he instituted his Church on earth; now let us turn the eyes of the mind to the effect itself, namely the Church, as it is presented to us already constituted in the apostolic writings. Christ God, the founder of the Church, is infinitely true, faithful and omnipotent, so that, however much we should not find what was instituted, insofar as we have it described in the books of the Apostles, to correspond perfectly to the institution demonstrated above, it ought nevertheless to remain certain to every Christian either that in those first beginnings the mustard seed, preserving the fruitful power implanted by Christ, had not yet fully unfolded into a tree, and therefore does not yet appear in its whole amplitude; or that the Apostles did not at all need to comprise in their books, which they handed down to us as very few and written as occasion offered (cf. Tract. de Tradit., th. VII), the facts which were before the eyes of all. In truth, however, we see the Church already in those beginnings established in the world, and described in the apostolic books themselves, as far as is sufficient, according to those principles and according to that form which, we read in the Gospels, Christ the founder impressed upon her.

I. We consider the outlines of the Church of that first age, coalescing both from Jews and from Gentiles.

1°. After Christ's ascension, the Apostles, the number of the twelve already completed by the election of Matthias, gathered together with Mary the mother of Jesus and with the other disciples, were waiting for the promise of the Father, that they might be clothed for the office entrusted to them with power from on high. Soon, under visible signs, on the first Pentecost after the first Passover of the New Testament, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and abundantly furnished with all gifts for carrying out their apostolate. Then indeed, at the first preaching of Peter, « there were added (προσετέθησαν) about three thousand souls. » Further, « the Lord was adding (προσετίθει) daily to the number those who were being saved » ¹. After the second discourse of Peter, so many already believed that « the number of men became five thousand. » Moreover, « the multitude of men and women believing in the Lord (προσετίθεντο πιστεύοντες τῷ κυρίῳ) was increased more and more; » and « the word of the Lord grew, and the number of the disciples (τῶν μαθητῶν) in Jerusalem was multiplied greatly; a great crowd also of the priests was obedient to the faith. » The description of this προσθέσεως (addition), or increase, is conceived in very brief words, but it sufficiently presents the form of the Christian Church in its principal elements. They were bidden to separate themselves from the synagogue: « save yourselves from this perverse generation. » Having received the faith preached by the Apostles, they were united by baptism into a society of their own, which is signified by the very name of addition; by the laying on of the hands of the Apostles all were filled with the Holy Spirit ². Under the Apostles they persevered in « the obedience of faith », in the doctrine and in the religious worship proper to the New Testament, instituted by Christ at the last supper: « and they were persevering in the teaching of the Apostles, and in the communion of the breaking of bread, and in prayers » ³. Acts II. 40–42, 47; IV. 4, 31; V. 13, 14; VI. 1, 7.

Thereafter, with the great persecution stirred up from the martyrdom of Stephen against the Church, which until then was in the one city of Jerusalem (ἐπὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τὴν ἐν Ἱεροσολύμοις), « they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the Apostles » Acts VIII. 1. Indeed not all the faithful were scattered, but all who had been placed under the Apostles in some rank and in the office of preaching the word of God; for this is the introduction to what is narrated in what follows about the preaching of the gospel and the propagation of the Church. These are the deacons, among whom Philip, after Samaria had « received the word of God » through his preaching, « passing through, evangelized all the cities until he came to Caesarea »; others, who are called presbyters, leaders or heads among the brethren (ἡγούμενοι ἐν τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, cf. Heb. XIII. 7, 17, 24), teachers and prophets (Acts VIII. 1, 4, 12, 14, 40; XIII. 1; XV. 6, 22). From this preaching we see Churches soon constituted. « The Church ⁴ indeed throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and was built up, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the consolation of the Holy Spirit » Acts IX. 31. Further, « those who had been scattered by the tribulation which arose under Stephen went as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word (τὸν λόγον, the word, namely, of the gospel) to no one except to Jews alone » Acts XI. 19. They were indeed establishing Churches only for believers from circumcision, both in Palestine and in the other neighbouring regions. For thus the Lord had commanded: « you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and (afterwards) to the uttermost part of the earth » Acts I. 8; and so the Apostles understood it, and the teacher of the Gentiles himself, Paul, Acts XIII. 46.

2°. Finally, at the close of the year 40 of the common era, that is, in the twelfth year after the death of the Redeemer, it was revealed to Peter, prince of the Apostles, not indeed the dogma itself that the gospel is destined for all nations and of the universality of the Church, which, as it was announced by the prophets, so had often been declared by Christ in very clear words (cf. Acts II. 39; III. 26); but the time was made manifest, together with the manner and method of the admission of all nations, and of the execution of the Saviour's testament ⁵, that the Apostles should preach the gospel to all nations, to every creature, and be witnesses to the uttermost part of the earth. Hence, when Cornelius, the first of the Gentiles, was joined with his household to the Church, this was received with great joy by the Church itself, which until then had been constituted from Jews alone. « They glorified God, saying: then God has given repentance also to the Gentiles unto life » Acts XI. 18.

From this time, first indeed at Antioch, where the Church from circumcision had already been founded long before, « they spoke also to the Greeks ⁶ announcing the Lord Jesus..... and a very great number of believers was converted to the Lord..... and a great crowd was added to the Lord..... and they taught a great crowd, so that the disciples were called Christians at Antioch » (about the year 41 of the common era) ⁷ Acts XI. 20, 26.

Not long after this, Paul, who had already been chosen in his first wonderful calling to carry the name of Jesus before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel, Acts IX. 15, and with him Barnabas, ordained by the laying on of hands ⁸ in the Antiochene Church, and sent by the Holy Spirit, established Churches in the island of Cyprus and in Asia Minor, without distinction of Jews and Gentiles; and the same work, for which he had been taken up, the Apostle of the Gentiles, after separation from Barnabas and with other helpers taken on, carried out in Macedonia, Achaia, and in the province of Asia, whose metropolis is Ephesus, Acts XIII–XX.

In the same age (in the year 53 of the common era) there are mentioned all the Churches of the Gentiles, and indeed already many, Rom. XVI. 4; indeed at this very apostolic time one Church of Christ is shown in the whole world, as we shall declare more distinctly presently.

That the Churches which were outside the borders of Palestine consisted for the most part of faithful from the Gentiles is evident from the Acts from chapter XIII onward, and much more from the Epistles of Paul. « If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved; » « Israel, following after the law of justice, has not attained to the law of justice, for they stumbled at the stone of stumbling; » « all the day I have stretched out my hands to a people not believing and contradicting; » « their offence is the riches of the world, and their diminution the riches of the Gentiles; » « by unbelief the branches were broken off » Rom. IX–XI. On the other side, « the Gentiles, who did not pursue justice, have attained justice; » « I was found by those who did not seek me; » « that the Gentiles may honour God for his mercy, as it is written: therefore I will confess to you among the Gentiles... rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people... praise the Lord, all you Gentiles... there shall arise one to rule the Gentiles, and in him the Gentiles shall hope » Rom. IX. 30; X. 20; XV. 9 ff. Indeed this is the mystery hidden from the ages in God, but now revealed to the Apostles and prophets in the Spirit, so that now, through the Church, the manifold wisdom of God may be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places; namely, the mystery that « the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel » Eph. III. 5–11.

From this it is now clear that no distinction was ever admitted in rights and in the participation of the goods of the Church between Jews and the other nations; but both are united into one Church. « But the justice of God is through faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all who believe in him; for there is no distinction... Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also; since indeed God is one, who justifies circumcision by faith and the foreskin through faith » ⁹ Rom. III. 22, 30. « Remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision made by hand in the flesh; because you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel (τῆς πολιτείας τοῦ Ἰσραήλ), and strangers (ξένοι) to the testaments... but now in Christ Jesus you, who once were far off, have been made near in the blood of Christ; for he is our peace, who has made both one..., so as to create the two in himself into one new man ¹⁰, making peace, and reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmities in himself; and coming he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near » Eph. II. 11 ff.; 1 Cor. XII. 13.

3°. All those who are united among themselves and with Christ through faith and baptism are called by their proper name brethren, from their intimate union and communion, Acts XI. 1; XII. 17; XV. 3, 23; XXVIII. 14, and often in other places (cf. P. Patrizi, de Evang., bk. I, ch. 4, n. 42); believers (οἱ πιστεύσαντες) and faithful (οἱ πιστοί) from the inner form and outward profession of one faith, which is the foundation of holiness and the bond of unity of the brethren, Acts II. 44; IV. 32; V. 14; 1 Tim. IV. 12, and elsewhere; saints (οἱ ἅγιοι) and called saints (κλητοὶ ἅγιοι) ¹¹ from the perfection of the outward and inward form, to which they are ordered through faith and communion, Acts IX. 32, 41; 2 Cor. I. 1; Phil. I. 1; Rom. I. 7; 1 Cor. I. 2; cf. Rom. VIII. 28; disciples (οἱ μαθηταί) from the reception of the whole doctrine and discipline in faith, communion and holiness, and at the same time from subjection to the magisterium of the faith, the governance of communion, and the priesthood of sanctification, Acts VI. 1, 2, 7; IX. 1, 10, 25, 26; Christians from the author and consummator of faith, communion and holiness, Acts XI. 26; XXVI. 28; 1 Pet. IV. 16.

It is easily apparent that these names are social, if one may so speak, and that by them are designated men not so much singly apart, as rather as they coalesce, by their proper inner and outer social form, into one society of their own name, which is and is called the Church of Christ. Let us now consider this society, the Church of Christ, whose first beginnings and first outlines we have looked at, according to the fuller explanation of the proper form in which it is presented, as constituted, in the apostolic writings.

II. First we see it as a religious society, not only distinct but plainly separated from the synagogue, insofar as the latter remains in its typical and pedagogical form, awaiting Christ and looking to his future first coming; retaining this form now, when the presence of Christ (ἡ παρουσία) is already complete, they fall away from the proper end of the Old Testament, « for Christ is the end of the law »; and they fall into apostasy from faith in the Messiah, the Saviour, foretold, from hope in him promised, from charity toward him desired by all nations ¹² (Hag. II. 8). And so the synagogue, which was the chosen people of the Old Testament, while it refuses the transition divinely ordained from the hope of future goods in Christ to the possession of present ones, ceases to be the people of God: « and he shall not be his people, who is to deny him » Dan. IX. 26; but the people and kingdom of God on earth is now contained solely in the Church of the New Testament from all nations: « for the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, that he should be the heir of the world, was not through the law, but through the justice of faith... Therefore it is of faith, that the promise may be firm according to grace, to every seed; not to him only who is of the law, but to him also who is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all » Rom. IV. 13 ff.; IX. 6–8.

1°. This opposition, as it were, between the old Testament and the new, namely that the former, being temporary, has now perished, by the succession of this kingdom which will never cease, the Apostles plainly impressed upon the first faithful, as a kind of principle, and especially on those from circumcision. « Christ is the mediator of a better testament, which was established upon better promises. For if that first had been blameless (εἰ γὰρ ἦν ἄμεμπτος), there would not indeed have been sought a place for a second. For finding fault with them, he says (Jer. XXXI): behold the days shall come, says the Lord, and I will perfect over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new testament, not according to the testament which I made to their fathers... Now in saying new, he has made the first old ¹³; and what is antiquated and grows old is near to perishing » Heb. VIII. 6 ff. « Whose voice (of the Son of God) then shook the earth (in the giving of the law and the Sinaitic institution); but now (for the institution of the New Testament) he promises, saying: yet once more, and I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven (in the incarnation, in the heavenly institutions and charisms) ¹⁴. But what he says, yet once, declares the transference of movable things as made things ¹⁵, so that those things which are immovable may remain.

Therefore, receiving the immovable kingdom ¹⁶, we have grace (ἔχωμεν, let us hold fast), through which we may serve God pleasingly, with fear and reverence » Heb. XII. 26 ff.

Hence the Apostles, also by a solemn definition and preaching, declared that those ancient institutions, by which the proper character of the synagogue was constituted, had lost in the Church of Christ their value and their obligation, Acts XV. Although the observance of the ancient rites was for a time permitted to Christians, especially those of Jewish origin, to assert their necessity and permanent obligation in the Church of Christ from the beginning of the New Testament was a perversion of the gospel itself, Gal. I. 6–9; II. 5; V. 1–13; VI. 12–15 (see thesis IV).

2°. After the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, the Apostles, although for those beginnings they still tolerated the observance of rites, at once called the faithful out of the synagogue into the Church, separated from it in faith, worship and discipline, and standing by itself. As we saw a little before, already in the first preaching Peter « testified with many words and exhorted them, saying: save yourselves from this perverse generation. Therefore those who received his word were baptized... And all who believed were together, and had all things in common... and daily persevering with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread in their houses » Acts II. 40 ff. « And they were all with one accord in the portico of Solomon; but of the others no one dared to join himself to them » ib. V. 12, 13. Saul, after his conversion, « when he had come to Jerusalem, tried to join the disciples, and all feared him, not believing that he was a disciple; but Barnabas, taking hold of him, brought him to the Apostles » ib. IX. 26 (cf. Gal. I. 22). Paul at Ephesus first indeed spoke as he was accustomed in the synagogue, persuading about the kingdom of God; then, when some were hardened, « departing from them, he separated the disciples » (in place as well), and from those so separated he established the Churches of Asia; for for two years he preached, « so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, Jews as well as Gentiles » Acts XIX. 8, 9; cf. XVIII. 4, 5.

3°. According to the type of the sacrifices on the day of atonement, whose blood was carried into the holy of holies and whose bodies were burnt outside the camp, Christ offered his bloody sacrifice of expiation not only for the people of Israel but for all men (cf. John XI. 50–52), outside the gate of earthly Jerusalem, which was the centre of the old economy. Hence the Apostle infers that even the Hebrews themselves must go out of the camp, that is, out of the synagogue, to Christ, that they may become partakers of the altar on which Christ himself is immolated, namely the altar of the new testament, of which those cannot be partakers who still cling to the old law and worship. « We have an altar, from which those who serve the tabernacle have no power to eat... And Jesus, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us go forth therefore to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have here no abiding city, but we seek the one to come (τὴν μέλλουσαν, that future Jerusalem in heaven) » Heb. XIII. 10 ff. Moreover, earthly Jerusalem, represented by the handmaid Hagar and her son¹⁷, now that she has ceased to be the city of God, is set in hostile opposition to the antitypical Jerusalem, which is our mother the Church, prefigured by Sarah and the son Isaac. « As then he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was according to the spirit, so also now. But what does Scripture say? Cast out the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the handmaid, but of the free » Gal. IV. 22–31.

III. The Churches, which we have seen already under the Apostles spread far and wide, did not each by itself constitute one whole separated from the others; but from all of them, as from organic parts, is presented constituted that one universal Church, which Christ called his Church, to be built by him upon the rock. There are many things which, though distinct among themselves, are intimately linked, and which both bring about and demonstrate the form of this unity.

1°. Unity of faith and profession in the universal Church. The apostolic doctrine and preaching is one, « everywhere in every Church » (πανταχοῦ ἐν πάσῃ ἐκκλησίᾳ, ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις πάσαις;) 1 Cor. IV. 17; VII. 17. The gospel is one, just as it is in the one particular Church of the Colossians, so also « in the whole world it is, and bears fruit and grows »; « they heard the gospel », the same, « which has been preached in every creature that is under heaven » Col. I. 6, 23. The faith of the Thessalonians is the same for all believers, « not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place » 1 Thess. I. 7, 8. The faith of the Romans, whom the Apostle of the Gentiles had not yet seen, « is announced in the whole world » Rom. I. 8; XVI. 19. ¹⁸

2°. Just as through this unity of faith, so through the unity of the sacraments all the faithful everywhere on earth are joined and formed into one body of Christ. « One body and one Spirit, as you are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism » Eph. IV. 4, 5. « All the members of the body, though many, are yet one body: so also is Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether bond or free, and we have all drunk of one Spirit... Many indeed are the members, but one body..... Now you are the body of Christ, and members of member » ¹⁹ 1 Cor. XII. 12 ff. « For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ (εἰς Χριστόν) have put on Christ: there is not Jew nor Greek..... for you are all one in Christ Jesus » ²⁰ Gal. III. 27, 28. « The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of the Lord? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, all of us who partake of the one bread » ²¹ 1 Cor. X. 16.

3°. From these things there follows at once the perfect unity of communion in social life (τῆς πολιτείας, cf. Eph. II. 12), by which all the particular Churches and each of the faithful are presented and acknowledged, both in theory and in practice, as parts and members of one religious society.

a) The Church of Corinth consists of « those sanctified and called saints » in one society « with all who invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, in every place » 1 Cor. I. 2. Christians wherever they are found on earth are, and are called, « the brotherhood which is in the world » 1 Pet. V. 9. In the various particular Churches all are brethren and members of one society, namely the universal Church. The Romans, whose « obedience (ἡ ὑπακοή, obedience of faith) has been spread abroad in every place », « all the Churches of Christ » greet; to them Christians from other Churches are commended, that they may « receive them in the Lord, worthily of the saints »; to those who had helped Paul, « all the Churches of the Gentiles » give thanks, Rom. XVI. 2, 4, 16, 19. Similar things are seen in the greetings of the other apostolic epistles.

b) Just as the Apostles, in preaching to the conversion of Jews and Gentiles, « gave the right hands of fellowship » (Gal. II. 8–10), so also the Churches of the Gentiles have communion, specifically, with the Churches of the Jews in Palestine, insofar as they all constitute one Church. « The Gentiles have been made partakers (ἐκοινώνησαν) of their (the Christians' from circumcision) spiritual things », whence « they ought also to minister to them in carnal things (temporal goods) » Rom. XV. 26, 27; Acts XI. 29; XXIV. 17; Gal. II. 10; 1 Cor. XVI. 1–3; 2 Cor. VIII. 14; IX. 2, 13. ²² « God has called you (the Thessalonians) into his kingdom and glory...; for you became imitators of the Churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus » 1 Thess. II. 14. « The Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body (τὰ ἔθνη σύσσωμα, members of one body) and fellow partakers of his (God's) promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel », of which (gospel) Paul « was made minister » ²³ Eph. III. 6.

c) This communion is of all the faithful among themselves, with the Apostles, with Christ the head, and with God: « that you also may have fellowship (κοινωνίαν) with us, and our fellowship may be with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ » 1 Jn I. 3. The Church (the calling-out) consists of « called saints », and they are called « into the fellowship of the Son of God », and therefore the Church is « the fellowship of the Son of God » ²⁴ 1 Cor. I. 2, 9.

d) The universal Church is indeed presented in the apostolic writings as one visible communion of saints. There are many members, and diverse according to diverse distributions of graces, ministries and operations; yet from all of them one body is constituted, which is quickened and sanctified by one Spirit, ruled and administered by one Lord Jesus Christ, sustained and confirmed by one God the Father (Rom. XII. 5; 1 Cor. XII. 4 ff.; Eph. IV. 4 ff.; Col. I. 18; II. 19). The faithful, called from Jews and Gentiles, both in one body are a holy temple in the Lord, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself the chief corner-stone (Eph. II. 15–22; Col. II. 7; Heb. III. 6; 1 Tim. III. 15; 2 Tim. II. 19, 20; 1 Pet. II. 5; IV. 17). The universal Church is described as Mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, whose citizens are the household of God, who have come to the Church of the firstborn, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ τῶν πρωτοτόκων (Heb. XII. 22; Eph. II. 10); as the camp of the saints and the beloved city upon the breadth of the earth (Apoc. XX. 8); as a priestly kingdom and a holy nation (1 Pet. II. 9, 10; Apoc. I. 6; V. 9, 10); as the Israel of God, a peculiar people, λαὸς περιούσιος (Gal. VI. 16; Tit. II. 14); free Jerusalem, which is our mother (Gal. IV. 26); the woman clothed with the sun, the fruitful mother of martyrs amid the persecutions of the dragon (Apoc. XII. 1, 5, 11, 17); the virgin betrothed to one husband, the bride of the Lamb prepared, clothed in fine linen, which are the justifications of the saints (2 Cor. XI. 2; Apoc. XIX. 7, 8).

IV. This threefold visible unity of profession of faith, of sacraments, and of society or communion, spread through all nations in the apostolic Church, presupposes as its principle and foundation the power of visible magisterium, priesthood and governance, which we saw in the preceding theses promised and instituted by Christ. In the threefold unity described, therefore, that power would be understood implicitly, as the forming and efficient cause, even if it were not explicitly presented to us in the constitution of the Church in the apostolic time. But in fact we find, in the Churches as established by the Apostles and presented in their own writings, the full vigour of that sacred power, so that the threefold unity (of which we have spoken) and the whole constitution of the Church are made visible chiefly in this power. Indeed its proper character, its diverse grades, and its quasi-organism are displayed more distinctly in the Churches already constituted, as we have them described by the Apostles, than in the institution itself which is narrated in the Gospels. Hence, for the fuller declaration of Christ's institution (th. XI, n. II), it was necessary for us to consider this very exercise of power in the Apostles now; and so, referring to that place, we can here finish the whole matter in brief.

We see in the apostolic Churches a true power derived from Christ and exercised in the name of Christ: first indeed to teach doctrines, and to promulgate and interpret the divine laws; then, altogether, to enact their own laws for Christian life, by which all the faithful are bound; to make judgements in the same sphere, and to inflict penalties. Since this jurisdiction is proper to this Society, which Christ called his Church and founded by the supreme power given to him in heaven and on earth; since therefore jurisdiction follows the nature of this Church and belongs to the governing of its own life; since, finally, it was instituted by Christ himself in his kingdom, it is manifest that it is independent, and we indeed see it exercised in the apostolic Churches independently of any other human power. Although even in the earthly city, for earthly peace, there is no power except from God, that power is nonetheless flesh: that is, natural in origin, end and means; but the power in the city of God, in the kingdom of Christ, is spirit: namely supernatural in origin, end and means.

1°. That this is, first of all, the power of magisterium, to teach and declare authentically whatever the Apostles had received from God himself, Christ, and the Holy Spirit, hardly needs to be demonstrated by special arguments after what was said above about the divine institution of the magisterium. Since Christ in his testament sent the Apostles just as he himself had been sent by the Father, « to preach the gospel to every creature », « to preach in his name repentance and remission of sins to all nations », « to teach all nations to observe all things, whatever he commanded them »; since moreover he promised and sent them the Spirit of truth, « to teach them all truth », and in this whole truth also « many things which they could not bear now »; since lastly he promised that he himself and the Paraclete Spirit would be with the Apostles in teaching the truth « for ever », « all days, even to the consummation of the age »: the carrying out of this divine institution, of which we now speak, is shown by the whole life of the Apostles, since this mission contains above all the very essence of the apostolate. Hence it is not merely the faculty of bearing witness, which arises from knowledge, but a particular mission and assumption to the apostolate that confers the office of bearing witness, namely testimony from a divinely conferred power, and therefore authentic. « It is necessary that of these men who have been with us all the time... one of these be made a witness with us of his resurrection » Acts I. 21, 22. Hence also the Apostles frequently affirm their divine commission. « For I dare not speak of anything which Christ has not wrought through me, for the obedience of the Gentiles (εἰς ὑπακοὴν τῶν ἐθνῶν), by word and deed » Rom. XV. 18. « When you had received from us the word of hearing of God (λόγον ἀκοῆς παρ' ἡμῶν τοῦ θεοῦ), you received it not as the word of men, but, as it truly is, the word of God » 1 Thess. II. 13. « You received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus » Gal. IV. 14. « Let a man so account us as the ministers of Christ and the dispensers (οἰκονόμους) of the mysteries of God » 1 Cor. IV. 1. « He has given us the ministry of reconciliation... for Christ therefore we perform the embassy, as God exhorting through us » 2 Cor. V. 20. « The mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains » Eph. VI. 20.

2°. Moreover the power is legislative. « The Apostles and the elder brethren ²⁵... It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no burden beyond these necessary things. » Among these necessary things, that is, things to be necessarily observed, were not only the divine laws, but also apostolic precepts, of which the Apostles themselves, by their own power, were the authors for the Christian Church, as the command to abstain from blood and from what is strangled, Acts XV. 23, 28. « As they passed through the cities (Paul and Silas), they delivered to them to keep the decrees (placita) which had been decided by the Apostles and the elders who were at Jerusalem » ²⁶, ib. XVI. 4. After the divine precepts concerning the holy reception of the Eucharist, the Apostle promises his own laws: « the rest I will arrange when I come » (διατάξομαι) 1 Cor. XI. 34. Elsewhere he openly presupposes his own power of command, and that it is known to the faithful and distinct from the divine legislation: « But this I say by way of indulgence, not of command »; « to the rest I say, not the Lord » 1 Cor. VII. 6, 12.

3°. Hence the power is also judicial and coercive. « I, absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged... in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together and my spirit (present in your assembly by my spirit and authority), with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ » (for affliction and punishment in the present natural life, for supernatural salvation in the other life), 1 Cor. V. 3; cf. 1 Tim. I. 20. « What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or in charity and in the spirit of meekness? » 1 Cor. IV. 21. « I have foretold (in the former epistle, in the words just cited), and I foretell... that if I come again, I will not spare. Or do you seek proof of him who speaks in me, Christ?... So that when present I may not act more sharply according to the power which the Lord has given me for building up and not for destruction » 2 Cor. XIII. 2, 3–10. « For walking in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God..... having in readiness to avenge all disobedience (ἐκδικῆσαι πᾶσαν παρακοήν)... For if I should glory somewhat more of our power, which the Lord has given us for building you up and not for destroying you, I shall not be ashamed » 2 Cor. X. 3–8.

That this power of making laws, judging, and punishing or avenging is a true power of jurisdiction is declared by the Apostle both by the words just cited and still more expressly by his professing that the power of which he speaks does not extend to those who are simply « outside », that is, who were never bound to the Church by any bond, as is manifest from the context and from the comparison of passages. For those who, having received the seal of faith, baptism I mean, lie cut off from the Church by heresy, like Hymenaeus and Alexander (1 Tim. I. 20), or by other crimes, these indeed are judged and punished by this very power ²⁷. « For what have I to do with judging those who are outside?..... For those who are outside, God will judge. Remove the evil man (τὸν πονηρόν, the evil man, of whom the Apostle there judges) from among yourselves » 1 Cor. V. 12, 13.

Thus in the time of the Apostles we have « the brotherhood which is in the world », one in faith and profession, one in sanctification and in the use of the sacraments, one in social religious life under the apostolic magisterium, priesthood, and governance of full jurisdiction; and this, from many Churches as members, is one Church of Jesus Christ in the whole world, according to the form in which we saw her in the preceding theses foretold by the prophets, promised by Christ, prepared, and at last instituted, by the power, all of which was given to him in heaven and on earth, to endure perpetually until the consummation of the age, until the second coming, until the fullness of the body of Christ in all its holy and elect members.