Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-08

t1tude or d1v1ne power to D1nd ana tO 1oose as our Lord testides, saying: "An power earth, as the Father sent me I send you" Peter possessing the keys of the kingdom of heaven, Peter confirmed in the faith, and by that confirmation con- stituted a rock against which the storms of this world and the powers of hell shall rage in vain; in fine, Peter, as we learn from the Saviour's saying, "The gates of hell shall not prevail against thee," totally assumed into Christ-living, moving and having His being in Him, so that for this duty he becomes one with him, distinct from Him, indeed as all Gods creatures necessarily are, but never separated from Him. Hence whilst it is true that Peter is the divinely placed corner stone, the visible head and centre of the church's
 life, so that we can truly say with St. Ambrose, "Where Peter is, there is the church." it is equally true that by this ex- traordinary participation of divine grace, Peter so fully and inseparably united to Christ that we must farther say "where Peter is there is Christ; He the Eternal Word, being Himself, as the Sacred Scrip lures tell us, the chief corner stone elect and precious, the stone cut out of the jected once by the builders, but now becomes the head of the corner
 Neither can we conceive the church to be merely that into which Protestantism consistently carried to it's final analysis would necessarily resolve it, viz: The acquisition of few additional truths which we are at liberty to receive or reject as we see fit. That could not be the fulfllment of all Gods magnificent promises, nor the consummation for which the saints of God so earn ell of ages preceding the birth of Christ This was surely the fabled mountain bringing forth the mouse. This was not the con ception of the prophet in it's regard, who, beholding it in the mind of God, ex- claimed, Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to think what God hath in store for those who shall behold his coming" :" Nor was it the idea of St John who tells us that it will not merely aid us, but give us life, an abundant life. St Paul does not think thus lightly of it, as he says that through it sin will be abolished and grace church of God, or Christianity which is identical with it, as merely an addional light to which you can with perfect i'm punity close your eyes, and immediately the prayers and the prophecies recorded in the Sacred Scriptures, the foreshadowing rites and ceremonies of the Old Law, are unmeaning and unin- telligible. But all is clear, consistent and in harmony when rising to a true concep- tion of the church we behold it as a new creation, 8 new order of life, presupposing indeed our natural life, but lying above it. Men fail to understand the church, because they fail to see that there is by the Incar- nation of the Son of God introduced into this world not only new fact, but a new order of existence; new creation called the regenerated or supernatural order. Our | Divine Lord assumed flesh, not merely to make satisfaction for our sins, not merely to deliver us from the power of satan and repair the damage caused by the fall, but also to elevate man above the natural order, to be the second Adam or father of a re- regenerated humanity called to heavenly | destiny, the beatifc vision.
 This church then is not law or doc Urine, it is life-a living body as literally and as truly as the human body itself. It is a living, real, actual existence, as much so at least as any other creature of God; a mysterious existence indeed, before which
 we may lose ourselves in admiration, but
 which in this life we shall never fully com prehend. Her type, as her fountain of
 life is the mysterious union of God and
 man in our Lord, the hypostatic union of
 two distinct natures, the human and the divine, in the one divine person of the
 Son. She is in a certain sense the con-
 tinuation, or the visible, permanent repre-
 not by mere figure of speech that we call
 her person, call her mother, the joyful
 mother of the faithful, our own deal
 mother, upon whose bosom we lay ou1
 head, and from whose heart we draw ou1
 spiritual nourishment. We mean all that
 we say, for she is in the spiritua
 order as truly and as literally ou7
 mother as she of whom we were
 born naturally is our mother in the human order. As it is through the church, ant
 through her alone that we are born into
 this new life by which we become coheirs
 with it to the kingdom of heaven, so it i this life and persevere in the way of saliva
 tion. This will appear evident when w consider that there is but one Incarnation the sole origin and source of our spiritua life; and hence one charity comprising al that the Incarnation means for us. all tha it has done and merited for us, so there car
 be but one church which is simply tha Christianity actualised, concerted ,renderet
 visible, tangible to us, Christianity so con
 stituted that we human beings whos can re
 ceive or perceive only through our bodily SeuSeS Cau see, neaT anO ODey It. OuCS1O'
 of this church there is no Christianity ) There was then none before it; and ther 7 shall be none after it. So the falling ava , from the church is not merely displeasin God, not merely committing grievou mortal sin, it is cutting off from the sourc
 of life. Like the branch that is Topped O. } from the parent stem through and b l which the life containing sap had reache g it, man severed from the church, the roc g and stem of his spiritual life is necessaril f destined to wither and to die. What tn 3 soul is to the body. that the church is 7 the Christian. Therefore the spiritual { t for the human being, disunion is death. t This church moreover, ,whichthus elevate l us from being merely creatures to tn l dignity of children of God is not as W g have seen in the natural or human orde } Hence it necessarily follows that no ma I can enter into it or become member ( l it by mere natural birth. A second birt t or baptism is needed. This our Divi1 e Lord distinctly teaches when as recorde 0 in the gospel according to St. John, H ], says: "Unless man be born again of wat d and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter in @ the kingdom of heaven. i've may kno t all Catholic doctrine, and give to it ou h complete assent, we may comprehend a