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dedicating them by baptism to the worship of (tls t6 Bvofjui), and therefore to belief in, the Trinity in Unity. (6) At the same time, that the human mind, in thus giving its assent to doctrines so difficult for it to conceive, may do no violence to its own rational nature, the above passages tell us of the promise of the Spirit to abide for ever in the Church, to guide at all times the mind of the teaching body, organized under its visible head, so that it may alwaj's be kept from corrupting the sacred doctrine, and presenting it for acceptance in a form foreign to its original purity. Lastly, (7) that we may understand the vital importance of this unity of communion, of this unity of truth, for the due carrying out of the Church's work, we have the prayer of Christ to His Father to teach us that the spectacle of it was intended by Him to furnish the world with the most signal and con- vincing proof of the Divinity of the Christian reUgion: "That even as the Father is in Me, and I in Him, BO they may be one in Us, that the world may beheve that Thou hast sent Me." We can appreciate the character of this motive, we who live in an age when the divisions of Christendom are cast in om- faces as evidence of the uncertainty on which the Christian pretensions rest. We can see how it would facilitate Christian work at home and in the mission field, if we could still say, as in the time of the Apostles, "The universality of those that believe are of one heart and one soul." We can understand how dis- cerning observers, weighing the natural tendency of human minds to differ, would, in the presence of such a world-wide unity, be fain to exclaim, "This is some- thing that surpasses the power of nature; the hand of God is here."

(B) As understood by the Apostles and their Dis- ciples. — In the Acts and the Epistles we have a record of the way in which the Apostles understood their commission, and it is obvious that the two things corrcs]5ond. After receiving the promised gift of the Spirit, the Apostles go forth confidently and commence their preaching. Peter is their leader and, in those early days, so far their spokesman as for the moment to throw his fellow-Apostles almost entirely into the shade. Even St. John, great as he was, and, as we may gather from a comparison of the writings of the two, greatly St. Peter's intellectual superior, accompanies him as a silent companion, thus illustrating the completeness of the union that bound together the Apostohc band. In his preaching St. Peter follows an easily recognizable plan. First he seeks to accredit himself and his colleagues by appealing to the character of their Master, Whose life had been led before the eyes of the people of Jerusalem. He was Jesus of Nazareth, "a man approved by God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God WTOught through him in the midst of you" (Acts, ii, 22), One, therefore, to Whose teaching the people were bound to attend and Whose representatives they were bound to receive. It was true that He w-ho had thus been approved by God among them had afterwards fallen into the hands of wicked men who had taken and slain Him, thereby appearing to show signs of weakness hard to reconcile with such stupendous claims. But the Twelve, who were now addressing the people, were also known to them as having each and all been the companions of the Lord Jesus all the time He went in and out from the Baptism of John (Acts, i, 21, 22); and these could testify from their own immediate experience that what had befallen their Master, so far from being a real sign of weakness, had been ordained for His glorification "by the determinate counsel and fore- knowledge of God", Who, after thus permitting His Son's death for our .sakcs, had "raised liim up" from the dead, whereof they, the Apostles, were the wit- nesses (Acts, ii, 33), as they were also of His subse- quent Ascension,

Having thus declared and authenticated their commission, and having received a further confirma- tion of it by the miracles wrought through their inter- cession (Acts, iv, 10, 29, 30; v, 12, 16), which made a deep impression on the people, they take up a position of the utmost authority (Acts, v, 32), proclaim their Master's teaching, and, on the faith of their sole word, demand credence for it and obedience to its require- ments. "Therefore let the House of Israel know that God hath made this same Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remis- sion of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost" (Acts, ii, 36, 38). Thus did they teach and claim to be beheved, and thus did they call upon their hearers to enter the nascent Church by Baptism and to place themselves as disciples under the Apostolic instruction and rule. And this is what the hearers did in large numbers. On the day of Pentecost itself there were added to the Church, we are told, three thousand souls (ibid., ii, 41), a number which a few days later, after another discourse from St. Peter, swelled into five thousand; and from thence the mul- titude steadil)' grew, not only in Jerusalem, but in Judaea, and Samaria, and unto the ends of the earth (iv, 4). In strict conformity with the words of Christ (make disciples of all nations. . . . He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved), those who thus join themselves to the Ajjostles are described invariably as "believers" (Trio-Toi, Acts, x, 4.5), or again as "dis- ciples" (/itoflijToi, Acts, ix, 1; xi, 26; xvi, 1), or in other places as "those who are being saved" (ffufiSjuexoi, Acts, ii, 47; I Cor., i, IS). On these principles the Church was founded, and from these principles unity of faith and communion resulted. "They continued", we read, "steadfastly in the Apostles' teaching and communion, and in the breaking of bread and in prayer" (Acts, ii, 42); and again "the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and one soul" (iv, 32). Later indeed disputes arose and led to critical situations. That was to be expected, for human minds necessarily approach subjects that challenge their attention from the standpoint of their own antecedents, which means that their judgments are apt to be one-sided and to differ. But the point to note is that in those times the authority of the Apostles was universally recognized as competent to decide such controversies and to require obedience to its decrees. Accordingly, they were controversies which led to no breach of communion, but rather (o a strengthening of the bonds of communion by ehcit- ing clearer statements of the truths to which all believers were committed by their faith. One instance of a controversy thus happily terminated we have in the fifteenth chapter of the Acts. It is a valuable illustration of what has been said, for it was settled by the authority of the Apostles, who met together to consider it, and ended by affirming the equality of Jews and Gentiles in the Christian Church, together with the non-necessity of circumcision as a condition of participating in its full benefits; and by recommending to the Gentile converts a certain (apparently temporary) concession to Jewish feelings which might soften the difficulties of their mutual intercourse. " It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us" (xv, 28) was the ground on which those Apostles claimed obedience to their decree, thereby Betting a type of procedure and language which sub- sequent rulers of the Church have consistently followed.

From t he second part of the Act s and from the remain- ing books of the New Testament we have the means of ascertaining how St. Paul and the other .\postles conceived of their mission and authority. It is clear that they, too, regarded themselves as clothed by Jesus Christ w-ith authority both to teach and to rule, that they, too, expected and received in every place a like