Page:Catholic Thoughts on the Church of Christ.djvu/26

8 necessary relations between the Creator and the Creature the Redeemer and the Redeemed the Sanctifier and the Sanctified. For the Catholicity of the Church of CHRIST consists in the un- limited applicability of its provisions of grace ; in its infallible adaptation to the spiritual wants of man everywhere and always ; and in its comprehending within its circle of blessing every class and every variety of the Great Human Family. The Oneness of the Church is constituted by its having but one invariable Law and the same conditions of membership in every place and in every age ; by its acknowledging everywhere the same Head and possessing ever the same means of Life, and incorporating within itself throughout all ages innumerable new members on precisely the same principles as at first. And we speak of the Holy Catholic Church because just as the Jews were a Holy nation though each individual was unholy and the majority perhaps un- believing, so the holiness of the Church of CHRIST depends not on the perfection of its Members but on that of its Head ; be- cause the Company of the Baptised is, as the Circumcised Na- tion was, in special covenant with GOD, and in union with Him who is one with GOD and one with Man. And is this but a spiritless interpretation of these ancient words ? Can there be no real unity because there is none formal ? Surely not: That which is may not be seen, and that which is seen may only seem to be. Wherever there is Love there is Life. If only therefore there be love of CHRIST and love of each other among Christians it need not be that there is no Unity because there is no Uniformity, any more than because there is variety in the forms of living Nature there can be no communion of origin, or of spirit, or of end. Is there not throughout Nature diffused an Energy common to all living things and monopolised by none a subtle influence of Life and Growth and Renova- tion invisible indeed and even unimaginable but still existing penetrating everywhere and yet nowhere manifesting itself but in its effects in which and by which all things live and with- out which all would die for ever? And does not this Spirit give unity to the Universe ? And may not then the HOLY SPIRIT inhabiting the Church, as an Atmosphere a Temple, per-