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32 II.

THE PAPAL AUTHORITY CONDEMNED BY THE WORD OF GOD.

The Church, according to St. Paul, is a temple, a religious edifice, of which the faithful are the stones. "You are," said he to the faithful of Ephesus, (2:20-22,) "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

Thus, according to St. Paul, the Church is the society of all the faithful of the Old as well as of the New Testament; the first, instructed by the prophets, and the second, by the apostles, form together a spiritual habitation, having for its foundation Jesus Christ, waited for by the one as the Messiah, adored by the other as the Divine Word clothed in humanity.

The prophets and apostles form the first layers of this mystic edifice. The faithful are raised on these foundations and form the edifice itself; finally Jesus Christ is the principal stone, the corner-stone which gives solidity to the monument.

There is no other foundation or principal stone than Jesus Christ. St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, (1 Cor. 3:11,) "For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Paul gave to the Corinthians this lesson, because among them many at-