Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/410

 394 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH guilty of the.body and blood of the Lord, and incurring condemnation. The elevation of .man to the rank of adopted child of God, and coheir with Christ to God's kingdom, the bea- tific vision and the eternal union through it with the Godhead, form a destiny transcend- ing the conception and exigency of nature. All help vouchsafed of God to man toward the attainment of this destiny or end must needs be supernatural, like that end itself. This help is called grace. It is God's free gift, by which the mind is enlightened and the will is strengthened, is necessary to conceive a good thought, and still more to undertake or per- form any work directed to salvation. This is proffered to all, but is actually dispensed ac- cording to a just yet incomprehensible dispo- sition of Divine Providence, with wonderful variety. It does not interfere with the free- dom of the human will, which it moves and aids, without imposing necessity. The grace which moves to prayer, if complied with, is usually followed by the grace of action, which enables us to perform our duty. What is be- yond our actual strength becomes practically possible, if not easy, by means of the help thus afforded. To God properly belongs the glory of any good which we perform, because our sufficiency, our power, is from him ; but to us the reward is promised, inasmuch as we might resist his impulse by abusing our free- dom. It is not easy to reconcile the exercise of free will with the divine foresight. We cannot understand how it is possible for us to act independently, and of our own determina- tion, when God from eternity has foreseen our action. It is sufficient for us to know and feel our freedom, without sounding the depths of divine knowledge. The church, hav- ing declared the necessity of grace for all su- pernatural acts, and for the beginning or first thought directed to such an end, has abstained from deciding the controversies of the schools regarding the modes of reconciling the freedom of the human will with such necessity, and with the divine foreknowledge. It suffices then to admit that without the grace of Christ we can do nothing, and to hold that we can do all things in him who strengthens us. The grace of God is not given to the elect alone, since Christ did not die for them only. God wishes all men to be saved, and grants graces remotely, if not proximately, sufficient for this end. The divine commandments are not im- possible. If great difficulty be experienced in their fulfilment, even occasionally by just men, grace can be obtained by prayer by which it may be removed, so that what may appear im- possible to nature may be rendered easy by grace. Everlasting beatitude, consisting in the contemplation and enjoyment of God, is the re- ward promised by him on condition of the ful- filment of his commandments, and bestowed gratuitously on baptized infants or others inca- pable of personal acts. The punishment of griev- ous sin is eternal. All guilty of such, who die unrepentant, are for ever separated from God, and suffer torments. Those who die guilty of slight faults, or debtors to divine justice, are withheld for a time from the enjoyment of heaven. The glory of heaven is immediately attained by baptized infants dying before the use of reason, by adults dying immediately after baptism, by martyrs, and by all who die with perfect love of God, and free from sin or debt of punishment. The soul only is ad- mitted to happiness. The body is subject to dissolution, but is to be raised at the end of time, in order to be reunited to the soul and made partaker of its glory. The degrees of beatitude vary according to the greater or less love of God which distinguishes each of the elect, even as star differs from star in bright- ness. All the saints, however, will be perfect- ly happy, because free from all suffering or pain, from all passion or inordinate desire, and rejoicing in the fulfilment of the divine will. We are not called on to scrutinize the divine decrees with regard to election to glory. Its attainment supposes cooperation and fidelity to grace on the part of adults. It is imparted as a reward. God cannot predestine any to tor- ments without reference to their demerits and offences, since punishment is to be inflicted only for transgression. The teaching of Christ our Lord becomes known to us especially by the preaching of the ministry, tracing back their commission to his apostles. Solemn definitions of faith are the most authoritative forms of this preaching. They are declarations not merely of doctrines contained in the written word, but of revealed truths, whether written or unwrit- ten. Christ himself left nothing in writing; several of his apostles wrote much, and two other sacred writers composed narratives of his life and teaching ; but many things belong to the deposit of doctrine which were not expli- citly placed on record. The body of bishops feel themselves authorized to propose as revealed truth whatever has come down from the begin- ning in the church, and been generally ac- knowledged to appertain to doctrine. In cases of difficulty, when doubts have been raised with regard to some tenet, they feel themselves competent to examine the evidence, and decide whether the doctrine has been revealed. After a definition, it is no longer allowed to question a truth sealed with their approval. Infallibil- ity in judgment is claimed for the body of bish- ops in union with their head, the bishop of Rome. By it is meant the providential gui- dance of the Holy Spirit, by which they are di- rected and enlightened in doctrinal decisions, that they may not mistake error for truth, or propose as divinely revealed what lacks the seal of divine authority. The same infal- libility which Christ promised to the church is claimed for the head of the church, when, in the performance of his office of teacher and pastor of the whole of Christ's flock, he defines ex cathedra a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal church.