Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/69

Rh break one of the least of these commandments and teach men so, shall be least in the kingdom of heaven." Commenting on both these passages, Gregory, homily 12, says: "The kingdom of heaven is the present church [Migne, 76: 1119].

(5) The falsehood appears from Luke 3:17: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will cleanse his threshing-floor and gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." Here threshing-floor stands for the catholic church as the doctors expound, especially Augustine, who says of faith, ad Petrum: "Hold most tenaciously and in no wise doubt that God's threshing-floor is the catholic church and that in it the chaff will remain mixed with the wheat till the end of the world." And this judgment of Augustine is confirmed by Christ's words: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who sows good seed in his field," and Christ afterward says: "Let both grow until the harvest," Matt. 13:30.

Now for the right understanding of these things and the things to be said, we must lay down out of the apostle's words that Christ is the head of the universal church, that she is