Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/324

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As we look back upon the history of the Church and see the striking unity of that institution, we naturally suppose its chiefs had a regular plan; but such was not the fact. The peculiar merit of the Catholic Church consists in its assertion of the truth, that God still inspires mankind as much as ever; that He has not exhausted himself in the creation of a Moses, or a Jesus, the Law, or the Gospel, but is present and active in spirit as in space: admitting this truth, so deep, so vital to the race—a truth preserved in the religions of Egypt, Greece, and Rome, and above all in the Jewish faith—clothing itself with all the authority of ancient days; the word of God in its hands, both tradition and Scripture; believing it had God's infallible and exclusive inspiration at its heart, for such no doubt was the real belief, and actually, through its Christian character, combining in itself the best interests of mankind, no wonder it prevailed. Its countenance became as lightning. It stood and measured the earth. It drove asunder the nations. It went forth in the mingling tides of civilized corruption and barbarian ferocity, for the salvation of the people,—conquering and to conquer; its brightness as the light.

It separated the spiritual from the temporal power, which had been more or less united in the theocracies of India, Egypt, and Judea, and which can only be united to the lasting detriment of mankind. This was a great merit in the Church; one that cannot be appreciated in our days, for we have not felt the evil it aimed to cure. The Church, in theory, stood on a basis purely moral; it rose in spite of the State; in the midst of its persecutions. At first it shunned all temporal affairs, and never allowed a temporal power to be superior to itself. The department of political action belonged to the State; that of intellectual and religious action, the stablest and strongest of power,—to the