Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/198



192 CHIEF DUTIES OF CHRISTIANS AS CITIZENS.

sole guide, there would hardly be found, if, indeed, there ever could be found, unity of doctrine Indeed, the art of knowing things as they really are is exceedingly diffi- cult; moreover, the mind of man is by nature feeble and drawn this way and that by a variety of opinions, and not seldom led astray by impressions coming from without; and furthermore, the influence of the passions oftentimes takes away, or certainly at least diminishes, the capacity for grasping the truth. On this account, in controlling State affairs means are often taken to keep those together by force who cannot agree in their way of thinking.

It happens far otherwise with Christians: they receive their rule of faith from the Church, by whose authority and under whose guidance they are conscious that they have beyond question attained to truth. Consequently as the Church is one, because Jesus Christ is one, so throughout the whole Christian world there is, and ought to be, but one doctrine : One Lord, one faith ; ^ but having the same spirit of faith^ they possess the saving prin- ciple whence proceed spontaneously one and the sam.e will in all, and one and the same tenor of action.

Now, as the Apostle Paul urges, this unanimity ought to be perfect. Christian faith reposes not on human but on divine authority, for what God has revealed "we believe not on account of the intrinsic evidence of the truth perceived by the natural light of our reason, but on account of the authority of God revealing, who cannot be deceived nor himself deceive." ' It follows as a conse- quence, that whatever things are manifestly revealed by God we must receive with a similar and equal assent. To refuse to believe any one of them is equivalent to rejecting them all; for those at once destroy the very groundwork of faith who deny that God has spoken to men, or who bring into doubt His infinite truth and wisdom. To determine, however, which are the doctrines divinely

Â» Eph. iv, 5, * 2 Cor. iv. 13. ^ Conc. Vat, Const, Dei Filius.