Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/375



THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 369

is clear that God absolutely willed that there should be unity in His Church, and as it is evident what kind of unity He wdlled, and by means of what principle He ordained that this unity should be maintained, We may address the following words of St. Augustine to all who have not deliberately closed their minds to the truth: "When we see the great help of God, such manifest prog- ress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to take refuge in the bosom of that Church which, as is evident to all, possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the episcopal succession? In vain do heretics rage round it; they are condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly by the weight of councils, partly by the splendid evidence of miracles. To refuse to the Church the primacy is most uupious and above measure arrogant. And if all learning, no matter how easy and common it may be, in order to be fully understood re- quires a teacher and master, what can be greater evidence of pride and rashness than to be un\\dlling to learn about the books of the divine mysteries from the proper inter- preter, and to wish to condemn them unknowm?" ^ It is, then, i^jidoubtedly the office of the Church to guard

/â– lldgj^^ri-dl^^^^^^^ ll^ ^'" pT^pBgate it in its integrity and purity. But this is not all: the object for which the Church has been instituted is not wholly attained by the perfonnance of this duty. For, since Jesus Christ de- livered Himself up for the salvation of the human race, and to this end directed all His teaching and commands, so He_ ordered the Church to strive, by the truth of its doctrine,

"To sanctify and to save mankind. But faith alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and important an end. There must needs be also the fitting and devout worship of God, which is to be found chiefly in the divine sacrifice and in the dispensation of the sacraments, as well as salutary laws and discipline. All these must be found in the Church,


 * Do Unitate Credendi, cap. xvii. u. 35.