His kingdom, who are built up as living stones into unimaginable temple raised in the unity of worshipping he to the ever-blessed Trinity. To this grows out, as the ful of Him who fills all in all, that body of the Second Adam which in the body of the first Adam He had Himself depos the germ.

When the angel described to the Blessed Virgin her that miracle of miracles which was to take place in her, assumption of human flesh by the Son of God, he used th terms: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the po of the Most High shall overshadow thee. When the Son God, at the moment of His ascension, declared to His Apost the creation of His mystical body, by using similar words referred them back to His own conception: "You shall rece power, the Holy Ghost coming upon you: " having already the day of His Resurrection told them, "I send the promise my Father upon you, but wait you in the city until you indued with power from on high."* Our Lord Himself th suggests to us the remarkable parallel between the formatio of His natural and His mystical body. He who framed t one and the other is the same, the Holy Ghost: the He precedes, the Body follows; because of the first descent th Holy Thing which was to be born should be called the Son God; because of the second, "You shall be my witnesses Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the farthe part of the earth;" and this is said in answer to their questio whether He would then restore the kingdom to Israel: that i the second descent of the Holy Ghost forms the kingdo whose witness to Christ is perpetual; forms the body wit which and in which He will be for ever by this power of Hi Spirit dwelling in it to the end of the world. We have therefore, here all the various functions and qualities which under the five great titles of Kingdom, Temple, Body, Spouse and Mother, delineate His Church, gathered up into the unity which comprehends them all, and from which, as source, they all flow, "The Power of the Holy Ghost comin upon men." This creation is as absolutely His, and Hi alone, as the forming of our Lord's own Body in the Virgins Womb; it is the sequel of it; the fulfilment among men c those divine purposes for which God became Incarnate; i

one word, the Body of the Head perpetually quickened by His Spirit. And here we may remark those striking resemblances between the natural and mystical Body which this "power of the Holy Ghost," the former of them both, indicates. For in the first the manhood* cannot be severed from the Person of the Word, nor in the second can the body of the Church be severed from Christ the Head, and His Spirit. Secondly, in the first the Person of the Word and His manhood make one Christ, and in the second Christ the Head and the Church the Body make one complete Body. Thirdly, in the first the manhood has its own will, but through union with the Godhead is impeccable and indefeasible; and in the second the Body of the Church, though possessing its own liberty, is so ruled by Christ and guided by His Spirit, that it cannot fail in truth or in charity. Fourthly, in the first there is an influx of celestial gifts from the Person of the Word into the manhood, and in the second there is a like influx from Christ the Head into His Body, the Church, so that he who hears the Church hears Christ, and he who persecutes the Church, as Saul before the gate of Damascus, persecutes Christ. Fifthly, in the first the Head, through the manhood as His instrument, fulfilled all the economy of redemption, dwelt among men, taught them, redeemed them, bestowed on them the gifts of holiness and the friendship of God; and in the second, what He began in His manhood He continues through the Church as His own Body,† and bestows on men what He merited in His flesh, showing in and by the Church His presence among men, teaching them holiness, preserving them from error, and leading them to the eternal inheritance.

It is also by this one "power of the Holy Ghost coming upon men "that we learn how the Head and the Body make one Christ. As in the human frame the presence of the soul gives it life and unity, binding together every member by that secret indivisible force, from the least to the greatest, from the heart and brain to the minutest portion of the outward skin,

These five are taken from Passaglia, de Ecclesia, lib. 1, cap. 3,

p. 34-5.

+ Compare S. Athanasius cont. Arian. de Incarn. p. 877, c. —kai őrav Xéyy ó Πέτρος, ἀσφαλῶς οὖν γινωσκέτω πᾶς οἶκος Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι καὶ Κύριον καὶ Χριστὸν αὐτὸν ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς τοῦτον τὸν Ἰησοῦν ὃν ὑμεῖς ἐσταυρώσατε, οὐ περὶ τῆς Θεότητος αὐτοῦ λέγει, ὅτι καὶ Κύριον αὐτὸν καὶ Χριστὸν ἐποίησεν, ἀλλὰ περὶ τῆς ἄνθρωπότητος αὐτοῦ, ἥτις ἐστὶ πᾶσα ἡ ἐκκλησία, ἡ ἐν αὐτῷ κυριεύουσα καὶ βασιλεύουσα, μετὰ τὸ αὐτὸν σταυρωθῆναι· καὶ χρισμένη εἰς βασίλειαν οὐρανῶν, ἵνα συμβασιλεύσῃ αὐτῷ, τῷ δι' αὐτὴν ἑαυτὸν κενώσαντι, καὶ ἀναλαβόντι αὐτὴν διὰ τῆς δουλικῆς μορφῆς.

so in this divine Body, which makes the whole Chris is the presence of the Holy Ghost, as of the soul, w gives it unity and life. The conclusion was drawn b great Saint, and no less great a genius, fourteen hund years ago. These are S. Augustine's words:" Our sp by which every man lives is called the soul; our s by which each several man lives is called the soul; and see what the soul does in the body. It quickens all limbs through the eyes it sees, through the ears it he through the nostrils smells, through the tongue spea through the hands works, through the feet walks; it is pres at once in all the limbs that they may live; life it gives to a their functions to each. The eye does not hear, nor the nor the tongue see, nor the ear nor the eye speak, but bo live; the functions are diverse, the life common. So is t Church of God. In some saints it works miracles; in othe gives voice to the truth; in others, again, maintains the virgin life; in others keeps conjugal fidelity: in these one thing, those another; each have their proper work, but all alike liv Now, what the soul is to the human body, that is the Ho Spirit to the body of Christ, which is the Church: what tl soul does in all the limbs of an individual body, that does th Holy Spirit in the whole Church. But see what you have t avoid, what to observe, and what to fear. It happens that, i the human body, or in any other body, some member may cut off, hand, finger, or foot. Does the soul follow it when cu off? As long as it was in the body it lived: when cut off, i loses life. So, too, the Christian man is a Catholic while h lives in the body; when cut off, he becomes a heretic: th Spirit does not follow the amputated limb."*

But what is this "power of the Holy Ghost coming upo men?" It is the whole treasure of truth and grace, which dwelt first in the natural body of Christ, which He came t bestow on men, which He withdrew not when He ascended but of which He promised the continuance in the Person of the Holy Ghost, and fulfils by that Person indwelling in the Church. It was the imparting the whole treasure of truth and grace by such an indwelling which made it expedient for Him to go, which made His bodily departure not a loss, but a gain, which was "the promise" of which He spoke on that last night, and which was expressly declared to be a perpetual presence leading, as it were, by the hand† into all

* S. Aug. serm. 267, tom. 5, 1090, E.

+ Luke xxiv. 49, and John xvi. 13—ἐκεῖνος, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὁδηγήσει

truth-an all-powerful, all-completing, all-compensating presence, such as that alone is or can be which maintains the intellect of man in truth, because it maintains his will in grace and, instead of the two wild horses of which the great heathen spoke guides the soul in her course as borne aloft on those twin divine yoke-fellows,† faith and charity.

Correlative, therefore, to the Person of Him who is at once King and God, and Head, and Bridegroom, and Father, is that singular creation of His Spirit, by which, in the Kingdom, Temple, Body, Spouse, and Mother, He deposited the treasure of the truth and grace which He became man to communicate. It was not as individual men, living a life apart, but as common children of one race, joint members of one body, that the guilt of the first father fell upon them; it is only on them as children of a higher race, and members of a far greater body, that the grace of the Deliverer is bestowed. The distinctions of race and the divisions of condition drop away as they are baptized into one body, and made to drink of one spirit. The new and supernatural life cannot be communicated save by this act of engrafting into a new body. As Eve from the side of Adam sleeping, so the Church from the side of Christ suffering; as Eve bears still to Adam the children of men, so the Church to Christ the children of Christ. These are not two mysteries, but one, unfathomable in both its parts, of justice and of mercy; but the whole history of the human race bears witness to the first, and the whole history of the Christian people to the second. It would be amply sufficient to prove what we have been saying that the first communication of the supernatural life is conferred by being baptized into one body, and made to drink into one spirit. But this is not all. There is a yet dearer and more precious gift, which maintains and increases the life so given. Our Lord stands in the midst of His Church visibly forming from day to day and from age to age that Body of His which reaches through the ages; He takes from Himself and gives to us. He incorporates Himself in His children. He grows up in us, and by visible streams from His heart maintains the life first given. Here, above all, is the one Christ, the Head and the Body. This is but an elemental truth of Christian faith, though it is the highest joy of the Christian heart. It was in an instruction to

παράκλητον δώσει ὑμῖν, ἵνα μένη μεθ ̓ ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας. * Plato.

† πανταχοῦ συνάπτει καὶ συγκολλῷ τὴν πίστιν καὶ τὴν ἀγάπην, θαυμαστήν Tira žvvwpica. S. Chrys. 3rd Hom, on Ephes., tom. xi, p. 16.

catechumens that S. Augustine said, "Would you understand the Body of Christ? Hear the Apostle saying to the faithful, 'But you are the Body and the members of Christ.' If, then, you are Christ's Body and His members, it is your own mystery which is placed in the Lord's table; it is your own mystery which you receive. It is to what you are that you reply amen, and by replying subscribe. For you are told, 'the Body of Christ,' and you reply, amen. Be a member of the Body of Christ, and let your amen be true. Why then in bread? Let us bring here nothing of our own, but listen to the Apostle himself again and again, for in speaking of that sacrament he says, 'We that are many are one bread, one body.' Understand and rejoice. Here is unity, verity, piety, charity. One bread. Who is that one bread? We being many are one bread. Remember that the bread is not made of one but of many grains. When you were exorcised, it was as if you were ground; when baptized, as if you were kneaded together with water; when you received the fire of the Holy Ghost, it was your baking. Be what you see, and receive what you are. This the Apostle said of the bread. Of the chalice what we should understand is clear enough even unsaid. For as to make the visible species of bread many grains are kneaded with water into one, as if that were taking place which Holy Scripture records of the faithful, They had one mind and one heart in God,' so also in the case of the wine. Many grapes hang on the bunch, but their juice is poured together into one. So, too, Christ the Lord signified us: willed us to belong to Himself; consecrated on His own table the mystery of our peace and unity. He who receives the mystery of unity and holds not the bond of peace, receives not a mystery for himself, but a witness against himself."*

Thus the coherence of the natural and mystical Body of Christ was at once exhibited and effected in the great central act of Christian worship, and the whole fruit of the Incarnation was seen springing from the Person of Christ, and bestowed on men as His members in the unity of one Body. Thus were they taken out of the isolation, distraction, and enmity that state of mutual strife and disorder which heathendom expresses-and made into the one divine commonwealth; and thus the Body of Christ grows to its full stature and perfect form through all the ages of Christendom.

And if there be one conviction which, together with the belief in the Incarnation itself of the Word, is common to all the

*S. Aug. Serm. 272, tom. 5, 1104, c,