nised, the betrothal celebrated in time, to be consummated in eternity. The Bride was won. The Only-Begotten SON had given the ransom ; He had paid never so much dowry and price; He overcame the sharpness of death, He went down into Hades; He set free His captives, He rose again in His glorified Body, King of Kings, and LORD of Lords, and He ascended into Heaven whence He came. Henceforth He is set down at the right hand of GOD waiting until the purification of His earthly Bride be fully perfected, and she be ready to be presented to the King in Shushan the Palace, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. This Mystery of the Incarnation ever goeth on, as the SON Himself declareth: "My FATHER worketh hitherto, and I work." The HOLY GHOST, the Third Person in the Blessed Trinity, Who proceedeth from the FATHER and the SON, carrieth on that work in her, whom CHRIST JESUS, the Only-Begotten of the FATHER, purchased with His Blood; in her, His Bride, His Dove, His Undefiled One,-The Catholic Church. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The Prayer. O GOD our FATHER, and Sweet Pelican of Mercy, JESUS CHRIST, Who dost feed Thy children, who are Thy portion, with Thine own Blood; Who when Thou didst find us, exiled from Paradise, in the desert land, in the waste howling wilderness of this world, didst alone lead us, and madest us to suck honey out of the. Rock, and oil out of the flinty Rock,—Who didst feed us with fat of kidneys of wheat, and didst give us to drink of the pure blood of the grape; Who, when a mighty famine arose in the land, didst command the widow woman of Zarephath, Thy holy Church, to sustain us; and didst bring us to her at the gate of the city, even at our very entrance into the world, as she was seeking the two sticks of Thy holy Cross, wherewith in the inner chamber of her Mysteries, she might dress the handful of meal and the little oil which yet remained to her, that she and her son might eat thereof and die; hitherto by Thy never-failing Providence, though the famine hath been, GOD knoweth, sore enough in the land, and there hath not been dew nor rain these years, hitherto, our barrel of meal hath a S. Jo. 14.18. bS. Jo. 15.16. not wasted, neither hath our cruse of oil failed; and yet, notwithstanding, O LORD our GOD, the sons of the Widow with whom Thou sojournest are sick, and the sickness has been so sore that there is no breath in them; and now, O GOD most Merciful, LORD of the living and the dead, hear the confession of Thy servant, who calleth Her sin to remembrance, and as Thou hast taken us Her sons out of Her bosom, where we were sleeping the sleep of death, and hast carried us apart into that loft where Thou abidest, and hast laid us upon Thine own bed, the chaste hard bed of the Holy Cross, even so also hear the voice of Thine Elijah, the Blessed Paraclete, Who Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and turn again and quicken us; revive us, and bring us back to our own home and to our Mother's bosom, so shall we know that Thou art a Man of GOD, yea, that Thou art the GOD-Man, and that the Word of the LORD, by which Thou didst promise to be with Thy Church unto the end of the world is indeed none other than the very Truth itself. VI. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. The Texts. 1. The Work 1. The work of the Incarnation of the Incarna 1 Cor. 12.13. was not ended when the glorified tion carried on by the Church. e 2 Tim. 1. 13, Body of the Son of Mary was taken up into Heaven, it was hardly more than begun; it was d2 Tim. 1. 11. to go on on earth by means of a certain, definite, and visible system to which the sons of men could have access. 2. This system was to be carried 2. The Instrumentality 14. f 2 Tim. 2. 2. a S. Luke 24. c 2 Cor. 10. 3, 4, 7, 8. on among men by means of men, by which God the Holy Ghost to wit, the Apostles, to whom the carries on the GOD-Man had committed, 1. Know- Work of the In- & 2 Cor. 2. 10. ledge of the way of salvation, with authority to teach it; 2. Certain outward visible carnation. e S. Mat. 28. f i 18-20. g Acts 8. 16, 17. h Acts 14. 23. 25. 1 Cor. 11.23Cor. 10. 16. S. Jas. 5. 14, 1S. Jo. 16. 13. m 1 Tim. 4.14. 2 Tim. 1. 6, 15. signs which were to convey the inward and in- Acts 6. 5, 6. visible graces of the Incarnation to men, in a word, the Sacraments. These chosen men were strengthened to perform their work efficiently by the Third Person in the Ever-blessed Trinity, the HOLY GHOST, Who descended to dwell not only with, but in them, and all who should through » them become partakers of the Grace of Life. Nor was this system to come to an end with the lives of those who were originally appointed its › Acts 1. 26. ministers, it was to go on "to the end of the world," through their lawful successors. craments the Incarnation. n 14. • Eph. 1. 13. 92 Tim.2.1,2. r Titus 1. 5. 26-28. c Acts 8. 17, 3. The Sacraments are the exten- 3. The Saa S. Jo. 3. 5. sion of the Incarnation. Twofold Extension of the b S. Mat. 26. in their nature, spiritual and sensible, they are the dual links by which man, spiritual and material, is united to the GODMan, to the Word made Flesh; and whereby &c. a Eph. 2. 18 22. b 2 S. Pet. I. 3, 4. a Col. 2. 12, 13. b 1 Cor. 6. II. alone he is rendered supernaturally able to receive the benefits of the Incarnation, summed up in the one word, Grace. 4. They are the channels through 4.Sacraments the Channels of which GOD the HOLY GHOST Con- Divine Grace. veys the Incarnation to man,-by which He grafts man into the Incarnation, and makes him a partaker of the Divine Nature. 5. In Baptism, He begets to supernatural life the new-created soul. a Acts 8. 17. 6. By Confirmation, He consecrates and perfects its spiritual adolescence. c 2 Cor. 1. 21, 22. d Eph. 1. 13. 5. Baptism. 6. Confirma tion. ed Eucharist. * 1 Cor. 6. 17, 7. By the Blessed Eucharist He 7. The Blessweds man, soul and body, to the 19. b1 Cor.11.29. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Divine Spouse, GOD-Incarnate, by the most d Eph. 5. 29, 30, 32. profound of all Mysteries, and thus united, not e S. Jo. 6. 51, only fills them with all grace and heavenly beneHeb. 10. 19- diction, but also enables man' by, through, and 8 Heb. 13. 8, with Him to Whom he is united to offer a ser15, 16. 53, 57. 22. Mal. 1. 11. vice of perfect worship and homage to the Crea i Wis. 16. 20. i Ps. 78.25,26. tor, and thus continually to repair the robbery a 2 Cor. 2. 10. b 2 Cor. 5. 18, 19. CI Cor. 5.3-5. of the Fall. 8. By Penance, He heals the 8. Penance. wounds of the soul, (for on earth it is yet d Acts 19. 18- vulnerable.) 20. a S. Mark 16. 9. By Holy Anointing, He 18. pre b S. Mat. 26, pares the body for its resurrec 6-8,10,12,13. tion. c S. Jas. 5. 14. 9. Unction of the Sick. |