FIRST
PART.

Q. Is there likewise unity between the Church on earth, and the Church in heaven?

A. Doubtless there is, both by their common relation to one Head, our Lord Jesus Christ, and by mutual communion with one another 18.

Q. What means of communion has the Church on earth with the Church in heaven?

A. The prayer of faith and love. The faithful who belong to the Church militant upon earth, in offering their prayers to God, call at the same time to their aid the Saints who belong to the Church in heaven; and these, standing on the highest steps of approach to God, by their prayers and intercessions purify, strengthen, and offer before God the prayers of the faithful living upon earth, and by the will of God work graciously and beneficently upon them, either by invisible virtue, or by distinct apparitions, and in divers other ways.

Q. On what is grounded the rule of the Church upon earth to invoke in prayer the Saints of the Church in heaven?

A. On a holy tradition, the principle of which is to be seen also in holy Scripture. For instance, when the Prophet David cries out in prayer, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel our fathers; he makes mention of Saints in aid of his prayer, exactly as now the Orthodox Church calls upon Christ our true God, by the prayers of His most pure Mother and all His Saints 19. See 1 Chron. xxix. 18.

Cyril of Jerusalem in his explanation of the Divine Liturgy says; We make mention also of those who are before departed, first, of the Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs, that by their entreaties and intercession God may receive our prayers. Cat. Myst. v. c. 9.

Basil the Great, in his sermon on the day of the Forty Holy Martyrs, says; Whoever is afflicted has recourse to the Forty, and whoever is joyful runs to the same; the one that he may find relief from his sorrows, the other that he may keep his happiness. Here the pious wife is to be seen praying for her children: another asks the return of her absent husband: another the restoration of health to the sick. Yes. Let your petitions be with the Martyrs.

Q. Is there any testimony of holy Scripture to the mediatory prayer of the Saints in heaven?

A. The Evangelist John, in the Revelation, saw in heaven an Angel, to whom was given much incense, that he should offer it, by the prayers of all Saints, upon the golden altar which was before the throne; and the smoke of the incense ascended up by the prayers of the Saints out of the hands of the Angel before God. Rev. viii. 3, 4.

Q. Is there any testimony of holy Scripture to beneficent apparitions of Saints from heaven?

A. The Evangelist St. Matthew relates, that after the death of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, many bodies of the Saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves, after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. Mat. xxvii. 52, 53. And since a miracle so great could not be without some adequate end, we must suppose that the Saints which then arose appeared for this, that they might announce the descent of Jesus Christ into hell, and His triumphant resurrection; and so move men born in the Church of the Old Testament to pass over the more readily into that of the New, then opened.

Q. What testimonies are there to confirm us in the belief that the Saints, after their departure, work miracles through certain earthly means "?

20

A. The fourth book of Kings testifies that by touching the bones of the Prophet Elisha a dead man was raised to life. 4 Kings xiii. 21.

The Apostle Paul not only in his own immediate person wrought healings and miracles, but the same was done also in his absence by handkerchiefs and aprons taken from his body. Acts xix. 12. By this example we may understand that the Saints, even after their deaths, may in like manner work beneficently through earthly means, which have received from them holy virtue.

Gregory the Divine in his first discourse against Julian says; Thou reverencedst not the sacrifices offered for Christ, nor fearedst the great athletes, John, Peter, Paul, James, Stephen,

ON

FAITH.

PART.

FIRST Luke, Andrew, Thecla, and the rest, who before and after these suffered for the truth; who withstood both fire, and sword, the torturers, and all sufferings present or threatened, as if their bodies were not their own, or they had had no bodies at all. For what? That they might not, so much as by a word, betray their religion. To whom also great honours and triumphs are with just reason awarded: By whom devils are expelled, and diseases healed: Who appear in visions; and prophecy: Whose very bodies, though separate, when touched or reverenced, have like power with their holy souls; and drops of whose blood, those least tokens of their suffering, like power with their bodies.

John Damascene writes thus: The relics of the Saints have been given us by our Lord Christ as salutary springs, from which manifold blessings flow. And as if in explanation of this, he remarks, that through the mind their bodies also were inhabited of God. Theol. lib. iv. cap. xv. 3, 4.

Q. Why is the Church holy?

A. Because she is sanctified by Jesus Christ through His passion, through His doctrine, through His prayer, and through the Sacraments. Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy, and without blemish. Eph. v. 25..27.

In His prayer to God the Father for believers, Jesus Christ said amongst other things: Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. John xvii. 17, 19.

Q. How is the Church holy, when she has in her sinners? A. Men who sin, but purify themselves by true repentance, hinder not the Church from being holy; but impenitent sinners, either by the visible act of Church authority, or by the invisible judgment of God, are cut off from the body of the Church: and so she is in respect of these also kept holy.

Put away from among yourselves that wicked person. 1 Cor. v. 13. Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure,

FAITH.

having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, ON Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. 2 Tim. ii. 19.

Q. Why is the Church called Catholic, or, which is the same thing, Universal?

A. Because she is not limited to any place, nor time, nor people, but contains true believers of all places, times, and peoples.

The Apostle Paul says that the word of the gospel is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit. Coloss. i. 5, 6. and that in the Christian Church there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. ib. iii. 11. They which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. Gal. iii. 9. Q. What great privilege has the Catholic Church?

A. She alone has the sublime promises that the gates of hell shall not prevail against her; that the Lord shall be with her even to the end of the world; that in her shall abide the glory of God in Christ Jesus throughout all generations for ever; and consequently that she shall never apostatize from the faith", nor sin against the truth of the faith, or fall into

error.

We undoubtingly confess as sure truth, that the Catholic Church cannot sin, or err, nor utter falsehood in place of truth: for the Holy Ghost ever working through His faithful ministers the Fathers and Doctors of the Church preserves her from all Missive of the Eastern Patriarchs on the Orthodox

error.

Faith. Art. 12.

Q. If the Catholic Church contains all true believers in the world, must we not acknowledge it to be nccessary for salvation, that every believer should belong to her?

A. Exactly so. Since Jesus Christ, in the words of St. Paul, is the Head of the Church, and He is the Saviour of the Body; it follows that to have part in His salvation, we must necessarily be members of His Body, that is of the Catholic Church. Ephes. v. 23.

The Apostle Peter writes that baptism saveth us after the

E

PART.

FIRST figure of the ark of Noah. All who were saved from the general deluge, were saved only in the ark; so all who obtain ever⚫ lasting salvation, obtain it only in the one Catholic Church. Q. What thoughts and remembrances should we associate with the name of The Eastern Church?

A. In Paradise, planted in the East, was founded the first Church of our Parents in innocence; and in the East, after the fall, was laid a new foundation of the Church of the redeemed, in the promise of a Saviour. In the East, in the land of Judea, our Lord Jesus Christ having finished the work of our salvation, laid the foundation of His own proper Christian Church: from thence she spread herself over the whole universe; and to this day the Orthodox Catholic Ecumenical faith, confirmed by the seven Ecumenical Councils, is preserved unchanged in its original purity in the ancient Churches of the East, and in such as agree with them, as does by God's grace the Church of Russia.

Q. Why is the Church called Apostolic?

A. Because she has from the Apostles without break or change both her doctrine and the succession of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, through the laying on of consecrated hands. In the same sense the Church is called also Orthodox, or Rightly-believing.

Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God; and are built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. Ephes. ii. 19, 20.

Q. What does the Creed teach us, when it calls the Church Apostolic?

A. It teaches us to hold fast the Apostolical doctrine and tradition, and eschew such doctrine and such teachers, as are not warranted by the doctrine of the Apostles.

The Apostle Paul says, Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. 2 Thess. ii. 15. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject. Tit. iii. 10. For there are many unruly, vain talkers, and deceivers, especially they of