The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 194

THE APOSTOLATE

154

And

others, but to the apostles exclusively.

again

:

"

The Com-

which is the Holy Ghost shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said unto you" (John xiv. 26) which promise was not intended for all, but for the forter

;

them a gift evidently distinct from illumiwas nothing else than the permanent endowment with the gift received only temporarily when they went forth on their first mission among Israel: "For it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Moreover, the Lord Jesus did not only promise them that the word proceeding from their mouth would be a word of the Holy Spirit, but He granted them such personal power and authority that it would be as tho God Himself spoke through them. St. Paul apostles only, securing

In fact, this promise

nation.

testified of this to the

cause as

we thank God

it is

church of Thessalonica, saying:

that ye received

Word

in truth, the

of

God"

(i

it

" P^or

this

not as the word of men, but,

Thess.

ii.

13).

And

St.

John

us that, both before and after the resurrection, the Lord Jesus gave His disciples power to bind on earth in the sense that their word tells

would have binding power forever: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained";

— words that are

horrible

and untenable except they

be understood as implying perfect agreement between the minds of of Christ to Peter:

bound

in

heaven

mind of God.

Of similar import are the words Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be

the apostles and the

;

"

loosed in heaven."

However, reading and pondering these remarkable and weighty words, let us be careful not to

make

fall

into the error of

Word

God

Rome,

or, in

which is equally dangerous. For the Church of Rome applies these words of Jesus to His disciples, to the whole Church as an institution; especially the word to Peter, making it to refer to all Peter's successors (so-called) in the government of the Church of Rome. If order to escape from

this,

the

of

of

no

effect,

meaning of these words, then Rome is perfectly Pope is granted power to bind, and the priests of Rome have still the power to absolve. Our reason for denying that Rome has this power is not the impossibility for men to have it, for it was given to the apostles; Peter was infallible in his sentences ex cathedra, and the apostles could grant absolution. But wf that be indeed the

right; then to the

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