Ghost, and, sometimes, the Holy Ghost. Wisely, therefore; does St. Augustine admonish us, whenever we meet the word Holy Ghost, in Scripture, to distinguish whether it means the third Person of the Trinity, or his gifts and operations: [1] they are as distinct as the Creator is from the creature. The diligence of the pastor, in expounding these truths, should be the greater, as it is from these gifts of the Holy Ghost that we derive rules of Christian life, and are enabled to know if the Holy Ghost dwells within us.
But the grace of justification, " which signs us with the holy spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance," [2] transcends his highest gifts: it unites us to God, in the closest bonds of love lights up within us the sacred flame of piety Ghost. " forms us to newness of life renders us partakers of the divine nature and enables us "to be called and really to be the sons of " God." [3] [4]
ARTICLE IX.
"I BELIEVE THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH."
It will not be difficult to estimate the care with which the pastor should explain this ninth Article to the faithful, [5] if we attend to the following important considerations: that, as S. Augustine observes, the prophets spoke more plainly and explicitly of the Church than of Christ, foreseeing that on this a much greater number may err and be deceived, than on the mystery of the incarnation: after ages were to behold wicked men, who, imitative as the ape, that would fain pass for one of the human species, arrogate to themselves exclusively the name of Catholic, and, with effrontery as unblushing as it is impious, assert that with them alone is to be found the Catholic Church - Secondly, that he, whose mind is deeply impressed with this truth, will experience little difficulty in avoiding the awful danger of heresy; for a person is not to be called a heretic so soon as he errs in matters of faith: then only is he to be so called, when, in defiance of the authority of the Church, he maintains impious opinions, with unyielding pertinacity. As, therefore, so long as he holds what this Article proposes to be believed, no man can be infected with the contagion of heresy; the pastor should use every diligence, that the faithful, knowing this mystery, and prepared against the wiles of Satan, persevere in the true faith.
But this Article hinges upon the preceding one, for, having
