ticipation of the same sacraments; but also by the spirit of grace, and the bond of charity: of whom St. Paul says: " The Lord knoweth who are his." [1] Who they are that compose this class we, also, may remotely conjecture; pronounce with certainty we cannot. [2] Of this part of his Church, therefore, our Lord does not speak, when he refers us to the Church, and commands us to hear and to obey her: [3] unknown as is that portion of the Church, how ascertain with certainty, whose decision to recur to, whose authority to obey? The Church, therefore, as the Sacred Scriptures, and the writings of the holy men who are gone before us, testify, includes within her fold the good and the bad: and this interpretation is sustained by the Apostle, when he says: " There is one body and one spirit." [4] Thus understood, the Church is known, and is compared to a city built on a mountain, and seen from every side. [5] As all must yield obedience to her authority, it is necessary that she may be known by all. That the Church is composed of the good and the bad we learn from many parables contained in the Gospel: thus, the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Church militant, is compared to a net cast into the sea, [6] to a field in which tares were sown with the good grain, [7] to a threshing floor on which the grain is mixed up with the chaff, [8] and, also, to ten virgins, five of whom were wise, and five foolish; [9] and, long be fore, we trace a figure and striking resemblance of the Church in the ark of Noah, which contained not only clean, but also unclean animals. [10] But, although the Catholic faith uniformly and truly teaches that the good and the bad belong to the Church, yet the same faith declares that the condition of both is very different: the wicked are contained in the Church, as the chaff is mingled with the grain on the threshing floor, or as dead members, sometimes, remain attached to a living body.
Hence, there are but three classes of persons excluded from her pale, infidels, heretics and schismatics, and excommunicated persons; infidels, because they never belonged to, and never knew the Church, and were never made partakers of any of her sacraments; heretics and schismatics, because they have separated from the Church, and belong to her, only as deserters be long to the army from which they have deserted. It is not, however, to be denied, that they are still subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, inasmuch as they are liable to have judgment passed on their opinions, to be visited with spiritual punishments, and denounced with anathema. Finally, excommunicated persons, because excluded by her sentence from the number of her children, belong not to her communion until restored by repentance. But with regard to the rest; however wicked and flagitious, it is certain that they still belong to the Church; and of this the faithful are frequently to be reminded, in order to be convinced that, were even the lives of her ministers de-
