CHURCH
752
CHURCH
in the Lord" (Eph., ii, 20 sq.). With a slight change
in the metaphor, the same Apostle in another passage
(I Cor., iii, 11) compares Christ to the foundation,
and himself and other Apostolic labourers to the
builders who raise the temple upon it. It is notice-
able that the word translated "temple" is va6s, a term
which signifies properly the inner sanctuary. The
Apostle, when he employs this word, is clearly com-
paring the Christian Church to that Holy of Holies
where God manifested His visible presence in the
Shekinah. The metaphor of the temple is well
adapted to enforce two lessons. On several occasions
the Apostle employs it to impress on his readers the
sanctity of the Church in which they have been incor-
porated. "If any shall violate the temple of God",
lie says, speaking of those who corrupt the Church by
false doctrine, "him shall God destroy" (I Cor., iii,
17). And he employs the same motive to dissuade
disciples from forming matrimonial alliance with un-
believers: "What agreement hath the temple of God
with idols? For you are the temple of the living God "
(II Cor., vi, 16). It further illustrates in the clearest
way the truth that to each member of the Church God
has assigned his own place, enabling him by his work
there to co-operate towards the great common end,
the glory of God.
The third parallel represents the Church as the bride of Christ. Here there is much more than a metaphor. The Apostle says that the union between Christ and His Church is the archetype of which human marriage is an earthly representation. Thus he bids wives be subject to their husbands, as the Church is subject to Christ (Eph., v, 22 sq.). Yet he points out on the other hand that the relation of hus- band to wife is not that of a master to his servant, but one involving the tenderest and most self-sacrificing love. He bids husbands love their wives, "as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it" (ibid., v, 25). Man and wife are one flesh ; and in this the husband has a powerful motive for love to- wards the wife, since "no man ever hated his own flesh". This physical union is but the antitype of that mysterious bond in virtue of which the Church is so truly one with Christ, that "we arc members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 'For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh'" (Eph., v, 30 sq. ; Gen.,ii,24). In these words the Apostle indicates the mysterious parallelism be- tween the union of the first Adam with the spouse formed from his body, and the union of the second Adam with the Church. She is "bone of his bones, and flesh of his flesh", even as Eve was in regard to our first father. And those only belong to the family of the second Adam, who are her children, "born again of water and of the Holy Ghost". Occasion- ally the metaphor assumes a slightly different form. In Apoc, xix, 7, the marriage of the Lamb to his spouse the Church does not take place till the last day in the hour of the Church's final triumph. Thus too St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians (II Cor., xi, 2), compares himself to "the friend of the bridegroom", who played so important a part in the Hebrew mar- riage ceremony (cf. John, iii, 20). He has, he says, espoused tin- Corinthian community to Christ, and he holds himself responsible to present it spotless in
the bridegroom.
Through the medium of these metaphors the Apostles set forth the inward nature of the Church.
Their expressions Leave no doubl thai in them they always refer to the actually existing Church founded by Christ on earth - tin' society of Christ's disciples.
Hence it n instructive to observe that Protestant divines find it necessary to distinguish between an actual and an ideal Church, and to assert that the teaching of the Apostles regarding the Spouse, the Temple, and the Body refers tO the ideal Church
alone (cf. Gayford in Hastings, "Diet, of the Bible",
s. v. Church).
VI. The Necessary Means op Salvation. — In the preceding examination of the Scriptural doctrine regarding the Church, it. has been seen how clearly it is laid down that only by entering the Church can we participate in the redemption wrought for us by Christ. Incorporation with the Church can alone unite us to the family of the second Adam, and alone can engraft us into the true Vine. Moreover, it is to the Church that Christ has committed those means of grace through which the gifts He earned for men are communicated to them. The Church alone dis- penses the sacraments. It alone makes known the light of revealed truth. Outside the Church these gifts cannot be obtained. From all this there is but one conclusion: Union with the Church is not merely one out of various means by which salvation may be obtained: it is the only means
This doctrine of the absolute necessity of union with the Church was taught in explicit terms by Christ. Baptism, the act of incorporation among her members, He affirmed to be essential to salva- tion. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: he that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark, xvi, 16). Any disciple who shall throw off obedience to the Church is to be reckoned as one of the heathen: he has no part in the kingdom of God (Matt., xviii, 17). St. Paul is equally explicit. "A man that is a heretic", he writes to Titus, "after the first and second admonition avoid' knowing that he that is such a one is . . . condemned by his own judgment" (Tit., iii, 10 sq.). The doctrine is summed up in the phrase, Extra Ecclcsiam nulla salus. This saying has been the occasion of so many objections that some consideration of its meaning seems desirable. It certainly does not mean that none can be saved except those who are in visible communion with the Church. The Catholic Church has ever taught that nothing else is needed to obtain justification than an act of perfect charity and of contrition. Whoever, under the impulse of actual grace, elicits these acts receives immediately the gift of sanctifying grace, and is numbered among the children of God. Should he die in these disposi- tions, he will assuredly attain heaven. It is true such acts could not possibly be elicited by one who was aware that God has commanded all to join the Church, and who nevertheless should wilfully remain outside her fold. For love of God carries with it the practical desire to fulfil His commandments. But of those who die without visible communion with the Church, not all are guilty of wilful disobedience to God's commands. Many are kept from the Church by ignorance. Such may be the case of numbers among those who have been brought up in heresy. To others the external means of grace may be unattainable. Thus an excommunicated person may have no opportunity of seeking reconciliation at the last, and yet may repair his faults by inward acts of contrition and charity.
It should be observed that those who are thus saved are not entirely outside the pale of the Church. The will to fulfil all Cod's commandments is, and must be. present in all of them Such a wish im- plicitly includes the desire for incorporation with the visible Church: for this, though they know it not, has been commanded by God. They thus belong to the church by desire [voto). Moreover, there is a
true sense in which they may be said to be saved through the Church. In the order of Divine Provi- dence, salvation is given to man in the Church: membership in the Church Triumphant is given through membership in the Church Militant. Sancti- fying grace, the title to salvation, is peculiarly the grace of those who are united to Christ in the Church: it is tlu birthright of the children of God. The
