already established that the Holy Ghost is the source and giver of all holiness, Ave here confess our belief in the Church which he has endowed with sanctity.
As the word Ecclesia (church) which is borrowed from the Greek, has been applied, since the preaching of the Gospel, to sacred things, it becomes necessary to explain its meaning. The word Ecclesia (church) means a calling forth; but writers afterwards used it to signify a council or assembly. Nor does it matter whether the word is used in reference to the professors of a true or a false religion: in the Acts of the Apostles it is said of the people of Ephesus, that, when the town-clerk had appeased a tumultuous assemblage, he said: " and if you in quire after any other matter, it may be decided in a lawful assembly" (Ecclesia): [1] The Ephesians, who were worshippers of Diana, are thus called by the Apostle, " a lawful assembly" (Ecclesia): Nor are the Gentiles only, who know not God, called a church or assembly, (Ecclesia): the councils of wicked and impious men are also, sometimes, called by the same name: " I have hated the assembly (Ecclesiam) of the malignant," says the Psalmist, "and with the wicked I will not sit." [2] However, in ordinary Scripture-phrase, the word was afterwards used to designate the Christian commonwealth only, and the assemblies of the faithful; that is of those who were called by faith to the light of truth, and the knowledge of God; who, forsaking the darkness of ignorance and error, worship the living and true God in piety and holiness, and serve him from their whole hearts. In a word, " the Church," says S. Augustine, " consists of the faithful dispersed throughout the world." [3]
Under the word " Church" are comprehended no unimportant mysteries, for, in this "calling forth," which the word Ecclesia (church) signifies, we at once recognize the benignity and splendour of divine grace, and understand that the Church is very unlike all other commonwealths: they rest on human reason and human prudence; this, on the wisdom and councils of God; for he called us by the interior inspiration of the Holy Ghost, who, through the ministry and labour of his pastors, and preachers, penetrates into the hearts of men.
Moreover, from this calling we shall better understand the end which the Christian should propose to himself, that is, the knowledge and possession of things eternal, when we reflect why the faithful, living under the law, were of old, called a synagogue, that is, a congregation: as S. Augustine observes, " they were so called, because, like cattle which usually go together, they looked only to terrestrial and transitory things;" [4] and hence the Christian people are called a church, not a synagogue, because, despising terrestrial and transitory things, they aspired only to things heavenly and eternal.
Many other names, replete with mysteries, are employed, by an easy deflection from their original meaning, to designate the
