Christian commonwealth: by the Apostle it is called " the House and Edifice of God," when writing to Timothy, he says, " If I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth." [1] It is called a house because it consists, as it were, of one family, governed by one Father, and enjoying a community of all spiritual goods. It is also called the flock of Christ, of which he is " the door and the shepherd." [2] It is called the spouse of Christ: "I have espoused you to one husband," says the Apostle to the Corinthians, "that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ:" [3] and writing to the Ephesians, he says: " Husbands, love your wives, as Christ, also, loved the Church, and delivered himself up for it:" [4] and, also, speaking of marriage, he says: " This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church." [5] Finally, the Church is called the body of Christ, as may be seen in the epistles of St. Paul to the Ephesians, [6] and Colossians: [7] appellations each of which has considerable influence in exciting the faithful to prove themselves worthy the bound less clemency and goodness of God, who chose them to be his people.
The Having explained these things, it will be necessary to enumerate the several component parts of the Church, and point their difference, in order that the faithful may the better comprehend the nature, properties, gifts, and graces of the Church, the object of God's special predilection; and unceasingly offer to the divine majesty the homage of their grateful praise. The Church consists principally of two parts, the one called the Church triumphant, the other, the Church militant. [8] The Church triumphant is that most glorious and happy assemblage of blessed spirits, and of those souls who have triumphed over the world, the flesh, and the devil, and, now exempt from the troubles of this life, are blessed with the fruition of everlasting bliss. The Church militant is the society of all the faithful still dwelling on earth, and is called militant, because it wages eternal war with those implacable enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. We are not, however, hence to infer that there are two Churches: they are two constituent parts of one Church; one part gone before, and now in the possession of its heavenly country; the other, following every day, until, at length, united to its invisible head, it shall repose in the fruition of endless felicity. [9]
The Church militant is composed of two classes of persons, the good and the bad, both professing the same faith and partaking of the same sacraments; yet differing in their manner of life and morality. The good are those who are linked together not only by the profession of the same faith, and the par-
