Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE FIRST AND THE SECOND MAN.97restore the kingdom to Israel: that is, the seconddescent of the Holy Ghost forms the kingdomwhose witness to Christ is perpetual; forms thebody with which and in which He will be for ever bythis power of His Spirit dwelling in it to the endof the world. We have therefore here all thevarious functions and qualities which, under the fivegreat titles of Kingdom, Temple, Body, Spouse, andMother, delineate His Church, gathered up intothat unity which comprehends them all, and fromwhich, as a source, they all flow, u The Power ofthe Holy Ghost coming upon men."28 This creationis as absolutely His, and His alone, as the formingof our Lord's own Body in the Virginal Womb ;it is the sequel of it; the fulfilment among menof those divine purposes for which God becameIncarnate ; in one word, the Body of the Headperpetually quickened by His Spirit. And here wemay remark those striking resemblances betweenthe natural and mystical Body which this " powerof the Holy Ghost," the former of them both,indicates. For in the first the manhood29 cannotbe severed from the Person of the Word, nor inthe second can the body of the Church be severedfrom Christ the Head and His Spirit. Secondly,in the first the Person of the Word and His manhoodmake one Christ, and in the second Christ28 The Church is so called by S. Augustine.29 These five are taken from Passaglia de Ecclesia, lib. i. cap. 3,p. 34, 5.II.H