Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

144 THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.the instruction of the teachers, to be baptised.and in the act of baptism they were received intothe divine society, and made partakers of the fulloperation of the Spirit who dwelt in it. They hadthe supernatural virtues of faith, hope, and charityinfused into them, each according to the measureof the grace accorded to him, and to help the exerciseof these virtues, that they might be borneas it were with the wings of a Spirit, the sevenfoldgifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude,knowledge, piety, and fear, were added tothe soul. None of these virtues and gifts werepossessed by believers as individuals ; all of themcame to men as membersof her who was doweredwith the blood of Christ,25 and whose bridal qualityimparted to her children all which that bloodhad purchased. In her was stored up that great,inexhaustible source of abiding life, the Body andBlood of her Lord and Husband: in her the redeemingO Word gave O direct from His heart thevivifying stream. In her was the gift of teachingwhich illumined the understanding, and notonly drew from without, as we have seen, thosewho should be saved from the ignorance of thepagan or the carnalism of the Jew, but whicherected in the world the Chair of Truth,26 that25 " Non te fefellit sponsus tuus: non te fefellit qui suo sanguine tedotavit." S. Aug. torn. v. 1090 b.26 " Quod tune faciebat imus homo accepto Spiritu sancto, ut unushornomnibus loquitur,Et modo unus hoiDO in omnibus gentibus linguis