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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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164 THE SECOND MAN VERIFIED IN HISTORY.thou shalt have children, whom thou mayest makeprinces in all lands. Thus, while the written recordwas interpreted, the unwritten teaching <strong>of</strong>the Church found a plain and unanswerable pro<strong>of</strong>in her invariable practice. All through her longhistory she is seen to be governed by bishops ;and the words <strong>of</strong> S. Paul, flanked by the institutionand the practice, are more than sufficient tomaintain the truth.Once more let us take the primacy <strong>of</strong> S. Peter'ssee in the Church. This, as is well known, restsin the written word mainly on three great passages<strong>of</strong> S. Matthew, S. Luke, and S. John. <strong>The</strong>se, indeed,are so specific and definite that they conveythe dignity intended as clearly as the passagesabove referred to convey the forgiveness <strong>of</strong> sinsor the Real Presence. But over and above these,what an overwhelming pro<strong>of</strong> in the unbroken succession<strong>of</strong> those who exercised the primacy fromthe beginning, and are referred to from age toage by the doctors, fathers, and historians <strong>of</strong> theChurch. Beside the charter»<strong>of</strong> institution standsthe long record <strong>of</strong> the work wrought in virtue <strong>of</strong>it, the witness <strong>of</strong> the Church to it in councils,the obedience to it in fact. As the priesthoodexists in attestation <strong>of</strong> the Real Presence, 7 sothe primacy stands beside our Lord's words, firstpromising and then conferring it, like the comment<strong>of</strong> eighteen hundred years, uniform and consistent.

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