APPENDIX.

L

NOTE A, page 25.

The Nature of the Priest's Office.

"THE priesthood, it is true, is accomplished on earth, but is, nevertheless, justly placed in the rank of celestial things. In fact, no man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor created power, but the Paraclete himself, has instituted this office, and chosen beings yet living in the flesh to fulfill the ministry of angels. Hence, the priest, regarding himself as established in heaven, even among the superior powers there, ought to be as pure as they. The economy which preceded that of grace was doubtless venerable and full of holy dread: Let us bring before our minds those precious stones on the priest's breastplate and shoulders; that mitre, that tunic, those golden plates, that holy of holies, that profound silence in the inner temple. And yet, comparing all these things. with those of the Gospel, their glory is effaced-they appear mean. When you contemplate the Lord himself immolated and lying before you, the priest bent over the victim, and praying for all, and all sprinkled with most precious blood, believe ye that ye are yet among men? believe ye that ye are on the earth? Are ye not borne away suddenly to heaven? and then, away from every carnal thought, behold ye not heavenly things directly, and in their pureness? Who, unless he be profoundly insensate, can disregard so awful a mystery? And know ye not that no soul of ⚫ man could ever bear the fire of this sacrifice; that it would devour all who should approach it, unless God himself should intervené with the powerful support of his grace? Represent to yourselves the man

who yet, under the bondage of flesh and blood, personally approaches this immortal and most blessed Being, then may ye understand perfectly what honor the Holy Spirit has vouchsafed to the priest, by whom these things, and others, too, in no respect inferior to them, are accomplished."-CHRYSOSTOм, De Sacerdotio, lib. iii., c. iv.

NOTE B, page 27.

The Mystery of Preaching.

"PREACHING is a mystery not less awful and terrible than that of the Eucharist. It appears to me that preaching is much more awful; for it is that by which souls are begotten and quickened unto God; whereas by the Eucharist they are only nourished, or, to speak more correctly, healed. It is only by great self-renunciation that we can render ourselves worthy of this office; and after having disciplined our heart to desire nothing in this world, we must discipline our tongue to perfect silence, which, as I understand it, is the highest perfection to which a virtuous man attains: Only thus can it be prepared to speak the word of God in public, without any thought either of ourselves or others-which in prayer we can not do; for, from prayer performed according to God's will, exhortation or preaching is not to be altogether separated. And, for my part, I had rather say a hundred masses than preach once. We are alone at the altar; but in the pulpit we preach to a public assembly, where we ought to fear offending God more than elsewhere, unless we have previously labored for a long time to mortify our spirit, and that pruriency which every one has to know many fine things, which is the greatest temptation that remains to us from the sin of Adam."-SAINT CYRAN (Lettre xxxi.), à M. Le Rebours.

On the speedy Assumption of the Personal Authority of the Priest. "WHILE inspired men thus preached Christ in entire simplicity, and added to this preaching admonition and encouragement, Christians edified themselves in their assemblies by sacred songs and pious conversation, and by listening to those from among themselves who felt constrained to preach. Those who were under this impulse were most frequently elders, whom the assemblies chose for the very reason that they had been previously chosen to this work. Other believers, who did not remain always in the community, labored thus after the manner of the apostles-so that from the beginning there was a teaching class, although their separation to this work took place gradually. We find this class already in the second and third generations of believers-that is, as early as the second century; so that the distinction between the believers and ministers in a community, or, to use the Greek expression, between the clergy and laity, was established.

"NOTE.-The Apostle Peter, moreover, under the word λñpos, comprehends, in the spirit of Judaism, the people of God or Christians (1 Pet., v., 3); the elders, however, were soon designated by this name, perhaps because they were chosen by lot, which they supposed to be a divine direction; perhaps because, as Jerome profoundly explains (Ep. ii., ad Nepot.), God had made himself the lot—that is to say, the heritage of the Levites; and because, in the Christian Church, the ecclesiastics occupied the place of the Levites; lastly, perhaps, because they are in a peculiar manner themselves the property of God. Immediately after the apostolic age, all those who were consecrated to the service of the Church, whether employed as teachers, or in any other office, were entitled Kλnpikol, and other Christians Xaïko (pertaining to the people), or BiwTikoi (seculares, pertaining to common life), and idirαι (privati), or кavoviкoi (a word taken in a different sense from that which prevailed at a later period, and coming from kaváv, a list of the members of the community). The earliest proof we have of this is the following passage of Clemens Romanus, N. 40

(assuming the authenticity of this letter): καὶ λευίτας ἰδίαι διακονίαι ἐπίκεινται, ὁ λαικὸς ἄνθρωπος τοῖς λαικοῖς προςτάγμασιν δέδεται. He here exhorts to order, in performing ecclesiastical rites, and subordinates the iepeîs to the apxiepeus. The distinction is yet more exact in the epistle attributed to his contemporary Ignatius, who, we know, even at that time, professed hierarchical principles. Clement of Alexandria assures us that this distinction had begun to reveal itself as early as the time of the Apostle John; and the writings of Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, date this distinction in the second century. · In Consil. Illib., the term fidelis is employed as a synonym for clericus." -SCHWARZ, Katechetik, p. 11, 12.

NOTE D, page 47.

First Appearances of a Tendency to form Pastors into a Caste. "CHRISTIANS still loved to represent their vocation under another point of view, drawn equally from Scripture and from the essence of Christianity, and fertile, like the former, in particular applications; namely, that of a Christian and universal priesthood; of an order of sacrificers, of which all Christians are members. Christianity destroyed the separation between the priest and the layman, between the ecclesiastic and the citizen: All believers in Christ, the only true High-priest, are consecrated by him to the Heavenly Father: As his brethren, they have become priests with him; unîted to him by faith, animated by him with the spirit of adoption, they enter freely into the heavenly sanctuary, into which Jesus has preceded them, and access to which he has opened to them. They have no longer need of a human high-priest to represent to them the new sanctuary-the spiritual and true sanctuary; or to conduct them into it, like children, by the leading-strings of ordinances, and dispense to them sparingly, and according to his wisdom, the heavenly treasures which eternal love has put equally within the reach of all. They need no one to teach them what they can now learn from the mouth of God himself; for all may be instructed of God,