The Faith of Our Fathers - 1889 Author:James Gibbons Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: between the true Church and false sects, which out lord predicted would arise, He was pleased to stamp upon His Church certain shining marks, by which every sinc... more »ere inquirer could easily recognize her as His only Spouse. The principal marks or characteristics of the true Church are, her Uniiy, Sanctity, Catholicity, and Apostolicity,1 to which may be added the Infallibility of her teaching and the Perpetuity of her existence. I shall treat successively of these marks. CHAPTER II. THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH. BY unity is meant that the members of the true Church must be united in the belief of the same doctrines of revelation, and in the acknowledgment of the authority of the same pastors. Heresy and schism are opposed to Christian unity. By heresy, a man rejects one or more articles of the Christian faith., By schism, he spurns the authority of his spiritual superiors. That our Saviour requires this unity of faith and government in His members, is evident from various passages of Holy Writ. In Ills admirable prayer immediately before His pas- aion, He says: " I pray for them also who through 1 Symb. Con8ta.ntir.op. their word shall believe in Me; that they all may b one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe .that Thou hast sent Me."1 Here Jesus prayed that His followers may be united in the bond of a common faith, as He and His Father are united in essence, and certainly the prayer of Jesus is always heard. St. Paul ranks schism and heresy with the crimes of murder and idolatry, and he declares that the authors of sects shall not possess the kingdom of God. In his epistle to the Ephesians, he insists upon unity of faith in the following emphatic language : " Be careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the...« less