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Show Our !ub Conversations By Orestes A. Brownsort. CONVERSATION XIII (Continued). "That is all very true.- interposed Father John, ''if we take care to-distinguish properly between natural society and the Church. The Church recognizes rec-ognizes two societies, but the distinction Itetwern them is not precisely the distinction between the spiritual and the secular. The original order, as was feen in our lat conversation, was the patriarchal, patri-archal, which vested all authority in the father of the family, who was at once priest and king. This order was propagated or perpetuated by natural generation and therefore U called natural society. iud it; l uv the Inw of nature. The Jewish prio-t- j boo,!, type of ih; Christian, was restricted to an ! elect people indeed, but, as it was perpetuated by ! natural generation, did not lift even that people ! out of the order of natural society. The Christian j priesthood is catholic, instituted for , all men and j nations, but the society it founds is propagated by graer, not by natural generation, and therefore is called supernatural society. The patriarchal society so-ciety included the whole human race, and was commensurate com-mensurate with natural society; the Jewish in- j eluded only a siinrle nation, but was com- j mensurate with natural society within the limits 1 of that nation. The supernatural or Christian society, so-ciety, as perpetuated by grace, included only those j who are bom of grace by baptism, and is com- 1 mensurate only with the baptized, or regenerated j humanity. The supernatural does not destroy. abridge or annul, the natural. The Church there- ; fore leavi s natural society tandin'g. in full pos- j session of all its original rights under the patri- ! arch. All authority comes from Cod through the j spiritual, but. not necessarily through the Church j or supernatural society. Princes may hold from I Cod under the law of natural society, ami though ! they would not hold from the Church, thev would 1 ..I :n 1. I 1 a- ..1. - . 1 " ! Miii 1101M i rom 1 ue spiritual. "Hut though the supernatural," objected Dief-enbach, Dief-enbach, "does not abrogate the natural, it includes it. The law of the patriarchal or natural society included not merely the dictates of natural, but also the primitive revelation containing in substance sub-stance the whole Christian revelation; it is therefore there-fore substantially the law of the supernatural society, so-ciety, and not radically or really distinguishable from it. The Church succeeds to the patriarchs, and has authority in both societies, and therefore the same authority over princes holding from God through natural society ris over those holding from him through supernatural society." "According to the law under which the prince holds, and in relation to princes who belong to both societies, conceded,' replied Father John. "In natural society, as in the supernatural, the dominion domin-ion belongs to the spiritual, however the spiritual may be constituted, or by whomsover it may be represented. The Christian society, or the society that is perpetuated by the election of grace, does not create or found natural society, but presupposes presup-poses it. and fully recognizes its existence and rights. Xatural society holds its rights and powers from God, but not through the medium of supernatural super-natural society, which only recognizes and con- jinns them. Ihe prince, then, who, by the constitution con-stitution of the state, holds from God only through natural society, holds only under the law of that, society, and is officially bound by it alone. The Church, then, even though he is in her communion, can judge him in his principality only by that law, and, if not in her communion, cannot judge him at all, or exert any authority over him." '"The Church since ire coming of our Lord.' said Winslow, "represents on earth the ideal, the divine, and therefore the divine government or authority au-thority in all human life, public and private. As the legal successor of the synagogue and the patriarchs, patri-archs, she has all the authority of the Jewish high priest, and of the father of a family, prior to the separation of the priestly and kingly functions; for that separation was made by violence, and without the divine approval. The Church is one and indivisible, and therefore must have the same authority in both societies, and in all orders. True, the supernatural does not destroy or annul the natural, but since the Church succeeds to all the authority of natural society, she must have full authority under both laws, am! bi-ref..-,. t;lf. ..,, power over princes who hold li!mVr ,t10 .uv natural society that she has ,.v.'i- prince-; v,';i ...;. from the law of supernatural .cirr- TIm-'-i-i,,.'-natural society may have i,i..r. . but rm,,,,,: h,,L less power tii.-.u flu- natural x-ciety." "Mr. Winslow. in h; ht r; i : -r i : i J - the a-:- tlioriry of the Church, i'nrcrefs.' n-marU.-d o' '.',.'. ncr. -rbe doctrine we m- estaMi-hed. that d lon is founded in the creative act. Cods d. Mill ion rots on Ids creative net, as td-si can- ;!,o dominion of th.. dob-ate ropre.emame ,., then rest on th- creative act of 'hat . . representative, as second cau-e. and thus real! v copy or represent the divine dominion. As rae dees not create nature, bur presupposes if, th,. u. permit lira! soeiory cannot ever represent the divine di-vine dominion over the natural, and can on.- re- xu.c and confirm its ridits and powers. In re- srard to what pe-iains t( t,V tiatm-a!. she. as !,.. cecdinir i the synairo-uc and the pntriaeln. ni.i.v I i'-'-'p' b indeed, but only by the law of na!u:tl ! society." "v. ii. slo,"s doctrine." objected I )e fleune-ville. fleune-ville. "absorbs hi the ("iiuivh. u,l otdy the riidi; and powers ,,f the prince, but all the rights and . powers of the father, and s:ives to her the ir,c manapepienr of all public and private life." j "1 concede v. d!in-iy." said O'Connor, "the plenary plen-ary authority of the Church in all llei; pertain f0 religion, or to the interests of reli-ion. and she. riot T. is the jittlpe of what docs or does not pertain per-tain to religion, and what is or h n..t for or against j the interests of religion. If she tolls ):,e such or j such :t school is dausrerous to ndision. and thcre- fere I mint nor send my child to it. or if she .-.ay ; my religious duty requires mo to ,end my child t such or such another school. 1 hold 'myself bound to obey her. She imerpreis and defines my rights a a father, but- does not create them. i:id ; can neither n bro.cn te nor itbrid. Put when and where only Temporal interest, by her own judgment, judg-ment, are concerned. 1 may take the advice of niv pastor, but 1 do not rocop-nizc hi- authority tn ..,t,t.,.,.1 e .,n ...r .. . : t """i.. i.ivi i... . i-.. in ,ui in,- ihi.nis oi private ; : and domestic life. The Church define; what is or j is not seeuhriry. but within the. limits ,,f I she defines to bo secular T nm bound only by th" ' law of natural society. Jt, is the theocracy that d- -j njes all natural liberty. th?u intermeddles with one's whole life, tells authoriratively to what pi'. -I fessiops or ca'liiifrs. irrespective .V n Union-. ,.,.p-j ,.,.p-j siderations. we shall breed our children, when v.-o may buy or sell, what we shall eat or drink. vh: n we shall lie down, or when we -ha!i iret up, that has become so odious to mankind. 1 1 was theocracy in this odious sense that Calvin established in (Jenevn. and that the Puritans in Ihtyhmd. Scotland Scot-land ami the early New England colonies attempted attemp-ted to otab!i-h. If -on wish to destroy the n-maininc n-maininc influence of the clergy, and render religion re-ligion universally odious, you cannot do better than to insist on a system by whh'h Calvinist and Jaiisenists have plunged a large part of Kuropo into pure naturalism." "I have nothing to do wirh consequences, if what I assert be true." replied Winslow. "Truiit is not mine: T can neither make it nor unmake i:. If Cod has given his Church the full powers I allege, al-lege, neither .vou nor I can make it otherwise. All truth is good, fair and amiable, and if men find it not so the fault is in them, not in it." "Mr. Winslow. T perceive." said Father .Tohn. "has not as yet oast out all the leaven of the Pharisees, Phari-sees, and rerains some traces of his Puritan hhtli and breeding, lie has rf yet learned, it seepis to me, to appreciate the theological maxim, "grati.i supponit naturam." If grace supposes nature, supernatural su-pernatural society, founded by grace, supposes natural society, and can annul, alter, or abridge none of its original rights. The plenary authority of the spiritual I assert, without qualification or reserve, whether in supernatural or in natural society, so-ciety, but the Church, presupposing natural society, soci-ety, recognizes it as co-existing with the supernatural super-natural in Catholic or Christian society. She gov-." erns the natural in the bosom of the supernatural, indeed, but by the laws of the natural, and denies that grace releases us from a single one of the duties du-ties imposed, or revokes or abridges a single one. of the rights conceded by that law. She can. then, deny none of the rights or powers of princes holding hold-ing from Cod through natural society." (To Be Continued.) |