INSTRUCTION IV.

ON THE THINGS NECESSARY FOR BEING RECEIVED INTO

THE CHURCH.

Profession of Faith.-Its meaning.-Object of Faith.--Explicit and Implicit Faith.-Can the Faith ever change ?-Acts of Faith.-Conditional Baptism. Reason of it.-Confession. Difficulty of it.-Parts of Penance.-Absolution.-Contrition. Confession. Sincerity.-Satisfaction. -Preparation for Confession.-Examination of Conscience. - How Sin is divided.-Mortal and Venial Sin.-Circumstances of Sins.-Motives for Sorrow.-How to make a Confession.-The usual form of Confession.-Choice of a Confessor.

In my last Instruction, I finished what I had to say upon the five special subjects I proposed at the com

mencement.

I now come to another point. What are you to do to be received into the Church? What things are necessary? Amongst Protestants, as I hear, people pass backwards and forwards lightly enough from one sect to another. When they become Catholics, however, it is a very different thing. They can only be received by a very solemn act, which must be done

with great deliberation, and for which God will most certainly hold them responsible. What, then, is necessary? As far as ceremonial, very little. There is a short form, generally used quite privately, and even this may be dispensed with in some circumstances.

What is essential, however, consists of three things1st. Profession of Faith.

2nd. Conditional Baptism 3rd. Confession.

I propose to speak about these three things in this Instruction.

1. The Profession of Faith. The regular Profession of Faith put before converts, and indeed used on all occasions, is the Creed of Pope Pius IV. In this Creed there come a good many hard words and theological expressions, which are not easily understood by uneducated people, and for this reason some other form is frequently used.* It comes, however, to precisely the

same.

By your Profession of Faith "_

1. You mean to express your complete conviction that the "Holy Roman Church, Catholic and Apostolic," has been appointed by Almighty God to teach all nations, and is, therefore, infallible, and consequently that everything she teaches is true.

2. Beyond this abstract conviction, you mean to express that you personally believe and accept all

See Appendix. p. 245.

her teaching; that you submit your judgment on all religious matters to the decisions which she has given, and to all those which she may hereafter give; and that you acknowledge the Catholic Church to have a right, given by God, to command you in all that relates to your salvation.

There are two or three remarks I should like to make on this subject. First.-Faith has no parts. You cannot have half the Catholic Faith. There is no such distinction as essential and non-essential. The very idea of faith is that you accept all that is proposed to you by the authority which God has appointed to teach. If, for instance, you were quite willing to accept ninety-nine things which were proposed to you as matters of faith, but rejected the hundredth, you would simply have no faith at all. The 'object of faith," as it is called, is whatever the Church teaches as part of revelation, and therefore every Catholic must have the same "object of faith." It is true that a learned man will know the particulars of this "object of faith" much more perfectly than an ignorant one. He will know numbers of facts and definitions, and distinctions of which the other has never heard, and will have an accurate and scientific knowledge of doctrines of which the other has but the simplest idea. But as far as faith goes, they have precisely the same, since each accepts the whole teaching of the Catholic Church as his "object of faith."

There are two ways in which we may believe. We

may have a more or less accurate knowledge of cer tain truths, and believe them. This is called explicit faith. Besides this, we may believe truths, in general, which we do not distinctly know. In this case we accept them as contained in truths which we explicitly believe, or else as part of the teaching of an authority in which we have full confidence. Faith, of this kind, is called "implicit faith." All Catholics must have, at least, an implicit faith in all that the Church teaches, and thus all have "One Lord, one faith, and one baptism."

The other thing I would remark on is this. I said just now that you must be prepared to accept all future decisions of the Church.

Does the Church ever change its faith, or increase its teaching, or is it always the same?

The faith never changes. The revelation given by our Lord to His apostles was complete, and no new revelation can be given. S. Jude beseeches the brethren "to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints" (ver. 3). S. Paul says, "If any one preach to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let him be anathema." (Gal. i. 9.)

On the other hand, it cannot be doubted that that faith, which has been taught from the beginning, is taught more fully and distinctly as time goes on. Questions are constantly arising as to what is the faith of the Church on particular points, and these questions must be decided, when they become sufficiently impor tant, or else the Church would cease to be a real teacher,

Such decisions give an increase of definiteness to the Church's doctrines. Every Catholic is bound to correct erroneous ideas on any subject, which he may have entertained, in accordance with the decision of the Church, as soon as it is made known to him. Moreover, such decisions commonly require a corresponding change in the wording of the creeds and other forms in use. This, to those out of the Church, looks like a change of faith, whereas in reality it is only a fuller and more accurate exposition of the faith which the Church has always held.

Let us take an instance. We find in the Apostles' Creed the doctrine about our Lord, contained in these words: "And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord."

This, for some centuries, was a sufficient account of the Catholic doctrine. In the fourth century, however, a man named Arius appeared, who said, “Certainly, Jesus Christ is the only Son of God; but He is so called, not because He is of the same nature with the Father, but because He is the greatest of created beings, far above all angels and men."

Of course it was necessary immediately to condemn this error, and to set forth more fully and precisely what was the doctrine of the Church concerning the Divinity of our Lord.

The Church, therefore, in the Council of Nicæa, defined explicitly what was the true faith, and settled the question, once and for ever, by putting into the Creed, which we still use, the words, "And in our