Third, from the dignity of the Catholic Church.
Third, from the dignity of the Catholic Church.
§ 412. The third rational argument is taken from the dignity of the Catholic Church. “As the Jews once surpassed all nations because they were entrusted with the oracles of God (Rom. 3:2), so the Church excels all sects because she alone, as Christ’s Bride, knows all mysteries of religion and is aware of the secrets of her betrothed. Yet if all things were written, and indeed clearly, the Church would have no privilege. Instead, heretics, pagans, and heathen would know about the mysteries of faith no less than the Church herself.”
We respond. (1) The Israelites are said to have been “entrusted with the oracles of God” because of the Holy Scriptures with which they had been entrusted (Deut. 4:8; Ps. [147]:19), for it is evident from Exod. 24:3 that the subject there concerns the written Law. (2) The privilege of the Church consists not in the preservation of traditions but in the preservation of the heavenly doctrine set forth in the prophetic and apostolic writings, which the Gentiles reject entirely and the Jews reject partly, and which heretics deprave and corrupt. (3) We must distinguish between the knowledge of the letter and of the Spirit. The former is the common property of both the devout and the wicked; the latter belongs to the devout alone (Matt. 16:17; 1 Cor. 2:14; etc.). (4) The greatest praise of the Church is that it does not hold the mysteries of faith and the form of divine worship like Eleusinian rites, but sets them forth publicly to all to promote their salvation. Tobit 12:11: “It is a good thing to keep a king’s secret, but it is honorable to reveal the works of God.”