Untitled - Rore Sanctifica

12 The Exigency of Truth.
Holy. Hence liis duty to unite himself to sucli
a body becomes at once a duty.
But here a difficulty arises. There are many
Episcopal*Bodies claiming to be representatives
of the Church which are not in communion
with each other ;
he has therefore to make his
choice amono; them. He has recourse as before
o
to the New Testament, and in its pages he
finds an apparent prerogative given to S. Peter
over the rest. He finds a charge given to him
"
to feed our LORD S sheep
"
to strengthen his
brethren to bear the keys ; whilst his very
name indicates his being at the foundation of
the superstructure of the Faith, or of the
Church which, embodies it. He sees in the
world a body which claims to have at its head
a representative of S. Peter to whom all these
privileges were conveyed. But then, at the
same time, he sees the present claims, ostensibly
founded on the New Testament records, not
only not recognised by all other Episcopal
Bodies, comprising a very large minority of the
Christian World, but actually repudiated;
whilst, within the Body itself, he finds anything
but unanimity as to the extent of the powers
said to be bestowed on the representative of S.
Peter. He is therefore again
driven to
History, and there what does he find? Is there
/
the very slightest resemblance to what he has
previously
ascertained respecting
the three