Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

FOUNDATION OF THE ROMAN CHURCH 41imparted them so joined to the Apostolate which Hecreated, and especially to Peter, whom alone He madethe Rock, the Foundation, and the Door-keeper, theConfirmer of his brethren, the Shepherd and theRuler of the Fold. He extended that which hadbeen confined within the limits of a nation to thewhole race of man. He detached the carnal coveringwhich veiled the promises, and disclosed them intheir full spiritual light. For the priesthood offeringthe sacrifices of bulls and sheep, He instituted thepriesthood which offered at His own table the sacrificeoffered by Himself, and w He made it a royal priest-hood, ordering that its possessors should sit upontwelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.So should they become . perpetual guardians andmaintainers of the law of truth and charity which Heleft in that new Israel. Thus He disposed to themthe kingdom which had been disposed to Him. Inthis manner the covenant, the legislation, the worship,the adoption, the glory, and the promises, which madeaccording to St. Paul the distinction of the JewishChurch, passed over to the Christian, which became ina higher sense than the former, in the words of St.Peter, " a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,a purchased people." Moses, Aaron, and Davidhaving been gathered up into the one Christ, therace of Abraham became the race of the God-Man.Now, what Moses did in the type, Peter did in theantitype. As Moses drew out the life of the Jewishpeople as a personal relation to God in what theybelieved, in what they worshipped, and in what they^1 Luke xxii. 29, 30, in which passage, as Dollinyer notes, whilecreating the royal priesthood in the Apostolate, He marks that thereshould be one that is greater amons them.