or any other spiritual gift which is in the soul, it cannot be acceptable to God unless it be based on a sincere faith, and placed securely on this foundation, as on an altar, that the gift may correspond to our words in purity and integrity. Many heretics, not having an altar, that is, the true faith, have spoken blasphemies for the voice of praise, by which I mean that, swayed by human opinion, they have, as it were, poured their gift upon the ground. But the man who offers a gift should have purity even of intention. And therefore, when we are about to make an offering of this kind in our hearts, that is, in God's secret sanctuary, as the Apostle says, For the temple of God is holy, which you are, and Christ dwells by faith in your hearts, if we should remember that our brother have anything against us, if, that is, we have offended him in anything, in which case we are in his debt, as he is in ours if he should have offended us, and if so, there is no need of proceeding to a reconciliation, for you do not ask pardon of the man who has done you an injury. You merely forgive him as you hope God will forgive you your offences against Him. We must seek to be reconciled if we should chance to remember that we have in any way wounded our brother; but this reconciliation is effected by a movement of soul, not of body, by a humble disposition of mind towards your brother whom you seek out in spirit by a kind thought in the sight of Him to whom you are to offer your gift. In this way, should he be on the spot, you can do your best to soften him, and to make him relent by asking his pardon, if you first pray to God about it, going out to him, not by a slow movement of body, but by the swift wings of the heart, and coming back, that is, recalling your mind to what you were about, you can offer your gift...

XXXII.

CURING OF THE TEN LEPERS.

(Quæstiones Evangeliorum, lib. ii. quæst. xl.)

In the matter of the ten lepers whom the Lord cleansed when He said, Go, show yourselves to the priests, many questions may be asked which are of real interest to the inquirers. Not only do we ask ourselves what their being ten signified, and why only one of the number returned thanks-this is a detail which, even if it be not examined, does not materially affect the reader's mind, or slightly; but why rather did Our Lord send them to the priests, that in going they might be cleansed?

We find that, out of all those whom He cured, He sent none to the priests except only the lepers; for He had cleansed also the man to whom He said, Go, show thyself to the priests, and offer for thyself the sacrifice commanded by Moses as a testimony unto them. Then, again, how are we to understand the spiritual cleansing of men whom He reproached for their ingratitude? It is easy indeed to see that a man may be without bodily leprosy and yet that he may not be good, but, according to the sense of this miracle, it is puzzling to understand how an ungrateful man can be called clean.

We must try, then, to find out what the leprosy itself signifies. They who were without it are called clean, not sound. Leprosy is a defect in colour, not

an organic ailment or a failure in the power of senses or members. It is not, therefore, beside the mark to understand by lepers those who, not having the knowledge of the true faith, hold various doctrines of error. They do not hide their ignorance, but bring it forth to the light as the greatest cleverness, and boast about it in their speech. There is not one single false doctrine which has not in it something of truth. True doctrine, therefore, which is confused with an undue amount of false doctrines in the mouth of one man, like that which becomes apparent on the human body by colour, signifies leprosy, a leprosy composed, as it were, of healthy and unhealthy dyes, spots, and stains; mortal bodies with various hues of colour. These men are to be so shunned by the Church that, if pos sible, they should cry out at a great distance with a loud voice to Christ, as did these ten in the Gospel, who stood afar off, and lifted up their voice saying, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. Their calling Him Master, a name which, as far as I know, no man in search of physical health ever addressed Him by, is, I think, a sufficient proof that leprosy signified false doctrine, which our Divine Master destroyed.

As to the priesthood of the Jews, scarcely one of the faithful doubts that it was a figure of the future regal priesthood which is in the Church. By it all who belong to the body of Christ, who is the true and supreme Prince of priests, are consecrated; for all are now anointed, which only kings and priests then were; and when Peter, in writing to the Christian people, uses the words kingly priesthood, he declared that both names were suitable for the people to whom that unction belonged. God then checks and cures those vices which may be likened to diseases of the constitution, and to organic failure in sense or member, by

speaking in the secret of heart and conscience. But that doctrine which is either infused through the sacraments or taught by sermon or book, which doctrine has the semblance of a perfect harmony of colour, as it strikes the eye and is evident to all (for its effects are not in hidden thoughts, but in manifest works), is intrusted to the Church as her peculiar province. Thus when St. Paul heard the Lord's voice saying, Why persecutest thou Me? and again, I am Jesus, Whom thou persecutest, he was still sent to Ananias, that by that priesthood which is set up in the Church he might grasp the mystery of faith's teaching, and receive himself the true colouring which should make him acceptable. It is not that the Lord is unable to do all things by Himself, for who else, if not He, does these things even in the Church? but in order that the society itself of all the faithful gathered together, by approving in each other and exchanging the doctrine of the true faith, in everything spoken by word or shown forth by mysteries, may bear, as it were, one appearance of healthy colour.

To this also pertains what the same Apostle says: Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus also with me. And I went up according to revelation, and communicated to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but apart to them who seemed to be something: lest perhaps I should run or had run in vain. And a little farther on: And when they had known the grace that was given to me, James, and Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. This very union pointed out doctrine to be of one kind, without any variance whatsoever; and he admonishes the Corinthians also in the same sense, saying, I beseech you, brethren, by the

name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. Again, when Cornelius is told by an angel that his alms are accepted and his prayers heard, he is ordered to send to Peter for the sake of unity in doctrine and sacraments, as if the words, Go, show yourselves to the priests, had been said for him and for those like himself; for as they went they were cleansed. Peter had already come to them; but as they had not then received the sacrament of baptism, they had not reached the priests in a spiritual sense, yet still by the infusion of the Holy Spirit and their wonder at the Apostle's gift of tongues, their cleansing was manifested.

This being the case, it is easy also to conceive it possible that a man in the communion of the Church, holding pure and true doctrine, confessing by his lips the whole scheme of the Catholic faith, and discerning the creature from the Creator, may thus prove himself free from the errors of variety, from leprosy, as it were, and still he may be ungrateful to the Lord God his cleanser. He may be puffed up with pride, and not condescend to give thanks in prostrate humility, and he becomes like unto those of whom the Apostle speaks, Because that when they knew God they have not glorified Him as God, or given thanks. In saying that they knew God, he shows indeed that they had been cleansed of their leprosy, but at once accuses them of ingratitude. Thus such men will belong to the nine, being, as it were, imperfect. By the addition of one to nine a sort of type of unity is attained; so great is the completeness of ten, that numbers only progress from it by again returning to one, and this rule is carried out through every complication of numbers. Therefore the number nine requires one more to give it a certain form of unity which ten has; but one by itself is an unity which does not require the