[275] Dr. Salmon, Infallibility, p. 115, has a clever comparison of the authority of the Church to that of the town clock. The value we assign to having such an authoritative standard of the right time does not prevent our recognising the importance of having it regulated. 'And if we desired to remove an error which had accumulated during a long season of neglect, it would be very unfair to represent us as wishing to silence the clock, or else as wishing to allow every townsman to get up and push the hands backwards and forwards as he pleased.'
[276] But cf. pp. 196-8, 229-232, 258-260.
[277] Manning, Temporal Mission of the Holy Ghost, third edit. pp. 9, 29, 238-240.
[278] See, for instance, c. Haer. v. 10, 2. 'The wild olive does not change its substance [when it is grafted in, see Rom. xi. 17], but only the quality of its fruit, and takes a new name, no longer being called an oleaster but an olive; so also man when he is by faith grafted in, and receives the Spirit of God, does not lose his fleshly substance, but changes the quality of the works which are his fruits, and takes another name indicating his improved condition, and is no longer described as flesh and blood, but as a spiritual man.' So also v. 6, 1, 'whom the apostle calls "spiritual" because they have the Spirit, not because they have been robbed of the flesh and become bare spirit.' It is the recognition of this principle that makes most of the language of the Fathers on fasting so healthy and sensible. The end of fasting is not to destroy the flesh, but to free the spirit.
[279] See especially Mozley's Lectures on the Old Testament, x.: 'The end the test of progressive revelation.'
[280] Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxi. 25. Many of the greatest of the ancient Christian writers depreciate the sacrificial law as a mere concession, made to avoid worse things, when the incident of the calf shewed that the first legislation of the Ten Commandments was too spiritual: so Jerome in Isai. 1, 12, In Jer. vii. 21. Cf. Justin, Trypho 19. Chrys. adv. Jud. iv. 6. Epiphan. Haer. lxvi. 71. Constt. ap. i. 6; vi. 20. This method of interpretation is perhaps derived from the Epistle of Barnabas, 2-4.
[281] Chrys. in Matth. Homil. xvii. 5-6 (slightly abbreviated). Cf. Libell. Faustin. et Marcellin. in Bibl. Vet. Patrum. tom. v. 657 d.
[282] On the Holy Spirit, xiv. 33 (Lewis' trans.).
[283] Aug. de Trin. i. 10, 21. This principle alone gives a basis for the doctrine of 'imputation' so far as it is true. God deals with us, e.g. in absolution, by anticipation of what is to come about in us, in Christ.
[284] Thom. Aq. Summa Theol. pars sec. sec. Qu. 1. Art. ix.