or him. This Christ
had done. That Christ's body was not as other men's bodies was proved
after his resurrection, when it showed itself independent of the
limitations of extended substance. In virtue of these mysterious
properties it became the body of the Corporate Church into which
believers were admitted by baptism. The natural body was not at once
destroyed, but a new element was introduced into it, by the power of
which, assisted by penance and mortification, and the spiritual food
of the Eucharist, the grosser qualities were gradually subdued, and
the corporeal system was changed. Then body and spirit became alike
pure together, and the saint became capable of obedience, so perfect
as not only to suffice for himself, but to supply the wants of others.
The corruptible put on incorruption. The bodies of the saints worked
miracles, and their flesh was found unaffected by decay after hundreds
of years.

This belief so long as it was sincerely held issued naturally in
characters of extreme beauty; of beauty so great as almost to
demonstrate its truth. The purpose of it, so far as it affected
action, was self-conquest. Those who try with their whole souls to
conquer themselves find the effort lightened by a conviction that they
are receiving supernatural assistance; and the form in which the
Catholic theory supposed the assistance to be given was at least
perfectly innocent. But it is in the nature of human speculations,
though they may have been entertained at first in entire good faith,
to break down under trial, if they are not in conformity with fact.
Catholic theology furnished Europe with a rule of faith and action
which lasted 1500 years. For the last three centuries of that period
it was changing from a religion into a superstition, till, from being
the world's guide, it became its scandal. 'The body of Christ' had
become a kingdom of this world, insulting its subjects by the
effrontery of its ministers, the insolence of its pretensions, the
mountains of lies which it was teaching as sacred truths. Luther
spoke; and over half the Western world the Catholic Church collapsed,
and a new theory and Christianity had to be constructed out of the
fragments of it.

There was left behind a fixed belief in God and in the Bible as His
revealed word, in a future judgment, in the fall of man, in the
atonement made for sin by the death of Christ, and in the new life
which was made possible by His resurrection. The change w