t a powerful argument
in their favor that they could refer to an uninterrupted line of fifty
Bishops who occupied the See of Rome, how much stronger is the argument to
us who can now exhibit five times that number of Roman Pontiffs who have
sat in the chair of Peter! I would affectionately repeat to my separated
brethren what Augustine said to the Donatists of his time: "Come to us,
brethren if you wish to be engrafted in the vine. We are afflicted in
beholding you lying cut off from it. Count over the Bishops from the very
See of St. Peter, and mark, in this list of Fathers, how one succeeded the
other. This is the rock against which the proud gates of hell do not
prevail."(100)

Chapter VI.

PERPETUITY OF THE CHURCH.

Perpetuity, or duration till the end of time, is one of the most striking
marks of the Church. By perpetuity is not meant merely that Christianity
in one form or another was always to exist, but that the Church was to
remain forever in its _integrity_, clothed with _all_ those attributes
which God gave it in the beginning. For, if the Church lost any of her
essential characteristics, such as her unity and sanctity, which our Lord
imparted to her at the commencement of her existence, she could not be
said to be perpetual because she would not be the same Institution.

The unceasing duration of the Church of Christ is frequently foretold in
Sacred Scripture. The Angel Gabriel announces to Mary that Christ "shall
reign over the house of Jacob _forever_, and of his kingdom _there shall
be no end_."(101) Our Savior said to Peter: "Thou art Peter, and upon this
rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it."(102) Our blessed Lord clearly intimates here that the Church
is destined to be assailed always, but to be overcome, never.

In the last words recorded of our Redeemer in the Gospel of St. Matthew
the same prediction is strongly repeated, and the reason of the Church's
indefectibility is fully expressed: "Go ye, teach all nations, ... and
behold I am with you _all days_, even _to the consummation_ of the
world."(103) This sentence contains three important declarations:
First--The presence of Christ with His Church--"Behold, I am with you."
Second--His constant presence, without an interval of one day's absence--"I
am with you all days." Third--His perpetual presence to the end of the
world, and consequently the perpetual durati