of men for a fuller manifestation both of his presence and of his kingdom. But this divine procedure, binding as it might be on us in dealing with heathen nations who have never heard his name, can be no rule for us, nor even lawful for us, in dealing with those who have been baptised into the full light of faith. From them nothing may be kept back. With them no economy can be admitted. There is now no "disciplina arcani" among the members of his mystical body. "That which you hear in the ear, preach ye on the house tops" (S. Matthew x. 27).
By "opportune," then, in the mind of the objector, must be meant something politic or diplomatic, some calculations of local expediency in respect to nations and governments. This sense of opportunity is proper to legislatures and cabinets in deliberating on public utilities and opinions; but in the Church, and in the truths of revelation, it is always opportune to declare what God has willed that men should know. If the infallibility of the head of the Church be a doctrine of revelation, then "necessity is laid upon us, and woe unto us if we preach not the Gospel" (1 Cor. ix. 16). It may, however, be said that many revealed truths are not defined; and that it does not follow that any doctrine ought to be defined, only because it is true, or because it has been revealed.
II. This is indeed certainly true, and would be of weight if this revealed truth had never been denied. There are two reasons for which the Church from the beginning has defined the doctrines of faith: the one to make them clear, definite and precise; the other to defend them and to put them beyond doubt when they have been called in question. If the infallibility of the head of the visible Church had never been denied, it might not have been necessary to define it now. The true doctrine of justification was never defined till it was denied. The nature of inspiration has never yet been defined, but the denial which is now spreading may one day make it necessary to define it. In like manner the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff has been openly denied. Its definition, therefore, has become necessary. It was never indeed formally denied before the period of the
