97. But, saving always the reverence due to the Holy Fathers and other Doctors, that explanation does not seem quite satisfactory. For it is an article of belief that the Church of the Faithful has been the only one in existence from the beginning of the world, and will thus endure to the end of time. The head of that Church is Jesus-Christ, the mediator between God and men, by whose contemplation all things were made and created. Indeed, the faith in the divine Trinity, though less explicitly, and the Incarnation of the Word were revealed to the first man, and by him taught his children, who, in their turn, taught them their descendants. And thus, although most men had strayed into idolatry and deserted the true faith, many kept the faith they had received from their fathers, and observing the law of nature, stayed in the true Church of the Faithful, as is noticed by Cardinal Tolet in reference to Job, who was a saint among idolatrous Gentiles. And, although God had conferred especial favours upon the Hebrew people, prescribed for them peculiar laws and ceremonials, and separated them from the Gentiles, yet those laws were not obligatory on the Gentiles, and the faithful Hebrews did not constitute a Church different from that of the Gentiles who professed their faith in one God and the coming of the Messiah. 98. Hinc est, quod etiam ex Gentilibus fuere, qui Christi adventum, et alia Christianæ fidei dogmata prophetarunt, ut patet de =Balaam=, =Mercurio Trismegisto=, =Hydaspe=, ac =Sibyllis=, de quibus loquitur Lactantius, lib. 1. c. 6., ut scribit Cardinalis Baronius in =Apparatu Annal.= nº 18. Et quod Messias erat a Gentilibus expectatus habet Isaias in pluribus locis, et luculentum testimonium de hoc est prophetia Patriarchæ Jacob de Messia, quæ sic ait, =Gen.= c. 49. v. 10: =Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda, et dux de femore ejus, donec veniat qui mittendus est, et ipse erit expectatio Gentium=. Item Prophetia Aggæi, c. 2. v. 8: =Movebo omnes Gentes, et veniet desideratus cunctis gentibus=, quem locum explicans Cornelius a Lap. in Aggæ. c. 2. v. 8. § =Denique gentes=, ait: “=Gentes ante Christum credentes in Deum lege naturæ, æque ac Judæi expectabant ac desiderabant Christum=.” Pariter Christus ita se prodidit, et manifestavit Gentibus, sicut Judæis: si enim in ipsius nativitate per Angelum ejus notitia data fuit Pastoribus, per stellam miraculosam ad sui adorationem vocavit Magos, qui cum essent Gentiles fuerunt primitiæ Gentium in Christo agnoscendo, et adorando, ut ait S. Fulgentius, =Sermon. 6. de Epiph.=, sicut Pastores fuerunt primitiæ Judæorum. Itidem manifestatio adventus Christi per prædicationem (non quidem Apostolorum) prius facta est Gentilibus, quam Judæis; siquidem ut scribit Ven. Mater Soror Maria de Agreda, in =Vita J. C. et B. M. V.=, p. 1. l. 4. c. 26. n. 664: “=Quando B. M. Virgo cum S. Joseph portavit Puerum Jesum in Ægyptum, fugiendo Herodis persecutionem, mansit ibi per septennium: quo tempore