Spirit of truth, He promises Him _to the Apostles_, and assures His perpetual abidance with them and the successors in their charge, thus, "That He may abide with you for ever:" "He shall abide with you, and shall be in you:" "He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind which I have said unto you:" "Whom I will send unto you from the Father:" "I will send Him unto you:" "He shall lead you into all truth:" "He shall show you the things that are to come." And so the unity of faith may be expected from its _supreme_ cause, the Holy Spirit the Paraclete, _through the medium_ of the Apostles and their legitimate successors: the Holy Spirit in its _ultimate_, but they its _subordinate_ principle: He is the _source_, but they the _channel_. Thus to trust to the invisible action of the Spirit, but to despise the office and direction of the teachers ordained by Christ, in the very virtue of that Spirit, is to reject His divine institution, and to risk a shipwreck of the promised gift of faith and truth. For in exact accordance with our Lord's words here, S. Paul has set forth not only the institution, but the source, as well as the end and purpose, of the whole visible hierarchy. It is instituted by our Lord, as an act of His divine headship; its source is in "one and the same Spirit dividing to every one according as He will;" its end and purpose is, "the edifying the body of Christ, until we all meet into the unity of faith."[24] Each of these points is important. Our Lord's divine headship over the Church, all encompassing, as it is, and the spring of all blessing and unity, does not dispense with the establishment of a visible hierarchy, but rather is specially shown therein. And again, the Holy Spirit is the source and superior principle of all spiritual gifts to all, but yet He acts _through_ this hierarchy. He is the spirit who maintains faith and truth, but it is by the instruments of His own appointing.