Annotation XLII

”He built his house upon the rock.” — Matthew 7:24

On the Church.

The author of the Opus imperfectum, homily 20: “The Church,” he says, “which Christ built upon the rock, cannot perish. Nor is it contrary [to this] that certain [persons] fall away from the Church; for those were never Christians.” Henry of Andernach, on the first [book] of the Sentences, distinction 40, question 2, citing these words under the name of Chrysostom, says that by them it is signified that those who have finally fallen from the Church were not Christians according to the grace of eternal righteousness, but only according to the grace of present righteousness.