K.
- M V*A #V!'

THE PAPACY

AND

MODERN CIVILIZATION.

IN FIVE DISCOURSES,

BY

DR. MILEY,

AUTHOR OF “ ROME UNDER PAGANISM AND THE PAPACY “ THE HISTORY OF
THE PAPAL STATES}” “ NAPOLEON III. ET LA PAPAUTE,” ETC.

“ The universal aptness of a religious system for all stages of civilization, and for all sorts and

conditions of men, well befits its claim of divine origin. She is of all nations and of all times,

that won(Jarful Church of Rome.”

—

Kinglake's “ Eothen," p. 112. London, Longman, S(c., 1858.

DUBLIN : GERALD BELLEW,
publisher, and wholesale agent for the sale of the

CHRISTIAN BROTHERS’ PUBLICATIONS,

78 & 79, GRAFTON STREET,

1860 .





qq^

NOTICE.

It has been said of these discourses that they condense the pith of libraries

into a few pages, and requite an hour’s reading with a knowledge more ma-

tured and comprehensive of the great subject of which they treat, than could

perhaps be arrived at by the desultory research of years.

FIRST SERMON (1st July, 1860).
Page

Origin and Object of St. Peter’s Supremacy - - 1

SECOND SERMON (8th July).

Has this Supremacy been inherited by the Popes ?—Question tested in
contrasting History with Prophecy - - - 9

THIRD SERMON (15th July).

The same pretensions tested by a searching inquiry into St. Peter’s re-

lations, personal and official, with Rome—Is it the Papacy that is
typified in the Apocalyptic imagery—the scarlet beast, &c. ? - 17

FOURTH SERMON (22nd July).

Wherefore, how, and by what sort of right has Territorial Sovereignty

been attached to the Papacy ? - - - - 27

FIFTH SERMON (19th August).

Civilization of great Commercial and Manufacturing Countries tested

by the Teaching of the Sermon on the Mount - - 38





€(xe imb Htnb^rit ttfiipftott.

FIRST SERMON.

“ Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build ray church.”

Matt. xvi. 18.

When a sculptor wishes to execute in marble or in bronze some

grand master-piece of art already conceived in his imagina-

tion, he takes a mass of plastic clay, and applies himself hour

after hour to mould and reproduce from this ignoble matter the

exact resemblance and embodiment of the glowing image in his

mind. Recollecting this, beloved brethren, it will be all the more

easy for you to meditate with advantage on the subject on which I

propose at present to address you—that is, on the wonderful ways
by which it pleased the Divine Redeemer, making choice of a

lowly fisherman, Simon Bar-Jona, of Bethsaida, to mould and

fashion him by his heavenly parables and lessons, until at length

we see fully, perfectly reproduced in his person that model and

standard conceived in the divine mind, of all that the vicegerent of

Christ, his alter ego on earth, the viceroy of his
“

everlasting-

kingdom,” ought to be.

May the Divine Paraclete illumine, purify, and dispose our

minds
;
and may the immaculate Virgin, ever gracious, vouchsafe

to assist us by her prayers. Ave Maria.

From the first moment of St. Peter’s being presented to our

Saviour, the divine work of fashioning and disposing him for his

wonderful destiny begins. On seeing him approach, conducted

by his elder brother, Andrew (John, i. 42), Jesus said to him,

“ Thou art Simon Bar-Jona—thou shalt be called Cephas, which

is interpreted a rock.” Nothing more was added then. It was

not intimated why this title is to be given, or in what it is that

1



2

Simon is to resemble a rock
;
but it is then and there revealed

and irrevocably fixed that with this dignity, whatever it may be,

the humble fisherman of Bethsaida is predestinated to be one day

invested
—

“

Simon Bar-Jona, tu vocaberis Cephas.”

Shortly after, however, in another scene—that set forth in the
5th chapter of St. Luke, wherein the Redeemer preaches to the

multitudes from the bark of Simon Bar-Jona, and the latter,

hoping against hope at his command, launches forth into the

deep—the divine sublimity of the office and dignity reserved for
St. Peter begins to be more clearly and definitely revealed. Thus,

it becomes now plain enough that in the mystic bark of Simon is to

be established the chair of truth
;
that there is to be the throne of

divine authority
;
and that thence are the doctrines of eternal life

to be proclaimed to the nations, aptly typified and represented in

those countless crowds that throng the shore
—

“ Et sedens docebat

de navicula turbas

And then the miraculous draught of fishes—what else is it
but a feeble foreshadow of that infinitely more stupendous miracle,

which is to cause the Jew and the Gentile, the Roman, the Greek,

and the barbarian to gather, as if from the four winds of Heaven
;

until the Church of Peter, the home and sanctuary of the nations,

knows no boundaries but those of the world ? And mark well,

beloved brethren, how it is to Simon, and to Simon alone—though
others who were to be apostles were present—that the mystic
import of all this is applied by the Redeemer. When all were

seized with wonder and awe at what they beheld, Jesus said to

Simon, “ Fear not ! henceforth, it is men thou shalt capture

—

Noli timere
,
ex hoc jam eris homines capiens .”

Without attempting to glance, even though it were only thus

rapidly, at many other similar passages abounding in the Gospels,

wherein we are permitted to follow as if step by step, and observe

this heavenly work as it progresses, I come at once to the grand

decisive words which I have taken for my text—“ Thou art Peter,
and on this rock I will build my church.”

You recollect, beloved brethren, how the Virgin is saluted with

the title of “ Blessed” by the Archangel, when, as ambassador of

the Most High, he comes to announce to her that she is chosen



3

for the holiest, most divine dignity, that even omnipotence could

confer upon a creature
;
and now, when the Saviour is about to pro-

claim his choice of a vicegerent in the person of the lowly fisher-

man, observe how he styles him “blessed
”—

“

Beatus es Simon

Bar-Jona.” At first, as you recollect, it was merely promised that

at some future time not specified, Simon Bar-Jona should receive

the title of Cephas, which is interpreted Peter, but now the title is

actually conferred: “And I say to thee,” says the Redeemer,

“ Tu es Petrus—thou art a rock.” Nay, more, the reason is
assigned for the propriety and fitness of this title, inasmuch as there

is to he a perfect analogy and likeness between his office and

dignity in the Church of Christ and that of the foundation or

corner-stone in a building. “ Thou art Peter, and on this rock I

will build my chu/rch”—that is, it is now revealed that by divine
decree the poor illiterate fisherman, after being prepared for and

exalted to the perfect likeness of the grand antetype existing in

the divine mind, is to be constituted the immovable foundation,

support, and corner-stone of the Church of Christ: “Et super

hanc peiram cedificabo ecclesiam meam.”

Nor is this all, beloved brethren
;

for it is added that with such

solidity is this foundation to be established, that even the “ gates

of hell shall not prevail against it ;” that all the might, all the

stratagems of the powers of darkness, though eternally renewed

with ever-varying forms and augmenting fury, shall never be able,

I do not say to overthrow, but so much as to damage it slightly,

or cause it to nod or tremble on its basis, thus rendered imperish-

able and infallible by guarantee divine:
“ Et portce inferi non

prevalebunt adversus earn.”

In fine, allowing the antetype and predestinated pattern in the

divine mind to reveal itself, and break forth upon us with all its inef-

fable grandeur, the Redeemer adds
—

“ And I will give to thee the

keys of the kingdom of Heaven.” Oh ! now, indeed, it is that the

dignity in reserve for the fisherman begins to impress us with all

its divine sublimity. That “ kingdom” foreshadowed in innumer-

able and magnificent types—that “kingdom” whose glories, though
beheld but in vision, had power to stir the breasts of the prophets

with their loftiest and most glowing inspirations—that “ kingdom”



4

which the Archangel Gabriel announced should never have an

end—that kingdom, the advent of which the great St. John the
Baptist, the angel of the desert, was sent forward to proclaim,

and which the incarnate Deity came on earth to establish and to

preach—its sceptre is confided to Simon Peter’s hands ! “ Et tibi
dabo claves regni coelorum.”

Nor is his to he a mere empty title, only a shadow of autho-

rity. Far from that ! for everything appertaining to the govern-

ment and economy of that “kingdom,” his jurisdiction is to be

co-ordinate with that of God himself. “ And I will give to thee

the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever you shall bind

on earth shall be bound also in heaven”—your act shall have
simultaneous effect in heaven and earth

—“and whatsoever you
shall loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven.”

And when all these promises are fulfilled and ratified
;
when, still

on the border of Genezareth where he first called him, the Lord

confers on Simon Peter the charge of supreme pastor of his fold

—

oh ! Christians, what a master-work and stupendous miracle of

omnipotence, condescension, and wisdom infinite is presented

before us in this Prince of the Apostles, in this Supreme Pontiff,

this infallible foundation and support of the Church of Christ
;

in

this key-bearer of heaven, and viceroy armed with power co-ordi-

nate with that of God over the Messiah’s “ everlasting kingdom,”

raised up, as we have seen, from the lowliest fortune—that of a
rude, illiterate fisherman on a midland lake, and prepared for and

made worthy of this inconceivable authority and grandeur, exclu-

sively and altogether through the wisdom, grace, and mercy of our

Blessed Lord—of Him who chooseth the weak things of this world
to confound the mighty, and the foolish to confound the wise

—

thus making it self-evident to the most heedless that all the

wonders that illustrate the establishment, the ever vivid action, and

the march of the Church militant through the world is His work

alone, and that thus no flesh may presume to glory in His sight.

“ Et injirma mundi elegit Deus ut confundat fortia : et ignobilia

mundi et contemptibilia elegit Deus, et ea quce non sunt
,
ut ea

quce sunt destrueret: ut non glorietur omnes caro in conspectu

ejus.” (1 Cor. i. 27, 29.)



5

Nevertheless, what is seen to happen regarding another great

work of God, happens also here. No doubt, the form of our first

father, as moulded from the earth by art divine, must have been

grand and impressive to behold, even while still inanimate
;
but it

is not till the godlike soul is breathed into this form by the Deity

that Adam lives and moves, and looks the lord of the creation,

“ with glory and with honour crowned in like manner, it is not

till he is touched by the divine fire, and that with the descent of

the Paraclete a supernatural effulgence irradiates and vivifies his

being a hundred-fold, dissipating for ever that mist which thereto-

fore allowed him to see hut dimly, and to feel the divine influences

working within him with only a torpid sense
;

it is not till he is

filled with the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost that the virtues,

powers, graces, thus accumulated in the soul of the anointed vice-

gerent of Christ are beheld to break forth in all their irresistible

energy.

Five thousand are converted by his first discourse, as, utterly

insensible to the fears of which he wTas whilome the victim, he pro-

claims the divinity of the Crucified before the infuriated multitudes,

who, but a few weeks before, had rejected Jesus for Barahhas,

and clamoured with impious imprecations for his blood. Ruthless

scourging, chains, and bondage, far from having for him any ter-

rors, are sources of heavenly joy. All the threats of the tyrant

reprobates of the Sanhedrim, who recoiled not from deicide, are

impotent to deter him from proclaiming the divinity of their victim,

and the virtue of his all-saving name. There radiates from his

person a supernatural influence that cures all maladies
;

nay,

wherever his shadow falls amongst the suffering throngs gathered

along his path, there they are healed instantaneously, and restored

by miracle to all their energies. The “ King of Terrors,” at his

command, delivers up his captives, and at the word of his reproof,

as by a thunderbolt, Annanias and Sapphira, in judgment of their

sacrilege, are struck dead. It is on his initiative the place left

vacant in the college of the apostles by the prevarication of Judas

is filled up. It is by him the Gentiles are admitted to the benefits

of redemption, made free of the empire of Christ. In Antioch he

first founds the Christian name, and overrunning the immense and



6

distant provinces of Pontus, Gallatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bythinia,

subduing them by conquests more rapid than those of the first

Caesar, he plants them everywhere with churches, and brings them

permanently into subjection to Christ.

Yet all these wonders are, so to speak, but essays—mere preli-
minaries to the grand and crowning enterprise reserved for him as

prince of the apostles—his advance against the capital of Romulus
and the Caesars, against heathen Rome, the head-quarters of

Lucifer. And success so miraculous crowns his efforts, that the

Church founded by him in the heart of that second Babylon, the

Seven-hilled City, doomed ere long to be totally overwhelmed by

the vials of divine wrath, and swept, with all its grandeur and

pride, “like the dust of the threshing floor,” from the face of the

earth, has become so illustrious for sanctity and authority, that,

as we are told by St. Paul before he set foot in it himself, its

renown had become great throughout the whole world.

And now, beloved brethren, in order to wind up my subject,

and, though hastily, to come to a conclusion, I must for a moment

recall your thoughts to that scene on the shore of Lake Geneza-

reth, where our Lord puts the last hand to the divine work of

preparing the lowly fisherman to represent Himself, and occupy

His place on earth.

He has constituted Simon Peter the corner-stone of his Church;

transferred to him his sceptre
;
invested him with supreme, uni-

versal authority over his kingdom. What, then, remains ? Is

not this the climax ? No
;
the crowning glory of all is yet to

come. After all this the Redeemer solemnly announces to

St. Peter, that it is moreover in store for him to ascend and

occupy the throne from which he has subdued the world, and

shall continue to wield dominion over it. “ Ligno non ferro

domuit orbem.” He warns him that, like himself also in this, he

is to die upon the cross—a promise, the accomplishment of which
was brought about in the manner in which I shall now narrate to

you, brethren, in a few rapid words :

In that fearful persecution which was excited by the powers

of darkness, exasperated at the triumph and renown of the still

infant Church of Rome— a persecution in which we learn from



7

the Pagan historian Tacitus that a multitude of Christians, beyond

counting (“ingens multitude)”), after being submitted to tortures

the most atrocious, were put to death—it was on St. Peter, as
might he naturally anticipated, that the demons and their devoted

agent, Nero, concentrated their most direful rage. But in the

darkest hours before the dawn which was to see him led forth to

martyrdom amidst the bloodthirsty outrages of the heathen mul-

titude, as happened when the angel liberated him from the hands

of Herod and all the heinous anticipations of the Jews, his prison

doors were now also opened, and at the impassioned entreaties of

his disciples, the venerable captive consented, though reluctantly,

to withdraw for awhile from Rome. Hardly, however, in passing

the gate Capena, has he set foot on the Appian way, when he

beheld coming towards him his divine Lord and Master, bowed

down once more beneath His cross.

“ Domine quo vadis”—cried out St. Peter—“ 0 divine Lord,
where art thou going ?” And Jesus answering him, said, “I am

going to Rome to be crucified again—Vado Romam iterum cru-
ciftgi”

The memory of the warning on the shore of Genezareth came

full on the soul of St. Peter, with the sound of those divine words

;

and hastening hack to the hideous dungeon of the Tullianum, he

was thence drawn forth next morning. And as his divine Master

and Model had been dragged to Calvary, midst every sort of outrage

and suffering, his vicegerent, the venerable Prince of the Apostles,

bowed and broken more by austerities and apostolic labours

than by years, after having been first scourged, was hurried

along to a narrow plain, nearly on the highest point of the Jani-

culum looking out over the Vatican Fields, where in after ages

his matchless temple was to rise, and commanding the entire view

of the Seven-hilled City, already doomed to destruction for rioting

in every species of abomination and in martyr blood. There,

fastening him hand and foot, they put him to death upon the

cross.

Behold, at length, beloved brethren, the crowning glory

!

The Redeemer by his death having made a throne supreme of his

cross, transfers it from Calvary to the Vatican, that his vicegerent



8

being thereon established, crowned with the martyr diadem, may

be in a position—he and his successors after him—to wield, by
divine sanction and authority, the supremacy over his Church and

kingdom with which he has invested him.

Reserving until next Sunday (8th July) to show that the in-

heritance of this supremacy, in its plenitude, by the Roman

Pontiffs is, of all historical facts, the most undeniable—I conclude
with one single moral lesson derived from the heavenly theme we

have been considering, deeply regretting that time does not allow

me to dwell on many others equally salutary and instructive which

it suggests.

When, on the one hand, we consider the pre-eminence to

which our Lord exalts St. Peter, and the honours, favours, and

privileges, he heaps upon him
;

and, on the other hand, behold

him first promising him the cross, and next bringing it to him on

his own shoulders, that he may thereon be put to death
;
how can

we any longer look on the trials and sufferings which Providence

permits to overtake us as a curse, or otherwise than as a blessing

and a mark of predilection ? Oh ! should we not blush to repine

or be disheartened under the strokes of adversity in presence of

the Prince of the Apostles, the supreme vicegerent and favourite

of the Lord of Glory, thus expiring on a cross. If destitute of

the heroic charity which caused St. Peter and his glorious col-

league, St. Paul, to thirst after the chalice of their Saviour’s

suffering, and long to return love for love, even in the shedding

of their blood, oh ! let us at least not murmur, whatever the

penance may be that shall be imposed on us from on high
;

let us

rather embrace it with humble, cheerful resignation, and pray to

be animated by some scintilla of that divine fire which, in its full

and perfect ardour, caused the apostle to exclaim : “ God forbid

that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,

by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.”



9

SECOND SERMON.

“ Et regni ejus non erit finis—And of his kingdom there shall be no end.”
Luke

,
i. 33.

What is here announced by the Archangel Gabriel to the im-

maculate Virgin, relative to the kingdom of her divine Son, his

true Spouse, the Catholic Church—her gaze fixed steadfastly on
the Papacy as the realm founded by St. Peter—has ever professed
and still professes to believe : that is, she holds it as a funda-

mental doctrine of faith, that this kingdom, which is the Church

of Christ, purchased by his blood and preached by his apostles,

shall never fail—never have an end, either as to universality or
duration

;
that its perpetuity is to know no interruption

;
but that,

without waning or decay—its existence characterised by a divine

and everlasting youthhood—it is destined to continue to the end
of time, not to be even then extinguished, like other empires, hut,

under a triumphal instead of a militant form, to flourish and reign

for all eternity
—

“ Et regni ejus non erit finis .

Many there are, however, who unfortunately make it their

religion to deny all this. According to authentic and authoritative

documents, such as the Homilies of the Church of England, the

most moderate section of Protestants make profession of the belief

that for
“
one thousand years and upwards” no vestige or appear-

ance of this kingdom was anywhere to be discovered, while all the

rest deny that it has ever had a visible existence at all.

This subject, which I undertake to treat to-day, in showing

that the kingdom announced by the archangel, and of which the

sceptre was confided to Simon Peter’s hands, is perpetuated in

the Church presided over by the Roman pontiffs, is so immense,

that to those acquainted with it, it may seem little short of teme-



10

rity to attempt to master it in half an hour. Nevertheless this

may possibly be accomplished, at least as to the great point at

issue, by adopting a novel test and form of argument, which you

will easily and perfectly understand from an illustration, which is

this : Were some eccentric philosopher to rise up in an assembly

and deny that the sun is the source of light, the shortest and best

way to convince him of his folly would he suddenly to exclude the

solar rays, and leave the darkness to refute and confound him.

Applying this to our subject, I take the foe and blasphemer of

the Papacy at his word, and say to him, “ Very well
;

let it he for

a moment supposed that the thing is as you proclaim—that is,
that the Church of the Popes is not the realm of Christ, but of

Antichrist. The better to test your assertions by the consequences

which will follow from them, let us suppose the Papacy blotted

out from the ecclesiastical firmament, as something hostile to

heaven.” It will then be seen at a glance that this supposition

is so fraught with impiety and the most revolting blasphemy, that

all who believe and hope in a Eedeemer must recoil from it with

horror.

0 Paraclete Divine ! illumine the darkness of our understand-

ing, that we may see the truth, and so move our refractory and

sluggish hearts, that, seeing it, we may fervently and practically

embrace it

!

As I said incidentally, on Sunday last, the ancient Testament

has for its scope and all-pervading purport the establishment on

earth of the Messiah’s kingdom—its immensity, its glory, its
never-failing perpetuity

;
and, in like manner, amongst the aims

of the Gospel were—first, to proclaim the approaching advent of
this kingdom, as in the case of St. John the Baptist and of the

apostles in their first mission
;

next, to announce its being

founded— to illustrate its economy, its destinies, in heavenly
parables—to fix its form of government, appoint its viceroy and
his subordinates. All this is done by our blessed Lord himself.

To insist on any proof of this would be like setting down the

Lord’s Prayer as apocryphal, or stupidly ignoring, not to say the

assertions a thousand times repeated of Holy Writ, but the most

solemn, momentous, and impressive facts of the Gospel.



11

Thus, as I have quoted in my text, the herald of the Most

High, in delivering his message, announces to the Virgin, that, of

the kingdom of her Son, “there shall be no end.” Again, when

he is born in Bethlehem of Juda, there come to Jerusalem wise

men, kings and satraps, conducted miraculously by a star from

the far-off east : they ask
—

“ Where is he that is born king of the

Jews ?” They, the depositories of divine tradition, seek him as

a king : the authorized interpreters of the law and the prophets

tell them, unhesitatingly, where is the predestinated birth-place

of their king
;
and in Bethlehem, it is, as a divine king, the magi

adore him and pay him the homage of their gifts.

It must have also struck you often, brethren, that the impulse

of the Jewish multitudes, whenever they are moved by his mira-

cles, is to seize the Messiah and proclaim him king; and the dread

that this might actually take place, especially after his raising

Lazarus to life, and his triumphal progress down Mount Olivet,

midst hosannas and acclamations to the Son of David, greatly

influenced the Sanhedrim in their diabolical resolves.

Again, the rabble of Jerusalem, and the legionaries of the Prse-

torium, derided and outraged him as a king. Pilate himself, though

a Gentile and a polished Koman, was so penetrated with this idea

(universally attaching to the Messiah) that he writes with his own

hand, and commands to be fixed above the head of the Crucified,

that he is a king
;
and peremptorily refuses, at the instance of the

Jewish princes, to cancel or even to modify the inscription. “Quod

scripsi, scripsi” was his answer; and thus the inspired handwriting

remains there, for ever proclaiming, like that gory wreath upon his

brow, that he reigns from the cross a king, and the founder of an

“
everlasting kingdom”—the same, mind you, brethren, of which

he gave the sceptre to Simon Peter.

If, therefore, there he any one thing more evident than another

in Holy Writ, this is it—that a kingdom is to be established on
earth by the Bedeemer, which, in extent, grandeur, and duration,

shall cast all other empires into the shade. In short, it is forced

upon the conviction of the most heedless investigator of the records

of inspiration, that so paramount is this realm and its destinies,

that the duration of the world itself is altogether contingent on,



12

and subservient to, the interests of this kingdom
;
and that when-

ever the number of the elect, its happy citizens, shall be filled up,

then shall time be no more, and the figure of this universe shall

vanish.

But, beloved brethren, if the belief of the foes of the Papacy,

of those who proclaim it to be the realm, not of Christ, but of

Antichrist, be admitted, what will follow ? Why, that all these

glorious and divine predictions, guarantees, and facts, are mere

chimeras ! If, according to their tenets, the spiritual empire of

the Popes is to be set aside, nowhere in the whole world can there

be discovered anything bearing the most remote resemblance to

this kingdom of the Messiah. Susceptible of the most over-

whelming proof for the whole 1,800 years, what I here assert is

admitted and proclaimed by the most moderate of our adversaries

as indubitable and of faith for the “ space of 1,000 years and

upwards,” while by all the rest it is admitted without any reserve

whatever, inasmuch as they deny altogether the visibility of the

Church.

That is to say, beloved brethren, were this anti-Papal doctrine

to be admitted—I shudder, even in vindicating God’s holy truth,
to state it—it would follow that the Christian, instead of looking-
up to that bleeding form, that thorn-crowned head, with faith,

hope, love, commingled in unutterable gratitude and enthusiasm,

should have to hang his head in shame, seeing that the divine

Author of his religion-—to whom be glory, praise, and benediction
for ever—would be thus exhibited in the light of an impostor,
whose promises have failed, whose predictions have not been ac-

complished, and against whom, contrary to his solemn guarantee

to Simon Peter, his adversary, Satan, whose head he was to have

crushed, has triumphantly prevailed !

O beloved brethren, from such outrageous impieties, even in

supposition, and to vindicate the divinity of our Redeemer, the

truly Christian soul recoils with horror. Yet such are the inevi-

table, logical consequences of the doctrine denying the Papacy to

be from God, refusing to recognise in the Church, presided over

by the Roman Pontiffs, that kingdom of the Redeemer, the subject

of innumerable prophecies, promises, instructions, and parables,



13

which, like one uniform and harmonious design, run through the

entire tissue of Holy Writ.

The conclusion is therefore inevitable, that unless it he held,

as we Catholics hold, that in the spiritual, ecclesiastical empire,

ruled over by the Homan Pontiffs, we behold the kingdom of which

the “keys,” the sceptre, was confided to St. Peter, there is no

Church of Christ, no Christian religion. And, therefore, beloved

brethren, it is demonstrated that we have identically the same cer-

tainty, pledges, and securities for the Papacy’s being a divine in-

stitution, the perpetuation of the reign of St. Peter, that we have

for the truth and divinity of Christianity itself—that is, in the

supernatural order of things, to ignore the Papacy as the centre of

the Christian system would be like, in the natural order, blotting

out the sun from the firmament.

One mode for refuting the philosopher relative to the sun was

to leave him in the dark
;
another would be to dazzle him into con-

viction by a sudden in-rush of light
;
and to add a hundred-fold to

the force of the argument just concluded, and which is overpowering

by itself, I have only to invite the gainsayer to fix his eyes upon

the Papacy, to consider calmly and examine by all sorts of tests the

spiritual realm, the Church presided over by the Popes of Home

—

for what will be the result ? Why this : that he will find himself

overpowered by the evidence, clear as sunlight, of these two grand

characteristics

:

First, that in this Church of the Popes he beholds the embodi-

ment and realization of the types, figures, prophecies, and promises

of the ancient Testament having relation to the Messiah’s king-

dom—its wonderful existence, perpetuated through innumerable
dangers and disasters during eighteen centuries—its universality,
embracing subjects of every tribe, and tongue, and nation—its
grandeur—the majesty and impressive pomp with which it is
invested—its triumphs and accumulated trophies—in these we
have sufficient proof of the assertion. I may add, that one of the

most remarkable of the “ Oxford conversions” was brought about

by the evidence of the fact, that in the Papacy is fulfilled everything

that the ancient Testament foreshadowed of the kingdom of the

Messiah.



14

The second characteristic which must strike the dispassionate

beholder is, the perfect reproduction and accomplishment in the

Church, which is subject to the successors of St. Peter, of all that

is said in the Gospel of the future Church of Christ : its gradual

rise and development illustrated in the parable of the mustard

seed—its preaching the Gospel to all nations—its unity—its inde-
fectibility—its finding light in every uncertainty, liberation from
every danger, in holding by the infallible authority of Peter, who is

the rock against which the gates of hell for 1800 years have raged

in vain.

All this is so self-evident, that amongst those who are sepa-

rated from the Catholic Church, you will always discover an in-

stinctive repugnance to speak of St. Peter—of the promises made
to him—of the supremacy and privileges conferred upon him y
though, manifestly, these are the genuine, infallible, and self-

evident characteristics by which the true Church can be always, and

with perfect facility, discovered.

It would be unpardonable to omit a third characteristic of the

Church of the Popes—viz., to uphold, defend, exalt, and propagate
the glory of the Redeemer

:

In testimony of his divinity, all the Pontiffs of the first three

centuries laid down their lives ,* all those of the three following

combated victoriously in its defence ; and then comes on that

memorable conflict for the Cross against the Crescent, which, with

ever-varying fortune, was waged by the Popes at the head of

Christendom, till their perseverance and heroic devotedness to

their Saviour were crowned with triumph after a thousand years.

This Church of the Pontiffs has never indulged a hope, never

prayed for grace or blessing, except “through our Lord Jesus

Christ—Per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum”— and oh ! has
she not the ineffable consolation to be upbraided and reviled for

respecting too much—regarding in a light too exalted—the im-
maculate Virgin Mother, who bore him in her womb; and of

paying an exaggerated homage to that most adorable sacrament in

which he has given us himself. The virtues which he distin-

guished and seemed to love most, she has everlastingly exalted.

The immortal exploits, the sanctity, the devotedness, faithful unto



15

death, of his favourites, the saints of every class, she celebrates in

a never-ending round of festivals ; and the
“ Sermon on the

Mount,” in which he laid down and expounded the doctrine of

Christian morality and perfection, do we not behold it fully realised

in the discipline and in the institutions and practices which the

Pontiffs never ceased to enforce and encourage ?

Conclusion.—In the first form of this argument, the Papacy
having been set aside, in order, by palpable effects, to convince its

opponents of their folly, we found that the Christian religion dis-

appeared along with it, thus showing that they are one and the

same thing
;
in the second form of the argument, the process by

which conviction came, that the Church of the Popes is the realm

confided to Peter, resembles that by which we satisfy ourselves

that the sun is the fountain-head of light, by endeavouring to fix

our gaze on its meridian splendours.

This, in ordinary times, might perhaps suffice; but now that all

the attacks of the Church’s enemies are concentrated on this point,

it is all the more urgent that the faithful should be thoroughly in-

structed concerning it. I will therefore, please Heaven, recur on

Sunday next to the same subject, bringing home the proof to the

last degree of conclusiveness—first, by showing, from what I may
term the dynastic spirit of the Papacy, how St. Peter, as the pro-

mises to him imply, would seem, through his successors, to perpe-

tually reign in person over the Church
;
next, by showing that the

eternally vaunted objection from the Apocalypse, instead of being

favourable to the assailants of the Popes, should be a new and

cogent motive to bring them to conversion
;
and finally, by showing

how manifestly and perfectly what may be reverently entitled the

divine plan and programme of the new dispensation, as expounded

by St. Paul (1 Cor. i. 18, 81), has become an impressive and ever-

operative fact in the existence of the Church of Rome.

0 beloved brethren, what a source of gratitude to have inherited

this faith of St. Peter
;
and as nothing on earth was able to make

your forefathers relinquish it, let your purpose be steadfast and

ardent, with the aid of God, to hand it down untarnished to your

children. Far, however, from anything bordering on bravado, let

the feeling be a sentiment of deep contrition, on considering how



16

profound and yawning is the abyss but too often opened by sin

between daily practice and the profession of a faith so glorious.

Forget not, either, that be who knew how, from the furious perse-

cutor and enemy of his name, to raise up a “vessel of election,”

one found worthy even to be associated with the Prince of the

Apostles in bearing that name and proclaiming its divinity before

the nations and the most dreaded potentates of the world, is “ the

same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.”

To him, the “ Immortal King of Ages,” be glory and praise

for evermore. Amen.



17

THIRD SERMON.

“ Et tibi dabo claves And to thee (Simon Peter) will I give the keys”

—

the sceptre

—

(Matt. xvi. 19).

Thus is St. Peter personally singled out, in the most emphati-

cally exclusive manner, to be the viceroy, head, and ruler supreme

of that kingdom, which for two Sundays past has been the divine,

and, I trust, not uninstructive subject of our meditations : “ Et

tibi dabo claves
”—to thee, Simon Peter, will I give the sceptre,

and to no one but to thee.

Nothing, therefore, can more perfectly express the relations

established by the Redeemer between St. Peter and his realm,

than these memorable words of St. Ambrose, “ Ubi Petrus, ibi

Ecclesia
”—that is, wherever Peter is, there is the Church, and

nowhere can the Church be, where Peter is not. And thus is

obtained a positive mark and characteristic by which we can easily

and infallibly test the pretensions of any sect, society, or denomi-

nation whatever, to he the true Church
;

for, according to this

canon of St. Ambrose, grounded on the words of our Lord in the

text, no aggregate of professing Christians, no matter what their

claims in other respects may be—no ecclesiastical organization,
no matter how ancient, how immense— nay, I will add, how
devoted to Christ, his Virgin Mother, and his saints, can still be

the true. Church, unless it holds by Peter, and has inherited his

authority.

Hence, although in demonstrating on Sunday last, that, in the

Church of the Pontiffs, all that had been foreshadowed, predicted,

promised, in the Ancient and the New Testament regarding

the kingdom and Church of Christ, was mirrored forth and per-

fectly accomplished, the divine institution of the Church of Rome

and its title to he the only true Church were established beyond

2



18

dispute
;
nevertheless, in order to carry the demonstration to the

highest pitch, I propose to-day to test the pretensions of Rome

itself by the canon or note of St. Ambrose, which, as I have

already observed, is hut a deduction from the text, “ Et tibi dabo

claves.”

There are foes of the Papacy who deny that St. Peter ever

set foot in Rome. Are there vouchers, not only to disprove

this, hut to demonstrate that in Rome are found all those indica-

tions, monuments, traditional associations, festivals, maxims of

government, devotional influences, which we should naturally ex-

pect to meet with in the place where the Prince of the Apostles,

in many labours and sufferings, established his see, and to which,

in there consummating his martyrdom, he had bequeathed the

inheritance of his supremacy ?

Let us pray fervently, beloved brethren, that the Divine aid

and blessing may be with us in this momentous inquiry. Ave

Maria .

First Was St. Peter ever in Rome ? “ That St. Peter was

in Rome is proved by Ignatius, martyr (a disciple of St. John’s

the Evangelist)
;
from Papias (another disciple of the apostles)

;

from St. Dionysius of Corinth (who might have seen St. John)

;

from St. Irenseus (a disciple of St. Polycarp, disciple of St. John)
;

from Caius (a Roman presbyter who had lived with the cotempo-

raries of St. Peter)
;
from Clement of Alexandria (Origen’s pre-

ceptor)
;
from Tertullian (who wrote his Apology before the year

200) ; from Origen, Cyprian, Lactantius, Eusebius, Athanasius,

Epiphanius, Julian the Apostate, Augustine, Palladius, &c.” So

favourable is this quotation that you will imagine, probably, it

must be from some Catholic writer. No, beloved brethren
;

this

is the testimony of a bishop of the Church of England. The

learned Dr. Pearson, of Chester, not only lays down this proposi-

tion in his work entitled
(e
Dissertationes de Serie et Successione

Primorum Romce Episcoporum,” but, after demonstrating it with

remarkable erudition, and in the most conclusive manner, ex-

presses his wonder how its truth could have ever been called in

question :
“
Wherefore, it is wonderful

—

mirurn est—that there
could be found any to deny that Peter ever was at Rome.”



19

Not less striking is what has been recorded on the same sub-

ject by Samuel Basnage—a continental writer, not more remark-
able for bis learning than for his zeal as a Calvinist.

“
There

never was a tradition sustained,” he says, “by a greater number

of witnesses, than that which states St. Peter to have preached at

Borne, so that it is not possible to deny it

—

Neque unquam tra-

ditio fait quce majori testium numero cingatur ; ut de Petri in

urbem adventu dubitari non possit.” (Am. Politico Eccles. t. i.

p. 728.)

To show what is the tone of really learned Protestant opinion

in our own time, one quotation will suffice
;

it is from Dr. Neander,

of the university of Berlin, looked up to by the Evangelicals of

Germany as their most eminent authority in ecclesiastical history.

He says—

“

It is hypercritical to call in question the tradition, pre-

served by the harmonious testimony of ecclesiastical antiquity, that

St. Peter was at Borne.” (Hist, of the Chr. Bel. and Church, &c.,

vol. i. of Bose’s transl.)

Nothing, therefore, can be more solid and unassailable than the

title established by Borne on this point, and it is the capital one

—

the root and principle of all the rest.

Again, if we look in Borne for the vestigia
,
the footprints, so

to speak, the monuments, traditional associations, which should

naturally he supposed to survive in a place where St. Peter had

lived and laboured as an apostle and died a martyr, are we doomed

to be disappointed ? On the contrary, at every turn, we are met by

traces and echoes of his existence, testimonials of his apostolic

toils and sufferings, memories of the heart reaching back to the

blessings he bestowed, to the enthusiastic devotion and love which

he inspired.

There are the vestiges of the patrician palace in which, on his

first arrival, he was received with hospitality, and where he cele-

brated the divine mysteries in a chamber still venerated as a most

hallowed sanctuary. There is preserved the tufo-stone on which

were left his knee-prints, as by prayer he overthrew the arch-heretic

and impostor, Simon the Magician. The sand-crypts and the

catacomb, where he was wont to baptise the pagan converts, and



20

offer the eucharistic sacrifice,- are there. His first epistle to the

churches dispersed through Pontus, Gallatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and

Bythiania, is dated from Borne, which, according to St. Jerome,

was then universally known amongst the Christians as the mystic

Babylon, doomed, like its prototype, to he utterly subverted and

destroyed, in punishment of its enormities.

In the dungeon (the Tullianum) where he was confined, and

which is hollowed out of the bowels of the capitol, you still see the

fountain of water which sprung up from the rock at his command,

when his keepers and guards, converted by his presence, were to

he baptised. In the same place is the huge, massive stone to which

he was chained, and which served him for an altar. A wayside

chapel, called Domine quo Vadis, njarks the point on the Appian

road where he met our Lord coming Bomeward with his cross.

On the site of the prison where was the Tullianum dungeon, has

stood a church from the remotest times hearing the title of San

Pietro in Carcere—St. Peter in Prison
;

and in Santa Maria

Traspontina, beyond the Tiber, they show the pillar at which he

was scourged, when on his way to martyrdom. The scene of his

crucifixion was marked from time immemorial by a church dedi-

cated in his honour, and known as San Pietro in Montorio
;
and a

beautiful oratory, by Bramante, canopies the identical spot where

the cross was planted.

But that monument and trophy most worthy of the Prince of

the Apostles, and which dazzles into the conviction that Borne is

his, and inherits his regalia with his supremacy, we must look for

on the adjacent Vatican plain, where the direful persecution de-

scribed by Tacitus took place, and where were the entrances to the

sand-crypts and catacombs, in which his venerable body, after it

was taken down from the cross, was reposed by his disciples.

Soon after St. Peter’s martyrdom a little oratory was built above

his tomb, and we find from writings of the first half of the second

century that it had even then become renowned as a sanctuary

among the Christians, who called it “ the Martyrion,” or “ Con-

fession of St. Peter.” It was replaced by the grand Basilica,

erected*, adorned to the last degree, and endowed with immense



21

riches by Constantine the Great, in honour of the Prince of the

Apostles. But this temple, the Limina Apostolorum for all nations

during twelve hundred years, was to he immeasurably surpassed

by another erected on the same site, and concentrating every per-

fection in itself, wresting even from the opponents of the Papacy

the avowal that it is the greatest monument of all but inspired

genius, and matchless amongst the structures ever raised by human

hands in the divine honour

—

“ For thou, of temples old or altars new,

Standest alone, with nothing like to thee.”

To end here, though what has been said implies a great deal,

would he to give only a most maimed and inadequate notion of the

ever-present and vivacious influence exercised by the Apostle

throughout the long-protracted and so often varying destinies of

Rome.

It is to St. Peter that all who did not perish in that first and

most terrible sack, slaughter, and burning of th’e Seven-hilled

City by the Goths, were indebted for their safety. His temple,

by the command of Alaric, the Gothic king, was respected, de-

voutly respected, as an inviolable sanctuary and place of refuge,

even for the pagans, who fled thither from all parts of the burning

city. And again, when Attila, “the scourge of God,” was rushing

headlong to put the last hand to the destruction which Alaric had

not completed, it was th§ sight of St. Peter, menacing him from

mid-air above the head of St. Leo, that terrified him, as he con-

fessed to his Tartar warriors, and made him retrace his steps.

Belisarius, when preparing to meet the impending assault of the

Ostrogoths, had ordered a certain portion of the walls that seemed

tottering to be thrown down and rebuilt
;
hut on the assurance of

the Romans that this “ leaning wall” was under the special pro-

tection of St. Peter, he countermanded the order, and that wall,

still called “ il muro-torto,” stands firm in the same state in which

Procopius, secretary of Belisarius, describes it 1800 years ago.

From a single strophe of a hymn, which was composed at a date

still earlier than this, and which you may see in extenso in the

Roman Breviary, 29th June, you may collect how the Roman



22

Church and the Romans gloried in, and were devoted to, the

Prince of the Apostles

:

“ O Roma felix, quoe duorum Principium

Es consecreta glorioso sanguine
;

Horum cruore purpurata, cameras

Excellis Orbis, una, pulcritudine.”

Further on, when the possessions of the Roman Church begin

to be enlarged by whole provinces loudly imploring its protectorate,

and by donations from kings and emperors, what do we behold ?

A thing that is very striking—that it is directly to the “ Blessed
Peter” both the submissions of the peoples and the donations of

the princes are made. It is
“

for love of the Blessed Peter” that

Pepin leads his victorious Franks across the Alps—it is to Peter
that Robert Guiscard and the other Norman conquerors of Naples

and of Sicily knelt down on the field of battle to pay homage for

those fiefs of his Apostolic See.

When diplomas, or acts to attest and secure their donations,

are executed by Pepin, Charlemagne, Ludovicus Pius, and princes

of the succeeding imperial dynasties, they speak invariably of the

offerings and gifts as made to the “ Blessed Peter,” Prince of the

Apostles
;
and in token of solemn ratification, those diplomas and

deeds are deposited on St. Peter’s shrine. Not to fatigue with

examples of this, it will suffice to remind you that the “Patrimony

of St. Peter” is the designation by which the aggregate of these

possessions has been known from immemorial time.

But of the relation of the Popes themselves with St. Peter

—

and that is the chief point—I have as yet said almost nothing.
Their acts, kept by the notaries of the Roman Church, repeat,

during the three first centuries, this sentence, almost without

varying, of each successive Pope, “ Martyrio coronatus sepultus

est juxta corpus beati Petri;” so that for all those crowned with

martyrdom during the first 800 years, their glory and their solace

was to be laid in death beside the body of St. Peter. Again, it

has been a uniform law for the Papal dynasty to define, decree,

and perform all acts of supreme authority, in the name and by the

sanction of St. Peter. Nor was this a sentiment confined to the

dynasty of the Popes or to the Roman Church. We find it to



28

have been Catholic from the earliest times. When the apostolic

letters of Pope St. Leo the Great, condemning the heresy of

Nestorius, were read at Calcedon, the whole Ecumenic Council

broke forth into this acclamation, that in the decision of Leo they

had the definition of St. Peter himself
—“Petrus per Leonem

locutus est”

If, then, a right of possession, a never interrupted, always vivi-

fying dynastic influence and moral presence were ever established,

surely it is here for St. Peter in favour of Rome. Rome is his,

and he possesses it, as we have seen, in a multitude of ways.

Manifestly, the Prince of the Apostles is the beginning and the

end, the infallible support and moving power of that unrivalled

system of government which, from thence, has fashioned, con-

trolled, and directed the destinies of Christendom, during now over

eighteen hundred years ! He lives in its religion, he is lovingly

and devoutly honoured in its grandest festivals and trophies. His

“keys” have supplanted on all its monuments the “fasces” of the

consuls and the Caesars. He reigns in the never-interrupted

dynasty of his successors, who there govern by his authority, legis-

late in his spirit, and have ever gloried to use as their great seal of

office the “ annulus piscatoris,” the ring of the fisherman, Simon

Bar-Jona, of Bethsaida.

Verily, therefore, is the Ambrosian canon decisive for the divine

rights of Rome. Where Peter is, there is the Church— Ubi Petrus,
ibi ecclesia . He lives, in a thousand ways, and reigns in Rome.

It is painful to turn from such a theme to deal, I will not say

with the objection, but with the affront with which the Church,

thus irresistibly demonstrated to he the true spouse of Christ, is

wont to he assailed, not by the learned section of Protestants (for

they are with us in this as in the other instance regarding St.

Peter’s being at Rome), but by those who seem to think it is by

renewing the most insulting imputations, a thousand times refuted,

that they are to establish their claim to be the only true disciples

of him who invites us to learn of him to he “ meek and humble of

heart.” Fortunately, however, but very few words will suffice to

show that, far from being fatal to the pretensions of Rome to be

the head and centre of the true Church, this apocalyptic imagery



24

about the
u woman” robed in scarlet and the rest affords a most

convincing argument in their favour, and in this way :

First of all, the angel, interpreting the vision regarding this

“ woman,” tells St. John (xvii. 18) that it is the Rome then exist-

ing, a.d. 98—that is, about thirty years after St. Peter’s martyr-
dom—the Rome then actually wielding the sceptre of universal
dominion from the Seven Hills where it was seated (xvii. 9), that,

on account of her enormities, and above all of her revelling in

Christian massacre and blood, is doomed to speedy and total des-

truction, in pursuance of that judgment of the Most High, for the

execution of which the saints in heaven seem impatient.

In the second place, we behold in the pages of authentic his-

tory how, as had been threatened, the vials of the divine wrath

were poured out on imperial, heathen Rome, in quick succession.

G-enseric, with his ruthless Vandals, rushes to plunder and destroy

all that had escaped the barbaric fury of Alaric and his Goths.

Then there are Herulians and Allani, with a hundred motley

hordes, Suevi, Turkolingi, Huns, and rival chiefs, the Otocars,

Orestes, Ricimers, all struggling to be foremost in the work of

destruction. Belisarius also, in his efforts to recover and defend

Rome for his master, the Greek emperor, contributed not a little

to the ends of Divine justice in this regard.

But it was for Totila, the terrible King of the Ostrogoths, that

the final stroke was reserved. He decreed to reduce the City of

the Seven Hills, the haughty mistress of the nations, to the con-

dition of a
4

‘pasture for cattle,” and he kept his word. The

rock-built walls and chief surviving monuments, palaces, temples,

and amphitheatres, he overthrew—the proud gates of bronze he
carried off as trophies in his plunder train—the senate he “ ex-
tinguished in its own blood;” and the remnants of the Gens To-

gata, the once kingly “populus,” was dragged away into hopeless

and ignominious captivity.

The place where Rome once stood, except round the tombs of

the apostles and martyrs, remained a howling solitude, as we are

told by cotemporary writers, for upwards of forty days
;
and as for

the Seven Hills, they have never been repeopled or become the

site of a city from that time to the present.



25

Now, when to these two grand facts of the Divine judgment

against Pagan Rome, and its execution, we add this other not less

impressive, that the barbarian destroyers of the Seven-hilled City

seemed to be driven on to the execution of their task by an irre-

sistahle, preternatural influence
—

“ Seek not, man of God,” said

Alaric to the hermit who sought to bar his path in the Apennines,

“ seek not to turn me from my purpose, for a voice that I dare

not resist cries out to me without ceasing, 4 Forward and destroy

Rome !’ ” And when, in setting sail from Africa, the pilot de-

manded from Genseric to what point he should steer, the Vandal

king replied, “Abandon the fleet to the winds, for Heaven will

know how to guide it to the guilty shore !”—when, I say, this is
taken with the facts of the judgment and its literal execution on

Rome Pagan, it seems a thing incredible that those who pique

themselves on respect for the Word of God should seek to apply

these long-since-executed threats to Rome Papal, thus reducing

the divine judgment (not yet executed, according to them) to a

dead-letter, and not only subverting history, but again bringing

disgrace, as far as they can, on the veracity or the power of God !

Thus, the fortune of Rome, guaranteed in heaven, once more

prevails
;
and instead of being humiliated or stripped of her divine

prerogatives by this attempted impeachment from the Apocalypse,

the City of St. Peter is thereby exalted a hundred-fold, and rises

before the mind refulgent with new and more overwhelming evi-

dences that it is the capital on earth of the Redeemer’s “ everlast-

ing kingdom.”

Illumined by the divine revelations regarding it with which St.

John was favoured, this region on the banks of the Tiber, girded

round about with a time-worn ring-wall, appears before us in its

proper light—the battle-field on which the struggle between the
Supreme Vicar of Christ and the Powers of Darkness was decided.

A glance at the Forum and the “ seven hills,” where, “ drunk with

the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,” and “ filled with names of

blasphemy,” heathen Rome once rose in all its unrivalled power

and magnificence, is enough to show how terrible was the conflict

—

how total and irreparable the defeat—the scene of all that pride,
and might, and grandeur being now, as it has been for thirteen



26

centuries,
4

4

a marble wilderness,”
“
matted and massed with

ruins.” And a glance at Eome of the Pontiffs, majestically re-

clining on the Campus Martius, its back to the Capitol, its look

full of devout enthusiasm and faith turned towards the
“
wondrous

dome” which canopies the tomb of St. Peter, is also enough to

assure us on which side was the victory, and by whose right arm it

was achieved.

Here, then, again, we have by a new title the Prince of the

Apostles identified with Eome. Eome is his by right of conquest.

Having wrested it through himself and his successors from the

power of Satan, who had made it his stronghold and head-quar-

ters for ages, he consecrated it for ever to Christ, to be the see

and capital of his Church till the end of the world.

Glory, then, and praise to the Eternal wisdom and mercy

which has made the way of salvation so plain that ignorance itself

cannot mistake it ! To discover with infallible certainty the true

Church, we have only to ascertain where Peter is—Ubi Petrus ;
and where Peter is has been made so manifest by all sorts of won-

ders during 1800 years, that it is easy even for a little child to find

it out. So manifest is this grand historic fact by which we are

enabled to discover the true Church of Christ, that as our Lord

had promised, it is like
“
a city seated on a mountain.” It can-

not He hid, and unless people shut their eyes, they cannot help

seeing it.



27

FOURTH SERMON.

u Hie erit magnus—This child shall be great.”

—

Luke, i. 32.

Here, beloved brethren, is another announcement by the arch-

angel to the Immaculate Virgin, relative to the divine child to be

born of her womb.

It is of his destinies on earth the archangel speaks
;

for

his greatness, as God, is from eternity, and, infinite in itself,

admits of no increase
;
whereas, on the contrary, the greatness set

forth in the text is to be acquired and progressive
—

“ This child

shall he great.” That is a greatness not his at first, he shall

afterwards obtain, in proportion as his kingdom, insignificant like

the mustard seed in its beginnings, shall grow, dilate, and be

exalted, adding conquest to conquest, accumulating trophies, and

“ drawing all things to itself.”

Now think you, beloved brethren, would it be a thing becoming

our Divine Kedeemer—who has been thus pleased to order it so,
that his own greatness on earth shall be progressive, expanding

from obscurity to glory, until the whole world shall not be able to

contain it—that his alter ego, the head and viceroy of this king-
dom, thus surpassingly magnificent, his supreme locum tenens

and representative should be, in grandeur and dignity, anything

inferior to a king ? Is it not a thing abhorrent to Christian senti-

ments, and not to he tolerated even in thought, that the “ keys of

the kingdom of heaven,” the sceptre of the Man-God, should be

carried by a liveried dependent, like an usher’s mace, in the

tinseled and ephemeral pageants of a court ?

No
;

it is manifestly repugnant to correct Christian feeling and

instincts, that the supreme representative of the “Lord of Glory,”

and the depositary and delegate of all his authority, should, by



28

divine appointment, be the creature and dependent of any poten-

tate on earth.

But to this it may he replied, perhaps, that on looking more

narrowly into the subject—on considering the position of the
Papacy, not as created by an enthusiastic imagination, but as

appointed by Providence—we shall discover motives to abandon
altogether or at least to modify this first impression !

Quite the reverse, beloved brethren. The more we consider

and examine the divinely appointed position of the Papacy, and

the nature of its responsibilities, the more glaringly absurd and

abhorrent becomes the supposition that the position of a subject,

underling and dependent, could have been that ordained and pre-

destinated by the Redeemer for the Pope. And this conclusion,

forced upon us by the nature of the Papal institution and of its

responsibilities, is strengthened a hundred fold by positive mani-

festations of the divine will, as we gather them from occurrences

which form the most prominent facts of history*.

May the glorious Prince of the Apostles, prevailing on the

Queen of Angels and of men to join him in his prayer, obtain for

us to investigate prudently, and for the greater glory of God and

of his holy Church, this hitherto untrodden ground. Ave Maria.

First, then, as to the position divinely appointed for the Papacy.

Only listen to what the prophet Isaiah says of it : “And the nations

shall walk in thy light, and kings in the splendour of thy rising.

Lift up thy eyes and look around thee,” he continues, “ behold in

what myriads they congregate and flock to thee from every side.

From afar off thy sons shall come, and beside thee thy daughters

shall rise up. Oh ! then, what rapture in thy gaze, and how thou

shalt abound. Thy heart shall expand with joy and be filled with

wonder, when the multitudes of the sea and the might of the

nations shall crowd around thee. It will be like an inundation,

their coming from the east : camels in innumerable bands, with

the dromedaries of Madian and Eplia. All from Saba they shall

arrive, bearing tribute of gold and frankincense, and making the

ways re-echo with their hymns to the Lord.”

Such is the position of the viceroy of the Messiah’s kingdom,

as foreshown in vision to Isaiah. This glowing imagery does not



29

come up to what we know from history the reality of the Pope’s

position during a long succession of ages to have been. Where-

fore, again I ask, is it congruous—is it not a thing manifestly
incredible, to suppose the status and position divinely appointed

for the Pope to he that of a dependent and underling ? In ages

of faith, when Christian instincts were uppermost, both princes

and peoples would have been shocked at the very thought, and

have indignantly resented it as an atfront to the Christian religion.

Again, strong as this argument is from the position of surpass-

ing grandeur divinely appointed for the Pope, it is far excelled

in force by that derived from the nature of his responsibilities.

When the successor of St. Peter ascends the throne, what is the

admonition that comes to him from on high ? Why, the following :

“ Behold I have to-day constituted thee over nations and king-

doms”—and for what purpose, to what end is the Pope so consti-
tuted, think you, brethren ? For mere pageantry and display,

perhaps ? Oh ! far from that. Hearken again : “ Behold I have

to-day constituted thee over nations and realms, to pluck up and

destroy, to overthrow and scatter—then to build up and to plant

—

Ecce constitui te lioclie super gentes et super regna
,
ut evellas et

destruas
,
et disperdas, et dissipes, et cedijicas et plantes.”

That is, for the Popes it has been a duty and heaven-appointed

mission to win the world from Satan unto God
;

to convert a howl-

ing wilderness of barbarian violence, crime, and ignorance, into

the smiling vineyard of the Lord. At the peril of his soul, the

Pope is bound to stand for Christ against all the powers of the

world, and against the “ gates of hell.” The decalogue, and the

rigorous maxims of the Crucified, he is to uphold against the un-

governable passions of high and low—eternally in revolt against
them. The loftier the eminence on which the delinquent is en-

throned, the louder must be his voice of admonition and rebuke
;

and were the hand lifted for the “judgment of God” to tremble or

falter before the lustre of a diadem or the terrors of a sceptre,

would it not be a recreant act of treason against the “King of

kings ?” For the viceroy of Christ’s realm has this also in com-

mand : “ Dread not the terrors of their presence, for I will endow

thee with fortitude, so that thou shalt look on them without fear
;



BO

for to-day I establish thee like a fortress city, and as a column of

iron, and as a wall of brass, over all the earth.”

Why, the repugnance of light for darkness is not more mani-

fest than that of responsibilities such as these for a dependent, sub-

ject condition. For my part, I can no more imagine it than I can

believe what would be a blasphemy—that the power to bind and
loose on earth, conferred upon St. Peter, was made to depend on

this condition : that in each instance the judgment or decree

should be sanctioned by the exequatur of a secretary of state and

the visa of the police ! And is not history there exhibiting proofs

innumerable of the impossibility of the Pope’s discharging those

duties while under control and subjection—that is, when not en-
joying sovereign independence, or, in other words, when not reign-

ing as kings ?

No
;
so g laringly evident is it that this territorial sovereignty

is essentially necessary to the exercise of the spiritual supremacy,

that even the feverish ambition and darling projects of Napoleon I.

could not blind him to the fact. He admitted, in his conference

with the late Prince Metternich on this subject, that the nature

of the Supreme Pontiff’s office rendered it indispensable that the

territory of his residence or see should be independent—exempt
from all external suzerainty and control, or, as the Emperor with

characteristic energy expressed it
,

“ Frappe de neutralite.”

Therefore, the truth is manifest—the successor of St. Peter
must, of necessity, be a king. Rule the Church he cannot without

wearing a diadem—either the tiara or the crown of martyrdom.
And who, brethren, will say that what js so plain, even to our

stupidity, escaped the all-seeing Eye, and was left unprovided for ?

God forbid that I should have courage to say or think it, espe-

cially since the wording of the recent Encyclical Letters, relative

to the States of St. Peter, apparently leave no room for doubt or

uncertainty on this head.

But against all this it will possibly be objected that, had it

entered into the designs of the Redeemer regarding St. Peter and

his dynasty that they should be kings, he would not have failed,

from the very outset, to assign them a capital, leaving the circum-

jacent territory, perhaps, to the same law of gradual expansion



31

and increment that regulated the rise of the spiritual empire

itself.

And is it not thus precisely we find that, by Divine appoint-

ment, the matter happened ? The Prince of the Apostles is sent

to conquer Rome, and bring it into subjection to Christ, and, as

we saw in the last sermon, he signally and completely conquered

it. We saw in what innumerable ways, and by what divine and

irrefragable rights and titles Rome is his.

By divine precept or inspiration, St. Peter having thus fixed

his see in Rome, it follows that his viceroyalty, with all its rights

and prerogatives, are irrevocably attached to Rome ; so that who-

ever is elected its bishop becomes, ipso facto
,
and by divine right,

the successor of St. Peter, invested with all the prerogatives of

the Papacy. So true is this that no power on earth could affect

that the Bishop of Paris, for instance, or of Milan, of of Avignon,

or of Antioch, or even of Jerusalem, should be Pope; or prevent

from being as truly Pope as St. Peter whosoever is validly elected

Bishop of Rome. Behold then, beloved brethren, how divine and

indissoluble is the union established between Rome and the

Papacy. Now, to deny that such an ordination on the part of

heaven—particularly when we recollect what has been just proved
as to the position of surpassing grandeur and boundless reponsibi-

lities divinely appointed for the Popes—does not evidently imply
that in that same city the Popes are to be lords paramount and

kings—what else is it but a censure of the Divine consistency,
more especially when we consider that astonishing series of Provi-

dential interventions by which so many efforts to wrest Rome from

the Popes have been frustrated, and made to recoil with ruin on

their promoters ?

During, now, more than fifteen hundred years—that is, from
the day that Constantine removed the throne of the Caesars to the

shores of the Euxine, in order to make way for the throne of the

Pontiffs—who shall be able to count the efforts, desperate and
apparently irresistible, to deprive them of Rome ? But, one and

all, they are defeated, and that by the most startling and un-

thought-of ways^

:

After the transfer of the empire by Constantine, his sons and



32

the sons of Theodosius also return to reign in Italy
;
but a hand,

the same that later menaced Attila, seems to warn them off from

Rome. Rome being thus interdicted them, Milan and Ravenna be-

come alternately the capitals of the West. Then appear the Bar-

barians. They are driven on as if by preternatural fury to possess

themselves of Rome. Alaric the Goth, Genseric the Vandal, take

it in turn
;
but it is as if the same invisible power that terrified the

Hun from approaching it, will not suffer either Goth or Vandal to

tarry there. After a brief halt, and without any visible cause to

disturb them in their conquest, they seem in haste to depart,

like executioners who have accomplished their forbidding task.

Further on, Herulians and Ostrogoths endeavour to found a

kingdom in Italy. Rome is taken and retaken
;
they can cap-

ture, pillage, reduce it to solitude, but there none of them can

reign. The capital of Odoacer, ofTheodoric, Vitiges, Totila, is at

Ravenna—it is everywhere but at Rome.
The Byzantine Romans arrive under Belisarius and Narses,

but it is only to prevent the Ostrogoths from taking root in the

patrimony of St. Peter. They, too, are warned off from Rome.

The Byzantine capital of Italy is not Rome, it is still Ravenna.

The Greeks in their turn are driven out by the Lombards. These,

of all the invaders, have most set their heart on making Rome

their own; but in punishment of their unparalleled rapacity,

perfidy, and ingratitude, their dynasty was for ever extinguished,

and their efforts to destroy the temporal power of the Popes only

increased and established it more solidly than ever.

The Saracens next renew the effort. Their emirs have sworn

to stable their horses in St. Peter’s, and make mangers of the

tombs of the Apostles ; but like the simoom of the desert, the

breath of His indignation, who protects Rome for the Popes, dis-

persed them utterly.

Amidst the anarchy in which Christendom was plunged by the

Norman, Saracen, and Hungarian invasions, all overwhelming it

from opposite quarters at the same time, oh ! what hideous strug-

gles take place between the feudal chiefs—Counts of Tusculum,
Cenci, Roman barons— to make spoil of the patrimony of the
Apostles. This brought the Teutonic kings from beyond the



33

mountains
;
and their dynasties—Othos, Henries, Frederics, Saxons,

Hohenstauffens, Swabians—in proportion as they came to covet
the capital and patrimony of the Popes, which, at their coronation

in St. Peter’s, they had each sworn to defend, one after another

become anathema, and wither.

How account for a defence into which all nations and dynasties

are thus pressed by turns, unless we recognize in it the work of

the Redeemer, who transferred his sceptre to St. Peter, and

guaranteed that his throne, even with its temporal immunities,

should stand for ever ! Ostrogoths, Greeks, Lombards, by turns

defend the patrimony which they had each endeavoured to usurp

—

by turns they resist the rescinding of the decree establishing over

Rome and Central Italy the divine right of the Popes.

To come to modern times—the vicissitudes in which the
Papacy has been tried, do they not read like a chapter of the

ancient Testament, wherein we are permitted to behold the undis-

guised action of Providence in ordering and directing the events of

history, so manifestly are the successive interventions in its favour

the work of heaven ? Now, to deny the immediate agency of

Providence in this series of wonders, embracing fifteen centuries

—

what else is it but to deny that there is a Providence at all ?

The demonstration, some one will say perhaps, is dazzling,

and carries conviction with it ; but is there not one insuperable

objection to the theory—an objection admitting of no reply ? St.
Peter and the Popes, his successors, for 250 years lived as sub -

jects, and who will say that the Church was not then governed

well and perfectly ? This is the so-called unanswerable objection
;

here is the peremptory reply to it.

Most true it is that the Church was well and perfectly go-

verned by the martyr Popes
;
but far from true—nay, utterly and

manifestly false it is that they lived as subjects. I maintain that

even in the catacombs, and by divine right of martyrdom, they

reigned as kings.

This is startling, to be sure, but the proof of it is as clear as

light.

To be a subject one must be recognised as such by the state.

No one can live or practically be regarded as a subject, who is

3



34

utterly ignored, repulsed from the pale of the realm, and de-

nounced as a public enemy by the supreme authority. I suppose

no one will question this. Now, was not this the position of all

Christians in Eome during the entire period referred to ? To be

a Christian was to he guilty of high treason

—

loesoe majestatis—
against Caesar. They were, it is true, to he found in the Forum,

in the Commitia, and in the Senate, on the Campus Martius, and

even on the Palatine, hut nowhere were they recognised as Chris-

tians, but to be slain. The Roman law ignored the right of the

Christian to exist, and wherever detected, left him no alternative

between apostacy and death.

All this was pre-eminently true of the Popes. It was an

axiom of state policy with the Caesars, rather to tolerate a rival

in the purple than a Pope in Rome. The state knew them not,

except to behead them, or otherwise cruelly put them to death.

Therefore, it is not true to say, that during these 250 years the

Popes and the Christians under them lived as subjects
,
and none

but those whose acquaintance with history is merely superficial

could ever have imagined anything of the sort.

The real position of things within the precincts of Rome

during that epoch was this : enclosed by the same ring wall were

two hostile camps or cities, two powers at internecine war with

each other, and reciprocally refusing to hear of truce, or quarter,

or suspension of arms. Nero and his successors, on one side, with

the colossal brute force of the Pagan world, exerting might and

main to crush the disciples and extinguish the name of Christ

:

St. Peter and his successors, on the other side, resisting these

efforts, and labouring, and praying, and preaching, and “ spending

themselves, and being spent,” not only to uphold that name, but

to propagate it, to exalt its glory, and to bring down into sub-

jection to it every altitude, even that of the Caesars.

Hence, it came to pass that while the Caesars reigned on the

“ Seven Hills,” St. Peter and his successors were compelled to

reign in the Catacombs over “ subterranean Rome,” inhabited by

a people outlawed as “ enemies of the human race,” and thus

obliged, whether they would or not, to form a separate state. I

say “separate state;” and no one who has thoroughly investi-



85

gated how the Roman Christians lived at that time, and moved,

and had their being in their divine vocation ; no one who knows in

what a strict sense they formed a religions community, entirely

legislated for, judged, governed, and, in case of need, supported,

exclusively by the Popes—will be inclined to cavil with this ex-
pression.

What, therefore, can he more manifest than that St. Peter and

the Popes of the martyr epoch did not live as subjects of the

Caesars
;
hut that, thus forced to reign over “ Christian Rome,”

and governing the universal Church with sovereign independence

—

the state looking for nothing from them but their lives—they were
as strictly speaking kings as Adrian I. or Innocent III., hating, if

you will, a regalian display, which, after all, is but accessory, and

touches not the substance. And, as we find it stated in ancient

documents of history, it was in effect under the influence of this

sentiment, probably suggested from on high, at the same time

that he saw the vision of the cross and the monogram of Christ,

that Constantine the Great removed the seat of empire to the

Bosphorus, in order that Rome, where Providence had already

caused them to reign in such a miraculous manner, might, for

ever after, without rivalry or molestation, belong to the Popes.

Therefore, what would seem, from a superficial view of history,

to be an insuperable objection, is discovered, on a more judicious

and profound investigation of the subject, to be singularly favour-

able to the view I venture to put forward
;
that is, that territorial

sovereignty, essentially and by divine ordination, attaches to the

Papacy, because the position forced upon the Popes of the cata-

combs, in the first place, left them perfectly and sovereignly free

and uncontrolled in the government of the universal Church—the
pagan state having no thought to interfere with their acts, but only

to take their lives
;
and, in the second place, subjected to their

administration the temporal as well as the spiritual affairs of the

Roman Christians, together with their donations and bequests to

the Apostolic See, and their incalculable charities.

Here, therefore, we indisputably discover the temporal kingship

in a form, germinal and not yet perfectly developed, if you will,

but, nevertheless, in strict analogy with the then abnormal state



36

of the Church, and prepared to expand progressively, as it is seen

in effect to do, and attain its full consistency in proportion as the

Church emerges from the exceptional state of persecution, and

identifies the whole social system under the title of Christendom

with itself.

As to the actual crisis, however menacing it may appear, it

would he pusillanimous on our part, beloved brethren, with so

many guarantees of the divine protection before us, to fear that it

is destined to he fatal to the territorial sovereignty of the Popes.

I think, and have always thought, it was a great misfortune that

what is called the projet or programme of Villafranca was not,

from the outset, thoroughly adopted and supported
;

for I believe

that the stability of order in Europe, a peaceful future for Italy,

and a new era of glory for the Papacy, were in embryo in that

plan. But no matter how this may he, and even though, in

penalty for letting slip a golden opportunity, a long train of dis-

asters may be added to those which have already happened, never-

theless, the rights of St. Peter, even as to his states and their

capital, can never, depend upon it, brethren, be permanently set

aside; because of him who guarantees to protect them it is written,

“He shall be great;” and because it is in establishing and pro-

tecting the Papacy his greatness is pre-eminently displayed.

He made choic^ of a lowly fisherman, rude, illiterate—Simon
Bar-Jona, of Bethsaida. Under his divine teaching and influence,

before three years, this Simon Bar-Jona becomes Simon Peter

—

Simon the “ corner stone” and infallible support of the Church of

Christ. He is entrusted with the “ keys of the kingdom of hea-

ven,” with the sceptre of the Messiah, having attached to it a

jurisdiction universal, and that has the self-same force in heaven

as on earth.

Inspired by the Paraclete whom the Saviour sent, this fisher-

man is found to he in all things equal to those superhuman charges

and prerogatives. He lays the foundations of a new and everlast-

ing empire, and, in the space of two centuries and a-half, victorious

over all that earth and hell combined could devise or effect for its

destruction, this empire has signally triumphed amidst the applause

of the world, which from the outset had been furiously opposed to



37

it. The name of the fisherman becomes the watchword of safety

—

it rescues doomed cities from fire and sword—drives back and
terrifies the most furious invaders—it becomes the object of pro-
foundest veneration and most enthusiastic love for kings and

warriors who respect or fear nothing else on earth. The dynasty

of his successors become the arbiters of the nations, and triumph,

apparently without an effort, over all those great catastrophes from

age to age, in which all the others that warred against them go

down and disappear for ever.

Wherefore, brethren, you have only to point to the Papacy,

His grandest miracle, should you be ever asked by an unbeliever

for proof, peremptory and decisive, of the divinity of your Re-

deemer.

To him, “ the immortal king of ages,” with the Father and

the Holy Ghost, be glory, benediction, and praise for ever and

ever. Amen.



38

FIFTH SERMON.

“ Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth—but lay up for yourselves trea-
sures in heaven.”

—

Matt. vi. 19.

Gazed on with adoring admiration by the countless multitudes

whom his miracles and his mercies have attracted round him, not

only from every region of the Promised Land, but from far beyond

its borders—his divine voice so modulated that every ear of the
myriads hears, and every soul is enraptured in listening—the meek
and most benign Redeemer, being seated on a grassy eminence, in

the midst of his apostles, promulgates that perfect exposition of

the Christian moral law, entitled the Sermon on the Mount ; and,

coming to speak of the principles and dispositions by which such

interests as I have to treat of to-day—the interests of modern en-
terprise and civilisation—should be controlled and governed, he
says: “Nolite thesaurizare vobis thesauros in terra—Be averse
to hoarding treasufes on earth.” He then adds that not perish-

able wealth, but everlasting bliss, should be the object of the soul’s

attachment
;
that to combine the service of God and of mammon

is not possible
;
that even for such necessaries of life as food and

raiment we are not, like the heathens, to be over solicitous
;
and,

in fine, that if first and before all things we seek the kingdom of

God and his justice, all things, objects of the avarice and inordi-

nate yearnings of the heathens, will be granted to us in this life,

in addition to the eternal blessing of the next. The concluding

exhortation is, not to be solicitous for to-morrow.

I pause not to argue for the right of the Redeemer to implicit

obedience in all that He here enjoins. Were I addressing myself

to heathens or unbelievers, it would cost but little trouble, by an

appeal to His miracles, His mercies, the universal triumph of His



89

Cross, to make this right the plainest thing in the world ; but the

Divine authority of Him who preached on the Mount being sup-

posed to be admitted by all having an interest in the great question

at present to he tested ; the object of inquiry is not, whether these

precepts are as binding as any of the other commandments of God,

but whether, being understood in their genuine meaning, modern

enterprise and civilization are in harmony or contradiction with

them
;
and, if in contradiction, whether and by what means the

conflict can be adjusted.

To handle this subject in a perfect and elaborate manner, a

vast number of details should be inquired into through official

reports and evidence. We should have not only to dissect and

analyze the system by which monster cities live and are said to

flourish, to investigate the working of commerce, the effects of

speculation and credit, the condition and habits of the operative

masses in great centres of industry
;
but we should have to pene-

trate into the mines—an underground world—see how it fares
with the myriads of human beings who, without respect to sex or

age, are brought together and densely crowded in enormous fac-

tories, spinning-mills, forges, potteries, furnace-fields—familiarise
ourselves with the manners, customs, and conversation of the

wharf, the forecastle, the workshop
;
not forgetting to interrogate

the inmates of prisons, workhouses, hulks, as well as of all the

dens of misery, of all the haunts of crime and profligacy—the
hideous vermin that brood, pullulate, and are dissolved in rotten-

ness, beneath the gold-embroidered laticlave of modern civilization.

For all this, which will naturally find its place in the series of

discourses on the Sermon on the Mount, reserved for an appro-

priate season, there would not be time at present
;

and, moreover,

what I may call a bird’s-eye view of the subject will amply suffice

to show : first, how flagrantly at variance with the exhortations

of the Redeemer are enterprise and civilization, as they exist in

the great commercial countries with which we, as a people, are

connected
;
and, secondly, in what consists the principle by which

they can be reformed—that is, brought into harmony with the
morality inculcated on the Holy Mount.

To begin, then, with the greatest emporium and capital of the



40

modern world, let ns inquire what heed is there paid to the great

leading precepts
—

“ Have not the heart in earthly treasure; he not

solicitous for to-morrow.” Look, consider well, the scene it pre-

sents. Those myriads, who are hastening towards its centre

from all points of its immense circumference, are they not bent

on entering their practical protest, in one form or another,

against those principles ?—do they not prove by work as well as
by word that the uppermost thought is to win earthly wealth,

to heap treasure on treasure. In processions interminable they

come—alacrity in every movement, intense fervour in every feature,
as they repair to the grand central pagoda of Mammon, its purlieus

and its dependencies; and “ Bank,” “Bank,” “Bank,” heard

high and shrill as the muessin’s cry above those resounding tides

of enterprise, is London’s response to the exhortations from

the Holy Mount—“ Have not the heart in earthly wealth.” And
as for the warning against being over solicitous, are they not

there incessantly interrogating the lightning, and fatiguing it with

their errands, that they may know at once what is passing every-

where, all with a view to winning wealth
;
and were the abyss of

futurity like the abyss of the ocean, no doubt we should hear

forthwith of an electro-cable company for establishing telegraphic

communication between the day of judgment and the present day.

Now, a glance over the world at large. First, on the waters.

The winds, it seems, were not swift enough, and oceans, seas,

estuaries, and mighty rivers all over the globe are everywhere kept

incessantly in turmoil by what, from this eminence of imagina-

tion, look like demon ships vomiting smoke, shrieking as if

from rage or torture, and driven onward furiously in the teeth of

the tempest. What is their motive who freight, man, command,

and steer those ships ? Gain ! Over the whirlpools, through the

icebergs and the tornado, they are rushing in quest of wealth—to
heap million on million. Ship after ship is swallowed up in the

abyss, or wrecked on shore or reef by the raging waves and winds >

but for the one that perishes, ten, all treasure-seeking, are seen to

steer fearlessly forward along the wake and athwart the fragments

of the lost

!

Next, on the land. Those groups of white-handed, graceful-



41

mannered men, manifestly nnnsed to handle either spade or mat-

tock, who are they ? They are hurrying to and fro, having only

tent shelter, eagerly searching from place to place in the out-

of-the-world, inhospitable wilderness, bereft of comfort, often of

food, and incessantly exposed to peril of life. They delve in the arid

soil, they strive to mine through the flinty rock, they sift the sands,

they grope among the shingle and the mire ; what tyrant passion,

stronger than all the rest, has torn them from their darling plea-

sures, pastimes, and pursuits, to condemn them to perils, privations,

and taskwork so ignoble ? Thirst of gold.

Again, if we inspect the mechanism by which empires are

governed, do we not find that with parliaments and diplomatists

this is the most absorbing care—how most promptly and effec-
tually to clear the way of every bar or obstacle that might retard

the speed of the treasure-hunters in their headlong career ?

I rush at no conclusion : let this great problem be reasoned

out fairly, on matter-of-fact evidence
;
but in presence of such an

aspect of affairs as we have thus seen exhibited by the great coun-

tries claiming foremost rank in commercial enterprise, manufac-

turing industry, and so-called civilization, am I not entitled to

inquire at once, whether it is indicative of a religious compliance

with the Saviour’s exhortation—whether it argues a preference for
heaven over earth as a depot for capital, as the surest and most

profitable source of investment ? Does it not, on the contrary,

present us with a striking resemblance, at least, of a general and

determined revolt against the commercial legislation and political

economy of the Sermon on the Mount ?

But it may be rash, perhaps, to judge from those appearances.

Perhaps, after all, the secret of effecting that which was pro-

nounced impossible by our Saviour, has been discovered, and that,

in point of fact, the worship of God and of mammon have been

successfully combined.

To determine the real state of this matter, out of a mass of

testimonies in my portfolio, I select two, both most competent and

above suspicion—one for the capital London, and the other for
England at large.

In a leading article on the state of religion in London, we are



42

informed by The Times of the 10th of last month, that in the

metropolis, generally speaking, “ the religious profession is nil.”

It then goes on to observe : “If anybody wishes to be an apostle

to the Gentiles, or, as we now call it, a missionary to the heathen,

he need not wait to learn half-a-dozen languages, or spend a for-

tune at college, or purchase an outfit, or cross one or two oceans,

or run the risk of being eaten by savages. He has only to walk

a couple of miles in any direction in this metropolis
;

or, if that

be too much, go to the nearest mews or back lane, and he will

find plenty of stray sheep whom no pastor ever sought out, with

whose hearts no man of God ever communed, who have indeed

heard of the Church, and have been baptized—nay, married and
churched in its fabrics, but who know about as much of its faith as

if they were the intended objects of the projected mission to Cen-

tral Africa.” Again, The Times says, speaking not of London,

but of England generally : “It is evident that the great masses of

our population have to be made Christians of at all, in the most

general sense.”

The Morning Post of the 14th instant, in commenting on the

judge’s charge when opening the assizes in another great empo-

rium of enterprise, rehearses a fearful catalogue of crimes—four
murders, fourteen cases of manslaughter, twenty-four of burglary,

besides robberies, stabbings, with a host of other offences, some

of which are not to be named in this holy place, and then adds

:

“Little flattering as this conclusion maybe to our national vanity,

we doubt whether the Liverpool calendar is not a very tolerable

index of the state of crime all over the country.” Then, having

instanced some of the revolting enormities which have occurred in

England, the article concludes thus : “While such things can

occur at our very doors, it is vain to plume ourselves upon a

civilization and refinement which yet abound with passages worthy

of the recent savage episodes of the Lebanon or Damascus.”

Therefore, the word of the Divine Legislator is vindicated

—

it is proved on this most unexceptionable evidence, that to com-

bine the worship of mammon with the Christian religion is not pos-

sible—nay, that the attempt has resulted, not only in the almost
total extinction of Christianity, even in the greatest centres of



43

modem civilization, but also in such a moral degradation of the

masses, including all sexes and ages, even down to childhood,

that if not established by parliamentary reports, it should, for the

honour of human nature, be set down as incredible.

And yet this is only the outside and infinitely least repulsive

view of the maledictions which this oblivion of the Eedeemer’s

law has engendered, threatening to sap the basis of all credit,

which is confidence, corrupting official probity and honour, and

seeming for a season to have almost utterly dissolved the most

hallowed bonds of nature. And if a few of those deeds of dark-

ness, accidentally brought to light, so shocked the world—great
heavens ! what must be the effect on Him, infinitely holy and just,

who beholds all that is passing in the heart of nations abandoned

to this crime-engendering passion ?

But an outcry is raised, as if, by the tendency of my discourse,

I prove myself the advocate of idleness—the foe of industry, en-
terprise, and enlightened progress.

In every sense the reproach is ill-founded. Far from being

the advocate, I am the determined foe of idleness, holding, as I

do, that there is in it this two-fold enormity—first, it violates
what I conceive to be a primary law of our nature, because even

in Paradise man was not to be exempt from labour, but was

placed there under the obligation to keep guard over it, and even

attend to its cultivation
—

“ Et prosuit eum in Paridiso volupta-

tis, ut operaretur et custodiret ilium” Secondly, it is so wicked

under the new dispensation, that it deprives of the right to live,

the Apostle commanding : “ If any man will not work, let the

same not eat.” Therefore, I am not the advocate of idleness—

I

am its determined enemy, as I am bound to be by the doctrine,

the spirit, and the practice, even in her ascetic orders, of the

Church of Christ.

But then, if such a foe to idleness, and, by necessary conse-

quence, such an advocate for industry, how, it is asked, can I

consistently find fault with modern enterprise and civilization,

which are nothing but inevitable consectaries of industry, of the

activity, physical and intellectual, of man ?

The difficulty is plausible, but it is not solid
;

it is only a



44

sophism which vanishes of itself, as soon as the question is

understood and exhibited in the proper light

:

Why have I asserted just now that idleness outrages a pri-

mary law of our being ? Here is the reason : When I find that

man, immediately on his creation, is placed in the beauteous and

immense region called Paradise, with charge to himself and his

posterity to he occupied about its preservation and culture, not

only am I authorised, hut I am obliged to conclude, that in form-

ing man the Creator had exquisitely adapted the laws, constitution,

and affinities of his nature with his destiny, combining the occu-

pations with the enjoyments, in a superlative degree, of country

life. But what sort of logic or reasoning would it he to conclude,

that because man was formed and contrived, so to speak, with art

divine, for a life of activity, amidst the flowery lawns and enchant-

ing scenery and delights of Paradise—that, therefore, I should
recognise his congenial sphere in the filth-infected city, in the

profound and memphytic caverns of the earth, at the torrid fur-

nace mouth, and midst the ten thousand fetid abominations ex-

haling incessantly from the alembic, wherein the tawdry attrac-

tions and pestiferous luxuries of modern civilization are manipu-

lated and prepared ? On the contrary, is it not manifest that I

am hound to conclude, that in being cooped up in cities, especially

when of overgrown extent, and thus exposed to the contact and

pressure of masses, notoriously the cause of corruption, not alone

moral but physical, and of all sorts of vices, enormities, crimes,

and excesses, a fatal violence is offered to the equilibrium of the

laws, instincts, sentiments, essential to undemoralised humanity.

When, in addition to this, I see Cain, the fratricide, founding

the first city, as if to have a lurking-place for his infamy
;
and his

progeny— addicted to manufactures and arts— become so per-
versely wicked that, first, they corrupt by their intercourse the

righteous moiety of the human family, called till then the “children

of God and finally provoke that divine vengeance which drowned

the primaeval world in the waters of the deluge
;

it is natural—

I

hold, it is inevitable—that a dark suspicion should arise, that in
this career—which, mark you, was not sanctioned or appointed by
the Almighty, but which man fallen, the guilt-stained malefactor,



45

made choice of for himself—there must he some mysterious mis-
chief, generating wickedness, and pregnant with calamities. And,

surely, in what we read of monster cities, after the deluge, through-

out the heathen world—sources of contamination to whole empires,
objects of the divine wrath, which causes some to he overwhelmed

by avalanches of fire falling on them from heaven, or swallowed up

in the earth, or swept from its surface, like Babylon and heathen

Borne—there is nothing to dissipate this suspicion, but everything
to strengthen it.

You ask me then, and not, perhaps, without some anxiety

:

1st, Do I only admit of the progress, the refinement that emanates

from, and is compatible with, country life—or, at least, with a state
of society not altogether fashioned in, and influenced by, great

cities ? 2ndly, Do I regard cities—monster cities, especially—as
objects of the divine displeasure, and consequently condemn the

progress of which they are the expression ?

This two-fold question—it is a momentous one—would require,
if time permitted, to be handled with great precision, and examined

from various points of view. Eager to be brief, I now answer it

by asking another :—Had you met the raging persecutor, breathing
only threats and havoc, as he was careering furiously along the

highway to Damascus, would you have bid him “God speed?”

Oh, no ! for his careering, his haste, his progress then was only a

speeding to perpetrate crime, inflict misery. But had you met

him after his conversion, in the career of his apostleship, bearing

the blessings of redemption from nation to nation, you would un-

doubtedly have fallen down and kissed the very dust beneath his

feet. Well, now, to my mind civilization also presents itself under

a two-fold aspect—the one resembling the career of Saul the per-
secutor, the other of St. Paul the apostle

;
the one a volcano of

raging passions—spirans minarum et coedis

;

the latter a “vessel

of election,” rendered irresistible in his career of mercy and bene-

diction by the fire of divine charity glowing within his breast—de-
voted, consecrated with all the powers of his being, ready to make

every sacrifice, to spend himself and be spent for the salvation of

his brethren, and to pour out his blood for the honour of his divine

Master’s name.



46

This answer would be perfect, you say, could it only be sup-

posed that redemption, with its blessings and responsibilities,

extends not alone to individuals, but to society at large.

And how, beloved brethren, can it be doubted that it is so, or

that the charge to labour for the conversion and sanctification of

tlie human race, as well in its social as in its individual capacity,

is comprehended in the grand commission of the Church to teach

all nations?
“
Hasten after them in their insane and disastrous

career,” said the Redeemer to the apostles. “ If they refuse to

halt or retrace their steps, still go on with them, preaching and

doing good to them all along—if they requite your charity with
persecution, let that he only a fresh incentive to zeal, remembering

that
4

1 am your reward exceeding great.’
”

And in acquitting herself of this mission, what wonders has not

the Church achieved ? Has she not literally
“
renewed the face

of the earth,” and from the ruins of heathenism created the Chris-

tian world ? Ho we not behold this tender and wise Mother, ever

guided by the suggestions of the Holy Ghost, indefatigable in her

endeavours—by hospitals, schools, orphanages, houses of refuge,
convents—to remedy or mitigate the evils which the recklessness
of enterprise, the crimes, corruption, and innumerable catastrophes

attaching to civilization are necessarily inflicting on society.

But if religion has this mission, a reciprocal responsibility de-

volves on civilization. For erring and guilt-burdened society, hope

there is none, hut on the condition prescribed for the individual

delinquent—

“

The Almighty wishes not the death (perdition) of the

sinner, but that he be converted and live.” But how is civilization

to he converted, and consequently saved and sanctified ? Besides

the law laid down by the Redeemer for this purpose, there is no

other, viz.—not to suffer what is only temporal to supersede the
interests of eternity—to have the heart set on these as paramount
to all others— and in no speculation or enterprise to go counter to
the dictates of religion. If this he made the rule, we have the

guarantee of that Word which shall outlast both heaven and earth

that all the rest—earthly grandeur and prosperity—shall follow

:

“ Seek first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these

things shall be added unto you.”



47

In a word, from being heathen, as it was by origin, or as it

has again become by relapse, civilization, to be converted, mnst

become Christian—Christian in spirit and in practice. Society,
being as much the creature of God as individual man, to escape

the Divine displeasure—to be a blessing and not a scourge—in its
attempts at progress, must conform without reserve to the dictates

of Christianity.

It follows, therefore, that for all who are engaged in enterprise,

commerce, industry—thus toiling in the cause of civilization

—

there arises a special class of responsibilities, as sacred and strin-

gent as they are obvious. Such persons are bound to their opera-

tives beyond the mere payment of wages, and to the inhabitants of

the locality which is the theatre of their enterprise, beyond the

punctual fulfilment of their business engagements; because for

both the one and the other—the employed and the in-dwellers

—

there arise, along with certain temporal advantages, greater

dangers to salvation—greater necessity for superior acquirements
and increased expenditure, in order to keep pace with the accele-

rated march of progress, and rise with society to the higher eleva-

tion to which the leverage of this enterprise exalts it. In sup*

planting an old order of things, which, if homely and deficient in

brilliancy, was still homogeneous and complete within itself, they

incur the manifest obligation of not allowing, through niggard

illiberality and defect of zeal for the public good, the new one

which they substitute to entail discredit and injury, by being aban-

doned in a chaotic, half-finished condition.

To illustrate my meaning, and render it fully intelligible, I

have only to appeal, beloved brethren, to yourselves.

The fascinating aspect and outline of the promontories and

mountains sheltering this favoured region which you inhabit—the
beauty of lawn and upland, studded with villas, embowered in

groves and stately trees—the rivalry in charms between land and
sea—the far-sweeping bend of the shore contrasting with the
beetling clifs—the hills arrayed in purple, the valleys in emerald
overshadowed by variegated woods, and re-echoing with the music

of waterfall and rushing stream—these and the thousand other



48

ractions lavished on this heaven-favoured place, first arrested,

then fascinated the eye of enterprise
;
and the day-dream of in-

dustrial genius, to make of it the most commodious, the loveliest

sojourn in the island, is hourly, and with energy, being worked into

a reality. From an ordinary village the place has already grown

into a flourishing town, and from day to day seems to dawn into

the outlines and aspect of such pleasure cities as Castellamare on

the Bay of Naples, and Lausanne on the Leman Lake. And do

you mean to tell me that it is not an anomaly, a contradiction

not to be tolerated, to pretend that no bettering of opportunities

and appliances relative to the education of the children of the

people is to he aimed at, but that things are to be left on the same

degraded level as before, while all this new creation—fraught at
once with opportunities and temptations—is springing up around
them ? Must they still be content, in those days of electric tele-

graphs, express trains, and mechanics’ institutes, with what was

hut a miserable pittance, even when the merchant journeyed in

the pack-saddle, and, on his return, narrated to open-mouthed

audiences how he had actually beheld Dublin Castle, and traversed

all the legendary dangers of Loughlinstown Hill without detriment

to purse or life.

Had ours, as of old, remained a sequestered district, with but

little to disturb the uniformity and comparative security of rural

life, religion would have still made shift to prepare the rising

generation for their humble destinies in this world, as well as for

the bliss of eternity, by the catechism alone
;

hut, by your new-

born enterprise, your ambitious civilization, the poor are placed at

a disadvantage, unless exertion he made to advance their educa-

tional opportunities proportionately with the new order of things.

Wherefore, it is not alone that you will violate charity—you will
he guilty of injustice if you reject their claims. And, in general

illustration of my thesis, I fearlessly assert that, instead of a pride

and a blessing, it will he a calamity and a disgrace, if two different

lines of railroad from the capital, concentrating here, are to inun-

date us with gay, but caustic throngs, who, as their mood may he,

will either he scandalized or amused at the ludicrous and damning



contradiction between a pleasure sojourn having pretentions to be

the Castellamare of Ireland, and a population abandoned to old-

world ignorance and rusticity.

“ There is no savage beast,” says the prophet, “ but has care

of its young
;
even dragons and wild dogs are eager to cater for

their little ones.” Oh ! God forbid that I should for a moment

believe, that a people whom I respect and esteem so highly for

their excellent qualities, and whose hopes of salvation involve my

own, should deserve to be likened to that slur and dishonour even

of the brute creation, the ostrich, of which it is written: “Duratur

ad filios suos, quasi non sint sm.” Its eggs are dropped on the

sand-paths of the desert, and there it abandons them to every

danger. If not crushed by the thousand accidents they are thus

exposed to, the young come forth under the fostering sun-beams,

and they cry to the parent for help, unnatural and without bowels

of pity, it listens ineptly to their cry, but heeds it not. “The

ostrich (says holy Job) is hardened against its offspring, as if they

did not belong to it at all.” On the contrary, beloved brethren,

the zeal with which you will acquit yourselves of the duty which

devolves upon you on this occasion, will be another added to the

many proofs of the active charity with which you sympathize in

all that concerns the welfare, temporal and eternal, of your neigh-

bours, who may stand in need of assistance. Thus will you lay

up for yourselves treasures, where the moth cannot corrode, nor

thieves dig through and steal, and secure the bright destiny, even

in heaven, in reserve for those “ who instruct many unto justice.”

END.