LECTURES

ON THE

EVIDENCES OF CATHOLICITY.

LECTURE I.-INTRODUCTORY.

THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION,-ITS NATURE AND ATTRIBUTES.

God earnestly desires the salvation of all mankind—And has provided sufficient means of salvation for all-His goodness and mercyGrace and free-will-Why some are saved and others lost-Saving truth-Contained in the Religion of Christ-State of the world before its establishment-Pagan philosophy powerless-Man a slave -Freed only by the Christian Religion-Its nature, properties, and objects-Theory of fundamental and non-fundamental doctrinesChristianity rests on a fact-Summary evidences of this factLeading characteristics of the Christian Religion-Four great guiding principles developed-Will heathens be saved?-Recapitulation-The Church-Its nature, office, and purpose-Object of these Lectures-Importance of the investigation-Prayer,

:

"I desire, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings, be made for all men for kings and for all who are in high stations, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life, in all piety and chastity: for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." I Tim. II., 1, 2, 3, 4.

THE inspired apostle of the gentiles, my beloved brethren, desires that we should pray for all men, of every station in life, of every country, tongue, and caste on the face of the earth; for men, for women, for children, for kings and subjects, for princes and beggars, for all mankind without any exception whatsoever. And the reason he assigns for this wish is well worthy our most serious consideration, as it

unfolds to us a cardinal principle of the Christian Religion. In thus endeavoring to promote, as far as in us lies, the salvation of all men, we do but follow the example, and enter into the warmly cherished views of "God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." There is no exception of persons with God; there is no restriction to his all-embracing benevolence; there are no bounds to his goodness, no limits to his mercy; he loves all mankind without shutting out any from his expansive charity: his sun shines alike upon the just and the unjust; and his own divine Son, in whom he is well pleased, entering fully into the views of his Father, bounteously poured out his heart's blood on the cross for the salvation of all the children of Adam, whether born before or after his first advent into the world.

This desire of God to promote the salvation of all mankind is both sincere and active: that is, he really and truly wishes that all the children of Adam should enjoy an eternal happiness in the life to come; and as an evidence that this wish is not barren or inoperative, he has provided all with the means which are necessary to enable them actually to attain salvation if they will. Whosoever wishes an end, wishes also the means necessary for securing that end; otherwise the wish is not real or sincere. Therefore, it is manifest, that God has actually provided all mankind, without any exception whatsoever, with all the means necessary to enable them to secure eternal life; and therefore, if any are lost, it is through their own fault only, and not through any deficiency on the part of God. It is because, with every opportunity and means to save their souls placed within their reach, they obstinately either neglect or reject this proffered help, and thus rush headlong to their own perdition.

And there is no doubt whatever, my dear brethren, that the most bitter and heart-rending thought that now tears with anguish the souls of those who are unhappily lost forever, is this simple, but painful reminiscence:-I could have been saved, and behold I am lost; God loved me with an eternal love, he sent his own beloved Son to save me by dying on the cross for

my redemption: he provided for me in abundance the means of salvation; I might have been saved, but I am lost eternally through my own fault!

God has done every thing that is necessary, on his part, to save our souls; but he will compel none into heaven against their own will. He places before us the glittering prize of immortality; he enlightens our minds, warms our hearts, moves our wills, to make us ardently pant for it, and to enable us to secure it, if we will; but he will not award it to us, unless we faithfully co-operate with his grace, learn and embrace his truth, and reduce to practice whatever he has commanded. He created us without our co-operation, as St. Augustine says, but he will not save us without our co-operation. We are blind, we are weak, we are incapable of doing anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but he is pledged to help us, and to listen to our humble supplication for mercy and assistance; he will smile down from heaven upon our feeble efforts, even as a father smiles upon the exertions of the little child who is beginning to walk; and, with far more tenderness than the earthly parent, he will strengthen the tottering weakness, and prevent the fall, of his helpless children who confidently look up to him for light and guidance.

Salvation, then, is clearly the result of two distinct agencies: the grace of God, and our own free will. Of ourselves we can do nothing; "we can do all things in him that strengtheneth us. "'* God did not make us mere automata to be guided by him blindly, and without our own co-operation; but he was graciously pleased to make us free agents, "to place us in the hands of our own counsel," and, after proffering his grace, make it depend measurably upon ourselves whether we would be saved or lost eternally. Thus, free will in man, and the necessity of grace from God, are both amply vindicated. Man cannot glory against God, because he can do nothing towards securing his salvation without God; and God cannot be _charged with injustice towards man, because he proffers to all, without exception, whatever grace is necessary for salvation. *Philippians iv.13. Ecclesiasticus xv.14.

This is the golden mean of truth, between the mere humanism of Pelagius, who ascribed every thing to free will, and denied the necessity of divine grace, and the horrid predestination of Calvin, who gave every thing to grace and nothing to free will. By this principle alone can we triumphantly vindicate the justice of God, both in rewarding the good and in punishing the wicked.

But what are the means provided by God for the salvation of all mankind, and where are they to be found? The apostle sufficiently indicates this in the text, when he says, "God our Savior will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." The knowledge of the truth, then, is the primary means appointed by Almighty God for the salvation of all men; and as he wishes that all men should be saved, so he also wishes that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. But he could not wish the latter, without, at the same time, providing means by which all men might, if they would, actually come to a knowledge of the truth; therefore, it necessarily follows, that he has provided such means; and hence, that those men who have not come to a knowledge of the truth, and are therefore lost, must ascribe the fault to themselves, not to God.

This truth, a knowledge of which is to prepare mankind for salvation, is contained in that divine RELIGION which Christ established, and for the confirmation of which he died upon the cross. Man had fallen from the high estate of righteousness in which he had been constituted at the moment of his creation; he had become thoroughly steeped in error and vice; his noble nature, stamped originally with the divine image, had sadly deteriorated, had sunk down to the lowest depths of moral degradation. It still bore, indeed, some plain lineaments of that original resemblance to the Deity; the faculties of the soul were not annihilated: the understanding had still its light, but that light was faint and clouded by error; the memory still fulfilled its office of treasuring up the past, but it did so very imperfectly, and seldom recalled deeds of virtue or instances of the divine goodness; the will was still free in its choice between good and evil, but it had become weak and almost

powerless against the violent assaults of inward concupiscence and external temptation. In a word, man's nature was grievously wounded, not wholly destroyed; it was dangerously sick, not yet dead; it needed a remedy to heal its multiplied infirmities, to clothe it with strength, and to raise it up again to God. Four thousand years had elapsed since the fall of man, and the evils which pressed upon his weakened nature had become daily more and more aggravated. Error and vice had overspread the earth, and had rendered its habitation darksome, and its atmosphere pestilent. Man sat down contented, a willing slave of his passions, "in the region of the shadow of death." From the farthest off India in the east, to the pillars of Hercules in the west; from the burning sands of Africa in the south, to the remotest Scandinavia in the north, a dark cloud, lighter in some places, heavier in others, was brooding, like a pall of death, over the whole human race. The polished Greeks and the stern Romans boasted alike of their light and of their brilliant achievements; but they forgot that their light itself was darkness, and that their martial deeds were stained with blood and crime. The poetical and imaginative Greek had originated and built up a highly wrought and colossal system of mythology; and the more practical Roman had borrowed all its absurdities, and had been content to worship in all its polluted shrines. Rome, the mistress of the world, as St. Leo well remarks, had thought that she could boast of her superior religion, when she had really become enslaved to the errors of all other nations, by associating the motley divinities of her conquered provinces with her own, in her gorgeous religious ceremonial.

This system of paganism, thus recognised and adopted by the two most polished and civilized nations of antiquity, openly patronized every species of error, and boldly deified vice itself. In the name of reason, it basely prostituted reason to the vilest and most grovelling purposes; and all this under the pretence of serving God! Pride and rapine were worshipped in the person of Jove, the dread thunderer of Olympus, and the prince of the Gods; drunkenness was adored in the person of Bacchus; lust, in that of Venus; and war and bloodshed were