Greek and Latin Churches viewed her; and that, like them, we may renounce every thing opposed to her teaching, recognize and bow to her infallible authority conferred on her by the solemn promises of Christ, hear her voice, obey her commands, humbly kneel at her altars, and become her dutiful children; that we may be also acknowledged as the children of her Founder and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Amen.

LECTURE IX.

TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS OF THE CHURCH.

THE EIGHTH EVIDENCE OF CATHOLICITY,

Two scriptural texts applied to the Church-Her early trials-The persecutions-Ancient slanders and mobs-The cross of Constantine-The triumph of the Church-Her conflict with ancient heresy-The heretics of the first three centuries-Historical sketch of Arianism-The northern invasions-Condition of the Church during and after them-Pagan and Christian Rome-The crescent and the cross-Alleged darkness and corruption of the middle ages-Scandals-The great schism of the west-The reformationIts violent action and sudden reaction-Macaulay-A parallel between the history of Arianism and that of Protestantism-The French revolution-The test of Gamaliel applied-The indestructible Church-Eighth evidence of Catholicity.

“And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock.” St. Mathew vii. 25.

"And Jesus saith to them: why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up, he commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. St. Mathew viii. 26.

THESE two passages from the new testament, my dear brethren, present, under two different figures, a forcible illustration of what has often happened to the Church at various epochs of her long and eventful history. A house, strongly and securely built upon a firm foundation by an all-wise and all-powerful Architect, she has been at all times the object of the fiercest and most obstinate attacks; the armies of the world, those of all innovators and heretics, and the hosts of Satan himself, have been successively marshalled against her in formidable

array; dark and threatening storms have often broken over her; the elements, men, and demons, have, over and again, conspired her destruction: still "she fell not, for she was founded upon a rock."

Launched, according to the expressive figure of the other text, like a bark on the boisterous sea of this world, she has been at all times assailed by the most terrible tempests; the winds have howled fiercely around her; the waves, lashed into fury, have threatened to swallow her up; with every thing portending a speedy and fatal shipwreck, her stoutest-hearted mariners have quailed and trembled with fear;-still the goodly old ship has braved all storms and outlived all dangers. She could not suffer shipwreck; for she was freighted with the riches of redemption and the hopes of mankind, and JESUS was constantly on board of her, watching over her destiny and guarding her from every impending danger. Sometimes, indeed, he seemed to slumber; but even then his divine heart was wakeful; and, in the hour of their greatest gloom and peril, he listened to the prayer of his trembling followers,— "Lord, save us, we perish;"-he rebuked their want of faith,"why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?"-and "rising up, he commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm."

It has ever been so in the history of the Church. In the midst of her greatest TRIALS, her TRIUMPHS have always been the most signal and brilliant. When her prospects have been most gloomy; when darkness has hung around her unillumined by one single ray of human hope and comfort; when her future has appeared most sad and lowering: then precisely has it always happened, that some unforseen event dazzled the world by its suddenness and brilliancy, changed the entire face of things, dissipated all the clouds that hung heavily over her, struck her enemies with dismay, and left her fortunes completely in the ascendant. It would, indeed, appear that, in such emergencies, some invisible but omnipotent Hand was ever stretched forth for her relief and protection; and in such a manner and under such circumstances, that all the glory of her triumphs should be necessarily referred, not to men, but to God alone.

She has come victorious out of every conflict; sometimes, indeed, "bearing on her body the marks of cruel wounds, but always with the principle of life as strong" in her as ever. She has survived revolutions which have swept away the most mighty states and empires; she has weathered storms in which the stoutest barks have suffered shipwreck; she has come unscathed out of fiery ordeals which have consumed all other institutions which were the mere creations of human wisdom and power. Empires have fallen around her, dynasties have disappeared, thrones have tottered and crumbled to dust, sceptres have been broken in pieces, laurels which decked the brows of conquerors have faded, and regal crowns have dropped to the earth: yet she has survived every change and revolution, and has stood forth, a pillar of strength, solitary and alone, amidst the ruins every where strewn in her pathway. And now, after all her conflicts, she is as vigorous, as full of health and life, as buoyant with hope, as when she first entered the great battle-field of this world, eighteen hundred years ago.

Who will say that the finger of God has not been in all this? Who can explain the singular phenomenon of her preservation under such circumstances, without supposing a divine intervention in her behalf? Who does not see, that a Church, upon whose banner victory has never failed to perch, and which alone has always triumphed and remained firm, unshaken, and permanent in the midst of universal changes, must have been favored by a special protection of heaven? Who does not perceive, in the bold and prominent outlines of her eventful history, a notable commentary on the divine promises recorded in the previous Lectures, written by the finger of God himself, and in characters so distinct that "he who runneth may read?" Will any Christian at least feel disposed to dispute or reject such a commentary ?

That the Catholic Church is more than eighteen hundred years old, while her rivals cannot prove for themselves an antiquity of more than three hundred, is a glorious feature in her history; but that she has been able to attain to this venerable age in spite of all the difficulties and conflicts through which she has had to pass, is a most striking and conclusive evidence

of her divine origin. That she alone claims to be, and is, the heir to the splendid promises of Christ set forth in the last Lecture, is a consoling truth; but that she alone can show the complete fulfilment of those divine promises in the great leading facts of her history, and in the manifold trials and triumphs by which this history has been marked; is an additional evidence, plain and palpable to every one, that she is really, what she purports to be, the true Church of Christ, the Bride of the Lamb, the cherished object of his love and solicitude, and his infallible organ of communication with the world.

This is, my dear brethren, no idle declamation; it is sober history. I hope to convince you of this, if you will have the kindness and patience to follow me this evening, in the rapid sketches I mean to present of some leading epochs of Church history, in special reference to the trials and triumphs of the Church. The subject opens out to our view a vast and expansive field, full of the most interesting and instructive historical monuments.

1. When Jesus Christ, in his farewell address, sent forth his apostles to teach all nations, and to establish every where that Church for which he had died, on the ruins of a time-honored, wide-spread, and universally cherished idolatry; when he bade them fear nothing, for that "he would be with them all days even to the consummation of the world;" who, reasoning upon merely human principles, would have believed, even for one moment, that they could have succeeded in their arduous and seemingly impossible mission? Who could have even dreamed, that not only would their labors be crowned with the most complete and brilliant success, but that their work would survive the tempests and changes of eighteen long centuries; and, even at the end of this period, would exhibit no indications of decay, but would be as strong and firmly established as ever! When, for example, the blessed apostles Peter and Paul came to Rome, from a remote and despised foreign province of a vast empire, and first entered its marble palaces and halls, the former a poor pilgrim stricken in years and leaning upon his staff, the latter a prisoner in chains on his trial for alleged crimes against the state; who would have imagined that