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January
6, 1850
On the Catholic Church
1. INTROD.—Today
the birthday of the Catholic Church, for the Gentiles came to it.
2. From eternity in the councils of God. At
length in time it began to be; it was conceived and lay in the womb.
Its vital principle faith, therefore with Abraham especially it began.
It remained in the womb of former dispensations its due time; long
expectations; burstings of hope, till the time came; and was born when
Christ came.
3. In the fulness and consummation of time. OBJECTION.—Why
so late? True answer, because unmerited. God may choose His time and
place. Again, because He had to work through human wills, and
therefore, so to say, under the present order could not
choose His time. But here I say fulness and consummation of time, i.e.
man is born after months in the womb. He is born in due time, not an
abortion. So of the church.
4. When born, a robust and perfect offspring,
fulfilling its promise—its promise that it was to be everywhere, and
was to be able to be everywhere.
5. Able to be, for this is the difficulty
which no other religion ever attempted. None but the Catholic has been
able to be everywhere. Local {33} religions—whether
Eastern mythologies or Protestantism.
6. But even earthly empires do not spread over
the world so widely as this and so diversely—now from
east to west, now from north to south. Mahomet by the sword.
7. But even empires of this world gained by the sword
do not last. Not only is this a single religious empire, but it
has lasted out earthly empires, and now shows as little decay as ever.
8. And in such tumults—the whole world broken
up so many times—present revolutions nothing to former. The deluge;
describe waters—whirlpools, waterspouts, currents, rush of waters,
cataracts, waves, yet the ark on them. This, the ark, the greatest
of miracles. Well, it is but the acknowledged type of the Church:
as this was the miracle (as we all confess) of the deluge, such that
morally of the Church.
9. A house not divided against itself does
stand—other religions specimens of the reverse. House at this moment
less divided than ever. Protestants have looked: they felt the
question was, whether we were in extremities? not whether the Pope was
alive, but whether nations acknowledged him? (1) No jealousy about
Pope's power. Pope never so powerful as now—perfectly good
understanding; jealousy at an end. (2) No heresies now. (3) Nay, schools
at an end, [e.g.] Immaculate Conception [Note
1]. {34}
January
27
On Labour and Rest
1. INTROD.—On
Septuagesima, beginning a time of penance and penitential work. No
more Alleluias. The colour purple.
2. Labour is the lot, the punishment of man. Bad
and good labour, nay, evil labours and virtue labours.
3. It is otherwise as God made things. There is
motion and activity in Nature, but it is without effort; all
creation is as it were hung upon wheels, and moves noiselessly and
gracefully—the sun, the stream, the breeze, life.
4. And so in paradise. Adam's tending the flowers
was but a specimen of divine labour without effort; such, too, was his
service of God; such the angels' service—without effort.
5. But sin has made things otherwise. Henceforth
labour changes its character. It is no longer Eden, but that vineyard
into which the labourers were sent in today's gospel—to pull out
stones, to destroy the weeds, worms, blights—and a wall round
it—for there is a warfare. Labour is a war and aims at conquest.
6. Take bodily labour, labour of the
field—preparing the earth, felling trees, making roads,
canals—then building houses; it is all penitential, all the
punishment of sin—the mind does not come in, but a weariness.
7. And much more with intellectual labour
and the labour of the mind—the mere wear and tear of {35} business;
the necessity of providing for a family; anxiety, suspense, fear,
failure, dreariness and hopelessness. But even when successful, one
enterprise leads to another, till the mind is overburdened and
overwrought, and is sucked into a vortex. Most engrossing; no time for
the thought of religion; religion must take its chance, and that they
feel.
8. Much more sin; the bondage and service of the
devil most wearisome—the drunkard, the sensualist. (I knew one who
was tempted to fatalism.) Wearing, restless feeling, even when they
call themselves happy.
9. Nay, virtue here is too a toil, because there
is war between good and evil. Read the saints' lives. Such is labour,
and it wearies soul and body. The body shows it. whether it is manual,
mental, or intellectual.
10. Oh! if we must labour, let us labour in the
service of the Great Master of the Vineyard—that only pays, that
only has hire. Then we shall labour that we may rest, then only. Sin
never rests; there is no rest in hell. This is that penny which they
one and all received, because nothing better or higher.
11. When the evening of life comes, then shall we
know most fully the meaning of labour by being freed from it.
12. The blessedness of rest, of freedom from sin
and toil, even though in purgatory. Purgatory is rest compared with
this life.
13. And much more in heaven, where we see the
face of God. {36}
February
24
On Grace, the Principle of Eternal Life
1. INTROD.—God,
who had been the sole life from eternity, is the life of all things.
He did not lose His prerogative or give to others or creation what He
is Himself.
2. Nothing lives without Him; nothing is.
Animated nature, vegetables, nay, the very material substances, have
their life, if it may be so called, their motion and activity in
Him—the elements. What is called Nature, a principle of life, is
from Him.
3. Moreover, the life He has given to Nature is
but transient and fleeting. It is beautiful while it lasts, but it
comes to an end. Nay, it is self-destructive; thus the water and the
fire, which are the conservation, have been and shall be the
destruction of the earth. And so growth tends to decay. It is the same
process; all things grow to an end.
4. Thus this earth, as I have said, will be
consumed. Thus the year, too, comes to an end—how beautiful spring,
yet it doesn't last. The year runs a reckless course, like a
spendthrift; it cannot help going on till it is nothing. So it is with
bodily health—'dust thou art,' etc. We see it again in animals,
which are sportive and playful when young, but get old and miserable
and sullen. Thus in Nature the best is first.
5. Nature, then, has no immortal principle in it.
All natural things run a course; and this is true of the soul, of the
natural soul. The soul as it is {37} by Nature, by original creation,
has no principle of permanent life in it. The soul grows old as
anything else.
6. Describe the engaging manners of the
young—fascinating, light-heartedness, cheerfulness; affections warm;
imagination, conversation, wit; all pain shaken off—what can be
better? Why is not Nature enough? Wait awhile.
7. Wait awhile, for the soul grows old as
anything else—as the leaves turn yellow, as the animal frame grows
stiff, so wait on a few years, the natural soul too grows old; the
beauty decays as beauty of person; the soul contracts, stiffens,
hardens, instead of being supple and versatile, and elastic and
vigorous; its limbs are cramped; everything is a burden; it is a fear
to it to be pulled out into new positions; it cannot take pleasure in
what once pleased—not in poetry or works of fiction, not in
friendship; it cannot form new friends; it is bereaved [of the old
ones], and does not replace them; it cannot laugh; disappointment
breaks it; it cannot recover. Hence relapsing into natural
imperfections (as crabbedness, ill-nature, etc.) which a man had
seemed to overcome, having ever struggled against them.
8. Oh terrible! old people hard-hearted, without
affections, careless of the loss of friends—not from high
motives—they have no faith—virtue seems a fancy—with hearts like
stone, etc.
9. Follow such a one into the next world. What is
to be his happiness for eternity?—immortal, yet dead, eternal death.
Life of the soul is in the affections; he has no affections—a closed
heart. {38} The devil cannot love God—vide St. Catherine of
Genoa in St. Alfonso's Sermons, p. 335.
10. Such is the course of Nature in the soul as
in the body. Nature ages; it has in it no principle of life. No, grace
is the only principle of immortality. We must go beyond nature; we
must go to something higher. Here, then, is one characteristic
difference between Nature and Grace.
11. EXHORTATION,
Eccles. xii. All saints have lived by love—the martyrs, confessors,
etc., etc. St. Valentine [Note 2],
who connects us with the first age, shows that the Church has kept,
not lost, her first bloom.
March
24 (Palm Sunday)
On Our Lord's Agony
1. INTROD.—We
naturally seek to be told something of the death and the deathbeds of
those we know and love. We are drawn to the deathbed of the saints and
holy people; and much more if anything remarkable about it, and much
more if a man be our benefactor, parent, etc. How much more the death
of the great God?
2. Thus, above all, our Lord's death—how sudden
it was! One day brought into the city in triumph, the next plotted
against, betrayed and seized.
3. God from eternity—the Holy Trinity. Each
person all God; the Son the only God, as if only Person. {39}
4. God most happy; Son all happy—bliss, peace,
calmness, glory, beauty, perfection from all eternity.
5. And now look at that one only God, as we
contemplate Him at this time of year. He is still one, sole, and
alone. He was one in heaven; He is one in the garden, one on the tree.
He trod the winepress alone. When He went into the garden He
took but a few with Him, and separated Himself from them; and
afterwards the disciples 'left Him alone,' and fled. Easy for the
traitor to take Him, for He was alone.
6. But though one and alone, how different! He
who was glorious is become a leper; He who was so peaceful has lost
His rest.
7. It is said that nothing is so fearful as the
overwhelming sorrow of man as contrasted with woman, of a hero or
great and firm man overcome by adversity or bereavement; for it being
more difficult, it bursts more [violently]; it is like a storm rending
and shattering. What, then, in the most peaceful and serene? What a
conflict in the sinless!—(enlarge).
8. It is said that 'the wicked are like a boiling
sea'; what means this in the innocent? Yet so it is. He began to grow
weary, sad, frightened. (Explain.) On the devil, who was foiled in the
wilderness, to his surprise finding our Lord in the garden agitated as
a sinner. He had gained his point—his eternal enemy vanquished. On
the apostles sleeping for sorrow, but Christ praying more earnestly.
9. Pain of mind greater than that of body, though
we are more conversant in bodily pain—grief, fear, anxiety, terror,
despair, disappointment—poena damni of the lost greater than poena
sensus. {40} On the effect of mental pain—hair turning white;
Nabal [Note 3]. So effect on
Christ—agony of blood.
10. Let us gather round and look at Him whom God
has punished; but in no idle way, for His pain is from our sins.
Address to sinners.
July
14
On the Particular Judgment
1. INTROD.—Give
an account of thy stewardship, from the Gospel of Pentecost viii.
2. (A judgment will take place directly.) It
would be well if we could realise what our actual position is. We happen
at this moment to be in this world, but any moment we may find
ourselves in the world unseen. We are now talking to each other; we
see each other, etc. Yet just as walking we may cross over a street,
so suddenly we may cross to the next world—'Thou fool, this night
thy soul will be required of thee,' etc.—a veil drawn across.
3. It is difficult even for a Catholic who
believes it to realise. Thus a person who never was at York could not
realise that this time tomorrow he will be there. Still, the more we
meditate the more we shall realise it; and it is our duty to realise
it more and more. Saints realise it.
4. But a Protestant really has no notion of it.
{41} This is proved by any sudden death—sudden deaths throw
them off their balance and detect them. They at once betray by their
words that, whatever they may say or wish, they do not really believe.
They call it an unknown state; but though it is unseen it is
not unknown. But a Protestant does not know whither he is going
more than Adrian with his anima blandula, etc. He in his heart
confesses it. He says, 'After all, we know nothing.' Whether he will
lose consciousness, or be asleep; whether in heaven, or what is
heaven. In a word, he is all abroad; the question is new to him, and
he has not one idea about it, no more than a pagan. What has he more
than a pagan?
I am not talking of heaven, or eternity, but of
what will happen to him personally directly after death.
5. But a Catholic knows—particular judgment and
purgatory—judgment on the very spot and time, expeditious like an
inquest, as necessarily [following death] as an undertaker. 'After
death the judgment': (1) Philip the Second to his courtiers, St.
Alphonso, p. 249; (2) St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi trembled in her
sickness, St. Alphonso, p. 248.
6. Yet true as this in general, still none of us
understand as we should what is meant by stewardship. What,
have all stewardship?
7. [Bound to make our lives] conformable to the
life of Christ—'if the just scarcely be saved.' Account [to be
rendered] of (1) sins; (2) blessings and graces; (3) idle word—ictus
oculi; (4) thoughts of heart; (5) time, recreations.
8. Let us live ever in the thought of judgment.
{42}
August
11
On the Doctrine of Prayer as Reconciling Us
to the Catholic Teaching about Our Blessed Lady
1. In the course of Nature everything proceeds in
order; system of cause and effect proceeds illimitably, so that we do
not know where it stops. It is a vast web. Hence all things seem
fated. This is what unassisted reason seems to teach:
2. and hence no religion proper, for God cannot
act upon us directly, but only through a system; and therefore
it is a system only which acts. OBJECTION.—The
laws of God will go on whether we strive or not: e.g. how can
prayer save from trouble, give health, cut off a persecutor?
3. Yet conscience, feeling, and the religious
sense, which are part of us, speak contrariwise, viz. of particular
providence.
4. Revelation confirms this. 'Not a sparrow falls
without ... hairs of head,' etc. And specially it reveals the power of
prayer.
5. Prayer in its effect, though the idea is so
familiar to us, is one of the greatest of mysteries and miracles, yet
it is the clear doctrine of Scripture.
6. Now I am going to use this without reference
to the subjects, which will be brought before us in a few days in the
Assumption.
7. Much is said by Protestants against our Lady's
power, but our Lady's power is nothing else than the greatest
exemplification of the power of prayer. We don't give her power of
atonement, etc., but simply prayer, as we give ourselves; we in a
degree, {43} she in fulness. Now I can understand persons scrupling at
the power of prayer altogether; but why, that there should be
one instance [i.e. great exemplification] of it? We do not
introduce a mystery, but realise it. The great mystery is that prayer
should have influence. When once we get ourselves to believe the power
of prayer, etc.
8. E.g. even Protestants say the strongest
things about prayer—'prayer of faith'—'Satan trembles'—'faith
moves mountains'—'faith can do all things,' [Note
4] that is, is omnipotent—this is just what we say about our
Lady—omnipotent through prayer—'Let me alone' [Exod. xxxii.
9-11]—Amalec [Note 5]—Jacob's
wrestling [Note 6]—'I cannot
until thou come thither' [Gen. xix. 21, 22]—Luke xviii. 5—violent
carry it away by force.
9. Perseverance. Again Amalec, Jacob's wrestling;
Luke xviii. 2-7 [Note 7], the
woman gives him no rest. {44}
10. Sanctity. 'God heareth not sinners.'
11. Now who can persevere as our Lady? Who is as
holy as she? What wonder that in her [the power of prayer] should be
fulfilled most perfectly?
12. The more we pray the more we shall be
reconciled to the doctrine.
13. Let us at this time make her both the example
of prayer and its object.
October
6
On the Necessity of Securing Our Election
1. INTROD.—There
are mysteries of revelation (most) which are beyond our experience; we
receive them only on faith, e.g. Trinity, Incarnation, etc.,
but there is one which we see, viz. the great mystery of election and
predestination.
2. We see before our eyes the astonishing fact,
that all are not in the same condition as regards religious truth.
Some are born in heathen countries—of bad parents—in heresy.
Again, of two men who sin, one is cut off, one lives to repent. Again,
men who go on well for years suddenly fall away—how all are mixed
together. The world and Catholics not distinguishable; they dress
alike, etc.
3. Now Scripture recognises this awful fact. It
speaks about the elect being few, the flock being little. It says much
of God's grace, of a choice, etc. This certainly is most wonderful,
for it was a prophecy at the time, which every age has confirmed {45}
since, and a curious combination, viz. that Christ's religion
should at once surround and subdue the world, yet be thus small, and
weak, and despised.
4. Such is the doctrine of Scripture, and it is
put even more strongly. There is an awful text, 'If the mighty works,'
Matt. xi. 20-24 [Note 8].
5. Now in saying this, it is not (as I have many
times urged) as if God did not give enough to all, but He gives more
to one than another. Why, we know not. (Do not think I put it as a
speculative mystery merely; it is most instructive; it is not only
awful and mysterious, but on the other hand, a most profitable fact to
consider.)
6. It arises from God's self-dependence,
self-sufficiency. Eternally happy from everlasting. Creation did not
make Him dependent. What is it to Him if thou art virtuous? You have
no claims on Him except what He has given by pledging Himself. Beware
of pride. He does not want you, etc.—you can do Him no good. In your
own nature you are indefinitely removed from Him; it is only by
superabundant grace that you come near Him. {46} He is not bound to
give grace, but He does give it to all. And as He is not bound to give
at all, He is not bound in measure. He has full right to give so much
as He pleases, more to one than to another.
7. Hence we cannot argue for certain that because
He has forgiven our sins already, He will in future, if we sin. We
cannot count that He will a second time give us the grace of
repentance. Nor because He has forgiven others, therefore He will us.
And so again, if we are external to the Church, we cannot rely on His
always giving us the grace which He has given so far as He has, solely
to bring us into the Church. And so again we have no confidence,
because we are in a good way now, that therefore we shall persevere.
8. Do not think I am putting this as a harsh
speculative mystery; it is as a practical consideration. Beware of
quenching grace. The grace of conversion is rare; the grace of
illumination is precious. You do not know but this may be the last
grace given you, if you resist it. You have claim on nothing if you
are external to the Church. You may have good feelings, dare not rely
on them; you may at present be in God's grace, do not conclude too
easily that you will persevere. Watch against sin; for what you know,
the least wilful venial sin may act upon your deathbed, and subtract
from the aid which would then have been given you.
9. The need of prayer. God sovereign, but prayer
almighty. God has given to us as a means to overcome, as I may say,
Himself. Let us never be satisfied with getting prayers for our
perseverance.
10. Here is the special office of our Lady, and
its {47} bearing on us. She does not predestinate, she does not give
grace, she does not merit grace for us, but she gains it by prayer;
she gains perseverance by prayer. Thus she overcomes God, as I may
say.
11. Suitable on Rosary Sunday. Nunc et in hora
mortis nostrae.
12. May we die in peace.
October
18
On External Religion
(For St. Peter's, on the
opening [Note 9])
1. INTROD.—Gospel
of the day, Pentecost xiii.—'Glory to God.'
2. What is meant by glory? We unprofitable, but
we can show our worship, etc.
3. I am led to this, the natural subject of the
day, now that the chapel, embellished, etc., is reopened.
4. How natural, you see from what every one of
you does—children forming little altars, etc.
5. So the first Christians, even in caves [Note
10] (which are most alien to Christianity), in catacombs, adorned
them in times of persecution.
6. Whereas when an unreligious movement, the
first business to destroy these [embellishments]—the Danes, the
Reformers, the Huguenots, the French Revolution. As the devil
delighted to destroy our Lord's beauty, so the beauty of His Church
(even organ and surplice). {48}
7. But it is exemplified in all religions. Look
out into the first ages, patriarchal times, before religion was
corrupted—a mountain top (beautiful prospect), or grove or rivers,
where sweet smells and sounds of birds. No matter if afterwards
corrupted—Garden of Eden.
8. Particularly in south, where scenery beautiful
and weather fine—out-of-doors worship. Next, the first artificial
part was processions, vestments, and music and statues.
9. Then came flowers and incense. Describe a
procession—children with garments; the victim; no matter that
superstition afterwards corrupted it to false gods.
10. Then they took it out of the open
air—Jewish tabernacle. Then we come to furniture, as you read in
Exodus—and so jewels, etc., marble, pictures; then painting,
sculpture and music.
11. Lastly came architecture, which has to do
with form. With it [is] so great a part of the beautiful. The dome
represents the heaven, the arch the wood.
12. Thus at length all things—the eye, the ear,
the scent—form, colour, music, incense.
13. One more characteristic in all
this—costliness. Sacrifices. David spoke of 'that which doth cost me
nothing.' [Note 11] So also of
the widow, 'She hath done what she could'—'two mites, which make a
farthing,' Mark xii. 42, 43 [Note 12]
{49}
14. 'The poor you have always with you; not me,'
Matt. xxvi. 11; occasional call, as now, 'a stranger, and you took me
in.' St. Peter and St. Paul—'shall receive a prophet's reward.'
December
1 (Advent Sunday)
On Death
1. INTROD.—Again
Advent. Christmas!—the day darkens; the year dies; all things tend
to dissolution. It is the end; we have to think of death and all
connected with it.
2. We are going on right to death; a truism, yet
not felt. We are on a stream, rushing towards the ocean; every morning
we rise nearer to death; every meal we take; every time we see our
friends, etc.; nearer the time when we shall lose them. We rise, we
work, we eat; all such acts are as milestones. As the clock ticks, we
are under sentence of death. The sands of the glass run out; we are
executed; we die.
3. And when it comes, what happens? We all know.
This happens—we are no longer here. We see not indeed whither we go,
but this we know full well, we are not here. The body which was ours
is no longer ours; we have slipped it off; no longer {50} a part of
us. It is a mask, as a dress; but it is not our instrument or organ.
We who think, feel, speak, etc., are not here. Where we are, nothing
that is here tells us; but this we know full well, we are not in the
body. We are cut off from all here. This minute here, the next a wall
impenetrable has grown up; we are as utterly cut off as if we had
never been here; as if we had never known any one here. We don't go by
degrees—we do not (as it were) lessen in perspective and disappear
in the horizon—we go at once and for all.
4. Where it is we see not; what it is we know
not; but what it is not we know, as we know where it is not. The man
is not what he was. He took pleasure; he depended on this world. He
depended for its enjoyment on the senses. That life was not a burden;
that it was dear to him; that he enjoyed it; that he was unwilling to
quit it, was because he saw, he heard, etc., his amusements, his
pleasures; he went to his club, or to business, with his friends; he
liked the warm fire, the light; he liked his family, home comforts,
his dinner; he strolled out in summer, or he went to places of
merry-making and enjoyed the gratifications of sin—nothing
supernatural: how many we have known such! Why are people unwilling to
die? What is the one reason? There is no pain in it. Because they
leave what is known; they go to what is unknown. They leave the sun,
etc.; they leave their families, their schemes, their wealth.
5. Oh, how much is implied in this! Men witness
against themselves. They are afraid to leave this {51} life; they own
they are going to the unknown, yet they are unwilling to make that
unknown known. Do lay this to heart;—you are going to the unknown.
6. Now I will tell you what you are going
to—not to creatures as here, but to God. Oh the dreadful state of
the soul when this step is over! Another world is close to us. It has
taken the step, and is in that other world. Have you any relations
with God? Do you know aught about Him? Do you know what He is like?
Have you tried to make Him your friend? Have you made your peace with
Him? What madness! If men are going on a voyage they take letters of
introduction; they inquire about the country; they try to make friends
beforehand; they take money with them, etc. Yet you do not try to
disperse the thick darkness; on the contrary, you learn to be content,
because you do not know.
7. Yet that acquiescence is an additional alarm,
for it shows God is angry with you. Men lightly say: 'It is a matter
of opinion.' No, it is a matter of punishment. This very discordance
of sects is a sign of God's displeasure.
8. The longest life comes to an end. You may be
young, you may be vigorous, but you must die. When it is over, the
longest life is short.
9. Seek the Lord therefore; this is the
conclusion I come to; this world is nothingness. Seek Him where He can
be found, i.e. in the Catholic Church. He is here in the same
sense in which we are. {52}
December
29
On the Office of the Church—St. Thomas the Martyr
1. INTROD.—This
is the birthday of a great saint, one of the greatest of English
saints, whose fame has gone out, etc.; a saint of the universal
Church, especially known in France, North Italy, Roman States, etc.;
nay, whose feast is embodied in the octave of Christmas.
2. His manner of death.
3. What did he die for? If you ask a Protestant
history, it will mention some minute ground, some question of detail,
of course; but, if examined, for that which is ever the cause
of battle between the world and the Church. Parallel it to the early
age, a grain of incense; the present moment, calling bishops bishops
of sees, etc. But all these are accidents—the ground, one and the
same.
4. To explain this I must go into the subject.
State of the world before Christ came—the world left to itself;
doubt and inquiry; philosophers; pagans; yet no known truth.
Philosophers felt it impossible to throw truth into a popular form.
Hence they were tempted to believe there was no truth. Great
difference between religious truth and scientific, etc. We can get to
sciences of geology, etc., because we start from what we see, but who
shall tell the designs of the Divine Mind?
5. Prophecy of a Teacher—voice behind thee
[?]—a law—a light (Isaias ix.)—Isaias xxv.—Thus a master, or
guide, or monitor to be set up. {53}
6. Such is the one province which Christianity
was to fulfil. Now Protestants think this fulfilled in the Bible.
But the Bible has not in fact been the means. (1) The majority
have not been able to read. (2) And now fifty years' experience shows
it is not God's way [Note 13].
(3) Nor can it be, for a book does not speak; it is shut till it is
opened. A law cannot enforce itself; it implies an executive; not a
book instead of a physician, etc. (4) It is nowhere said in Scripture
that Scripture was to be the guide, but it is said what is to fight
with the gates of hell, viz.
7. the Church—texts. This is set up, and did
exist before, etc., in all lands to appeal to high and low, to all
ranks and callings—(enlarge). To moderate, and in a certain sense to
interfere, viz. with the conscience—on the misery of princes being
made so much of from youth—to give the law and to teach the faith.
8. This is the quarrel—the world does not like
to be taught. (The Jewish kings did not like prophets.) The Church
interferes with it; she lifts up a witness. Men regret the old pagan
times when each could say and think what he pleased. Kings and
ministers, etc., etc., don't like to be interfered with.
9. This, then, was the world's quarrel with St.
Thomas. Henry II. felt the
Protestant ground just as the meetings now held do—it is the same
spirit—therefore does the world persecute us now. When, then, men
object that we interfere with conscience, etc., etc., we say 'yes.'
And if we did not, {54} we should not be the Church; if we did not,
there would be no good in a Church.
10. And you may be sure that the Church will
never betray its trust.
January
19, 1851
On the Name of Jesus
1. It has been from the beginning the order of
Providence—nay, even verbum—not to create without giving a
name. As grace is necessary to keep things together lest they
dissipate, so a name is, as it were, the crown of the work, as giving
it a meaning and description, and, as it were, registering it before
Him. Henceforth it lives in His sight, as being in His catalogue.
2. Thus 'day' and 'night,' 'earth' and 'seas.'
Hence Adam named his wife and the beasts, etc. Hence Abraham's name
changed; Jacob's, Sarah's, Isaac's; Isaac's given, Jacob's changed;
St. John Baptist; St. Peter and St. Paul. These names are descriptive.
3. Hence anxiety of men to know God's name. They
are born in ignorance. They have a sense there is a God, but what is
He? The heavens and earth do not condense and concentrate His manifold
attributes, etc. They give hints, glimpses, snatches, but what is He?
Hence He is the unknown God, and men are but 'feeling after Him' by
what they see. They are in God; He surrounds them, but they want to
gaze on Him objectively. {55}
4. Thus Jacob about the angel, 'What is thy
name?' And to Manue, 'Why askest thou my name, which is mirabile?'
Judg. xiii. 18. Moses bolder. God had been called 'God of Abraham,'
etc. Adonai.
5. Hence you see a meaning why the Eternal Son
would reveal this, that the Name of that Son was of consequence; it
was a manifestation of the nature and attributes of God—Admirabilis,
Isa. ix. 6 [Note 14]; Emmanuel,
Isa. vii. 14 [Note 15]. Still,
however, the name was not told. At length Gabriel said it, Luke i. 31
[Note 16]; circumcision, Luke
ii. 21; angel to Joseph, Matt. i. 21 [Note
17], His name was called Jesus. And hence the devils: 'Jesus the
Son of God'; 'I know thee who thou art.' On the cross [Note
18]. The first miracle of St. Peter and St. John, Acts iii.—'in
the name,' 'this name,' 'no other name'—and St. Paul in Phil. ii.
8-11 [Note 19]. The two great
apostles, the angels {56} from Gabriel, devils from the possessed, and
men from the circumcision.
6. For in this the whole history of salvation,
the whole creed—how God would save men, how He loved them, etc.,
recounting the Christian doctrine [Note
20]. Thus when we would know who God is, we answer, Jesus. We see
God in the clouds, in the mountains, etc., and who is He? Jesus. Who
then rules? Who is looking, the ruler of bad men? Who is looking, the
guardian of the virtuous? Who, etc.? and we answer, Jesus. He is the
one word containing in itself all power, etc., because in it we
thereby have in our minds the full description of Almighty God.
7. And in it an answer to all objections and
difficulties. It surpasses all (this is the point of the sermon):
whatever difficulties, whatever mysteries in religion, this
comprehends and protects them. What is more wonderful than that God
should become man. Real Presence, power of Mary, purgatory, eternal
punishment, intercession of saints, election, original sin. The whole
Catholic system bound up in it.
8. Hence, and since Protestants have the name of
Jesus on their lips, it is the test whether or not they understand it,
i.e. their taking Catholic doctrine or not. If they don't, if
they stumble at it, they don't understand Jesus. On invincible
ignorance, as alone hindering Catholicism.
9. Let us then rejoice in the fulness of this
Name. Let us use it as the Name of virtue against devils, bad
thoughts, evil men, the world, dangers and frights. It is our banner.
{57}
January
26 (Third Epiphany)
On Disease as the Type of Sin
1. INTROD.—When
our Lord came His chief miracles were, not like Moses', etc., on
elements, but on men, on diseases.
2. Why? Because He was the Redeemer. The physical
world had not to be redeemed, but men, and disease was a defect;
whereas the physical world was perfect after its kind, very good. He
did work some miracles on the elements, to show He was the Creator;
most on the infirmities of human nature, to show He was its Redeemer.
3. He had to do with sin; and bodily diseases are
at once its symptoms and its representations (they represent sins both
in their intensity and variety). When man fell, the grace which
covered his soul and body was like a skin torn off and leaving him
raw—(enlarge). Men would forget sin, but they cannot. Hence it is
that all false views of religion fail—the views of the day; a bright
careless religion does in the sunshine, not in the shade. Here it is
that Christ spoke to the heart. He comes to do that which false
religions and infidelity ignore—to cure sin.
4. Nothing more awful than bodily pain, except
mental; but mental is a private matter, and can be denied, can be put
off; bodily is before us. Disease represents sin in its intensity
and variety. Go through bodily complaints—fever, ague,
sinking from weakness, oppression of breath, etc., cholera,
restlessness, etc., paralysis, leprosy—here you have sin in its
various forms. {58}
5. And it suggests to us future punishment. No
dreams of God's mercy can overcome the fact—and our Lord, most
merciful though He is, requires it. 'Jerusalem, Jerusalem,' etc.,
'Behold your house shall be left to you desolate,' Matt. xxiii. 37-38,
Luke xiii. 34-35, and see His tears over Lazarus' grave, John xi. 35 [Note
21] 'An enemy has done it,' Matt. xiii. 25-28 [Note
22]. It is necessary by the immutable laws of truth.
6. Nor can you say it is merely remedial,
for why allowed, i.e. sin? God could have hindered sin. Again,
He need not have died for it, and yet might have pardoned it—'I
will, be thou clean.' No, it is the beginning, not the no-ending of
pain, etc., which is the marvel. When once it comes in, there is no
reason why it should not continue, etc.
7. Come to the Physician of Souls, etc.
February
9 (Fifth Epiphany)
On the Descent into Egypt
1. INTROD.—There
is one subject not much thought of, the descent into Egypt, though
belonging to this season, and it may be accounted one of {59} the
Epiphanies of Christ. (1) Magi; (2) purification; (3) idol-breaking in
Egypt, for as the Ark levelling the walls of Jericho, and
[overthrowing] Dagon, so much more Christ.
2. Circumstances. How one journey to
Bethlehem—then they got home to Nazareth—not enough, must set out
again. It is remarkable that these first years were spent in a heathen
country. There till seven years old.
3. Now why? I will give you a reason. He would
undergo every suffering; He would be in a heathen country to share the
trials of His apostles and missioners. In Jerusalem was the Temple of
God, in the Holy Land His religion; but even there He chose not the
Temple, but Nazareth—and the first years of His life Heliopolis, in
heathen Egypt.
4. Now it must not be supposed that our Lord was
too young to have a trial. (Explain.) Ignorance came from the fall. He
was as sensitive [in childhood] as [we] when we are grown. Thus He saw
all the evil of the place; and as His body made Him feel in the
crucifixion, so His soul was exposed to moral sufferings from the
first.
5. And the suffering was greater than we
conceive. To live among heathens is a misery, the greater, the purer
the mind—Lot in Sodom, St. Paul at Athens—the world is everywhere,
and we can understand from a country which is not heathen, such as
this, how evil it is, though it would be a great deal worse [among
heathens].
6. Even in this country, I say, which is not
heathen, the misery of being in the world is great {60} to any holy
mind. Take e.g. a city like this, and fancy the thoughts of an
apostle in it. Could he go about it freely? A continual service of the
devil here. How? By sins of the tongue; not like the seven Catholic
Hours coming at intervals, but incessantly; a continual light talk in
a thousand places, from morning to night, with scarce breaks. Who is
honoured like the devil? Blasphemy and immodesty, so that most men's
mouths and all men's ears are polluted from year to year's end. And
are not their hearts too? Then imagination. Alas! this is why
the devil loves the bad talk; it is the pabulum, the silva
of corruption; it sets the heart on fire, as shavings round the wood
and coal for a fire. I don't know anything more awful. Other sins men
commit from time to time, but this one now. The evil concupiscence
boils over and burns without exhaustion, and involves every one, so
that religious people are like the Three Children [in the fiery
furnace].—and how many, many fall!
7. Well this, bad as it is, is not so bad as
Egypt, as heathen Heliopolis, for this country has been
Catholic—remains of good, which have soaked in. Grant that a modern
city is a furnace of sin—yet it [sin] was deified in Egypt. Vices
canonised in animals—heathen idolatry—all vices made gods—the
world lieth in wickedness, etc. [Note
23]—the god of this world, etc. [Note
24].—the prince of the power of this air, of the spirit that now
worketh on the children of unbelief [Note
25]. O misery of the infant Jesus walking in the streets! St.
Aloysius fainting at the mention of a mortal sin—smell—saints
detecting mortal sin {61} [by its smell]. As sick men cannot bear
strong scent or sound, so purity here. What a living martyrdom, etc.
8. I have said He did this for our sakes, to
taste every trial, to sanctify every state, to sanctify the state of
those who live in the world.
9. You who live in the world, resist evil. On
confraternities—third order of St. Francis, and so allude to the
Oratorium Parvum. Your confessors may, or may not, from not liking to
put burdens on you, speak of these.
February
16 (Septuagesima)
On Labour—Our Work Here
1. INTROD.—Before
Lent the Church begins by setting before us work as an introduction.
2. Epistle and gospel—beginning of Genesis.
Even before the fall, and much more after—thorns and thistles.
3. This the contrast between before the fall and
after. The ground typifies our hearts—and now we have labour.
4. And this will show us the heinousness of the
fall, for before it, the labour, the effort, was to sin—before as
difficult to sin as now to be a hero. Grace was so great.
5. But grace being gone, the lower nature rose
against the upper [Note 26] as
the upper against God.
6. This then, I say, our work—labour of one
kind {62} or another. It has different names—self-discipline,
self-denial, penance, reformation, mortification—all meaning the
bringing under of ourselves. Don't think it hard if you find a thing
difficult; it is your work.
7. This implied in the subduing our 'ruling
passion,' so called.
8. Also exemplified in particular examination.
9. Also done in suffering. Suffering is a work.
On satisfaction and satispassio [Note
27]; on bearing pain with sweetness or patience, with sweet faces,
ways, voice, etc., etc. On the discipline when associated with the
thought of Christ's sufferings, more meritorious; for the mind goes
with it and is not otiose.
10. Thus let us begin this sacred time.
February
23 (Sexagesima)
On St. Paul the Type of the Church as Missionarising
1. INTROD.—This
day seems especially set apart for the consideration of the apostle
St. Paul, in collect, in epistle, in gospel, for he is the sower.
2. How he sowed in all places. How he preached.
He fought. The great soldier. David goes out against a giant, but he
against the world. What a great ideal! Patriots, Joan of Arc, etc.,
etc., but this, not in one country only. To east and west, north and
south, he goes and forms a kingdom.
3. But this great portent is completed by the
{63} history of the Church after him. It is not solitary, not an
accident, not like one great man, as Buonaparte; but he intended
and the work has lasted eighteen hundred years, going on the
same way.
4. Now the warfare goes on just the same, and
with the same enemies. This again most extraordinary. The view of the
battle is just the same. As a shadow may move onwards and presents the
same outline over hills and dales, so as time has gone, this one
grouping has gone on for eighteen centuries.
5. Look at it in St. Paul's day—zealots and
indifferents, statesmen and philosophers. Describe them.
6. Zealots—Jews and pagans. Pagan, Acts xix.,
[tumult of silversmiths at Ephesus]: Jewish, Acts xxiii. 12 [forty men
bound under a great curse neither to eat nor drink till they killed
Paul].
7. Indifferents—magistrates. Gallio, Acts xviii.
12; Festus, 'Paul, thou art beside thyself,' Acts xxvi. 24;
philosophers at Athens, Acts xvii. 18.
8. Application to the present times. Furious
evangelicals and statesmen. Their different ground. The first call
Rome Antichrist.
The second profess to care nothing for doctrine,
but only go to political grounds.
9. Nay, our blessed Lord. Pharisees
furious—'The Son of God.' Then they come to Pilate (What is truth?)
with a different plea. 'Thou art not Caesar's friend,' etc. The
emperor's supremacy, etc., denied.
10. This awful unity of the Church is our
consolation. While it proves the Church comes from {64} God, it proves
nothing comes strange and new to her.
11. No, our business to sow and to fight, and to
leave the rest to God. It is never to be supposed we shall not go on
doing the same as before.
March
9 (First Lent)
On the Accepted Time
1. INTROD.—Lent
an apostolical observance.
2. And well did it become the Divine Mercy to
appoint a time for repentance, who had in the fulness of time died for
our redemption. For what is every one's business is no one's; what is
for all times is for no time.
3. And even those who will not take God's time,
feel a time there must be. They always profess a time; they quiet
their conscience by naming a time; but when?
4. 'Go thy way for this time; when I have a
convenient season,' etc., Acts xxiv. 24-25 [Note
28]. When the present temptation is out of the way. When the
present business or trouble is got through. When they have enjoyed
life a little more.
5. When 'a little more,' for there is no
satisfaction in sin, each sin is the last. But the thirst {65} comes
again; there is no term at which we can quit it; it is like drinking
salt water—horizon recedes.
6. End of life, time of retirement. The
seriousness will come as a matter of course; passions will naturally
burn out—otium cum dignitate—alas, the change of nature is
not the coming of grace. We may change, but we shall not be nearer
heaven. To near heaven is not a natural change, but a specific work,
as much as building a house. It is not a growth till there is
something to grow from.
7. Feeling then there must be a time, and having
the conscience of men on this point with her, the Church appoints a
time and says, 'Now is the appointed time.' She blows the trumpet;
proclaims forgiveness; an indulgence—scattering gifts—inviting all
to come and claim. Not sternly, but most lovingly and persuasively she
does it.
8. Oh for those who have neglected the summons
hitherto, year after year, conscience pleading!
9. Or perhaps we have repented just through Lent
and then relapsed and undone, and more than undone, all.
10. And so we get older, older, and farther from
heaven every year, till we come to our last Lent, and we do not keep
it a bit the better.
11. Then we come near death, yet won't believe
that death is near. Set thy house in order—packing up, and how many
things left out. We cannot realise it. All hurry and confusion.
Between illness, delirium, weakness, relations, worldly affairs, etc.,
we shall be able to recollect nothing—all in disorder. No real
contrition. And so we die.
12. Ah! then in that very moment of death {66} we
shall recollect everything; all things will come before us. We shall
wish to speak; it will be too late. We shall have passed from this
life; the accepted time will have passed by.
March
23 (Third Lent)
On the Strong Man of Sin and Unbelief
1. INTROD.—'The
strong man' represents the sinner in his strength and security. It
represents him fortified by his three friends—the world, the flesh,
and the devil. 'The old man,' Eph. iv. 22 [Note
29], the old Adam, the evil spirit who has taken possession of
him.
2. He has a 'house.' It is a castle: nor is it
the work of a day. How long it takes to build a castle! and buildings
grow up about it, fort after fort, treasure house after treasure
house, viz. by habits. (Explain about habits.) No one remains without
them; they are intended to be a defence for the good. They also become
a defence in wickedness. Supernatural habits and natural habits.
3. Absence of faith—'The light that is in
them.' His standard of things—scoffs at things supernatural; does
not think himself a bad man because he does not pray; is in 'peace';
perfectly satisfied with his standard; may not come up to it; is
firmly {67} seated. He may be educated, learned, able, etc.; this only
increases the evil.
4. Enormous strength of a bad man. His vis
inertiae, his momentum. In his black panoply, armed cap-ŕ-pie
like a knight in story, such the bad man. Then fancy a host of them,
the rulers of this world, like a bodyguard of Satan, or his 'guards.'
5. Such are the enemies of Christ, described in
the Gospel: 'We wrestle not against,' etc., Eph. vi. 12. Then Christ's
grace more powerful: 'A stronger than he,' etc.
6. No one can come up to the strength of God's
grace—stronger than the elements; stronger than miracles. It bears
up against anything; it overcomes everything. On the wonderful way in
which Christianity overthrew the establishment of paganism (vide
Döllinger).
7. Let this be your comfort if you feel afraid,
and have to do a great work. God's grace can convert; it has converted
from sin of whatever kind.
March
30 (Fourth Lent)
On Bearing Mockery
1. INTROD.—Laetare
Sunday. Joy, like a flower springing out of desolation and
mortification, as Christ goes along the desert.
2. What flower shall be our offering? We cannot
do much in the way of fasting, or other bodily mortifications. Why,
the time supplies one, and which the epistle suggests, viz. our
bearing reviling, {68} etc. On the epistle of the day—Hagar and
Sarah. It was a strong boy bullying a small child—cowardly and
ungenerous. This animal nature. (Describe Ishmael.) Sarah childless
till Isaac. Laetare—the mocking. 'Even so it is now,' says
St. Paul. It is the mark of the true Church, and the form of its
warfare—mockery. And so it is at this minute.
3. The scoffings, etc., which surround us not
exactly violence or suffering, but slander, etc. The huge
Protestantism of this land cannot keep from grinning, scoffing, etc.
4. Now this has ever been the case with the
Church, as I have said, e.g. Isaac.
5. Joseph, Job, David, Jeremias, Daniel.—Heb.
xi. 36.
6. Our Lord—(particulars)—bowing the knee,
etc. Christ's sensitiveness.
7. Something very irritating in mockery, irony,
etc. Indignation and anger natural, and not sinful, yet to be
restrained lest they become sinful. Slander, misrepresentation, abuse
of the good, blasphemy of things sacred, ludicrous views, pictures,
etc. Nay, the people who throng the doors of a chapel like this, with
persons going to and fro, and insult them.
8. All painful, yet laetare. Rejoice in
your desolation; let it be your Lent. Rejoice and leap for joy, for
great is your reward in heaven.
9. Rejoice if you are made like Christ and His
saints.
10. Rejoice, for it is a proof of your real
strength. Quare fremuerunt gentes. Our Lord's whisper terrifies
this great country. His vicar, a feeble old {69} man, by a bit of
paper frightens it—vox Domini super aquas. Can Wesleyans,
etc., do so? When did Protestantism ever raise a whole state as a
small act of the vicar of Christ has done? You see how the devils
fear. Tall Ishmael is mocking in our streets; a strong boy beating a
small one.
11. Rejoice, for it is an augury for the future.
The desolate has many more children than she that has a husband. So
Protestantism is married to the state. Rejoice not against me, O my
enemy, etc. [Note 30]
April
6 (Passion Sunday)
On the Priesthood of Christ
1. INTROD.—Go
through the gospel of the day, showing the strangeness of our Lord's
doctrine, and the surprise and contempt of the Jews, in detail—modes
of expression, ideas, objects, different.
2. So it was: it was a different system. If the
world was true, He was not; if He, the world not.
3. They felt it obscurely and in detail, though
He did not speak openly. How would they have felt if our Lord had said
openly, 'I am the priest of the world'? What a great expression! But
this is the truth, as forced on us by today's epistle. What the gospel
says obscurely the epistle speaks out.
4. What is a priest? See how much it implies:
first the need of reconciliation—it has at once to {70} do with sin;
it presupposes sin. When then our Lord is known to come as a priest,
see how the whole face of the world is changed. Describe the world,
how it goes on, buying and selling, etc.; then the light thrown on it
that it is responsible to God, and has ill acquitted itself of that
responsibility.
5. Again, it implies one the highest in rank. The
head of the family was a priest—primogeniture. Hence Christ the Son
of God.
6. Christ then, the Son of God, offers for the
whole world, and that offering is Himself. He who is high as eternity,
whose arms stretch through infinity, is lifted up on the cross for the
sins of the world.
7. And He is a priest for ever. 'Thou art a
priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedec.' The
offering of the Mass. Say not it is an historical religion,
done and over; it lasts.
8. And as, for ever, so all things with
blood. Why? Grace of Christ, and Adam's grace before the fall. Men
'washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb'; 'the blood of Christ
cleanseth,' 1 John i. 7 [Note 31].
9. Now turn back and see how different from what
we see—need of faith, so says our Lord in the gospel of the
day.
10. And this awful addition, 'He that heareth the
word of God is of God,' etc., John viii. 47 [Note
32].
11. This a reason for these yearly
commemorations, to bring on us the thought of the unseen world. {71}
April
13 (Palm Sunday)
On Christ as Hidden
1. INTROD.—At
this season we veil our images. Why? because the light of our eyes has
gone from us. God is hidden. He showed Himself. He manifested Himself,
but He is gone.
2. This is especially referred to in the gospels
of the past week. Go through them; there is only one, that on
Thursday, which does not obviously refer to it.
3. He had shown Himself through His ministry for
three years as all beautiful—'Blessed is the womb that bore Thee,
and the breasts that gave Thee suck,' etc., Luke xi. 27; 'He has done
all things well,' Mark vii. 37. But now a change. Hidden, bloody
sweat, indignities, blows, etc., called a deceiver, Isa. liii. 3-4 [Note
33]. Ps. xxii. 6-7 [Note 34];
even the disciples doubting, etc.
4. Epiphany the beginning, Palm Sunday the end.
From Passion Sunday till now He had been hidden. {72}
5. He did not show himself after the resurrection
'to all the people.' Ascension, and now the Holy Eucharist, a hidden
manna. John xiv. 19 [Note 35].
6. Difference in the mode in which He has been
hidden before and after—'Verily thou art a God that hidest Thyself,'
Isa. xlv. 15—before, all men in ignorance; now, 'the people that sat
in darkness,' etc.; but still, before, He would not be found; now, men
will not seek. John xvi. 16 [Note 36].
7. 'The light shineth in the darkness.' Go
through John i. and thus explain the gospel for Thursday [in Passion
week]. [Note 37] Magdalene saw
what the Pharisee did not see.
8. Hence He is at once hid and not hid, John
xiv.-xvi.: xiv. 19-23: xvi. 16. Plenty of Catholics in this country,
yet how little they are known. Falsehoods circulated against them.
9. But let us beware how we refuse the light when
it comes. State of the Jews on Palm Sunday. Today's Mass implies they
were visited by grace. A sudden great grace illuminated that
day—(enlarge on the palms, procession, etc.). Alas, how soon it
went!
10. Alas, it was like the 'stronger than he'
taking possession of His house, and the evil spirit returning.
11. O may that not be the case of any of us. We
look up at the cross now, and cannot see Christ's face. A veil, a
thick veil is over it. O let us say, {73} 'My Saviour, let it not be
so really with my soul. I know I cannot always enjoy Thy consolations,
but let not Thy face really be hidden from me. It is my eternal joy.'
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Notes
1. All opposition to this doctrine had
disappeared though it was not yet (in 1850) defined. It no longer
divided the schools.
Return to text
2. Not the St. Valentine
whose name is found in the Kalendar, but a martyr of the same name
whose relics were found in the catacombs, and given to Newman by Pius IX.
Return to text
3. But early in the morning
when Nabal had digested his wine, his wife told him those words and
his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.'—1 Samuel xxv.
37.
Return to text
4. Written in pencil above,
'faith can do. Prayer constrains God: well, this is the very thing
Protestants think so shocking when we say it of our Lady.'
Return to text
5. 'And when Moses lifted up
his hands Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec
overcame. And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put
under him and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on
both sides.'—Exod. xvii. 11, 12.
Return to text
6. 'He remained alone, and
behold a man wrestled with him till morning.'—Gen. xxxii. 24.
Return to text
7. 'There was a judge in a
certain city who feared not God nor regarded man. And there was a
certain widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, Avenge me of
my adversary. And he would not for a long time: but afterwards he said
within himself, Although I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because
this widow is troublesome to me, I will avenge her, lest continually
coming she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge
saith. And will not God revenge his elect, who cry to him day and
night?'
Return to text
8. 'Then began he to upbraid
the cities wherein were done the most of his miracles, for that they
had not done penance: Woe to thee, Chorozain! woe to thee, Bethsaida!
for if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the miracles that have been
wrought in you, they had long ago done penance in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in
the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be
exalted up to heaven. Thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if in
Sodom had been wrought the miracles that have been wrought in thee,
perhaps it had remained unto this day. But I say unto you, That it
shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for
thee.'
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9. Preached at St. Peter's,
Birmingham.
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10. See Note
8, p. 337.
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11. 'And the king answered
him and said, Nay; I will buy it of thee at a price. I will not offer
to the Lord my God holocausts free-cost.'—2 Samuel xxiv. 24.
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12. 'And there came a
certain poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing.
And calling his disciples together, he said to them, Amen I say to
you, this poor widow has cast in more than all they who have cast into
the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of
her want cast in all she had, even her whole living.'
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13. Does the preacher refer
to the British and Foreign Bible Society founded in 1804?
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14. 'For a child is born to
us ... and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, God the
mighty, the Father of the world to come, the Prince of Peace.'
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15. 'For behold a virgin
shall conceive, and bear a son, and his name shall be called
Emmanuel.'
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16. 'Behold, thou shalt
conceive in thy womb, and shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call
his name Jesus.'
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17. 'She shall bring forth a
son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus.'
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18. 'And the writing was,
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.'—John xix. 19.
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19. 'He humbled himself,
becoming obedient unto death, even to the death of the cross. For
which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which
is above all names. That in the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; And that
every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory
of God the Father.'
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20. I.e. the Holy
Name sums up in Itself the history of salvation.
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21. 'Where have you laid
him? They say to him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. The Jews
therefore said, behold how he loved him.'—John xi. 34-36.
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22. 'The kingdom of heaven
is like to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while men were
asleep his enemy came and oversowed cockle ... And the servants of the
goodman of the house coming, said to him, Sir, didst thou not sow good
seed in thy field? Whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them, An
enemy hath done this.'
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23. 2 Cor. iv. 4.
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24. 1 John v. 19.
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25. Eph. ii. 2.
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26. Written above in pencil,
'Is this right?'
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27. Satispassio is
paying the full penalty—'the last farthing.'
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28. 'And after some days
Felix coming with Drusilla his wife, who was a Jewess, sent for Paul,
and heard of him the faith that is in Christ Jesus. And as he treated
of justice and chastity and of the judgment to come, Felix being
terrified, answered, For this time go thy way, but when I have a
convenient time I will send for thee.'
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29. 'For our wrestling is
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spirits
of wickedness in the high places.'—Eph. vi. 12.
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30. 'Rejoice not thou, my
enemy, over me, because I am fallen: I shall arise; when I sit in
darkness, the Lord is my light.'—Mic. vii. 8.
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31. 'We have fellowship one
with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from
all sin.'
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32. 'He that is of God
heareth the words of God: therefore you hear him not, because you are
not of God.'
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33. 'Despised and most
abject of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity. And
his look was as it were hidden and despised, whereupon we esteemed him
not. Surely he hath borne our infirmities, and carried our sorrows:
and we have thought him as it were a leper, and as one struck by God,
and afflicted.'
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34. 'But I am a worm, and no
man; the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people. All they that
saw me have laughed me to scorn: they have spoken with the lips and
wagged the head.'
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35. 'Yet a little while, and
the world seeth me no more; but you see me: because I live and you
shall live.'
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36. 'A little while, and now
you shall not see me: and again, a little while, and you shall see
me.'
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37. Luke vii. 36-50.
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