Chapter VI: Part 6

The title of Vicar of Christ implies that Jesus Christ delegated to him His own jurisdiction over the Church. A vicar is one who exercises the authority vested in the principal by delegation from him. A viceroy or vice-king governs a subordinate kingdom, __vice regis__, in place of the king. A vicar-general exercises episcopal jurisdiction, __vice episcopi__, in place of the bishop, and governs the diocese during his absence. So when St. Peter is said to have been made by our Lord His Vicar, it means that he received jurisdiction to govern in the place of Jesus Christ Himself, Who is by personal and inherent right the High Priest of the Catholic Church, but Who, being absent from the earth, must exercise His functions by a substitute. It is unquestionable that, under the Old Law, the high-priest was the vice gerent of God, and the supreme head of the Jewish Church. It is equally unquestionable that, in establishing the New Law, Christ appointed St. Peter His Vicar and the Supreme Head of the Christian Church. There is nothing clearer in the New Testament than this. Jesus Christ distinctly promised to St. Peter that He would build His Church upon him, and would give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and He actually fulfilled these promises before He ascended into heaven, by committing His universal flock to him alone to feed and rule it. This promise is recorded in the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel:

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"Jesus saith to them: But whom do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That them art Peter; and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven."

In this magnificent promise, Jesus Christ evidently declares His intention to delegate supreme power to St. Peter, and constitute him His Vicar in the Christian Church.

This supreme power is signified by a double metaphor, viz., a __foundation__ and __keys__. First, He says: "Thou art Peter; and on this rock I will build My Church." In order to understand the force of this declaration, it is necessary to call to mind that the name of Peter, which signifies Rock, was not the proper name of the Apostle. His name was Simon. The Lord gave him the name of Peter when He first called him to the apostleship, as an appellation significant of his character and office in the Church. {203} But it was on the occasion of his noble confession of Christ, made by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, that He first announced the full import of that mysterious name. St. Peter said, "Thou art Christ"--by this title, which signifies the Anointed One, acknowledging all those divine attributes and prerogatives which are implied in the character of the Messiah of God and Redeemer of the world. The Lord replied in a manner denoting the solemnity of the occasion, and speaking with all the dignity and authority of a Legislator and a Prophet, by conferring on St. Peter, in return for the honor which he had just rendered Him, the highest honor which was in His gift: "Thou art Peter [i.e., a Rock]: and on this Rock I will build My Church." The plain and natural sense of these words of Christ is, that He appoints Peter to occupy a position in the spiritual edifice of the Church corresponding to that occupied by a foundation in a material building. The foundation sustains and, as it were, rules the whole edifice--__i.e.__, by its strength it keeps the whole building in order, and every portion of it in its proper place, thus keeping it from crumbling into ruin--and losing all structural form in a mass of shattered fragments. The foundation is to the building the principle of its unity, repose, order, and durability. {204} Therefore, Peter must be the same to the Church. By him the Church must be sustained, ruled, kept in order, and prevented from falling in pieces, and thus losing its organic form. His authority must be the principle of its unity, strength, and perpetuity. All the force of its laws must be derived from him, and all its authority must ultimately rest on him as its final ground and basis. This is the first portion of our Lord's divine decree concerning St. Peter. Let us now examine the second.

"I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven." Among the principal nations of antiquity, and particularly among the Hebrews, it was a received usage that the tradition of the keys denoted the transfer or acknowledgment of supreme power over the house, citadel, or city to whose gates they belonged. These keys, when made of precious metal, and, as was often the case, richly ornamented, were a symbol of power and dignity, and carried only by kings, princes, and magistrates. In the Hebrew monarchy, the chief of the royal household, who was a kind of grand chancellor of the kingdom, or vicar of the king, carried a large key on his shoulder as a badge of his office. {205} In the Prophecy of Isaias,[C. xxii.] we read this prediction concerning Eliacim, son of the high-priest Helcias: "I will place upon his shoulder the key of the house of David, and he shall open and there shall be no one who shall shut, and he shall shut and there shall be no one who shall open, and he shall be on the throne of glory of his father's house."

This probably signifies that Eliacim should become high-priest in his father's place; and gives us a plain proof that the keys were an emblem of the sovereign pontificate in the Jewish Church. In the Apocalypse of St. John, the same emblem of the keys is used to designate the sovereign pontificate of Jesus Christ Himself: "These things saith the Holy One and the True One, He that hath the key of David; He that openeth, and no man shutteth; shutteth, and no man openeth." [Footnote 81]

[Footnote 81: Apoc. iii. 7.]
[USCCB: Revelation iii. 7.]

Our Lord, as the lineal descendant of David, was the lawful King of the Jews, and this royal lineage according to earthly and temporal laws, was typical of His inherent royalty as the Son of God. Therefore, the key of David, or the outward and visible sign of David's royalty, is taken as expressive of His supreme dominion as Lord and Redeemer of the world. When Christ promised to give the keys of the kingdom of heaven--the keys of His own kingdom, and the symbols of His own Sovereignty--to St. Peter, He must have intended to delegate that sovereignty to him, and to constitute him His Vicar on the earth: To make it still more plain that He meant this, our Lord made a distinct and express declaration to this effect, in these words: "And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven." {206} These words designate the plenitude of power to be conferred on St. Peter, of making laws, and binding the consciences of all to observe them, punishing transgressors, abrogating these same laws and pardoning offenders, and doing whatever else the good of the Church or its individual members may require, according to the diversity of times and circumstances. Jesus Christ gives before hand the seal and warrant of His divine authority to all these laws. This is what is called, in the language of commerce and politics, giving __carte blanche__. King Charles V. of Spain, when he sent commissioners to America to inquire into the abuses and cruelties perpetrated by the avaricious Spanish colonists against the Indians, gave them a number of blank sheets already signed and sealed with the royal sign-manual, that they might promulgate royal edicts according to their own judgment. In the same way, Jesus Christ promises that He will give to St. Peter this unlimited power of exercising jurisdiction, in His name, in the Catholic Church, with the sealed sign-manual of heaven. {207} But Jesus Christ not only promised to bestow this power on St. Peter: He made to him, after His resurrection and before His ascension, a formal grant of this power, and solemnly delivered up the care and government of His universal flock into his hands. This fact is recorded by St. John, in the twenty-first chapter of his Gospel. Everything about this chapter is mysterious and sublime in the highest degree, and every word, every circumstance, points to that high office of the Chief Pastor, and, after Christ, principal founder of the Christian religion, which was given to St. Peter.

It was an awful moment; like that mysterious and solemn period of twilight, when the sun has set, but still leaves some lingering gleam of his light behind him, before the dark hour of night draws on, and the milder and fainter radiance of the moon succeeds to the brightness of day--the brief period of transition from day to night--from light to darkness--the holiest hour of the day, when the soul, as it were, naturally withdraws from the world towards God and heaven. Such a moment had now come in the progress of time, the twilight of the world. Jesus Christ, the Light of the world--the Sun of Justice, who had risen in the East with healing in his beams--had gone down to the grave, had closed His earthly career, and the world henceforth, so long illuminated by the presence of the bright Sun of truth and grace, would have no longer any other light to shine upon it except the reflected light of the Catholic Church.

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The time of night and of the absence of Jesus Christ from His disciples was approaching. And yet He was not altogether withdrawn. Still, in His spiritual and glorified body, He lingered on the earth, coming and going, approaching and vanishing before His disciples. He was still with them, but no longer as an inhabitant of the earth, but of heaven. At this time it was that St. Peter said to his fellow-disciples, "I go a-fishing." Who can fail to see here, with all the wisest and holiest interpreters of the Scripture, a mysterious foreshadowing of that great fishery for the souls of men, in which the Apostolic net was to draw so many into the Church? It was Peter who was the leader and chief here, and by his orders the nets were cast. Suddenly, Jesus Christ appeared standing on the shore, and commanded them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat. They did so, and, although they had before this caught nothing, their net was immediately so filled with large fishes that they could not draw it. It required the assistance of all those who were on board several other boats to draw the net. And yet, when the Lord commanded some of these fishes to be brought, St. Peter, alone, went and drew the net up on the beach. {209} Evidently do these emblematic events indicate St. Peter as the one who should command the ship of the Church, and preside over the grand fishery of souls, and by his supernatural power should pull the net by which the elect of God were drawn from the waves of perdition to the shore of eternal life.

Jesus Christ assembled His disciples around Him on the beach, by the seaside, and they dined together from the fish which they had taken. Then, when this mysterious meal, the parting banquet of Jesus and His disciples, was finished, the Lord exacted from St. Peter three times a profession of his love, and of his peculiar love--a love greater than that of the other Apostles. "Simon Peter, lovest thou Me more than these?" And thrice He gave him the solemn charge: "Feed My lambs. ... Feed My lambs. ... Feed My sheep." In these words, Jesus Christ evidently committed not one or the other portion of His flock, but His entire flock, all His people, the universal Church throughout the world, to his pastoral care. The expression, "Feed My lambs--feed My sheep," indicates much more than simply to give them their food, namely, by teaching salutary doctrine. Two different words are used in the original Greek, [Greek text]; which is literally in Latin, __Pasce in cibo, agnos meos__--Feed My lambs. {210} But after using this expression, which indicates the tender and paternal care of the pastoral office, He uses another expressing its authority, [Greek text]; this signifies, as a learned theologian (Perrone) remarks, __pascere cum imperio, pascere præsidendo__, to feed by ruling, to feed by presiding, or to feed, rule, and preside over at the same time, as a shepherd over his flock. This is in accordance with the usage of ancient writers and the Scriptures.

In Homer and other ancient authors, kings are called shepherds or pastors, and __poimaine__, feed, signifies to rule or exercise kingly authority. In these words, then, Jesus Christ constituted St. Peter chief pastor and supreme ruler over His universal flock--sheep and lambs together; not merely the lambs, who represent the laity, but the sheep, those to whom the lambs are subject, and by whom they are fed--that is, the bishops and pastors of the Church. It is in vain that the enemies of St. Peter's chair exert all their ingenuity to escape the force of these passages. They are too plain and clear to be evaded, and, after centuries of exertion to heave the Rock of Peter out of the Scriptures, there it stands, an immovable and unquestionable fact that the Rock of Peter is the foundation of the Catholic Church, that the Catholic Church is built on the Rock of Peter, that Peter received the keys of heaven from Jesus Christ, and was constituted by Him chief pastor over His universal flock.

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And here allow me to remark how singular it is that Protestants should be ready to build up with out hesitation a vast pyramid of doctrine on the narrow foundation of a few texts of Scripture, and at the same time reject the most clear and unequivocal statements of the New Testament. For example, they will most positively assert the transfer of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday, because the word Lord's Day is once used, and the assembling of the faithful on the first day of the week is once casually mentioned, although nothing is said of their being an observance of divine obligation intended to supersede the Sabbath. They will prove the baptism of infants from the circumcision of Jewish children, and from the fact that some entire families were baptized, although there is no evidence that there were any infants in these families. Some will prove Episcopacy, and others Presbyterianism, and others Congregationalism, from the Scriptures. And yet they will reject without hesitation the evidence of the supremacy of Peter, which is so clear that even some Protestants are forced to admit it in a partial sense; and the celebrated Jewish infidel Salvador, a man who perhaps excels all the modern advocates of infidelity in perspicacity of intellect and ingenuity of reasoning, declares with out hesitation that the supremacy of the See of St. Peter is an institution of Jesus Christ, and an essential part of Christianity. {212} It is one among many proofs that those who profess to make the Bible their only rule do not really derive their doctrine from a candid examination of the Scriptures; but that they receive what they have been taught by their parents and religious teachers, and search the Scriptures to find proof and confirmation of these doctrines. Thus, each one, in stead of conforming his belief to the Scripture, bends the Scripture into conformity with his belief. Those parts of the Scripture which are not easily bent into this conformity remain to him a dead letter, they make no impression on his mind, and, no matter how clear and plain they may be, he forgets them if he can, and, if he is forced to pay attention to them, he explains them away. Thus it has been with the passages of the New Testament which prove so clearly the supremacy of St. Peter. There is nothing in the New Testament more clear, more plain, more explicit, more obvious, than this supremacy; when these various passages have been once collated, placed in juxtaposition with each other, carefully examined and reflected on, and confronted with the great fact of the perpetual existence of the supremacy of the Roman Pontiffs as the acknowledged successors of St. Peter. This last topic I have not directly considered in this discourse, but have reserved it for another. {213} Nevertheless, whoever will attentively consider what is involved in the very idea of St. Peter's supremacy will see at once that this supremacy must be, by its very nature, perpetual. It was made the foundation of a perpetual structure; it extended over all bishops and all the faithful, without any limit of time or place; it provided for the exercise of that power of the keys which is necessary in all ages; and it was made the means of keeping the rulers of the Church in unity of faith under the severest assaults of Satan, which are undoubtedly those of the last days of the world.

Our Lord in establishing the supremacy of St. Peter gave to His Church a constitution and a government. He placed His kingdom under one monarchical head. He made the sacerdotal hierarchy subject to one chief. This law must therefore last as long as the Church lasts, that is, through all time. There is no power which can change the divine law of our Lord. The supremacy of St. Peter must therefore be perpetual in his successors. And that these successors are the Roman Pontiffs I shall proceed to show in my next discourse.

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Sermon XIV.

The Roman Pontiffs
The Successors Of St. Peter.

St. Matt. xvi. 18.

"__And I say to thee:
That thou art Peter;
and upon this Rock I will build My Church__."

I have proved in a former discourse that St. Peter was constituted Prince of the Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ, with supreme jurisdiction over the Catholic Church, by the Lord Himself. It remains now to show that this supremacy was given also to the successors of St. Peter, and that the Bishops of Rome are his successors, and consequently inherit his supremacy. That the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church is the See of St. Peter, and the Mother and Mistress of Churches; and that the Bishop of Rome is the Vicar of Christ, and Supreme Visible Head of the Church--this is what I now undertake to prove.

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This is proved, in the first place, by an argument, the force of which is admitted in all courts of law, viz., the argument of __prescription__. The Roman Church is in possession of this claim, and has been from time immemorial. A claim on a certain property or to a certain right, which is so ancient that the mind of man runneth not to the contrary, is always admitted as valid in a law court. Now, it is evident that the Roman Church now asserts this claim; that she asserted it before the Reformation; that she asserted it before the Greek schism; and that not a single Church exists in the world which has not at some time admitted this claim, and submitted to it. If we go back, then, to the earlier centuries, we find the Roman Church always in possession of this supremacy, and we can never find its beginning. Protestants and others, who wish to prove that it began after the Apostolic age, can never agree together as to the epoch of the rise of the Papal power, although all give it a very early date. Now, I say that, according to all sound principles of reasoning, the fact that this claim had been made and assented to from time immemorial is a certain proof that it is just. It could not have been established so early and so universally without violence and without resistance, unless it existed under the Apostles, and was established by them in the infancy of Christianity. {216} Just as it would be impossible for the Governor of Virginia to take peaceable possession of the Presidential chair and govern the United States, as its acknowledged chief magistrate, without any election of the people; so it would have been equally impossible for the Bishop of Rome to make himself peaceably the supreme ruler of the Catholic Church, unless he were appointed by St. Peter and the Apostles, according to the divine constitution of the grand Christian commonwealth, with the knowledge of all Christians. This argument alone would be perfectly conclusive, even if the New Testament were altogether lost, or were entirely silent on the subject.

But when we compare the fact that the Roman Church, under the name of the See of St. Peter, has always existed as the principal edifice of a vast agglomeration of smaller but similar edifices, with the prophecy of Christ that He would build the Church on the Rock of Peter, the conclusion is irresistible that the fact is the fulfilment of the prophecy. Here is the prophecy of Christ, that He would build His Church on Peter as a foundation, and that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. There is the Roman Church, evidently built on Peter as its foundation, which has endured through eighteen centuries, and is now as firm and immovable as ever. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that this is the Church built by Christ. The fact corresponds exactly with the prophecy, and there is no other fact which does, therefore the fact is the fulfilment of the prophecy. {217} Let me illustrate this by a comparison. Suppose you describe the Moro of Havana to some one who has never seen it, and who is about taking a voyage to Cuba. You tell him it is a castle of large size and great strength, built on a rock which rises perpendicularly from the sea, at the mouth of the bay. There is no castle similar to it: on his route. Now, when this traveller comes on deck some morning, and sees a castle founded on a rock at the mouth of a harbor, with a large city in the distance, is it not evident that this is the Moro? If you sail from the city of New York, knowing that there is an American ship of the line anchored in the bay, and you pass a large man-of-war with the United States flag, and the broad pennant of an admiral flying at her mast-head, is it not evident that this is the ship in question? Though a hundred smaller vessels are anchored in the vicinity, you cannot hesitate a moment, you can not for an instant imagine that any of these is a man-of-war. The first glance tells you which is the line-of-battle ship, for there is only one which makes any pretension to that character, which has the size, the armament, or in any aspect the appearance of a man-of-war.

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Precisely so it is with the Roman Church, which professes to be the See of Peter, the only one which bases a claim of universal jurisdiction on the supremacy of Peter; which pretends [puts forward a claim] to be the ship of Peter, and to bear his standard. It is unique, unrivalled, and alone in its character and claims. It must be, then, that Church which the Lord promised to build on the rock of Peter, with such immovable firmness that all the assaults of hell could never overthrow it; it must be that Church which the Lord committed to the guidance of Peter, and which is destined to outride all the storms of time. But, although I consider that the claim of the Roman Church to supremacy is fully proved by this argument from prescription, I will not confine myself to it, but proceed to adduce some positive testimonies. The perpetuity of St. Peter's supremacy in the Church can be clearly proved from Scripture, and the fact that the Bishops of Rome have inherited this supremacy is not only evident from the fact that no other supremacy has ever existed, but from a clear chain of historical facts and evidences, running back to the very age of the Apostles.

In the first place, it is clear from the Scripture that St. Peter's supremacy was to continue. A number of the ablest Protestant writers have proved most conclusively what is called the Apostolic succession, that is, that Bishops are the successors of the Apostles, tracing their authority and descent in an unbroken line of ordination to the Apostles. This is perfectly evident from the commission of Jesus Christ to the eleven Apostles: {219} "Going therefore teach ye all nations: baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world." [Footnote 82]

[Footnote 82: Matt. xxviii. 19.]
[USCCB: Matt. xxviii. 19-20.]

If the Apostles by virtue of the commission of Jesus Christ were the perpetual pastors of the Church, and enjoy the perpetual presence of Jesus Christ to the end of time, the Apostolic office is by its own nature perpetual in the Church, and the original Apostles have been succeeded by others. For the same reason, the office of Prince of Apostles must be perpetual. The plenitude of the Apostleship was given to St. Peter alone, under the similitude of the keys, and afterwards the same power was given to the others by participation and in subordination to him. The supremacy of the chief enters, then, into the primary constitution of the Apostolate or Catholic Episcopate, as one of its essential and component parts, and is therefore perpetual. Jesus Christ committed the government of His Church to one supreme Ruler, whose authority was signified by the symbol of the keys. He committed His flock to one chief Pastor, when He said to St. Peter: "Feed my lambs--feed my sheep." {220} If, therefore, the authority of St. Peter expired with his person, then a total and fundamental change took place after his death in the constitution and government of the Church, a supposition not to be admitted for one moment without clear evidence. But there is none such. On the contrary, our Lord declares without distinction or limitation that "there shall be one fold and one shepherd." [Footnote 83]

[Footnote 83: John x. 16.]

The metaphor of a foundation which He uses to express the supremacy of St. Peter, of itself shows the perpetuity of his office. This supremacy is the Rock on which the Church is built. But a foundation must last as long as the building itself; it can neither be removed nor changed; therefore the supremacy of Peter must endure with the Church itself.

Again, the reason for which Christ instituted the Primacy exists always, and, indeed, demands much more imperatively its continuance than it did require at first its foundation. The reason is thus expressed by St. Jerome: "__Ut capite constituto, schismatis tolleretur occasio__"--"That a head being constituted, the occasion of schism might be removed." [Footnote 84]

[Footnote 84: Lib. i. adv. Jov. 26.]

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The preservation of unity was the reason for instituting the primacy. What is the reason of a central government, with a president at its head, in Washington? The preservation of unity among the States. It is the unanimous teaching of tradition that Christ established the Primacy in the Church for the same reason--the preservation of unity among all particular churches and Bishops, by their dependence on one Mother Church and one Chief Bishop. But there was far less necessity to guard against schism, and to watch over the preservation of unity by means of a head or central authority, in the days of the Apostles, who were all saints and inspired, in the days of persecution, of primitive zeal and piety, and when the members of the Church were few and her extent limited, than at any subsequent period. The Primacy was more necessary after the Apostolic age than during it, therefore it was intended to continue. The supremacy of St. Peter once admitted--and it is proved by invincible arguments--the continuance of this power in his successors follows necessarily. The seat of power is the Roman Church, of which St. Peter was the founder and first Bishop.

This requires no proof; for the Bishop of Rome is the only one who claims the power of St. Peter, and his title is admitted by all those who admit any supremacy in the Church, according to the universally received tradition. {222} St. Peter, after having preached in different regions without having fixed himself in any particular see, for about six years, founded the Patriarchal See of Antioch, which he governed for seven years, and then, having consecrated another Bishop in his place, went to Rome, where he fixed his See permanently, and, having presided over it for twenty-five years, was crucified, in the year of our Lord 67 or 68, under Nero; St. Paul being at the same time beheaded.

The New Testament contains no regular or complete history of the events of the Apostolic Age, but only some fragmentary annals of some of the acts of the Apostles, chiefly of St. Paul, and some allusions in the Epistles.

It is not surprising, therefore, that it gives no account of the foundation of the Roman Church. St. Paul, however, in his celebrated Epistle to the Roman Church, already speaks of that Roman Faith, "__fides Romana__" which has been in every age so admirable and so renowned throughout the world: "First, I give thanks to my God, through Jesus Christ, for you all, because your faith is spoken of in the whole world." [Footnote 85] He also predicts the future greatness of the Roman Church: "And the God of peace crush Satan under your feet speedily." [Footnote 86] This is a form of speech which expresses a prediction under the form of a prayer.

[Footnote 85: Rom. i. 18.]
[USCCB: Rom. i. 8.]

[Footnote 86: Rom. xvi. 20.]

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Now, how was Satan crushed under the feet of the Roman Christians, if it were not when, by the conversion and victory of Constantine, this great capital of the world and seat of idolatry was changed into the capital of Christendom, the heathen temples transformed into Christian churches, and the cross everywhere erected in triumph over this proud and pagan city?

There is no event in history better established than the episcopate and martyrdom of St. Peter at Rome. It is admitted by a great number of the most learned Protestants. It is proved by the catalogues of Roman Bishops in ancient writers all tracing back the succession to St. Peter. It is proved by pictures, statues, and other ancient monuments; by the pilgrimages which from ancient times were made to the tomb of the Apostles, of which even Eusebius in the fourth century makes mention. It is proved by the testimony of St. Clement, the immediate successor of St. Peter; St. Ignatius, Papias, St. Dionysius, St. Irenæus, Caius, Clement of Alexandria, Origen, St. Cyprian, Eusebius, Lactantius, St. Athanasius, St. Epiphanius, Julian the Apostate, St. Augustine, Palladius, and others. Indeed, any one who would dispute the fact, that the Bishops of Rome have succeeded each other in that see in a direct line from St. Peter, might as well dispute the succession of the Roman emperors from Julius Cæsar, of the English kings from Alfred, and the kings of France from Charlemagne.

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The fact that the Bishops of Rome succeeded also to the supremacy of St. Peter over the whole Catholic Church is also proved by a crowd of testimonies in every age. It is, as every one will see, not convenient, in a discourse like the present, to cite and explain at length those passages from the ancient writers, especially after having already taxed your patience so severely. I will therefore cite only a few passages as samples of the manner in which ancient writers have spoken on this subject, and leave it to yourselves to read over the testimonies more carefully in some of the various works where they are collected.

St. Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, who conversed with the immediate disciples of the apostles, says: "With this Church, on account of the more powerful principality, it is necessary that every Church, that is, the faithful who are in every direction, should agree." [Footnote 87]

[Footnote 87: L. iii. c. 3. Kenrick.]

Tertullian, about the end of the second century, exclaims: "From no other cause have heresies arisen and schisms sprung up, except from a want of obedience to the priest of God, and because they do not remember that there is one judge for the time being in the Church, in the place of Christ." {225} The great and general Council of Nice, A.D. 325, in one of its canons says: "The Roman Church has always held the Primacy." The Council of Sardica, in a letter to the Pope, says: "This seems excellent and most suitable, that the priests of the Lord from the respective provinces should report to the Head," __i.e.__, to the See of the Apostle Peter. In the fifth century, all the Bishops of the province of Aries, in France, in a letter to Pope Leo, say: "The Holy Roman Church, through the most blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, has the principality above all the churches of the world." The grand Council of Chalcedon, where six hundred Bishops were present, mostly from the East, and out of the limits of the particular patriarchate of Rome, when the letter of the same Pope Leo was read, defining the faith of two distinct natures, divine and human, in Christ, exclaimed with one voice, "Peter has spoken by the mouth of Leo." At the beginning of the sixth century, the Bishop of Patara said to the Emperor Justinian: "There may be many sovereigns on the earth; but there is one Pope over all the churches of the universe." Not only Christian bishops and councils speak in this way of the Roman See, but emperors, and even pagans, use the same language. {226} In the year 268, when Paul, Patriarch of Antioch, was condemned of heresy by a council, the pagan Emperor Aurelian directed that the Church of Antioch "should be delivered up to those whom the Bishops of Italy and the Bishop of Rome should appoint." Ammianus Marcellinus, a pagan writer of the fourth century, affirms that "the Bishops of the Eternal City enjoy a greater authority." The Christian Emperor Valentinian, in a decree of the year 455, says: "The merit of the blessed Peter, who is the Prince of priestly order, and the dignity of the Roman city, the authority also of the Synod, strengthened the Primacy of the Apostolic See." These testimonies extend from the sixth back to the second century, when the disciples of the Apostles still lived. They are not merely the testimonies of the Bishops of Rome themselves, or of those who lived in the vicinity and under the immediate influence of Rome, but they are collected from Italy, France, Africa, and the whole Eastern Church, where those great Patriarchs flourished who afterwards renounced their subjection to Rome. Thus, it is evident, from these and a host of similar testimonies, that, during the first six centuries, the Bishops of Rome claimed to exercise the supremacy in the place of Peter, and that this claim was universally acknowledged.

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This is only a confirmation of the texts of Holy Scripture which I have already cited, and was foreshadowed when Christ chose the bark of St. Peter in preference to the rest, to preach from it to the multitude on the shore. The conversion of nations through missionaries sent by the Pope is Peter superintending the miraculous draught of fishes and drawing them upon the shore. His exercise of authority over patriarchs, bishops, and churches throughout the world is only the fulfilment of the commission, "Feed my lambs--feed my sheep"--be the pastor of my entire flock, the prince of pastors, the Bishop of bishops. The might, the power of the Roman See, is the fulfilment of the prophecy, "On this rock I will build My Church." On the foundation of Peter, the Catholic Church was built, and on this foundation she has ever rested. To Peter was given the power of the keys, of binding and of loosing, and his successors have ever exercised this supreme authority. If time permitted, I should now go on to show that this authority committed to St. Peter and his successors is the same, and equally of divine right in his present glorious successor, Pius IX., as it was in the times of the martyr popes of the first century; that the Roman Church has never failed, never fallen, never forfeited her supremacy, and never will while the world shall stand. But I must waive all further consideration of the attributes and notes of the Catholic Church. At present, I will only allude to the concluding part of our Lord's promise to St. Peter: "The gates of hell shall never prevail against it." {228} Here there is the divine assurance that this rock on which the Church is founded shall stand until the end of the world, and the Church itself, on account of the firmness of its foundation, shall never be overthrown. The supremacy of his successors shall endure until the last day, and that Church which is governed by the successors of St. Peter shall alone continue to be the true Church. The gates of hell shall wage perpetual warfare against it, but in vain. That rock shall remain immovable and impregnable. By this rock it is that Jesus Christ has provided for the preservation of the Faith and for the salvation of the world. Let us recall to mind the object which we had before our minds at the commencement of these discourses: it was to find the sure and immovable basis of the Catholic faith and religion. And how admirable is the provision of Almighty God for this purpose! He has taken the greatest and most powerful city of the earth, the capital of the world; there He has erected the beacon-light of faith; there He has fixed the immovable seat of truth; there He has established the capital city of Christianity, the chief city of His kingdom on earth; there Jesus Christ has placed His Vicar, the pastor and teacher of the world, that Rome, once the mistress of the world by her arms, might rule by her faith as the Mother and Mistress of churches, and that title of the Eternal City which was given her by her pagan soothsayers might be literally fulfilled. {229} Happy those who, amid the storms and winds of error, doubt, and ever-changing doctrine, take refuge within the walls of the Eternal City; whose faith is built not upon the shifting sands of private judgment, but on the immovable basis of church authority; whose wanderings terminate, like those of St. Paul, at Rome, whence, like him, they ascend to that celestial city whose builder and maker is God! Such a person is like the wise man of whom our Lord speaks, "that built his house upon a rock, and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not; FOR IT WAS FOUNDED UPON A ROCK."

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Sermon XV.

The Thought Of Heaven.

(For The Fourth Sunday After Easter.)

Heb. iv. 9.

"__There remaineth therefore a rest
for the people of God__."

These words, my dear brethren, are full of consolation to each and every one of us. They lift our minds, at this Paschal season, far away from this earth, and fix them in contemplation on that happy land, the heavenly Jerusalem, where there is no sorrow, no pain, no sickness, and no death; they take us with the beloved disciple to see that celestial country, the city of God, in which stands the tree of life, and where flows the river of life, beside whose banks are seated all those who have died in the Lord, and rest from their labors. They open those pearly gates to allow us to behold the white-robed army of saints who stand before the Lamb; and we can almost hear their anthems of praise, set to music which no human heart can conceive of, that swell the courts of heaven with the celestial cry of, "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come!"

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Heaven, a rest after the toils of life are over! Heaven, a reward for fidelity! Oh! how good is the thought of heaven! How necessary to many as a stimulant to practise virtue and persevere therein! What a reward for a good life! The thought of heaven is very good, for it encourages us when we grow faint-hearted; the thought of heaven is that which prompts a man to abstain from evil and do good, because he knows that heaven will be his reward, and the loss of it his punishment. It is necessary; for, without this thought being before the mind of a Christian, he might give way to many an enticing temptation. It is far more meritorious, also, than the thought of hell, just as an act of __contrition__ is more meritorious than an act of __attrition__; for the former excites us to sorrow for having offended a good God, who has created us for heaven, and the latter excites us to fear lest we incur the displeasure of an angry God and be condemned to hell.

The Holy Church, as a stimulant to the doing of good, as an encouragement to persevere under many difficulties and temptations, and as a reward for all our labors in saving our souls, ever keeps the thought of heaven before our minds. In the Sacraments she does this. {232} The unregenerate cannot go to heaven because there is an obstacle--original sin; it is removed in Baptism; and the strength to fight in the spiritual warfare, is given by Confirmation. She calls us to Confession, because something is again between the soul and heaven, and that is mortal sin. She absolves us, and sends us to Holy Communion, which is a foretaste of heaven. She anoints the dying, that all the peculiar temptations which attack them in the hour of death may be overcome. She unites the "children of the saints" in Matrimony, because marriage is a sign of the union of heaven and earth, and gives the grace for the married couple to "marry in the Lord." She ordains her clergy, that they may teach the way to heaven, and distribute all those means of grace that are sure to bring us there. So you perceive that this seems to be the leading thought in the mind of the Church. It is the development of the response to the question that every Catholic child can answer--Why did God create you? "That I might know Him, and love Him, and serve Him here in this world, and be happy with Him for ever in the next."

The thought of heaven conveys the greatest consolation to those who in this world find but little happiness, and are surrounded by peculiar difficulties in the practice of virtue. It gives strength to those who grow tired of the spiritual life, and who would give up were it not for this thought. Hence the thought of heaven is good, necessary, and comforting.

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The rest spoken of in the text is not for all, but only for the people of God. Who are the people of God? They are the people of God who are baptized and made members of the Catholic Church. But not all will enter into that rest prepared for them, because something more is necessary than simply being called by that name. Baptism is a sacrament which requires those whom it admits to be __heirs__ of the kingdom of heaven, first to answer certain questions, and imposes certain obligations to be observed. The priest says to the person to be baptized, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments, love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." So you see that, at this very instant, the thought of heaven is suggested to the person, and the way to arrive there is clearly shown. And, before the priest pours the sanctifying water on the brow of the person, he says, "Dost thou renounce Satan and all his works and all his pomps?" When the person promises, "Yes, I do renounce them," then baptism is administered, and that person takes his place in the world a Christian. But not all who are called Christians are Christians indeed. Many do not live as though they believed in a God, a church, a heaven, or a hell. {234} They follow the inclinations of their own sinful hearts, and live up to the false maxims of this wicked world. They do not walk according to the Spirit, but rather according to the flesh. They look on life as something to be enjoyed to the utmost, and when that is ended they consider all ended, body and soul. Ah! foolish people! who thus deceive themselves, who are ashamed of the religion of Jesus Christ, who violate without any remorse their baptismal vows, who treat our Lord far worse than did the Jews of old, for they never professed to believe in Him.

The way, then, to be a Christian in deed as well as in name is to live up to that "perfect law of liberty," that law which was made and given by God, which allows the highest kind of freedom to its observers, and which ennobles and elevates man rather than degrades him. This law is simple, and, if it is observed, all things will go on peaceably. As of old, the saying was, "All are not Israelites that are of Israel," [Footnote 88] so they are not heirs of the kingdom of heaven who do not walk in the path marked out for them to follow, or who do not fulfil the conditions required for a holy life. "Not every one that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven." [Footnote 89]

[Footnote 88: Rom. ix. 6.]

[Footnote 89: St. Matt. vii. 21.]

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And that will is made known to us all by the Catholic Church. She is the ark that will bring us safe to the haven of rest. She sets herself in array against the powers of this world and wicked men, because she is holy; she is born of God, and divine; she does this by her sacraments, her sacrifices, her laws, instructions, missions, and her institutions of charity. She teaches men reverence for holy persons and holy things; she teaches them to venerate the name of their Creator; she tells them to sanctify Sundays and holydays; she enjoins, under pain of eternal death--which includes the loss of heaven--honesty, justice, purity, sobriety, and all the other requirements of the decalogue. She is not conformed to this world or its ways. The world says: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." "If your enemy strike you, strike him back; if he calumniate you, never forget it; if he do you an act of injustice, if he slander you, treasure it up, do not forgive, but pay him back some day with interest." The world says: "Eat and drink, grow rich in this world's goods, have a gay time, make the most of life: heaven is far away, and you will have opportunity to prepare when the time comes for it." "Make plenty of money," says the world, "no matter whether the business be just or lawful, you may get to heaven after all; others worse than you have had time to do penance before they died." {236} But the Holy Church says differently. She enjoins charity, meekness, poverty of spirit, preparation for death. "If thine enemy hunger, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him to drink." [Footnote 90] "If a man strike thee on one cheek, turn to him the other." [Footnote 91] "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." [Footnote 92] These are her lessons of heavenly doctrine, which all must learn and put in practice, if they would obtain entrance into the kingdom of heaven. And every day she writes in letters of fire before our eyes: "In the hour that ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."

[Footnote 90: Rom. xii. 20.]

[Footnote 91: St. Matt. v. 39.]

[Footnote 92: St. Matt. v. 3.]

So we perceive that man needs to pay attention to that immortal soul of his just as much as to attend to his mortal body. And a man cannot attend to a business of importance in a short time, of which he has been ignorant all his life, and in which he has had no practice, and therefore very little experience. It would be a difficult task, indeed, for a man who has been nothing but a salesman in a store all his life, to become a scientific artificer, or to undertake to discharge the duties that devolve on a professor of the higher branches of science, because he has never given any thought or study to these things. So will it be very, very difficult for that Catholic to properly prepare for heaven after long years of neglect of the means to obtain it, and, because he has never thought about it, it will be hardly possible for him in his last hours to make proper preparation for it. {237} The mind will be so absorbed with the past, and so perplexed as to the future, that he cannot give his famishing soul the nourishment that it needs. The death-bed scenes of worldly-minded men certify to the truth of this. They have viewed heaven as something to be thought about in the future, and intended to prepare for it, but all of a sudden sickness prostrates them, and when told they will never hear another sermon, never attend another Mass, the trouble begins not so much about their soul as about their body and the business of this world.

But thanks be to God! while there are those who are walking on that broad and pleasant way which many, too many, find, and which leads to destruction, there are many faithful Christians who, even though some of them have but little or no comfort here, are looking forward, and hastening unto that reward which awaits those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven, to them, is no gloomy word. Heaven does not make them regret leaving this world, with all its fleeting joys, for heaven is a most interesting and important subject to them. Heaven is the reason of all their hopes, the reward of all their prayers, fastings, and other good works. {238} To the pious and virtuous, the thought of heaven is the polar star which guides them to their eternal happiness, To the poor and desolate, it opens the celestial country where flow milk and honey, and where the foot is never weary, where all tears are wiped away from their eyes, and where the sweetest consolation of an eternal reward awaits them. The thought of heaven brings the young to give their hearts early to God. It leads them to their first Confession, and encourages them to make their first Communion, so that, by keeping God's holy laws, they may receive the crown of life. The thought of heaven helps the old, who are weak and trembling, for they receive new strength when they see the evening of their lives, and view the dawning of that happy land, the Canaan of the children of God.