limits of place, and to a small number of abettors: but now they show themselves with open effrontery, they seize whole cities, provinces and kingdoms. They are espoused by kings, emperors, and bishops. The malignant spirit of heresy raises dissension and animosity among the Christians, the Church is laid waste by her own children, and the seamless garment of Christ is torn in pieces. The flame of division blazes so high, that Christians do not fear to seize the sword and destroy one another. And what is the utmost misfortune, great numbers are seduced into the snare of eternal perdition. For, as no one escaped perishing in the deluge, who was not in Noah's ark, as St. Cyprian remarks, lib. de Unit. Eccl. so no one can hope to be of the company of the saints, who separates himself from the unity of the Church.

The rise of Arianism is therefore the second general alarm which Christ sounds to his Church, to try the fidelity of his people, and to give occasion of meriting a reward to those who remain stanch in their faith, and continue firm in fighting under his standard. The crown of immortal glory and happiness is of too high a value to be wholly a gratuitous gift. We must purchase it by labour, by suffering, by maintaining our fortitude and constancy in the different trials sent us by Providence. No one will be crowned but he that has fought well.

If on one hand Christ is faithful to his promises in rewarding his servants, on the other those escape not his indignation, whether heretics or idolaters, that seduce his people by false doctrine, or lay waste his fold by the sword of persecution. Thus the Arians, the strongest body of heretics that ever assaulted the Church, sunk in proportion to their former power, even so as to vanish from the face of the earth. In a period of about 340 years from their first appearance, they were no more to be found. This and the other examples of divine judgments, which the vials discover to us, make a convincing proof, that no nation, no collective body of people ever rebel against the Church, or persecute it with impunity. The divine vindictive hand in due time overtakes them, and forces them to acknowledge from their own sad experience, that Christ is the faithful protector of his Church, and the certain scourge of her enemies.

III.

THE third age, which commences about the year 406, and contains 220 years nearly, is remarkable for the judgments of

God upon ancient Rome and the western empire. The Al. mighty, who is the Creator of the universe and sole Lord of all, necessarily claims all homage from his creatures, nor can he suffer that greatest of all impieties, the transferring to any other being, the honour that is due to himself alone. Rome had sacrilegiously employed its great power for the support of idolatry; it had also opposed with its whole might the establishment of Christ's kingdom, and had most inhumanly persecuted his servants, and shed the innocent blood of an infinite number of them. The Almighty, after such enormous provocations, at length rises up in his wrath, and pours down the whole torrent of it upon that guilty empire. He had before, as we have seen, struck those emperors, who had notoriously pursued the same impious and audacious courses. But now the sovereign punisher of iniquity sends out against the whole empire of Rome a multitude of barbarous people, who pour in upon it like fierce tigers, tear it to pieces, destroy its inhabitants, and demolish its cities, with Rome itself. But why should we wonder at this striking instance of divine vengeance, while we see the same plan of economy followed in the preceding ages? Do we not read in the written word of God, that a similar fate had attended the empires and cities of Ninive and Babylon? Were not Tyre and Sidon devoted in the same manner to destruction? Was not the opulent and populous kingdom of Egypt overturned and enslaved? These kingdoms, cities, and several others, owed their ruin to an angry God, who would suffer no longer their pride, idolatry and wickedness. "Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth." Amos ix. 8. Nay even, he would not spare his chosen land and beloved seat of Jerusalem. When his people had renounced their fidelity to him, and adopted strange gods in his place, he sent upon them a scourge, Nabuchodonosor, the Babylonian king who ravaged the country, levelled the city and temple with the ground, destroyed by famine, fire and sword, a great part of the inhabitants, and the rest he carried into captivity. When the Jews, by their repentance, had recovered their favour with God, and in consequence their land and city, we see again, upon their new rebellion, and the most grievous of all iniquities, in putting to death their Messiah and Saviour, the wrath of God inflamed to such a degree, as to devote to destruction a prodigious multitude of them by the severest scourges that could be inflicted on mankind.

Their city was also entirely demolished, and the re

mainder of the people expelled from their country, dispersed over the whole face of the earth, exposed as objects of derision to the rest of mankind, and continue to this day a lasting monument of the divine indignation.

That the same course of divine providence in punishing wicked nations is still pursued, we learn clearly from the Apocalypse. Hence then appears, how necessary is the principle of the fear of God, and how essential it is to man to revere the sovereign Deity and respect his commands. Should not these considerations impress a check on the proceedings. of princes in the administration of their governments? If the sovereign King of heaven and earth is not invited to share in their councils, but if politic views direct solely their steps without regard to equity, or if ambition, resentment, or any other passion, wholly sways their conduct, what injustices, what crimes, may not be the result, in the guilt of which their whole states become generally involved? Then what is the consequence? Such national deviation from the Law of God, certainly provokes the divine vengeance, as appears from what has been said, and is the cause of the dreadful disasters that sconer or later befall those states, and often terminate in their utter ruin. How much would it be the interest of princes to attend to the admonition of the great and wise king David! "And now, O ye kings, understand: receive instruction, you that judge the earth. Serve ye the Lord with fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling. Embrace discipline, lest the Lord become angry." Psalm ii. 10, &c.

IV.

THE fourth Age comprehends a period of nine centuries, from about the year 620 to 1520. But if the length of this exceeds that of the preceding, we may observe, it is compen sated by the importance of three different successive events. The rise of Mahomet and the Mahometan empire distinguishes the first part of this period. We are astonished at the success of that great impostor, and at the progress his successors have made in conquering the world. It is likewise a subject of surprise, that Christ, who is the "Prince of the kings of the earth," Apoc. i. 5, should suffer such an enemy to rise up, to establish a doctrine quite opposite to that he himself had taught, and to re-introduce death into the world by exploding the very source of salvation, the redemption from sin. But our surprise will abate, when we consi

der, that those nations, which adopted this Antichristian religion, had made themselves in great measure deservedly obnoxious to so dreadful a judgment. The Christian countries of Asia, and Africa, and some eastern provinces in Europe, had been guilty of manifold inconstancy and perfidy, in relinquishing the true faith to espouse the heretical and schismatical doctrines of Arius, Macedonius, Donatus, Nestorius, Eutyches, Pelagius, Photius, &c. while the most part of western Christendom remained firm in their adherence to the unity of faith. What wonder then, if Almighty God suffered the Orientals to run into a precipice, who had already voluntarily left the path of truth?

The second interesting event that distinguishes this age, is a dismal alarm sounded to the Church, namely, the defection of the Greeks from the faith, which, like a great earthquake, shook the continent of Christendom, and severed a great number of fair eastern churches from the body of the faithful. Pride, ambition, jealousy, fondness of novelty, or such like vicious dispositions, are the general origin of heresies and schisms. The Orientals suffered themselves to be guided by such passions, and in consequence they bewildered themselves in error, and withdrew from the communion of their Catholic brethren. Rebellion often grows contumacious; and effectually they aggravated highly their guilt, by obstinately rejecting all means offered them for their reconciliation with God and his Church. Such a grievous and lasting provocation armed the avenging hand of God, which made use of the Mahometans as a scourge to punish them. This punishment, which proved very severe, was the third momentous transaction that characterized the fourth age.

And may we not here bewail the misfortune and stubborn blindness of the present Greeks, who though so fully admonished by the punishment of their forefathers, under which they themselves lie groaning, yet remain hardened and inflexible? But, what indeed is highly deplorable, our Christian prophet had said of them; "They did not penance to give God glory."-See the fourth vial. Christ, who essentially loves concord and union, commanded the same to be observed among his followers, and in that view addressed his heavenly Father by a special prayer. 'Not for them only do I pray, (said he,) but for them also who through their word shall believe in me that they may be one, as thou (Father) in me, and I in thee that they also may be one in us." John xvii. 20, 21. To fix this necessary union and make it stable, he

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established the centre of it in one person, the person of St. Peter and each of his successors. Thou art Peter," (that is a rock) said our Saviour, "and upon this rock I will build my Church." Matt. xvi. 18. He told St. Peter again on another occasion: "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren." Luke xxii. 32. Here then is the centre, with which the whole circle of the Church must be linked, and connected by the bond of union and faith. Whoever breaks this chain, dissolves as much as in him lies the work of Christ, and disunites himself from the society of his brethren. Such has been the crime of the Greeks, who renouncing communion with the successor of St. Peter, have set up in his room one of their own bishops, equally schismatical with themselves. "Christ has builded his church," says St. Cyprian, "upon one, who is Peter and has placed one chair. He has indeed given to all bishops the full participation of power equally to govern their flocks, all deriving their authority from Christ: but the beginning arises from unity in Peter." De Unit. Eccl. The breaking of this tie of "Unity in Peter," was the occasion of the heavy disasters that have fallen upon the Greeks, and which they continue to labour under at this day. And is there not further reason to apprehend that their oppressions will not be alleviated, if not even made heavier, as long as they return not to what they so criminally abandoned, the centre of unity in Peter? This indeed they found clearly predicted in the revelations of St. Bridget, who died in the 1373. But as to what degree of authority and credit these revelations may claim, we shall say nothing ourselves, but refer the reader to the learned Cardinal Lambertini, afterwards Pope Benedict XIV. who writes thus: "Though an assent of Catholic faith be not due to such revelations, they deserve a human assent, according to the rules of prudence, by which they are probable and piously credible, as the revelations of B. Hildegardis, St. Bridget, and St. Catherine of Sienna." De Canoniz. Sanct. 1. 2. c. 32. n. 11. The passage in St. Bridget's works relating to the Greeks runs thus: "Be it known to the Greeks, that their empire and their kingdoms, or dominions, will never stand secure, nor in settled peace; but that they will always be held in subjection by their enemies, from whom they will ever suffer most grievous hardships and constant distresses, until they shall have sincerely submitted themselves with true humility and good will to the Church of Rome and to her faith, conforming themselves en

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