as I would on one whom God's hand hath touched, in whom the light of reason is darkened, though the feelings of the heart have/ not been seared; who presses to her bosom, and cherishes there, / the empty locket which once contained the image of all she loved on earth, and continues to rock the cradle of her departed child!

But if, from this scene of inconstancy, mutability, and decay, I we turn to look for a contrast, I cannot have much difficulty in finding one. Oh that I could bear you, on the wings of my affections, to that holy city, where all that is Christian and Catholic bears the stamp of unfading immortality! Thither must the Catholic look to find the surest proof of how effectual, and how universal, is the one principle of faith which animates and directs his religion. There I could show you to demonstration, how tenacious the Catholic Church has always been of every doctrine; since she has taken such pains and care to preserve the meanest edifice or monument that might recall to her mind past times, or which has recorded on it a doctrine or a discipline, the remnant of a dearer and a happier age. I could show you many churches yet standing, not, indeed, like the ancient, lofty, and magnificent piles which we see in this country, but humble and poor, though entire and untouched, scattered over tracts once, perhaps, the most populous upon earth, and adorned with the most sumptuous buildings, but now become dreary wastes and heaps of ruins; standing alone, and appearing great by their solitude the early temples of Christianity. And you would ask me, perhaps, wherefore are still preserved these churches of the early Christians, in places where now there are no congregations to frequent them? For soon would you see that the religious edifices which you meet in the most populous and crowded parts of this city, are not nearer one to the other, than those of the now uninhabited tracts of Rome. And you might ask me, too, what it was that saved them from the ruin which hath made cities desolate, hath emptied the palaces of kings, and crushed into dust the monuments of empires? For you would marvel how these, although built of the most costly and durable materials, grasping, as it were, with their foundations, the very rocks below, and banded and covered with brass and iron, should now be fallen; while those, on the other hand, which were formed. of frail and perishable materials, have withstood the shock. And I would reply to you, that religion hath embalmed them with the sweet savour of her holiness, so that neither rust nor moth could assail them; and that, when the barbarian ravaged and

raged around, she marked their door-posts with the blood of martyrs, and the destroyer bowed his head and passed them by, and left them as a refuge for the desolate, in the wildest times of riot Land bloodshed.

And you I would find that from that time all care has been taken to preserve them in the most perfect integrity; that all those arrangements in these venerable Churches, which supposed a state and order of discipline varying from what we now follow, may there be yet observed; you would see the place where the catechumens stood in the porches, and where the penitents of the different orders waited, imploring the prayers of the faithful, and the pulpits wherein the gospel was read by saints, and the very episcopal chair wherein the holy Doctor St. Gregory was wont to preach, and the entire church standing now, even as it did of old, with a calm and majestic solemnity about it, which bears us back to the feelings of peace and unity in which these edifices were originally planned. And what is the principle which these places record? Not merely do they tell events of older times—not only do they keep alive in our hearts and minds those feelings of attachment which connect us with happier and better days; but they are a pledge and a security that the same spirit which has kept them entire, would preserve still more the doctrines therein originally taught, and imbodied in their very plan and constitution.

And then note, with this enduring power, what an elasticity and vigor for recovery this same principle has ever communicated. You have seen the Church of this country, already exhibiting symptons of sad decay, and yielding to the undermining power of its own disuniting, enfeebling principle. Now, then, look npon that country and city to which in mind I have transported you; and remember, that twenty years have scarce elapsed since the rule of the scoffer and the plunderer came to an end, of those who stripped religion of all its splendor, and bound her rulers in bonds of iron. But she had before taken too frequent experience of such scenes, to fear their consequences. In days past, for ages, periodical invasion from barbarous foes had been her lot, and she had always found them, like the Nile's inundations, renovators of her fertility, where the very slime they left behind them became a chosen soil for the seed of her doctrine. See how soon the plundered shrines have been replaced, the disfigured monuments repaired, the halfruined Churches almost rebuilt! See how, from morning till night, her many splendid temples are open, and without price,

to great and small, and her daily services are attended by crowds, as if nothing had passed in their generation to disturb their faith, or deprive them of its instruments! And whence is this difference? Why, simply herein, that their religion, while it exercises absolute control over their judgments and belief, speaks to their senses, to their feelings, to their hearts. For that, my brethren, is a city long accustomed to rule, but to rule through the affections. Believing herself, and, I confidently say it, justly believing herself, invested by God's promises with authority to teach all nations, she hath used this authority to keep all in the unity of faith, giving the same creed with the same gospel to the Americans and the Chinese, as she had given to the African and the Briton. But while she swayed her sceptre with uncompromising equality, she feared not to adorn it with jewels. She knew that the gold and the silver, and the precious spices were the Lord's, and by his hand had been given to his house; and she lavished them on his service, and she cherished all the arts of life, and she compassed herself with every splendor, and clothed herself with all beauty; and she hath made herself beloved by the lowly, and respected by the great; and, secure upon the rock of an eternal promise, she fears no earthly changes, nor infernal violence; from the one secure by accomplishing, in her outward constitution, the typical forms of the older, less spiritual, dispensation of hope: from the other, safe, as the symbol and image of the blessed kingdom of eternal love.

LECTURE THE SIXTH.

ON THE PRACTICAL SUCCESS OF THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH IN CONVERTING HEATHEN NATIONS.

MARK xvi. 15.

"Go ye unto the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every creature."

THIS, my brethren, was an important commission delivered by our Saviour to the apostles. It stands in close connection with His other command on which I have already expatiated at great length; to teach all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatever He had commanded them, with His promise to be with them all days, even unto the end of the world. On that occasion, I endeavored to show you, by the construction of the very text, that there was annexed a promise of success to the commission given: so that what was therein enjoined to the apostles and their successors, in the Church of Christ, He himself would for .ever enable them to put in execution. It must therefore be an important criterion of the true religion of Christ, or, in other words, of that foundation whereon He intended His faith to be built, to see where that blessing, that promise of success from His assistance, hath rested, and where, by its actually taking effect, it can be shown to have been perpetuated, according to the words of our blessed Redeemer.

For we cannot doubt that the apostles, in virtue of that promise, went forth, and not only preached to nations, but actually converted them. It was in virtue of this same commission, that their successors in the Church continued to discharge the same duty of announcing Christ, and Him crucified, to nations who had never heard His name; and there can be no doubt, that their success was due to their being in possession of the promise with it given; and, consequently, to their having built the Gospel on that foundation to which the promise was annexed. In other words, it must be a very important criterion of the true rule of faith, delivered by our blessed Redeemer to His Church, to see whether the preaching according to any given rule has been

attended with that blessing which was promised, and which secures the enjoyment of His support; or, whether its total failure proves it not to have satisfied the conditions He required.

Such, my brethren, is the subject on which I am going to enter. I wish to lay before you, in this and my next discourse, a view of the success which has attended the preaching of the gospel, according to the two different rules of faith which I have endeavored to explain. I will begin, in the first place, and it will occupy me this evening, with examining the history of the different institutions formed in this and other Protestant countries, for the purpose of diffusing truth among the nations who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. For this purpose, it is my intention to make use, as much as possible, of authorities which no one will impugn,—I intend, perhaps with one or two exceptions, not to quote any Catholic witnesses; indeed, I will endeavor, as much as I can, to confine myself to the testimony of such as are actually engaged on these missions, or to the reports of the societies which direct and support their efforts.

The progress of conversion had gone forward from age to age, ever since the time of the apostles; and not a century, particularly among those commonly designated as dark and superstitious times, not a half century had passed in which some nation or other was not converted to the faith of Christ. By conversion, I do not simply mean their being kept in the missionary state, under the direction and tutelage of persons sent from another country, but their being so established, in the course of a very few years, as to be able to exist independently of foreign aid. They, of course, always remained in connection and communion with the mother Church, whence their faith had originally come; but yet so as to have their own native hierarchy, governing many congregations and churches regularly organized; and to be so well and solidly established, that where once this had taken place, the errors which had been removed no more sprang up and resumed their influence. This is the only idea which we can justly form of complete conversion; this alone was meant by conversion during the ages to which I have alluded. And so far was this spirit of conversion from failing in later times, that, on the contrary, it is remarkable how, just at the moment of the Reformation, a new field was opened, and was cultivated with success, among the natives of America, and in the peninsula of India.

Now, when the new religion took possession of this and some