The Catholic Church Alone. The One True Church of Christ. Part 191.

SIX VOLUMES IN ONE BY THE DISTINGUISHED EXPONENTS OF CATHOLICISM

REV. HENRY DODRIDGE, D. D.REV. HENRY EDWARD MANNING, D. D.REV. F. LEWIS, of Granada REV. STEPHEN KEENAN REV. BERNARD VAUGHAN, S. J. REV. THOMAS N. BURKE, O. P. 

There is another remarkable thing yet to be considered in this matter, which is, that God has prepared this stately place, not only for his own honor, but also for the glory of all his elect. How solicitous God is for them, and for the effecting of all he has promised in their behalf, when he said, “Whosoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him” (1 Kings ii. 30), plainly appears by his actions, since he has put every thing in the world under their command, even whilst they are in this life. How wonderful was it to see Josue command the sun to stand still in the midst of its course, and to make it stop, as if he had the direction of the whole world in his power! “God,” as the Scripture says, “obeying the voice of a man ;” Jos. x. 14. How strange was it to see the prophet Isaias bid king Ezechias (Isa. xxxiii. 8) choose whether he would have the sun go back ten degrees upon the dial, or forward, for either should be performed! How prodigious was it to see the prophet Elias (3 Kings xvii. I, and xviii. 43, etc.) lock up the waters and clouds of heaven as long as he thought fit; and then command them, by virtue of his word and prayer, to pour down their rain again!

Nor is it during their lifetime only that God has given his saints such powers; he continues the same after their death and confers it on their very bones and ashes; 4 Kings xiii. 21. Who can forbear praising God, when he reads of the prophet Elisha’s bones raising a dead man to life, who was accidentally thrown by a band of highwaymen into the prophet’s grave? Who will deny that God bestows great favors on his saints, when he hears that the sea opened for three miles together, the day that St. Clement was martyred, that so those persons who had mind to see the relics of one that had suffered for Christ’s sake, might pass over? God has been pleased to inspire the whole Church to institute a feast in honor of St. Peter’s chains, that we may see what an esteem he has for the bodies of the saints, since he commanded us to pay such solemn respect for the fetters they wore. But what is all this in comparison with the honor which God did not only to this Apostle’s fetters, not only to his bones or body, but to his very shadow; which, as St. Luke aflirms in the Acts (ch. v. I5), cured all persons of their distempers that could come within the reach of it. O God! how infinitely art thou to be ad mired! O Godl how infinitely good art thou, and with what an infinite honor dost thou reward thy saints!