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SERMONS

AND

MORAL DISCOURSES,

&c. &c.

PENTECOST SUNDAY.

On the Descent of the Holy Ghost.

Cum complerentur dies Pentecostes, repleti sunt omnes Spiritu Sancto, et cœperunt loqui.

When the days of Pentecost were accomplished, all the nished with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak.

Acts. c. ii. v. 4.

Disciples were reple-
Acts. c. ii. v. 4.

THE solemnity of Pentecost is commonly called Whitsuntide, from the ancient custom of clothing Catechumens, or newlybaptized Christians, in white garments during the ensuing octave, in order to denote the sanctity and spotless innocence that the Sacrament of Baptism confers on the soul. The Church finds herself at this time happily situated between Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost, redeemed by the one and conducted by the other. Jesus Christ ascends into Heaven to be the pledge and mediator of our eternal happiness: the Holy Ghost descends to the earth to be our guide and comforter in this vale of miseries. Jesus Christ mounts up into the celestial sanctuary to complete the functions of his priesthood, and to perform the office of our advocate with the Father: the Holy Ghost comes down from the Heavens to abide with the faithful to the end of the world, to teach them all truth, to inflame them with the fire of divine love, and to prevent the Church from being ever overpowered by the gates of hell. Jesus Christ ascends in order to prepare a place for us above, and to form never-fading Crowns for his elect and faithful servants: the Holy Ghost descends in order to animate us here below, to sustain the conflicts and gain the victories that must neces

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sarily be gained before we can expect to be crowned. Jesus Christ, elevated to the bosom of his heavenly Father, gives man a lasting proof, and a well grounded hope of future glory and immortality: the Holy Ghost penetrates to the heart of man to illumine and purify him with the rays of his all-power. ful grace.

The descent of the Holy Ghost was the price of the sacred blood of Jesus Christ, a favour owing to his infinite merits, and the last seal of our redemption. The disciples were not fit to receive this Divine Spirit till after the visible departure of our Blessed Redeemer from this world; for, as St. Augustine remarks, they had so tender an affection and regard for their dear Lord and Master, that they could not bear his absence without great reluctance and being seized with sadness. This sensibility being the effect of nature rather than of grace, was sufficient to put a stop to the coming of the Holy Ghost, for which reason Christ told them, John, ch. xvi. v. 7. that it was expedient for them that he should go from them, and that if he did not go the Paraclete would not come, but if he went he would send him to them. The descent of the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, changed them in a moment into other men, purified their hearts and consumed the dross of their earthly affections; it inflamed them with zeal and gratitude, and banished all their apprehensions and all symptoms of fear and anxiety; it made them forget their own safety to publish their Master's divinity, and sacrifice their lives for his honour and glory, and for the establishment of his Church. To be convinced hereof, we need but turn our eyes towards Jerusalem, and consider attentively the glorious event which took place there this day, at the very time that the Jews were celebrating the anniversary of the promulgation of their Law on Mount Sinai. This is the interesting subject to which the Church calls our attention at present, and which I will endeavour briefly to lay before you in the following discourse. The wonderful change that the Holy Ghost wrought in the disciples of Christ on the day of Pentecost, and the astonishing success with which he blessed and crowned their labours, shall be the subject of the first point. The means whereby the disciples prepared themselves for receiving the Holy Ghost, and by which we ought likewise to prepare ourselves for receiving his heavenly gifts and graces, shall be the subject of the second point. Intercede for us, O blessed mother of Jesus, that we may be made worthy of the promises of thy beloved Son. For this end, my brethren, let us devoutly recite the angelical salutation, Ave Maria.

It is an article of faith, that the Holy Ghost is the third person of the most Holy Trinity; that he proceeds from the Father and the Son as from one source; that he is equal to both in power and glory, and every perfection, existing with the same divine nature and essence from all eternity. As the work of our creation is commonly attributed to the Father, and

the work of our redemption to the Son, so the work of our sanctification is particularly attributed to the Holy Ghost, because he is the love of the Father and of the Son; and it is from God's love that all grace, all sanctification, all virtue flows and proceeds. We read in the Acts of the Apostles, ch. xix. that St. Paul, on his arrival in the City of Ephesus, found certain people there who told him they had not even heard that there was an Holy Ghost. None of you, 1 suppose, can plead the like ignorance, since, now-a-days, the very children in the streets may readily learn from the mouth of every common curser and swearer, that there is an Holy Ghost. To swear by him, is, alas! become so fashionable and so favourite an oath with many, that we can scarce pass along the public ways, without being almost deafened with the sound of it from every corner. To such a pitch is impiety raised at present, that not only men, but even women, whom modesty should characterize, are not content with blaspheming the Holy Father, and tearing the sacred name of Jesus to pieces every hour in the day. They have also begun to attack the Holy Ghost, and invoke him frequently as a witness to their crimes and abominations; for it is remarkable, that as they have been called to the light of the Gospel, and baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, they have at length found out the secret of blaspheming all the three Divine Persons at once, as if they were resolved nothing should be wanting to secure their damnation. But let us leave such unhappy sinners to the mercy or justice of God, and return to our subject.

It was on the fiftieth day after the resurrection, and the tenth after the ascension of Jesus Christ, that the Holy Ghost descended on the disciples when they were assembled together in the city of Jerusalem on the feast of Pentecost; for, as the feast of the Jewish Pentecost prefigured the Christian Pentecost, and as the tables of the Law were given to Moses on Mount Sinai, the fiftieth day after the children of Israel had been delivered from the bondage of Pharao, and had passed the Red Sea on their way to the Land of Promise, it was in like manner, on the fiftieth day after the resurrection of Christ, who came to deliver mankind from the bondage of the infernal Pharao, and to conduct his children through the Red Sea of his precious blood to the true Land of Promise, that the Holy Ghost was pleased to descend and to promulge the new Law of the Gospel on Mount Sion in Jerusalem, about the ninth hour in the morning on a Sunday, when the Jews were commemorating their ancient Pentecost. There was this difference, however, between the giving of the old Law to Moses and the new Law to the disciples, that the one was engraved in tables of stone, the other was imprinted in the hearts of the faithful; the one was given in the midst of thunder and lightning, the other under the outward appearance and visible form

of fiery tongues; for since the new Law is not a Law of fear and terror, destined for slaves, but a Law of charity and grace, destined for the children of God, it was expedient that it should be imprinted in the minds and written in the hearts of Christians by the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of love.

The gates of Heaven were accordingly opened on a sudden, and the riches of God's love and mercy were poured fourth on the disciples of Christ this day, in the greatest abundance. A noise or sound was formed in the air, says the Scripture, like a violent rushing wind, that filled the whole house where they were sitting, and the Holy Ghost descended visibly upon them in the shape of tongues of fire, to denote the gift of tongues with which he came to endow them, and the fire of charity which he came to enkindle in their hearts. He descended upon them as a Spirit of light and truth, to instruct and teach them; as a Spirit of grace to sanctify them; as a spirit of charity to qualify them in every respect for the sacred functions of the apostolic ministry. They were all replenished with the Holy Ghost, says the sacred text, and they began to speak with different tongues. They were all divinely inspired, all strengthened in their faith, all confirmed and fortified, all enriched with the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost; their intellects were enlightened with the knowledge of supernatural truths, their wills were inflamed with the fire of divine love, and all the faculties of their souls were filled with heavenly benedictions.

It was thus that the following prediction of St. John the Baptist was accomplished, I indeed baptize ye in water, said he, but he who is to come after me shall baptize ye in the Holy Ghost and fire. It was thus that the merits of Jesus Christ crucified were crowned, and his promises fulfilled to the inexpressible joy of the disciples, and to the great consolation of the faithful, but to the eternal shame and confusion of the incredulous Jews, who were astonished to hear a dozen poor illiterate fishermen by trade, who never had studied the Law, quoting the Scriptures and expounding the divine Oracles, with as much facility as if they were so many inspired Angels that descended from Heaven. Nothing was able to resist the force of their divine eloquence, and the spirit of wisdom that spoke through their mouths. The Scripture informs us, that one of the heavenly Spirits of the angelic order of the Seraphim, purified the lips of the Prophet Isaias with a burning coal taken from the altar; but the Holy Ghost purified the lips of the disciples, and gave them tongues of fire capable of inflaming the frozen hearts of sinners, and melting them into compunction. Before the descent of the Holy Ghost, they were a set of ignorant, weak, dastardly men; they were so timorous and cowardly, that when their Lord and Master was apprehended in the garden, they ran away and abandoned him to the mercy of his merciless enemies, Matt. c. xxvi. v. 56. After his resurrection, though he frequently appeared to them, in order to

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