From Sermon 15 of Newman;
(Preached on Thursday morning, the Purification, 1843, by appointment of Mr.
Christie, Fellow of Oriel.) The overthrow of the wisdom of the world was one of
the earliest, as well as the noblest of the triumphs of the Church; after the
pattern of her Divine Master, who took His place among the doctors before He
preached His new Kingdom, or opposed Himself to the world's power. St. Paul, the learned
Pharisee, was the first fruits of that gifted company, in whom the pride of
science is seen prostrated before the foolishness of preaching. From his day to
this the Cross has enlisted under its banner all those great endowments of
mind, which in former times had been expended on vanities, or dissipated in doubt
and speculation. Nor was it long before the schools of heathenism took the
alarm, and manifested an unavailing jealousy of the new doctrine, which was
robbing them of their most hopeful disciples. They had hitherto taken for
granted that the natural home of the Intellect was the Garden or {315} the
Porch; and it reversed their very first principles to be called on to confess,
what yet they could not deny, that a Superstition, as they considered it, was
attracting to itself all the energy, the keenness, the originality, and the
eloquence of the age. But these aggressions upon heathenism were only the
beginning of the Church's conquests; in the course of time the whole mind of
the world, as I may say, was absorbed into the philosophy of the Cross, as the
element in which it lived, and the form upon which it was moulded. And how many
centuries did this endure, and what vast ruins still remain of its dominion! In
the capitals of Christendom the high cathedral and the perpetual choir still
witness to the victory of Faith over the world's power. To see its triumph over
the world's wisdom, we must enter those solemn cemeteries in which are stored
the relics and the monuments of ancient Faith—our libraries. Look along their
shelves, and every name you read there is, in one sense or other, a trophy set
up in record of the victories of Faith. How many long lives, what high aims,
what single-minded devotion, what intense contemplation, what fervent prayer,
what deep erudition, what untiring diligence, what toilsome conflicts has it
taken to establish its supremacy! This has been the object which has given
meaning to the life of Saints, and which is the subject-matter of their
history. For this they have given up the comforts of earth and the charities of
home, and surrendered themselves to an austere rule, nay, even to confessorship
and persecution, if so be they could make some small offering, or do some
casual service, or {316} provide some additional safeguard towards the great
work which was in progress. This has been the origin of controversies, long and
various, yes, and the occasion of much infirmity, the test of much hidden
perverseness, and the subject of much bitterness and tumult. The world has been
moved in consequence of it, populations excited, leagues and alliances formed,
kingdoms lost and won: and even zeal, when excessive, evinced a sense of its
preciousness; nay, even rebellions in some sort did homage to it, as insurgents
imply the actual sovereignty of the power which they are assailing.
And so, we can have Faith in the reasonableness of Catholicism but we must
also pray for the opportunity to share this Faith.
