DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0050
34
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the express
declarations of the Saviour. The inspirations for-
merly vouchsafed to the Hebrew prophets—and which
the obstinate and stiff-necked rebellion of the once
favoured people had caused to be withdrawn for a long
dark period of suffering and humiliation—had been again
revealed at Jerusalem in the awful and significant miracle
of the Pentecost, amidst rushing blasts and the descent
of fiery tongues. These revelations were never to be again
withdrawn until the end.
Upon two occasions only have we, indeed, the record of
unalterable promises made to a world which is per-
petually changing. One was after the Hebraic Deluge,
when an eternity of seasons, so long as the world lasted,
wTas promised to the husbandman, and a pledge was
placed even in the firmament that waters should no more
cover the earth. The second was from the Sepulchre,
promising the Comforter and the Holy Spirit: “Lol I
am always with you, until the end.”
Again, those who had adopted the Pauline doctrines,-
and believed in the mysterious prophecies of the im-
pending dissolution of the world, considered Rome as
the last link in the great chain of events, which forestalled
the final ruin of creation, and looked on her as fated to
evolve that last period, mentioned by the Apostle Paul as
already commencing through the mystery of iniquity.1
Thus, whether regarded as the seat of life and of a
second destiny, eclipsing even its first, or whether viewed
as the solemn example of the Nemesis overshadowing
sin by the gathering veil of eternal death, Rome was ever
foremost in the mind of man, and her universal and
eternal dominion remained unchanged ; and St. Augustine
could exclaim, even whilst barbarian hordes threatened
the city, and new nations crowded into its walls:
“Against thee neither darkness nor barbarism shall
prevail, for the world is thine, through the noble radia-
tion of Divine truth.”
The above sentence is the key-note of the greatest of
1 Thessalonians, chap. ii. v. 2-7.
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
the power of the Holy Spirit, according to the express
declarations of the Saviour. The inspirations for-
merly vouchsafed to the Hebrew prophets—and which
the obstinate and stiff-necked rebellion of the once
favoured people had caused to be withdrawn for a long
dark period of suffering and humiliation—had been again
revealed at Jerusalem in the awful and significant miracle
of the Pentecost, amidst rushing blasts and the descent
of fiery tongues. These revelations were never to be again
withdrawn until the end.
Upon two occasions only have we, indeed, the record of
unalterable promises made to a world which is per-
petually changing. One was after the Hebraic Deluge,
when an eternity of seasons, so long as the world lasted,
wTas promised to the husbandman, and a pledge was
placed even in the firmament that waters should no more
cover the earth. The second was from the Sepulchre,
promising the Comforter and the Holy Spirit: “Lol I
am always with you, until the end.”
Again, those who had adopted the Pauline doctrines,-
and believed in the mysterious prophecies of the im-
pending dissolution of the world, considered Rome as
the last link in the great chain of events, which forestalled
the final ruin of creation, and looked on her as fated to
evolve that last period, mentioned by the Apostle Paul as
already commencing through the mystery of iniquity.1
Thus, whether regarded as the seat of life and of a
second destiny, eclipsing even its first, or whether viewed
as the solemn example of the Nemesis overshadowing
sin by the gathering veil of eternal death, Rome was ever
foremost in the mind of man, and her universal and
eternal dominion remained unchanged ; and St. Augustine
could exclaim, even whilst barbarian hordes threatened
the city, and new nations crowded into its walls:
“Against thee neither darkness nor barbarism shall
prevail, for the world is thine, through the noble radia-
tion of Divine truth.”
The above sentence is the key-note of the greatest of
1 Thessalonians, chap. ii. v. 2-7.