Victories of the Martyrs_LIGUORI - the Catholic Kingdom!

much care, and had transmitted to us, it was predictedthat at a certain time the Son of God was to come downupon earth, to become man, and to die for he salvation ofthe world; that they themselves would put him to deathon the Cross.as they actually did, and that in punishmentof this impiety they would be driven from their ownkingdom, and without a king, without a temple, withouta country, they would live scattered, and be vagabondsthroughout the world, abhorred and despised by all nations.These were predictions that were manifestlyrealized in every particular after the death of the Saviour.What rendered still more certain the truth of ourfaith was the formation of a new people of God by theconversion of the Gentiles: this was known to have beenannounced beforehand in the Scriptures, and this wasseen to be realized as soon as the apostles spread throughout the world in order to promulgate the New Lawpreached by Jesus Christ. This event was an evidentproof of the protection that God gave to the Christian re.ligion; for how could these poor sinners or these publicans,such as the apostles were-men devoid of instruction, ofwealth, of every human assistance, and even persecutedby the magistrates and the emperors, have induced, withoutdivine assistance, so many Christians to renounce alltheir property, all their honors, and generously to sacrificetheir lives amid tortures the most excruciating thatthe,power and the cruelty of the tyrants could invent ?But what was still more marvellous was to behold somany Gentiles embrace a religion difficult to believe anddifficult to practise. It was difficult to believe on thepart of the intellect, for this religion teaches mysteriesbeyond the reach of human reason; namely, the Trinityof one God in three distinct persons, who have but onenature, one power, and one will; the Incarnation of theSon of God come upon earth to die for the salvation ofmankind; and many other articles regarding original'Private Use Only