The history of his chosen people is an example of this. We find empires rising and falling, at one time to punish, at another time to try, at another to deliver his people. The good and the wicked, the weak and the strong, become in turn his instruments. The whole history of that people is but a record of the acts of his overruling providence, directing all things to the accomplishment of the designs which he had announced.
This is, indeed, so evident in this case that it may not be considered a fair instance to prove my general position. For it is admitted that God's providence over the Jewish race was quite extraordinary. Still, it proves that God does so intervene in human affairs, and it illustrates many of the principles that must be kept in view in these investigations. It shows, for example, that many, unconscious of the fact—nay, with quite another object [pg 066] in view, acting perhaps from avarice, hatred, or ambition, are yet instruments in the hand of God for the accomplishment of his wise purposes. It shows how things, and persons, considered as of little or of no value, according to human views, may, in reality, be the pivots on which the destinies of vast empires turn, connected, as they may be, with the accomplishment of purposes which weigh more in the scales of Heaven than the mere temporal condition of all the empires of the Earth.
It is in this view that many Christian writers assert that the Roman empire obtained universal sway, that civilized nations being thus brought closely together, an easier way might be prepared for the spread of the Gospel. The generals and statesmen of Rome had no doubt a very low idea of the poor fishermen of Galilee, and of the tentmaker of Tharsus. It may be safely presumed that they did not even allow their names to divert their thoughts, for a moment, from the grand projects of conquest and government by which they were engrossed. Yet, in the designs of God, it was, most probably, to prepare a way for the work of those fishermen, and of that tentmaker, and their associates, that wisdom had been vouchsafed to their counsels and victory to their arms.
The endless invasions of the Roman empire by northern tribes is another instance of whole races being used by God for his own purposes, without their having any idea of the work in which they were employed. They came to punish those who had revelled in the blood of the saints, and to supply fresh material for the great work of the Church of God.
Towards the close of the fifteenth century, an Italian sailor, led by some astronomical observations and some half understood, or rather misunderstood, tales of ancient travellers, to believe that there must be another continent far away beyond the western waters, wandered from court to court, in Europe, in search of means to fit up an expedition to discover it, and he finally succeeded in making known a new world. It requires little faith in divine Providence to believe that it was God who was impelling him thus to open a new outlet for the energies of the ancient world, which were then about being developed on a gigantic scale, and, still more, to prepare a field for a more extensive spread of the Gospel, in which the Church might repair the losses she was about to sustain in the religious convulsions impending in Europe.
Numberless similar instances might be quoted. These designs of God are sometimes manifest, sometimes hidden; sometimes they are far-reaching, sometimes limited. Ignorance and pride may mistake or pervert them. But they always prevail; they are always worthy of their Author; and let me add, that the salvation [pg 067] of men being the object most highly prized by God, it is not only rightfully considered the most noble, but it is that to which his other works may be justly accounted subordinate.
It is under the light of these principles that I undertake an investigation of the purposes of God regarding the Irish race. These purposes seem to me no longer matter of speculation; they may be pronounced manifest; for they are written in unmistakable characters in the development of events.
The history of Ireland is, in many respects, peculiar. Few nations received the faith so readily, and no other preserved it amidst similar struggles. St. Patrick first announced the Gospel to the assembled states of the realm at Tara. He received permission to preach it, unmolested, throughout the length and breadth of the land. By his indomitable zeal and heroic virtue, he succeeded in winning over the natives so effectually, that at his death few pagans remained in Ireland. Not a drop of blood was shed when Christianity was first announced. Heroism was displayed only by the exalted virtues of the Apostle and of the neophytes. Nowhere else did the Gospel take root so quickly and so firmly, and produce fruits so immediate and so abundant. Catholic Ireland soon became the home of the saints and sages of the Christian world. To many of the nations of the continent her apostles went forth, charged with the embassy of eternal truth. In every realm of Europe her children established sanctuaries of piety and learning; and to her own hospitable shores the natives of other lands flocked to receive education, and even support, from her gratuitous bounty. Homes of virtue dotted her hills and valleys; and thus were laid deep the roots of that strong attachment to the faith, which, later, was to be exposed to trials the most severe.
We thus find God preparing Ireland for a future, then hidden to all but Himself. For the day of trial came at last. She was reposing in peace, under the shadow of the Gospel, when the barbaric invasion, that swept before it every vestige of learning and religion in many parts of Europe, reached her shores. Ireland was the only country that rolled back its wave. But she did this at the cost of her life's blood. For two centuries the Dane trampled her sons under foot. His cruelties yet re-echo in the national traditions. But the Irish race at last arose in its might, and drove the barbarian from its shores. The churches of the country had been pillaged, its monasteries plundered, its institutions of learning destroyed—everything that the sword could smite, or fire consume, had perished; but the Irish race came out of the ordeal preserving its own integrity, and the jewel which it prized above all else—its glorious faith.
Not long after this deliverance, and before Ireland had succeeded [pg 068] in obliterating the traces of Danish cruelty, another invader set his foot on her shores. Availing himself of the discords naturally arising from the disorganized state of society, he succeeded in gaining a foothold. By fanning these discords, he kept possession and gained strength. The rule of the Saxon became thus almost as severe a calamity as had been the oppression of the Dane. To the hatred, which is generally greater in the oppressor than in the oppressed, were added, in time, religious fanaticism and the desire of plunder, which became its associate and assumed its garb. The mere Irishman, who was hated under any circumstances on account of his race, was now hunted in his own country as if he were a wild beast. The property of the Catholic people was confiscated, and most stringent laws were enacted to prevent its renewed acquisitions. Priests, wherever found, were put to death, and the severest penalties were inflicted on those who would harbour any that escaped detection. Extermination by fire and sword was ordered in so many words, and was attempted. When this failed, a system of penal laws was established, which were in full force until lately, and which a Protestant writer of deservedly high repute (Burke) calls a “machine of wise and elaborate contrivance, and as well fitted for the oppression, impoverishment, and degradation of a people, and the debasement in them of human nature itself, as ever proceeded from the perverted ingenuity of man”. Upon the partial abandonment of this form of oppression, a system of proselytism was adopted, and is yet in full vigour (for it has become an institution, and the best supported institution in Ireland), which, by bribes to the high and the low, appeals to every base instinct to draw men away from the faith.