Many Names Have Been Given By Secret Impulse, To Denote The Effects Those Persons Were To Produce; And As Most Of My Fathers Affairs Were Guarded By Some Special Providence, His Name And Sirname Were Not Without Some Mysterious Significations.

Thus, considering the sirname of his ancestors, Columbus or Columba, since he conveyed the grace of the Holy Ghost

Into that New World which he discovered, shewing the knowledge of the beloved Son of God to those people who knew him not, as was done by the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove at the baptism of St John; and because, like Noahs dove, he carried the olive branch and the oil of baptism across the waters of the ocean, to denote the peace and union of those people with the church, which had long been shut up in the ark of darkness and ignorance. So likewise of the sirname of Colon which he revived, which was appropriate to him as signifying a member; and, in conjunction with his sirname of Christopher, denoted that he was a member of Christ, by whom salvation was to be conveyed to the heathen people whom he discovered. Thus, as St Christopher received that name because he carried Christ over the deep waters with great danger to himself; so the admiral Christopher Colonus, imploring the protection of Christ, safely carried himself and his people over the unknown ocean, that those Indian nations which he discovered might become citizens and inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem. For many souls, whom the Devil expected for his prey, were through his means passed through the water of baptism, and made inhabitants of the eternal glory of heaven.

Enter page number Go  Previous Next
Page 16 of 789
Words from 4024 to 4304 of 219607