nity possible to the attainment of a created being. The distance between them is immeasurable; for there is no common term of comparison between the finite and the infinite. But if this acknowledgment should be interpreted as a concession, by any who censure the language or the popular practice of the church, we entreat them to consider whether the very Majesty of God does not furnish the most conclusive argument in proof of the unparalleled glory of Mary. If God is indeed the Immense, Uncreated Being that he has revealed himself, what shall be thought of her, of whose pure substance he did not disdain to assume a part into his own Divinity, in the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; becoming bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh; and being subject to her for thirty years?

To a mind informed by Revelation, and accustomed to regard the Divine Creator as he is exalted far above human comprehension, it appears simply impossible to imagine any creature, even the most elevated, approaching within an infinite distance of his supreme and solitary throne. And for the unlearned, as long as the church teaches her little ones in the creed,

that there are three Persons in one God, to whom alone divine worship is to be paid, she cannot possibly either theoretically or practically, propose four such Persons to their adoration. Yet the accusations of her enemies amount to this; and the suspicions of some who are not her enemies hardly fall short of it.

But while the church sets these limits to the honour which she teaches her children to pay to Mary; they are the only limits within which she would circumscribe their overflowing love, homage, and admiration, in regard to the Blessed Mother of her Lord. Whatever of dignity and grace, of power and glory, it is possible for a creature to receive from her Creator, we are taught to admire in Mary. When the Archangel proclaimed her "full of grace,

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* Luke i. 28. Full of grace; or highly favoured. The same word, xapirów, is used; Ephes. i. 6. Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved;" gratificavit, Vulgate; made acceptable. It therefore signifies little which translation is adopted; the measure of the graces given to any creature, and co-operated with, by it, is also the measure of its acceptance with God. If Mary was full of grace, it was because she was highly favoured; if accepted it was on account of that grace. One translation seems to express the cause; the other, its effect.

we believe that he announced the truth; that the soul and body of the Holy Virgin were indeed filled with grace to the utmost limit of created capacity; and, as a necessary consequence, that the fulness of her glory corresponds to the plenitude of grace that she received on earth. So that among created beings, she is alone, without an equal; God only is above her.

We do no wrong to the Majesty of God, by exalting very highly the power and efficaciouness of his instrument. By confessing Mary to be an instrument in his hand, fashioned and prepared by him for her work, we sufficiently express the dependence of her position on his supreme will. Nay, the more unquestionably we can demonstrate her fitness for the great office assigned to her, the more do we exalt his power, that could, of human frailty, create such perfection; and his wisdom, that so admirably adapted her to the end proposed for her. The more faultless and beautiful the instrument, the more must the skill of the Almighty Maker grow in our estimation; if the graces that flow to the church through Mary are as rich and abundant as they are represented, what shall we think of the divine source

from whose immense fulness they flow, without diminishing its abundance? Instead, therefore, of depreciating her excellence, and the extent of her influence, in order to render the Divine Supremacy more conspicuous, it were a better and more suitable means to the same end, to magnify her position; for as long as she is regarded as a created being, however nobly endowed, not only do her very endowments reflect new glory on him who made her, and enriched her with them, but as her inferior importance is magnified, his unapproachable Majesty grows and dilates, till human thought sinks exhausted by the effort to comprehend it.

CHAPTER II.

MARY IN PROPHECY.

"BLESSED are the eyes that see the things that you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things that you hear, and have not heard them.". Luke x. 24.

WHEN God called 'this visible universe out of nothing, beauty and order reigned throughout the works of his hand. All things were disposed for a certain end, subservient to his own glory. The earth was covered with herbs and trees bearing fruit, for the nourishment of the living creatures that walked and crept upon its surface. The ocean was filled with life of another kind; and the air with feathered fowl. The sun and the moon were placed for lights in heaven, to give light by day and night. Lastly, the Great Creator