in me is all hope of life and of virtue." "My memory is unto everlasting generations. Ecclus. xxiv. passim.

It is manifestly impossible to refer the whole of this passage literally to the eternal wisdom of God; for his attributes, which are himself, are equally infinite in duration with himself. It would therefore be inconsistent with truth to say of his eternal Wisdom, that it was created, or was the firstborn of all creatures. Neither can it be said, in a literal sense, that Mary "was created from the beginning, before the world." But in the eternal purpose of God, in whom all time is present, there is perfect propriety in saying that she existed from the beginning. In the same sense the Psalmist exclaims, "I will praise thee for thou art fearfully magnified; wonderful are thy works and my soul knoweth right well. My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret; and my substance in the lower parts of the earth. Thy eyes did see my substance, being imperfect; and in the book all shall be written; days shall be formed and no one in them.-Ps. cxxxviii. 14—16. Thus, also, God declared to Jeremias, "Before I formed in the bowels of the earth, I knew thee."-Jer. i. 5.

St. Paul in like manner, says that God hath "chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted in his sight in charity." -Eph. i. 4.

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In a similar sense, the language of Wisdom, in the book of Proverbs, is applied to the Blessed Virgin, as an expression of her future greatness: "the Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before he made anything from the beginning. I was set up from eternity and of old, before the earth was made. The depths were not as yet, and I was already conceived; neither had the foundations of water as yet sprung up.”—Prov. viii. 22-24. This passage its primary sense is generally referred to the Eternal Son of God, though even as it regards his generation in eternity, the term "I was conceived" can hardly be taken literally; it is unknown to accurate theological definition as applied to that generation. A certain latitude of expression is therefore implied, whether the passage is referred to our Blessed Lord, or to his holy Mother. It is true, also, that in the figurative sense in which both it and the preceding one from Ecclesiasticus are applied to her, they may be referred to

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any of the saints; with this difference, however, that, as she was destined to fill a far higher position in the designs of God than any other saint, by giving birth to his Son, these passages seem to express something of that pre-eminence, when applied to her; and to find a worthier fulfilment in her history than in that of any other saint.

It is unnecessary to do more than allude to the adaptations of the language of the Canticles to the Blessed Virgin, which abound in the writings of her panegyrists, and in the offices which the church has constructed in her honour. Their application to her history and her distinguished prerogatives imparts a sublime beauty to the mystic poetry of that book, and illustrates the intimate union of Jesus and Mary which the course of later events was fully to establish.

Such are the traces of Mary's advent to be observed in the ages of prophecy.

CHAPTER III.

MARY, IN HER CONCEPTION, IMMACULATE.

"It was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners."-HEB. vii. 26.

In pursuing these inquiries into the province of history, it will be necessary to bear in mind that the Blessed Virgin can never be separated from her Divine Son. When we think or speak of her, it is always as his Virgin-mother, as that highly-gifted creature whom God had from eternity predestinated to be the author of his Being in time, as the second Eve, of whose spotless substance he became man; no less really; because it was by a new and supernatural conception, than our race is descended from the first Eve. We think of her as the guardian of his infancy, the familiar companion of his youth and early manhood, the watcher beside the tree of his passion. The two ideas of Jesus and Mary are

inseparably united; to attempt to sever them would be to impair the perfection of each. They are not rivals in our affection; God forbid! But they are so unspeakably dearer to our hearts when enshrined there together, that we will not, we cannot otherwise regard them. The majesty of regard_them. God is so sweetly attempered and commended to us, under the form of an infant, reposing in the arms of his blessed Mother, and the weakness of our nature is so strengthened and exalted by its nearness to the Divinity, that we cherish the image of a union which combines in a manner before unknown, all that is fairest and best on earth and in heaven. Surely the salvation of God is near to them that fear him," says the inspired Psalmist, "that glory may dwell in our land. Mercy and truth meet each other, justice and peace have kissed, truth is sprung out of the earth, and justice hath looked down from heaven."— Ps. lxxxiv. 10-12.

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Such is the image that lives in the immortal works of Christian art, which fix our attention, and win our love, and melt our hearts, to-day, as irresistibly as they attracted the admiration, and elevated the devotion, of generations of men long since