CHAPTER IV.

MARY ON EARTH.

"He hath regarded the humility of his handmaid; for, behold, from henceforth, all generations shall call me Blessed. Because he that is mighty hath done great things to me; and Holy is his name.' "-LUKE i. 48, 49.

IN building up the superstructure of the Blessed Virgin's honour and dignity, its foundation has been laid, as will readily be allowed, in no merely superficial view of her history, still less has the argument been indebted to any attempt to engage the feelings on its side. It has proceeded, step by step, from the most ancient prophecy, coeval with the fall itself, through a train of reasoning, based upon known and undoubted doctrines of revelation. If there ever was an argument which might appear to sanction, and even to invite the heart to lend its assistance to the understanding, this is one. The truth which it establishes and fortifies is not so overpowering, so immeasurably above the reach of

human reason, as are many of the doctrines which faith receives and adores in silence. It is as beautiful as it is sublime: its majesty is winning and inspiring. Orators and poets have been created by its influence; it has imparted to painting and sculpture some of its own attractive and imperishable grace. When the heart is full it is not easy to bid the pen observe a calm and even pace; nevertheless it has seemed more becoming to confine the argument within the limits of sober reasoning, as well as more desirable to

condense within a tolerably narrow space the substance of proofs which would admit of much larger development and illustration in detail. To suggest a further train of thought is better than to run the risk of wearying by protracting it too long, or by treating it too artificially.

Nor can any one have failed to remark how much the argument has hitherto turned on the language of holy Scripture; how uniform and clear has been the light thrown upon the object of this inquiry from its inspired page. "Thy word, Ŏ Lord, is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path." The conclusion has been established, not by the "learned words of human

wisdom," but by comparing spiritual things with spiritual."-1 Cor. ii. 13.

Resuming, then, our inquiry at the point where we left it, and preparing to trace the history of Mary on earth, one remark is sufficiently obvious. If the first grace bestowed on her was, indeed, so transcendent as it appears to have been, what limit, but that of created capacity, can be set to the privileges and graces that followed in its train. "If the first fruits be holy, so is the lump; if the root be holy, so are the branches."--Rom. xi. 16.

And, as the crowning grace reserved for Mary was in itself infinite, namely, the intimate presence of the Son of God within her immaculate womb, as her son, in a manner such as could be in her alone of all created beings; and as he undoubtedly prepared her body and soul worthily to receive that grace; it follows that the accumulation of privileges heaped upon her, so to speak, by Almighty God, surpassed those which have been communicated to all the angels and saints together; in number; in extent; and in perfection.

Again, as she stands alone, between God and man, in virtue of the relation of her substance to the Divine Person of Jesus

Christ; and as it must be believed that she worthily filled that eminent position; she must possess richer and more abundant graces than the whole race which she represents.

Further, the redeemed are destined to fill the empty seats of Lucifer and his rebel angels; and by the co-operation of Mary the work of redemption was brought about; she therefore stands between God and the angelic host, who look up to her as the chief minister in the restoration of their diminished ranks. God did not choose one of themselves for this service; he chose Mary, and gave her gifts which he withheld from them. In a word, we may apply to her the language of St. Paul: "He that spared not his own Son," but gave him to be a Son to Mary, "hath he not with him given her all things."-Rom. viii. 32.

But if his gratuitous gifts to her were so bountiful and so various, what shall be said of those which she herself earned, by corresponding with the grace of God? His grace precedes merit; but it also imparts it to the good works performed in obedience to his holy will, by a soul united to him in charity. "I am the vine, you are the branches," says Christ, "he that abideth

in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit."-John xv. 5. And again,

66

Every branch in me that beareth fruit, my Father will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit."—Ib. viii. 2. The good and faithful servant traded with his Lord's five talents, and gained other five talents besides them, and was made ruler over ten cities. Those marvellous gifts, which we have admired in Mary, were the talents originally entrusted to her keeping; when she had doubled them, and received her great reward, who shall estimate the graces and the glory that were hers? Not only was every act of virtue that she performed meritorious; but as theologians teach, she acquired new merit every moment of her life, by the habitual intention in which she always lived, of corresponding with the actual graces received from God. When God called her to be a "fit minister" of his will, in the Incarnation of his Eternal Son, he began by creating her a perfectly sinless soul and body. She, therefore, entered on her course with none of the disadvantages which retard the progress of the saints, in their struggle against the remaining concupiscence of nature. All the efforts that it costs them to beat it down, and destroy it,