which Egypt is the type'. Yet this does not gainsay the belief in a more particular and immediate influence upon the idolatry of Egypt. Nor does it seem likely, that our Lord should have singled out that country without some special and immediate object, or that persons of such sanctity as our Lady and St. Joseph should have exercised no influence upon the people amongst whom they lived. Yet it is possible, that the place in which they sojourned may have been long after Christ's Ascension regarded by him with favourable eyes for his parents' sake, and that the wonderful doctors of the Trinity and Incarnation, Athanasius and Cyril, may have owed their lights and graces to her, who looked from heaven upon the country which had afforded a refuge in trouble, with eyes of affectionate recollection for the whole race of saints is full of natural affection". And as it is commonly believed, that the saints of the desert owed their existence to this visit, why should not Egypt's doctors also be indebted to it? Nay, who can say that Mary's intercession in consequence of that visit did not obtain for St. Eulogius the inspiration to pray for the conversion of England.

13. It may be useful to have suggested thoughts like these, even if they appear somewhat fanciful to some, because they tend to bring before the mind the influence Mary was gaining with Jesus day by

66

day. She had taken Divine Providence into Egypt: it was her own doing, though it was an inspired act. It is natural for mothers to feel an interest in a place where they have been sheltered with their infants in a time of danger, and to feel a sort of gratitude towards the very place. Gratitude," says Cicero, "is not only by itself a very great virtue, but the mother of all the other virtues. What is filial affection, but a grateful mind towards our parents? Who are good citizens, who well deserving of their country at home and abroad, but they who are mindful of their country's benefits to them? Who are holy, who observant of religious duties, but they who pay gratitude to the immortal gods, with the due honours, and with mindful soul? What pleasure is there in life, if you take friendships out of it, and what friendship again amongst the ungrateful? Which is there of us that has had a liberal education, before whose mind those who educated him, his masters and his teachers, yea and the voiceless spot itself in which he was brought up or taught, do not come with a grateful recollection? In my opinion, nothing is so inherent in human nature, as to feel a tie not only in kindness, but even in the very intimation of it: nothing so inhuman, so barbarous, so ferocious, as to give ground for being looked upon, I will not say as unworthy of kindness, but as outdone in it." Cicero was the writer who first led the impure unconverted Augustine to reflect: is there not something here

1

which may lead Englishmen to reflect? Is there not much which grace could transplant, or graft upon the stock of religion? Is that feeling towards the voiceless spot itself one we should be willing to sever from a dying friend, if we thought he was leaving earth for heaven? And if so, why should we take it away from the soul of Joseph, Mary, or Jesus, who has still his human nature, and what is proper to it?

CHAP. V.

THE DISCOVERY OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE, AFTER HE HAD BEEN LOST.

1. WE are capable of pain far more intense in kind and duration than any pleasure is, of which we are capable in this life. Yet the removal of pain is itself sometimes a great pleasure, in proportion to the intensity of that pain. If therefore we wish to form some idea of the happiness of Mary, on which the last of the joyful mysteries dwells, we must first endeavour to form some idea of her pain at the loss of Jesus. In order to enter into this, it is necessary to observe, that the possession of any goods, internal or external, differs from the present enjoyment of them. Causes intervene to prevent this, when that continues. For instance, sleep is necessary under the common dispensation of Providence, and it suspends the present enjoyment of our moral or intellectual faculties and acquirements. Temporary insanity, though only casual under this dispensation, does the same. Many pleasures, either directly or indirectly, do the same. It does not follow then that a person has not the faculties, because under the ordinary dispensation of Providence, he may at any particular moment not have the present enjoyment of them. What is true of the ordinary, is true of the extraordinary, dispensations of Providence. For instance, Christ may have had the beatific vision Butler, Serm. vi. on Compass. p. 87.

all his life, even if it were a matter of certainty that it was suspended on the cross. Mary may have had habitually a full insight into all her Son's doings, even if for some purpose in view she had not on this occasion the present enjoyment of that insight. Now it shall be taken for granted here, that this was the case, that the clear insight she had into her Son's counsels habitually, was for a while suspended. This preternatural darkness, here assumed, will itself constitute a great part of her sorrow.

2. The grief of St. Joseph would be another great source of sorrow to her; but before we consider this, let us endeavour to see if we can find out any reasons which (so to speak) will justify her Son for treating her in this manner. If he had made himself the Son of a human Mother, he was bound to honour not his Father only, but also his Mother. Something then ought to be said, to shew that the honouring of his Mother was incompatible with the honouring of his Father; how the two were incompatible, seeing he lived so many years with Mary without acting again in the same way, is certainly any thing but obvious. We may of course take it upon faith that all he did was right, if that satisfies us, or if we cannot after all produce a sensible account of the matter. To do this, something should be said to shew that he only availed himself of his superior wisdom to shew his Mother what eventually was a greater mark of reverence to her. If this something can be produced, our object will be gained, which is to shew, that even upon the protestant theory, that our Lady was only a good woman, still the Catholic claims for her can be substantiated. Again, reminding my Catholic reader then to be patient of so absurd a supposition, I will