before us he obeyed her, the probability or improbability of that fact could be settled by his former habits. Fit credibiliorum fides,' says St. Austin, 'ex incredibilioribus creditis.' Things more credible gain confirmation from things less credible already believed. If we believe that Almighty God filled a human soul with grace and truth by creating it in perfect union with himself, and also believe that this soul for thirty years subjected itself to a mere good woman, then there is nothing hard to believe in the supposition, that before the most solemn act of his life he consulted the authority he had gone by all along. If we believe moreover that this same person was very God, and that it was he who by his equality to the Father gave his Mother the authority she enjoyed, and that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance upon his part, then we shall be very slow in admitting, that on this solemn occasion he did not consult his Mother. Why should he who could inspire her will without destroying it, be thought foolish for obeying it? Why should he who had taken the form of a slave, just pretermit obedience when he was going to die like a slave? Why, when he had obeyed all along, not be obedient even to the death of the Cross? If you say he obeyed his Father's, that is, his own, divine will, how do you make him a slave? A slave is a person who has some human being for a master or mistress. The nature of a slave which he took seems to require such a mistress.

4. Of course it is easy to foresee, that the answer made to this will be drawn from certain passages in which our Lord seems to have emancipated himself from his Mother's yoke upon the commencement of his ministry: these passages have been

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already considered in the last chapter exegetically; but here they shall be considered morally, that is to say, a few remarks shall be made upon the temper of mind from which they seem to proceed. In the first place it should be remembered, that those who read the Scripture with a strong prepossession against the state of obedience, see the passages just alluded to through a coloured medium: they fancy they take an impression from them, while it is their own prepossessions which have really created in them that impression. This may be illustrated by another text: If thou mayest be free, says St. Paul, use it rather". The ancients, who lived among circumstances in which slavery was a normal state, understand by this, if you may be free, prefer slavery: follow Christ, who put on a slavish nature, and paid tribute as though not master of the world; you are not God, and may well be content to remain. in a state far less unbecoming to a creature's dignity, than was Christ's to a Creator's. Something of this sort was the received interpretation, in former times, of the Church. In modern times, when slavery is gone and freedom thought a fine thing, the words 'use it rather' are often taken to mean prefer liberty"? This is merely a specimen in a cognate matter to

shew, how with different prepossessions the same text may be wrested to opposite meanings. This text even Catholic interpreters explain to favour liberty. But if you come to less severe exactions of obedience, you will find protestants opposed to them also: thus the religious state of obedience is no friend of theirs, it is not even an acquaintance in many instances. Moreover, the obligation of children to obey their parents is much more strictly laid down by Catholic divines than by protestants, and is made to last through life. Hence the prejudices of the two run in counter directions, and the texts of Scripture, which the protestant would even wrest to favour liberty, seem to the protestant to be wrested by the Catholic, when he makes them favour obedience. The latter is unwilling to think so perfect an example would do any thing to emancipate himself from a state, which it is his own bounden duty to speak of with respect: the former is unwilling to hear any thing in favour of an interpretation which will support a doctrine which he hates, and which, if true, condemns him and his protestantism root and branch. Very few men judge by evidence only, and very many by antecedent probabilities, or what appear with their own prepossessions to be such. This being so with regard to Scripture, must likewise be so with regard to deductions made from it. To a monk under vows of obedience, the probability that Christ asked his Mother's leave before he went to suffer will be very great to a protestant it will be very small. A fair minded person will make allowance for the prepossessions of the two, and will acknowledge, that before you can settle which of the two is in the right upon this question in particular, you must

settle which of the two has the firmest grasp upon the religion of him who took upon him the form of a servant. Till that is settled, it will not be fair to condemn a pious opinion, merely because to people with certain prepossessions it appears impious.

5. It is possible also that it may be objected, that when Christ is spoken of as learning obedience by the things he suffered at Nazareth, you are adding to Scripture, which makes that statement about his Passion apparently, and not about his early years. Now I will candidly confess, that though the passage appears to me to imply a whole course of conduct, and not the single event of his Passion, yet that the generality of our divines understand it of his Passion chiefly. However, without discussing so important a text here, the use they make of this text is substantially the same as that here made of it. For they use it to shew, that Christ was capable of learning obedience experimentally, that is to say, of gaining habits from actions several times repeated. But the action of giving his will up to Mary's was several times repeated, repeated far more often than, during the comparatively short period of his Passion, the action of submitting his human to his divine will was. Consequently, it is

A. Lapide in loc. p. 871. 'Non quasi in passione demum didicerit obedientiæ virtutem aut acquisierit quam ante ignorabat; illam enim optime cognoscebat et callebat, tum per scientiam infusam in primo conceptionis suæ instanti, tum per experientiam triginta quatuor annorum et totius vitæ suæ: sed quia obedientiam hanc novo et exactiore modo expertus est in passione, &c.'

Lugo inclines to taking the passage with St. Chrysostome and Justiniani (in loc. p. 679. 2. A.) of the sacerdotal prayer made on the Cross, and not of the private prayer made in the garden. Disp. xxix. §. 2. fin. To me the words in the days of his flesh &c.' (though an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον) and ἀφ ̓ ὧν and reλewbeìs, all seem to imply a whole course of action.

not improper to apply the language of this passage, even if it is directly used of his Passion only, to his privations and submissiveness at Nazareth. For the text implies, that he was able to gain habits by acting often in one way.

6. Let us retire then again to Nazareth, and see what bearing his submission there has had upon his Passion, which we are now proceeding to consider. It will be found, that even if we think it ever so improbable that he did not go to suffer without begging his Mother's permission, still his sojourn at Nazareth bears most importantly upon his Mother's relation to his Passion. For, in the first place, her meditative mind could not have withheld itself from reflecting before his birth upon those manifold types and prophecies, which foreshadowed the great Sacrifice upon Calvary. Her yearly visits to Jerusalem after his birth, would have made her gaze with profound contemplation upon the paschal lamb offered there, and long for a minute explanation of the attendant ceremonies. Thus much must be conceded to a good woman, who meditated day and night upon the law. If we put out of sight all supernatural channels of communication, and all interior illuminations granted to her by her all-wise Child, still she had such abundant opportunities of questioning him by word of mouth, and ordering him to describe the details of his Passion, as no other person ever had. When all the Angels of God were worshipping him in that cottage, they might have listened with awe to the declarations the Child made to his Mother, and expected with eagerness her command to him to proceed in filling up the sketch of his Agony and Passion.

7. An imaginary instance will serve, as before, to