i UC-NRLF B 3 M75 ÔST IT ^ CONVERTED ^ / ..,..^ji£'.v, a^ «t>> i« t. ) . ^ iï h \ St. Joseph, Nahrvater Tesu Chn\fi ^/ ^-^t>f ^/ ^' THE lEII§'ff®IRY if i m §01 \Mi% JES1I8 iimi, FROM fflS INCARNATION UNTIL fflS ASCENSION, DENOTING AND ISCOEPOKATmO €\}i tDnrïis .nf tjie larrrh Ctrt frnm tjie ulgnte ALSO, l'Hïi ISEgfOIEY OF ^HH A(D^§ (DIF ^HM AIP®©!"!!^ CONNECTED, EXPI^AINED, AND BLENDED WITH REFLECTIONS TRAVàLATED FKOM TIIE FI!E>Cn Or FATHER FRANCIS DE LIGNY, OF TDE SOCIETT Or JESUS, %\ Sîirs. 3. InMirr. NEW YORK: D. k J. SADLIER & CO., 1G4 WILLIAM SlTtEET, liOSTON :— 123 FEUEKAL STREET. AN!) 179 NOTRE-DAME STREET, MONTR£(iL, C. E. 1853. Wi 1 Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1851, Br D. & J. Sadlier & Company, In the Clerk's OiEce of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. LOAN StACK 13 ■' -^^^ Il • i! TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. The first part of tliis work, viz., the " Life of Our Lord Jesas Christ," has been already published on the other side of the Atlantic ; but somehow the translation was not approved of by American read- ers, and I have endeavored to place before them a new version of a work so justly esteemed. In looking over the translation already made by a learned gentleman of Dublin, I very soon perceived that his great error lay in a too close adherence to the original, thereby ci'amping and constraining, to a certain extent, the English mean- ing. There is no denying that the translation is, in the main, a fiiithful one ; but it is in many instances too faithful to the French to Ije altogether true to the English, seeing that the genius of the I wo languages is so very, very different. If I have succeeded, even j)artially, in making this great work acceptable to the American public, I shall be well repaid for my labor. With respect to the second part, the " Lives of the Apostles," I am not aware that it has been as yet translated, and I feel happy to offer it to those who cannot enjoy it in the beauty of the original. I am fully conscious that my translation will give but a faint idea of the author's style, but I have the poor consolation of knowing that very few translations ever do. I have done it to the best of my ability ; and if it be not all that the reader coidd wish, surely it is better than having a work so rare and so valuable locked up in the recesses of a foreign language. I am only sorry that this most valuable production of the leai'ued and j)ious De Ligny has not 675 4 TRANSLATORS PREFACE. fallen into better hands; but as the task has devolved on me, I have endeavored to perform it in what I considered the most suita- ble manner — that is to say, without any of those meretricious orna- ments of style which might infringe on the chaste simplicity of the learned author. The Scriptural portions of the work, I have, of course, copied with the most scrupulous care from an approved ver- sion of the New Testament, and I trust they will be found correct. Montreal, August, 1851. L.._ PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. jNIany pious and enlightened persons have considered that a work like this might not be altogether useless ; and hence it is that its author has placed it before the public. He first undertook it with the sole idea that it was a good and suitable work for the leisure hours of a priest ; and even in occupying those hours, it was pro- ductive of some advantage to himself, so that he could not consider such time ill spent. But if this work may also serve to instruct the faithful, he believes it his duty not to withhold it from them. His idea is not a new one, and he has no desire to claim the merit of in- vention. There are in existence numberless concordances of the four Gospels, wherein the word of God and the word of man are in- terwoven, as in this work. Many, almost numberless, are the com- mentaries and reflections on the Gospels ; so that the present writer can lay claim to nothing peculiar, excepting only his style and his selections, together with some observations which he believed neces- sary, in order to explain certain obscure texts. Even for these he cannot venture to claim originality : he can only say that he has never seen them in any of the authors consulted by him. To these are added some moral reflections, which grew out of the subjects before him, and which appeared to the author as calculated to ex- cite and nourish piety. He has also endeavored to explain some of the evangelical dogmas. The nature of the work required that these explanations should be brief, and it was, moreover, necessary to make them clear and simple : it is for the I'cader to judge wheth- 6 PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION er lie lias succeeded in tliese points. Tliese explanatory notes are not intended for professed theologians. Far be it from the author's mind to think of giving instruction to those whom he considers as his masters. No ; they are solely intended for that numerous class who, in matters concerning religion, have no more than the limited knowledge usually obtained in what is called " a Christian educa- tion." They may also be found of some value to those ecclesiastics who have as yet made no very profound study of Scri^oture or the- ology, or to those who may have forgotten, in the multitude of theii' avocations, a portion of what they had in early life acquired. Many of these ex])lanations are directed against heretics, for it is always useful to know how they pervert the Scriptures in support of their errors, and the manner in which the Church cojifute§ them. Prot- estants in particular are frequently referred to, as . being more known to us, and coming in closer contact with us. But there is yet another reason — shall we venture to confess it? There are sometimes found among us Catholics (at least by profession) who advance in conversation the same opinions as they do ; and who, though not daring to maintain them as dogmas, at least propose them speculatively. This mode of speaking is seldom found in coun- tries where the leaven of Protestantism has not penetrated, which fact shows plainly the origin of the evil. Whether those who as- sume this tone believe or do not believe what they say — for it gen- erally happens that there is more of vanity than of conviction in these flippant remarks — yet every Catholic, who is truly attached to the faith of his fathers, will be very glad to have the means either of enlightening or confounding them, as the case may require. The authorities whom the author has followed in explaining the sacred text are, generally speaking, the Fathers of the Church, and the best authorized commentators. He emlwaces no particular system, and gives no opinion of his own on those questions ; he simply fol- PREFACE TO TOE FERST EDITION, Y lows the teaching and tradition of the Catholic Chui'ch. Whatever is at all opposed to that appears to him suspicious, and he therefore . scrupulously avoids it. He cannot hope that his work ■vrill be found free from errors, but he implores his readers to place them solely to the account of his limited inteUigeuce, and to rectify them by the same standard which has guided him in his work — the common teachinars of the Catholic Church. INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION There are few who have not wished, when reading over the New Testament, to have its contents arranged in one regular history, giving the Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the order of time, and disengaged from the numerous repetitions unavoidable in four different narratives. This was the intention with which Father De Ligny commenced his work, and there is no doubt that he has cai-ried it out with complete success. Taking for his basLs the His- tory of the Life of Jesus Clir-ist, he has compiled it from the text of the four Evangelists. In this new edition, all the Scriptural part has been marked by inverted commas, and the references are every- where given, so that the reader may at any time compare this nai-- rative with the Gospel history. iVlthough this History of tlie Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ forms a complete work in itself, yet we have thought it expedient to fol- low it up by a sutnmary of wJuxt is contained in the Acts of the Apostles. In order to render this edition still more complete, we have furnished it with an Analytical TaUe of Contents^ aiTauged with the utmost care and attention. Such a Table we considered necessary, in order to point out the various and important subjects treated of in the notes. There are now very few of the faithful who cannot provide them- selves with a work so useful, so precious. Its merit is universally recognized, and its reputation is daily increasing. It is, beyond all dijubt, the best concordance which vce. have of the four Gospels, as 10 INTRODUCTION TO THE SECOND FRENCH EDITION. well as the most faitliful and exact translation of them wliicli we have in our language {Fatlier De Ligny speahs, of course, of tlie French language'). " Father De Ligny's paraphrase has no interference with the di- vine oiiginal, and it is so written as to exclude all modern idioms or peculiarities of style which might detract from the dignity and severe simplicity of the ancient phraseology, of which the Scriptures are the most perfect model. Leaving the text in all its integrity, he has contrived to introduce short reflections, so skilfully construct- ed, that, without at all infringing on the sacred text, they serve, as it were, to fill up the interstices, and to preserve the thread of the history, correcting and arranging its valions incidents, so as to make one complete whole. Exj^lanations of the Word of God may he given by men, without at all compromising the dignity of the text. Finally, the work is enriched by critical notes, equally useful to the true loeliever, and to the skeptic or infidel : to the former for con- firming him in his faith, and to the latter for dissipating his doubts and convincing him of his error. " Another recommendation for this work is the very name of its author. Father De Ligny was a member of that illustrious society whose fall has been a grievous disaster to France, and whose mem- ory is still so fondly cherished.* He first appeared with success in the pulpits of the French caj^ital, and had even been appointed to preach at court, when the genius of destruction, which had been so long laboring to undermine all the religious orders, commenced with destroying the most useful as well as the most distinguished. Father * Happily, the fall of the Jesuits was but temporary, and their society has risen again, phœnix-like, from its OTrn ashes, to shed renewed light on the darkening countries of Eiu'ope. — (Translator.) INTKODUCTIOX TO TIIE SECOXD FKEXCH EDITION. 11 De Ligny then retired to Avignon, where he continued to exercise his rare talents for preaching. Ilis elocution had in it something very original, not without a certain degree of quaintness ; but it was so analogous to his character, that it excited more interest than the most studied oratory could ever produce, and gave added charms to hi^ discoui-se. Xor were his \'irtues at all inferior to his talents. He was distinguished by tliat modesty of demeanor and suavity of manner which are usually characteristic of the members of his order, and which serve to smooth do-mi the prejudices of worldlings, while they secure the respect due to religion. He preached through all the southern provinces of France, and everywhere addressed crowd- ed audiences, till the very close of his life. He died at A^^gnon in 1788, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, happy in being taken hence on the very eve of the dread catastrophe, and in having heard but the distant growling of that storm which soon after burst over the fail" fields of France. He died Mith only a presentiment of the evil to come." — (M. De Boulogxe.) It may be well to mention here that the learned and pious author of this work was born at Amiens, on the -Ith of May, 1709, and en- tered the Society of Jesus while yet very young. He was for some time Professor of Humanities in certain of the colleges belonging to his order ; but having shown very decided talents for the pulpit, he in his more advanced years devoted himself to tlic holy office of preaching the ^Yord. While stationed at A^^gnon, Father De Ligny published, under his own superintendence, the first edition of this work, undoubtedly the greatest of all his productions. He had previously published at Paris, in 1759, "The Life of Ferdinand, King of Castile and Leon." In his latter years he composed " Tlie History of thé Acts of the Apostles," but it was not published till after his death. Q^jl_|crM.^" • ABB THE HISTORY ■Q ? OF THE LIFE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, FBOM fflS IÎÎCAKÎÎATIOÎI TO HIS ASCENSION. PART I. FROM TIIE INCARNATION OF THE WORD UNTIL TIIE CURE OP THE MAN BORN BUND. CHAPTER I. PEEFACE OF SAINT LUKE.^ETEKNAL GENERATION OF THE WOED AND KB INCARNA- TION. ^TESTIUONT RENDERED TO HTM KY SAINT JOHN THE BAPTIST. THE HOLY PRECURSOR ANNOtTNCED AND PROMISED. (a) "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God." (h) " Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a narration of the things that have been accomplished among us, ac- cording as they have delivered them unto us who from the begin- ning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word ; it seemed good to me also, having diligently attained to all things from the begin- ning, to write to thee in order, most excellent Tlieophilus, that thou mayest know the verity of those words in which thou hast been in- structed." Thus speaks Saint Luke; and Saint JMark, the other disciple, might have used the same language. Nay, both evangelists could have said what, in pomt of fact, Saint John hits declared : (c) " That which was from the beginning, which avc have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and (a) St. Mark, i. 1. (J) St. Luke, i. 1. (c) I. St. John, i. 1, 3. 14 THE niSTOKY OF THE LIEE [part I. our Lands liave liandlecl, of the Word of life We declare unto j'ou ; tliat you also may Lave fellowship witL us, and our fellowship maybe with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ." Viz.: whilst some recount what they actually saw, others relate what they heard from those who had ^àewed the facts ; the first class of evangelists being intelligent witnesses, and the latter attentive hearers, all were faithful historians. The coincidences of their statements are so per- fect, that no inconsistency can i)0ssibly be detected, and there is just enough of variation in the details to rebut the slightest presumption of collusion or conspiracy. Through all these minute difierences we may recognize the organs of the same sj^irit, just as in the varieties of family features we acknowledge the ofispring of the same father. We shall now enter on their narrative, by stating what was before the origin of time, this Eternal Word, whose temporal life is the sub- ject of this History. («) " In the beginning was (1) the Word:~(3), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (3) ; the same was in the begin- ning with God (4). All things were made by him (5);- and with- out him was made nothing that was made. (a) St. John, i. 1-18. (1) The word of the Father ; the' interior expression of his intelligence ; the eternal and infinite prodiiction of his infinite knowledge. The term of this knowledge is a divine per- son distinct from the di™e person which produces it. If undoubtedly this is a great m)-»- tcry, may we not add that it is the only mysteiy here ? For that this person must be consubstantial and coetemal with his principle, is as evident as that the knowledge, rea- son, iuid wisdom of the Godhead cannot be of any other substance or of shorter duration itian God himself. We must needs say the same of tlie Holy Ghost, who is the substan- ti:il love of the Father and the Son. -(•2) When every object which had a beginning began its existence, the Word was al- ready : hence he is without beginning ; hence he is eternal. (3) Skeptics might perhaps cavil at the other expressions in this verse which declare ihe divinity of the Wijrd, but this proposition narrows them explicitly to the sense of di- \ inity strictly speaking ; for is it possible to say more precisely that the Word was God, tlian bv saying the Word was Ood ? (4) This resiunption represents, if we may presume to use such a fomi of expression, the situation of the Word during that eternity which preceded creation. He dwelt shroud- ed in the bosom of his Father: as yet he had not been produced, or, as we might say, brought forward to view ;'lie was displayed by the creation and incarnation. This may be considered as an abstract of what the Evangelist states and is going to state concern- ing him. (û) God made all Ihings by his word, since lie created them by his intelligence ; hence i CIIAP. I.] OF OUR XOED JESUS CHKIST. 15 " In him was life (6), and the life was the light of men (7). The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (8). There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. The icord was the true light which en- lighteneth every man that cometh into this world." " He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name, who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (9). Ajsd the word was made flesh (10). we say (and in as strict a sense of the Word as of the Father) that all things were made by liim. The Arians concluded from this that the Son was inferior to the Father, since he acted in the subordinate character of his instrument at the creation. Yet the intelU- gence which actuates was never denominated an insti-ument ; and supposing the denomi- nation were correct, we must admit that such an instrument should be coequal to his em- ployer. For who ever advanced or thought tliat an intelligent being, no matter what that miglit be, was greater than his own intelligence, or somewhat less than himself ? (6) He was the author and the meritorious cause of the life of grace to bo followed by an eternal Ufe of gloiy. This meaning explains the passage of Saint John, by Saint John himself, who says. Epistle I. John, v. 11, "God has given to us elefnftl life, and this life is in his Son." Here, alluding to the Son, he says, "In him was life." Both es- pressions convey ob\nously the same meaning. (7) The Word gave life to men by iiTadiating their souls, and that light refeiTcd to hi're is the light of faith, and not, as many say, the natural light of reason. This is de- Jucible from many reasons. The following is conclusive : The Evangelist speaks here of that light to which he is just going to state that Saint John the Baptist gave testimony. Now, the direct object of Saint John the Baptist's testimony was not Jesus Chiist as author of the light of reason, but Jesus Christ as author of the Christian faith and evan- gelical law. (8) Mankind were immersed in the darkness of ignorance and error. They could not discern the light, because they did not wish to discern it. Those who bandage their own eyes cannot see the light of day. Ought they, therefore, to blame the sun ? (0) Here the Evangelist speaks simultaneously of the incarnation of the word, and the spiritual birth of the children of God, as the fii-st is the meritorious cause, and also the e^^dence of the latter. At least it is a further argument, inasmuch iis it is more difficult to believe that the word of God was made flesh, than that flesh and blood could become the adopted child of God.' (1 0) That is to say, that he was made man. Tlie evangelist names the part for the whole ; and that, too, the mast despicable part, to impress us more deeply with the prodigious 16 THE HISTORY OF THE LITE [part I. " He dwelt among us full of grace and truth ; and we have seen his glory (11), the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father. " John beareth witness of him, and crieth out, saying : This was he of whom I spoke, he that shall come after me is preferred before me, because he was before me. Of his fulness we all have receiv- ed (12), and grace (13) for grace. For the law was given by Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." Let none be surprised at our descanting on matters rising so high above the sphere of human understanding. They may be heard with astonishment, but our testimony is not the less admissible. "No man, it is trm^ hath seen God; but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father,, he hath 'declared him to vs." The most ob^^ious characteristics should designate that man who was commissioned to point out first to the world the incarnate word. Nothing else could give irresistible weight to his testimony. God provided for this emergency, and we shall now see that at the out- humiliation of the Son of God. There is great energy in the juxtaposition of the two terms the word was made Jîesh. Hence, some of the earlier heretics took occasion to say that the word merely assumed the flesh, which he animated as its soul. Jesus Christ anticipated them by saying, " Mi/ soul is troubled ; my soul is sorrowful unto death ; Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." Supposing even that he had not spoken thus, he is styled man more than once in Scripture, which is quite enough to clear up all doubts of hU having assumed a rational soul. A human body without a soul would no more be a man than a tree is ; and if its soul was irrational, such an object would differ in figure only from the brute. This observation is directed against the heretic AppoUo- narius, who attributed mere sensation, or a sensitive soul, to Jesus Chiist, and not a ra- tional soul. It would be an endless task to review all the impious absiu-dities and fanci- ful \Tsions which the heretics ran into with reference to the Incamation. We evince our faith and good sense by thoroughly acquiescing in all that it has pleased God to reveal t "•■ l):iv.- "ivi'ii to ilii> ii-rni ill lli.' jirrci'diiiL^ notes. 32 TUE HISTORY OF TUE LIFE FrART I. lieve ke was Lorn of a vir2:iu can doubt for one moment but that lie was all that the Prophets announced he was to have been, all that the Evangelists assure us, all that he has declared of himself. CHAPTER IV. ADORATION OF THE MAGI. PUEIFICATION. FLIGUT INTO EGYPT. MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS. RETURN TO NAZARETH. JESUS LOST AND FOUND IN THE TEMPLE. Another sign, just as plainly foretold, was to manifest him to the Gentiles ; and this sign, whether it appeared at the moment of his birth, or a little before, immediately produced its effect. For, (a) " When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of King Herod, behold there came wise men (1) from the East (2) to (a) St. Matthew, ii. 1-12. (1) Wc find the tenn Magi used by the ancient authors to signify, 1. Magicians and enchanters ; 2. The inhabitants of a certain district of Arabia which was called Magodie ; S.'Wisfe men and philosophers of Pei-sia, who perhaps were called Magi because there was a good deal of astronomy mixed up with their philosophy, and the simplicity of the ancients identified astronomy with the magic art. Tlie nimiber of the Magi who came to adore the Saviour is not recorded. The tradi- tionary mimber of three, which is usually fixed upon, seems to be grounded upon the number of presents which they offered. Tiieir royalty is not acknowledged by some interpreters. Being commonly credited, the antiguity of the idea entitles it to respect. Yet we must not be undei-stood to mean I hat they were great and powerful. We know that there -are still several countries v'here the title King is conferred on petty potentates, whose sovereign jurisdiction only extends over two or three boroughs. (2) According' to some, they came from Persia, which is directly east of Palestine. The name of Magi helps to support this \'iew of the case, which probably would have prevailed, if the distance of nearly five hundred leagues from Persia to Judea did not present a difficulty highly embarrassing ■ and unanswerable to any one who adopts the generally received idea that the Magi arrived at Bethlehem on the thirteenth day after the birtli of the Saviour. The knowledge of stars which they are supposed to have possess- ed, induced others to say that they came from Chaldea, a country fertile in astronomers, sit- uate northeast of Judea. Finallv, the quality of the presents they carried has gi\-en rise to CHAP. rv.~\ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 33 Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star (3) in the East, and are come to adore him. King Herod hearing this, was troubled, and all Jerusalem Avith him; and assembling together all the chief priests and the scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. They said to him, In Bethlehem of Juda ; for so it is written by the prophet : And thou, Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the least among the piinces of Juda; for out of thee shall come forth the captain that shall rule my people Israel. Then^jlerod, privately calling the wise men, learned diligently of them tft time of the star which appeared to them, and sending them into Bethle- hem, said : Go (-4), and diligently inquire after the child, and when you have found him bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him. Having heard the king, they went their way," the opinion of their having come from Arabia, which is placed southeast of Judea, from which it is not rery far distant ; and this opinion is generally adopted. (3) We have nothing but conjecture as to the nature of the star which appeared to Iheni, in what part of the heavens they descried it, and the manner in which their course was thereby directed. Here are the most probable' which have been made. This was not a real star, but a meteor more brilliant than stars usually are, inasmuch as its lustre was not eclipsed by the brightness of daylight. They saw the star over Judea ; for how could it have made them think of the birth of a new King of the Jews, had they seen it over the country which they inhabited ; and could the prophec}' which said, a star shall be born of Jacob, be applicable to a star which may have suddenly arben over Arabia? Placed over Judea, this star, by its position alone, furnished them with a guide ; nor was it necessary to see it set in motion to ascertain whither they should direct their steps. Once arrived at Jerusalem, they no longer saw the star. If it were, as has been said, in order to test their faith that God made the star disappear, his principal intention was to disclose to the Jews, by means of the Magi, ^he Messiah's birth, and to the Magi, by means of the Jews, the spot where the Messiah should be born, and the accordance of the prophecies with the miraculous sign which had attracted them. (4) Herod reasoned thus : should the inquiry be made in my name and by my people, mistnist will make them conceal the child, whereas they will be all eagerness to find out the child for these good-natiu-ed East-men, of whom no one has the slightest diffi- dence. This wiis subtle reasoning ; but the man did not reason when he ordered the murder of the innocents. For this murder was useless if the Messiah were not bom ; and if the Me.s.-siah were bom, God, who had promised him to the world, could not allow him to be enveloped in the general massacre. AVlien Herod was subtle, God made a mockery of his subtlety; when he was irrational, God allowed him to commit, without reaping any fruit to himself, a crime wliich has rendered him the execration of all ages. Ye wise and mighty of the world, how foolish, how weak arc ye when you dare to cross the designs of the Deity ! 3 34 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [I without distrust, and disposed to satisfy him ; and " behold the star which they had seen in the East went before them until it came and stood over where the child was. Seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and entering into the house (5), they found the child with Mary his mother (G), and falling down, they adored (7) him." Afterivards " opening their treasures, they offer- ed him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh (8), and having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their country." That prince awaited thwr return ; and since he reckoned upon them, it seems that he made no other inquiries («), " when, after the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses (9), were (a) St. Luke, ii. 22-32. (5) The majority of the old ■nriters affirm that this was in the stable of Bethlehem; others think Maiy had quitted a by-place so inconvenient, and had taken another lodg- ing. The tnith is not know-n ; but if we confine ourselves to the text, we will find it difficult to credit that what is called simply the house could have been a stable. (6) Joseph is not named, which gives ground to the presumption of Ms absence ; for when the shepherds came to the manger, and on the other occasions when Joseph was present, the Evangelists make mention of liim. Those who are anxious to give a reason for every thing, say that God pemiitted his absence, lest the Magi might fancy him the father of Jesus Christ. This idea was utterly independent of his presence or absence, and must still have been prevalent m the minds of the Magi, had not God revealed to them that the cliUd whom they adored was the son of a vii-gin. (7) Scripture frequently employs this temi to signify the homage rendered to kings or personages for whom we have a high respect. In this passage the term is more com- monly taken in the sense of adoration properly speaking, because there is veiy little doubt but the Magi knew by a supematiu-al light the divinity of Jesus Christ. (8) These presents were mysterious. By gold, they recognized the royalty of Jesus Christ ; by incense, his divinity ; and by myiTh, which was used in embalming bodies, his humanity in suffering and mortal flesh. We shall imitate them, said a holy father, by offering to God the gold of charity, the incense of prayer, and the mjTrh of mortifi- cation. These were our first fruits, and the vocation of the Gentiles commenced by them. Hence the unusual joy with which we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. (0) Here we should notice two distinct laws — one, which obliged those who had borne children to come and be purified at the temple after a certain number of days ; the other, which presciibed the offering of every first-born male to the Lord. It may be asked, whether both these laws regard Jesus Christ and Mar}' ? Jesus Christ, who is God, is above eveiy law. Yet, having voluntarily submitted liimself to the observation of the Mosaic law, he could not, as he was the first-born, fail in accomplishing the law referring / c^- 'i-^^ /■■■ CHAP. I\-.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 35 accomplished, she carried Jesus to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, that every male open- ing the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacri- fice, as it is written in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle-doves, or two pigeons. At iliis time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. This man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was in him : he had even received an answer from the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came by the Spiiit into the temple ; and when his parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for hira according to the custom of the law (10), he took" him into his arras, and blessed God, and said : Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace, because my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people: a light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel." Thus we see literally accomplished in this holy old man that ex- pression of the Psalmist: (»)-"I will fill him with length of days, and I will show him the salvation." But the favor surpassed the promise : for, not content with allowing him to see, the Lord j^ermit- ted him to clasp his Saviour in his arms ; and besides the consola- tion of Israel which he expected, he was moreover gladdened by the knowledge of the vocation of the Gentiles, and that salvation was thrown open to all people — a truth which was pointed out by all the prophets, but which was then scarcely known, and which the Apostles themselves did not entirely understand until some time after the descent of the Holy Ghost. (a) Psalms, xc. 16. to this qualification. The law of purification had for its object the expiation of the legal impurity which women contracted in consequence of their child-bearing. Mar)', whose divine parturition had been purer than the sunbeam, w;is not in the case contemplated by the law ; still her perfect puritj- was an unknown mystery, and the time was not yet come to reveal it. Wherefore she could not dispense herself from the common obliga- tion, without causing herself to be regarded as a prevaricator, that is to say, without giv- ing scandal. Thenceforth did it not become an obligation on charitable grounds ? (lOJThat is to say, offer him to the Lord, and redeem him aftenvards, by giving five shekels of silver, as Ls marked out in the 18th chapter of the book of Numbers; for the offering of the lamb or of the turtles was only for the purification of the mother. 36 THE HISTOEY OP THE LIFE [PAKT I. " His father and mother were wondering at those things which were spoken concerning him. Simeon blessed them" both. But en- lightened as he was on the difference he should make between her who was really the mother, and him who, merely in public opinion, was the father, he said, speaking only to Mary, his mother : {a) " Be- hold, this child is set for the ruin and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted (11). And thy own soul," he adds to her, " a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed." He also pi-ophesied the passion of the Saviour. God wished that this awful futurity should be ever present to the mind of Mary dur- ing the entire course of her Son's life. The object was to prepare her for the catastrophe, and also to temper the joy of possessing such a treasure. , Had this joy been utterly unalloyed, she would not have acquired sufficient merit; her consent to the sa-crifice of her son would only have been, like that of Abraham, the merit of one day, had she not, by anticipating the intelligence, been fui-nished with an occasion to make that sacrifice qyery day of her life, nay, per- haps at every moment of the days and years which preceded the event. (F) " The Lord saith : In the last days I will pour out of my spirit ujjon all flesh, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy." This prediction, which was entirely accomplished after the descent of the Holy Ghost, began from this day to be verified. God included both sexes in the glorious testimony which he designed should be rendered to his son. With the holy old man Simeon he associated (c) " a prophetess called Anna. She was the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser. She was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Coming in at the same hour, she gave praise to the Lord, and spoke (a) St. Liike, ii. 33-35. (6) Acts, ii. 17. (c) St. Luke, ii. 36-39. (11) Jesus Christ always had true and false disciples. In the calm of peace it is hardly possible to distinguish between them, but the flail of persecution separates in a sensible manner the ffrain from the chaff. CHAP. IV.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHEIST. 37 of liim to all that looked for the redemption of Israel (12). Final- ly, when Joseph and Mary had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazai-eth." Scarcely had they arrived there (13), when (a) "an an^el of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph (14), saying : Arise, take the child and his mother, fly into Egypt, and be there until I shall tell thee : for it will come to pass that Herod will seek the child to destroy him. Joseph arose, and took the child and his mother by night (15), and retired into Egypt, and (16) he was there until the death of (a) St. Matthew, ii. 13-23. (12) In a city so large and so populous as Jei-usalem, at a period when those who were in charge of police regulations were neither aa intelligent as at present in every matter which concerned government, nor apparently as exact in the repoits which they made, it was possible, nay, very probable, that Herod knew nothing whatever of what had occurred at the temple, or that he did not receive the information until the holy family had already departed for Nazareth, whilst he thought them returned to Bethle- hem. What fortifies this conjecture is the certainty that Herod only ascertained from the Magi the birth of the Saviour, although bniited about with such notoriety at Beth- lehem and all the surrounding country. This remark helps to make us comprehend how it is that the purification is found placed between the adoration of the Magi and the flight into Egvpt, and goes to support the common opinion, which must not be departed from except when we are coerced by evident reasons. (13) According to this arrangement, we should admit that the angel appeared to Jo- soph at Nazareth, and there gave him the order to fly into Egypt. Still the recital of Saint Matthew leads us naturally to believe that this apparition took place at Bethlehem. This raises a very considerable difliculty, but not greater than those which are met in the diflerent systems imagined by the interpreters. We hare hazarded one, which shall ap- pear in the note on the return of Saint Joseph from Egypt to Nazareth. (14) The revelation w;is made to Joseph. Joseph orders and directs the journey. This was so because God had established him head of the family : authority is attached to station, not to science and sanctity, wliich were far superior in Jesus and in Mary. (15) The conduct pursued by Saint Joseph in this circumstance has ever been regard- ed the model of a perfect obedience. His was simple, and without reasoning. He did not allege that, in order to secure his son from the fury of Herod, God had an infinity of means less painful to the child, to tliC mother, and to himself His obedience was prompt, and without reluctance : having had notice at night, he did not delay liis de parture until the light of morning began to break. Generous and full of confidence in Providence, he starts without preparation or provisions. H' was poor in earthlv goods, yet, possessing Jesus and Mary, how rich ! (IC) We do not exactly know what time Jesus Christ pas.sed in Egypt. Following the most authorized calculations, he cannot possibly have dwelt there less than four 38 THE IIISTÔKY OF THE LIFE [pART I. Herod ; that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the proj^het, saying: Out of Egypt (17) have I called my son. Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the wise men, was exceeding angry ; and sending, killed all the men-children that were in Beth- lehem, and in all the borders thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was sjDoken by Jeremias the prophet, saying : A voice in Rama was heard, lamentation, and great mourning : Rachel bewailing her children, and would not be com- forted, because they are not. When Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in sleep to Joseph in Egypt, saying: Arise, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for they are dead that sought the life of the child. He arose, took the child, and came into the laud of Israel. But, hearing that Archelaus reigned in Judea, in the room of Herod his father, he was afraid to go thither ; and being wai'ned in sleep, retired into the quarters of Galilee, and dwelt in a city called Nazareth (18) : yearsnor more than seven. We must regard as apocryphal the statements of miracles •wrought there by liim. One alone is founded on a tradition rendered respectable by its antiquity. Yet there is no clear evidence of this tradition resting upon any historical monument ; and it may, indeed, have no other foundation than this prophecy of Isaiah, which several interpreters have thought applicable to other times and other events : The Lord shall mount upon a slight cloud, and he shall enter into Egypt, and the idols of Egypt shall be shaken before his face. (17) These words are read in Osec, chap, ii., v. 1. The prophet spoke of the depart- ure from Egypt, when God broke the fetters of his people, whom he here calls his son, to mark how much dearer to him this was than all other people. The name of son is so inapplicable to this people, and so very apphcable to Jesus Christ, that we plainly see that this text can be applied to Jesus Christ alone, in its natural and literal meaning. The entire ancient Testament is figiu-ative of the new. What was greater in the fii-st than the captivity of the people of God in Egypt, and their miraculous delivery? Wliat more apparently inconsiderable in the life of Jesus Christ than the particular spot wliither he retires to screen himself from the pursuit of Herod ? Still the first was merely a fig- lu-e of the second. On the other side, what more interesting in the life of Jesus Christ than his passion, and every thing connected with the same ? and in the eating of the Pascal lamb, what less considerable than the prohibition of breaking the bones ? Yet this observance, so trifling if considered by itself alone, was prophetic and figurative of one of the principal circumstances of our Saviour's passion. (18) Should not Joseph, of his own accord, and without admonition from the angel, have returned back to Nazareth, supposing be had left this city to go into Egypt ? He had there his house, his furniture, with all the implements of his trade, which he miglit CHAP. IV.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 39 that it might be fullilled which was said by the pi'ophets : He shall be called a Xazarite." (a) " Meantime the child full of wisdom grew and waxed strong, and the grace of God was in him. His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the solemn day of the pasch. And when he was twelve years old, they going up unto Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, having fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem, and his parents knew it not. Think- ing that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintances ; not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem seeking him. After three days they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. Seeing him they wondered, and his mother said to him : Son, why hast thou done so to us ? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. (a) St. Luke, ii. 40-52. expect to find there. Or if Joseph were to have established himself elsewhere than at Nazareth, where else could that be tlian at Bethlehem, whence he originated, and where he might presume that God, who made his son be there bom, should wish him to be there educated ; the more so, inasmuch as the birth of the Messiah at Bethlehem, which would be better known if he continued to dwell tliere, was one of the marks that should serve to make him known. This obsenation led us to fancy an an-angement diftering from what has just been seen. After the purification, which must be placed before the Epiphany, .Joseph returns with Mary and the infant to Nazareth, as stated by Saint Luke ; but he only returns there to settle his alTaii-s, and to have his effects brought to Bethle- •hem, where he was going to establish himself and his family. Tlie Magi amve, and find at Bethlehem the infant and his mother ; not a few days, but several months after his birth, a.s many interpreters have thought. For it struck them, that the order given by Herod, to kill all male children in Bethlehem and the environs, _/Vo7ft two years old arid under, ac- cording/ to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men, could not be other- wise explained. Tlius everj' thing is arranged, and all harmonized. Tlie purification took place after the forty days prescribed by the law of Moses ; the holy family return immedi- ately to Nazareth, conformably to Saint Luke's recital, and at Bethlehem, as Saint Mat- thew states, directlv after the departure of the Miigi, Joseph receives orders to fly into Egypt. For this \iew, the supposition of the establishment of the holy family at Bethle- hem is quite enough — a supposition the more likely, inasmuch as Joseph, on his return from Eg%'pt, would naturally, and of his own accord, return to the spot where he w;\s established before his departure. Yet as all this is only conjecture, I did not think it a sufficient reason to change the common arrangement. 40 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. How is it that you sought me ? said lie to them ; did you not know that I must be about my Father's business (19) ? And they under- stood not the word that he spoke unto them. He then went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them (20). As to his mother^ she kept all these words in her heart (21). And J e- sus advanced in wisdom and age and grace with God and man (22)." CHAPTER V. MANIFESTATION OF JOHN THE BAPTIST AND mS PEEACHING. BAPTISM OF JESDS CUBIST.- — ^FASTING AND TEMPTATION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE DESERT. TESTIMO- NY OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. ANDREW AND PETER CALLED FOR THE FIRST TIME. VOCATION OF PHILIP AND NATHAJilEL. Jesus thus dwelt concealed until nearly his thirtieth year. His precursor being six months older than he, might have completed that term. We have seen that John, from his infancy, inhabited the desert, whither divine inspiration had conducted him. Des- tined for a ministry the most sublime to which mortal man had yet been called, God disposed him for it by retirement and austerity of (19) The will of the Heavenly Father should be prefened'to all human considerations and to all the ties of blood. The apparent rigor which Jesus Christ here displays might be designed to impress us with this great lesson. If to Mary a subject of mortification, she was well indemnified for this moment by thirty years of the most tender and sub- missive respect. (20) These words comprise the history of thirty years of the most precious of all lives. Rejoice, ye humble who cherish obscurity, and exult in your lowliness. (21) Mary did not at first conceive his meaning, but she treasured up the saying in her memory. It is written tliat she kept all these words in her heart : undoubtedly she succeeded in getting at their meaning. She was led to understand them by meditation ; by what other means can we venture to hope for proper understanding ? (22) All the treasures of grace, as well as those of wisdom, and science, were sluit up in Jesus Christ, so as to be concealed. As he advanced in years he disclosed them in a way proportioned to the age he attained. The indications of them he gave at twenty years of age were, therefore, as different from those he evinced at twelve years of age, as the difference which exists between both these ages. The saying here, he advanced in zvisdom and age, conveys both these meanings. CHAP, v.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 41 life, (o) " He had liis garment of camel's hair, a leathern girdle about his loins, and his meat was locusts (1) and wild honey." Thus he awaited, and no doubt he hastened by his aspirations the day of his manifestation, which was to be, as it were, the dawn of the great luminary that was about to enlighten the -world. This moment so longed after arrived, and whilst heaven and earth were in expecta- tion of the wondei-3 which God was going to bring about, at last (b) " in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Gali- lee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high pnests Annas and Caiphas (2), the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert, (c) as it is written in Isaias the prophet : I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee. John commenced^ therefore^ in the desert of Ju- dea, and id') he came into all the country about the Jordan bap- tizing (3) and preaching the baptism {è) of penance for the remis, sion of sins, saying : Do penance ; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (4). For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, say- ing : A voice (shall he heard of one crying in the wilderness : (/) Pre- (a) St. Matthew, iii. 4. {d) St. Luke, iii. 3. (6) St. Luke, iii. 1, 2. \e) St. Mark, i. 4 ; St. Matt. iii. 2, 3. (c) St. Mark, i. 2-4. (/) St. Luke, iii. 3, 5, G. (1) Pliny and other ancient authors speak of a species of locusts -n-hich the lower or- ders among Eastern nations used for food. (2) Annas and Caiphas his son-in-law exercised by turns the sovereign pontificate, each during one year, by an agreement seemingly approved of by the Romans, who at that time had the control of every thing in Judea. This explanation is confinned by the expression of Saint John when speaking of Caiphas, who was the high j'riesl of that year, ch. xviii. ver. 13. (3) The baptism of John was a religious ceremonv by which a profession of penance was embraced. It did not confer the remission of sins ; but disposed towards the re- mission by penance which should ensue, and which became the next disposition to the baptism of Jesus Christ, in which alone is to be found the remission of sins. John's bap- tism preceded penance ; the baptism of Je-sus Christ followed penance. Do penance, and be baptized every one of you — Peter, Acts ii. 38. The first, properlj' speaking, belonged neither to the ancient law nor the new law ; a medium between both ; this baptism par- ticipated of both one and the other, -as twilight participates of both day and night. (4) Heaven, closed until this hour, is now to be thrown open. Saint John begins by disabusing the Jews of the prejudice about a temporal kingdom. 42 THE HISTOBY OF THE LIFE [PART I. pare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths (5). Every valley shall be filled, every mountain and hill shall be brought low, the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain ; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." When this first preaching was noised about, the j^eople thronged in crowds ; («) " then went out (5) to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan, and were baptized by him in the (c) Jordan, confessing their sins. He said to the multitudes, and many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism with tJie people : Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to. flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth, therefore, fruit worthy of penance, and think not to say within yourselves : We have Abraham for our father ; for, I tell you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham (6). The axe is now laid to the root of the trees ; every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down and cast into the fire. (<^) And the peojîle asked him : What then shall we do ? He, answering, said to them : Let he that hath two coats give to him that hath none, and he that hath meat, let him do in like manner (Y). Publicans also came to be baptized, and said to him: Master, what shall we do? Do nothing more than that which is appointed you, said he to them (8). Soldiers also asked him : And what shall we do ? He said to them : Do violence to no man, neither calumniate any man, and be content with your pay." Yet as the people were of opinion, "and all were thinking in (a) St. Matthew, iii. 5, 6. (c) St. Matthew, iii. 7-10. (6) St. Luke, iii. 7. {d) St. Luke, iii. 10-16. (5) A metaphorical expression, taken from the custom of levelling and even decorating the roads over which kings were to pass. (6) The true children of Abraham are the imitators and inheritors of his faith, and these God could produce from other sources. The vocation of the Gentiles is insinuated by these words. (7) Each profession lias its particular duties ; almsgiving is a luiiversal precept obliga- toi-y on all who can fulfil it. (.8) He does not mean to say this is enough for salvation ; but he spoke with refer- ence to the profession of those who asked advice. Moreover, Saint John might think they would easily abstain from other sins, if they abstained from the one to which they were most subject. CHAP, v.] OF OUR LORD JESPS CHRIST. 43 their hearts of John, that perhaps he might be the Christ, John ((/) said to all : I indeed baptize you in water unto peuance (9), but he that shall come after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear." No, said he, impressed with the great- ness of him whose arrival he announced — no, (i) " the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to loose ; he shall (c) baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire (10). Whose fan is in his hand ; he will purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he (d) will burn with unquenchable fire. And exhorting, he preached many other things to the people." (e) " He that knew no sin, for us he hath made sin :" having taken upon himself the entire- debt, Jesus was willing to mingle in the sin- ful throng, and enter along viith. them into the career of penance. (/) " He came in those days from Xazareth of Galilee unto John, , to be baptized by him in the Jordan. But John stayed him, say- ing, I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me ! Jesus answered to him: Suffer it to be so (^) now, for so it becometh us to fulfil all justice. Then he suffered him (11), and Jesus was bap- tized by John in the Jordan. And forthwith coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit as a dove descend- ing, and remaining on him, and there came a voice from heaven tchich .said: Thou art my beloved Son (12), in thee I am well pleased." We have already said that (A) " Jesus was" then " be- (a) St. Matthew, iii. 11. (e) II. Corinthians, v. 21. (6) St. Mark, i. 7. - (/) St. Mark, i. 9 ; St. Mattliew, iii. 13. (c) St. Matthew, iii. 11, 12. (y) St. Mark, i. 9, 10, 11 ; St. Luke, iii. (rf) St. Luke, iii. 17. 21, 22 ; St. Matthew, iii. 16. (A) St. Luke, iii. 23. (9) An inordinate attachment to a preacher or to a spiritual director has been more than once an occasion of error and of heresy. (10) Tliis is the fire which descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, the same by which the Holy Ghost continues to purify the hearts of ihe truly fqithful. (11) True humility at first resists God himself, when he wishes elevation to honorable ministers ; yet should God persist in wisliing, humility obeys, because, if not obedient, it would no longer be true humility. , » (12) 'Tis thus the expression is reported by Saint Mark and Saint Luke. 9hint Mat- thew makes the voice s.iv, this is my Moved Son, in whom I am tocll pleased. The lat- ter likely rendered the sense, .ind the other two tlie very words. 44 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE [PART I. ginmng atout tlie age of thirty years, being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph." The baptism which Jesus just received was not a ceremony of no consequence to him ; it was, as has been said, a profession of pen- ance. He wished to exercise its rigors upon himself, and show be- forehand to his Church the penance which she should prescribe for her children in all futui-e ages, (a) " He returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Ghost, and was led by the Spirit into tTie desert, to be tempted by the devil (13). He was there for the space of forty days and forty nights, during which he ate nothing. He was tempted by Satan (14); he lived with beasts. When those days were ended, he was hungry. Then the tempter coming, said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Jesus answered him: It is written (Deut. viii. 3): That man liveth not by bread alone (15), but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." He avails himself of Scrip- ture to repel the enemy, and the text which he employs expresses the .confidence in Providence which we ought to entertain in all the emergencies of life. ' Satan, on his side, endeavored to turn these same weapons against the Son of God ; and after having attacked him at what he thought to be hLs weak point, that is to say, the hunger which he was then enduring, he attacked him in his strong- hold, that is to say, by confidence in God, and by Scripture. (Jj) "He {a) St. Luke, iv. 1, 2 ; St. Matthew, (6) St. Matthew, iv. 5 ; St. Luke, iv. iv. 1, 3, 4 ; St. Mark, i. 13. 10. (13) He who was the author of all strength might advance to meet the enemy: those who are weakness itself cannot do better than shun the encounter. Jesus is here merely the model of resistance, when we cannot avoid the combat. (14) The expression is taken from Saint Mark, and is usually understood to mean temp- tations which Jesus Christ endured after his fast. Some understand this to mean a se- ries of temptations which lasted during forty days, three of which are reported and con- stituted the hist and most vigorous assault. (15) God does not require bread in order to support man ; he can do so wilh any thing, since by manna, which was oply a species of condensed dew, he nourished an en- tire people during forty years. For it was written, with reference to manna, Deuterono- my, viii. 3 : "He afflicted thee with want, and gave thee manna for thy food, which nei- ther thou nor thy fathers knew : to shew that not in bread alone doth man live, but in every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." CHAP, v.] OF OUK LORD JESUS CHRIST. 45 took Lim up into the holy city ; set him upou the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him : K thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down; for it is written (Psalm xc): He hath given his angels charge over thee, that they keep thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. It is written again, said Jesus to him {Deut. vi.) : Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." After this reply Satan thought there was nothing now left for him but one last effort ; he set in motion the most violent of all temp- tations, or rather all temptations concentrated into one. (a) " He took Jesus up into a very high mountain, and shewed to him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them (16), and said to him : To thee will I give all these things, all this power, and glory ; for they are delivered to me, and to whom I will I give them (17); if thou, therefore, wilt adore me, all shall be thine. Jesus answered to him: Begone, Satan (18), for it is written thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil, when all the temptation was ended, departed from him for a time (19), and behold an angel came and ministered to him (20)." It seems that when quitting the desert Jesus passed the Jordan, and that John had also crossed over to tlie other side of the river. (a) St. Matthew, iv. 8-11 ; St. Luke, iv. 5-8, 13. (16) This expression has induced the opinion that Satan, clever in the art of trickery, started up before him, as it were in a miniature, all the kingdoms of the world, with every thing connected with them most capable of dazzling the eyes and tempting to covetousness. (17) This feature alone was enough to utunask the father of lies. Per6dious, he promises every thing, yet disposes of nothing. Still, if in point of fact he did dispose of all the kingdoms of the world, give them he would for a single soul: he knows their value better than we do. (18) This is the proper tone for an answer to the propo.sal of crime. (19) Wliether it be that he in person attacked Jesus Christ again, or whether this be said of the persecutions which Jesus Christ had to suffer from those who, as we have said, were in this point ministers of Satan. For Satan and his agents are never at rest ; and this is, perhaps, the surest mark by which we may recognize them. (20) This repast is the image of the feast which God serves up to the soul which has vanquished the enemy. The moment wliich follows the victory over a great temptation is the most delicious of all moments. 46 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. PerLajos John was forced to do so by the persecutions which he en- dured from the Scribes and Pharisees, whom he had not spared in his preaching. For the manner in which Jesus Christ speaks of him on more than one occasion leaves no room to doubt that the holy precursor encountered much persecution, which we must not confound with what he subsequently suffered on the part of Herod. Still, whether they had changed their sentiments with regard to him — whether they wished to undeceive the people already prepos- sessed with the idea that John might be the Messiah — or because of the testimony he had rendered to another, they sought to inter- dict his preaching and baptism, as having no title to authorize him in his functions ; or finally, suj)posing he should declare himself the Messiah, to make the declaration a crime and a cause of condemna- tion, as they did afterwards to Jesus Christ ; whatever was their motive, (fi')"they sent from Jerusalem priests and Lévites to him to ask him ; Who art thou ? He confessed, and did not deny, and he confessed : I am not the Christ. What, then, they asked him, art thou Elias (21)? He said: I am not. Art thou a prophet? No, he answered. They said, therefore, unto him : Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us ? what sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilder- ness. Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the Prophet Isaias. They that were sent were of the sect of Pharisees. They asked him another question : Why, then, dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet ? John answered them : I bap- tize with water, but there hath stood one in the midst of you whom you know not. He is the same that shall come after me, who is pre- ferred before me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to (a) St. John, i. 19-51. (21) John was not Elias in person, but he was such in the sense of having his spirit and virtue. He was not a prophet, meaning the foreteller of future events ; but he an- nounced and he showed the Messiah actually present, whom he knew by the revelation of the Holy Ghost, and in this sense he was a prophet, and more than a prophet. John says he is not Elias, nor a prophet, in that sense, in which neither is he. Jesus Christ says that John is Elias, and is a prophet, in the sense in which he is both one and the other. By this difference ,they do not contradict each other ; and we are taught by Je- sus Christ how to speak of our neighbor, by John how to speak of oiu'selves. CHAP, v.] OF OtlR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 4Y loose. These things Avere done in Bethania(22) beyond the Jor- dan, where John was baptizing." " Next day John saw Jesus coming to him, and he saith : Behold the Lamb of God (23), behold him who taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of A\liom I said : After me there cometh a man who is preferred before me, because he was before me ; and I knew him not, but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. And John gave testimony, saying : I saw the Spirit coming down as a dove from heaven, and he re- mained upon him. I knew him not ," this he Baid to remove any id'ea of collusion ; " but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me : He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and re- maining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost (24). I saw, and I gave testimony that this is the Son of God. " The next day John and two of his disciples stood, and behold- ing Jesus walking, he saith : Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus (25): Jesus turning, and seeing them following him, saith to them : What seek you (26) ? They said to him, Eabbi (which is interpreted master), where dwellest thou ? Come, he saith to them, and see. They (22) Different from another Bethania a short distance'from Jerusalem, where Lazariis resided with his two sisters, Mary and Martha. (23) Lamb by his meekness : Lamb of God, because the victim God gives to us, and the only one he will accept for the remission or the expiation of sins. (24) The Holy Ghost did not visibly descend upon Jesus Christ until after he had re- ceived baptism. John, who refused, through hiunility, to baptize him, therefore knew him previously by revelation ; yet he does not speak of this revelation which might be contested, and he merely alleges the descent of the dove, which was the sign that God had given to himself, that tl-.oroughly assured him of the trutli thus revealed to him ; a truth made so strikingly sensible, having had as many witnesses as there were men actu- ally present, who had come to receive John's baptism. (25) Jesus was condescending enough to be indebted for his fii-st disciples to his pre- cursor, whose testimony was, as it were, at once the supplement of our Sanour's mira- cles. This was to honor the ministry of John, for thenceforth Jesus Christ no longer required that ministrj', and he made this be well understood, when at the same lime he attached Philip to his person by these sole vi^ords, follow me. (20) Jc^us doth not interrogate to get instruction upon a point unknown to him, but to accommodate himself to our manner of conversing, and to give those whom he inter- rogates the occ;u-iion of saying what was opportune for them to say. This remark is.^p- plicable in all ci'scs similar to the present, * 48 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. came, and saw where he abode (27). It was about the tenth hour that day" (which corresjwnds with our four o'clock in the after- noon). "Andrew the brother of Simon Peter was one of the two who had heard of John, and followed Jesus. He findeth first his brother Simon, and saith to him : We have found the Messias (which is interpreted the Christ). He brought him to Jesus. Jesus look- ing upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona; thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter. " On the following day Jesus would go forth into Galilee : he find- eth Philip, and saith to him : Follow me. Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter : he findeth Nathaniel, and saith : We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write ; Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth. Nathaniel sa;id to him: Can anything of good come from Nazareth (28)? Come and see, saith Philip to him. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him, and saith of him : Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile. Whence knowest thou me ? saith Nathaniel to him." Perhaps he knewme by the report of Philip, was apparently the current of Nathaniel's thoughts ; for " Jesus aaswered him : I saw thee when thou wast under the fig-tree, before that Philip called thee. Rabbi, replied Nathaniel to him, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel. Jesus answered him : Because I saw thee under the fig-tree, thou believest. Greater things than these shalt thou see. And he added : Amen, amen, I say to you : you shall see the heaven opened upon the Son of man (29), and the angels of God ascending and descending (30)." (2'i') Jesus Christ had a retreat in the neighborhood, but he had no house which was his own ; he could, therefore, say with truth : The Son of man hath not where to rest his head. (28) Not merely on account of the smallness of the place, but also on account of the bad character of its inhabitants, which bordered on brutality, as appears by their treat- ment of Jesus Christ. (29) The Son of man properly signified man, or the posterity of Adam. This expres- sion has no other meaning in all the texts of Scripture wherein it is employed, and it would be useless to seek any other meaning for it when uttered by Jesus Chiist. (30) 'Tis hard to find out in Scripture the accompMshment of this magnificent prom- ise, but 'tis enough to know that all is not written. OIIAP. VI.] OF OUR LOKD JESUS CHRIST. 49 CHAPTER VI. MAEEIAGE OF CANA. SOJOURN AT CAPHAENAUM. SECOND VOCATION OF PETEB AND OF ANDKEW, FOLLOWED BY THAT OF JAMES AND JOHN. JOUENEY TO JEEU SALEM FOE THE FEAST OF THE PASSOVEE. SELLEES DEIVEN FEOM THE TEMPLE. (a) " The third day after there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there (1)." Jesus, who had spent these three days coming from the shores of the Jordan, " was invited to the marriage with, his disciples. The wine failing, the mother of Je- sus saith to him : They have no wine. Jesus saith to her : Woman, what is that to me and to thee (2)? my hour is not yet come (3). His mother saith to the waiters : Do ye whatsoever he shall say to you. Now there were set there six water-pots of stone, according to the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them : Fill the water-pots with wa- ter ; and they filled them up to the brim. Jesus added: Draw out (a) St. John, u. 1-12. (1) Saint Joseph is no longer mentioned. The common opinion is, that he liad died before Jesiis Christ commenced his evangelical life ; and the remark ha.s been very ju- diciously made, that it was highly proper he should bo no longer of this world. For, since Jesus Christ must frequently have to speak of his father as of a person liring, the Jews would not have failed to refer to Joseph every thing he should say on the subject, and to substitute liim in the place of the eternal Father — a perplexing ambiguity, which woidd extend to all the discourses of Jesus, and could not fail to confuse all the ideas of the Jews. (2) Jesus Christ wishes to teach that he should not work miracles, from considerations of flesh and blood ; I say he wishes to teach that tnith, not to Mary, who was not igno- rant of this, but to his disciples, to whom he was one day to communicate the power of working miracles, and perhaps to his brethren, that is to saj', his kindred, who, seeing such power in the hands of a man whom they called their relative and their brother, might think he could dispose of it as family property. (3) The time when he had resolved to work miracles. Still he anticipated the time in consideration of Mary, and the exception confirms tlic rule. If the answer seems severe, the act is obliging ; perhaps, too, this answer was made with an !Ùr and a tone which con- siderably softened down what appe^irs to us rather blunt. Certain it is, that Mary, after having heard this, had no hesitation in believing that her prayer had been heard, since she .said directly to the waiters : Do ye whatsoever he shall say to you. 4 60 THE HISTORY OF TI£E LITE [PAET I. now, and carry to tlie cliief steward of tbe feast, and tliey carried it. When the cliief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was (but the waiter knew who had drawn the water), he calleth the bridegroom, and saith to him : Every man at first set- tetli forth good wine ; and wlien men tave well drunk, then tkat which is worse ; but tbou hast kept the good wine until now, Je- sus did this beginning of miracles in Cana of Galilee. He thus mani- fested his glory, and his disciples believed in him (4). After tliis be and his mother, his brethren, and his disciples went down to Ca- pharnaum ; tbey remained there not many days." This town was subsequently his usual dwelling-place, and, as it were, the centre of his missions. Capharnaum was a very opulent city, and thickly inhabited. It was situate upon the confines of tbe tribes of Zabulon and Nephtlialim, at the influx of the Jordan into the sea of Galilee or of Tiberias. His coming there, and the great light which thence sprung up (Isaias ix.), fulfilled tliat which was said by Isaias the Prophet : (a) " The land of Zabulon and land of Nephthalim, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles (5). The peoj^le that sat in darkness hath seen great hght ; and to them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up." This light was announced by that truth which must ever be fii'st presented to the eyes of sinful men, the necessity of penance, which Jesus began to preach and to say, like his precursor : (5) " The time is accomplished ; the kingdom of God is at hand : re- pent, and believe the Gospel." This is the discourse which an Evan- gehst terms preaching " the Gospel of the Kingdom of God." Mean- time Jesus, who was never more to cease preaching it until his death, began to seek his co-opei"ators, and quickly found them. His disci- ples, who as yet were not inseparably attached to him, had left him, to return to their work. He attached them more closely to his per- son in the manner we are now going to state, by blending, on ac- (a) St.Mattbew, iv. 14-17. (J) St. Mark, i. 15. (4) That is to say, they were confirmed in the faith they had in him ; for they miist have already believed, since they became his disciples. (5) So called on accoimt of the vicinity of the Gentiles, perhaps also on account of the amalgamation of these people with the tribes of Aser, of Zabidon, and of Nephthalim. CHAP. VI.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 51 count of the similarity of facts, two things wliich some separate and othei-s unite. It cannot well be decided whether in point of fact there were two different vocations, or whether there was but one single vocation, recorded by the sacred authors, •with different cir- cumstances, some of which are not recounted by the two other Evan- gelists. (a) " Jesus passing by the sea of Galilee, saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting nets into the sea (for they were fishermen), and he said to them : Come after me, and I will make you to become flshei-s of men. Going on from thence a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending theii" nets, and forthwith he called them. (Ji) It came to pass that multitudes to hear the word of God, pressed upon him when he stood by the sea. He saw two ships standing ; the fisher- men were gone out of them, and were washing their nets." In or- der to join this circumstance with the preceding one, we must sup- pose these fishermen (whom Jesus had just called), after alighting from their ships, were still washing their nets either from habit or for the service of those who were afterwards to use them. " Jesus going into one of the ships that was Simon's, desired him to draw back a little from the land ; and sitting, he taught the multitudes out of the ship (6). When he had ceased to speak, he said to Si- mon ; Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. Master, said Simon to him, we have labored all the night, and have taken nothing : but at thy word I will let down the net. When they had done this, they enclosed a very great multitude of fishes, and their net broke (7), and they beckoned to their partnere, (a) St. Mark, i. 16, 17, 19. (6) St. Luke, v. 1-11. (G) The Ship of the Church lohich the Lord ascends is no other than that one of which Peter was established the pilot, when the Lord said to him : Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church. — Ambr. Serin, ii. (7) This miraculous fishing is the figure, or rather the prophetic histoiy, of what was to happen to the Church. The prophets had labored almost without any fruit under the Old Law, which was a state of shade and obscurity. At last the great day of grace hav- ing appeared, Peter, on tlie word of Jesus Christ, casts the net of the Gospel. AH na- tions enter there in throngs : both ships, that is to say, the two Churches of the East and West, are filled. This gathering occasions the rupture of (he net, whose integrity marks 52 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. that were in tlie other ship, that they should come and help them. They came, and filled both the ships, so that they were almost sink- ing ; which, when Simon Peter saw, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying : Depart from me, O Lord (8), for I am a sinful man. For he was wholly astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken, and so were also James and John the sons of Zebedee, who were Simon's partners. But Jesus saith to Simon : Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men ; and having brought their ships to land, leaving all things, they followed him. (a) Simon and Andrew left their nets ; James and John," not only " their nets they were mending, but their father, Zebedee, Q>) in the ship with his hired men." FIRST PASSOYER. We have said that this first sojourn which Jesus made at Caphar- naum was but for a few days, (r;) " The pasch of the Jews was at hand," and the time was come when Jesus should make known to all Israel its Messiah and its King. " He went up" then with his new disciples " to Jerusalem," whither the festival had gathered together Jews from all nations under the sun. He made himself remarkable there at the outset, by an action which attracted all eyes towards him. " He found in the temple them that sold oxen, sheep, and doves, and the changers of money (9), sitting. When he had made, as it were, a scourge of little cords (10), he drove them all out of (a) St. Matthew, iv. 20, 21. {h) St. Mark, i. 20. (c) St. John, ii. 13-25. the unity of the Church ; and whose rupture the schisms and tlie heresies by which she loses part of her fishing, if we can call a loss a circumstance which delivers her from those cruel children who only were fostered in her bosom to tear her asunder. (8) The same humility that makes the centurion say : Lord, I am not ivorthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof, made Peter say here: Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. Some have wished to give a difiFerent meaning to this .saying ; but the reason which Peter adds, because I am a sinful man, seems to exclude them, and fixes the sense to our construction. (9) The money-changers gave small change in exchange for large coin, and drew a profit from this sort of traffic. (10) In order that the weakness of the instrument should make more apparent the power CHAP, vr.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 53 the temj)le, the sheep, aud also the oxen ; the money of the changers he poured out, and the tables he overthrew. To those who sold doves he said : Take these things hence (11), and make not the house of my Father (12) a house of traffic. His disciples remembered that it was written : The zeal of my house hath eaten me up. The Jews said to him : What sign dost thou shew unto us, seeing thou dost these things (13)? Jesus answered: Destroy this temple, and in thj;ee days I will raise it up. The Jews then said: Six-and-forty years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days ? But he spoke of the temjjle of his bodj". When, therefore, he was risen again from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed (14) the Scripture, and the word that Jesus had said. When he was at Jerusalem at the pasch, upon the festival day, many believed in hLs name, seeing his signs which he did. But Jesus did not trust himself unto them, for that he knew all men, and he needed not that any should give testimony of man ; for he knew what was in man." of him who employed it. This miracle seemed to Saint Jerome the most surprising of all those which Jesus Christ performed. (11) Had he acted towards these as with the others, the pigeons would have flown off, and be lost to the owners. Jesus, who wishes to frighten all, wishes to wrong none of them ; and in an action so calculated to excite, he further teaches us that zeal should ever be regulated by prudence and tempered by charity. (12) An expression till then unheard Of. Who, therefore, is this man who calls the house of God the house of my father, and who exhibits himself there wth all the author- ity of a master ? (13) Jeius Christ never worked miracles when either ctiriosity or malignity was the mo- tive which made them be sought after. (14) They then comprehended the sense of this expression, which they had not at first understood ; they saw its confonnity with those passages of Scripture where the resiu- rection of Jesus Christ is so clearly figured, and they were corroborated in their faith. What served to establish the faith of the disciples furnished matter to the Jews for calumniating the Saviour. The same results follow from the word of Jesus Christ as from the flesh of Jesus Christ ; both one and the other are a bread of life for the good, and a mortal poison for the wicked. Mors est malts, vita bonis. 54 THE HISTOBY OF THE LIFE [PABT I. CHAPTER VII. DISCOUKSE WITH NICODEMUS. This regards those who at first believed in him, but whose incon- stancy, known clearly to him before whose eyes all is naked and un- covered, obliged him to take certain precautious with them. Others had even then openly declared against him, and his miracles and doctrine had already produced the double effect always produced by great merit when signalized by great actions, viz.: esteem and veneration in upright hearts ; in perverse hearts, envy and hatred. These two passions ever persecuting, and at last accomplishing the death of the Saviour, were inflamed at the sight of his first successes, and thenceforth menaced those who ventured to declare themselves in his favor. This apjjears by the conduct («) " Of a man then of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews ;" already faith- ful, yet timid, anxious for instruction, still dreading persecution, " He came to Jesus by night, and said to him : Eabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for no man can do these signs which thou dost, unless God be with him." This introduction expressed the object of his visit ; he came to be instructed. Jesus stated to him in a few words the entire plan of Christianity, and commencing by regeneration, which is the ground- work, " Answered him : Amen, amen, I say to thee, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." This reply sur- prised Nicodemus, who, aware of but one way of being born, could imagine no other. " How can a man be born, saith he, when he is old ? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born again ?" He asked for an explanation, which Jesus immediate- ly gave him. " Amen, amen, he answered, I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water (1) and the Holy Ghost, he cannot en- (d) St. John, iii. 1-13. (1) This water is that of baptism ; for it is not allowable to seek here for another mean- CHAP. VII.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 55 ter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Wonder not that I said to thee : You must be born again. The spirit breatheth where he will (2) ; and thou hearest his voice ; but thou knowest not whence he cometh, and whither he goeth : so is every one that is born of the Spirit." AVhich is tantamount to the known maxim : Every thing produces its kind. The production of the spint is, therefore, spiritual, like its principal, wherefore it falls not under the senses. Yet it has effects which hinder us from doubting its reality, like the air or wind, which, though not perceptible to the eyes of the body, is known by sound or other peculiar effects. The mystery had been explained as clearly as it could be : still " Nicodemus answered :- How can these things be done ? Art thou, said Jesus to him, a master in Israel, and kuowest not these things ! Amen, amen, I say to thee, that we speak what we know, and we testify what we have seen, and you receive not our testimony. K I have spoken to you earthly things, and you believe not, how will you believe when I speak to you heavenly things ? No man hath ascended into heaven but he that descended from heaven — the Son of man who is in heaven (3)." These words, all full of depth, signify, 1st, That faith in mysteries ing after the decision of the Council of Trent, Sess. 7, Can. 2 : Should any one say that very and natural water is not necessary in baptism, and consequently if he gives a meta- phorical sense to those words of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, d:c., let him be anathema. (2) This expression signifies here properly either the breath or the wind. Tliis does not hinder an appropriate application of the expression to the free and independent opera- tion of the Holy Ghost in our souls. (3) Yet the humanity of the Sa>-iour had not descended from heaven, but only ascend- ed there on the day of the ascension. This is explained -by the personal union of the Word with human nature. By this ineflfable union, the Sovereign God who reigns in the highest heavens is tnily the Son of man ; in tliis sense he could have said that tlie Son of man hath a.scended into heaven, since he wlio is in heaven became the Son of man, which he was not previously. He might also have said that he descended from heaven, because this Son of man, who conversed on earth with man, was the same person with the Sover- eign God who reigns in the highest heaven. He could have added that he w;is still in heaven, because his immensity renders him present ever)-where, and his persevering union with humanity makes him who is eveiywhere present be everywhere and always with the character of Son of man, although his humanity be not cverywliere present, as the Lutherans say, by an error, the absurdity of which equals at least its impiety. 56 THE HISTORY OP THE LIFE [PAKT I. is not grounded on the evidence of the object, but on the authority of the testimony of Jesus Christ, a proposition which Nicodemus could not gainsay, he having just recognized the divinity of a mis- sion proved manifestly by miracles ; 2d, that the explanation just given to him was the most proper to make him comprehend the mystery which Jesus Christ had proposed to him ; I say, to make him comprehend it in such a way as it can be comprehended, at least in this life, he clothed it in sensible and corporal images, such as birth, the wind, and its effects. Whence the Saviour concluded that, if he did not place faith in him when speaking such language as he calls earthly, because proportioned to the human intellect ever cleaving to that earth to which it is bound, much less would he be- lieve had expressions been used as sublime as the things themselves that- were proposed, viz.: such expressions as no mortal man could understand, and such apparently as human language could not fur- nish. "What Jesus Christ adds, " No man hath ascended unto heaven but he that descended from heaven," relates to two parts of his an- swer, and signifies that, both as to mysteries and tlie manner of pro- posing them, we must refer alone to him who, having descended from that heaven which he always continues to inhabit, and having alone seen them in their origin, is the only person who knows them, and who is in a position to speak of them ; which we find similarly expressed in these words of the first chapter of Saint John : (a) " No man hath seen God at any time : the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Nicodemus, thus disposed, was prepared to listen with docility to the other truths in M-hich Jesus Christ was going to instruct him ; the Saviour continued iu these terms : (b) " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that who- soever believeth in him (4) may not perish, but may have life ever- (a) St. John, i. 18. (b) St. John, iii. 14-21. (4) Here faith alone is spoken of : Doth faith, then, suffice, without works ? No more than good works can suffice without faith, although in many places of Scripture salvation is attributed to works, without mention being at all made of feith. Join these texts, and in their union you will find the Catholic truth ; separate them, or merely consider them in theh- apparent opposition, and you evidently come in collision with one of these two CHAP. Vir.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CIIBIST. 5Y lasting. For God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son (5), that whosoever believeth in hira may not perish, but may have life everlasting : for God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world may be saved by him. He that believeth in him is not judged; but he that doth not believe is already judged, because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment ; because the light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil : for every one that doth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, that his works may not be reproved ; but he that doth truth (6) cometh' to the light, that his works may be made manifest, because they are done in God." Such is the discourse which the Sa\àour made to this learned man of the synagogue. It comprises, as I have said, the entire plan of Christianity, and its principal mysteries are here clearly proposed. We see here the three persons of the adorable Trinity, and the part which each of them condescended to take ujîon himself in the re- demption. The Father gives his only Son ; the Son consents to be immolated ; and the regenerating Spirit, uniting with the water of baptism his all-mighty action, transforms the old man into a new creature, gives brothers to the Son, and adopted children to the Father. The motive of so great a gift is, on the part of the Father, immense, we may say, excessive love, actuating him to deliver up his only Son, the object of all his complacency, for the salvation of an impious and perverse world : in the Son there is a voluntary im- molation upon the tree of the cross ; and in regenerated man a live- ly faith replete with confidence in him whose charity was so extreme stumbling-blocks : You will think that Tvorks suffice without faith, which annihilates all religion ; or with some Protestant sects, that faith suffices without works, which opens the road to every crime. (5) A Jew might tliink tliat God had only given his Son for the salvation of Jews. Jesus Christ anticipates this onor, by declaring that the Son was given for the salvation of the world, and o{ every man, saith clsewlierc the beloved disciple, I. John, 22. (6) It may be, as some have thought, that the original believers in Jesus Christ were the best class among the Jews, although this was not without exception ; or it may be that the expression he that doth truth, or to do truth, signifies in sinners the knowledge and detestation of sin, according to this thought of Saint Augustme : the confession of crime is the beginning of \Trtue. 58 THE IirSTOKY OF THE LIFE [pART I. as to suffer for bim torment and death. The brazen serpent is given here as a figure of the Old Testament, representing in the most nat- ural manner many wonderful things therein detailed. It resembles the serpent, though without its venom, thus shadowing him forth who, himself without a blemish, assumed the semblance of sin ; its elevation in the desert typifies the cross raised on high, and exposed to all eyes. Faith in Him crucified, which may be called the glance of the soul, produces an effect in souls similar to that produced in bodies on corporeally beholding the brazen serpent. Yet, as the brazen serpent, although salutary to many, and injurious to none, hindered not those from perishing who, when mortally wounded by the serjDents of fire, refused thus to seek recovery by so easy a rem- edy, so also those who shall be saved are to be saved by him alone whom the servient prefigured, and the damned shall be condemned by their own fault. The Saviour goes so far as to declare that the latter are already condemned, inasmuch as, in the sin of their first father and their own personal iniquities, they carry with them the manifest cause of their condemnation ; as the Israelites stung by the serpents carried, in the venom which they had received, the impend- ing cause of inevitable death. Those who perish, therefore, perish merely because they choose to do so ; and from themselves alone originates the judgment which condemns them. The Messiah's first coming had salvation, not the condemnation, of the world for its object. But this fearful and eternal condemnation only comes upon them for having shunned another transient and salutary condemna- tion, that which they themselves should have passed upon their own crimes, had they wished to open their eyes to the startling light which disclosed to them theii* enormity. Still the same fund of corruption which wedded them to their vices made them love the darkness which concealed their enormity, and hate the light which would have revealed it to them ; that light which is earnest- ly sought after and beheld with joy by those who are pure in heart and of virtuous life. An upright mind is always cheered by the light which irradiates it, and -sdrtue must always experience the highest satisfiiction from the favorable testimony of such a witness. The grace with which the Sa\àour accompanied the instruction he imparted to Nicodemus made that proselyte a faithful disciple. ■t CHAP. Tin.] OF OUR LOKD JE3US CHEBT. 59 Though he measured cautiously his firet advances, yet Nicodemus ne-çer betrayed his conscience. True it is, he did not as yet openly declare himself for Jesus Christ, but far from being implicated in the unjust conspii'acy of his enemies, he knew well, when the occa- sion presented itself, how to make them feel the whole extent of their injustice. Cured of his timidity after he had viewed the mys- terious serpent elevated upon the mountain, when the apostles were flying in all directions, this prince of the synagogue joined with Jo- seph of Ai'imathea in rendering to his divine Master the rites of bu- rial ; and la%T.shed uj^on him the most costly perfumes with a liber- ality worthy of his opulence and his piety. He- persevered till death in the confession of the faith, and in the practice of every Christian \'irtue ; and the Church has placed him in the rank of the saints to be invoked. CHAPTER Vm. JESTIS CmUST PEEAdlES AND BAPTIZES. NEW TESTIMONT OF SAINT JOHN. IMPKIS- ONMENT OF THE UOLT PEEOURSOE. EETUEN OF JESUS TO GALILEE TmJOUGH SA- IIAEIA. (ff) " Jestjs," after having made this conquest, " came into the land of Judea ;" that is to say, he quitted the capital to travel over the country '■'■with his discijiles. There he abode with them, and baptized (though Jesus himself did not baptize, (h) but his disci- ples)." A very remarkable difference between him and John. The former baptized by himself alone, because, being merely the minis- ter of his baptism, he could not substitute instead of himself any other minister ; whereas Jesus, author of his own baptism, could appoint any administrator he wished, and preserve to the rite its entire virtue, no matter by what hand it was administered. Yet the baptism of John was not immediately abolished, after the in- (o) St. John, iii. 22. (Ô) Si. John, iv. 2. 60 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAKT I. troduction of Christ's baptism. Every thing is gradually shaded in the works of God ; and until the precursor's imprisonment, the baptism of water subsisted at the same time with the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire, as the Jewish j^ractices subsisted side by side with infant Christianity, until the destruction of Jerusalem. While, therefore, Jesus was conferring baptism by the hands of his disciples, accustoming the world from thenceforth (ci) " to account them his ministers, and the disjîensers of the mysteries of God, (i) John also was baptizing in Ennon, near Salim, because there was much water there, and they came, and were baptized ; for John was not yet cast into prison. There arose a question between some of John's disciples and the Jews (1) concerning purification (2)," which here must be understood to mean baptism. The Jews who had declared themselves in favor of Jesus Christ, maintained that their new Master being much sujjerior to John (Aug. tract. 13 in Joan.), his baptism should be preferred to that of the precursor. Whereupon " John's disciples came to him, and said : Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond the Jordan, to whom thou gavest testimony, behold, he baptizeth, and all men come to him." The disciples disputed ; but the masters were of the same mind. " John," who never had attributed any merit to himself, and who always returned back to Jesus the glory due to him, " answered and said : A man cannot receive any thing unless it be given him from heaven. You yourselves do bear me witness that I said : I am not Christ, but that I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom (3) ; but the friend of the bridegroom who stand- eth, and heareth him, rejoiceth with joy, because of the bride- (a) I. Corintliians, iv. 1. (6) St. John, iii. 2.3-36. (1) Apparently the disciples of John were mostly Galileans, whereas those who had just received the baptism of Jesus Christ were from Judea, properly speaking. For which reason the latter are called Jews in this passage ; although, in a more comprehen- sive sense, the name also belongs to the disciples of John. (2) Baptisrti might be called by the name of purification, as purifications elsewhere go under the name of baptism. (3) The bride is the Church, composed of the multitude of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Its foi-mation was commenced, and the disciples of John brought him the intel- ligence. Thus, while seeking to excite his jealousy, they ravished him with joy. CHAP. VIU.] OF OUR LOKD JESUS CHRIST. 61 groom's voice ; this my joy, therefore, is fulfilled (4). He must in- crease, but I must decrease (5)." The difference of origin is the reason which John assigns for this extreme diffei'ence between Jesus Christ and himself. " He, said John, that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth, of the earth he is, and of the earth he speaketh (6). He that cometh from heaven is above all, and he testifieth what he hath seen and heard (7), and no man re- ceiveth his testimony (8). He that hath received his testimony (9) (4) Comparisons only extend to a certain point. John did not actually see Jesus Christ, nor did he hear his voice ; but he knew him to be near at hand, and preachmg, and he heard the rumor of his first successes. This it is that inspires him with joy comparable to that caused by the voice of the person we love most, which is said to be the sweetest of all music. (.5) In public estimation. For, in reality, there neither was increase in Jesus Christ nor diminution in Saint John. (G) When he speaks from himself. For, by inspiration, he can know and utter heavenly things, and John himself is proof of this. But those heavenly things which the Son ut- tered had been taught him by no one ; he spoke them from his own wUl. Others con- sider Saint John to term earthly those things which lie said himself, in opposition to the more sublime tniths which Chiist Jesus came to reveal to the world. (7) These words, and those which close the discoui-se, are sufficiently explained in the preceding discourse of our Lord with Nicodemus. (8) Passion ever exaggerates. En\y made John's disciples state, all men come to him, becaxise several did go ; and an affectionate zeal for the glory of Jesus Christ made John say, no man receiveth his testimony, because all men did not receive it. (9) To believe Lis word, who is sent by God, is to believe the word of God ; and to believe the word of God is an authentic declaration that God is incapable of a lie, and that he always speaks the truth. Faith i.s wholly ;ind (Mitirely comprised in these few words. God has sent his Son ; the Son ha.s sent his apostles. These, by his order, have com- municated their mi.ssion to their successore, who have transmitted it to us, and wlio will transmit it from age to age, until the end of the world. To believe these, therefore, is to believe the apostles, who have transmitted the mission to them ; the Son, who hath sent the apostles : and God, who hath sent the Son. The simple-minded enter without trouble and without diffidence the road that lies open before them : the road which is straight, level, spacious, trodden by the Christian throng, and in which they see theii- guides marching before them. Those who combine great abilities with superior judg- ment, seeing the natural inability of the masses to conduct themselves, agree that they could not be conducted by another course : that there must be a course marked out for them, since they are not excluded from salvation ; that it was natural that this road, which suffices for all, should be the same for all. The more so, as when they recollected the great wanderings in which men of eminent talents frequently indulge, they deemed this road at least as necessary for those who reason with over-subtlety as for those who 62 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. hath set to his seal that God is true : For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, for God doth not give the Sjiirit by measure. The Father loveth the Son, and he hath given all things into his hand. He that beHeveth in the Son hath life everlasting ; but he that believeth not the Son shall not see life ; the wrath of God abideth on him." The imprisonment of the holy precursor quickly followed this magnificent testimony which he had just rendered to Jesus Christ. The country which he then inhabited, if not actually part of the di- vision allotted to Herod the tetrarch, at least bordered on his do- minions. John had occasion to see and to speak to him. («) " Her- od was reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evils he had done. He added this also, above all, and shut up John in prison, (b) When Jesus had heard that John was delivered up, (g) and understood that the Pharisees had heard that he maketh more disciples, and baptizeth more than John, (d) he left Judea, and returned, in the power of the Spirit, into Galilee, preaching the Gos- pel of the kingdom of God." (a) St. Luke, iii. 19, 20. (c) St. John, iv. 1-3. (b) St. Matthew, iv. 12. {d) St. Luke, iv. 14 ; St. Mark, i. 14. do not reason enough. Still there exist subtle minds, who cannot sympathize with what is simple : men of a curious turn of mind, which disdains every thing that is ancient, for the sole reason that it is not new ; smgular characters, who ever try to distinguish themselves from the multitude ; presumptuous men, who wish to lead themselves, and show the way to their veiy guides ; wrangling dispositions, who could scarce live if they did not find matter for contradiction. Such characters quit the high-road, band them- selves together, seek for crooked by-ways, thi-ust themselves into them, and tliere wan- der — that is to say, become heretics — for the same reasons which produce in the world blunderers, originals, the headstrong, bad reasoners, bad debaters, and bad lawyers. CHAP. IX.J OF OUE LORD JESUS CHRIST. 63 CHAPTER IX. THE SAMARITAN 'WOSIAil. (a) " He was of necessity to pass througli Samaria. He cometh, therefore, to a city of Samaria which is called Sichar (1), near the land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour (2). There cometh a woman of Sama- ria (3) to draw water. Jesus saith to her : Give me to drink (for his disci])lc3 were gone into the city to buy meats). Then that Sa- maritan woman saith to him : How dost thou, being a Jew, ask of me to drink, who am a Samaritan woman ? for the Jews do not com- municate with the Samaritans." To this reply, which perhaps sa- vored more of a jest than of a refusal, " Jesus answered : K thou didst know the gift of God, and who is he that saith to thee : Give (a) St. Jolin, iv. 4-30. (1) The same which is called Sicheni hi Scriptm-e. It was situated near the mountain of Garizim. (2) About noonday. (3) These Samaritans were originally a Chaldean colony, sent by Salraanasar to inhabit the coimtry, which remained a desert in coasequence of the transportation of the ten tribes into the States of this prince. These Chaldeans carried along with them their idol- atrous worship. God sent lions, which committed fearful ravages over the country. To be delivered from this scourge, they brought from AssjTia a priest of the race of Aaron, who was to instruct them in tin; religion of the God of the country ; such was the title they first gave him. They acknowledged revelation ; but they only received the five books of Moses, and they allered even them in several passages. But what most of all contributed to make them be regarded as schismatics by the Jews, was the temple, which Sanabelleth, one of their governors, caused to be built on the mountain of Garizim. They constantly preferred it to the temple of Jeinisalcni, the only place on earth where it was then allowable to offer sacrifice to God. Tliis hatred still exists between the Jews and Samaritans, although the latter are reduced to almost nothing, and are sunk in the most orofound ignorance. L Ô4 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAKT I. me to driuk, thou perhaps (4) wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water (5)." So far, if this discourse did not render this woman faithful, it made her at least respectful. "Sir, she saith to him, thou hast nothing wherein to draw, and the well is deep : from whence, then, hast thou living water ? Art thou greater than our father Jacob (6), who gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cat- tle ? Jesus answered to her : Whosoever drinketh of this water ■shall thirst again ; but he that shall drink of the water that I will give him shall not thirst for ever, and the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water springing up into life ever- lasting." She seemed then to place faith in him ; but not understanding what was the nature of this wonderful water, " Sir, she saith to him, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come hither to draw. Go, saith Jesus to her, call thy husband, and come hither. I have no husband, the woman answered," whether she wished to speak sin- cerely, or that the ardor of her desire made her deny every thing that (4) Jesus Christ was not ignorant of what she would do had she this knowledge. This perhaps should therefore be understood, according to the interpreters, to refer to the power she would have still retained then to ask, or not to ask. The amazing pre- rogative of grace, and that which most strikingly displays its power, is this triumph over hearts, leaving them at the same time the actual power of resistance. If it were neces- sary to deprive hearts of this power of resistance, grace would no longer be almighty, since, being disabled from triumphing over hearts actually vested vnth. this power, there would be a something that grace was unable to do. (5) This gift of God and this living water are nothing else but the Holy Ghost, who extinguishes in souls the thirst after the pleasures of sense and perishable goods, who deadens the ardors of concupiscence, who waters the aridity of the heart by refreshing sentiments of piety, and who renders the soul fertile in good works : truly living water both in itself and in its eflfects, inasmuch as the Holy Ghost, being Mfe, gives life to those souls who receive him. (6) The Samaritans were not descendants of Jacob. Yet there is nothing to hinder us from believinrr that in their district several families of Israelites resided ; whether or not, they remained there duiing the transmigration, or came and estabhshed themselves there with the Chaldeans, the latter associating with them in theh- form of worship. Such families would, when speaking of Jacob and the patriarchs, call them their fathers. Chaldeans might also descend from him by alliances with Israelitish women ; and sup- posing none of these reasons existed, the mere habit of hearing the Jews repeat Our Father Jacob, m.ight have introduced that fashion of speech into the Samaritan tongue. CHAP. IX.] OF OUR LORD JESl'S CHRIST. 65 might retard its accomplishment. " Jesus said to her : Tlioii hast said well, I have no husl)and : for thon ha-^t five, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husl>aud. This thou hast said truly." If this was not naturally a good woman, she must have become so already during the interview she had with Jesus Christ ; for, instead of giv- ing him the lie, as many others would have done, and with greater assurance the more foundation there was for the reproach, " she saith to him," respectfully, but with shame, " Sir, I perceive that thou art a pi'ophet :" an expression which comprises the doul)le confession which she made of Jesus Christ's equality of prophet, and of her own sinful life. This last avowal was so humiliating that she could not dwell upon it, but takes advantage of the other to turn the conver- sation upon the controversy which divided the two classes of people iidiabitiug Palestine. " Our fathers (7)," added she, " adored (8) on this mountain, and you say that at Jerusalem is the place where men must adore." This question has given occasion more than once for regarding the Samaritan as an inquisitive woman, forward in entering on discus- sions beyond her reach. It seems, nevertheless, that having had the hapjnuess to meet a prophet, she acted wisely in asking him to in- form her upon a point of religion deemed of capital importance. Do not let us, therefore, blame what Jesus Christ himself has not blamed. Nay, perhaps he himself insj)ired the question, that he might take occasion therefrom to instruct the woman in that per- fect worship which he came to establish upon the ruins of all the an- cient systems, not even excejiting that which, though true in itself, was merely preparatoiy. Tlierefore he thus spoke to her : " Wo- man, believe me, that the hour cometh when you shall neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem adore the Father (9). You adore (7) Our ancestors, if we prefer to sa)' that the Samaritans were under the impression tliat the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had offered sacrifices on the mountain of Garizim, which left tlie question at issue still undecided ; for the place where sacrifices must be offered was not wherever the patriarchs had sacrificed, but wherever God had chosen, to the exclusion of all other places. (8) To adore signifies here to sacrifice. Simple adoration was never forbidden in any place. (0) My father, or he who, by adopting you, is going to become yours, or better still, 5 66 THE HISTORY OF Tire LIFE [PAKT I. tliat Avliicli you know not (10); v^e adore tliat wliicli we know: for salvation is of the Jews (11). But tlie hour cometh, and now is, when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and in truth (12); for the Father also seeketh such to adore him. God is a spirit, and they that adore him must adore him in spirit and in truth. The woman saith to him : I know that the Messias cometh who is called Christ. Therefore when he is come (13) he will tell us all things." In the mean time she was. still obliged, by the dec- laration of him whom she recognized for a prophet, to acknowledge the supei'iority of the Jewish worship over the Samaritan — a truth which she seems inclined to elude. As to what regards the new worship which the Messiah alone could establish, she very properly said they should wait for the Messiah. " I am he, who am speaking with thee, saith Jesus to her. Immediately his disciples came, and they wondered that {contrarij to Ms custoni) he talked with the woman. Yet no man said : What seekest thou ? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman, therefore, left her water-pot, went her way into the city, and saith to the men there : Come and see a man who has told me all things whatsoever I have done ; is not he the Chi'ist ?" Such was, in regard of this woman, the conduct of Jesus Christ, and such was its success. Few examples can be found of so prompt a conversion, and of one whose several degrees are so both together, that is to say, my father and yours. The two meanings are tnie — both suit the text ; and Scripture, according to the remark of Saint Augustine, frequently comprises more than one sense in a single word. (10) Whether it be that the Samaritans had blended with the idea of God some gross error, or whether these words signify that they could not tell upon what grounds they worshipped, their worship having, in point of fact, no divine institution. (11) It was proper that God should more highly instruct that people, from whom sal- vation, or the Saviour, was to issue. (12) Tiiith is going to succeed .shadows, spiritual objects those of sense. Both forms of worship are opposed in what forms their leading quality ; for the new worship is in some things addressed to the senses, while the old must have contained much that was spiritual. ([13) Although the Jews were unwilling to acknowledge the fact, eveiy one, even the Samaritans, expected the Messiah, and expected him at no distant period. For to refer the decision of an essential point of reUgion to a Messiah who was only to come at some distant and indefinite period, would have been as senseless a proceeding as to refer now- a-days a similar deci.sion to the coming of Elias. CIIAP. IX.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 67 distinctly marked. We see her pass successively from respect of tlie \Tlrtuous man who speaks to her, to the desire of obtaining that M'hich he promises her, although as yet she is ignorant of its nature. Next she recognizes him for a prophet, and in this very avowal which she makes admits herself to be a sinner. She wisely profits by the oc- casion to get instruction ; she listens with docility, and, when once enlightened, she burns with the desire of communicating to her fel- low-citizens the light which has just sparkled before her eyes. She leaves her pitcher, as the apostles left their nets : she i-uns to the city, which she immediately fills with the rumor of the wonderful discovery she had just made. Her zeal for the glory of him whom she announces goes to the extent of prompting her to sacrifice her own fame, by adducing, to prove that he was a prophet, her own misdeeds, which he could have known only by a supernatural light. She invites all the inhabitants to come and satisfy themselves as to the truth of the things she recounts ; and, with a success which we may compare to that of the first preaching of St. Peter, she succeed- ed in as short a time in gaining over to him an entire people. In- comprehensible eftect of grace, which in a moment makes a sinner a penitent, and a penitent an apostle. But whilst no better illustra- tion can be given of the efiicacy of divine grace, where else is to be found, a more affecting picture of its soothing operation, or where can we find a better instance of that admirable art which shrouds, as it were, with the veil of chance, the designs of God, and the rno.-t maturely reflected projects of his mercy ? Jesus returns from Jeru- salem to Galilee ; he traverses Samaria, which happens to be upon his route ; he halts about mid-day, while his disciples wei*e gone in search of provisions to a neighboring city : he is tired, and he sits down near a well. A woman comes there to draw water ; he is thirsty, and he asks her for a drink ; she refuses, or seems to refuse it, under pretence of the division which exists between the two na- tions. What have we here that does not appear the effect of pure chance ? Yet all this is nothing else but the execution of the de- crees of the Almighty. God, from all eternity, had determine^l" to inspire the woman with a wish to come to this spot on the day and at the hour when she actually came there. She came there of lur own free will ; but there she must have come inevitably. Ileaviu 68 THE HISTORY OF THE LtFE [PAKT I. and earth must hnve perislied ere slie missed the appointment. The discourse which Jesus Christ hehl with her, and which seemed en- tirely occasioned by the good or had things which she said — that discourse was also preconcerted in the councils of the Most High ; and that portion of knowledge which was to be communicated to her had been weighed in the eternal scale. Before she was in the world, yea, before the world existed, it was settled that Jesus Christ should originate in her mind the idea of, and the thirst for, a water which should forever quench thirst, and whose inexhaustible source gushed forth unto life everlasting. Also, that in order to give her at the same time both faith and jienance, he should disclose to her both what he was, and what she herself was, that he should enlight- en her on the errors of Samaritan worship and the imperfection of the Jewish ; that thereupon he should elevate her to the knowledge of a universal and eternal worship, which should extend itself over all times and every people, making truth succeed to figures, spirit to the letter, and the homage of the heart to legal ceremonies. More- over, it was also settled from eternity that she should be informed at the time of which we speak, tliat this interior and spiritual wor- ship, alone capable of worthily honoring God who is a spirit, was going to be established ; nay, that it actually was established, inas- much as he who was to be its author and its object — this Messiah whose coming she expected — he himself now spoke to her, and she heard his voice. All these great truths, I say, it was settled that Jesus Christ should reveal unto her, and that independently of her own voluntary effusions, although he said nothing to her that did not seem to flow naturally from her own discourse. Nothing is chance in the eye of God. Nothing happens in the universe but what he has foreseen, but what he has wished, and what has its first cause in his decrees ever free, yet eternal and eternally immutable. I except sin, which, like all the rest, he hath foreseen, but which he can only permit, and which he makes subservient to the execution of his designs. I return to what immediately followed the discourse that gave rise to these reflections. The following is the instruction which Christ gave to his disciples. As they found him exhausted with fatigue and hunger, (a) " They («) St. John, iv. 31-43. CHAP. IX.] OF OrR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 69 prayed liim, saying : Eablii, eat." Every occurrence presented to Jesus an occasion of instruction and edification : water liad been sucli for the Samaritan ; here food was so for those who offered it him. " I have meat to eat, he said to them, which you know not. The disciples said one to another : Hath any man brought him to eat ? Jesus saith to them : My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, that I may perfect his work." He then added, to teach them what that work was in which they were incessantly to co-op- erate with him : " Do not you say there are yet four months, and tlien the harvest cometh (14)? Behold, I say to you: Lift up your eyes, and see the countries, for they are white already to harvest." The apostles did not say what Jesus supposes them to say. These words, " there are yet four mouths, and then the harvest cometh," was a proverbial way of saying that there was no jjressing hurry, and that there was still time for rest. The disciples so understood it with reference to the functions of their ministry. Jesus unde- ceives them by showing them the countries all yellowing into ripe- ness, figurative of those people who were ready to receive the Gos- pel, and of the Samaritans in jiarticular, who, at the moment he wa.s speaking, thronged to him in crowds. Yet, as the apostles might have said to him, the harvest doth not come till after seed-time, Jesus Christ informs them that the seed was ah'eady sowed by the jDi'ophets their predecessors, whose toil, though at first sight un- productive, was now going to yield a harvest that should glad- den both sowers and i-eapers : this is what the Saviour meant to convey by the following words: "He that reapeth receiveth wa- ges, and gathereth fruit unto life everlasting, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For in this is the saying true: That it is one man that sowetli, and it is another that reapeth (15). I have sent yon to reap that in which you did (14) They then were between Easter and Pentecost, and it is known that Pentecost is the time wlien han-est is reaped in Palestine : a proof of wliat we presently stat«, that tliis wiis a proverb of tiie country, and n(jt a sayin<( of the apostles. (15) This proverb only has, in the ciivurastances in which used by >Iesus Christ, half its appli<'atiori. It signifies, in the ordinary application, that one luis all the trouble, an- other all the profit. Jesus Christ wishes merely to convey that the reaper is different from the sower, although one and the other were equally to share the crop. 70 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAET I. not labor: others liave labored, aud you liave entered into tlieir labors (16)." " Now many of tlie Samaritans of that city believed in him for the word of the woman gi^■ing testimony (17): He told me all things whatsoever I have done. So when the Samaritans were come to him, they desired that he would tarry there, and he abode there two days ; and many more believed in him, because of his own word. They said to the woman (18): We now beheve not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, aud know that this is in- deed the Saviour of the world (19)." After the two days which Jesus had granted to the earnest so- licitations of the Samaritans, "he departed thence, and went into Galilee. For Jesus himself gave testimony that a prophet (20) hath (16) Have not, then, the apostles toiled as much as the prophets? Yes, but when toiling they had the consolation of reaping the fi-uit of then- labors. Theirs was the toil of the han'cst-timc, wherein pain is mingled with joy, and the joy exceeds the pain. Sow always, ye laborers in the field of the Lord : the seed will be productive at the time when your hopes are at the lowest ; or, if it produce nothing, your reward is not the less assui-ed by a Master who recompenses the toil, and not the success. (17) It is strange to see them crediting so easily the testimony of a lewd woman. This has induced some to believe that she had contrived to save appearances, and pre- serve the reputation of a decent widow. Whatever weight there is in this conjeotm'C, grace might give sufficient force to the word of a disgraced woman to make her find credence in people's minds, and to make this trust in her neither precipitate nor impru- dent. (18) This woman, according to Origen, represents the Church. We believe at the present day on her testimony ; but when we shall have the happiness to see Jesus Christ face to face, we shall say with the Samaritans: We believe now not for thy saying, for we ourselves have heard him, and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world. (19) This was the first people who recognized in Jesus Christ the amiable character of Saviour of the world. There is no doubt but Jesus Christ declared unto them who he was, and we see here what faith they reposed in his words ; but, moreover, they who were not Jews, and who expected the Messiah, could not be fettered by the prejudice of those who regarded him as t'ae- Saviour of the Jews merely; wherefore they could only expect him as Saviour of the world, and this, therefore, disposed them towards the be- lief of this article of Chi-istian faith. (20) Elsewhere we shall explain this sentence, whicli seemingly Jesus Christ did not advance, but Saint John gives as the motive of the journey he made into Galilee. This foi-ms a very embarrassing difficulty. For the little welcome that a prophet receives in his country was a reason for Jesus to remain in Samaria, where he was so well received, and not to leave it and return to Galilee, which to him was that ungrateful country, whose .disgraceful proceedings made him say that a prophet enjoys no consideration in CHAP. X.] OF OUU LORD JESUS CHKLST. 71 no houor in liis own country, \\nien he was come into Galilee, tlie Galileans received him, having seen all the things he had done at Jerusalem on the festival day ; for they also went to the festival day. (ff) And the fame of him went out through the whole coun- try. He taught in the synagogues, and was magnified by all." CHAPTER X. AN officer's son HEALED. CCTÎE OF ONE POSSESSED, AND OF THE MOTnEE-IN-LAW OF SAINT PETEE. — ^THKEE SIEN EEPEOVED. (Z>) " Jesus came again, therefore, into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain ruler, whose son was sick at Capharnaum. He having heard that Jesus was come from Judea into Galilee, went to him, and pi-ayed him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death." Since he thus had recourse to Jesus Christ, he may have some time previously commenced belie^■ing ; but his incipient faith was as yet merely a (a) St. Luke, iv. 14, 15. (i) St. John, iv. 46-54. his countn" and among liis kindred. This is explained by saying that what was called the Saviour's country is not entire Galilee, but solely the city of Nazareth, whither he did not wish to return, for the rca.son assigned by the Evangelist, choosing rather to dwell at Capharnaum or in other parts of Galilee. Tliis e.xplanation, which appeared to me more satisfactorj' than five or si.x others given by the interpreters, is still fiir from being satisfactory. Those who will not content themselves, may consider this pa.ssage as not explained : what inconvenience can result from tliis ? There are enough of matters clear in Scripture to support faith and maintain piety. Those wlio wish to undei-stand everj- thing are not aware that intelligence of every thing is not granted to all ; what you can- not understand another does understand, and the latter in his turn does not understand what you do. Besides, the explanations which are not satisfactory to me are so to others, and there is no decision whether thej' or I judge the best. Whatever be the case, let us seek and iisk for light ; yet let us respect the obscurity which should not at all weaken the faith and veneration due to the divine Scriptures, because, as I have said, there re- main enough of things so clear as incontestably to a.ssure both one and the other. And reason alone teaches us that we arc to judge, not what is clear by what is obscure, but what is obscure bv that which is clear. Y 2 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. doubt to he res;olve(l into true faith, once lie had seeu or expeii- euced himself the truth of those things which he had heard con- cerning the Saviour. Jesus, aware of his disposition, reproached him for it by these words : " Unless you see signs and wonders, you Ijelieve not." The father, who was entirely engrossed with his son's danger, " saith to Jesus : Come down, Lord, before that my son die. Go thy way, saith Jesus to him ; thy son liveth." This efficacious ex]3ression ojierated simultaneously upon the son's body and the father's soul. " He believed the word which Jesus said to him, and went his way." The next day, " as he was going down, his servants met him, and they brought him word that his son lived. He asked therefore of them the hour wherein he grew better, and they said to him : Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him (1). The father therefore knew that it was at the same hour that Jesus said to him : Thy son liveth ; and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle (2) that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judea into Galilee." It has been said already that («) " Jesus, leavnng the city of Naz- areth, came and dwelt in Capliarnaum on the sea-coast, in the bor- ders of Zabulon and of Nephthalim." He went there after the mir- acle at the marriage of Caua, (I) " he and his mother, his brethren and his disciples." But as " the pasch of the Jews was at hand, they remained there not many days," during which they scarcely had time to do more than prepare their place of abode. Jesus returned thither again from Cana, (c) " and forthwith," when he had arrived there, " upon the Sabbath-day, going into the synagogue, he taught (a) St. Matthew, iv. 13. (c) St. Mark, i. 21-26 ; St. (6) St. John, ii. 12, 13. Luke, iv. 35. (1) One hour after mid-day. (2) The second which he wrought in tliis journey from Judea to Galilee ; or the second which he wrought in Galilee, counting as tlie first the miracle at the marriage feast of Cana, which he wrought in like manner after arriving from Judea ; or perhaps the Evan- gelist merely remarks those which Jesus wrought under the special circumstances of his retm-n, because they signalized his arrival in the country, and disposed the people to re- ceive him and hearken to him. The interprétera are divided upon these different expla- nations, imiong which it is optional to choose whichever we find best, without being fearful of falling into any prejudicial error. CHAP. X.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 73 them. They were astonished at his doctrine ; for he was teaching them as one (3) havnng power, and not as the Scribes. There was in their synagogue a man -nath an unclean spirit ; he cried out, say- ing : What have we to do with thee, Jesus of Nazareth ? art thou come to destroy us ? I know who thou art, the Holy One of God." It is hard to say what motive made him speak thas ; but, whether he hoped to soften Jesus Christ by flattery, or whether his design was to spite him in some manner by divulging his divinity, which the Sa%nom- wished to make known by degrees only, still it is quite certain that his intention was bad. Wherefore Jesus Christ, who did not wish to be at all indebted to such evidence, imposed silence upon him (4), " and threatened him, saying : Speak no more, and go (3) Jesus spoke as a lawgiver, and the Scribes merely as interpreters of the law. He had the power of working miracles, and they had not. In these two respects he had an advantage which they could neither contest nor assume to themselves. But there were others in which they might have imitated, if not equalled him ; and failing in these, their ministry was stripped of dignity, and their word of efficacy. Jesus Christ prac- tised what he taught, while the acts of the Scribes notoriously belied their doctrines. Jesus Christ had only in view the glory of his Father, and the salvation of men, while the Scribes sought nothing but their own glory and the spoils of the widow, whose house they devoured, after hanng insinuated themselves, by their hypocrisy, into esteem and respect. The zeal of Christ was authorized by example, and ennobled by that perfect devotedness which, forgetful of self, seeks only the salvation of those for whom it is e.xercised. What tone may not such zeal assume ? — or who can resist the power which both reason and nature confer upon it ? That of the Scribes being, on the con- traiy, inspired by pride and self-interest, could not be made to appear natural, when it was only artificial ; nor dignified, since it must have been changeful as the chameleon — having to pass incessantly from severity to indulgence, from censure to adulation. Nor could it have authority, because through all its grimaces were seen, at one time the shifts and artifices of inordinate vanity, and at another the selfish schemes of interest, these being the evident springs of action, determining and guiding its course. He who acts not, but only tiilks, is a babbler. He who speaks for the love of praise is a declaimer. He who speaks only for vile profit might be called a buffoon, if his abuse of the div-ine word, by employing it for his own base purpose, did not aggravate his crinle into sacrileire. (4) The disciples have imitated their Master in this point. Wlien the demon said by the mouth of the girl having a pythonical spirit : These men are the servants of (he most hiijh God, tvho preach unto you the way of salvation ; Paul, being grieved, turned and said touthc spirit : I command thee, in the name of Jesus Christ, to go out from her (Acts, xvi.) Coming from the father of lies, every thing, even truth, should be sus- pected. When he speaks truth, he does so to make it subser\'ient to lying. TJkc father, like sons, Luther zealously defended the dogma of the real presence 74 THE inSTOKY OF THE LIFE [PAKT L out of the man. Tlie unclean spii-it tearing him, had thrown him into the midst, and, crying out with a loud voice, went out of him, and hurt him not at all." This impotent rage was, for those who might have doubted the fact, proof of the possession, and of the di- vine strength of him Lefore whom aU the powers of hell are sheer weakness, {a) " There came fear upon all" present, at this prodigy, and all " were amazed (5), insomuch that they questioned among themselves : What thing is this ? What is this new docti-ine (6) ? For with authority he commandeth even the unclean spirits, and they obey him. And the fame of him was spread forthwith into all the country of Galilee." Jesus, after this miracle, might have chosen a residence in any of the principal houses in the city ; for it w^ould have been considered a high honor to receive and splendidly entertain him. He gave the preference to that house whither friendship called him, and whose poverty attracted instead of repelling him. (J)) " Immediately rising up out of the synagogue they came, Jesus with James and John, into the house of Simon and Andrew." The occasion w^hich Jesus there found for exercising his charity was a fiii'ther reason for his visit. " Simon's wife's mother lay in a fit of fever. Forthwith they teU. him, and they besought him for her. (c) Coming to her, he lifted her up, taking her by the hand: and immediately the- fever left her, and she ministered unto them." Many other sick persons desii-ed and hoped for the like favor. But they must be brought to him, and the repose of the Sabbath-day, which it is well known was scrupulously observed by the Jews, had hindered their (a) St. Luke, iv. 36 ; St. Mark, (c) St. Mark, i. 31 ; St. Luke, i. 27, 28. iv. 39. (6) St. Mark, i. 29, 30 ; St. Luke, iv. 38. against the Sacramentarians. This seeming zeal imposed upon the simple, and, by com- bating the Zuinglians, he created Lutherans. (5)What caused this great astonishment was, that this possessed is the first whom Jesus Christ had delivered. He soon familiarized the Jews to this prodigy, one of these which he worked most frequently ; and his disciples subsequently aecustorfied the universe to it. This power has remained in the Church, who employs it ^vith efficacy in incontestable cases of possession. Yet they are become rare. (6) Whois this new teacher who speaks such new and such wonderful things ? CHAP. X.] OF OCR LORD JESCS CHRIST. 75 ueiglilioi-s from reuderiug tliem this cLaritable office. This obliga- tion emled with the light of day, iu accordance Anth that law of Leviticus : (a) " It is a Sabbath of rest, and you shall afflict your souls beginning on the ninth day of the month : from evening until evening you shall celebrate yom- Sabbaths." (Ji) " It was," thei'e- fore, only " when it was evening, after simset, they brought to Jesus all that were ill and that were possessed with deAols. (c) All the city was gathered together at the door. Jesus, laying his hands on every one of them, healed many (7) that were troubled with divei-s diseases : he cast out many dcATls with his word, and all that were sick he healed, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken," of the evils of the body as well as those of the soul, "by the prophet Isaias: He took our infirmities and bore our diseases. ((?)The devils went out of many, crying out and sajnng : Thou art the Son of God. Rebuking them, he suffered them not to speak, for they knew that he was Christ." But he was not to confine his instructions or his bounties to a single city, and he foresaw the eftbrta that would be made here to arrest him. On which account, Ce) " rising very early, going out, he went into a desert place, and there he prayed." This was appa- rently the spot agreed upon, whither " Simon and they that were with him followed after Jesus. And when they had found him, they said to him : All seek for thee. He said to them : Let us go into the neighboring towns and cities, that I may preach there also ; for to this purpose am I come." In the mean time, the inhabitants, who Ijecame appiised of his departure, rushed out of the city, (/) " and the multitudes sought him. They came unto him ; and they stayed him that he should not depart fi-om them. To whom he said," as before to his disciples : " To other cities also I must preach the kingdom of God ; for therefore am I sent." After this reply, (a) Leviticus, .xxiii. 32. (d) St. Luke, iv. 41. (i) St. Mark, i. 32. (c) St. Mark, i. 35-38. (r) St. Luke, iv. 40 ; St. Mark, i. 34 ; ( /) St. Luke, iv. 42, 43. St. Matthew, viii. IG, 17. (7) All were healed, as is narrated subsequently, and the word many is employed here to signify that they were a great number. TG THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. wliicli, wMlst it iuformed them of his resolution to leave them for a time, did not deprive them of all hope of seeing him again, they in- sisted no more, (a) " And Jesus went about aU Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching thé Gospel of the kingdom of God, healing all manner of sickness and every infirmity among the peo- ple. His fame went throughout aU Syria, and they presented to him all sick people that were taken mth divers diseases and tor- ments, such as were possessed hj devils, and limatics (8), and those that had the palsy, and he cured them : and much people followed him from Galilee, from Decapolis (9), from Jerusalem, from Judea, and fi'om beyond the Jordan. (il) " Jesus seeing great multitudes about hhn, gave orders to pass over the water." After he had reached the opposite side, (finis in li • of ;i!l lij.; rights lln- nmst inrommunicfible. 86 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. tis custom. " When lie was passing on from thence, he saw a man named Matthew, otherwise Levi, the son of Alpheus, (a) sitting at the receipt of custom, in the custom-house, and saith to him : Fol- low me. He arose up, and leaving all things, followed him." Still he wished to acknowledge beforehand his gratitude, after the fash- ion of a converted jDublican, and in order to do so, " he made him a great feast in his own house. It came to pass, as Jesus was sitting at table in the house of Levi, there was a great company of publi- cans and sinners sat down Avith him and his disciples, for they were many, who also followed him." And we must remark, in reference to this, a fact which will often appear in this history, viz., that Je- sus was constantly cherished by sinners and hated by rigorists. These, therefore, that is to say, " the Scribes and Pharisees, seeing that he ate with publicans and sinners, said to his disciples : Why doth your Master eat and drink with publicans and sinners ?" They addressed themselves to these, undoubtedly, because they deemed them less capable of answering than their Master. Per- haps they still hojied that, by giving them a bad impression of Je- sus, they could detach them from him. But " Jesus hearing it, saith to them : They that are in health need not a physician, but they that are ill (13)." A saying which should have made them feel that there was no more sense in the reproach which they made him, than there would have been in finding fault at a physician's visiting the sick or those aflected with a jjlague. He then add- ed, blending his usual instruction with self-justification; (J) " Go, then, and learn what this meaneth : I will have mercy, and not sacrifice (14). For I am not come to call the just, but siu- (a) St. Luke, v. 28, 29; St. Mark, ii. 15-1 T. (6) St. Matthew, ix. 13. (13) Ï0 go visit pei'sons afflicted with contagious diseases is temei'ity in those who can render them no service ; it is charity in tlie physician, who still is not exempt from rash- ness, if he visit them witliout adopting precautions and preventives. One man alone was exempted from this lule ; that was the Man-God. (14) A Hebrew idiom, meaning, / love mercy belter than sacrifice, which was com- manded, instead of being inteidicted ; but mercy was preferred to it. But if mercy ex- cels sacrifice, there is nothing, therefore, in religion over which it should not take prece- dence. The entire morality of the Gospel is hinged on this maxim, which is not so pe- culiar to Christianitv as not to have also belonged to the Old Law, since this text to CHAP. XI.] OF OUR LORD .TESTES CHRIST. St ners(ir))." Whence it followed that the more sinful they were, the better he worked out his rais,siou by seeking them out, and as- .soeiating with them. Tlie Pharisees, baffled upon this point, sought to renew the im- peachment ; but to give greater weight to the fresh reproach whioli they were framing against Jesus Christ, they took the precaution of associating themselves with the disciples of John. The latter, as Mell as the Pharisees, were accustomed to practise extraordinary fasting, to which Jesus Christ had not subjected those who profess- ed to follow him. These fasts were not prescribed by law ; t-hey might, therefore, be observed or omitted at pleasui-e. But althongli practices of devotion are matters of free choice, each individual i> prepossessed in fiivor of his own; and it is very rare for this preju- dice to stop short of condemning those who do not conform to those practices. It was apparently this weakness which drew the disci- ples of John into the plotting of the Pharisees. («) " They came (a) St. Matthew, ix. 14 ; St. Mark, ii. 18 ; St. Luke, v. 33, 34. ■which Jesus Christ here refers the Pliarisees is from the Prophet Osee. Tnese men, on the contrary, preferred all the rest of religion to charity, which was, accurately speaking, turning religion upside down, by placing last of all what should occupy the first place. There is no neglect of divine worship in leaving the saciifice to exercise charity to- wards man. This is rendering to God the worship most pleasing to him. God has no need of our sacrifice, and he loves men : these two truths heighten this worship into a very excellent religion. By this we recognize the perfect independence and infinite good- ness of God, those two attributes wliich entitle him the most to the homage of our minds and of our hearts. This maxim has given rise to an abuse, \"iz., limiting religion to doing good towards men. It is onlv in the competition of both duties, when they come in collision, that we should prefer the sernce of our neighbor to the worship of God ; and then we should merely do so because God wishes us so to act. To prefer, tlierefore, the external duties of religion to charity towards our neighbor is Pharisaical ; and to comprise all religion in the love and ser\nce of our neighbor, is acknowledging our fellow-citizens, and disowning our King — embracing our brethren, and denying our Father ; it is impiety — it is declared rebellion against the greatest and be.st of all kings and of all fathers. (15) This ought not to hinder us from believing that Jesus Christ came to save all men ; for all have sinned, saith Saint Paul, mid are in want of the phry of God, that !■ to say, of the grace of the Redeemer. An ironical meaning is also given to these word-, in reference to the Pharisees : You take scandal at seeing me prefer the company of sin- ners to yours; are you ignorant, then, that /,a#» come lo call sinners, and not thrjitst, such as you pretend to be ? 88 THE HISTORY OF TILE LtFE [pART I. and said to Jesus : Why do the disciples of John and of the Phari- sees fast often and make prayers; but thine eat and drink, and do not fast? He said to them: Can the children of the bride- groom (16) mourn, and can you make them fast whilst the bride- groom is with them ? But the days will come when the bride- groom shall be taken away, and then they shall fast (17)." Therefore, Jesus did not dispense his disciples from fasting ; he merely disposed them to do so at a more convenient time ; and in order to make them better understand that in acting thus he did not mean to flatter their passions, but to accommodate himself to their weakness, («) " he spoke a similitude to them. No man put- teth a piece from a new garment uj^on an old garment, otherwise he both rendeth the new, and the piece taken from the new agreeth not with the old." It occurs also that " the new pieceing taketh away from the old, and there is made a greater rent. And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; otherwise the new wine will break the bottles, and it will be spilled, and the bottles will be lost. But new wine must be put into new bottles, and both are j^reserved. And no man drinking old hath presently a mind to new ; for he saith : The old is better." This means that, generally speaking, the more excellent things are in themselves, the less likely are they to be good for beginners. We should proportion ourselves to their weakness. Perfection should only be jsresented to them at a dis- tance, and as if it were rather an object for their admiration than for their imitation ; they shoidd be merely invited, and not seem- ingly forced to approach it, lest, by endeavoring to form perfect (a) St. Luke, V. 36-39; St. Mark, ii. 21, 22. (16) We ma)' recollect that John, in one of the testimonies he rendered to Jesiis Christ, designated him by the title of bridegroom. The disciples of John could not have forgot- ten this ; and Jesus Christ, in making use of the same expression, gives ground for be- lieving that they introduced the expression here. (IT) We are almost tempted to smile at the extravagance of heretics. The Calvinists rejected the fast of Lent, because Jesus Christ said that his disciples should not fast while he was with them, altliough he added tliat they should fiist after he was taken away. And because he said that they should fast when he was taken away — that is to say, if you will, immediately after his death — Montanus and Priscilla, according to the report of Saint Jerome, placed Lent between Easter and Pentecost. Cll\P. Xn.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 89 men of those wlio Lave Imt receutly Ijecome just, relapsing sinners may be the result of such mistaken zeal. Thus Jesus instructed his Church ; and whilst he seemed merely answering an ill-founded re- proach, he gave to his present and future ministers these admu-able lessons of mildness and of condescension. CHAPTER xn. A WOMAN HEALED OF AN ISSUE OF BLOOD. TIIE DAUGHTER OF JATEUS EESCSCITA- TED. THE BLIND SEE. DEVILS CAST OUT. (resence necessary for a miracle. For this reason (i) " he besought him much, saying : My daughter is at the point of death ; come lay thy hand upon her, that she may be safe, and may live. Jesus ris- ing up, went with him, and followed him, with his disciples." (c) " It happened as he went that he wjxs thronged by the multi- tudes. There was a certain woman there who was troubled with an (a) St. Matthew, ix. 18 ; St. Mark, v. 21, (6) St. Mark, v. 2.3, 24 ; St. Matthew, 22; St. Luke, viii. U. ix. 19. (c) St. Luke, viii. 42 ; St. Mark, v. 25-2'7 ; St. Matthew, ix. 20, 21. (1) He who presided at the meetings of the Synagogue, which were held on Sabbath day.s. The place where they were held was called Synagogue, a Greek word meaning assembli/. At these meetings the Holy Scripture was read, e.\hortations given, and psalms sung, the only exercises of religion allowed the Jews outside the Temple of Jeru- salem. S'^me authors confidently assert that before the destruction of this great city, it had not less than four hundred and eighty of these synagogues. Every one knows that the Jews still have them in several cities of Europe where they are tolerated. a 90 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAKT I. issue of blood twelve years, and liad suffered many things from many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing the l)et- ter, but rather worse ; this wovuvn then, when she had heard of Je- sus, came in the crowd behind him, and (a) touched the hem of his garment, for she said to herself: If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed. Forthwith the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body she was healed of the evil (2). Imme- diately Jesus, knowing in himself the virtue which had proceeded from him, turning to the multitude, said : Who hath touched my garment ? And all denying, Peter and they that were with him said : Master, the multitudes throng and press thee, and dost thou say, Who touched me ? Jesus said : Somebody hath touched me, for I know that virtue is gone out from me. And he looked about to see her who had done this :" for he was not ignorant of her, but he thus conformed himself to our method of acting; and because he wished that the miracle which he had wrought should be known, he thus prepared the way for its manifestation, by obliging her to speak whose deposition alone could disclose and prove the fact. For (5) " the woman knowing what was done in her, seeing that she was not hid, fearing and trembling, came and fell down before his feet, and told him all the truth, and declared before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was im- mediately healed, (c) Jesus turning, and seeing her, said to her : Be of good heart, daughter ; thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace, and be thou whole of thy disease. And the woman was made whole from that hour," perfectly and without any relapse. As ((/) " Jesus was yet speaking, there cometh one to the ruler of (a) St. Mark, v. 29, 30 ; St. Luke, viii. 45, (c) St. Mattliew, ix. 22 ; St. Mark, v. 46 ; St. Mark, v. 32. 34. (i) St. Mark, v. 33 ; St. Luke, viii. 47. [d) St. Luke, viii. 49. (2) The robe worn by Jesus Christ has, therefore, wrought a miracle. Calvin, who was apprehensive, and reasonably so, that the inferences from this miracle must be favor- able to relics, finds out indiscreet zeal and a dash of superstition in the action of this wo- man. Jesus Christ finds in it faith : he openly praises this faith ; he accords to the meiit of this faith a cure ; and this fiiith, by the report of the three evangelists, is the same which made this woman say. If I shall touch only his garment, I shall be healed. Who are we to believe in this matter ? n -, — 0- n CHAP. XII.] OF OCR LORD JKSUS CHRIST. 91 the synagogue, saying to Jiim : Thy daughter is dead, trouble him not" uselessly. Jairus, whose faitli had received a new impulse from the miracle of whicli he had just been a witness, did not despair for all that. (^) " Lord," said he, " my daughter is even now dead ; but come lay thy hand ujjou her, and she shall Uve." For thus one of the evangelists makes him speak ; and they are all unanimous in placing here this expression, which is different from what the other evangelists make him utter, who only make him speak of the ex- tremity^ of his daughter, (p) " Jesus hearing this word, answered the father of the maid : Fear not, believe only, and she shall be safe. AVhen he was come to the house, he suffered not any man to go in with him but Peter, and James, and John, and the father and mother of the maiden. He saw the minstrels (3) and the multitude making a tumult, weeping and wailing much ; all mourned for her. Why make you this ado (saith he to them going in), and weep ? (c) Give place, for the girl is not dead, but sleepeth (4). And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. He having put them all out, taketh the father and the motlier of the damsel, and them that were with them, and eutereth in where the damsel was lying, (rt') Taking her by the hand, he cried out to her : Talitha cumi, which is, being interpreted : Damsel, I say to thee arise, (e) Her sjîirit returned. She arose immediately, and walked. She was twelve years old. Jesus commanded that something should be given her to eat. Her parents were astonished. He charged them strictly to (a) St. Matthc-n-, ix. 18. (c) St. Matthew, \x. 24; St. Luke, viii. (5) St. Luke, viii. 50, 51 ; St. Matthew, 53 ; St. Mark, v. 40. is. 23 ; St. Mark, v. 38. {d) St, Luke, viii. 54 ; St. Mark, v. 41. (e) St. Luke, viii. 55, 56 ; St. Mark, v. 42, 43 ; St. Matthew, ix. 26. (3) It was a custom common to botli Jews and Gentiles to hire flute-players, who accompanied with moumfid airs the lamentations which were made at funerals. Al- thoui;;h we are ignorant whence the usage derived its origin, the probability is, that the Jews borrowed it from the Gentiles. If we were to conclude from thence, as some writer has done, tluit the flute-players in question here were Gentiles, must we not contend also that all our painters are Italians, inasmuch as painting comes from Italy? (4) A death which was to be confined, by so speedy a resuiyection, to scarcely the duration of a short slumber, should be called sleep rather than death. L^.^ 92 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAKT I. tell no man what was done (5)." Yet " the fame hereof went abroad into all that country." ((7.) " As JesQS passed from thence" into the house where he dwelt, " there followed him two ])liud men, crying out and saying : O, son of David, have mercy on us." It was undoubtedly in order to try their faith that Jesus, who heard them, declined stopping. " AYhen he was come to the house, the blind men," who had still kept follow- ing him, "came to him, and he saith to them: Do you believe that I can do this unto you? Yea, Lord, they say to him. Then he touched their eyes, saying : According to your faith be it done unto you. And their eyes were opened ; and Jesus strictly charged them, saying : See that no man know this. But they going out, spread his fame abroad in all that country." " When they were gone out, they brought him a dumb man pos- sessed with a devil." An evangelist conveys to us that he was dumb by the influence of the devil himself, because the devil hindered the possessed man from speaking, thus informing us that this hindrance did not come upon the man from any natural cause, but from the de- mon tying his tongue. This construction seems obvious, from the (a) St. Matthew, ix. 27-34. (5) There were too many witnesses of the death to give a mysterious character to the resurrection, and tlie secrecy imposed by Jesus Christ upon this occasion can merely ap- ply to the mode in which he wrought the miracle. Jesus Christ exacted the like secrecy for the ensuing miracle, and in some other transactions. We may be asked what reason had he for this line of conduct, be who wrought pubhcly so great a number of miracles, and who, far from desiring to make a mystery of them, frequently gave orders to pub- lish them. Out of the several reasons assigned, the only one which has some probability is, that he wished to inform his disciples, and all those to whom he should communicate the gift of miracles, to conceal them as much as in their power, and thus steal away from the applause of men. Many saints have profited from this lesson, and we know the pre- cautions they have taken to ■nnthdraw from the eyes of the world the wonders which God operated by their means. Thus is explained why Jesus Christ wished some of his mira- cles to be kept secret, but not why he pursued this course in regard of such and such a miracle more than any other. Not that no reasons are advanced by those who imder- take to explain every thing, but no satisfactory reason has been put forward. Let us be content to know that he had reasons highly worthy of his wisdom, deduced from the cir- cumstances of time, place, and person. The secret was not always kept by those upon whom it was enjoined. Whatever the rigid Calvin may think, Catholic divines do not tax them with this as a crime. Gratitude, which made them speak, excused this want of submission to orders which they merely attributed to the modesty of their benefactor. CHAP. XII.] OF OCR LORD JESI'S CHRIST. 93 manner iu wliicli tlie cure is recounted ; for, " after the tle%àl was cast out, the dumb man spoke. The multitudes wondered, saying : Never was. the Hke seen in Isrueh But the Pharisees said : By the prince of devils he casteth out de\nls." Jesus did not then condemn this blasphemy, which jierhaps had not been uttered in his presence. We shall see, upon another occa- sion, that he answered it in a manner which covered with shame those who dared to advance the like within his hearing ; the result was, that they became his irreconcilable enemies. For to be utterly devoid of blame is the highest offence in en^dous eyes. SECOND PASSOVER. Jesus left the Pharisees of Galilee for a time, to go seek those of the capital. If the latter were not more malignant, they were more formidable in point of number, as also by theh* proselytes and the facility there exists in large cities for caballing and exciting popular outbreaks. But it was not for the purpose of warring with them that the mildest of men came to meet them ; he sought only to en- lighten and convert them. It was a religious motive that induced him to make this journey. It was the feast of the Jews, which we believe, -with many interpreters, to have been that of Passover, were it merely for the reason of its being called here simply " the Feast." It is known that this was the principal of the three feasts for which the law ordained that every Jew should repair to Jerusalem. Jesus, the author of the law, had voluntarily made himself a subject of the law, and he always observed it with the most perfect punctuality. He came, therefore, to the feast with his disciples, and a miraculous cure, by which he signalized his arrival, was for the Pharisees an oc- casion to calumniate him ; to him an opportunity for instructing them by an admii-able discoui*se. Here is the manner in which these thinpfs occui'red. 94 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. CHAPTER XIII. PEOBATICA. A MAN INFIRM THIRTY-EXGHT YEARS HEALED. DISCOUKSE OF JESUS CHRIST TO THE JEWS. (a) "There [teas'] (I) at Jerusalem a pond called Fvohatica (2), which in Hebrew is named Bethsaida, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of sick, of bUud, of lame, of withered, waiting (a) St. Jolin, V. 2-41. (1) We read in the text: There is at Jerusalem a pond which has five porches. This form of expi-ession seems to show clearly that Jerusalem still existed when Saint John wrote this. Still the opinion of the most ancient doctors, and of those whose au- thority ranks highest, is, that Saint John did not compose his Gospel until several years after the ruin of Jerusalem. In referring to then- authority, I own I would have desired to find an answer to this difficulty, which they seem not even to have thought of. Two things are possible, each of which, if true, would suflSce to reconcile Saint John's foiin of expression with the date which all antiquity assigns to his Gospel: 1st. After the capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus, the town was not so utterly destroyed as not to leave some edifices standing, and some Jews occupying them. Some writers even maintain that the}' still preserved there some synagogues until the time of their last, and their utter and irrevocable expulsion, which was under the Emperor Adrian. The pond and the porticoes might then still exist, and Saint John could speak of them as of things actually existing. 2d. Saint John, who according to constant tradition did not publish his Gospel until after the capture of Jerusalem, might very well have written previously some passages which he may have inserted afterwards in the body of the work. We have now only to suppose that the cure of the paralytic was one of these passages written before the capture of Jerusalem, and the difficulty will be resolved, at least for those who are satisfied to be content with these suppositions. (2) This Greek word probatka signifies sheep-pond. This name was given either be- cause it lay near the gate by which the sheep entered into the city, or because this pond was in the market where thej' were exposed for sale, or because they were washed there before being immolated, or perhaps because the waters which had been made use of in washing the immolated victims were brought thither by subterraneous channels. This last conjecture has induced several to think that it was for this reason God had com- municated to these waters the miraculous virtue which is about to be related, and which made them be regarded as a figure of the waters of baptism. These waters extract from the blood of the Lamb immolated for the sins of the world, the vivifying virtue which communicates to souls the supernatural life of grace, by a miracle far superior to all cures and all corporeal resiu^rections. The Anabaptists regard as fabulous this miraculous sheep-pond spoken of by Saint CHAP. Xin.] OF OUK LORD JESUS CHRIST. 95 for the moving of the water. An angel of the Lord descended at certain times into the pond, and the water was moved. He that went down first into the pond after the motion of the water was made whole, of whatsoever infirmity he lay under. There was a certain man there, that had been eight-and-thirty years under his infirmity. When Jesus had seen him lying, and knew he had been now a long time, he saitli to him : Wilt thou be made whole ? The infirm man answered : Sii-, I have no man, when the water is troub- led, to put me into the pond ; for whilst I am coming, another goeth down before me. Arise, Jesus saith to him, take up thy bed and walk. Immediately the man was made whole, and he took up his bed, and walked. It was the Sabbath that day. The Jews there- fore said to him that was healed : It is the Sabbath ; it is not lawful for thee to take up thy bed. He answered : He that made me whole, he said to me : Take up thy bed and walk." The man was pertectly justified in doing as he did by the order of him who had so miraculously efi'ected his cure, whilst the author of that order was justified at the same time by the miracle which he had wrought. The Jews, who merely sought to criticise, seemed to pay no attention to what this man stated about his recovery, and they did not ask htm, "WTio is that man who cured thee ? but only, " Who is that man who said to thee : Take up thy bed and walk ? But he who was healed knew not who it was ; for Jesus went aside from the multitude standbig in the place. Afterwards, Jesus find- eth him in the temple, and saith to him : Behold, thou art made whole : sin no more, lest some worse thing happen thee. The man wont his way, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole," and not that it was Jesus who had given him the order to take away his bed. This shows that gratitude prompted him to speak, and that his intention was not to denounce Jesus as a Nnola- tor of the Sabbath, but to make him known as author of the mir- acle. Yet " the Jews," who were only willing to see in hira the first of .Tohn, Ix'cause .Tosephus, tlio .Ii^wish historian, doos not speak of it. If Saint .Tohn did not speak of it, and Joseplms did, apparently llicy would believe it. Wc believe just whoever wc please when we believe only what wc like. 96 THE HISTOEY OF THE LIFE [PART I. these two characters, " therefore did persecute Jesus, because he did these things on the Saljbath :" for here is the commenceinent of that compLniut, which they renewed every time that the occasion pre- sented itself, although the reproaches which they cast upon Jesus on this subject turned always to their own confusion, by the replies he made, and which they never could answer. Still, once that hatred had induced them to say : "He breaks the Sabbath," they never ceased repeating it ; and passion, Avhich Uindfolded them, so as to hinder them from seeing the absurdity of this accusation, steeled their hearts, rendering them insensible of the disgrace which recoiled back uj)ou themselves every time they renewed the charge. Here, then, is the answer which Jesus then made. " My Father worketh until now (3) ; and I work." Sublime expression ! signifying that the action which Jesus Christ had just performed was above all criticism, because it was as much the action of his Father as his own. Whence it followed, that as there was existmg l)etween him and his Father unity of action, there must also have Ijeen unity of nature ; and that when he called God his father, he did not do so in the sense of adoption, which was not unknoMoi to the Jews, and would not, therefore, have scandalized them, but in the sense of gen- eration, l)y virtue of which he attril)uted to himself divine nature, and perfect equality with God. I say that this was a manifest con- secpience, for so the Jews understood it ; and as then* envy redoul)led in proportion to the great things which Jesus disclosed to them in reference to himself, "-they sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the Sabbath, but also said God was his father, making himself equal to God (4)." To which he rephed by the (3) My Father worketh until now, that is to say, there is no time or no day during which my Father doth not act, not excepting the Sabbath-day. Tliis is the seventli day, upon which day God rested, after employing six days in the creation of the -world. He wished that in meriiory of this rest the seventh day might be consecrated to him by a religious stillness. Yet God only rested inasmuch as he ceased to create new species ; for he never ceases working their preservation and their production. The same ceaseless action exists in the Son, and is not distinguished from that of the Father. (4) If Jesus Christ is not equal to his Father, the duty was imperatively incumbent on him of disabusing the Jews, when they thought they found this equality conveyed by his words. Yet he has not done so, and we are going to hear him express himself upon the point in terms much stronger than those he had heretofore made use of. Wherefore CHAP, xm.] OF OIK L01ÎD JE3CS CHRIST. 91 follo-nàng discourse, in wliicli two different parts, as it were, are dis- tinguished. Tlie fii-st is tlie furtlier development of the expression we have just noted, and the direct justification of his own conduct on the present occasion. The second establishes the divinity of his mission, by all the proofs that can render it incontestable. He re- sumed, therefore, in these terms : " Amen, I say to you, the Son can- not do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing ; for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in hke man- ner: for the Father loveth the Son, and showeth him all things which himself doth, and greater works than these will he show him, that you may wonder." Unity of operation and of natm'e, and perfect equality betwet.-ii the Father and the Son, are found exjjlaiued in this passage. Still, it is well to observe that here it is said, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but oidy what he seeth the Father doing. Not in the meaning attached to these words by the Arians, viz. : — ^That he bor- rows from the Father any knowledge which he had not in himself, or any power in which he was deficient ; but, because the Son acts solely through the knowledge and power which he receives fi'om the Father through the eternal generation. This, very far from limiting the one or the other, proves the infinitude of both; for what the Father possesses from all eternity the same doth he com- municate in all its plenitude to his Son, without losing any thing for what he gives, or ceasing to possess what he incessantly communi- cates. It is in this sense that the Son cannot do any thing without the Father. But it is not the less true, as the fathers of the Chui'ch said to the Arians, that the Father cannot do any tiling without the Son, since the divine nature, which is common t') the Father and the Son, cannot divide itself, nor, whdst it acts in the Son, cesise to act in the Father. Yet, as the cure of this man languishing under paralysis was but there is no mediura : either he possesses divine nature, or he wishes to usurp its honors ; and, if not God, he is an impostor. Now, he is not an impostor, iiccording to the avow;il of the Arians and Socinians, wlio, when combating liis divinity, nevertheless acknowledge him as the envoy of God, and subscribe to the truth of all his words. Tliis rcasoniiig must ever be a rock against which their hollow subtleties shall dash to pieces. 7 98 THE IIISTOIÎY OF THE LIFE [PART I. a slight exertion of the infinite power which the Father has commu- nicated to the Son, Jesus Christ prepares the Jews to see its effects on a more extensive scale, and in a manner mol^ calculated to ex- cite their admiration. " For," said he to them, " as the Father rais- eth up the dead, and giveth life, so the Son also giveth life to whom he will." Therefore the power of giving life, or of raising the dead, is no more restricted in the Father than in the Son ; for, to say that the Son giveth life to " whom he will," is saying veiy plainly that his power hi this respect is unlimited. And as that great miracle of the general resurrection, in which the Son shall operate conjointly with the Father, must be followed immediately by universal judg- ment, Jesus Christ takes therefrom an opportunity to declare to the Jews, that, besides the power of resuscitating, he has received from his Father authority to judge, which, in one sense, is peculiarly his own. " For," he also says, " neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son, that aU may honor the Son as they honor the Father (5)." This is done in the present state of (5) The last judgment will be the judgment of God, and, considered as a divine act, will be common to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, because the three persons of the adorable Trinity concur equally in all the actions which God produces beyond himself. By the sacred Immanity of the Man-God, which shall serve as their instniment on this occasion, will the three persons exercise this judgment; and so far we see no dif- ference between them. But this humanity, which alone shall appear in this great ac- tion, is properly the Son's, who has united himself with it, and not the Father's or the Holy Ghost's, who have not contracted with it a similar union. In this respect judg- ment belongs more to the Son than to the Father or the Holy Ghost, because, when judging by his humanity, the Son judges by an instrument united to himself, whereas the Father and the Holy Ghost judge by an instrument separated from them respectively. Divines express themselves thus ; and this may be better understood by saying that when judging by the humanity, the Son judges by himself, whereas the Father — and the same may be said of the Holy Ghost — ^judges by another person than himself, but who at the same time is another self ; a fasliion of speech which can only have a literal signification when speaking with reference to the three persons of the adorable Trinity. The Fathers advance several reasons why God wished that judgment should be exer- cised by the sacred humanity of the Saviour. 1st. To indemnify him for the profound humiliation to which he voluntarily reduced himself, conformably to those words of Saint Paul; He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant He humbled himself, hccoming obedient unto death, and unto the death of the cross. For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow that are in heaven, on earth, and under the CHAP, xin.] OF oriî lord jisxrs ciikist. 99 existence by those who heheve in the Son, and cousequcutl}" who ren- (h'r him the honors due to the only Son of the Father, and its accom- plishment shall be seen in a much more dazzling manner at the day (if judgment, when Jesus Christ shall be recognized and honored by all men, not even exce])tiug those who shall have refused to believe in hhn, but who can now no longer pretend not to know him, when they shall see him come in a cloud of light, full of majesty and glory, armed with might and power, and by the prodigies of his right arm announcing to all nature its Lord and its King. Then, convinced 1 >}- the e^•idence of their own eyes, they shall at least recognize him by theii' involuntary tremor and forced adoration, and they shall have nothing to plead in reply to the sentence by which they shall be declared attainted and convicted of the crime of high treason against the Di\Tne Majesty, for having refused him during life the faith and homage which were due to him ; whereby they have as gi'ossly in- sulted the Father as himself : " For he who honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father, who hath sent him." And he that would simply honor him as an envoy of the Father, could not escape a similar condemnation ; because that, not honoring him as the Son, in which quality he has been sent, is equally despising T)oth Father and Son. Happy those for whom this resurrection shall be the commence- ment of a life eternally happy ! But to this end they must have had share in the firet resurrection, which is from the death of sin to earth. 2d. To confer on Jesus Christ the spocial glorj- of judging those by whom lie has been judged, and of justly condemning those by whom he has been unjustly con- demned. The latter shall see with unutterable dread the scars of the wounds which their brutal fury imprinted on his innocent flesh, according to these words : Theij shall look on him whom they pierced (St. John, xix. 3T). 3d. That men may have a judge to whom they cannot object. He is man like themselves, bone of their bone and flesh of their flesh. Will they object to him who has only become their judge because he con- descended to become their brother ? He is their Sa%nour, who only acquired this quali- fication at the expen.se of his peace, his glor)*, his blvish (which I know not whether to call chimerical or hypocritical) to a sincere, absolute, and efficacious wisli, tending to the end by the means, and embi'acing every thing without exception and without reserve ? (12) Tliis is not merely a threat, 'tis prophetic of what was going to happen immedi- CHAI». XJII.] OF OUK LOKD JESUS CHKISÏ. 103 (lulity should not excite surprise. There is nothing in faith that flatters human pride ; being little esteemed amongst men, faith at- tracts the complacency of God alone. " How can you believe, who receive glory one from another, and the glory which is from God ately after the death of Jesus Clirist. All those who wished to assiune to themselves the title of Messiah, found followers amongst them, and the prodigy of their credulity in this regard equals that of their incredulity. Tenible, yet just chastisement of that vol- untary blindness which, after havhig closed their eyes to the truth, renders them the dupes, and at last the victims of the grossest illusions and the most absurd lies ! Let us dread this, s'mce it is daily renewed before our eyes. A\Tien men decline hearkening to the voice of those whom God has established as interpreters of his oracles, they listen to others, for after all the people do not know how to construct for themselves a system of religion, and error, hke faith, cometh to them by hearing (Rom. x. 17). Wherefore to them it Ls a necessity to hearken to other masters ; and to what masters do they hearken ? First of all, to men without title, without credentials, without mission, who hear witness of themselves, who must be credited on their word, when, with a boldness as ridiculous as 'tis insolent, they come and teU, / alotie am more enhghtened bi mattere of religion, I imderstand Scriptui-e better than all the doctors and all the piistore of the Chuixh. But this is merely the beginning of the illusion. After having rejected those really sent by God, the people receive as envoys of God every one who presents himself before them. By means of considerable effronterj- and some strokes of jugglery, a man, quahfied at most to figure as a mountebank, sets the rumor afloat that he is a prophet, and a thou- sand voices are heard repeating, He is a prophet. Others come to enlist themselves, and as all have an equal right, there soon appears formed a body of prophets and prophet- esses, composed of the veiy dregs of the lowest populace. In language worthy of those who use it, they retail the most monstrous conceits, such nn-ings as the excitement of fever could scarcely engender in the brain of a distempered patient. All that is intelli- gible is their palpable impiety ; but in general they do not understand themselves. Whether we can understand them or not, still they are oracles, who are Ustened to with religious attention, who are entertained, whose sajings are reported and treasured up like a second Scripture, more respected than the first, which now is merely made use of to clothe their extravagant whims in sacred expressions. The mind once fascinated and carried away, the flesh has no longer any bridle : the filth of impurity mingles with the visions of fanaticism, and comes to be incorporated with its fearful mysteries. And w^ell would it be if they did not soon pass from lust to crucliy, from folly to phrensy ; if they did not advance with torch and steel in hand to accomphsli the sanguinary predictions of those prophets, who never cease announcing the impending and utter ruin of their adver- saries ! To such a pitch does this rciison degrade and \ilify itself, when too proud to bend under the salutary yoke of di\-ine authority. This is an abridgment of the history of the Gnostics, the Montanists, the PrLscilianists, the Donatists, the Albigenses, the Huss- ites, the Anabaptists, the fanatics of Cevennes, CILVP. XIV.] OF OUU LORD JlSrS CHlilST. 109 wliicli rather unmasks tliau dkguises passion, (a) " beliold, thy disci- ples do that which is not hiwful to do on the Sabbath days." " Have you not read, said Jesus, ausweriug them, have you not read what David did when he was hungry himself, and they that were with him ? How he entered into the house of God (6) under Abiathar (7), the high priest ; took and eat the bread of proposition (8), which it is not lawful for him to eat, nor for them that were with him (9), but for the priests only ? Or have you not read in the law, that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple break the Sabbath, and ai'e without blame ? But I tell you that there is 7ie/'e a greater than tÂe temple." He spoke of himself, and this was one of those expressions which, as it were, escaped him, whereby he discovered his di\dnity to those who hearkened attentively to his words, and apphed themselves to imderstand them ; for who is gi-eater^than the temple, if it be not the Lord of the temple ? Afterwards he added, to let them know that the motive for the reproach they made him was no other than that zeal which they so pompously paraded ; (b) " K you knew what this meaneth, I will have mercy (10), and not sacrifice, you would never have condenmed the innocent." Jesus Chi-ist had akeady («) St. Matthew, xii. 2, 3 ; St. Mark, ii. 26 ; St. Luke, vi. 4 ; St. Matthew, xii. 4-6. (6) St. Matthew, xii. 1. (6) In the first inclosui-e of the tahemacle, where laymen were allowed to enter. This occurred at Nobe, a sacerdotal town, wliither the tabernacle was transported from SUo. (") It is written in the 1st book of Kings, chap, xxi., that the high priest from whom Da\id asked the bread was Achhnelech, the father of Abiathar. Several answers have been given to this difficulty. The most decisive is, that it is settled by the 2d book of Kings, chap, viii., and by the 1st of Paralipomenon, chap, xviii., that the father and the son had each of them the two names of Achimelech and Abiathar. (8) So called because the bread was proposed, or presented, before the face of the Lord upon a table called, for this reason, the table of the bread of proposition. They were piled up, six on each side. The twelve represented the twelve tribes of Israel who protested by tliis offering that they held from the Lord all their subsistence. They were renewed every Sabbath-day, and those which were taken away could only be eaten by the priest, and that within the inclosure of the tabernacle. (9) David presented himself alone ; but those that were with him were in the Wcinity, as we also see in the 21st chap, of the 1st book of Kings. (10) See the 14th note of the 11th chap., page 86. 110 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. quoted tliis maxim against tliem iu a case similar to tliis, and thus we see how earnestly he desired that this truth should be deeply engraven on every mind. Finally, to wind up his reply and the les- son which it had furnished him with an occasion of giving, (») " he said to them: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath ; therefore, the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath also." The one follows evidently from the other, since the Son of man being the king and master of all men, hath under his control every thing connected with men, and whatever is made for them, as was the Sabbath. Wherefore, he hath a right to dispense them, and he did so in the present circumstance ; for it is ackowledged by all, that the disciples then required a dispensation — not, as we have already said, for taking the ears of corn away fi-om the people's crops, nor even for bruising them between their hands, which was equivalent to breaking bread into pieces before eating, an action which could never require any defence ; — but a dispensation was requisite to enable them to gather these ears of com on the Sabbath-day, which was expressly forbidden, and from this prohibition Jesus Christ dis- jîensed them. Undoubtedly he had a right to do so ; and no one was entitled to call him to account for the reasons upon which he grounded the dispensation. Yet he condescended to give them, and, on close examination, we find in them the foundation of a complete apology : 1st. By declaring himself Lord of the Sabbath, he estab- lished his sovereign right to dispense with it. 2d. The law was, by its nature, susceptible of dispensation ; iaasmuch as, being made for man, it was natural it should give way to his real and pressing neces- sities. 3d. The motive which induced God to use this indulgence is his goodness. He is better pleased that men should break the rest which he commanded them, than allow themselves to be pressed by hunger, so as to run the risk of falling from weakness. Such is the direct meaning of this expression, " I will have mercy, and not sacri- fice," without prejudice to the moral sense which we have affixed to it, and which it likewise had when uttered by Jesus Christ. 4th. The disciples were in a position requiring dispensation for two (a) St. Mark, ii. 27. CHAP. XX-I OF OtTî LORD JESUS CHRIST. Ill i-easons : of these, necessity was the first. Tliis had aiithorizecl David in an action which, under any other ch-cumstances, would have been deemed a sort of sacrilege ; therefore, such necessity must, for a much stronger reason, have authorized the disciples in the seeming ■violation of a less important law. The second reason is, the sanctity of the functions in which they were employed. This justifies, or rather sanctifies, the working of the priests in the temple, for the preparation and immolation of victims, whence arose the Jewish proverb : There is no Sabbath in the temple. How much the more ought it to justify and sanctify the actions of those who, being at- tached to the person of Jesus Christ, and having become his co- operators, are occupied in ministrations much more holy than all those of the ancient priesthood ! The remark has been made that Jesus Chiist justifies his disciples by the example of holy and reli- gious men, yet that, when his object was to justify himself person- ally, he merely alleges the example of his Father, comparing thus man to man, and a God to a God. CHAPTEE XV. THE WITHERED HAND RESTORED. inLX)NES8 OF JESUS CHRIST FORETOLD. CAIXINO OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. Tms complaint was soon renewed. Shortly after the fact we have just related, (a) " it came to pass, also on another Sabbath- day, that Jesus entered into the synagogue, and taught. There was a man whose right hand was withered. The Scribes and the Phari- sees watched if he would heal on the Sabbath, and they asked Jesus : Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days ?" They spoke thus, " that they might find an accusation against him," or make him con- tradict himself, if he hesitated at all in his reply. Either that, or they designed to accuse him of gross prevarication, if he advanced what, in their eyes, was a most scandalous maxim, viz., it is lawful (a) St. Luke, vi. 6, 7 ; St. Matthew, xii. 10. 112 THE HISTOET OF TKE LDE [part I. to Ileal ailments ou tlie Sabbath-day. (ci) " Jesus, who kuew tlieii' thoughts," disconcerted them in a way which, while it covered them with shame, did but render theii" hatred more fuiious, and their re- sentment more implacable. " He said to the man who had the withered hand : Arise, and stand forth in the midst. And, rising, he stood forth." Then, addressing himself to the Pharisees, " I ask you, if it be lawful on the Sabbath days to do good or to do evil — to save life or to destroy (1) ?" — ^that is to say, not to save life when it is within om* power to do so ; for between the two extremes of saving and depriving of life by a positive act, there is a medium, which consists in inaction, or doing neither good nor evil. But the proof that Jesus used this expression in the sense which we attach to it, is this, that whereas they might have replied to him, (5) " they held their peace." Hence they acknowledged by their silence, that doing good to om* neighbor on the Sabbath-day, when this good is of a natm-e not to be deferred, is not an evil act ; and that we should rather be doiug an evil to our neighbor, heinous in proportion to this very good, if we omitted the good when in our power. But to make them feel the utter cruelty of theii' false zeal, Jesus added this comparison, drawn from their own conduct : (c) " What man, he said to them, shall there be among you, that hath one sheep, and if the same fall iato a pit on the Sabbath-day, will he not take hold on it and lift it up (2) ? How much better is a man than a sheep ? (a) St. Liike, vi. 8. (b) St. Mark, iii. 4. (c) St. Matthew, xii. 11, 12; St. Mark, iii. 4 ; St. Matthew, xii. 13. (1) Not to save tlic life of the soul or that of the body, when in our power so to do, is taking away one or the other. Who is there that will not be alarmed at this ? But who can excuse those whom God has charged with the care of souls, or to whom he has given the means of relieving the wants of the body ? (2) What then was permitted is expressly forbidden by the canon law of the Jews, and the Rabbis are become more scnipulous on this point than the Pharisees were in the tirno of Jesus Christ. They say, notwithstanding, that when an animal falls into a pit on a Sab- bath-day, a person in that case can go down into the pit, place something under the ani- mal to raise it, and that, if it then escapes, the Sabbath is not violated. Poor subtlety, which would not hinder the Sabbath from being violated, in point of fact, if the law for- bid acting in a ohcumstance hke the present ; because to act it evidently is — descending into a pit, can-ying thither a stone or piece of stick, and placing it under qattle, which re- quire this aid to get out of the pit. It is well to remark, that with all their scruples, this class of people do not wish, nevertheless, to lose their sheep. CIIAP. XV.] OF OUR LOKD JESUS ( HUIST. 113 Therefore, it is lawful to do a good deed on the Sal)l)ath days," con- tinues he, in conclusion. lie seemed to pause for any answer thev might have to make ; " 1jut they hehl their peace," confounded with shame and vexation. " Jesus, looking round about on them with anger, being grieved for the Idindness of their hearts (3), saith to the man : Stretch forth thy hand. He stretched it forth, and his hand was restored to health, even as the other." At the sight of this miracle, " the Pharisees wei'e filled MÙth mad- ness," and assm-edly not wathout rea.son. Jesus Christ had clearly shown them that it was allowable to cure this man upon the Sab- bath-day, in whatever point of view the subject was examined. Still, had lie applied his hand, their mahgnity might have found room to ca%Tl anew ; but what could they say when they saw him employ nothing but speech ? Was it forbidden to speak upon the Sabbath-day ? — or, as to the words allowed to be spoken, must there be an exception against those which worked miracles ? They saw that the alisurdity would be too glaring did they hazard such objec- tions, and so being forced to hold their peace, they no longer heark- ened to any other impulse than that of exasperated and furious pas- sion, (fl) " Going out, they immediately made a consultation -n-ith the Ilerodians (4), how " they might destroy him" whom they could nut confound. (Jj) " Jesus knowing it" — he, whose power could nulhfy the efforts of his enemies with the same facUity as his wisdom had disconcerted the vain subtleties of their words, wished on this occasion to give his disci])les the example of the conduct they shovdd pursue in the pei-secutions they were to encounter. He appeared to j-ield before the storm, (c) "and retired with them to the sea. A great multitude (a) St. Mark, iii. 6. (6) St. Matthew, xii. 15. (c) St. Mark, iii. 7. (3) Sin is injurious to God, whom it offends, and wretched for man, who commits it. Inasmuch as it is an offence towards God, it excites tlio indignation of Jesus Christ, and the evil it does men causes him grief. This is so, because Jesus Christ loves both God and m;in. True zeal is that which has its origin in both these affections. (4) We are ignorant who these Herodians were. They may have constituted a reli- gious sect, or a political ))arty— perhaps both together. Verj- likely they derived the name of Herodians from their declared attachment to the person of Herod Antipas, then tetrarch of Galilee, or in general for the family of the Hcrods. 8 114 THE niSTORT OF THE LIFE [PART I. followed him fi-oin Galilee and Judea, fVom Jerusalem, from Idiimea, and beyond the Jordan. They about Tyre and Sidon, a great mul- titude, hearing the things which he did, came to him. Jesus sjjoke to his disciples, that a small ship should wait on him, because of the multitude, lest they should throng him. For he healed many, so that they pressed upon him for to touch him, as many as liad evils. (c() He healed them all, and he charged them that they should not make him known. (I)) The unclean spirits" — that is, the possessed, who were their instruments — " when they saw him, fell down before him, and they cried out, saying : Thou art the Sou of God. And he strictly charged them, that they should not make him known (5) ; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaias the prophet, saying (6) : Behold my servant, whom I have chosen ; my beloved, in whom my soul hath been well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not con- tend, nor cry out ; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. The bruised reed he shall not break, and smoking flax he shall not extinguish, till he send forth judgment unto victory. And in his name the Gentiles shall hope." Meekness, therefore, is one of the features which designate the Mes- siah, and he ought to be recognized by this amiable character. Were the Jews, then, mistaken when they figured to themselves a conquer- ing Messiah ? No : mistaken they were not, excepting in the mode (a) St. Matthew, xii. 15, 16. (6) St. Mark, iii. 11, 12 ; St. Matthew, xii. 17-21. (5) See note 4 of chapter x., page 73. (6) To connect this prophecy with what precedes it, it is said that Jesus Christ's inten- tion, in forbidding the publication of his divinity and his miracles, was to deprecate the anger of the Pharisees, who were ah-eady but too much exasperated against him. This motive was worthy of the meekness of Jesus Christ, who constitutes the object of this prophecy. Envy should not be so humored as to make us abstain from works of zeal and charity, at which it is unjust to take offence ; but we must soften their lustre as much as possible, in order not to increase its pain or augment its torment. There is malignity in insulting its grief, and putting straight before its eye the light which it hates and which fires this passion. If envy is unworthy of being treated with caution, such caution is due to charity, which nevfer allows us to take pleasiuc in another's pain ; this caution is also due to our own safety. Envy, when hritated, is capable of any thing ; and how often have its furious paroxysms, not treated with sufficient caution, upset the victor in his chariot, and changed into funereal pomp the exhibition of a triumph indiscreetly dis- played ! CHAI'. XV.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 115 of his couquests ; for a conqueror he wjis to Le, iu point of fact. Tlie justice alluded to here is the evangelical law, under which he was to reduce all nations ; yet not by force or terror. The means which he is to employ shall be a tone of voice so moderate, that no one shall ever remark in it either the animosity of contention or the l)rilliancy of dispute. He shall not advance amidst the overthi-ow and wreck of every obstacle on his passage, crushing all before him ; his step sliall be so soft, his tread so measm>ed, that he might put his foot ii2)on a bruised reed without breaking it, and on smoking fla.x with- out extinguishing the fire: terms of expression which, iu the hallow- ed language of Scripture, signify a meekness not only unalteralile, but also infinitely cautious not to shock the weak, and to soothe the in- firm. These are the weapons by which he shall triumph over all hearts, and, victorious over all nations, he shall first of all accomplish in his person that magnificent promise which he is just going to make to all the imitatoi-s of his incomparal)le meekness : (/i) " Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land !" He alone was more than sufficient for the execution of tliis great project. Yet, for the honor of human nature, with which he had not disdained to unite liimself, he wished that men should be his co- operatoi-s. Ah-eady he had disciples ; stiU up to then they were all nearly equal, and his wUl was that some of them should hold tlie fii-st rank amongst their companions, and be, as it were, the fathers and chiefs of the new jieople whom he was about consolidating on the earth. The moment was come when he was to make this choice of every one of those individuals — a choice of unparalleled impoi't- ance to the universe, and confemng the utmost glory upon those who had the happiness to be included. Before he commenced this undertaking, (/>)"he went out into a mountain to pray." We know that such a preparation was not requisite for him ; still it was dcsi- i-able that he should give the example to his Church, which made it incumbent on her to imitate him in this particular, as we see by the fîists and the prayers preceding the choice and consecration of her ministers, (e) " "When day was come, he called unto him his disciples, and they came to him. He chose twelve of them, whom he would (a) St. Matthew, v. 4. (c) St. Luke, vi. 13 ; St. Mark, iii. (6) St. Luke, vi. 12. 13, 14. 116 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. himself, that shouhl he with liim, and that he might send them to jîreach. He named them apostles \ivliicli signifies sent\ and he gave them the power to heal sicknesses and to cast out devils. («) The names of the twelve apostles are : Simon, whom he sui'named Peter, the first ; tlien James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James ; he named them Boanerges, which is, the sons of thmider ; Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, the publican; Thomas, James, the son of Alpheus, and Jude, his brother, named Thaddeus ; Simon, the Cananean, who is called Zelotes, and Judas Iscariot, who was the traitor (7)." This is the reason why life is always placed the last among the apostles. Peter is always named the first, as he was appointed head of the Apostolic College, and first pastor of the Church. James, son of Zebedee, is the same whom we call James the Elder. It is not in the sense in which they themselves seem to have originally understood the exj:)ression, that he and his brother were termed sons of thunder ; this name was only given to them to signify the lustre and energy of their preaching. James, the sou of Alpheus, is known by the name of James the Minor. He also is called in Scripture the brother of the Lord, with whom he, as well as his brother Jude, or Thaddeus, was closely connected. Each of them is the author of a separate canonical Epistle, bearing their re- spective names. Matthew, who, out of humility, gives himself here the title of Pul)lican, is the same as Levi, the son of another Alphe- us, spoken of elsewhere. Some are of opinion that Bartholomew is (a) St. Matthew, x. 2 ; St. Luke, vi. 14-16 ; St. Mark, iii. 17, 18. (7) Jesus chose Judas because he sincerely wished him to be an apostle. Judas ren- dered this choice woeful to himself by his treachery. This did not hinder the Savioui- from choosing him, because he was to serve to teach us that the gifts from God of the highest excellence always leave the man who has been endowed with -them the power of using or abusing them at his option. Called by the diWne vocation to the holiest of states, man may still be lost there ; and he should there work out his salvation with fear and with trembling. This treachery serves to teach us further, that as Judas, when he preach- ed by ■('irtuc of the mission he had received from Jesus Christ, should not have been less listened to than Saint Peter, so we must, therefore, ever respect in pastors the divine mis- sion, which they do not lose by their personal unworthiness ; and, lastly, we must know how to distinguish, on occasion, the individual from the body corporate, and the minister from the ministry, if we do not wish to be reduced to say that the apostles were a society of traitors, and the apostleship the school of treachery. CHAP. XVI.] OF OI'K LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wj not different from Natlianiel, one of the fii-st disciples in tlie order of vocation. If we find some relations of the Saviour among the apos- tles, Ave must not think that he chose them from motives of flesh and blood. Kindred furnishes no ground for elevating our connectionâ to ecclesiastical dignities ; yet neither does it furnLsh a reason for ex- cluding them. Besides, a vocation to tlie apostleship was then a des- tiny of labor, persecution, and martyrdom. If those who dispose of church patronage employ theii- relatives in the like ministries, they would rather be liable to the reproach of having sacrificed than of having emiched or elevated their family. Jesus was solicitous to make this choice in some quiet, remote place, and for that purpose had retired to the mountain. When this rea- son no longer detained him, he yielded to the desires and wants of the people who were expecting him. (r/) " Coming down with them, he stood in a plain ; and the company of his disciples, and a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea- coast both of Tyi-e and Sidon, who were come to hear him, and to be healed of then- diseases. They that were troubled with unclean sj)ir- its were healed; and aU the multitude sought to touch him, for vir- tue went out fi'om him, and healed all." CHAPTEK XVI. THE SEKilON ON THE MOUNT. After having cured bodily evils, he thought this was a fitting time to work out the salvation and perfection of souls, (b) " Seeing" then "the multitudes," who were come to hear him, and who were disposed 1)y his benefits to listen to him, and to hear him with fruit, " he went up \j7te vecond time] a mountain to an eminence," from which he could be seen and heard in the plain ; " and when he was set down, his disciples came unto him." Tlien " lifting up his eyes on his disciples, he said, and taught them," l)y the ensuing discourse, which he seems to have only addressed, at lea^st in great part, to (a) St. Luke, vi. 17-10. {J>) St. Matthew, v. 1, 2 ; Si. Luke, vi. 20. 118 TUE HISTOET OF THE LIFE [PART I. them alone, hut wliicli Le jironouuced in a tone of voice sufficiently elevated to be heard by all the jjeoj^le, as we may easily judge by the admiration which the sublime doctrine of this divine legislator caused among the multitude. He begins by laying down the foundation of true happiness, and he annihilates at one stroke all the ideas which had been formed on this point, not only by the passions, but by philosoj^hy, which was merely the art of gratifying them more methodically after covering them with a false gloss of reason, and by Judaism itself, which, tak- ing it all in all, for the exceptions might be counted, imagined no other happiness than what is found in the enjoyment of the goods, the honors, and pleasures of the earth. («) " Blessed," said he, " are the poor in spirit ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the meek ; for they shall possess the land. Blessed are they that mourn ; for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice ; for they shall have their fill. Blessed are the merciful ; for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the clean of heart ; for they shall see God. Blessed are the peace-makers ; for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they that suf- fer persecution for justice' sake ; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when they shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly, for my sake. Be glad, and rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven. For so they persecuted the jn-ophets that were before you (1)." (a) St. Matthew, v. 3-12. (1) Whole volumes would scarcely suffice to develop the morality comprised in these eight beatitudes. We shall confine ourselves here to pointing out the sense which ap- pears to us the most literal. The poor in spuit are by excellence those who have vol- untarily stripped themselves of all their goods to follow Jesus Christ. Those, therefore, whose hearts are detached from worldly goods, whether they do or do not possess them, participate also in this beatitude, but in an inferior degree, and proportionably to theu- merit. We shall make use of the term patient, because our language has not a more proper term, to convey who those meek are to whom is promised the true land of the Uv- ing. Those who mourn and who shall be comforted are they who suffer with resignation the afflictions which God sends them. The heartfelt love of virtue is expressed by the hunger and thirst after justice. To this noble passion is promised perfect satiety, which can never be found in fleeting goods, that only sharpen the hunger and irritate the thirst of their unhappy votaries. The word merciful extends here to every species of mercy. CHAP. XA-I.] OF OUR LOKD JESUS CIIlilST. 119 Since it is finally laid down that what men regarded as evils are the only true good, the conclusion was plain, that what they called good things are the evils most to be dreaded. Yet lest this sequel should escape inattention, or be evaded by subtlety, Jesus draws the conclusion formally, and after having beatified the fii-st, he hurls this tremendous anathema against the second : (a) " Woe to you that are rich; for you have your consolation in this world. Woe to you that are filled ; for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh ; for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you ; for according to these things did their fetliers to the false prophets." These prophets, time and false, being cited at the close of the bless- ings and maledictions, are proof that Jesus addressed his words di- rectly to his apostles. "VMiat follows sets this in an equally clear light ; for although ai)plicable within certain limits to all Christians, still it does not bear its full meaning, except with reference to the apostles and their successor, (b) " You are," saith he to them, " the salt of the earth. But if the salt lose its savor, wherewith shall it be salted (2) ? It is good for nothing any more, but to be cast out (a) St. Luke, vi. 24-26. (6) St. Matthew, v. 1.3-16. both spiritual and corporal. We do not see God with the eyes of the body, says Saint Augustine, but with the eyes of the heart : wherefore those who have pure' eyes have nothing to hinder them from seeing his ineffable beauties unveiled. Those are called peace-makers who strive to re-establish and preserve peace amongst men. This great feature of resemblance to the God of Peace will merit for them, in a very excellent man- ner, the title of children of God. The kingdom of heaven, adjudged in the first place to tlic voluntary poor, is also adjudged to those who suffer persecution for justice : the first class receive it by right of exchange — the latter by right of conquest. The first are those prudent traders, who sell all to purchase it ; the second are those violent invaders, who gra-sp it by force, and carry it at the point of the sword. It is not the less insured to all the others. For the recompense proposed to them is always the kingdom of God, under different names, which correspond with the different merits to which it is promised. These expressions are also understood to refer to the temporal rewards of virtue, and this sense should not be excluded from them ; but it must only be admitted as secondary. To advance it .is the fii-st and most literal, would be putting t(x> \isibly the accessory in place , of the principal. (2) Salt does not lose its savor ; but if it should lose its savor, with what can we salt, or what is there in nature which can be as salt to siilt itself? This is what Jesus Christ wishes to say here. Thus the doctor, if he deceives himsrlf, shall not be set right by an- other doctor ; the pastor, if he wanders, shall not be brought back by another pastor ; 120 THE HLSTORY OF THi; LIFE [PART I. and to be trodden on by men (3). You are tlie liglit of tlie world ;" destined to enlighten it ; you cannot escape its observation. " A city seated on a mountain cannot be bid : neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but upon a candlestick, that it may shine to all that are in the house. So let your light shine be- fore men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Fa- ther who is in heaven." But in order that they may lie this mysterious salt, which imparts to the earth, that is to say, to the men who iuhaliit it, the I'elish of virtue, and, after ha^^ug imparted, preserves this relish ; that they may become the light of the woi'ld, and that city seated on a mount- ain, which rivets the traveller's eye, and prevents him from wander- ing from his path ; that they may be the light put ujion the candle- stick, that it may shine to all those who comjiose the house of the great father of the family ; in short, that they may be, bj^ the lustre of their preaching, and the example of their holiness, the reformers of the world, and worthy ministers of the heavenly Father, to whom those who witness their virtues and successes shall refer all the glory thei-eof — they must teach all salutary truths, and be faithful to all duties, without distinction of little or great, of what is important or nnimportant. But that they may have in his person the most per- fect model of such rare perfection, Jesus thus 23roceeds : " Do not thiuk that I am come to destroy the law or the pi'ophets. I am not come to destroy, 1 )ut to fulfil (4). For, amen, I say unto you : Till and the apostle, if he becomes perverted, shall not be converted by another apostle. Not that the thing is absolutely impossible ; but it occm-s so rarely, that we reckon it an ex- ception, which does not hinder the truth of the general proposition. (3) To be trodden on by men, an expression of the lowest contempt, but which is not too strong to express that into which those ministère of the altar inevitably fall who dis- honor their ministry by a publicly licentious life. (4) Tlie -Jews have reproached the Christians with this saying of Jesus Christ, as a falsehood in the mouth of hira who said that he was sent to establish a new law on the ruins of the old. A more false reproach was never made, nor a more unfounded accusa- tion. 1st. Jesus Christ has kept the law, if we consider it under the aspect of the moral and ceremonious precepts. As to what regards the first, he was always perfectly irrep- , rehensible ; and in order to confound his enemies, he had only to defy them to reproach him with a single sin. As to the ceremonious precepts, although in no way bound to ob- sen-e them, he has not, nevertheless, disdained to fulfil them. He wished to be circum- cised ; for, although he was circumcised in his mere infancy, he was the onlv child of whom CHAP. X\a.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 121 lieaveu aud earth pass, one jot or one tittle sliall not pass of the law, till all is fulfilled. He, therefore, that shall break one of these least commandments, aud shall so teach men, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven (5). But he that shall do, and teach, he shall he called gi-eat in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, that unless yom* justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." This conclusion shows clearly enough that these commandments which Jesus Christ denominates " least," were not so in their own natm-e, but only in the judgment of the Scribes and Pharisees. These men were never accused of despising what are termed " little" things : we know, on the contrary, that they relinquished important duties to wed themselves scrupulously to minute observances. This drew upon them from Jesus Christ this grave rebuke, inculcating it was tme to say that he was only circumcised because he wished to be so. I say as much of his presentation in the temple. Arrived at a mature age, he went to Jenisiilem at the great festivals ; he celebrated the Passover ; and as to the Sabbath, concerning which he encountered such great reproaches, he never objected to its obligation, but only to the false or finical additions of the Pharisees. 2d. If we consider the ancient law as the sketch of the new, not only did Jesus CiirLst accomplish it by realizing the tilings it shadowed forth, and verifying its prophecies, but it could only receive its accomplishmept from him alone : without him it should have eternally remained imperfect ; and, if we wish to speak exactly, we should say that he rather perfected than abrogated it, as the colors which cover the lines of a drawing do not efface the design, but set it off to perfec- tion, by imparting the requisite animation to the figures of the body. (5) According to the common interpretation, these words signify that he shall be ex- cluded from the kingdom of heaven. According to some, they mean to say that he shall have the last place. Wliat follows is in favor of the first interpretation. Those who pre- fer the second, ground themselves on the fiict . that small precepts alone are spoken of, that is to say, according to them, such as do not oblige to the extent of mortal sin. We shiill see whether or not they are mistaken in this. But supposing that in pomt of fact they are not mistaken, if then it be true that we may violate these small precepts with- out being thereupon excluded from the kingdom of heaven, can any one venture to say that we should not be excluded therefrom if we taught others to \'iolate them — above all, if a person had the influence and character to teach ? Teaching people to contemn the will of God, which is not the less declared, and, in one sense, is not the lejis entitled to respect in small things as in great ; encouraging men .to emancipate tliem.selves from their primary duties, by affording them facility in so doing in those which are regarded as of lesser importance ; stripping virtue of all her outworks, and, like a stronghold, whose ex- ternal works are all demolished, exposing it to be carried by the first a.ssault of vice ; could the pastor, the preacher, the director who should have caused so great an evil, have still a right to claim even the last place in the heavenly kingdom ? 122 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. that the latter should not be omitted, but that we must commence by fulfilling the first. The error, or rather the depravity, which here seems to be the cause of the reproach cast upon them, is, their regarding as a trifling matter the inward accomplishment of great commandments or precejjts, condemning only the outward act. So as they abstained from this, they deemed themselves just, and reck- oned as naught a thousand criminal desires, to which they abandon- ed themselves without scruple. Insufficient justice ! which at most was merely a mask, since it did not dwell in the heart, which is the only seat of true justice, man being never innocent when his heart is guilty, as he never can be guilty when his heart is innocent. What gives also to this explanation a new degree of probability, are the following words of the Saviour, which are going to disclose to us the malice of murder in a word uttered from the lips, and the iniquity of adultery even in a desire of the heart. " You have heard that it was said of old : Thou shalt not kill ; and whoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother shall be in dan- ger of judgment (6) : whoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall (6) Amongst tlie Jews there were two different tribunals, denominated the judtftnent : one was only composed of three judges, and the other of twenty-three. The council spoken of here was the Sanhedrim, the great senate of the nation, composed of seventy- two judges. Causes were brought before these different tribunals, according to the im- portance of the matter or the quality of the crime. The Jews had also three capital pun- ishments — the sword, lapidation, and fire, the most rigorous of all. The words of the Saviour allude to all these things without prejudice to the literal sense of the paiia of fire, which should be understood with reference to the fire of the other life. Since it is with reference to murder that Jesus Christ speaks in this way, it is natural to suppose that, in order to deserve these severe judgments, anger must be accompanied by ill-will. The word Raca, also, which, according to the greater number of interpre- ters, is merely a vague expression of contempt, or which signifies at most a giddy person, according to those who give a definite meaning to the word — this word, I say, must be pronounced in a tone and in circumstances which make it an injury ; and the tone and circumstances must also make the word fool, or any other equivalent thereto, an outrage. This does not always occur, and, therefore, these faults are not always capital sins ; but this criminal character occurs often enough to furnish just grounds of terror to those who, when in anger, do not know how to moderate their resentment or temper their speech. We ought not to except certain phlegmatic sallies of anger, less violent in ap- pearance and less outrageous in language. Here the language is nothing — all depends on the thing they signif}' ; and, in despite of his affected moderation and his smooth ex- CHAP. XVI.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 123 be in danger of the council ; and whoever sliall say, Thon fool, shall be in danger of hell fii-e." Still there are means of avoiding this chastisement. But these means, to which it hath pleased God to attach the forgiveness of sin, are of indispensable obligation and a necessity so urgent, that there is no duty, no matter of what nature, but should yield to this. " If, therefore, thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou re- member that thy brother hath any thing against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming, thou shalt offer thy gift. Be at agree- ment with thy advereary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest perhaps the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Amen, I say to thee, thou shalt not go out from thence, till thou repay the last farthing." This sort of parable is not very difficult to explain. The party to it is the person offended. The " agreement" referred to is the just reparation of the offence ; " the way" is the time of life ; God is " the judge;" "the officers" are the spirits executing his vengeance ; and I heU or purgatory is the "prison" wherein, according to the quality of the debt, thte debtor shall be inclosed, never to be enlarged from the first species of confinement, where the prisoner remains always insolvent, the crime which made him fall therein being always mor- tal ; or, if the guilt be only venial, not to be enlarged from the sec- ond species of confinement until after he has paid, according to the ver}" ligor of justice, all the penalty he had deserved to undergo. For it doth not suffice, when we have offended our brother, to ask God's pardon for the offence ; we must also satisfy the injured party. pressions, the polished man who gives any one to understand that he regards him as a fool and a blockhead, shall be condemned to the punishment of fire. If you object that there will, therefore, be many men condemned to the punishment of fire, considering the great number of those with whom such modes of speaking are habit- ual and ordinary, it is easily answered, that in the judgment of God the multitude will not save the guilty ; that the habit, very far from justifying the sinner, renders him more criminal, and that the same rule apphes to this case as to that of judging our neighbor; that lastly, since the oracle hath spoken, there is no further question of considering the matter, but of correcting one's self. 124 THE HISTORY OF THE LITE [PAET I. AVithout tliis preliminary tliere can be no remission. If this obliga- tion were unknown to tlie Jews, it seems to be forgotten by Chris- tians ; but, forgotten or unknown, it is not the less real, and the law which prescribed it is too plain to leave the smallest doubt on the subject. Whoever refuses to submit himself to it should es}3ect to undergo one of those terril:)le judgments which have just been pro- nounced ; and, even in this life, he should regard himself as excluded from the altar, and, in some measure, excommunicated by this sen- tence, coming from the mouth of the God of Justice and of Peace, who still repeats to him from the recess of the tabernacle wherein he invisibly resides : " Go first to be reconciled to thy brother." The new legislator goes on to speak of adultery very nearly in the same way he did of murder, that is to say, he discloses it where men had not even suspected it to be. " You have heard," \jsait1i he also to tJiem,] " that it was said of old : Thou shalt not commit adul- tery ; but I say to you, that whoever shall look on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery in his heart." Desire follows so close after sight, and sight appears so inevitable to any one having eyes, that we are tempted to ask then. Must they be plucked out ? Yes, said the Sa\àour, who, very far from endeav- oring to elude, is the first to draw this consequence : " If thy right eye scandalize thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee ; for it is ex- pedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than thy whole body be cast into hell ; and if thy right hand scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee ; for it is exjjedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body go into hell." The healing art does so every day, that is to say, sacrifices a fes tered member for the preservation of the entire body, and these figures of speech are obviously drawn from this art. Yet we must not take them exactly to the letter. True, it is better to lose the eye and the hand, than the whole body and soul, and that if salvation depended on the like separation, we should endure it com- ing from another; but it is not allowable to perform it on our- selves, and the Church has ever condemned those who, deceived by the literal sense, have made attempts against their own lives, or the members of their bodies. Reduced to their true meaning, these CHAP. XVI.] OF OCR LORD JESl'S CHRIST. If? 5 words signify tliat we are obliged to separate ourselves fi'om every thing whicb is a near occasion of sin, were it a thing so dear and so precious as may be the right eye and the right hand, and were the separation equally as painful. Here all tampering is mortal. Flight or hell, separation or hell. Between these two things Jesus Christ places no medium. At the sight of this fearful alternative, let every attachment be broken, every repugnance surmounted, every inter- est sacrificed ; let the sophistry of the passions disappear before the flash of this lightning, and be silent at the crash of this thunder. Yet, Jesus does not stop here ; and, after having pointed out adul- tery in desire, he shows it again in a sort of union tolerated up to that period : it was that which was formed after a marriage broken, not by the death of one of the united parties, but by the divorce permitted by the old law, which was finally and irrevocably abol- ished l)y the author of the evangelical law, who thus brought back marriage to the purity of its original. He thus expresses himself: " It hath been said, whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a l)ill of divorce (7). But I say to you, that whosoever shall put away his wife, excepting for the cause of fornication (8), maketh (7) We shall have occasion further on to speak of the law of divorce. We shall only here remark the tenor of the act, and the formalities observed therein by the Jews. 1st. It could not be granted, except with the permission of the husband. 2d. The husband should transfer the deed to the woman with his own hand. 3d. There should not be less than two witnesses, and all the witnesses should affix their seal to the instrument. 4th. The recital set forth three degrees of generation of the man and three of the wo- man. 5th. The paper on which it was engrossed should be of a greater length than breadth, the letters should be written in a round hand, and separated from one another ; there should be no erasure ; and, if a drop of ink fell upon the paper, it would make the act a nullity. We recognize in these minutiae the scruples of the Jews, who often made no scruple in repudiating a woman from fancy or for trifles. The husband said to the woman, when gi\'ing the deed : Receive the act nf divorce : be separated from vie, and let any one be allowed to marry thee. This deed was couched in these terms : — I, Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., such a day of such a month of such a year from the creation of the world, being in such a place, of my own full and free deter- mination, and without being coastrained to it, have repudiated X., daughter of Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., son of Rabbi N., and I have placed in her hands the deed of divorce, the schedule of separation, and the testimony of division, that she may be separated from me, and that she may go wheresoever it ple.i.'jeth her, without any one offering her any opposition, conformably to the constitution of Moses and of the people of Israel. (8) Several other reasons might authorize married people to separate ; but Jesus 126 THE HISTOKT OF TIIE LITE [PART I. her to commit adultery, and lie that shall marry her that is put away," for whatever cause it may be, " committeth adultery." Un- doubtedly the man who marries again, after having put away his wife, also commits adultery, and the woman who consents to marry him sins in like manner ; for what is said of one is equally under- stood of the other, although not formally announced. In the same way, when Jesus Christ said that the man who looks at a woman with eyes of desire hath committed adultery in his heart, this is un- derstood to mean, that by casting on a man similar glances, a wo- man renders herself guilty of the same crime. *rhe depravity of man coerced him to place first in the order of reform these two precepts, which form the fifth and sixth of the Decalogue. Having brought them to such high perfection, the Lord comes to that which, in the order of the commandments, is second. He likewise strips this of the false glosses put upon it by the Pharisees, and he makes additions to it hitherto unknown to the Jews. " Again, you have heard," added he, " that it was said to them of old : Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but thou shalt per- form thy oaths to the Lord (9). But I say to you, not to swear at Christ only speaks of adultery. 1st. Because he only treats here directly of the dis- missal of the woman by the husband, and that it was very rare that other legitimate reasons arose on the woman's side. 2d. Because the other causes of separation do not proceed from the veiy nature of marriage, like that of adultery, which openly violates the contract. We are not unaware that violence carried to a certain excess, that danger of perversion, wliich perversion appears inevitable, are reasons for married people to sep- arate ; but this is only by virtue of the natural right which all have to provide by flight or by separation for their life's safety, or for the salvation of their soul. 3d. The sep- aration which has adultery for its cause is perpetual in its nature, which those separations are not which arise from any other cause. In the latter case-s, when the culpable party acknowledges his deUnquency, and that he coiTects himself of it, the wife is bound to come back, and to live with him ; but no one is bound to do so in the case of adulteiy. Supposing he repents, and is converted, he may be received into favor, or refused admit- tance ; the parties may be reunited, or remain irrevocably separated. In Christianity this right does not the less belong to the woman than to the man : I say in Christianity, which, of all religions, is the most favorable to women, by re-estabhshing them in then' legitimate riglits, elsewhere overlooked through the injustice, or usui'ped by the violence of men. (9) This regards more particularly the vow, which is only a species of oath ; but taking occasion from this, Jesus Christ gives precepts regarding all sorts of oaths, of what na- ture soever they may be. CHAP. XVI.] OF OUR LORD JISUS CHRIST. 127 all ; neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God ; nor Ly the earth, for it is his foot-stool ; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King (10). Xeither shalt thou swear by thy head, be- cause thou canst not make one hair white or lilack ; but let your speech be yea, yea ; no, no ; and that which is over and above these is evil." All the antecedent part Is of strict obligation ; what follows is not equally so. Among the precepts there are to be found counsels wliich are not ngorou^^ly binding, at least as to external practice ; for, regarding the interior disposition, there exists no one who is not, to a certain extent, bound, and whoever should refuse to adopt their spirit, would not have the spiiit of the Gospel. Such is what Jesas Chi'ist here opposes to the ancient lex talionis; which he abolishes. (10) That is to say, in no manner, and not in no circumstance, whatever the followei's of Wickliffe and the Anabaptists may have thought, following the example of some an- cient obscure heretics, who concluded, from these expressions, that swearing is never al- lowable. The sequel shows clearly enough that Jesns Christ had only in uew to pro- scribe that series of oaths of all sorts which the Jews had perpetually in their mouths. It has, therefore, been always permitted to take God for witness of a thing tliat is true, when necessity or great utility obliges it to be done, and that it is done respectfully, and in suitable circumstances. Such has been, at all times, the practice of the Church, au- thorized by the great example of Saint Paul, who takes God as a witness of the great things which he writes ; and of the Angel of the Apocalypse, who, after raising his hand, swears by Him who Uves from age to age. But, beyond these cases which we have just excepted, all swearing is forbidden, and we should confine ourselves simply to affirmation or to negation. If this is not an addition which Jesus Christ makes to the second precept, it is, at least, the explanation of a second sense, which the Jews did not perceive in the.se words : Thou shalt not swear in vain. They only understood the words with reference to the prohibition of swearing contrary to truth ; Jesus Christ discloses to them the further sense of swearing without reason. Another addition to this precept is the prohibition, which Jesus Christ subjoins, of not swearing by any thing whatsoever. The Jews imagined themselves irrépréhensible when they swore by any thing else than by the name of God. Jesus Christ teaches them, that to swear by creattires is swearing by the Creator, and that to swear by one's self or by one's head (a species of oath very much in use among the Greeks and Ro- mans, whence, apparently, it had passed to the Jews), was also sinful, but for a different reason. To swear by the head, is to offer it up as a sacrifice, supposing a person swears falsely, and to sacrifice it is disposing of what properly belongs to God, as if it were our own property. For can a person be the owner of his head, if he catmot change the color of a single hair thereof ? Every oath beyond those which we have excepted, is always a sin ; this follows evi- dently from the prohibition of Jesus Christ, and the reasons upon which he grounds it. 128 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PAET I. as incompatible witli the meekness of tlie new law. "You have heard that it hath been said : An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth (11). But I say to you, not to resist e\'il ; but if one strike thee on thy right cheek, turn to him also the other. If a man will contend with thee in judgment, and take away thy coat, let go thy cloak also to him ; and whosoever will force thee one mile (1-), go %nth him other two." Behold the new lex fal/'oms, which the Lamb of God substitutes for the ancient. That of the law gave back injury for injury ; that (11) We read this law in the twenty-first chapter of Exodus. It did not give private persons the right of taking justice into their own hands ; it merely prescribed to judges the measure of punishment which they should dispense to those who had used violence. The Jews were not allowed to insist on this punishment throvigh a spirit of vengeance, as appears by the passage of Leviticus, chapter xix : Seek not revenge, nor he mindful of the injury of thy citizens. In Christianity, it is not forbidden to denounce the guilty, and to demand in justice the reparation of the injury, provided it be done through some other motive than that of resentment and vengeance. Here, then, we see no difference between the two laws ; and there remains still to be known what .lesus Christ can have in view, as he evidently appears to abrogate something of the ancient and substitute for it something new. In two words, he reforms the abuse of the ancient law, and he estab- lishes the perfection of the new. The abuse of the ancient law consisted in doing, through a spirit of vengeance, what was only allowed to be done through some other innocent motive. I say that this was done without any scruple, and, far from viewing this vengeance as criminal, we have grounds for suspecting that the Pharisees made it a duty and an obligation. The perfection of the new law consists not merely in not seek- ing for reparation through a motive of vengeance ; it requires further, when there ex- ists another reason for seeking it, to make charity supersede this reason — to prefer that injury should remain unpunished, sooner than see it pimished b)' the suffering of the guilty party, even although in consequence of this impunity an individual should be ex- posed to fresh injuries. We are not always rigorously bound to take this course ; but we are bound to mingle no resentment with the reason which makes us seek reparation. It is so difficult to attain this precision, that timerous souls, who despair of reaching it, rather prefer to relinquish the attempt, than to encounter the risk of so hazardous a pm'- suit, and of a victory, which perhaps would only save their honor at the expense of their conscience. For what man is sufficiently master of his heart, to answer for his not rel- ishing with delight the always criminal pleasure of seeing at liis feet an enemy humbled and confeundcd ? (12) In Latin, angariaverii. This word comes from the Persian angar, which passed into the Greek and Latin tongues, and even into the French, in which tongue it is used in the familiar style. Its ordinary signification is, imblic courier. These couriers were entitled to dismount all those whom they met, and oblige them to accompany them to the next stage. The species of violence which they used is expressed by the verb anga- riare. This usage still exists amongst many of the Eastern nations. CHAP. XYI.] OF OUR LORD JESIS CHRIST. 129 of tlie Gospel suffered it twice over ratlier tliau oiioe avenge. Such is tlie disposition of heart to which these words of the Sa\-iour o1)lige Tis, and not to present the left cheek to him who strikes the right. Those who insist that there are cases wherein we are 1)ouud l>y thi.> letter, are reduced to fixncy some which we may almost call chimeri- cal. Some saints have done so to the edification of the whok^ Church ; but not throngli obligation, since, in like circumstances, Saint Paul, and even Jesus Christ, have not done so. We may a»ld, that it is more proper not to do so, when we foresee that by so do- ing we should merely redouble the audacity of aggression and en- courage a new crime. The same reasoning must be pursued with ref- erence to the treatment of a man who would -nash to rob us unjustly or exact painful services from us to which he is not entitled. By yielding to him what he would deprive us of, or by acquiescing in his exactions, we are not bound to offer him double value ; but we should do so, if necessary, rather than oppose violence to violence. "Wlierefore, it is this meekness, which resisteth nothing— this unal- teraljle patience, ever sui^erior to aU injuries and all injustice — 'wdiich is here commanded us by Jesus Christ. To a morality so suldime, this God of charity and peace joins these short maxims, the practice of which, if they were observed, would banish from society many crimes and many miseries : (a) " Give to him that asketh, and from him that would borrow fi'om thee turn not away ; of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again ; forgive, and you shall be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you (13). Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall they give into your bosom. It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to receive (14). And as you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner." (a) St. Luke, \\. 30, 37, 38 ; Acts, xx. 35 ; St. Luke, vi. 31 ; St. Matthew, vii. 12. (13) Should any one object, that if this counsel were followed, the world would be in- undated with robbers, it is ensy to answer, that each of us is only responsible for liimself alone, and not for the rest of the world. Be meek and patient, without being apprehen- sive of ever exceeding in these virtues ; and, supposing that any inconvenience may result therefrom, let us leave to God and to the civil authorities under him to regulate such matters. (14) In the twentieth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Saint Paul says: Voti 9 130 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pART I. Nature had known notbing so pure, and pliilosopliy had not even imagined any thing so noble as these doctrines. But it is useless to know them imless we put them in practice ; and to do so, we must have the j^rmciple in our hearts. This principle is, the love of all men, without excepting those whom reason, when left to itself, rep- resents to us as the most detestable — that is to say, without except- ing our most cruel enemies. Whosoever loves these may assiu-e him- self that he accomplishes the great precept of universal charity ; but he who hates them dwells m death, because charity is incompatilile with the hatred of a single man, were he the most odious and the most wicked of all men : a truth heretofore openly resisted by the human heart, which, after an oifeuce, found nothing so reasonable as hatred, or so just as vengeance. New lights are about to produce new feelings. The disagreeable man can be loved, and he should be loved. Here is the precej^t uttered from His lips who can teach no unreasonable doctrine, since he is the supreme and eternal rea- son; and he would no longer be justice and goodness itself, if he were capable of commanding impossibilities. {a) " You have heard that it has been said : Thou shalt love thy neighbor and h-xte thy enemy (15). But I say to you: Love your (a) St. Matthew, v. 43 ; St. Luke, vi. 28, 32-35. ought to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said : It is a more blessed thing to give rather than to receive. These expressions are not to be met with in any of the four evangelists. Saint Paul had learned it from the apostles, or from one of the disci- ples who had seen the Lord. There is no doubt that these preserved the recollection of several other expressions of their divine Master, which are not written. As this is writ- ten, we deemed it our duty to treasure it, and to put it in this place where the Saviour makes such magnificent promises to liberality, which serve to prove the truth of the maxim in the sense that it is more advantageous to give than to receive. It is also true in the sense that there is greater ple:xsure in giving than in receiving. Generous souls find no difficulty in subscribing to this tnith, of which they have experi- ence in their own sensations. Literested persons, who do not feel it, cannot comprehend it ; the latter should believe it as they believe mysteries. (15) In the nineteenth chapter of Leviticus, verse 18, we read these words: Thou shalt lone thy friend as thyself. These words. Thou shalt hate thy enemy, we read in no part of Scripture, unless we wish to find this meaning in the order which God issued to his people, to exterminate the unfaithful nations, whose country his people were to oc- cupy ; but even this construction would not be a just one. The order to exterminate does not command hatred ; and that which is given to soldier.'', to kill the enemies of the CHAP. XVI.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 131 enemies (16); do good to them that bate you ; Lless them that curse you ; pray for tliem that pei-seeute aud cahimniate you ; that you may be the children of your Father that is in heaven (17), who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad, aud raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have (18)? Do not even the publicans these things ? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more ? Do not also the heathens this ? If you do good to them who do good to you, what thanks are to you ? for sinners also do this. And if you lend to them of whom you hope to i-eceive, what thanks are to you ? for sinners also lend to sinners for to receive as much. But love ye your enemies ; do good ; lend, hoping for nothing thereby ; State, is not an order to hate them. But even if the order of God had been such, Jesus Christ revoked it, as he came to do away with the distinction between Jew and Gentile, and to unite all people in the bonds of the same faith and the same charity. But tliis is not the interpretation which the Saviour here contends against. It appears that from these words. Thou shalt love thy friend, the Jews had concluded, by a contrary analogy, that if they were not obliged, they were, at least, authorized, to hate their enemies. They imderstood the word enemy in the sense opposed to friend — that is to say, in the sense of private enemy. The description which Jesus Christ gives of it leaves no doubt as to their meaning of the word. It is, according to him, the enemy, who hates us — who persecutes us — who curses m, and calumniates us — all of which things are understood more naturally with reference to a particular enemy than to the public enemy. (16) The heart of man is impenetrable to himself, and it is very difficult, especially in the struggles of resentment against charity, to discover its depth, and to decide what is its predominant disposition. Love, says Jesus Christ ; but how can I assure myself that I love him whom I am tempted one thousand times a day to hate mortally ? Listen to what the Sanour adds : Do good to him, pray for him, bless him — that is to sa)', speak Will of him. Tlien you have the greatest assurance which a Christian heart can have, that you have preserved charity. On the contraiy, if you speak ill of him — if you seek to injure or to thwart him — if you refuse to salute him, that is to say, if you refuse what you owe to his rank and to the different relations which you may have with him, of citi- zen, neighbor, relative — your state is decided ; you do not love, or rather there is proof that you hate : and if still you say. As a Christian, I love him, the expression Ls well u:i- derstood, and, in modem acceptation, signifies something worse than indifference. (17) In order that, by this great feature of resemblance, you may be recognized for the children of your heavenly Father. When you see a man who loves his enemy, stiy boldly. Here is a child of God. No one can be mistaken here. (18) There is merit in loving our friend when we also love our enemy.; but when a\c do not love our enemy, there is no longer any merit in loving our friend. For in such a case the latter is only through feeling or interest. For if charity had any part in it, char- ity would make us also love our enemy. 132 TUF. IIISTOr.Y OF THE LIFE [PART I. and your re-ward shall he great. And you sliall be tlie sons of tlie Highest, for lie is kind to the unthankful and the e^^l. Be ye, there- fore, merciful and perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." iSuch is the perfection to which we are called ; not that we may equal it — f )r who is as perfect as God ? — but that we may labor to acquire it, and to go on evermore in the path that leads to it, for the very reason that we never can equal this perfection. In short, we must either resemble our heavenly Father, or we shall resemble publicans and Pagans. Here there is no medium, inasmuch as there is none between love and hatred. We can never be indiiferent with regard to our enemy, whom we are sure to hate from resentment, if we do not love him from religion. But, after having taught us to do good, Jesus Christ goes on to teach us how to do it well. Prayer, alms, and fasting are works so excellent, that all ràtues are comprised in them, or refer to them. Yet nothing is sound for a diseased heart. Such was that of the Pharisees, Avith whom every virtue was turned into vice, because of tlie motive that made them exhibit these virtues. They forgot God, and thought wholly of pleasing men. To shun the eye of man, and to think wholly of pleasing God, is the great maxim which the Sa- viour opposes to theii" hypocrisy, and, at the same time, the saluta- ry instruction which he gives to his true disciples in the following words : (a) " Take heed that you do not your justice before men, to be seen by them (19); otherwise you shall not have a reward of your (o) St. Matthew, vi. 1-6. (19) This maxim does not abrogate that which we have read at the commencement of tlie Saviour's discourse : So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. It is not always a crime — it is some- times even a duty to do good before men, even with a design of their seeing it; all de- pends upon the intention. To \vish to be seen when we do good — I say to wish it solely to the end that God may be thereby glorified, is always a virtue, and, as we have said, sometimes an obligation. In general, we must make public what is a matter of duty, and keep secret what is a matter of superorogation. Neither of the two rules, however, is without exception. Wien we are in doubt whether the good work shoidd be shown or concealed, the second course is always the surest ; it is so ea.sy to lose one's seK through vanity, and so difficult, not to say impossible, to sin through humility. Humility and charity sometimes exceed bounds, or seem to exceed ; but they never sin. CHAP. XVI.] OF OrU LOUD JESUS CILRIST. 133 Father who is in heaven. Therefore, ^heu thou doost au alms-ckcd, sound not a trumpet before thee (20), as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be honored by men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward (21). But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy liglit hand doeth (22), that thy alms may be in secret; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee. "When ye pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites (23), that love to stand and pray in the syna- gogues and comers of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But thoxi, when thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber, and, having shut the door, pray to thy Father in secret, and thy Father, ^ho seeth in se- cret, will repay thee (24)." This naturally led Jesus Christ to correct another error on i:)ray- er — ^that of making the merit thereof consist in the multitude, and, (20) This is, perhaps, a figurative expression, to signify the ostentation with which the Pharisees dispensed their alms. Perhaps there was also among them the custom of really having a trumpet sounded, to assemble the poor with more show and noise. (21) Vain like themselves, since they are vain men. But, however, it is theirs, such as they had in view, and as they desired. They have received it, and they are paid ; God owes them nothing further. To speak with more precision, he owes them the ch.u;- tisement of their criminal vanity, and he owes it to himself to avenge the injur)- which they have done him, by preferring the glory that comes from men to that which comes from God. (22) This is an hyperbole, which conveys the idea that we ought to conceal om- alms from the rest of men, and, if it be possible, even from ourselves, by forgetting them, or setting little value upon them. Nothing is so great as to do great things, and to esteem them httlc. There is a measure of alms which each person is bound to perform, accord- ing to his means ; these alms ought not to be unknown to the world. For, otlierwise, tho^je would be scandalized who might have grounds for believing that you failed to per- form the precept. Secrecy refers only to superorogation. (23) They prayed standing up, to be seen by a greater number of people. The words of the text in Latin, stantts orare, may also signify stop, sloppiiiff to pray, which leaves the posture undecided. This second construction would make tlie hypocrisy consist in seeking out public places, and saying long prayere there, with a view of being seen and praised by men. (24) This is s;iid without prejudice to public praver. recommended and practised at all liiii'S. Trifling distractions do not hinder it from being the better course for the heads of families lo pray in the midst of their children and their servants than in the secrecy of their private apartments. I speak here of moining and evening prayer. If they wisli lo pray at other hotirs, let tliem apply to these prayers the lesson which the Saviour here gives us. 134 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PABT I. pcrliap.-;, iu the elegance, of tlie words. Tliis is to treat God as we would men, who suftei' themselves to be dazzled by tlie pomj) of dic- tion, and pei'suaded by the force of eloquence. Very probably the Jews were not exem2)t from this defect. Yet Jesus Christ only at- tributes it here to the Gentiles. But, as his Chiu-ch was to form a union of the two people, it was proper that the Gentiles, who were to compose the gi-eater pai't of it, should also have that instruction which was necessary for them. He proceeds, therefore, thus : (a) " When you are praying, speak not much, as the heathens ; for they think that iu their much speaking they may be heard (25). Be not you, therefore, like to them. Your Father knoweth what is needful for you before you ask him. Thus, therefore, shall you pray : Our Father, Avho art in heaven, hallowed be thy name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven ; give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors ; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen (26)." (a) St. Matthew, vi. 7-13 ; St. Luke, xi. 3. (25) That which renders long discourses ■unnecessar}^ or a great display of our miser- ies, is the knowledge which God has of them. Our sentiment thereof must be lively, and accompanied with an ardent desu-e to be deUvered from them. This does not re- quire many words. (20) Can God, says Saint Cyprian, not hear this prayer, in which he recognizes the very words of his Son ? Tertullian calls it the abridgment of the Gospel. It is in real- ity, for those who meditate upon it, an inexhaustible source of light and instruction. We shall confine ourselves to giving the sense of it which appears the most literal. The name of Father is at the commencement, 1st, to excite our confidence ; it is to our Father that we pray ; 2d, to touch the heart of God ; those who pray are his children. When calling him our Father, we remember that we are all brethren, since we have a common Father. The heathens, who have not received the grace of adoption, have "not, like us, the right of calling him our Father, and the only Son whom he engendered from all eternity is properly the only person who has tlie right of calling him — my Father. HVio art in heaven. God is everywhere, but heaven is the abode of his glory, and the inheritance which he has prepared for his children. Where can we more willingly contemplate him than in the place where he reigns with the greatest lustre, and where we are to reign eternally with him ? Hallowed be thy name. The name of God is essen- tially holy, says Saint Augustine ; wherefore all that we can ask for here is, that his sanc- tity may be known and confessed by all men. Thi/ kingdom eome. Reign everywhere without opposition, and hasten the arrival of ihat gre:it day when all thy friends shall be side by side with thee, and all thy enemies at ihy feet. Thy will he done, &c. Those CHAP. XVI.] OF oril LORD JESUS CHRIST. 135 After lia%'ing given us this admirable prayer, Jesus Christ refei-s again to the fifth petition in it, to make us umlerstand that it com- prehends a species of treaty between God and man, by wliich God undertakes to forgive the man who forgives, and the man who doth not forgive virtually refuses to obtain fi-om God the pardon of his who love God desire the most perfect accomplishment of his will that can possibly he imagined. In heaven but one will is accomplished, that of God, because all others are perfcctlv conformable to it. We ask for the same state of things to be on earth ; if we cannot obtain it for all men, each may obtain it for himself, and the earth has the happi- ness of still possessing souls sufficiently angelical to render it eas)' for us to judge that this petition is not without effect. Give us this day our daily bread — that is to saj-, whatsoever is necessary and sufficient for the support of the life of the body. This day: for who knows whether he shall see the morrow? Our daily bread : AVe read it thus in Saint Luke. In Saint Matthew we read supcr-subulanlial bread. Tlie Greek word is the same in the two evangelists, and there is every appearance that the super-substanlial of Saint Matthew bears the same sense as the daily of Saint Luke. The first may signify the bread necessary to the support of our substance, that is to say, of our body, or in- deed the bread which corresponds to the substance of this day ; for the Hebrews, in or- der to signify the present day, said the substance of I lie present day; and we know that Saint Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew (Maldon on Saint Matthew, p. 147). This bread, above all substance, is also, according to the Fathers, the Eucharistie bread ; for this sense, although mystic, is not the less on that account here a direct and literal sense. If it be reasonable for us to ask for the bread which nourishes the body, how much more so is it to ask for the bread which supports tlie life of our souls ? And can we pray to our Father without asking from him the bread which is by excellence the bread of the children ? And forgive us our debts. Our offences, which render us, with regard to God, insol- vent debtors. God, nevertheless, consents to remit to us these immense debts, these ten thousand talents ; provided that we remit to our brethren the few pence wherein they may stand indebted to us. This is drawing good from evil, and causing life to issue from -the bosom of death, whilst we learn from oui- own sins to grant unto othei-s a pardon which we are so much in want of ourselves. And lead us not into temptation. God does not tempt us ; but he pennits us to be tempted, and the experience which we have of our weakness makes us beg of God not to allow it — a prayer which God grants by diminishing temptations and redoubling his help. But deliver us from evil. The Latin word signifies, equally, tlie evil or the wicked one. The Greek word properly signifies the evil one, that is to say, the demon. As to the sense, it is quite equal to ask from God that he should deliver us from the e\-il which the wicked one doth, or from the wicked one that doth the evil. There are two parts in this prayer : the fii-st appears to have only in view the interesU of God ; the second part is for us. Good children should desire the prosperity of iheir father before their own. The gloiy of God is more advantageous to ourselves than we tliink. If it were not so, would the Church say to Gijd : We thank thee for tlie great- ness of thy glory? • 136 THE HISTORY OF THE LU'E [PART I. sins. This trutli, equally terrible aud cousoling, is expressed by these words : (a) " For if you will forgive men their offences, your heavenl)" Father will forgive you also your oftences. But if you will not forgive men, neither will yova- Father forgive you your offences." Now, if we pray after the manner prescribed to us, we may reck- on as certain that our Father will hear us. His word is express, and his goodness alone is as infallible a guarantee to us as his truth. For Jesus Christ saith further : (U) " Ask, aud it shall be given you ; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh fiudeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be oj^ened. And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone (27)? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent ? Or, if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion ? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Fa- ther from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him ? Wlieu you fast," continues the Saviour^ " be not as the hypocrites, sad : for they disfigure their faces (28), that they may appear unto men to fiist. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head (29), and wash thy face, that thou appear not to men to fast, but to thy Father who is in se- ci'et ; and thy Father, who seeth in secret, will repay thee." Therefore we must have God alone in view in all the good woi'ks that we perform. This simplicity of purpose and purity of inten- tion is what renders them virtuous and worthy of recomj^ense. But (a) St. Mattbew, vi. 14, 15. (6) St. Luke, xi. 9-31 ; St. Mattbew, vi. 16-18. (27) We ask from God what we tliink to be bread, and which is in reality a stone. God gives to us what appears a stone, but which, nevertheless, is bread. God listens when he seems to refuse. He would have refused if he liad appeared to hsten. For after all, what is sought for is bread. (28) Some think that they nibbed their faces with certain compositions, which ren- dered them pale and livid. This was the artificial coloring of hypocrisy. (29) Supposing, besides, you did mean to perfume the head upon that da)- : for if a person only perfumed on fast days, then perfumery, instead of dissembling the fast, would announce it. Therefore affect nothing, aud conceal the mortifications which you sliould practise in secret. CHAP. XVII.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CpRIST. 137 if vanity or interest is tlieii" sole or principal object, that is to say, if tlie intention be corrupt, this vitiates every act we jjerforni, as Jesus Christ gives as to undei-stand by this elegant metajihor: (a) " The hght of thy body is thy eye. K thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome ; but if thy eye be evU, thy whole body shall be darksome. If, then, the light that is in thee be dark- ness, the dai-kness itself how great shall it be !" CHAPTER XVn. CONTINUATION OF THE SEEJION ON THE MOUNT. Pride, lust, anger, and vindictiveness — ^that is to say, almost all the passions — were overthi'own by these divine precepts. Jesus Christ had attacked them even in the very heart of man, where they could no longer exist after the deadly blows he had given them. For, widely difterent from the Pharisees, who cleansed the exterior, and left all corruption within, this wise physician applied himself to rectify the interior, without which the exterior, even sup- posing it were well regulated, would only be a deceitful show, and vice glossed over with the colors of \'irtue. There remained one more passion to be subdued — this waS avarice — of all the passions, the one which strikes its roots the deepest into the soul, and is the most difficult to be extirpated. Jesus Christ exhibits its folly, in hoarding up gootls which it seldom enjoys ; its disorderly charac- ter, engrossing as it does the whole heart, to the exclusion of every thought and desire of heaven ; its illusion, in endeavoring against reason and exiierience, cunningly to ally its schemes with the service of God : for nearly all avaricious men would fain be devout, and persuade themselves that they are so. Lastly, pursuant to his ordi- nary method, Jesus Christ attacks this passion in the lieart, by stripping it of the most specious of all its pretexts, which is the fear (a) St. Matthew, u. 22, 23. 138 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. of future want. Tliis excellent lesson constitutes the subject of the following articles : (a) " Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth, where the rust and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal ; but lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven (1), where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal. For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also." " No man can serve two masters ; for either he will hate the one and love the other ; or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (2). Therefore, I say to you : Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat, and the body more than the raiment ? Behold the birds of the air : they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns ; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they ? Now, which of you, by taking thought, can add to his stature one cubit ? And for raiment why are you solicitous ? Consider the lihes of the field, how they grow : they laboi" not, neither do they spin ; but I say to you, not even Solomon, in all his glory, was arrayed as one of these. Now, if the grass of the field, which Ls to-day, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe, how much more ye, O ye of little faith ! Be not solicitous, therefore, saying : What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed ? For after these (3) things do the heathens seek, and your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God (a) St. Matthew, vi. 19-21 ; 24-34. (1) This is principally done by alms. Keeping one's goods is, therefore, losing them ; and giving them, is treasuring them up. (2) Remark the propriety of the teiTa : for a person can possess riches and serve God; but v/e cannot be subject to riches and serve God. (3) God does not prohibit foresight, but he prohibits anxiety, as injurious to his paren- tal piovidence. Not to trouble ourselves about this present life, and to occupy ourselves entirely about the future hfe, are, in two words, what we ought to do, and the contrary of what we ac- tually do. CILVP. XVII.] OF OUR LOKD JESUS CHRIST. 139 and liis justice, and all these tilings sliall be added unto you. Be not, therefore, solicitous for to-morrow ; for the morrow -nail be so- licitous for itself Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" The judgments which we are in the habit of passing upon one another occupy a position here which shows how much more impor- tant this matter seemed to Jesus Christ than to the majority of man- kind, who scarcely reckon as faults the transgressions of this kind which they daily commit. Theii- consequence will be better known, when we shall have seen what recompense Jesus Chi'ist promises to those who do not judge, and what a judgment he reserves for those who do (4). " Judge not," he says, " and you shall not be judged ; condemn not, and you shall not be condemned ; for with what judg- ment you judge, you shall be judged (5). And why seest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, and seest not the beam that is in thy own eye ? Or how sayest thou to thy brother : Let me cast the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thy own eye ? Thou hyjjocrite (6), cast out first the beam out of thy own eye, and then shalt thou see to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." (4) We do not judge, but we see what is as clear as day. Beyond this never judge, if you be not a judge. You are such with regard to those over whom you have a riglit of correction. We may be allowed to act upon a legitimate suspicion ; but we are not permitted to judge. That a man's fidelity is suspected is not enough to entitle us to judge him faithless, although it be enougli to enable us in certain circumstances to dis- place or discharge him, on account of the right which we have to make u-sc of only per- sons of unsuspected fidelity. AVliilst this right is well known, its limits are scarcely ever known ; for we do not only form the judgment, but we pronounce and we publish it, witliout dreaming that a subordinate, and perhaps a servant, has no less a right to liis reputation than the master has to his own, and that often this reputation is even more neces-sarj' to the servant. This is one of those sins which are never remitted, if there be not reparation made. (5) That is to say, that those who shall have judged rigorously shall be judged with rigor ; for tiie judgments of God shall neither be false nor rash, like ours. In what, tlierefore, could they resemble ours, if not by severity ? There are two ways of judging the guilty, even when attainted and convicted — one full of sternness and harshness — the other meek and indulgent. The fiist was that of tlie Pharisees — the second that of Je- sus Christ, who siiid to the adulterous woman : Neither will I condemn thee. (6) Because censure supposes the zeal of justice, and is the expression of it. Now, he who does not commence b)' condemning liimself, has, not truly the zeal of justice. He, therefore, only wears the mask of justice, and (liis it is that makes him a hypo- crite. 140 THE HLSTORT OF THE LIFE [pART I. We have already remarked, tliat througliout tliis entire discourse Jesus Christ had the apostles more du-ectly in view, and that amongst the precepts he gives, some only apply to them and their successors in the ministry. We now call the reader's attention to one of the latter class. " Give not that which is holy to dogs, nei- ther cast your pearls befoi-e swine, lest, perhaps, they trample them imder tlieir feet, and, turning uj)on you, they tear you (7)." Which signifies that we must not expose holy things to j)rofanatiou, nor an- nounce the Gospel truths, when we could not reasonably expect any other fruit than to irritate those to whom they are announced, and to attract from these individuals a persecution detrimental to the preacher, and perhaps to the whole Church. Zeal should, there- fore, be intelligent — many people wiU tell you so. But intelligence should not be devoid of zeal ; and, if indiscretion is blameworthy, cowardice is more so. Let us add, that it is more common, because human interests find here a good consideration. In the apostles' time, it was necessary to recommend discretion rather than zeal. At other periods, the reverse was the case : zeal, not discretion, re- quired to be inculcated. After having laid down the law, Jesus Christ had now nothing more to do but to fortify his followers against the false construc- tions which might be put upon it. These were to be of two kinds. They might be explained, first of all, by custom, which is, they say, the best interpreter of laws. Jesus Christ gives us to understand that this maxim has no connection with his law. lie formally de- clares that the majority shall be prevaricators, and that the number of faithful observers shall be beyond comparison the smallest of the two ; that, therefore, his law should be understood and observed to (7) If any one be tempted to believe Jhat Jesus Chiist acted contrary to his own maxim, when he announced his doctrine to the Jews, to whom it was useless, and to the Pharisees, whose fury it excited, we answer: 1st. That many listened with docility and profited by his instructions. 2d. When he taught the Jews, he taught all nations and all ages, to whom his doctrine should he repeated. 3d. The contradictions which it drew upon him shoiUd, by causing his death, occasion the redemption of mankind. Persecxition, even when foreseen, should not hinder preaching : it should only suspend that preaching, which could have no other effect than exciting persecution, or could not produce sufficient fruit to counterbalance the evil of persecution. CHAP. XVII.] OF OVR LOUD .TESUS CHRIST. 141 the letter, or, if we wish to exj^lain it by practice, we seek the true constructiou in the practice of the lesser number. The bad con- struction of the folse prophets was the second rock that should be avoided. Jesus Christ teaches us how to know these dangerous men, and thus gives notes of them beforehand to those who are sin- cerely desirous of not beiug seduced. For the false prophet, when once he is unmasked, only takes in those who wish to be taken in. Here are the very words of the Saviour : (a) " Enter ye in by the narrow gate ; for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that lead- eth to destructiou, and many there are who go in thereat. O, how narrow is the gate !" he exclauus, in a tone which should strike dread into every heart — " O, how narrow is the gate, and straight is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it !" This says a great deal in a few words. Directly he adds : " Beware of false prophets, who come to you in the clothing of sheep, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. By theu" fi'uits you shall know them (8). Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? Even so every good tree })ringeth forth good fi-uit, and the evil tree bringeth forth eA-il fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit (9). Every tree that bringeth not (o) St. Matthew, vii. 13 ; St. Luke, \\. 45. (8) That is to say, by their works. A work, if bad, may decide that the prophet is false. A good work does not equally decide the tnie prophet. We have seen already that there are ostentatious prayere, proud fastings, and pharisaical alms. Humility and charity are the least equivocal marks. In vain may the false prophet disguise himself; he is always despising and slandering, and he is not slow in appearing. Yet, a person may neither be humble nor charitable, and still not be a false prophet. Tliere are men who do wrong, and teach good. Works are not, therefore, an infallible rule to distinguish the true from the false, and Jesus Christ only proposes them as a prudent nile to dis- cern between those whom we ought to reprove, and those whom we ought, at least, to distrust. (9) It would be troublesome to reckon all the eiTors which have been built upon this maxim. The most impious was that of the Manicheans, who made ase of it to defend their dogma of men bom and necessitated to good, and of men bom wicked, and neces- sitated to evil. Tlie most silly was that of the Pelagians, who inferred from it that there was nij original sin, because then would a bad fruit spring from marriage, which is a g(H)d tree. The most generally known is that whicli the Council of Trent condemns in Protestants, who concluded from it that all the actions of sinners and of the imbclieving are so rranv sins. 142 THE HISTORY OF THE LITE [PART I. fort]i good fruit shall be cut down, aud shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them. A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good ; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth that which is evil : for out of the abvmdance of the heart the mouth sj^eaketh." CHAPTER XVIII. CLOSE OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. Jesus ended by saying that which is the natural conclusion of a discourse like this — that he doth not give his law to men in order to gratify their curiosity, or to furnish them with matter for elo- quence, but in order that they may observe it, and save themselves by the observance. He who shall have observed it shall be saved ; but he who shall not have observed it shall be condemned, even if in other respects he were a prophet and a man of all power ; for these gifts, which God grants for the good of his Church, do not pre- suppose sanctity in those who receive them. Judas, and several others in the commencement of Christianity, are a proof that the gift of miracles is not absolutely incompatible with the state of sin. But had we not this fact in proof, it sufiices for conviction, to heai" the anticipated judgment which Jesus Christ is going to pronoimce against several of these prevaricating prophets and reprobate work- The good or bad tree, and the good or bad man, have some points of resemblance : it is in these points that Jesus Christ compares them. There are also essential diflFerences between them, and it is by comparing these differences that persons are misled. The good tree cannot render itself bad, and the good man can render himself bad, by abusing his hberty. The bad tree cannot render itself good, and the bad man can, by his free co-operation with grace, become good and just. The bad tree cannot produce a good fruit, because its productions are always conformable to its nature, which is bad ; but the bad man may absolutely produce an action which is not bad, because, being free, he may not always act conformably to his bad disposition. We, therefore, judge infallibly of the tree by its fruits, and morally of the man by his woiks. And, when we speak of the man, we mean his doctrine ; for this is what is here referred to. CHAP. X\T^1T.] OF OUK LORD JÎSUS CHRIST. 143 ers of miracles. («) " AATiy," saith lie to them, " do yon call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ? 2sot every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Many will say to me in that day. Lord, Lord, have not we projjhe- sied in thy name ? and done many mii-acles in thy name ? And then I -«-ill profess imto them : I never knew you ; depart from me, you that work iniquity." Thus, it is by deeds, not by words, that Jesus Chi-ist will recog- nize his own. We shall not be commended for what we shall have said, or for what we shall have learned, but for what we shall have done. Happy he who shall have put in practice the knowledge which God has given him of his law ! Unfortunate, on the con- trary, he who, limiting himself to knowledge, shall not have pro- duced fruit therefrom ! But that which, on that great day, shall constitute the difference between happiness and misfortune, makes at present the distinction between wisdom and folly. Oh, how many shall be foimd truly wise whom we at present treat as simple and ignorant ; and how many silly amongst those whom we now re- cognize, not merely as wise, but as masters of wisdom ! This is what Jesus Christ intimates to us by these last words : " Every one that Cometh to me, and heareth my words, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like. He is like to a man building a house, who digged deep, and laid the foundation upon a rock : the rain fell, the floods came, the wdnds blew, and they beat upon that house ; and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock. But he that heareth these my words, and doeth them not, shall be like a foolish man, that built his house upon the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew, and they beat upon that house ; it fell, and great was the fall thereof. Jesus, having fully ended these words, the people were in admiration of his doctrine. For \_/t was again said'\ he was teaching them as one having power, and not as the Scribes, and as the Pharisees (1)." There are reasons for believing that the whole of this discourse (a) St. Luke, \n. 46-48; St. Matthew, vii. 21-23; 25-29. (1) See note 3 of chapter x., page 73. 144 TlIE inSTORT OF TUE LIFE [PABT I. was not spoken tlien uj^on tlie moimtain, but that on the occasion of the sermon which Jesus Christ there gave, the Gospel reports sev- eral other maxims of the Saviour, pronounced at other times, and which, when added to those he proposed on this occasion, constitute a body of doctrine, which may be regarded as the abridgment of the Christian law. It might have been observed, that we did not always constrain ourselves to follow the order in which they are found 23laced in the sacred text. We have done this, in order to place consecutively those which refer to the same subject. The in- terpreters are not sufficiently agreed whether the evangelists them- selves ranged them in the order in which the Saviom- spoke them. This order was not necessary, since the Holy Ghost did not inspire them to follow it ; but we were obliged to draw them together thus in a work which has for its principal object to connect their sacred words, and to compound from them a consecutive and methodical narrative. CHAPTER XIX. THE LEPER CLEANSED. THE CENTURIOn's SERVANT. THE WIDOW OF NALm's SON EESTOEED TO LIFE. JOHN SENDS TWO OF HIS DISCIPLES TO CHRIST. HE IS COM- MENDED BY JESUS CHRIST. "VVe return to the details of the actions of the Saviour, in which an attentive mind will find no less instruction than in his discourses. («) " When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him : and behold a leper came to him, and adored him, be- seeching him, and kneeling down, said to him : Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Jesus having compassion on him, stretch- ed forth his hand, touched him, and saith to him : I will ; be thou cleansed. Immediately the leprosy departed from the man, and lie was made clean. Jesus forthwith sent him away, and he strictly (a) St. Matthew, viii. 1, 2 ; St. Mark, i. 40-45 ; St. Luke, v. 12, 13. CHAP. SIX.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 145 charged Lim: See thou tell no man (1). But go show thyself to the high priest (2), and for a testimony unto them, offer the things that Moses commanded (3). But he being gone out, began to pub- lish, and to blaze abroad the word ; so that Jesus could not openly go into the city, but was without in desert j^laces. But they flocked to him from all sides to hear him, and to be healed by him of their infirmities. And Jesus" withdi'ew from them from time to time, and " retii-ed into the desert and prayed." Charity soon obliged him to leave it, and return to those places which he avoided with so much care, (c?) " He entered [^7;e«] into Capharuaum," where he found at his very arrival what his kind fore- sight had come to seek. " The servant of a centm-ion, who was dear (a) St. Luke, to. 1 ; St. Matthew, viii. 6, 1. (1) We have aheady stated in note 5, chap, xii., page 92, the several rea-sons on ac- count of which Jesus Christ sometimes exacted secrecy from those whom he had miracu- lously cured. There remains one difficulty with regard to this man. It appears that he was cured in the sight of a great number. Could Jesus Christ reasonably expect Ihatso public an action should remain secret ? It is answered, that it was not impossible that the miracle may only have been perceived by a very small number. In the crowd a leper may not have been recognized as being a leper. Had this man been so recognized, would the Jews have allowed him to p\ish himself so far forward, and to penetrate to the very feet of tlie Saviour ? If the disease might not have been perceived, the cure might equally have escaped so great a number. The cure being asked in so few words, and obtained by a simple touch, accompanied by two words, it might only have been remark- ed bv the disciples, who apparently suiroimded the Saviour, and concealed him, at least in part, from the eyes of the multitude. (2) Several interpreters have asserted that Jesus Christ sent the cured leper to show himself to the priests, in order that they might not have it in their power to contest the miracle after they themselves had recognized and declared it. There is no appearance of his ha%nng had this design in view. A person might be cured of the leprosy by natu- ral means, and the inspection of this man might be an a-ssurance of his cure, but not of the miraculous manner in which it had been wrought. It was, therefore, out of defer- ence to the law that Jesus Christ obliged him to take this step. But had he not also \-iolated the law by touching this man ? Without here animadverting upon the incontes- tible titles which dispensed him from the law, we may say that, in appearing to depart from the letter, he had followed the spirit of it. Tlie law forbade to touch a leper, be- cause leprosy, being a highly contagious disease, communicated itself by the touch. The touch of Jesus Christ, whilst siilutary to the leper whom he touched, could not be dan- gerous to himself; and the law, which forbid contact that might multiply lepers, was very far from prohibiting that contact which diminished the number of lepers. (3) The rite for the purification of lepers is to be found in the 14th chapter of Leviti- cus, from the 2d to the 31st verse, inclusive. 10 m 146 THE IIISTOKY OF TUE LIFE [PAET I. to liim, "being sick, was ready to die. When he had heard of Jesus, he sent uuto him the ancients of the Jews, desiring him to come and heal his servant, saying : Lord, my servant lieth at home sick, and is grievously tormented. When they came to Jesus, they besought him earnestly, saying to him: He is worthy that thou should do this for him ; for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a sjTia- gogue." The seeking to interest him by this motive was, notwith- standing whatever may have since been said upon the subject, ac- knowledging Jesus to be a good citizen. His answer must have con- fii'med them in this idea. " I will come, said he to him, and heal him." " He went with them, and when he was not far from the house, the centurion," whose faith had received a new im2:)ulse sent his friends to him, saying, on his part, those words which Jesus Chiist has praised so highly, and which the Church has treasured as the exjiression of the most profound humility : (a) " Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof. For which cause neither did I think myself worthy to come to thee : but say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man subject to authority, having under me soldiers, and I say to one : Go, and he goeth ; and to another : Come, and he cometh ; and to my servant : Do this, and he doeth it." This was confessing that for a much stronger reason, Jesus, who was master of all things, and who recognized no master in the univei-se, had only to speak to be obeyed by all nature. " Jesus, hearing this, marvelled (4), and turn- ing about to the multitude that followed him, said : Amen, I say to you, I have not found so great faith, not even in Israel (5). And I (a) St. Luke, vii. 6-10; St. Matthew, viii. 11-13. (4) Admii-ation, properly speaking, is excited by some unforeseen occurrence, or by some unknown and new object ; it therefore always supposes some want of previous knowledge, and cannot belong to Jesus Christ, who knows and is aware of every thing, and who could not be ignorant, particularly of the centurion's faith, which was his own work, since it had been produced by his grace ; but he assumed the air and the tone of admiration to conform to our ways of acting, and to teach us what we should admire. (5) Several interpreters except the apostles ; all, the Blessed Virgin and Saint John the Baptist. Jesus Christ speaks here of the nation in general, without including special vocations and privileged souls. A king may say, speaking of one of his subjects, there CUAP. XIX.] OF OL'K LORD JlSfS CliniSÏ. 14Y say to you, that mauy shall come fi'om the east and the west, and shall sit down (6) with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven (7), but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. [Then] Jesus said to the centurion," through the intervention of those whom the latter had deputed : " Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee (8) ; and the servant was healed at the same hour ; and they who were sent being returned to the house, found the servant whole who had been sick." (a) " Jesus went [after] into a city called Xaim : there went with him his disciples, and a great multitude." We have already seen (a) St. Luke, \-ii. 11-17. is no one in my kingdom who has such afiection for me as this person, although the king be not ignorant that he is much dearer to his wife and to his children. (C) The Latin word signifies supper, which was properly the repast of the ancients. Scripture often compares to it the happiness of heaven. What follows continues the comparison. Whilst strangers shall be sitting there with the patriarchs, the children of the kingdom, that is to say, the Jews, who, by virtue of the promises, had that right to it which children have to sit at the table of their father, shall be driven from it and cast oui into exterior darkness. When supper is going on, the light is in the apartment, and darkness is outside. There they shall weep from grief, and shall gnash their teeth with rage, at seeing themselves excluded from the feast to which they first of all had been called. (7) By the kingdom of heaven some understand here the Church, or faith in Jesus Christ. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have beUeved in the Messiah who was to come, as we believe in the Messiah who is come ; they, therefore, were members of the Church as well as the Gentiles. Moreover, we know that the Gentilas shall have their place in heaven with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The kingdom, therefore, is both the Church and heaven, the happiness of which is represented by the feast, as exterior darkness is the image of hell, the punishment of which is expressed b)' weeping and gnashing of teeth. (8) Jesus Christ appears to speak to the centurion as if he were present ; and it seems, according to Saint Matthew, that in reality he was present in person. According to Saint Luke, he did not deem himself worthj' to present himself before Jesus Christ, and he first deputes the ancients of the Jews, and then his friends. This difference has in- duced the belief that these were two different occurrences ; but there is a groundwork of resemblance which decides that it is the same. In both narratives we have a centu- rion, a sick servant, the same discourse of the Master, and the same prayer to Jesus Christ not to come to his residence, the same faith, and on the part of Jesus Christ the same admiration which makes him say that he hiis not foimd such great faith in Israel. With all this, it is still in any one's power to cavil at the difference ; but at bottom it is the same narrative, and good sense will not permit us to enterLiin a doubt on the subject. 148 TIIE inSTORY OF TIIE LIFE [PART I. tliat tlie Jews were in tlie liabit of interring their dead outside of tlie cities, whether to avoid some legal penalty, or whether this was merely a salutary ci\'ic regulation. " When, therefore^ he came nigh to the gate of the city (9), behold," by one of those seeming chances which were never such to the Saviour, " a dead man was carried out. He was the only son of his mother, and she a widow, and a great multitude of the city was with her. Whom, when the Lord had seen, being moved with mercy towards her, Weep not, he said to her. And he came near and touched the bier. They that carried it stood still." Then assuming an absolute tone, which only suits the sovereign arbiter of life and death : " Young man, said he, arise, I say to thee. He that was dead sat up, and began to speak ; and Jesus gave him to his mother. There came a [j'eligioiti-} fear upon them all, and they glorified God, saying : A great prophet is risen up amongst us, and God hath visited his people. This rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea, and all the country round about." The miracle at last reached the ears of John, who, though detain- ed in a prison, into which he had been cast by the incestuous Herod, was not kept in such solitary confinement as to be deprived of out- side communication. There he was visited, and in pui-suauce of the practice of saints, who perform all the good they can, when they cannot perform all they might wish to do, he announced the Mes- siah, at least to his disciples, and profited by the occasions which were ofi"ered to make him known to them. That which presented (9) The meeting of the people who followed Jesus, with the crowd that accompanied the funeral, furnished spectators to this mii-acle ; and it is certain that Jesus Christ wish- ed to make it puhUc. The interpreter add, besides, to the gathering the people who happened to be waiting at the gate of the city for the legal decisions. We read, in point of fact, in Scriptwe, that the Israelites held there a sort of court, where causes were decided ; but did this custom still exist in the time of Jesus Christ ? The texts which are cited with reference to this matter are not posterior to the times of the kings of Juda. In matters of custom, several centuries make great changes, especially among a people who, during various transmigrations, might have quitted many of its usages to assume those of the nation in whose midst it dwelt. It sometimes occurs to interpreters to give thus as customs of the time of Jesus Christ those for which we find no example but in centuries much anterior. Nothing is more uncertain, and we have thought that it might not be useless to make this remark here. CHAP. XIX.] OF OUR LORD Jli^US CHRIST. 149 itself on tlie occasion of tliis miracle was one too favorable to he overlooked by biui. («) " Wben, ilierefore^ be bad beard in prison," tbe rigor of Avbicb tbis recital bad made bim forget ("bis discijiles told bim of all tbese tbings), be called to bim two of bis disciples, and sent them to Jesus, saying : Art tbou be tbat art to come, or look we for anotber ?" It is not difficult to penetrate bis design. Jobn could not be ignorant wbat Jesus was, be wbo made bim known to otbei-s, nor could be begin to doubt if be were tbe Messiab wlieu be beard of bim working miracles, after baving recognized bim be- fore be bad worked any. But bis disciples, always too mucb pre- possessed in favor of tbeii" master, still doubted wbetber Jesus was preferable to bim. Jobn wisbed tbem to see bim witb tbeir owm. eyes, tbe evidence of wbicb would complete tbeir conviction, al- tbougb, witb regard to tbem, it sbould not bave gi-eater certainty tbau tbe testimony tbey bad beard from bis lips. Tbe two depu- ties, wbo apparently were some of tbe most incredulous, " wben tbey were come unto Jesus : Jobn tbe Baptist," said tbey, " batb sent us to tbee, saying : Art tbou be that art to come, or look we for an- otber ?" Before replpng to tbem, Jesus did wbat Jobn bad fore- seen. "In tbat same hour be cured many of tbeii" diseases and hurts," witb wbicb tbey were afflicted, " and of evil spirits, wbicb possessed tbem : to many tbat were blind be gave sight. J'Ae?i, making answer, he said to John's disciples : Go, relate to John what you have heard and seen: tbe blind see, the lame walk (10), tbe lepei-s are made clean, the deaf hear, tbe dead rise again, to the pour the Gospel is preached (11): blessed is he whosoever shall not be scandalized in me." (a) St. Matthew, xi. 2 ; St. Luke, vii. 18-23. (10) We read in the 35th chapter of Isaiah, that in the time of the Messiah the ej-es of the "blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unclosed ; that then the lame man shall leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be free. .Jesus Christ manifestly makes allusion to these words, which allusion furnishes the disciple^s of John with a double proof — that of his miracles, and llie accomplishment of the prophecies re- garding him. (11) He who woidd preach only for the rich, would prove nothing, for he would not even prove that he is persuaded of the truths tliat he preaches. So disinterested a char- ity becomes a proof of religion, comparable to the cure of the blind and the resurrection 150 THE HISTORY OF THE LITE [part I. This answer is addressed to Joliu, because the demand Avas made in his name ; l:>ut, at 1 )ottom, it was for the disciples it was made. The conclusion of the answer completely demonstrated this. Haj^p}', in point of fact, whosoever does not become scandalized in Jesus Christ ! The greatest misfortune of the Jews was their being scan- dalized in him. But this had a particular application to the disci- ples of John, who had taken scandal, because Jesus Christ did not prescribe to his disciples a kind of life as austere as what they prac- tised themselves ; and we have not forgotten that they combined "with the Pharisees to make this a cause of reproach against him. Here, then, they found all that they needed — proof of the mission of Jesus Christ by miracles, to which he condescended to let them be ocular witnesses, and, moreover, a preservative against every thing that could alienate them from his person. Neither one nor the other was necessary to John the Baptist. Wherefore the Sa- viour had nothing to give him but eulogy, the most magnificent that ever issued from his sacred lips, l:>ut of which no person could have been less worthy than the precursor, if, after having been bless- ed beforehand with so many lights, he had been capable of doubt- ing, for one instant, that Jesus was truly the Messiah. For whether Jesus Christ wished only to pi'aise John, or whether his design was to hinder, at the same time, those who had witnessed the deputation from believing that John vacillated in the testimony he had rendered to him, (a) " when the messengers were departed, Jesus began to speak concerning John," and beginning by praise of his unshakable firmness, " he began to say to the multitudes" who listened to him : " What went you out to the desert to see ? a reed shaken with the wind ?" Could a soul so superficial, and a charac- ter so frivolous, excite to such a pitch your curiosity and your admi- ration ? " But what went you out to see ? a man clothed in soft garments ? Behold, they that are clothed in costly apparel and live delicately are in the houses of kings." Another circumstance which gives weight to the testimony of John. A man devoted to such an (a) St. Luke, vii. 24-26, 28 ; St. Matthew, xi. 10-14. of the dead. Would to Heaven that it h:iJ no otlier point of resemblance to these prodi- gies — that of being as rare ! CHAP. XIX.] OF OUR LORD JISCS CHRIST. 151 austere ooni-se of life, liaviug no wants, liad no interest in this world. He could not, therefore, be suspected of flattery; for what profit could he have derived from it ? " But," in short, adds the Saviour, "what, tJieii^ went you out to see? 'a prophet? Yea, I say to you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written : Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare the way before thee (12). For, amen, I say to you, amongst those that are born of women, there is not a greater than John the Baptist (13). Yet he that is lesser in the kingdom of God is gi-eater than he." Such is the superiority of the law which commences at the close of the ex- isting law, that the fii-st of the one, in the order of the ministry, is the last of the other. For here a new order of things is actually being established, and John, placed between the two Testaments, terminates the ancient, and announces the new. " From the days of the preaching of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heav- en," previously proposed to one nation alone, " is open to all people." Let the Jews cease to boast of the rights to which they lay claim. This is not an inheritance in which children must succeed to theu' (12) God said, in Malacby, chapter iii. : Behold, I send mij angel, and he shaU prepare the way before my face. In the prophet it is the Son who speaks ; in the evangelist it is the Son who makes the Father speak ; in both ca-ses it is always God, and the same God ; and the différence of the two texts shows the distinction and the equality of the persons. This is the first proof which Jesus Christ gives of the superiority of John over all the other prophets ; for lie is the only prophet who has been foretold. He is called angel, which signifies sent, on account of his office, and also on account of his life, more angehcal than human, which, as Eusebius reports (Demon. Evang., lib. ix., chap. 5), made some believe that, in point of fact, and by natvu-e, John was not a man, but an an- gel. No doubt they were deceived ; but then it was a matter in which they might easily be so. (13) Saint Matthew only says : There lias not arisen among them that are bom of wo- men a greater than John the Baptist. What he says before and after lets us easily see that it is with reference to prophecy that John is preferred to all that had appeared up to that time. Saint Luke, who says plainly that there is no greater prophet than John the Baptist, does not permit us to doubt any longer of this being its literal sense. The text of Saint Matthew has made some believe that Saint John wiis the greatest siiint, as well iiHWie Old as in the New Testen^t ; or, to speak with more precision, that none was more saintly than he;, for the text does not exclude equality. This sense, although not literal, sliouid always be respected, because it has been always followed by antiquity, and the Churob seems to have adopted it in these words, which it sings in honor of the holy precursor: Ko one in this vast universe lias been more holy than Saint John. 152 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PABT I. fathers ; it is a conquest reserved for whosoever shall have the cour- age to carry it sword in hand : it suffereth violence, and the " \aolent Lear it away. For all the prophets and the law j^rophesied until John." But prophecy ceases when accomplishment begins. True, you think that Elias should be the precursor of the Messiah ; but " if you ■«'ill receive it,- John is Elias that is to come. He who hath ears to hear, let him hear (14)." Informed of what John the Baptist really was, and of the inter- esting object of his mission, (ci) " the people and the puljlicans, be- ing baptized with John's baptism, hearing, justified God," and recog- nized his justice in the means by which he attained his ends. "But the Phai-isees and the lawyers, being not baptized by John (15), despised the council of God against themselves," and then- inflexible stubbornness in rejecting all the means which God had set in mo- tion to gain them over, drew down upon them this just reproach : " Whereimto, said he, shall I liken the men of this generation, and (a) St. Luke, \-ii. 29-35. (14) Jesus Christ sometimes makes use of this conclusion when his words have a m3's- terious and profomid sense, or wlien they propose a sublime perfection. The woi'ds which he has just spoken are of the first kind ; and we do not flatter ourselves that the explanation inserted in the text removes all the difficulties : here is an abstract thereof, which may throw further light upon it. John is declared to be the greatest of the chil- dren of women, not for his sanctity, if we confine cm-selves to the literal sense, but for his quality of immediate precursor of the Messiah, a quality which raises him above all the prophets. But the Church, which the Messiah came to foiuid, is so superior to the synagogue, that the lowest of its ministers is, by Ms ministry, superior to John himself. This Church is actually established, and is designated by the most magnificent character's, by its universaUty, which embraces all people, called from the four parts of the world to enter into it as into a conquered coimtry. The preaching of John was given to announce its establishment, and the cessation of the law and of the prophets, which only served as preparatives to it. The Jews were under the persuasion that Elias should precede the Messiah. John has the spirit and wtue of Elias, and in this matter their expectation is already fulfilled, Avithout reference as to what shall happen at the second coming, when every one agrees that the Messiah shall be preceded by Elias in pei-son. (15) It was through the baptism of John that God wished to bring them to the faith. The contempt of the smallest grace made them miss the decisive grace of salvation. The chain, being once broken, was never more renewed for them. Ijet us profit from every thing, since the greatest things are often hinged upon the smallest, and that it is not impossible that the veiy thing upon which all depends seems to dwindle to a mere trifle. CHAP. XIX.] OF OVR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 153 to -what are tliey like ? They are like to cliildren (16) sitting in the market-place, speaking one to another, and sajiug : We have piped to you, and you hare not danced ; we have mourned, and you have not wept. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking -nane ; and you say : He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking ; and you say : Behold a man that is a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners. T7ius wisdom is justified by all her childi'en," not merely by those who have been docile to her voice, but also by the rebellious. Did the latter wish for an austere life ? They found that in Saint John the Baptist. Did they hke a common life ? Such was the life of Jesus Chi-ist. Take the two opposite kinds of life : criticism of the one was apology for the other, and meant respectively preference of one to the other. In this state of things, to be scandalized at both one and the other, and not submit to either, is a declaration of pur- pose to be scandalized at every thing, and submit to nothing. As regarded God, the means did not fail, but they became useless, by the obstinacy of the incredulous, and the reasons which the latter advanced to elude them were at the same time the apology of God's conduct, and the condemnation of their own incredulity. Let us not be surprised that they should be included under the common denomination of children of wisdom. AU the Jews had God for their legislator, and his wisdom for their dii'ector ; and, though for the most part bad disciples, they were not the less under her disci- pline ; and in this sense all might be called her children. (16) It is not the incredulous Jews, it is Jesus Christ and Saint John who are com- pared to children who sing and weep ; and unbelievers are compared to children whom others cannot induce by any means to share in their joys or sorrows. This mode of comparison is not unexampled in Scripture, which often compares the whole to the whole, leaving to the attentive reader the care of distributing the different members of the comparison. 154 THE HtSTORT OF THE LIFE [PABT I. CHAPTER XX. THE HOLY WOITEN WHO FOLLOWED JESUS CHRIST. HIS FEIENDS WISH TO SEIZE HIS PERSON. — HEALING OF A BLIND AND DUMB MAN WHO WAS POSSESSED. — • BLASPHEMY OF THE PHARISEES. SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST. Meantime " Jesus," whose zeal could neither be Ijlunted by con- tradiction, nor exhausted by toil, (a) " travelled through the cities and towns, preaching and evangelizing the kingdom of God. The twelve," to whom his examples were to serve as lessons for the same ministry, " were with him. And [there also were] with him certain women (1) who had been healed of evil sj^irits and infirmities, viz. : Mary, who is called Magdalen (2), out of whom seven devils were (a) St. Luke, viii. 1, 2. (1) Perhaps we may be surprised that Jesus Christ should have suffered women in his retinue. It was, says Saint Jerome, an established usage among the Jews, that wo- men, and especially widows, should follow theii- religious teachers, and administer to theii- wants. The custom took away the scandal, and assuredly the Jews took no scandal at Jesus on this account, since they never made any reproach to him concerning it, whilst they calumniated him upon every thing else. The apostles conducted themselves in the same way as their divine Master. Saint Paul decides positively that they had a right to do so. If he did not avail himself of this right, it was out of precaution for the Gentiles, who, not being aware of this usage, might thereupon take scandal The her- etics have much too far abused it ; and you will find very few sects, indeed, who have failed to avail themselves of it. We, therefore, have a right to this usage founded on the example of Jesus Christ. We have, in the example of Saint Paul, reserve, if, when availing ourselves of the right, there be apprehensions lest people should be scan- dalized ; and in heretics, we have the abuse ; the consequences of which should make those persons tremble who are so badly ad\'ised as to attach themselves to these false teachers. For, if she who serves the apostle shall have the same reward as he, the pun- ishment of the heresiarch shall therefore be reserved for her who shall have served the heresiarch. (2) The reader has seen, page 104, Chap. XIV., the reasons on account of which we do not distinguish her from the penitent woman, nor from Mary, the sister of Lazarus, and of Martha. Some interpreters understand by the seven demons, the \-ices from which she was delivered. Others hold that she really was possessed by seven demons, whom Jesus Christ expelled from her body by the vii'tue of his word. Those who declare themselves to be of this opinion should add, that this deUverance preceded, and appa- rently occasioned the conversion of Magdalen. CHAP. XX.] OF OUeTSEd JESUS CHRLST. 155 gone forth ; Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward ; Susanna, and many others who ministered unto him* of their substance." They, in this way, all contributed their part to the apostolical func- tions, and deserved to shai;e the recomj^ense thereof; for the sup- porting an apostle is preaching by his mouth, since he could not preach if he were diverted from it by the care of procm-ing the necessaries of life. During the course of this mission, those who accompanied him (rt) " came to a house" to rest themselves ; but " the multitude com- eth together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread." Meantime reports of what he had done were spreading throughout the country. " T\Taen his friends had heard of it, they went out to lay hold on him (3) ; for they said : He is become mad." These good people could not persuade themselves that he whom they had seen i-eared amongst them, and like one of themselves, could be a prophet and a worker of miracles. They concluded, therefore, from the rumors afloat about him, that he had lost his wits, and thought they performed the office of good friends by seizing his person ; for it does not appear to have been a malicious act on their part. This was that weakness usual to persons of hmited understanding, and who, having received no education, are incapable of belie\'ing any thing beyond the sphere of their sight, or the range of their fancy. (a) St. Mark, iii. 20, 21. (3) There is something here which creates embarrassment, viz. : it seems, by the .sequel, that Mary, the mother of .Jesus, was with them. To believe that she had the same idea of Jesus which they had conceived, arid that she shared in the design of seiz- ing him, is a thing the very thought of which stnkes us with honor ; but it is not diffi- cult to exculpate her from this. 1st. Although it may be probable enough, yet it is not certain that this is the same occasion whereon Jesus got notice that his mother and his brothers were waiting for him at the door ; it is not, therefore, cert;iin tliat Mary was to be found present upon this occasion, because this only could occur in the case of its being certain that the fact occurred on one and the same occasion. 2d. Supposing even that it were the same occasion, Marj- might have been ignorant of their design, and have come with them, impelled by the desire of seeing her son. Perhaps they had even induced her to join with them, hoping that the son, assured by the presence of his mother, would let himself the more easily be drawn into the snare which they wished to lay for him. Whatever may be the case, we should reject as impiety the very thought, that Mary could have towards her son the idea which liis relatives entertained, and that she took part in their plotting. 156 THE Hi»lORT ©FfkE LIFE £pART I. Now, they had not seeu the miracles of Jesus Christ, and they could not imagine that he whom they had seen in the lowliness of infancy, and in the obscmity of a jjoor workshop, was become suddenly such an extraordinary man. Perhaps that at the same time some free- thinker passed the same judgment upon him ; for extremes meet : and as the simple believe nothing beyond what they see, the subtle admit nothing beyond what they understand, as if the mind's eye had not limits as certain, and marked as clearly, as the sight of the body. Wherefore, to measure the extent of possibility by the nar- row sphere of cm- knowledge, is, in both cases, the cause of error ; and they are as hke each other in their principle as in their conse- quences. Lastly, this low idea entertained of Jesus Christ by his fi-iends, is a convincing assurance to us, that during the thirty years he had passed at Nazareth, he allowed nothing to escape him which could raise the suspicion of what he was, and that the only virtues perceptible in him were only those suitable to his age and condition — virtues ever estimable, and scarcely noticed by men, who only re- mark and esteem virtue of a wonderful and dazzling cast. Yet these virtues of each condition and age, when they are practised with inviolable fidelity, and from sublime motives, are virtues which command the approbation of God and the admiration of his angels. For, was there ever an object so worthy of both as this young arti- san, unknown to all the woiid, and, after him, as Mary, his holy mother, shut up in the same cabin, covered with the same obscu- rity, and similarly occupied in manual labor, of no consideration in the eyes of men ? Still, it does not appear that the Saviour's friends pushed any fur- ther the project they had formed against his person ; whether they were enlightened by his grace, or arrested by his power, or whether he escaped from them, by rendering himself uivisible to their eyes, as he did on another occasion. However the matter occurred, we do not read that he permitted them to lay hands upon him, nor did he discontinue those practices which had given rise to their strange mistake. For it was (a) " then was ofiered to him one possessed with a devil, bUnd and dumb, and he healed him, so that he spoke and saw. All the multitudes were amazed, and said : Is not (a) St. Matthew, xii. 22-24 ; St. Mark, iii. 22 ; St. Luke, xi. 15, 16. CHAP. XS.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 1.57 this tlie son of David (4) ? The Scribes, who were come down from Jerusalem, and the Pharisees, hearing it, said : He hath Beel- zebub, and he casteth out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Others, tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven." We recognize in these traits, in addition to the dark thoughts of envy, incredulity and its j^itiful subterfuges. The people, on the contrary, who had neither passions nor predilections, had judged correctly that the author of the great prodigy they had witnessed must needs be the Messiah. For the peojile never err, when they follow that upright sense which is common to all men, and which is the more accurate and sure, inasmuch as it is the less mixed up with science and subtlety. But if this has given ground for the assertion that the voice of the people is the voice of God, signifying that the people's judgments participate, in some manner, in the infallibility of the divine judgments, still it is far from being as unchangeable. Nothing is so easy as to make the people change their ideas and sentiments, and to make them pass in a moment from admiration to contempt, and from love to hatred. And this was precisely what the envious and the incredulous actually aimed at bringing about. Scattered through the crowd, they had spread the atrocious cal- umny which we have just heard, when the Saviour, in order to caution that weak and inconstant multitude against these base de- signs, silenced the tongues of the calumniators, by making them feel the absurdity of the reproach they cast upon him, and the enor- mity of the crime they thereby committed. (a) "Knowing tTten their thoughts," and aware of their pernicious designs, " and after he had called them together, Jesus said to them in parables : How can Satan cast out Satan ? Every kingdom di- vided against its^f shall be brought to desolation ; and if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan (jû St. Luke, xi. 17, 18; St. Mark, iii. 2.3-26 ; St. Matthew, xii. 25, 26. (4) By excellence, the Son of Da\-id, that is to say, the Messiah. Tliis name had been consecrated by tradition with that signification. But was not the crowd who spoke thus composed of Gentiles ? We should be driven Ui say so, if it were true, as some have drcinied, that Gentiles alone gave to the Messiah the title of Son of David. 158 • THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [PART I. cast ont Satan, lie is divided against himself. How, then, shall his kingdom stand ? He cannot stand, but hath an end." Although the irreconcilable enemies of union, still do the demons unite to divide and to injure. They are wise enough to see that, ' unless there be a certain confederacy amongst them, none of theii- designs can succeed. This union is that of cabal and faction. Too faithfully imitated by the wicked, it renders them but too effective for mischief; whilst unhappy divisions often cause the failure of the enterprises which the virtuous would wish to undertake for good designs. But, although this first answer of the Saviour silenced his enemies, he yet adds a second, which exhibits to the Pharisees their condemnation, in their own sentiments and in theù- conduct. For, in all the cases that ever arose in which demons were expelled, ex- cept when exjjelled by Jesus Christ, the Pharisees constantly attrib- uted the act to divine power, and it never occurred to their minds that such acts could be the result of a compact with Satan. To ac- cuse Jesus Christ alone of this, was, therefore, showing ujîon their part the most glaring, and, at the same time, the most iniquitous partiality. Such is the sequel deducible from these words. (ct) " You say that through Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now, if I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your children cast them out (5) ?" You have always acknowledged that it was in the name of God. "Therefore they shall be your judges." For, what shall you answer to the reproach they will make you for having stigma- (a) St. Luke, xi. 18. (5) An expression used in Scripture, when intending to say those of your nation. The ancients understood it with reference to the apostles, who expelled the demons by the power which Jesus Christ had given to them. The majority of modem interpreters lui- derstand it with reference to the Jewish exorcists, who employed with success against the demons certain formulas of conjuration which Solomon had taught them, as Josephus reports, Book viii. of Jewish Antiquities, chapter ii. If the first opinion has JLits favor the most respectable authorities, the second has more apparent reasons. 1st. It appears that Jesus Christ had not yet given to his apostles the power of expeUing demons, or at least that the apostles had not as yet exercised it. 2d. Supposing that they had then already exercised it, this power being the same at bottom as that of Jesus Christ, the Pharisees might have equally attributed it to the prince of demons, as Jesus Christ even gives us to understand by these words : If Iheij have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how muck more them of his household f — (Matthew, x.) CHAP. XX.] OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 159 tized as a diabolical operation in me what you regard in them a.s a divine work ? (a) " But," adds Jesus Christ, " if I, by the finger of God, cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you." This was the main truth which Saint John had announced at the outset, which Jesus Christ never ceased repeating, Mhich he had proved by all the miracles he had hitherto worked, but of which the expulsion of demons was in some sort a more dii-ect proof. For this was a dii'ect proof of the destruction of the kingdom of Satau, which kingdom could only be annihilated by the coming of the kingdom of God, — a truth which the Saviour makes manifest by this comj^arison : " How can any one enter into the house of the strong, and rifle his goods, unless he first bind the strong ? When a strong man armed keepeth his coui't, those things ai'e in peace which he possesseth. But if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armor in which he trusted, and will distribute his spoils." These spoils wrested from Satan are the men whose arms and bodies he possessed, and who are delivered from his tyranny by the power of î^us Christ. Wherefore, his defeat is certain, and the conqueror can no longer be mistaken. And this is so e\àdent, that it would be criminal to act with in- difference or neutrality towards Jesus Christ, as he assures us by these words which he distinctly adds : (b) " He that is not with me, is against me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth." Hence, what must be their crime who declare against him with that excess of malignity and fury which goes to the e.xtent of at- ti-ibuting to the infernal spirits the works of his almighty power ? And should we be astonished at his immediately drawing this dreadful conclusion ? " Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blas- phemy shall be forgiven men ; but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven (6). And whoever shall speak a word against the (o) St. Matthew, xii. 28, 29 ; St. Luke, xi. 21, 22. (6) St. Matthew, xii. 30-32 ; St. Mark, iii. 29. (6) It is not blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, considered as the third person of the adorable Trinity, but against the Spirit of God, author of the wonders which Jesus Christ 160 THE HISTORY OF THE LIFE [pAET I. Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but he that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in tlie world to come (7). He shall never have forgiveness, and shall be guilty of an everlasting sin." He spoke thus, to them, " be- cause they said : He hath an unclean sj^u'it (8)." operated. Were we to understand it in the first sense, we should believe that the Eu- nomians, who denied the divinity of the Holy Ghost, were the most hardened of all sin- ners. Yet, Saint Chrysostom says that they were seen returning in crowds to the bo- som of the Church. By blasphemy against the Son of man, the interpreters understand commonly the reproachful calumnies of the Jews, which only affected the humanity of the Saviour, for example, when they said that he loved good cheer and wine, that he favored siimers, &c., ) ; for he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound : but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath. Therefore do I speak to them in parables, be- cause seeing, they see not (7), and hearing, they hear not ; neither (a) St. Mark, iv. 10, 11, 12 ; St. Matthew, xiii. lO-li ; St. Luke, \i\i. 10, x. 24 ; St. Matthew, xiii. 13. (6) Saint Augustine assigns as the reason for this diflference, that the first were pre- destined, and the latter reprobate. The reason has not been admitted by the majority of ancient and modem interpreters ; and, in point of fact, Jud;is, one of the twelve, was reprobate, and it is not credible, that among the multitude, to whom Jesus Christ spoke only in parables, there was not some of the elect. The reason of the preference given to the first over the second should be t