THE MIRACLES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, AS ILLUSTRATING CATHOLIC DOCTRINE. a WE proceed, in fulfilment of a promise which closed our last essay, to unfold our thoughts on a subject which cannot fail to interest every reader of the Gospel, -the Miracles of our Lord. But before entering upon it, we beg for a few moments' grace, while we indulge in some preliminary remarks. In opening our paper on the "Parables," we briefly approved of the critical study of Scripture, and expressed regret, that it was not more cultivated amongst us. In a notice of that paper, in a Catholic periodical, its writer remarked: "We do not agree in all the propositions laid down as to the value and advantages of biblical criticism ourselves." So slight a comment, so passing an observation, so modest an expression of difference of opinion, could never have elicited a word from us, unaccustomed as we are to notice reviews upon our reviews, did it not appear to us to indicate, what we have seen more strongly expressed elsewhere without reference to us;-a tendency to depreciate biblical studies, and the theo logical use of holy Scripture. That persons who have witnessed, during a great part of their lives, the sad and fatal abuse of God's word - who have seen it become a snare to the feet, a veil to the eyes, a cloak to hypocrisy, a seed-bed to heresies, and a very excuse for sin that men who have seen havoc come to souls from its misapplication, and ruin to conscience from its distortion, who have heard every key of the sacred instrument jangling and jarring in distracting dissonance, as at once bravely thumped by the evangelical, and timidly stolen over by the churchman : that they, in fine, who have themselves perhaps lived for a time entangled in the meshes of contradictory interpretation, and have now exclaimed, "Laqueus contritus est, et nos liberati sumus," should look with distrust, and some dislike, on studies which tie men apparently to the killing letter, and quench the living Spirit, is perhaps natural, and as such pardonable. But there is danger in too violent a rebound; and we are truly and deeply anxious, that any extreme views, on so important a subject, should not be encouraged. Let us for a moment consider this very critical study of God's word. No pursuit has been more abused: and we hope it is looking rather at the abuse than the use, that the writer alluded to tells us, that he does not agree with us, as to the value of that branch of learning. Eusebius, Origen, St. Jerome, St. Augustin, Alcuin, and many others, applied sedulously to it, and their labours have been highly prized by the Church of God. The Council of Trent, in ordering a new revision, and consequently a new recension, of the Vulgate to be made, commanded the severe critical pursuits necessary for this purpose. But we are looking at the matter too seriously. There are two ways in which critics can justify their |