THE ACTIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. From the DUBLIN REVIEW for Dec. 1851. This Article should have been inserted immediately after that on "The Miracles of the New Testament,' ending on page 244 of this volume. THE ACTIONS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ART. III.1. Jesus the Son of Mary; or, the Doctrine of the Catholic Church upon the Incarnation of God the Son, considered in its bearings upon the reverence shown by Catholics to his Blessed Mother. By Rev. JOHN BRANDE MORRIS, M.A. 2 vols. 8vo. London: Toovey, 1851. 2. Lettres Catholiques sur l'Evangile.-Catholic Letters on the Gospel. By the ABBE MASSIOT. Paris: Dentu, 1851. b WHEN, some numbers back, we treated first of the Parables, and then of the Miracles, of the New Testament, and showed how they could only receive their obvious explanation, as instructions, through the Catholic system, we felt that the same principle was applicable to all that our Redeemer said or did to make us wise unto salvation. To suppose that the less direct teaching of the Gospel belonged exclusively to the Spouse, and that the more immediate announcement of religious truth was common property to her and to her rivals, would indeed be an anomaly of reasoning, whereof we should be sorry to have any one suspect us. The miracle was for the unbelieving multitude; the parable was for the heartless priest and scribe; for friends and dear ones were the ordib Ibid. a Vol. xxvii. nary and domestic actions of Christ's earthly life; for apostles and disciples were His words of eternal life, the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. The Church that alone can claim succession, in ministry, in truth, in grace, and even in history, from these, must alone be entitled to appropriate to herself what was done and said for them. Others may stand in the skirts of the crowd, and listen; some may even penetrate into the inner circle that stands about Jesus, to interrogate, being doctors of the law, or to tempt, being pharisees. And if, like those who were sent to apprehend Him, but remained to listen to him, they attend with sincerity to His doctrines in parables and in mighty works, they will find them directed, as we have before seen, to force them into communion with, and submission to, the one, holy, and apostolic, Church, in which alone His teaching ends, which alone His miracles illustrate. But when the day's labour is closed, and no Nicodemus comes by night, to prolong it, before our heavenly Teacher retires to the mountain-top, or to His humble chamber, to pass the hours of repose in His rest, "the prayer of God," we see Him seated in the company of the few, of the few, of the faithful, and the loving; the Shepherd of the little flock, the Father of a slender household, partaking with them of their homely fare, and sharing with them in their untutored conversation. That His speeches to the multitude and to the priests were clothed in noble and elegant language, no one can doubt. The people admired not only the wisdom, but the grace, which flowed from His lips; the learned, like Nicodemus, conversed with Him respectfully; and all wondered at the gifts, ordinarily of education, spontaneously springing from |