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of Sion, and rejoice with gladness and festivity before Him. pp. 96, 97.

Fearful must be the state of the church if any great number of the clergy can approve of translatng such horrible impiety "for the use of the members of the Church of England." Mr. Oakeley has not only translated and published it; he has defended it, and here is his defence :

Scripture says, that, after our Lord's Temptation in the Wilderness," Angels came and ministered unto Him.” If we are to conceive of their ministry, we must also conceive of the way in which they ministered; surely it is profitable, with all reverence to do so. On first thoughts, I suppose, we should all say that these ministrations were spiritual alone. Yet this seems an unreal view, considering that our Lord came in the likeness of sinful flesh, all but its sin; that he was tempted like unto us, and that the Sacred History has just before recorded for our instruction, that He was "an hungered." Our Saint, pondering these words, and again reading elsewhere in Scripture of the employment of Angels in the carrying of food to God's elect, devises a sweet conception, that such was one mode in which these blessed comforters ministered to our Lord. But farther, whence did they seek this food? Our author carries them, in the same strain of devotional poetry, to the little dwelling at Nazareth, and introduces into the scene our Lord's Blessed Mother (who had for the twenty and nine years before ministered to her Divine Son with devout reverence and affection) as the associate of the Angels in this work of earthly consolation towards Him, who, though He were not "of the earth earthy, but the Lord from heaven," yet vouchsafed for our sakes to "empty Himself" for a time, of the exclusive prerogatives of His Divine Nature. This instance has been selected as well

for other reasons, as because it is one of the strongest which occur in the following pages, of addition to Scripture, and presumes an interpretation of the sacred text for which our minds are, I think, not at once prepared.-Introduction, pp. xv. xvi.

So that, acknowledging the violence done to the sacred text, both by addition and interpretation, Mr. Oakeley deliberately undertakes to defend Bona- . venture for writing, and himself for translating, such profane fiction. How, I would ask, is it possible for any persons to allow their imaginations such unbridled licence for any length of time, and retain any distinct perception of what is true and what is fiction? Is it not certain, that they will gradually come to regard the truth itself as fiction? Disguise it with whatever sophistry he may, no argument Mr. Oakeley could adduce can shake my conviction, that this system of turning the gospel into a romance and a myth, must tend to the subversion of Christianity itself. At present it may serve the purposes of superstition; by-and-by it will be proved, how direct is its tendency to promote infidelity itself, and infidelity the most incurable and hopeless. For, the worst species of infidelity is that, which begins in lowering the standard of Scripture as an inspired record. He who takes such liberties as these, can have little idea what inspiration really is; and in after times, every thought of retracing the steps which led to infidelity, and of searching the Scriptures as the oracle of truth, must

264 THE CONSEquences to chrISTIANITY. [CHAP.

be met by the recollection, that Christians consider their sacred records merely as a text to found romance and poetry upon. And with that will inevitably come the suspicion, that truth may have been treated with equal freedom by the Evangelists themselves, and that the gospel itself may, after all, be • no better than a romance, a legend, a myth, a meditation.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

THE ANNUNCIATION-DIFFERENT SCHOOLS OF MEDITATIONTHE LATIN MONKS OF PALESTINE-THE GREEKS-THE CANONS OF LORETTO.

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IF the laws laid down by the advocates of what they are pleased to call Meditation be acted on, we must not be surprised to find something like discrepancy in their accounts of the same transaction. very simple instance will suffice to illustrate my meaning. From the narrative in the Gospel of St. Luke, nothing can be gathered as to the scene of the Annunciation, except that Mary seems to have been in the house, when the angel appeared to her. Bonaventure, according to his manner, determines the point somewhat more precisely.

When the fulness of time was now come, the Everblessed Trinity having decreed to redeem mankind by the Incarnation of the WORD, it pleased ALMIGHTY GOD to summon to him the Archangel Gabriel, and send him to Nazareth, to a Virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, and the Virgin's name was Mary. Gabriel, with a calm and beaming countenance, reverently and devoutly prostrate before the throne of God, listens to the gracious message, and accepts the embassy. Then rising on the wings of joy, he quits the heavenly courts, and is instantly present, in human shape, before the Virgin Mary, whom he discovers in the innermost retreat of her lowly dwelling.-Life of Christ, p. 9.

Other persons, however, have thought themselves

266

THE LEGENDS OF THE LATIN AND [СНАР. equally free to meditate after their own fancy. And some of the meditators of former times seemed to have preferred assigning some other situation. The Latins of Palestine will have it that the Annunciation took place in a cave under ground, and will show the traveller the very spot where both the angel and the blessed Virgin stood at the precise moment of the Incarnation, marked by two pillars erected by the Empress Helena, who, according to their account, was divinely informed of the exact places. But if the Greeks are to be the guides of our meditations, they will tell us that we must leave the city of Nazareth; for according to their Meditation, the angel, not finding the Virgin at home, followed her to a fountain, whither she had gone to fetch water, and there delivered his message. And this is the form into which Mr. Newman's meditations appear to develop themselves; for in the second volume of the Lives of the English Saints, the editorial preface to which purports to be written by Mr. Newman himself, we find the following passage:

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In the time of St. Willibald, tradition showed the spot where the Annunciation was made to Mary, as she returned from drawing water at the Fountain of the Virgin. The church dedicated to the Archangel Gabriel, was built over the very source. "That church," says the narrative, "has often been redeemed for a sum of money from the violence of the neighbouring populace, who have desired to destroy it; as though heathen hate were ever hemming in, and pressing hard, in fiendish malice, upon Christian love. It is interesting, if not more than that, to learn,

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