his appearance, he was still more hidden by clothing himself with humanity. He was much more easily known while he was invisible, than when he made himself visible. And at length, when he designed to accomplish the promise which he made to his Apostles, to continue with his church till his second coming, he chose the most strange and obscure concealment of all, namely, that under the elements of the Eucharist. It is this sacrament which St. John calls in the Revelation the hidden manna; Rev. ii. 17. And I think that Isaiah saw him thus, when he said in the spirit of prophesy, Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself; Isa. xlv. 15. This is the greatest concealment he can assume. The veil of nature which conceals God, has been penetrated by many Infidels, who, as St. Paul testifies, have seen the invisible God, through visible nature; Rom. i. 20. Many heretical Christians have known him through his humanity, and have worshipped Jesus Christ as God and But as for us, we ought to esteem ourselves happy, that it has pleased God to enlighten us to discern him under the elements of bread and wine.

man.

To these considerations we may add the mystery of God's Spirit, who is concealed in the scriptures. For whereas there are two perfect senses of them, a literal and a mystical; the Jews resting in the former, never so much as

think there is another, nor apply themselves to search after it; so wicked persons, beholding the operations of nature, ascribe them to nature, without thinking of any other author. And as the Jews, seeing a perfect human nature in Jesus Christ, did not seck for another: He was despised, and we esteemed him not, says Isaiah, in their name; Isa. liii. 3.-So also Heretics, seeing the perfect appearance of bread in the Eucharist, look for no other substance. Every thing contains some mystery. All things are the veils of their Creator. Christians ought to see him in every thing. Temporal afflictions hide those eternal blessings to which they lead: temporal enjoyments cover those eternal evils which they procure. Let us beg of God to make us know him and serve him in all things; and let us render him infinite thanks, that being hidden in every thing from so many others, he should in so many things, and in so many ways, have disclosed himself to us.

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XXVIII.

CHRISTIAN REFLECTIONS.

THE ungodly, who abandon themselves blindly

to their passions, without either knowing God, or giving themselves the trouble to seek him, verify in themselves this one principle of the faith which they oppose, that human nature is in a state of corruption. And the Jews, who obstinately withstand the Christian religion, verify in like manner this other principle of the same faith, which they oppose, namely, that Jesus Christ is the true Messiah, and that he came to redeem mankind, and to rescue them from the misery and corruption into which they were fallen. And this they do as well by the state in which we see them at present, and which was foretold in the prophecies, as by the prophecies themselves, which are still in their hands, and which they inviolably preserve, as containing the marks by which the Messiah is to be known. Thus the evidences of the depravity of men, and of redemption by Jesus Christ, which are the two principal truths which Christianity establishes, may be deduced from the wicked, who live in indifference about reli

gion, and from the Jews, who are its irreconcilable enemies.

The dignity of man, in his innocence, consisted in ruling and making use of the creatures; but, under his present corruption, it consists in retiring from them, and in submitting himself to them.

Many err the more dangerously, because they take a truth as the foundation of their error. This mistake lies, not in the believing a falshood, but in regarding one truth to the exclusion of another.

There are a great number of truths both in faith and in morals, which seem repugnant, and contrary, all of which subsist together in wonderful order.

The ground of all heresy is the rejection of some of these truths; and the source of all the objections made by heretics against us, is their ignorance of some of these truths.

And it usually happens, that not being able to conceive the connection of two seemingly opposite truths, and supposing that the admission of one necessarily includes a rejection of the other, they embrace the one, and exclude the other.

The Nestorians maintained there were two

persons in Jesus Christ, because there are two natures; and the Eutychians, on the contrary, that there was but one nature, because he was but one person. The Catholics are orthodox in joining together both truths, the two natures, and one person.

The shortest way to prevent heresies is tó teach all truths without reserve; and the surest method of confuting heresies, is to expose them without reserve.

Grace and nature will be always in the world. There will always be Pelagians, and there will always be Catholics; because the first birth produces the one, and the second birth the other.

The church, together with Jesus Christ, to whom she is inseparably united, merits the conversion of all those who are not in the true refigion. And those who are converted, afterward assist the mother which has delivered them.

The body can no more live without the head, than the head without the body. He that séparates from the one, or the other, is no more of the body, nor does he belong any longer to Jesus Christ. All virtues, martyrdom, austeri