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Titus.

T

ITUS was a Gentile by religion and birth, but converted by St. Paul, who calls him his son. St. Jerom says, that he was St. Paul's interpreter, and that, probably, because he might write what St. Paul dictated, or explained in Latin what this apostle said in Greek; or render into Greek what St. Paul said in Hebrew or Syriac. St. Paul took him with him to Jerusalem, when he went thither in the year 51, of the vulgar æra, about deciding the question which was then started, whether the converted Gentiles ought to be made subject to the ceremonies of the law? Some would then have obliged him to circumcise Titus; but neither he nor Titus would consent to it. Titus was sent by the same apostle to Corinth upon occasion of some disputes which then divided the church. He was very well received by the Corinthians, and very much satisfied with their ready compliance: but would receive nothing from them, intimating thereby the disinterestedness of his master.

From hence he went to St. Paul in Macedonia, and gave him an account of the state of the church at Corinth. A little while after the apostle desired him to return again to Corinth, to set things in order preparatory to his coming. Titus readily undertook this journey and departed immediately, carrying with him St. Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. Titus was made bishop of the isle of Crete, about the 63d year of Christ, when St. Paul was obliged to quit that island, in order to take care of the other churches. The following year he wrote to him, to desire that as soon as he should have sent Tychicus or Artemas to him for supplying his place in Crete, Titus would come to him to Nicopolis in Macedonia, or to Nicopolis in Epirus, upon the

gulph of Ambracia; where the apostle intended to pass his winter.

The subject of this epistle is to represent to Titus what are the qualities that a bishop should be endued with. As the principal function which Titus was to exercise in the isle of Crete was to ordain priests and bishops, it was highly incumbent on him to make a discreet choice. The apostle also gives him a sketch for the advice and instructions which he was to propound to all sorts of persons: to the aged, both men and women; to young people of each sex; to slaves or servants. He exhorts him to keep a strict authority over the Cretans; and to reprove them with severity, as being a people addicted to lying, wickedness, idleness, and gluttony. And as many converted Jews were in the churches of Crete, he exhorts Titus to oppose their vain traditions and Jewish fables: and at the same time to shew them that the observation of the legal ceremonies is no longer necessary; that the distinction of meat is now abolished; and that every thing is pure and clean to those that are so themselves: he puts him in mind of exhorting the faithful to be obedient to temporal power; to avoid disputes, quarrels, and slander; to apply themselves to honest callings; and to shun the company of an heretic, after the first and second admonition.

The epistle to Titus has always been acknowledged by the church. The Marcionities did not receive it, nor did the Basilidians, and some other heretics; but Titian, the head of the Encraties, received it, and preferred it before all the rest. It is not certainly known from what place it was written, nor by whom it was sent.

Titus was deputed to preach the gospel in

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Dalmatia; and he was still there in the year 65, when the apostle wrote his second epistle to Timothy. He afterwards returned into Crete; from which it is said he propagated the gospel into the neighbouring islands. He died at the age of 94, and was

buried in Crete. We are assured that the cathedral of the city of Candia is dedicated to his name; and that his head is preserved there entire. The Greeks keep his festival on the 25th of August, and the Latins on the fourth of January.

The Virgin Mary.

S we are taught by the predictions of the prophets, that a virgin was to be the mother of the promised Messiah, so we are assured by the unanimous concurrence of the evangelists, that this virgin's name was Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anna, of the tribe of Judah; and married to Joseph of the same tribe. The scripture, indeed, tells us no more of the blessed virgin's parents, than that she was of the family of David.

What is said concerning the birth of Mary and her parents is to be found only in some apocryphal writings; but which, however, are very ancient. St. John says, that Mary the wife of Cleophas was the virgin's sister Mary, that was of the royal race of David. She was allied likewise to the family of Aaron, since Elizabeth, the wife of Zacharias, and mother of John the Baptist, was her cousin.

Not to build upon uncertainties, thus much we are assured by the testimony of an angel, that she was happy above all other women, in the divine favour; that she was full of grace; and the Lord was with her in a peculiar manner.

For since the Son of God, in order to become a man, and to dwell among us, was obliged to take a human body from some woman, it was agreeable to his infinite wisdom that he should chuse for this purpose one whose endowments of body and mind were most holy and pious; who excelled the rest of her sex in chaste and virtuous dispositions and who, in short, was a repository of all the divine grace.

The excess of that devotion which has been paid the blessed virgin, and the legendary tales of Monks, cannot in reason blemish her real excellencies, no more than the idolatries of the Pagans can obscure the light of the sun which is deified. After all the abuses of superstition or profaneness, the extremes of honour and dishonour, there will ever be a very high esteem and veneration due to the mother of the blessed Jesus.

That the mother of our Lord, notwithstanding her marriage, was even in that state to remain a pure virgin, and to conceive Christ in a miraculous manner is the clear doctrine of the holy scriptures. Behold, says Isaiah, in chap. vii. prophesying of this mysterious incarnation, a virgin shall conceive,

and bare a son. The Hebrew word Almah most properly signifies a virgin; and so it is translated here by all the ancient interpreters; and never once used in the scriptures in any other sense, as several learned men have proved against the particular pretensions of the modern Jews. It primarily It primarily signifies hidden or concealed; whence it is used to denote a virgin, because of the custom in the eastern countries of keeping such concealed from the view of men, never suffering them to stir out of the women's apart

ments.

Though we cannot doubt but that God, who ordained this mystery, provided for all circumstances requisite to its accomplishment; yet we may consider which way a decorum was preserved in this case by marriage. St. Matthew says, "The virgin was espoused to Joseph; and that before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Ghost." Whence we may conclude that it was not a constant custom for the bride to go and live at the bridegroom's house immediately upon her being affianced to him.

Notwithstanding the various circumstances relating to this affair, as told us in apocryphal books, are not to be relied on as certain; yet, however, Mary's resolution of continency, even in a married state, cannot be called in question, since her virginity is attested by the gospel; and that herself speaking to the angel, who declared to her that she should become the mother of a son, told him, "That she knew not a man," or that she lived in continency with her husband. For which reason, when Joseph perceived her pregnancy, he was at first so extremely surprised, and scandalized at it, that he resolved to put her away, but secretly, without making any noise, and without observing the common formalities: for he knew the mutual resolution they had agreed to, of being in continence, though in a state of marriage.

No. 24.

The Virgin Mary then being espoused, or married, to Joseph, the angel Gabriel appeared to her, in order to acquaint her that she should become the mother of the Messiah. Mary asked him how that could be since she knew no man? To which the angel replied, that the Holy Ghost should come upon her, and the power of the Highest should overshadow her: so that she should conceive without the concurrence of any man. And to confirm what he had said to her, and shew that nothing is impossible to God, he added, that her cousin Elizabeth, who was old, and had been barren, was then in the sixth month of her pregnancy. Mary answered him, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word." And by the miraculous power of the Holy Ghost, she presently conceived the Son of God, the true Emanuel, that is to say, God with us. Whether the holy virgin, immediately after the annunciation, went up to the passover at Jerusalem (as some have imagined this being the season of the year for it) or not, we have no account from the evangelist, St. Luke; but this he assures us, that a little while after she set out for Hebron, a city in the mountains of Judah, in order to visit her cousin Elizabeth, to congratulate her upon her pregnancy, which she had learned from the angel, at an age when such a blessing was not usually to be expected: and no sooner had she entered the house and begau to speak, than upon Elizabeth's hearing the voice of Mary's salutation, her child, young John the Baptist, transported with supernatural emotions of joy, leaped in her womb. Whereupon she was filled with the Holy Ghost; and being by divine inspiration, acquainted with the mystery of the incarnation, she resaluted Mary, and cried out, "Blessed art thou amongst women; and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo! as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed, for there shalk

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be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. Then Mary, filled with acknowledgments, and supernatural light, praised God, saying, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour," &c. as we find it in the hymn called Magnificat.

After Mary had continued here about three months, till Elizabeth was delivered (as St. Ambrose thinks, that she might see him on whose account she principally made that visit) she then returned to her own house.

When she was ready to be delivered, an edict was published by Cæsar Augustus, in the year of the world 4000, the first of Christ, and the third before the vulgar æra, which decreed, that all the subjects of the Roman empire should go to their respective cities and places, there to have their names registered according to their families. Thus Joseph and Mary, who were both of the lineage of David, repaired to the city of Bethlehem, the original and native place of their family. But while they were in this city, the time being fulfilled in which Mary was to be delivered, she brought forth her firstborn son, wrapt him in swaddling-clothes, and laid him in a manger of the stable or cavern whither they had retired; for they could find no place in the public inn, because of the great concourse of people that were then at Bethlehem on the same occasion; or they were forced to withdraw into the stable of the inn, not being able to get a more convenient place for her to be delivered in.

The Greek fathers generally agree that the place of Christ's birth was a cavern. Justin and Eusebius place it out of the city, but in the neighbourhood; and St. Jerom says, it was at the extremity of the city, towards the south. It was commonly believed that the virgin brought forth Jesus the night after her arrival at Bethlehem, or on the 25th of December. Such is the

ancient tradition of the church. The fathers inform us that Mary brought forth Jesus Christ without pain, and without the assistance of any midwife; because she had conceived him without concupiscence; and that neither she nor the fruit she brought forth had any share in the curse pronounced against Adam and Eve.

At the same time the angels made the birth of Christ known to the shepherds, who were in the fields near Bethlehem; and who came in the night to see Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger, in order to pay him their tribute of adoration. Mary took notice of all these things, and laid them up in her heart. Some time after, came the Magii, or wise men, from the East, and brought to Jesus the mysterious presents of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, having been directed thither by a star which led the way before them, to the very place where the babe lay. After this being warned by an angel that appeared to them in a dream, they returned into their own country by a way different from that by which they came, without giving Herod the intelligence he wanted; which he pretended was in order to come and worship the babe, though his real design was to cut him off, from a jealousy of his rivaling him in his kingdom.

But the time of Mary's purification being come, that is forty days after the birth of Jesus, she went to Jerusalem in order to present her son in the temple; and there to offer the sacritice appointed by the law, for the purification of women after childbirth. At that time there was at Jerusalem an old man named Simeon, who was full of the Holy Ghost, and had received a secret assurance that he should not die before he had seen Christ the Lord. Accordingly, he came into the temple by the impulse of the Spirit of God, and taking the little Jesus in his arms, he blessed the Lord; and then addressing himself to Mary, said, "This child is sent for the rising and falling of many in

Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against you; even so far that thy own soul shall be pierced as with a sword, that the secret thoughts in the hearts of many may be discovered."

Afterwards, when Joseph and Mary were preparing to return to their own country of Nazareth, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, bidding him to retire into Egypt with Mary, and the child, because Herod had a design to destroy Jesus. Joseph obeyed the admonition, and continued in Egypt till after the death of Herod ; when both he and Mary returned to Nazareth, not daring to go to Bethlehem, because it was the jurisdiction of Archelaus, the son and successor of Herod the Great.

Joseph and Mary went every year to Jerusalem to the feast of the passover and when Jesus was twelve years of age they brought him with them to the capital. When the days of the festival were ended, they set out on their return home: but the child Jesus continued at Jerusalem, without their perceiving it; and thinking that he might be with some of the company, they went on a day's journey; when not finding him finding him among their acquaintance, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking for him. Three days after they found him in the temple sitting among the doctors, hearing them, and asking them questions. When they saw him, they were filled with astonishment: and Mary said to him, My son, why have you served us thus ? Behold, your father and myself, who have sought you in great affliction. Jesus answering them, Why did you seek me? did not you know that I must be employed about my father's business? Afterwards he returned with them to Nazareth, and lived in filial submission to them; but his mother laid up all these things in her heart. The gospel says nothing more of the Virgin Mary till the marriage of Cana of Galilee, where she was present, with her son Jesus.

In process of time, according to the divine appointment respecting his mission, our Saviour resolved to manifest himself to the world, and therefore went to the baptism of St. John, from thence into the wilderness, and thence to the beforementioned wedding, to which he with his mother and disciple had been invited. At this entertainment the provision of wine being somewhat scanty, (probably because the friends of the mar ried couple were but mean) Christ's mother told her son, they had no wine, not doubting of his power to supply them: to which Jesus answered in terms which had some appearance of a rebuke, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come." St. Chrysostom, and the followers. of him in his explications, impute what was said by the holy Virgin to some motive of vanity, and that she was tempted by a desire of seeing her own credit raised by the miracles of her son: but the other fathers and commentators ascribe it to her charity and compassion towards these poor people., And it is thought that Christ's answer was intended for more general use than the present occasion; namely, to teach us to wait God's time of doing his own works; and certainly our Lord designed no affront to his mother to whom he always paid a pious and filial reverence. This answer is imputed by the said fathers and commentators to Jesus, not as man; but to Jesus, as the Son of God. In this respect he says to Mary, What have I to do with thee? I know when I

ought to shew forth my power; nor does it belong to you to appoint me the time of working miracles, since the proper time for this has not yet begun, and further intimating, that when it did, these were not to be wrought out of any private, partial, and civil views, but in pursuance of that great end which he had in charge, the conversion and salvation of mankind. And so his mother understood him, receiving the answer with meekness, and charging the servants to attend him, and do whatever he commanded them.

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