Dulia, or Hyperdulia, with which we adore the Saints, and the Blessed Virgin, respectively; that the actions of Christ had an infinite merit; that the Virgin Mary is true Mother of God; and other consequences, which you will find in theological writers.

If the Blessed Virgin Mary is to be called the Mother of God, because in Her womb the Son of God became incarnate, we must call the Holy Ghost the Father of God, because it was by His operation that the Son of God became incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

A. That one be called father, it is necessary that he contribute of his substance to his son; now the Holy Ghost did not contribute the substance, for the formation of the Body of the Incarnate Word. The Blessed Virgin alone ministered this substance, and from Her most pure blood, by virtue of the Holy Ghost, was formed the Body of Jesus Christ.

Why do you say further that Christ took a true and entire human nature?

A. In order to avoid the error of those heretics who taught, that Christ took a body which was ethereal and in appearance only, and so did not take true human flesh. Also to indicate that He took a true, rational human soul, in opposition to the error of those other heretics, who imagined that Christ had taken only a body; or, admitting that he had taken a soul, imagined that it was not a human, that is a rational soul,- but that in Christ the Eternal Word took the place of a soul.

Finally, for what reason do you say,-in order to appease God by His sufferings, and to reconcile Him with the human race?

A. These words shew the end of the Incarnation, which was to free men from sin, and from the punishment, which sin merits; they shew also the means which Christ adopted to attain this end, to wit, His Passion and Death, by which the Divine Justice was appeased in regard to us.

Did Christ suffer really, that is to say, did He really feel those interior and exterior pains, which He appeared to suffer?

A. It is as much an article of the Faith that Christ really suffered, as that He took true human flesh. The Eternal Word took a Human Body, subject to hunger and weariness, to wounds and pain, passible and, mortal; and He truly suffered all that the Holy Evangelists relate of His Sufferings. He took, moreover, a Human Soul, which was capable of sadness, heaviness, and affliction, like the souls of other men; with this difference, that we suffer sadness, heaviness, and afflictions which very often we can neither alleviate nor remove, by our own will; whereas the Soul of Christ ruled as Lord over these passions, and suffered them only in that degree which He willed.

Is it of faith that Christ has merited for us the pardon of our sins, the graces necessary for salvation, and that He has restored to us the right to eternal life, which we had lost?

A. These are truths of the Faith. Jesus Christ, by His humiliations and sufferings, has not only merited for Himself, as St. Paul says (Phil. ii.), the Glory of His Body and the Exaltation of His Name, but He has also merited for us every supernatural grace; and He has merited them, not only for those who have lived since the time of His Incarnation, but also for those who lived before that time; so that all the supernatural graces bestowed upon men, even before His Incarnation, were merited for them by Jesus Christ; that is to say, they obtained them in regard of the merits of Jesus Christ, Who was to come, in order to make satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and to obtain for men every good availing to eternal life.

If He has merited eternal life for all men, do you mean to say that all men will be saved?

A. He has merited eternal life for all men, but He requires the co-operation of men, in order to their obtaining the same. He has not merited for men so that they should be compelled to save themselves, but He has so merited for them, that by the help of His grace, they, willing it, may be able to save themselves. Hence, notwithstanding His superabundant merits, which are capable of saving innumerable men, more than ever existed, now exist, or shall hereafter exist, he who chooses to damn himself is damned, as we see is the case with the greater part of men, who, abusing their own liberty, are lost.

Could not God have saved men in some other way, without becoming man?

A. He could have saved us, of His Absolute Power, in other ways, but He chose this way, in order to receive an adequate satisfaction for the injury, which Isin had done Him. Observe that God, of His Absolute Power, could have pardoned sin, without exacting any satisfaction, or by accepting the satisfaction which might have been offered Him by some holy creature, as, for instance, by an Angel; but this satisfaction would not have been proportionate to the injury received.

For what reason, then, did God choose this mode, rather than any other?

A. We must not seek to know the reason of God's operations; nevertheless, we may say that He chose this mode, because it was the most fitting; His Divine Justice being in this way most fully satisfied, and His other Attributes, such as His Clemency, His Wisdom, His Omnipotence, &c., being made manifest in an incomparable degree. Moreover, this was the most efficacious mode to gain our love. For, that a God should become man, and subject Himself to sufferings and to death, in order to save men, is such an excess of love as to oblige even the hardest hearts to love this God.

Was God obliged to provide a remedy of some kind, for the ruin into which sin had plunged us?

A. He might justly have abandoned us in our sin, and to the consequences of our sin; it was the

work of His Infinite Mercy, to provide a remedy for our evils.

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Was the Incarnation of the Son of God foretold, before it was effected?

A. It was foretold immediately after Adam's fall, and the Prophets all spoke of it. Hence Jesus Christ was expected by the Jews; and even the Gentiles, as we gather from profane history, were in expectation of a Saviour.

For what reason would the Jewish people not acknowledge Him when He came ?

• A. Because of their pride, and the obstinacy of their prejudices. The Jews were absolutely without excuse, for they had the Prophecies which spoke clearly of Him; and those Prophecies they saw verified in Jesus Christ.

SECT. II. The Body and Soul of Christ.

Can we say that the Body of Jesus Christ consists of human flesh; and that therefore He became a son of Adam ?

A. We have already declared it to be a Catholic truth, that Christ took true and real human flesh, like that of other men, with this difference—that He did not take It by the operation of man, but by the operation of the Holy Ghost; therefore, having taken true and real human flesh, He became a son of Adamn.

Was not St. Joseph, the Husband of Mary, the Father of Jesus?