demption and ransom of all saints. To Him alone was John inferior in humility; but he was superior to all the rest of the saints, or [at least] their equal in the kingdom of heaven. We confess [therefore] that John was a great man, but our Saviour is the greatest of all, being both God and Man, who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

difficulty of "the lesser in the kingdom of heaven." "Many," he says, 66 understand this of the Saviour, because He who is less than John in point of time (that is, as appearing after him), is greater in point of dignity; but let us simply understand that every saint who is now with God is greater than one who is still in the thick of the battle. For it is one thing to possess the crown of victory, another thing to be still fighting in the field." (Comment. in Matt. xi. 11.) And to the same effect Augustine (Serm. lxvi. de verbis Ev. Matt., tom. v. col. 372 E. ed. Bened.): "He means by the kingdom of heaven [the place] where the angels are he, therefore, who is the least among the angels is greater than John. Thus He hath commended to us the kingdom for which we yearn, thus He hath set before us the heavenly city, whose citizens we desire to be. What kind of citizens are there in that city? how great are they? whoever is the least there is greater than John. Than what John? greater than he than whom no one hath arisen greater, among them that are born of women."

In red letters.

XI.

SERMO

IN FESTIVITATE SANCTI PAULI.

HOмo quidam erat dives qui habebat villicum. et hic diffamatus est apud dominum suum quasi dissipasset bona illius; Homo iste. dominus ac redemptor noster est de quo psalmista canit; Numquid syon dicet homo. et homo natus in ea. et ipse fundavit eam altissimus. Et alibi. Et homo est. et quis cognoscet illum? Et sanctus ieremias; hic inquit est dominus noster. et non estimabitur alius abque (sic) eo; Hic adinvenit omnem viam iusticiæ et scientie. et dedit eam

"The festival of the conversion of St. Paul does not appear to have been generally observed until about the twelfth century, although the Collect for it is found in St. Gregory's Sacramentary. It is said [Laterculum of Silvias, A.D. 448] that there was anciently a festival of St. Peter and St. Paul on February 22 (now called Cathedra Petri).... but the principal, if not the only, day observed to the honour of St. Paul was that on which St. Peter was associated with him, June 29; although, on the following day, a Commemoration of St. Paul' was made, which is marked in the Sarum and Roman Calendars . . . and which, in Menard's edition of St. Gregory's Sacramentary, is called 'Natale S. Pauli."" (Blunt's "Annotated Book of Common Prayer.")

In this passage Mr. Blunt only states that the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul was not generally observed until about the twelfth century, in the commencement of which Herbert lived and wrote; but Alban Butler tells us ("Lives of the Saints," Jan. 25) that "we find" the Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul "mentioned in several Calendars and Missals of the eighth and ninth centuries," and that Pope Innocent III. (1198— 1216) commanded it to be observed with great solemnity. It was for some time kept as a holyday of obligation in most churches in the West; and we find it mentioned as such in England in the Council of Oxford in 1222, in the reign of King Henry III. The Council of Oxford, however, was held, and Pope Innocent III. lived a century after our Herbert; and we conclude upon the whole, that though there may have been even as

XI.

SERMON

ON THE FESTIVAL OF ST. PAUL".

There was a certain rich man, who had a steward; St. Luke and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted xvi. I. his goods. This man is our Lord and Redeemer, of whom the Psalmist singeth; Shall not Sion say, This Ps. lxxxvi. 5 (Douay). man and that man is born in her? and the Highest himself hath founded her. And elsewhere; And He is a man; and who shall know Him? And holy Jeremy saith; This is our Lord, and without Him none other Baruch iii. shall be accounted of. He found out all the way of 36 to end. righteousness and knowledge, and gave it to Facob his

early as his day a Festival of the Conversion of St. Paul, the festival for which he designed this sermon was rather the Natale S. Pauli, or Commemoratio S. Pauli, June 30.

b We cannot say what part of Holy Scripture this "elsewhere" of Herbert's refers to. All the light we can throw upon it is this. In a sermon on the parable of the Unjust Steward contained in St. Bernard's Works (ed. Bened., tom. ii. col. 708 F), but described by the editors as unworthy of St. Bernard, and attributable to another Bernard, a monk of Clugni, we find the following observation upon the word man, with which the parable opens; "The man is he of whom the Apostle saith, made in likeness of men and found in fashion as a man; who truly is justly denominated a man as being unique. Whence the prophet saith; He is a man and who hath known him (homo est, et quis cognovit eum); as if he had said; Who shall tell forth his exceeding great excellence?" The marginal reference to this professed quotation from the Prophets is Jer. xvii. 9; Pravum est cor omnium, et inscrutabile; quis cognoscet illud? ("The heart is perverse above all things, and unsearchable; who can know it?" Douay). But the text referred to can have nothing whatever to do with Christ.

It seems to have been a common view among the Fathers, that the man born in Sion was Christ. Jerome's comment on the verse in the Psalms is this; "A man is born in her. Who is this man? and the Most High Himself hath founded her. Let the Arians answer, since they assert that the Father alone is the Most High. But here the term Most High is predicated of the Son; and the Most High Himself hath founded her." (Breviar. in Psalterium, ed. Bened., tom. ii. col. 350.)

f. 233.

iacob puero suo. et israel electo suo; Post hec in terris visus est. et cum hominibus conversatus est. Villicus ipse saulus hebreus. qui sui creatoris villæ custos fuerat factus. cum a suo didascalo gamaliele ceremoniarum legalium observantiam didicisset; Diffamatus est apud dominum suum. per angelos. per fideles qui erant in ierusalem. per sanguinem protomartiris stephani. quem is unus lapidavit. cum iudeorum vestimenta custodiens. ipsos iudeos ad lapidandum protomatirem (sic) stephanum exertos reddidit; Vel maxime diffamatus est aput dominum suum. per voluntatem. et cogitationem. sermonem. et actionem crudelem. quæ sui evidentia saulum dominicarum rerum dissipatarum apud dominum accusabant. Dissipaverat bona domini sui? quia legem carnaliter intelligens? spiritualem intelligentiam ignorabat. Unde convenienter subsequitur. Quid hoc audio de te. redde rationem villicationis tuæ. iam

*

This passage is from Baruch iii. 36-38. Herbert, quoting probably from memory, has made certain variations from the Vulgate, which we exhibit by placing the two versions in parallel columns :

The Vulgate version is in English as follows: "This is our God (Herbert, Lord), and there shall no other be accounted of in comparison of (Herb., beside) Him. He found out all the way of knowledge (Herb., of righteousness and knowledge), and gave it to Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved (Herb., chosen). Afterwards He was seen upon earth and conversed with men."

servant, and to Israel his chosen. Afterwards he was seen upon earth, and conversed with men. As for the steward himself, he is Saul the Hebrew, who had been made the keeper of his Creator's estate, when he had learned from his master Gamaliel the observance of the ceremonies of the Law. He was accused unto his master by the angels, by the faithful who were in Jerusalem, by the blood of the first martyr Stephen, whom he alone [may be said to have] stoned, when by keeping the raiment of the Jews, he set the Jews themselves at liberty to stone the proto-martyr Stephen. He was accused on every possible score to his master, in respect of will, and thought, and word, and cruel action, all which accused Saul to his master, [as it were] out of his own mouth, of having wasted his master's substance. He had wasted the goods of his lord, because, understanding the Law after the flesh, he was ignorant of the spiritual understanding [thereof]. Whence it fitly follows; How is it that I hear this of thee? Give St. Luke

St. Augustine (De Civ. Dei, 1. xviii. c. xxxiii.) quotes this very passage of Baruch as a prediction of Christ, and goes on to say, "There are certain persons who attribute this testimony, not to Jeremiah, but to his secretary who was called Baruch; but it is more usually given to Jeremiah." (Ed. Bened., tom. vii. col. 515 E, F.) Canon Westcott ("Dict. of the Bible," s. v. BARUCH) tells us that the book bears evident traces of a later date than the companion of Jeremiah; but adds that “from the time of Irenæus it was frequently quoted both in the East and the West, and generally as the work of Jeremiah." In the Douay Bible published at Belfast in 1853 with the approbation of Bishop Denvir, we find this preliminary note to the Prophecy of Baruch; "Baruch was a man of noble extraction, and learned in the law, secretary and disciple to the prophet Jeremias, and a sharer in his labours and persecutions: which is the reason why the ancient fathers have considered this book as a part of the prophecy of Jeremias, and have usually quoted it under his name."

d St. Augustine has a thought somewhat similar to this as regards the comparative guilt of St. Paul and St. Stephen's other persecutors (Enarr. in Psalm. cxlvii. ed. Bened., tom. iv. col. 1669 F.) "Among the stoners of St. Stephen the martyr he was hard, and perhaps harder than the rest, for he kept the raiment of all those who took part in the stoning, in order that he might stone him with the hands of all." If the hands of the others were only instruments of Saul's malice, he himself may be said to have stoned Stephen alone. But see another quotation from St. Augustine lower down, p. 306, note s.

xvi. 2.