part to her fecundity, and yet preserve inviolate her perpetual virginity.
The Apostle, sometimes, called Jesus Christ the second Adam, and institutes a comparison between him and the first: for "as in the first all men die, so in the second all are made alive;" [1] and as in the natural order, Adam was the father of the human Eve. race; so, in the supernatural order, Christ is the author of grace and of glory. The Virgin Mother we may also compare to Eve, making the second Eve, that is Mary, correspond with the first; as we have already shown that the second Adam, that is, Christ, corresponds with the first Adam. By believing the serpent, Eve entailed malediction and death on mankind; [2] and Mary, by believing the Angel, became the instrument of the divine goodness in bringing life and benediction to the human race. [3] From Eve we are born children of wrath; from Mary we have received Jesus Christ, and through him are regenerated children of grace. To Eve it was said: " In sorrow shall thou bring forth children:" [4] Mary was exempt from this law, for preserving her virginal integrity inviolate, she brought forth Jesus the Son of God, with out experiencing, as we have already said, any sense of pain.
The mysteries of this admirable conception and nativity being, therefore, so great and so numerous, it accorded with the views of Divine Providence to signify them by many types and prophesies. Hence the Holy Fathers understood many things nativity, which we meet in the Sacred Scriptures to relate to them, particularly that gate of the Sanctuary which Ezechiel saw closed; [5] the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, which became a great mountain and filled the universe; [6] the rod of Aaron, which alone budded of all the rods of the princes of Israel; [7] and the bush which Moses saw burn without being consumed. [8] The holy Evangelist describes in detail the history of the birth of Christ, [9] and, as the pastor can easily recur to the Sacred Volume, it is unnecessary for us to say more on the subject.
But he should labour to impress deeply on the minds and hearts of the faithful these mysteries, " which were written for our instruction;" [10] first, that by the commemoration of so great a benefit they may make some return of gratitude to God, its author; and next, in order to place before their eyes, as a model for imitation, this striking and singular example of humility. What can be more useful, what better calculated to subdue the pride and haughtiness of the human heart, than to reflect, frequently, that God humbles himself in such a manner as to assume our frailty and weakness, in order to communicate to us his grace and glory that God becomes man, and that he " at whose nod," to use the words of Scripture, "the pillars of heaven fear and tremble," [11] bows his supreme and infinite majesty to minister to man that he whom the angels adore in heaven
