CHAPTER VII: Joseph Sanctified BEFORE His Birth
IT is now an article of our faith that the Blessed Virgin by a singular privilege was prevented by grace and preserved in entire immunity from original sin. From Holy Scripture we also learn that some souls through the divine predilection, as those of Jeremias and of the Baptist, were sanctified before they saw the light of day. Now, what shall we say of Joseph? Since in dignity and holiness he is inferior to Mary, we cannot assume with any certainty that God granted to him the same privileges to her; and the Church has never made any utterance on the subject. Still, Joseph surpasses all the other saints in dignity and sanctity; we are, therefore, free to conjecture that, although this is not signified in Scripture, he must have been sanctified before his birth earlier than any of them, for all the holy doctors agree in saying that there was no grace conceded to any other saint, except Mary, which was not granted to Joseph. As Mary, above all, was nearest to Jesus, so Joseph was nearest to Mary; and for the sake of Jesus, and also for Mary's sake, we may justly conclude that to Joseph must have been conceded a privilege second only to hers.
We have shown what a great end God had in view in the creation of St. Joseph, who was to be associated with the mystery of the Incarnation, and was thus comprised in the decree of man's redemption. Hence it is that he was pre-announced in Holy Scripture, and ennobled with so high a genealogy. Now, in order to correspond to so lofty a vocation, which, after that of the Virgin Mother, was superior to all others, whether of angels or saints, Joseph must needs have been sanctified in a most eminent degree, that he might be worthy to take his place in this most sublime order of the Hypostatic Union, in which Jesus held the first place and Mary the second. And, indeed, we find it to be the constant doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as of all the Fathers, that those whom God elects and designs for some great work, He also prepares and disposes so as to fit them for its performance; and the Angelic Doctor adds that God gives to each grace proportioned to the office which he is chosen to fill.1 St. Bernardine of Siena lays down the same doctrine, and he then proceeds to say that this was verified in the person of St. Joseph, who was the reputed father of Jesus, the true spouse of the Queen of the world and Lady of angels, and was elected by the Eternal Father to be the faithful guardian of His two greatest treasures.2 If, then, Joseph was elected to such an office, which, after the divine maternity, has none to equal it in Heaven or on earth, he must have received of God for its discharge a fulness of corresponding grace, superior to that vouchsafed to any other saint.
The election of God is from eternity, but sanctification takes place in time; and this sanctification is not accomplished in all at the same hour. With some it has been late, as with St. Paul. Some have been sanctified at the sixth hour, some at the third, some at the first hour, and some even before birth, as in the cases just mentioned of Jeremias and the Baptist. This is a marvellous effect of the Divine Goodness, loving to communicate Itself to a soul as early as possible and with the greatest abundance of Its gifts. But to whom more than to St. Joseph can It have loved thus to communicate Itself? In his case truly may we apply the words of the Psalmist: "Thou hast prevented him with blessings of sweetness; Thou hast set on his head a crown of precious stones".3 The grace of the Holy Spirit can have tolerated no delay in him, and, since God had prepared for Joseph the greatest grace of sanctification after Mary, He would not have awaited his birth to take possession of his soul, but in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, who was to be his reputed son, would have diffused into his heart such a flood of grace even from his mother's womb as to efface every stain of original sin and array it with the most splendid gifts, fitting it to be the abode of the Divine Majesty.
There are two ways in which this sanctification might be effected. His beautiful soul at the moment of its infusion into the body might have been guarded from contracting the stain of original sin; or at the second moment, that is, when the stain was scarcely contracted, it might have been instantaneously cancelled and purged by the grace of the future Saviour.
With regard- to the first of these opinions, there have not been wanting pious writers who have held that Joseph was entirely exempt from original sin. The seraphic Bernardine de Bustis, a most devout doctor, who flourished about the middle of the 15th century, and therefore previous to the Council of Trent, says that among the fervent clients of St. Joseph some did not hesitate to affirm that solely for the sake of Jesus, of whom he was to be the putative father, and of Mary, of whom he was to be the most pure spouse, he was not only sanctified in his mother's womb but, moreover, preserved from contracting original sin.4 The said doctor neither approves nor condemns this opinion, adding that it was known only to God, who from all men chose Joseph for His reputed father and for the spouse of His most holy Mother. A century later, Giacomo Lobbezio, of the Company of Jesus, also relates how some from their devotion to St. Joseph would maintain that the privilege conceded to his Blessed Spouse was also accorded to himself. This accomplished theologian adds that he, too, would willingly subscribe to such a belief in honour of this most holy Patriarch, but that he could not venture to do so unless he had the authority and witness of the holy Fathers and an intimation from the Church and its Sovereign Pontiffs, which as yet we have not had.5 In the meantime the immediate rule of our faith is the Church, the infallible mistress of truth; and, however desirous we may be to see all the singular merits and privileges of our saint exalted, we must not extend the range of even pious opinion beyond what tradition or reason warrants.
Coming now to the other way in which Joseph's sanctification in his mother's womb may have been effected, namely, at the second moment after his conception, as theologians would say—the Blessed Virgin having been sanctified at the first—it seems reasonable to believe it; because it was not becoming that the putative father of Him who came to take away the sins of the world should remain for any considerable space of time with the stain of sin upon him ; it was not becoming that he who was to bear in his arms, to tend, and feed Him who came to vanquish Hell, should have himself remained long under the yoke and slavery of Satan. It seems only reasonable to believe that the Divine Saviour prevented him with His grace. The mind of the Doctors of the Church has been so freely expressed on this point that it may be reckoned as a common opinion. Gerson, who was most devout to St. Joseph, and who exerted himself so vigorously for the extinction of the schism which afflicted the Church during his time, used loudly to assert that in order to remove this tribulation it was above all things necessary to honour and glorify in the highest possible degree the great Patriarch, St. Joseph. In the beautiful discourse which he delivered before the Council of Constancy on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin,6 he made the most splendid eulogium of her holy spouse, Joseph. In this sermon he openly professed that the Blessed Virgin was by a singular privilege prevented by divine grace in such wise as to preserve her from the least stain of original sin, so that she thus crushed the head of the old serpent, without having ever been trodden under foot by him. Then, referring to Joseph, he uses these words: " As Mary before her birth was sanctified in her mother's womb, so may we believe was also her virginal spouse, Joseph "; from which observation it might have been concluded that he claimed the same immunity from original sin for St. Joseph as for the Blessed Virgin, except for the qualification which he subjoined: "although not in an altogether similar manner—quamvis non omnino similiter ". The similarity and the difference may be noted in this—that Joseph after the contraction of original sin was sanctified in the womb by the baptism of charity, baptismo p.aninis, as was the Baptist and as others have been; for so we read in the Jerusalem Office of St. Joseph. From these expressions we may gather that the learned preacher was persuaded that, if Joseph was 'not, like the Blessed Virgin, entirely preserved from the original stain, he must nevertheless have been speedily withdrawn from the hard slavery of Satan, so that his beautiful soul, enriched with every gift, shone resplendently before God from the first moments of his life. This doctrine was preached by Gerson at the Council of Constance, in presence of the very Fathers who had deputed him to place on record the conciliar decrees; and not only had these Fathers not a word to say in opposition, but they greatly applauded his discourse and ordered it to be published, accompanied by a notice that it had been delivered before them. This commendation served to promote the support of the doctrine by the most learned theologians.
In 1522 Isidoro Isolano, a Milanese Dominican Father, who had a very great devotion to the Saint, published his Summary of the Gifts of St. Joseph, dedicating it to the Sovereign Pontiff, Adrian VI. In the 9th chapter of this work he demonstrates that the opinion that St. Joseph was sanctified in his mother's womb may be held and piously believed.7 Every sanctification of this nature, he says, either is accorded on account of the future exalted dignity of the sanctified, or is ordained with a special reference to the Saint of Saints. Now, both causes eminently existed in St. Joseph, who was to be perfectly just, and was ordained, above all men, to be nearest to the Saint of Saints, Jesus. If Jeremias was sanctified before his birth because he was to prophesy expressly of Jesus, and the Baptist also because he was to point Him out present among men, who can suppose that Joseph, on account of the close knowledge he bad of Jesus above all others, Mary alone excepted, and his paternal education of Him, was not also similarly privileged? If God was pleased thus to sanctify His servants, how much more His putative father, in order that he might be so reputed, and be worthy of the name! Isolano adds that, if all the world believes that the Mother of Jesus was raised to the highest degree of sanctity in the womb on account of the dignity of her Divine Son (and it is now an article of faith that she was preserved from the stain of original sin from the very first moment of her conception), why may we not believe that Joseph was likewise raised to a certain degree of sanctity in his mother's womb, since he was chosen by God to be called His father? This, he adds, was also befitting the parity of the marriage between the Blessed Virgin and St. Joseph.
Cornelius a Lapide treats of the same question, and after having noticed that several of the Fathers were of opinion that this privilege was accorded, not only to our saint, but to others whom he names, he comes to this conclusion—that God might concede this privilege to more than one, if He were so pleased, but, if to any of those specified He did in fact grant it, then, assuredly, it would seem that He would not have denied it to St. Joseph, the spouse of His Blessed Mother.8
St. Joseph, then, we see, is always, in the opinion of the Doctors of the Church, held to be, next to the Blessed Virgin, the purest and the most holy among creatures, and worthy, for the sake of the Divine Son and His Mother, to be liberated and purged from original sin immediately after his conception. And this doctrine, professed by great doctors, and tacitly approved by the Church—a doctrine become familiar to preachers in their pulpits, to theologians in their academies, and to sacred writers in their works—may be considered as generally held and believed by devout Christians.
CHAPTEB VIII: Concupiscence Subdued In The First Sanctification Of Joseph By The Superabundance Of Grace, Which Was Greater In Him Than In Any Other Saint Except Mary.
ONE of the penalties of original sin is that rebellion of the flesh against the spirit which, according to the Council of Trent, proceeds from sin and inclines to sin.9 Hence the Apostle said: "I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin that is in my members ".10
If it was fitting that Joseph should be speedily cleansed from the original stain, it was also fitting that he should by a special privilege be freed from this rebellion of the flesh which is its consequence. All in him was to be pure and holy; that conflict between the flesh and the spirit, that propensity to evil and difficulty respecting good could find no place in him, but there must be perfect subjection of the inferior powers to reason, perfect tranquillity and order in all his affections and in all the movements of his heart; which is equivalent to saying that the incentive to sin—;fames, as it is called by theologians11—was to be, as it were, extinguished in Joseph or, at any rate, vanquished and bound in such wise that it could not revolt against reason. Since Joseph was to be a pure virgin, in order to make him the worthy companion of the purest among all virgins, so also was it needful that he should be exempt from any movement of concupiscence which might cast a shadow on the white lily of his purity. God, certainly, did not fail to prevent and protect with this singular grace the heart of Joseph, so that the very slightest thought which was not perfectly chaste should never arise to trouble the serenity of his stainless soul.
Gerson, after having asserted Joseph's liberation from original sin, goes on to claim this privilege for him also. If, he says, the Lord would not confide His Mother, then a matron in age, to any but His virgin disciple, the Evangelist St. John, how much more when that Mother was in her tender youth! In like manner, since Jesus would not be born save of perfect virginal purity, that is, of Mary, so also He would not be nurtured save by one whose purity was spotless, that is, by Joseph.12
Echius, that eminent and learned doctor, follows and confirms this statement of Gerson in two Sermons which he composed in praise of St. Joseph, and which he dedicated to Pope Clement VII. "Christ," he says, "when hanging on the Cross and about to die, commended His Mother to the Apostle John. Doctors, enquiring why He did not rather commend her to St. Peter, or to some other of His disciples, give this reason: that He, a Virgin, commended His Virgin Mother to a virgin. It is also," he says, "to be considered, not only that Joseph was a virgin, but that God by a special grace had extinguished in him all the carnal fire of concupiscence, so that, free from all temptation, he could dwell with the most holy and most beautiful Virgin Mary." Whence it is just to infer that he was sanctified in his mother's womb, and that the rebellion of concupiscence was either extinguished or repressed in him. Nor should this surprise us, since, next to Mary, he was destined by God for the sublimest ministry, a ministry superior to that of all the angels and saints; and the holy Doctors are unanimous in concluding that there was no grace, gift, or privilege conferred on angel or saint which was not conceded in a much higher degree to Joseph; otherwise he would, doubtless, appear to be in some respect inferior to one or other among them.
Giovanni di Cartagena, who for his doctrine and piety was so dear to Paul V., devoted thirteen of his beautiful Homilies on the mysteries of Christ and of Mary to the praises of our saint. Having set himself to prove that, with the exception of the Blessed Mother of God, Joseph was superior to all the saints, he proceeds to demonstrate the same with respect to the angels. "The office of the angels," he says, "is the guardianship of men; but to Joseph was committed a far higher and more excellent office, since he was chosen to be the guardian, not of a simple man, but of Christ the Lord, God and Man, and to be the most faithful spouse of His Mother."13 St. Francis de Sales, the new doctor of the Church, enlarging on the praises of St. Joseph in his Spiritual Conferences, exclaims, "Oh, what a saint is the glorious St. Joseph! Not only is he a patriarch, but he is the corypheus of all the patriarchs; not only is he a confessor, but he is more than a confessor, because in his confession is contained the dignity of bishop, the generosity of martyrs and of all other saints ;" and, later on, he says that the Patriarch St. Joseph surpassed all the saints and angels, and the very cherubim themselves, in the eminent virtue of virginity.14 The great doctor, Alfonso Maria de' Liguori, pondering those words of the holy Evangelist: "And He was subject to them," 15 says: "This humility of Jesus in obeying causes us to know that the dignity of St. Joseph is superior to that of all the saints, saving only that of the Virgin Mother ".16
If, then, it be now the common opinion of doctors that Joseph in his dignity, in his ministry, and in holiness surpassed all the angels and saints, we are led to the legitimate conclusion that from his conception he was immediately enriched with gifts superior to theirs, in order that he might be a fitting spouse for Mary, and worthy to be the reputed father of Jesus. Therefore, if of the angels St. Augustine writes, that " God, in creating the angelic nature, infused grace into it,"17 so likewise it must be true to say the same of St. Joseph; otherwise the angels would be his superiors, not only in their nature, but in the priority and abundance of their grace. And what it is true to say of St. Joseph as compared to the angels, with still more reason may be affirmed in respect to all the saints. If St. Joseph had not been sanctified more speedily and with a fuller amount of grace, in what respect would he have been more highly favoured than Jeremias or John the Baptist,18 both of whom were sanctified previous to their birth: of the Baptist it being declared that he was "filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb "? If, therefore, Joseph was superior to the other saints, he must, not only have enjoyed like privileges, but have had them in a much higher degree. We have reason, then, to conclude that not only was he freed without delay from original sin, but that his beautiful soul was also delivered from concupiscence, filled with the Holy Spirit and with the plenitude of His gifts; nay, that he was even confirmed in grace, and endued with the use of reason while yet in his mother's womb, as we believe was the case with Mary from the first moment of her conception.19
P. Paolo Segneri, a prince among sacred orators and a profound theologian, in a splendid panegyric which he pronounced on St. Joseph, after having demonstrated how distinguished doctors have agreed in affirming that this privilege of sanctification before birth had been granted to our saint, goes on to say how St. Thomas teaches that the nearer anything approaches to its principle the greater and more perfect is its participation in the prerogatives or singular properties of that principle. Thus the brightness of the sun is more resplendent in its vicinity, and heat in proximity of the fire is more fervent; so also, if you draw water from a spring, you will find that it is clearer, more limpid, and more pure in proportion to its nearness to the source. "But, if this be so," he says, "how can any one suspect that Joseph, who by affinity and by office was so closely united to the universal source of all sanctity, was made participant thereof in a lower degree and in less perfection than those who were much further removed from it? For this reason, then, we may well conclude, with very solid grounds of probability, that he was, not only sanctified in his mother's womb, but also confirmed in grace and exempted from all malice, so that no man on earth—let us boldly affirm it—was ever holier than was Joseph." And further on he says: "Have I erred in saying that no one ever exceeded Joseph in sanctity, always, of course, excepting, as she ever must be excepted, his Spouse? If such an assertion is to be esteemed temerity, then call Gerson, the famous Parisian Chancellor, temerarious, temerarious a Bernardine de Bustis, a Giovanni di Cartagena, an Isidoro surnamed Isolano, and, finally, a Suarez, whose judgment is equivalent to that of an entire university. And is it in ambiguous or obscure terms that Suarez expresses himself? Listen to his words: 'I do not see how it is a temerarious or improbable but, rather, a pious and probable opinion should any hold that St. Joseph in grace and glory surpassed all the other saints, for there is nothing in Holy Scripture repugnant to such a belief'."20
If the venerable P. Segneri could thus speak in praise of St. Joseph two hundred years ago, and that eminent doctor and great theologian, Suarez, a hundred years before him, what would they not have said, what would they not have written, in this our time, when the glories of Joseph are more and more manifesting themselves in the whole world, and when from the sublime throne of the Vatican he has been declared the Patron of the Universal Church!
But Suarez goes further still. After having enumerate! the various ministries in the order of grace, and said that the Apostolic ministry occupies the first rank, he adds, "There are other ministries which belong to the order of the Hypostatic Union, which in its kind is more perfect, as is apparent from the divine maternity of Mary; and in this order is the ministry of St. Joseph, which, therefore, surpasses the former, that of the Apostles ".21 If, then, according to Suarez, the ministry of St. Joseph belongs to the order of the Hypostatic Union, and this order is superior to the Apostolic, which is the first of all the rest, clearly Joseph, although he holds the third rank in the order of the Hypostatic Union, is superior even to Peter, who is first in the Apostolic hierarchy. Between the ministry of the Apostles and that of Joseph there exists this difference: the former is immediately for men, to conduct them to Christ; that of Joseph is immediately directed to Christ Himself, in order to preserve Him for men, and is therefore so much the more noble and sublime. "The ministry of Joseph," says Giovanni di Cartagena, " both as spouse of the Blessed Virgin and as adopted father of Jesus, was closely conjoined with the very Person of Jesus Christ, in such wise that its dignity appears, more than any other whatsoever, to approach the most sublime dignity of the Mother of God."22 Benedict XIV. himself thus concludes: "These graces, these spiritual prerogatives, of Joseph are great, are eminent, are most certain, and are so exclusively his that they have not been given to any other saint".23
Upon the authority, then, of such celebrated doctors, we may safely hold that Joseph, being, next to Mary, superior in dignity and holiness to all the other saints, must therefore have received from God privileges proportionately greater, and was consequently speedily cleansed from original sin, filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and even confirmed in grace, with concupiscence subdued, if not extinguished, from the first moments of his existence, that thus he might be worthy of being associated with Jesus and Mary, and form with them that august Triad upon earth which is the joy of the whole universe.
Some, however, would allege as an objection the declaration of Christ, who said, " There hath not arisen among them that are born of women a greater than John the Baptist";24 whence they infer that Joseph might, indeed, be equal to the Baptist, but could not surpass him. Nevertheless, we have the secure authority of Benedict XIV. for considering that this praise of John detracts nothing from the pre-eminent glories of Joseph, since Jesus, in asserting that none had arisen greater than John the Baptist, was not speaking absolutely, but comparatively. He was speaking of him as compared to the saints and prophets of the Old Testament, and, moreover, was excluding from His general assertion those who ought to be excluded, and excepting those who ought to be excepted, as is the case in all general assertions. Thus from this declaration Jesus naturally excluded Himself and excluded Mary; and so also He excluded Joseph, as belonging to an order much superior to that of the Baptist. Hence Maldonatus, a very learned commentator, speaking of this declaration of Christ, wrote, " I answer briefly and easily that here the Baptist, as St. Jerome affirms, is compared by Jesus, not to all the saints, but only to those of the Old Testament".25 Now, Joseph certainly belongs to the New Testament, and is the first after Mary. Therefore he is excluded. Moreover, St. Jerome, commenting on the words of Christ, observes that Jesus did not in this declaration prefer John to all the prophets and patriarchs, but only made him equal to them.
Others, indeed, and with much reason, maintain that John is not here compared by Jesus with all the saints, but only with the prophets, he being, in fact, the Precursor Prophet; and that it is clearly in this sense that He must be understood would appear from the context in St. Matthew's Gospel, where, speaking of John to the multitude, Jesus asked, "What went you out into the desert to see? A prophet? Yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet;" adding afterwards, "And if you will receive it, he is Elias that is to come".26 The meaning, therefore, of what Jesus proceeded to say was that among those who were born of women there had not risen a greater prophet than John the Baptist; and he was greater in this respect, that the other prophets beheld the Messias in spirit and announced Him long before, but John saw Him and announced Him as present. The words of our Lord, as given in St. Luke's Gospel, confirm this view: "Amongst those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist ".27 Zachary had foretold that his child should be called " the prophet of the Highest";28 and Holy Church herself styles him the greatest of the prophets, and in her hymns declares the reason, namely, that the prophets who preceded him prophesied of Jesus from afar, but John pointed him out with his finger as present, and as the Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world.29 Besides, in the very declaration which Jesus made He expresses a limitation of John's superiority, adding, "Yet he that is the lesser in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he"; by which we may understand he that is most profoundly humble; Jesus in these words alluding in a special sense to Himself, next to Mary, and then to St. Joseph, who for the greatness of his humility was, with the exception of the Blessed Virgin, unsurpassed by any saint. So, too, when His disciples asked our Lord who was the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven He called unto Him a little child and, setting him in the midst of them, He said, "Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child, he is the greater in the Kingdom of Heaven ".30 Therefore, since Joseph next to Mary excels in humility, it follows that he is greater than all the other saints, including the Baptist. Thus the superiority of St. Joseph is confirmed also by these words of Christ."31
Nothing in what has been said can be viewed as any derogation of the high titles and sublime sanctity of John the Baptist, who attained even to meriting the praises of a God; the sole object being to remove all doubt of the pre-eminence of Joseph, and to prove that in his greatness and glory he must be reckoned, after Jesus and Mary, as excelling all the saints and angels.
1 Summa, p. iii. q. xxvii. a. 4.
2 .Sermo de St. Joseph.
3 Psalm xx. 4.
4 Mariale, p. iv. Serm, xii. de Despons. Virg.
5 Quocst. Theolog. tom. iii.
6 Serm, de Nativ. B. V. Mariae, Consid. ii.
7 In this work of the Milanese Dominican we find (p. iii. cap. iii.) the following passage, which is very striking, partaking as it does of the nature of a prophecy, or, at least, furnishing an instance of prescience bearing a close resemblance to prophecy. "The mysterious action of the Holy Spirit will not cease to move and inflame the hearts of the faithful, until the whole army of the Church militant shall pay fresh homage to Joseph, raising monasteries, temples, and altars dedicated to his name. Yes, new and magnificent feasts will be celebrated in his honour, vows will be offered under his invocation, and those whose petitions have been granted will gladly fulfil them at his altar. God will give deeper penetration to human intellects; and learned men, meditating on the interior and hidden gifts in Joseph, will be fain to acknowledge that no one ever possessed similar superheavenly riches. Others are called the friends of Christ, but Joseph is called His father. The saints invoke Mary by the title of Queen, and this Queen is the spouse of St. Joseph."
8 Comment, in Mattheum, i. 16.
9 Sessio v. Decretum do Peccato Originali.
10 Rom. vii. 23.
11 St. Thomas, Summa, p. iii. q. xxvii. a. 3.
11 St. Thomas, Summa, p. iii. q. xxvii. a. 3.
12 Serm. de Nativ. B. V. Maria.
13 Lib. iv. Hom. ix.
14 Entretien, xix.
15 St. Luke ii. 51.
16 Esort. alia Divoz. di S. Giuseppe.
17 De Civitate Dei, c. ix.
18 Jeremias i. 5; St. Luke i. 15.
19 St. Bernardine of Siena, tom. i. cap. i. serm. li.
20 Suarez, tom. ii. disp. viii. sec. i.
21 P. iii. q. xxix. sec. i.
22 Lib. iv. Hom. viii.
23 De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonisatione, lib. iv. p. ii. c. xx. n. 3S.
24 St. Matthew xi. 11.
25 In Mattheum, cap. xi.
26 St. Matthew xi. 14.
27 St. Luke vii. 20.
28 Chap. i. 76.
29 St. John i. 29, 36.
30 St. Matthew xviii. 1-4.
31 We have given Vitali's comment in his own words; but it may be well to cite a contrary opinion. P. Coleridge writes: "This mode of explanation does not fully meet the difficulty; for our Lord says, not the lesser simply, but the lesser in the Kingdom of Heaven. The words which presently follow upon these serve to confirm the supposition that our Lord is here drawing a contrast between the greatest of the Prophets of the Old Law and the lowest offices of the New Kingdom; and that this is the true explanation of these words about St. John. Great, indeed, he was, as compared to the very greatest of the old Prophets, and yet he belonged, with them, to the Old, and therefore greatly inferior, Dispensation, and thus it is that his greatness is almost as nothing in comparison to the powers and dignities of the ministers of that New Dispensation to which, indeed, he opened the door, but to which he nevertheless did not by his office belong."—The Training of the Apostles, part ii. p. 271.
