It is also difficult to conceive that any author, having the flow and connexion of the whole passage present to his mind, would himself have appended this ejaculation as we now find it.  We know that editors and scribes often attached a sentiment of their own to the closing words of an author.  And it seems far more probable, that a scribe not having the full drift of the argument mainly before him, but catching the expression, “heavenly vision,” appended such an ejaculation.  That the writer himself should introduce such a sentence by the connecting link of a relative pronoun feminine, which must of necessity be referred, not as the grammatical construction would suggest to the feminine noun preceding it,—­not to any word expressed or understood in the intervening clause preceding it,—­not to the last word in the sentence even before that intervening clause, nor yet to the principal and leading subject immediately under discussion and thrice repeated,—­but to a noun incidentally introduced, seems, to say the least, strange and unnatural.  “And they shall be for a spectacle to all flesh.  To what flesh?  Altogether to that which shall be somewhere punished?  Nay, to that which shall of the heavenly vision be deemed worthy, concerning WHICH it was said before, All FLESH shall come to worship before me, of which may we also be deemed worthy by the prayers and intercessions of all the saints.  Amen.”  But the classical reader will appreciate these remarks more satisfactorily by examining them with reference to the passage in the original language.

[Greek:  Kai esontai eis orasin pasaei sarki. poiai de sarki; ae pantos pou taei kolasthaesomenaei; taes de epouraniou theas kataxiothaesomenaei peri HAES anotero elegeto aexei pasa sarx tou proskunaesai enopion mou, HAES kai haemeis axiotheiaemen euchais kai presbeiais panton ton hagion, amaen.]

Note.—­Page 181.

ATHANASIUS.

In the text I observed that some Roman Catholic writers of the present day had cited the homily there shown to be utterly spurious, {410} as the genuine work of St. Athanasius, and as recording his testimony in defence of the invocation of Saints.  The passage there referred to Dr. Wiseman thus introduces, and comments upon.

“St. Athanasius, the most zealous and strenuous supporter that the Church ever possessed of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and consequently of his infinite superiority over all the saints, thus enthusiastically addresses his ever-blessed Mother:  ’Hear now, O daughter of David; incline thine ear to our prayers.  We raise our cry to thee.  Remember us, O most holy Virgin, and for the feeble eulogiums we give thee, grant us great gifts from the treasures of thy graces, thou who art full of grace.  Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.  Queen and mother of God, intercede for us.’  Mark well,” continues Dr. Wiseman, “these words; ‘grant us great gifts, from the treasures of thy graces;’ as if he hoped directly to receive them from her.  Do Catholics use stronger words than these?  Or did St. Athanasius think or speak with us, or with Protestants?”