"Hail, thou that art highly
favoured!" (or as the Vulgate reads it, "full of grace") "the Lord is
with thee. Blessed art thou among women." [Luke i. 28.] On the
substitution of the expression, "full of grace," for "highly favoured,"
or, as our margin suggests, "graciously accepted, or much graced," I am
not desirous {275} of troubling you with any lengthened remark. I could
have wished that since the Greek is different in this passage, and in
the first chapter of St. John, where the words "full of grace" are
applied to our Saviour, a similar distinction had been observed in the
Roman translation. But the variation is unessential. The other
expression, "Blessed art thou among women," is precisely and identically
the same with the ascription of blessedness made by an inspired tongue,
under the elder covenant, to another daughter of Eve. "Blessed above
women," or (as both the Septuagint and the Vulgate render the word)
"Blessed among women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be."
[Judges v. 24.] We can see no ground in such ascription of blessedness
for any posthumous adoration of the Virgin Mary.
The same observation applies with at least equal strictness to that
affecting interview between Mary and Elizabeth, when, enlightened
doubtless by an especial revelation, Elizabeth returned the salutation
of her cousin by addressing her as the Mother of her Lord, and hailing
her visit as an instance of most welcome and condescending kindness,
"Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come unto me?"
[Luke i.
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