That annotator assigns its introduction at Rome to
the fourth century; at Constantinople to the sixth; in Germany
and France to the ninth.] {299}
But what is the real state of the case with regard to the fact of the
Assumption of the Virgin Mary? It rests (as we shall soon see) on no
authentic history; it is supported by no primitive tradition. I profess
my surprise to have been great, when I found the most celebrated
defenders of the Roman Catholic cause, instead of citing such evidence
as would bear with it even the appearance of probability, appealing to
histories written more than a thousand years after the alleged event, to
forged documents and vague rumours. I was willing to doubt the
sufficiency of my research; till I found its defenders, instead of
alleging and establishing by evidence what God was by them said to have
done, contenting themselves with asserting his omnipotence, in proof
that the doctrine implied no impossibility; dwelling on the fitness and
reasonableness of his working such a miracle in the honour of her who
was chosen to be the mother of his eternal Son; and whilst they took the
fact as granted, substituting for argument glowing and fervent
descriptions of what might have been the joy in heaven, and what ought
to be the feelings of mortals on earth.
At every step of the inquiry into the merits of this case, the principle
recurs to the mind, that, as men really and in earnest looking onward to
a life after this, our duty is to ascertain to the utmost of our {300}
power, not what God could do, not what we or others might pronounce it
fit that God should do, but what He has done; not what would be
agreeable to our feelings, were it true, but what, whether agreeably or
adversely to our feelings or wishes, is proved to be true.
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