and when the heavenly host had joined with him in the
chorus "Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace among men of
good will;
“and when he had seen just Simeon embrace the infant
and exclaim, "Now
let thou thy servant depart, O Lord, according to thy
word in peace:
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation;" and when
he had seen Anna
the prophetess, the Magi, the Star, Herod, the angels;
Helvidius, I say,
would have us
believe that Joseph, though well acquainted with
such surprising
wonders, dared to touch the temple of God, the abode of the Holy
Ghost, the mother of his Lord? Mary at
all events "kept all these
sayings in her heart." You cannot for shame say Joseph did not know of them, for Luke tells us, "His father
and mother were marveling at
the things which were spoken concerning Him." And yet you with marvelous effrontery contend that the reading of the
Greek manuscripts is corrupt,
although it is that which nearly all the Greek writers have left us in their books, and not only so, but several of the Latin
writers have taken the
words the same way. Nor need we now consider the
variations in the
copies, since the whole record both of the Old and New
Testament has
since that time been translated into Latin, and we must
believe that the
water of the fountain flows purer than that of the
stream.
340-420
.