2. Jews themselves, some hundred years before our Saviour's birth. And did not the notation of the word, and frequent use thereof in the Scriptures, persuade it, the wonder of the sign given by the Lord himself would evince as much. But as for that conceit, that all should be fulfilled in Hezekiah, it is so manifestly and undoubtedly false, that nothing can make more for the confirmation of our faith. For this sign was given and this promise made (a virgin shall conceive and bear a son) at some time in the reign of Ahaz. This Ahaz 2 Kings xvi. 2 reigned but sixteen years in Jerusalem; and Hezekiah his son, who succeeded him, was twenty and five years old when 2 Kings xviii. he began to reign, and therefore born several years before Ahaz was king, and consequently not now to be conceived. when this sign was given. Thus while the ancient Jews name him only to fulfil the prophecy in whom it is impossible it should be fulfilled, they plainly shew, that for any knowledge which they had, it was not fulfilled till our Saviour came : and therefore they cannot with any reason deny but that it belonged unto the Messias, as divers of the ancient Rabbins thought and confessed: and is yet more evident by their monstrous error, who therefore expected no Messias in Israel', because they thought whatsoever was spoken of him to have been completed in Hezekiah. Which is abundantly enough for our present purpose, being only to prove that the Messias promised by God, and expected by the people of God before and under the Law, was to be conceived and born of a virgin. Secondly, As we are taught by the predictions of the pro of naby from by proves no less. We know the affinity of the Punic tongue with the Hebrew; and by the testimony of St Hierome, 'Lingua Punica, quæ de Hebræorum fontibus manare dicitur, proprie virgo alma appellatur.' [Commentar. in Isaiam, vii. 14. Vol. iv. p. 109 B.] 1 It is the known saying of Hillel, recorded in Sanhedrin, c. Chelek, אין משיח לישראל שכבר אכלוהו [.6 98 .fol] There is no Messias to the בימי חזקיה Israelites, because they have already enjoyed him in the days of Hezekiah. Divers of the latter Rabbins endeavour to mollify these words of Hillel by their several expositions, but in vain. And R. Joseph understood him better, who thought he took phets, that a virgin was to be mother of the promised Messias; so are we assured by the infallible relations of the evangelists, that this Mary the mother of Jesus, whom we believe to be Christ, was a virgin when she bare him, when she brought forth her first-born son. That she was a virgin when and after she was espoused unto Joseph, appeareth by the narraLuke i. 26, 27. tion of St Luke; for the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph. After the salutation of that angel, that she still was so, appeareth by her question, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? That she continued so after she conceived by the Holy Ghost, is evident from the relation of St Matthew: for when she was espoused unto Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. That she was a virgin not only while she was with child, but even when she had brought forth, is also evident out of his applica- 173 tion of the prophecy: Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son. For by the same prediction it is as manifest that a virgin should bring forth, as conceive a son'. Neither was her act of parturition more contradictory to virginity, than that former of conception. Matt. i. 18. Matt. i. 23. Thirdly, We believe the mother of our Lord to have been not only before and after his nativity, but also for ever, the most immaculate and blessed Virgin. For although it may be thought sufficient as to the mystery of the incarnation3, 1 Hæc est virgo quæ in utero concepit, virgo quæ peperit filium. Sic enim scriptum est, Ecce virgo in utero concipiet, et pariet Filium. Non enim concepturam tantummodo Virginem, sed et parituram Virginem dixit.' S. Ambros. Epist. 7. ad Siricium. [al. 42. § 5. Vol. II. 967 c.] So he argued from the prophecy, and St Augustine from the Creed: 'Quo si vel nascente corrumperetur ejus integritas, non jam ille de Virgine nasceretur; eumque falso, quod absit, de virgine Maria tota confiteretur Ecclesia, quæ, imitans ejus matrem, quotidie parit membra ejus, et Virgo est.' Enchir. c. 34. [Vol. vi. p. 210 A.] As also St Ambrose in the same epistle [p. 967 A]: 'Potuit crgo Virgo concipere, non potuit Virgo generare, cum semper con- 2 Μέχρι γὰρ τῆς κατὰ τὴν οἰκονο- that when our Saviour was conceived and born, his mother was a virgin; though whatsoever should have followed after, could have no reflective operation upon the first-fruit of her womb; though there be no farther mention in the CREED, than that he was born of the Virgin Mary: yet the peculiar eminency and unparalleled privilege of that mother, the special honour and reverence due unto that Son, and ever paid by her, the regard of that Holy Ghost who came upon her, and the power of the Highest which overshadowed her, the singular goodness and piety of Joseph, to whom she was espoused, have persuaded the Church of God in all ages to believe that she still continued in the same virginity, and therefore is to be acknowledged the Ever-Virgin Mary'. As if the gate of the sanctuary in the prophet Ezekiel were to be understood of her: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, Ezek. xliv. 2 and no man shall enter in by it; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut. Many, indeed, have taken the boldness to deny this truth, because not recorded in the sacred writ2; and not only so word karaλelywuer is omitted in the Benedictine edition on the authority of MSS.] S. Basil. Homil. in Sanct. Christi Generat. § 5. [Vol. II. p. 600 A.] 1 For so the Greek Church always called her 'AcTapeévos, and from them the Latins, Semper Virgo. [Suicer quotes Chrysostom, Homil. lxii. Vol. νι. Δέσποινα ἁγία καὶ ἀειπαρθένος, and Hom. cxi. Vol. v. Θεοτόκος καὶ ἀει παρθένος Μαρία. Dr Burton refers to Athanasius, Orat. ii. cont. Arian. 70. p. 538 B. In Psalm. lxxxiv. 11, p. 1151. In Luc. p. 1271: and observes, that the Virgin Mary was so called at the Council of Chalcedon, A.D. 451. (Evagr. 1. p. 324), and in the Confession of Faith published by the emperor Justin II. in the sixth century, ibid. pp. 429, 430.] 2 First we read in the time of Origen, that some did maintain the virginity of Mary no longer than to Christ's nativity. In tantam nescio quis prorupit insaniam, ut assereret negatam fuisse Mariam a Salvatore, eo quod post nativitatem illius juncta fuerit Joseph.' Homil. 7. in Lucam. Ευνομιανοῦ. Ιστορίην ἐτέλεσσα Θεοῦ χαρίτεσσι σοφῇσι. Matt. i. 25. but to assert the contrary as delivered in the Scriptures; but emendation in the verse, ἐτέλεσσ ̓ ἀθέου, and a worse interpretation in the inscription, taking the Eunomian to be a Catholic, and the name of a sect for the name of a man; and confirming this error by a greater mistake, saying, Eunomianus was the name of a man, twice spoken of in Suidas, once in Ευνομιανός and again in έλουσε. It is true indeed Suidas says expressly, Ευνομιανός, ὄνομα κύριον, and immediately adds these words, Tov δὲ Εὐνομιανὸν ἔλουσε Βελισάριος τὸ θεῖον λουτρόν, as if Belisarius had baptized one whose name was Eunomianus. But the words are taken out of Procopius in Hist. Arcana, p. 2. [p. 6], from whence it appears that he who was baptized was by name Theodosius, and by sect an Eunomian. And whatsoever his name was, who wrote that epigram on the history of Philostorgius, he was certainly by sect an Eunomian, and that was intended in the inscription, written without question by some Catholic, who thought no man could commend the History of Philostorgius but one of his own opinion. These contradictors of the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord afterwards increased to a greater number, whom Epiphanius [Hær. 78. Vol. 1. p. 1033] calls by a general name Antidicomarianite. And from him St Augustine: 'Antidicomarianitæ [Antidicomaritæ] appellati sunt hæretici, qui Mariæ Virginitati usque adeo contradicunt, ut affirment eam post Christum natum viro suo fuisse commixtam.' De Hæres. 56. [Vol. VIII. p. 19 c.] condemned under that name by the sixth general Council, Act. 11. [Labbe, Vol. vi. p. 892.] The same were called by the Latins, Helvidiani, from Helvidius (a disciple of Auxen tius the Arian), whose name is most made use of, because refuted by St Hierome. He was followed by Jovinian, a monk of Milan, as St Hierome testifieth; though St Augustine delivereth his opinion otherwise, Virginitatem Mariæ destruebat, dicens eam pariendo fuisse corruptam.' Hæres. 82. [Vol. VIII. p. 24 B.] And Bonosus, a bishop in Macedonia, referred by the Council of Capua to the judgement of Anysius, bishop of Thessalonica, was condemned for the same, as appeareth by the 79th Epistle of St Ambrose, [Vol. I. p. 1009 A.] written to Theophilus and Anysius: 'Sane non possumus negare de Mariæ filiis jure reprehensum, meritoque vestram Sanctitatem abhorruisse, quod ex eodem utero virginali, ex quo secundum carnem Christus natus est, alius partus effusus sit.' This is the catalogue of those by the ancients accounted heretics, for denying the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord. 1 For in the word "Ews there is no such force. Τὸ ἕως οὐ πάντως ἀντι διαιρεῖ τῷ μέλλοντι, ἀλλὰ τὸ μέχρι μὲν τοῦδε τίθησι, τὸ ὑπὲρ τοῦτο δὲ οὐκ ávalveral. S. Greg. Naz. Orat. 2. de Filio. [Orat. 30. § 4. Vol. 1. p. 542 A.] Τὸ ἕως πολλαχοῦ χρόνου μέν τινα δοκεῖ περιορισμὸν ὑποφαίνειν, κατὰ δὲ τὴν ἀλήθειαν τὸ ἀόριστον δείκνυσιν. S. Basil. Homil. in Sanctam Christi Generat. § 5. [Vol. I. p. 600 A.] "Elos τῇ γραφῇ τὴν ῥῆσιν ταύτην μὴ ἐπὶ διωρισμένου τιθέναι χρόνου. S. Chrysost. [in Matt. Homil. 5. § 3. Vol. VII. p. 77 Δ.] Τὸ Ἕως πολλάκις καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ διηνεκῶς ἐν τῇ θείᾳ γραφῇ εὑρίσε KOμEV KELμEVOV. Isidor. Pelus. lib. i. Ep. 18. [p. 6 в.] Tò "Ews Toλλaɣoû οὐκ ἐπὶ χρόνου λέγει, ἀλλ ̓ ἐπὶ τοῦ auтou рáуμатos. Adrian. Isag. in 15. 6. Jacob, I will not leave thee until I have done that which I Gen. xxviii. have spoken to thee of, it followeth not that when that was done, the God of Jacob left him. When the conclusion of Deuteronomy was written, it was said of Moses, No man Deut. xxxiv. knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day; but it were a weak argument to infer from thence, that the sepulchre of Moses hath been known ever since. When Samuel had delivered a severe prediction unto Saul, he came no more to see him 1 Sam. xv. 35, until the day of his death; but it were a strange collection to infer, that he therefore gave him a visit after he was dead. Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of 2 Sam. vi. 23. her death; and yet it were a ridiculous stupidity to dream of any midwifery in the grave. Christ promised his presence to the apostles until the end of the world: who ever Matt. xxviii. made so unhappy a construction as to infer from thence, that for ever after he would be absent from them? Again, it is true that Christ is termed the first-born son of Mary', from whence they infer she must needs have a S. S. [§ 42. p. 1297 A.] Tò "Ews- — Καὶ ὤμοσα καρτερὸν ὅρκον, κέσθαι. And yet it is not likely, says Eustathius, that Helena did ever discover Ulysses to the Trojans after he was returned : 'Εν δὲ τῷ, Μὴ πρὶν Οδυσσέα Τρωσὶν ἀναφῆναι, πρὶν αὐτὸν ἐς νῆας ἱκέσθαι, εἴπερ μὴ δοκεῖ πιθανὸν ἢ εὐλόγιστον τὸ ἀναφῆναι ὅλως τὸν Ὀδυσσέα Τρωσίν, ἐνθυμητέον τὴν δύναμιν τοῦ, ΤΟΚΟΥ. 1 For I shall not deny that Christ was called the first-born in respect of his mother, though Epiphanius thought that a sufficient answer: Οὐκ εἶπεν, ὅτι ἐγέννησε τὸν πρωτότοκον αὐτῆς ἀλλ ̓ οὐκ ἔγνω αὐτήν, ἕως ὅτου ἐγέννησε τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς. καὶ οὐκ εἶπε, τὸν πρωτότοκον αὐτῆς, ἀλλὰ τὸν πρωτό ̓Επὶ μὲν γὰρ τῷ υἱῷ αὐτῆς ἐσήμανεν, ἐξ αὐτῆς κατὰ σάρκα γεγεννῆσθαι· ἐπὶ δὲ τῇ τοῦ πρωτότοκου ἐπωνυμίᾳ οὐκέτι τὸ αὐτῆς ἔθετο, ἀλλὰ πρωτότοκον μόνον. Hæres. 78. [8 17. Vol. I. p. 1049 B.] As if her son the first-born were not her first-born son. Οὐ πάντως ὁ πρωτότοκος πρὸς τοὺς ἐπιγινομένους ἔχει τὴν σύγκρισιν, ἀλλ' ὁ πρῶτον διανοίγων μήτραν Πρωτότοκος ὀνομάζεται. S. Basil. Hom. in Sanctam Christi Gener. § 5. [Vol. 11. p. 600 B.] 'Primogenitus est non tantum 20. |