parted with the form of God and assumed that of man, but because he is literally and truly man as well as God, perfect man and perfect God in the unity of one divine person." The two propositions now before us, are contradictory; the first is negative, the second affirmative; the one denies that the person of Christ is in or under a human form; the other affirms that Christ is in the form of man, that he is both God and man, perfect man and perfect God. The pious and zealous Catholics undoubtedly shed tears for Brownson's doleful fall into Arianism, in the first proposition, and again may cheer up for his supposed rise in the second; may look upon him as the Prodigal child, who after having squandered in the wilderness among the filthy swine-the Arians and Unitarians, his paternal inheritance; after having sought from them some solid food to stay the hunger of his immortal soul, but found husks and heresies, wind and steam, is now disposed to repent and return to his offended Father. But the pious Catholic that thinketh no evil, that taketh every thing in good part, should not be so sanguine about the man's conversion; he is not inclined to repent and return from the crooked paths. On the contrary, he is entangled deeper in the mire; as the doomed fish sticks its gill and finn in one part of the trammel, and its tail and wing into another, so Brownson is tumbled and caught in a variety of heresies. By asserting: "that the person of Christ is not in or under a human form ;" he is caught in the Manichean and Unitarian heresy; and by saying: "thatChrist is in the form of man, not because he parted with the form of God and assumed that of man, but because he is truly and literally man as well as God, perfect man and perfect God in the unity of one divine person," he is a Valentinian heretic. His proposition, when stript of its phraseology, and reduced to its natural and plain dimensions, comes to this: Christ is in the form of man, not because he has assumed that form upon earth in the immaculate womb of the Virgin, but because he is always truly and literally John I, The word was (perhaps he meant naturally) man and God, perfect man and perfect God, in the unity of one divine person. If Christ Jesus had not assumed human form and human nature upon earth, the Evangelist told us falsehood. made flesh and dwelt amongst us. has also erred, when he said to the Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and thou shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father; and he shall reign in the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. And the holy prophet who foretold the incarnation, seven hundred and eighty-five years before the event, has likewise erred. Isaias VII. Behold a virgin shall be with child, and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel; which being interpreted is, God with us. Isa. LIII, Who shall declare his generation? What mortal man can declare or comprehend his generation, from the Father before all eternity, or from the flesh and blood of his virgin mother in time? Further, if Christ had not assumed human nature upon earth, the Evangelist, Matthew, has given a wrong narrative of his generation. Matt. I. The book of the generation of Christ Jesus the Son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob. Now the generation of Christ was in this wise. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Whereupon, Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing publicly to expose her, was minded to put her away privately; but while he thought on these things, behold the angel of the Lord appeared to him in his sleep saying: Joseph, son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which the Lord spoke by the prophet, saying: Behold a virgin, &c. There fore it was the Lord himself, who announced to Joseph through the angel, and the prophet Isaias, that his wife, Mary, had conceived of the Holy Ghost, and that she would bring forth a son, the Savior of the World. In short, blasphemous Brownson has, by asserting that Christ assumed not human form, or nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary, contradicted the Angels, the Evangelists, the Lord himself, and the Church. "Christ is indeed," he says, " in the form of man, not because he assumed it, but because he is literally and truly man and God, perfect man and perfect God in the unity of one divine person." Whereas, he allows that Christ is literally and truly perfect God and perfect man, although he assumed not human form, it must be his opinion that Christ brought the human nature from heaven; if this be his notion, he revives from its ashes the old and exploded heresy of the Valentinians, who imagined that Christ, sent by the Father, had brought with him a spiritual or ærial body, and that he took nothing from the Virgin Mary, but that he passed through her, as through a gutter or pipe, without having assumed any flesh from her.". See St. Augustin de Heresibus ad Quod Vult Deum. As it will be seen at large, in the following pages, that the Valentinian heresy had been long since condemned by the holy Fathers and sacred Councils, I insert here but one testimony. FULGENTIUS, A. D 500. De Fide ad Petrum Diaconum, Cap. 3. "Thus believe that Christ the Son of God, that is, one person of the Trinity, is true God, so that you doubt not that his divinity is begotten of the nature of the Father. And thus believe that he is true man, so that you imagine not that his flesh is of a celestial, or ærial, or of any other nature than of the same nature with the flesh of all men, that is, the flesh which God himself created of the earth for the first man, and which he creates for the rest of mankind, whom he forms from men, by propagation. But although the flesh of Christ and of all men is of one and the same nature, however that which God the Word condescended to unite to himself from the Virgin Mary, is conceived without sin, born without sin, since according to it the eternal and mercifully just God is conceived and born, and the Lord of glory is crucified." The heresies held in the primitive ages about the Unity and Trinity by the Jewish and pagan philosophers, Orpheus, Homer, Plato, and Cicero; and by the Pharisees, Saducees, Nicolaites, Gnostics, Ebionites, Valentines; and again about the divinity and humanity of Christ Jesus, and about the maternity of the blessed Virgin, by the Arians, and Unitarians, and Manicheans, were all shattered into pieces and blown into air by the holy Fathers, Tertullian, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Cyprian, Iræneus, Chrysostom, Cyrills, Basil, Jerome, Augustin, Leo, Gregories. But as they are all revived from their ashes through the instigation of the devil, by Bushnell and Brownson, let us defend against them the faith, with the same weapons that had been wielded by our fathers against the ancient heretics- the holy Scriptures and Tradition; let us compile from the bulky folies, the sayings of the ancient Fathers, Doctors, Popes and Councils. They labored for years in the field of controversy, and handed down to us their heavenly definitions of the faith.Whereas, the faith is as precious to us as it was to them; and we have for its defence the same weapons which they had, let us rouse ourselves to follow their holy example; let us also draw upon the Prophets and Apostles of both Testaments, and upon the Fathers and Councils of antiquity, and we will with the help of Christ Jesus, and the prayers of the Virgin Mary, mother of God, also shatter and blow up all modern heresies, and hand down to our posterity the same Deposite in its purity and sanctity as it had been handed to us by our pious predecessors. Knowing the frailty of human nature, and our proneness to go down by the broad way; that the traveler on the muddy road stands in danger, if not sustained by the right of God, of sinking in the mire. I bring with reluctance Brownson's heresies before the Catholic Reader, lest he suck the poison and overlook my antidote. But whilst the heretic boldly spreads the errors, and no man of talents or influence stands in the gap, comes out to raise his pen or voice in defence of the truth, could I also fly and leave the sheep, whilst the wolf cometh to scatter and destroy? |
