tion, as I have said, with a view to our salva- this word was spoken by Him: '* Woman,
ON FAITH AND THE CREED. 325 re)
Cuap. IV.]
all similar interrogations we would answer in like manner. When, however, it is asked, What is contrary to that which is? the right reply to give is, that which ts not.
this other, in that He bore [the nature of] the man (wrum gerendo), [and] in that He was born of the woman. Neither is there anything to compel us to a denial of the mother of the Lord, in the circumstance that this word was spoken by Him: '* Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.''4 But He rather admonishes us to understand that, in respect of His being God, there was no mother for Him, the part of whose personal majesty (caujus maysestatis
8. But whereas, in a temporal dispensation, as I have said, with a view to our salvation and restoration, and with the goodness of God acting therein, our changeable nature has been assumed by that unchangeable Wisdom of God, we add the faith in temporal things which have been done with salutary effect on our behalf, believing in that Son of God WHO WAS BORN THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST OF THE VIRGIN Mary. For by the gift of God, that. is, by the Holy Spirit, there was granted to us so great humility on the part of so great a God, that He deemed it worthy of personam) He was preparing to show forth in the turning of water into wine. But as regards His being crucified, He was crucified in respect of his being man; and that was the four which had not come as yet, at the time when this word was spoken, '* What have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come;'' that is, the hour at which I shall recognize thee. For at that period, when He was crucified as man, He recognized His human mother (hominem matrem), and committed her most humanely
Him to assume the entire nature of man (totum hominem) in the womb of the Virgin, inhabiting the material body so that it sustained no detriment (zwfegrum), and leaving it? without detriment. This temporal dispensation is in many ways craftily assailed by the heretics. But if any one shall have grasped the catholic faith, so as to believe
(Aumanissime) to the care of the best beloved disciple.s Nor, again, should we be moved by the fact that, when the presence of His mother and His brethren was announced to Him, He replied, '* Who is my mother, or who my brethren?"' etc.© But rather let it teach us, that when parents hinder our ministry wherein we minister the word of God to our brethren, they ought not to be recognized by us. For if, on the ground of His having Saidsyi puyyno iss mye mother! Wvevery. one should conclude that He had no mother on earth, then each should as matter of course be also compelled to deny that the apostles had fathers on earth; since He gave them an injunction in these terms: '* Call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father, which is in heaven.''?
that the entire nature of man was assumed by the Word of God, that is to say, body, soul, and spirit, he has sufficient defense against those parties. For surely, since that assumption was effected in behalf of our salvation, one must be on his guard lest, as he believes that there is something belonging to our nature which sustains no relation to that assumption, this something may fail also to sustain any relation to the salvation.? And seeing that, with the exception of the form of the members, which has been imparted to the varieties of living objects with differences adapted to their different kinds, man is in nothing separated from the cattle but in [the possession of] a rational spirit (rational spiritu), which is also named mind (mens),
10. Neither should the thought of the woman's womb impair this faith in us, to the effect that there should appear to be any necessity for rejecting such a generation of our Lord for the mere reason that worthless men consider it unworthy (sordid sordidam putant), For most true are these sayings of an apostle, both that '' the foolishness of God is wiser than men,''* and that "to the pure all things are pure."® Those," therefore, who entertain this opinion ought to ponder the fact that the rays of this sun, which indeed they do not praise as a creature of God, but adore as God, are diffused all the world over, through the noisomenesses of sewers and every kind of horrible thing, and that how is that faith sound, according to which the belief is maintained, that the Wisdom of God assumed that part of us which we hold in common with the cattle, while He did not assume that which is brightly illumined by the light of wisdom, and which is man's peculiar gift?
9. Moreover, those parties? also are to be abhorred who deny that our Lord Jesus Christ had in Mary a mother upon earth; while that dispensation has honored both sexes, at once the male and the female, and has made it plain that not only that sex which He assumed pertains to God's caré, but also that sex by which He did assume
4 John il. 4. 5 qoba xix. 26, 27. 6 Matt. xii. 48. 7 Matt. xxiii. 9. 8 x Cor. i. 25. oT ith iars! 10 Jn reference to the Manicheans,
I Deserens. With less point, de/erens has been suggested = Dearing it, or delivering it.
2 Or it may = fe should fail to have any relation to the salvation. 3 Referring to the Manicheans.