XI.

suppose that all pious persons, as well without as within the Church, as NOTE well before as since our Saviour's Ascension, had the Spirit in the sense last mentioned, and were thereby immediately entitled to all the glorious privileges ascribed to it in this respect. The Spirit, as given before our Saviour's Ascension, was only to enable them to live up to the design of the Dispensation under which they then lived; and the Apostle observes, that the Law was only a pedagogue to lead us to Christ; and the moral Philosophy is supposed by Clemens Alexandrinus to have performed the same office to the Gentiles: but neither Jews nor Gentiles could receive those better promises of the New Covenant, till it was established by esus, thee Mediator of it. Therefore, though our Saviour says, that there had not formerly arisen a greater prophet than John the Baptist, yet he preferreth to him the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore also all the - Patriarchs and holy persons so much celebrated by the Author to the Hebrews, are said to have died 'not having received the promise; and that because God had provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect;' (the Spirit being that which, according to the Scriptures and ancient Fathers, constituteth the perfect man, who is called by the Apostle dλоteλǹs and dλókλnpos, as consisting of spirit, as well as body and soul;) and that 'the Law, as being only the shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things themselves, could not make the comers thereunto perfect, being only the bringing in of a better hope, by which we draw near to God.' For this Spirit being a principal part of the testament of Jesus, could not take place till the death of the testator: and it is for this reason that the Apostolical Hermas makes the Apostles to have preached to those righteous persons who had died before the coming of our Saviour; and not only so, but also to have baptized them in adŋs. . . . It is probable that St. Peter had it in his view in his first Epistle: (ch. iv. 6.) For this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead.' And the other passage of the same Apostle concerning our Saviour's preaching to the spirits in prison, is thus understood by the ancients."

"From what has been said, I think it plainly appears, that the Spirit, as a principle of new and immortal life, as it is the Spirit of Adoption, and the earnest of the heavenly inheritance, was never given to any person, how pious soever, before the coming of our Lord; and that the influences of the Spirit, then communicated, only prepared for the reception of the Gospel and even after His coming, none, how devout or just soever, were believed to have any title to the Kingdom of Heaven, till they were admitted into the Church by baptism."

"The Gospel generally requires teachableness, and other good dispositions, in its hearers, to qualify them for embracing it. These dispositions are the 'Israelitism indeed,' which is adoλos; the circumcision of the heart and of the ears; the sheep-like and child-like disposition; the good ground

XI.

NOTE fit to receive the seed sown, so as to bring forth fruit: and the having these good dispositions is the being τεταγμένοι εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. But though these dispositions be most certainly the effects of the Divine Spirit, and therefore called the Drawing of the Father; yet none were thereby supposed to have received that quickening Spirit, which is the image of the second Adam, the Lord from heaven, till he received it in our Christian Baptism of the Spirit; which is therefore called Regeneration, as being that in which this new life is first infused into us."-Essay on the Nature of Man, p. 127..38.

NOTE XII.

Q. Did the Most Holy Mary remain in fact ever a Virgin? A. She remained and remains a Virgin before the birth, during the birth, and after the birth of the Saviour; and therefore is called Ever-Virgin.-Orthodox Catechism, p. 34.

I. Bishop Andrewes, in his Private Devotions, which are in many places taken from the Greek 'Exтéveιal, and which he used himself both in Greek and Latin, has these following words :

"Making mention of the all-holy, undefiled, and most-blessed Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, with all Saints, let us commend ourselves, and each other, and our whole life, unto Christ our God."

:

II. In like manner John Bramhall, Archbishop of Armagh "We admit genuine, universal, Apostolical traditions; as the Apostles' Creed, the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God, &c."-Works, ed. 1842. vol. i. p. 53.

III. And Jeremy Taylor, Bishop of Down and Connor :"She received the honour of being Mother to the Son of God, and ever a Virgin; and all generations shall call her Blessed."—Heber's ed. xv. p. 21.

IV. John Pearson, Bishop of Chester, On the Creed :—

....

"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..... And although it may be thought sufficient, as to the mystery of the Incarnation, that when our Saviour was conceived and born, His Mother was a Virgin; . . . . yet the peculiar eminency and unparalleled privilege of that Mother, the especial honour and reverence due unto that Son, and ever paid by her, and the power of the Highest, Who overshadowed her, and 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 acknow

XII.

ledged the Ever-Virgin Mary. As if the Gate of the Sanctuary in the NOTE Prophet Ezekiel were to be understood of her: This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, 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." (Ezek. xliv. 2.)-P. 193, ed. 1662.

NOTES XIII., AND XIV.

Q. What other great title is there, with which the Orthodox Church honours the Most Holy Virgin Mary? A. That of Mother of God. Q. What thoughts should we have of the exalted dignity of the Most Holy Virgin Mary? A. As mother of the Lord she excels in grace and nearness to God, and so also in dignity, every created being.-Orthodox Catechism, p. 34, 35.

I. See the passages quoted above under the last preceding Note, XII. Also the following, which are to the same effect:

II. From the Liturgy sent in Greek by the British Bishops to the Eastern Patriarchs and the Russian Synod, A.D. 1722:—

"And here we do give unto Thee most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all Thy Saints, from the beginning of the world; and particularly in the glorious and ever Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Thy Son Jesus Christ, our Lord and God; &c." The same appears also in the Older Communion Office of the Church of England, authorized in the year 1548.

III. Bishop Pearson, in his Treatise on the Creed:

"It was her own prediction, From henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed; but the obligation is ours to call her, to esteem her so. If Elizabeth cried out with so loud a voice, 'Blessed art thou among women,' when Christ was but newly conceived in her womb, what expressions of honour and admiration can we think sufficient, now that Christ is in heaven, and that Mother with Him? Far be it from any Christian to derogate from that special privilege granted Her, which is incommunicable to any other. We cannot bear too reverend a regard unto the Mother of our Lord, so long as we give her not that worship, which is due unto the Lord Himself."-P. 199.

IV. Alexander Jolly, Bishop of the Diocese of Moray in the Scottish Church, in his Treatise on the Sunday Services:

66

Among all the Saints, the first place is undoubtedly due to the Blessed Virgin-Mother of our Lord, the most highly favoured, and eminently exalted of all creatures, yet most lowly in her own eyes.”—Ed. 1840. p. 303.

NOTE XIII, XIV.

And again, the same Bishop, in another of his works:

"The Blessed Virgin Mother is undoubtedly the most highly exalted and honoured of all creatures; the Second Person of the all-glorious Trinity having assumed her substance, and united it with the human soul, in One Person with His Divinity, never to be divided. She may therefore without hesitation be called, as she is by the Church, 'the Mother of God.' She is so named by the third General Council at Ephesus: and her cousin Elizabeth, by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, called her in terms equivalent, when, meeting her, she cried in rapture, 'Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord' (who is God our Saviour,) 'should come to me.' All generations, according as her divine Canticle foretold, do 'call her Blessed.' And certainly the highest honour that can be paid to a creature is due to Her."-Treatise on the Eucharistic Sacrifice, p. 94.

a

NOTE XV.

A. Jesus Christ, for His part, offered Himself as a Sacrifice for all, and obtained for all grace and salvation; but this benefits only those of us, who for their parts of their own free will, have 'fellowship in His sufferings, being made conformable to His death.' Philipp. iii. 10.-Orthodox Catechism, p. 39. See above, under Notes Ix. and x1. And below, under Notes xxxviii. and XLI.

NOTE XVI.

Q. Does the doctrine of the Procession of the Holy Ghost admit of any change, or supplement? A. No: &c. For this cause John Damascene writes; "We nowise say that He is from the Son, but only call Him the Spirit of the Son."-Orthodox Catechism, p. 45, 46.

There can be no doubt that the British Churches agree with the Easterns in teaching, that the words of Christ Himself and of the Ecumenical Councils respecting the Procession of the Holy Ghost admit "change" or correction, as if they were erroneous, nor of any "supplement," as if they were in themselves imperfect, or inadequate for that end for which they were chosen.

of no

However, the Eastern Church herself does not think it either "change" or

"supplement" to teach besides, that while the Father is the one sole cause or principle both of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, (of the Son by generation, of the Holy Ghost by procession), He produces the Son, not in time but in order, second, from His own substance, and the Holy Ghost third, after the Son, and so from His own substance as now already the substance of the Son, and numerically one in Both. And, consequently, she teaches that the Holy Ghost 'receives substantially of the Son,' and 'is the proper Spirit of the Son in respect of His substance' (while the Son, though reciprocally consubstantial, yet 'cannot be called reciprocally the Son of the Spirit'); that the Holy Ghost is the true Image of the Son,' and His 'Word,' or 'Expression;' that He 'rests naturally and inherently in Him;' and 'is emitted, or shines forth, or is manifested, through the Son eternally from the Father.'

In this also the British Churches beyond all doubt agree with the Easterns, and find in the above propositions no real "change" nor "supplement" to what is unchangeable and perfect in itself, but only lawful inferences and explanations.

But besides this, it is further true that the British Churches fully receive the Latin clause 'Filioque' (in Greek κal èk тoû Tíoû): and it is not at all likely that they will ever yield to the Greeks so far as to proscribe language which comes to them from their own orthodox Fathers, and which they think by no means inconsistent with the sense of the Greek Fathers themselves, even of those who most distinctly refuse to admit that phraseology.

I. Abp. Laud, in his Conference with Fisher, cites Thomas Aquinas as admitting that the Procession from the Son is “mediatè tantùm, saltem ratione Personarum Spirantium." The words referred to are these.—

"In every act two things may be considered, viz. the subject acting, and the virtue by which it acts; as, fire warms, by heat. If then in the Father and the Son we consider that virtue by which they breathe the Holy Ghost, there is no room to speak of mediateness or mediation: for this their virtue is one and the same virtue numerically in Both. But if we consider the Persons themselves that breathe, then, at the same time that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son in common, He is perceived to proceed from the Father immediately, in so far as He is from the Father, and mediately, in so far as He is from the Son..... He is sometimes said to proceed principally or properly from the Father, because it is from the Father that the Son has this virtue." (Summa Theol. Q. xxxvi. Art. 3.)—Conference with Fisher, ed. 1839. p. 20.

II. From an Explication of the Catechism of the Church of England by the Rev. Gabriel Towerson :

"Shall I go one step farther? It may perhaps be thought a bold adventure; but truth (no more than other things) is not to be attained without

NOTE

XVI.