ing only
Roman instead of Greek characters, but which afterwards the authors of
the Church of Rome translated by Deipara, and in more recent ages by Dei
Mater, Dei Genetrix, Creatoris Genetrix, &c. employing those terms not
in explanation of the twofold nature of Christ's person, as was the case
in these Councils, but in exaltation of Mary, his Virgin mother. This
word was adopted by Christians in much earlier times than the Council of
Chalcedon; but it was employed only to express more strongly the
Catholic belief in the union of the divine and human nature in Him who
was Son both of God and man; and by no means for the purpose of raising
Mary into an object of religious adoration. The sense in which it was
used was explained in the seventh Act of the Council of Constantinople,
(repeated at Chalcedon) as given by Cyril of Alexandria. "According to
this sense of an unconfused union, we confess the holy Virgin to be
theotocos, because that God the Word was made flesh, and became man, and
from that very conception united with himself the temple received from
her."

[Footnote 123: [Greek: Theotokos]. To those who would depend
upon this word _theotocos_ as a proof of the exalted honour in
which the early Christians held the Virgin, and not as
indicative of an anxiety to preserve whole and entire the
doctrine of the union of perfect God and perfect man in Christ,
deriving his manhood through her, I would suggest the necessity
of weighing well that argument with this fact before them; that
to the Apostle James, called in Scripture the Lord's brother,
was assigned the name of Adelphotheos, or God's brother. This
name was given to James, not to exalt him above his
fellow-apostles, but to declare the faith of those who gave it
him in the union of the divine and human nature of Christ.--See
Joan. Damascenus, Hom. ii. c. 18. In Dormit. Virg. vol. ii. p.
881. Le Quien, Paris, 1712. The Latin translation renders it
Domini frater.]

Nothing in our present inquiry turns upon the real {324} meaning of that
word _theotocos_. Some who have been among the brightest ornaments of
the Anglican Church have adopted the translation "mother of God," whilst
many others among us believe that the original sense would be more
correctly conveyed by the expression "mother of Him who was God."

I am induced here to lay side by side, with the second Article of our
Anglican Church, the Confe