Elucidations.
————————————
I.
(In the body of a dove, cap. iii. p. 523.)
The learned John Scott, in his invaluable work
The Christian Life, identifies the
glory shed upon the Saviour at his baptism, with that mentioned
by Ezekiel (Cap. xliii. 2) and adds: “In this same
glorious splendor was Christ arrayed first at his Baptism and afterward
at his Transfiguration.…By the Holy Ghost’s descending
like a Dove, it is not necessary we should understand his
descending in the shape or form of a Dove, but that in some glorious
form, or appearance, he descended in the same manner as a Dove
descends.…Came down from above just as a dove with his wings
spread forth is observed to do, and lighted upon our Saviour’s
head.” I quote this as the opinion of one of the most learned and
orthodox of divines, but not as my own, for I cannot reconcile it, as
he strives to do, with St. Luke iii. 22. Compare Justin Martyr, vol. i. p. 243, and note 6, this series. Grotius observes, says Dr. Scott, that in the apocryphal Gospel of the Nazarenes, it is said that at the Baptism of our Lord “a great light shone round about the place.”
II.
(His mother and His brethren, cap. vii. p. 527.)
It is not possible that the author of this chapter had
ever conceived of the Blessed Virgin otherwise than as “Blessed
among women,” indeed, but enjoying no especial prerogative as the
mother of our Lord. He speaks of “denying her” and
“putting her away” after He began His Ministry, as He
requires His ministers to do, after His example. How extraordinary this
language—“the repudiation of carnal
relationship.” According to our author, never charged with
heresy on this point, the high rewards of the holy Mary, in the world
to come will be those due to her faith, not to the blessing of
“her breasts and of her womb.” Christ designates those as
“more blessed,” who hear His word and keep it. This the
Blessed Virgin did pre-eminently, and herein was her own greater
blessedness; that is, (our author shews) her crown of glory depends
chiefly, like that of other saints, on her faith and works, not on her
mere Maternity.