Copied from another website. My only purpose is to stir the pot a bit.
In regard to the Marian doctrine of the Reformers, we have already seen how unanimous they are in all that concerns Mary’s holiness and perpetual virginity . . . (Max Thurian [Protestant], Mary: Mother of all Christians, translated by Neville B. Cryer, New York: Herder & Herder, 1963, 77, 197)
Martin Luther:
Beza, Calvin’s successor, argued that Catholics and Protestants agreed on the perpetual virginity of Mary, at the Colloquy of Poissy in 1561 (see William A. Dyrness, Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: the Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards, [Cambridge University Press, 2004], pp. 86-87).
Huldreich Zwingli:
In regard to the Marian doctrine of the Reformers, we have already seen how unanimous they are in all that concerns Mary’s holiness and perpetual virginity . . . (Max Thurian [Protestant], Mary: Mother of all Christians, translated by Neville B. Cryer, New York: Herder & Herder, 1963, 77, 197)
Martin Luther:
[S]he brought forth without sin, without shame, without pain and without injury, . . . (Sermon for Christmas Eve; Luke 2:1-14, tr. Geo H. Trabert, 24 Dec. 1521; in v. 1 of Sermons of Martin Luther, The Church Postils;
edited and partially translated by John Nicholas Lenker, 8 volumes.
Vol. 1-5: Minneapolis by Lutherans of All Lands, 1904-1906; Vol. 6-8:
Minneapolis: The Luther Press, 1908-1909)
[S]he gave birth without labor, pain, and injury to herself, . . . (Personal Prayer Book, 1522, translated by Martin H. Bertram; in Luther’s Works, vol. 43, p. 40)
[H]e was born of the immaculate Virgin Mary, without changing her physical and spiritual virginity, . . . (Ibid., pp. 26-27)
A new lie about me is being circulated. I
am supposed to have preached and written that Mary, the mother of God,
was not a virgin either before or after the birth of Christ, but that
she conceived Christ through Joseph, and had more children after that. .
. . When Matthew [1:25] says that Joseph did not know Mary carnally
until she had brought forth her son, it does not follow that he knew her
subsequently; on the contrary, it means that he never did know her . . .
(That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew [1523] from Luther’s Works: vol. 45, pp. 199, 205-206, 212-213; translated by Walther I. Brandt)
In chapter 7 he even describes the mother
of Christ, the Virgin Mary, how she is to conceive and bear him with her
virginity intact. (Preface to the Prophet Isaiah, 1528, translated by C. M. Jacobs and E. Theodore Bachmann; in Luther’s Works, vol. 35, p. 275)
According to His humanity, He, Christ, our
Savior, was the real and natural fruit of Mary’s virginal womb . . .
This was without the co-operation of a man, and she remained a virgin
after that. (Sermons on the Gospel of St. John [1537-1540]; chapter one; Luther’s Works: vol. 22, p. 23; translated by Martin H. Bertram)
He
was the only Son of Mary, and the Virgin Mary bore no children besides
Him. . . . I am inclined to agree with those who declare that “brothers”
really means “cousins” here, for Holy Writ and the Jews always call
cousins brothers. (Ibid., p. 214)
John Calvin:
Helvidius displayed excessive ignorance in
concluding that Mary must have had many sons, because Christ’s
“brothers” are sometimes mentioned. (Harmony of Matthew, Mark and Luke, sec. 39 [Geneva, 1562], vol. 2 / From Calvin’s Commentaries, translated by William Pringle, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1949, p.215; on Matthew 13:55)
[On Matt 1:25:] The inference he
[Helvidius] drew from it was, that Mary remained a virgin no longer than
till her first birth, and that afterwards she had other children by her
husband . . . No just and well-grounded inference can be drawn from
these words . . . as to what took place after the birth of Christ. He is
called “first-born”; but it is for the sole purpose of informing us
that he was born of a virgin . . . What took place afterwards the
historian does not inform us . . . No man will obstinately keep up the
argument, except from an extreme fondness for disputation. (Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 107)
Under the word “brethren” the Hebrews
include all cousins and other relations, whatever may be the degree of
affinity. (Pringle, ibid., vol. I, p. 283 / Commentary on John, [7:3] )
Theodore Beza:Beza, Calvin’s successor, argued that Catholics and Protestants agreed on the perpetual virginity of Mary, at the Colloquy of Poissy in 1561 (see William A. Dyrness, Reformed Theology and Visual Culture: the Protestant Imagination from Calvin to Edwards, [Cambridge University Press, 2004], pp. 86-87).
Huldreich Zwingli:
He turns, in September 1522, to a lyrical
defense of the perpetual virginity of the mother of Christ . . . To deny
that Mary remained ‘inviolata’ before, during and after the birth of
her Son, was to doubt the omnipotence of God . . . There is a special
insistence upon the perpetual virginity of Mary. (G. R. Potter, Zwingli, London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1976, 88-89, 395 / The Perpetual Virginity of Mary . . ., Sep. 17, 1522)
Heinrich Bullinger:
Bullinger wrote the Second Helvetic
Confession in 1562. In its Chapter XI, it refers to “the ever virgin
Mary” and “the Virgin Mary.” In Chapter III it mentions “the Blessed
Virgin.”
François Turretin:
This is . . . piously believed with human
faith from the consent of the ancient church. Thus it is probable that
the womb in which our Savior received the auspices of life . . . was so
consecrated and sanctified by so great a guest that she always remained
untouched by man; nor did Joseph ever cohabit with her. . . . in the New
Testament certain ones are called ‘the brothers of Christ.’ It is
common in Scripture not only for one’s own and full brothers by nature
to be designated by this name, but also blood relatives and cousins (as
Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Laban). . . . Nor is it derived better from
this-that Joseph is said ‘not to have known Mary till she had brought
forth her firstborn son’ (Mt. 1:25). The particles ‘till” and ‘even
unto’ are often referred only to the past, not to the future. (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, vol. 2, 345-346)
John Wesley:
. . . the blessed Virgin, who, as well after as she brought him forth, continued a pure and unspotted virgin. (Letter to a Roman Catholic, quoted in A. C. Coulter, John Wesley, New York: Oxford University Press, 1964, 495)
2 comments:
Rev. Peters: "Copied from another website. My only purpose is to stir the pot a bit."
Only as long as, it appears, it is stirred in a favored direction.
Readers may be interested in watching the following: "EVERY Objection to Mary Answered" (length 3:17:21). Matt Fradd interviews William Albrecht & Fr. Christiaan Kappes. Here is a description:
In this episode we're going to try to answer EVERY objection to four dogmas on Mary: The Mother of God; the immaculate conception; perpetual virginity, and the bodily assumption.
https://youtu.be/0wzjAEHyizk
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