Christ be free from blame, who so often set at nought his parent? The
answer is, that He did not set her at nought; that He honoured her in
deed, and would not have hurt her by his words;--but then the respondent
adds, that Christ chiefly honoured Mary in that view of her maternal
character, under which all who heard the word of God and kept it, were
his brothers and sisters and mother; and that she surpassed all women in
virtue. [Qu. 136. p. 500.]

IRENÆUS. To the confused passage relied upon by Bellarmin, in which
Irenæus is supposed to represent Mary as the advocate of Eve, we have
already fully referred (page 120 of this work). In that passage there is
no allusion to any honour paid, or to be paid to her, nor to any
invocation of her. In every passage to which my attention has been
drawn, Irenæus speaks of the mother of our Lord as Mary, or the Virgin,
without any adjunct, or term of reverence.

CLEMENT of Alexandria speaks of the Virgin, and refers to an opinion
relative to her virgin-state, but without one word of honour. [Stromat.
vii. 16. p. 889.]

TERTULLIAN[101]. The passages in which this ancient writer refers to the
mother of our Lord are very far from countenancing the religious worship
now paid to her by Roman Catholics: "The brothers of the Lord had not
believed on him, as it is contained in the Gospel published {292} before
Marcion. His mother likewise is not shown to have adhered to him;
whereas others, Marys and Marthas, were frequently in his company." (See
Tert. De carne Christi, c. 7. (p. 364. De Sacy, 29. 439.)) And he tells
us that Christ was brought forth by a virgin, who was also about to be
married once after the birth, that the two titles of sanctity might be
united in Christ by a mother who was both a virgin and also once