[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 Confession of Faith from Cyril, first recited at
Constantinople, then repeated at Ephesus, and afterwards again rehearsed
at Chalcedon; in its last clause the expression occurs which gave rise
to these remarks.

_Ancient Confession._