4. The
Passive was the blessed
Virgin Mary: which called a passive principle, not because she did nothing unto the bringing forth of Christ, but because she did nothing of her selfe, but that she did administer that matter of which the flesh of Christ was formed. Neither yet could she administer it immediatly fit, (for she had no pure matter) but it was made fit by a certaine supernaturall preparation, and sanctification, Luc.
1. 35. Because that which shall be borne of thee is holy,
68 yet Christ was truly and really the Sonne of
Mary, and the seed of the Woman promised from the beginning. Neither are there therefore two Son-ships in Christ really distinct, or two sonnes joyned together; for that temporall Son-ship, whereby he is referred to his Mother, was a respect of reason only. Indeed the humane nature of Christ had a reall relation to Mary, as to a cause, but the Son-ship doth no way agree to the
nature, but to the
person only: yet there is that relation of the humane nature to the person, and of Mary to that nature, that it may be truly and rightly said,
Mary was the Mother of God.