Note to Sermon II: On Mary's Conception

Note to Sermon II., ON MARY'S CONCEPTION.

It may be a help to the full understanding and enjoyment of this sermon to remind readers of three things: — ix.

(i) That it was preached whilst the Truth of the Blessed Virgin's Immaculate Conception, though almost universally held by the Faithful, was still in the stage of being under consideration as a matter for definition: hence Bossuet's care to speak of it undogmatically.

(2) That the teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to original sin is as follows, according to the decrees of the Council of Trent: — that ' Adam, when in Paradise he disobeyed 'the command of God, at once lost the sanctity and justice in ' which he had been instituted, and incurred by this transgres- ' sion the anger and wrath of God; and also the punishment of

• death with which God had threatened him; and, with death, ' captivity under the power of him who " had the empire of ' death, that is to say, the devil "; and that by that transgression

• Adam, both in his soul and body, was changed for the worse.

' Nor let any one say that Adam injured himself alone and ' not his progeny, and that he lost the sanctity and justice he ' had received from God for himself alone, and not for us also. ' Nor that he, thus stained by the sin of disobedience, trans- ' fused into the whole human race death and bodily suffering, ' but not sin; for then he would contradict the words of the ' Apostle " by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin ' death, and so death passed upon all men in whom all have 'sinned " (Rom. v. 12).

Note on Marys Conception. 149

' Nor can any one say that this sin of Adam which is one ' in origin and by propagation, not by imitation, transferred to ' all, can be taken away by any other remedy than by the merit ' of this one Mediator our Lord Jesus Christ, who has reconciled • us to God by His blood — and that merit of Jesus Christ is ' applied both to infants and adults by the sacrament of ' baptism.'

(3) That what the Church means by the " Immaculate Conception " of the mother of God is that at the moment of \&x passive,'^ conception — that is, at the very first instant when her soul was infused into her body — she was sanctified by God's grace; so that her soul was never deprived of that sanctification which the rest of mankind had forfeited by the sin of Adam. It never from its first creation was displeasing to God. It was never stained by original sin.

It cannot be better expressed than by the definition given in the Encyclical of Pope Pius IX. on the 8th of December, 1854:-

" Being full of confidence in God, and persuaded that the fitting moment was come for defining the Immaculate Conception of the most holy Virgin Mother of God, which is attested and wonderfully illustrated by the Divine Oracles, venerable tradition, the permanent feeling of the Church, the admirable agreement of Catholic pastors and their flocks, and the solemn acts of our predecessors; after having examined everything with the greatest care, and offered assiduous and fervent prayers to God, it has seemed to us that we ought no longer to delay to sanction and define by our supreme judgment the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, and thus to satisfy the pious desires of the Catholic world and our own devotion towards the most holy Virgin, in order to honour

^ For the distinction between " active " and " passive " Conception, see The Immaculate Conception by Bishop Ullathorne, chap. vi.; also Father Harper's Peace through the Truth.

more and more, in her, her only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, since all the praise and honour which we give to the Mother redounds to the glory of the Son. Therefore... we declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine according to which the Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her Conception, by a singular grace and special privilege of Almighty God, for the sake of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of Mankind, preserved and exempted from all stain of original sin, is revealed by God, and consequently should be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful. If, then, any one — which God forbid — has the presumption to think in his heart otherwise than we have defined, let him learn and know that being condemned by his own judgment, he has made shipwreck of the faith and forsaken the Church.'