The thirde obiection of Heluidius.
ANd he taught them in their synagogges, in so much that they were astonied, and said: whence commeth this wisedom, and pow∣ers vnto hym? is not this the carpenters sonne▪ is not his mother called Mary? & his bretherne, Iames, and Ioses, and Symon, and Iudas? and are not all his systers with vs?
Also in the Acts of the Apostels it is said thus. These all continued in prayer and supplicati∣on vvith the vvomen, and Mary the mother of Iesu, and vvith his bretherne.
And Paule in the Actes saith, And I vvent vp accordinge to the reuelation, and savve none but Peter, and Iames the brother of our Lord.
These places he bringeth to proue that shée was not a virgin, because that these are called the bretherne of Christ.
But in the scriptures a man is saide to be our brother, fower maner of wayes, that is to say, by nature, by countrey, by kinred, and by affection.
By nature, bretherne are as Esau and Iacob, the twelue Patriarches, Andrew, and Peter, Iames and Iohn.
By countrey, bretherne are saide to be as the Iewes, which among them selues were called bretherne, as in Deuterono.
If thou bye thy brother which is an He∣brewe, he shall serue the syxe yeres. And S. Paule. I haue wysshed my selfe to be accursed from Christ, for my bretherne and kynsemen accordynge to the fleshe, whiche are the Israelites.
By kinred, they are said to be brethern, whiche come of one house, that is, when of one stock a great multitude do spring. As in Genesis, Abraham sayde to Lott.
Let there be no contention betwene thée and mée, and betwene thy shepeherdes & my shepeherdes, because wee are al bre∣therne. And againe Laban said to Iacob, because thou art my brother, thou shalte not serue me freely, for nothinge.
Those that are bretherne by affection, are deuided into twoo sortes, into spiry∣tuall, and common. They are spirituall bretherne, whiche are Christians. As in the Psal. Beholde how ioyfull a thynge it is, brethern to dwel together in vnitie.
Commonly, we are al called bretherne, because we come al of one Father.
By this diuision it is apparant that they were saide to be the bretherne of Christ, by kynrede, not by nature, not by coun∣trey, nor affection. Therefore as Ioseph was called the father of Christ, euen soo were they sayde to be his bretherne, and that both in one respecte. for Ioseph was thought to be the father of Iesus: and so were Iames and Ioses, & others thoughte to be his brethern. But none wil cōtend about this, but such as ar to curiouse.