SERMON IV."

THE LOW AND MEAN CONDITION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN CONSIDERED; AS ALSO THE SINGULAR GRACE AND FAVOUR OF GOD VOUCHSAFED TO HER; AND THAT RESPECT WHICH IS DUE TO HER FROM US UPON THAT ACCOUNT, WHEREIN THE INVOCATION OF HER BY THE PAPISTS IS CONFUTED.

LUKE i. 48, 49.

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done for me great things; and holy is his name.

UPON the very hearing of my text read, every

man will presently perceive it to be a part of the magnificat, or the divine song of the blessed Virgin, into which she brake forth upon the prophetic salutation of the inspired Elizabeth to her, recited from ver. 41 to 45 inclusively. For this song is daily sung or rehearsed in our churches; and may it ever continue so to be, both for the excellency of it, and because thereby the prophecy of the blessed Virgin in my text is in part fulfilled, that future generations should call her blessed.

The song, as Grotius thinks, hath respect to the time of the children of Israel's departure out of Egypt, by which the time of the Messias was figured a [This Sermon was preached some time after the year 1671.]

and typified, not without a wonderful congruity of circumstances disposed by divine Providence.

There was then a Miriam, that is a Mary, a virgin and prophetess, the sister of Aaron, leading a female troop in the divine praises, Exod. xv. 20, 21. And here there is another Miriam or Mary overshadowed with the Holy Ghost, to be celebrated above all women, and therefore celebrating the praises of God. There was then, in the second place, an Elizabeth, the wife of Aaron; and here there is another Elizabeth, married to a priest of the line of Aaron.

Throughout this excellent song the sacred Virgin expresseth a deep sense of her own unworthiness, and upon that account a profound resentment of the singular favour of the Almighty bestowed on her. Her magnificat is not a magnifying of herself, but of the Lord. For thus it begins, "My soul doth magnify "the Lord;" not myself, who am but a poor unworthy handmaid of the Lord; but the Lord himself, who hath so highly dignified and advanced me, though unworthy. She first sings in the lowest and deepest note of humility, and then raiseth her song to the highest strain of gratitude and thanksgiving, admiring the transcendent honour to which, by the goodness of God, she was exalted. For in the former part of my text, she sincerely acknowledgeth the very mean condition she was in, when the divine grace surprised her, for he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: and then she sets forth the superlative dignity that God had advanced her to, for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

b [Elisheba, Exod. vi. 23. which is the same as Elizabeth.]

Let us a little stay upon that lower ground, from whence the holy Virgin takes her rise, and consider her humble acknowledgment of her own meanness and unworthiness, expressed in these words, 'Etéβλεψεν ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης αὑτοῦ, which our translators have well rendered, he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For the word ταπείνωσις signifies here the same with ταπεινότης, α mean, base, or vile condition; as our body of a base condition, or our vile body, Phil. iii. 21. And it is often by the Seventy joined with a verb signifying to behold, respect, or regard, as here, and used to express a poor mean condition, or, which is more, an afflicted condition, whereby one is brought very low, as we use to phrase it. So 2 Kings xiv. 26. The Lord saw the affliction of Israel. And Psalm xxv. 18: Look upon mine afflictions. But it is especially to be noted, that the words of Hannah upon much a like occasion, 1 Sam. i. 11, are in the LXX. almost the same with the words of my text. If indeed thou wilt look upon the affliction of thine handmaiden. Erasmus had long ago observed this, and corrected the vulgar Latin, too closely followed here by our older English translation, which hath it, he hath regarded humilitatem ancillæ, the humility or lowliness of his handmaiden, as that signifies the virtue of the mind, which we commonly call humility, but is more properly called modesty, and by the Greeks termed ταπεινοφροσύνη. This erroneous translation the pretenders to merit at Rome had greedily catched at, and thence inferred, that the blessed

• Τὸ σῶμα τῆς ταπεινώσεως ἡμῶν.

4 Εἶδε Κύριος τὴν ταπείνωσιν Ἰσραήλ, e Εἶδε τὴν ταπείνωσίν μου. f Ἐὰν ἐπιβλέπων ἐπιβλέψης ἐπὶ τὴν ταπείνωσιν τῆς δούλης σοῦ.

Virgin was for the merit of her humility so highly advanced by God. But Erasmus clearly evinced that TaTeivwots is rather in this place to be rendered parvitas, vilitas, "the littleness," or "vileness," that is, the low and mean estate of thine handmaiden. The ignorant and angry monks indeed fell very foul upon that excellent man for this his criticism; whence there arose a proverb in that time, concerning any man that should attempt to amend that which could not be better expressed, Vult corrigere magnificat, "The man would correct the magnificat." But the more learned papists are since grown wiser, and have subscribed to the interpretation of Erasmus; among whom is the judicious Maldonat, who gives us this clear account of it: "If we weigh," saith he, the sense of these words, it is so much the less credible, that Mary should here have spoken of her "own virtue, by how much more she excelled in "that virtue. For I cannot think it to be humility, "for a man not only to "himself to be humble. "that knows not itself: "comes to pass, that the humble person, as soon as "he knows, or makes known, his own humility, "loseth it. And besides, it was not the design of "the most humble and holy Virgin to declare, that

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know, but also to proclaim Humility is the only virtue and I cannot tell how it

by her merits she obtained so great a benefit; but "rather to profess herself utterly unworthy of such "a favour. She intended not therefore to say that

her virtue, but rather her low and mean estate, " and, in a word, her unworthiness, was regarded by "God: that although she was altogether unworthy "of it, yet God was pleased to vouchsafe her so great "an honour. Thus to speak became her, both as a

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virgin, and an humble and modest ones." So far that learned Jesuit. In short, there is no doubt but that the blessed Virgin was as humble and lowly in her spirit, as she was low and mean in her fortune and condition, and that God in bestowing so singular a grace and favour on her had respect to that virtue of her mind, more than to the lowness of her estate. But yet we say, that it was the meanness of her condition that she herself intended here to express, not her own transcendent humility, which if she had intended to express, she had lost: but by overlooking that virtue of her mind, and fixing her thoughts on her mean and unworthy condition, she indeed exercised that humility, of which she was a true owner. And therefore the same Maldonat commends those interpreters who resolve, "that Mary in this place did not profess, but practise humilityh

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But what was the low estate of this blessed handmaiden of the Lord? I answer, it was a state of poverty. So poor she was, so mean her portion, that she could arrive to no higher a fortune, than to be the espoused wife of a poor carpenter. So poor, that in her childbirth she was not able to procure a room (even in her greatest necessity) in that inn, to which she came as a guest; but, being neglected by her richer kindred of the royal tribe and family of David, lay indeed in the straw, and was brought to bed in a stable, and that in a cave underground, in the vicinity of the poor town of Bethlehem, according to the tradition of the most ancient doctors of the church. In the very place it was, (as some

5 Maldonat in loc.

h Mariam hoc loco humilitatem exercuisse, non significasse. i [Εν σπηλαίῳ τινὶ σύνεγγυς τῆς κώμης. Justin Martyr. Dial. cum