conjunction and union with himself, should be clear from alb stain and pollution; such as in ordinary propagation doth adhere to our sinful flesh and corrupt nature; that he whom God even as man would so dearly love, and so intirely be pleased with, should be void of the least inclination to iniquity or impurity; for, as the psalmist telleth us, God is not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him;' he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot so much as look on iniquity; how then would he receive any defiled thing into so near an union, into so dear a regard, into so full a complacence? He therefore was to be thoroughly sanctified; and thence it was needful that his humanity should issue from the fountain of holiness, God's most holy Spirit.

5. It in like manner was necessary that he who was ordained to appease God's displeasure, and fully to reconcile him toward us, to expiate all our offences, thoroughly to redeem mankind from the guilt and from the power of sin; who with absolute authority was to teach, to exemplify, to command all righteousness, should himself know no sin: Such an High Priest,' as the Apostle saith, became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; who had no need first to offer up sacrifices for his own sins:' the sacrifice expiatory for our offences was to be a lamb without blemish and without spot whence he was to be fully sanctified; and to become ro aylor, that holy thing,' (absolutely,) as he was termed by the celestial messenger: whence from the source of sanctity, the Holy Ghost, whose proper name doth import holiness, whose proper work it is to sanctify, he was to derive a perfect sanctity and purity in his sacred conception.

6. We may add, as an observable point, the analogy, or apposite resemblance thereof, between the conception of our Saviour for us, and his formation in us; his natural generation and the spiritual regeneration of Christians; his becoming our brother in the flesh, and our being made his brethren in the Spirit; both being effected by the same agent: as Christ was made true man, and partaker of our nature, so we become true Christians, and consorts of the divine nature,' by the operation of the same divine Spirit: as he by the dispensation of God, so we by his grace are born, not by blood, nor by the

will of flesh, nor by the will of man, but of God;' hence doth accrue a new relation, and we become his brethren, not only as he was made like to us, but also as we become like to him; and are begotten of God, by the same heavenly virtue, the same incorruptible seed.

It may indeed be an admonition to us, to labor after this spiritual conception, which will render us conformable to our Lord, and far more truly allied to him, than even his partaking our nature hath done; and indeed without that spiritual one, this carnal alliance will not signify anything of benefit to us; it will little profit us that he was born in the flesh, if we are not born of the Spirit; without which generation we cannot enter into the kingdom of God.'

The proper application of this point is to engage us on a thankful adoration of the divine goodness and wisdom; so fully, so fitly carrying on that infinitely gracious work of our redemption; all the divine Persons of the blessed Trinity in a particular manner conspiring, as in the designation, so in the execution thereof; the Father mercifully destinating and sending his Son; the Son willingly and gladly condescending to come; the Holy Ghost effectually bringing him into the world; to which blessed Trinity therefore we should render all humble reverence and hearty praise and so much for the first particular observed in the text.

II. The next is, the concurrence of the blessed Virgin Mary to our Lord's generation; that which is conceived (or gene

rated) in her.'

The being generated (rò yevvãolat, here) we may suppose to respect or to express his whole human generation, with the parts and progress thereof; implying on the Virgin's part all that she as a mother did confer thereto; wherein therefore are comprehended the following particulars;

1. His conception of her substance, whence he is called the fruit of her womb;' and 'a rod' (that is, a branch, or twig) sprouting from the stem of Jesse ;' and, Behold,' said the angel, thou shalt conceive in thy womb.'

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2. The nutrition, accretion, and intire conformation of his body, out of her blood and substance; whence her womb is said to bear him, ('Blessed is the womb that bare thee,') to

have been gravidated, or great with child; the which as it grew did swell her womb visibly; so that she was found, or o' served, by apparent signs, to be with child of him, or to have him in her womb.

3. His nativity itself, or exclusion into the open world; which is thus expressed by the Evangelist; The days were accomplished that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her firstborn son.'

Whatever therefore any mother doth confer to the intire production of a child, is to be attributed to the blessed Virgin; whence she was truly and properly the mother of our Lord,' and is accordingly often so called in the gospels; whence also she hath been in the Church defined to be and commonly styled OCOTÓKOS, the bearer and mother of God; that is, of him who is God; that term asserting the divinity of Christ and the unity of his person, [against Nestorius and his partizans; who said that the Virgin was not properly θεοτόκος, but χριστοτόκος ; and that he who was born was not God, but 0ршños Ocоpóρos, a man carrying God, or divinity, in him.]

Now for our instruction and use we may resolve the word her into three respects distinctly considerable; he was born of her, a woman; he was born of her, a virgin; he was born of her, Mary; each of which respects is pregnant with matter observable he was born of a woman, that was highly needful to be; of a virgin, that was very requisite of Mary, that doth involve divers circumstances of importance.

1. Our Saviour was born of a woman.

The Valentinian heretics of old did opine that he was only born through a woman, or did merely pass through her, as liquor doth pass through a vessel; but that is a great error, for he was born in her, and of her; in our text it is év avri̟ yevvnôèv, 'generated in her;' which in sound expresseth no more than her containing him when conceived, but according to the force of the Hebrew particle a (be) answering to ev here, is apt to signify more; and must be taken to do so in conformity to parallel expressions; as that of St. Paul, God sent forth his Son born ik yvvaikòs, of a woman;' and that of St. Luke (in the best

Nest. ad Cyrill. in Conc. Eph. Cyrill. Epist. ad Nest.

copies, followed by our English translators) τὸ γεννώμενον ἐκ σou, The holy thing that is born of thee, or out of thee.

Indeed of a woman he was born, that is, from the matter and substance of a woman: so as thereby to bear the relation of a kinsman to us, becoming consanguineous to all mankind, which God did make of one blood;' whence he is not ashamed to call us brethren,' [and alloweth us to be of his flesh and of his bones.']

We may easily conceive that God could immediately have created a nature in kind and properties like to ours, and have assumed it; but that would not have so fitly served the design of reconciling himself to us, and redeeming us; to the effecting that in the most congruous way, not only a resemblance in nature, but a cognation and proximity in blood was needful, or at least was very convenient and suitable for our blood being tainted, our whole stock having forfeited its dignity and estate by the rebellious disloyalty of our common ancestors, it was expedient that it should be purged and restored by the satisfactory merit and acceptable fidelity of one who was of our race and kindred. We being to be adopted and received into God's family, it was proper that business should be transacted by intervention of a common relation; according to the discourse of St. Paul, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that he might redeem those that were under the law,' (that according to the obligation undertaken by him, he performing the obedience required by the law, might redeem those who, being tied to obey the law, had yet transgressed it,) ïva Tìv viodeoíav åñzoλáßwμer,' 'that (it followeth) we might receive the adoption;' that is, that we by virtue and in consequence of that birth from a woman, and of that obedience to the law performed by our brother, might be in capacity to receive the quality or state of sons to God.

It was likewise seemly that the devil, who by the weakness of a woman had seduced man from his duty to God, had overthrown, triumphed over, and captivated God's creature, in just amends, for the reparation of God's honor, and our consolation, should by the strength and faithful constancy of one, proceeding from a woman, be himself defeated and debased; aecording to the mystical intent of that most ancient pro-1

phecy or promise, The seed of the woman shall break the serpent's head;' of the woman, the man is not mentioned; for,

2. Our Lord was born of a virgin so it was anciently presignified and predicted; a virgin shall conceive and bear a son; a virgin; Almah, àτóкpvpos, (so Aquila, with respect to the derivation of the word, did render it,) that is, a recluse; one who perhaps had seldom seen, who never had known a

man.

This, it seemeth, was that new thing (that most strange and admirable thing) which God in the prophet Jeremiah did foreshow that he would create in the earth, and which should then happen, when he would restore Zion, and establish a new covenant with his people; namely, a woman shall compass a man;' a woman in a manner extraordinary, without the concourse of a male, should conceive, and inclose in her womb a man; that very man who should accomplish the great matters there predicted and promised. So it was, and so on divers accounts it was requisite that it should be.

For how otherwise apparently, to the sense and satisfaction of all men, could he be that which (according to ancient prophecies and common expectation, as also according to theexigency of things, and the tenor of divine purposes) he ought to be, both the Son of God and the Son of man, otherwise than by coming of a virgin? He must be born of a woman, that he might truly be the Son of man; he must be born of a virgin that he might be clearly the Son of God; how otherwise could there be an effectual conviction of his divine original?

It was also decent and expedient that the tabernacle in which God should reside and dwell, should be proper and inclosed; that the temple of the divinity should be holy and separate; that the soil whence holiness itself would sprout forth, should be clear and pure from all sordid mixtures; that none should presume to touch the border of that holy mountain where God so specially would manifest himself; that the lust of man should not approach that place whence the glory of God would so illustriously shine forth.

It was also most convenient for exciting due attention and regard, for begetting faith, for procuring reverence and admira