4. xii. 3. xviii. 18. Gal. iii. 8. 17. Vid. Matt. among men, but (which is infinitely more) moft dear to God; yet fhe fuch as was very mean and poor in condition; humble and meek in fpirit; religious and devout toward God: fuch the paffages occurring in the Gospel concerning her do fhew her; fuch that most excellent hymn of hers in St. Luke (dictated by a spirit ravished with the most sprightly devotion imaginable; devotion full of ardent love, paffionate thankfulness, hearty joy tempered with fubmifs reverence) do demonstrate her to have been. Of a mother fo related and fo qualified was our Saviour born. So related; that was neceffary, for the declaration of God's truth and fidelity, performing those ancient predictions and promises made to the fathers; to Gen. xxvi. Abraham, (that in his feed all the families of the earth Should be bleffed ;) to a David, to whom God had fworn, as xxii. 11. bSt. Peter tells us, that of the fruit of his loins, according to Acts iii. 25, the flesh, he would raife up Chrift, to fet upon his throne; Pf. cxxxii. who (as appears by many paffages in the Gospels) God's Acts ii. 15. people did expect and believe that he should be the rod out of the ftem of Jeffe, and a Branch growing out of his 30. ii. 5. roots; in whom the horn of David fhould bud; who xxi. 15. fhould raise the tabernacle of David that was fallen; and rule over the kingdom of Jacob for ever. So was the blessed Virgin related, and to fuch purpose, (that all God's predictions and promises concerning the circumstances of our Saviour's birth might be verified,) and fo qualified; fuch in outward condition; holy in difpofition of mind; homely in state of life; to teach us, that God doth not fo Acts xv. 16. much regard the outward pomps and appearances of this world, as the inward frame and temper of spirit: it is fome difparagement to thofe vain glories, by men fo greatly admired; and it may induce us but moderately to efteem them, to confider, that God did not choose for the mother of his Son and Saviour of mankind any great princefs, any honourable or wealthy perfonage; but her that was espoused to a mean artifan, rich only in grace, 1 Pet. iii. 4. fplendid in spiritual endowments; adorned with that hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a meek and quiet fpirit, which is in the fight of God of great price. xxii. 42. XX. xxiii. 9. xv. 27. Rom. i. 3. If. xi. 1,10. Rom. xv. 12. Rev. xxii. 16. v. 5. c Amos ix. 11. Luke i. 32, 33. Such an one the Son of God chofe to bear himself, to bear duty unto; to confer that great favour, that high honour upon; (an honour, among exterior ones, the highest that ever was vouchsafed to any person, to any mere creature: for fpiritual bleffings our Saviour himself doth prefer even above this great privilege; Whosoever, Mat. xii. 50. faith he, shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven the fame is my brother, and fifier, and mother: the fame is fo according to a more excellent kind of relation.) By the way we may observe, that although the bleffed Virgin was in that respect xexapiτwμévn, especially favoured and Luke i. 28, bleed among women; though all nations must needs 48, 49. therefore esteem and call her blessed, though the juftly ac- oid rò voknowledged that God had done peyaλeia, (mighty and mag-T nificent things for her,) yet in reality to have Chrift born in Savariv our fouls, to partake of his divine grace and presence in u our hearts, is a higher honour, a truer happiness than that: "égdos. for when the good woman, ravished by our Saviour's difcourse, did cry out, Blessed is the womb that bare thee: Luke xi. 27, Yea rather, said he, blessed are they that hear the word of 28. God, and keep it, We must not also neglect to obferve, that our Saviour chose so mean a parentage, partly that he might taste and undergo the hardships and inconveniences incident to our nature, (thereby more fully meriting and fatisfying for us ;) partly to give us example of the most difficult virtues and duties, (of humility, meekness, and patience,) fhewing us how we fhould cheerfully endure wants, pains, difgraces; contentedly want all the pleasure, wealth, and splendour of the world. The use of this point concerning our Saviour's birth of the bleffed Virgin is not to beget in us fond opinions, or to ground fcandalous practices in respect to her; attributing to her (I cannot say less than facrilegiously and profanely) fuch fwelling, vain, false titles and elogies, Regina Coeli, Salus Mundi, Mater Mifericordiarum, Domina noftra, Sponfa Dei, and the like; afcribing to her the most fublime attributes and actions of God, providence and protection over us, yea redemption itself; performing Bb + φορῆσαι τὸν ἐκεῖνον τόκον acts of religious veneration, (and thofe in a very high manner and strain,) and all this without any good reason, any plaufible authority, or confiderable example; I fay, from fuch groundless conceits and dangerous practices we fhould beware; which, as they derogate from God's honour and prejudice his fervice, fo they do rather injure, abufe, and difcredit the bleffed Virgin, than do any right or honour to her; whofe greater honour indeed it was to be a meek and humble fervant, than to be the mother of her Saviour and Lord; the greatest and trueft honour we can do her is to imitate her grace, and to obey him who vouchfafed to be her fon. But I will not profecute that matter, nor farther insist upon this point: fome practical ufes thereof I have in the precedent difcourfe infinuated; the reft I leave to your meditation. Next our Saviour's incarnation, (his conception and nativity,) with the causes and manner thereof, (partly expreffed, partly implied,) doth fucceed his paffion. It might be inquired, why something concerning his life interceding is not mentioned, fince we fee the Apostles, in their preachings declaratory concerning the principal matters of our faith, take especial notice of those things; Acts x. 37, Ye know, faith St. Peter, in his catechetical difcourfe to 38. Cornelius and his friends, the thing that was done throughout all Judæa, beginning from Galilee, after the baptifm which John preached; Jefus of Nazareth; how God anointed him with the Holy Ghoft and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And the fame Apoftle in his Acts ii. 22. fpeech to the Jews; Ye men of Ifrael, faith he, hear these words; Jefus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and figns, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye alfo know: him, being delivered, &c. Why therefore is not fome fuch mention made here concerning the manner of our Saviour's life, the quality of his works and actions? I anfwer; that it did fuffice to defcribe our Saviour (as the object of the faith we profefs) by such characters as did most notoriously determine and distinguish his perfon; and withal did involve and intimate the most fignal myfteries of our faith, the most important doctrines of our religion, the main defign of his undertaking, the fit method in which he profecuted it, and the most effectual means by which he accomplished it: the belief of which doth virtually contain (or confequentially infer) our belief of whatever befide it is neceffary or expedient for us to believe concerning him. There was nothing about our Saviour's perfon more confpicuous and vifible than his trial, condemnation, and execution, in the time, under the presidency, of Pontius Pilate; nor was any paffage of his life, any performance of his more conducible to the accomplishment of that defign, which God was pleafed he should undertake it was therefore fufficient and fit to describe him by this and other fuch paffages, (well attested, important, and influential:) and if we believe in him who fo fuffered, we confequently believe all that he did or faid; all that is in the Gofpels (the most certain and authentical teftimonies) delivered concerning him; and that he truly was whatever we see there he did pretend and teach himself to be; (the true Meffias, the only Son of God, and Saviour of the world.) By this paffage therefore (affuming his refurrection) the Apostles do characterize him: for inftance; Be it known to you all, faith St. Peter, that in the name A&s iv. 10. of Jefus Chrift of Nazareth, whom you have crucified, whom God hath raifed from the dead, in that doth this man ftand before you whole: Neither to us only is the Lamb flain: Rev. xiii. 8. a periphrafis fully and clearly denoting his perfon; but the Jews themselves (though out of hatred and in contempt) call him ordinarily Talui, (Sufpenfus, him that Grot. de was hanged,) and ó ávaσxoλomicdeis, (you know,) in the Pagan fcoffer's language, doth fignify him. But as to the thing itself. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead THIS part of our Saviour's humiliation is in the ancient creeds expreffed more concisely by one word, crucifixus: crucifixus fub Pontio Pilato et fepultus; crucified Ver. ii. 2. under Pontius Pilate and buried; fo it goes in the text of Ruffinus, and agreeably in other ancient expofitors. But this alteration, (or acceffion,) it seems, was made (as for the exprefs difclaiming of fome heretical conceits that afterward fprung up, denying the real truth of our Saviour's death, fo) for the more full and clear reprefentation of the thing, by implying the manner, and main circumstances, and complete effect thereof; for by suffering (I conceive) was intended to exprefs, that what he underwent was in way of judicial procefs and fentence of law, obtaining force and effect upon him, (that he was profecuted, adjudged, and punished as a malefactor: for the word wάoxe, applied as in this case, did, I suppose, (as to fuffer doth now in common ufe with us,) by an sửnuouòs, (a mild and modeft kind of fpeech,) bear this emphasis, importing to be punished with death in a legal courfe:) then being crucified doth fhew the kind and manner of that suffering, which was most painful and difgraceful; and being dead, was added to declare the full effect and extreme complement of all; (he fo suffered, was fo crucified, as thereby to lofe his life.) Let us fomewhat ponder upon these particulars diftinctly, then confider all together. Suffered under Pontius Pilate. Suffered: that is, (I fay, in my apprehenfion,) underwent judgment and punishment as a malefactor. I deny not but the word may in fignification extend to all the infirmities, inconveniences, pains, and Vid. Matt. forrows that our Saviour did undergo, both in the course Luke ix. 22. of his minifterial performances, and chiefly before his xvi. 21. death; but I think thofe fufferings of his rather confiderable upon other accounts (as confequents upon our nature affumed, adjuncts to his condition, and concomitants of his paffion) than here directly intended; for to interpret ἐπὶ Ποντίου Πιλάτου, in Pontius Pilate's time, fo as to refpect any time before our Saviour's being accused and arraigned before him, feems a ftretch and a strain. Suffered, here, I therefore take for punished, in way of Luke xxii. feeming justice, as a malefactor. That he should thus fufMark xy. fer, God had determined; and it was foretold by the Pro 37. |