should not breed in us fond opinions or superstitious practices; but should beget a precious esteem and honorable memory of her. The groundless conceits, as well as dangerous and impious practices of the Roman church on this point, exposed. Conclusion.

Conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Wirgin Mary.

SERMON XXIV.

THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD.

MATTHEW, CHAP. I.-VERSE 20.

For that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghost.

IF every circumstance of our Lord's wonderful incarnation deserveth to be considered, as affording matter of good instruction, and serving to excite devout affection; then surely the principal causes and ingredients thereof may demand a special regard from us: such are those which are couched in this text; the efficiency of the Holy Spirit, by which it was accomplished; the concurrence of the blessed Virgin Mary, as the subject in whom the divine virtue did work it: on which two particulars we shall reflect, in order.

I. It was the Holy Ghost, by the singular virtue and operation of whom, without intervention of any man, or earthly father, the blessed Virgin became impregnated and did conceive. Joseph was, is érouidero, in outward esteem, the father of our Saviour, (for,' Is not this,' said they, 'the carpenter's son? Is not this the son of Joseph ?') the modesty of his holy mother being preserved from misprision under the shroud of wedlock, during the time that by God's order the mystery and truth of things was to be concealed from general notice, until the day of his being showed and manifested to Israel; but God only was in truth his Father, his incarnation being performed by the

miraculous efficacy of God's Holy Spirit; on which account (beside his eternal generation) he was also the Son of God; for, 'Therefore,' said the angel to his mother, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God.'

The matter of fact was well known to Joseph by revelation, and to the blessed Virgin herself by her conscience also; and by them it was attested to the holy Apostles; their attestation being seconded by the miracles of our Lord, together with all the potent arguments which confirm his doctrine: nor do we find that even the adversaries of our Lord did ever offer to impeach his parents of imposture, or did anywise trouble them about this report coming from them. And it is so clearly and fully affirmed in the gospels, that it is prodigiously strange that here have been lately some (called Josephites) who have questioned it, on weak pretences of discourse; whom we cannot otherwise consider than as intolerably audacious perverters of Scripture, or subverters of its authority and use; for surely nothing there can be deemed certain, if this point is not. The fact therefore we must take for granted; and for our farther instruction about it, we shall consider three particulars; the manner of it, the reasons for it, the practical use whereto it may be applied.

1. The manner of that operation, whereby the Holy Ghost did effect the human generation of our Lord, is by the archangel Gabriel expressed to be from the supervention of the Holy Ghost, and the divine power overshadowing the blessed Virgin;' the which words being of so general interpretation, and as to precise meaning so little intelligible by us, may well serve to bound our curiosity, and to check farther inquiry. Some indeed (as the followers of Valentinus and Apollinarius of old; as Menno, Servetus, and others of late) have been so bold as to determine that the Holy Ghost did bring from heaven a body, which he did convey into the blessed Virgin ; or that our Saviour's flesh was formed of a divine seed, from the substance of God himself; or that in his conception the Holy Ghost did create and impart somewhat of matter; but it is enough to say that these are rash and groundless conceits; the holy Fathers, having weighed and discussed such imagina

tions, to prevent dangerous or misbecoming thoughts and speeches about a point of so sacred nature, more soberly do teach that our Saviour was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not σπερματικῶς, seminally; but δημιουργικῶς, - operatively: οὐ διὰ συνουσίας, not by copulation; but διὰ δυνάμεως, by power; not de substantia Spiritus Sancti, of the substance of the Holy Ghost; but de potentia, by the virtue of it; and farther than this, say they, Generationem ejus quis enarrabit? Who can declare his generation, or exactly describe the manner of a performance so very wonderful and sublime; to the which no experience doth furnish any event like or comparable? When therefore it is said that the couception or generation was ek veúμaros ȧylov, of the Holy Ghost, the prepo sition ek is to be taken for the same with vπò, or dià, (as it is very commonly used,) denoting, not matter out of which, but efficiency by which the effect was derived.

2. Why was our Saviour conceived by the Holy Ghost? Divers reasons for it may be assigned.

1. It was needful for assuring the divinity of our Saviour, or his being the eternal Son of God. That the Messias, the Redeemer of the world, should be the Son of God, was necessary, according to the purpose of God, the ancient predictions, the general opinions and expectations of God's people, (often implied in the gospels;) accordingly such he was as the coeternal Word in his divine nature; but it was requisite that he should also be such according to his human nature; that by his extraordinary generation, as man, his other more sublime generation (so much transcending human conceit) might be more credible, and the world might be convinced of his divinity; for men hardly would have been capable to believe him more than a man, whom they saw born in the common way of men : not this the son of Joseph ?' was an argument which they urged against him, when he spake about his descent from heaven, John vi. 42. and caused them to admire, when they observed the power of his miracles (Matt. xiii. 55.) and the wisdom of his discourse, (Luke iv. 22.) but easily might they be induced

Is

* Damasc. iii. 2. Just. Mart. Apol. 2. Aug. de Temp. Serm. vi. P. Leo de Nat. Serm.

to admit a mystery, which was countenanced by so grand a miracle as the birth of a child, by the divine power, without a

father.

2. This was the most fit way of accomplishing that so necessary conjunction of the divine and human nature: a work of such grandeur and glory, of such grace and goodness, was not to be achieved by any other agent than by him, who is the substantial virtue and love of God; by whom we see all extraordinary and most eminent works to have been managed, to whom commonly the peyaλeia Oeou, the majestic and magnificent things of God are ascribed; for in the creation of the world, it was the Spirit of God which moved on the waters, forming things, and impregnating them with all kinds of life and vigor natural; he it is, to whom those signal works of Providence, the revelation of divine truth, the prediction of future events, the performance of miracles, the renovation of men's minds, and reformation of their manners, in a peculiar manner are attributed; so likewise to him this incomparably supernatural, glorious, and important act was most properly due.

3. It being necessary that our Saviour should be consecrated to his great functions, and perfectly sanctified in his person, as man; and those performances (according to the mystical economy of things among the divine Persons) being appropriated to the Holy Ghost, the natural spring of all derived sanctity; his efficacy must needs intervene to this purpose: if Jeremiah, St. John Baptist, and St. Paul, (persons designed for offices and employments in dignity, in consequence so far inferior,) were sanctified, and separated by the Holy Ghost from their mother's womb; in how more excellent kind and degree was it requisite that he should be sanctified thereby, who was sent into the world to redeem and purify it from all filth and fault ? According to that saying of our Lord, Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?' whereas the style of gods was given to persons devoted to far meaner services.

4. It was needful that the human nature, which God did vouchsafe so highly to advance, by assuming it to a personal