Conceived by the Holy Ghoût, Born of the Uirgin Mary. SERMON XXIV. THE INCARNATION OF OUR LORD. αὐτῇ γεννηθέν. MATT. i. 20. For that which is conceived in her, is of the Holy Ghoft. SERM. IF XXIV. every circumftance of our Lord's wonderful incarnation deferveth to be confidered, as affording matter of good inftruction, and ferving to excite devout affection; then furely the principal caufes and ingredients thereof may demand a special regard from us; fuch are those which are couched in this text; the efficiency of the Holy Spirit, by which it was accomplished; the concurrence of the bleffed Virgin Mary, as the fubject, in whom the divine virtue did work it upon which two particulars we shall reflect, in order. I. It was the Holy Ghoft, by the fingular virtue and operation of whom, without intervention of any man, or earthly father, the blessed Virgin became impregnated and Luke iii. 23. did conceive. Jofeph was, ws évoμígero, in outward esteem, the Father of our Saviour, (for, Is not this, faid they, the John vi. 42. carpenter's fon? Is not this the fon of Jofeph ?) the moMark vi. 3.desty of his holy mother being preserved from mifprifion Matt. xiii. 55. Luke iv. 22. under the shroud of wedlock, during the time that by SERM. God's order the mystery and truth of things was to be XXIV. concealed from general notice, until the day of his being Luke i. 80. fhewed and manifefted to Ifrael; but God only was in John i. 31. truth his Father, his incarnation being performed by the miraculous efficacy of God's Holy Spirit; upon which account (befide his eternal generation) he was also the Son of God; for, Therefore, faid the angel to his mother, Luke i. 35. 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 bleffed Virgin herself by her conscience alfo; and by them it was attefted to the holy Apostles; their atteftation being feconded by the miracles of our Lord, together with all the potent arguments which confirm his doctrine: nor do we find, that even the adverfaries of our Lord did ever offer to impeach his parents of imposture, or did anywife trouble them about this report coming from them. And it is fo clearly and fully affirmed in the Gospels, that it is prodigiously strange that here have been lately fome (called Jofephites) who have queftioned Apud Epifcopiumit, upon weak pretences of difcourfe; whom we cannot otherwise confider, than as intolerably audacious perverters of Scripture, or fubverters of its authority and ufe; for furely nothing there can be deemed certain, if this point is not. The fact therefore we must take for granted; and, for our farther inftruction about it, we fhall confider three particulars; the manner of it, the reasons for it, the practical use whereto it may be applied. 58. 1. The manner of that operation, whereby the Holy Ghoft did effect the human generation of our Lord, is by the archangel Gabriel expreffed to be from the fu- Luke i. 35. pervention of the Holy Ghoft, and the divine power over- δύναμις ὑψί Shadowing the bleed Virgin; the which words being of so general interpretation, and as to precise meaning fo little intelligible by us, may well ferve to bound our curiofity, 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 fo bold, as to de SERM. termine, that the Holy Ghoft did bring from heaven a XXIV. body, which he did convey into the bleffed Virgin; or 2. Juft. Mart. that our Saviour's flesh was formed of a divine feed, from the fubftance of God himfelf; or that in his conception the Holy Ghost did create and impart somewhat of matter; but it is enough to fay, that these are rash and groundless conceits; the holy Fathers, having weighed and difcuffed fuch imaginations, to prevent dangerous or mifbecoming thoughts and fpeeches, about a point of fo facred nature, more foberly do teach, that our Saviour Damafc. iii, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, not σepμatinãs, seminally; but inμiepyıxas, operatively; & dià ouverías, not by copulation; but did dvváμews, by power; not de fubftantia Spiritus Sancti, of the fubftance of the Holy Ghost; but de potentia, by the virtue of it; and farther than this, fay they, Generationem ejus quis enarrabit? Who can declare his generation, or exactly describe the manner of a performance fo very wonderful and fublime; to the which no experience doth furnish any event like or comparable? When therefore it is faid, that the conception, or generation, was ex veúμaтos ȧyis, of the Holy Ghoft, the prepofition ex is to be taken for the fame with iò, or dia, (as it is very commonly used,) denoting, not matter out of which, but efficiency by which the effect was derived. But, Serm. vi. P. Leo de 12. 1 Chron. 2. Why was our Saviour conceived by the Holy Ghoft? Divers reafons for it may be affigned. 1. It was needful for affuring the divinity of our Saviour, or his being the eternal Son of God. That the Meffias, the Redeemer of the world, fhould be the Son of God, was neceffary, according to the purpose of God, the ancient predictions, the general opinions and expectations of Pfal. ii. 7, God's people, (often implied in the Gospels;) accordingly fuch he was as the co-eternal Word in his divine nature; but it was requifite that he should also be such according to his human nature; that by his extraordinary generation, as man, his other more fublime generation (fo much John i. 34, tranfcending human conceit) might be more credible, and 49. xi. 27. the world might be convinced of his divinity; for men Matt. xvi. hardly would have been capable to believe him more than xxii. 10. 2 Sam. vii. 13. Pf. lxxx. 27. vi. 69. Mark xiv. 61. xxvi. 63. Matt. viii. 29. Mark i. 24. Luke iv. 34. a man, whom they saw born in the common way of men: SERM. Is not this the fon of Jofeph? was an argument which XXIV. they urged against him, when he spake about his defcent from heaven, John vi. 42. and caufed them to admire, when they observed the power of his miracles (Matt. xiii. 55.) and the wifdom of his difcourfe, (Luke iv. 22.) but eafily might they be induced to admit a mystery, which was countenanced by fo 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 neceffary conjunction of the divine and human nature: a work of fuch grandeur and glory, of fuch grace and goodnefs, was not to be achieved by any other agent than by him, who is the fubftantial virtue and love of God; by whom we fee all extraordinary and moft eminent works to have been managed, to whom commonly the μsyaλaa O, the majestic and magnificent things of God are ascrib- A&s ii. 11. ed; for in the creation of the world, it was the Spirit of God which moved upon the waters, forming things, and impregnating them with all kinds of life and vigour natural; he it is, to whom those fignal 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; fo likewise to him this incomparably fupernatural, glorious, and important act was moft properly due. 3. It being neceffary that our Saviour fhould be confecrated to his great functions, and perfectly fanctified 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 fanctity; his efficacy muft needs intervene to this purpose: if Jeremiah, St. John Baptift, and St. Jer. i. 5. Paul, (persons defigned for offices and employments in Luke i. 15. dignity, in confequence fo far inferior,) were fanctified, and separated by the Holy Ghoft from their mother's womb; in how more excellent kind and degree was it requifite, Gal. i. 15. John x. 36. SERM. that he fhould be fanctified thereby, who was fent into the XXIV. 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 fanctified, and fent into the world, Thou blafphemeft; because I faid, I am the Son of God? whereas the style of Gods was given to perfons devoted to far meaner fervices. Futurum falvatorem decebat, haberet hu humanæ 4. It was needful, that the human nature, which God hominum did vouchfafe fo highly to advance, by affuming it to a talis ortus perfonal conjunction and union with himself, fhould be qui et in fe clear from all stain and pollution; fuch as in ordinary habere propagation doth adhere to our finful flesh and corrupt ftantiæ na- nature; that he whom God even as man would fo dearly turam, et love, and fo entirely be pleased with, should be void of carnis in- the least inclination to iniquity or impurity; for, as the Pfalmift telleth us, God is not a God that hath pleasure in fciret. Leoi. wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him; he is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot fo much as look Rom. viii. upon iniquity; how then would he receive any defiled Pfal. v. 4. thing into fo near an union, into fo dear a regard, into fo Hab. i. 13. full a complacence? He therefore was to be thoroughly quina menta ne de Nativ. Ser. 2. 3. fanctified; and thence it was needful that his humanity fhould iffue from the fountain of holiness, God's most holy Spirit. 5. It in like manner was neceffary, that he who was ordained to appeafe God's difpleasure, and fully to reconcile him toward us, to expiate all our offences, thoroughly to redeem mankind from the guilt and from the power of fin; who with abfolute authority was to teach, to exem2 Cor. v.21. plify, to command all righteoufness, should himself know Heb. vi. 26, no fin: Such an High Prieft, as the Apostle faith, became us, who was holy, harmless, undefiled, feparate from finners; who had no need first to offer up facrifices for his own fins: 1 Pet. i. 19. the facrifice expiatory for our offences was to be a lamb without blemish and without Spot: whence he was to be Luke i. 35. fully fanctified; and to become rò ayov, that holy thing, 27. (absolutely,) as he was termed by the celestial messenger : whence from the fource of fanctity, the Holy Ghost, |