167

one part of which humanity he was the son of man, as by the
other part he was the Son of God.

The belief of this is necessary to prevent all fear or
suspicion of spot in this Lamb, of sin in this Jesus.
Whatsoever our original corruption is, howsoever displeasing
unto God, we may be from hence assured there was none
in him, in whom alone God hath declared himself to be well
pleased. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Job xiv. 4.
saith Job; a clean and undefiled Redeemer out of an
unclean and defiled nature? He whose name is Holiness,
whose operation is to sanctify, the Holy Ghost. Our Jesus
was like unto us in all things as born of a woman, sin only
excepted, as conceived by the Holy Ghost. This original
and total sanctification of the human nature
was first
necessary, to fit it for the personal union with the Word,
who, out of his infinite love, humbled himself to become
flesh, and at the same time, out of his infinite purity, could
not defile himself by becoming sinful flesh. Secondly, The
same sanctification was as necessary in respect of the end for
which he was made man, the redemption of mankind: that
as the first' Adam was the fountain of our impurity, so the
second Adam should also be the pure fountain of our
righteousness. God sending his own Son in the likeness Rom. viii. 3.
of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh; which he could not
have condemned, had he been sent in sinful flesh. The 2 Cor. v. 21.
Father made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that

we might be made the righteousness of God in him; which we
could not have been made in him, but that he did no sin, and 1Pct. ii. 22.

operatum.' I know not whether
be the greatest folly; to make the
Holy Ghost the father, as these
men have done, by creating part of
his body by way of seminal conjunc-
tion; or to make the same Spirit mother
of Christ, as the Nazarenes did: 'In
Evangelio Hebræorum quod lectitant
Nazaræi, Salvator inducitur loquens,
Modo me arripuit mater mea, Spiri-
tus Sanctus.' [S. Hieron. Comm. in
Ezech. xvi. 13. Vol. v. p. 158 D.]
There is only this difference, that
one is founded upon no authority
of Scripture, the other upon the
authority of a pretended, but no

1 Pct. i. 19.

Heb. vii. 25.

1 John iii. 5.

Luke i. 78.

Tit. iii. 4.

knew no sin. For whosoever is sinful wanteth a Redeemer;
and he could have redeemed none, who stood in need of his
own redemption. We are redeemed with the precious blood
of Christ therefore precious, because of a Lamb without
blemish, and without spot. Our atonement can be made by
no other high-priest than by him who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners. We cannot know that
he was manifested to take away our sins', except we also
know that in him is no sin. Wherefore, being it is so
necessary to believe the original holiness of our human nature
in the person of our Saviour; it is as necessary to acknowledge
that way by which we may be fully assured of that sanctity,
his conception by the Holy Ghost.

Again, it hath been observed that by this manner of
Christ's conception is declared the freedom of the grace of
God. For as the Holy Ghost is God, so is he also called the
Gift of God: and therefore the human nature in its first
original, without any precedent merit, was formed by the
Spirit, and in its formation sanctified, and in its sanctification
united to the Word; so that the grace was coexistent, and in
a manner connatural with it. The mystery of the incarna-
tion is frequently attributed in the Scriptures to the love,
mercy, and goodness of God. Through the tender mercy of
our God the day-spring from on high hath visited us. In this
the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man 168
appeared. And though these and such other Scriptures speak
properly of the love and mercy of God to man alone, offered
unto him in the incarnation of our Saviour, and so directly

1 'In quo non est peccatum, ipse venit auferre peccatum. Nam si esset et in illo peccatum, auferendum esset illi, non ipse auferret.' S. August. [In Ep. Ioan. Tract. iv. § 8. Vol. III. part 2. p. 854 E.]

2 By St Augustine: 'Ex hoc quod de Spiritu Sancto est secundum hominem nativitas Christi, quid aliud quam ipsa gratia demonstratur.' Enchir. c. 37. [§ 11. Vol. vi. p. 211 B.]

nullis præcedentibus meritis, in ipso
exordio naturæ suæ quo esse cœpit,
Verbo Dei copularetur in tantam per-
sono unitatem, ut idem ipse esset
Filius Dei qui filius hominis, et
filius hominis qui Filius Dei: ac
sic in naturæ humanæ susceptione
fieret quodammodo ipsa gratia illi
homini naturalis, quæ nullum pecca-
tum posset admittere. Quæ gratia
propterea per Spiritum Sanctum
fuerat significanda, quia ipse proprie
sic est Deus, ut dicatur etiam Dei
Donum.' Id. ibid. c. 40. [§ 12.
Vol. VI. p. 212 D.]

exclude the merits of other men only; yet because they speak so generally with reference to God's mercy, they may well be thought to exclude all universally. Especially considering the impossibility of merit' in Christ's humanity, in respect of his conception; because all desert necessarily precedeth its reward, and Christ was not man before he was conceived, nor can that merit which is not.

Thirdly, Whereas we are commanded to be holy, and that even as he is holy; by this we learn from what foundation this holiness must flow. We bring no such purity into the world, nor are we sanctified in the womb; but as he was sanctified at his conception, so are we at our regeneration. He was conceived not by man, but by the Holy Ghost, and we are born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the John 1. 13. will of man, but of God. The same overshadowing power which formed his human nature, reformeth ours; and the same Spirit assureth us a remission of our sins, which caused in him an exemption from all sin. He which was born for us upon his incarnation, is born within us upon our regeneration3.

All which considered, we may now render a clear explication of this part of the Article, whereby every person may understand what he is to profess, and express what is the object of his faith, when he saith, I believe in Jesus Christ, which was conceived by the Holy Ghost. For hereby he ought to intend thus much: I assent unto this as a most necessary and infallible truth, that the only-begotten Son of God, begotten by the Father before all worlds, very God of very God, was conceived and born, and so made man, taking to himself the human nature, consisting of a soul and body, and conjoining it with the divine in the unity of his person.

gratia homo ille ab initio suo factus
est Christus. De ipso Spiritu et hic
renatus, de quo est ille natus. Eo-
dem Spiritu fit in nobis remissio
peccatorum, quo Spiritu factum est
ut nullum haberet ille peccatum.'
S. August. de Prædest. Sanct. c. 15.
[§ 31. Vol. x. p. 810 c.]

3 Nolite desperare: quod semel
natum est ex Maria, quotidie et in
nobis nascitur.' S. Hieron. Comm.
in Psal. lxxxiv. 13. [Inter Spuria
Hieronymi, Vol. VII. Append. p. 311.]

Luke i. 27.

I am fully assured that the Word was in this manner made flesh, that he was really and truly conceived in the womb of a woman, but not after the manner of men; not by carnal copulation, not by the common way of human propagation, but by the singular, powerful, invisible, immediate operation of the Holy Ghost, whereby a Virgin was beyond the law of nature enabled to conceive, and that which was conceived in her was originally and completely sanctified. And in this latitude I profess to believe in Jesus Christ, WHICH WAS CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY GHOST.

BORN OF THE VIRGIN MARY.

THE third person considerable in this third Article, is represented under the threefold description of her name, condition, and action. The first telleth us who it was, it was Mary; the second informeth us what she was, a virgin; the third teaches us what she did, she conceived and bare our Saviour, and brought forth the Son of God; which was born of the Virgin Mary.

The evangelist, relating the annunciation, taketh particular notice of this name; for shewing how an angel was sent unto a virgin espoused to a man, he first observeth that his name was Joseph and then that the virgin's name was Mary; not for any peculiar excellency in the name itself, or any particular application to the Virgin arising from the origination of it, as some have conceived'; but only to denote that singular

1 For some have thought the dignity of the Virgin to be denoted in her name. As Gregory Nyssen (or rather his interpolator), Homil. in Natal. Christi [Vol. III. p. 1140 л]: 'ETTELÔN ἐτέχθη τὸ παιδίον, ὠνόμασε μὲν αὐτὴν Μαρίαν, ὡς ἂν καὶ διὰ τῆς ἐπωνυμίας τὸ Θεόδοτον διασημανθείη τῆς χάριτος· mistaking, as I conceive, the origination of Mary for that of Anna, her mother. Thus he thought grace, others dominion, to be contained in her name: Η Μαρία ερμηνεύεται κυ ρία, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐλπίς. Κύριον γὰρ ἔτεκε τὴν ἐλπίδα τοῦ παντὸς κόσμου Χριστόν. Auctor Homil. de Laud. B. Mariæ, sub nomine Epiphanii. [Vol. II. p. 292 Β.] Τίκτει τοιγαροῦν ἡ χάρις (τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ ̓́Αννα ἑρμηνεύεται) τὴν κυρίαν

μα.

:

τοῦτο γὰρ τῆς Μαρίας σημαίνει τὸ ὄνο-
Damasc. Orthod. Fid. 1. iv. c.
14. S. Hieron. de Nom. Hebr. [Vol.
III. p. 92] 'Sciendum quod Maria
sermone Syro Domina nuncupetur.'
So Chrysologus: Dignitas Virginis
annuntiatur ex nomine: nam Maria
Hebræo sermone, Latine Domina nun-
cupatur. Vocat ergo Angelus Domi-
nam, ut Dominatoris genetricem tre-
pidatio deserat servitutis, quam nasci
et vocari Dominam ipsa sui germinis
fecit et impetravit auctoritas.' Serm.
142. [col. 579.] 'Sermone Syro
Maria Domina nuncupatur, et pul-
chre quia Dominum genuit.' Isidor.
Hispal. Orig. 1. vii. c. 10. § 1. The
same Isidore with others gives an-
other etymology: Maria illumina-

169

person which was then so well known to all men, being espoused unto Joseph, as appeareth by the question of his admiring countrymen, Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother Matt. xiii. 55, called Mary? Otherwise the name was common even at that time to many; to the sister of Lazarus, to the mother of John xi. 1. James and Joses, to the wife of Cleophas,* to the mother John xix. 25. of John, whose surname was Mark, to her which was of Luke viii. 2 Magdal in Galilee, to her who bestowed much labour on Rom. xvi. 6. St Paul. Nor is there any original' distinction between the

trix, sive stella maris; genuit enim Lumen mundi.' Ibid. And Bernard, Homil. 2. super Missus est, [§ 17. Vol. I. p. 743.] 'Loquamur pauca et super hoc nomine, quod interpretatum maris stella dicitur, et matri Virgini valde convenienter aptatur. Ipsa namque aptissime sideri comparatur, quia sicut sine sui corruptione sidus suum emittit radium, sic "absque sui læsione Virgo parturit filium.' So far not amiss. But when from a bad etymology he makes worse divinity, calling her the Star of Jacob, and attributing unto her the light of our minds, the life of our graces and extirpation of our vices (the work of the Spirit of Christ), when in the midst of all our temptations, horrors of conscience, and depths of despair, he adviseth us immediately to a 'Respice Stellam, Mariam cogita, Mariam invoca;' his interpretation can warrant no such devotion. This etymology also descends from St Hierome, who in his interpretation of the names in Exodus, as from Philo: Mariam illuminatrix mea, vel illuminans eos, aut smyrna maris, vel stella maris.' De Nom. Hebr. [Vol. II. p. 21.] And again, on the names in St Matthew: 'Mariam plerique æstimant interpretari, illuminant me isti, vel illuminatrix, vel smyrna maris; sed mihi nequaquam videtur. Melius autem est ut dicamus sonare eam stellam maris, sive amarum mare.' Ibid. [p. 92.]

Ερμηνεύεται πάλιν τὸ Μαρία σμύρνα
Oaλáoons, Homil. de Laudibus B.
Maria. [1. c.] 'Dicta sunt et ante
Mariæ multæ: nam et Maria soror
Aaron dicta fuit, sed illa Maria
amaritudo maris vocabatur.' S. Am-
bros. Instit. Virg. c. 5. [§ 34, Vol. II.
p. 257 B.] Indeed, that ab amari-
tudine, without the adjection of mare,
is the etymology observed by the Jews;
as appears by the author of the Life oj
Moses, who relating how Amram took
Jochebed to wife, and of her begat a

ותקרא שמה מרים כי,daughter, addeth בעת ההיא החלו המצרים בני חם למורר

bx 2" She was called Miriam,
because at that time the Egyptians, who
were the offspring of Cham, made the
lives of the sons of Israel bitter. And
in the like manner Seder Olam, p

[.3 .c] .שמה מרים על שם מירור

1 This is to be observed, by reason of some learned men, who make the name of the Virgin different from that of others called Mary in the Gospel, upon two grounds, in respect of the accent, and the termination; the one being Μαριάμ, the other Μαρία : the first with a Hebrew termination, indeclinable, and the accent in ultima; the latter with a Greek termination, declinable, and the accent in penultima. As, "Ονομα τῆς παρθένου Μα piáp, Luke i. 27. in the nominative: ̓Απογράψασθαι σὺν Μαριάμ, Luke ii. 5. in the dative: Μὴ φοβηθῇς παραλαBei Mapiáp, Matt. i. 20. in the accusative : and μὴ φοβοῦ, Μαριάμ, Luke

This should be Clopas, a different name. James and Joses are apparently the children of Clopas and Mary. See Matt. xxvii. 56; John xix. 25.

Matt. xxvi

Acts xii. 12.

.דברי הימים של משה t This is an anonymous

PEARSON.

See f. 2b, ed. Paris, 1628.

21