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are innumerable, yet they have ascribed to each of them their office, and what was to be obtained, had, and received from each of them; but also because they have not only impiously, but impadently, solicited the Virgin Mary, that she would remember she is a mother; that she would be pleased to command her Son; and that she would make use of the authority she hath over him.

NOWELL'S CATECHISM.

Master. It seemeth me that thou hast expounded the name of Jesus with a very plain declaration.

Scholar. It is true. For Jesus, in Hebrew, signifieth none other than in Greek Soter, in Latin Servator, and in English a Saviour. For they have no fitter name to express the force and signification thereof. And by this that we have said, it cannot now be unknown, why he had this name. For he alone hath delivered and saved them that be his from eternal damnation, whereunto otherwise they were appointed. others indeed have taken upon them this name, because it was thought that they had saved some men's bodies; but Jesus Christ alone is able to save both souls and bodies of them that trust in him.

Mast. Who gave him this name?

Some

Scho. The angel by the command of God himself. And also it was of necessity that he should

indeed answer and perform the name that God hath given him.

Mast. Now tell me what meaneth the name of Christ?

Scho. It is as much as to say Anointed; whereby is meant that he is the sovereign King, Priest, and Prophet.

Mast. How shall that appear?

Scho. By the Holy Scripture, which both doth apply anointing to these three offices, and doth also oft attribute the same offices to Christ.

Mast. Was then Christ anointed with oil, such as they used at the creation of kings, priests, and prophets in old time?

Scho. No: but with much more excellent oil, namely, with the most plentiful grace of the Holy Ghost, wherewith he was filled and most abundantly endued with his divine riches. Of which heavenly anointing, that outward anointing was but a shadow.

Mast. Obtained he these things for himself alone, or doth he also give us any commodities thereby?

Scho. Yea, Christ received these things of his Father, to the intent that he should communicate the same unto us, in such measure and manner as he knew to be most meet for every of us. For out of his fulness, as out of the only holy and ever-increasing noble fountain, we all do draw all the heavenly good things that we have.

Mast. Dost thou then say that Christ's kingdom is a worldly kingdom?

Scho. No: but a spiritual and eternal kingdom, that is governed and ordered by the Word and Spirit of God, which bring with them righteousness and life.

Mast. What fruit take we of this kingdom?

Scho. It furnisheth us with strength and spiritual armour to vanquish the flesh, the world, sin, and the devil, the outrageous and deadly enemies of our souls: it giveth us blessed freedom of conscience: finally, it endoweth us with heavenly riches, and comforteth and strengtheneth us to live godlily and holily.

Mast. What manner of Priest is Christ?

Scho. The greatest and an everlasting Priest, which alone is able to appear before God, only able to make the sacrifice which God will allow and accept, and only able to appease the wrath of God.

Mast. To what commodity of ours doth he this?

Scho. For us he craveth and prayeth peace and pardon of God, for us he appeaseth the wrath of God, and us he reconcileth to his Father. For Christ alone is our mediator, by whom we are made at one with God. Yea, he maketh us as it were fellow-priests with him in his priesthood, giving us also an entry to his Father, that we may with assuredness come into his presence, and be bold by him to offer us and all ours to God the Father in sacrifice.

Mast. What manner of Prophet is Christ?

Prophets, the servants of Almighty God, sent before, by himself, to teach mortal man his will, and had with their own dreams and inventions darkened and drowned his holy word, he himself, the Son of God, the Lord of all Prophets came down into this world, that, fully declaring the will of his Father, he might make an end of all prophecies and foretellings. He therefore came, his Father's ambassador and messenger to men, that by his declaration they might be brought into the right knowledge of God, and into all truth. So in the name of Christ are contained those three offices which the Son of God received of his Father, and fulfilled to make us partners with him of all the fruit thereof.

Mast. It seemeth then, that in a sum thou sayest thus, that the Son of God is not only called, and is indeed, Jesus Christ, that is, the Saviour, King, Priest, and Prophet, but also that he is so for us, and to our benefit and our salvation.

Scho. It is true.

CHAPTER V.

Of the Humiliation of Christ.

SECTION 1.

THE State of Humiliation in which it pleased the Eternal Son of the Most High to effect the Redemp, tion of the fallen race of Adam, commenced, doubtless, with his incarnation, with his assumption of a nature, in every respect infinitely inferior to the Divine. The peculiarly incommodious place of his birth, and the lowly situation in which he condescended to pass his early life; his perfect obedience to the rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic Law, and to the civil exactions of the Roman government; his fasting for forty days, and submitting to be tempted by the devil in the desert, immediately after his Baptism by John in Jordan, and before his entrance on the discharge of his public functions; the privations and bodily infirmities which he suffered, and the difficulties which he encountered in the course of his ministry and converse with the world; the indignities and calumny which the malicious jealousy of the Scribes and Pharisees heaped upon him; the miseries and afflictions of others which his tender sympathiz

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