Kingdom now manifefted, faying, If I caft out Devils Matth. by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God is come 12. 28. unto you. And again, The Time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at Hand: Repent ye, and believe the Mark Gospel, That is, Behold now the Manifestation of the 1. 15. Meffias and his Kingdom: For fo the Scriptures and the Jews in their ordinary Language expreffed the Kingdom of the Meffias, under the Notion of the KingDan. 2. dom of God, and the Kingdom of Heaven, which appears by this, that they never asked him what he Matth. meant by that Expreffion, that he fo frequently used 13. and mentioned on all Occafions; which was a proper Argument to perfwade them to Faith and Repentance, because of these fair Opportunities they had of a Mediator," and the Means of Reconciliation, whereby an Entrance might be adminiftrate unto them abundantly in the Kingdom of Glory by this Kingdom of Grace.

44.

Thus the Incarnation of the Word was in the Fulness of Time, and not from the Beginning: However, it was fo in the determinate Counfel of God, yet not fo in the Execution and Manifeftation thereof: As alfo fays. the Wisdom of God, Who verily was foreordained before 1 Pet. the Foundation of the World, but now manifested in these 1. 20. Last Times for you, that he might make known the Riches of his Glory in the Veffels of Mercy, which he had before prepared for Glory Even us whom he hath called, not only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. As he faith also in Ŏfee, I will call them my People, which were not my People; Rom. and her, beloved, which was not beloved. And it shall come 9. 25. to pass, that in the Place where it was faid unto them, Te are not my People; there shall they be called the Children of the living God. Now it was therefore, and no fooner, that Mercy and Truth fprang out of the Earth, and 88.9, Righteousness looked down from Heaven; now was 10, 11. the Time of Love, and the Time of Life, that God

Pfal.

arofe

arofe and had Mercy on Zion, now the Time to Favour her, yea the fet Time was come: Seing then God hath an appointed Time for every Purpose under Heaven.

Wait thou upon the Lord, O my Soul, and limit not the Holy One of Ifrael; He that fent forth His Son in the Fulness of Time, will likewife manifeft his Power and Providence in a fit Time to deliver thee from all thy Afflictions: Let not him that believeth make hafte, for thus faith the Lord, In an acceptable Time have I heard Ifa. 44. thee, and in the Day of Salvation have I helped thee, and 8. I will preferve thee.

3

III. The next Thing that calls for our Difquifition, is the ftupendious Manner of Chrift's Incarnation, and he was made of a Woman; made, not created or changed; for He had His Body of the Subftance of the bleffed Virgin, which was affumed to the God-Head, without Confufion of Natures, or Multiplication of Perfons, (for, as a learned Divine fays well) It pleafed not the Word or Wisdom of God, to take to it felf fome One Perfon among ft Men; for then should that one been advanced which was affumed, and no more; But Wisdom, John to the End that she might fave many, built her Houfe of 1. 14. that Nature, which was common unto all: She made not this or that Man her Habitation, but dwelt in us, that is, in our Nature, the Evangelift ufing the Plural Number Men, for Manhood: Befides, if the Son of God had taken to himself a Man now made, and already perfected, it would of neceffity follow, that there are in Chrift two Perfons, the one affuming, and the other affumed; whereas the Son of God did not affume a Man's Perfon unto his own, but a Man's Nature unto his own Perfon: And therefore look upon him, ye feed of Abraham, the very firft Element of our Nature, before it was come to have any perfonal humane Subftance, the Flesh, and the Conjunction of the Flesh with God began.

16.

began both at one Inftant, his making and his taking to himself our Flefh, was but one Act: So that in Chrift there is no perfonal Substance but one, and that from everlafting; For verily he took not on him the Heb. 2. Nature of Angels: but he took on him the feed of Abraham. He taketh hold with a Kind of Violence, as it were, even as Chrift caught Peter when he began to fink, (for it is the fame Word in both Places) or as the Angel laid hold upon Lot, when he lingered, and was like to be fwallowed up in the Flames of Sodom; So our bleffed Saviour, clothed with our Likeness, and all the endearing Expreffions of Love came running after us, when we were running from him, and laid hold on our Nature, and pluckt us as Brands out of the Fire, and from the Jaws of that roaring Lion the Devil, and fo delivered them, who through fear of Death were all their Lifetime fubject to Bondage. This is rarely well expreffed by the Apoftle in two Words, faying, That Christ was made of the Seed of David according to the Flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with Power, according to the Spirit of Holiness: Totus in fuis, totus in noftris, (fays one Ancient) wholly in his own Nature, and wholly in our Nature.

Luk. 1.

47,

Gal. 3.

Hofanna to the Son of David, bleffed is he who cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hofanna in the highest.

Thus the Son of God was made of a Woman, to fhew himself the Saviour of Women as well as of Men; as it is written, There is neither Male nor Female, for ye are all one in Chrift Jefus. Of a Woman, and ofa Woman who was a Virgin (however under the Vail of Wedlock, to preferve her Honour from Mifprifion) to fhow likewife that Chrift, even as Man, in Regard of his 34, 35. temporal Generation, without the Intervention of an earthly Father, was the Son of God conceived of the

28.

Luk. 1.

Holy Ghoft. Sine paterna carnis Concupifcentia, (fays

an

J

an Ancient) fine maternæ integritatis injuria, as it's faid of the Children of Adoption, Which are born not of Blood, nor of the Will of the Flesh, nor of the Will of Man, but of God; albeit he be called the Son of Man, becaufe he took upon him the Nature of Man: For fo it was promifed, That the Seed of a Woman, (that is of Gen. 3. a Woman alone, without the Embraces of a Husband) 15. Should bruife the Head of the Serpent, and deftroy his Empire and Dominion in the World, as its written, Behold a Virgin fball conceive and bear a Son, and his Ifai. 7. Name shall be called Immanuel, which being interpreted, is, 14. God with us; that fo the Saviour of the World fhould not be ftained with original Sin and Concupifcence, which like an Hereditary Disease defcends from Parent to Children in the ordinary Courfe of Generation, and fo it feemed good to the Divine Wifdom to repair the World by the fame Means, by which it was ruined, and that was by a Virgin, that the Piety of Mary might in this happy Conception, expiate in fome Manner the Guilt and Curiofity of Eve.

O fweet Saviour of the World, by thy Holy Conception, ammaculate Birth, fanctifie us miferable Sinners, who were born in Sin, and conceived in Uncleannefs.

Certainly this is a great Myftery, and the greateft in all our Religion; Great is the Mystery of Godliness, God manifested in the Flesh, juftified in the Spirit, feen of Angels, 1 Tim. preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the World, and 3. 16. received up into Glory.

Befides, that God is Almighty, and his Ways Incomprehenfible, though no ways contrary to right Reason, and the Analogy of Faith: We have as clear and ⚫undeniable Evidence of this Myftery of the Incarnation, as either the Thing it felf, or we are capable of. See we not Myfteries in the most ordinary things of Nature,

D

which

which all our Philofophy cannot well explain: As thou knoweft not what is the Way of the Spirit, nor how the Bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child, even fo thou knoweft not the Works of God, that maketh all: Who can tell how the Parts of Matter cohere when the Duft groweth into Hardness, and the Clods cleave faft together? What more obvious to the Eye than Light or Motion, yet how little known to the Understanding. Where is the Way where light dwelleth? Job 38. and as for Darkness, where is the place thereof? Who is 19 able to folve all the Doubtings that hath been ftarted about the Original of Winds, whence they came, and whither they go? Or the different Flowings and Ebbings. of the Sea, whereupon are the Foundations of the Earth faftened, or who laid the corner Stone thereof?! Haft thou entred into the Springs of the Sea? or hast thou walked into the Search of the Depths? Or doft thou know the ballancing of the Clouds, the

him that is Perfect in Knowledge Onderous Works of

If thou understands.

not how Flesh and Blood can adhere to God, or how God and Man can be one Chrift, thou understands as little how the Body adheres to the Soul, or how the Flesh and Soul can be one Man: If we tell you Earthly Things, and ye understand them not, how fhall you understand if we tell you of Heavenly Things. The Fews require a Sign, and the Greeks feek after Wisdom; but we preach Chrift incarnate, and Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Chrift the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God.

After this manner, the Son of God was made of a Woman, made under the Law, that is, made fubject to the Law, and to all the Sanctions of the Law; fo far as was confiftent either with the Will of the Law-giver, who had Power of Life and Death, to forgive and punish