miracle, that gave the utmost evidence of our Saviour's di vine authority, was his raifing himself from the dead on the third day; a matter of fact, which all Chriftians have not only believed, but esteemed the great foundation on which they build the proof of their whole belief*.

Besides the spirit of prophecy refided in him, and his divine authority was made manifeft by the accom- From his plishment of his own predictions; for, whenever prophecies of the predictions have been plain and clear, and the bimfelf. event answerable, it hath been always counted a fure proof of a divine miffion; upon which account the angel tells St. John, that the teftimony of Jefus is the fpirit of prophecy. Thus our Saviour foretold his own death, with the manner of it, and circumftances of his fufferings; the treachery of Judas, the cowardice of his disciples, and St. Peter's denying him; his own refurrection, and the defcent of the Holy Ghoft in miraculous gifts. He prophefied of the deftruction of Jerufalem, which came to pass in forty years after his own death, within the compafs of that generation, as he had foretold; the very foundations of the temple and city were destroyed, and the ground plowed up, so that there was not left one stone upon another that was not thrown down; according to our Saviour's prediction: and indeed the figns that he foretold should forerun the deftruction of that city, with the circumstances that came with it and followed after, exactly agree with the punctual and credible hiftory of the fact related by Jofephus. And he affured his disciples, that his gospel should be published in all nations, and that his religion fhould prevail against all the oppofition of worldly power and malice, and that the gates of hell fhould not prevail against it: which things being purely contingent in refpect of us, and many of them unlikely to happen, the fulfilling of fuch predictions argues a prophetic fpirit in our Saviour, and confequently, that he was fent from God.

If chriftianity was an impofture, it was a strange From the impofture indeed; an impofture beneficial to the Ads of the world, but deftructive to the authors, in the na- pojiles. ture and tendency of the thing itself: beneficial, I fay, to the

See this article treated of Sunday 4. Sect. iv.

world,

cle.

world, fince it forbad every vice, and injoined every virtue, that could make a man more happy in himself, more serviceable to the world, and more acceptable to God. There are few or no other public actions, but what a witty malice may put fome finifter interpretation upon; and the best deeds in appearance may, and often, no queftion, do, proceed from a principle of vanity; but the actions of Chrift and his apoftles will stand the test of the feverest scrutiny. For the Apostles could not act upon any indirect and interested views of worldly honour, ambition, or gain; they must have been supported by a determined refolution of mind, to bear the utmost preffures of mifery and torment, in the cause of truth, founded upon a profpect of future happiness. Therefore, Unless we believe in this article, where is our faith and hope in the redemption that was wrought by the facriWhy we must believe fice of Christ Jesus, which could never have been in this arti- performed by any perfon, but by him, who is God as well as man? He must have been a facrifice of infinite dignity, and nothing less could bear any proportion to the infinite guilt of our fins, as being committed against a God of infinite goodness and majesty. And by this belief we are encouraged and freed from all doubt and fcruple in giving to Chrift that divine honour, which is due to him: which if we afcribe to him, without being satisfied that it is his due, we cannot wholly free ourselves from that idolatry which is a breach of the first commandment. By this faith also of the inward dignity of Chrift, we may learn to raise our affections to the utmost pitch our nature is capable of, in the admiration of that wonderful goodnefs of the Father in fending his beloved fon to die for us, while we were his enemies, rebels, apoftate creatures; and that wonderful love and condefcenfion of the Son, in fo far debafing himself for our fakes, who deserved the most grievous vials of his wrath and indignation to revenge the breach of his covenant. VII. In those words by which the angel told the virgin Mary, that she should be the mother of Jesus Christ; Of the angel's mef- that her fon fhould be great, and called the fon of fage. the Higheft; that the Lord God should give unto him the throne of his father David, that he should reign over

the

the house of Jacob for ever; and that of his kingdom there fhould be no end; is contained an aftonishing meffage, looking back to the prophecy concerning the Meffiah, which foretold, that the government should be upon his fhoulder, and his name should be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, everlasting with the Father, the Prince of Peace; of the increase of whofe government and peace there should be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even for ever. For the angel's defcription of the Meffiah imports, that God would fettle upon the Meffiah a spiritual kingdom (of which that temporal one of David was butan imperfect reprefentation) the abfolute government of his church, that spiritual houfe of Jacob; and that this kingdom of his should never be deftroyed, as the kingdom of the Jews was to be; and which is now fulfilled.

This declaration was preceded by the falutation made to the bleffed Virgin by the fame angel, in these words, His faluta Hail thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with tion. thee, bleffed art thou among women. The meaning of which was, that the bleffed Virgin was moft excellently difposed to receive the greatest honour that ever was done to the daughters of men; her employment being holy and pious, her body chafte, and her foul adorned with all virtues, particularly with humility, which is in the fight of God of great price: for, though she was to be the mother of an univerfal and everlafting bleffing, which all former ages had defired, and all future times should rejoice in; yet she refigns all this glory to him that gave ither, and declares, whence the received it, that no other name, but his, might have the honour. When the received this falutation, she was troubled at the faying of the angel, and caft in her mind what manner of falutation it should be; judging herself unworthy of fo great an honour, and being furprised with the strangeness of fuch an appearance in her retirement. But when the angel pofitively affirmed that she could conceive and bring forth the Meffiah, fhe inquires how that could be, fince the knew not a man? yet this implied in her no doubt concerning the thing, or any diffidence in refpect to the iffue of it; but rather admiratica in refpect to G

the

the wonderful manner of effecting it; at moft it implies that fhe defired to be fatisfied in the manner as well as in the matter of this mystery: and therefore the angel anfwers the difficulty, by declaring the wonderful manner how his meffage fhould be brought about, viz. That the Holy Ghost should power of the Highest should come upon her, and that the overshadow her; and then furnished her with an example of fomewhat of like nature in her coufin, and referred her to the power of God, to which nothing is impoffible to be done. Upon this the demonftrated an intire faith and obedience in Mary's re her reply: Behold the hand-maid of the Lord, be fignation. it unto me according to thy word. Then the bleffed virgin expreffes her gratitude in that admirable hymn called the Magnificat; wherein the fhews fuch a thankful fenfe of the great honour that was conferred upon her, and teftifies her humility and devotion, as well as the infinite power and goodness of God, that, it appears, as fhe was highly favoured, fo the was alfo full of grace, and had a mind plentifully inriched with the gifts of God's holy fpirit. Thus

man.

The only-begotten Son of God was conceived by the HOLY God made GHOST, and took man's nature in the womb of the bleffed Virgin, of her fubftance: fo that two whole and perfect natures, that is to fay, the godhead and manhood, were joined together in one perfon, never to be divided, whereof is one Chrift, very God and very man: Who was feen and handled; who was arraigned, condemned, and crucified, and afterwards laid in the grave; not indeed in his divine, but in his human nature, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a facrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for the actual fins of men.'*

When we profefs that we believe our Saviour Jefus Chrift "Of the birth was born of the Virgin Mary, we are alfo to believe of Chrift. that the Virgin Mary, efpoufed unto Jofeph (who, before and after her efpoufals, was a pure and unfpotted virgin) having, by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghoft, 'conceived within her womb the only-begotten Son of God, did bring him forth after the natural time of other women. So that the Saviour of the world was born of a woman, made .under

See the 2d Article of Religion,

under the law, without the least pretence of any original corruption; that he might deliver us from the guilt of fin: For thus our church expreffeth it, Chrift, in the truth of ' our nature, was made like unto us in all things, fin only 'excepted, from which he was clearly void, both in his flesh, ' and in his fpirit. He came to be a lamb without spot, who, by facrifice of himself once made, should take away the fins of the world: and fin (as St. John faith) was not in him. But we all (altho' baptifed and born again in Chrift) offend in many things; and, if we fay we have no fin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'*

And he was born of a Virgin, of the house and lineage of David, that he might fit upon his throne, and rule of the house for evermore. And that the promised Meffiah was of David. to be born after this miraculous manner, the prophecies of the Old Teftament foretold. One fays, the Lord hath created a new thing upon the earth, a woman fhall compass a man. Another fays, behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a fon, and shall call his name Immanuel. In confequence whereof his mother that bore him was a pure virgin, as ap- of a pure peared both from her own account, and that of Jo- virgin. seph her reputed husband; for, when Jofeph doubted of her chastity, an angel was difpatched to clear her honour, and to affure him that what was conceived in her was not by man, but of the Holy Ghoft. And when the objected the Conceived impoffibility of her being a mother, the angel ex- of the Holy plains it to her by the Holy Ghoft coming upon Ghoft. her, and the power of the Highest overshadowing her. This was founquestionable to the apoftles and primitive chriftians, that they univerfally and firmly believed it, and thought it a point of fo great moment, as to deferve a place in that fummary of the christian faith, called the apoftles creed.

The place of our Saviour's birth was Bethlehem, whither Jofeph and Mary went in obedience to the decree of Born as Auguftus to be taxed, the providence of God mak- Bethlehem. ing ufe of this conjuncture by verifying a prophecy, to fignify and publish the birth of the true Meffiah. The concourfe of people to Bethlehem was so great, that they could find no ac

G 2

See the 15th Article of Religion.

com