rest and his justice too, by intending to dismiss her privately.' But before the thing was irremediable, God ended his question by a heavenly demonstration, and sent an angel to reveal to him the innocence of his spouse, and the divinity of her Son; and that he was an immediate derivative from heaven, and the heir of all the world. And in all our doubts we shall have a resolution from heaven, or some of its ministers, if we have recourse thither for a guide, and be not hasty in our discourses, or inconsiderate in our purposes, or rash in judgment. For God loves to give assistance to us, when we most fairly and prudently endeavour that grace be not put to do all our work, but to facilitate our labour; not creating new faculties, but improving those of nature. If we consider warily, God will guide us in the determination: but a hasty person outruns his guide, prevaricates his rule, and very often engages upon error.

THE PRAYER.

O holy Jesu, Son of the Eternal God, thy glory is far above all heavens, and yet thou didst descend to earth, that thy descent might be the more gracious, by how much thy glories were admirable, and natural, and inseparable. I adore thy holy humanity with humble veneration, and the thankful addresses of religious joy, because thou hast personally united human nature to the eternal Word, carrying it above the seats of the highest cherubim. This great and glorious mystery is the honour and glory of man: it was the expectation of our fathers, who saw the mysteriousness of thy incarnation at great and obscure distances. And blessed be thy name, that thou hast caused me to be born after the fulfilling of thy prophecies, and the consummation and the exhibition of so great a love, so great mysteriousness. Holy Jesu, though I admire and adore the immensity of thy

love and condescension, who wert pleased to undergo our burdens and infirmities for us; yet I abhor myself, and detest my own impurities, which were so great and contradictory to the excellency of God, that to destroy sin, and save us, it became necessary that thou shouldst be sent into the world, to die our death for us, and to give us of thy life.

II.

Dearest Jesu, thou didst not breathe one sigh, nor shed one drop of blood, nor weep one tear, nor suffer one stripe, nor preach one sermon, for the salvation of the devils: and what sadness and shame is it then, that I should cause so many insufferable loads of sorrows to fall upon thy sacred head! Thou art wholly given for me, wholly spent upon my uses, and wholly for every one of the elect. Thou, in the beginning of the work of our redemption, didst suffer nine months' imprisonment in the pure womb of thy holy mother, to redeem me from the eternal servitude of sin, and its miserable consequents. Holy Jesu, let me be born anew, receive a new birth, and a new life, imitating thy graces and excellencies by which thou art beloved of thy Father, and hast obtained for us a favour and atonement. Let thy holy will be done by me, let all thy will be wrought in me, let thy will be wrought concerning me; that I may do thy pleasure, and submit to the dispensation of thy Providence, and conform to thy holy will, and may for ever serve thee in the communion of saints, in the society of thy redeemed ones now, and in the glories of eternity. Amen.

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SECTION III.

The Nativity of our blessed Saviour Jesus.

1. THE holy maid longed to be a glad mother, and she who carried a burden, whose proper commensuration is the days of eternity, counted the tedious minutes, expecting when the Sun of righteousness should break forth from his bed, where nine months he hid himself as behind a fruitful cloud. About the same time God, who in his infinite wisdom does concentre and tie together in one end things of disparate and disproportionate natures, making things improbable to co-operate to what wonder or what truth he pleases, brought the holy virgin to Bethlehem, the city of David, 'to be taxed' with her husband Joseph, according to a decree upon all the world, issuing from Augustus Cæsar.1 But this happened in this conjunction of time, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Micah, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah; for out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel.' This rare act of Providence was highly remarkable, because this taxing seems wholly to have been ordered by God to serve and minister to the circumstances of this birth. For this taxing was not in order to tribute: Herod was now king, and received all the revenues of the fiscus, and paid to Augustus an appointed tribute after the manner of

Euseb. lib. i. c. 6. Histor. Eccles. anno scil. tertio Olympiad. 194. Cæsare Augusto et Plautio Silano Coss. 2 S. Chrysost. Hom. 8, in Matth.

other kings, friends and relatives of the Roman empire:1 neither doth it appear that the Romans laid a new tribute on the Jews before the confiscation of the goods of Archelaus. Augustus therefore sending special delegates to tax every city, made only an inquest after the strength of the Roman empire in men and moneys; and did himself no other advantage, but was directed by him who rules and turns the hearts of princes, that he might, by verifying a prophecy, signify and publish the divinity of the mission and birth of Jesus.

2. She that had conceived by the operation of that Spirit who dwells within the element of love, was no ways impeded in her journey by the greatness of her burden, but arrived at Bethlehem in the throng of strangers, who had so filled up the places of hospitality and public entertainment, that there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the inn.' But yet she felt that it was necessary to retire where she might softly lay her burden, who began now to call at the gates of his prison, and nature was ready to let him forth. But she that was mother to the King of all the creatures, could find no other but a stable, a cave of the rock, whither she retired: where when it began to be with her after the manner of women, she humbly bowed her knees, in the posture and guise of worshippers, and in the midst of glorious thoughts and highest

2

Vide Suidam in verbo ȧroyρapń. Dio. lib. lvi.

2 Juxta Propheticum illud, Isa. xxxiii. 16. Ovтos oikηoεl ἐν ὑψηλῶ σπηλαίῳ πέτρας ἰσχυρός· ἄρτος δοθήσεται αυτῶ, apud LXX. Sed hanc periodum Judæi eraserunt ex Hebræo textu. Sic et Symmachus äpros do≈ýσɛraι, mysticè Bethlehem, sive Domus panis indigitatur.

VOL. I.

I

speculation, brought forth her first-born into the world.'

As there was no sin in the conception, so neither had she pains in the production, as the church from the days of Gregory Nazianzen until now hath piously believed: though before his days there were some opinions to the contrary,' but certainly neither so pious nor so reasonable. For to her alone the punishment of Eve did not extend, that in sorrow she should bring forth: for where nothing of sin was an ingredient, there misery cannot cohabit. For though amongst the daughters of men many conceptions are innocent and holy, being sanctified by the word of God and prayer, hallowed by marriage, designed by prudence, seasoned by temperance, conducted by religion towards a just, an hallowed, and an holy end, and yet their productions are in sorrow; yet this of the blessed virgin might be otherwise, because here sin was no relative, and neither was in the principle nor the derivative, in the act nor in the habit, in the root nor in the branch: there was nothing in this but the sanctification of a virgin's womb, and that could not be the parent of sorrow, especially that gate not having been opened by which the curse always entered. And as to conceive by the Holy Ghost was glorious, so to bring forth any of the fruits of the Spirit is joyful and full of felicities. And he that came from his grave fast tied with a stone and signature, and into the college of apostles the doors being shut, and into the glories of his Father through the solid orbs of all the firmament, came also (as the church piously believes) into the

1 Vide Waddingum. p. 270.