NAZARETH AND BETHLEHEM, OR, ISRAEL'S PORTION IN THE SON OF JESSE. AND, MANKIND'S COMFORT FROM THE WEAKER SEX. TWO SERMONS PREACHED IN St mary's Church in Oxford. BY THOMAS JACKSON, Bachelor of Divinity, and Fellow of Corpus Christi College in Oxford.  1. TIM. 3.16. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God is manifest in the flesh. 
AT OXFORD, Printed by john Lichfield, and william Wrench. 1617.   

TO THE RIGHT REVEREND Father in God, and my very good Lord, JAMES, by divine providence Lord Bishop of Winchester T. J. wisheth all Grace and Happiness. RIGHT REVEREND And HONOURABLE,  
SInce it hath pleased such as have hitherto been spectators, as well of my weakness, as of my industry in the Ministry, to pardon the one for the others sake; it is, and ever shall be my care, to have your Lordship, (under whose patronage, as Honourable Successor to my worthy Founder, I now enjoy the continuance of former opportunities) no witness of my sloth, or idleness. Yet these papers I produce not, either in testimony of my pains, which in so little a work cannot be great; or as a proof of my diligence in polishing what hereafter I mean to set forth. Rather out of indulgence to my bodily indisposition, & diligent forecast how long my journey is like to be, I have begun after such a manner, as by God's assistance, and your Lordship's wont countenance, I may hope to continued. To leave some fuller explication, than I have found, of the admirable consonancy between ancient praesignifications, whether prophetical, typical, or historical, and evangelical relations, concerning our Saviour's conception, his birth, his baptism, passion, resurrection, and ascension (or other like parts of his humiliation, and exaltation) is the point, whereto my studies have been consecrated, and my observations principally directed, since I undertook the ministry. And in this respect, I may truly call my meditations in this kind, the first fruits of all my labours. Now of this crop, which, with reference to my poor harvest, is like to be very great, as much at least as all the rest, and as I trust most acceptable to my God; I have brought this little Sheafe unto your Lordship, humbly desiring that you would vouchsafe to offer it up unto Him, by whose only blessing all the rest must be sanctified. Thus omitting longer preface, until I may fit it with a larger work, I humbly commend your Lordship to the gracious protection of our Heavenly Father, and this slender pledge of my most entire observance to your benign acceptance.  
From my study in CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE in Oxford: Septemb. 6. 1617. Your Honours, in all duty and service to be commanded, THOMAS JACKSON.   
JEREMIAH 31. VER. 21.22. Turn again O Virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities. How long wilt thou go astray O thou rebellious daughter? For the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man. 
1 IT is the observation of a most ancient Father. 
a Irenem.  Omnis Prophetia priusquam impleatur aenigma est. Every prophecy before it be fulfilled is a riddle. And amongst prophecies the latter part of this Text not the least enigmatical. For our better understanding the true meaning of these words in themselves, their coherence with the former, and my Prophet's drift or scope in all: may it please you (Men, Fathers, and Brethren) to consider the time was now come, wherein the Lord had put judah also out of his sight, and cast of jerusalem the city which he had chosen. Benjamin was become Ben-oni, a son of sorrow unto his mother. 
b Chap. 31. vers. 15.  For a voice was heard in Ramah mourning and bitter weeping, Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted because they were not, in the land of her burial & their father's birth. But the Lord always more tender and compassionate towards his childs, than a woman towards the children of her womb, yea then tender hearted Rahel herself towards her dearest son, whose birth had cost her life, in the midst, yea even in the first beginning of these his judgements remembers mercy. He now sends judah into captivity after Israel, but as a second arrow to find out a former lost. And Benjamin must go, though as sore against his own will into Chaldaea, as he had done sometimes against his Fathers into Egypt; yet in the Almighty's determination as well now as then to redeem his brother from that thraldom, wherein he had been long detained. For the Lord had put up Ephraim's lamentation, with rahel's tears for Benjamin, disirous, as he himself in the verses following protests, to prepare one & the same medicine for both their maladies. 
c Chap. 31. vers. 18.  Refrain thy voice from weeping Rahel, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord. And they shall come again from the land of the enemy: and there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own borders. I have heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus, thou hadst corrected me, and I was chastised, etc.  
2 But as Ephraim's intemperancy had been greater, more wilful, and of longer continuance, than judah's or Benjamins had been, to his recovery was now more difficult, and put his heavenly physician to a greater plunge than when it enforced him to cry out, 
* Hos. 6. v. 4.  O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? He was become as a man whose nature is so far spent that no physic can be safely administered to him. Long calamity and distress brings oftimes the souls of God's children so far out of razed with his sweetest mercies, that they loathe their very proffer no less than sick men do the sight of meat. 
d judges 6. ver. 12.  The Lord is with thee thou valiant man, saith the Angel of the Lord to Gedeon: But he replies. Ah my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this come upon us? and where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us of and said. Did not the Lord bring us out of Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. More wayward & diffident, my Prophet foresaw, Ephraim or Israel, for the most part, would be. The best of them albeit they mistrust not the truth of God's promises unto Abraham; yet doubt whether theirs and their father's sins have not forfeited their interest in them. If they acknowledge God's summons for judah's return & theirs to be the same, yet with old Anchises in like case, they find a difference in their estates, 
— 
e Virg. Aen. 2.  Vos o quibus integer aevi  
Sanguis ait soliáaeque suo stant robore vires  
Vos agitate fugam.—   
Such as bad fresh and lively spirits to wield their strong and able limbs, seeing their arms could not defend their country from the violence of their enemies, might use the benefit of their legs to escape their burial in her ruins. 
Me si caelicole volnissent ducere vitam,  
Has mihi servassent sedes.  But sure, if the Gods intended Anchises any longer lease of his life, they would allow house-rome to his aged bones in Troy. Thus why judah and Benjamin should return unto their borders, distrustful Ephraim could conceive these or like reasons. The time of their captivity is not set so long▪ but many which have seen jerusalem in her glory, may live to see the 
f jer. 30. v. 18.  city built up upon her own heap, and her palaces remaining after their wont manner. 
g Vers. 21.  Their children shall be as aforetime, their noble ruler shall be of themselves, their governor shall proceed from among them. But as for Ephraim, our fathers said it in their haste and fury, and we their posterity must for ever be bound unto the bargain. 
h 1. Kings, ch. 12. vers. 16.  What portion have we in David? we have no inheritance in the son of jesse. Many of his goodly stems, now planted by the palms of Babel, may take root again in their native soil, and be as a shelter to the tender graffs that must sprout out of the lower shrubs of judah: but he that shall look upon the remediless spoil and waste, long since made throughout all the mountains of Samariah; will he not take up his parable and say, Ephraim is as a wood destroyed, wherein is never a Sampler left? The youngest sprig that was removed thence, is now doted or withered with Eld in a strange and wearyish soil. How many of our fathers, which had never seen the light in the land of their conception, being brought captives hither in the womb, have we seen, (after their sight had failed them, for very age and long expectation of return) enclosed in the bowels of a foreign earth; yet now no more a stepmother to us their children that are left behind. An hundred years are past and gone, since our fathers were rooted out of their native land, & seventy more are yet to come before our promised deliverance be accomplished. And what comfort can it be to any of Ephraim's race, to return after so long time, into the land of Israel, now as strange and uncouth unto us, as Media and Assyria were to our fathers.  
3 That Ephraim was thus affected, the issue did too well prove; for few, if any of this tribe did return with the captivity of Zion, & such of them as afterwards returned; did, for the most part, inhabit Galilee, or regions allotted to other tribes. This backwardness, whether general in Israel, or more particular in Ephraim, was portended in the ominous character of this prophecy: wherein that God, which was a loving father to all the sons of Abraham, appears more anxious and solicitous for Ephraim, then for judah and Benjamin, whose return from captivity was more speedy and entire. And my Prophet from foreknowledge of this distrustful temper in Ephraim, makes trial of so many courses to make him relish God's promises, which he condites of purpose for his palate in sweetest terms of dearest love; sometimes entreating him under the name of Ephraim, sometimes under the name of Israel, as if he would try whether the one were not more lucky than the other. Sometimes wooing him with fairest promises of gracious favours to come. 
i jer. 31. v. 4.  I will build thee and thou shalt be builded o virgin Israel: thou shalt still be adorned with thy timbrels, and go forth in the dances of them that be joyful. Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria, and the planters that plant them shall make them common. Sometimes recounting his former kindness. 
k Ver. 9 Why Ephraim is called Gods first. borne.  I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first borne: for when I shared Rubens dignity amongst his brethren, did I not so esteem of Ephraim? Levi had his priesthood, and judah his kingdom; but the double portion was reserved for joseph: and the lot, whose disposition belongs to me, fell to Ephraim, though the younger brother; in the fairer and larger ground. Sometimes again, like a pensive father jealous of every occasion that might scar a fugitive, wild untamed son from approaching his presence, he protests his sorrow for his severe chastisements past. 
l jer. 31. v. 20.  Is Ephraim my dear son? is he my pleasant child? Should I tell him so, his bitter correction would not suffer him to believe it. Yet since I spoke unto him, I still remembered him, my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy on him, saith the Lord. If the difficulty of the way deter thee, thou shalt not wander as thy fathers did in the wilderness: whiles the paths by which the spoilers led thee are in fresh memory, 
* Vers. 21.  set thee up way-markes, & make thee high heaps for thy direction, and set thine heart towards the pathway that thou hast walked. Thy return shall be as quick and speedy as thy departure. Or if the mountains of Ephraim be polluted, Tabor and Hermon are not so. Zabulon and Nepthalim must yet see a wondrous light. Let Ephraim, if he loathe his own inheritance as unclean, take possession among his brethren; or in case he linger behind, as disdaining that judah should be his leader, let not his bad example entice the other sons of jacob to draw back, as it sometimes did them to revolt from David. Turn again O virgin Israel (for thou shalt no more be obbraided with the adulteries of Samariah) turn again to these thy cities my beloved daughter, my pleasant child only refractory and rebellious in this, that thou wilt not hasten thy retire, when as the Lord hath purposed to create a new thing in thy territory, there the woman shall encompass the man. This is the upshot of all my Prophets sweet and pathetical invitations of Israel to return from captivity. This new and strange event of a woman encompassing a man is as a peerless garland, proffered, first to Ephraim as the head of his brethren, or in the second place, unto such of the ten Tribes as would be most forward to undertake the course. We must needs then with venerable antiquity, and some most 
m Pomeranus.  ancient reformers of the religion, which we profess, acknowledge some extraordinary matter to be here promised. Howsoever sundry learned interpreters of latter times seem not to account it such: but as if they had begun to slumber, when they came to the words of my text, (disposed to take a nap with my Prophet, or with him of whom he spoke v. 26. Upon this I awaked and beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me) they pass over this mystery as in a dream.  
4 For the right unfolding whereof, four words there be in the original of remarkable use, and we may well dispense with ordinary translations, for not fully expressing them, when as many learned Commentators otherwise very skilful in the Hebrew, scarce deign to take notice of their true and proper grammatical value, much less of their prophetical references or importances. The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated as you have heard, in the earth, which phrase in our English is usually as much as if he had said, in orb terrarum, in the world; whereas by the circumstances of the place, and consonancy to the Hebrew dialect (most frequent in prophetical writings) it must be restrained unto that part of the earth, whereunto he solicits these Israelites, return. I create a new thing in the land, to wit, of Israel, or the kingdom of Ephraim, as it is opposed unto the two other Tribes: as Pomeranus hath learnedly observed. The second original word is here rendered (as well as conveniently it could be in one word) by woman: yet is it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said, THE FEMALE SHALL COMPASS THE MALE; though some what more be included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than a male, or man.  
5 The sacred mystery of this speech may best appear by comparing this new creation of the second Adam in the Virgin's womb, with the creation of the first woman in Adam: with reference whereunto this is called a new creation, wherein the order of the former is inverted. It is said Genes. 1. 
n Gen. 1.27.  In his image created he him, he created them male and female. The reason of which enigmatical speech (whence Plato, as I think, took his fable of Androgyni) is because Moses there speaks of Adam's creation only, in whom notwithstanding Eve was in a sort created or enclosed as bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh: He speaks of him in both numbers, as of unum actu, which was potentia plura. The like manner of speech he useth in the first verse. In the beginning God created the heaven, and the earth. Yet neither, was then distinctly created but the mass, whence both were afterwards distinguished as it were into male and female: that is, into such heavens, as now are the agents, and such an earth, as now is the mother, whence all earthly creatures are produced. In this new creation the Lord encloseth not Zakor Ish or Adam, not masculus only but Gever (ay) vir fortis, the valiant or strong man, the grand heroic of the world, in the female or weaker vessel. The female shall encompass the male, not after the usual manner of children's enclosure in the womb, but as Evah was enclosed in Adam, or as the shell encloseth the kernel; whose first root of existence is from within, not from without; whose enclosure every way is entire, never opened to receive what it encloseth, but only to have it taken forth. This, I take it, is the natural and true meaning of these words in this subject, whereof we speak, considered, with such references as have been specified.  
6 Our small acquaintance, whether with the peculiar signs of these ancient times, or with many common prenotions (concerning the manner of Messiahs birth or conception) which either my Prophet might presuppose as sufficiently known to them for whose good he wrote, or this prophecy occasion their successors to inquire after against the time appointed, will not suffer us to apprehend, either the appositenesse, or efficacy of these brief persuasions, so fully as the observant Israelites, before, or about our Saviour's coming might easily have done. Yet, if we may guess at the force of his argument, by such references and circumstances, as have left some print behind them in the revolutions of times unfolding this prediction, which he had wrapped up in enigmatical generalities, it is more fully thus.  
Dost thou therefore stand off, and disdain thy return to these thy cities, O thou Virgin, but haughty and rebellious Israel because the glory of Shiloes' birth shall be thy sister judah's and not thine? Doth it grieve thee that Bethlem Ephratah sometimes so little amongst the thousands of judah, should now overtop the chief cities of Samaria? A Prophet from the mouth of the Lord hath said it, and it must of necessity come to pass, 
o Micah. 5. v. 2.  that out of Bethlem, he shall come forth that shall bear rule in Israel; whose goings forth have been from the beginning, and from everlasting. Ephratah it was rightly called of old, and it happily height Bethlem since, ordained from eternity to bring forth the bread of life: but neither hath Israel born Ephraim's name for nought. Fruitfulness also is with thee. These thy Cities, though little and barren in thy sight, are not forsaken of thy God: thou hast likewise a Prophet's word for thy assurance, that albeit judah must bring him forth, yet Israel shall be the land of his conception, of whose kingdom there shall be no end. Account it not blind chance but thy good hap, that thy name is first mentioned in the re-establishing of my ancient grant. 
p jer. 33. vers. 14.15.  Behold the days come (saith the Lord) that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel, and to the house of judah. In those days and at that time will I cause the branch of Righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgement and righteousness in the land, jerem. 33. v. 14, 15. Search the Prophets at the time appointed, and it shall be showed thee, that whilst one of them made this glorious promise, in my name, to Bethlem, 
q Esa. 11. v. 1.  another (no enemy to the house of judah) did foretell thy fathers, that the root of jesse should recover his sap, and give first beginning of life to the branch of Righteousness, within thy borders. Though by birth he must be a Bethlemite, and of David's lineage, yet the name by which he must be best known shall be taken from one of thy Cities, wherein 
r Esa. 53. v. 2.  being first conceived, he shall grow up as a branch out of a decayed trunk, or as a root out of a dry ground, not as a young plant from the live seed of a former tree: That this place of his conception is not so clearly named by Isaiah, as the place of his birth by Micah; doth this dismay thee? The greater secrecy is a sign of a greater mystery. I know thee of old, thou art coy, thou art strange, and must be wooed with rarities and new wonderments. And what wonder since the world began hath been heard of like to this new thing which I create in these thy Cities, that a woman (without the consort of man) should enclose him in her womb, whose outgoings have been from everlasting. The creation of heaven and earth may in comparison of this new creation be held stale and trivial.  
7 Of this Aenigma in my text, & that other forementioned Chap. 33. we may say as joseph did of Pharaohs dreams both are one. So is that nursery of mysteries Isaiah, 11. v. 1. wherein the place of his conception & education is secretly named: and the like Isaiah. 53. of a root growing up out of a dry ground. This metaphor of the root, as also the emphasis of that speech delivered in Gods own person: I will cause the branch of righteousness to grow up, enigmatically foreshadowe, 
s jer. 33. v. 15.  that this growth should not be by ordinary generation, but by Creation; that as trees and plants in the first creation did merely grow up out of their mother earth, without seed precedent; so should this branch of Righteousness, this root of Life, take his whole substance from his earthly mother by the sole immediate power of his heavenly father.  
Thus much of the coherence of these words with the former, the true meaning of this aenigma, and of the Prophet's drift and scope in this place: which is to assure Ephraim or Israel that he should share with judah in the glory of their Messiah, as after he did in his conception and education. It remains that we prosecute the manner how this prophecy was fulfilled in the mystery of our Saviour's conception, & other such accidents as fallen out in Israel, well deserving their speedy return.  
8 The jewish Rabbins have a tradition, that God before he made this great world, did try his skill in making many lesser. But this, I am sure, you all detest as a fable in itself most impious, because it impeacheth God's omnipotency: most frivolous, because prejudicial to his wisdom, which worketh all things for testification of his glory, or confirmation of his creatures faith; neither of which could have any place before men & Angels were created. But it is a point well fitting our meditations at this season, to consider how the Lord in sundry ages, since the first promise of man's redemption by the woman's seed, did give illustrious documents as of his power, so of his purpose to effect this NEW CREATION: delighting to raise strength out of weakness, and by known effects of this nature, to purchase unto himself that title (often inserted amongst his most glorious attributes) of making the barren womb to bear, and become a joyful mother of children. He foresaw as his Prophet Isaias complains, with what difficulty the world would believe his Prophet's reports of their Messias growing up as a branch out of a dry ground: and for this purpose he sought by famous experiments of their conceptions, that were most lively types of Him, to train up his people's hearts to firm belief of his future strange miraculous conception.  

t Gen. 18. v. 10  9 I will come unto thee (saith the Angel of the Lord to Abraham) according to the time of life, and lo Sarah thy wife shall have a son; This message seemed so strange to Sarah, who overheard it, that she shows by her laughing how glad she could be if it might be so, rather than apprehend any probability that so it should be. Hence the Angel reproves her slowness to believe. Shall any thing be hard to the Lord? 
Vers. 14.  And as if it had been a matter of greater difficulty to rouse her dull faith, then to quicken her dead womb, he reiterates his message again, At the time appointed I will return unto thee, even according to the time of life, & Sarah shall have a son. This strange work of the Lord once accomplished, was to be as a perpetual sign for confirmation of his people's faith in the expectation of a far stranger, in due time to be effected. For this use Isaiah made of it. 
u Esa. 51. v. 2.  Hear me, ye that follow after righteousness, and ye that seek the Lord, look unto the rock whence ye were hewn, & ad cisternam perforatam unde excisi estis: alluding unto the dead womb of Sarah, as he expounds himself in the next words; Consider Abraham your father, and Sarah that bore you, for I called him alone, and increased him. The end which the Prophet aims at throughout that Chapter, is to rectify and establish their conceit of God's power, who was able even of stones to raise up children unto Abraham: intimating withal that Christ's Church, though far surpassing the amplitude of Abraham's present seed, was to be raised, from materials more weak and slender in the sight of man.  
10 Again, Manoahs' wife had as little hopes to conceive a son as Sarah had, much less to conceive such a child or Geber as should begin that which the Geber here mentioned in my text, was to finish, that is, to redeem Israel from the oppression of their enemies. And the Angel of the Lord, desirous to avert such a mistrustful reply as Sarah had given, prevents it by insinuating his knowledge of what she could pretend: for so he begins his message. 
x judg. 13.3.  Behold now thou art barren and bearest not, but thou shalt conceive & bear a son, the child shall be a Nazarite to God from his birth; and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.  
As little hope was there of hannah's barren womb, until out of the fullness of sorrow for her forlorn estate, she conceives faith, that God was able (as in her song she expresseth) to make the barren bear seven children. Perhaps she meant Benshebang, septenarium filium, one that should be of better steed to Israel then any other seven; a governor of God's people, a lively type of her long expected redeemer.  
11 But least these examples of isaac's, Sampsons', and samuel's birth, all sons of barrenness, might in the fullness of time, have less force upon men's hearts, by reason of their distance: the Lord will have Christ's forerunner john Baptist to be conceived of a woman more unlikely to bear, in their sight that measure all things by human probability or experiments of present times. So strange these news did seem to Zacharie his Father, that when the Angel told him his prayers were heard, and his wife Elizabeth should conceive and bear a son, one that should be filled with the holy Ghost from his mother's womb, he is not yet satisfied but demands. 
y Luk. 1.18.  Whereby shall I know this for I am an old man, and my wife is of a great age. This distrustful demand, was, at this time, (wherein God had determined to exact of all his people, great and small, outward confession of inward belief unto a far more strange and miraculous conception) so unseasonable and preposterous, that in sign of his power to take away the barrenness of Elizabeth's womb, he seals up the priests lips, disenabling him to bring forth one word, until his wife, according to the word of the Lord, had brought forth her promised son. Now the famousness of this event throughout jury should have served for a sign, to confirm men's faith of Christ's conception.  
12 If one of jerusalem's devoutests Priests, come so far short of Abraham's readiness to believe God's promises: no marvel if the best of women bewray some spice of her mother Sarahs' mistrust. But it is far from my disposition at any time, or my purpose at this, to urge, farther to aggravate the infirmity of a vessel so sanctified, elect, and precious. And I am persuaded the Evangelist did not so much intend to disparaged hers, as to confirm our belief, by relating her doubtful question, and the Angel's reply; the one being but Sarahs' mistrust refined with maidenly modesty, the other Sarahs' check mitigated and qualified by the Angel. 
z Gen. 18. v. 12  After I am waxed old and my Lord also shall I have lust? saith Sarah! as you heard before: thus checked by the Angel, Wherefore did Sarah laugh: shall any thing be hard to the Lord? The blessed Virgin, upon a more strange salutation, only demands of the Angel. 
a Luk. 1. v. 34  How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the Angel answered her, not by way of reproof or interrogation, but for her instruction, 
Vers. 36.  giving her a further sign. Behold thy Cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is her sixth month, which was called barren: for with God nothing shall be impossible. This heavenly dialogue was first uttered, and in such particular sort related by St Luke, to instruct us, that as the Virgin did now with better grace and decency act that part, which Sarah had before somewhat misacted: so this her son, was that promised seed, whereof Isaac was but the type, & his strange and unusual conception as it were a praeludium to this miraculous conception of our Saviour, foretold by jeremy, and thus related by the Evangelist.  
Instead of an exhortation or applicatory use (which my text being itself an exhortation directed to another people, and out of date in these our days, will hardly yield without wring) give me leave to spend the short remainder of time in proposing matter of admiration, especially to younger students, happily not so well acquainted with the manner of our Saviour's conception, birth, and education, or how far Israel shared with judah, or Nazareth with Bethlem in these circumstances or the like.  
13 I know by the folly of my youth, how ready young wits, against this good time would be to see Menechmus or some more quaint comedy of like errors acted: wherein no one particular, considered alone, is worth the noting; only the dependence of one upon another, being unusual, makes the whole contrivance pleasant: yet such as can breed no firm persuasion of any historical truth, but rather bewrays itself to be a fiction. And no fiction can yield delight or pleasure, save only ex hypothesi, in as much as our imagination supposeth that as true, wherein there appeareth no repugnancy or impossibility why it might not be such as the representation makes show of. As poems usually delight more than true stories, only because the Poets feign a likeness or image of more amiable and admirable truths, then can ordinarily be found or observed in the common course of life. Yet even in their rarest inventions, the Orator's argument holds still true of the spectators. If they can afford applause in re ficta, how would the like real truth itself affect them? what would they do if they should see a solid and substantial edifice, more beautiful and proportional in every part, than the superficial platform or draft which they so liked. Shall we then applaud the curious fictions of human fancy, and not be ravished with admiration at the real & most truly admirable effects of the Almighty's providence in our Saviour's conception? This would be infinitely more preposterous and fantastic, then if you should loathe or scorn the rarest live-beautie of most amiable reasonable creatures, such as yourselves, and run mad with love of Babo●nes shadows, or for an Ape or monkeys picture. What effect either so admirable in itself, or of such unspeakable consequence for our good, was ever presented on the stage of earth, seen, or heard within the circumference of this mighty amphitheatre, or is possible to be conceived by the heart of man, as the birth and conception of our Saviour Christ? yet is the concurrence or contrivance of all circumstances precedent or consequent, so unusual, so far surpassing human expectation, that if we compare their whole frame, with the most curious form of any human invention extant: Illam homines dicas, hanc posuisse Deum: you will say that the one might easily be invented by such as yourselves, but that the other could not be forecast, contrived, and acted without the all seeing wisdom of the Almighty God. And I am fully persuaded that if either jew or Atheist would but search the Scriptures with hearts as devoid of prejudice, and minds as free from other thoughts and cares, as most men bring to famous plays or Comedies: this contemplation would enforce the one to acknowledge, that prophecies in old time came not by the will of man: the other, that jesus the son of Marie was he, of whom Moses and all the Prophets spoke.  
14 First Isaiah foretells the condition or estate of his mother: Micah the place of his nativity; jeremy the place and manner of his conception; the two former more than six, the last five hundred years, before, he was conceived or borne. What hopes could the blessed Virgin have either in her own, or others sight to be the mother of so great a Monarch? you will say she was of the lineage or stock of David: so were many more of far greater place and dignity than she, all seated in jury about Bethlem or Jerusalem, the supposed places of his conception and education, until the event did prove the contrary. Suppose old Samael had been then living, and the governors of judah should have presented such of the daughters of jesse as they thought most likely, to see whom he would nominate to be their Messias mother: the election doubtless would have been far longer than David's was to the crown of Israel. To have fought the blessed amongst women in Galilee, would have seemed more strange to the men of judah, them the seeking out of their king amongst the sheepfolds, did to jesse and the men of Bethlehem. But God who sees not as man seeth, usually delighteth to cross our expectation whether of good or bad, by contrary success. It was the absolute nullity rather than improbability of any such hopes as are now suggested, which had excluded Marie from the princely tribe, contented to live an obscure life with her husband in Nazareth a poor City of Zabulon, as most think, or as others, bordering on Zabulon in the tribe of Nephthalie; however within the kingdom of Ephraim, or Israel. And thither the Angel of the Lord repairs unto her. The effect of his embassage being to unfold this enigmatical prophecy, which had been sealed up until this time appointed, for the fulfilling of it. 
b Luk. 1. v. 26.  In the sixth month (saith the Evangelist) the Angel Gabriel was sent from God, unto a City of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man, whose name was joseph of the house of David. Here some profane companions captiously demand, seeing it was Gods will to have his son, (as Isay had foretold) borne of a pure virgin, why would he not make choice of a maid or woman unbetroathed, of whom there could be less suspicion? As passengers of good respect, would often pass by unregarded by poor Cottagers, did not ill nurtured curs notify their approach by barking: so many divine mysteries would be less observed than they are, did not profane objectors become our remembrancers. As the former captious demand, to what intent soever conceived by unbelievers, doth but solicit this answer from the Orthodox. The first promise was made under this style; Semen mulieris: The seed of the woman espoused, though a virgin (such as Eve was when she sinned) shall crush the serpent's head. Yet the mouth of profanes not herewith stopped is more ready to quarrel with the message itself, as too vulgar for an ambassador of such state as the Angel Gabriel▪ Behold: what should she behold? thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son. Why? do not all women conceive before they bring forth children, or, do others conceive in their aprons? But to dismiss this audience of the Atheists false descant, or division upon this plain song, as he esteemed it. Is the phrase in many professed interpreters judgement any better, than a tautology, or, at the best, than an Hebrew Pleonasme? yet even tautologies in sacred language, seldom want their weight, or observation. And Hebrew Pleonasmes, in Prophetical or evangelical writings, are oft times full of mysteries. Or what if this phrase be sometimes vulgarly used in vulgar narrations? yet in extraordinary subjects, it may, and by the analogy of orthodoxal interpretation, aught to be taken in the most proper & remarkable sense, whereto it can literally be extended. The express mention of the usual place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 excludes the ordinary cause▪ and implies an unusual manner of conception. The interposition of the primitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was emphatically expressed in the salutation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and must here be repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, will much alter the sense or importance of the phrase. So doth the dependence which the demonstrative ecce hath with the words which went before. Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, [not from without.] The importance is fully equivalent to the Hebrew Tes●beb in my Text, (thy fruit shall be enclosed in thy womb▪ yet shalt thou not be less fruitful than she that conceiveth by a consort. For thou shalt bring forth not a daughter, not a male child only, but such a son as may well brook the name of Saviour for he shall be great, 
Vers. 32.  and be called the son of the most high. And is not this as much as Geber?  
15 And yet God in his wisdom would have the blessed virgin herself to be, for a while, ignorant of this construction, that her doubtful reply might occasion the Angel to enlarge his Comments upon my Prophet's riddle. 
Vers. 34.  Then said Mary unto the Angel how shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the Angel answered and said unto her the holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall over shadow thee. As if he had said, what hast thou to do with a man? who hast found this favour with God, that it shall not be with thee, as with other women? thy conception of this thy son is a work new and unheard of hitherto in Israel: a work not of generation but of creation; it must be wrought by the immediate hand of God. But let it not seem so impossible, as new and strange, seeing he hath foretold it by his Prophets, who is able to bring to pass what ever he foretells. Nor would the Evangelist in my opinion have been so careful to specify the Angel's name, in these two stories of john Baptists, & our Sauviours conceptions, without reference to his principal message or office; which was to annunciate his birth, to whom this name Gabriel did best agree; one that should be Geber-ell, the strong God, or the strength of God.  
Thus you see how this prophecy of the Females enclosing the mighty man, or heroic, by way of creation, not of generation, in the land of Israel is in due time fulfilled, beyond her expectation that did conceive him, until the Angel did instruct her.  
16 And now it seems she apprehends as much, as the Angel had told her and no more, That the Lord would give the throne of David to her son; and whether from express notice of Ezechiels' words, or rather from the same spirit, whereby he spoke: She makes part of his menacing prophecy a strain of her joyful song, so inverting his words, as the Lord had done the line of David; making first, last; and last, first. 
* Ezek. 21.26.  Exalt him that is low (saith the Prophet) and abase him that is high. 
* Luke. 1. v. 52.  He hath put down the mighty from their seat (saith the blessed Virgin) and exalted them of low degree. The abasing of the high and mighty was verified, whilst Ezechiel lived, in the sudden deposition of Zedechiah: so, perhaps, was the exalting of him that was low, historically experienced in the exaltation of 
* 2. kings. 25. v. 27.  jehoiakin, but not fulfilled until this time, wherein God, from the womb of his poor handmaid, raised up this light to David, unto whom the 
Ezek. 21. v. 27.  Diadem of right belonged. Yet all this time she thinks as little how Micahs prophecy should be fulfilled, as she had done before of Ieremies or Isai's: she had gone indeed, not long after this conception, into jury, to confer with her Cousin Elizabeth; but as the Evangelist tells us, she was returned again to Nazareth, whence she and her husband departed a little after, against their wills. For, unless Augustus at this very time, had given out his commandment, for taxing all that were subject to the Roman Empire, there is no intimation of any purpose either in Mary or joseph to repair to Bethlehem Ephrata the City of David. But the less they minded it before, the more they are confirmed by the experience of the event, and the manner how God's prophecies are fulfilled.  
17 Thus by the disposition of the Almighty, not by any purpose of Augustus, or consultation of man, the son of God is come first into his own City, but his own receive him not; he hath not so much as house room fit for man; an ill omen that his subjects will not acknowledge their allegiance to him. For as the Lord long since had complained of their more than brutish ignorance and stupidity. 
Isaiah. 1. v. 3.  The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his master's crib, but Israel hath not known, my people hath not understaod. What did not Israel know? or what would not his people understand? It is the note of a judicious convert Hebrew (and I now remember not weather he give any further reason of it) that the verbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there used, are transitives, and must be referred to that, which went before, Israel hath not known his owner, my people will not acknowledge him for their master, that lies swaddled in a cratch or manger. This is a stumbling block to the proud & haughty jew, that fixeth his eyes on lofty towers, and stately palaces, as if these were the places of his Messiahs birth; who in his prime, must come to Zion, as one too meek and humble to mind such matters; as one that would testify the place of his birth by 
n Zach. 9 v. 9  riding upon an Ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an Ass. But though judah and Israel be more stupid than the Ox or Ass, yet even in this humility of his birth Arabia and Sheba shall bring gifts to him, as to their king. Yet so provident is the Lord, lest any hand of man should show itself in his exaltation, that these foreign Princes open profession of allegiance to this new borne child, endangers his innocent and harmless life. But what will the Atheist say? Cannot God protect his son from all likelihood or approach of danger? yes he could, but his purpose was now to show his wisdom, not his power, in defeating great Herod's vigilant and anxious care, and all the subtlest projects of his cunningest politicians, by the counterplots of a poor dreaming man. Rahel must have cause again to weep for her children about the borders of Benjamin: and Herod by striking at the son of God, must kill his own son: whilst he that was indeed a father to all the sons of men, because the true and natural son of God, he, in whose right, Israel enjoyed the promises, and had an adoptive title to be called the son of God, must in part of his nonage be sustained in Egypt, as Israel had been, by a joseph; that so, what was verified of the one, as in the type, might be fulfilled in the other, as the substance. 
Hosea. II. VI  Out of Egypt have I called my son.  
18 But whither did God call his son? sure if his supposed father joseph do not with young Samuel mistake the callers voice, he was to return into judaea, the fittest place, in his apprehension, for the education of him, that was borne unto the crown of David; a place, wherein if Herod's first designs had stood firm and sure, he might have lived securely. But God that directed Jacob's right hand to the head of Ephraim, contrary to his father Joseph's expectation; hath turned the heart of 
b josephus. lib. 17. c. 10.  Herod on a sudden to affect him most in the last draft of his will and testament, whom he had respected but in the second place in the former. And joseph approaching the Coasts of jury, advertised that Herod had a successor there, not Antipas, as he perhaps with others had expected, but Archelaus as bloody a villain as the Father, suspects (as it seems) either the truth of his admonition by a dream in Egypt; or his construction of it. He doubts whether they be dead, that sought the life of the child: for as the Evangelist saith. 
Mat. 2. v. 22.  He was afraid to go into judaea. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Yet seeing he had been warned in a dream, (or perhaps being warned again) though he avoid judah, he will at least go into some part of Israel. If he had two warnings, this latter was to instruct him in the true meaning of the former, whereby he was not directed to judaea in particular▪ but into the land of Israel, as I take it, with opposition to the land of judaea. And so saith the Evangelist, he left his purpose for judaea, and turned aside into the parts of Galil●, to the place of Christ's conception. 
Ibid.  And thus by his doubtful resolution; the will of the Lord, which he had spoken by the Prophet is undoubtly fulfilled; to wit, that Christ from the place of his conception and education should be called Nazaraeus. A name (in their intendment that sought to fasten it first upon him) of disgrace and scorn, but by the disposition of the Almighty, a known title of greatest honour, convicting such as used it otherwise, even whilst they spoke it, of blasphemy; which way soever we interpret the meaning of it. For if this City's name, whose Etymology is hardly found in the old Testament, were Natsoreth, or Natzareth, or as 
n Dicunt Christiani jesum natum esse in Bethlehem & educatum fuisse in civitate, quae in lingua eorum Nazareth in nostra vero Nezer vocatur.  Elias Leuita saith, Netzer (t●● word which Isaias useth) it is by interpretation the City of plants or grafts; in plain english Graftowne. Whence if the jew captiously demand: was it ever heard that any Prophet should arise out of Nazareth? We may answer (as our Saviour did Pilate) Infidel, thou hast said it, though unwittingly, as Caiphas thy predecessor did foretell his dying for the people. For didst thou never hear of a man, whose name was the branch; never of a plant Netzer that should grow out of the root of Ishai? What if thou canst not revile this jesus, whom we preach, but thou must acknowledge him Hanotzeri surculus ille, or surcularius ille, or germane illud; The PLANT, THE BRANCH. For though the obiectour mean to disgrace him, yet God had ordained his glory as well out of his enemy's mouths that meant him mischief, as out of the mouths of silly babes, that meant him neither good nor ill. And it is very suitable to the ways of God's providence, to suggest, by ambiguous words or speeches, unto the attentive hearer, conceits quite contrary to their meaning that utter them. 
Appian.  So Crassus in his Parthian voyage, wills his soldiers (disheartened with a dismal way, which Abgarus had led them) to be of good cheer; they should not come that way back again: his meaning was they should return a better, but they take this as the sentence of death from their General's mouth; and so march on drooping, in such dead silence to their miserable disaster, as men condemned do to the place of execution. This speech of Crassus was worse taken, than it was meant: but many of like observation I could here allege, which ill meant by such as uttered them, have been well interpreted by the parties whom they concerned: 
Val. Max. lib. 1. c. 5.  as the Apollonians, soliciting aid of the Epidamnians against the Illyrians, finally, put off with this flouting answer. We will send 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (so was the river called which ran by their City) to your succour: cheerfully accept the offer, and take heart and courage at the very mention of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as if Ajax (who height so in Greek) had been revived to be their leader. And their confident hopes, conceived upon the imaginary conduct of such a noble General, did, by divine providence, bring forth real success, and unexpected victory. And so no doubt the faithful Hebrews, as oft as they heard the jews call our Saviour in contempt, Hanotzeri, did interpret their speech, otherwise than they meant it, as S. john did that of Caiaphas. And this was the Evangelists meaning, when he saith, our Saviour went to Nazareth, that he might be known by this name, used both by his followers and his enemies.  
19 Yet do I no way reject, but most willingly embrace their interpretation of this place, who think that speech of the Angel unto Sampsons' mother. 
judg. 13. v. 5.  And he shall be a Nazarite from his birth was fulfilled of Christ, who was the true Nazarite indeed. Nor is this interpretation, (as most think) incompatible with the former: both are branches of the tree of life, in both shine most glorious rays of the divine providence, would not men be more contradictious than their opinions. For, first it is a needless doubt moved by the one, whether this City's name in Hebrew were written with 
o Z.TS.  Zaiin, or with Tsadhi; and it is an impertinent observation of the other, to tell us that Nazaraeus or Nazarenus for a Nazarite, comes not from the Hebrew Natzar, but from Nazar: for the Evangelists and Greek writers of the new Testament, not our of ignorance, but by the direction of the holy Ghost, and of purpose, use the Hebrew names as they are mollified by the Septuagints, for the more facile pronunciation of the Gentiles: as the famous Rainolds wisely admonished junius, for this reason to use Samaria for Someron; & the like; seeing the holy Ghost had so spoken. It will suffice then, for our purpose, that the words signifying an inhabitant of this City and a Nazarite, such as Samson was, are one and the same in the Greek and Latin. As for that different character, which some observe by writing the one Naziraeus, and the other Nazaraeus, or Nazarenus, I have just reason to suspect it for Critics coin; first invented, and since observed by such as had better marked the different character of the Hebrew words, whence they are derived, than the disposition of the divine providence in suffering no difference betwixt them in the Greek and Latin. It is a point (I know) very behooveful in arts, or sciences, or human histories to distinguish such aequivoca àcasu, as often fall out in translations, or corruption of speech, by some note of difference in the original character. But these words Nazaraeus or Nazaraenus we suppose to be aequivoca, not àcasu, but à consilio divino, by the divine providence, which oftimes in the ambiguity of speeches, hath intendments quite contrary to the ill meaning of such as speak them; as in bad actions he usually hath an end much different from the purpose of the doer. And for mine own part, I never could more fully comprehend how incomprehensible God was in his wisdom, nor how inscrutable in his ways, then whilst I consider, how foreseeing from all eternities, that the chief thing which either the proud or stubborn jew, the curious Grecian, the haughty and stately politic Roman, could object against his son, exhibited in the infirmity of our flesh would be the meanness of his parentage and education; he could yet so dispose that he should be conceived and brought up in such a City, as if his adversaries would upbraid him with the baseness of it in Hebrew, they should withal, though unwittingly, enstyle him by that glorious name, which Isay, jeremy, and Zacbarie had appropriated to the Messias: that is, he should be publicly known by the name of the branch, or plant of jesse. Or if they would nickname him from it in Greek, or Latin, they should withal, though unwittingly, acknowledge him to be that Nazarite of God, of whom Samson was but the type▪ or to use his own words, 
a joh. 10.36.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 illum, quem pater sanctificavit, thus turning the note, or article of disgrace, to signify the quite contrary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And for this purpose the Lord in his divine providence, would have as well this title of Nazarite. jesus Nazarenus, written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin capital letters, upon the Cross, as the title of King. Now we all know that even the title of King, was, by such as procured the inscription, intended by way of scorn, or contempt: but yet in the Almighty's disposition; this inscription in these three famous tongues, was as a public authentic proclamation of his right unto the Crown of David: such a testimony that he was heir of all things in heaven and earth, as shall condemn all such, throughout the world, of rebellion, as have not unfeignedly acknowledged allegiance to him, as to their supreme Lord & King. In like sort, whatsoever they intended by this title of Nazarenus, unto the faithful it must serve, as a public and authentic testimony, that Christ jesus was the man, which was to be known by the name of branch, the branch of righteousness, the Netzer of jesse, the Nazarite, the holy one of God. The chief reason that moves me to embrace this interpretation, is, because these two words Natzar and Nazir, with their derivatives, or words of equivalent signification, are the very titles, wherein the holy Ghost seems to delight, when he describes the kingdom of Christ. His very Crown is called by a word of the same Root with Nazaraeus or Nazarenus the Nazarite, as Ps. 132. Upon him shall his Crown flourish. Nor do I see what can be objected against us, save only this. If what was said of Samson as the type, be fulfilled in Christ, as in the body or substance: then Christ should have been a true Nazarite as Samson was. Out of doubt he was so; but as he was a true and perfect Priest, though no legal Priest after the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchisedeek, which was more eminent and excellent: so he was a true and perfect Nazarite (though no legal Nazarite from his birth) or rather the perfection or Idea of Nazarites, & therefore to be separated from that concretion of ceremonial matters, wherein the form and essence of legal Nazarites devotion did consist. And yet, as it became the Prince and crowned King of Nazarites the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Nazarites 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or him, on whose head the Nazarites crown was to flourish, he performed the legal rites of Nazaritisme by his Ambassador john Baptist, in whom he set an end to those legal rites. As for the manner of their birth, and the Angelical predictions, with other occurrences; no type in Scripture agrees better with the Idea or prototypon, then Samson, and john Baptist, with our Saviour: How that which was literally meant of Samson, may be said to be principally meant of Christ, shall elsewhere (God willing) appear. I would now only request you to observe that in some Copies of the 70, it is said that Samson should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in others (retaining the sense or exposition, not the Etymology) it is said he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or sanctificatio Domini (i) Domino sanctificatus. And so the holy Ghost, when he gives us the true exposition of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as by the disposition of the divine providence it should sound to us, extorts this confession from the unclean spirit. What have we to do with thee jesus Nazarene, I know thee who thou art, 
Luk. 4. v. 34. If the wicked spirit did speak this in Greek he spoke according to the use of the word Nazarenus in the Septuagint  not simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it was said of Samson, but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that holy one, of whom Samson, and legal Nazarites were but types. Again, where it is foretold by the Angel, that Samson should begin to save Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, this speech, me thinks, should imply a relation to some greater Saviour, that was ro accomplish this salvation of Israel from the hands of their enemies. And besides the spiritual redemption of them and us, (of all the Israel of God) accomplished by Christ, and prefigured by Sampsons' temporal saving of them from the Philistines: to my simplicity, it seems not altogether void of observation, that as Samson was borne when the Israelites were first oppressed by the Philistines, so Christ likewise was then borne, when Herod an alien, and a Philistin by birth, was tyrant as well of judaea as Palastina.  
20 That I may conclude in one word, as I intended, with you noble stems, or other hopeful plants here seated in this famous nursery of arts; whose growth I wish in all the knowledge of foreign nations; only, in the bowels of Christ jesus our Saviour, let me beseech you, and in his name, as his unworthy Minister, charge you: that neither out of fantastic doting love, to foreign nations, or natural pride of your hearts, you ever say with that Syrian Courtier. Are not Isther Po and Maeander, the beautified subjects of delicate Grecian or Italian wits, better than jordan or Kedron, than all the waters of Israel? Slander not the mountains of Samaria (no not in your secret thoughts) for dry and barren in respect of Parnassus or Cithaeron: but though with Ephraim, you wander to view the glorious sights, or learn such choice experience, as the famous monarchies of Assyria, Babylon, Greece, or Italy can afford you: yet let not your souls, which God by Christ doth woo more earnestly, than he did Ephraim by my Prophet, be ever affianced to these Aliens: but return at length to these your Cities of Israel; and visit Nazareth wherein the Lord hath wrought his wonders, wherein the rod of jesse sprung up. And what way soever you bend your course, take God's providence for your pilot, and let jesus of Nazareth, the star of jacob, the branch of David, and Nazarite of God, in whom all the Prophecies of different ages meet as lines in their centre; for the making up of whose glory, as well the scurrilous appellations of his deadly enemies, as the glorious salutations of his followers, concur as the divers Meridian's, of distant Regions, or opposite hemispheres in the pole; be always Lodestar of your thoughts.   

THE WOMAN A TRUE HELP TO MAN, OR MANKIND'S comfort from the weaker sex.  GALAT. 4. VER. 4.5. 
4 But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the Law.  
5 To redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of Sons.  
1 ALL things naturally desire their preservation. There is as true a longing of bad humours, to feed and strengthen themselves by semblable nutriment, as of nature, to expel them. And since the corruption of nature, became, in a manner, natural to the sons of Adam, it hath ever been the property of it, if not altogether to loathe the food of life; yet to mingle it with such sauces, as strengthen the flesh to resist the working of the spirit.  
A dangerous spice of this intemperancy, you may behold in these Galatians, now seeking to allay the sweet promises of the Gospel, which their corrupt taste could not relish, with the bitter threars and curses of the Law. The pretences, used by favourers of Circumcision, to colour this ill compounded receipt, might be more than can possibly come to this age's notice. Two more principal, are sufficiently, though implicitly, notefied unto us by our Apostles answers, or preventions. The former is drawn from the glorious testimonies, given by God's Saints to the Law, before the revelation of the Gospel. For, taking these jews, as they were, many hundreds of years before Christ was born. 
a Ps. 147. v. 20.  The Lord had not dealt so with any nation, as for his judgements they had not known them. And can these Galatians, by nature Gentiles, the offspring of Heathens, excel Israel, without observation of that Law, by which Israel had so far exceeded all the nations of the world?  
2 But as the dawning, though in respect of former darkness, it may seem as day, compared to the bright sunshine following, is rather to be reputed part of night: So the state of the jews under the Law, although a freedom in respect of that thrall and ignorance, wherein they had lived in Egypt, was but bondage and slavery to the liberty of the Gospel. And these Galatians, in turning to the Law, after they had been so well entered in the Gospel, renewed the Israëlits sin; who being on their way to Canaan, resolved to turn back to the house of bondage, whence the Lord had freed them. Or, to make the best that may be of their opinion; say they did not indeed (as in express words they did not) utterly revoke the Gospel, but only couple it with the Law: yet even t●is their error and disobedience, is the very same as if the Israëlites should have resolved not to use Manna, which God sent them from Heaven, for bread, unless they might have Onions & Garlic and the flesh-pots of Egypt for their meat.  
3 The second argument, wherewith these jewish seducers had bewitched these foolish Galatians (as we may gather from our Apostles praeoccupation in this present Chapter) was much what the same with that main charm, wherewith the Roman Sorcerers so mightily prevail with the ignorant of our times.  
These, or the like queries, you may imagine, were often propounded to these late converts, by the jews. Whose successors would Paul, would Apollo's, would others, which abandon Circumcision, or the Ceremonial Law, be reputed? Do they not call themselves the children of Prophets? Would they not be accounted the sons of Gods chosen people? And what religion (I pray) did the Prophets, or their godly forefathers profess? Did they not all subscribe to the Ceremonies given by Moses? Did they not live and die in these practices, which we persuade you to? And so living, & so dying, did they live or die like slaves or bondmen; or as free borne sons of Abraham; and heirs of the everlasting promises?  
4 To bring this controversy, between our Apostle and these seducers, to a more short and distinct issue. First, they agree, that only such, as lived under the Law, were the true Church and people of God. Secondly, that only the true Church and people of God, were the sons of Abraham, and heirs of the everlasting promises. But from these grants or suppositions, our Apostle thus infers.  
As every other heir, so the Church of God was to have a time of nonage, before she could come to her full age, or be enstated in the inheritance bequeathed; that during this nonage, the state or condition of God's Church and people, as of all other heirs in their childhood, did nothing differ from the condition of servants. Whence again it will follow, that as the authority of Tutors, of Guardians, and Feoffees in trust (though, for the times being, most absolute) is utterly to expire and determine, at the time, by the Testator or Donor appointed for the heir to enter upon his inheritance: so the Law of ordinances, which God himself had given by Moses, though, during the time of the Churches non age, most absolute and sovereign, was to be repealed and canceled, at the fullness of time (ay) at the time appointed by God for the full age of the Church. Where it will be no digression by the way to observe, that the period of other heirs non age, was not always precisely determined by human Laws; but might be longer or shorter according to the appointment of the Donor. Lastly, as secular heirs, by not entering upon their inheritance at the time appointed, do much prejudice their title, and deserve (as we say) to be begged for fools; so the Church and people of God, by not abandoning the yoke of the Law, at the time appointed by God for their full age, did thereby make themselves uncapable of the blessing bestowed on them in the Gospel.  
5 This is the point most pressed by our Apostle in this and the Chapter following. 
Chap. 5. v. 1.  Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled again by the yoke of bondage: behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing: for I testify again to every man, that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole Law: Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the Law: ye are fallen from grace.  
Now that which determined the Churches non age, and did ipso facto extinguish the sovereign authority of the Law, was the sending forth of the son of God, who was heir of all things. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Or according to the dialect of our english Law, that the inheritance of sons might be conveyed or made over unto us (for so much the Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, may import:) and it was to be conveyed unto us, not by right of birth (all of us being children of wrath) but by adoption. Now, adoption is the engraffing of a foreigner, into a better stock or family. The only stock whereinto we (which were not sons, but servants) could be engraffed, was the true and natural son of God. He alone could set Gentiles free from the bondage of sin, & jews from the curse of the Law, which was added because of transgression. The sum then of our Apostles doctrine in this place, is the same with our Saviour's. Verily, verily I say unto you (that boast of Abraham's seed, 
joh. 8 v. 33.  & never were in subjection to any) to you, I say, that whoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son therefore make you free, ye shall be free indeed.  
6 Referring the act of redemption, and this glorious prerogative of being the sons of God unto some better occasion; give me leave, first, to unfold, what the son of God hath done for his part, that he might be a perfect and unpartial redeemer: secondly what is on our parts required, that we might be capable of his redemption.  
In the former I shall endeavour to stir up admiration at the wisdom and love of God; the use whereof shall be to kindle love and thankfulness in ourselves, and to incite our alacrity in performing such duties as are required at our hands.  
The sum of that, which the son of God hath undertaken for us, is by our Apostle gathered to these three heads. 

1 He was sent forth into the world.  
2 He was made of a woman.  
3 He was made under the Law.   Of these in their order: and of their several necessities & conveniences.  
To be a son, necessarily presupposeth a begetting. If then we be the sons of God, we must be begotten by him; and of us that are his children by adoption, 
jam. 1. v. 18.  saith St james, He begat us with the word of truth, that we should be the first fruits of his creatures. This word of truth, by which we must be begotten, must first be conceived by us; and yet is it the principal of those good & perfect gifts, all & every one of which (as the Iame Apostle speaks) are from above, 
Vers. 17.  and descend to us from the father of light. But who shall ascend up into heaven to fetch them thence? No man (saith our Saviour) ascendeth up to heaven, 
joh. 3. v. 13.  but he that descended from heaven, the son of man which is in heaven. When he discoursed of heavenly mysteries: He spoke what he knew, and testified what he had seen; others spoke but by guess or hearsay, as they had been taught. No man (saith St john) hath seen God at any time, 
Chap. 1. v. 18.  but the only begotten son, which was in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. Being in the bosom of the Father from everlasting, he could not but know him, and his will concerning man from everlasting. But so long as he remained in the bosom of God, not manifested to the world, we could no more approach the place of his dwelling, than we could the dwelling of his father; we were as uncapable of his instructions, as of his fathers.  
7 Requisite therefore it was he should be sent forth, that he might be our teacher; such a mature authentic teacher, as saving truth, able to beget sons unto God, should issue as naturally from his mouth, as ripe seed, apt for propagation, doth from fruitful trees. From this his efficacy in teaching, did the people admire God, speaking in him, for he taught not as the Scribes and Pharisees, 
Mat. 7. v. 29.  but as one that had authority; being indeed the author of that doctrine, which he taught; one from whose fullness all former teachers had received their measure of knowledge. Moses himself that gave the Law, much more the Scribes and Pharisees, the expounders of it, were but as ordinary schoolmasters; their best auditors but as schoolboys, or grammar-schollers, labouring all their life times, to learn the first rudiments or elements of saving knowledge. But after the DIVINE WORD had spoken to the world by the mouth of man, Great was the number of Preachers: 
Ephes. 4. v. 11.  He gave some Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers: Of such mysteries, as no secular Artists, nor children of Prophets, could ever attain unto; nor did they which taught the world these mysteries, learn them by rule or method.  
8 But you will say, all this might have been done, although he had been sent in the form of an Angel, wherein he appeared unto the Fathers. He that taught Moses without the substance of man, could have taught the Apostles and Evangelists, the whole doctrine of the Gospel, although he had not been borne of a woman: he that overthrew Pharaoh and all his host in the red sea, put the Canaanites, & other enemies of Is●aël to flight, by his sole invisible presence: could not he have vanquished sin and Satan without the assumption of our nature? doth the flesh add strength unto the spirit?  
The question is not what he could have done by his Almighty power, but what in his wisdom was most fit and convenient for our redemption. Now, this we say, that by the eternal rules of equity, which God observes in all his ways, it was not only convenient but necessary (though not for our instruction, yet for our redemption & sanctification) that his son should be not only man, but man made of a woman: and our Apostle in saying thus, saith a great deal more, then if he had said, borne of a woman.  
9 Every man, except the first man Adam, is borne of a woman, but no man besides the son of God, by whom man and all things were made, was made of a woman. The mysteries contained in this manner of speech, cannot be duly valued or unfolded, without some explication of that peculiar reference, which these words, in the Apostles intent and meaning, have to the first creation of man and woman.  
10 And here I must entreat you of the weaker sex, to observe with me, that our Apostle, aswell to put you in mind of that duty which you owe to your husbands, as also to stir up your thankfulness towards God, for your redemption; still refers you to the manner of your mother eves creation, and transgression. Two testimonies shall at this time suffice, for the establishing of this truth; both taken from our Apostles writings. Of which the one best expounds the true force & meaning of this phrase; Made of a woman: The other unfolds the mystery therein contained.  
The former is 1. Cor. 11. v. 7. etc. For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, for as much as he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man; for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man; neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. Thus he derives your subordination to your husbands, from the first original of your sex: this method & manner of instruction he learned from our Saviour, who resolved the difficulty proposed concerning divorce, from the Canon, or Institution of Matrimony, enacted by God, with Adam's consent, and voice, whilst Eve was form. Nevertheless, to qualify and moderate this authority, which the man by priority of creation, hath over the woman, the Apostle adds; 
Vers. 11.  Neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man in the Lord: for as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. The first woman then, was made of the first man; all men since have come into the world by the woman: but the son of God came not only by the woman, but was made of the woman; as the first woman was of the first man. This great mystery was precisely, foretold by the Prophet jeremy, though not so plainly, as many at the first sight would observe it. The Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, a woman shall compass a man, 
jerem. 31. v. 22.  or the female shall enclose the male, or man of strength. It is called a new creation, with reference to the first creation, wherein the woman was enclosed in the man; as here quite contrary, the man is enclosed in the woman, by the immediate hand of God, conceived and borne without any concurrence of man; as the first woman was brought forth out of the substance of man, without the help or consort of a woman.  
11 The second place in our Apostles writings, which truliest explicates the meaning of the mystery contained here in my Text, or in the place of jeremy last cited; and best sets forth the incomprehensible wisdom of God's proceedings in the admirable work of man's redemption, is 1. Tim. 2.11. Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection, but I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence: Why is her usurpation of authority over the man, so insufferable? the reason in the next words is given, in part from the order of her creation, for Adam was first form then Eue. This proves that she should have been under man's authority, though neither he nor she had sinned. But the principal reason why she is put to silence, especially in the Church, is from the manner of her transgression, in the verse following: And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Because she had boldly adventured to hold partly with the old serpent without her husband's leave, and contracted with so great danger to all mankind, without his instructions; because this done she took upon her to be the serpent's agent to bring over her husband (whom she was to counsel, when her advice was demanded, not to lead,) into the same combination; therefore is this modesty and silence which the Apostle speaks of, enjoined the whole sex, by way of punishment, or at least, to put them in mind of their mother's first transgression. For eves disease, or surfeit of the forbidden fruit (until God in his infinite wisdom found out a sovereign remedy by the contrary) was more dangerous & preiudicious to the whole sex, than adam's was to his sons.  
This truth is included in the last clause of our Apostles discourse, concerning this point, 1. Tim. 2.15. Nevertheless she shall be saved. This adversative particle (Nevertheless) supposeth a tacit objection; this or the like: But is there no means left for eves salvation, as well as for Adam's; though she only were seduced by the serpent? or shall not the woman which is in subjection, be saved as well as the man, which hath authority over her? Yes, she shall be saved too; but by what means? 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, through child bearing: but alas, what shall then become of the barren womb, or of her that beareth no children?  
12 Cornelius à lapide, a late jesuit, would have the pains of child birth, to be in this place established as a Purgatory, without which this sex could not enter into heaven. Must then the excessive, or extraordinary sufferings of some mothers, supererrogate for other women that bear no children? I shall not need to trouble myself with removing this stone of offence, which can stumble none but the daughters of the blind Church. I will pass over it, and proceed: As this place of Timothy best expounds the words of my Text, so may these words in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 best be expounded by another place in this Epistle, wherein the Apostle, 
Gen. 22.18.  discoursing of that promise of God to Abraham, (In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;) excellently observes (what the matter & circumstance of the text, not the grammatical singularity of number doth necessarily infer,) this is not spoken to his seed as of many, 
Gal. 3.16.  but as of one and to thy seed, which is Christ; To comment therefore upon St Paul, by the analogy of his Comments upon Moses; he saith not in this place, the woman shall be saved through bearing of children, as speaking of many, but through her childbirth, as meaning one, which is Christ; the Son of God, made of a woman, without man.  
13 It is usual with the Hebrews, to put the abstract for the concrete, substantives for adjectives. 
b Ps. 126. v. 4.  'Cause our captivity to return like the Rivers in the South; (that is) bring home our captives with speed: so Salvation is often put for Saviour; Glory for glorious, justice for just, etc. Now by the same privilege, which admitteth captivity for captives, or sanctificatio domini, for domino sanctificatus; must 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, childbirth, go in this place for as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is all one with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, she shall be saved by her child. Briefly, the woman's childbirth is as much as the woman's child, & the woman's child is somewhat more than the woman's seed. For, that the woman's seed which was to crush the serpent's head, should become a child and be brought forth by his mother, not conceived only, is no paradox of our invention. It was the meaning of God's promise, when first he made it, that this seed should be such a child, so conceived and brought forth, as might truly call a woman his mother, but no man on earth his father.  
14 To give you a more distinct view of God's wisdom, in contriving the means of our salvation. The first woman, by yielding her consent to the wicked spirit, ears of the forbidden fruit, in hope she and her husband should become Gods, and their offspring like young Gods, knowing good and evil. The issue of this adulterous compact with the serpent, was, that she conceived sin and brought forth death, before she was a mother of children. And her children with their posterity, were by nature the sons of wrath, the serpent's seed, and heirs of his everlasting curse. To cure this malady by the contrary; God in his wisdom, so ordains, that another of the weaker sex, of a temper quite contrary to her mother Eve; one as lowly as she was proud, whom the old serpent had never tempted with dreams of being a Queen, much less of being a Goddess on earth; one whose spirit rejoiced in the lowly estate of an handmaid, should, by yielding consent to the blessed spirit, conceive him that was the son of God, the tree of life, in whom as many as believe, receive the adoption of sons, and are coheirs with him of everlasting bliss. No marvel if the issues of their consents should be so contrary, when as the principal agents, with whom they contracted, were such opposites; the one was the SPIRIT of TRUTH, the author of life, and GOD of LIGHT: the other the spirit of falsehood, the father of lies, and prince of darkness. Lastly, the first woman, did thus adulterate her soul, by contracting with Satan without advice or consent of her husband: and this is that which made her estate, & the state of her sex, far more desperate than adam's was. For, as Divines observe, the wicked Angels, because they sinned wittingly and willingly, without a tempter, are left without all means of a mediator, or redeemer. Now the woman, in that she did partake more deeply of this their sin, (for being tempted by them, she forthwith turned tempter with them) was more liable to their remediless punishments than the man: until the Lord in mercy, found out the means, here mentioned by our Apostle to relieve her. The conclusion intended by him in that discourse, is, to assure woman kind, that Evah's assenting to Satan, without the advice of her husband, was not more available to condemn the sex, than the blessed Virgins bringing forth of her first borne, whom she conceived by mere reliance on God's promise, without the concurrence or furtherance of man, was to redeem it.  
15 This exposition of the place in Timothy is so clear and natural, that not the meanest student here present (so he will mark the former references to the first creation) but may well wonder how any professed interpreter could omit it. Imagine with me, that the whole tenor of this assurance, devised in terms most exquisite, for security and comfort of the weaker sex; were to be perused by any ordinary Lawyer, but with half the diligence men use to examine Leases, or other Evidences concerning their private commodities: The principal clause, or demise itself, would, at first sight, appear to be contained in these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. It would likewise be as apparent, that faith, love, holiness, sobriety, and temperance, did follow only by way of condition or proviso. Or to speak in our own dialect: Seeing faith, love, etc. are added as conditions, or qualificaons on the woman's part, who is the subject or patient; the means or meritorious cause of salvation, being emphatically assigned under scholastic character in the clause precedent, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: this hath always seemed to me, a demonstration as evident as any can be, ab effectu, that the principal object or foundation of saving faith, (the promised woman's seed) must needs be comprised in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
k Gal. 5.6.  In jesus Christ (saith the Apostle) neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. But neither love, nor faith working by love, can avail more without Christ jesus, than circumcision in Christ jesus. And bootless it had been to have added this conditional, (if they continue in faith, etc.) unless the foundation of faith, and salvation had been comprised in the former words, She shall be saved by her child birth. Now as fidelity, chastity, & practices of charity, are necessary to all, but in a peculiar and remarkable sort necessary to those, whose forefathers have been perfidious, adulterers, and oppressors: so, albeit none can be saved without these virtues here mentioned, (faith, charity, holiness, temperance) yet are these peculiarly necessary to the weaker sex, in respect of the first woman's sin: to the several parts or degrees whereof they are most divinely and accurately suited and ranked by our Apostle. One part of her transgression (perhaps the first) was infidelity, or distrust to God's threats and promises: therefore it is required as a condition necessary to all women, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that they be constant in faith. Another part of the first woman's sin, (besides disloyalty) was breach of that social love, which by order of creation was due unto her husband. For as she had beginning of being from him, so she was not to have contracted any business concerning her estate without him. She should have known his consent, before she had presumed to have passed hers; and because she did not so, but broke the bond of social love; it is required of all women that they continue in love.  
16 Again, the first woman polluted her soul with spiritual adultery, by listening to Satan's impious suggestions. Hence it is required of the weaker sex, that they continue in holiness & chastity. The clasp that must keep all these ornaments, or spiritual habits close about them, is Temperance. For so the Apostle concludes; Notwithstanding they shall be saved, if they continue in faith & charity, and holiness with temperance. As if he had said, it was their mother eves intemperate appetite of the forbidden fruit, fair in show, which did quicken and give life unto the first transgression; whose first seed (perhaps) was pride; and for this reason continent eyes, and temperate appetites are on the woman's part required in the last place, as subjection is in the first. For conclusion of this point. As this Catalogue of virtues in the last clause, hath express reference, to the several parts of her transgression: so have these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as peculiar relation unto the promise concerning the woman's seed, 
d Gen. 3. v. 15.  which was to bruise the serpent's head.  
17 I shall not need to trouble this learned audience, with a doctrine very frequent, because most useful in the Primitive Church. A necessity was laid upon the Reverend Fathers of those times, to use this place, as one, amongst many, most pregnant, for refutation of such heretics, as held our Saviour did take only the shape, and figure, not the true flesh and substance of man, from his mother. But seeing their heresies have for these many years, slept with their bodies: I hold it a sin to awake them, by entertaining any solemn dispute with them, or making loud declamation against them. Taking the truth, which these men are not able now to contradict for unquestionable (as being the principal subject of all Christian knowledge▪) Their observation is neither unnecessary for any time, nor impertinent to this present occasion, who out of this phrase MADE OF A WOMAN, would give us the true MEDIUM, or causal demonstration of another conclusion, essentially subordinate to the fore-cited observation of the Ancient. The conclusion is, that our Saviour, did with the substance or flesh of man, take upon him all the infirmities, and weaknesses of our mortal flesh.  
18 The heathens although they feigned Pallas to be a Goddess, yet conceived her to be of a masculine valour and true heroical spirit, as being wholly conceived and borne of jupiters' substance, not participating of juno's nature, or disposition. That wisdom in the Greek tongue is of the feminine gender, was to them a sufficient Hint, thus to transform the wisdom of God, into a Goddess of wisdom. What they spoke of this Goddess or daughter of jove, was most true of the wisdom and Son of God. He was begotten from all eternities of his Father without a mother, very God of very God, Geber el, or the strong God. And whilst He remained in the bosom of his Father only, sending forth wise men & Prophets unto his people, he did in no wise participate of any infirmity. But that this wisdom and Son of God, should be conceived and borne of a mother, without a father, and sent forth into the world upon the same embassage that he had sent his servants; was a ttuth far remote from that hemisphere of darkness wherein the heathen sat; yet a common prenotion amongst God's people. And what better proof can be desired for evincing him to be a man (as the Prophet terms him) of infirmities, than his taking his whole substance from the infirmer and weaker sex. 
d job 14. v. 1.  The man that is borne of a woman (saith job) is of few days full of trouble; Intimating, as some think, that as life & strength are from the Father, so frailty and mortality are from the Mother. It is not then strange, if He who took his whole substance from his mother, were peculiarly capable of infirmities. A dry and wearyish soil, cannot naturally send forth goodly Cedars, full of sap: nor could the incredulous jew have expected, his promised Messias should be a Giant, or man of strength, had he but duly considered, that he was to be the woman's seed, flesh of her flesh, and bone of her bone; not so of Mans. And more particularly of this sprig of jesse, saith the Prophet, 
e Isa. 53. v. 2.  He shall grow up before him, as a tender plant, & as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  
19 Marriage well fitted is a kind of music, and consists in a true consort of the stronger and weaker sex. But in this happy marriage betwixt HEAVEN and EARTH, between the Divine, & human Nature; the Son of God, and the Seed of Abraham, there is a consort of contrarieties (of strength and weakness) in their abstracts. He, that was Geber●el, the strength of God, is indissolubly linked with the weakness of man, with the flesh and substance of a woman. He, of whom God might have said, as jacob did of Reuben before his fall. 
h Gen. 49. v. 3.  My first borne, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power, is become (sin only excepted) like unto Reuben, when his dignity was gone, unstable as water: The son of God, (not by adoption, but by eternal generation) is sent forth, made of a woman, and thereby subjecteth to more infirmities, than any man before him, had been, or after can be. Strength was thus to stoop to Weakness, that weakness might become strong; and Eternity to match with Mortality; that our mortal bodies might be immortal. For as Man and Wife are one flesh; so much more the Son of God, and the woman's seed, make but one Christ. And in this consort, the Spouse, or weaker nature, Coruscat Mariti, Titulis is really dignified, with these late mentioned, or the like titles of her Lord and husband. Strength is now become her girdle, and immortality her wedding garment; freedom, joy, & happiness everlasting, are made her jointer, whose former state was mortality, charged with servitude and infirmities.  
20 The former observation concerning the importance of the word mulier here used, though (in my opinion) not impertinent to our Apostles meaning; may in better judgements, seem rather to increase then diminish, a common difficulty. First, were his meaning such as we suppose it; he had said better, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, factum ex foeminâ, rather than ex muliere. For foeminâ being the proper name of the weaker sex, seems to import fragility, more directly than Mulier doth. Besides, this phrase factum ex foemine would have well consorted with that principal article of our belief, He was made and borne of a Virgin: With which, this form of speech in my text, factum ex muliere, may seem scarce compatible. For virgo and foemina are subordinate, every virgo is foemina; but virgo and mulier, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are rather opposites. Some learned Interpreters, notwithstanding, have observed the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be sometimes taken for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as mulier likewise in the Latin is for virgo. And why might not the Apostle use the like language? Yet in saying thus much and no more, they make the manner of his speech more capable of excuse, then meritorious of admiration; whereas to my apprehension, there lies a mystery in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as here it is used by the Apostle, which had not been so well expressed, either by the common name of the sex, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, foemina, or by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, virgo.  
For better notification of what I conceive; you are to consider, that virgo and mulier (as the words answering to them in the Greek) have two significations, or rather importances. Virgo sometimes implies no more than foeminam intectam, or viri ignaram, a woman that knows not a man: sometimes it signifies, foeminam intactam, nec desponsatam; a woman not betrothed. Mulier likewise implies sometimes an opposition to the first importance or signification of virgo, and signifieth as much as foeminam corruptam, or viri gnaram; sometimes it imports no more than foeminam viro desponsatam. And this later use or importance whether of the Latin mulier, or of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, is not opposite but coincident to the second use or importance of virgo, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. One and the same foemina, may be intacta, and yet desponsata, a wife or woman betrothed unto a man, & yet a virgin. So Eve is called by the septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (in the original Ishah) a wife, at her first creation: Matrimony itself was established, in her extraction out of Adam's side. In this sense she was mulier, a wife, when she committed the first transgression, and yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or foemina intacta a virgin too; for she did not know her husband, before she had contaminated her soul with lusting after the serpent's baits. And for this reason, would the wisdom of God be made man of a virgin, and yet withal ex muliere, of a virgin betrothed unto an husband, that eves miscarriage might be regaind in her. Eve was created to be a help to Adam, but proved his ruin. The blessed virgin must likewise be solemnly consecrated for an help to Man, but so consecrated, becomes a comforter, not to joseph only, but to all his brethren, to all the Israel of God, whether they be jews or Gentiles.  
21 For the wisdom of God, thus solicitously and accurately to contrive and plot the means of mankind's redemption, it was expedient and necessary, in respect of that inbred superstition, wherewith both jews and Gentiles were deeply tainted. All of us, from our cradle, from the womb, are sick of our mother eves disease; prone, upon every light accidental circumstance, or want of ceremonial references, to pick occasion when none is offered, to distrust God's promises for our good. The subtlety of the old serpent, continues still the same, rather increased by long experience, then impaired by age. No Sophister so captious, no Lawyer so cunning, as He, to misperswade men either that the instruments of their assurance want words to carry the inheritance unto all, or that their Redeemer is unable or unwilling to instate them in it; or that some, at least in respect of their particular condition or state of life, are uncapable of the good intended. For preventing this his cunning, hath God in his wisdom encompassed and hedged in all mankind with such a world of references, and admirable alliances unto his Son made man of a woman, as no sort or condition of men, that frame their aspect aright, can suspect themselves to be excluded. Every circumstance of his person, conception, birth and life, are suited, as it were of purpose, to give check unto the utmost curiosity of superstitious human fancy.  
22 Had our redeemer been only man, though a man much more after Gods own heart, than his father David was; we would have said of him as we do of a friend whose mind we know to be better than his means; Surely, he wisheth me well, and would lay down his life to do me good: but being once dead, what dominion can he have over death? Or raised again; yet being far absent in the highest heavens; how shall he guard me against Satan and his Angels, still present to assault me here on earth? Again, had he been only the Son of God; we would have conceived of him, as we do of many great ones, whom we acknowledge to be honourably disposed, but not so tenderly compassionate of poor men's cases, as might be wished; because they have no acquaintance with poverty or the miseries that attend it. To prevent these temptations to distrust; God would have his only Son to be made a Man of sorrows, and of entire acquaintance with grief; a man subject to greater bodily vexations than any in this life can taste. And yet at last to be exalted according to his human nature unto glory, that we might have a solicitor in the Court of Heaven, of our own corporation and stock: one that could pity our wants, and compassionate our grievances, by the lively experience, and never fading memory of his own more grievous sufferings whilst he lived on earth; able withal to plead our deliverance from danger, out of that infinite wisdom which He is, and to procure it by that infinite favour and respect, which he hath with his father from everlasting.  
23 Or if the son of God had been made man, as Adam was of the earth, or not thus miraculously made of a woman: the old serpent might easily have brought the weaker sex into a relapse of their native distrust unto God's promises. Fear, if not despair, would in temptations have overtaken them, lest Christ had been sent forth to redeem the Man only, whose sex he assumed, not silly woman, to whom he had no special reference. Or had he been made MAN of a Virgin only, not of a wife or woman betrothed to an husband; married persons might have mistrusted, least matrimony had made them more capable of their first parents curse, then of the blessing made in the promised seed▪ or lest the conjunction of twain in one flesh, might have caused a divorce of both from him, unto whom whosoever is conjoined, 
1. Cor. 6. v. 17.  is made one spirit w●●h him. Now that the world might know marriage to be honourable among all men; and that the bonds of undefiled wedlock, are no setters to the soul: it pleased the wisdom of God to be conceived in wedlock, & borne of a virgin affianced to a man. On the contrary, lest the Eunuch, (He, I mean, that either by nature is unfit for marriage, or out of judicious resolution and discreet choice, holds marriage unfit, or unexpedient for him) should take up his complaint, and say, alas, I am a dry tree, and can bring forth no fruit unto eternal life: it hath pleased the only begotten SON of God to grace & sanctify single life, by his own practice and example. For though he were made man of a woman, betrothed unto an husband: yet was he never betrothed unto any woman: that no human soul of what condition, or sex soever, might have occasion to despair of being eternally betrothed to him. The end and issue of his admirable chastity, was to institute, that supernatural and sacred Polygamy, which was (perhaps) by peculiar indulgence of divine dispensation legally foreshadowed in the multitude of David's wives, or in the Polygamy of others, from whom he descended. Howsoever, 
Esay 54. v. 1.  as the desolate hath more children than she that hath an husband, so are the spouses of this chaste and holy one, more in number, than the wives and concubines of luxurious Solomon. He is that everlasting bridegroom, whose Courts no multiplicity of consorts can pollute: there is no soul, so it bring faith for its dowry, but may be assuredly espoused to him. What was spoken of Eve in respect of Adam is true of all (be they male or female) that are once espoused to him. They are members of his body, (and therefore cannot be cut off) of his flesh, and of his bones: and being such, there is no danger of any Nullity; they can never be divorced from him; there is nothing that can diminish or estrange his love. Barrenness by one woman's child birth, is now no more a reproach unto the rest: so they be not barren in faith, the childless are more dear to him than was Hannah to her husband. Virginity itself is become exceeding fruitful, by the fruit of the Virgin's womb. And the Eunuch, which in time past, 
a Deut. 23. v. 1  might not enter into the Congregation of the Lord, 
b Isa. 56. v. 5.  hath now gotten a place and name in the house of God better than of sons and daughters, for there is no name so dear and tender as the name of Spouse; none so capable of everlasting habitation with the immortal king.  
24 But all this being granted, that our Redeemer was made man of a woman, who was both wife and virgin, that he himself made choice of single life: these circumstances only minister hope to both sexes, or states of life. But he that was thus made and thus lived, is the undoubted heir and Lord of all things: And what comfort can the distressed captive, the poor servant or bondslave reap, from his incarnation, that is by nature the Son of God, King of this world, and Father of the world to come? Surely, as much as any other, if not more, so he brook his estate with patience; for it follows: He was made under the Law, etc.  
25 If such as were under the Law, were (as the Apostle often inculcates) in bondage, or in the state and condition of pupils, or servants: then questionless the Son of God, in being made under the Law, became a servant, for his present estate and condition, that he might make servants free men, and sons of God. And this reason is expressed by the Apostle, in my text: Besides this; unless the son of God had professed his obedience, and service unto the Law, by being circumcised the eight day: Men of jewish progeny, might have been tempted to doubt whether God had not set the badge or seal of circumcision upon their nation, as he did his mark upon Cain, in token they should be vagabonds, and fugitives from his presence. Indeed the greatest part of the circumcision, proved cain's brethren in the event: but that God did not by circumcision mark them to exile and slaughter, is sufficiently manifested in that he caused his only Son to be circumcised. So then he is circumcised & made under the law, that such as were of the circumcision and under the law, might have full assurance he was sent forth to be their redeemer. Yet had he been conceived in the same province wherein he was borne and circumcised: the ten tribes, or kingdom of Israel, might well have doubted, whether God's promises had not been entailed unto the tribe of juda; whether their foreelders had not released their interest in them, and forespoken all their posterities hopes, by that desperate and unhappy speech, which fell from them when they first revolted from Rehoboam: What portion have we in David? 
1. King. 12.16.  neither have we inheritance in the son of jesse.  
26 This, or the like temptation, upon whatsoever ground conceived, wrought strongly with this people whilst they remained in captivity▪ and for this reason, when God persuades them to return with juda into the land of promise, he is enforced to promise them by the Prophet jeremy, that the expected Messias (for whose birth Micah had taken up Bethlehem) should be conceived & made of a woman in the land of Israel. To this purpose I have heretofore, out of this place, expounded that passage, jer. 31. Turn again o virgin of Israel, etc. For the Lord hath created a new thing (not in the earth or wide world, at random: but) in thy land; the female shall enclose the male. His speech is full, and yet precise and wary: for he was only enclosed in the land of Israel, and brought forth in juda.  
27 But the better right or title these circumstances of Christ's conception, birth, or circumcision, convey either to the kingdom of Israel, or juda severally, or jointly to the whole seed of Abraham after the flesh: the less hope could we Gentiles have, of any portion in the son of jesse, had not the Lord, out of his infinite mercy & wisdom, made the covenant of life and blessing with Abraham, before he took upon him the mark of circumcision; that is, before there was any legal distinction between the jew and Gentile. This is a point so admirably priest, by the great Apostle of the Gentiles, for their comfort, that it shall suffice me, to quote some few passages of his comments upon Moses narrations; which I can never read without admiration, and secret joy of heart. And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, 
Gal. 3. v. 8, 9  preached before the Gospel unto Abraham, saying in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith, shall be blessed with faithful Abraham. As he had said to the like purpose before. Abraham believed in God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore, 
Vers. 6.7.  that they that be of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.  
The true issue, or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of that great controversy between him & his countrymen, is, whether Circumcision and observance of that Law whereby the jew was distinguished from the Gentile, or BELIEF in God's promises concerning the seed to come, did make men sons of Abraham & of blessing. Our Apostles plea for BELIEF is unanswerable, because Abraham by believing God, received the promises in the name and behoof of the nations, before he received the sign of circumcision: which may hence be argued to be no infallible sign of blessing, in that it was imparted as well to Ishmael, Abraham's son; according to the flesh, as unto Isaac, who was the son of promise. Much less could the observance of the law, which was not given till four hundred and thirty years after the former covenant was established, make men sons of Abraham, and of blessing. Covenants which receive their whole strength and virtue from the will or purpose of men, being once confirmed, 
Gal. 3.15.  no man may disannul, or add aught to them. The contractors themselves must change their minds, or revoke their mutual comments, before any other may correct or change their deeds. But Gods promise for man's good can neither change of itself, nor be changed by any. Yet had Abraham not God's promise only, but his solemn oath to assure the inheritance of blessing to him and his seed. There is no mention of any release on Abraham's part; and it were impiety to think, that God, without some release made by him whilst he lived, would be so injurious, as to retract, or alter the covenant after his death. Or shall a title immediately grounded on his solemn oath, whose word alone gives strength & being to all things that are, (even power & authority to laws themselves) need the corroboration of any Law? To what end then was the Law given so long after Abraham's death▪ that his posterity might plead their title by it, to the inheritance before promised? This is that which our Apostle prosecutes, with such deep, but just indignation, throughout this discourse. For this was in effect to distrust God's oath, and for their parts, utterly to renounce all interest in the covenant made to Abraham, Isaac, and jacob; by seeking thus to draw the free Donor into new legal bonds with Moses. Yet if the Law added nothing to their former assurance, the question still remains, why it was given? 
Gal. 3. v. 19  the Apostle resolves us It was added because of transgression. In which words he would give us to understand, that the whole world was quoad rem, for its present estate or condition, under the curse denounced against Adam: the best of whose children were heirs of blessing, only quoad spem; the life of our hope or expectation, being in the promised seed, which was to come into the world. In the interim, till his coming, God gave his Law to Abraham's seed after the flesh, that the threats and curses contained in it, might imprint a lively sense and feeling of that first curse, under which the whole world stood; and that the sense or feeling hereof, might bring forth a more eager longing after the second Adam, or promised seed, who was to propagate the blessing unto mankind: who being manifested in the flesh, was to redeem all from that curse which had befallen the whole nature in Adam; and being made under the Law, was to redeem the seed of Abraham from the particular curses of the Mosaical or ceremonial Law. This Law then, whilst it lasted, concurred no otherwise to the adoption of sons than privation doth to the constitution of natural bodies. It was principium transmutationis, non constitutionis: to vanish out of the world whiles the world was regenerated. The principal point whereat our Apostle aims in this Epistle, is to ascertain both jew and Gentile, that their deliverance from the forementioned curses, was on their parts to be expected, by the same means, and upon the same condions, that the promise of blessing had been established with Abraham. This is the main conclusion, Wherefore the Law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, 
Chap. 3.23 etc.  that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ jesus. For as many of you, as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ. There is neither jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.  
28 Thus you have heard rudely, and briefly, what the Son of God for his part hath done, that he might be a perfect Redeemer, and unpartial Mediator between God & man: & you know what on our part, is required, for the accomplishing of our redemption, Abraham's faith. Now were it as well known, what it is truly to believe, as that true belief is on our parts only requisite, for attaining the blessing promised to Abraham, & to his seed; most of our ministerial labours were at an end. But my time for provision hath been so short, and my opportunities for intentive meditations in this short time so few, that I could not hope, either much to amend the characters of larger Comments to this purpose; or that these unrefined, should make any better impression, whiles I utter them, in your ears; then they have done, or may do, whiles you read them, in your eyes. I was the willinger to spend the whole time now allotted, in laying these foundations; because men usually expect strength rather than curiosity of workmanship in foundations scarce brought above ground. Howbeit, no man would willingly tharch upon a strong foundation, though rude & plain. And a better cover I could not in this exigence provide, if I should make up the structure or application. All I have to say unto you, is by way of request; that as often as you shall compare, or hear lively faith compared unto a tree, & good works unto the fruit; you would vouchsafe to take this note of remembrance from me: Faith is a plant of Paradise, which comes not up by generation, but is herein truly like to trees of the first creation, that it doth not send forth leaves before blossoms, nor blossom before it bring forth fruit. For it hath his fruit created in it. If you further demand what be the proper fruits of true belief, as it is fixed on this peculiar object or article of faith, [The son of God, Abraham's seed made of a woman:] He himself hath resolved you they are, 
Mat. 5. v 1, etc.  Poverty in spirit, godly sorrow, meekness, hunger, and thirst after righteousness, mercifulness, purity of heart, etc. For that blessedness which God did promise, without a sequester or mediator unto faithful Abraham, and in him to all true believers, is, by this son of God, & sole fountain of all blessings promised, expressly bequeathed with the mouth of man, unto the poor in spirit, to mourners, to the meek, to the merciful, and pure in heart. Albeit the denominations be much different, yet these qualifications differ no more from Abrah●●●●aith ●aith, than fractions or parcels do from their proper integr●ms. To believe in Christ made of a Virgin, is to have him fashioned in our hearts whose whole life and conversation was a pattern of such practices, as he there commends unto us, in the beginning of the evangelical i●bilie. Now, did we put Him on as truly in our daily conversation, as we have done by profession▪ at our baptism: we might be as well known to be sons of adoption by these Christian habits, as Academics, or Graduates by our weeds and ornaments. But if we should make inquiry after the first parcel or fraction of true faith in Christ (such 〈…〉 & spirit as was in the blessed virgin; which conceived him) amongst the rich and mighty: we may perhaps find some shadow of it in their outward complement, like a beggar at a potentates gate, within which he may not enter. To give harbour or lodging to such a base gest in their hearts, is a disparagement to their greatness. Even poverty herself, may bewail the paucity of the poor in spirit amongst her children. Such as have been mightily humbled by potent adversaries, have juster occasion to lament the want of true humility in their breasts, than the abundance of grievances, or heavy burdens, which others lay upon their back●▪ For the most of us, seeing we make our mouths issues either of bitterness, scarrility, corrupt communication, or of jesting which is nor comely▪ shall we not sin against our own souls, and give the spirit of God the lie; if we say we are pure in heart? Yet saith St john▪ Every one that hath this hope in him (of being the sons of God by adoption in this life, 
1 joh. 3. v 3.  and of seeing God in the life to come) doth purify himself as he is pure. What shall we say then? Lord if thou wilt thou canst make us clean? but alas, how often wouldst thou have purified us, and we would not be purified? Yet grant, MOST GRACIOUS FATHER, we beseech thee, that our particular wills & desires may evermore want success, rather than their accomplishment should defeat or frustrate our general Desire, of being blessed with faithful Abraham. Accept This (good Lord) we entreat thee for our final desire, and let it be registered in everlasting Records, as our last will and Testament, Not as we will, but as thou wilt, For our wills are tainted with corruption, & naturally ●end unto destruction▪ or though they be sometimes set aright, & freed from error in their actual choice; yet their choice is always subject to change; as variable as temptations are various. But as thou art, so is thy will, most holy & righteous, without shadow of change, a will of life and salvation: Lord let not these our corruptible wills, but this thy everlasting will be fulfilled in us. AS thou hast promised blessedness to faithful Abraham, & in him to all believers: so, we beseech thee, bless us with true belief, with lowliness of spirit, with meekness, with purity of heart, & with whatsoever other fruits of faith, to which thy Son our Saviour hath bequeathed his blessing.  
FINIS.