1.—Having
thus
dispatched the consideration of the first person concerned in this article,
and the actions contained in it so far as distinctly from the rest they
belong to him. : we descend unto the other two concerned in the same; and
first i to him whose operation did precede in the conception, the Holy:
Ghost. Which second part some may think to require a threefold
consideration: first, of the conception; secondly, of the person: thirdly,
of the operation. But for the person or existence of the Holy Ghost, that
is here only mentioned obliquely, and therefore to be reserved for another
article, where it is propounded directly. And for the conception itself,
that belongeth not so properly to the Holy Ghost, of whom the act cannot be
predicated. For though Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, yet
the Holy Ghost did not conceive him, but said unto the Virgin, Thou shalt
conceive. [Luke i. 31] There remaineth, therefore, nothing proper and
peculiar to this second part but that operation of the Holy Ghost in
Christ's conception, whereby the Virgin was enabled to conceive, and by
virtue whereof Christ is said to be conceived by him.
2.-Now when we say the conception of our Saviour was wrought by the
operation of the Spirit, it will be necessary to observe, first, what is
excluded by that attribution to the Spirit; secondly, what is included in
that operation of the Spirit.
3.-For the first of these, we may take notice in the salutation of the
angel, when he told the blessed Virgin she should conceive and bring forth a
son, she said, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? [Luke i.
34] By which words she excludeth first all men, and then herself: all men,
by that assertion, I know not a man; herself, by the question, How
shall this be, seeing it is so? First, our Melchizedek had no father on
earth, in general; not any man in particular, not Joseph. It is true his
mother Mary was espoused to Joseph; but it is as true before they
came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. [Matt. i. 18]
We read in St. Luke that the parents brought up the child Jesus into the
Temple: [Luke ii. 27] but these parents were not the father and the
mother, but, as it followeth, Joseph and his mother marvelled at those
things which were spoken of him. [Luke ii. 33] It is true Philip
calleth him Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph; [John i. 45] and,
which is more, his mother said unto him, Behold, thy father and I have
sought thee sorrowing: [Luke ii. 48] but this must be only the reputed
father of Christ, he being only, as was supposed, the son of Joseph,
which was the son of Eli. [Luke iii. 23] Whence they must needs appear
without all excuse who therefore affirm our Saviour to have been the proper
son of Joseph, because the genealogy belongs to him; whereas in that very
place where the genealogy begins Joseph is called the supposed father. How
can it then, therefore, be necessary Christ should be the true son of
Joseph, that he may be known to be the son of David, when in the same place
where it is proved that Joseph came from David it is denied that Christ came
from Joseph? And that not only in St. Luke, where Joseph begins, but also
in St. Matthew, where he ends the genealogy. Jacob begat Joseph, the
husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. [Matt. i.
19] Howsoever then the genealogies are described, whether one belong to
Joseph, the other to Mary or both to Joseph, it is from other parts of the
scriptures infallibly certain not only that Christ descended lineally from
David according to the flesh, but also that the same Christ was begotten of
the Virgin Mary, and not by Joseph.
4.—Secondly, as the blessed Virgin excluded all mankind, and particularly
Joseph, to whom she was then espoused, by her assertion, so did she exclude
herself by the manner of the question, showing that of herself she could not
cause any such conception. Although she may be thought the root of Jesse,
yet could she not germinate of herself; though Eve were the mother of
all living, yet generation was founded on the divine benediction which was
given to both together: For God blessed them, and said unto them, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth. [Gen. i. 28] Though
Christ was promised as the seed of the woman, yet we must not imagine
that it was in the power of woman to conceive him. When the Virgin thinks
it impossible she should conceive because she knew not a man, at the same
time she confesseth it otherwise as impossible; and the angel acknowledgeth
as much in the satisfaction of his answer, For with God nothing shall be
impossible. [Luke i. 37] God then it was who immediately and
miraculously enabled the blessed Virgin to conceive our Saviour; and while
Mary, Joseph, and all men are denied, no person which is that God can be
excluded from that operation.
5.—But what is included in the conception by the Holy Ghost, or how his
operation is to be distinguished from the conception of the Virgin, is not
so easily determined. The words by which it is expressed in scripture are
very general: First, as they are delivered by way of promise, prediction, or
satisfaction to Mary; The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the Highest shall over-shadow thee: [Luke i. 35] secondly, as they
suppose the conception already past, When his mother Mary was espoused to
Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy
Ghost; [Matt. i. 18] and give satisfaction unto Joseph, Fear not to
take to thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the
Holy Ghost. [vs. 20] Now being the expressions in the scriptures are so
general, that from thence the operation of the Spirit cannot precisely be
distinguished from the concurrence of the Virgin; much less shall we be able
exactly to conclude it by that late distinction made in this article,
conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin; because it is certain that
the same Virgin also conceived him according to the prophecy, [Isa. vii. 14]
Thou shalt conceive and bear a son: [Luke i. 31] and therefore,
notwithstanding that distinction, the difficulty still remains, how he was
conceived by the Spirit, how by the Virgin. Neither will any difference of
prepositions be sufficient rightly to distinguish these operations.
Wherefore there is no other way to bound or determine the action of the
Holy Ghost but by that concurrence of the Virgin which must be acknowledged
with it. For if she were truly the mother of Christ (as certainly she was,
and we shall hereafter prove), then is there no reason to deny to her in
respect of him whatsoever is given to other mothers in relation to the fruit
of their womb, and consequently no more is left to be attributed to the
Spirit than what is necessary to cause the Virgin to perform the actions of
a mother. When the scripture speaketh of regeneration, or the second birth,
it denieth all which belongeth to natural procreation, describing the
sons of God as begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God: [John i. 13] And in the incarnation of our
Saviour we remove all will or lust of the flesh, we deny all will of man
concurring, but as the bloods in the language of the Hebrews
did signify that substance of which the flesh was formed in the womb, so we
acknowledge in the generation of Jesus Christ that he was made of the
substance of his mother.
6.—But as he was so made of the substance of the Virgin, so was he not made
of the substance of the Holy Ghost, whose essence cannot at all be made.
And because the Holy Ghost did not beget him by any communication of his
essence, therefore he is not the father of him, though he were conceived by
him. And if at any time I have said Christ was begotten by the Holy Ghost
of the Virgin Mary, if the ancients speak as if he generated the Son, it is
not so to be understood, as if the Spirit did perform any proper act of
generation, such as is the foundation of paternity.
7.—Again, as the Holy Ghost did not frame the human nature of Christ out of
his own substance, so must we not believe that he formed any part of his
flesh of any other substance than of the Virgin. For certainly he was of
the fathers according to the flesh, and was as to that truly and totally the
son of David and of Abraham. The Socinians, who will
acknowledge no other way before Christ's conception by which he could
be the only-begotten Son of God, have been forced to invent a strange
conjunction in the nature of Christ: one part received from the
Virgin, and so consequently from David and from Abraham, from
whom that Virgin did descend: another framed by the Spirit, and conjoined
with it; by the one part of which humanity he was the son of man, as by the
other part he was the Son of God.
8.—The belief of this is necessary to prevent all fear or suspicion of spot
in this Lamb, of sin in this Jesus. Whatsoever our original corruption is,
howsoever displeasing unto God, we may be from hence assured there was none
in him, in whom alone God hath declared himself to be well pleased. Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? saith Job; a clean and
undefiled Redeemer out of an unclean and defiled nature? He whose name is
Holiness, whose operation is to sanctify, the Holy Ghost. Our Jesus was
like unto us in all things, as born of a woman; sin only excepted, as
conceived by the Holy Ghost. This original and total sanctification of
the human nature was first necessary to fit it for the personal union with
the Word, who, out of his infinite love, humbled himself to become flesh,
and at the same time, out of his infinite purity, could not defile himself
by becoming sinful flesh. Secondly, the same sanctification was as
necessary in respect of the end for which he was made man, the redemption of
mankind; that as the first Adam was the fountain of our impurity, [St.
Augustine] so the second Adam should also be the pure fountain of our
righteousness. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh,
condemned sin in the flesh; [Rom. viii. 3] which he could not have
condemned had he been sent in sinful flesh. The Father made him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him; [2 Cor. v. 21] which we could not have been made in him, but
that he did no sin, and knew no sin. [1 Peter ii. 22] For
whosoever is sinful wanteth a Redeemer; and he could have redeemed none who
stood in need of his own redemption. We are redeemed with the precious
blood of Christ; therefore precious, because of a Lamb without blemish
and without spot. [1 Peter i. 19] Our atonement can be made by no other
high-priest than by him who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners. [Heb. vii. 26] We cannot know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, [St. Augustine] except we also know that in
him is no sin. [1 John iii. 5] Wherefore, being it is so necessary to
believe the original holiness of our human nature in the person of our
Saviour, it is as necessary to acknowledge that way by which we may be fully
assured of that sanctity, his conception by the Holy Ghost.
9.—Again, it hath been observed; [by St. Augustine] that by this manner of
Christ's conception is declared the freedom of the grace of God. For as the
Holy Ghost is God, so is he also called the gift of God; and therefore the
human nature in its first original, without any precedent merit, was formed
by the Spirit, and in its formation sanctified, and in its sanctification
united to the Word, so that the grace was coexistent and in a manner
connatural with it. The mystery of the incarnation is frequently attributed
in the Scriptures to the love, mercy, and goodness of God. Through the
tender mercy of our God the day-spring from on high hath visited us:
[Luke i. 78] In this the kindness and love of God our Saviour
toward man appeared. [Titus iii. 4] And though these and such other
scriptures speak properly of the love and mercy of God to man alone, offered
unto him in the incarnation of our Saviour, and so directly exclude the
merits of other men only; yet because they speak so generally with reference
to God's mercy, they may: well be thought to exclude all universally.
Especially considering the impossibility of merit in Christ's humanity, in
respect of his conception; because all desert necessarily precedeth its
reward, and Christ was not man before he was conceived, nor can that merit
which is not.
10.—Thirdly, whereas we are commanded to be holy, and that even as he is
holy; by this we learn from what foundation this holiness must flow. We
bring no such purity into the world, nor are we sanctified in the womb; but
as he was sanctified at his conception, so are we at our regeneration. He
was conceived not by man, but by the Holy Ghost; and we are not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [John
i. 13] The same overshadowing power which formed his human nature,
reformeth ours; and the same Spirit assureth us a remission of our sins,
which caused in him an exemption from all sin. [St. Augustine] He which was
born for us upon his incarnation, is born within us upon our regeneration.
[St. Jerome]
11.—All which considered, we may now render a clear explication of this part
of the article, whereby every person may understand what he is to profess,
and express what is the object of his faith, when he saith, I believe in
Jesus Christ, which was conceived by the Holy Ghost. For hereby he
ought to intend thus much; I assent unto this as a most necessary and
infallible truth, that the only-begotten Son of God, begotten by the Father
before all worlds, very God of very God, was conceived and born, and so made
man, taking to himself the human nature, consisting of a soul and body, and
conjoining it with the Divine in the unity of his person. I am fully
assured that the Word was in this manner made flesh, that he was really and
truly conceived in the womb of a woman, but not after the manner of men; not
by carnal copulation, not by the common way of human propagation, but by the
singular, powerful, invisible, immediate operation of the Holy Ghost,
whereby a Virgin was beyond the law of nature enabled to conceive, and that
which was conceived in her was originally and completely sanctified. And in
this latitude I profess to believe in Jesus Christ, which was conceived
by the Holy Ghost.
for
the next chapter in Pearson: Born of the Virgin
Mary
