JESUS, the Divine Saviour;* for He shall come on that important errand, to save men from the tyranny of sin and the displeasure of God. He shall be incomparably great and glorious, insomuch that He shall justly be called the Son of the most High God; and the Lord God shall give unto Him the throne of David His father, from whom thou art descended; so that, like David He shall be the sovereign of God's chosen people, and possess that extensive empire, which was promised to the seed of that holy Patriarch. (Ps. ii. 7, 8, and Ps. cxxxii. 11, 12.) And He shall inherit the kingdom with this circumstance of superior glory, that whereas David is now sleeping with his fathers, this exalted Prince shall rule over the house of Jacob (even all the true Israel of God) for ever; and though the most potent monarchies of the earth will be successively dissolved, yet of His kingdom there shall be no end, even as long as the sun and moon endure. (See Ps. lxxii. 5, 17. Is. ix. 7. Dan. vii. 14.)

"And Mary replied to the Angel, O thou heavenly messenger, permit me to ask, How can this possibly be from this time, as thou hast intimated to me, since I am as yet a virgin?

"And the Angel answering, said unto her, There is nothing in that objection, great as it may seem; for this whole affair is to be a scene of miracles. The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High God shall thus overshadow thee by an amazing energy, to produce an effect hitherto, from the foundation

*That Divinity is implied in the name Jesus, and that it corresponds in meaning with Immanuel, is proved by Bishop Pearson, in his Exposition of the Apostle's Creed Art. II.

of the earth, unknown. And therefore that holy offspring of thine shall, with regard to this mira culous conception, as well as to another and yet greater consideration, be called the Son of God. And behold, to confirm thy faith in a declaration which might seem so incredible, I further assure thee, that thy cousin Elizabeth also hath, by the miraculous power of God, conceived a son, though she be now in her old age; and this is the sixth month of pregnancy with her, who hath long been called barren, and spoken of as one who could have no hope of being a mother. And scruple not to believe what I have told thee, with regard to thyself as well as her; for well thou knowest that nothing is or ever will be impossible to God, whose almighty power operates, with equal ease in the most miraculous as in the most common productions.

"And strange as the message was, Mary firmly believed it, and said with the most amiable humi lity and piety, Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, and would approve myself faithful and obedient; may it be unto me according to thy word! I thankfully accept the honour, of which I confess I am unworthy; and humbly resign my reputation, and even my life, to the Divine care and providence, while I wait the accomplishment of thy prediction.

"Then the Angel, having executed his commission, departed from her, and returned to his abode in the heavenly regions."*

On the event that hath been described our church builds her collect for this day. And surely this marvellous instance of Divine mercy and condescension is worthy of being commemorated

Doddridge's Paraphrase.

by us. "That Christ should die, when He was "a man, was a thing of natural consequence: "but that when He was God, He should be wil

ling to be made man, and condescended to "humble Himself beyond all imagination and "conception; this is indeed wonderful and "astonishing in the highest degree. In admira"tion of this, St. Paul, as it were in a rapture, says, "Without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness, God was manifest in the "flesh."* Every circumstance relative to the incarnation of the Son of God ought to be deeply imprinted on our memories, to excite the liveliest gratitude in our hearts, and on every mention of it to draw from our lips new hosannas. And the circumstance this day commemorated, conducive as it is to the honour of our Lord, and to the confirmation of our faith in His Divinity, ought to be remembered in the church, so long as the church remains, that is, for ever and ever.

On the annunciation of our blessed Lord's "incarnation by the message of an Angel," which is mentioned in our collect as a subject for gratitude and thanksgiving, is founded a prayer for the infusion of Divine " grace into our hearts." Hereby we are taught the inefficacy of the mere report, though salvation be its subject, and an angelic envoy the channel of its communication, to the important purpose of awakening a saving faith in our bosoms without the superadded exertion of almighty power. Thousands hear the message, and seemingly entertain no doubt of its veracity, but give only an historical credit to the fact they make no application of the truth, thus announced, to their own consciences.

*St. Chrys. Hom. 31. De Bapt. Christi. T. 5. p. 467.

They infer not from the awakening consideration of our Lord's incarnation their own guilty and helpless state; a deduction which, it might be supposed, could not be overlooked. And therefore they are not excited to apply to Him for an actual participation of pardoning and sanctifying mercy. They believe in vain," according to the Apostle's awful hypothesis, 1 Cor. xv. 2, of which if there had been no danger, the same inspired writer would not have besought the Corinthians "not to receive the

grace of God in vain." Our collect plainly implies what our homilies strongly assert, that a belief which is the mere creature of reason, and unaccompanied with a renewing influence on the heart, is not that faith to which salvation is annexed.*

The incarnation of Christ is itself a most marvellous instance of Divine grace, and the grand link in the chain of causes on which our salvation is suspended. All the various means which Divine wisdom has chosen for the purpose of promulgating its salvation, are also acts of rich grace shewn to our fallen race. But were not additional favour conferred on us, all these means would leave us in the same wretched

condition in which they found us. For though "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the "word of God," as the instrumental cause; the efficient cause of genuine faith is the grace of God. It is His power alone which can rouse us to sensibility, subvert the fabrick of selfrighteousness which we have erected, and exhibit to our view the person and work of Christ

See the Homily of Faith. Part 1.

t

so as to convince us of His ability and willingness to save us. His grace alone can enable us so to trust in the death and passion of Christ, as to entertain a hope of being "brought to the "glory of His resurrection."

The incarnation" of Christ was preparatory to" His cross and passion." He was born to die; for it was by His death only that atonement could be made for human guilt, and so a way be opened for our resurrection to glory. When our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, is exhibited in Scripture as the object of faith, His "cross and passion" are generally referred to. "I determined," saith St. Paul to the Corinthians, "to know nothing among you, save Jesus "Christ and Him crucified." And in his epistle to the Galatians he exclaims, "God forbid "that I should glory, save in the cross of our "Lord Jesus Christ." Though His incarnation, birth, and the several acts of His meritorious life, are constituent parts of the aggregate which forms the basis of our hope; yet His "cross and "passion" were the concluding and prominent acts of His gracious work, the crisis of redemption. To this therefore our collect leads our attention, though its more immediate subject is a circumstance that preceded the incarnation. In the cross of Christ all the rays of Divine mercy and of human hope meet as in their focus. This is the point of convergence, to which all the designs and counsels of the Godhead, and all the sensibilities of the believing soul, invariably tend.

The cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ is exclusively the meritorious cause of n's salvation :-exclusively, not of the prepaory acts of the Son of God, but of human