CHAPTER III.

Of the Incarnation and early Life of Christ.

SECTION 1.

By the Incarnation of Christ is to be understood the mysterious fact, that "the Word was made flesh;"--that the hypostatical union of the divine and human natures actually took place, according to the tenor of ancient prophecy, in the Conception and Nativity of the Saviour of the World. That the assumption of corporeal form and substance was possible to the eternal Son of God, in any mode which might be most consistent with His will, by whom all matter was at first created, and with whom nothing is impossible, cannot be denied; and that such assumption was necessary to effect the purposes of Divine Mercy in the Redemption of the human Race, is evident from Reason and from Scripture. Of the particular manner in which it pleased the Second Person of the glorious Trinity to fulfil the Word of Prophecy, to take upon himself our nature, and to become the true EMMANUEL or GOD WITH US, we are informed in the sacred records of the New Testa

we are not called upon to pursue our enquiries into the great mystery of Godliness.

Jo

§ 2. It was announced by a Messenger from Heaven to Mary, a Virgin dwelling at Nazareth in Galilee, and espoused to Joseph, a member of a different branch of the same royal family, of David,-but in humble station; that she was distinguished highly among women by the favour of her God; that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she should be rendered prolific; and that she should become the Mother of Him who should be called "the Son of God." seph, the reputed husband of the Virgin, was informed by an Angel of this miraculous Conception, and received her under his protection till the day of parturition should arrive. As the Son of God, with the concurrence of the other Persons of the Trinity, assumed the human nature, by the power and opera tion of the Holy Spirit; so, that "Holy Thing" which was supernaturally conceived in the Virgin Mary, was formed exclusively of the Substance of the Mother, was borne by her according to the common course of nature, and in due time was endowed with a reasonable soul, and animated with the breath of life, being made" in all things" "like unto his brethren." The incarnate Son being emphatically "the Seed of the Woman" by immaculate conception, that nature which was derived from her alone was sanctified, and altogether exempted from the imputation and pollution of Original Sin, attaching to every descendant of Adam by natural propagation, through the immediate agency and intervention of the Spirit, who is the very fountain of holiness and purity; and who supernaturally, by a creative act, now bestowed upon the Virgin, the gift of fruitfulness.

§3. At a TE

that she sang & Ear her first bun fou Nativity v Ture dictions ca na

sias, as to E BUS TUNE: to the bune arre

nected w1 DF 1

of Bethlehem, winter se bring his ended we nant state, 11 Dimesteste. that all sales to wor

tute of the CRIOTE

public Ina, tin se mu un
and whom al move poet
nently blessed gream.
sias,-the Set & In-
Christ was born off & Tun
be truly man; DUE WA
that he was als tre
Most High hunda mus
infirmities of mauneuske
Earth under comastiare r
liation, even in the ser
chosen.

A Sadie u br

the "Lord of me au La. «

cradle of that 5er itar

Abraham, in preDUNCAN INDIF: ME

1

in the neighbourhood, by an Angel of the Lord, accompanied by a multitude of the heavenly host, who chaunted the glory to God, and the benefits to man, which accrued from the wonderful manifestation of Divine Mercy, in the Nativity of the Saviour of the World. To the obscure birth-place of the infant Messias, a star, or supernatural light suspended in the heavens, guided the steps of the Eastern Magi, wise men or astronomers, whose profession led them to observe the heavenly phenomena, and who had shared in the traditional expectation of a Messiah's Advent; a belief obtained either from their vicinity to Judæa, or from their acquaintance with the Jewish tribes who had been carried captive to Chaldea. These proxies for the Heathen world, having been directed by their miraculous conductor to the exact spot where the young child was, tendered to him their homage and adoration; together with offerings emblematical of their submission to his royal authority.

§ 5. When the parents of the heavenly Infant had performed all that was required of them by the law of Moses, such as the Purification of the Virgin Mary, and Presentation of the Infant on account of his primogeniture in the Temple, at Jerusalem, and the Circumcision of the Child, which constituted the first instance of his perfect submission to the ritual code: when these obligations were fulfilled, Joseph having been warned of God, that Herod would endeavour to accomplish the destruction of the Infant, being jealous of a supposed rival in his temporal dominion,-conducted his sacred charge into the land of Egypt, and thus saved him from the general slaughter of the innocents of Bethle

hem. The holy family remained in Egypt till tie death of Herod: after which, still dreading the cruelty of Archelaus, who succeeded his father on the throne, they returned to dwell at Nazareth in Galilee; where the Child of Mary, following perhaps the humble occupation of his reputed father, and shewing tokens of extraordinary gifts and graces, was subject to his parents, during the period of his youth; and increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and Man.