A lesson of the Incarnation of Christ that he toke, [sic] his humanity in…A lesson of the Incarnation of Christe that he toke, [sic] his humanite in…

¶ If the circumstance of the place be marked, they shall know, they do injuries to the text here, as in other places. For when the virgin hard, there should be a child borne of her, & she yet in the grace & perfection of her virginity, as of a thing impossible by nature to be done wondereth at the tidings, and requireth the Angel of the means, how it may be done. where unto the Angel maketh ⟨image 20⟩answer, to satisfy the admiration of the troubled virgin thus. The holy ghost shall come upon thee, and he shall work this wonderful work in thee, although above the consent of thy reason, yet not without the assistance of thy nature which shall be shadowed by the holy ghost. This interpretation of S. Luke admitteth, S. Matthew in the first Chapter, where as Joseph was no less troubled to see his affianced, and promised wife, to be with child, (thought it had been by some sinister, and forbidden means,) as well as the pour virgin with reason, thought it could never be without the knowledge of man. As from heaven her reason was confounded and made to give ⟨image 20⟩place unto faith, and the power of GOD, so was Joseph by night admonished of his over hasty judgement, and light suspicion, that his promised wife was not great by any man, but by the holy ghost. Thus mindeth the Evangelist, to take out of Joseph the suspicion that he had of the Godly virgin for her being with child, and not to prove, that the child within her, was not of her own substance and nature. Read the place, & mark the state and argument thereof, then shall the text interpret at it self. If it be so (as God forbid, it should) any would wrest & constrain this word (of the holy ghost) against the circumstance & meaning of the Evangelist. We wish and