Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

2. The Fruit or Effect was the Framing of Christ's Manhood, in which we may observe the Matter and Manner. 1. For the Matter: Observe we the Matter of the Body, and of the Soul of Christ. 1. The Matter of the Body of Christ, it was the very Flesh and Blood of the Virgin: He was made of Woman, saith the Apostle, (i.) of the Flesh and Blood,¹ & Substance of the Woman: And He was made of the Seed of David (saith the Apostle) according to the Flesh, otherwise He could not have been the Son of David, according to the Flesh: And, if it be true which the Philosophers say, That the Seed of the Man doth not fall into the Substance of the Child, but only doth dispose the Seed of the Woman, (as a Workman frameth and disposeth his Work) to make the same into the Form of a Man: Why then, I know not wherein the Conception of Christ should differ in the Matter at all from our Conception; save only in the Agent, or Worker of his Substance, who was the Holy-Ghost. 2. The Matter or Substance of the Soul of Christ, was not derived from the Soul of the Virgin, as a part thereof; but it was made as the Souls of other Men be, (i.) of nothing, by the Power of God; and so infused into the Body by the Hand of God: But of these Things (of His Body and Soul, and Humane Nature) we shall speak more largely in the next Section.

1. 1Gal. 4.4. Rom. 1.6.

2. For the manner of forming Christs humane Nature, it was miraculous. The Angel ascribes two actions to the Holy Ghost in this great work; the one to come upon the Virgin, the other to overshadow her; by the first is signified the extraordinary work of the Holy Ghost in fashioning the humane Nature of Christ; as it was said of Sampson, ¹The spirit of the Lord came upon him, (i.e.) the Holy Ghost inspired him with an extraordinary strength; so the Spirit of the Lord came upon her (i.e.) the holy Ghost wrought in her in an extraordinary way. As for instance; in ordinary generation our substance and parts are framed successively by degrees, as first, the seminal humour becomes an Embryo, then a body in organical; then are fashioned the Liver, Heart, and Brain, and then the rest one after another? and it is at least forty days before the body of a Child be fully formed: now it was otherwise with the Body of Christ; for in the very instant of his conception, he was made perfect in Body and Soul, void of Sin, and full of Grace; in the very instant of his Conception he was perfectly framed, and instantly united unto the eternal Word, perfect God and perfect Man. Surely this was extraordinary, and this is the property of the Holy Ghost subito operari, to work instantly and perfectly; as soon as ever the flesh was conceived, it was presently united,