This miraculous conception has ever proved the stumbling-block of infidelity; while, in the just convictions of Christians, it is to be regarded as one of the most glorious and indispensable peculiarities of our faith. Christianity is not answerable for those misrepresentations of this doctrine which result from the weakness or the wickedness of mankind, and which have so often exposed it to ridicule; but let the statement of Scripture be taken simply as it is--plain, perspicuous, untangled with the perplexities of controversy--and it will approve itself to the pious mind, not only as a fact, but as one of prime importance and obvious utility.
In demanding an explication of the manner in which the divine and human natures became united, or continue to subsist in indissoluble connexion in person of the Son of God, reason claims a prerogative to which she is by no means entitled; especially if the alternative be, either that reason shall be satisfied, or the statements of Scripture rejected. There exist facts relative to our own constitution as incomprehensible and contradictory to what, independently of experience, we should be induced to believe, as the miraculous conception and mysterious nature of Jesus Christ. The soul and body, distinguished for properties not only peculiar to each, but dissimilar, heterogeneous, and seemingly inconsistent, yet constitute one person. A man is at once material and immaterial, mortal and immortal.
It was expedient that the Son of God should become man, that he might set us an example, sympathize with our griefs, vanquish our enemies, and abolish death: and equally so that he should be coequal with God in order to procure salvation for the lost world by the merit of his atonement; otherwise his obedience must have been imperfect, his sufferings unsatisfactory, and his mediatorial character, by which he was allied to both parties, incomplete.
This doctrine is practical, and not an abstract speculation, or an article of faith intended merely to fill up the outline of a system, and unconnected with any moral results. It is calculated to awaken our gratitude and kindle our love, by showing us the infinite goodness of God, who "spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all"--"who made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It should further engage us to cultivate humility and patience. A view of the abasement of the Son of God should impress upon us a sense of the insignificance of all earthly glory, and the propriety of sustaining all the trials and deprivations of life with unrepining fortitude. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."
This view of the incarnation of Christ is adapted also to promote charity; for, "though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor; that we, through his poverty, might be rich;" and it tends to elevate us above the meanness of temporal compliances, and the degradation of worldly lusts, by pointing out the dignity to which our nature is advanced, through having been assumed, and still being retained in its purified state by the Son of God. Let a holy ambition prevail, to live as those who possess such a relationship; and who, though at present disguised in the dress of poverty, are born to an inheritance of which no enemy can prevent your possession--"an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation."
Section II.
Nothing happens by Chance--Dispensations preparatory to the Coming of Christ--Prophecy of Micah accomplished by Means of the Decree of Augustus--Mary supernaturally strengthened to attend upon her new-born Infant--Visit of the Shepherds--Mary's Reflections--Circumcision of the Child--taken to the Temple--Simeon's Rapture and Prediction--Visit and Offerings of the Arabian Philosophers--general Considerations.
Chance is a word which ought to be banished from the Christian vocabulary. It is utterly contradictory to reason, opposed to experience, and subversive of revelation. To suppose that he who created the world has wholly and forever abandoned it, is improbable; and to imagine that the regular movements of nature, and the course of events--the whole train of causes, and the incalculable variety of dependent consequences, are merely fortuitous, seems absurd as well as impious. Uncertain and confused as were the opinions of the pagan nations of antiquity, few of them totally denied some kind of superintending providence; and many of their ablest writers reasoned in defence of it in the most forcible manner. "What," said the emperor Marcus Antoninus, "would it concern me to live in a world void of God and without Providence?"
In order to form clear conceptions of this, and of every other subject connected with the peace of our minds and the immortal interests of man, we must apply to the Scriptures for information. Hope, conjecture, plausibility--all became pleasingly absorbed in the splendour of truth; which, with the brightness of a sun beam, writes upon the inspired page the doctrine of an universal and particular providence. It appears, indeed, so fundamental to the system of Christianity, and so consonant to the wisdom and goodness of God, that if it were possible to adduce "solid objections against its reality, one of the richest sources of consolation to the human race would be forever lost--some of our dearest hopes would be undermined, and despondency shed disastrous gloom over the whole scene of life. It is the happiness of Christians to know, that nothing can escape the eye, nothing can disarrange the schemes, or thwart the purposes, of the eternal mind; and that the same general law which regulates the flight of an angel, or the affairs of an empire, connects even the fall of a sparrow with the plans of heaven. It is their privilege to feel assured, that the events which appear contingent or accidental to us, are equally ordained with those which seem the most orderly and regular. The arrow may be shot at a venture, but the Supreme Ruler guides it through the air. So sings the poet;
"Through all the various shifting scene
Of life's mistaken ill or good,
Thy hand, O God, conducts unseen
The beautiful vicissitude.