2nd Prophet. A wonderful marvel, How that may be,
And far doth excel--
All our capacity,
How that the trinity,
Of so high regality,
Should joined be,
Unto our mortality.
1st Prophet. Of his one great mercy
As ye shall see the exposition,
Through whose humanity all Adam's progeny
Redeemed shall be
Out of perdition;
Sith man did offend, who should amend,
But the said man and no other;
For the which cause he,
Incarnate would be,
And live in misery
As man's one brother.
2nd Prophet. Sir, upon the Deity, I believe perfectly,
Impossible to be, there is nothing;
Howbeit this work, unto me is dark,
In the operation or working.
1st Prophet. What more reproof is unto belief
Than to be doubting.
2nd Prophet. Yet doubts ofttimes hath derivation.
1st Prophet. That is by the means of communication,
Of truths to have a due probation,--
By the same doubts, reasoning.
2nd Prophet. Then to you, this one thing,
Of what noble and high lineage is she,
That might this verible prince's mother be?
1st Prophet. Undoubted she is come of high parrage,[234]
Of the house of David, and Solomon the sage,
And one of the same line joined to her by marriage
Of whose tribe, we do subscribe
This child's lineage.
2nd Prophet. And why in that wise?
1st Prophet. For it was the guise
To count the parent on the man's line,
And not on the feminine,
Amongst us here in Israel.