And thus have I in brief shewed you, 1. That there is such a thing as Christ. 2. That this Christ was promised and signified by many things before he came. 3. How he was waited for, and expected before the time that God had appointed in which he should come.
The SECOND THING that I will (through the strength of Christ) prove, is this, THAT HE THAT WAS OF THE VIRGIN, IS HE THAT IS THE SAVIOUR.
FIRST, and first, I shall lay down this for a truth; That it is not any Spirit only by, and of itself, without it do take the nature of man, that can be a Saviour of man from eternal vengeance.
Or thus: That that [which] will be a Saviour of man, must like man satisfy and appease the justice and wrath of God. And the arguments that I do bring to prove it are these.
First, Because it was man that had offended; and justice required that man must give the satisfaction: And therefore, when he that should be the Saviour, was come, he 'took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men' (Phil 2:7; Heb 2:14). Because 'the children are partakers of flesh and blood; he also himself likewise took part of the same'; To what end? 'that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.' And is that all? No, but also that he might 'deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage' (v 15).
Second, The second argument is this; because, if a spirit only could have made satisfaction for the sin of mankind, and have subdued Satan for man, without the nature of man, either there had been weakness in Body when he made that promise to fallen Adam, That the seed of the woman should break the serpent's head; (for there hath been no need of and so no room for that promise) or else God having made it, would have appeared unfaithful, in not fulfilling his promise, by redeeming the world without it.
Third, if a spirit could only have made satisfaction, and so have saved man. Christ needed not to have come into the world, and to have been born of a woman (Gal 4:4). But in that he must come into the world, and must be born of a woman, it is clear, that without this, he could not have been a Saviour: For he was made of a woman, made under the law, to this end, that he might redeem them that were under the law; implying, No subjection to this, (viz. the taking of the nature of man) no redemption from the curse of the law. But Christ hath delivered from the curse of the law (all that believe in his name), being in their nature made a curse for them.
And this is the reason why the fallen angels are not recovered from their damnable estate, because he did not take hold of their nature, 'For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham' (Heb 2:16).
SECOND, Now then, seeing this is the very truth of God, I shall next prove that Jesus, who was born of the virgin, is the Saviour. And,
First, I shall prove it by comparing some places of the Old and New Testaments together, and by some arguments drawn from the scriptures.
1. And first, see Genesis 3:15, where he is called the seed of the woman, saying, 'I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed'; and so was Jesus (Gal 4:4) where it is said, 'God sent forth his Son, made of a woman,' or born of a woman.
2. This woman must be a virgin (Isa 7:14) where it is said, 'A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Imanuel.' And Jesus is he that was the fulfilling of this scripture (Matt 1:22,23), 'Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they shall call his name Imanuel.'
3. The Saviour must be of the tribe of Judah. And this Jacob prophesied of on his death-bed, saying, 'Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise,' or honour, 'thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee' (Gen 49:8).
And again (Micah 5:2), 'But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.' Jesus also came from the tribe of Judah, and that will clearly appear if you read (Matt 1). Matthew begins with Abraham (v 2) and thence to Judah (v 3), from Judah to David (v 6), from David to Zorobabel (v 13), then to Jacob, the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus (v 16).
Now Mary was one of the same house also, and for this consider, Jesus came from the loins of David (Matt1); but that he could not do, if Mary had not been of the seed of David: For Christ came from her, not from him, for Joseph 'knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born' (Matt 1:25). Again, the angel told her, that he was the son of David, saying, 'And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David' (Luke 1:32).
And again, the Jews knew this very well, or else they would have been sure to have laid it open before all the world; for they sought by all means to disown him. And though they did through the devilishness of their unbelief disown him, yet could they find no such thing as to question the right of his birth from Mary. If it had been to be done, they would no doubt have done it; they did not want malice to whet them on; neither did they want means so far as might help forward their malice; without manifest and apparent injury; for they had exact registers, or records of their genealogies, so that, if they had had any colour for it, they would sure have denied him to have been the son of David. There was reasoning concerning him when he was with them (John 7:27,43), and I do believe, part of it was about the generation from which he came.
And this was so commonly known that the blind man that sat by the way-side could cry out, 'Jesus thou Son of David, have mercy on me.—Thou Son of David, have mercy on me' (Luke 18:38,39). It was so common that he came from the loins of his father David according to the flesh, that it was not so much as once questioned. 'And when Herod demanded of the chief priests and scribes of the people where Christ should be born. They said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea: For thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda, for out of thee shall come a governor, that shall rule my people Israel' (Matt 1:4-6). (For out of thee) mark that; if Mary had not been of Judah, Christ had not come out of Judah, but Christ came out of Judah; therefore Mary is also a daughter of Judah. And this is evident, as saith the scripture, 'for—our Lord sprang out of Judah' (Heb 7:14).
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