Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	conceive_v	seed_n	womb_n	1,446	5	10.0770	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09411	An exposition of the Symbole or Creed of the Apostles according to the tenour of the Scriptures, and the consent of orthodoxe Fathers of the Church. By William Perkins.	Perkins, William, 1558-1602.	1595 (1595)	STC 19703; ESTC S120654	454,343	561

whether Christ lie in the manger betweene the Oxe and the Asse or in the pallace of the king it matters not in regard of our saluation IIII. He came in this maner that there might be a difference betweene his first comming in the flesh and his last comming to iudgement In the first he came onely for this end not to make any outward alterations in the worlde but to change the conscience and to put in execution the worke of our spirituall redemption and therfore he hath reserued the ouerturning of all earthly estates with the manifestation of his owne glorie to the latter V. Lastly hee was borne in a poore estate that hee might procure true riches for vs in heauen and withall sanctifie vnto us our pouertie upon earth As Paul saith Ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that he being rich for your sakes became poore that ye through his povertie might be made rich Hee was content to lie in the manger that wee might rest in heauen This serues to teach us to be content to beare any mean condition that the Lorde shall sende upon vs for this is the verie estate of the sonne of God him-selfe And if for our cause he did not refuse the basest condition that euer was why should we murmure at the same for what is the best of vs but miserable sinners and therefore utterly unworthy either to goe or lie upon the bare earth and though wee fare and lie better then our Lorde himselfe yet such is our daintinesse we are not pleased therewith whereas hee for his part disdained not the manger of the Oxe And if the Lord of heauen and earth comming into the worlde finde so little entertainment or fauour we for our parts being his members should willingly prepare our selues to take as hard measure at the hands of men The last point is the manifestation of Christes birth that it might be knowen to the worlde Where consider two circumstances the first to whome namely to poore shepheards tending their flockes by night and not to great or mightie men louers of this worlde nor to the priests of Ierusalem contemners of Gods grace and that for two causes one because the shepheards were the fittest persons to publish the same at Bethleem the other it was Gods pleasure to manifest that in the birth of Christ which Paul saith Not many wise men after the flesh not many mightie not many noble are called but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise The second is by whome by the angell of the Lorde appearing in great glorie unto the shepheardes For the priests of Ierusalem and the rulers of the synagogues to whome this office did belong helde their peace beeing blinded in their manifolde errours and wicked waies The duties to be learned of the birth of Christ are these First wee are admonished hereby to magnifie and praise the name of God saying with Mary My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirite reioyceth in God my saviour And with Zacharie Blessed be the Lorde God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And with the angell of the Lord Glory to God in the highest heavens For in this birth is made manifest the wisedome the truth the iustice and mercie and goodnes of God towards us more then euer it was before yea as Christ God and man is more excellent then the first Adam created according to Gods own image and as the spirituall life is better then the naturall life and as the eternall and most holy mariage of Christ the husband and his spouse the Church rising as it were out of the bloode that trickled out of his side is more wonderfull then the creation of Eue of the rib of Adam Lastly as it is a far greater matter by death to overcome death and to turne it into eternall life then to command that to exist and be which was not before so is the worke of redemption begun in the birth of Christ more unspeakeable and admirable then the first creation of man Hereupon not 6. cherubims as in the vision of Isaiah not 24. elders as in the Apocalyps but a great multitude of Angels like armies were heard to praise God at the birth of Christ and no doubt the like sight was not seene since the beginning of the world And the angels by their example put vs in minde to consider aright of this benefite and to praise God for it But alas this practise is verie rare in this fruitlesse and barren age of the worlde where sinne and iniquitie abounds as may be seene by experience for by an old custom we reteine still in the Church the feast of the nativity of Christ so commonly called which neuerthelesse is not spent in praising the name of God that he hath sent his sonne from his owne bosome to be our redeemer but contrariwise in rifling dicing carding masking mumming in all licentious libertie for the most part as though it were some heathen feast of Ceres or Bacchus Secondly Christ was conceiued and borne in bodily maner that there might be a spirituall conception and birth of him in our hearts as Paul saith My litle children of whome I travell till Christ be formed in you and that is when we are made new creatures by Christ and performe obedience to our creatour When the people said to Christ that his mother and his brethren sought him he answered He that doth the will of God is my brother my sister and mother Therefore let us go with the shepheards to Bethleem and finding our blessed sauiour swadled and lying in the cratch let us bring him thence and make our owne heartes to be his cradle that we may he able to say that we liue not but Christ liues in vs and let vs present unto him ourselues our bodies and soules as the best gold myrrhe and frankincense that may be and thus conceiuing him by faith he remaining without change we shalbe changed into him and made bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh The world I know neuer so much as dreameth of this kind of conception and birth for as Dauid saith Men travell with wickednesse conceive mischiefe bring forth a lye And S. Iames saith Men are drawn away by their owne concupiscense which when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne And these are the ougly and monstrous birthes of these daies But let us I pray you contrariwise waile and mourne for the barrennesse of our heartes that doe so little conceiue the grace of Christ in heart and bring it foorth in action The mother of Christ vndoubtedly was a blessed woman but if shee had not as well conceiued Christ in her heart as shee did in her womb shee had not beene saved and no more can wee unlesse we doe the same The birth of Christ to them that haue touched hearts is the comfort of comforts and the sweetest balme or confection

that euer was Behold say the angel to the shepheards we bring tidirgs of great ioy that shalbe to all people but wherein stands the ioy they adde further vnto you this day is borne in the citie of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. And no maruaile for in that birth is manifested the good will of God to man and by it wee haue peace first with God secondly with our selues in cōscience thirdly with the good angels of God fourthly with our enemies lastly with all the creatures For this cause the angels sang Peace on earth good will towards men In the last place the Creede notes unto us the parent or mother of Christ the virgine Mary And here at the verie first it may be demanded how he could haue either father or mother because he was figured by Melchisedech who had neither father nor mother Ans. Melchisedech is said to be without father mother not because he had none at all For according to the ancient and receiued opinion it is verie likely that he was Sem the son of Noe but because where he is mencioned under this name of Melchisedech in the 14. chapter of Genes there is no mention made either of father or mother and so Christ in some sort is without father or mother as he is man he hath no father as he is God he hath no mother And whereas Christ is called the son of Ioseph it was not because he was begottē of him but because Ioseph was his reputed father or which is more because hee was a legall father namely according to the Iewes laws in that as sundry divines think he was the next of his kin and therfore to succeed him as his lawfull heire Mary became the mother of Christ by a kind of calling thereto which was by an extraordinarie message of an angell concerning the conception and birth of Christ in and by her to which calling and message shee condiscended saying Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it unto me according to thy word And hereupon shee conceiued by the Holy Ghost This being so it is more then sensles folly to turne the salutatiō of the angel Haile freely beloved c. into a praier And she must be held to be the mother of whole Christ God and man and therefore the ancient Church hath called the mother of God yet not the mother of the godhead Furthermore the mother of Christ is described by her qualitie a virgine and by her name Mary Shee was a virgine first that Christ might bee conceiued without sinne and be a perfect Sauiour secondly that the saying of the prophet Esai might be fulfilled Behold a virgin shal cōceiue beare a sonne according as it was foretold by god in the first giuing of the promise the seed of the woman not the seed of the man shall bruise the serpents head Now the Iewes to elude the most pregnant testimonie of the Prophet say that Alma signifieth not a virgin but a young womā which hath knowne a man But this is indeede a forgerie For Esay there speakes of an extraordinarie worke of God aboue nature whereas for a woman hauing knowne man to conceiue is no wonder And the worde Alma through the whole bible is taken for a virgin as by a particular search will appeare As Marie conceiued a virgin so it may be well thought that shee continued a virgin to the end though we make it no article of our faith When Christ was vpon the crosse he commended his mother to the custodie of Iohn which probablie argueth that shee had no child to whose care and keeping shee might be commended And though Christ be called hi● first borne yet doth it not follow that shee had any child after him for as that is called last after which there is none so that is called the first before which there was none And as for Ioseph when he was espoused to Marie he was a man of eightie yeares old And here we haue occasion to praise the wisdome of God in the forming of man The first man Adam was borne of no man but immediatly created of God the second that is Eue is formed not of a woman but of a man alone the third and all after begotten both of woman and man the fourth that is Christ God and man not of no man as Adam not of no woman as Eue not of man and woman as we but after a new manner of a woman without a man he is conceiued and borne And hereupon our dutie is not to despise but highly to reuerence the virgin Marie as beeing the mother of the sonne of God a prophetisse vpon earth a Saint in heauen And we doe willingly condiscend to giue hir honour three waies 1. by thanksgiuing to God for hir 2. by a reuerent estimation of her 3. by imitation of hir excellent vertues yet farre be it frō vs to adore hir with diuine honour by praier to call vpon hir as though she knew our hearts and heard our requests and to place hir in heauen as a queene aboue the sonne of God The name of the mother of Christ is added to shew that he came of the linage of Dauid and that therefore he was the true Messias before spoken of It may be obiected that both Matthew and Luke set downe the genealogie of Ioseph of whome Christ was not Answer Matthew sets down indeed in Christs genealogie the naturall descent of Ioseph the husband of Marie hauing Iacob for his naturall father but Luke taking an other course propounds the naturall descent of Marie the mother of Christ and when he saith that Ioseph was the sonne of Eli he meanes of a Legall sonne For sonnes and daughters in lawe are called sonnes and daughters to their fathers and mothers in law Marie her selfe and not Ioseph beeing the naturall daughter of Eli. And whereas Luke doth not plainely say that Marie was the daughter of Eli but puts Ioseph the sonne in law in hir roome the reason hereof may be because it was the manner of the Iewes to account and continue their genealogies in the male and not in the female sexe the man beeing the head of the familie and not the woman And though Ruth and Rahab and other women be mentioned by Matthew yet that is onely by the way for they make no degrees herein Againe it may further be demaunded how Christ could comes of Dauid by Salomon as Mathew saith and by Nathan as Luks saith they twaine being two distinct sonnes of Dauid Answer By vertue of the law whereby the brother was bound to raise vp seede to his brother there was a double discent in vse among the Iewes the one was naturall the other legall Natural when one man discended of an other by generation as the child from the naturall father Legall when a man not begotten of an other yet did succeede him in his inheritance thus Salathiel