several point, you hear as judges; the case has been already laid open; now let the witnesses come forth. Let your judgment say to me, as is wont to be said to pleaders in a cause, “Estab- lish what you promise.” I will do so assuredly, with the Lord’s assistance, and will cite the books of heavenly law. Ye have listened to me attentively while proposing the question, listen now with still more attention while I prove my point. 9. I must first teach you concerning the birth of Christ, how it is the work of the Father and the Son, though what the Father and the Son did work pertains only to the Son. I will quote Paul; one competently versed in the divine law. That Paul, I say, will I quote, who prescribes the laws of peace, not of litigation, for lawyers at this day also have a Paul who prescribes the laws of the courts,1844 not the Christian’s laws. Let the holy Apostle show us then how the birth of the Son was the work of the Father. “But,” saith he, “when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law.”1845 Thus have ye heard him, and because it is plain and express, have understood. See, the Father made the Son to be born of a Virgin. For “when the fulness of time was come, God sent His Son;” the Father sent His Christ. How sent He Him? “made of a woman, made under the Law.” The Father then made Him of a woman under the Law. 10. Doth this peradventure perplex you, that I said of a virgin, and Paul saith of a woman? Let not this perplex you; let us not stop here, for I am not speaking to persons without in- struction. The Scripture saith both, both “of a virgin,” and “of a woman.” Where saith it, “of a virgin? Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son.”1846 And “of a woman,” as you have just heard; here there is no contradiction. For the peculiarity of the Hebrew tongue gives1847 the name of “women” not to such as have lost their virgin estate, but to females generally. You have a plain passage in Genesis, when Eve herself was first made, “He made her a woman.”1848 Scripture also in another place saith, that God ordered “the women” to be separated “which had not known man by lying with him.”1849 This then ought now to be well established, and should not detain us, that so we may be able to explain, by the Lord’s assistance, what will deservedly detain us. 11. We have then proved that the birth of the Son was the work of the Father; now let us prove that it was the work of the Son also. Now what is the birth of the Son of the Virgin Mary? Surely it is His assumption of the form of a servant in the Virgin’s womb. Is the birth 1844 Litigatorum. 1845 Gal. iv. 4, 5. 1846 Isa. vii. 14. 1847 Vide Serm. i. (li.) 18. 1848 Gen. ii. 22. 1849 Num. xxxi. 18; Judg. xxi. 11. 559 Of the words of St. Matthew’s Gospel, Chap. iii. 13, 'Then Jesus cometh…