Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.

SECT. II. The Bearing of JESUS in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin.

[illustration]

MARY visiting ELIZABETH

S. LUKE. 1. 43.

And whence is this to me that y^e Mo∣ther of my LORD should come to me.

[illustration]

Josephs Dreame.

S MAT: 1. 20.

Joseph, thou son of David, Feare not to 〈◊〉〈◊〉 unto thee Mar•••• thy wife; for that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 is conceived in her is of the Holy 〈◊〉〈◊〉

1. ALthough the Blessed Virgin had a faith as prompt and ready as her Body was chast and her Soul pure; yet God, who uses to give full measure, shaken to∣gether and running over, did by way of confirmation and fixing the confi∣dence of her assent give an instance of his Omnipotency in the very particular of an ex∣traordinary Conception: For the Angel said, Behold thy Cousin Elizabeth hath also con∣ceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her that was called barren: For with God nothing shall be impossible. A less argument would have satisfied the necessity of a Faith which had no scruple; and a greater would not have done it in the incredu∣lity of an ungentle and pertinacious spirit. But the Holy Maid had complacency enough in the Message, and holy desires about her to carry her understanding as far as her affections; even to the fruition of the Angel's Message; which is such a sublimity of Faith, that it is its utmost consummation, and shall be its Crown when our Faith is turned into Vision, our Hopes into actual Possessions, and our Grace into Glory.

2. And she, who was now full of God, bearing God in her Virgin-Womb, and the Holy Spirit in her Heart, who had also over-shadowed her, enabling her to a super∣natural and miraculous Conception, arose with haste and gladness, to communicate that joy which was designed for all the World; and she found no breast to pour forth the first emanations of her over-joyed heart so fit as her Cousin Elizabeth's, who had received testimony from God to have been righteous, walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless, who also had a special portion in this great honour; for she was de∣signed to be the Mother of the Baptist, who was sent as a fore-runner to prepare the ways of the Lord, and to make his paths straight. And Mary arose in those days, and went into the Hill-countrey with haste into a City of Judah.

3. Her Haste was in proportion to her Joy and desires, but yet went no greater pace than her Religion: for as in her journey she came near to Jerusalem, she turned in, that she might visit His Temple whose Temple she her self was now; and there, not

only to remember the pleasures of Religion, which she had felt in continual descents and showers falling on her pious heart for the space of eleven years attendance there in her Childhood, but also to pay the first-fruits of her Thanks and Joy, and to lay all her glory at his feet whose humble hand maid she was in the greatest honour of being his blessed Mother. Having worshipped, she went on her journey, and entred into the house of Zasharias, and saluted 〈◊〉〈◊〉.

4. It is not easiè to imagine what a collision of joys was at this blessed Meeting: two Mothers of two great Princes, the one the greatest that was born of woman, and the other was his Lord, and these made Mothers by two Miracles, met together with joy and mysteriousness; where the Mother of our Lord went to visit the Mother of his Servant, and the Holy Ghost made the meeting festival, and descended upon Elizabeth, and she prophesied. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 in Heaven was there more joy and ecstásie. The persons, who were Women, whose fancies and affections were not only hallowed, but made pregnant and big with Religion, meeting together to compare and unite their joys, and their Eucharist, and then made prophetical and inspired, must needs have discour∣sed like 〈◊〉〈◊〉 and the most ecstasied order of Intelligences; for all the faculties of Nature were turned into Grace, and expressed in their way the excellent Solemnity. For it came to pass when Elizabeth heard the Salutation of Mary, the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 leaped in her Womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost.

5. After they had both prophesied and sang their Hymns, and re-saluted each other with the religion of Saints and the joys of Angels, Mary abode with her cousin Elizabeth about three mouths, and then returned to her own house. Where when she appeared with her holy burthen to her Husband Joseph, and that he perceived her to be with child, and knew that he had never unsealed that holy fountain of virginal purity, he was trou∣bled. For although her deportment had been pious and chaste to a miracle, her car∣riage reserved, and so grave, that she drave away temptations and impure visits and all unclean purposes from the neighbourhood of her holy person: yet when he saw she was with child, and had not yet been taught a lesson higher than the principles of Na∣ture, he was minded to put her away, for he knew she was with child; but yet privily, because he was a good man, and knew her Piety to have been such that it had a most done violence to his sense, and made him disbelieve what was visible and notorious, and therefore he would do it privately. But while he thought on these things, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a Dream, saying, Joseph thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy 〈◊〉〈◊〉, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his Wife.