John Trapp on Matthew 1:20

Verse 20. But while he thought on these things] And was not so well advised upon his course, God, who reserveth his holy hand for a dead lift, expedites him. The Athenians had a conceit, that Minerva (their goddesse) drove all their ill counsels toJun Emblem. a happy issue. The superstitious Romanes thought that an Idol,Ab erroribus viarum Dea Vibilia liberat. which they called Vibilia, kept them from erring out of their way. The divine providence is our Vibilia, that will not suffer us to misearry, so long as we have an eye to the paterne that wasArnob. adver. Gentes. shewed us in the [illegible: 1 word], Exod. 25. 40. In the Mount will theGen. 22. 14. Lord be seen.Prov. [illegible: 1 word]. 26. Behold, the Angel of the Lord appeared unto him] As of old [illegible: 1 word] in [illegible: 2 words] (ait Rab. Solomon ex Talmud. he had done to Daniel, being caused to flee swiftly or with [illegible: 1 word] of flight (as the Hebrew hath it) with so good a will he did it, as thinking he could never come soon enough. Hierosol.) i e. in rebus in quibus es slultus, aderit tamen tibi Dominus. Joseph, thou sonne of David] Albeit a poore Carpenter. A man may be as high in Gods favour, and as happy in russet, as in Tissue. I know thy poverty (saith Christ to that Church,) but, [illegible: 1 word] nothing, thou art rich. [illegible: 1 word]. 9. 21. Feare not to take unto thee) viz. From the hands of her parents,Rev. 2. 9. who have, by all right, the dispose of their children, as a cheif part of their goods: Therefore when Satan obtained leave to vex Job, and to touch him in his possessions, he dealt with hisJob. 1. children also. For that which is conceived in her] That holy thing, Luk. 1. 35. that Holy of Holies wherein the Godhead dwelleth bodily, that is, personally; and is called the Sonne of God, saith the Angel there. Yet not in respect of his humane nature, for then there should be in the person of Christ two sonnes, viz. one of the Father, and another of the holy Ghost. Besides, Heb. 7. 3. he is without father, as Man, and without mother, as God. All that can be gathered out of that place in Luke, is, that he, that was so conceived of the holy Ghost, [illegible: 1 word] the naturall Son of God. The union of three Persons into one nature, and of two natures into one Person, [non-Latin text not transcribed]. these are the great mysteries of Godlines. The well is deep,Joh. 4. [illegible: 1 word]. as she said, and we want wherewith to draw. Is of the Holy Ghost.] As the Efficient, not as the Materiall cause. The virtus formatrix, the formative faculty which the Virgin had not, is ascribed to the power of the Holy Ghost, framing and fashioning Christ of the substance of the Virgin sanctified miraculously, and without mans help. But if no mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception; what presumption shall it be for flesh and bloud, to search how the Sonne of God took flesh of his creature? It is enough for us to know, that he was conceived of the holy Ghost, not spermatically, but [illegible: 1 word], yet secretly and mystically, the Virgin her selfe knew not how. Fearfully and wonderfully he was made, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Psal. 139. 14, 15. with Ephes. 4. 9.