That the eternal God should stoop to be incarnate; that he, whom the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain, should lie, hid in the womb of a Virgin; that he, "who bindeth the deep in swadling bands," (Job xxxviii. 9.) should himself be wrapped in swadling clothes and laid in a manger; that he, who is the ancient of days, should be born an infant; that he, who is "the everlasting Father," should be a Virgin's Child; that he, who is himself "exalted above all blessing and praise," should become "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;" that he, whose nature is impassive, should agonize in the garden and bleed under the scourge; that he, "who only hath immortality," should "become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross;" that he, who is the most high and most holy, should be made an accursed thing, suffering as the vilest of malefactors, and the most infamous of mankind: these are mysteries, after which reason gropes in vain whilst faith assents, admires and adores.

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