It does not appear that Mary explained to him the manner or occasion of her mysterious conception; but judging, perhaps, that it would seem incredible, she leaves the whole affair in the hands of Divine Providence. "Thus," as archbishop Leighton excellently remarks, "silent innocency rests satisfied in itself, when it may be inconvenient or fruitless to plead for itself, and loses nothing by doing so, for it is always in due season vindicated and cleared by a better hand. And thus it was here; she is silent, and God speaks for her." This inexplicable mystery was revealed to Joseph in a dream. He was assured by an angel, that Mary should bring forth a son, and commanded to call his name JESUS, for he was to "save his people from their sins." His apprehensions being immediately dispersed, he obeyed the heavenly intimation, "to take unto him Mary his wife." This miraculous conception has ever proved the stumbling-block of infidelity; while, in the just convictions of Christians, it is to be regarded as one of the most glorious and indispensable peculiarities of our faith. Christianity is not answerable for those misrepresentations of this doctrine which result from the weakness or the wickedness of mankind, and which have so often exposed it to ridicule; but let the statement of Scripture be taken simply as it is--plain, perspicuous, untangled with the perplexities of controversy--and it will approve itself to the pious mind, not only as a fact, but as one of prime importance and obvious utility. In demanding an explication of the manner in which the divine and human natures became united, or continue to subsist in indissoluble connexion in person of the Son of God, reason claims a prerogative to which she is by no means entitled; especially if the alternative be, either that reason shall be satisfied, or the statements of Scripture rejected. There exist facts relative to our own constitution as incomprehensible and contradictory to what, independently of experience, we should be induced to believe, as the miraculous conception and mysterious nature of Jesus Christ. The soul and body, distinguished for properties not only peculiar to each, but dissimilar, heterogeneous, and seemingly inconsistent, yet constitute one person. A man is at once material and immaterial, mortal and immortal. It was expedient that the Son of God should become man, that he might set us an example, sympathize with our griefs, vanquish our enemies, and abolish death: and equally so that he should be coequal with God in order to procure salvation for the lost world by the merit of his atonement; otherwise his obedience must have been imperfect, his sufferings unsatisfactory, and his mediatorial character, by which he was allied to both parties, incomplete.