Periods to have been ignorant of it those Illustrious Heroes I mean to whose Faith and Vertue he himself gave such ample and honourable Testimony Nor after the Law given do we find that the neglect of its positive Prescripts was ever objected to those Nations whose Sins were yet distinctly reckon'd up by the Prophets that were sent unto them as the Ninevites Egyptians Chaldaeans Idumaeans Moabites and such others The expiration of the Institutions peculiar to the Law was not so properly their destruction or abolition as their accomplishment consummation and attainment of that End for which they were by God instituted and intended What was meerly Shadow must needs become useless and vanish at the appearance of the Substance Yet several Usages and Institutions under the Law were adopted and introduc'd into the Church being by our Saviour and his Apostles improv'd and sublimated into a more Reasonable Service Circumcision was advanced into a better Sacrament more useful more easie more extensive in its Application The Sabbath became the Lords-Day on which as it is the Seventh part of Time we still commemorate Gods Rest on the Seventh Day and as it is the First Day of the Week we celebrate our Redemption from Spiritual Egyptian Bondage and the full Assurance of a compleat Victory over Death and the Grave by the Resurrection of our Lord on that Day This therefore is become to us a greater Feast than the Jews could observe on their Sabbath The great Feast of Atonement as well as all other bloody Sacrifices of the Law was finally accomplished on the Cross and the memory of That the Church solemnly recollects on Good-Friday But in this Feast of the Atonement there was something peculiar and of very extraordinary signification that of the Scape Goat I mean on which Aaron was to lay his hands and confess over him all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel Lev. 16. 20 21. putting them on the head of the Goat and then send him into the Wilderness Thus was Christ on whom God laid the Iniquities of us all presently after his Baptism led into the Wilderness carrying with him all the Sins that had been confess'd by Jerusalem and Judah at St. Johns Baptism Mark 1. 12. And thus it is that not the Goat indeed but the Lamb of God takes away the Sins of the World John 1. 29. as the Baptist had declared concerning him I am sensible that the pleasant contemplation of these Divine Mysteries would easily transport me beyond the proportion of the Time I must not therefore insist upon any of the rest Not on Aaron the High Priest his Mysterious Vestments and more Mysterious Consecration nor any of the Oral Prophecies concerning the great Business of this Day those immediately from God to Adam and Abraham or those of Jacob Moses and the Prophets down to the express Testimony of St. John Baptist the immediate Harbinger and Forerunner of the Lord. And I am sure I need not put you in mind of that which is daily in your Ears the melody of the Psalms those lofty inspired Hymns which are at once a very History of the Birth Life and Death of the Messias and also the most fervent Petitions and devoutest strains of Thanksgiving that the Mouth of Man can utter or his Heart conceive Thus Great thus Holy thus Divine are the Triumphs of this Day It is the Birth-day of GOD the New-birth of the whole World It is the Day which the Lord hath made and which Abraham saw It is not a Private or a Modern Feast We have heard already that it is as Ancient as the Fall of Adam 2 Tim. 1. 9. Nay we read of Grace given in Christ Jesus before the World began Ephes 3. 11. according to the Eternal purpose which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is what was from all Eternity decreed and presently after the beginning of Time happily put in practice For Christ is the Way and the Door by which both the first and last Man and all other that come thither must enter Heaven Acts 4. 12. Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given among Men whereby Adam or any of his Off-spring have or can be saved God himself therefore could not apply more seasonable or effectual Comfort to our drooping Parents languishing and astonished under the shame and horrour of their Fall than to tell them of the Seed of the Woman the wonderful Birth of this Day Thus do both our Testaments run one into the other They exhibit one and the same thing even the Common Salvation only under diverse circumstances suitable to the differences of Persons and Time (a) Unius igitur ejusdem substantiae sunt omma Iren. adv Haeres lib. 4. cap. 21. The substance of things is the same both in the Old and the New Testament (b) Non alterum quidem Vetera alterum quidem proferentem Nova docuit sed unum cundem Id. ibid. St. Matt. 13. 52. It is one and the same Great Housholder that brings forth things both new and old as Irenaeus applieth to this Matter that Parable of our Lord. (c) Servis quidem adhuc indisciplinatis condignam tradens Legem liberis autem fide justificatis congruentia dans Praecepta filiis adaperiens suam haereditatem c. Ibid. The same Lord and Christ is exhibited in both the Books dispensing to his Children and Servants Laws and Rules suitable to their several Capacities and Ages Well may we therefore be fill'd both with wonder and delight when we listen to the ravishing Harmony of those two Books of God (d) Quis hanc â—…etitiam divinorum Sacramentorum cùm sanae doctrinae luce claresâ—unt non praeferat universis hujus mundi Imperiis etiam inusitatâ felicitate pacatis An Employment and Contemplation in the Opinion of St. Austin to be prefer'd before the peaceable enjoyment of the Empire of the whole World (e) Nonne tanquam duo Seraphim c. St. Aug. ad Jan. Epist 119. Do not the two Testaments says he as the two Seraphims call and cry to one another Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Sabaoth That great and good Man seems to have wrought himself up into a kind of Transport or Ecstasie by dwelling long and thinking deeply on such things as these From the Considerations which I have now mentioned and very many such like which in this vast and inexhaustible Subject may be brought to illustrate one Testament by the other I might observe as Irenaeus on the same occasion in the place forecited and also the 43 Chapter of that Book how justly our Saviour requires that his Disciples and Apostles who went to instruct others in the Christian Faith should themselves be Scribes well instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven and like the Great Master of the Family able to bring forth out of their Treasure things new and old that is saith the
A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL ON Christmass-Day 1684. By HVMFREY GOWER D. D. and Master of St. John's College in Cambridge Published by His Majesties special Command LONDON Printed by S. Roycrost for Robert Clavell at the Peacock at the West-end of St. Pauls Church-Yard 1685. GALAT. III. 21 22. Is the Law then against the Promises of God God forbid For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe WE cannot more properly celebrate the Memory of the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord the Pious purpose of our present Assembling than by fixing our Meditations on the Nature Reason and Design of that most wonderful Undertaking and Condescension of the Son of God This is a sure way to sanctifie our Feast and make it truly an Holy-Day Not that we are to neglect the History The bare Narrative of the thing done affords very proper and useful entertainment for this Season It refreshes the Memory in all the mighty particulars of this stupendious Transaction and so helps to settle them firmer in the Mind it raises and warms the Fancy excites and quickens the Affections of the Soul all which have very considerable influence upon Practice This is to keep Holy-day too to listen with the Shepherds to the Glad-tydings of the bright Ambassadour of Heaven and the triumphant Melody of the Celestial Choir which assisted at that Solemnity then to accompany the Eastern Sages conducted by a Light held out from Heaven to behold the place where the infinite Infant lay to read the wondrous History of the New-born-Babe as it was fairly written long before his Birth in the Prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Tribe the Family the Name the Place the Time and the Manner of the Nativity of Him who was God as well as Man All this is the work of the Day and you have done it often and the Church hath taken care by the Psalms and Lessons and other parts of the proper Service that it should never be quite omitted But there is still further and more lofty matter of Meditation in the Mercies and Mysteries of this Day A Day contriv'd from all Eternity prefigur'd from all Antiquity which the Fulness of Time produc'd which Holy Church and Holy Men in all Ages gladly commemorate which Angels gaze at with Ecstasie and Rapture and which both Men and Angels shall eternally celebrate with shouts of Joy and everlasting Hallelujah's Some part of this abounding Theme is presented to you by the words of my Text in which is contain'd this principal Proposition That the Law was but an Introduction or Dispensation preparatory to the Gospel and the Proof of it taken from the Insufficiency of the Law to effect what God mainly propos'd to himself the eternal Happiness of Mankind For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the Promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe In the whole Argument as it lies in these words there are at least four Particulars or Propositions First That Man of himself has no Title to Immortal Life This is implyed and supposed because God contrives a way to render him fairly capable of being saved Secondly God sincerely desires the Life that is the Salvation of Men and has propos'd Means regularly to Accomplish it Thirdly This was not could not be by the Law of Moses But Fourthly By the Grace and Mercy exhibited to the World in Jesus Christ or in the words of the Text by the Promise which by Faith of Jesus Christ is given to them that believe As for the first of these It is very evident that we are naturally without any plea for Eternal Life The promise of Immortality was free unmerited Bounty even to our First Parents whilst they stood adorned with all the beauties of a spotless Innocence The longest life of Man all spent in most unblemished uniform Obedience to his Creators Laws could merit nothing at all much less the inestimable reward of Everlasting Glory Death indeed is as we are told Rom. 6. 23. the natural and dearly earn'd wages of Sin but Eternal Life is the gift of God The first and perfectest of our Kind could at the best be but an unprofitable Servant to the Infinite Master that he served Nay it was the peculiar Privilege and Happiness of his Nature that he was able to perform a steddy and perpetual Obedience to all his Creators Will. Therefore the Psalmist prays for more degrees of such Spiritual Power and pleads his being a Creature to move his Maker to bestow them on him Psal 119. 73. Thy hands have made me and fashioned me give me understanding that I may learn thy Commandments Man 's own Being the excellent endowments of his Nature his very Meat and Drink are liberal and abundant Wages for that Service which is naturally due from the Creature to the Creator and is as duly paid by all Man only excepted who yet is most obliged to it as enjoying great Advantages and even an Imperial Prerogative above all the rest as if for Him alone the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth had been produc'd Esai 48. 13. Mine hand hath laid the foundation of the Earth and my right hand hath spann'd the Heavens saith the Lord by his holy Prophet when I call unto them they stand up together Good reason sure that they should stand up and be at the Call of Him who gave them and supports them in their Being Frogs and Locusts and all Vermin come and go as they are commanded off and on by the Sovereign Word of their Almighty Maker The Ravens feed one Prophet a Lion tears another but hungry and ravenous as they were those Lions chose to fast and starye rather than hurt a third A Fish swallows up a fourth and then harmlesly restores him to Dry-land and all at the Command of God Judg. 5. 20. The Stars in their courses fight against Sisera Psal 148. 8. Fire and Hail Snow and Vapour and Stormy Wind are fulfilling his Word These and all things else rejoyce in his Commandment are ready upon Earth when need is Ecclus. 39. 31. and when their time is come they shall not transgress his Word c. But Man only Man like a pamper'd Rebel grown great and insolent by the abus'd Indulgence of his Prince boggled at the first and easiest Trial of his Obedience and proudly disdain'd to acknowledge any Lord over him But what if he does his best What has he of his own to offer to his God Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Adam himself had nothing but what was given him why should he glory
significative of that Infernal Lake of Fire and Brimstone which shall Eternally burn all those that resist the merciful Overtures and Manifestations of the Gospel The famous Wrestling of Jacob with the Angel interpreted by the Ancients to be the Son of God serv'd as a Type of Christ's Sufferings and Temptations Joseph was another remarkable Type of Christ appears by his Bloody Coat his Innocence his Chastity his Sufferings his Advancement unto Honour and his Feeding of the People And now we are come within view of the Sojourning of the Children of Israel in Egypt and their Slavery there a Subject which makes up a considerable part of the Old Testament and is copiously insisted on in the New for the History and Mystical Interpretation of it I do not pretend to lay down the Reasons of Divine Wisdom in singling out one Family of the whole World for the Object of his greatest Mercies and his severest Judgments Such Speculations are apt to tempt Men to venture too far and to a too curious Examination of the Methods and Motives of Gods Wisdom in the Administration of the World That 's an Attribute out of our reach Whatever Appeal he hath been pleased to make to us concerning the Justice and Equity of his Ways I do not find that he ever submitted his Wisdom to the Trial and Judgment of a Man But thus it actually was in the Case before us All Mankind were equally the Sons of God but amongst all these it pleased him to pitch on the House of Jacob to make it a Sign and an Example to the rest of Men. Upon these on certain Conditions he heaps mighty and miraculous Mercies and upon these when highly provok'd he poureth forth his Vengeance in dreadful and stupendious Judgments The Account of this their diverse and double Condition makes up the greatest part of the History and Prophecies of the Old Testament The New gives us an account of the last Attempt of Heaven to reclaim that People and of their last concluding Provocation the Murder of their Messias which as it was foretold by filling up the Measure of their Sins ripened them for that woful Final Desolation of their People Government City and Temple which had been long before predicted by the Prophets and was then more expresly foretold and denounc'd by Christ and his Apostles All which ruine the Romans in Gods appointed time brought upon that Devoted People and the World at this Day with astonishment beholds to which that forlorn Nation hath been for this Sixteen Hundred Years a Mocking an Hissing a By-word and an Abomination This was the People that long continued the Type and Emblem of the Christian Church And a little Consideration will enable us to expound and apply to our selves the several Dispensations of God to them The Devil is the afflicting Pharaoh our Lusts and Sins the Taskmasters and Bondage The Blood of Christ is the Red Sea Redemption to us but Ruine to the Devil and his Instruments Moses and Joshuah did evidently Personate our Jesus that conducts us to the Land of Canaan the Heavenly Jerusalem through the Wilderness of the World He is the Rock that is smitten for us and supporteth us in our Journey He is the Brazen Serpent lifted up on High on the Cross to Cure us of all the venemous and malignant bitings of the Old Serpent But before we had brought the Israelites thus far on this their Mystical March we might have observed the Blood sprinkled on the Posts of their Doors to secure them from the Stroak of the Destroying Angel as likewise their Paschal Lamb of which not a Bone must be broken any more than of the Lamb of God But their Food from Heaven their Celestial Manna did plainly signifie that true and living Bread which came down from Heaven and which stands now upon our Altars prepared for the Spiritual repast of Devout Receivers But I must not stay to enlarge on so known a Theme Universa quae ex Aegypto profectio fuit populi fiebat à Deo typus imago profectionis Ecclecsiae quae erat futura ex gentibus Irenaeus tells us in short that the coming forth of that People out of Egypt and their whole Progress was ordain'd by God to be a Type and Representation of the Original and Progress of the Christian Church which was to be gathered from among the Gentiles Iren. lib. 4. c. 50. But it will concern us to have a care that we do not carry on the Metaphor too far and provoke God as those Typical Christians did by Murmurings and Rebellion For the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews observes Heb 3. 17 18. that the Carkases of those that sin'd fell in the Wilderness God having sworn that they should not enter into his Rest Thus have we taken an hasty View of much above two Thousand Years so thick set with Figurative Indications of the Kingdom of the Mâ—… that it looks like the very Age of Christ himself the Copy or Pattern of the Gospel And it was indeed a kind of Primitive or Patriarchal Christendom So that when our Saviour took our Flesh upon him and as on This Day appeared upon Earth in order to the establishment of the Gospel in all its parts He was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Dem. Evang. as Eusebius expresseth it a Restorer of the most Ancient Religion that which had been the Religion of the World before Moses By this Order and Disposition of things God made it manifest that the Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. as meerly Positive was not necessary to Salvation that Man could be well without it that it was to be but a long Parenthesis as it were between the first and second Christendom the Age of the Patriarchs and that of the Messias something that might have been left out and well spared as for any intrinsecal Excellency of its own a meer Interim an Expedient for the present a kind of Interregnum or a Temporary Constitution And indeed the whole Frame of it look'd forward and was apparently founded on Relation the chiefest use of it being to point and direct to a better Covenant something greater and more desirable than it self If you abstract it from that Typical and Relative respect it will soon appear much unworthy of its Great Author the most trifling as well as the most burdensom Constitution that ever was So that it is no wonder that the Heathens found it easie to pick Quarrels with it and raise Objections against it of that nature These Philo amongst others learnedly labours to remove but all in vain because he himself was a Stranger to the true use and signification of the Law That it was mutable not established as a necessary or intended for a perpetual Rule may be collected even from the lateness of its Date Had it been otherwise God would not have suffer'd the Renowned Patriarchs of the former