acknowledging of Gods blessings the first part of ours so sure a point of it that Confiteri to acknowledge or confess the blessing or him that sends it is above sixty times in the Book of Psalms set down for blessing And whole Psalms you have that are nothing else but an enumeration and catalogue of blessings the 66. the 103. the 104. the 105. the 107. the 136. And the more particular we are in it the more we bless him You have heard how particular Zachary is in it here He hath visited he hath redeemed c. given us nine particulars leaves neither gift nor giver unacknowledged Honourable it is to do so honourable to reveal to reveal the works of God says the Angel Iob xii 7. honourable to him honourable to us we cannot honour God without it nor expect honour from him if we will not acknowledge it Come and I will tell you what he hath done for my soul is the best way to begin our blessing 2. But it is but to begin it We must go on to the next way of blessing set close to it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Benedictus from Benedicere both tell us there is much of it in words Only verbum is factum and dicere is facere sometimes in the holy page So we must take both words and deeds to do it with The word by the hand of thy servant as the Scripture sometimes speaks is the best way to bless him with Yet to our benedicere in the first sense first And to do that to give him good words is the least that we can give him let us be sure then not to grudge him them Confess we that he is good and gracious and merciful full of mercy plenteous in goodness and truth Streighten we not his visits stifle we not his Redemption coop we not up his salvation to a corner suffer we it to run large and full that the whole world may bless him for it Let us 2. speak it out Gods blessings were not done in a corner no more must ours Publick and solemn they would be And the Church has made it and Text part of the publick service that every one might bear a part in blessing God Every one of us and every thing of us too our souls and all that is within us heart and mind and all All within us and all without us our lips praise him our mouths praise him our hands praise him our flesh praise him our bones say who is like him all the members of our body turn themselves into tongues to bless him Bless we him 3. in set Hymns on purpose in good votes and wishes that his Church may prosper his Name be magnified his Glory advanced to the highest pitch for bene dicere is bene vovere too And sanctificare is no less To bless is sometimes to sanctifie So God blessed the seventh day is God hallow'd it and to sanctifie a day or place to bless him in is to bless him by his own pattern that he hath set us well said if well done I dare assure you to set apart both times and places to bless him in 2. But dicere is not all sung never sweetly said never so well The Lord bless thee in common phrase is the Lord do good unto thee Indeed Gods blessing is always such his benedicere is bene facere His saying is a doing his blessing a making blessed 'T is fit our blessing should be somewhat like it To himself indeed we can do no good He neither wants it nor can be better'd by it To His we may Though not to his head yet to his feet The poor we may bless them And the blessing them is blessing him for inasmuch as ye have done it unto these you have done it unto me says he himself S. Mat. xxv And truly it must needs be a poor blessing that cannot reach his feet Nay 't is a poor one if it reach no higher Indeed he that giveth alms he sacrifices praise says the Son of Syrach Ecclus. xxxv 2. And praise is blessing But to bless is to honour too And honour the Lord with thy substance says a wiser then the Son of Syrach Prov. iv Something must be done to his own honour So nething given or offered to support that here among us for to bless is to give thanks and that intimates somewhat to be given to him as well as said or spoken to him It will else be verba dare and not gratias a meer cheating him of our thanks As soon as Naaman the Syrian was cured of his Leprosie he begs of the Prophet to accept a blessing for it Nature had taught him God was to be blest so 2 Kings v. 15. When the Captains of Israel had found by their whole numbers how God had delivered them they come with a blessing in their hands of sixteen thousand seven hundred and fifty shekels of gold for the house of God Numb xxxi 52. David and his people the story tells us blest him so too 1 Chron. xxix 20 21. offered incredible sums of Gold and Silver for the service of the house of God And let me tell you without begging for it that the House of God being now by this Visit in the Text made the very office of salvation where he daily visits us and entertains us with his Body and Blood with holy conferences and discourses where he seals us every day to the day of Redemption and offers to us all the means of salvation there can be no way of blessing God so answerable and proportionable to his thus blessing us as thus blessing him again Yet where there is nothing thus to bless him with there is yet another way of blessing him nay where there are other ways this must be too To bless him is to glorifie him and a good life does that S. Mat. v. 16. By our ill lives the name of God is blasphemed says the Apostle Rom. ii 24. Then by our good ones it must needs be blest Zachary seems to point at this way of blessing when he tells us we were delivered that we might serve our Visitor in holiness and righteousness ver 75. And thus he that has neither eyes to look up nor hands to lift up nor feet to go up to the house of blessing nor tongue to bless him nor so much as a Cross to bless himself or God not a mite to throw into his treasure may truly bless him and be accepted To this and all the other ways of blessing is the Text set And let all now come in and bear a part in blessing Blessed be the Lord God of Israel is now lastly a call to call them in The Prophet David does so Psal. cxlviii Sun and Moon and Stars and Light Heaven and Earth and Waters both above and under them Dragons and Deeps Fire and Hail and Snow and Vapour and Wind and Storm and Hills and Trees and Beasts and Cattel
that to others Good will towards men 3. But good will is not enough good works are graces let 's study to encrease and abound and to be rich in them 4. Yet Gratia is in St. Pauls stile in this Chapter ver 1. and elsewhere bounty and liberality to the poor rich in this grace especially we are to be 'T is the peculiar grace of Christmas hospitality and bounty to the poor 'T is the very grace St. Paul here provokes the Corinthians to by the example of those of Macedonia and Achaia ver 1. who to their power and beyond their power he bears them witness were not only willing to supply the necessities of the Saints but even entreated him and them to take it By the example 2. of Christ who both became himself poor that we might be the more compassionate to the poor now he was in the number and made us rich that we might have wherewith to shew our compassion to them Now surely if Christ be poor and put himself among them who would not give freely to them seeing he may chance even to give to Christ himself among them when he gives however what is given to any of them he owns it as to himself S. Mat. xxv 40. What ye dâ— to any of the least of these my brethren ye do it unto me And can any that pretends Christ be so wretchedly miserable as not to part with his mony upon this score Can any be so ungrateful as not to give him a little who gave them all shall he become poor for our sakes and we not shew our selves rich for his it were too little in reason not to make our selves poor again for him not to be as free to him as he to us Yet he will be contented with a little for his all that we should out of our abundance supply the want of his poor Members He is gracious Behold the grace of our Lord I in this too in complying with our infirmities not commanding us as he might to impoverish our selves with acts of mercy but to be only rich and abundant in them to which yet he promises more grace still the reward of glory Come ye blessed of my Father ye who supply and help my poor ones come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world where ye that have followed me in my poverty or become poor for my sake or have been rich in bounty to the poor as it were to a kind of poverty shall then reign with me amidst all the riches of eternal Glory THE EIGHTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower then the Angels to crown him with glory and worship BUT Lord What is man or the Son of man that thou didst this day visit him that thou this day crownedst him with that glory didst him that honour so we may begin to day for 't is a day of wonder of glory and worship to stand and wonder at Gods mercy to the sons of men and return him glory and worship for it For Lord what is man that the Son of God should become the Son of man to visit him that God should make him lower then the Angels who is so far above them that he might crown us who are so far below them with glory and honour equal to them or above them It was a strange mercy that God should make such a crum of dust as man to have dominion over the works of his own hands that he should put all things in subjection under his feet that he should make the Heavens the Moon and Stars for him and the Psalmist might very well gaze and startle at it But to make his Son such a thing of nought too such a Quid est that no body can tell what it is what to speak low enough to express it such a Novissimus hominum such an abject thing as man such a cast-away as abject man as the most abject man bring him below Angels below men and then raise him up to Glory again that he might raise up that vile thing called man together with him and restore the Dominion when he had lost it is so infinitely strange a mercy that 't is nearer to amazement than to wonder And indeed the Prophet here is in amaze and knows not what to say Both these mercies he saw here but he saw not how to speak them Gods mercy in mans Creation and Gods mercy in mans Redemption too What God made man at first and to what he exalted him when he had made him What God made his Son for man at last what he made him first and last lower then the Angels first higher then they at last that he might shew the wonders of his mercy to poor man both first and last But if David did not see both in the words he spake the Apostle did for to Christ he applies them Heb. ii 6 7. And that 's authority good enough for us to do so to bring it for a Christmas Text especially Christ himself applying the second verse Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength as spoken in relation to himself St. Matth. xxi 16. And that 's authority somewhat stronger Yet to omit nothing of Gods mercy to do right on all hands to Prophet and Apostle and Christ too we shall take them in both senses To refer them to man the plain letter with the whole design and context of the Psalm is sufficient reason To understand them yet of Christ he himself and his Apostle will bear us out And though the Text be full of wonder it is no wonder that it has two senses most of the old Testament and Prophesies have so a lower and a higher a literal and a more sublime sense Thus out of Egypt have I called my son Hos. xi i. Rachels weeping for her children Jer. xxxi 14. I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion Psal. ii 6. all applied to Christ or his business and affairs and yet spoken first to other purposes of Israel or David I should lose time to collect more places 'T is better I should tell you the sum of this that it is the Prophet Davids wonder at Gods dealing towards man and his dealing towards Christ that he should deal so highly mercifully towards man and so highly strangely towards Christ so mercifully with man as to remember him to visit him to make him but little lower then the Angels and crown him with glory and worship So strangely with Christ as to make him a Son of man and lower then the Angels first then afterward to crown him with glory and worship Things all to be highly wondered at And the Text best to be divided into Gods mercy and Davids wonder I. Gods mercy manifested here in three particulars 1. In his dealing with man What is man
with the multitudes before and behind the whole multitude of Saints of so many Ager then with a few scattered headless heedless companies forbear it better pray and praise with them then prattle and prate with these better their Hosanna and Benedictus to him that cometh in the name of the Lord then these mens sensless Sermons and Discourses who come in their own name and of their own heads without Gods sending them at all Having then so full a Choir so many voices to bear us company let us also now sing with them Yet that we may be sure to sing in Tune let 's first listen a little to the key and more they bless in 'T is a loud one for 't is a crying they cried not in the sense we often take it for a mournful tone or note for 't is an expression of joy and gladness So S. Luke xix 37. They began to rejoyce c. but with a loud voice it was they praised him that 's the meaning so expressed in the same verse by that Evangelist Indeed true it is God has turn'd our songs of joy into the voice of weeping as the Prophet complains taken away our Feasts and gaudy days and we may well cry and cry aloud in that sadder sense of the word crying yet for all that must we not lay down the other or forget the Song of prayer and praise especially upon the point of Christs coming to us Here it must be crying in another tone singing speaking proclaiming the great favour and honour of him that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessing and honour and glory to him that so cometh Now that we be not out in tune or note let 's mind the word we shall find the sweetest ways of blessing in it 1. 'T is a loud crying such is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that teaches us to be devout and earnest in our prayers and praises in blessing Christ. 2. 'T is loud and to be heard to instruct us not to be asham'd of our way of serving Christ he that is Christ will be asham'd of him so Christ professes S. Mark viii 38. 3. 'T is the crying of a multitude many multitudes and intimates to us what prayer and praise does best even the Puâ—lick and Common Service 4. 'T is the crying of several multitudes the same thing and insinuates peace and unity that 's the only Christian way of praising God one God and one Faith and one Christ says the Apostle and one heart and mind of all that profess them and 't were best one way of doing it the same Hosanna the same Benedictus the same voice and form of prayer and praise and Worship if it could be had 5. 'T is of some before and some that follow 't is not a confused or disorderly note or way hudling and confounding all together but the voice of Order where every one sings in time in tune and place some begin and others follow and the Chorus joyns all in decency and order this to preach decency and order to them that come in at any time or call any where upon the name of Christ even the very multitude here in Christs praise keep their parts and order 6. 'T is a crying yet of joy we told you the voice of mirth and gladness that we may know Christ is best served with a chearful spirit Christianity is no such dull heavy thing as some have fancied it it admits of Mirth and Songs so they be in nomine Domini either to the praise of God or not to his dishonour so they be not light or wanton or scurrilous or such like 7. This crying here is general and our praises of God must be so too all that is without me and all that is within me praise his holy name all the powers of my soul superiour and inferiour all the organs of my body all the instruments of my life and living my estate and means all to concur in giving praise to God in celebrating the mercies the humilities the condescensions the out-goings and in-comings of my Redeemer Thus we have the key and tune of blessing God and Christ devoutly confidently publickly unanimously orderly chearfully and universally with all our faculties and powers Let 's now hear the Song of praise Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he c. And that we may sing in tune let 's know our parts Three parts there are in it as in other Songs Bassus Tenor and Altus the Bass the Tenor and the Treble Hosanna to the Son of David there 's the Bass the deepest and lowest note the humanity of Christ in filio David being the Son of David the Bass sings that that 's low indeed for him we can go no lower Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord there 's the Tenor or middle part he and the name of the Lord joyn'd together God and Man united that 's a note higher then the first the Mediator between God and Man God in the highest Son of David in the lowest the middle note then follows And Hosanna in altissimis the Altus or Treble the highest note of all we can reach no higher strain we never so high We begin low that 's the way to reach high Hosanna to the Son of David Yet as low as it is 't is hard to hit hard to reach the meaning of it Hosanna a hard note so Interpreters have found it St. Augustine will have it an Interjection only to express rejoycing like that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Greeks or Io triumphe among the Latines The truth is 't is an expression and voice of joy and gladness though no Interjection an expression us'd by the Jews at the Feast of Tabernacles a joyful acclamation enough to authorize common and received expressions of joy though it may be they that use them do not perfectly understand them especially joy inexpressible such as ours should be for the Son of Davids coming may be allow'd to express it self as it can or as it does in other rejoycings when it can do no better Some interpret it Redemption others an Hymn or Praise others Grace others Glory others Boughs to the Son of David All yet concur in this that 't is a joyful wish for prosperity to Christ under the title of the Son of David Grace Redemption Praise and Glory Psalms and Hymns and all the other outward expressions of Thanks Respect and Joy be given to him who now comes to restore the Kingdom of his Father David Nothing too much to be given to the Messiah for him they always mean by the Son of David No inward or outward joy enough for the coming of our Redeemer But though Hosanna mean all these several rendrings yet the construction is no more then Salvum fac or salva obsecro Save we beseech thee like our Vivat Rex God save the King Save the Son of David we beseech thee and save us by the Son of David For
known It were strange to hear of equity or civility or modesty or moderation that could not be seen ridiculous to call him merciful or equitable that shews it not by some condescension to stile him civil whose behaviour is nothing less him modest who shews nothing but immodesty him meek who expresses nothing but fury and impatience These are vertues we must needs see where e're they be It is reported of S. Lucian the Martyr that he converted many by his modest cheerful and pious look and carriage and of S. Bernard that In carne ejus apparebat gratia quaedam spiritualis c. There appeared a kind of spiritual grace throughout his body there shone a heavenly brightness in his face there darted an Angelical purity and Dove-like simplicity from his eyes so great was the inward beauty of his inward man that it poured out it self in his whole outward man abundantly over all his parts and powers No motion in them but with Reason and Religion Where such vertue is it will be known must be too must so be exprest that men may know and feel the benefits and effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let your moderation speak for you whose servants you are what Lord you are under what is your expectation and your faith 3. Nor is it thirdly enough to have it known to one or two to a few or to the houshold of faith alone To all men says the Apostle Iew and Gentile Friend and Foe Brethren and Strangers the Orthodox and Hereticks good and bad Christian and Infidel Condescend to men of low estate the very lowest says our Apostle Rom. xii 16. Provide things honest in the sight of all men ver 17. live peaceably with all men ver 8. do all possible to live so having your conversation honest among the Gentiles that by your good works which they shall behold they may glorifie God in the day of visitation 1 Pet. ii 12. full of equity that they may not speak evil of you as rigorous and unmerciful full of courtesie and civility that the Doctrine of Christ be not blasphem'd for a Doctrine of rudeness and incivility full of modesty that the adversary speak not reproachfully of the word of truth have no occasion to do so by your immodesty full of moderation that all good men may glorifie God for your professed subjection to the Gospel of Christ to those hard points in hard times to meekness and moderation when your adversaries are so violent and immoderately set against you Known must our moderation be in all its parts that all may know the purity of our profession the soundness of our Religion the Grace of God appearing in us the adversary be convinced the Christian Brethren incited by our examples to the same grace and vertue One note especially we are to carry hence that it is no excuse for our impatience harshness or any immodest or immoderate fierceness against any that they are men of a contrary opinion we use so ill Men they are and even under that notion moderation to be used towards them much more if we acknowledge the same Lord or his being any way near either to reward or punish And so I pass to the second General the Christians comfort that holds up his head in the bitterest storms and makes him moderate quite through them all The Lord is at hand Now the Lord is several ways said to be at hand many ways to be near us He is at hand or near us by his divine essence not far says S. Paul from every one of us Acts xvii 27. he is every where we therefore no where but that he is near us He is near us 2. by his Humanity The taking that upon him has brought him nigh indeed to be bone of our bone and flesh of our slesh He is nearer us yet 3. by his Grace One with us and we with him one Spirit too he in us and we in him S. Iohn xiv 20. He is at hand and nigh us 4. in our Prayers So holy David The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him all such as call upon him faithfully He is nigh us 5. in his Word in our Mouths and in our Hearts by the word of Faith that is preached to us Rom. x. 8. we need not up to heaven nor down to the deep says the Apostle to find out Christ that eternal word is nigh enough us in his word He is nigh us 6. in the Sacraments so near in Baptism as to touch and wash us especially so near in the Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood as to be almost touched by us there he is truly really miraculously present with us and united to us 'T is want of eyes if we discern not his Body there 1 Cor. xi 29. in that or see not his power in the other He is at hand 7. with his Iudgments Behold the Iudge standeth at the door S. James v. 9. Just before he had said the coming of the Lord draweth nigh but at the second look he even sees him at the door Now of this coming two sorts we find expected even in the Apostles times his coming in judgment against Ierusalem to destroy his Crucifiers the unbelieving Iews and the Apostate Christians the Gnostick Hereticks that together with the Iews persecuted the Church of Christ and his last coming at the general Judgment We may add a third his being always ready at hand to deliver his faithful servants out of their troubles and to revenge them in due time of all those that causlesly rise up against them The first kind of his coming to Judgment that against Ierusalem is the coming by which the Apostle comforts his Philippians that the Lord was now coming to deliver the persecuted Saints out of their hands The third is that by which our drooping spirits are supported in all distresses that he is near to help us in them all The second his coming at last in the general Judgment then howsoever to make a full amends for all is the great stay of all our hope all Christians from first to last No great matter how we are here from time to time driven to our shifts the time is coming will pay for all Nor do any of the other comings want their comfort 'T is a comfort that God is so near us in his essence so that in him we live and move and have our being our life and being are surely the better by it 2. 'T is a great comfort that our Lord would vouchsafe us so great an honour as to become like one of us to walk and speak and eat and drink and be weary and weep and live and die like one of us 3. 'T is an inward and inexpressible comfort that he will dwell in us by his Grace and Holy Spirit make us Holy as himself is Holy 4. 'T is a gracious comfort that he suffers us so ordinarily to discourse with him in our Prayers 5. 'T is an especial
judges right Let us do nothing but with moderation and not think much to shew it unto all when we are sure to be rewarded for it and those that observe it not are sure to be punished 8. The Lord is at hand in the blessed Sacrament and that is also now at hand but a week between us and it And moderation of all kinds is but a due preparation to it some special act of it to be done against it Righteousness and equity is the habitation of his seat says David the Lord sits not nor abides where they are not The holy Sacrament that is his Seat a Seat of wonder is not set but in the righteous and good soul has no efficacy but there Modesty and humility are the steps to it into the modest and humble soul only will he vouchsafe to come All reverence and civility is but requisite in our addresses unto it But moderation meekness and patience and sweetness and forgiving injuries is so requisite that there is no coming there no offering at the altar till we be first reconciled to our Brother Go be first reconciled to thy Brother says our Lord himself S. Mat. v. 24. so that now if we desire a blessing of the blessed Sacrament unto us if we desire the Lord should there come to us let our moderation be known to all men before we come Let us study the art of reconcilement let us not stand upon points of honour or punctilio's with our Brother upon quirks and niceties let us part with somewhat of our right let us do it civilly use all men with courtesie and civility express all modesty and sweetness in our conversation all softness and moderation patience and meekness gentleness and loving kindness towards all even the bitterest of our enemies considering the Lord is at hand the Lord of Righteousness expects our righteousness and equity the Lord in his body and looks for the reverent and handsom behaviour of our bodies the Lord of pure eyes and cannot endure any unseemliness or intemperance either in our inward or outward man the Lord that died and suffered for us and upon that score requires we should be content to suffer also any thing for him not to be angry or troubled or repine or murmur at it or at them that cause it At the Holy Sacrament he is so near at hand that he is at the Table with us reaches to every one a portion of himself yet will give it to none but such as come in an universal Charity with all the forementioned moderations Give me leave to conclude the Text as I began it and fix the last Argument upon the time The time is now approaching wherein the Lord came down from Heaven that he might be the more at hand Fit it is we should strive to be the more at hand to him the readier at his command and service the time wherein he moderated himself and glory as it were to teach us moderation appeared so to all that our moderation also might appear to all of what size or rank or sect whatsoever I remember a story of Constantia Queen of Arragon who having taken Charles Prince of Salerno and resolving to sacrifice him to death to revenge the death of her Nephew Conradinus basely and unworthily put to death by his Father Charles of Anjon sent the message to him on a Friday morning to prepare himself for death The young Prince it seems not guilty of his Fathers cruelty returns her this answer That besides other courtesies received from her Majesty in Prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on that day whereon Christ died innocent The answer related so much mov'd Constantia that she sends him this reply Tell Prince Charles if he take contentment to suffer death on a Friday because Christ died on it I will likewise find my satisfaction to pardon him also on the same day that Iesus sign'd my pardon and the pardon of his Executioners with his Blood God forbid I shed the blood of a man on the day my Master shed his for me I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him Behold a Speech of a Queen worthy to command the world worthy a Christian indeed To apply it is only to tell you we may often take excellent occasions of vertue and goodness from times and days and bid you go and do likewisâ— The time that is at hand is a time to be celebrated with all Christian joy and moderation some particular and special act of Charity Equity Modesty Meekness Moderation to be sought out to be done in it or to welcome it The Feast of Love to be solemnized with an universal Charity the Lord at hand to be honoured with the good works of all our hands His coming to pardon and save sinners to be accompanied with a general reconcilement and forgiveness of all enemies and injuries of a moderation to be exhibited unto all Let your moderation then keep time as well as measure be now especially shewn and known and felt and magnified by all with whom we have to do that thus attending all his comings he may come with comfort and carry us away with honour come in grace and hear us come in mercy and pardon us come in his word and teach us come in spirit and dwell with us come in his Sacrament and feed and nourish us come in power and deliver us come in mercy and reward us come in glory and save us and take us with him to be nearer to him more at hand to sit at his right hand for evermore THE FIRST SERMON ON Christmas-Day ISAIAH Xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious AND in that day there shall be And in this day there was a root of Iesse that put forth its branch That day was but the Prophesie this day is the Gospel of it Now first to speak it in the Psalmists phrase truth flourished out of the earth now first the truth of it appeared Some indeed have applied it to Hezekiah and perhaps not amiss in a lower sense but the Apostle who is the best Commentator ever upon the Prophets applies it unto Christ Rom. xv 10. There we find the Text and him it suits to more exactly every tittle of it and of the Chapter hitherto than to Hezekiah or any else He was properly the branch that was then to grow out of old Iesse's root For Hezekiah was born and grown up already some years before thirteen at least He 2. it is whom the Spirit of the Lord does rest upon ver 2. upon Hezekiah and all of us it is the Dove going and returning Upon him 3. only it is that the Spirit in all its fulness with all its gifts wisdom and
needs be full of that Full 5. with the fulness of Riches too the unsearchable riches of Christ says St. Paul Eph. iii. 8. so full that we can find out no bottom of it come to no end of it unsearchable His fulness 6. was the fulness of Glory too we saw it says St. Iohn two verses before the Text such a glory as of the onely begotten Son of the Father and that sure is all the fulness of God Yet to put all out of doubt this fulness was the fulness of the God-head too expresly all the fulness of it and all of it bodily too says St. Paul Col. ii 3. Bodily how 's that why that 's full in all dimensions in all dimensions of a body length and breadth and heighth and depth the length and infinity of his Power the extent and breadth of his Love the height and eminency of his Majesty the depth and unfathomedness of his Wisdom all met together in Christ. 3. Nor will this seem strange at all if we consider for our third point in this fulness how and in what respect 't is his and 't is his both as he is God and as man He could not be thus full as I have told you unless he were God could not have the God-head dwell in him bodily unless God were in the body unless he were incarnate God Nor could other kinds of his fulness be in him unless he were man He could not be a full and sufficient Sacrifice and so offered for one had he not been man nor a perfect High Priest to mediate for us if not taken from among men the great promise that contains all the rest that of the seed of the Woman could not have been fulfilled would not have had its fulness from him but as man The very attribute of fulness speaks him God none full but God no fulness or satisfaction but in him yet some kinds of his fulness evidence him man are not the fulnesses of God as God but as God made man and so the Evangelist by the Context delivers it as the fulness of the word made flesh of the eternal word becoming man This fulness is the fulness of Christ and Christ is both God and Man so the fulness of both 4. And such a fulness that none runs over anointed with the oyl of gladness above his fellows that 's fulness but that 's not all so above them too it is as it runs down upon his fellows he is not full only for himself for us it was that he was born that he was given that he was anointed that he was full full of grace and full of truth and full of glory that we might be fill'd with grace and truth and glory He indeed is the head that was anointed with oyl but that head is ours the Church is the body upon which it runs down from the head 5. And that not to the near parts alone to the beard or shoulders but even to the skirts of the garment it runs so full it runs Ex hoc omnes all the members nay all the clothes not only those that are true members of the Church but even those who have but an outward relation to it all that have but an external right or adherence as skirts and clothes have yet some benefit of this oyl of this fulness of his Christ is no niggard his fulness nothing so stinted as some narrow and envious souls will have it here 's enough for all enough for the whole world to take and yet leave all full still You may light a thousand candles at one and yet the light of it no way lessened by it You may fill a thousand worlds if there were so many from his fulness and yet he never a whit the less full Take all you can cope all that will nay all that are or shall be here 's still for all as much as at the first O the depth of the riches of the fulness of Christ I could fill the hour I could fill the day I could fill all the remnant of my days with the discourses of it and should I do it I could yet say nothing of it near the full but be as far from sounding the depth of it at the end as I was at the beginning I pass therefore to that which we can better comprehend easier reach our filling out of this fulness the second general 2. Our filling is here said to be receiving Be our fulness never so great it is no other we have received it all Alas poor things we have nothing of our selves What hast thou that thou hast not received says the Apostle 1 Cor. iv 7. Is it grace that grows not in our gardens it comes from Paradise what we have is transplanted from thence Is it nature why that too is received We did not make our selves we received as well our natural as our spiritual endowments from him that made us Is it glory why God calls it his glory a thing he will not share but by beams and glances What should I now mention worldly Riches Estate and Honour they are too evidently received to be denied they are so 'T is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich Prov. xx 22. so Riches are received I shall deliver him and bring him to honour says God Psal. xci 15. so Honour is received And the earth hath God given to the children of men Psal. cxv 16. so our Estates and Lands every Clod and Turf of them is received For the earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof and from his fulness we receive of it what we have Enough this to humble us for if thou hast received it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not 't is St. Paul's inference upon it Thou hast no reason to boast thy self O man thy Honour thy Riches thy good Parts thy Graces they are not from thy self thou didst but receive them thou hast nothing of thine own why art thou proud And 2. if all received all we have nothing but so many receipts look we then well to our accounts they are things we are to reckon for we had best see how we expend them that at the general Audit we may give up our accounts with joy To do so 't will be convenient to think often of our receipts our own poverty and indigence a third business we may learn hence to grow sensible of our emptinesses and necessities that we are a meer bill of receipts so much received to day so much yesterday so much day by day item our souls item our bodies item our health item our wealth and so on ward nothing but received and without receiving nothing Upon this reflection upon our own vacuities we cannot 4. but open our hearts to receive our hands to take any thing from his fulness to supply us to desire to have them fill'd our selves fill'd out of his fulness something thence to make us full 2. Yet 2. we must not expect to be so
by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called
as it were of the creature that hath it And the power of a Kingdom I can tell you is good hold 3. And this Kingdom 3. is not an ordinary Kingdom neither As this Horn is above the Flesh so this Kingdom too not of this world St. John xviii 36. the likelier still to conduct us to the other and there set us safe And yet likelier 4. because it is not a fading but a durable one a horn that will hold Saul was anointed with a vial of Oyl 1 Sam. x. 1. to intimate the brittleness and shortness of his Kingdom but David with a horn 1 Sam. xvi 13. to signifie the continuance and strength of his that it should be a throne established for ever 1 Kings ii 45. And made good it was by this days Horn rais'd out of his house of whose Kingdom there shall be no end says the Prophet So no failure to be afraid of here It is a sure salvation we have by him And if I may now have the liberty to tell you more particularly what kind of Horn he may most fairly be said to be you will be the more ready to catch at it He is then 1. a Horn of Oyl to anoint us also Kings and Priests for so he makes us says S. Iohn Rev. i. 6. He is 2. the true Cornu-copia the Horn of plenty full of grace and truth and all good things else for out of his fulness we all receive ours says the same Apostle S. Iohn i. 16. He is 3. one of the Horns of the Altar or indeed all of them whither we may safely fly in all our dangers and distresses where we may lie secure when all the world has left us A sure hold now you will confess that is so high so strong so powerful so above corruption so lasting so everlasting so full of lasting honours plenties and securities 6. And yet as mighty and sure and as easie to catch hold on as this salvation is were it not for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were it not for us had we no claim no interest in it what were we the better either for the Horn or the salvation 'T is this for us that comes next to be considered that raises up our horns that makes us glad For this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not the Iews alone They had the first title right indeed but not the only to it There is an Israel of God peace be upon it says the Apostle Gal. vi 16. as well as an Israel after the flesh There are Sons of Abrahams Faith as well as of his body to whom this salvation is sent as well as unto them Blessed Zachary brings in those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death into the number ver 79. the Gentiles as well as Iews into the light of it 't is omni populo to all people whatsoever in the Angels message chap. 2. of our Evangelist ver 10. All people and all degrees and orders of them rich and poor one with another so populus signifies not the plebem taken out of it not the lowest or meanest of the people escaped or forgotten 'T is an universal salvation that is here set up God does not streighten heaven though men do He would have all men to be saved 1 Tim. ii 4. though some men need a horn indeed to get such a salvation down yet so it is and to this purpose he has rais'd this salvation up which is the next advance of this salvation we are next to handle 7. And he rais'd it 1. as a Beacon or Standard upon a Hill that all Nations and Languages all kind of persons might flock in unto it Rais'd it 2. as from the Dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All hopes of it now were in the dust For the temporal condition of the Iews their enemies oppressed them and had them in subjection long they had so and all the attempts for deliverance had been so often baffled that they durst hope no longer For their spiritual condition both Iew and Gentile were all concluded under sin the one blinded with his own superstition the other shut up in ignorance and darkness when on a sudden was this day-spring from on high this horn this ray of light for I see not why this Horn as well as those of Moses face may not be construed so this ray this Horn I say rais'd up to light them both into the ways of salvation Rais'd up 3. as the horn out of the flesh a Saviour rais'd up thence to day Though from above he came into the flesh he came that thence being made sensible of our infirmities he might the easier bear with them Rais'd up lastly to raise up our thoughts from all inferiour expectations and fix them where they should be for deliverance and salvation Cornu exaltatum this salvation eminent for the vastness the opportunity the convenience the proportion it carries the seventh particular we observe in Gods blessing the fourth advancing of this salvation 8. There is an eighth And it is salvation in the right house The Lord of the Ascendant of our salvation in the Kingly house the best house to make it the more glorious the house of David Men would willingly be sav'd honourably by a person of honour rather then a base hand Men love not to owe their lives or honours to an unworthy person would be beholding to the right King rather than an Vsurper for them The House of David here hits right for that And we cannot but acknowledge a huge blessing in it even upon this account that how poorly sneakingly and basely we every day betray our selves into the hands of our enemies we are yet thus by Christ brought off with honour and enjoy by him an honourable salvation 9. And yet there is one thing more we would desire not to owe our selves to a villain or a miscreant or to a wicked and ungodly house or person To crown his blessings God has contrived them in the house of his servant David So God honoureth his servants so he encourages them to be good They are the persons theirs the houses where salvation dwells They are the pillars of the earth To David his servant and Abraham his servant and Isaac his servant and Israel his servant so run the promises both of a Saviour and salvation to them and to their seed for evermore Sum we up Gods blessings now Gracious Visits perfect Redemptions Salvations many mighty sure general eminent seasonable honourable salvations to us and ours everlasting too what would you more there 's nothing behind now but our blessing God for all these blessings I hope that shall not be so long for 't is but little that is required for so much and but three particulars that make it up An acknowledgment of Gods blessings a setting our selves to some way to bless him for them and a desire that all would do so too II. The acknowledgment begins it the
desires or place our affections upon earthly rubbish not to precount our lands or houses our clothes or furniture our full bags or our numerous stock and daily encrease our riches but to reckon Christ our riches his Grace our wealth his reproach our honour his poverty our plenty his glory the sum and crown of all our riches and glory For if you know the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ this you know also that 't is worth the seeking that 't is riches and honour and glory how poor soever it look to the eye of the world The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it is only that makes us rich and poverty his way to enrich us by contrary to the way of the world and this ye know says the Apostle 'T is so plain and evident I need not tell you it for ye know it The third point the evidence of all that has been said 3. For ye know it for ye know nothing if you know not this It was a thing not done in a corner all the corners of the world rang of it from the utmost corners of Arabia to the ends of the earth The wise men came purposely from the East to see this poor little new-born Child tibi serviet ultima Thule sang the Poet the utmost confines of the West came in presently to serve him the whole world is witness of it long ago Nor were ever Christians ashamed either of this grace or poverty until of late It was thought a thing worth knowing worth keeping in remembrance by an anniversary too Indeed were it not a thing well known it would not be believed that the Lord of all should become so poor as to have almost nothing of it all But we saw it says St. Iohn i. 14. the word made flesh this great high Lord made little and low enough heard it saw it with our eyes lookt upon it and our hands too handled it 1 St. Iohn i. 1. had all the evidence possibly could be had the evidence of ear and eye and hand know it by them all And not we only not St. Iohn only but all men know it For this grace of God that bringeth salvation that is the true grace of our Lord Jesus Christ hath appeared unto all men says St. Paul Titus ii 11. So that they either know it or if they know it not 't is their own fault for it has appeared and has been often declared unto them so that 't is no wonder that the Apostle should tell the Corinthians that they know it they could not be Christians without knowing it nor it seems men in those days neither that knew it not And yet as generally as it was known it was a grace to know it one of the most special gifts and graces the knowledge of the grace of Christ. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that ye know it is his grace You could not know it without it none but they to whom it is given can know it as they should 4. That we may know it so as well as they we are now in the last place to consider what the Apostle would infer upon us by it what should be the issue of this knowledge 1. The acknowledgment of the grace and then 2. the practice of it For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet he so lov'd the poor as to bestow all his riches freely upon them upon us that were poor and naked and miserable and being thrust out of our first home never since could find any certain dwelling-place And therefore we 2. after his example being now enricht by him should be rich in our mercy and bounty to the poor for if his grace was such to us when we were poor we should shew the like to the poor now we are rich But that we may be the readier to this we must first be sensible of the other throughly sensible of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ acknowledge it for a grace a thing meerly of his own good will and favour that he would thus become poor to make us rich Know we and acknowledge many graces in this one grace A grace to our humanity that he would grace it with putting on A grace to poverty that he would wear that too A grace to our persons as well as to our natures that it was for our sakes he did it A grace to our condition that it was only to enrich it Know we then again and acknowledge it from hence 1. That poverty is now become a grace a grace to which the Kingdom of God is promised St. Mat. v. 3. poverty of spirit Nay the poor and vile and base things too hath God chosen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. i. 28. the poor are now elect contrary quite to the fancy that the Iews had of them whose proverb it was that the Spirit never descended upon the poor answerable to which it was then the cry Can any good thing come out of Nazareth any Prophet or great good come out of so poor a place as that 2. Know we again that Christs poverty above all or poverty for his sake is a grace indeed for to you 't is given given as a great gift of grace and honour to suffer for his name Phil. i. 29. And 't is a part of our calling says St. Peter 1 S. Pet. ii 21. a specialty of that grace 3. Know we 3. that our Riches are his Grace too In vain we rise up early and go late to bed all our care and pains and labour is nothing to make us rich without his blessing The blessing of the Lord it is that maketh rich 4. Know we however these may prove the riches of Christ can prove no other All the vertues and graces of our souls all the spiritual joy fulness and contentment are meerly his they the proper Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ no grace above them no grace near them nothing can render us so gracious in the eyes of God as they they are above Gold and Rubies and precious Stones These and all the rest being acknowledged in the Text we may well acknowledge that there was good reason to put an Article an Emphasis upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace Yet to make all up all these graces you must know all the several graces outward and inward come all from this one grace of Christs becoming poor being made man and becoming one of us To this it is we owe all we have or hope to the Grace of Christ at Christmas and therefore now are to add some practice to all this knowledge to return some grace again for all this grace Gratia is thanks let 's return that first thank God and our Saviour for this grace of his whence all grace flows and for all the several graces as they at any time flow down upon us Gratia Deo thanks to God 2. Gratia is good will and favour let 's shew
exceeding glory Wonder we 1. stand we and wonder or cast our selves upon the earth upon our faces in amazement at it that God should do all this for us thus remember thus visit thus crown such things as we That 2. he should pass by the Angels to crown us leave them in their sins and misery and lift us out of ours That 3. he should not take their nature at the least and honour those that stood among them but take up ours and wear it into heaven and seat it there And there is a visit he is now coming to day to make us as much to be wondred at as any that he should feed us with his Body and yet that be in Heaven that he should cheer us with his Blood and yet that shed so long ago that he should set his Throne and keep his Table and presence upon the Earth and yet Heaven his Throne and Earth his Foot-stool that he should here pose all our understandings with his mysterious work and so many ages of Christians after so many years of study and assistance of the Spirit not yet be able to understand it What is man or the Son of man O Blessed Iesu that thou shouldst thus also visit and confound him with the wonders of thy mercy and goodness Here also is glory and honour too to be admitted to his Table no where so great to be made one with him as the meat is with the body no glory like it Here is the crown of plenty fulness of pardon grace and heavenly Benediction Here 's the crown of glory nothing but rays and beauties Iustres and glories to be seen in Christ and darted from him into pious souls Come take your crowns come compass your selves with those eternal circlings Take now the cup of salvation and remember God for so remembring you call upon the name of the Lord and give glory to your God If you cannot speak out fully as who can speak in such amazements as these thoughts may seriously work in us cast your selves down in silence and utter out your souls in these or the like broken speeches What is man Lord what is man What am I How poor a thing am I How good art thou What hast thou done unto him How great things What glory what honour what crown hast thou reserved for me What shall I say How shall I sufficiently admire What shall I do again unto thee What shalt thou do Why 1. if God is so mindful of us men Let us be mindful of him again remember he is always with us and do all things as if we remembred that so he were 2. Is he so mindful of us Let us be mindful of our selves and remember what we are that we may be humbled at it 3. Does he remember us Let us then again remember him with our prayers and services 2. Has he visited us Let us in thankfulness visit him again visit him in his Temple visit him at his Table visit him in his poor members the sick the imprisoned 3. Has he made us lower then the Angels Let us make our selves lower and lower still in our own sights Is it yet but a little lower then the Angels Let us raise up thoughts and pieties and devotions to be equal with them 4. Has he crown'd us with glory Let us crown his Altars then with offerings and his name with praise let us be often in corona in the congregation of them that praise him among such as keep Holy-day Let us crown his Courts with beauty crown our selves with good works they should be our glory and our crown And for the worship that he crowns us with too let us worship and give him honour so remember so visit so crown him again so shall he as he has already so shall still remember us last and bring us to his own palace there to visit him face to face where he shall make us equal to the Angels we are now below and crown us with an incorruptible crown of glory through Christ c. THE NINTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day S. LUKE ii 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel SAlvation cannot but be a welcome then at any time I know no day amiss But in Die salutis at such a time as this on Christmas-day especially Then it first came down to bless this lower world But salvation so nigh as to be seen is more much more if we our selves have any interest in it if it be for the Gentiles too that we also may come in Far more if it be such salvation that our friends also may be saved with us none perish if it be omnium populorum to 'um all in whatsoever Nation Add yet if it be salvation by light not in the night no obscure deliverance we like that better and if it be to be saved not by running away but gloriously Salvation with Glory that 's better still Nay if it be all salvation on a day of salvation not afar off but within ken not heard of but seen to us and ours an universal salvation a gladsome a lightsome a notable a glorious salvation as it is without contradiction Verbum Evangelii good Gospel joyful tidings so it must needs be verbum diei too the happiest news in the most happy time These make the Text near enough the day and yet 't is nearer What say you if this salvation prove to be a Saviour and that Saviour Christ and that Christ new born the first time that viderunt oculi could be said of him no time so proper as Christmas to speak of Christ the Saviour born and sent into the world He it is that is here stiled salutare tuum Christ that blessed sight that restores Simeons decaying eyes to their youthful lustre that happy burthen that makes Simeon grasp heaven before he enter it Indeed the good old man begins not his Christmas till Candlemas 'T was not Christmas-day with him he did not see his Saviour till he was presented in the Temple The Feast of Purification was his Christmas This the Shepherds the worlds and ours This day first he was seen visibly to the world Being then to speak of salvation which is a Saviour or a Saviour who is salvation 1. First of the Salvation it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Then of its certainty and manifestation so plain and evident that the eye may see it Salvation to be seen More 2. prepared to be seen 3. Of the universality before the face of all people 4. Of the Benefits They are two 1. A light 2. A glory with the twofold parties 1. The Gentiles 2. The Iews Of each both severally and joyntly When we have done with the salvation then of the other sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Saviour himself that 's the prime meaning of salutare here 1. Of his natures
11. Prophesie had neither life nor spirit without it and the Name of Iesus is the very Amen to it Rev. iii. 14. All the Promises of God too in him are yea and in him Amen says the Apostle 2 Cor. i. 20. His very name is the Amen Rev. iii. 14. The faithful and true witness in the same verse Absolutely faithful and true Rev. xix 11. Nay This same Name Iesus from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to save was rightly given him in this sense first that it saved the honour of God and the credit of his Prophets that their words fell not to the ground but were all accomplished and made good in his blessed Name A good Name the while for us to hold by for our souls to rest on for our hopes to anchor on that is so faithful and true to us will not fail us in a word or tittle II. And indeed it need not for it is 2. a Name of Power A Name 1. at which the Devils roar and tremble Iesu thou Son of God what have we to do with thee A Name 2. that not only scares the Devils but casts them out and unhouses them of their safer dwellings A Name so powerful 3. that pronounced even by some that followed not Christ with the Apostles St. Luke ix 49. that were not of so confident a faith or so near a relation to him it yet cast them out So mighty 4. that in it many of those also cast out devils did many wonderful works St. Mat. xvii 22. to whom he will profess he never knew them who must therefore at last depart down to those Devils they cast out A name it seems that though in a wicked mouth has oft done wonders So powerful 5. that no disease or sickness no ach or aile no infirmity or malady could stand against it His Name says St. Peter hath made this man whole whom ye see and know Acts iii. 16. His name made that man makes all men whole So powerful 6. with God himself that he cannot stand against it cannot deny us any thing that we ask in it If ye shall ask any thing in my name I will do it says Christ St. Ioh. xiv 14. whatsoever it be verse 13. and my Father will do it too St. Ioh. xv 16. In a word Iesus signiffes a Saviour and a Saviour is a name of power He that saves either himself or others must be no weakling The stronger man in the Gospel at least St. Luke xi 22. mighty to save as the Prophet speaks Isa. lxiii 1. But he that saves us from the powers of darkness must be the strong and mighty God too and so is his name Isa. ix 6. or the devil will be too strong for him O thou God who art mighty to save save thy Servants from him save us from all the evils and mischiefs he plots against us that through thy Name we may tread them under that rise up against us III. So will this Name be glorious too so it was and so it is we are to shew you next a Name of Majesty and glory Take it from the reason the Angel gives of the Imposition St. Luke i. 31 32 33. Thou shalt call his Name Iesus Why Why he shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest and the Lord God shall give him the Throne of his Father David and he shall reign over the house of Iudah for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end The whole together nothing but the Angels comment upon the name Iesus nothing but the interpretation of the name where we consider first that 't is a royal name the name of a King not of any King neither but a King by succession not any new upstart King but of a King from the lineage of ancient Kings not of any hereditary or successive King neither but of one from the Kings of Iudah Kings of Gods own making none of Ieroboams lineage or any others of the peoples setting up more glorious than so And yet more of a King whose Kingdom shall have no end that 's a glorious King indeed All other Kings die and leave their Kingdoms and their names behind them half wrapt up at least in dust and rubbish this has an everlasting Kingdom and an everlasting Name he lives ever and that lives so too But of his Kingdom there shall be no end hath another sense too All the ends of the earth shall come in unto him there shall be no particular end or bound of his Dominion Upon his holy hill of Sion indeed it is God sets him Psal. ii 6. But so there that he gives him the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession ver 8. that he may rule them thence He is both an everlasting and an universal King Nay lastly the King of Kings his Name is written so upon his thigh Rev. xix 16. So glorious a Name has he such a superexaltavit there is upon it so highly exalted is this name Iesus Phil. ii 9. So highly that some Commentators and Grammarians would have it the same with the Name Iehovah then surely 't is full of Majesty and Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only say they is added either to make it effable which was before ineffable to make it possible and lawful to be uttered which was before scarce either so infinite was the Majesty of that great Name Or 2. to intimate to us that God now is become man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken out of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a man and put into his own Name of Iehovah so making it Iehosuah or Iesuah which is our Iesus and the Name now given us to be saved by Whether this Criticism will hold or no the name Emmanuel which says S. Matthew was fulfilled in this of Iesus so fulfilled that the Evangelist quotes the Prophets words of calling him Emmanuel fulfilled in the calling of him Iesus S. Matih i. 21 22 23. as if both were the same that name I say has Gods Name in it to be sure El is one of his so with us it is there joyn'd enough to render it glorious and the Angel telling us in his interpretation and reason of the Name that he was the Son of the Highest intimates it was a Name of the highest Majesty and Glory And what can we say upon it less than burst out with the Psalmist into a holy exclamation O Lord our Governour O Lord our Iesus how excellent is thy name in all the world It is all cloth'd with Majesty and Honour it is deckt with light it spreads out it self in the Heavens like a curtain it lays the beams of its chamber in the waters it makes the cloud its Chariot it comes riding to us upon the wings of the wind the Holy Spirit breaths it full upon us it makes the Angels its Spirit to convey it it makes the Ministers of it a flaming fire it laid the
was so horrid to the Iew become his happiness which was the others great affliction the poor womans offering that it might sanctifie poverty to the poor and offer it henceforward as an acceptable service unto God That 2. the Christian might hence know what to offer gemtus turturum columbarum a sorrowful and contrite heart bewail themselves like Turtles that have lost their mates and mourn sore like Doves offer up chast and harmless souls the chastity of the Turtle and the innocence of the Dove That 3. we might no more hereafter censure poverty even when it falls to the great mans share seeing Blessed Mary and Ioseph of the seed Royal both are become so poor that they can offer no more than this nay though they should have no more to offer than their own sighs and moanings That 4. we might learn now that God will accept even the least and poorest presents two Turtles two Pigeons two Mites where there is no more with convenience to be spar'd Yet somewhat he will have offered be it never so little that all might acknowledge his right none at all excepted Thus this offering concerns us but how it concerns the Child Iesus is to be enquired The one Turtle could not possibly the sin-offering to be sure but the other might It was a burnt-offering that a kind of thanksgiving only for his safe birth as well as for his Mothers safe deliverance It was to have been a Lamb could the womans poverty have reach'd it though the sin-offering for no woman at her purification had been above a Turtle it may be to tell 'um that they are to give thanks both for themselves and their Child great thanks more than double though they offer but little and single for their own natural imperfections a Lamb for them both though but a Turtle for themselves The Child 's original guilt to be purged with another kind of sacrifice better sacrifices than those Yet besides he taking on him our persons the sin-offering might also so far concern him as he concerned us And if so the greater sure is our obligation to him that he would not only take on him the form of a servant but go also under the fashion of a sinner that he would be brought into so dishonourable appearance to be thus done for after the custom of the Law not only offered himself but himself offered for as if he needed an offering to cleanse him But so it was not for that it was not that he thus submitted to the Law of offerings but for these ensuing reasons and so we consider the reason of the doing 1. To avoid scandal not to offend the Iews to teach us to be very scrupulous how we offend our brother that we use neither but our own right nor our Christian liberty with offence 2. To teach obedience not to dispute commands nor plead priviledges too much against Laws and Customs 3. To be a pattern of humility not to exalt or cry up our selves or think much to be accounted like other men 4. To shew his approbation of the Law and that however he might seem yet indeed he did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it 5. That he might thus receive the testimony of Simeon and Anna and be made manifest from his very beginning who he was that he might appear to the world what before he did only to the Wise men and the Shepherds to be a light to the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel and to be this day so proclaimed by the spirit of Prophesie in both the Sexes 6. He was done for according to the Law that he might redeem us from the bondage of the Law offered as the first-born as a son of man that he might thereby make us the children of God 7. He that needed no offering for himself was thus offered that we might with holy Iob suspect the best and perfectest of our works and though we be never so righteous not answer nor know but despise our selves and make supplication to our judge Iob ix 15 21 28. Lastly He was thus presented to God that so he might be embraced by man that Simeon not for himself only but for us might take seisin of him and we be thus put in possession of a Saviour For so it follows as on purpose Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God We have done with Christs offering Come we now to our receiving his Parents presented him to God Simeon received him for us And these the particulars of the receiving Suscipiens suscipiendi modus susceptionis Tempus suscipientis benedictio The Receiver Simeon he 2. The manner of taking or receiving him took him up in his arms 3. The time then when he was brought into the Temple 4. The thanksgiving for it and blessed God But our receiving takes me from Simeons I must defer his till anon till after ours only I shall glance at it as I speak of ours For which I would to God we were all as well prepared as he for his The same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him ver 25. I would I could say so of us here this day Sed nunquid hos tantum salvabis Domine says holy Bernard Wilt thou O Lord save only such and answers it out of the Psalm Iumenta homines salvabis Domine Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast Us poor beasts too wandering sheep at best but too often as unreasonable as sensual as groveling downward as any beast dirty and filthy as Sows churlish as Dogs fierce as Lions lustful as Goats cruel as Tygers ravenous as Bears Accomplish we but the days of our purification purifie we our hearts by Faith and Repentance bring we this gemitus columbae sorrow for our sins though we cannot this simplicitatem columbae innocense and purity the mourning of the Turtle though we cannot the innocence of the Dove and notwithstanding all shall be well 'T is Candlemas to day so called from the lighting up of Candles offering them consecrating them and bearing them in procession a custom from the time of Iustinian the Emperour at the latest about 1100. years ago or as others say Pope Gelastus Anno 496. or thereabouts to shew that long expected light of the Gentiles was now come was now sprung up and shined brighter than the Sun at noon and might be taken in our hands let the Ceremony pass reserve the substance light up the two Candles of Faith and good Works light them with the fire of Charity bear we them burning in our hands as Christ commands us meet we him with our lamps burning consecrate we also them all our works and actions with our prayers offer we them then upon the Altars of the Lord of Hosts to his honour and glory and go we to the Altars of the God of our salvation bini bini as St. Bernard speaks as in
him only before to tell her so to tell her he would be with her by and by himself This makes it Annunciation day the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary as the Church calls it and the Annunciation to her as we may call it too The Annunciation or announcing and proclaiming of Christ unto her that he was this day to be Incarnate of her to take that flesh to day upon him in the womb which he was some nine months hence on Christmass-day to bring with him into the world And 2. the Annunciation or announcing that is proclaiming of her blessed among above women by it by being thus highly favoured by her Lords thus coming to her A day upon these grounds fit to be remembred and announced or proclaimed unto the World Indeed Dominus tecum is the chief business the Lord Christs being with her that which the Church especially commemorates in the day Her being blessed and all our being blessed highly favoured or favoured at all either mens or womens being so all our hail all our health and peace and joy all the Angels visits to us or kind words all our Conferences with heaven all our titles and honours in heaven and earth that are worth the naming come only from it For Dominus tecum cannot come without them He cannot come to us but we must be so must be highly favoured in it and blessed by it So the Incarnation of Christ and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin his being incarnate of her and her blessedness by him and all our blessednesses in him with her make it as well our Lords as our Ladies day More his because his being Lord made her a Lady else a poor Carpenters Wife God knows all her worthiness and honour as all ours is from him and we to take heed to day or any day of parting them or so remembring her as to forget him or so blessing her as to take away any of our blessing him any of his worship to give to her Let her blessedness the respect we give her be inter mulieres among women still such as is fit and proportionate to weak creatures not due and proper only to the Creator that Dominus tecum Christ in her be the business that we take pattern by the Angel to give her no more than is her due yet to be sure to give her that though and that particularly upon the day And yet the day being a day of Lent seems somewhat strange 'T is surely no fasting work no business or occasion of sadness this What does it then or how shall we do it then in Lent a time of fast and sorrow Fast and feast too how can we do it A Feast it is to day a great one Christs Incarnation a day of joy if ever any and Lent a time of sorrow and repentance a great one the greatest Fast of any How shall we reconcile them Why thus The news of Joy never comes so seasonable as in the midst of sorrow news of one coming to save us from our sins can never come more welcome to us than even then when we are sighing and groaning under them never can Angel come more acceptably than at such time with such a message as All Hail thou art highly favoured blessed art thou 'T is the time that Angels use to come when we are fasting So to Daniel Dan. ix 3 21. So to Cornelius Acts x. 30. the time when we best hear a voice from heaven and best understand it with St. Peter Acts x. 13 15 16 20. the time when God himself vouchsafes to spread our Table as he did there of all kinds of beasts and fowls to St. Peter all heavenly food and mysteries 'T is the very time for gratia plena to be fill'd when we are empty the only time for Dominus tecum for our Lords being with us when we have most room to entertain him So nor the Church nor we in following it are any whit out of order Dominus tecum Christ is the main business both of our Fasts and Feasts and 't is the greatest order to attend his business in the day and way we meet it be it what it will Though perhaps it seem stranger too to hear of an Angel coming into a Virgins Chamber at midnight as is conjectured and there saluting her But no fear of those Sons of God if they come in unto the daughters of men Angels are Virgins may be with Virgins in the privatest Closets are always with them there to carry up their Prayers and to bring down blessings No strange thing then to hear of an Angel with any of them whom God highly favours with whom himself is too no wonder to hear of an Angel or Ave to any such The only wonder indeed to us will be to hear of an Ave Mary Indeed I cannot my self but wonder at it as they use it now to see it turn'd into a Prayer 'T was never made for Prayer or Praise a meer Salutation the Angels here to the blessed Virgin never intended it I dare say for other either to praise her with or pray unto her And I shall not consider it as such I am only for the Angels Ave not the Popish Ave Marie I can see no such in the Text. Nor should I scarce I confess have chosen such a Theam to day though the Gospel reach it me but that I see 't is time to do it when our Lord is wounded through our Ladies sides both our Lord and the mother of our Lord most vilely spoken of by a new generation of wicked men who because the Romanists make little less of her than a Goddess they make not so much of her as a good woman because they bless her too much these unbless her quite at least will not suffer her to be blessed as she should To avoid both these extremes we need no other pattern but the Angels who here salutes and blesses her indeed yet so only salutes and blesses her so speaks of and to her as to a woman here though much above the best of them one highly favoured 't is true yet but favoured still all her grace and blessedness and glory still no other meer favour and no more and Dominus tecum the Lords being with her the ground and source and sum of all Virgin and Day both blessed thence The better to give all their due Angel and Lord and Lady and you the better understanding of the Text the scope and matter and full meaning of it we shall consider in the words these two Particulars The Angels Visitation and the Angels Salutation I. His Visitation or coming to her in these words And the Angel came in unto her II. His Salutation to her or saluting her in these Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed c. In the Visitation we have 1. The Visitor 2. The Visited 3. The Visiting The Angel the Visitor He. The blessed Virgin this the Visited Her And
bear him yea a Virgin espous'd 1. To conceal the mystery of his Incarnation from the Devil 2. To take away all occasion of obloquy from devilish men 3. That the birth of our Saviour might be with all possible honour and 4. That his Genealogy might so be reckoned as all others regularly by the man as you see them both by St. Matthew and St. Luke Of a high and illustrious name besides Maria is Maris stella says St. Bede The star of the Sea a fit name for the mother of the bright morning star that rises out of the vast sea of God's infinite and endless love Maria 2. the Lyriack interprets Domina a Lady a name yet retain'd and given to her by all Christians our Lady or the Lady mother of our Lord. Marie 3. rendred by Petrus Damiani de monte altitudine Dei highly exalted as you would say like the Mountain of God in which he would vouchsafe to dwell after a more miraculous manner than in very Sion his own holy Mount. 4. St. Ambrose interprets it Deus ex genere meo God of my kin as if by her very name she was designed to have God born of her to be Deipara as the Church against all Hereticks has ever stil'd her the Mother of God you may well now fully conceive no Embassador so fit to come to such an one as her but some great Angel at the least And his coming to her comes next to be considered And the Angel came in unto her Where we are taught both how he came and where he found her By his coming or being said to come we are given to understand that it was in a bodily and humane shape So Angels often used to come in the likeness of men and at this time it was of all ways the most convenient that the Angels should come like men seeing their Lord was now to come so and one of them to come before him with the news When he himself would vouchsafe to wear the livery of our flesh 't is most convenient his servants sure that wait upon him whom he sends upon his errands should appear at least in the same Livery Nor could his Message easily be delivered in more sweetness nor the Blessed Maid entertain it with less terror or diffidence any other way For though it could not but trouble her as we see it did in the follovving verse to see a man at that time in her Closet ere she was aware yet his coming in so insensibly when the doors were shut upon her besides perhaps the brightness of his countenance and raiment could not but tell her it was an Angel and so abate her fear a little Yet observe here a difference between the Angels coming now and heretofore we never read of an Angels appearing but abroad or in the Temple till now Now they begin to grow more familiar with us come in into our Closets now Christ is coming the Kingdom of Heaven 't is a sign is come nigh unto us And 't is a good Item to us to keep much in our Closets seeing Angels are now to be met with there And 2. 't is an Item too for Virgins to keep within Dinah went out and met with you know whom came home ill-favouredly The blessed Virgin keeps in and meets with an holy Angel and the title of highly favoured and blessed for it The stragling gadding huswife meets no Angel to salute her whosoever does if we look for Angels company and salutations we must be much within A Garden enclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed says Christ Cant. iv 12. The Spouse of Christ the Soul he loves and vouchsafes his company much private oft within Within and at her Prayers and Meditation too So was the blessed Virgin say the Fathers here blessedly employed watching at her devotions no way so sure to get an Angels company or hear good news from heaven to obtain a favour or a blessing thence as this as prayer and watching in our Closets This we piously believe of the blessed Virgin but we are sure she was within a true daughter of Sarah in it who it seems kept commonly within doors in her Tent Gen. xviii 10. whose daughters you are says St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 6. as long as you do well must be too in this as well as other things if you vvould do vvell For lastly to shevv the truth of the Angels vvords that she vvas full of grace the Scripture tells us by the Angels coming into her that she vvas vvithin vvhere qui habeat abundantiam gratiae says Hugo they that are full of grace keep in as much as they can fearing the corrupt discourses and conversations of the World None so scrupulous of appearing abroad none more fear idle loose or vain discourses vvhich cannot be avoided by such vvho go often abroad than they that are fullest of grace and goodness Nor do they care for the salutation favours and complements of men vvho are highly favoured of the Lord. No matter at all vvith them to be neglected by men vvho desire only to be saluted by an Angel as vvas the Virgin here vvhich falls next to be considered The Angels Salutation Tvvo Points vve told you there vvere to be handled in it The form of it and the titles in it The form in vvhich it runs the Titles vvith vvhich it 's given The form is in three expressions Hail the Lord is with thee Thou art or be thou blessed Three several salutations as it vvere and that 1. for the greater reverence and honour to her so Kings and Queens are commonly saluted vvith three adorations 2. To shevv from vvhom he came from Father Son and Holy Ghost from all three persons in the Trinity That 3. she vvas so intent and busie at her devotions that she minded not perhaps his first and second Salutation he vvas fain to add a third To shevv lastly the triple blessing that he came vvith Peace and Grace and Blessedness that Heaven vvas novv at peace vvith us Grace vvas thence coming dovvn apace Heaven doors set open and very blessedness of Heaven clearly now propounded and proffered to us The first salutation is an Ave a salutation never heard from Angels mouth before And it speaks joy and peace and health and salvation both to her and us by her The Greek word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rejoyce rejoyce indeed at such a Child as now is to be born of thee O Virgin Daughter Behold I bring you tydings of great joy of a Child all our joy by him which is Christ the Lord 2. The Hebrew word speaks Peace be to thee A wish for peace the first news of Heaven reconciled the way to reconciliation being now in agitation and to be by her Peace from the Prince of Peace from the author of our peace now coming as joyful a salutation as we can wish all our peace from this Conception all begun with this message and
all these Titles The first is Grace Gratiâ plena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that always the ground of Gods favour and all our blessedness So she tells us in her Hymn Respexit humilitatem It was the humility of his Hand-maid that God in this high favour of the Incarnation of his Son respected in her Humility the ground of all grace within us all grace without us of Gods grace to us of his graces in us the very grace that graces them all too Humility makes them the most lovely pride disgraces them all be they never so many though indeed they can be truly none that are not founded in and adorned with humility The second ground of blessedness is in the Text too Dominus tecum the Lords being with her From Christs being with her and with us it is that we are blessed From his Incarnation begins the date of all our happiness If God be not with us all the world cannot make us happy much less blessed From this grace of his Incarnation first riseth all our glory So that Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise must she sing as well as we and they do her wrong as well as God that give his glory unto her who will not give his glory to another though to his Mother because she is but his earthly Mother a thing infinitely distant from the heavenly Father Nor would that humble Hand-maid if she should understand the vain and fond and almost idolatrous stiles and honours that are given her some where upon earth be pleased with them she is highly favoured enough that her Lord and Son is with her and she with him she would be no higher sharer You may see it in the last particular the bounds and limitations of her titles and blessedness For first how full soever she be of Grace 't is yet but grace and favour 't is no more Gods meer favour so exalted her respexit only his respect to her his free looking on her no merit or desert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath highly favoured her indeed but he has done done it in the praeter before she could conceive or imagine it 2. The salutation here except the titles given her by the Angels is not much more than what he gave to Gideon or what Boaz to his Harvesters enough to make the Papists afraid one would think of those extravagant at least if not blasphemous titles they give her of their closing their Books and Studies with Laus Deo Virgini Maria joyning her in partnership with God as if they were as much beholding to her as him I am sure they learn'd not this from the Angel he brings no divine but humane titles and salutations to her And he knew how to give titles though not flattering ones as Elihu speaks in Iob. 3. All her honour and blessedness is from Dominus tecum the Lords being with her He is her Lord as well as ours More indeed he is with her than with us or with Angels either plus tecum quà m mecum as some gloss it but he is her Lord still for all that and she is content so to acknowledge it and leave us a penn'd Hymn in witness of it to give him the sole honour of her magnifying and being magnified Lastly Though it be Benedicta 't is but inter mulieris among women all this is and they are but creatures a creature-blessedness a blessedness competible to the creature All to shew us that when we exceed this way of honour to her or this way of blessing her we are all out in our Aves we know not what we say And 't is well for some that their ignorance excuses them that they understand not what they speak Give we her in Gods name the honour due to her God hath stil'd her blessed by the Angel by Elizabeth commanded all generations to call her so and they hitherto have done it and let us do it too Indeed some of late have over-done it yet let us not therefore under-do it but do it as we hear the Angel and the first Christians did it account of her and speak of her as the most blessed among women one highly favoured most highly too But all the while give Dominus tecum all the glory the whole glory of all to him give her the honour and blessedness of the chief of Saints him only the glory that she is so and that by her conceiving and bringing our Saviour into the world we are made heirs and shall one day be partakers of the blessedness she enjoys when the Lord shall be with us too and we need no Angel at all to tell us so Especially if we now here dispose our selves by chastity humility and devotion as she did to receive him and let him be new-born in us The pure and Virgin Soul the humble Spirit the devout Affection will be also highly favoured the Lord be with them and bless them above others Blessed is the Virgin Soul more blessed than others in St. Paul's opinion 1 Cor. vii blessed the humble spirit above all For God hath exalted the humble and meek the humble Hand-maid better than the proudest Lady Blessed the devout affection that is always watching for her Lord in Prayer and Meditations none so happy so blessed as she the Lord comes to none so soon as such Yet not to such at any time more fully than in the Blessed Sacrament to which we are now a going There he is strangely with us highly favours us exceedingly blesses us there we are all made blessed Maries and become Mothers Sisters and Brothers of our Lord whilst we hear his word and conceive it in us whilst we believe him who is the word and receive him too into us There Angels come to us on heavenly errands and there out Lord indeed is with us and we are blessed and the Angels hovering all about to peep into those holy mysteries think us so call us so There graces pour down in abundance on us there grace is in its fullest plenty there his highest favours are bestowed upon us there we are fill'd with grace unless we hinder it and shall hereafter in the strength of it be exalted into glory there to sit down with this Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and Angels and sing praise and honour and glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever Thus by being full of grace and full of those graces we also become Maries and the Mothers of our Lord so he tells us himself he that so does the will of my Father he is my Mother Let us then strive to be so that the Angels may come with heavenly errands to us our Lord himself come to us and vouchsafe to be again born in us and so bless us fill us with grace receive and set us highly in his favour and fill and exalt us hereafter with his glory and with this Blessed
branches of palm-trees and the boughs of thick trees and willows of the brook and so rejoyce before the Lord Lev. xxiii 40. whence afterward it became usual in all Feasts of solemn Joy to do as much So we read Simon entring the tower of Ierusalem with thanksgivings and branches of Palm-trees St. Matth. xiii 51. and when Iudas Maccabeus had recovered and cleansed the Temple they bare branches and fair boughs and palms also rejoycing for it 2 Mac. x. 7. So that the reason 's ready why the multitude met Iesus in this fashion They would long before have made him King they believed he was the Messiah the King of Israel and therefore thus go out to meet him and receive him They had heard his word they had seen his miracles never man say the very Pharisees officers spake like him with more authority and power he then all their Iewish Doctors and Rabbi's all together never man did such things as he and therefore no wonder if the people do some strange things too to express their opinions of him But the matter is not so much what they do as what we learn by Christs suffering them to do so And by it we first gather that Christ is no enemy to outward Ceremonies and respects to outward civilities and expressions That 2. he dislikes not neither even the Ceremonies of solemn joys and triumphs of respects done to Kings and Princes and great Persons or publick congratulations with them in the days of their joy or of any publick joy or particular gladness as occasion shall present it That 3. he rejects not even the old and antient Ceremonies is as much content with such as any other these were no other and yet he sticks not to receive them stumbles not at them Nay 4. even in his Service and for his own honour he accepts them is not only content but pleased also that they should do them to himself It is the Pharisees only and Pharisaical spirits men of meer pretended Piety and Religion whose devotion is only to be seen of men whose whole business is to appear holier than others not to be so that find fault with the doing it that would have them rebuk'd for it St. Luke xix 39. To whom Christ answers that if they did not the stones would do more they even they would both cry out against them for their silence and not doing it and do what they could to express that joy of his coming to Ierusalem of which they seem'd so insensible The very trees would bow themselves and every branch shake off its leaves and spread the ways if men should not spread their garments break off themselves if they would not cut them down to strow them the very stones of the Wall fall themselves into an even pavement to kiss the feet of their Lord and maker Insensible and sensless stones are men the while that deny Christ eternal reverence outward worship reverent and ceremonious approches to him that make I know not what sensless arguments and excuses idle scruples and pretences against old good significant Ceremonies in his service to his honour The very stones confute them and Christs telling us they would cry if men should not signifies as well they would bow and worshp and fall down beautifie the ways and places where he comes if men should not rear themselves into Temples and Altars if men should be so irreligious not to raise and employ them to it I now spare any other confutation We learn 5. by Christs thus suffering them and Gods secret moving them thus to spread the ways with boughs and garments that he would be acknowledged to be that great He to whom all creatures owe themselves to whom all are to be devoted who is to be serv'd with all even to a thred the trees to pay their boughs and men their garments to strip themselves to the very skin and consecrate even their garments to his honour to lay them at his feet to resign all to him to be content that he nay the very ass he rides on should trample on us if it be to his praise and glory that that may be augmented by it Lastly This spreading the way with Garments and Palm-branches was the way of entertaining conquerors in their triumphs and by his disposing it at this time to himself he gave them to understand that he was the conquerour over Death and Hell In this only differing from other conquerours that he triumphs before his conquest none so but he because none certain of the victory till it be perfected but he This might go for a mystery among the rest but it concern those persons peculiarly and those times The mystery of this point as it concerns us we are next to see how these garments and branches this spreading and strowing belong to us how we are still so to spread our garments and straw branches before Christ. Now Garments 1. pass in the accompt for riches Zech. xiv 14. and he that either bestows plentifully upon the poor that clothes the naked and feeds the hungry and supplies the needy with any thing to cover comfort or refresh him and spreads Gods holy house and table with offerings gives or does any thing to beautifie his service to add honour and solemnity to his Worship spreads his Garmtnts before Christ. 2. Garments are reckon'd among necessaries and he that not only out of his superfluity but as the Apostle testifies of the Corinthians 2 Cor. viii 2. out of his poverty also abounds unto the riches of liberality that spares somewhat from his necessities spreads even his inner garment at the feet of Christ. But 3. the Garments the multitude here spread were honorary the outward vestments and more honourable that we might know our honours also are to be laid aside nay laid down to be trod upon by any Ass for Christs sake we to count nothing of our honour in comparison of his tread all under foot and reckon nothing so honourable as the reproach of Christ. 4. Garments are a shelter from the injury of wind and weather of heat and cold Yet if Christs business require it of us we must not think much to lie open to storm and tempest to be deprived of house and shelter of robes and rags nothing too much nothing enough for Christ. 5. To spread our Garments under ones feet was construed for a profession of subjection and obedience to him for whom we spread or to whom we send them 2 Kings ix 13. and 1 Kings x. 25. so to spread our garments in the way of Iesus is to profess and promise and begin obedience to him the chief spreading the way that he desires the best way of entertaining him 6. Our righteousness is called our Garment Rev. iii. 4. and xvi 15. This also we are to spread before him that he may consecrate and hallow it till he has set his mark upon it and seal'd it it will not pass for current all our righteousness
as well as haste They knew there was a guard upon the Sepulchre ver 66. of the former Chapter yet for all that venture they would they feared them not The day they knew too would come on apace and there would be eyes upon them so may be presumed not to be ashamed of their Master or their work No nor were they neither afraid 4. of cost or charges for They had bought rich Spices and sweet ointments and had brought them with them to anoint him St. Mar. xvi 1. They were resolved to be at charges with him That 5. would not be done without solemnity and ceremony neither that they were resolved on too resolved to pay their last duty to their Lord with all funeral solemnities and honours And by this time we have more than a guess when men seek Iesus that was crucified 1. If they follow him day after day 2. If their devotions be so eager on him that they give him their attendance at the earliest hours suffer not their eyes to sleep nor their eye-lids to slumber nor the temples of their head to take any rest till they have found him 3. If neither the fear or shame of men can keep them from Him 4. If the Grave it self be more their desire than their fear willing to be dissolved to be with him 5. If shame for his name be as it was to the Apostles the matter of their rejoycing 6. If for his sake they spare no cost upon his Altars which represent his Tombe and present his body nor upon the poor who are the members of his body 7. If they think much of no cost pains or time no duty or reverence too much for him when we find any thus disposed and doing we may confidently say of them They seek Iesus that was crucified and we thus know it of a certain And indeed we had need of good certain signs to know it by For many there are that cry Lord Lord and yet Christ himself does not know them he professes Many that talk of the Lord Iesus and pretend to cast out devils too sometimes and do miracles in his name have his name the Lord Iesus commonly in their mouths and talk of it at every turn yet if you mark it 't is one King Iesus if any Iesus 't is in his Kingdom not on his Cross not Iesus crucified No the Doctrine of the Cross was to the Iew a scandal and to these men foolishness The very sign of the Cross disturbs them Fools they were thought you know a while ago that would take up the Cross and follow him when they might with more ease follow him in his Kingdom as was then much talkt of when the Kingdom was in their own hands and reign with him But whatever was the business of those times the business of this is Iesus crucified And if we had no other proof that they still seek not Iesus which was crucified but that they are yet ashamed to give any reverence to his name so to acknowledge him ashamed too of the very badge of Iesus crucified the sign of the Cross upon which he was not only ashamed of it neither but not ashamed to oppose it and write and preach against it and disturb the peace of the Church and simple souls about it if I say we had no other Argument against them that they seek not Iesus which was crucified I know not how they would invalidate and less answer it He certainly that cannot endure the sign would less endure the thing it self nor seek him certainly that hung upon it if he must succeed him there Nay we our selves who profess right enough live not I am afraid sometimes as if we sought or served a crucified Iesus or indeed a Jesus Our devotions to him are dull and heavy slow and careless we come to Church as if we cared not whether we came or no we are niggardly and sparing in the embalming of Christs Body to the Church and to the poor we are afraid of pains and charges in his service we are ashamed too often to be found doing well lest the Wits and Gallants of the Age should laugh at us afraid to be too ceremonious lest we give offence to I know not whom ashamed of patience or humility lest we should be thought poor spirited Christians that is the servants of so poor spirited a Lord that would rather suffer himself to be so horribly abused and crucified than to head his fathers Legions to â—ight for him He that sees how we have kept our Leâ—t how we always keep it how little we mortifie our lusts how little we restrain our passions how much we indulge our appetites how far we are from crucifying our sins or subduing our flesh or dying to the world how profuse men and women are in their apparel how studious of vanities how pour'd out in riots and excesses how given up to their sports and pleasures how continually taken up in some or other of these when they are even walking to their Tombs and should be thinking upon their Graves how every day they still post off all serious and religious thoughts and never think of Christ or of his Cross either what he did or what he suffered for them or what he would have us to do upon it He cannot but say I know ye seek not Iesus that was crucified I see no Balms in your hand no Spices in your laps no tears in your eyes no sorrow in your faces no funerals by your garments no solemness or seriousness at all in any of your demeanour that carries any semblance of relation to Iesus crucified All so loose so fine so quite of another fashion that certainly it were a tyranny over my faith to impose upon me to believe that you seek any such as a Iesus that was crucified that any such as you do so at all I did not think to have made so severe an observation but that I find men think commonly that strict devotion is but womens work they themselves may live with greater freedom but so it is not 't is only this seeking Iesus we have spoke of can really arm us against the Grave or fit us for the Resurrection And great persons do so too too often think 't is for those only of lesser rank the simpler and the mean ones they forsooth have enough to do to dress and visit and talk idly and take a liberty from morn to night answerable to their greatness their fortune or their youth This story of Iesus crucified spoils all the sport and lays all their honour too soon in the dust Well notwithstanding we had better all of us have the Angel here than they commend us his testimony rather that we seek Iesus that was crucified than their wits that make light of it III. And yet methinks they here are but slenderly rewarded for it for all their pains Now they have done all He is not here That we call'd the correction of their search
and studies from the first of those tedious days and broken nights of studies of our exhausted spirits and neglected fortunes and preferments to attend our work to no purpose at all Thus besides those common miseries of a hopeless life with other Christians We have most vile dishonour and a whole lost life and a whole vain course of labour added to encrease our misery A third addition we have by the same Pen in this Epistle Chap. iv v. 9. and so forward to augment our misery beyond a Parallel We are men appointed unto death made a spectacle unto the World unto Angels unto Men fools for Christs sake weak and despised hungry and thirsty and naked and buffetted and without any certain dwelling place outed at any bodies pleasure labouring day and night reviled persecuted defamed by every tongue made the filth and off-scouring of the world and of all things even to this day ver 13. hated and envied of all kind of men the world hateth you says our Master for whose sake it does so S. Iohn xv 19. hated of all men said I yea hated of God too if our preaching be vain and there be no hope in Christ but here Miserable fools sure no such fools in the world again as we to endure all this in vain to place or keep our selves in so slavish so dishonourable so troublesom so afflictive so contemptible a condition when with the same or easier pains less cost fewer broken sleeps more worldly content larger liberties fuller friendships freer entertainments greater hopes we might take many several ways and courses of life more profitable more pleasurable more honourable Nor can we be so ignorant of our selves and parts many of us nor find we else any other reason to distrust but that we might in any other way promise to our selves as much power to mannage other means of thriving then Books and Papers as any others if we would apply our selves to the same ways and undertakings with them And had we no other hope but here you should quickly find we could do so were we not confident we serve a Master the Lord Christ whose service as it is perfect freedom so it is perfect honour whatever the world imagine it or please to call it were it not for the hope of a Resurrection when we shall find a sufficient recompence for all the affronts contempts and ill usages we suffer here where these ragged blacks shall be guilded over with the bright beams of glory where we whose office it is to turn many unto righteousness whatever be the success if we do our duty shall shine like Stars for ever and ever Dan. xii 3. So now you see the scene of the Text is altered quite there is evidence enough by our willingly and knowingly subjecting our selves to all these fore-mentioned sufferings that our hope in Christ is not only here and we no longer never miserable All before but a Supposition this the Truth which I told you should be the Second General though only summarily and exceeding briefly that Our hope the true Christians hope is not in Christ for this life only and therefore whoever is he to be sure is not miserable That our Hope is not only here is evident by so many signs that I shall only need but shew and name them as I pass We willingly suffer hardships bear restraints deny our freedoms debar our selves many lawful liberties lay by our hopes of worldly honour think not of the most profitable and probable preferments we contend to rigours and austerities we watch our paths we mark our steps we make scruples where the world makes none we accept restrictions in our lives that the worldling and gallant laugh at the whole business of our life is to be accepted of Christ our Saviour we remember his benefits we observe his days we believe his Resurrection and keep this Feast upon it we solemnize the memory of all his other glorious actions sufferings and mercies with all holy reverence and godly fear with thankfulness and love we hear his Word and study it we strive to do his will and fulfil his Commandements at every point passing by the satisfactions of our own inclinations and desires we receive his Sacraments and believe their power we by this days solemnity confess his rising and profess our own we leave all worldly interests for his bid adieu to all contentations which stand not with that which is in him we suffer any thing gladly for his sake to be counted fools and mad-men despised and trampled on revil'd and persecuted exil'd and tortur'd and slain for his sake for our hope in him for that we fear to displease him to lose his reward These are full manifesto's of the true Christians hope what it is he looks for what he means For who now can think by the very naming of these doings and sufferings truly acted and willingly undergone that our hope is either not in Christ or not in him beyond this life who so easily contemn this all the glories and pleasures of it and choose with deliberation and full consent that only in it which the world counts misery or affliction Especially if he but consider that we are not crazed men that do so but have our senses perfect our understanding clear clearer many of us than the greatest part even of understanding men the same passions with other men as sensible of any evils or afflictions naturally as any others and yet notwithstanding choose all this for our hopes sake in Christ only And when all these shall be new heapt and more imbittered to the Ministers of the Gospel above others through the spite of the world and the malice of the Devil on purpose to drive them from their hope and they daily see and know it are they such miserable fools and mad-men think you not only to perswade others to these courses but themselves also so readily to undergo them when they might enjoy all liberties and pleasures at an easier rate as well as others did they not verily believe and hope and even see and feel already by evident testimonies both within and without an abundant recompence hovering over them laid up for them superabundant in a Resurrection World now do thy worst against us thou canst not make us miserable do all thou canst not miserable at all We scorn thy spite We contemn thy malice We shall have another world when thou art none we shall out-live thy malice thy self Whilst tâ—ou art in thy greatest pride and glory Lo we trample on thee and when thou thinkest thou hast laid both us and all our honour in the dust we are above thee thou art made our foot-stool and thou thy self as scornfully as now thou look'st upon us shalt be one day forc'd to vomit up those morsels of us which thou hast â—wallowed and will 't thou nill't thou bring all our scatterâ—d aâ—â—es aâ—d least atomes of our meanest parts together and humbly offer
the while and he seems to have no delight in us when he denies us at least to suspend the shewing it as he did there to David when he fled from Absolom a Priviledge sure all count it to have a place to serve God in together there would not else be such contention for it who should and who should not But for that hill of hills 3. far exalted above all hills to ascend thither to be lift so high that 's a priviledge without contradiction 'T is given to none but for whom it is prepared St. Mat. xx 23. few there are that find it St. Mat. vii 14. 't is meerly at our Fathers good pleasure to give it St. Luke xii 32. neither of him that wills nor him that runs but of God that shews mercy we have no other claim but mercy to it Only fear not for all that says Christ St. Luke xii 32. he ushers in the priviledge so And 2. strive to enter too says he for all that though the gate be streight 't is not impassable for them that strive and labour for it And then 3. too admire his goodness say we who yet leaves ope the gate to enter to any penitent sinner that will strive and labour for it who sets up a Si quis in the Market-place sets it upon the doors and skreens of our Churches and Chappels sets his Prophets too to proclaim and cry it Who will ascend who will come and stand up in his holy place come serve him here a while and reign with him for ever This Priviledge though all attain not to is not such as any are absolutely excluded from that no more enjoy it is because they voluntarily exclude themselves they shall not because they will not take the pains 't is no Decree against any though a Priviledge for some Such a one indeed it is and a high one too a high Priviledge 2. to be Sons and Heirs to the most High can be no less to be raised so to the tops of the hills above all the Nations of the World You only have I known of all the Families of the earth Amos iii. 2. to be the only men that God knows that he takes notice of in the World to be a Kingly Priesthood 1 Pet. ii 9. made Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. this is high And High it is 2. too to be admitted into his House and holy Temple Every one came not there not all the Levites not all the Priests A high favour it was allow'd to some only to enter there Why the Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Iacob says the Psalmist all the high places and Palaces of the earth are not in so high esteem with God as the very Gates and Ports of Sion to be suffered but to peep in there is a higher honour to be a door-keeper in the House of God a greater happiness than to dwell in the most magnifique buildings of the World David a King himself had rather be there than any where And he that shall consider the Primitive Zeal of Christians to these hills how they never thought enough bestow'd upon them how often they frequented them how they would not pass without going in and worshipping how the pious and devout souls thought it a happiness to look that way and a great comfort in the midst of their desolations and captivity cannot but confess they all thought high enough of the favour that God allowed them in receiving them into those hills and holy places A higher Priviledge yet it is to get up the other hill to be admitted into heaven when all is done so high that Christ says it is not his to give St. Mat. xx 23. the Father hath reserved it to himself and there is nothing higher situated than it The very name of hill the Phrase of the Text sufficiently shews if it be a priviledge it is a high one Hills are the highest places of the earth the Church is a beacon upon a hill every true Disciple a light there at least The Houses of God used to be thought high places too and so had in honour And for Heaven 't is stil'd the everlasting hills So to be admitted to the priviledge of any of them must needs be a high one 3. High and holy too that 's a third addition to the Priviledge Many high Priviledges that are not so Holy is the highest most like to the most High To be Saints to be called to holiness as St. Paul say we are to be a holy Nation as St. Peter says 1 Pet. ii 9. to be Priests as you heard before to have holiness engraved upon our foreheads is to be holy persons every Pot in Hierusalem to be holiness to the Lord Zech. xiv 21. is a priviledge and a holy one too To go up like Saints to the hill of Sion to keep holy-day there to worship before the holy Altars of the Lord of Hosts to drink and eat in holy vessels to be part of his holy portion to be made partakers of his holy Word and there praise the God of holiness in his holy Congregation is a holy honour that is done us The highest Priviledge that wants this the highest Palace that is without this is but the Tents of ungodliness and they says David will but make us afraid Let my Priviledge O God be holy or I care for none that 's that must bring me to his holy hill and to his dwelling that hill in which he dwells amidst Cherubims and Seraphims and all his Host. Whither thirdly to ascend is the height of the holy Priviledge 3. His holy heaven that 's the stile the Holy of Holies St. Paul calls it the very Seat of the most holy God and holy Angels and holy Saints It cannot there sure be suspected to be the holy Priviledge and the Priviledge of the holy only to come thither 4. This holiness must needs make it to be admired too An admirable Priviledge we told you it was 't is our fourth Point now And David as if he had been all this while in a kind of swoon at the contemplation of it breaks out now upon a sudden with a Who is he and what a thing is this to ascend into the Hill of the Lord and to rise up in his holy place Indeed we cannot sufficiently admire it that God should raise up dust and ashes to such a height as to make it a coheir with Christ as to make a Hill and holy Place of it for himself to dwell in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Apostle O the depth Who can find it out Who who can reach it That he should pitch his place and dwell among us give us free access liberty to come and go unto him to approach him when we will speak to him what we will eat and drink with him when we will too what can be stranger Who can wonder at it enough How terrible is this place it put poor Iacob into
to digest as well as tast there in the mouth is a kind of first digestion made Ruminate we then and meditate upon Christ when we have tasted him Let it be our business to spend much of our time and days henceforth in meditation of him that 's the way indeed to be filled with his Spirit while we thus digest him and chew upon him in our spirits Nor is 3. fire improper any way to bring to that holy Table The fire of charity is to kindle our devotion there to warm our affections and desires to it There 4. our tongues are to be warm'd into praises that they may run a nimble descant upon his benefits and move apace to the glory of his Name Thus are our tongues to be imployed and thus is the fire to be kindled in us that we may speak with our tongues This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit this blessed Sacrament the means to it Come thou therefore O blessed Spirit into our hearts and tongues lighten our understanding with thy heavenly light warm our affections with thy holy fire purge away all our dross burn up all our chaff renew our spirits separate our sins and evils from us unite us in thy love subdue us to thy self teach our hearts to think our tongues to speak our hands to act our feet to move only to thy will settle thy self in us hence forward and dwell with us so teach us with all our tongues and powers to praise thee here upon earth that we may one day praise thee with them in Heaven for evermore A SERMON UPON Trinity Sunday REV. IV. 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Need not stretch the Text to reach the Time The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy in it is plain enough to teach the Trinity An Anthem sung here by the Angels and Saints in heaven done so here also by four of the chief Apostles and the Bishops of Iudea signified by the four beasts and twenty four Elders taken up after generally by the Saints on earth commended to us by the Church to day as our Epistle sent from heaven with a pattern in it for our Hymns and Praises to the blessed Trinity Lord God Almighty For 't is a part I must tell you of one of St. Iohn's Visions presenting to us what is done in heaven what Good would have done on earth and what should there be done ere long throughout it beginning at Hierusalem Glory and honour and thanks should be given unto God for the wonders he was doing for his servants for the deliverance he was working for his Church for the judgments he was bringing on their enemies as glory had been of old given him by his Saints and Prophets was now given him by his Apostles and Bishops so it should be given still by the whole Christian Church for ever as he himself was and is and is to come so was his praise and is and is to come we therefore all to learn to bear our parts in that heavenly Anthem against the time we come thither to bear them company Example you see we have here set before us to do it by and a form to do it in better we cannot wish the four Beasts or Cherubims Angels Saints and the Apostles there 's our Pattern for they rest not day and night saying it and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come there 's the form we best do it in In each Part we shall observe a kind of Trinity or three Parts in each In the Pattern 1. the Persons 2. their earnestness and 3. their continuance 1. The persons praising God and saying it They the four beasts or living creatures as the words tell us just before 2. Their earnestness in it They rest not saying they cannot rest for saying it cannot rest without the saying it unless they say it say it over and over Holy Holy Holy cannot rest but doing it that 's their rest they take their praising God ◠Their continuance at it day and night it is and without rest and pause is it they are continually doing it saying and doing all to his honour and glory In the Form of Praise we have a sort of Trinity too three things observable 1. The glory or honour given Holy Holy Holy 2. The Persons to whom it is Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost yet all three in one one single Lord one only God one alone Almighty and no more so there 's the Vnity in Trinity into the bargain And 3. here are the benefits intimated we praise him for He was our Creator He is our Redeemer He will be our Glorifier So you see Trinities enough in the Text to make it Trinity Sunday in it to fill all the Trinity Sundays after it The sum is that we are all to bear our parts in this holy Doxology to give glory and honour and power to the blessed Trinity with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders from time to time for evermore and that which may here serve well to perswade us to it is the Company and with them we will begin And they c. But who are they The beginning of the verse tells us the four beasts or as it may more genuinely and handsomly be translated the four living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what or who are they That 's the question and a hard one too it seems by the variety of opinions probably to be answered rather by conjecture than resolution We shall take the likeliest of them and pass the rest 1. Some by the four living Creatures this they would have the four Cardinal vertues understood by the Lion fortitude by the Calf or Oxe justice by the Eagle temperance and by the Man prudence And then the sense will be that God is most signally prais'd and glorified by a vertuous life no way like that to praise him To do righteousness to walk wisely to live soberly to stand stoutly to God and goodness that 's the true way to give glory to the whole Trinity 2. Others by the four living Creatures apprehend the four chief faculties of our souls to be insinuated with which we are to praise him The irascible intimated by the Lion the concupiscible by the Oxe the rational by the face of man and the Spirit by the Eagle And here the Lesson is that we are to do it to praise God with all our powers set our affections and desires upon it be moved and angry at every thing that comes in to hinder it search all the means our reason can find out to perfect praise and raise up our Spirits upon Eagles wings to perform it to the highest pitch 3. Some by these four conceive the whole world consisting of the four Elements represented to us as praising God The fire by the Lion whose nature is hot
our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth
too Holy in glorifying of his Angels holy in justifying his Saints holy in punishing the Devils Holy in his Glory and holy in his Mercy and holy in his Justice holy in his Seraphims and holy in his Cherubims and holy in his Thrones holy in his Power and holy in his Wisdom and holy in his Providence Holy in his Ways and holy in his Laws and Holy in his Promises holy in the Womb and holy in Manger and holy on the Cross holy in his Miracles and holy in his Doctrines and holy in his Examples holy in his Saints and holy in his Sacraments and holy in his Temples holy in Himself holy in his Son holy in his Spirit Holy Father holy Son and Holy Spirit Therefore with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of Heaven and all the Saints in Heaven and Earth we laud and magnifie thy glorious Name evermore praising thee and saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory Glory be to thee O Lord most High Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Glory and Honour and Thanks be unto Thee for ever and ever Amen Amen Amen THE FIRST SERMON UPON THE Calling of St. Peter St. LUKE v. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. A Strange Speech for him that speaks to him 't is spoken from St. Peter to his Saviour One would think it were one of the Gadarens who thus intreated him to depart the Coasts Strange indeed to desire him to depart without whom we cannot be stranger to give such a reason for it a reason that should rather induce us to intreat him to tarry than to go for being sinful men we have most need of him to stay with us but strangest of all it is for St. Peter to desire it and upon his knees to beseech it To desire Christ to go away from us to go from us because we have need of his being with us and for such a one as St. Peter and that so earnestly to inintreat it is a business we well skill not at the first dash Yet if we consider what St. Peter was when he so cried out or what made him to do it or how unfit he being a sinful son of man thought himself for the company of the Son of God we shall cease to wonder and know it is the sinners case for ever so to do to be astonished at miracles not to bear suddenly the presence of our Lord and when we first apprehend it to cry out to him with St. Peter here to withdraw from us for a while for that we are not able to endure the brightness and terrour of his Splendour and Majesty It was a miraculous and stupendious draught of Fish after they had given up all hopes of the least suddenly came to Net which thus amazed St. Peter and his Fellows They had drudged and toyl'd all night and not a Fish appeared but when Christ came to them then came whole showles and thrust so fast into the Net that they brake it to get in as if the mute and unreasonable creatures themselves had such a mind to see him by whose Word they were created that they valued not their lives so they might see or serve his pleasure And yet St. Peter makes as much means that he might see him no longer whom if he had not seen and seen again notwithstanding his desires to the contrary it had been better he had never seen nor been at all But such is our mortal condition that we can neither bear our unhappiness nor our happiness unreasonable Creatures go beyond us in the entertainment of them both according to their kinds though it may be here St. Peters humility speaks as loud as his unworthiness or inability to endure the presence of his Lord. St. Peter we must needs say was not thorowly call'd as yet to be a Disciple this humble acknowledgment of his own unworthiness to be so was a good beginning Here it is we begin our Christianity which though it seems to be a kind of refusal of our Master is but a trick to get into his service who himself is humble and lowly and receives none so soon as they that are such none at all but such whom by the posture of their knees and the tenours of hearty and humble words you may discern for such And to sum up the whole meaning of the words to a brief Head they are no other nor no more than St. Peters profession of his own humble condition that he is not worthy that his God and his Redeemer should come so near him and therefore in an Extasie as it were at the sight of so glorious a Guest desires him to forbear to oppress his unworthy servant with an honour he was not yet able to bear Yet we cannot but confess the words may have a harder sense upon them as the voice of a stupid apprehension or an insensibleness of such heavenly favours as our Saviours company brings with it We shall have time to hint at that anon It shall suffice now at first to trouble you only with two evident and general parts Christs absence desired And The Reason alledged for it I. Christ desired to be gone Depart from me And II. Why he is so For I am a sinful man O Lord. The Desire seems to be the voice of a threefold person and such is St. Peters now 1. Of a man 2. Of a sinful man and yet 3. Of an humble man Me that me here confessing my self a sinful man The Reasons equal the variety of the desires or Desirers Three they are too 1. For I am a man 2. For I am a sinful man 3. For thou O Lord thou art God and I a man 'T is a Text to teach us what we are to whom we speak and how to speak to him And if you go hence home without learning this you may say perhaps you have heard a Sermon but you have learnt nothing by it It shall be your faults if you do not And unless we cry in a sense contrary to St. Peters meaning Depart from us O Lord out of a kind of contempt and weariness of his Word and not out of the conscience of our own unworthiness of so great a blessing then though our words be somewhat indiscreet though we sometimes speak words not fitting for our Saviour to hear though they seem to shew a kind of refusal of him yet being no other than the meer expression of the apprehension of his glorious presence and our own unworthiness Christ will comfort us and call out to us presently as he doth to St. Peter ver 10. not to fear we shall not lose by his Word or Presence nor by our so sensible apprehension of his glory though we be but a generation of sinful men That our desires first may be set right though peradventure not always speak so the desires being the hinge upon
able to hold and here it is that some have desir'd God to depart a while to hold a while least they should over-flow at least and lose so pretious a liquor if not break in pieces and lose themselves in so vast a depth or at so forciblee a pouring in of heavenly pleasures upon them But I am too high now for that lean meagre creeping goodness which is only to be found among the sons of men in these latter days where we meet with this desire in a lower key if at all Our souls you know are the vessels of divine grace old crazie ones God wot and there is a danger least the new liquor of celestial grace should cause them to crack and break at its approach There is something which we are not able to bear away at first Christian Profession must come in to us by degrees Christ must come a little and go a little or come a little and hold a little line upon line precept upon precept here a little and there a little not all at once no go away a little turn aside a little O Lord and require not of us all at once but by degrees visit us and bear with us With this kind of entreaty we may desire him to withhold now and then in mercy from us for we are sinful men and not able to endure other fuller dealings with us And lastly in humility we may desire God to depart from us when he approaches to us in thunder and lightning when he comes armed like a man of war then we may cry and not without cause O come not to us or go from us for we are sinful men O Lord have thou therefore mercy up-upon us and forbear us We have seen by this time how we may use St. Peters words and how we must not use them We may in humility desire God to withdraw his Judgments to proportion his Mercies and to distill them by degrees to forbear to overthrow our nature or overwhelm our souls with a happiness above our mortal capacity We may lastly by such a kind of speech declare the sense of our own unworthiness to receive so glorious a Guest home to us so even wishing him to chuse a better house to be in or make ours such But we must not through natural imperfection or impatience draw back our selves from the service of God or desire him to draw back from us nor must we at any time by sin cause him to depart or by perverseness and iniquity thrust him out of doors nor yet lastly grow weary of the gracious effects and tenders of his Presence in his Sacraments Word and Worship For so we do not so much confess as profess and make our selves to be sinful men in humility you may sometimes use the words in impatience never We cannot now you see say always he does well that with St. Peter says to Christ Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord yet there is something to make the desire at least seem reasonable and often be so when he says it as St. Peter did And the first Reason why St. Peter desires Christ to depart here is for that he is a man and the first Reason why we are all so willing to have God gone from us is because we are men 1. mutable and inconstant pieces which are neither well when God is with us nor when he is from us If he be with us then presently Fac cessare sanctum Israel à nobis Cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us Isa. xxx 11. We cannot away with that strictness and exactness he requires of us his ways are not pleasing to us As soon as he is departed then we are at another cue Thou turnedst away thy face and I was troubled Psal. xxx 7. Why art thou absent from us so long Why hidest thou thy face from me And the like Secondly Man is a mortal nature a piece of clay Now earth cannot contain heaven We cannot endure the thunder as it roars or lightnings as they glister much less him whose Presence is more terrible whose Voice more dreadful who even shakes the Wilderness with his breath at whose Presence the Earth removes and hail-stones and coals of fire tumble down Thirdly Flesh is grass we are but hay and stubble and God is a consuming fire well may mortality then desire him to depart lest it should consume it in a moment Fourthly It was the opinion of the Iew that man could not see God and live as apears by Manoah's speech Iudg. xiii 22. and several other places St. Peter it may be had such an imagination whence it is he desires Christ to depart from him being no other than God himself after whose sight he was perhaps afraid he had seen his last Thus man as man thinks he can spare the Presence of his Lord as feeling his earthly Cottage altogether unable in it self to entertain him But 2. reflecting upon his sin whereby he is yet made far more unfitting and undeserving such an honour he desires the absence of God by reason of his sin He loves his sin and is loth to forgo it and knows God will not be content to dwell with it so he wretchedly chuses rather the company of sin than of his God this is the way that men of the World only speak the Text. 2. Sin even bids defiance to the Almighty and turns him out of doors that 's the reason men so readily bid God depart from them 3. Sin so dis-enables the powers of soul and body to any handsom attendance upon heaven that neither of them know how to receive him if he should come and besides such a stench and filth there is from it in all the soul that the Divine Purity cannot endure them Thus sinful man bids God go from him because he is a sinful man Now comes the last reason why God is entreated to depart because he is the Lord our God A reason not readily conceived yet this it is Thou art the Lord a God of pure eyes a strickt Master over thy servants a person far above the reach and quality of thy Vassals under thee They are therefore no fit company for thee Thou so infinitely transcendest them These are the Reasons which St. Peter seems to alledge to perswade Christ from his poor wretched company because both his natural imperfections and his sinful weaknesses made him unfit for the company and unworthy the favour of his Savionrs glorious Presence If we consider the same Reasons they will serve to humble us as low as St. Peter did himself to think our selves unworthy of the least glance of our Saviours eye we will confess if we remember that we are but men that our frail inconstant corruptible nature is not answerable to the glory of so great a blessing we will acknowledge if we recollect we are sinful men that we are not worthy that those eyes should look upon us that infinite beauty come near
they whom they please dishonour they all the old Saints how they list 1. God has his Saints says our Text and ver 5. Saints in glory Saints in their beds or in their graves his they are and Saints they are though there His Saints 2. have and shall have honour A signal special honour 3. it is they have This honour such honour as the former verses spake of All of them 4. have it All his Saints have it 5. from him are to have it from us gloria sit so some read Let this honour be given to all his Saints that 's the last and all five so many parts of the Text. I go on with them in their order I. God has his Saints Saints in heaven St. Mat. xxvii 52. Saints upon earth Psal. xvi 3. Saints in glory ver 5. and Saints of grace Saints at rest in their beds of honour and Saints in the bustle of noise and trouble The stranger men they that engross the title to themselves strike all the Saints out of the Kalendar and will not call them so whom God has call'd so Yet if to be Saints be to be holy the title is their due that are in heaven they are the holiest If to be Saints be to be called effectually they are called to purpose that are already there If to be Saints be to be separate to God from the drossie multitude they are of the highest separation If to be Saints be to be established if Sancti be Sanciti there are none so sure so established as they who are in heavenly glory And dare men be so bold to rob them of this honour so proper and peculiar to them that 't is but a kind of an impropriety to give it to any here below which yet both Scripture and their own tongues give to some below yet to none but such as are in Communion with those above and as far only as they are in it God has a chosen Generation a royal Priesthood a holy Nation a separate or peculiar people a people to shew forth his praise called out of darkness into his marvelous light to do it says St. Peter 1 Pet. ii 9. St. Paul and the rest of the holy Epistlers say as much call Believers Saints ever and anon and these have fellow-Citizens Eph. ii 19. Saints in an inheritance of glory Eph. i. 18. worth the knowledge says St. Paul and now 2. worthy honour too II. For his Saints have honour are persons of honour Kings and Priests Rev. i. 6. Heirs of a Kingdom St. Iam. ii 5. Sons of God St. Iohn i. 12. Children of the most Highest Psal. lxxxii 6. So that if the Sons of Kings or Kings themselves if men in highest Office or the nearest relation to the highest Princes be men of honour the Saints are they who are so honourably related to and so highly employed by the King of Kings Who are first honoured by him with such titles as his friends St. Ioh. xv 15. as his anointed Psal. cv 15. as his Sons and Daughters Who 2. are so his that he reckons what is done to them is done to him receive them and receive him despise them and despise him St. Luke x. 16. the very least of them not excepted St. Mat. xxv 40. Who lastly are so entrusted by him that he admits them into his secrets Psal. xxv 13. makes them of his Privy Counsel Prov. ii 32. an honour without question of the first and highest rank Enough however to teach us 1. not to despise them whom God thus honours though they here walk in rags and are fed with crumbs and look desolate and though they are covered with poverty and encompassed with afflictions and had in derision and a Proverb of reproach whilst they are here and when they depart hence seem to die and their departure is taken for misery they are honourable for all that such as the Great King delights to honour and must not be despised Sufficient 2. it is to teach us not to dishonour our selves with any unworthy action or behaviour 'T is not for persons of honour to do things base and vile indeed to live or act like men of ordinary and mean condition Nor is it for any of them that are called to be Saints to employ themselves in the drudgeries and nastinesses of sins in the low poor businesses of the earth to work in Mines and Metals or make that our business here For 3. this honour is to teach us to do honourable things higher thoughts and higher works to live like Saints like such as are to inherit the earth Mat. v. 5. to reign and rule in it not to serve it like such as are to inherit heaven too and are therefore to have our conversation there to do all things worthy of it nothing but what becomes the Kingdom of Christ especially seeing it is not only meer honour ordinary honour but a signal special honour that is here given to the Saints Gloria haec est or Gloria hic est omnibus sanctis ejus This honour have all his Saints or He is the honour of all his Saints What it is we shall best gather by the Context out of the foregoing verses III. 1. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people ver 4. There 's the honour of a Favourite 2. He will beautifie them with salvation in the same verse there 's the honour of his salvation as David speaks in another place there 's a second honour 3. Let the praises of God be in their mouth and a two edged sword in their hands to be avenged of the heathen c. ver 6 7. there 's the honour of Conquerours that 's a third 4. To execute upon them the judgment written ver 9. There 's the honour of judges that 's a fourth 5. Look back again Let the Saints be joyful in glory ver 5. there 's the honour of glory of eternal glory that 's a fifth 6. Let them rejoyce in their beds or sing aloud upon their bed there 's the honour of eternal peace and security or the security of their honour 7. Lastly Gloria hic est for the Pronoune is Masculine in the Hebrew He is the honour of his Saints God is their honour so the Text may well be rendred there 's the infinity of their honour Honor infinitatis or honor infinitus their infinite honour that 's the last So here 's the Saints honour like Wisdom with her seven Pillars strongly built firmly seated magnificently set forth upon them They have the honour of being favourites the honour of being ever and anon honourably saved and delivered the honour of being Victors the honour of being judges a glorious secure infinite honour the Saints have 1. This honour that they have is the honour of grand Favourites God is well pleased in them taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants his delight is placed in them the Lords delight is in them that fear him Psal. cxlvii 11. He deals with
to unty our selves for that we use to do when we are entangled as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intimates we are or if you please to take the Verb to the Participle Deponentes curramus to lay it aside and run away So then when a temptation at first presents it self clad in adulterate beauties reject it bar it out 2. But if it have got in before thou be aware give it no entertainment fix not thy thought upon it with curiosity or delight but presently cast it out of doors 3. If thine unhappy negligence have won thee to a delectation delay at least thy consent withdraw thy self awhile and divert thy thoughts to some other object Death Judgment Hell or Heaven But if thou be fallen to consent too the only remedy left thee is to unty thy resolutions to unravel thy thoughts thy admitting thy delighting thy consenting to undo all and fly away In brief thus Temptations thus to be avoided 1. The suggestion by repelling 2. The delight by casting out the thought 3. The Consent by withdrawing 4. The defence by flying 1. The surest way when all is done is to take these untimely brats and dash them against the stones against that corner stone Christ Iesus 2. The safest way to hide thee in the holes of that rock the wounds of his side 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reponentes laying your souls up there and recondentes burying your sins in the meditation of his passion and sufferings 3. The securest way exponere to lay them open to thy Ghostly Counsellour thou shalt find them vanish in the air 4. The wariest way to flee all opportunities whatsoever Indeed if the devil fight against thee by troublesome and piercing thoughts stand to him and resist him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thrust him from thee if he besiege thee with delights deponentes curramus run away from him It is not cowardize but wisdom He that fights against pleasures may overcome he that runs from them is sure he does Take this lastly for a general rule If temptations rise so many that they swarm about thee like Bees fight not against all at once they are too many but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The principal that single hand to hand Nor is this all This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Article seems to point at some special 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something yet more adequately opposed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cloud a cloud of Martyrs good company what more answers to it than a dark thick mist of ill Companions What more opposed than good and bad examples What temptation more deserves an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the name of sin or sooner brings us thither Or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the title of easily besetting us What hangs more fast upon us What clings more near us What more ensnares us And what more needs a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Article against it We 'll sum up all in the advice of that mighty Counsellour If thy right hand thy Counsellour oâ— whom thou leanest or thy right eye thy friend by whom thou seest offend thee give me leave to make a Parenthesis to go on with the interpretation if thy right eye offend thee if thou canst not look upon a woman though with no ill intention but lust will arise if the eye of thy reason dim thy faith if thy right eye of contemplation become an offence and puff thee up â—râ—e projice out with it cast it from thee Better it is to go into heaven lame and blind and ignorant and poor and friendless and alone than to go down to hell with company Remember 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here and then as I have now done with peccatum circumstans so shall you that you may answer your Lord in St. Peters phrase Ecce nos reliquimus omnia Behold we have left all our sins possessions honours pleasures occasions our dearest friends our very thoughts sequuti sumus to follow thee to run after thee Curramus per patientiam that 's next to Deponentes to cast off sins then run from them And can we less I will run the way of thy commandments cries holy David when thou hast set my heart at liberty Set him but at liberty from these weights and snares and you cannot stay him Yet why so fast No less than running Give me but a man once throughly freed from these heavy chains he 'll tell you so No hast enough from these miseries says he that felt them And 't is but just for run we did before the wicked his feet are swift but that 's down hill ours is a Race upon even ground that Well but the World has its certamina its Races too and such as are abjecto pondere cast away all Riches and Possessions That 's for Gallants ours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a race for Christians How 's that Please but to joyn it to several words within the verge of the Text and you shall see Joyn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the words before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a race that is a running from sin certantes contra peccatum ver 4. and it will prove certamen justitiae the race of righteousness St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the keeping under of his body by fasting and abstinence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so ran he 1 Cor. 9. 26. Match it with the words that follow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it be such a one that looks to Iesus then you have certamen fidei St. Paul call's it the the good fight where he tells us he has finish'd his course he has kept the Faith 2 Tim. iv 7. and it seems the very intent of St. Paul here who had reckoned up so many Per fidems in the Chapter next before to which this seems but a concusion Yet you may lay it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and then it will be the Race of Martyrdom Certamen fidei oft times proves so Ver. 4. Nondum certastis sometimes turn'd to Certastis usque ad sanguinem Per patientiam so close shews some affliction towards and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together cannot well be less than to an agony A Race this that crowns the Victor with a Diadem the brightest of all created glories brighter than the Sun And yet even this if propositum be wanting will be thankless If it be taken up of our own heads and not proposed Nay if it be proposed in general to be good if it be not propositum nobis so to us if God propound it not to us as most convenient for the time the cause the persons Else when they persecute you in one City flee to another 't was his counsel whose the Martyrs are St. Mat. x. 23. But if be at any time Propositum nobis set before us so propounded then good luck have you with your honour ye blessed of the Lord run on and your right hand shall teach you
may not be allowed their several Feasts will yet sometimes feast together be remembred together as St. Andrew and his Lord to day do what they can to hinder it For this day as it now falls out is solemn both for Lord and Saint And amongst the Saints St. Andrew is the first in order for here the Christian Church begins her Festivals I know not what or whose Church to call it that has none and fitly too does she begin with him who was the first that followed Christ from Galilee says St. Iohn Chap. i. 41. Fit sure that he should lead the rank that there begun it that brought the great St. Peter as his second ver 42. though afterward for that excellent Confession of his St. Mat. xvi 16. made the first Yet just certainly it is that St. Andrew too should have his Primacy and so the Church has given it him to begin the Army of Saints and Martyrs in her Kalendar that we may see no man shall lose any thing by his speed to Christ the more haste to him the more honour for it I shall not yet this day though it be the first of Advent much meddle with that or primarily or very particularly set my self to speak of Christs Advent or coming I shall be content because we are not like to meet many such opportunities as this day in conjunction brings us to speak this day of the Disciple and only glance at his Lord. We shall have many occasions to speak of the Master few now a days to take notice of the Disciples Yet for all that cannot we well speak of the one without the other The honour of the Servant will redound always to the glory of the Master It is for that that we commemorate the Saints that we may so magnifie the King of Saints both by acknowledging his greatness and goodness in them and by doing gloriously to the honour of our Master by their examples And indeed we cannot separate them and as the Text falls out it ends as all the praises and commendations of his Saints should end in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it begins with a conjunctive Particle which will refer us to him And with an also or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which to make the Text to be understood will make us look back to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 18. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this And to another And this their following to Jesus walking this And they left and followed to And Jesus walking and calling them to follow in the two immediately foregoing verses We shall then for the full sense of the Text and the honour of the day not quite separate the Lord and his Saints but joyn the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together speak somewhat of Christs coâ—â—â—ing as well as of their following though more fully of this it being â—xpresly in the words the other but implicitely or implied yet referring this wholly to the glory of that their following here to Christs coming before St. Andrews exite to Christs Advent joyn them both as the day does for us For in the words are both though just as in the day the one swallowed up by the other the Holy-day in the Sunday only with this difference St. Andrew's Feast in the Advent in the day the Advent in St. Andrew's in the Text. The day more evidently for the Lords day the Text for St. Andrews We will forget neither but must follow the Text where we are to consider two Particulars The one exprest the other implied 1. St. Andrews Festival and 2. the Feast of Advent or the grounds of each the ground of St. Andrews Festival expresly his leaving his Nets and following Christ. The ground of Christs Advent implicitely that it was straightway done that is presently upon Christs coming and calling to him You see Sundays and Holy-days are at no such variance but they can stand together their grounds too both Scripture grounds both from the same Text too Our new Reformers may as well deny the one as the other and no doubt if they stand but in their way a little they will too Only some day must be kept up a while to preach the cause when that is done Ye observe days and months and years will be as good a Text against the Lords day as his Saints But not to trouble you with the Division of days we will afford you another Division of the Text. I. St. Andrews and together with him his brothers obedience express They straightway left their nets and followed him II. The ground of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first words and the last intimated and implied Jesus came first and walked by the Sea and lookt upon them and spake to them And and what then And they straightway followed Followed Whom Him says the Text. Who 's that One that was worth all their nets one that would make them fishers indeed Jesus ver 18. for him it is they leave their nets and him they follow In their obedience there are three particulars 1. The readiness 2. The sincerity 3. The rightness of it 1. It was straightway there 's the readiness 2. It was to the leaving of their nets their very life and living all the poor living they had there 's their sincerity 3. It was to follow him there 's the right placing and bestowing their obedience In the ground of it we shall see their obedience was not groundless for that it was 1. Not without a just and lawful call Jesus call'd them first and then they followed and not till then 2. Not without a powerful effectual and enabling call which so soon and suddenly could make and enable them to leave their whole course and means of life and very straightway follow him 3. That it was not any but Christ not any thing or hope or interest but only Iesus the true Messiah him they followed whom you shall see anon they had good reason to conceive was worth all they could leave or do The ground of their obedience was neither rash nor light nor sinister It was discreet and wise upon just call it was powerful upon a strange sudden powerful change of their affectionâ—â— and it was right and due to him they paid it Iesus the Christ. I begin with the express parts of the Text with St. Andrews and his Brothers great and ready obedience to Christs Command and Call which is the Lesson you are to learn upon St. Andrews day that which you are to learn now particularly from him as upon the days of other Saints their particular vertues and graces which is or should be our Holy-day business and if it had been but so taught and learnt we had never seen prophane Kalendars for Christian these unhallowed days or our holy-days unhallowed God deprived
enough have condescended to an Uniformity but they would not let us that were the inferiours set the Rule We yet agree in the Articles of the faith only for indifferencies we kept still off We are all saved too we confess by the Cross of Christ but the very sign of it we thought enough to keep us still asunder We were zealous for thy Worship but we would not be confined to it by any imposed rule of reverence and order We could indeed have yet submitted to it our selves but we some of us had taught the people otherwise and were ashamed to unteach them We might perhaps have easily come in at first but now we have so long stood out that 't is not for our honour to retreat they will call us Turn-coats and Apostates and we shall lose the people quite Gracious and kind notwithstanding we have been in our deportments but 't was only to our own Party Thankful besides to God though we kept not indeed any solemn days of thanksgivings or as perfunctorily as we could we would go no further In the sum we have done all we could to have peace upon our own terms but we could not obtain it unless we would submit to Decency and Order and so it stands And when our Governours and Superiours call'd to the same accompt shall be content to stand to our own confessions that they imposed nothing but things Indifferent for Unity and Order Think soberly I beseech you on which hand lies the true plea for the endeavour of Peace where lies the perverseness where the compliance And if this be the business as I fear it is too near it I shall leave the whole World to judge whether peace truly rule in the hearts of those who upon their own terms only seek it whether they answer their callings or are thankful I say no more I have said too much perhaps yet I wish I had said enough to make up the peace I shall only rally up the Apostles Arguments and dismiss you hence however in peace You have heard the Apostles and our motions and motives to peace And now if we have any respect to our Christianity any thoughts of our Vocation any love to Unity any consideration of Gods goodness any kind of gratitude for his mercies or would be gracious in his eyes let the meekness of Christians the remembrance of our Vocation the Obligations to Unity the endearments of Gods kindness the reasonableness of gratitude the hope of Gods favour and our endeavour for the common happiness of the World engage us to peace to Gods peace to the Churches To this we are call'd And God that calls us to it work us to it work it in our hearts and in our practices by the same power by which we are called into one body make us of one mind thorow him who c. A SERMON Preached at St. Pauls Cross. Sir Richard Gurney being then Lord Mayor JER XXXV 18 19. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Because you have obeyed the commandment of Ionadab your Father and kept all his Precepts and done according unto all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Ionadab the Son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever THe Text you hear is the Word of God Thus saith the Lord what ere the Sermon be like to be And if the Preacher stir no further from the Text than the Rechabites in it from the command of their Father the Sermon is like to be no less and to be heard accordingly I know whose work I am about Sic dicit Dominus I shall keep to that Thus saith the Lord begins the Text and it shall run through and end my Sermon And I could wish I could begin it as Christ did his at Nazareth St. Luke iv 21. This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears But then I fear I must leave out Dicit Dominus Nor God nor his Prophet can say so for that they call the greatest part of City or Country or for the success we expect upon it I cannot therefore say the Text is fit for the time but I am sure 't is needful A Text of Obedience never more A little of that well practised would make us understand one another set all together again 'T is needful for That and that 's as much as Peace Plenty and Religion is worth Yet as needful as it is 't is well we have a Dicit Dominus for it One above that dares commend it Non dicit homo No body beneath had best to do it Or if he do this too will be Popery and Innovation the Doctrine of the Popish Clergy Words as common in the peoples mouths for all they dislike as ever Dicit Dominus was in the Prophets Well be it what they will say man what he please Thus saith the Lord and so by Gods blessing will we Say it and say it as he says it by way of Commendation Eò quòd Make Obedience the cause of our speech of a set Commendation Yet we had best take heed what we do Sic dicit Dominus His for the Rechabites that shall guide us And what is 't he commends them for Because they Obeyed for their Obedience But to whom that Obeyed your Father Obedience to man What was he Your Father Ionadab saith the Text. What power had he All. Natural Civil Ecclâ—siastical Ionadab was the Father of their Family had 1. Ius Patrium the power of a Father over them He disposed of their kind of living their Estates and Civil affairs had 2. Ius Regium the Civil Power over them Contrived all to a religious course of life to the freer service of heaven had 3. Ius Ecclesiasticum the spiritual power over them He hath not more of Authority than They of Obedience Obedience Formal to his command Vniversal to all Punctual according to all that he commanded them This then is the Obedience that God here commends a Formal an universal a Punctual obedience to Natural Civil and Spiritual Parents Commends them for commends to us Rewards to them will reward to us Likes them so well upon it that he loves to look upon them for it will not therefore endure them out of his sight promises to keep them there for ever Will do as much for us upon the same performances passes his word upon it Thus saith the Lord Engages his honour as he is Lord his power as he is Lord of Hosts his mercy as the God of Israel to make it good You see the Text in its full dimensions It will now fall easily into Parts Evidently into two I. Gods approbation of the Rechabites Obedience II. And his Reward upon it I. In the Approbation you have 1. the Form and stile of it Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel 2. The Grounds of it Because you have obeyed c. Obedience commended upon some grounds Commended 1.
Common Service Every Magistrate that is every Governour of a Country every Maior of a City every Master of a Company every Father of a Family Some of these have their Statutes to be kept all of them their commands to be obeyed These are Secular Powers you have besides Spiritual such as take order for your Souls as the other for your Bodies and Estates your Bishops and Clergy Bishops are Fathers by their Title the Fathers of the Church so the first Christians so all since till this new unchristian Christianity started up Fathers in God 't is their stile however some of late Sons of Belial would make them Fathers in the Devil Antichrists perhaps that they might make them like themselves Strange Antichrists to whom Christ hath left the Governing of his Church these 1500 years 1. If you value them by their Antiquity they are Fathers for that their enemies being judges who would fain distinguish between their Offices and their Names that they might have some pretence to disobey them though more commonly they fill their mouth with scoffs and calumnies the language of the Devil than their books with the language of Antiquity truly understood 2. Fathers secondly for their Authority Time was when their Commands their Councils and Canons were Laws to Christians none of the least neither when their breach inferred the greatest punishment spiritual malediction 3. Fathers lastly for their tenderest Care over the tenderest part your Consciences Such who would quickly set all in order would you not listen too engagedly to by-respects Such whose commands you cannot complain of when you have examined them A hat a knee a reverent posture of the body are no such tyrannies as some please to fancy them You would do more in a great mans presence more for a small temporal encouragement A habit a Hood a Cap a Surplice a Name are wonderful things to trouble a devout Conscience You have more Ceremonies in your Companies and Corporations and you observe them strictly You will find it if you compare them If thus Fathers now their Precepts then certainly are to be obeyed Yet with this Rule ever both for them and all other inferiour Magistrates beside So far as they contradict not the Supreme Authority 'T is a rule in natural reason In two contrary commands the Superiours is to be obeyed Now to the King as Supreme we told you out of St. Peter to Rulers as sent by him that is as far as they are sent by him no further no further than their Commission from him Else Obedience can find no bounds nor Consciences no rest if the Supreme be not enough to terminate and guide all obedience into Your Father There is an argument in that word may make you obey him above all the world besides The tenderness of a Father Never could any challenge this name with greater justice never any so far condescended to his children to part with his own priviledges maintenance conveniences provision attendance He hath done as much for his Sons as the Rechabites for their Father left all even his houses for them lest by the insolence of some tumultuous spirits he should be forced to punish them What natural Father like this Father But whether he hath been used like a Father indeed you used him lately in your entertainment like a Conqueror and are justly honoured for it but whether by others like a Father let the affronts at his own Palace gate the sawcy Language in every rascal mouth the rebellious Sermons the seditious Libels cast abroad his own words where he is fain to proclaim to the world He is driven from you let these speak I say nothing Your Inferiour Magistrates have almost every where found disrespect And whether your Bishops and Clergy have been used like Fathers if the usage they have had of late the tumults about their houses the riots upon their Persons the daily insolencies the whole Clergy have met with in your streets never seen till now in a Civil Common-wealth in any ordered City upon the most contemptible men if the injuries done their Persons in the Churches at the very Altars once Sanctuaries against violence now thought the fittest places for it in the very administration of the Sacraments in their Pulpits both among you and abroad the Kingdom in a word so many slanderous malicious accusations without ground entertain'd with pleasure besides the blasphemies upon the whole Order if these cannot tell you after-ages will determine and in the interim let the world judge Our Fathers imperfections are not to be divulg'd though true much less false ones to be imposed upon them This is a reverence but due to Fathers 'T was cursedly done of Cham and he paid for it he and his with an everlasting curse to uncover his Fathers nakedness 'T was wretchedly done of Absalom to tell the people there was no man deputed of the King to hear them no justice in the Land and he thrived accordingly And let all the enemies of my Lord the King be as that young man is says Cushi Yet say we 't were well it were no worse How is all this made Religion too Oaths and Protestations intended certainly to better purposes abused to maintain rebellion and prophaneness Construed so in Pulpits and professed by their Scholars in the face of God and man pray God it go no higher and dare you after all this look for a blessing Alas you must lay by those thoughts till you have learned the Rechabites Lesson They used their Ionadab like a Father so reverenced his memory so preserved his name so obeyed him in all his several authorities so punctually so constantly so couragiously so sweetly so universally so sincerely so really so carefully with that contentedness without grumbling that humility without disputing that patience that readiness that full content of every Age Sex and Condition no weakness tenderness or priviledges pretended against it that God himself presently upon it promiseth a full reward Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel c. I am now at the Reward and 't is a full one full of 1. honour full of 2. proportions full of 3. blessings Full of 1. honour at the first Therefore thus as if their Obedience deserved it or God at least would seem so far to honour it He had promised length of life in the Commandment for it and God is not unjust It deserves therefore by the Covenant of his Promise yet by the interpretation of his mercy And 2. full of proportions it is Proportionable to the three Acts and Objects of Obedience You have obeyed your Father therefore you shall want no Sons there 's one You have kept his commandments therefore shall your Sons stand in them and by standing in them stand before God there 's a second You have kept all and done according to all that hath been commanded you fail'd in nothing therefore shall you have a reward all of you not a man of you fail for
ever This last indeed is beyond proportion eternity for time all blessings for a few Precepts the wine of Angels for abstinence from the bloud of the Vine for want of houses upon earth eternal dwellings in the heavens You see the Reward is full of blessings I shall observe their triple proportion in running over them 1. Such then first is the Reward of their Obedience that it lengthens days The world thinks it shortens them if by it you take away any thing from your flesh bate any thing of your diet either in quantity or quality when the King or Church commands to do so 'T was not so here and without doubt it is not Obedience hath the promise of length of days in the Commandment 'T was the reason that Ionadab gave his Sons to obey him ver 7. That you may live many days It was a blessing of long days upon themselves That 's the First But it ends not so Upon their children too reaches to them is a blessing of succession This is to live beyond our selves to sprout afresh out of the dust to have posterity And a Posterity that shall not fail wither or crumble away that 's more If it be a male succession 't is more still Non deficiet vir not a man fail you Female generations lose the name and so the succession fails even while it lasts It does almost so when it passeth into a collateral line This fails not that way neither Not vir de stirpe it continues in a direct line from the root Tremellius's Translation sets it higher Non exscindetur vir Of all this Progeny there shall not so much as a man be cut off Die they must by the necessity of nature but not a man cut off by violence that however it far'd with the captive Jews in Babylon not any of these should fail there but return to their Tents in peace that a fair and even succession it should be that after many days pass on calmly and quietly to their Fathers tombs in peace gathered to their Fathers 'T is well this such a blessing upon Posterity But when not only succeeding generations participate the blessing but Ionadab and his Father Rechab too passed Ancestors receive a new accession of glory by it this is a blessing not upon the Sons only but upon deceased Fathers too And all this you may look for upon the like obedience A long life a lasting a continued a male a lineal an unblemish'd Posterity all redounding back again to your own glory This the first proportion that which is given for your Obedience to your Father 2. The second is greater stans in conspectu a Posterity high enough to be seen placed in the eye of the world men famous and renowned in their Generations This is but to stand on high before the Kings and Princes of the earth In conspectu meo is higher that stands before God a Posterity as virtuous as honourable Stand before him and in place near him near his Sanctuary the place of his presence plac'd there so it seems 1 Chron. ii 5. Placed on high and near him as near as the title of Gods can make them made Judges of the earth so stare in conspectu is sometimes interpreted This is a second proportion answering to their obedience to commands They shall be Commanders Under command they kept now they are above it above the people equal with the Princes of the earth A famous a pious an honourable Posterity the second reward of Obedience 3. All this is much exceeding much Yet honour and virtue are created things and therefore mutable may fail at last Theirs shall not Stans in conspectu In honour they shall be and in honour they shall stand In virtue they shall be and in virtue they shall stand standing is a posture of continuance Stand and stand in his sight dear as the apple of his eye That must not be touched no more must they and then nothing can change them to be sure Cunctis diebus puts all out of question They shall stand so all their days says the Text. What speak I of days Stand so for ever continue ever Christians succeed into their order and obedience they survive into Christians live in them for ever When succession shall have done successive motions have their periods and all days shall have an end yet then Ionadab shall not want a man to stand then before him and see his face for ever This is indeed the last Reward a firm a perpetual an eternal succession And now we are come up to the tops of the Mountains the everlasting hills Eternity is a Circle and there we wind about in everlasting rounds There we turn about to the beginning of the verse the Lord speaking and confirming all that so the certainty may embrace with the eternity That you may see I tell you no more than God himself will make good Thus saith the Lords of Hosts the God of Israel He hath promised it and shall he not bring it to pass He has said it and shall it not be done Said it by his Prophet and Prophesie though it sometime wants light yet never certainty He engageth his honour Thus saith the Lord Kings will not fail upon the word of their honour He engageth his power Thus saith the Lord of Hosts he that doth what he will in heaven and earth He engageth his goodness his tried experienced goodness Thus saith the God of Israel their God who can witness he never broke his promise nor fail'd his word But doth God take care only for the Rechabites Or says he it for your sake too For yours also doubtless 't is the Reward of Obedience where ere it is found as it is in the Text. Will you give me leave to enquire Has the King at any time commanded some of your superfluities and has he obtain'd them have you been content to part with any of your delights in diet apparel in your houses to endure some abridgments to obey him to supply him Have the Inferiour Magistrates demanded the execution of the Laws and have you assisted them Has the Church required your presence your order and assistance for I speak not now of your private Fathers and can you say with these Rechabites we have obeyed and kept all their Precepts and done according to all that hath been commanded us Then and not till then dare I warrant you You and your seed shall stand before him for ever For it is not a Reward only to private and personal obedience but the obedience of Cities of Nations too Obedient Cities and Kingdoms as well as Families shall not want men to stand before him for ever but disobedient and rebellious shall For Kingdoms Cities and Countries have their fates and when they have rent this bond of union that kept them to their head they must expect their Funerals You then to look to it Remember that of the Prophet How is the faithful City become a harlot
you may find all for ever You study to make all as sure as you can Gods Promise is the best assurance and here it is Do what he here commands and you shall not fear what man can do unto you The Lord of Hosts is on your side Else I cannot but tell you All may fail you The wine and delicates you eat and drink the houses and stately Palaces you Lord it in the Lands and Possessions the Riches State and Pomp you have to this day triumphed in your Wives and Children all you think so everlastingly to enjoy by rising up so much to defend them may in a moment vanish and your high flown thoughts die before you You have no assurance from heaven so to settle your estates and fortunes no Dicit Dominus for that This is only Gods way for thriving by Obedience Nay and the Religion you so much seem to contend for against Innovations by the greatest Innovations in Church and State tumults riots and prophanest usages that also will for ever fail you You want men to stand before God for ever and instead of them find men to stand before you Micah's Levites do what seems good in your sight not in Gods so stand before you as to hinder you from standing before God stand in your sight and blind you from seeing the right way to heaven Thus you will want your old honours profits liberties Religion all But if you will return and hear and hearken and submit to your ancient Fathers your King and Church your Magistrates and Clergy observe and keep and do your ancient Laws and Customs I dare warrant you what God promises to the Rechabites he shall perform to you Your City shall flourish your places be renowned your Liberties encrease your persons rise up in honour your estates prosper your affairs succeed your children be famous your Posterity happy your Religion display the glories of her first primitive purity and all go on successfully for ever And when this Ever shall have swallowed up the days of time you shall stand still immovable immortal glorious before him in whose sight is the fulness of joy where you shall one day meet your Children and stand all together Kings and Subjects Priests and People Fathers and Children before your heavenly Father see him face to face in the beatifical vision for ever and ever To which He bring us through his eternal Son who was obedient unto death to teach us obedience of life unto life Iesus Christ to which Two Persons with the Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory Obedience and Worship for evermore Amen FINIS A Table of the Texts of Scripture handled in the fore-going SERMONS A Sermon on the First Sunday in Advent Folio 1 St. MAT. xxi 9. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest A Sermon on the Second Sunday in Advent 13 St. MARK i. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight A Sermon on the Third Sunday in Advent 23 St. LUKE xxi 27 28. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with Power and great glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh A Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 33 PHIL. iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand The First Sermon on Christmas-Day 45 ISA. xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious The Second Sermon on Christmas-Day 53 St. LUKE xi 7. And she brought forth her First-born Son and wrapped him in Swadling-clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for them in the Inn. The Third Sermon on Christmas-Day 63 St. JOHN i. 16. And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace The Fourth Sermon on Christmas-Day 73 1 TIM i. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief The Fifth Sermon on Christmas-Day 85 PSAL. xlv 3. Thou art fairer then the Children of men full of grace are thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever The Sixth Sermon on Christmas-Day Folio 97 St. LUKE i. 68 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David The Seventh Sermon on Christmas-Day 109 2 COR. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich The Eighth Sermon on Christmas-Day 119 PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower than the Angels to crown him with glory and worship The Ninth Sermon on Christmas-Day 129 St. LUKE ii 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel A Sermon on St. Stephens Day 143 ACTS vii 55 56. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God And said Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God A Sermon on Innocents Day 151 St. MAT. ii 16. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men The First Sermon on the Circumcision 163 2 COR. v. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new The Second Sermon on the Circumcision 172 St. LUKE ii 21. His Name was called Iesus The First Sermon on the Epiphany 182 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe The Second Sermon on the Epiphany 192 St. MAT. ii 10. When they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Third Sermon on the Epiphany Folio 202 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe A Sermon upon St. Paul's Day